Marks of a Spiritual Defector #2

 

Marks of a Spiritual Defector, Part 2
John 6:41-71
 
I want you to open your Bible once again to the sixth chapter of John. 
 
John 6 provides for us a very good illustration of the problem and the characteristic of spiritual defection. We took as a key verse a verse near the end of the chapter, verse 66.
 
Spiritual defection, disciples who defected. 
 
Now as we look at the chapter, we ask the question: what marks a spiritual defector? What do we look for and how do we identify someone who appears to attach himself to Christ but then defects? And all of us have experienced such people, all of us if we've been Christians for any length of time at all. What marks a spiritual defector?
 
First of all, we said in verses 1 and 2 that it tells us that a great multitude followed Jesus, verse 2. And we noted that spiritual defectors are attracted by the crowd. 
 
Secondly, we saw that a spiritual defector is fascinated by the supernatural. There is a mystery about the power of Jesus that draws the crowd. 
 
The third thing he mentions in verses 14 and 15 is that the spiritual defector tends to think only of earthly things. They were in verse 14 convinced that Jesus was the great prophet mentioned by Moses in Deuteronomy. 
 
In Deuteronomy, Moses was given the revelation of God that there would come that prophet, that great prophet who would bring truth into the world. And that prophet would be the Messiah, that great anointed one. Here they are convinced that Jesus is that prophet. But instead of worshiping Him, verse 15 says, they wanted to take Him by force to make Him a king.
 
Fourthly we saw the spiritual defector has no desire for true worship. In the incident beginning in verse 16 and running down to verse 21, Jesus walked on the water, came into the little boat with the disciples finally. The incident ended with worship because Matthew 14 recording the very same incident in verse 23 says, "And they worshiped Him." 
 
And here we have set in contrast to the false worshipers the true disciples who worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual defectors never do that. They're not interested in worship.
 
Fifthly we saw that the spiritual defector is a seeker of personal prosperity. Beginning in verse 22 going all the way down to verse 27, all they have in mind is personal prosperity. All they have in mind is what they want. What can I get from Jesus? And here it had to be food. The prospect of free food would have given them total vacation the rest of their life. And so, when they thought Jesus might provide that, they sought after Him, verse 26, strictly for the loaves. And in verse 27 He reminds them that they are ignoring the eternal and they are hankering after that which perishes. 
 
   
 
That leads to a sixth characteristic a spiritual defector, he makes demands on God. Beginning in verse 28, there was a demand for power. They want God to give them the power to do miracles themselves. 
 
They also demanded in verse 30 proof. "They said therefore to Him, What sign do You show us then that we may see and believe You? What do You work?" Well how ridiculous, He had just fed maybe as many as 30 thousand people, He had created food in His own hands for them, they all not only saw the miracle, they all ate the miracle in a very personal appropriation. But still they're saying, "Prove Yourself.
 
They reminded Jesus that He only fed them one meal and Moses had fed the children of Israel for all their duration in the wilderness with manna from heaven and Jesus turned around and remind them that Moses didn't feed them, God did. Moses just organized the collection process.
 
Then in verse 34 they demand something else. First they demanded power, secondly they demanded proof and thirdly they demanded provision. They said, "Give us this bread. You've got some kind of special bread that's going to make us so satisfied we won't hunger anymore, give it to us...give it to us." 
 
He is offering Himself to them. They don't understand that. They say, "You've got some kind of bread that causes people never to hunger, give it to us on our terms, powerful bread to end our hunger." 
 
 
 
So the shallow disciple, the spiritual defector makes demands on God to perform at their command, give them power, give them proof, give them provision. We want what we want when we want it. It's very much like a spoiled child...with no patience, no sense of submission.
 
And then in the seventh place the spiritual defector seeks no personal relationship. The spiritual defector is not interested in a personal relationship. 
 
Notice how many times in verse 35, "I am the bread of life...he that comes to Me shall never hunger...he that believes on Me," note those personal pronouns. Verse 36, "You also have seen Me," and you should believe but you believe not is implied there. 
 
In verse 37, "Him that comes to Me." Verse 38, "I came down from heaven." He is the bread and what He is saying is that you must come to Me, believe in Me, commit your life to Me, receive Me. Verse 41 kind of sums it up, "I am" is repeated again, "the bread." The Jews, of course, were murmuring that He said that.
 
The idea here is everything in terms of what Jesus has to offer is connected to a personal relationship. You receive Him, not His teachings, you receive Him. 
 
 
God desires a personal relationship, but the spiritual defector is not looking for a personal relationship.  
 
 
 
 
 
So, the spiritual defector is drawn by the crowd, fascinated by the supernatural, thinking only of earthly things, he has no desire for worship. He seeks personal prosperity therefore makes demands on God and seeks no personal relationship. Now that brings us to where we ended. 
 
