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When we see bread in the scriptures it can refer to different things:

1: A small cake or loaf.

2. The loaf at the Lord’s Supper.

3. Bread of any kind.

4. Metaphorical, Christ is the Bread of God and the Bread of Life.

5. Food in general.

In John chapter 6 we find some very interesting teaching concerning bread where we shall find the relevant parts of the chapter, and note some of the teaching therein. The chapter begins with the Lord feeding the 5,000 from the 5 loaves and 2 fishes. It is sad to say that almost all those who partook of the miraculous provision never saw beyond the physical fulfilment of their bodily need. We are clearly told that this was the reason why they followed Him to the other side. "Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." John.6.26.

Labour not for the ergazomai; work, labour

meat which brosis; food, here physical food

perisheth, apollumi; utterly destroy, goes bad and of no use

but for that meat which brosis; this reference is to spiritual food

endureth unto meno; last, endure

everlasting life, aionios; in this case, eternal

for him hath God the Father sealed spragizo; authentication by God of the Son, the giver of eternal life

This statement was a very important one to the hearers at that time. They had gone to considerable effort to follow the Lord simply to get a fee lunch. There obviously was nothing more in their mind. What he was saying to those people was that there was very little profit for them to go to these lengths to obtain free food which was something that had only a temporary value. It would be infinitely more profitable to put effort into obtaining something which would be of permanent value. In this case eternal life. Furthermore He told them that He would give it to them. In addition He told them that God had given Him the authority to do so. There is no doubt that it was a spiritual command, and there had to be a receptive mind to really hear it, and also the power of the Holy Spirit to give the hearer understanding. What is amazing is that they had seen the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, and yet it had not occurred to them that it should have been no harder for Him to give them eternal life. What it demonstrates most clearly is that the Word of God is only understood by the work of the Holy Spirit in a receptive soul.

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, poieo; do, work

that we might work the works of God? ergazomai; to gain something by work, subjunctive mood of possibility

When they were told to put effort into obtaining the food which would give them eternal life they really had no idea what was meant. Hence the question, "what have we got to do in order that we might gain the something from God". In other words what is the work of God? They did not understand what He meant.

This is the work of God, that ye believe on pisteuo; believe, have confidence in, trust

him whom he hath sent. apostello; sent forth

This statement is very interesting because it answered in such a way as to leave the unsaved in ignorance, but at the same time it aroused their curiosity. Jesus said to them, this is the work of God; that you trust, and have confidence in the one whom He has sent forth. This was a simple answer, but we must keep reminding ourselves that His Word can only be spiritually understood. Their reply certainly proves that they were not spiritual, and did not understand.

They said therefore unto him, What sign semeion; sign as a token of Divine authority

shewest thou then, that we poieo; make, do, cause

may see, oido; know, understand

and believe thee? pistueo; believe, have confidence in, trust

what dost thou work?.. ergazomai; to gain something by work

To the spiritual mind it is very easy to follow the words spoken by the Lord. To the people who followed Him He gave a direct command. Do the work that gains eternal life, and that eternal life would be given to them by the Son of Man who was sent and authorised by God Himself. In reply to this they asked, what was this work they had to do to gain eternal life? They were then given the simplest of answers, they had to believe in, and trust the One whom God had sent. Before we look at the any signs we should know more about the Son of Man.

It is important to remember that it is the Son of Man that would give the bread of life, and we should know why this association exists. The Son of man is a title of the Lord Jesus Christ, and had the Jews been spiritual they would have recognised Him as did Simeon in Luke chapter 2. "And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;" Luke.2:26-31. No doubt the Holy Spirit had revealed this to Simeon, but He would have revealed it to any who sought. Here Simeon was looking at God manifest in flesh, the incarnation.

Who is the Son of man? To discover this we now look at His own statements, and then finally to see sufficient proof that He was what he said He was.

1. He had power to forgive sins

2. He was Lord of the Sabbath

3. He prophesied that He would be 3 days in the grave.

4. He said He would be betrayed

"And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry. Mat.17:22-23

5. He said he was the Son of Man

"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Nat.13:16

6. He said He would be raised from the dead

"And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead." Mat.17:9

7. He said he had a throne of Glory

8. He said he would come back again from Glory

What He was saying was that He would be put to death, buried and remain in the grave for three days, and then He would be resurrected. That statement seems easy enough to be understood when put together with the other facts mentioned above, but the amazing thing is that all He did and said was in the spiritual realm which is not understood by the unsaved.

