gave to Israel, manna and Sabbath. Now as to the manna, you'll notice,
and Ron read this to us this morning, chapter 16, verse 15. And when the children of Israel,
when they saw this most unusual looking thing laying on the ground,
very, very small, very round and white, they said to one another,
it is manna. And the word manna means, what
is it? That's what manna means. The
word manna doesn't mean it's bread. The word manna means,
what is this? They didn't know. They didn't
know. The scripture says, for they
wist not what it was. What is that laying on the ground? And of course the ground was
literally covered with it. Very early in the morning in
the darkness, God sent the dew. And then on the dew, as that dew evaporated,
they looked out and then they saw all of this white thing. Lots and lots of, the fields
were covered with it because there are two and a half million
people that have got to eat. And their natural reaction was,
what is this? That's what manna means. And
Moses, he identified, he said, this is what it is. This is the
bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is bread, bread. You'll have to stoop over to
get it. but it's bread from heaven. In fact, the psalmist said that
the Israelites ate angel's food. What is angel's food? Well, angel's
food is the manna that God gave to Israel, the bread. And then
a little later in this portion of scripture, then we're introduced
to the Sabbath. You'll notice this in verse 23.
Moses said unto them, because they had to gather two times
as much manna on the sixth day, or Friday, than they normally
did, because there wasn't gonna be any manna on the seventh day.
There wouldn't be any manna on the Sabbath. So every other day,
if they tried to gather more than they needed, then they would
find out that the worms would get into this bread, and it would
stink. But every Friday morning, when
they went out, Moses said, not today, you get twice as much.
And he says, this is that which the Lord hath said, verse 23 now, tomorrow is the
rest of the Holy Sabbath under the Lord. So you can't gather
tomorrow, you gather today for tomorrow. He said, you can bake
that which you will bake today or you can seethe it or boil
it. You can boil it today, which
you will boil and that which remaineth over lay up for you
to be kept until the morning and then you'll have bread tomorrow.
So we're introduced here to manna and we're also introduced to
the Sabbath. But we're also introduced to
another thing that this is also the first time this is mentioned
in the Word of God. And it was actually read for
us this morning. Verse seven. In the morning, In the morning,
when you go out to gather the bread, the manna, in the morning,
then shall you see the glory of the Lord. That's the first
time it's mentioned in the Bible. For that he heareth your murmurings
against the Lord. And what are we that you murmur
against us? And then again, verse 10. And
it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of
the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness,
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. So
really we're introduced here in Exodus chapter 16 to three
things. that we haven't read thus far in the Word of God.
Nothing has been mentioned about these things to the children
of Israel so far. In fact, from the very beginning
of the Bible, Genesis 1.1, neither one of these things or none of
these things have been mentioned, not the manna, not the Sabbath,
though the Lord rested on the seventh day, it wasn't called
the Sabbath, and then the glory of the Lord. Now, before we go any further,
and I'm really not sure how far I will get in this message on
two gracious provisions. It may be that I can't finish
this evening. I'm not quite sure because I've
got quite a bit of material that I want to lay out before you,
but I want you to notice this, that very often in their wilderness
journeys, God would say to them, this is happening in order to
prove This is a test. For instance,
go back in chapter 15 in verse 25. This is when they get to
Marah. and they face the bitter water.
They've tasted the bitter water. And of course they can't drink
it. And therefore the name of it was called Marah at verse
24 of chapter 15. And the people murmured against
Moses saying, what should we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord and the Lord showed him or manifested unto him a tree,
which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made
sweet. And there he made for them a statute and an ordinance.
There he proved them. This is a test. That is not a
test so that the Lord would then see what they were going to do.
He already knows. He knows their response. They're
already a murmuring congregation and they will continue to murmur
deep into their wilderness journey. This is a test not for God to
see how they conducted themselves. This is a test so that they would
see themselves. They need to see what they are.
They will see the faithfulness of God, that's true. But they
will also see their own failure. They'll see their own sinfulness.
And this is what we know through our experiences in life of all
the tests that God sends to us, we so often reveal in our response
to the test, a failure to react and deal with the test in a way
that's honoring to God. And therefore we learn about
ourselves. Look in chapter 16 in verse four. And 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. And the rate
is given in verse 16, gather a certain rate every day that
I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or not. Look at chapter, go over to chapter
20 and verse 20. And this is when God gave the
law at Mount Sinai, 2020. And Moses said unto the people,
fear not for God has come to prove you. He's come to test
you and that his fear may be before your faces that ye sin
not. And then go over to Deuteronomy.
