Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I beg your prayer for attention to Deuteronomy chapter 8, the
chapter that we read, and reading through our text, verses 2 and
3. Verses 2 and 3. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee, these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no. And he humbled thee and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know. that he may make thee know
that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Deuteronomy 8 and verses 2 and
3 and of course the subject is remembering all the way. The children of Israel were formed
as a nation in Egypt. And in God's time, according
to the promise that he gave to Abraham, God brought them out
of Egypt into the wilderness. And there he taught them and
instructed them and gave them his laws. And at last he brought
them into Canaan, the promised land, the land that Abraham Isaac
and Jacob were in, and that their descendants were to inherit. While we are remembering all
the way that they went, what we are pointing this morning
to, is not just remembering Israel, but remembering the path that
God brings His people from the world, which is like Egypt, unregeneracy,
not knowing the Lord, being amongst the people of the world, and
bringing them then to walk through this world, feeling that this
world is a wilderness. And as they pass through this
world, it is heading for a heavenly haven, the promised land, heaven. And the Lord does things in this
world, in this wilderness, from the time that He calls for, from
the time of the new birth, the time of conversion, to the time
of their death, there are those things that the Lord does for
his people. And so with the children of Israel,
they are told to remember this 40 years, really what we're told
here, to every one of God's children, You remember the time when God
began with you, and you remember right through, until the Lord
brings you to heaven at last. You don't forget, there are things
that God is doing in that time, and the things that you've got
to look back and remember. And we all know that there's
that saying, that hindsight is a wonderful thing. You can look
back on something and you think, I wouldn't do that again. I would
have done that different. I would have changed it. Often
there is real regret. Some people go through their
lives wishing that they could relive, and it's a burden to
them. But the way it's set before us
here is to not try and undo, but to learn from it. To realize
that the things we've passed through were appointed by God,
for us, and not just those things before we were called by grace,
before we were born again. Yes, we are to remember those,
but here it's specifically told in the 40 years, and it is in
a way that we are to profit from it, learn from it. And so it
is in that desire that I want to accept the Word with the Lord's
help, parallels from Israel, their
literal path, but then we want to think especially of what the
Lord is doing with his people. So we want to confine our thoughts
to three headings. Firstly, a time to be remembered. This is 40 years in the wilderness. It's a time. Secondly, God's
purpose. what is His purpose through this
time. We're told in words of our text
what God's purpose is. But then in the third place,
a people proved and taught. We can have a purpose to do something,
and we could write that down before it is done. But then when
it is done, we can actually record what has been done, what has
happened, And what causes to happen in these people's lives
is according to his counsel and his purpose. So it's good to
think of what that purpose is. But firstly, a time. A time to
be remembered. It is 40 days, or 40 years, that
is mentioned here. But 40 is a number that is a
testing number. The rain rained on the earth
for 40 days in Noah's flood. We have the Lord Jesus Christ
was tempted of the devil 40 days in the wilderness. It was 40 days that the Lord
had from his resurrection to his ascension into heaven. A
real testing time, as He really ascended from the grave, and
in that time He appeared to His dear disciples. He showed that
He truly, really was risen indeed. We have the time that was said
within Nineveh, going back to Jonah's day. Forty days, and
the city shall be destroyed. And you might think in that,
Where is the gospel? Where is any hope in Jonah's
message? The hope was in those 40 days,
because where God gives the time, where he gives time to repent,
then there is the hope he will give repentance, and he did in
that case with the Ninevites, and the city was not destroyed. God has a proving time, a testing
time, And the 40 years in the wilderness was just that. And that's what is in the words
of our text. We have a command to remember
these 40 years in the wilderness. Thou shalt remember all the while. These 40 years, remember it. Some people keep diaries. Some
people make notes. things that happen in their lives. But we should especially remember
those times that are very conspicuous. I don't know whether you've ever
noticed, but when you read through the account of these 40 years,
especially in the book of Numbers, there's only a few chapters that
it's given to. the major events that are happening
in that time don't take up much of the Word of God. We have in
Exodus, of course, but there's many years that there's quite
a lot of silence drawn over. But the major events and things,
they are really noticed, and we might have them in our lives
as well. There may be Many years of which
we say, well there's not much I could write down. But then
there are those times there's maybe a lot we could write down.
