Guest Speaker: Pastor Joe Sugrue
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
4. Manna spoiled if kept over night, but it was preserved for hundreds of years. How? Exodus 16:19,20. They took manna and put it in a golden pot and placed it in the ark. It stayed there generation after generation and was never spoiled.
If we let the doctrine sit in the Word then we have a miserable life. But we wipe that out by transferring doctrine from the Word to our human spirit. The Word of God is preserved.
5. Manna melted, but it didn’t melt. Exodus 16:21. Only manna gathered withstood the rays of the sun.
The sun rising speaks of the pressures of life, the tragedies of life, the difficulties of life, the frustrations of life, and if we are minus doctrine we are going to melt in panic, anxiety, and fear and act like any unbeliever.
6. Manna tasted good to some and bad to others. Exodus 16:31 cf. Numbers 21:5. What is the difference? Mental attitude. There are two attitudes toward doctrine on the part of the believer.
7. While manna was free to those who received it (grace), it was expensive to those who rejected it. For those who accepted Christ, eternal life. For those who rejected Him, eternal condemnation. Salvation is free, but for those who reject it it is very expensive, it is eternity in the lake of fire — John 3:36.
8. Regardless of how the Jewish believers sinned and failed in the Exodus generation God gave them manna every day as promised. Exodus 16:35.
Just like manna sustained the Jews in the desert for 40 years so Christ provides eternal life to those who will eat of it [believe].
Most of the Bible is to be interpreted literally, but here is a place that is to be spiritually interpreted. Naturally He is not asking them to literally eat His flesh.
Christ is living and when you believe in Him you will be living. For this to be true Christ has to have a resurrection, ascension, and session.
John 13:18
“I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’
Jesus in His third message is going to start using another word for eating, which means to eat vegetables. When He does they know that He is not talking about literally eating His flesh, He is talking about faith.
The flesh is a reference to the perfect humanity of Christ bearing our sins and the blood of Christ always refers to one thing: the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.
The person of Christ [flesh] dying on the cross satisfies the righteousness of the Father; the blood of Christ [Christ bearing our sins] satisfies the justice of the Father.
The righteousness and justice of the Father are His holiness, the holiness of the Father is satisfied by the cross. Love and eternal life can now come to man by way of the cross.
He starts off using a word for eating meat, vs. 50, 51, 53, and now He uses a word for eating vegetables. He does this in grace to reveal to this crowd that He’s not talking about literal eating.
John 14:20
In that day [Pentecost] you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Here in John 6 Christ presents to the world one of the greatest mysteries of the Church-age, the indwelling of the Son of God in every believer.
“I live because of the Father” – for 33 years from the virgin birth to the cross the Father took care of the Son. “he also shall live because of me” – from salvation to death or the Rapture the Son will provide everything that the believer needs.
The word disciple here means those who were following Him on His Galilean tour and are now hanging around. It doesn’t necessarily mean a believer. Some are believers and some are not.
“difficult” – skleros – means something that grates on the mind, something that antagonizes the mind; it is something that is offensive to the individual.
They can’t go to heaven. Heaven has come to them with miracles and the Gospel repeated and repeated with Himself emphasized as the bread of life.
Words equal power. The words of God are spiritual so they have the power to give life.
Jesus’ words were so strong that they drove off the unbelievers and even though Judas stays, the Lord will never stop loving Judas to the end.
In verse 44 Jesus said helkuo — “unless someone draw him.” But here we have didomi, “unless it is given him.” The change is to show that Jesus provides everything necessary and only negative volition actually stands in the way.
The words “except it were given” is in the perfect tense. Salvation was provided in eternity past with the result that it is available to all now.
Passive voice: salvation is received under grace.
Subjunctive mood: salvation is conditional depending on whether you go on positive or negative signals.
Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
The doctrine of manna
1. Manna came down every day, but it didn’t – Sunday through Friday with no manna on Saturday, the Sabbath, Exodus 16:4,5,22-27.
In other words, it pays to believe the Word, the divine instructions. Some doctrine is used daily, like rebound and promises. There are some doctrines we use only when we are under special pressure.
2. Those who gathered a lot did not have any more than those who gathered a little. Exodus 16:16-18. People only gathered what they could eat. Each person had a different capacity for eating.
We as believers have different capacities. Capacity is developed through learning doctrine, through orientation to the plan of God, orientation to the grace of God.
3. Manna spoiled, but it didn’t spoil. Exodus 16:19,20. The Jews had to learn to obey the Word. That which they didn’t eat was spoiled.
But that doctrine is no good unless you take it out and put it in your human spirit by exposing yourself to Bible teaching. The doctrine in the Bible doesn’t help you, it is the doctrine in your soul that does.