Let's go back to Exodus chapter
16. The subject of this chapter and
the title of this message is found in verse 4. Then said the
Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. Bread from heaven, God-given
bread, which the people ended up calling manna, or which means,
we don't know what to call it, which David called in the Psalms,
angels food. He said men did eat angels food,
and all of which is a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the bread of life. This story, as with every story
in God's Word, is the story of God's superabounding grace and
so great salvation to sinful, unworthy people. That's what
this story is about where grace or where sin did abound. Grace
did much more about that's what we mean when we say super abounding
grace where sin did abound. And the children of Israel were
certainly sinful people. But God. His grace did much more
about look at verses one and two. They took their journey
from Elam all the congregation of children of Israel that came
into the wilderness. Verse 2, now they were just 45
days out into the wilderness, and verse 2, the whole congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the
wilderness. Notice how often it's said, or
perhaps you already did, How often it says that they murmured,
and the Lord took note of that. They murmured. Look at, you remember,
chapter 15, verse 24. It says, The people murmured
against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And here again in chapter
16, they murmured. Down in verse 7 and 8, we read
that it says, The Lord heareth your murmurings against the Lord.
Verse 8, the Lord heareth your murmurings, which you murmur
against him. Your murmurings are not against
us, Moses said, and Aaron said, but against the Lord. Verse 9,
it says, the Lord hath heard your murmurings. Verse 12, I
have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. It seemed
like that's all they did, wasn't it? Murmuring. They were all guilty of it, says
the whole congregation. guilty of murmuring and complaining
and we saw last week how that this murmuring is nothing less
than ingratitude. Ingratitude. That this murmuring
is nothing less than unbelief. Unbelief. God who promised to
provide for them and would not leave them to themselves. Yet
one little short stretch of trouble And they begin to doubt God's
Word. It's unbelief. Murmuring is sin. Murmuring. And we're all guilty of it, aren't
we? The whole congregation. The whole congregation is guilty. But God, who's rich in mercy. Look at verse 4. Then the Lord
said to Moses. He doesn't upbraid them. He doesn't
rebuke them at first. But he simply said, graciously
said, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. Why should he? Would you? Why should he sustain
these ungrateful people? Why should he provide for them
anymore? Why should he continue to support
them? when they're so ungrateful and
so unbelieving and so faithless. Why should he? Because that's
who he is. The Lord is merciful and gracious
because that's his name, because he promised to do so, and he
can't deny himself. He can't deny his work, his covenant. He made a covenant concerning
men. That word covenant is more than a doctrine. It's our salvation. God promised to provide for his
people. No matter, in spite of their
sin, He's going to do just that. Because our God is faithful.
Great is Thy faithfulness. Thou and Thy faithfulness has
saved me, David said. Verse 7, it says that in the
morning you shall see the glory of the Lord. Well, He hears your
murmuring against the Lord. In the morning you shall see.
In spite of your murmurings, you're going to see His glory.
Look back at chapter 14. You remember how they began to
murmur back then? They were just, I mean, they
weren't three days into the wilderness when they started murmuring.