And I'll give you a couple of verses over here, three verses
over here, Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8. You get to the book of Deuteronomy,
which is really the second reading of God's law. And now they've
been wondering for 40 years, this is just about over now.
We get to chapter 8 of Deuteronomy verse 2. Thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in
the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee whether thou
wouldst keep his commandments or no. Now look at verse 16. Verse 16,
who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers
knew not, which is why they called it manna, what is this, that's
what manna means, who led or who fed thee in the wilderness
with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble
thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter
end. You'll learn. You'll learn from
your own failures. And you'll learn from my faithfulness. You'll learn how sinful you are
and how faithful and good and merciful I am as you fail these
tests. And then one other reference,
chapter 13 of Deuteronomy and verse three. And I think I jotted down the
wrong verse here. No, no, I didn't. Here it is,
13, three. If I get the right chapter, I'll
have the right verse. Chapter 13, verse three. Thou
shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer
of dreams, for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether
you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul. Now this, the tests that God
gave, they weren't for God's information. Just like the tests
that you go through as a result of God sending you some trial.
They're not for God's information. It's not for God to see what
your reaction is going to be because God knows all things
from the beginning. He knows all things to the end.
He knows exactly how we will react. These tests are given
in order that the Israelites and our tests are given to us
in order that we might understand our own feebleness and our own
failures. We must never think ourselves
to be real mighty and strong because we're all fickle people,
we're all sinful people, we're all weak people, and we're all
liable to fall. We're all sinful creatures in
the sight of God, even God's people. And the only thing that
holds us up is the mighty grace of God. It's never you, it's
always Him. It's never your might, it's His
might. It's His strength. It's His faithfulness. These many tests that God gave
to Israel, It came to them that they might know their own failures
and have a greater appreciation, a much greater appreciation of
the goodness and the mercy of God. How many times have you
failed a test? Well, if you're like me, you
have to say I've failed lots of times. And I find myself grumbling. I find myself murmuring. I find
myself not being happy with my circumstances. You know, we may,
I think in many ways we may be likened, even though we're the
children of God, we may be likened to be like little children. who,
when they get their feelings hurt, say, I'm going home. I'm
gonna take my toys with me. I'm upset. I'm not gonna play
ball with you anymore. Give me my football, I'm going
home. And that's the way we are oftentimes with the tests that
God gives us. I'm just not gonna do this anymore.
I'm weary. I'm weary. And rather than facing
a test in a positive way, my Lord has sent this. He has sent
this for my good. He has sent this to teach me. He has sent this to me to remind
me that only in him do I find strength, only in him do I find
grace, and his grace is sufficient for my every need. That's the
way we ought to respond to a test. When the Israelites here have
traveled from Elam and they've gone, they've taken a look over
at the Red Sea, as we read this morning from the book of Numbers,
and then they go forth and they have nothing to eat, in what
manner should they have responded to that test? Well, they should
have responded this way. The Lord has brought us out here.
He has redeemed us by the blood of the Passover lamb. He has
led us through the Red Sea. He's good and he's faithful.
God will never put us through anything that wasn't necessary
for us or good for us or beneficial to us spiritually. So we'll just
believe him and we'll trust him. That's the way they should have
responded and that's the way we should respond. But they didn't
and oftentimes we don't either. And every one of these is a test. It shows our failures and God's
faithfulness. Well, he sends them this unusual
looking thing called manna. Now the manna pictures our Lord
Jesus. We know that, and I'll have you
go back with me to the book of John, to the book of John. And I asked Susanna to sing that
song. because it has to do with that
occasion when our Lord Jesus broke the bread by the sea of
Galilee and he fed so many people. And then as the song goes, and
as she sang, thou art the bread of life, dear Lord to me, you're
my bread. And we feast on him. Our Lord
Jesus, he has, He has very simple ways
of teaching us of his identity. And he'll use very ordinary things
to teach us. Bread. All of us are acquainted with
bread. Now, I've read and some of you
have read, I know the wheat that we have today isn't like the
wheat that they had back in these days. things have been altered,
that sort of thing. But back in these days, back
in the old days, we'll say, wheat was very good for you, very good
for you, and bread was very nutritious. And our Lord used that as an
illustration of himself to us. He is the one who nourishes us.
He's the one who feeds us. We feed on him. It isn't just
that we feed on the things around us, the flesh feeds on things
around us, but the spirit feeds on Christ himself. And this is
what he is setting forth here in John chapter six. Now, he
identifies himself as being the bread who's come down from heaven.
Look here in John chapter six, verse 33. For the bread of God, The bread of God is He. You see
that? The bread of God is somebody.