We are given a clear view, by the Holy Spirit, of Christ dying for us at which point our future is in our hands. If we reject Him we remain His enemy for all eternity, and we pay the price. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?" Heb.2:3-4.."If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin." John.15:22.

It is reported that there are numerous prophesies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ which were written before He was born, and which have been fulfilled. That is sufficient in itself, but had the listeners not been rebellious, and taken notice of His Word they would certainly have been convinced that He was who He said He was. Furthermore had they taken note of what He said during the years of His ministry they would have been convinced that He was from God. Strange as it may seem they were not, in the slightest, interested in Him. Everything about them was self centred. He gave evidence of His authority in His miracles, in His life, and everything about Him.

This led Him to say, "But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." John.6:36-38. This seems amazing. Those that saw Him in His day just did not believe. All this reinforces the fact that He is spiritually understood; "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1Cor.2:14. The Holy Spirit first give the person a desire to get to know Him, or if there is a God, at which point they may decide they do not want anything to do with Him or they consciously or even unconsciously seek for Him. Finally they find Him on the cross at which point they may still accept of reject Him

The unsaved Jew was virtually a slave in their own country as the Romans had captured the country and imposed their rule on the people. Being a proud people this was insufferable, and being powerless to do anything they could only think of their own welfare. As a result they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah to save them from the serfdom. Generally the whole nation was in rebellion against their God, and as a consequence the judgement of God was the prophesied result.

To look back on the history of Israel, it was one of failure and recovery on a number of occasions. For example they were led captive to Babylon, but were led out of it when they turned their heart to the Lord and His Word. At the time of the Lord Israel had sunk to its lowest immoral depths, and the worst part of it was that the people did not recognise their terrible plight.

They selfishly looked forward to the coming of the Messiah purely for an easier life. The books of Moses plainly told that the departure from the law of the Lord would lead to captivity. Just as clearly they did not have the faintest idea of why they were in that position. It is just in this ;position, due to the infinite grace of God, that divine intervention had taken place and they were totally unaware of it. They were spiritually blind and in some ways were unconcerned. Their spiritual leaders were described as follows, "Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Mat.15.12-14.

The plain fact of the matter is that if we had been there, in our unsaved state, we would have sided with the crowd to crucify Him. Notwithstanding the world’s attitude He was God manifest in flesh. "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," 2Co 5:19. We must never forget that the Jewish people have suffered, as a nation, for almost 2000 years. Over a million were slaughtered in AD 70 by the Roman army, and then were scattered throughout the world. We also must not forget that it is bible prophecy that they will return to their own country in unbelief. This return is a sure sign of the Lord’s imminent return.

In verse 30 above we noted that the people asked the Lord for a sign. We then noted that they had all the evidence they needed to see that He was what He said He was. The second part of their question was that they wanted to see His works, and they had already seen them. There was nothing more that He could do.

This historical fact is not believed by the unsaved, particularly the Jews, whose history it was. We are actually talking about historical fact. This being so we are again reminded that the hatred of the Creator, Governor, and Preserver of the universe is so intense that the unsaved adamantly refuse to believe the truth. This is highlighted by the fact that their attitude remained the same in the wilderness even after He had just saved their lives. Once again we say, what terrible ingratitude! The reply to that is that He only gave them manna from the sky, now He has given His Son who gave His life to save theirs and ours for all eternity.. If we have no gratitude for that which is immeasurable it is infinitely evil. In the Lord’s day He expressly told them that He would give His life for them. They did not care, and if possible even hated Him the more.

In verse 31 the Lord directs their minds to the history of their journey through the wilderness when over a million people were provided with food and water for 40 years. The manna represented life as it sustained them. We notice that they did not have to earn the sustenance.

It is very instructive and interesting to look at the circumstances of the provision of the manna in the wilderness as it is a picture of latter days. There are some points in their history on their way out of Egypt to Caanan that are of great interest. There was their miraculous release from Egypt where they were slaves. Their master, Pharaoh, was all powerful therefore in the normal course of events it was impossible that they could ever get out of their slavery. There were a number of events which preceded the Passover that we should specifically note:

1. The first born was spared from the wrath of God by the blood of the Lamb.

2. The red sea opened and made a way of escape.

3. The way of escape proved to be the grave for Pharaoh’s army.

All this would have been vividly in their mind as they moved out into the desert yet one of the first things they did was to grumble about the position that God had led them into. When we consider this it is unbelievable that their saviour God, having led them out of slavery, would have led them out to die of starvation. Let us remember that the unsaved mind of man has never changed since Adam sinned. All hate God, and that without a cause.

