I don't suppose we have a greater
story of God's mercy and grace to undeserving sinners than the
one that we have before us this evening. The occasion of the
giving of the manna, the bread from heaven, is an amazing example
of God's grace, mercy, and patience with us. We've discussed many
times how Israel of old is a very, very clear picture of you and
I. No sooner did Israel leave the
comforts of Elam's oasis. Remember, Elam had 12 wells and
70 palm trees of shade. We find them again back in the
desert, and again, they're filled with unbelief, in gratitude and
even hatred as they charge God with the attempt to murder. They
said in verse three, they said, wouldn't to God we had died by
the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh
pots and when we did eat bread to the full for you have brought
us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with
hunger. Now this charge may at first
seem to be against Moses and Aaron, but ultimately it was
against God. To complain against any divine
providence is to complain against God. Why? Because he works all
things together after the counsel of his own. And if we buck against
His providence, we're bucking against God. It's just that simple.
God should have rained down fire and brimstone, yet in great mercy,
He rains down bread from heaven. And He gives them the one thing
that they need most. Christ, the bread of life, is
the one thing needful. Has the Lord shown you that yet?
Christ is the one thing. The Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but
my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread
of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto
the world. And it's God that sent the manna
from heaven to Israel. God sent it. And it's the same
God that sent Christ, the bread of life, to his people. And in
so many ways, the bread in the wilderness is a picture of Christ,
the bread of life. The Lord will and will look at
a few of those ways tonight. First, I would have you to notice
the place where the manna fell. It was in the wilderness of sin. Did you see that in verse 1?
There could be no better title, I don't suppose, for this place,
Wilderness of Sin. No better title to describe this
world into which Christ came. What is a wilderness? Well, we
know it's a barren place. It's a homeless place. You wouldn't
think of building a house in the middle of the wilderness,
in the middle of the desert. And it was the same for our Lord
when He came into the world. He left the throne of God. Now
you imagine this. This is God the Son. And He leaves the throne of God. And He takes on flesh and blood. And He resides in a world that
sought to destroy Him from the very moment that He was born.
It was a homeless place for him. No room in the inn at his birth,
no place to lay his head during the days of his ministry. And
he was constantly under scrutiny, always being tested, always doubted
by the religious leaders. And yet he never thought an evil
thought. He never said an unbecoming word. And what was his reward? For
all this, he was crucified as a criminal, and he was buried
in a borrowed grave. Jesus Christ was a perfect man
with a pure heart, and he came into the world for one reason,
and one reason alone, that was to save his people from their
sin, Matthew 121. Yet this world was a wilderness
of sin to him. And He came and He lived in this
world perfectly and righteously and He fulfilled the holy law
of God and He satisfied His holy justice. And that's the only
way that you and I can be saved and that's in Him and His work
of righteousness for us. He did this in the place of the
people that God gave Him before the foundation of the world.
That's why I love the doctrine of election. It removes all doubt
about who does the same. God chose a people before the
foundation of the world. He set his affection on them,
and he gave him to his son. And his son said, I won't lose
a one of them. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me, and everyone's going to come. The Lord Jesus
said, I have other sheep that are not yet of this fold. Them
I must bring. Again, verse four, then said
the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven
for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate
every day that I may prove them whether they walk in my law or
no. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall
prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as
much as they gather day." Now, Jesus Christ is the bread of
life. The bread of life, the bread
of God, is He which cometh down from heaven, the scripture says,
and giveth life unto the world. He's the only one that can give
life. This manna came down from heaven. It was the Lord that
rained it down. We say it all the time, but I
wonder do we really believe that salvation is of the Lord? The
Lord sent this bread down from heaven. It didn't grow in Egypt. It didn't grow in the wilderness.
