Soul-satisfying Bread

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 18, 1873,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me
shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst."
John 6:35.

OUR Savior used expressions concerning Himself which might be turned to
another meaning than He intended. He did not guard His words by saying,
"I am like bread, and faith is like eating and drinking," but He said,
"I am the bread of life," and, "except a man eat My flesh and drink My
blood there is no life in him." He did this not only because from His
own sincerity of heart it was not in Him to be forever fencing around
all His speeches, but also with a set purpose, because His speech was
so plain that if any man misunderstood Him it would be the result of
his own perversity of mind and not the effect of any obscurity in the
Lord's language. Thus by fixing a low and sensual meaning upon elevated
spiritual language the men of His time would be discovered to be none
of the Lord's chosen–and the thoughts of many hearts would be
revealed.

While He was preaching, His words were like a refiner's fire, bringing
out the pure metal, but separating it from the dross and making that
dross to appear the worthless thing which it really was. It would
clearly appear that men hated the light when they perverted the
clearest expressions of the Lord of Light into foolishness or mystery.
Our Lord's mission was not so much to save all whom He addressed as to
save out of them as many as His Father gave Him. And He used His mode
of speaking as a test–those who were His understood Him. Those who
were not His and were not taught of the Father, viciously put a literal
meaning upon His spiritual words and so missed His Divine teaching. To
this day the memorable expressions of our Lord in this chapter remain a
stumbling block to some, while they are full of glorious instruction to
others!

We see the world every day parting more and more definitely into two
camps–the camp of the chosen of God, to whom is made known the mystery
of the kingdom, the babes in Grace who read the simple teaching of the
Gospel and rejoice in it–and on the other side the carnal host who
hear the Word, but look no deeper than its outward letter, to whom it
becomes a "savor of death unto death," because they pervert the Lord's
spiritual Word to a carnal meaning and straightway heap unto themselves
abounding ceremonies and pierce themselves through with deadly errors.
I scarcely think that the prominence of Sacramentarianism nowadays is
to be altogether regretted–it is only a more clear and manifest
severing of the precious from the vile.

There is a division as marked as between death and life, and as deep as
Hell, between the spiritual Church which believes in Jesus and the
carnal Church which believes in sacraments–between the regenerate who
look to Christ upon the Cross–and the twice dead who believe in a
piece of bread and pay reverence to a wine cup. The Savior spoke in
symbols, that the proud might hear in vain–that hearing they might not
hear and seeing they might not perceive– executing upon that
self-conceited generation which rejected Him the judicial sentence of
the Lord, for their hearts were waxen gross, their ears were dull of
hearing and their eyes had they closed.

But now, speaking to those to whom the Lord has given to understand His
meaning, let me say our Savior uses very simple figures. Think of His
calling Himself bread! How condescending, that the most common article
upon the table should be the fullest type of Christ! Think of His
calling our faith an eating and a drinking of Himself! Nothing could be
more instructive! At the same time nothing could better set forth His
gentleness and humility of spirit that He does not object to speak thus
of our receiving Him. God be thanked for the simplicity of the Gospel!
The longer I live the more I bless God that we have not received a
classical Gospel, or a mathematical Gospel, or a metaphysical Gospel!
It is not a Gospel confined to scholars and men of genius, but a poor
man's Gospel, a plowman's Gospel–and that is the kind of Gospel which
we can live upon and die upon.

It is to us not the luxury of refinement, but the staple food of life.
We need no fine words when the heart is heavy, neither do we need deep
problems when we are lying upon the verge of eternity, weak in body and
tempted in mind. At such times we magnify the blessed simplicity of the
Gospel! Jesus in the flesh made manifest becomes our soul's bread.
Jesus bleeding on the Cross, a Substitute for sinners, is our soul's
drink. This is the Gospel for babes–and strong men need no more.

Again, it strikes me as being very noteworthy, and especially very
worthy of thanks, that our Savior has taken metaphors of a very common
character so that if our hearts are but right we cannot go anywhere but
what we are reminded of Him. At our tables we are very apt to forget
the best things. The indulgence of the appetite is not very promotive
of spirituality, yet we cannot sit down to table but what the piece of
bread speaks to us and says, "Poor Soul, you need even bread to be
given you. You are so needy that your bread must be the gift of
heavenly charity. Jesus has come down from Heaven to keep you from
absolute starvation. He has come down to be bread and water to you." As
you take up that loaf and think of the processes through which it has
passed before it has become bread, it preaches a thousand sermons to
you!