When we think about man in the wilderness we should bring to mind the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who was led out into the wilderness, we read, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred." Mat.4:1-2.

As man He suffered hunger, and when tempted to turn stone to bread it is recorded, "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Mat.4:4. Here was total dependence in His heavenly Father, but further, He points to the supplier of every need for human life. Above all we should note that He has pointed out that the source of that which sustains eternal life is the Word of God. Further He was put to this test by Satan himself, and in all this He was the victor by His total dependence on God.

In the Acts we read the comments made concerning the incident mentioned above , "This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt," Acts.7:37-39.

The crowning insult to God would have been their attitude which is summed up in the following verse, ""And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!" Num.14:2. We are reminded again, they hated Him without a cause.

The people are now being introduced to the fact that the real Bread from Heaven is a person. It was not manna. In the scriptures there is an unwritten practice in which we first have the natural and then the spiritual It is so in this case. One can see that this is a very practical way to present an unknown fact. First present a known fact, and then present the unknown fact which can be related to the known. That is, the reasoning goes from the known to the unknown. In this case the people have been reminded of a known historical fact with which they should have been familiar, that is a supply of food falling from the skies. The unknown fact was the real Bread from Heaven, and both facts have similar features.

1. The manna came down from the sky. The real B read would come down from heaven.

2. The manna would sustain natural life. The real Bread would sustain spiritual life.

The life in the first instance was natural life, and in the second it was spiritual life. However we must always remember that the Holy Spirit must be the revealer of all spiritual truth. However the saved can more readily appreciate the use for types. Whether they would accept it is another matter.

he that cometh erchomai; the act of coming

to me shall never hunger; ou me; (a reinforced negative, never ever)

and he that believeth on pisteuo; (to believe on as an object of faith

me shall never thirst. ou me; (a reinforced negative, never ever)

The Lord had reminded them of the manna provided in the wilderness by the unfailing hand of God. That to them was an historical fact, but now He is making the claim that He is the Bread which God has sent from heaven. Now we notice He asks them to do two things, to come to Him, and also to believe on Him as an object of faith. What the Lord meant was, "he that acts and comes to me and believes in me as a real object of faith will never ever hunger and will never ever thirst". This indeed was a statement of fact, but it most certainly was not understood by those that heard Him that day.

This message really is that they have seen enough to believe that this man was different. He could perform miracles, He could speak words of infinite wisdom, but still they would not believe Him. "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John.6:40. "But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him." John.6:64 "But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:" . John.12:37 "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father." John.15:24. "And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. " Luke.16:31. There is a key to spiritual understanding, and it is the operation on the heart of the person by God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In this verse we are seeing the Lord unfold something which has really been unknown or unexplained previously. The first action for the unsaved person is the fact that God works on the unsaved individual. Let us note:

"All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." Mat.11:27. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." Math.11:27

In this verse 37 we are clearly told that the unsaved can not come to the Lord unless the Father draw him. We next read, in the two verses above, that no one can know the Father unless the Father is revealed by the Son. We now have a position where the unknown Father draws the unbeliever to the Son, and the unbeliever, having believed on the Son, has the Father revealed to him. To the unsaved, God is a total unknown. Therefore when the unsaved try to describe God it can only ever be a figment of their imagination, and complete and total error.

In all this we are returned again to the Holy Spirit. It is He who first stirs the human mind toward the unknown God. In some way the mind is directed toward the existence of God, and a search begins. That Holy Spirit implanted desire to find God is at the command of the Father, and will lead the seeker to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. However in the final analysis it is the decision of the person, so led, to accept or reject the free gift of God. We will see more in the following verses.

The very first thing we should understand is the "will of God". What is it? The answer to this question is again not understood by the unsaved for the mind of God can only be understood by those who are spiritual. God’s thoughts are infinitely higher than man’s thoughts, and this is clearly seen in the greatly misunderstood verse "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John.3:16.