It wasn't produced by human efforts. It wasn't manufactured by human
skill. It descended from God. And it
was a gift from heaven that came from God. And that's the second
thing. The manna was a free gift. There
was neither a wage to be earned nor a prize to be won. It was
a token of God's grace and love and no payment was required. It was without money and without
pride. I love what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter
nine. He said, thanks be unto God for
his unspeakable gift. Christ is that gift, my dear
friends. And I'd have you notice that
this manna was sent to the Israelites. Again, God said, I will rain
bread from heaven for you. This is personal, for you. And the people, Israel, God's
people, shall go out and gather a certain rate every day. Now,
we don't find in the Scriptures where manna fell upon Egypt or
it fell upon Canaan. It fell, it was given to Israel
in the wilderness and to them alone. Christ, the bread of life,
now listen to me. Christ is God's provision for
all who are ordained unto eternal life. But never forget that this
manna was sent also to a needy and a foodless people. They were
hungry. They had by now, they're a couple,
three months into the journey, and they have by now consumed
all the food that they brought with them from Egypt. And on
the human natural side of things, they seem to be in real danger
of starving to death. Had God not met their need for
food, they would have perished in the wilderness, no doubt about
it. From the divine side of the things, everything was sure.
Everything was certain. God had already purposed to bring
Israel to Sinai. Way back in Exodus chapter 3
verse 12, God said, when thou hast brought forth the people
out of Egypt. He told Moses this. He said,
when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, you
shall serve God in this mountain. That's the same mountain they
were heading to. You're going to serve God on
this mountain, same mountain, same mountain Moses was at. Now
listen to me, if God had purposed to bring His people to Sinai,
and His counsel cannot fail, and it cannot, then they would
safely be brought to Sinai. No need to doubt, no need to
fret, no reason to think they'd starve, and there certainly wasn't
any reason for them to think that God would kill them. God
said, they're gonna worship me on this mountain, and that was
for certain. What the Lord, our God, pleases,
he does in heaven among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? That's the God of
the Bible. He does what he wills, how he
wills, when he wills, and to whom he wills. I'd have you also
notice that this manna came to right where God's people were.
Verse 13 tells us, and in the morning the dew lay around about
the host. In other words, it fell all around
the camp. They didn't have to go far to
get it. It lay right outside their tent door. God sent his
beloved son into the world. is the only provision a sinner
needs to be reconciled to God. God will in sovereign providence
cross the path of His chosen people with gospel preaching. You know why? Because it pleased
the Lord by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
That's God's means of saving sinners through the preaching
of the gospel. And they'll love that gospel
that is preached to them. You won't have to go way out
of your way to find it. God's elect people are going
to be providentially drawn to the preaching of Christ and to
Him crucified. Teresa and I have experienced
that. We call them second causes. Because
God's the first cause of everything. But one of the second causes
of us ever hearing the gospel message was a job transfer for
me in 1986. But the first cause was God sent
us to that place. And God sent us to a church where
we heard the true gospel preached. Eddie and Christie have experienced
that. I was just thinking about some of you this morning. Eddie
didn't start coming to this church because he liked the location
of the building or the preaching, did you Eddie? No, he came here
because he liked Christi. But God, in his divine providence,
he can bring his sheep into the fold any way he desires. He gave
Eddie a believing wife and then he saved him in the process.
And we all have stories like this. It's that personal, that
divine intervention that I'm talking about. God will see to
it that your path crosses with Christ and His gospel. Oh, He'll
find you. I hear people say, oh, I found
God. No, no, no. He wasn't lost. He found you. You were the one that was lost.
And this is the kind of thing that you look back on and just
say, wow. I would have never thought that
God would have done this which led to that. How did two ladies
from Michigan wind up in Madisonville, Kentucky? I can tell you in three
words, God did it. God did it. God crossed their
path with the gospel truth of Michigan through a Madisonville
contact. And God had before providentially
sent Larry to Africa to share the gospel with a man who would
later teach the gospel to Lou Anne and Christie, if I'm not
incorrect. And now 35 years later, all three
of them are sitting right here tonight. You see, that's what
God does. My point is this. It's God that
sends the man. It's God that reveals Christ. And He sends this manna to where
His people are, and they don't even know how it happens. But
they're happy that it happens. If a man or a woman is under
the sound of the gospel, I'm telling you there's hope for
them. The fifth thing I'd like to point out to you about the
manna was that it was small in size. Look at verse 14. And when
the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the
wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the
hoarfrost on the ground. Verse 31 also compares the manna
to a small coriander seed. This manna was like a small seed. What a very good picture of Christ
we have in the manna. And what a picture of God's Word.
