[0:00] Amen. If you want to take your Bible and turn to John chapter 6, today's sermon will cover verses 41 through 47.
[0:21] ! If you do not have a Bible with you, there are Bibles in the pews for you to use. If you don't own a Bible, please take that Bible home with you today. It's our gift from our congregation to you in hopes that you'll continue to be reading the Word of God.
[0:35] John chapter 6, verses 41 through 47. Would you please stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together?
[0:50] So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
[1:03] How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
[1:19] It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God.
[1:34] He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. May God add a blessing to the reading of his Word. Would you please be seated? Many of you know me and know that I'm a sports fan that enjoyed playing sports growing up, and now I have the pleasure and the privilege to serve as an assistant coach for my son Jack's sports teams, and I've really enjoyed that.
[2:09] Currently, it is football season, and as you can imagine, that's not the most pleasant of experiences for our boys who are in full pads and running and making contact with one another in 90-plus degree heat.
[2:27] And so, as a result of their discomfort to this point, our first game will be on Saturday, we've heard a lot of grumbling. I know when I was a player, and I think it's still the same now as an assistant coach, the ones who we would grumble to most was the assistant coach, thinking that the assistant coach would do something or that we were safer doing that, but that wasn't the case then, and it's not the case now.
[2:54] But we'll hear often grumbling players saying, I'm hot, I'm tired, when is this practice over? I hate this drill. When is this drill going to be over?
[3:06] Why can't I play this position? Why do I have to play that position? Lots of grumbling. Grumbling is defined as complaining or protesting about something in a bad-tempered but typically muted way.
[3:26] Again, one of the things that I loved about playing sports and why I, again, love to continue to be a part of them is because through sports, young men and women learn a lot of lessons, valuable lessons that I think help them as they get older and enter into adulthood.
[3:44] And again, one of those lessons that I learned was how ineffective grumbling is. A lesson that if you have grumbled as an athlete or in most other circumstances as a child, you learned the hard way that grumbling is not effective to get what you might want or desire.
[4:07] Few people, teachers, parents, coaches, have ever responded to the grumbling of their child, their student, or their athletes by giving in to whatever it is they were grumbling about, right?
[4:24] It's not an effective thing. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that God hates it. God hates grumbling. Numbers 14 records the response of the Israelites in the wilderness.
[4:39] If you remember, they had sent 12 spies out to search out the promised land on a sort of reconnaissance mission. And then when they returned, all of them but Caleb gave a positive report.
[4:55] The rest of them were talking about the size of the people and all the reasons why they would be outmatched if they tried to go and take the land. But if you remember, Caleb was telling, listen, God has promised to give us this land and so we should go and take it.
[5:09] But the people listened to the other 11 spies and they were despairing as a result. And then they turned on Moses and Aaron, the leaders whom God had placed over them, and they grumbled.
[5:25] Let's read Numbers 14, 1 through 4. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night.
[5:36] Again, because they received the negative reports. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or that we had died in the wilderness.
[5:53] Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.
[6:09] And then Moses and Aaron intercede. They plead with the people. They tell them to trust in God, to believe in the promises that He's made to them.
[6:21] But again, we see that they continued to grumble, which led to rebellion. And they picked up stones to stone Aaron and Moses with.
[6:32] But then God shows up, right? Dad comes home. And he appears in the tabernacle. And Moses went to meet with him.
[6:44] And God was not pleased. And we'll pick up again in Numbers 14, 11 through 12. It says there, And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people despise me?
[6:56] How long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them down with pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.
[7:10] But again, as we continue in that story, we see that God does relent of disinheriting the people. But the consequences of their grumbling, which led to their rebellion, was that none of them but Caleb would ever enter into the promised land.
[7:33] And as a result of their grumbling, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. This is just one of many instances where God expresses His hatred of grumbling.
[7:48] Grumbling. Grumbling is an expression of a rebellious attitude that doubts God's Word, His promises, His ability, and His provision.