Conspicuous times. And so it is a command to remember,
maybe go through life seeking to Not just forget, sometimes
people have bad experiences and they say, we just want to forget
that. We don't, we just want to blot
it out of our lives. But God doesn't say that. He says to remember it. And what
is very specific here is not just some of the way to which
you like to remember. It's all of the way, any of those
hard bits, When you've got to remember your own rebelliousness,
your hard heart, your unthankfulness, the times you've been chastened
and corrected, you remember those as well, all of the way. And encouraging, really, that
the Lord will use even those times that to us are so humbling. We'll see that a bit later. We could look at it as not only
a commandment, but it's a promise. We think of our Lord's words
that He says that He will send the Holy Ghost, the Remembrance,
and He shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you. And so if you read that in a
way of promise, thou shalt remember Thou shalt have a remembrance,
sir. Some of the Lord's dear people,
they really fear that they're going to forget the way, they're
going to forget what the Lord done for them. They're going
to forget the blessings they had. Sometimes I think, I think,
well, what is the way Lord's led me? if I were to give my
testimony to the church or to speak it to someone and sometimes
it's just this blank goes over my mind and I think, have I got
anything to say? Can I say anything? But other
times something will be done or said and it floods back and
sometimes it can come back not just as a remembrance but with
real sweetness and real power as a blessing again as it's brought
back in remembrance. The Lord has given to his people
the Holy Spirit to help them. It might be an encouragement
to some of you, because as we get older, we do, we forget things. And it's a good thing to remember
God does not forget. And he remembers, he knows everything. Everything he's done for us all
the way, and he's able to bring that to everyone. and a seal that none other can
do. But what is it then to be remembered? Merely we are to remember our
call by grace, the beginning of the way, and all what the
Lord has done for us in the way, all that has actually happened.
But there's a special emphasis in this. This is not just remembering
things in providence. Providence will be there. Things
that have happened in our lives will be there. But though we
join together with spiritual things, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them that are
the called according to His purpose. And those here, the children
of Israel and every one of God's children, are called according
to God's purpose. So we have to remember, especially
as the children of Israel were to remember, how they first came
out of Egypt. And when God sent them to send
Moses to bring them out of Egypt, it had to be proved at first
how strong a hold Egypt had a problem, and every one of God's children
have got to prove how strong a hold the world has on them. Even if they were to want to
get there, the world would not let them go, and they have a
heart. And that's why the children of Israel that were longed back
to Egypt, and back to their captivity, But the children of Israel had
to learn with those nine signs, and Egypt was brought to desolation
through them, that none of those bloodless signs would ever release
them. The emphasis is on the blood. There's no remission without
blood. There's no soul redeemed. There's
no soul born again. There's no soul converted. without the precious blood of
Christ being shed for them. His people are a redeemed people. The children of Israel were redeemed
out of Egypt. And that is why they were set
free. So in remembering all the way
and remembering the beginning of the way, we must remember
it did not begin with us. It began with the Lord. and began
with what the Lord did at Calvary, and you can go back further than
that. I love thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee, chosen in
Christ, before the foundation of the world, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. That is the only way. There is
the miracle of faith. sinner that is dead in trespasses
and sins and in love with the world, is separated from the
world and brought into the wilderness, brought to see the world as a
wilderness and to live a life that is very different. Of course
in this illustration, this typical way, they literally came out
of Egypt into the wilderness. But when God converts His people
They are in the world, but not of the world. They're still in
the same place, maybe the same house, maybe the same church
that they've been worshipping in. But now, instead of being
dead, they're spiritually alive, and quickened God has given them
life. He's passed by them and bid them
live, and He's blessed them with spiritual life. I give unto them
eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of mine hand. Now the Lord was so insistent
in John 3, he must be born again, there must be a beginning, a
spiritual beginning, new eyes, new ears, new heart, those things
the Lord will give right at the beginning of the world. Remember
those beautiful words, he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it, unto the day of Jesus Christ. And the exhortation
of that text is from that beginning of a good work and remembering
all of the way where God is performing it right through the lives of
his people. So we are to remember our call,
how we came into the way, how it began, how the Lord began
with us. We're to remember Right from
the very beginning, especially, we have to remember that. The
children of Israel were given the Passover to observe, to remember
that. In the Church of God, the Lord
himself has given two ordinances to remember that. Baptism, buried
with him, by baptism into death, risen again in newness of life. And the ordinance of the Lord's
Supper, this, Do in remembrance of me, as oft as ye eat this
bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death
till he come. The Lord said in that last Passover
with Isaiah, I am desiring to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. And after the Passover he instituted
the Lord's Supper. And it is those ordinances that
help the Church of God to remember. and that show forth to the unconverted,
and show forth to the world, and remind the Church of God
how they began, what the Lord did for them in suffering, in
their plight, shedding His blood, rising again for their justification. And they do remember then that
beginning of the way. Don't forget that. Then there
is the wilderness journey itself, all that is done through this
world, in this world, from the time of conversion right to the
end. A wilderness journey. What a
reminder that is for us because sometimes the people of God backslide
and you know this world starts to become not like a wilderness. That should be a warning to us.
when this world starts to be more attractive and we become
more like it and more conformed to it. Remember the Lord says,
be not conformed to this world. And this, Ben, is a touchstone. We are to view this world as
a wilderness, barren, no food there, no water there, no nothing
there, a wasteland wilderness, so unconducive to living, such
a hostile place, that is how the Lord's people should be here
in the world. The Lord says, whosoever is a
friend of the world is an enemy of God. Know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? Now it's not that we
should go out of the world or treat those unconverted with
contempt or unfriendly to them. No, but let go, we go to our
own people. We have as little to do, as it
were, with the world as we need to. Our chosen company will be
the people of God. The Lord says that if we were
to separate from the ungodly altogether, we must need to go
out of this world. So, but it is especially Those
are brethren, those that we worship with, we should seek to be worshiping
and going where the true things, the people of God are, the true
redeemed people of God are, and walking with them. Being let
go, it was said of the disciples, they went unto their own company. Another thing that is to be remembered
here, in this wilderness journey, is a way led by the Lord our
God. Our text says, Thou shalt remember
all the ways the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in
the wilderness. They did not choose out the way. In John 10, the Lord says, When
he put forth his sheep, he goeth before them. We're told regarding
the children of Israel that the Lord did not lead them through
the way of the Philistines, though that was near, because He said,
lest they see war, and they be discouraged and turn back. So
He led them by the way of the Red Sea. He chose that way. He chose the way that seemed
to be, well, there was the Red Sea there, there was the mountains
either side, and they had the Egyptians coming between them,
But the Lord chose that way, and He led them that way. How
does the Lord lead His people? Really there's three things that
guide a child of God through this world. One is the Word of
God. That is a light unto our path,
a lamp unto our faith. An unconverted person will never
have recourse to the Word of God, To know what to do, how
to act, how to speak, where to live, what to go. Because people
will have the word as a lamp unto their feet. That will be
one thing. The other thing will be that
providence that the Lord opens up for them. A way opened up. You can have someone to think,
well, young man, there's a woman, I'd like her to be my wife, but
that way's not opened up. She doesn't want to be that young
man's wife. So that way is shut, is not open. And yet another way might be
open, looking for a job. You might say, I love that position.