In this verse the mind of God is clearly revealed. The Satanic error is that most christians who read this verse make the false assumption that God has affection for the world. The world in this case means the people who live in this present world. The word "love’ is in Greek "agape" which means "a determination to do good to some object in which no value may be found". The statement that, "God hates sin, but has affection for the sinner", is that positive Satanic error. God hates sin and the sinner. He consigned the sinner to eternal fire, and even in the same passage as the verse above we read, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John.3:18

Again, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John.3:36. Here we find that the wrath of God abides on the sinner, and to suggest that hates what He loves comes from the pit of hell.

"He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony." John.3:31-32.

We can say that God is determined to save, but we will not be saved. Most prefer the things of this world with all it’s glitter and gilt rather than infinite glory with God above. We pray that God will open eyes to see the beauty and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, pempo; to send, usually someone

that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, apollumi, to lose, destroy, kill

but should raise it up again at the last day. anistemi, arise, raise, raise up 8 (resurrection)

We have been told by the Lord that "all the Father giveth me shall come to me". This was then followed by the statement that "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Now the Lord reinforces the two previous statements and explains the "Father’s will". Expressly this will is that whatever He is given by the Father would not be lost. To be more precise whoever comes to the Lord is absolutely guaranteed that he should not be destroyed. This refers to the execution of judgement at the Great White throne described in Revelation chapter 20. We should very carefully notice that time does not exist with God so that the Lord is in the perfect position to know that most believers will die before He comes in the air for His redeemed. The apostle Paul, through the Holy Spirit, makes this clear in the following verses.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, agnoeo; be ignorant, not to know

concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, koimaomai; natural sleep, or death

even as others which have no hope. elpis; confident expectation

Here we are told that as we believe that Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead, just as surely then the dead in Christ God will bring with Him. The following verses describe this statement.

Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. phthano; precede, have an advantage

A very strong emphasis is now given by the apostle that what he is about to say is the true Word of God, and as such demands belief and acceptance. We are then introduced to that which should be obvious. When the Lord comes for His believers for their bodily resurrection the fact is that some have been dead for ages and some will still be alive. He firmly points out that the christian alive at the time of the Lord’s coming will have no advantage with respect to the bodily resurrection.

In this verse the context is the order of resurrection. The dead first, then the living, and we are told how He is to come. He comes with an assembling shout, with a voice such as an archangel uses, and with the trumpet (noun) of God. We may note there is no mention of it being sounded. No doubt it was, but it is not mentioned in this passage, but rather we are told of an assembling shout. From this we see clearly that the living christian has no advantage over the deceased one. There was no need to sorrow for those who sleep in the Lord. It was a case of "absent from the body, present with the Lord". No doubt the survivors feel deeply the death of a loved one, but joy is ahead.

In this verse we read the message to the living believers "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord" would not go before the dead in Christ to meet Him. We will all be caught up together. There is no talk of the old fleshly nature and surroundings. All that pertains to the first creation will be left behind forever. The focus is rather on the Lord Himself in the clouds in the air gathering His purchased possession. It is imperative that we should carefully note that both spend eternity with the Lord.

The will of God in verse 39 is that He will lose none who come to Him. Unfortunately there are those who believe God can lie! They believe their salvation depends on themselves. That is the lie of Satan. Let us note once again, He would lose none who came to Him! We say again it is of utmost importance that we understand the work of God in our salvation.

This means that in our unsaved state, so far as God is concerned, we were dead! He then gives life to the dead.

How far away have our sins been removed from us? An infinite distance.

3. "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John.1:29.

This is a clear statement of fact. He has taken away the sin of the world. That is all sin. As is often said, "it is no longer the sin question, it is the Son question". Will we accept what God has done for us. (He gave His only Son who gave His life for us, paid the penalty for our sin.) It is the only means of salvation. There is no other.

4. "For whom he did foreknow, proginosko; to know before the event, to know beforehand

he also did predestinate to proorizo; to determine before the time or event

be conformed to the image of summorphos; having the same form

brethren." Rom.8:29.

This is a very simple verse, but unfortunately most christians do not have any idea what it means. What is being said here is that an infinite God, who is not limited by time or space, knows the time dimension from beginning to end. He knows those who will exercise their will and volition, and accept the fact that God sent His Son to die for their sin and pay the penalty in full. That is foreknowledge.