[8:05] Grumbling expresses an attitude of unbelief, and it often leads to rebellious actions. While grumbling is something that God hates, unfortunately, it is something that we often delight in.
[8:25] Again, going to the world of sports for an illustration, you know that oftentimes the sports reporter who covers a particular team seeks out the grumblers.
[8:41] Coach makes a questionable call, for whatever reason, reporter tries to find that player who's grumbling, put the microphone in his face so he can tell the world about how displeased he is with his coach or his team or whatever the case may be.
[9:00] And sometimes, they even prod the question. You know, the player isn't grumbling, but they try to entice the player to grumble. Because why?
[9:12] It sells. It sells. People watch. People are intrigued whenever there is disunity within an organization that is perhaps threatening to collapse.
[9:29] But, such should never be the case for the church of Jesus Christ among the members of Christ's body. God wants us to trust him.
[9:42] And he wants us to trust him in all things, in every way. And so, one of my favorite verses is Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
[9:52] This is my anti-grumbling verse. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
[10:08] When it comes to God and his word, what does he want? He wants us, he even, I think, expects us to trust him, not to grumble, not to cast doubt over the truths that he has given to us, that he's proclaimed in his word, and the promises that he's given to us within it.
[10:31] So again, in John chapter 6, we know that Jesus has spoken to this crowd, and he has issued some hard truths that they have heard.
[10:43] They had witnessed him miraculously feed them with two fish and five barley loaves. And now here, the setting has moved into the synagogue where he's been teaching.
[10:57] And remember, he's been teaching about the fact that he is the bread of life. He's been teaching that only those whom the Father gives to him will come to him in faith and be saved from their sins.
[11:15] He's taught that his will is in sync with the Father's will, that only those who believe in him will have eternal life. And these teachings that Jesus has taught caused some of them in that crowd to grumble, to grumble, expressing their unbelief, which Jesus now here addresses and tells them not to do that.
[11:47] because, again, God hates grumbling. And in these verses, Jesus reveals to us how useless grumbling is and that God's people should not be those who grumble.
[12:02] So here's the main idea for this morning's sermon. Grumbling is expressing dissatisfaction, dissatisfaction with God's sovereign will for our lives.
[12:18] It is a sin that he does not take lightly. When God's people question or complain, they're challenging his wisdom, grace, goodness, love, and promises.
[12:32] So as a believer, you should not grumble because, again, grumbling creates disunity within the body of Christ.
[12:44] It has a way of breaking up our fellowship. And, again, it is something that our Lord does not take lightly. That your grumbling, though you may think is a little thing, can be something that the enemy uses to do a lot of damage in the church.
[13:04] Now, as an unbeliever, I hope that you hear this and you realize that grumbling does not change anything about what God has said and done. You may not like it.
[13:16] You may not believe it. I hope that you will. But, ultimately, your grumbling is not going to change a word of Scripture. It's not going to change anything that God has said.
[13:30] It won't change a thing. And I hope that you'll hear this and that you will trust in Him today that you would be saved by Him today. In John 6, verse 41 through 47, then we are given three reasons why we shouldn't grumble against God.
[13:48] Three reasons why we shouldn't grumble against God and why it's such a useless thing to do. First of all, the first reason is that grumbling is rooted in unbelief. Grumbling is rooted in unbelief.
[14:01] Verses 41 and 42 again. It says there, So the Jews grumbled about Him because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know?
[14:16] How does He now say, I have come down from heaven? Now, it's one of the surest facts of Christianity when the doctrines of man's total depravity and the necessity of God's electing grace and salvation are preached, there will be resentment by many who hear them.
[14:35] That was true in Christ's day as we see here. It's true in our day as well. And so, their audible grumble was produced from an attitude of unbelief.
[14:49] They didn't believe what Jesus was saying. But instead of forming their criticisms and constructive thoughts and directing them towards the teachings of Christ, they instead attacked Him personally in the form of an ad hominem attack.
