Welcome our visitors from all
the way from the state above North Carolina, Virginia. Good to have you with us, glad
you could come. Good to make your acquaintance. Hope if you
ever back this way you'll come again. I remember those who requested
prayer. I talked to Moose Parks yesterday,
the day before yesterday. Deeds have experienced some serious
pain right now. I don't know whether the cancer's
advanced and is now pressing on his spine or what, they don't
know, but he's in severe pain, so remember him in your prayers. Seek the Lord's help for him.
Also remember Patsy Levert and Kathy Robinson and Aniah Sampson's
family at the loss of their loved one. Fred's feeling a little weak.
He's running out of iron again. I guess he's gonna have to have
an iron infusion tomorrow. more okay and Wayne sends his
love which he said I sure wish I could be there and I know he
does wish he could be here remember him in your prayers
also and the others are other shut-ins This coming Sunday is
the last Sunday of the month, so we'll be having the Lord's
table after the morning service, and then dinner, and no afternoon
service. Let's begin our worship service
tonight with hymn number 517 on Jordan Stormy Banks. I stand, 517. On Jordan's stormy banks I stand
and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land where my
possessions lie. I am bound for the promised land. Who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land. eternal day. There God the sun forever reigns
and scatters night away. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. ? We'll come and go with me ?
I am bound for the promised land ? No chilling winds or poisonous
breath ? Can reach that hell-full shore ? Sickness and sorrow,
pain and death ? Are felt and feared no more I am bound for
the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. When shall I reach? ever blessed. When shall I see my father's
face and in his bosom rest. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound to come and go with me. I am bound for the promised land. Hymn number 126. Also remember
Loretta, she's feeling poorly. So remember her in your prayers
too. Hymn number 126. Rock of ages, cleft for me. ? Let me hide myself in thee ?
Let the water and the blood ? From thy wounded side which flow ?
Be of sin the double cure ? Save from wrath and make me pure ?
Could my tears forever flow ? Could my zeal no longer know ? These
poor sin could not atone ? Thou must save and thou alone ? In
my hand no price I bring ? Simply to thy cross I cling ? While
I draw this fleeting breath ? ? When mine eyes shall close in death
? ? When I rise to worlds unknown ? ? And behold the all-night
throne ? ? Rock of ages cleft for me ? ? Let me hide myself
in thee ? If you have your Bibles, travel
with me to Exodus chapter 16. I'm going to read verses 9 through
26. Exodus 16. And Moses spake unto Aaron, saying
to 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 Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness,
and beheld the glory of the Lord, and appeared unclouded. The Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children
of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, At even
ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with
bread, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. It came
to pass that at even the quails came, and covered the camp, and
in the morning the dew lay round about the hosts. 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. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, It is manna, or what is it? For
it was not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This
is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the
thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather it to every man according
to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number of
your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did
so and gathered some more and some less. And when they did
meet it out an omer, he that had gathered much had nothing
over, and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every
man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave
it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto Moses, but some of them left it until the morning, and
it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them. And
they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating.
And when the sun waxed hot, it melted. It came to pass that
on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two homers,
for one man. And all the rulers of the congregation
come and told Moses, and he said unto them, This is that which
the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath
unto the Lord. Bake that which ye shall bake
today, and seethe it that ye will seethe, and that which remains,
overlay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid
it up till the morning, and Moses bathed that it did not stink,
neither was there any worm therein, Moses said, Eat that day, for
today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today ye shall not find it in
the field. Six days ye shall gather it,
but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall
be none. Let us pray. Our Father, we come
in the blessed name and perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ
the Lord, who loved us and gave himself for us, who died in the
room instead of his people, fully satisfied your law and justice
and made it so that you can be just to justify poor, wretched
sinners who believe on Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father,
for a perfect offering that he offered unto you that paid the
sin debt that we owed and that we'll never be charged with that
debt again. We praise you for your goodness and mercy and grace
toward ruined and wretched sinners. Father, we pray tonight for those
who are sick, those who are going through trials. Remember Brother
Fred. You'd strengthen him, help him, Lord. Pray he'd be with
Loretta. She's not feeling well. Pray
she'd continue to be with Dee Parks and his family as they
face this cancer. I ask, Lord, you might be merciful
to them. Father, we pray for this congregation. We might stand
as a lighthouse on the hill, a hospital for sinners, a place
where sinners can come and hear the truth of the word of God.
Help us all, Lord, to be thankful that in the course of time and
according to your good pleasure at the appointed time, you sent
someone to tell us the truth and tell us about Christ and
what he had done for us. We thank you for faith to believe.
Thank you for the gift of repentance. Help us now to seek you, to worship
you. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Now, one takes a pause to ponder
the magnitude of this miracle of manna and the quails. It astounds the mind. With what
some say is a million mouths to feed, the supply that God
provided every day for 40 years is almost beyond human comprehension.