The sowing of Jesus as a grain of wheat in the earth. His grinding
between the millstones of Divine wrath. His passing through the fiery
oven. We see the sufferings of Jesus in every crumb we put into our
mouths. Why, the Lord has hung the heavens with His name and made them
tell of His love! Yon sun proclaims the Sun of Righteousness and every
star speaks of the Star of Bethlehem. You cannot walk your garden, or
go into the streets, or open a door, or put on your clothes without
being reminded of the Lord Jesus!

I remember once visiting a poor Christian in the hospital who had often
attended my ministry, and he said, "Why, Sir, you have given us so many
illustrations, that as I lie in bed everything I see, or hear, or read
of, brings to mind something in your sermons." How much more true is
this of our Great Teacher! We are glad that He has hung up the Gospel
everywhere till every dewdrop reflects Him and every wind whispers His
name. Day and Night talk to each other of Him and the hours commune
concerning things to come.

With this as a preface, let us come to our subject. Our text in a very
simple way tells us, first, that Jesus Christ is to be received. That
reception is here described–"I am the bread of life: he that comes to
Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst."
The second doctrine of the text is that when Jesus Christ is received,
he is superlatively satisfying to the soul–"Shall never
hunger"–"Shall never thirst."

I.THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS TO BE RECEIVED BY EACH ONE OF US PERSONALLY
FOR HIMSELF. An unappropriated Christ is no Christ to any man. Bread
which is not eaten will not stop our hunger. The water in the cup may
sparkle like purest crystal, but it cannot slake thirst unless we drink
it. To get a personal hold of the Savior is the main thing and the
question is how is this to be done. How is Jesus Christ to become a
Savior to me? You will observe that in this chapter and, indeed,
everywhere else, the mode of obtaining an interest in Christ is never
mixed up with the idea of fitness, merit, preparation, or worth.

The text says, "He that comes to Me." It says nothing of preparation
before coming, nor of any meritorious actions. It is a simple coming,
as a beggar for alms, or a child for its father's help. The other
description is, "He that believes on Me." There is nothing there of
merit. In fact, faith stands in direct opposition to meritorious
working. And if we read of eating Christ and drinking Christ, the act
is entirely a receptive one, nothing given forth, but everything
received, reminding us of that memorable passage, "To as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believed on His name." It is all a matter of receiving, not
of bringing to Christ! We come to Him empty-handed. We believe in Him
without any deserving of our own and in that way, and in that way only,
Jesus Christ becomes our Savior.

Let us dwell on these expressions for a few minutes. The first is, that
we come to Him. "He that comes unto Me shall never hunger." I suppose
this represents the first act of faith by which men enter into
spiritual life–we are alienated from Christ, but after hearing the
Gospel we are, by the Holy Spirit, led to think of Him, to consider
Him, to study Him and to judge that He is the Savior whom we need. Our
alienation from Him is turned into desire for Him and we come to Him
beseeching Him to be our Savior. We come to Him. It is a motion of the
heart towards Him, not a motion of the feet, for many came to Jesus in
body and yet never came to Him in truth. They were close to Him in the
crowd, but they never touched Him so that virtue came out of Him. The
coming here meant is performed by desire, prayer, assent, consent,

trust, obedience. It means that I hear what Christ is and learn what
God says He is–that He is God and that He is Man–that He came into
the world to take the sins of men upon Himself and to be punished in
their place.

I hear all this and assent to it. I believe in Jesus and I say, "If He
died for all those who trust Him, I will trust Him. If He has offered
so great a Sacrifice upon the tree for guilty men, I will rely upon
that Sacrifice and make it the basis of my hope." That is coming to
Jesus Christ! The term is very simple, yet it is not so very easily
explained to others because of its being so simple. If you are taught
of the Father you will know full well what it is, but if not I fear
that the most plain words will not make you understand. Perhaps I may
illustrate coming to Jesus by an incident connected with the hymn which
we sang just now.

