Let's say when you put that on
me, I thought I was getting a gold medal or something. Maybe it was just a participation
medal. Wednesday night. The present
plan is to preach a message specifically designed for children. Now, I've
done this several times over the years, and the adults always
like it when I do that, probably for two reasons. It's generally
a lot shorter, but it's always the basic things that the people
of God feed on. But if you can, bring your kiddos
here. I can explain things in a way
that will at least implant the truth in their minds, and we'll
see what the Lord will do with it in days to come. Book of Numbers, chapter 11. And just as another note, I'm
not gonna boast that the spirit moved me to make that plan about
Wednesday night. My wife mentioned it. But maybe,
I mean, he gave me a good wife. So maybe, you know, it's kind
of like he's pretty much deaf. I think I'll tell her and she'll
get him the message. Let's begin reading at verse
34. And he called the name of that
place Kibreth Hatava, because there they buried the people
that lusted. And the people journeyed from
Kibreth Hatava unto Hazareth, an abode at Hazareth. In the days in which the King
James was translated and then later edited in 1769, the word
lust covered all kinds of desires. It essentially indicated a desire
that demands to be fulfilled. In our day, it's pretty much
restricted to one desire. So as you read that, when it
talks about the people lusted, remember, it's talking about
a much broader concept. In fact, crave would be a good
word to put there, craved something. Now the story of Numbers 11 provides
a serious warning to those who claim to be the people of God. All who make a claim to be the
people of God, all who claim to believe are going to be put
to the test on that very point. Remember what our Lord said when
he returns, he says, will he find faith on the earth? I'm
sure that anytime the Lord returns, he finds lots of professing faith. But as you know full well, there's
a difference between professing to believe and actually believing. That's one of the points James
makes in chapter two. He says, you say you believe,
so what? You can say anything. There is
no such thing as an untested claim to faith. And we should
not want it any other way. Do we want to approach our deaths
and the judgment that follows having a faith that's never been
put to the test, never been proven? If we were going to repel down
a cliff, wouldn't we want to stretch out the rope, make sure
there's no cuts in it, maybe hang some weight on it, make
sure it'll bear our weight before we thrust ourself over the cliff? Well, We're not able to test
our own faith, but God can. And while we never enjoy the
process, it's good. And we would not say, at least
I hope we would not say, Lord never test my faith. the faith of a professor, and
I'm not talking about a guy that works at the university, I mean
someone who professes to believe, the faith of a professor can
be tested in many ways. The simple trials of life. And
the Lord has culled many goats from among the sheep with those
simple trials. I mean, things get tough. And
what you find out is that folks, they will make a profession of
faith because they think the way of life for a believer is
easy. They find out it's not, and they
leave. There's trials of doctrine. People
say, I believe, and you know, and maybe they heard some preaching,
and as far as the preacher went, they did believe. But you know,
preaching isn't always a declaration. That is, any individual sermon
can't be a declaration of everything that God has said. This is a
big book. But there are people who have
latched on to certain doctrines which seemed appealing to them.
But as they come and listen more and more, if there's a faithful
preacher in the pulpit, and he begins to teach more of that
whole counsel of God, they run in for, whoa, I don't believe
that. I don't believe that. And another goat gets culled
from the herd. But I believe that the most serious
test and the test that has likely outed more false professors than
any other is this. Are you satisfied with Christ
and Christ alone? Is he enough for you? Is he enough in your salvation? Is he enough in your worship? Is he enough in your day-to-day
life? Or do you crave something more? Now this story from the history
of the Jews and their travels in the wilderness is a picture
of just such a test. It says here in verse four, it says, and the mixed multitude
that was among them fell a lusting, started craving. And the children
of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh
to eat? When the Israelites left Egypt,
many non-Israelites went with them. Now, I haven't heard much
said about these people, and quite frankly, I haven't said
much about them in all my preaching, but they are specifically mentioned
here. The mixed multitude. Now it should
not surprise us that there were non-Jews, non-Israelites, who
insinuated themselves among the Israelites as they saw them leaving
Egypt. These non-Jews had witnessed
the 10 plagues. That's impressive. And they had just witnessed that
10th one, from which the celebration of Passover comes, the death
of the firstborn. Maybe some of them haven't experienced
that. And while they are devastated
by the loss of the firstborn in their household, it shook
them up enough to say, well, the God of these people is God
indeed. I'm going with them. When we must not think that the
Jews were the only slaves in Egypt. They were the only slaves that
God determined to free from the bondage of Egypt, but they weren't
the only slaves there. And imagine this, you're a slave
in Egypt, and here goes 600,000 men, plus their wives and children,
marching out of Egypt. I can mix myself in that crowd
and walk out with them, and I'll be free just like they're free.