[15:09] They didn't say something like, We consider your views to be incorrect for the following reasons. Because Christ's teachings were too consistent and too self-authenticating for that.
[15:23] Instead, they attacked Him personally. Saying in effect, Don't listen to this guy. He's a nobody from nowhere important.
[15:34] The son of unimportant people. Therefore, what He has to say is likewise unimportant. So they sought to distract Jesus' hearers from the truth He spoke by formulating a personal attack that did not address the teachings that Jesus had presented to them that day and denied His heavenly origins.
[15:58] These people didn't really know Jesus. They didn't really know that He was the Son of God. And of course, because they didn't believe that, they wouldn't believe anything He had to say.
[16:12] We see people do this thing all the time. It's kind of ad hominem attack. We see it all the time in politics, don't we? Instead of dealing with the issues, they instead choose to attack the person's character and suggest then it doesn't matter what they say because there aren't the type of person that you should listen to.
[16:34] And that's how they try to win arguments. The Jews did not believe, again, who Jesus said that He was. And so, instead of addressing His claims, they tried to argue that it didn't matter what He said because He's nobody important and therefore His claims are irrelevant.
[16:51] And people take the same position towards Christ still today. They don't think that Jesus is any more important than any other religious figure. They doubt His claims.
[17:02] They don't take Him seriously. They won't come to Him. They don't believe. R.H. Lightfoot said, so long as a man remains and is content to remain confident of his own ability without divine help to assess experience and the meaning of experience, he cannot come to the Lord.
[17:27] He cannot believe. Only the Father can move him this step with its incalculable and final results. We can get to a point where we must stop casting our pearls before swine.
[17:45] We can't argue people into heaven. At best, we can argue them to believe in God's existence, but we see from Scripture that belief in God's existence isn't enough to save anyone.
[18:03] You must believe in Jesus Christ, His Son, as your Lord and Savior. The Jews believed in God, but they denied His Son.
[18:15] They denied their Savior. This unbelief can only be overcome by the Holy Spirit's bringing that person from spiritual death to spiritual life through the new birth.
[18:29] Only God, as Jesus has already said, can save a person. This explains why the Jews were grumbling. But since we're on the topic of grumbling, what about those who grumble in the church?
[18:43] What does the Bible have to tell us about that? Well, in one place, Philippians 2, verse 14, Paul speaks of the importance of Christian obedience, that they avoid disputes, and explains why this is so important to the church in verses 14 and 15.
[19:02] There he says, Do all things without grumbling. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.
[19:24] As we obey God's Word and sharpen one another with the Word of God, this should not lead to grumbling and disputes among God's people.
[19:42] For when it does, when relationships are severed and churches are split, when arguments and name-calling results, results, what message do we send to the rest of the world?
[19:57] We're not any different than you. May it never be the case. I went to a Nazarene university and twice a week we were required to attend chapel and you know my background.
[20:16] I grew up Nazarene. I guess I felt like I was in my element there but not everybody who went to that school were Nazarene and not everybody who went to that school was a believer but one of our, a good friend of mine, his roommate was Southern Baptist and I remember many occasions on those, during those chapel services where the preacher would say something and he would get angry and audibly angry.
[20:49] I mean it began with grumbling and then before you knew it he'd slam his Bible closed, he'd stuff it in his backpack, jumbling some papers right as he did that, zipped it up, flung it on his back and he walked out.
[21:01] I don't know if you could do that. I think, I know our attendance was recorded but he was so mad he didn't seem to care and for the rest of us, all we knew was that he was angry but we didn't know why and for whomever that preacher was to see him leave, I know that this guy never tried to speak with him, tried to talk through whatever it was that he disagreed with.
[21:29] All we knew and all we saw was that he was very angry and even when we would try to talk with him, I mean he wouldn't really have much to say, he was just so incensed that you couldn't really speak with him.