I think I have read somewhere that Mr. Wesley was one morning dressing.
His window looked out towards the sea and there was a heavy wind
blowing. The waves were very boisterous and the rain was falling
heavily. Just then a little bird, overtaken by the tempest, flew in at
the open window and nestled in his bosom. Of course he cherished it
there, and then bade it go on its way when the storm was over.
Impressed by the interesting occurrence, he sat down and wrote the
verse–

"Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to your bosom fly While the raging
billows roll, While the tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior,
hide me Till the storm of life is past."

Imitate that poor little bird if you would have Christ–fly away from
the wrath of God, fly away from your own convictions of sin, fly away
from your dark forebodings of judgment to come–right into the bosom of
Jesus which is warm with love to sinners–

"Come, guilty souls, and flee away Like doves to Jesus' wounds; This is
the accepted Gospel day Wherein free Grace abounds."

The second description given us of the way in which Christ becomes ours
is by believing on Him. Here, again, I have to explain a word which
needs no explanation except one flash of light from the Holy Spirit.
And I question whether any other light was ever sufficient to make it
clear. And that not because of any real obscurity, but because of the
willful blindness of unrenewed nature. To believe on Christ means to
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of men. But
it includes far more than that. You may be very orthodox in your
notions about Christ. In fact, you may believe what the Bible states
about Him and yet you may not have saving faith in Him. "He that
believes on Me." What if I put the word "trusts" instead? "He that
trusts in Me." Or he who leans all his weight on Me, who, knowing such
and such things to be true, acts as if they were true and shows the
reality of his belief by the simplicity of his reliance.

Knowing that Christ came to save sinners, the Believer says, "Then I
depend upon Him to save me." Knowing that Jesus was the Substitute for
human guilt, he says, "He is the Substitute for my guilt. If He came
and took sin upon Himself, then I trust Him and therefore know that He
took my sin, that He bore, that I might never bear, His Father's
righteous ire." And is Christ really a man's Savior the moment he
believes? Yes, the moment he believes! But suppose his former life has
been scandalous? It is forgiven him for Christ's name sake. But suppose
that the moment before he so trusted Christ there was no good thing in
him whatever?

Jesus Christ died for the ungodly and He is "able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him." But suppose he should be
imperfect afterwards? It is no supposition, he will be! But, "the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanses us from all sin." A very
blessed text assures us that, "There is a fountain opened for the house
of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for
uncleanness." It is not a fountain merely for common sinners, but for
those who are God's people and yet sin. They still find cleansing where
they found it at the first. "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous." Faith is an act of reliance
upon Christ's great Sacrifice and wherever the Holy Spirit works it in
men it makes Christ to be theirs–so that they shall never hunger and
shall never thirst.

But I pass on to the third way in which we are said to receive Christ.
It is not in the text in so many words, but we must consider it,
because, though not there literally, it is there spiritually. It is
eating and drinking. We are to eat Christ and to drink Christ. Oh, it
is monstrous, it is monstrous that out of bedlam there should live men
who should dream that Jesus taught us literally to eat His flesh and to
drink His blood! I am more and more astounded at this 19th century. I
have heard it praised for its enlightenment and progress till I am sick
to death of the 19th century and am right glad that it is nearing its
close. I hope the 20th century will be something better. Surely no
period of time has been more given to superstition!

Even the age of witchcraft bids fair to be outdone by the age of
Ritualists. Here you have idiots in high places– absolute, stark,
staring idiots–who preach to men that they are to turn cannibals in
order to be saved. Surely such an act, if it could be perpetrated, must
rather be the nearest way to be damned! What greater crime could there
be than for men literally to eat the flesh of their own Savior? I
cannot speak too strongly against so extraordinary, so monstrous a
perversion of the teaching of our Lord. What He meant by our eating His
flesh and blood is just this–we believingly receive Him into our
hearts and our minds feed upon Him. We hear of Jesus Christ as the Son
of God and as the Substitute for sinners–we believe it and so receive
the Truth of God as men receive bread into the mouth.