Nobody's gonna notice me in that big crowd. They won't notice
that I don't look exactly like them. I can just, as they go
by, I'll walk along with them a little bit, and then I'll kind
of scoot towards the middle of them. And I'll get out of this
country. And they say they're going to
a land that their God's gonna give them. I've seen what their
God can do. I want a piece of that land. Tired of working for
somebody else, I want to be a homeowner. And they insinuated themselves
among the Jews. In verse four as we read, it
was these people who craved flesh. They are the ones that began
to crave. Now, what is it they craved? Or why was it they craved? That
would be a better question. Why? Well, when these people
left with Israel, they experienced everything Israel did. You know,
they went through the Red Sea. and started that journey across
the wilderness. And they were among those that
got out there, and they'd been out there six, seven weeks, I
think it is, that I was reading this morning, but they're getting
hungry. I mean, there's only so much food you can pack, and
the wilderness wasn't big on food. And people started to complain. Well, why'd the Lord bring us
out here to die? We could have died in Egypt.
And so the Lord sent them some quail and the next morning sent
them manna. And interestingly enough, the
word manna means what's this? Because they didn't know what
it was. They just got up and here's this stuff laying all
over the ground. What's this? And that's what it became, the
name of it. But this bread, this bread was
miraculous. I do not believe. People have
tried to figure out what it was. I don't think it's anything natural. Why? I don't know of any natural
food that gives a person everything they need, every bit of nourishment
they need. You could live an entire lifetime
on manna. They did for 40 years. Believe
me, if there was something deficient in manna, it would have showed
up. And so this manna fell, and they
began to eat it. And the first day, I'll bet those
hungry stomachs said, oh man, this is some good stuff. This
is better bread than we could even get in Egypt. And they had
some manna for breakfast. And then it's lunchtime. What are we having, mom? Manna.
Oh, that was good, I want some more. Come supper time, what
are we having for supper? Manna. Well, that's good. And this starts going on a few
days later, you know. Well, we have manna. Okay. It's all right, it'll do. A few
weeks in. Well, we have manna. I mean,
what are we having to eat, manna? Manna again? It's always manna. Nothing but manna. One of my
favorite singers. of the early days of contemporary
Christian music had a song, so you wanna go back to Egypt. And
that's what these, both when they first complained about having
nothing to eat, and now in numbers when they complain they only
have one thing to eat. They're always hearkening back
to Egypt. So you wanna go back to Egypt. And one of the lines
says, in the morning it's manna hotcakes. And we snack on manna all day.
And we sure had a winner last night for dinner. She made us
manna souffle. And as the outro music is going
on, this singer starts mentioning other manna recipes, and I always
got a kick out of the one. He goes, manna bread. That is
manna all the time. Now, say what you want. We'd have probably been among
the grumblers. I don't care how good the food tastes. In the
flesh, we'll grow weary of it. And we'll want something more.
And that's what happened here. The problem is, and this is what
really caused the problem, is they didn't just desire something
else or something more, they craved it. It became an obsession to them
such that they would not even be quiet about it. And it says
that they complained in the hearing of the Lord. Now, I can't say
exactly what that means. I mean, God's everywhere, so
everything you say he hears. But maybe what it was is they
came right there to the tent of meeting. Right there where
the Lord made His presence known among them. And right there,
they said things, you know, like, we remember the fish which we
did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and
the leeks and the onions and the garlic. They said that right
in the face of the Lord. Psalm 106 verse 15 refers to
this event, saying that God gave the complainers what they asked
for, but also sent a wasting disease or leanness of soul upon
them. Some wasted away to the point
of death. Now, I want to make a distinction
here. In verse four, It says, the mixed
multitude that was among them fell a lusting or began to crave. And then it says, when the children
of Israel also wept again, complained again, wailed again. One thing
it didn't say about those people in Israel, they didn't crave. They desired, they complained. It was the mixed multitude that
craved. And it says in the portion that
we read there, last two verses, that they buried those who craved. And they named that place, and
some of these things are hard to pronounce for sure, Kibreth
Hata'ava. Do you know what that means?