In plain English He knows those who will be saved. Be advised, not anywhere in all the scripture do we read that God interferes in the individuals decision making. Our heavenly Father is not making robots, but He is making a new creature who will, of their own volition love both the Father and the Son.

"Moreover whom he did predestinate, proorizo; to determine before the time or event

them he also called: and whom he called, kaleo; call, summons

them he also justified: and whom he justified, dikaios; to declare or pronounce to be righteous

them he also glorified doxazo; opinion gained from the acts and deeds. In this case placed them with Christ in glory.

In this verse we get the absolute determination and act of God concerning the one who believes. In verse 29 he determined that the believer will be changed to the image of His Son.

In addition, in this verse, God continues to act from His own will. It has nothing to do with the individual christian. He has no say in it whatsoever. Now let us be clear; the believer has nothing to do with it whatsoever, except to believe. Again the verb "predestinate" is in the aorist tense which means that, at the very exact time the person believes and is saved, the other actions predetermined by God take place; not before or after that event, but at the same time.

Now let us note what else takes place in this verse. At salvation God then and there determines that the believer will be summonsed to Him, and be counted to be righteous, and seated with Christ in the heavenly places. That is to say his sins are forgiven, and he stands before God with all that which pertains to the first creation gone. It is left behind in the grave. God looks at the Lord Jesus Christ and sees all has been dealt with. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" Eph.1:3

that every one which seeth the Son, and theoreo; consider, observe, usually with a purpose

believeth on him, may have everlasting life: pisteuo: to believed on a person as an object of faith

and I will raise him up at the last day.` anestemi; to raise up as in bodily resurrection

We note two action being taken by the person who is being drawn by the Holy Spirit to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first is that he has observed and considered the person of Christ. The second is that he has believed what he has discovered, and the Lord has become the object of his faith. The result of the above two actions is that the Lord will raise him up when He comes into the air for His saints. Again it has nothing to do with the believer. In particular it has nothing to do with any actions taken or deeds ever done by the believer before or after he was saved.

God, at the instant the person believed and was saved, determined the future of that believer. But one may say, but what if I sin? Well then two things will happen:

2. The believer is convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit.

At this point we can do two things:

(a) ignore it, or

To ignore our sin is to immediately place ourselves under the judgement of God. Also at the same time the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin so the prompting is there to be reconciled to our God and Father. If the child of God then ignores these promptings, we are dealt with by our Heavenly Father. We read; "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Heb.12:5&6. The problem with some christians is that they absolutely refuse to believe the Word of God, and questions come up in the mind which are put there by Satan. Some are:

The only person who knows that is the person who believed. How they know they are saved is not by any strange feeling, but by believing the Word of God. Immediately upon believing, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" Rom.8:16. That simply is an inward conviction that we are born again, and we have a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is definitely and positively no thought here of this Holy Spirit witness being such things as speaking in tongues which are no longer given by God, nor is it any other external physical activity of any kind.

That is calling God a liar to His face. God forbid that any should do that. Finally there is not one verse in the whole bible which supports the demonic theory that a christian can be saved and finally be lost.

Let us return to Hebrews chapter 12. Because God is a perfect Father He corrects, trains, and above all loves His child. If, as His child, we sin we are chastised if we do not confess our sin. Again chastening may not be understood by christians today as the world will prevent parents from exercising it.

The word chastening in Greek means firstly the act of training a child. The significance of that is easy to see. In the two verses below we see that it also has the meaning of educating, I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day." Acts.22.3. "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds." Acts.7:22. Both underlined words are the same word in Greek.

One question often asked by the unlearned is, "well then I can sin and do what I like and I still go to heaven? To answer that question we must ask one ourselves. Is the "I" speaking a born again christian or a religious unsaved person? That immediately clarifies the question somewhat. In the first place it may be almost impossible to say whether the person is or is not born again. For this purpose expressly we have in the New Testament at least six different steps of discipline in the church each one becoming more severe. The last step is putting the errant one out of fellowship, and the faithful believers have nothing more to do with him.

Nevertheless they watch their heavenly Father’s actions in dealing with that person, and they hope for his restoration.

What we do know is that church discipline is almost totally unknown, and it is rarely carried out. The reason being that believers are so caught up with the things of this world, and are so self centred rather than Christ centred that the Word of God has no relevance whatsoever. They do whatever they think is right. Their own opinion becomes their god.