Now, in eating we first put the food into our mouths. As a whole it
goes into the mouth and even thus, as a whole, Christ Jesus is received
into our belief and trust. The food being in the mouth, we proceed to
chew it. It is broken up, it is dissolved. Our taste finds out its
secret essence and flavor–and even in this way the believing mind
thinks of Jesus, contemplates Him, meditates upon Him and discovers His
preciousness. We see far more of our Lord after conversion than we did
at first. We have believed in Him knowing but little of Him. But
by-and-by we comprehend with all the saints what are the heights and
depths and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. Jesus
becomes more comforting, and more delightful as we comprehend more
clearly who and what He is. Our faith, which we placed implicitly upon
Him, now sees a thousand reasons for a yet fuller confidence and so is
strengthened.

For instance, the ordinary Believer believes in Jesus Christ because He
is a Divine Savior. But the instructed Believer sees in Jesus Christ
fitness, fullness, variety of offices, glory of Character, completeness
of work, Immutability and a thousand other things which endear Him. In
this way the Truth concerning the Lord is, as it were, masticated and
enjoyed. But the process of eating goes further–the food descends into
the inward parts to be digested–and there is a further breaking up and
dissolving of it. So the great Truths of Incarnation and Sacrifice are
made to dwell in the memory, to lie upon the heart, to rest in the
affections till their essence, comfort and force are fully drawn forth.
Oh, it is unbelieveably refreshing to let these grand Truths of God
dwell in us richly, to be inwardly digested!

Have you ever chewed the cud with the Truths of the Gospel, turning
them over, and over, and over again as delicious morsels for your
spiritual taste? Can you say with David, "How precious, also, are Your
thoughts unto me, O God"? If so you know what spiritual eating is. When
that is done the food is next assimilated and taken into the substance
of the body. It passes from the digesting organs to those which
assimilate it. Each portion of the body draws forth, in its turn,
proper nutriment from the food and so the whole man is built up. It is
just so with the great Truths, that Christ became Man and died in man's
place–these are inwardly received by us till our whole nature draws
from them a satisfying and strengthening influence. By a sort of mystic
sympathy the Truth of God is being fitted to the mind and the mind
requiring just such Truth, our whole nature drinks in Christ, and His
Person and work become our mind's joy, delight, strength, and life. As
a man thinks in his heart so he is, and therefore our thoughts of
Jesus, and faith in Him, build us up into Him in all things.

Now, as a man who has feasted well and is no more hungry, rises from
the table satisfied, so we feel that in Jesus our entire nature has all
that it needs. Christ is All and we are filled in Him, complete in Him.
This is to receive Christ. Beloved, if you want to have Christ
altogether your own, you must receive Him by this process. Merely to
trust Him gives you Christ as food in your mouth. To contemplate, to
meditate, to commune with Him is to understand Him, even as food is
digested and is ours. Further prayer and fellowship and meditation
assimilate Christ so that He becomes part and parcel of our very
selves. Christ lives in us and we in Him! We ought not to forget, as we
are dwelling upon this, that the two points about Jesus Christ which He
says are to us meat and drink, are His flesh and his blood.

We understand by His flesh, His Humanity–our soul feeds upon the
literal, real, historical fact that "God was in Christ." That, "the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us"–and men beheld His Glory, the
Glory as of the Only-

Begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth. My soul's main comfort
today is not a doctrine. I get a great deal of comfort out of many
doctrines, but the bottom comfort of my soul is not a doctrine but a
fact. And it is this fact–that He who made the heavens and the earth,
and without whom was not anything made that was made, was born of the
Virgin Mary at Bethlehem and for 30 years and more did actually, not in
fiction or romance, but in very deed, dwell as a Man among men! That
fact is my soul's food!

The historical fact that Christ Jesus was flesh and blood, bone of our
bone, flesh of our flesh, a Man like ourselves– this, I say, is
nourishment to our spirits, and believing it we feel a joy unutterable,
for we know that He who sits upon the Throne of God is a Man. Jesus was
made "a little lower than the angels," but now, in the Person of
Christ, He is crowned with glory and honor! We now know that God cannot
hate manhood, because Christ is a Man. Christ has reconciled God to
manhood because He represented manhood and the thoughts of God towards
man are, for Christ's sake, thoughts of love and not of evil!