So let’s pick it up at verse 41.
 
The eighth mark and this may be not always the case but is very often the case, the spiritual defector has a critical spirit and expresses it. 
 
It’s been my experience that people who come into the church seeking what they can get out of Christ who don't get it may continue to play the game in front of the Christians but they begin to down play and criticize and mock the church when they get outside. 
 
In verse 41-42 we find this crowd mocking Jesus because He said I am the bread that came down from heaven, how ridiculous. They laughed to scorn. "Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says I came down from heaven? We know He was just a child just like every other child." And they scorned the truth.
 
Notice Jesus answer: verse 43    
 
You see, He shattered their hope for free food and they were upset and once Jesus doesn't deliver, people begin to turn. There was no desire for repentance, there was no desire for faith. 
They just wanted to pig out on the husks of earth rather than to feast on the delicacies of heaven.
I think about this text every time I hear someone complain about the length of a sermon or a service going past what they perceive to be quitting time. It interferes with their lunch time. See the comparison? 
 
Many church members could care less if a message contains the truth of God’s Word. Just get me out on time. They care nothing about being fed by God; after all we’re hungry! Haven’t eaten since early this morning! 
 
Understand this: It is the typical behavior of a defector to speak evil against a church. That is not the attitude of a born-again child of God. That is not the spirit of someone who has been forever changed by the grace of God. 
 
And in verse 44, Jesus says, the reason you are mocking is because you’ve never responded to the drawing of God. If you had of, you wouldn’t be mocking your Savior. But as it stands, you have no hope of eternal life. You will not be resurrected.
 
A defector is also marked, if you're keeping score this is number nine, a defector is also marked because he has no hunger for God’s Word
 
Look at verse 45 which is really a quote from Isaiah 54:13 but a representative quote from many prophets, Jeremiah, Joel, Micah, Zephaniah, Malachi, they all taught the same thing and this was common among the prophets. And so it is written in the prophets and Isaiah 54:13 is quoted as representative of those prophets. 
 
 
He says those who come are the ones who have been taught of God. 
 
That's a beautiful phrase. It is equal to being drawn by the Father. Verse 44, "The Father draws them." Verse 45, "The Father teaches them." It's as if to say all that the Father draws He teaches and all that He draws come and all that He teaches learn.
 
So, true disciples come to Christ and they love the Truth. They have a hunger for God’s Word. 
 
Ask yourself this question: what is the longing of my heart? Is the longing of my heart a hunger for the bread of the Word? If it is then that is the mark of a true disciple. If that is not the hunger of your heart, if the hunger of your heart is for personal prosperity, personal gain then that's characteristic of a spiritual defector. 
 
Does your heart hunger for the Word? Is the bread of heaven enough? Is it enough for you to be drawn by the Father and then to be taught by God? To hear the truth and learn it, is that the deepest cry of your heart? 
 
Some people want to be taught of God, some people want to have an experience. And when they're not feeling what they would like to feel, they're not getting what they want to get, they're gone. I understand that. And I guess, in a sense, I feel badly about that, but in another sense I believe the priority is the Word of God.
 
Look at verse 46
 
 
Let me see if I can explain that: 
 
In verse 45 He talked about learning of the Father and He wants to be sure that nobody thinks that there is a possible way to see the living God so He adds this footnote in verse 46. 
 
No one has ever really seen the Father except He who is of God, He has seen the Father. And He sees Him through the eye of faith. Christ is the one who reveals that everlasting life of God in Himself. God communicates through His Son. 
 
So the point of this little area of the text that I want you to see is that where you have true faith you have a desire or a hunger for spiritual reality. When you have false faith and where you have a defector there is not the interest in teaching, there is not the longing to see God, to know God, to commune with God through His Son. 
 
verse 47
 
And then in verse 51 He says it again, "I am the living bread." 
 
And He keeps offering Himself to them but that's not what satisfies their desire. They're not hungry for Him. They're not hungry for spiritual reality. 
 
To add to that, if you want to put number ten on your list, the spiritual defector has no deep-felt hunger for true salvation
 
Look at verse 51 again. 
 
 
And there He speaks of His death. "If one will believe in Me," He says, "and in My death for the sin of the world, and will take Me into his life personally, like eating bread, he will have eternal life." 
 
Some people will look at Christ and they'll sniff the bread a little, they'll admire it, they'll analyze it, they'll philosophize about it, they'll eulogize it, they'll handle it, they'll even say it's excellent but they'll never know what it means to have eternal life until they eat or personally appropriate Christ by faith, till you receive Christ personally into your own life. 
 