Chapter 14, do you remember what they said? Verse 12. They said,
didn't we tell you, they said in so many words to Moses and
Aaron, didn't we tell you to leave us in Egypt? Leave us alone,
that we serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for
us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. Is that true? Is that true? And then over here
in our text, it says in verse 3, chapter 16, the children of
Israel said, Would to God we have died by the hand of the
Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots. We
ate bread to the full. You brought us into the wilderness
to kill us with hunger. Would it have been better to
die in Egypt with a full belly and not know God? Is it better to have a full belly
and an empty soul? How about a full soul and empty
belly? Is it better to die rich in Egypt? or be poor in this world and
rich in faith. Didn't James say, have not God
chosen those who are poor in this world but rich in faith? Proverbs 13 says there is he
that maketh himself rich, yet is poor. And there is he that maketh himself
poor, yet is rich. Which is better? which is better. Christ said, blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst every day. The flesh pots of Egypt, we got,
this is where we got that old saying, flesh pots. The flesh
pots of Egypt don't really satisfy anyone. No man lives by the,
really lives by this bread. in this world, the flesh, but
only by that which comes from the mouth of God. Truly live
life more abundant, spiritual life. Our Lord said in Isaiah
55, why do you spend money for that which is not bread? It doesn't
satisfy you. Let's look at John chapter 6
with me. Our Lord tells us here in John
chapter 6 what true bread is, the bread from heaven. Our Lord
tells us himself what or rather who is the true bread, bread
of God, bread from heaven, bread of life. Look at John chapter
6 verse 27. Sounds just like Isaiah 55. Why
is that? Because he wrote that. unto you, for him hath God the
Father sealed." Verse 32, well, these Jews, they said in verse
31, Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written,
he gave them bread from heaven to eat. But the Lord said unto
them, Verily, verily, I have a truth, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread. from heaven. For that is bread
that truly fills, bread that truly satisfies, bread that truly
you live by, true bread. Read on. For the bread, the bread
of God, that is, is he, it's a person, he which cometh down
from heaven and giveth life unto the world, true bread, the bread
of God which comes down from heaven, bread from heaven. Read
on down, look at verse 48. Let's read a few verses. The Lord said, I am that bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness, and they're dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread. This bread
has life in itself. I am the living bread, true bread,
the bread of God, the bread from heaven. living bread, which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Go
back to Exodus 16. So our Lord is this true bread,
the bread from heaven, the bread of God, which came down from
God to give life to his people. All right, these people, these
children of Israel, children of Israel are dying of hunger
in the wilderness. At least they think they are.
And they have no way of getting bread, do they? They can't stop
and plant grain and wait long enough for it to grow on itself.
They have no way. They have no weapons with which
to get meat. They have no way to get bread.
So how are they going to live? How are they going to be sustained?
God has to give them this bread. This bread is a gift from God,
and it's supernatural bread. He said in verse 4, Behold, I
will rain bread from heaven. I will rain bread. Bread will
come down from heaven. Verse 6, And Moses and Aaron
said unto all the children of Israel, This is how you're going
to know that the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. He's going
to feed you. And stay with me. This is how you know that the
Lord brought you out. He's going to feed you with bread
from heaven. Are you with me? This is how
you know that the Lord has chosen you and brought you out. You're
not going to feed on the husks of this world. You're going to
feed on the bread from heaven, the bread of God. You're not
going to die of hunger. You're going to live, and your
soul is going to be You're going to feed on fat things, wine on
the leaves. This is how you're going to know
that the Lord brought you out. You're going to get this prayer
from heaven. Everybody didn't get it. The children of Israel
did. They had it provided for them
a long time. And it sustained them the whole
time they were in the wilderness. And this is how you will know,
the Lord said. Like old Manoah's wife, who said to him, who thought
they were going to die because they'd seen the Lord. But my
Noah's wife said, we're not going to die. The Lord wouldn't have
showed us these things if he was going to kill us. The Lord
wouldn't have revealed these things to us if he was going
to kill us. The Lord wouldn't have accepted the sacrifice if
he was going to kill us. And the Lord wouldn't provide
this bread which we're eating if he's going to kill us, if
we're going to die of hunger. We're living in a famine, aren't
we? Which Hosea spoke of, famine
of not of bread, there's a lot of that, physical bread. but
of the Word of the Lord. We're not in a famine, are we?
He's prepared us a table, no less than Solomon's, in the midst
of our enemy. Now this shall you know. I brought
you out. Look at verse 7. And in the morning
you shall see the glory of the Lord. When you see this bread,
when you feast on this bread, you're going to see the glory
of the Lord in His provisions for you. And in this eternal
life in that what the Lord said this is life eternal that they
might know the only true. And Jesus Christ what. Who came down from heaven this
is eternal life and this salvation provided. free grace. This freely given salvation is
to the praise of the glory. You're going to see his glory
in all of this. Praise of the glory of his grace.