For six days of every week the people awoke to what appeared
like a hoarfrost or frozen dew, that's what hoarfrost is, covering
the ground. And what lay on the ground had
the appearance of a round coriander seed. It was to be milled and mortared
into flour and to make cakes that had the taste of honey according
to Numbers chapter 11 and verse 8. It was a hard little seed
and it had to be milled. They put it in mortars and pestles
and crushed it and made cakes of it. The people when they saw
it had no idea what it was and gave it the name manna or said
the name manna and a word simply means what is it. One person
said it means the whatness, whatever that is. It appeared after the
frost had lifted in the morning. Some Jewish scholars said that
the manna was enclosed. They suggested that first came
the dew of the morning, and then the manna upon it, and then another
layer of dew upon that. And their notion was that it
showed that the manna was doubly protected against impurity. There
is no scriptural basis for that idea, but I see their desire
to magnify the perfection of this holy gift that God gave
to His people. One estimation of the quantity
delivered weekly amounted to over a million and a half bushels
a week. That's a lot of little teeny
seeds, isn't it? A million and a half bushels
a week for 40 years. In the evening, the Lord sent
quails for the people. When I thought of this, I remembered
reading and seeing pictures of something that took place in
America many years ago. against a group of birds called
the carrier pigeons. They bred prolifically and soon
became a menace to society. There were so many that a flock
of them covered the sky to the point of eclipsing the sun. The
people started killing them and soon there were no more. I remember
seeing pictures of mountains of dead birds and thousands of
strings like fish on strong lines and long lines. What must have
been the sound when from the direction of the
Red Sea came millions of quail. What noise it must have made.
Anyone who's ever hunted quail or bobwhite or stumbled upon
a covey know that they make a noisy flight. And they came at night,
which suggests that the flesh was given for the flesh. In another
place, the people cried for flesh, and when the Lord sent it, he
said, I also sent leanness to your souls. For they cried for
flesh. little is said about the quail,
except they came. It doesn't tell how to cook it
or how to prepare it or any such thing, but a great deal is said
about the manna in the Old and the New Testament. Our Lord,
I believe, made a reference to it when he taught his disciples
how to pray when he said, Give us this day our daily bread,
the bread that comes every day. The Lord referred to himself
as the manna from heaven. Look over at John
chapter 6. John chapter 6. Verse 31, it says, Our fathers
did eat manna. This is the Pharisees and the
Jews talking to him. Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert, it is written. He gave them bread from heaven
to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, truly,
truly, 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 for the world. Then said
they unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread. He said he
was the manna from heaven. The Lord was the bread that the
Lord gave from heaven. He is that unspeakable gift,
and every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father
of lights, in whom there is no variable, there is no shadow
of turning. Christ is freely given to His
people, and with Him they are given freely all things. We saw
last week in our study in Deuteronomy that the manna was given to prove
the people. It's an interesting thing. So
this matter of giving the man on the ground this wonderful
miracle that made sure the people were fed and they weren't hungry
anymore was actually sent as a trial for the people to prove
them. That word prove means to test
or to try the people. What was the trial? The trial
was simply, will they be satisfied with the provision that God has
given? It's a singular provision. It's not rye bread, it's not
toast, it's little seeds that they must grind up and turn into
meal to make bread with. Our Lord said He would prove
them that if they would walk in His commandments. Now, this
was pre-Sinai. They ain't got to Sinai yet.
Moses ain't got up on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments.
So the Ten Commandments are not what He's talking about when
He said He would prove them to see if they would walk in His
commandments. He was speaking of the commandments that related
to the proper use and attitude toward the manna and the restrictions
that applied to it. Since Christ is the true manna,
the commandments given have to do with His person and His work. He is the true manna. As we know
from the scriptures in Genesis to Revelation, all the book is
about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this book is about.
Spurgeon said you can take a red thread and stick a needle through
the front cover of the book all the way through all the pages
to the back cover of the book. So every time you open the page
you see a red line you know it's talking about ultimately about
the blood of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon said no matter what
text you start at if you don't get to Christ you don't understand
the text you're talking about. This book is about Christ. In
the early church until 50 AD until the first epistle was written
Our Lord and His disciples had nothing to preach from but the
Old Testament, and they preached Christ and Him crucified from
the Old Testament. So when we read about the manna,
we're reading about the Lord Jesus Christ. First, as to its
source, the manna was a gift from heaven. A gift from heaven. It was God's provision and was
what was needed for the sustenance and survival, the salvation for
life of Israel. This alludes to Christ as the
Word of God. He said, My words, they are spirit
and they are life. Our Lord said it is doctrine.
His doctrine would distill as the dew. His doctrine would distill
as the dew. Look over at Deuteronomy 32.