And this, you know, as he began to speak about bread, and we
could read up, in fact, in verse 31, they said, our fathers did
eat manna in the desert. When they began to talk about
bread, our Lord speaking about bread, that which came to their
minds immediately was what happened back in the Old Testament in
the wilderness. Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. Bread was something they knew
about. And so our Lord uses that, he
lays hold of bread as it were, as a picture of himself. And so he says in verse 33, for
the bread of God is he. is he, his somebody, the bread
of God, the bread that originated with God, the bread that God
gave, the bread that God sent, is he which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world. He can give life because
he is life. Life is found in him. Life originates
in him. He is life. There is no life
apart from that life which he gives. He gives physical life,
he gives spiritual life, he gives eternal life, he gives everlasting
life. There is no life apart from him
who is life, even the Son of God. Now look at verse 34. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore give us this bread. Their mind is on this bread that
they would eat with their mouth. And Jesus said, verse 35, Jesus
said unto them, I am the bread of life. I am. Later he will
say, if you go over deeper into the chapter in verse 48, I am
that bread of life. I am, I'm Jehovah. I am is Jehovah. The ever-existent God, I'm the
bread of life. That's what he's telling these
people. And go back to verse 35, he says, he that cometh to
me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst. If you feed on me. He's the one
that God put as it were into the oven of his wrath. And he suffered the heat of God's
anger and of God's vengeance when he died upon the cross of
Calvary. And he, by his substitutionary
death, by enduring the heat of the wrath of God, he became bread
for us. And we eat on him and we live
forever. We feast on him. And we don't
feast on him just one time. We're always feasting on Christ
Jesus. We're always coming to him for
life. I am, he says, I am the bread
of life. He is Jehovah, he's the bread
that nourishes. He's the bread that sustains
life. Our Lord would have us to know
that he is the uprooted bread and he's the necessary bread. You see, our souls are naturally
starving and famished. But we don't know who to feed
on, so we feed on husks. We feed on the dead things of
this world. Until the Spirit of Grace comes
along and He has somebody preach the gospel to us, and then we're
made to realize we need to feed on Christ Jesus. And I say to
anyone here tonight who is still lost in their sins, you've been
feeding on dead things. You need to feed on him who is
the living bread that came down from heaven. And that's really
what we endeavor to do every time we come into these doors
is to feed on the living bread, to nourish us, to strengthen
us each day. He is the bread of life. Consider
when it was that the Lord gave this bread. He gave this bread
back in Exodus chapter 16 at a time of ingratitude and a time of unbelief. They
murmured against God. They were dissatisfied with his
providence, unhappy about their circumstances. And yet God did
not rain down upon them that which they deserved. Just as
he has not rained down upon us that which we naturally deserve.
What did he rain down upon us? What did he send into this world? The bread of life. The bread
of life. When we were unthankful, when
we had no gratitude, when we were resentful of every, what
we considered to be a harsh thing that he sent our way. Rather
than God dealing with us and rewarding us according to our
iniquities, he sent bread. He sent bread. He sent the gospel
to you when you first heard the gospel. perhaps here, perhaps somewhere
else, and you had been walking in darkness, you hadn't been
thankful, you hadn't given glory to God, and then all of a sudden,
you who had been feeding on, and I did the same thing, feeding
on things that were dead, things of the world, thinking that they
strengthened me, in my case, I was feeding on false religion.
And then all of a sudden God got my attention and God had
me hear the message of Christ and Him crucified. And I became
hungry. I became hungry for the Word.
He created that desire. He created that hunger. And if
he ever creates a hunger for Christ, the true bread of life,
the only thing that will ever satisfy is Christ, the bread
of life. And then we feed on him. Why is it that more people don't
feed? on the glorious Savior, Him who
is the true manna from heaven, that bread that God sent into
this world. Why don't more people feed on
Him? They're not hungry for Him. They don't have a hunger for
Him. Their hunger is satisfied with the things of the world.
So they feed on what I'd call dead things. They're like the
prodigal. feed on husks, feed on pigs'
food, feed on slop. Ever slop the hogs? I slopped
the hogs many a time. Can you imagine eating the slop
that you feed the hogs? Well, we used to feed on spiritual
slop. And we thought, okay, this is
helping me to some degree. I'm getting a little bit of nourishment
from it. No, you're not. The only true
nourishment for your soul is the manna that came down from
heaven, who gave his life to save sinners. Oh, that God would
give to each one of us a hunger for him. And those of you who
are watching by way of the internet, feed on Christ Jesus. Not a dead
Christ, but a living Christ. He did die. He died so that God
might be just and justify, but he's not dead now. He ever lives. We feed on living bread and it
nourishes us. This is the bread you've got
to have. And he gives it. He gives it when we were in a
state of unbelief. And even though we still are
often unhappy with his providence and dissatisfied with the way
that he's doing things, you know what he still does? He rains
bread down upon us still. He still feeds us. I'll tell you what God did. He
gave this manna in the darkness. In the wee hours of the morning,
when the dew fell, that's when the manna came upon it. Now you couldn't see the manna.