The world doesn't see any glory in free grace, but we do. It's grace freely given. You'll
see God's glory in this. This is our salvation that Christ
came to us. The bread came down from heaven
to give us life. Now consider with me. Consider
with me just how marvelous this bread is. All right? Look at verses 12 and 13. Now,
the Lord said, I have heard the murmuring of the children of
Israel. Speak unto them, saying, At even you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you
shall know when you are full of bread that I am the Lord your
God. And it came to pass Now that evening, quails came up
and covered the camp. And in the morning, the dew lay
around about the hoe. Now what's the significance of
these quail? Well, it says that quail came
up. That is, it appeared that they
just flew in. They were already there. Some
of you men have been quail hunting, haven't you? And you go out in
the tall grass and. As scary as they are. They just
came up. It appeared that they just were
there. Came from the earth. And what
the people really wanted was meat was flesh. That's what they
lusted after was flesh. What they really needed was manna. What they really wanted was flesh. Now stay with me. Over in Numbers
chapter 11, it says that the Lord sent quail. He said, all
right, you want flesh. You're going to get flesh. And
it's going to come out of your nostrils. And you're going to
get so sick of it, you're going to loathe it. This is what you
want. This is what you're going to
get. And you're going to get sick of it. And so it is with
the things of this world. The natural things, things of
the flesh, which we by nature lust after. We think this is
what we really want, isn't it? But what we need is manna. What we want may be flesh, but
we'll grow tired of it and get sick of it. But what we really
need is manna, that which comes down from God. Right? Manna, it came down. These quail
came up, there's a verse in scripture that says, like these quail,
riches make themselves wings and fly away. Well, this manna
just miraculously appeared, came down from heaven. Look at verse
14, it says, when the dew, now this dew was covering the manna,
the dew that lay was gone up. When the dew burned away, behold,
upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing,
as small as a hoarfrost on the ground. Upon the face of the
wilderness, a small round thing. We look at verse 15, and when
the children of Israel saw it, they'd never seen anything like
it, so they didn't know what to call it. And so what they
used was an Egyptian word, manna, which means, what is it? They
had never seen anything like it. The likes had never been
seen before. They didn't know what to compare
it to. And so all they could say was manna, small round thing
that they'd never seen before. Look over at verse 31. It says,
The house of Israel called the name thereof manna. It was like
coriander seed, or coriander seeds about the size of a mustard
seed, and it was white, and it tasted good. So what they saw,
what God provided, what came down from heaven, something they'd
never seen before, something that was marvelous, something
that was glorious, something that was wonderful in and of
itself, something like seed something that was round, and something
that was white and good. When God sent his son into this
world, how did he first announce that he would come? In Genesis
chapter three, what did he liken his son to? The seed. The seed of a woman. The seed
of woman. The incorruptible seed. Small
beginnings. very small beginning, and when
the angel announced his birth upon this earth, when they announced
this to his so-called earthly mother, all they could say when
they saw this wonderful thing of God, God manifest in the flesh,
the likes of which had never been seen before. No one had
ever seen such a thing come down from heaven, God and man in one. And all they could say was. That. That whole thing. This is what
John said didn't that which was from the beginning that which
we've heard which we've handled which we've tasted that word
of life. Small round. Round circular without
beginning without end. complete, whole, round, that
which is a picture of the Lord's eternality, and white. His purity,
His holiness, His perfection, the spotless Son of God, bread
from heaven come down. Amazing and satisfying. Look
at verse 31 again. I didn't read it all. It says
in verse 31, chapter 16, it says that the taste of it was like
wafers made with honey. Sweet. Bread with honey. Now, who in here does not like
bread and honey? Anybody? There's nothing quite
like it. Weren't we talking about that
the other day? That there's nothing quite as satisfying as just bread. Bread. If any of you have ever
gone to the Cherokee Bible Conference, and you've eaten at the Jared
house, do you remember those baskets full of those little
small round white things that they serve? Normally called biscuits. Or biscuits, they serve biscuits
down there. That's how you know they're good,
when they say biscuits. Small, white, round things, and
they serve those things up. If you've never eaten down there,
go. And they eat little bitty things, and they serve them up
with honey. And buddy, you can eat a whole basket of them before
your meal comes. Act like you have, y'all. I know John Davis could. Whole
baskets, nothing quite like them. That's how the Lord is described,
how this man is described. For those who have tasted this
gospel of God's grace, this gospel concerning God's Son, the seed
of God, the bread from heaven, the spotless, pure, holy Son
of the Most High God, those who have tasted the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's sweet indeed. This gospel
is sweet bread to the believer. Sweet bread. Satisfying hunger. It will satisfy hunger, and he
alone will satisfy hunger. This gospel. This gospel is the
only gospel that really will satisfy soul hunger. You know,
hunger for peace with God. Hunger for righteousness. The
only one that will. This first after the water of life, soul
first water of this life on. Christ said the water I give
you will. It will. I was amazingly I was
sitting in my study this morning preparing this message and Mindy
called me I got over here pretty early. And. She called me saying
that she was fixing breakfast for everyone. And she asked me
if I would like to come over and I said no, I'm too busy.