This was given as a song to be sung by the people. When they
come close to being idolaters, they would sing this song. And
remember these words that were to be sung over and over and
over again in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 2 it says, My doctrine
shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as
the small rain upon the tender herb, as the flowers upon the
grass. Now, what's he talking about?
He says because, this is what he's talking about, his doctrine,
because I will publish the name of the Lord Ascribe ye greatness
unto our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment.
He is a God of truth without iniquity. Just and right is He. This is His doctrine. This is
His teaching. A lot of folks talk about, you
old people believe in sound grace. You always talk about dry doctrine
all the time. No we don't. We talk about doctrine like the
dew. Our doctrine is damp and wet and moist. It comes from
heaven as the rain from God. Dew is a wonder. It's a wonder. You wake up and there it is.
You didn't see it be formed. And if you'd have sat up all
night long, you wouldn't have seen it being formed. I've never
seen it, but I've seen its appearance. I've seen it show up. In Psalm
110, there's a reference to His people being willing in the day
of His power, and they will appear in the beauty of holiness from
the womb of the morning, like the dew. They will appear like
the dew. I know people have an idea that they can tell when
God's working on somebody. They can just see their sad faces
or something. They say, God's working on you.
You don't know that. I baptized about everybody in this room,
just about. I never saw God working on you.
one day you showed up, and one day you said, I want to confess
the Lord in baptism, I believe the gospel. What happened? I don't know all that stuff that
happened prior to that. I know it didn't happen until
you heard the Word of Truth, because you believe after you
heard the Word of Truth the good news of your salvation. But God's
people show up, like they do. Christ having made their sanctification,
they show up in the beauty of holiness. and the beauty of holiness
like the dew from the womb of the morning. The manna also alludes
to the Word of God as to its taste, for it says in Scripture
that it tastes like honey, like a wafer that's covered in honey. That's what it tastes like. That's
the Word of God. The Word of God is said to be
sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. There is a lot of said in the
scriptures about eating the Word of God, about eating the words
of God. Look at a few examples. Jeremiah chapter 15. Here the
prophet says this, Jeremiah 15 and verse 16, Thy words were found, and I did
eat them. And thy word was unto me the
joy and rejoicing of mine heart. for I am called by thy name,
O Lord, God of hosts. Thy word, I found it, and I ate
it." He's not the only prophet that spoke that way. If you look
over at Ezekiel chapter three, in Ezekiel chapter three, Verses 1 and 3 says this, Moreover,
he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest. Eat this roll, he's talking about
the scroll, the word of God, and go speak unto the house of
Israel. Eat this book and go talk about it. This is what the
man of the gospel does. Verse 3, he said unto me, Son
of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this
roll that I give thee. Then I did eat it, and it was
in my mouth as honey for sweetness. My mouth is honey for sweetness. Over in Revelation chapter 10,
the angel says to John, eat this book and it will be bitter in
your stomach but sweet in your mouth. Sweet in your mouth. The
manna was white, it says. Our Lord was said to be white
and ruddy. That's how he's described in
the Song of Solomon. He is pure. What does that mean?
He's white as snow and he's ruddy. He's red. He's red like crimson,
like crimson when He was made to be sin for His people. He
offered His own blood death as payment for our sin debt. The
manna was round, it says. That speaks of perfection. That speaks of having neither
beginning nor end. That means the significance thereof
is the eternality of the Son of God. Our Lord is eternal. He was eternal as the Son of
God. He is the Eternal Sacrifice.
It says plainly in Revelation 13 that He was the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world or prior to the conception of
the world. So before there was ever a sinner, there was already
the offering for sin before the Holy God, and that offering was
the Lord Jesus Christ. The manna was daily bread. It was to be gathered only in
the amount that would be eaten that day, no more and no less. Christ is today's bread because
no one is promised tomorrow. We have now. What we have is
now. He now appears in heaven for
us. Why now? Because that's all we
have. We're not promised tomorrow. And if we make it to that day
called tomorrow, you know what time it'll be? It'll be now. It's always now. This is what
we have. And Christ is our daily bread.
He's our bread now. Because it was a supply for one
day only, it proved the people as to whether they would trust
the Lord for their needs. Will Christ be mine tomorrow?
If I make it tomorrow, it'll be now and He'll be mine. He'll
be appearing in heaven now for me. Christ is the singular provision
for His elect. This is what the manna is. Nothing
else. Only the manna is spoken of in
this language. Our Lord never calls Himself
a quail in the New Testament. He refers to Himself as the manna
because this is that singular thing that the Lord gave to His
people. He sent them quails but gave leanness to their soul.