I applied for that position. You might say that, well, if
God says it's all right as well, But it never opens up. It's not
offered to you at all. And so that way is shut. Nothing
happens by chance. God overrules and he moves others. We might want to buy a house
in a particular area, but if that house is sold to another
person, or we haven't got enough money to buy it, that way again
is shut up. Another thing the Lord uses is
our own exercise or thoughts in the matter. My people shall
be willing in the day of my power. You don't get a situation where
you see something is right in the Word of God, the Providence
is there, and you think, I don't want to walk in that way. I couldn't
think of anything worse than going in that way. But when you
find all those things line up, over in Australia, we used to
go on the ferry from Melbourne through to Tasmania, and through
the two mile wreck at the end of Port Phillip Bay. And one
such time, I was invited with others onto the bridge with the
captain. And as you know, it was night
time, and there was only a very narrow way, and there's a ship
turned round to go through that wreck, that passage. The captain
says, now watch. He says there's two, two lighthouses. You see them? One, two, you can
see the two. He said as the ship comes round,
those two will merge into one. And then we'll know that's the
right way through the passage. Now, you might say two. No, there's three faces. There's
two lighthouses, but we're the third point. And when you get
three points lining up, There's only one way that three points
can line up. You can't be any other way. But
that shows the way. So when these things line up,
the Word of God, Providence, and the way the Lord's inclined
our hearts, we know that is the way the Lord would have us to
go. The Lord leads His people. He
goes before them. Because we do not have control
over other men of things around us, but God does. We can make
mistakes as it were, perhaps in the Word of God or with our
feelings, but it's a blessed thing if God then shuts the doors
and hedges us up, so we can't go one way, we can't go another. Or perhaps if we start to go
away, And we hear a word behind us saying, that's not the way,
this is the way, maybe a reproof through the word of God. So it
is very clear what we need to remember, here is the way that
the Lord led them. You know the children of Israel?
He led them with the cloud by day and the fire by night. He chose the way. whether they
stayed one day in a place, or if that cloud moved, after one
day then they moved, or if they stayed for months or years in
one place, and that cloud there, they didn't move, they waited
for it to move. Sometimes I've used the illustration,
the modern one really, with the sat-nav, many of us use those,
but when I first started to use it, And I was really puzzled. I came up to a crossroads near
our home, and the sat-nav was silent. It didn't say anything.
And I thought, but here's a crossroad. Aren't you going to tell me whether
I've got to turn? It didn't say anything. And I
thought, there's a lesson here. When there's silence, it means
you just go straight on. You don't turn. And I thought,
how thinkable to that in our lives. When the Lord is silent,
we keep on in the same way that he's directed us in. We don't
go another way, we stay in that way. And so, that's what they
had to remember. It's a blessed thing to look
back, and so I have been led. Some people say, I've been led,
and you wonder what they're really meaning, and what form they're
leading. But leading should be according
to the scriptures, as I just said. And remember we mentioned
about leading all the way. It's a blessing then to think
of this, a real assurance for the people of God. God will lead
you all the way. He won't let you just start in
all parts of the way, and then just forsake you. No. He will lead you all the way.
And that is an encouraging thing for the people of God. So the
time to be remembered, they want to be remembered in that time. I want to look then secondly
at God's purpose. God's purpose. What is God's
purpose through the wilderness? What is he going to do? With the children of Israel,
there were some of those that came out of Egypt that did not
go into the Promised Land. We're told in Hebrews why they
didn't. And the reason was because of
unbelief. We know that it took two years
just to come to the Promised Land, and then they sent the
spies, And they brought a good report of the land, except then
they said there's high cities, and there's giants there, and
they discouraged the people, and they said the Lord's not
able to bring us in, and they even sought to make Moses be
stoned, and those that Joshua and Caleb, who brought a good
report. And it was because of that unbelief
that God sent them back into the wilderness, that those who'd
be consumed because of their unbelief in their children, that
they had said would be a prey to the inhabitants of the land,
they would go into that land. But the wilderness journey was,
as we said at the beginning, the 40 years is a proving and
a testing time. And the greatest blessing a child
of God can have is for God to prove the work that he's done
in their hearts before they get to the journey's end, before
they die, so that they know it is God's work. And that's what
God intends to do. He says the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is. Is it really God's work or is
it an imitation? Now if someone gave us a beautiful
ring, and they thought, this looks like a nice gold ring.
You can buy gold rings that look like gold rings in a lot of toy
shops around here. The children might have them.