Well, I wasn't hungry at the time when she called me. I was
preoccupied. And so I continued to study.
But lo and behold, a little while later, I began to grow hungry. And I heard a horn, almost like
a trumpet sound, outside. And lo and behold, it was my
mother bringing me, of all things, some biscuits. And I was hungry. And it was
so satisfying. Oh, I enjoyed it so much. I thought
that was so appropriate. of what I was doing. Bread, bread
from heaven, the only satisfying bread. I want you to notice how
this is bread that proves the people. Look back at chapter
16, verse 4. This bread proves the people.
Verse 4, the Lord said, I will bring bread from heaven for you,
and the people shall go out and gather at a certain rate every
day that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or my
word or not the people should go out and gather. This is how
they're going to be proved every man down at verse sixteen. This
is the thing the Lord has commanded gather of every man according
to his Eden and Omer for every man. In other words every man
every person had to gather this. Every person had to go out and
look for and search and seek. This is how the Lord proved that. And gather it for themselves.
This proved that they believed God. If someone stayed in their
home, it would be proof that they didn't believe God was going
to send His Spirit. If someone stayed in their home and didn't
go looking, it was proof that they weren't hungry. So it proved
that. But those who went out looking,
They must have been hungry. They believed God, didn't they?
And our Lord said this in Revelation 2. He said, He that overcometh,
I'll give hidden manna. It's hidden from the world. And
what is that which overcometh the world? Even our faith. He
believed God. He said to Mary and Margaret,
didn't I tell you if you believe, you'd see the glory of God? If
you just believe, The world says, show me, and I'll believe. No,
God says, believe, not show me. And seek. Those who seek will
find. Those who hunger will be filled. This is how we're proved. Verse 19, they were further proved
this way. Moses said, let no man leave
of it till the morning. In other words, you must gather
daily, fresh manna daily. You can't subsist on leftovers first twenty
it says some of them didn't harken on the most of some of them left
of it until the morning it read words and start Moses was wrong
with. This what you can't you can't
subsist on leftover. We don't abide and we don't live
by yesterday's profession of faith. We don't live by yesterday's
experiences. We have to have daily grace.
We feed on Christ daily. We need grace for the day. And
His mercy and His grace is new every morning. It's out there
for the gathering. If you need it for the hungry, it's there.
Now consider with me how sufficient this bread is. It's amazing.
It's satisfying. proving bread and sufficient
bread. Look at verse sixteen, sufficient
bread. It says, Every man, according
to the number of your persons, take ye every man, and for them
which are in the tents. They all ate the same bread,
didn't they? Everybody was eating the same
food, and everybody was satisfied with the same food. Young and
old, it met their needs. Male and female, it met their
needs. Weak and strong, it met their
needs. It says there was a mixed multitude
that went with them. It doesn't matter who it was,
Jew or Gentile, this one bread met their needs. All of them.