[21:44] But when it comes to our biblical discussions, when we're speaking to Christians who truly love God, who love his word, who love his church, that's not how we should act.
[22:01] Case in point, Acts chapter 18 verses 24 through 26. Apollos was a great and eloquent preacher. And at this point, he had delivered a message in the hearing of Priscilla and Aquila who were two mature believers.
[22:22] And I want you to read this with me. Listen to this account of their interaction together. It says there now, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.
[22:34] He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.
[22:50] He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
[23:03] Priscilla and Aquila, by all accounts, heard an accurate sermon delivered by Apollos, who, Scripture says, was competent in the scriptures.
[23:16] But as they heard him preaching, they must have noticed something in his message that either wasn't clear or wasn't clear enough, or maybe he had missed something important.
[23:29] Not that he had said anything heretical, just that there was something missing, there was some polishing that needed to be done. And so, what did they do?
[23:41] Well, as he was preaching the sermon, it doesn't sound like they were grumbling as he preached it, right? Loud enough for the people in front of him, in them, in the back of them, or to the side of them to hear whatever their disputes were.
[23:53] They listened, took mental notes, maybe even wrote it down, and then they kindly called him to their home, and there they provided some instruction that seemed to really be a blessing to Apollos because he continued to be a great preacher and teacher in the church.
[24:14] And so, I imagine that this conversation was very engaging and very encouraging, right? Between three people who loved the Lord, who loved his church, and who wanted to make sure that they said it right.
[24:28] Their doing that made him a better preacher. Two of my favorite preachers and theologians are R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur, and they were good friends in life.
[24:39] MacArthur, of course, still with us. R.C. Sproul went to be with the Lord. But they didn't see eye to eye on everything biblically. In fact, they debated each other over baptism, and it was a hearty, friendly debate.
[25:00] I remember R.C. Sproul saying one time, either in one of his question and answer sessions or he was preaching, and he talked about his relationship with John MacArthur, and he said, what I appreciate about him, among many things, is that if we have a disagreement over Scripture, I can take him to the mat, meaning we can wrestle over this text, and if I'm able to show him my point of view and he sees that I'm right, he'll agree.
[25:27] Because it doesn't matter about being right or being wrong for myself. You know, there were two great teachers who wanted to make sure that what they were teaching was in accord with what God's Word said, and I think it was true vice versa.
[25:42] However, there are just some things that they didn't agree upon even when they would go to the mat with one another. But, they held the most important doctrines in common, and at some points, they could agree to disagree.
[26:00] Now, a lot of people will say, let's agree to disagree in the church, but they don't really mean it or follow through with it. I know this has been the case for me in the past, maybe still so today, when something is said or a topic is covered and that happens to be your doctrinal hobby horse, and your ears perk up, right?
[26:27] And you're interested, but you're kind of looking for a fight. You know? You're kind of thinking, all right, I'm ready. Who wants to go?
[26:39] And it shouldn't be the case. Again, that is not the way that the church is blessed. It creates fights, dissension.
[26:55] It breaks up friendships and churches. But again, at its core, grumbling is rooted in unbelief. Unbelievers who are not regenerate by the Holy Spirit will hear the gospel and they'll grumble.
[27:11] They'll grumble about Christ being the only way of salvation. They'll grumble about sin. That's not such a big deal. They might grumble. They'll definitely grumble about the reality of hell and thinking that anyone should spend their eternity there and certainly not believing that they will and a host of other things.
[27:32] But it's useless to grumble against God and His Word and here's why. For the second reason. Grumbling does not alter biblical truth. Grumbling does not alter biblical truth.
[27:44] Verses 43 and 44 says there, Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I'll raise him up on the last day.
[27:57] So again, Jesus hears their grumbling but notice how He doesn't respond to their grumbling. He doesn't respond by defending Himself on a personal level as we might do saying something like, you know, I know you are but what am I?