And it was to me, go back to Exodus chapter 16. To me, there's
kind of a miracle here. And as you go back there, I'll
read you this verse from Numbers chapter, tell you what, you just
turn to Numbers with me in Numbers 11, because I wanna read several
verses here. Look at Numbers chapter 11. God
has something to say again about the manna and about the multitude
of the people. Numbers 11, you there? Numbers
chapter 11, look at verse four. And the mixed multitude that
was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also
wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember
the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely. We remember the
cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and
the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all, nothing
at all, only this manna before our eyes. Now the manna was as
coriander seed. The color thereof is the color
bdellum. The people went about and gathered
it and ground it in meals or beat it in a mortar and baked
it in pans and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was the
taste as a fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the
camp in the night, the manna fell on it. Now go back to Exodus
chapter 16 and notice what it says here. Verse 11. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, exodus 16, 11, I've heard the murmurings
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 that I am the Lord your God. And it
came to pass that at even the quails came up and covered the
camp. And in the morning, the dew lay
round upon the host. And when the dew that lay was
gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness, there lay
a very small round thing." In fact, he says, as small as the
hoarfrost on the ground. It came in upon the dew. But
it would appear to me It wasn't visible until the dew evaporated. It wasn't visible until the sun
came, until the light came. There had to be light to see
it. And I'm telling you, Christ is
the bread of life. But there's got to be light before
you can perceive him as being the bread. Jim, why don't more
people believe him? Because they're in the dark.
They can't see. Don't get mad at him. Don't get
mad when somebody refuses to believe the gospel of God's sovereign
grace. Don't get upset with them when
they won't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation by
pure grace, by redemption and by his reconciling death upon
the cross of Calvary. Don't get upset with them because
they're in the dark just like you. Just like you. It's only when the light shines
that you see the manna. Oh God, send the spiritual light
that we may see Christ. Here's the scripture, in thy
light, what does it say? We shall see light. It's only
in his light. And then consider this, where
the manna fell. The manna fell in a very significant
place in the wilderness of sin. That's where the bread of heaven
first fell. It would be, I guess, impossible
to find a more fitting title to accurately describe the character
of the world into which the Son of God And I said this morning
about this wilderness of sin, the word S-I-N, sin in this context,
in the meaning, you can look it up in Strong's Concordance
or Young's or Cruden's or whatever kind of concordance you've got,
it isn't the word of missing the mark or fault. It is briars
and thorns. This is where the bread, this
is where the bread fell. under these conditions in a thorny,
prickly, painful area. That's where the bread came. It's a wonderful thing when God
pricks the heart regarding our own sinfulness. And he makes us feel a little
pain. Oh, not outward pain, but inward. But the pain of being an enemy
against God. Ever felt that? Ever experienced
that? The pain of being alienated from
a holy God. And you hear from his word, your
sins and iniquities have separated you from me. That's when the bread from heaven
will be precious to you. When you find out where you are,
I'm in the wilderness of sin. And yet in this wilderness of
sin, God sends the bread. He sends the bread. And now watch
this. The glory of God was linked with
the giving of the manna, the glory of the Lord. Once again,
look at verse seven. And in the morning you shall
see the glory of the Lord, for that he heareth your murmurings.
This is amazing. For that he heareth your murmurings
against him. And Moses says, and what are
we that you murmur against us? And Moses said, this shall be
when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat,
and in the morning bread to the full. For that the Lord heareth
your murmurings, which ye murmur against him, and what are we? Your murmurings are not against
us, but against the Lord. Verse nine, and Moses spake unto
Aaron, saying, unto Aaron, say unto all the congregation of
the children of Israel, come near before the Lord, for he
hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron
spake unto the whole congregation of the children of the Lord,
that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the
Lord appeared in the cloud. The glory of the Lord is seen
as linked to in association with the bread that came down from
heaven. Thus far in the word of God,
you have not read of the glory of the Lord being seen. It's
only when God is going to send this bread, this bread from heaven,
that it is identified with the glory of the Lord. For you see,
He who came into this world and saved us by His bloody death,
He is the glory of the Lord. He is the bread of heaven. The
glory of God is linked to, it's always associated with, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In John chapter one in verse
14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among
us. And we beheld his, what's the
next word? Glory. We beheld his glory. This one who is the eternal word,
who came into this world, we beheld his glory. The glory as
of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Ah,
the glory of the Lord is linked to this bread that came down
from heaven. And I'll tell you, this bread,
it was sent from heaven. God sent it, even as he sent
his son. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God, he sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto
himself. The man who was sent from heaven,
we didn't send for him. Did the Israelites sin for the
manna here? No, they didn't sin for it. No,
they said, we want to go back to Egypt. While we had lots to
eat and eat, we had the flesh pots of Egypt. Oh, I can smell
those flesh pots now. Oh, that's what they were saying.
