Apply Within

Guest (Male): If you go around telling people you have no choice, you can't go to heaven, you are suggesting to them God has rejected you. Who has God rejected? Nobody!

Bob Davis: You have to reject him. He would never reject you, true? You're free. Every individual is free, you must choose.

Guest (Male): Of accepting the Lord Jesus or rejecting. But we never would have the desire in the first place if God had not spoken to our hearts.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of Northcountry Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. We are looking at God's sovereignty in salvation as our study of John continues in chapter six, verse 41. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: It's all going to be about simple faith. So, let's go on from there. Verse 41: "Because He said He came down from heaven, 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 that He says, 'I came down from heaven'?" You say that in a minor key.

The word is *goggyzo*, *goggyzo* in the Greek. *Goggyzo*, bunch of G's in there. It's translated in the King James Version "murmur." It means to murmur or to grumble. To grumble, in fact, in a low, indistinct voice. You've had people do that around you. You'll say, "I think this," and they'll go, "Whatever you say." They just were talking to you, but they mumble it so you'd have to go, "What? What did you say?" "Oh, nothing. Nothing."

That's what the word means: grumbling in a low, indistinct voice. The idea is also to whisper or speak very quietly to one another with the intent to complain. The intent to complain is in that word for murmur. You know what they're saying? I'll say it in English: "Who does this guy think he is? Who does he think he is? He says he came down from heaven. This guy's crazy. He's probably crazy. I bet he's crazy."

He's the kind of guy that would shoot up a school, I'm sure. That Jesus, because he's crazy. He thinks he came down from heaven. And what do they say? "We know better." You know why they know better? They know his father, Joseph. Duh! And his mama, Mary.

So poor Jesus, probably they're going, "He needs some help. Man needs some help." But they're not saying it loud enough. They're around him going, "Right, he came down... he thinks he came down from heaven." "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Why are you complaining? Why are you murmuring under your breath? Why are you saying that you know me? And you know I couldn't have come down from heaven, you know my parents? Why are you saying that? That's the language.

"No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him"—him or her—"and I will raise him up at the last day." He's repeating himself. "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall be taught of God,'" or "taught literally by God." God will teach them. Every man or woman, therefore, that has heard and hath learned of the Father comes unto me.

Why are they grumbling? Why are they murmuring? Because He said He came down from heaven. He's wrong. He's got to be. We know. He said, "I'm the bread of life that came down from heaven." They thought, "Who does the guy really think he is? He's messed up. He didn't come down from heaven. We know his father, Joseph. We know Joseph. We know his mother."

But everybody, they didn't know, did they? They didn't know. He did come down from heaven. But they're going, "He couldn't have come down from heaven. I know his parents." They didn't know. I find it true of you and me and all believers and nonbelievers. What do I mean? Just because we see something and think we know something, many times we jump to conclusions that are dangerous.

If you jump to conclusions, you can get contusions. Because you would say he can't be from heaven. Why? I know his mother. This guy can't be saved. I've seen his family, right? You hear it: "I don't think that woman is saved. Look at her." Are we judgmental or what? Yes, we are.

And that's what they are doing. They say, "We know his parents. There's something wrong with this man. Why would he say he came down from heaven? He's just like the rest of us." You're in no position to understand what I'm saying. You're in no position to even judge me, is what Jesus is saying. No need for you to mumble. No need for you to grumble. You're in no position.

You see, you don't understand. Romans 14:4 says, "Who are you that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Yea, he shall be held up, for God is able to make him stand." Do you realize that that Christian you're saying today has really got some issues and problems? Every Christian does. I don't know one that doesn't.

But just think about this. When Jesus said to a lady sitting there, and she was caught in the very act of adultery, to get everybody to quit yelling, he just said, "All right, the one of you without sin, you cast the first stone." And the instructions are this: if you can throw the first one, everybody else can join in. Who's willing to cast the first stone? You know, these people are right there: "Oh, you don't know what you're talking about. You're crazy."

But aren't we that way sometimes? He's talking to the people, but they're pretty sure that he's a little off-kilter here. So he just talks with them. And he says, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me," verse 44, "draw him. And I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets." He's going to quote now: "And they shall be all taught by God."

"Every man, therefore, that hears it, listens, and learns of the Father comes to me." He turns the people because they're grumbling: "This guy, we know where he's from. He's not from... he didn't come down from heaven." Jesus says, "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand. You're judging. You think you know, but you don't really know."

And once again here in these verses, I read 44 and 45 again. In these verses, we have God's sovereignty—so, both of them together—and man's free will. God's election, his sovereign election, and man's free will. We saw it already earlier twice now in this chapter. And we're still fighting over it. Remember we talked about it the last time we got together? Now we're talking about it again.