The grave of craving. They named places according to
significant events that happened there. And there were people
there buried. The ones who craved. The ones
who demanded. The ones who could not be restored,
as it were, to a place of being content with the provision of
the Lord. They were buried there. Now the lesson for us is quite
simple. Our Lord Jesus identified himself
as the manna from heaven. They said to him in John 6, Moses
gave us bread from heaven. What are you going to give us?
Which is a little silly. When you consider that these
people had just the day before, 5,000 men plus their wives and
children, the Lord had fed them with five loaves and two fishes.
And they go, what are you going to give us? And our Lord said, God gave you
that bread, not Moses. However, I am the true bread
from heaven. And this manna is a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the man in the wilderness
was sufficient nourishment for all who ate it So is Christ a
sufficient provision for all believers For this life and the
next as it is written in 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 3 According
to his divine power He has given unto us all things that pertain
unto life and death Godliness through the knowledge of him
that has called us to glory and virtue Now that is a bold statement
Now you would know what it's like in this world if you See
something you want, you know, and you're going to order it
online. It's a kid of some kind it says Everything you need for
this, you know, and you got a picture of whatever it is, you know.
Well, you get the box in the mail, you open it up, you put
together everything. And then you read the last line,
batteries not included. Well, I guess there was everything
to build the machine, but not enough to run it. And you had
to go out and get something more. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ is
not like that. He is every part of the machine
and he is the power that runs it. You cannot make this point broadly
enough or too broad. In all reality, in absolute reality,
the believer needs nothing other than Christ. That doesn't mean
he won't desire anything else. He won't crave something else
because the Lord will be able to discipline him in getting
back The cravers, no amount of discipline. We'll fix it. Jesus Christ is all that a person
needs. The apostles message consisted
basically of two points. Jesus is the Christ and Christ
is all. If a church is led by faithful
pastors, the consistent message will be Christ is all. And this
message will attract, nourish, and keep God's sheep. The thing
is part of the message of Christ is attractive to the goats as
well. Freedom. Who doesn't like freedom? Heaven. Who doesn't like heaven? And they will latch themselves
on to the people of God. They hear a message. They hear
some things they like. Oh, I like that church. I'm going
there. And just like the mixed multitude of the New International
Version that we use, they called it the rabble. The rabble joined
themselves with the people. Now, and I'm sure you've seen
this happen in this congregation. because no congregation is immune
from this. The gospel is preached, people
come in, they seem all excited about it, they're wonderful,
and for a while everything goes well, but then in due time, they
act like something's missing. Like there's, well, you know, I'm glad you preach Christ, but
we need some instruction on practical godliness. We need some messages on prophecy. Do you see things going on today?
You think the Lord's gonna come back soon? Or they begin to crave
the things which are more traditionally considered the things of the
world. They first start coming and boy, until the church doors
open, they're there. And they got their devotional
books and they're reading their Bible and they're praying. and
then it begins to sputter, and this distracts them, and that
catches their eye. Now that happens to all of us,
but their eye never comes back. Sometimes it can take years,
but they just, like this, and suddenly you don't see them at
all anymore. They just disappear. Why? They wanted something more. When these goats, this mixed multitude, this rabble,
attaches itself to the sheep, they're not satisfied with sheep
food and they'll begin to crave something more than Christ. Often this leads to them simply
leaving their present church and finding another church more
to their religious tastes. And I've even said that from
the pulpit. Now, our church is a lot like yours. It's small,
and we don't have a great deal of trouble with it. These goats
have not stirred up so much trouble that it split the church, but
we've seen people come in and leave. But I've said to them, and I
don't say this in meanness, But I've said from the pulpit, this
message, this is what we are. If this does not satisfy you
and you want something more, there are lots of churches out
there. It's like restaurants. If you don't like Kentucky fried
chicken, go to McDonald's. or go to a Chinese buffet, whatever
you want. It's out there. And we're not
going to persecute you. We're not going to talk bad about
you when you leave. Do what is right for you. But one thing
is, or one thing you can be sure of, we're not adding to the menu. So if this is not what you want, go elsewhere. But not all goats
will do that. The devil himself will work through
some of them to disrupt the entire church. And they will begin to
go, and I've seen this happen, they visit privately with other
members and start whispering this and that. I remember back
when I was at 13th Street, some of the men, and these were the
men who had been in the preacher's class, and they thought that
the law was not being preached enough. And I don't know that
they ever officially went to Brother Mahan to talk about it.