What the Bible teaches is the very opposite. In 1Corinthians chapter 5 the Word of God orders the following action for those who fall into the sins mentioned in verse 10. The command is "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1Cor.5:3-4.

We should be aware that the acts of discipline would have already been carried out by the assembly. In this case there would have been admonition, reproof, rebuke, and a withdrawing from the one in error. Obviously the Word of God would have been applied in power, but to no avail.

To deliver such an one unto Satan for the paradidomai; to hand over to

destruction of the flesh, that the olethros; ruin, destruction

spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." sozo; save

Here we see action is commanded to be taken by the church with respect to the guilty person, but most christians are forced to say that they have never seen any discipline of any kind carried out in their church. This, almost without fail, shows a dead church which the Lord has left to itself, and it is no longer a testimony for Him. We are not saying the people involved are not born again christians, but we are saying that they are deliberately disobedient to the Word of God, particularly to verse 5 above. It is vitally important to notice that the very express purpose of excommunication is to hand over to Satan. As the bible student is aware, no verse of scripture stands alone, there must be others which support it, and in this case there is. "Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." 1Tim.1:20

The terrible reality of christian life is that there are many christians, born again, who fall into Satan’s hands and are used by him with terrible results. "And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 2Tim.2.24-26. Here we have the reality of a born again christian being the slave of Satan. Obviously slaves do their masters bidding. It is at this point that the assembly must obey the Word of God as in verse 5 above, and also as did Paul in 1Tim.1.20. Those whose lives are controlled by their old nature’s evil emotions would say, "how can we do such a hard thing to the poor believer?" Let it be clearly understood that those who say this are in the same position as the slave of Satan.

What we can see from the clear Word of God is that christians generally today have departed from the plain Word of God. We tolerate any and almost all evil doctrine which is shown by our refusal to discipline. By refusing to discipline we declare to all the world that we hate the errant believer beyond all measure. We don’t care if he is a slave of the enemy. We don’t care for his eternal future and well-being.

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We are saying "let him suffer." Rather we should be presenting the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread of life in whom every need is met.

For the unlearned believer who is concerned let it be noted that the excommunication discipline has two purposes. The first purpose in 1Tim1:20 is that they learn not to say stinging untruths about God. In 2Cor.5:5 the second purpose was for the destruction of the flesh.

It is at this point, and this point only that the believer can feast on the Bread of Life. Prior to that one is living and feasting on the things of the old nature, the things of the flesh and the world which definitely do not seem to be wrong for that believer who is self centred. That person will be definitely acting against the will of God. We must bring up the history of Job who was self righteous, and about whom we read, "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?" Job.1:6-8. Notice carefully the words the Lord uses when He describes Job, but we find that Job had to learn things about himself and about the Lord notwithstanding his standing with the Lord.

During the conversation between the Lord and Satan, Satan accused the Lord of bias, "Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD." Job.1:9-12. The Lord’s man was handed over to the enemy by the Lord Himself. Job has to learn lessons, and we find Satan’s part in the matter was strictly controlled by God Himself for we read, "And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life." Job.2:6. How dare we fail to obey God’s Word and not deliver the sinning christian to Satan when He is the perfect Heavenly Father. That is evil beyond measure yet it is a constant and wide spread evil among christians. These christians are themselves the enemy of God, and some adamantly refuse to change.

Unfortunately the refusal to chastise is labelled by those who will chastise or discipline according tot he scripture as "love". We have noted time and time again that to allow a fellow believer to suffer eternal loss of reward in the name of love show the most vicious hatred of that one in error. It is definitely not love. The erring one is losing for all eternity the special commendation of the Lord, and also attaining a special position before Him. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."Rev.3:21. In our last age just prior to the coming of the Lord the obedient believer if offered the glorious privilege of sitting with the Lord in His throne. How dare we then call it love when we refuse to correct the erring fellow believer in order that he might earn that eternal privilege.

Let us note how vicious the lack of discipline is:

First, it allows the erring one to remain out of fellowship with the Lord. Remember the Lord died so that we would reconciled to our God and Father: "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1John.1:3

Second, another aspect is the loss of eternal reward as just mentioned

Third, it denies the heavenly Father of having pleasure in His obedient child. This is a vitally aspect of the christian relationship. One only has to look at the cost to the God of heaven to be reconciled to His creatures. We should carefully consider this verse.