[28:11] Or anything like that. Instead, He reiterates what He's already told them. He's reiterated everything that He's already told them. In other words, their grumbling did not alter God's Word or Jesus' point of view.
[28:25] It wouldn't and it couldn't change anything. Instead, Jesus doubles down. He doubles down on His preaching points and He does so in two ways.
[28:37] First, as mentioned already, He re-stipulates what He's already preached saying, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
[28:48] Then in verse 45, He quotes Scripture to back up everything that He's already said. Verse 45, He says, it is written in the prophets and they will be taught by God.
[29:00] Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. So let's look at these statements one at a time. First, Jesus repeats what He said earlier but here, He does so in even sharper language.
[29:14] Before, He had said in verse 37, you have seen me and still do not believe all that the Father gives to me will come to me. As we've noticed already in our study of that verse, Jesus has implied that no one can come to Him for salvation apart from a special act of the Holy Spirit.
[29:34] verse 44 is very straightforward in its language but that hasn't stopped it from again becoming the battleground verse for those who resist the doctrine of election and God's sovereignty in salvation.
[29:49] Who resist on rational humanistic grounds. Beginning in the fourth century, Augustus and Pelagius discussed discussed and debated their different views on this text.
[30:07] Calvin and Arminius in the 14th century did the same and sandwiched between those two but closer to Calvin and Arminius' time was the debate between Martin Luther and Erasmus.
[30:21] Erasmus had been led to attack Luther's teaching on the total depravity of man in a volume on the nature of the human will and on whether it can function in turning a person to God.
[30:38] Erasmus said it could. Additionally, moreover, he answered the obvious objection based on the argument that based upon this verse he said God draws people in the same way that an owner of a donkey might coax or entice its donkey to move by dangling a carrot in front of its face.
[31:01] The man draws by enticing the donkey he said. So according to his theory God originates salvation but man nevertheless cooperates with it.
[31:16] Now this makes good sense to the natural human way of thinking but it's not what scripture teaches and that's what Luther's point was and he made it emphatically.
[31:29] He observed this is what he said what better drawing power or what better drawing could there be than Jesus himself? He was present among the people. He taught them personally but still many of them did not come.
[31:45] In fact they devised a scheme to kill him and they shouted their demands for his execution. Luther concluded by saying this the ungodly does not come even when he hears the word unless the father draws and teaches him inwardly which he does by shedding abroad his spirit.
[32:04] When that happens there follows a drawing other than that which is outward. Christ is then displayed by the enlightening of the spirit and by it man is rapt or captivated by or he concludes by saying he being passive while God speaks God teaches God draws rather than seeking or running himself.
[32:27] Luther's point then is this as scripture says man is born sinful and is described in God's word as being spiritually dead.
[32:40] Dead people can do nothing only God can wake the dead and so therefore salvation is all of his doing man is passive God is the one who is active in salvation.
[32:52] But listen we can go another step into this to see the truth when we examine this verse in the original Greek language with which it was recorded.
[33:06] There we see that not only is man passive but he actually is resistant to the things of God. For the word there draw in verse 44 always implies resistance to the power that is drawing it.
[33:24] In John 18 10 the Greek word there translated as draw here in verse 44 is used to describe the drawing of a sword from its scabbard.
[33:38] The sword isn't enticed out. There is some resistance as it is drawn out of its place by the hand of the wielder. But there's more.
[33:49] In John 21 verse 6 and verse 11 draw same word is used to describe how the disciples hauled into their boat a net filled with fish.
[34:03] Remember this was after Christ's resurrection when he appeared to his disciples while they were fishing. And as he had when he first called them to follow him commanded them to cast their net onto the other side of the boat.
[34:18] And when they did the disciples net was filled with fish. The disciples weren't drawing the fish into their boat by enticing them to jump out of the water into their boat.
[34:31] They had to drag that net in. They had to haul that heavy net of fish into their boat. Same word. in Acts 16-19 Paul and Silas there are dragged same Greek word dragged by the civil authorities for their preaching the gospel.