It was sufficient for all of them. And verse 18, the same
amount. They all got the same amount
when they meted or did measure it. Now they went out gathering
it. And there were some people that
were real hungry. Some big strong men who were real hungry and
there were some weak people and some young people who went out
gathering also, but it was all needed with an omer. In other
words, they could pile up as much as they want, but they were
only going to carry away an omer, about a half a gallon. And so
it says, verse 18, He that gathered much had nothing over, and he
that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according
to his Eden. Listen carefully. This will bless
you. It doesn't matter if it's strong faith or little faith. It's the same grace. We get the
same amount of grace. We're all going to be saved by
the same amount of grace. Abraham has nothing over me. He gets the same fortunes I do. What is our fortune? A reward,
does he have a greater reward? We all get the same portion of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the amount of faith,
it's the object of faith. It's not the strength of the
faith, it's the person of the faith. So great faith, little
faith, still saving faith. And the Lord measures it all out
the same. We all get saving grace, the same measure. Well, how long,
how long will it last? How long will this bread from
heaven last? How long could it sustain them?
Look down in verse 35. I didn't read this. The children
of Israel did eat manna for 40 years. until they came to a land and
have to make a promise that they didn't have a whole time. It never grew and never went
away it's always that the Lord provided this man. And it's the
same. Some of the retired. over there
in that number 11 that I told you about. Some of them lusted
at the flesh and they said, we love this life, we're tired of
this manor. Well, they didn't go into the
promised land for such ingratitude. But ah, this manor was still
sufficient, wasn't it? We're like that cloudy pillar,
which the Lord never took away. Whatever God provides, we'll
have. Whatever God does is forever.
We'll never perish, and we'll always satisfy. Now turn with
me in closing to John chapter 6. This is vitally important
that we all look at this, everyone, young and old. It's not enough
for me to tell you about this manna. It's not enough for me
to tell you about Christ, to preach about Christ. It's not enough to just hear
this. It's not enough to just see the truth of it. Not enough. Look at John chapter 6, verse
53. Our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you have no life. Whoso eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath the eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. Go on. My flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father
has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever." So it's not enough to just hear about
Christ. You yourself must believe it.
What is it to eat? What is it to eat of Christ's
body and drink of his blood? Whenever you eat something, what
do you do? The first thing you do is you
chew on it. Don't you? Chew it up. You taste of it. And if you really like it, what
do you do? Swallow it. chew on or meditate on and consider
and look into God's word and search the scriptures. When you're
chewing something, you're trying to get all the flavor out of
it. The more you chew it, the more you want to get out of it.
And if you have tasted of this gospel, and if it tastes good
to you, then what do you do? You believe. Say, I need that. I need Christ. That tastes good
to me. I'm a sinner. I need this mercy. I need this grace. I'm hungry.
This world doesn't satisfy me, but this sure does sound good
to me. I'll take it. I believe. I believe. And you
swallow it. And then what does it do? It
becomes part of you. It goes into every fiber of your
being. And it becomes nourishment to you. And you digest it, in
other words. And it becomes you. And you become
it. And so it is. Our Lord, He said,
You feed upon my body. Feed upon my work for you. You drink my blood. Just drink
it in. Take it in. It's so great. Blood redemption for life. Eat
on that. Chew on that. Meditate on that.
Believe that. Believe me. And you'll find this
life to turn about. Thank God for the bread from
heaven. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You for Your
provision for us that we so take for granted. Lord, forgive us
our murmurings and complaining. Let us never loathe this light
bread, but ever taste that the Lord is indeed gracious and abundantly
merciful and gracious to us. And you revealed this bread from
heaven to us, this hidden manna, given us this glorious gospel
table to partake of. We have so much we feast upon.
Lord, ever give us a hunger. cause us to hunger, to desire
the sincere milk of the Word, which is Christ, that we might
grow in grace in the knowledge of Him. Thank you for your people.
Bless them, feed them. May we each gather daily that
bread that we so desperately need, and then give us a double
portion on the Lord's Day. Forgive us of our sins, in Christ's
name. Amen.