And we could eat to the full, as much as we wanted. But God sent a much more nourishing
meal down from heaven. And I'll tell you, if you feed
on the Lord Jesus Christ, all the spiritual nutrients and vitamins
that your soul needs will be very abundantly, very abundantly
supplied in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is bread that will meet
your need. In fact, in John chapter six,
had we continued to read deeper into John chapter six, our Lord
talked about eating his flesh. I am the bread of life. He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood. What's he talking about?
Talking about cannibalism? No, of course not. He's talking
about as we eat literal bread, we take it into our body. So
by faith, by faith, we take of the Lord Jesus Christ, that one
who is the bread sent down from heaven, we take him in, we feed
on him. And this is bread that never
gets old to the children of God. The children of Israel, they
will in time say, our souls loathe this light bread. That's what
they said. Our souls loathe this light bread. And that's one of
the reasons for the test. Every morning they got up and
they ate this bread. Tasted like, Wafers dipped in
honey. I kind of think of it like graham
crackers. Honey dipped graham crackers.
And they started off, they said, boy, this is so good. Susan,
have you tried this? Oh, this is so good. Trish, have
you tried this? Oh, boy, this is so delicious. And then days
go by and weeks go by. What are we going to have for
breakfast? Not again. Not again. Oh, this is a test. Lord's gonna prove you. And they'll
finally say, we don't want this bread anymore. And you know what? This often happens to people
who come into the congregation of the righteous. And they say,
we believe this gospel. Oh, this is wonderful. and we're
eating of this gospel, we're feasting on Christ Jesus, and,
oh, this is delicious, oh, never heard this before, I'm so excited. And then they find out we have
the same fare, the same menu for every meal. But it's always fresh, given
by God. Before long, they will say, our
souls loathe this bread. We're gonna go somewhere else.
We're tired of this diet. Thank God, I haven't grown tired
of the diet, have you? I haven't grown tired of the
bread. The bread. Some of you, Peggy back there,
Phyllis, Marty, several of you, bunch of you, you've been here
for years. Same menu. Menu hadn't changed. Bread. Every meal. And you go out, you say, I've
tasted again that the Lord is precious. Oh, how sweet he is
to me. He's as sweet as a wafer dipped
in honey. And we feed on him. Yes, he's
the true manna from heaven. And we're nourished as we feed
upon the Lord Jesus. Now, I'm not even gonna get to
the Sabbath tonight. Tell you what I'll do, I'll just
reserve that either to Wednesday or maybe next Sunday night. I
may just keep that for next Sunday night, and I'll just make a,
I'll have to give this a new title, Ron. Might just call this
Bread from Heaven, and then I'll give you the Sabbath. I kind
of thought it might happen that way, but I never know, and I
don't know, somehow or another somebody speeds up this stopwatch,
the time kind of evaporates. I told somebody not too long
ago, I think as I get older, maybe I get more wordy, or maybe,
and I hope this is the case, I'm more excited by the message,
and I'm so I'm thankful to have something to say to you, and
I hope that it's always fresh to you, and bread come down from
heaven, as it were, from the Lord. I hope we feasted on the
Lord today, and that our souls have been nourished. Because
you need to be nourished. You need to be fed to go out
back into the world, go back to your homes, go back to your
livelihood, whatever it is you do during the week, you need.
You need to have fresh bread. And thankfully, God gives us,
every time we gather together, manna, sweet manna, from heaven
as we feed on Christ our Lord. Father, bless the word that's
gone forth this evening, and we're thankful for the privilege
to meet together and to set forth again our glorious Savior. the Lord Jesus, and we say to
those who have never eaten of the manna from heaven, oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man, blessed is
the woman, blessed is the boy, and blessed is the girl who tastes
of you, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Savior's
name I pray these sayings, amen. Oh.