They're one and the same, aren't they? John 1-1, in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Isn't it amazing to think that
the sum of God's revealed truth is in a book? I've got a big
Bible, but they make them pretty small now, and it's amazing to
think that God's revealed truth, revealed will, is in a book that
can be easily carried around. Included in this book is all
that is needed to make one wise unto salvation. Included in this
book is all that is needed to sustain a believer throughout
this earthly journey in this wilderness of sin which we're
making. And included in this book is
all that is needed to make the child of God perfect, complete,
And it's found in Christ within this book of God. Can you imagine? I've thought about this so many
times. I know folks that have Bibles on their coffee tables.
And can you imagine trying to explain to God how you had a
copy of this book and never read it? Never had enough interest
to see what God, our Creator, thought about things? I don't
know. The first thing told us about this manna, though, is
that it was small. By nature, men and women like
big, don't they? We do, let's just be honest,
we like big. We like big things, big churches,
big name speakers, big time events, big time entertainers, big crowds. But our God asked for who hath
despised the day of small things. God told Elijah to go stand on
the mountain before the Lord, and the Lord sent a mighty wind.
That wind was so mighty that it broke rocks in pieces, but
the Lord wasn't in the wind. Elijah then felt an earthquake,
but the Lord wasn't in the earthquake. After the earthquake was a fire,
and the Lord wasn't in the fire, but then there was a small, still
voice, and that's where God was. despise not the day of small
things. Friends, Christ made himself
of no reputation. He made himself small. He came into the world born into
poverty. The world today would have called
our Lord homeless. Our Lord was homeless in a wilderness
of sin, and guess what? So are we. We're just passing
through. This is not our home. Christ
took the form of a servant and the scripture says that he has
no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him, there's no
beauty that we should desire him. But to a sinner, he's the
most beautiful thing they've ever seen. He is their salvation. And they put all their trust
in him. Notice that this manna was a small round thing, verse
14. The man that didn't show a beginning
or an end. What a picture of Christ who
is Alpha and Omega and the first and the last and the beginning
and the end. And he's the same yesterday,
today and forever. Jesus Christ is eternal. And being in him means that as
he is, so are we in this world. I can't get over that. I think
about that as he is. perfectly holy, righteous, judge. So am I in this world right now. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. Oh, that should make you smile.
That should make you smile. Everything about this manna has
a spiritual significance. The manna was white in color.
There's nothing meaningless in scripture anyway. White is the
emblem of purity. The Word of God is absolutely
pure. Jesus Christ is absolutely pure. You know, if something's pure,
it's what it is. It can't be 99% gold and 1% of
something else and still be pure gold. If it's 99% or 50% or some
other percentage, then it's not pure. Psalm 12, 6 says, the words
of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times. The psalmist also said, thy word
is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it. Jesus Christ is utterly
pure, and the child of God loves it. Christ is the believer's
only purity. His purity is ours by union with
him. He's not 50% man and 50% God. He's 100% man and 100% God. He is the God-man. And only He,
no one else, could satisfy the holy justice of God and fulfill
the law of God in my place so that I might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. God is 100% sovereign. He's absolutely in control of
everything. Everything. He's 100% just. He is pure grace. Everything
that he is is pure. And the child of God loves him
because that's what he is to them. This speaks of the Lord
being without sin. He knew no sin. He did no sin. He was holy. He was harmless. He was undefiled. He was separate
from sinners. He was a lamb without spot and
without blemish. The amazing thing about the purity
of Christ is that His purity has now become mine. And it's
become yours, those of you who trust in Him, by His substitution
in His people's place. But we know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
When this body puts on incorruption and becomes a glorified body,
I'll see through eyes that are no longer clouded by sin. We
see through a glass darkly now, don't we? I have His perfect
righteousness. God will accept nothing less.