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The person who will not discipline the erring believer according to the scripture is not only depriving the believer of eternal rewards, but also is depriving His Father of His fellowship which cost an infinite price. How cruel, how vicious, and how totally ignorant of the heavenly Father’s loss. it is virtually saying, "I do not care what it cost you I will not assist the erring christian back into fellowship with you." Words can not describe such a person be it believer or unbeliever, but we must be aware that it is describing a carnal christian in which state it is impossible to be in fellowship with God in any way at all.

Did God hand Job over to Satan to chastise him. No indeed not as we generally understand the word. He longed for the close fellowship between His believer child, and Himself He would put Job through the hard lesson of having no confidence in the flesh, but confidence in the Lord. Job had to learn how to feed on the bread of life, and how to be in true fellowship with his Lord. He had to learn by experience, and so do we. Let us note his statement when he learnt what God had intended him to learn; "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Job.42:5-6. It is at that point that he really saw what the old nature was like, and how evil and corrupt it was. It was the enemy of God. Above all what he really learnt was that the Lord is only enjoyed when he saw what he was in the flesh, and what the Lord was in reality.

The Jews then murmured at him, because he said gonguzo; to mutter, murmur in a low tone.

As the Lord made this very important speech the Jews generally were offended. They were thinking, "how could this son of Joseph possibly come down from heaven". one can imagine the scene. The offended Jews were mumbling one to another and saying that this upstart can not possibly come down from heaven. How could the son of Joseph, who we know very well, claim such an absurd thing. The murmurs were those of hatred as the same people finally crucified Him. What they failed to realise was that their statement that He was the son of Joseph was totally untrue. He was sired by the Holy Spirit, and He indeed came down from heaven. he truly was the son of God, and He was the true bread.

We have seen previously that the unsaved and the carnal christian have one thing in common, and that is that they are utterly incapable of understanding spiritual things. This, God clearly states in:

of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness moria; stupidity

unto him: neither can he know them, ginosko; recognise, understand

because they are spiritually discerned. anakrino; determine, form a judgement

In this verse we are told that the natural unsaved man can not take in to their mind spiritual things. It is not possible to mentally accept them. Further their totally wrong judgement on the matter is that it is just plain stupidity. That settles that part of the statement. Any spiritual truth, to the unsaved, is plain stupidity. This is then reinforced by the statement that he can not recognise or understand these spiritual things. So far, in this verse, we have two powerful statements about the inability of the unsaved person to understand or recognise spiritual truths. That means, of course, that you can not argue with that person, for it is impossible for them to change their mind.

We may digress for a moment and consider the carnal christian who makes statements like, "you have to use the world to save the world" These kind of statements came from the very pit of hell. To become like the enemy, and use enemy methods to present something to those that do not understand is pathetic. It is a total reliance on the ability of the old nature to attract the unsaved through the old nature. This is an insult to God. That attraction is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and Him alone. It is wholly and solely the work of God. As carnal methods would grieve the Holy Spirit how can one expect spiritual results using carnal means. As this is so what can the spiritual believer do? Let us ask the question, "How can one who the world considers a stupid fool present something to the unsaved?" The simple answer is that he can not!! How then should we operate? The answer is, in the power, and the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit according to God’s Word, and not in the power of the old sinful nature.

In the Lord’s case above the words spoken by Him were not understood because they did not have the new nature. Therefore they could only make surmises from what they thought they knew. They could only see Joseph as the Lord’s father. He was not. He was from the Father, and had no earthly father. This the unsaved could not possibly understand, and their statement, not really a question, ridiculed the fact of His coming down from heaven. It is the only conclusion the unsaved mind can come to. Now it is vitally important that the believer be thoroughly aware of these facts otherwise the Lord’s reply can not be fully appreciated.

We have posed some problems which have not been answered or even considered by the carnal christian operating in the power of his own old nature. This may be because he has forgotten that he is the Lord’s servant. The servant has only one position, and that is to obey his Master in this case. It is because of proneness to fall back into sin and the power of the old nature that we have to be continually reminded of the Lord’s words, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." and He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." John.14:15 & 21. This is the only measurement of a christians love of his Lord. We may put stickers on bumper bars of cars, make great protestations of love, or any other thing saying that we love the Lord, but it is only our obedience which demonstrates our love for Him.