[34:54] Again the same word as in verse 44 that is translated in our English translations as draw. They were seized. They were hauled off.
[35:05] They weren't asked. They weren't enticed to come along. They dragged them. Again in Acts 21 verse 30 Paul again was seized for the same reasons.
[35:19] Same Greek word in John chapter 6 verse 44 translated as draw. He was seized. He was dragged out of the temple in Jerusalem.
[35:31] We can be sure that those angry Jews were not trying to entice him to come. Right? Here Paul here's a carrot or here's a steak or lamb or whatever come and follow us.
[35:45] They weren't appealing to his will to come. They grabbed him and they hauled him off. In all of these instances the drawing is successful.
[35:57] There's resistance but the drawing is successful. The fish get in the boat. Paul and Silas are dragged before the city magistrates.
[36:08] The sword is unsheathed. Leon Morris notes in his commentary that there is not one example in the New Testament of the use of the Greek verb translated here as draw where the resistance is successful.
[36:24] Always he says the power is triumphant. People resist and in their resisting their depravity is seen but he concludes the power of God overcomes the resistance and those whom he determined to save.
[36:40] So is this discouraging? No because we have a hope in God who is able to overcome our resistance to him.
[36:55] One of my favorite hymns Come thou fount of every blessing! Speaks to the same thing! Prone to wander Lord I feel it! Prone to leave the God I love!
[37:08] Here's my heart Lord take and seal it! Seal it in thy courts above! And I love that song because I've known it to be true in my own life! And I thank God that though I thought I could do life better without him and I could do things my own way!
[37:25] that he overcame my stubbornness time and time again it's not discouraging it's something to praise God for bottom line if you grumble against God if you grumble against his words recorded in scripture it's not going to alter what has been stated there it's not going to change anything some Bible translations have tried to do that but it's still God's word it's not going to stand the test of time you can twist his word you can skip over passages you can mark them out with a sharpie but it won't change what God has said and it never ever will so it's useless Jesus then in verse 45 quotes Isaiah 53 13 let's read that verse in its entirety or verse 44 54 13 excuse me says there all your children shall be taught by the
[38:31] Lord and great shall be the peace of your children so here Jesus is saying it's the children of God who become his children through the new birth who come to him as a result of God's having illuminated them they've heard and they've learned and they've trusted in him and his word they accept that it is true in verse 46 Jesus says not that anyone has seen the father except he who is from God he has seen the father and so here again Jesus has doubled down your grumbling isn't going to change anything and I think here he says and guess what I am the son of God right I am the eternal son of God I've seen the father I've come from the father I am God and the person of the son you can disagree with me you could turn from this teaching they could kill him but it wouldn't in any way alter the truth of
[39:44] God who is the source of all truth and so I know that these verses may be difficult but let me tell you they're not difficult because of lack of clarity I don't think they could be any clearer and what it basically I think really comes down to is do you believe the Bible is the word of God do you believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God I hope that you do I am glad to hear that and I hope that we all would so it doesn't change anything we can grumble but it doesn't change anything God is not going to change his word to soothe the minds and hearts of unbelieving grumblers it is what it is because it is the truth and then third grumbling is useless because grumbling does not yield faith it does not yield faith verse 47
[40:45] Jesus says truly truly I say to you whoever believes has eternal life sometimes people will grumble but will still go along with whatever they're grumbling against begrudgingly you ever done that before no I have I don't want to do this this is dumb but I'll do it anyways because I don't want to have to suffer whatever consequences might be but I'm going to rebel and protest the whole time right now listen I think some people go to church for that reason you know my spouse wants me to go to church and so I'll go but you know that whole time I'd rather be somewhere else you know and I'll go to make them happy and you know if maybe this is important you know for my salvation or whatever