It must be perfect to be accepted. And this manna, what a picture
of Christ. It was small, it was round, and it was white. And
Israel had to gather the manna daily. You see, some effort was
involved. There's still effort involved
in hearing the gospel. A believer does not work hearing
the gospel around their lives. The true believer works their
lives around hearing the gospel. The manna had to be gathered
and it had to be eaten the day that it fell. And if it wasn't,
it bred worms and it stank. The manna was gathered daily. Again, verse 4, Then said the
Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you,
and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day.
You see, you couldn't eat yesterday's manna. You know, faith is much
the same. Faith is always right now. Yesterday's
faith won't do me any good. Believing is always present.
Faith is always right now. Israel must gather the manna
every day. How ridiculous for a man if he
would sit down to eat one meal and try to make it lasting for
the remainder of the week. We need a daily supply of the
bread of life. Whatever else may be left undone,
let's see to it that we regularly feed upon Christ our bread from
heaven. I believe the word of God is
teaching us just that in these verses of scripture. Another
interesting observation is that the manna had to be gathered
by stooping. It didn't grow on trees. It fell
upon the ground. In order for Israel to obtain
it, they had to go down to their knee. There's something more
than diligence needed. There must be a total dependence
upon God. But sinner, it's down on your
knees where you gather Christ, the bread of life. For it's there
that the sinner bows and worships and adores the only one who could
save him. How many mediators are there
between God and man? Just one. Notice that the manna
was to be gathered in the morning. According to verse 13, in the
morning the dew lay around the host. Verse 14, and when the
dew was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there
lay a small round thing. You see, it was early in the
morning before other things had time to occupy their attention. It was then that God's people
gathered their daily supply of manna. It was the first thing
that they did. And you know, I am convinced.
I'm convinced that it would make a great difference in our lives
if we would begin each day in God's presence, thanking Him
for all that He's done for us. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. Isn't that what Christ said? And all these other things will
be added unto you. Our Lord also said, labor not
for the meat which perisheth, but labor for the meat which
endureth into everlasting life. But no man can bring this bread
down from heaven. Only God can do that. And their
labor was to gather it when God rained it down. They had to use
diligence. The manna would not keep. They
couldn't store it up for the future. They had to eat it fresh
every day. The manna just didn't fall into
their mouth. They just didn't walk outside
and open their mouth and walk around. No, it fell around their
tents. They had to use diligence to
get it. I wonder sometimes if we understand,
truly understand the necessity of diligence and the apprehension
of divine things. Those who use diligence together
the bread of life are the very ones that benefit from it. The
labor mentioned by our Lord is by itself nothing because man's
efforts can never provide what God requires. Paul was very plain
and simple when he said, not by works of righteousness that
we have done. But God still desires to see
our diligence and the apprehension of his word And before a gomer
could be gathered, much labor was involved. And I try to gather
this manna every week for you, bring it here for you to eat,
but it'll do you no good if you don't come to eat it. Takes just
as much grace to hear the gospel as it does to preach it. May God enable us and give us
the grace to truly hear. Together this manna took effort
because it was a small round thing. Christ is the way, but
his way is a narrow small way that leads to life and few there
be that find it. And God's even got to give you
the desire to come and to eat. And that brings me to the next
thing. The manna was to be eaten. It wasn't simply to be looked
at. It wasn't given to admire. It was given to be eaten. It
was given for food. It was God's provision to meet
the physical needs of God's people. Thus it is the same with Christ,
our spiritual man. It's given to provide food for
our souls. Just as neglect of natural food
results in a poor condition of the body, to neglect our spiritual
food results in a sickly state of soul. Israel had to eat this
manna in order to live, and you and I, the children of God, have
to make Christ our own, just as our food becomes one with
us. God's promises will afford you
no comfort, no strength, no assurance, until you make them your own.