What they did is went from door to door. And I remember them
coming to my house. And of course, right away they
got on the Sabbath day. They said, well, Charles Spurgeon
observed the Sabbath day. I said, and just which book in
the Bible did he write? I love our brother Spurgeon.
And I'm not upset that he had such a strong view on what you
could and could not do on Sunday. But I'm sorry that the keys of
the kingdom were not given to him. The keys of the kingdom were
given to the apostles. And what they bound was bound, and what
they let go was let go. And according to the commentators,
that was a common way the Jews described what things you forbid
are forbidden, what things you say are okay are okay. And the apostles were the ones
that they said, this is true, this is not, this is right, this
is wrong. And when they got done writing,
they didn't pass the keys off to anybody else. We just got
it right in here, and we look and see what they said. But they
started this disruptive campaign. I don't know how many people
got infected by it. I think pretty much it just ended
up with them eventually leaving. But this happens. And here's
what, it can infect even the Lord's people to the point they
begin to complain. And here's what's interesting,
how the Lord dealt with it. Did he say, well, not only are you
not gonna get anything other than manna, I'm gonna cut the
manna in half. Nothing like that. He said, okay,
you want flesh? Here it comes. And he caused quail. And if I'm
reading it right, where he caused the quail to fall, it was that high. And it says,
you know, this is all in Hebrew metrics, and it talks about,
you know, nobody had less than 10 homers. Do you know what that
is? 60 bushels. That's what one,
you know, place that I looked, said that amounts to 60 bushels.
Everybody who went out there and gathered got 60 bushels of
quail. And they had quail in the morning,
quail in the evening, quail, quail, quail. He said, you aren't
just gonna have it for one day or just 10 days or 20 days for
a whole month, you're gonna get quail and you're gonna eat it
till it comes out of your ears, out of your nostrils, you'll
be vomiting quail. In other words, this is what
you want, here it is. But whatever, and I don't know
if it's something that came with the quail. But a disease began
to spread through those people. And it was serious enough that
those who craved the quail died of it. And they got buried and left
behind. And I'm sure there were a lot
of Israel got sick of it. But through that testing of the
Lord, that disciplining work, of God, they were restored and
they survived and helped bury the dead and moved on. Now, such a process is both a
judgment and a mercy. It's judgment to the cravers.
They die. But it's a mercy to the people
of God, though it may be a very distressing time in the life
of a church, is an act of mercy. When God causes these cravers
to raise up and they cause some trouble, but he causes it to
happen to get them out. To get them out. What has been
going on underneath, what has been undermining is brought to
the surface. so that it'll be seen and it
will be eliminated. It's a mercy to the sheep for
this is one of the ways that God separates the sheep from
the goats. You know, our Lord's prophetic
words. I realize they have an ultimate
fulfillment at the end of the ages. But when he talks about
separating the sheep from the goats, he's been doing that all
along. One way he separates the sheep
from the goats is by the preaching of the gospel. They're out there
living among the goats and then they hear the gospel and the
sheep are brought to the Lord's sheep pen. And then if the goats,
some of them follow along, well then the Lord brings up whatever
and makes the goats leave. Now, it's tough. We don't like seeing anybody
leave. But you know what? If the Lord
calls from the herd, it's for the protection of the herd. It's to keep it from the infection
from spreading. It's to preserve his sheep that
these trials come. Now, God has not made me the
judge of any man's soul. The older I get, the less I want
to do that. I used to be a real strong opinion. Somebody do something,
well, you can't be a Christian and do that, and then I did it.