The other point in which Jesus is food to our mind is His blood. This
most clearly refers to His sufferings and to His vicarious death. Bread
and wine are put upon the communion table as separate symbols–not
bread and wine mixed together–that would destroy the teaching. The
wine is distinct from the bread, because when the blood is separated
from the flesh there is before you the sure evidence of death. Now the
true drink of a thirsty sinner is the fact that Christ died in his
place. I will repeat what I said–my great hope as a sinner does not
lie in a doctrine and my consolation as a trembling criminal before the
bar of God is not founded in any opinion or doctrinal statement–but in
a FACT.

He who is very God of very God did hang upon a Cross of wood, upon the
little mount of Calvary just outside the gates of Jerusalem, and there
in unutterable agonies beneath the wrath of God made expiation for the
sins of all who believe in Him! There is my hope! There is yours, my
Brothers and Sisters. Yes, there is all our hope. Very well, then, do
you not see that the way to obtain the benefits of the Lord Jesus
Christ is to believe in His being God and Man, to believe in His dying
as the God-Man, and to rest upon this, and to contemplate this, and to
turn to it again and again and again, so that, having marked and
learned, you may also inwardly digest those unspeakably glorious
mysteries of Incarnation and of Sacrifice?

I have set the Gospel before you now, for if any man among you will do
this, Christ is yours! Here is Christ to be had for nothing! Christ to
be had simply by trusting Him, by coming to Him! As the vessel obtains
its fullness by its emptiness being placed under the flowing stream. As
the beggar's needs are relieved by putting out his empty hand to accept
an alms, so you are to obtain Christ by coming to Him as empty sinners.
He is given to you for nothing–freely given to you of God–and whoever
will, may have Him! And if you have Him not, it is not because He has
rejected you, for He has never rejected one that has come to Him, but
because you have rejected Him. Dear fellow Sinners, may God the Holy
Spirit grant you Grace to receive Jesus and to be saved by Him!

II. The second part of our subject is this. WHERE JESUS IS RECEIVED HE
IS SUPREMELY SATISFYING. He is supremely satisfying, mark you, to our
highest and deepest needs, not to mere fancies and whims. Christ
compares the needs of men to hungering and thirsting. Now hungering is
no sham. Those who have ever felt it know what a real need it indicates
and what bitter pangs it brings. Thirst, also, is not a sentimental
matter, it is a trial, indeed. What pain can be worse beneath the skies
than thirst?

Now Jesus has come to meet the deep, real, pressing, vital needs and
pains of your nature. Your fear of Hell, your terror of death, your
sense of sin–all these Jesus has come to meet and all these He does
meet in the case of all who come to Him–as everyone who has tried Him
will bear witness. Jesus Christ meets the hungering of conscience.
Every man with an awakened conscience feels that God must punish him
for sin, but as soon as he perceives that the Son of God was punished
instead of him, his conscience is perfectly appeased and will never
hunger again. Until men know the Truth of the Substitution of Jesus you
may preach to them what you will and they may go through all the
sacraments, and they may suffer many bodily mortifications–but their
conscience will still hunger.

My God, whom I offended, became a Man and for my sake He suffered what
I ought to have suffered. Therefore my conscience rests gratefully
contented with so divinely gracious a way of satisfying justice. Men,
when once awakened, have a hunger of fear. They look forward to the
future and they scarcely know why, but they feel a dread of something
indefinable and full of terror. And especially if they are near to die,
horror takes hold upon them, for they know not what is yet to come–but
when they find that Jesus Christ, who is God, became Man and died for
men, that whoever

trusts Him might be saved–then fear expires and love takes its place.
The dove in the cleft of the rock feels no more rude alarms. Terror
cannot live beneath the Cross, for there hope reigns supreme. Nor shall
fear ever return, for the work of Jesus is finished and, therefore, no
hiding place for fear is left.