Some people have no deep-felt hunger for true salvation. They have no real hunger for spiritual reality, they're not interested in the truth of God. They can take it or leave it, they can come to church or not come to church as far as the message is concerned. They can complain if it gets longer than ten or fifteen minutes. They're not interested in spiritual reality. They would never read the Bible on their own, they might go to a Bible study because they think they might get something out of it to meet their personal agenda and list of things. But they're not going to study on their own, they're not going to search for spiritual reality, they're not going to long to know God, they have no hunger for true salvation.
 
So, verse 52 says, "The Jews therefore argued among themselves saying, How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" And they mocked that showing their abysmal ignorance. "What is He teaching, cannibalism? This is ridiculous. How is He going to...how is He going to give us His flesh?" 
 
 
This shows you how dull of spiritual understanding they were. They couldn't even understand the metaphor in His language. Obviously He wasn't talking about His physical flesh because in verse 51 He said, "The bread that I will give is My flesh which I will give for the life of the world." Did they think He was silly enough to assume that He had enough flesh to feed the whole world? Of course He didn't mean that but in their spiritual thickness they couldn't understand what He did mean. 
 
What He is talking about is personal reception of Himself, personal appropriation.
 
Follow His thought in verse 54. 
 
He's talking about one who accepts My incarnation, that's the flesh, and accepts My death on the cross, that's His out poured blood. He is referring to His incarnation and His crucifixion. In order to be saved, you must accept that God came in human flesh and died on the cross. And the one who will accept that, who will eat that truth and take it in, will be saved and thus be entitled to get in on everything Jesus offers including the resurrection. 
 
Now think about His teaching. The concept of eating is a very graphic image. Let me tell you why. 
 
First of all, eating is necessary if I am to receive from the food that which it is intended to give. 
 
I can smell bread, I can look at bread, I can like bread, I can squeeze bread but it isn't going to do a thing for me until I...what?...till I eat it. 
 
The same thing is true of Christ. You can admire Christ from a distance, you can kind of poke around say, "Isn't that wonderful, isn't He beautiful, isn't that great, boy, I sure believe in Him, that's a great thing." But not until you take into your own life and receive as your own Lord and Savior the living God in human flesh and accept His death and resurrection on your behalf do you appropriate the advantage that the living bread is intended to convey. So eating is a very apt analogy.
 
Secondly, eating is always responding to a felt need. That need is called hunger. And let me tell you something, there is nothing as wonderful as eating when you're hungry, it is wonderful. And I'll tell you something else, there is nothing as repulsive as eating when you are not hungry. 
 
Do you know what I’m talking about? Teenage boys probably don’t, because they are always hungry, but most of us know what that’s like. 
 
Think about Thanksgiving and you just make a p-i-g hog out of yourself, and by the middle of the afternoon, you’re swelled up and bloated, and you wife says, we still have to go to Momma’s and eat supper! You know what I’m talking about?
 
I liken that to the person in the world who has no appetite for things divine. You can't stuff it in them, there's no appetite. But when a sinner loves his sin, when a sinner is stuffed full of the world, stuffed full of the flesh, full of the food that perishes, the thought of true bread is ridiculous, repulsive, nauseating, he mocks it, he distains it, he pushes Christ away. 
 
It's not until a man is broken over his sin, awaken to his lost condition, his purposelessness, not until a man or woman senses his void, his loneliness in front of God, the gnawing hunger of his soul that cries for salvation, it's not until he experiences that that he will eat eagerly the true bread.
 
Here’s something else about eating: When you take in food it becomes you. 
 
Have you noticed that? It sure does. That's the work of amino acids. It doesn't matter what you eat, it comes out you. You can take in any kind of food. It can be vegetable, it can be mineral, it can be animal, you can take in chicken and you don't grow feathers you just get more you. And that's the work of your amino acid system. 
 
And that little picture of science is our Lord's analogy. When you drink My blood and eat My flesh, that is you take in My incarnation and you appropriate My death, you literally become one with Me. Isn't that a marvelous thought? I become you. 
 
That's why Galatians 2:20 says, "The life which I live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." Paul says, "It's no longer I but Christ living in me." And I receive eternal life and I receive resurrection life and I will be raised at the last day when I personally appropriate Christ.
 
And He says it again in verse 57, "As the living Father has sent Me and I live by the Father, so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me." 
 
 
You receive His life, the very life of God. Take Him into your life and receive life, the life of God, eternal life, resurrection, oneness with Christ. Incredible things. This is that bread which came down from heaven. It's not like the manna your fathers ate, verse 58 says, and they're dead. You eat this and you'll...what?...you'll live forever.   
 
Salvation is relationship. That's what He's saying. It is the exchanged life, it is taking Christ in. It brings me eternal life, resurrection life, divine life, one with Christ. But Jesus is saying that to them and they're not interested. 
 