Jesus tells them no man or woman, no individual, can come to me unless the Father draws them. Do you believe that? That day I got saved, I didn't figure anything out in my head. I didn't figure anything out in my heart. The Holy Spirit, I didn't know then, was speaking to my heart. God was already working in my heart, or I wouldn't have even thought about being a sinner and maybe going down on that field to get saved.

What about you? It was God working. So you can't get out of that, no matter how hard you try. Jesus just said so. I'll read it again: "No man, no individual, no woman, no person, can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draws him." Who's sovereign and in control? God is sovereign.

Yet Jesus keeps saying, "I'll raise him up at the last day. It is written." He turns them to the Bible: "They shall all be taught by God." "Every man, therefore, that hears it, listens, and learns of the Father comes to me." Free will. No one forces him or her. Free will. He makes a choice. You have or you will make a choice. One way or the other.

And it will be nobody to blame. Not God, not me, but you for your choice. I can't blame you or all my friends who were mean to me. I have to blame me. I take full responsibility. True? If I don't get to heaven, it won't be because God hasn't done what he needed to do, will it?

That's what Jesus is trying to tell these people. "You don't get it. You don't understand. You've got the word of God and you're not hearing what the word of God is telling you." And so you're already in trouble. So is God sovereign or what? That's exactly what Jesus just said: "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him"—him or her. So, we've got that pretty clear.

But then you can't leave out the rest of it. You've got to use all the rest of it. You can't just cheat and say that one little piece of scripture. He says every individual that listens, that hears it and takes it in and has learned of the Father comes to me. In other words, it is a choice. He taught us earlier in the earlier verses: it is a choice that one chooses to come to me.

And the one that comes to me, I would in no way send them away or tell them no or ever shove them out. So you can't leave out that part. Pastor Macdonald writes this: "We have the choice of accepting the Lord Jesus or refusing him. Don't let anybody tell you you don't. You've got a choice. But if you go around telling people, 'Oh, you have no choice, you can't go to heaven,' you're suggesting to them God has rejected you. Who has God rejected? Nobody! You have to reject him. He would never reject you, true?"

Well, hold that thought. You're free. Every individual's free, you must choose. "We have the choice," he says, Pastor Macdonald says, "of accepting the Lord Jesus or rejecting. But we never would have the desire in the first place if God not had spoken to our hearts."

See how it works together? Is he in complete authority? Is he sovereign? Yes. Do you still have a free choice? Yes. God has made you with a free will. It's up to you. And then Jesus, to help us and them, points everybody to the word of God. He points them and, as far as I'm concerned, every one of us to the word of God.

"It is written in the prophets." Then he quotes for a teeny bit from Isaiah. Isaiah 54:13: "And all thy children shall be taught by the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children." That was a prophecy. Jesus quotes it, verse 45: "It is written in the prophets that they shall be all taught by the Lord. Every man, therefore, that hears, listens, and has learned of the Father will come to me." It's their choice and they'll choose it.

Isaiah 54:13 is the verse if you're writing it down. Jeremiah 31, I think there's a hint of it there sort of. Jeremiah 31:34: "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord': for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," saith the Lord. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more."

Promise. God says they're going to hear him. They're going to know him. Jesus says to the people who don't know, notice he doesn't rebuke them. He just says, "You don't know who you're talking to. You don't understand. You're judging. You think you understand stuff, but you don't." He says, "Here is the word of God: everyone who listens to and learns from God will come to believe in Jesus Christ by their own choice. No one is ever forced."

The day you got saved, nobody made you do it. If you can remember the day. Maybe you were too little. But if you can remember the day, you did that of your own free will. Someone told you God loved you and God's inviting you to come. You heard some scripture and in your heart, the spirit spoke. Come on. And you said, "I want to. I choose to." And you did.

Saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. "Everyone who listens," Jesus says, "to and learns from God will come to and believe in Jesus by their own choice." So the Bible teaches both: God's sovereignty and man's free will. Verse 46: "Not that any man has seen the Father, except he which is of God, he hath seen the Father." Who is he talking about? Himself. Right. Good.

He is of the Father. He came down from heaven, remember? So let me read the verses together. I'll start in 45 so you get a running start so it makes sense to you. "It is written in the prophets that they shall be all taught by God. Every man, therefore, that listens, hears, and has learned of the Father or by the Father comes to me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, except he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life."

It is in the present tense, but it's continuous. From you believe in God, you have everlasting life now and forevermore. No man has seen the Father except for the one that comes down from the Father. Who's the one that came down from the Father? The bread of life from heaven came down from the Father. The only one who has seen the Father is Jesus, the Son of God, who came down from the Father.

So, he says, "Truly, truly." Remember, that verily, verily means truly, truly. It really means "Most assuredly." If you want, you could translate it this way: "Without a doubt" or "Without question, I tell you, whoever believes in me has everlasting life." Now, is that the most simple way to give the gospel or not? Could it be any more clear than that?