The next time you're feeling down, next time you're feeling
discouraged and in despair, remember that when God says that He shall
supply all your need, that it's according to His riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. Take that for yourself. God shall
supply all David Edmondson's need by the riches, by His riches
in glory in Christ Jesus. I take that to be mine. God shall
according to his riches and glory, by Christ our Savior and substitute,
who supplies every need, all of them, every single one. Take
God's promises to be yours. Live, feed, even feast on the
word of God. It must be eaten to be of any
spiritual profit. This manna was sweet to the taste. Verse 31 says, like wafers of
honey, Numbers 11.8 says that it was like fresh oil. Believing
in Christ sure tastes good. It sure does. It tastes good
to simply trust in Him. You know, if I can do nothing
to merit or accomplish my salvation, I can do nothing to lose it.
Christ is my all and an all. He did for me what I couldn't
do for myself. And I am eternally secure in
the perfect work of righteousness that He's done for me. Not by
works of righteousness we've done, no sir. But according to
His mercy, He saved me. This manna was, we can find and
study that this manna was cooked and it was prepared in a lot
of different ways. And again, Numbers 11, we're
told that the people gathered it, ground it in meals, beat
it, baked it in pans, and made cakes out of it. They found every
way they could. to use this manna. And it seemed
to have a different taste at different times. Sometimes it
tasted like wafers and honey, and sometimes it tasted like
fresh oil, and sometimes it tasted like a cake. But it was still
manna. And sometimes I was thinking
we taste Christ as our prophet. And we taste Christ as our king. But we always taste Him as our
priest, the one mediator sitting at the right hand of God making
intercession for us. I like the fact that Christ is
on the throne of God making intercession for me, don't you? Christ has
a variety of tastes, but it's all one Christ. Christ is the
bread of life of which we must partake. And I'd have you notice,
I won't keep you much longer, this manna was incomprehensible
to the natural man. Look at verse 15. And when the
children of Israel saw it, that being the manna, they said one
to another, it is manna. Now, if you have a marginal Bible
there, you may notice that what they were saying was just, they
were saying, what is this? For they wist, or they knew not
what it was. Matter of fact, the very word
manna in the Hebrew actually means, what is it? What is it? Truly the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto
him. But when our eyes are enlightened by the Spirit of God, we clearly
see Christ the bread that was broken for us. And we clearly
see Christ the rock that was smitten in our room instead.
And we see our necessity of both. When God does a work of grace
in a man or woman's heart, they see that they have a need. He
didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, those
that have need. And we come when the meal is
prepared and we eat, and there are many who miss because they're
not hungry, but the hungry come and eat. And then the last thing
for tonight anyway, I'd have you notice that everybody got
the same amount. Look at verse 16. This is the
thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according
to his eating, and Omer for every man according to the number of
your persons. Take ye every man for them which
are in his tents. Now if there were five people,
they got five Omer. Look at verse 17. And the children
of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. But when they did meet it with
an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that
gathered little had no lack. Everybody was given the exact
same thing. You know, I was thinking, in
Christ we have nothing over. Well, what do you mean by that?
Well, faith in Christ is the minimum, and yet faith in Christ
is the maximum. We have nothing over. Nothing
can be added. Christ is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What can be added
to that? Do we add anything to that? Can
you add anything to that? Nope. Jesus Christ is made unto
us all that we need and all that God requires. He that gathered
much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.
In Christ we lack nothing, absolutely nothing. Paul said in Colossians
2 verse 9 and 10, he said, for in him dwelleth all of the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In a body, Jesus Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And then he says this. And you
are complete in Him. Me? David Edmondson? Complete in Him? That's what
God says. Child of God, you lack nothing.
You can't get any more love from God than what you receive in
Christ. You can't get any more saved. You can't get any more justified. You can't be any more accepted
You accepted in the Beloved, you accepted in Christ, and therefore
you're accepted, holy, sanctified. You can't be any more holy and
sanctified. I'm gonna leave you with that.
You leave here tonight thinking about being complete in Him who
is perfect and was made unto you everything, everything that
God requires from you in order to be saved.