The foregoing discussion is clearly showing that it is more than possible for the believer to relapse into the state of total opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ, and still use great words of love whilst being His enemy. So it was for the hearers of the Lord in verse 42 above. Now let us notice that even in the face of this violent opposition the Lord continued speaking, and these Words are recorded for us for all time. Now, knowing all things, He replies to their grumbling:

Verse 43

These words were a message to the unbelieving Jews to stop whispered grumblings, and listen. Even though they could not understand He wanted them to hear what He was about to say.

We have to remember that His Word can be brought back into our memory and given real and powerful meaning by the Holy Spirit even years later. Furthermore what He was about to say was a revelation of great importance for us to understand.

No man can dunamai; ability, have power

come to me, except the Father erchomai; the act of coming

which hath sent pempo; send (general usage)

me draw him: kelkuo; to draw to a certain point, (force is not meant)

and I will raise him up at the last day. anestemi; to raise

Once again we say this verse is of utmost importance. The facts learnt should be kept in mind, but unfortunately many christians completely forget it either from ignorance or just plain disobedience. In this verse we learn four things.

The very first thing is that we are clearly told that the unsaved person does not have the ability to find God, to seek God or do any thing about God. No man can come to the Lord Jesus Christ, that is has the ability to come to Him. That is a flat statement of fact. We can look at it like this. The gospel preacher can ask, persuade, cajole, argue, threaten, warn or use any other words or means to get the unbeliever to come to the Lord, and he simply can not do it. He does not have the power to do so. We say "does not have the power", but that is not quite true. In his own mind he can see no reason for coming to Him. It all just does not make sense, and as the scripture says, "it is foolishness unto him".

If that was understood then we would have a totally different scene in the evangelistic field. As we have mentioned above all the methods of the flesh (old nature) would be absent. There would be a total reliance on the Word of God and the power of God. As we will see further in this verse it is all the work of God. Let us then be assured from the Word of God that the unsaved can do nothing to save themselves. The question could then be asked, "surely the unsaved must initially get the desire to find "god"? In answer to that question the unsaved person, so far as God is concerned, is "dead". That must clearly be understood otherwise we may find ourselves working against God as noted above. Let us note God’s Word.

"And you (hath he quickened,) this is not in the original

who were dead in trespasses and sins; nekros; dead in body, dead spiritually

Because the words "hath He quickened" is not in the original it does not present a problem because in verse 5 we read, ::Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" Eph 2:5. Here quickened is the word "suzoopoieo" which means make alive, or give life together with Christ. In this verse we now see that we were spiritually dead, having no ability to communicate with, or even have any comprehension that spiritual life existed. We had no ability to communicate with spiritual things or beings whatsoever, because we were spiritually dead. However through the work of God in the unbeliever we are given spiritual life.

Wherein in time past ye walked according peripateo; walk, figuratively

now worketh in the children of disobedience. energeo: to be active, operate, work

To walk in this verse means "signifying the whole round of the activities of the individual life". Worketh means to be active in, operate in, work in. In this case we have the picture of the dead corpse being activated wholly and solely by Satan himself. If therefore we have a corpse which is activated by the spiritual power of Satan, and is incapable of communicating with the person of God and anything activated by the power of God, we have a person who can not even visualise such a thing as the God of heaven. We can also clearly see that person is incapable of coming to the Lord, who so far as he is concerned, does not exist.

As we have seen, a corpse simply can not move, speak, or hear. Delusions of many kinds the unsaved may have, but in reality he can not come to the Lord. God has spoken, God has described in His Word this message, and it is eternally unchangeable. Having considered these verses we clearly see that "no man can come to me".

We should ask the question, "how are we drawn if we are dead?" To see this we must note the introduction of the book of John where we read; "The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John.1.7-9. Every living human being, from the time of Adam, God has given "Light". That is, the inner sense that God exists. God having given us our own free will we can follow the leading or we may not. That is entirely up to us. We make the choice.

Let us further note facts about being drawn to the Lord. "And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." John.6:65. In this verse we are again told quite plainly that something is given to the individual which causes him to be drawn. Even in our spiritually dead state we are moved, but we repeat again it is all a matter of choice. First we are given the fact that God exists. We then either ignore this given light or we may have a desire to discover more about this new "interest". We see that the drawing ultimately leads the seeker to the foot of the cross. We then read an interesting verse where the Lord says, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." John.12:32.