SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/11/2016 9:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Compliant PT-1
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:41-50
Message of the verses: “41 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him,
because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven." 42
They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? How does He now say, ’I have come down out of heaven’?" 43
Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 “No
one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise
him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ’AND THEY SHALL ALL
BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to
Me. 46 “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He
has seen the Father. 47 “Truly,
truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 “I am the
bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it
and not die.”
As we look
at this passage we have to think about the Jews wandering in the wilderness for
they also were grumbling. They grumbled
many times to Moses about not having water, not having food, not having
meat. In fact God got so sick of their
grumbling that He gave them so much meat from a huge flock of quail that He
told them that they were going to eat meant until it came out of their noses
and made them sick of it. There is also
something else that makes me compare this passage in John’s gospel with what
went on in the wilderness, and that is the great miracles that were done in
both places and in both times. God did
ten miracles to cause the Egyptians to tell the Hebrews to leave and then one
final miracle when He drowned all the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. After seeing these great miracles the people
grumbled against the Lord. Jesus had
also done many miracles by this time and the latest one was feeding all the
people bread and fish and yet as Dr. Wiersbe writes “The crowd wanted to see
something, but their real need was to learn something. It is by the Word that we ‘see’ God and
receive the faith to come to Christ and trust Him (Rom. 10:17).”
There came
a point in the ministry of our Lord while He was on earth that He began to
teach the people in parables and we can see that in the other three gospel
writings more easily than we can see it in the gospel of John. Matthew chapter 13 is the turning point in
that gospel writing as Jesus had just been accused of doing miracles through
the power of Satan in chapter twelve and so came the turning point when Jesus
began to teach His truths in parables because of the sinfulness of the Jewish
hearts came to the point when they did not want to Hear His teaching. They had rejected the truth. I don’t know if this is the turning point in
John’s gospel, but I suppose you could say it is close to it if not at this
time we see it. Jesus did not answer the
questions nor perform any miracles when they ask Him to so it leads me to
believe that this was the time when the people had it in their minds that He
was not the Messiah and so all they wanted from Him was to have miracles of
food and not want the miracle of the new birth.
Let us look
at some verses in the 13th chapter of Matthew to see why Jesus began
to teach in parables: “"Why do You
speak to them in parables?" 11 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. 12 "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. 13 “Therefore I
speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do
not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “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; 15 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’ (Matthew
13:10b-15).”
In John
12:37-41 we see what Jesus says that those who rejected Him after doing
miracles “37 But although He had done so
many signs before them, they
did not believe in Him, 38 that
the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: "Lord,
who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been
revealed?" 39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see
with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So
that I should heal them." 41 These things Isaiah said when he saw His
glory and spoke of Him.”
Dr. Wiersbe
writes “It is through the teaching of the Word that God draws people to the
Savior. The sinner hears, learns, and
comes as the Father draws him. A mystery? Yes!
A blessed reality? Yes!”
I know that
people do not think that this is “fair” of God the way that He has called
people for salvation in eternity past, and then Christ came to die in their
place on the cross, and then the Holy Spirit gives and effectual call to them
so that they will be saved, however this is what the Bible teaches and I would
be very careful in saying that God is not “fair.”
John
MacArthur writes “Then Jesus uttered some very solemn words: ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who
sent Me draws him,’ emphasizing man’s helplessness and utter inability to
respond to Him apart from God’s sovereign call.
Unbelievers are unable to come to Jesus on their own initiative…If God
did not irresistibly draw sinners to Christ, no one would ever come to Him.
“To
expleain how lost sinners supposedly have the power to accept or reject the
gospel of their on free will, some theologians introduce the concept of
prevenient grace. Millard J. Erickson
explains, ‘As generally understood, prevenient grace is grace that is given by
God to all men indiscriminately. It is
seen in God’s sending the sunshine and the rain upon all. It is also the basis of all the goodness
found in men everywhere. Beyond that, it
is universally given to counteract the effect of sin…Since God has given this
grace to all, everyone is capable of accepting the offer of salvation;
consequently, there is no need for any special application of God’s grace to
particular individuals.’”
This
statement may be what people want to hear, however it does not go along with
what the Bible has to say about salvation and God’s choosing, and calling to
sinners with an effectual call.
We will conclude this SD with a list of verses
that teach us that the Bible indicates that fallen man is unable, on his own
volition, to come to Jesus Christ. John
MacArthur writes:
1. “Unregenerate
people are dead in sin: ‘And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins (Eph. 2:1).’ ‘13 When you were dead in your
transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together
with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions (Col. 2:13).’
2. Slaves
to unrighteousness: ‘"Truly, truly,
I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin (John 8:34).’ ‘knowing this, that our old self was
crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so
that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 17
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became
obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free
in regard to righteousness (Rom. 6:6, 17, & 20).’
3. Alienated
from God: ‘And although you were
formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds (Col. 1:21).’
4. Hostile
to Him: ‘10 For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
7 because the mind set on the
flesh is hostile toward
God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not
even able to do so (Rom. 5:10 & 8:7).’
5. They
are spiritually blind: ‘4 in whose case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4).’
6. Captives: ‘26
and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the
devil, having been held captive by him to do his will (2 Tim. 2:26).’
7. Trapped
in Satan’s kingdom ‘13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and
transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1:13).’
8. Powerless
to change their sinful natures: ‘23
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then
you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil. ‘6 For while we were
still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly (Jer. 13:23 &
Rom. 5:6).’
9. Unable
to please God: ‘8 and those who are in
the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:8).’
10. Incapable
of understanding spiritual truth: ‘14
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually appraised.’ ‘17 that is the
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or
know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you (1
Cor. 2:14 & John 14:17).’
“Although the human will is
involved in coming to Christ (since no one is saved apart from believing the
gospel—Mark. 1:15; Acts 15:7; Rom. 1:16; 10:9-15; Eph. 1:13), sinners cannot
come to Him on their own free will.
(Moreover, a comparison of verse 44 with 37 shows that God’s drawing cannot
apply to all unregenerate people, as proponents of the prevenient grace argue,
because verse 37 limits it to the redeemed whom God has given to Christ.) God irresistibly, efficaciously draws to
Christ only those whom He chose for salvation in eternity past (Eph. 1:4-5,
11).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I do not want to be like those people in
Moses’ day or in Jesus’ day who grumbled.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to show me
more about contentment, and less about grumbling, and to know Him, better, and
to love Him more.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “David” (Psalm 34:1).
Today’s Bible question:
“On what sea did the disciples go fishing after Jesus’ resurrection?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/11/2016 11:41 AM
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