[41:48] I can get to heaven and tell God well I at least was there in church right that doesn't work that's not the way that God's people come to him not through grumbling listen you're not doing God a favor right by just coming to church you're not doing him a favor listen for all of us we're not here to do God a favor by being here to worship him we are here to worship him for what he's done for us right that Christ has come that Christ has lived the sinless life that we could not live and that while we were worthy to suffer eternity in hell for the sins that we've committed against God in his love and in his grace he has sent Jesus who willingly died on the cross where there he was crushed by the wrath of God for the sins that we've committed against him and he rose on the third day as proof that he is all that he said that he was that all of his words are true that his sacrifice was sufficient that when we believe in him and trust in him in faith having undergone the new birth as a result of the work of the Holy
[43:10] Spirit in us that we are clothed in his righteousness that God looks at us now as believers and he sees his son what more reason could you have to want to be here or be watching now to worship God for who he is for all that he has done if you've grumbled in your coming to Christ you're not doing him a favor you're not truly saved you come to worship because you understand how worthy he is of it the hearing and believing of the Christian are marks of the new life God implanting within them salvation that produces eternal life that produces with them an increasing desire for his word to understand it and to apply it in our lives grumbling does not produce faith but truly is an indicator of a lack of it a complete absence of it one thing
[44:23] I loved about seminary going to Midwestern and continue to love now that I've gone back for my doctorate is how much everyone there cherishes!
[44:35] the word of God loves the word of God and how though we don't all see eye to eye on everything we can have healthy constructive conversations that draw us back deeply into the word of God that sharpens us and makes us better Christians and so I hope in part that that's what these sermons do for our church that they draw you deeper into the word of God into conversation with one another about the word of God that you would search the scriptures as you do so that you would pray that together collectively we would talk about them and dig deeply into them not grumbling as we do so because grumbling is useless so now some points of application some questions of application again I encourage you to stick this in your
[45:39] Bible and come back to it later today later this week and you alone with God in a copy of his word go through these questions let's cover them now because there's blanks and you're not going to know what they are if I don't tell you first of all are there verses or passages in the Bible that cause you to grumble are there verses or passages in the Bible that cause you to grumble and if there are the answer is not to avoid them scratch them out or get to that point in your Bible study and be like oh not that one not that one right go to it and read it and pray over it and search out brothers and sisters in Christ other great men of the faith pastors who have written commentaries on those scriptures dig deeply in to those verses second why is the Lord so adamant that there not be grumblers in his church think about this why is this such a big deal to him why does he hate grumbling so and why is he so adamant that we as his people not be known for grumbling and then third how has the Lord commanded us to resolve issues in church that exclude grumbling how has the Lord commanded us to resolve issues in church that exclude grumbling what are we to do well
[47:22] Matthew 18 right if there's something that's bothering you a brother or sister has sinned against you now if they're teaching the Bible as it is they're not sinning against you but in the same way you should go to that person and have a conversation not grumbling but looking to learn or to share or to be sharpened and I believe that what will result is that as we've sung I pray and I hope we will arise we will shine in this world and we will declare the truths of God's word the gospel of Jesus Christ and we will be used mightily by him to make an impact on a world in desperate need of the church to be about doing the things that the church is supposed to be about but if we're too busy grumbling we'll lose sight of what is important and why we're here and what the Lord has called us to do so let's go and do it let's pray heavenly father we are thankful for your word that we have it to serve as our guide to give us instruction to remind us of the truths and the promises that we have from you
[48:43] Lord I pray that we would dig more deeply into your word having first come to it with the realization that this is your word and it stands above our thoughts or our opinions or our feelings that grumbling is useless nothing good comes of it for your people it doesn't alter your word it doesn't change what you've spoken to us it doesn't help our relationships with one another and it doesn't spur us onward towards missions into sharing the gospel so lord i pray that we would be a people who cherish your word who read your word with gladness who share it who are sharpened by it that we would be used by you to make an impact for the name of Jesus Christ in this world in Jesus name we pray Amen Thank you.