The heart, also, has its hunger, for almost unknown to itself it cries,
"O that someone loved me and that I could love someone whose love would
fill my nature to the brim." Men's hearts are gluttons after love. Yes,
like death and the grave they are insatiable. They hunt here and there,
but are bitterly disappointed, for earth holds not an object worthy of
all the love of a human heart. But when they hear that Jesus Christ
loved them before the world was, and died for them, their roving
affections find rest. Like as Ruth found rest in the house of a
husband, do we come to peace in Jesus. The love of Jesus casts out all
hankering for other loves and fills the soul! He becomes the Bridegroom
of our heart, our best Beloved, and we bid the meaner things depart.

In the love of the Father and the Son we dwell in sweet content,
hungering and thirsting no more. If the ocean of Divine Love cannot
fill us, what can? What more can a man need or wish for?–

"My God, I am Yours.

What a comfort Divine,

What a blessing to know

That my Sa vior is mine!

In the Heavenly Lamb

Thrice happy I am,

And my heart it does dance

At the sound of His name."

The heart's hunger is removed eternally by Jesus. Then there are vast
desires in us all and when we are quickened those desires expand and
enlarge. Man feels that he is not in his element and is not what he was
intended to be. He is like a bird in the shell, he feels a life within
him too great to be forever confined within such narrow bounds. Do you
not, dear Friends, feel great longings? Does not your soul seethe with
high ambitions? Our immortal nature frets beneath the burden of
mortality! Its spiritual nature is weary of the chains of materialism.

That hungering will never be hushed into content till we receive
Christ, but when we have Him we learn that we are the sons of God,
heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ and that it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but when He shall appear we shall be like He is, for
we shall see Him as He is. This opens up before us a splendid future of
unfading glory and unbounded bliss–and we feel that we need no more.
Since we are Christ's and Christ is God's, all things are ours and our
hunger is forever over. The only contented man in the whole world is he
who has believed in Jesus and he is contented just because he has
obtained all that his nature needs–

"Let others stretch their arms like seas,

And grasp in all the shore,

Grant me the blessings of Your Grace,

And I desire no more." Because I could not desire more than all and
Christ is All in All.

My Beloved, this perfect satisfying of our nature is to be found
nowhere else but in Christ. Some have tried to be satisfied with
themselves and their own doings. They have despised the bread of
Heaven, for they dreamed that they could live without bread–they would
be self-contained men–they would make themselves happy with
themselves. But it is a wretched failure. The poor Bushmen, when they
have nothing to eat, tie a girdle around them and call it the hunger
belt. And when they have gone a few days they pull it tighter and
tighter still, in order to enable them to bear hunger–so any man who
has to live upon himself will have to draw the hunger belt very tight,
indeed. A soul cannot be persuaded by philosophy to content itself
without its necessary food. Eloquence may try all its charms to that
end, but it will be in vain.

Who can convince a hungry man that he needs not eat? Some have gone to
Moses for bread and, mark you, the two greatest bread-givers in the
world are Moses and Christ. Moses fed the tribes in the wilderness for
40 years and Jesus feeds His people always. But Moses' bread never
satisfies. Those who eat it, before long call it light bread. And if
they have been satisfied with it for a time, yet there is the mournful
reflection that their fathers did eat it and are dead. There is no life
in the bread of the Law. But he who gets Christ has a bread of which he
shall eat forever and ever, and shall never die.

I am told that there is country–I think it is Patagonia–where men in
times of need eat clay in great lumps. They fill themselves with it, so
as to deaden their hunger. I know that many people in England do the
same.

There is a kind of yellow clay which is much cried up for staying
spiritual hunger–heavy stuff it is, but many have a vast appetite for
it. They prefer it to the choicest dainties. When a man fills his heart
with it, it presses him down to the very earth and prevents his rising
into life. Some have tried to stay their hunger by the narcotics of
skepticism and have dosed themselves into lethargy. Others have
endeavored to get ease through the drugs of fatalism. Many stave off
hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter which are not hungry
because they are asleep. Such persons come to the House of God asleep.
They would not like to be aroused, for if they were to do so they would
wake up to an awful hunger. I wish they could be awakened, for that
hunger which they dread would drive them to a soul-satisfying Savior.
But, depend upon it, the only way to meet hunger is to eat bread, and
the only way to meet your soul's need is to get Christ in whom there is
enough and to spare, but nowhere else.