I don't think it could be any more clear than that for you or anybody that's willing to hear it. I'll read it again: "Whoever believes in me has eternal life." I do not think it's put any more simply in all the rest of scripture. It is so succinct, so simple, you have to ignore it. You have to say, "I don't think it means that." And the language is so simple, a six-year-old child can read the words—seven-year-old, or if they're homeschooled, two-year-old. I know.

All right. I love the fact that Jesus is making it so plain and simple to the ones he's speaking to. Plus, we get to read it because the disciple John wrote it down word for word so we could have it. It's the clearest, most simple statement: whoever believes in me has everlasting life. What do you got to do?

Well, what we sort of do is we say, "Of course you're saved by grace through faith, but you better start acting like it. And you better toe the line." And so, if you're not careful—because we should walk in the spirit, shouldn't we, daily?—but if you're not careful, you've gone into the judging. Now, you can judge for identification, but you can't judge to condemnation.

You can never tell anybody why they're doing what they're doing. They can't tell you. People don't know their own hearts, and for us to pretend we do is going against God's word. And so therefore, for me to pretend I know yours, that's... I can say I've seen it done before and this is how I've seen it done before. But we have to be careful. We're quick to say I take it out of his word and then jump right out of it when we need to do something else. There's a danger in that.

Titus 3:5: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." How did we get saved? Not by works of righteousness. How do we stay saved? Not by works of righteousness.

Jesus keeps my salvation for me. Who keeps yours? It's what he says: my salvation is hidden in Christ Jesus at the throne of God. Hidden in Christ Jesus. Well, a couple more verses and we're done. Verse 48: "I am the bread of life." He's already told them that, told them he's the bread that came down from heaven. He's going to look at this.

"Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and they died." They are dead right now, meaning their physical bodies. "This"—I am the bread of life—"this bread" he's talking about, me, he says, "which comes down from heaven, a man may eat thereof and never die." He's not talking about physically, though, correct? He's talking about spiritually. These bodies are built to break down and die, these earth suits.

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." You maybe should have that underlined as well: "the life of the world." I better read it again. Are you sure it just said that?

"Your fathers," verse 49, "did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead," physically dead. "This, I'm the bread of life. This is the bread which came down from heaven that man may eat thereof and never die," spiritually die. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread"—what's this bread? Well, he'll tell us in another few words here: his flesh. Right?

Sounds gross. "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." Now, you have to understand what he's saying because now the people are going to think he's talking about cannibalism. And some churches sort of go that way.

Some churches believe that when they take communion, that it literally becomes the body itself of Jesus Christ and that you're sacrificed again and again every communion. That's not what he's saying. The manna in the wilderness, everyone, and we all know this, but Jesus just told us right here again, only met physical needs. And he proved it by saying they ate manna in the wilderness and they died. They're dead.

See, the manna that came down to feed the people, it only provides temporary life, true? It sustained them all 40 years in the wilderness, but it was still only temporary. They did physically go away. So it was temporary. That's what the manna that the children of Israel ate in the wilderness. They ate manna in the wilderness; it provided temporary life.

The bread that comes down from heaven gives life and it gives eternal life spiritually, eternal life. So, one lives forever and ever and evermore. That's what he just said. If anyone eats this bread, the bread from heaven, he or she will live spiritually speaking, will live—the physical body may die, but will live—forever in eternity. Will live forever. That's if you eat the bread that comes down from heaven.

If anyone eats this bread, he or she will live forever. The bread is my flesh that I give for the life of the world. Put it all together: "the life of the world." Jesus is saying he would give his life as a ransom for the whole world, all sinners. In the Greek, "all" means "all" right here, for the whole world. That means nobody is left out unless they choose. Get it?

"For the whole world, I give my flesh." He would suffer and die on the cross and shed his blood. His body broken, his blood shed for all sin. Will everybody go to heaven? Well, no. It's a choice. You choose.

When he says eating the living bread, it is a figure of speech. You're not really going to eat his physical body. As a matter of fact, we're told not to do that. Again, "Whosoever believes in me has everlasting life" right that moment and forever. Do you have eternal life or are you hoping to get it? He says you have it. I have it if we have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

If you would die tonight, would you go to heaven? Do you know? If you belong to Jesus, you would. Never been there, never done that before, but by faith you put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ. This verse, verse 51 of chapter six we read, these verses prove, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that no one is predestined to go to hell, don't they?

You have to ignore what he just said to hold the doctrine that says Jesus doesn't want everybody there, right? No one is predestined. But that Jesus was sacrificed so that everyone, the entire world, could have eternal life. God's sovereignty and man's free will.

Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of Northcountry Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at Northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's Northcountrychapel.com/studies.

Guest (Male): If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again, 1-800-572-8851. Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. If you have been blessed by the teaching or have prayer requests that you would like to share with us, write, email, or call us as well. Please join with us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse by verse on Apply Within, sponsored by Northcountry Chapel. God bless you.