Verse 59 says He was teaching these things in the synagogue, they weren't interested in this. You see, it's a very basic thing, only the hungry eat.
 
 The defector is not hungry for spiritual righteousness. The defector is not hungry for salvation. Why? He's full of the world and he's full of himself and he has all the answers and he is self-satisfied, fed with the food that perishes and the idea of the bread of life is absolutely ridiculous to him.
 
And here’s the last thing:
 
You have to eat for yourself. You can't have someone eat for you. I have to do that myself. No one can eat on my behalf. 
 
Now put it all together: 
 
 
 
 
Christ is the living bread. If we are to derive anything from that it must be taken into us, that by faith we receive Him as Lord and Savior, the one who lived for us, died for us and rose again. That will only occur when we are hungry for that.
 
It only will benefit us as we literally appropriate the life of Christ in us so that He becomes one with us and that must be done personally, it cannot be done on our behalf by anyone else. 
 
But the spiritual defector is not interested.
 
Well, those are the marks. Let's see the response in verse 60. 
 
"Many therefore of His disciples when they heard this said, This is a hard saying, this is difficult. 
 
By that they mean it's objectionable. This is offensive. What is offensive about it and what's hard? I'll tell you what it is: Jesus is saying I am it spiritually, I and I alone am the source of spiritual life. And they're saying, "Wait a minute, that's objectionable. And to accept Your flesh and Your blood, that is objectionable." They didn't like the narrowness of what He said. 
 
They were attracted by the crowd, and they were fascinated by His miracles, and they couldn't think of anything in this world that they wouldn't like to have Him give them, but they had no desire to worship Him, adore Him, they sought only personal gain, they wanted to demand whatever He could give them. There was no desire for relationship. There was no hunger for spiritual reality. 
There was no need for repentance and salvation. There was no interest in His death for sin. 
 
And so, in verse 61 Jesus sensed their response and when Jesus knew in Himself that those who were following Him, referred to as “disciples” whether true of false, when He knew inside of Him by His omniscience that they were grumbling at this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? Don't you believe I came down from heaven? Don't you believe I alone am the bread of life? Don't you believe I am the one and no one else who can satisfy the cry of your heart?"
 
 Verse 62
 
In other words, if I just take off like a rocket and go back to heaven, will you believe Me then? If I go back to heaven, will you believe I came from heaven? 
 
That is an interesting statement because that is precisely what He did in His ascension. 
 
In verse 63 He says is one more time: don't be stuck on the physical. The eating I'm talking about means accepting My words, accepting the truth I'm speaking."
 
But, verse 64-65 says, there are some of you who don't believe. "For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not...and here it comes...who it was that betrayed Him...that would betray Him." He knew who the defectors were and who the betrayers were. 
 
And then it says in verse 66, "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him." 
 
Spiritual defectors.
 
And look at the response in verse 67, this is a great insight into the compassionate Christ, "Then said Jesus to the Twelve...and you have to understand the Greek text, it says this...you won't go away also, will you?" It's almost pathetic, as if to say you won't do this too, will you, please? It is me in the Greek and it expects a no answer and so you phrase it that way, you won't go away will you? 
 
And sweet Peter responds, "Lord, to whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal life." He knew. He knew He wasn't talking about eating His body and drinking His blood. He knew that taking in His flesh and His blood was receiving His words, His truth. And Peter responds not for himself, "To whom shall we go," and he embraces all those genuine disciples who are still left. 
 
And verse 69 says, "And we believe and we are sure that You are that Christ, the Son of the living God." We accept You're God in human flesh. Oh bless them. 
 
Here by the calling grace of the Father are some who think of heavenly things. Oh, what a change, what a refreshment. Some who seek to worship, some who desire a personal relationship with Christ, some who understand His truth and seek repentance and seek salvation. Bless them...bless them. They're the genuine.
 
But it doesn't end there. Verse 70, the chapter closes, two final verses, "Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil." 
 
Peter, you're wrong. I know you said "we", Peter, but it's not you twelve, it's only eleven, one of you is a devil. "He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray Him, being one of the twelve."
 
Listen, some spiritual defectors defect early. Some spiritual defectors get in the inside group and defect very late. Judas is the the perfect closing illustration. 
 
Judas was drawn to Jesus by the crowd. Judas was fascinated by the supernatural. Judas thought only of earthly things. He had no desire to worship Christ, he sought only personal gain, money was his god. He demanded what he wanted and when he didn't get it, he tried to sell Jesus for all he could get. He never had any true intimate relationship with Christ. He had no understanding of divine truth and he never hungered for genuine salvation. He is the model defector. I wish he was the only one, he is not. There have been millions who have joined Judas in the defector's kiss to be betray the Son of God. 
 
And that grieves the heart of the Savior.
 
What about you?
 
Will you continue or will you leave also?