I shall close by saying that all Believers bear witness that Jesus
Christ is satisfying bread to them. When do you get most satisfied on a
Sunday, Beloved? I do not know whom you may happen to hear, but what
Sundays are the best to you? When your minister rides the high horse
and gives you a splendid oration, and you say, "Dear me, it is
wonderful"–have you ever felt satisfied to think it over on Monday?
Have you ever felt satisfied with sermons composed of politics and
morality, or very nice essays which would suit the Saturday Review if
they were a little more caustic? Do you enjoy such meat? I will tell
you when I enjoy a Sunday most–when I preach Christ most–or when I
can sit and hear a humble village preacher exalt the Lord Jesus.

It does not matter if the grammar is poor, so long as Jesus is there!
What some call platitudes are dainties to me if they glorify my Lord
Jesus Christ. Anything about Him is satisfying to a renewed
spirit–cannot you bear witness to that? When I have preached up Jesus
Christ–and I think I generally do so, for the fact is, I do not know
anything but Him, and I am determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Then, I say, I know you go away
and say, "After all, that is what we need–Christ Crucified, Christ the
sinner's substitutionary Sacrifice, no sham Christ, no mere talk about
Christ as an example, but His flesh and blood, a dying, bleeding,
suffering Christ–that is what we need." Now I have the witness of
every Christian here to that! You are never satisfied with anything but
that–are you? No matter how cleverly the doctrine might be analyzed,
or however orthodox it might be, you cannot be content with it–you
must have the Person of Christ, the flesh and the blood of Christ–or
else you are not content.

And, Beloved, those who have once eaten and drunk Christ never seek
additional ground of trust beyond Christ. They never say, "I am resting
upon Christ, but still I should like to be able to depend a little on
my Baptism." I never heard a Christian talk in that fashion in my life!
I never heard a man say, "I rest in the blood of Jesus, but still, I
wish that I could have a bishop's hands put upon my head so as to give
me a confirmation of my faith." I never heard that in my life and I do
not expect I ever shall! We are perfectly satisfied without priests,
and without sacraments! Jesus Christ is the one sole Foundation upon
which we build!

Again, I have never found those who rest in Christ needing to shift
their confidence. Those who need something new every Sunday are those
who know not the Savior. Truly, if you have not the bread from Heaven,
you may well cry out for all manner of dishes, for each one will soon
spoil. But if you have the bread of Heaven, you need Christ on the
first of January and every day till the last of December. I have never
heard a Christian assert that Christ did not satisfy them in the days
of sickness or in the hour of death. I came to you this morning fresh
from the sick bed of a venerable Christian man, close upon his 80th
year, and I said to him, "Now, dear Sir, here are three or four young
people around your bed. We are going forth on our pilgrimage relying on
Christ, believing that He is faithful and true. You have gone a great
deal further than we have. Will you, therefore, kindly correct us if we
are under a mistake? Have you found that the Lord has not fulfilled His
Word? Have you found that He has not been true?"

It was a blessed sight to see the man of God and hear him say, "Not one
good thing has failed of all that the Lord God has promised." And then
he added, "I will sing of mercy, for it has been mercy, all mercy, all
the way through." "Do you feel any fear about departure?" I said to
him. "Oh! dear, no," he said. "I am willing to wait, or willing to go.
But I am full of the expectation of beholding Him who loved me and gave
Himself for me." Ah, the bridge of Grace will bear your weight,
Brothers and Sisters! Thousands of big sinners have gone across that
bridge, yes, tens of thousands have gone over it! I can hear their
tramping, now, as they traverse the great arches of the bridge of
Salvation.

They come by the thousands, by the myriads! Ever since the day when
Christ first entered into His Glory, they come, and yet never a stone
has sprung in that mighty bridge. Some have been the chief of sinners
and some have come at the very last of their days, but the arch has
never yielded beneath their weight! I will go with them trusting to the
same support! It will bear me over as it has borne them! They who have
eaten Christ and drunk Christ shall not hunger or thirst in their last
hour, trying as it will be.

Saints have died saying, "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me. Your rod and
Your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the presence
of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over." God
grant us Grace to live upon Christ evermore. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–John 6:26-63.
__________________________________________________________________

Romans, But Not romanists