Well, we're going to have to rethink that one, you know? However,
it takes no special gift to recognize that many churches pay scarce
attention to the things of Christ. Indeed, in such places, one will
find those who went along with the people of God, but could
not be satisfied with the food designed for such people. And sometimes what happens is
There are more goats in a congregation than sheep. And so when they
rise up and demand more, it's not they who must leave, it's
the sheep. Now, we shouldn't care a whole
lot because all you've done is left an assembly of goats. And
that's not the Lord's assembly. But here's the thing, when God
works it that way, and the people must leave, what is left behind? Nothing but Kibroth Hatava, the
grave of craving. You could rename that church,
grave of craving Baptist church. And it's full of dead people
that wanted something more than Christ. It is their grave. Now, we could point out some
of the things that people crave. And I've seen people crave and
leave good churches and go to faulty churches on this. They
crave a certain kind of music and musical programs. and they're
going to church, well, you take this church or our church, you
know, I've joked around and said, if you got everybody in our church
together, we wouldn't make a good choir. You're not enough of us. And not that many of us are good
singers either. So, you know, I have nothing wrong with more
modern styles of music, but some people, boy, if you don't sing
it in a certain style, They won't go. And it can be they want more
modern, or, well, if you don't sing some of these old hymns,
if we don't have that. Some, we had some people visit
with us, and part of their problem with us is we didn't just sing
psalms. Because there's people think that you should never sing,
you know, just some hymn written by a man. You only sing the psalms. It happens. We could say that people who want a bigger church.
Folks, you know, I agree with the preaching down there, but
I just like to be in a bigger group. That's true. People leave on that account.
Program for the youth. Well, I know, you know, they
don't preach sovereign grace there, but they got a good program for
the kids. Well, just because you, you know, you got a good
program, you know, you can have a real nice restaurant, but if
they're feeding you poison, what's the use of going? And we could pick on those things,
but that wouldn't say anything to us, would it? Because we don't
have the flashy programs. We don't have well-organized
or whatever you want to call it, youth programs, intricately
organized. We're not big. And we could boast. Brother Nathan in his prayer,
we could boast in being small, couldn't we? If there's people who say, I
want a bigger church, there's also people who say, oh, I like a
small church. It's more intimate. Well, like
it all you want. But don't choose where you go
by the size of the church. Do you realize you can crave
things that are good? Quite frankly, there's nothing
wrong with quail. Wanting it is OK. saying I'm not going to keep
traveling along with this crowd unless we have some, that's another
matter. It's another matter. Do you know
what you can crave and yet not be satisfied with Christ? You
can crave things like the doctrines of grace. Now, I love the doctrines of
grace. And in truth, I would not attend
a church for very long You know, if I found out this is not part
of their message. But you've got to understand
there is a distinction between the doctrines of grace and the
one whom the doctrines are talking about. And there's a lot of people
who, they love these doctrines and they would not think of going
to church that doesn't teach them. In fact, if there aren't
somehow another mention in every service, they get all upset.
And they have made an idol out of the doctrine rather than worshiping
the one the doctrines describe. You can. You can be in love with
sovereign grace and have no desire for the gracious sovereign. You can hold firmly to unconditional
election and have no love in your heart for the elector. You can hold firm and defend
particular redemption and yet never trust the successful Redeemer. You can love the doctrine of
irresistible grace while all the time being stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and mind. And as Stephen said, you do always
resist the Holy Spirit. We can crave our faithful attendance. Is it good to attend faithfully?
Yes. But that's not what you're trusting
in. Don't worship your attendance. There's people crave a particular
translation of the Bible. If you ain't got it, you know. How can we deal with this? Remember,
this happened within the people of God. This wasn't the Philistines
going astray. This wasn't the Canaanites. This
was the Jews and the mixed multitude among them. Well, you can't go
around trying to figure out who's the mixed multitude. They will
reveal themselves at the proper time when God wants it. You just
keep walking. The only way you can avoid this
is by the grace of God, feet on Christ and nothing else. And when that desire comes for
something more, spiritually speaking, you've got to do just like you
do when you eat regular food and you say, that's not good
for me. I love it. My wife laughing because I'm
no good at this. If there's ice cream in the freezer,
I'm eating it. And I'm going to eat it until
it's gone. That's it. Spiritually, though, by the grace of God, if something other than Christ
is served, I'll pass on that. Thank you. Now, they called that
place Kibreth HaTava, the grave of craving. And then it said,
they abode at Hazareth. Do you know what that means?
A place in the wilderness. That's where we live. On the
one hand, through the gospel of Christ, we have entered the
promised land. I understand that. And yet our experience in this
life, among all the people in this world, where are we living?
We're out there in the wilderness. and we should never expect that
it's going to be anything but that. The only two places mentioned
in this story is the grave of craving and a place in the wilderness. Well, it may not be real fun
in the wilderness, but it's sure better than a grave. May God preserve us, because
if he doesn't preserve us, we won't be preserved. And may our
hearts always be looking for and satisfied with that true
bread from heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord bless you. Amen.