He sent the manna to prove them, to test them, to try them, to
see if they would walk in His statutes. Would the people of
Israel be satisfied with this manna? I mean, it was really
something. They never had to worry about
bread anymore. there every morning. They got up, looked outside,
saw the frost and the frost melted away and there it was. These
little seeds. Millions of pounds of little
seeds. They could just go out on the
ground and get a bushel, get an omer for a family. Were they happy with this? Were
the people happy with this? Of course we know that the mark
of the children of God in the Old Testament was that they were
murmurers. And I find that the reason that
that's included in the description of Israel is because it's also
a description of true Israel. And I myself am the chief offender
in that. I complain about so many things.
I get so upset. I shouldn't. The Lord's in charge. Everything's running on schedule.
I'm thankful when people actually call me on the carpet and give
me a mild rebuke and say, Everything's on schedule. Everything's going
as simply as God has planned. There's nothing strange and wondrous
going on. All of it's been done before
by the same kind of sinners. We just have a better way of
communicating all the vileness that's going on. Were they happy
with Christ? Were they happy with the manna?
No, their soul began to loathe it, to hate it. Numbers 21, it
says, Our soul loatheth this library else is that there is
no water which to last right there it was water came from
the rock a part of the memory way they said our soul hates is like
this same mesh every day this man what were they say we hate
Christ is Christ all He is all in all
to the believer according to Scripture. God sent serpents to bite them
and kill them because they hated the light bread. There are some,
yea, many in religion that want to think that there is more to
salvation than Christ. There is more to preach than
Christ. For such the Lord has the answer. The manna was to
be gathered for the day and none was to be kept over till the
morning Some, however, kept some extra, and it was devoured with
worms and stank. If anyone wants to think that
there is more than Christ as the singular, daily, and only
portion that God has given to His people, they will find that
their additions will be a wormy mass of putrefying stench. Our
Lord said something about religious things, about religious works,
He said they were dead, they were dead works, but he said
the praying of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The
praying, the plowing of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.
You have two men running plows down a line, one of them is the
elect of God, the other is not. The one man's plowing honors
God. The other man's plowing stinks.
That's what abomination means. It stinks. There's a stench.
Christ is it. He's the bread from heaven. He's
the manna in the morning. He's what you get that day, all
day long. But you get nothing else. You
get nothing else. Be satisfied or expect that their
serpents bite. You may desire the flesh and
the Lord may suffer you to have it, but he may also send leanness
to your soul. One of those who did as the Lord
commanded, who received what the Lord provided and desired
nothing else and sought nothing else, it said they wanted for
nothing and they lacked nothing. That's what it says in verse
18 of our text. They lacked for nothing. What do you need? If you're a child of God, you
have what you need. You have all that you need. You say, well,
I might want some stuff. God ain't supplying your wants.
He's supplying your needs. Supplying your needs. Scripture
says that in Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
That means Jesus Christ is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then
it adds this, and you. are complete in Him. You lack
nothing. You need nothing. Why? Because
every morning when you get up, when the sun makes the dew go
away, there's a manna from heaven every day. And finally it says
on the sixth day the Lord directed the people to gather enough for
two days because no work was to be done on the seventh day
or the Sabbath day. If you look at the eight Sabbaths
that are spoken of in Leviticus, every one of them says the same
thing. In every Sabbath, our Lord says, there shall be no
servile work. What does that mean? Why? He
said if you pick up a stick on a Sabbath, he'll kill you. Why? Because the Sabbath says something
about what the Lord has done The Lord has finished the work.
He's finished creation. And for you to add anything to
that or try to add your works to that or work when you ought
to be resting in Jesus Christ, God will have none of it. On
that day, no manna was to be gathered. In fact, on that day,
there was no manna. On the seventh day, When they
went out and looked out, there wasn't any man on the ground.
He was gone. There was no man. The Lord said
to his people, referring to his finished work on Calvary Street,
he said, When I finish that work, you will see me no more. And
you ain't seen him, and neither have I. Although we don't see
him, we love him, according to 1 Peter. Whom having not seen
you love, we haven't seen him. Why? He's gone. Having finished
the work, He has now entered into His own rest, and we rest
in Him. Doing no work because there's
no work to be done. You say, well, doesn't the Bible
talk about good works? Yes, it does. But He said they're preordained.
They're preordained. They're predestinated for you
to walk in them. God has predestinated the works.
He's predestinated that you'll walk in them. The problem with
religion is we try to figure out what the works are. Stop
trying to do that. wake up in the morning go out and gather
the manna for the day eat it feed on it God will take care
of the rest because it's predestinated it is finished with the cry of
the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree the Lord has provided everything
everything we need and it's all in Jesus Christ if you have Him
you have it all that's what Paul told the Corinthian church all
things are yours and you're Christ's and Christ is God all things
are yours so rest and dine on the feast of fat things wine
on the leaves and well refine eat this bread and never be hungry
again that's what the Lord said eat this bread and never be hungry
they weren't hungry for bread for forty years in the wilderness
And if you eat this bread, you will never be hungry for all
eternity. And the reply was to the Lord,
Lord evermore, give us this bread. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.