But you thought, is that really gold? How would you try it out? One way would be to put it in
a fire. If it was plastic, you wouldn't
need much of a fire. And that would just melt up.
You say, that's not gold. Another way would be to weigh
it. If you could measure and work out the volume of it. If
we had a litre of water, that would weigh one kilogram. If
we had a litre of gold, gold weighs 19.6 kilograms per litre. So you would know there is no
other metal. If it was just ordinary steel
or brass or something like that, You could never make it weigh
as much as the gold, because it just doesn't weigh that much.
Even if it was lead, you say, I'm going to get lead. I'll imitate
the lead is only 11.6 kilograms per liter. So you can't imitate
the weight of gold in lead either. I think there are some other
metals that are heavier, but you could test it by that way.
But the thing is, God tests and tries and proves his people,
he knows his people, he knows who they are, but he wants them
to know that they truly are God's people. And in doing so, he will
sift out and he will find those that are not. If you think of
the parable of the sower, we have the same seed, but four
types of ground that that seed is sown into. Only one brought
forth fruit, And their spiritual teaching was, those who fell
by the wayside, they didn't understand the Word, the powers of the air
came, took it away. Satan takes out the Word straight
away from that hearer. But the other two hearers are
most solemn, because they at first receive the Word with joy,
they begin as a Christian. but then when there is persecution
or trials because of the Word, then they become offended and
they go back and they don't walk with the Lord at all. On another,
the ones that were saved amongst the brambles and thorns, the
cares of this world, the riches and things of this world, they
choked the Word and it did not become profitable. So our Lord
in that parable was speaking about this proving Is it really
my work, or is it man just decided to turn over a new leaf and to
be a Christian? It is only God's work that will
stand the fire. The fire shall try every man's
work of what sort it is. Grace, says the hymn writer,
though the smallest must surely be tried. And the apostle is
very, very clear that the trying of your faith being much more
precious than the gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
shall be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at that last
day. That is what we need. If you
and I truly know and value our solemnness, we will want the
Lord to test it. We'll want to know it is real.
And maybe there are those of you that have asked the Lord
that. Lord, assure me that my faith really is real, that there
has really begun in my heart. And you know what the Lord has
done to my answer? He's brought triumphs into your
life. Triumphs, things that many have
had in their lives, that have made a profession, and they've
said, if this is God's hand, I'm not gonna be a Christian
anymore, I'm gonna go back. But you don't, are not able to
trace and think, actually this is the answer to my prayer. Your
thought was that the Lord would bless through the ministry and
say, I love thee well, my child. Thou art one of my children.
The Lord said, no. Into the fire you go. Like he
said with Peter, Satan hath desired to have thee, to sift thee as
wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thou frayed not. And
yes, Peter denied his Lord three times. But when he came out of
that fire, He still loved His Lord. He knew the Lord loved
Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. This is what the Lord is determined
to do with the children of Israel. This is what our text says. Let
us read it. Thou shalt remember all the ways
the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness
to humble them and to prove them to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. That is his
express purpose of what he was doing. God is in control. Those hard things, those very
flexing things, those things that really rocked and shaken
your heart, those things like you might see a little sapling
tree, and it's a young tree, and the wind comes along, and
it blows first this way, and that way, and it bends over,
and it bends over that way, and you think, is that tree upright
or not? And when the wind stops, there
it is, upright again. And we might be tossed to and
fro, troubled, but at last brought out, and still, still a Christian,
still looking to the Lord, Still trusting him, though he slain
me, yet will I trust in him. You think of all of the sorrows
and all of the things that Job went through. He says, the Lord
gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. The great trials he went through
and he's still praying to his God. The Lord says, in me shall
I have peace. in the world ye shall have tribulation. And the apostle said to the disciples,
in the world ye shall have tribulation. Ye must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom. And it is because the Lord uses
this way to prove he has a purpose. This people have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. to those His own. And may you, may I remember Him
as we go through this wilderness. The Lord is our God and the Lord
leads us to be into those trying places, hard places, proving
places. May we remember the Lord in the
wilderness those 40 days being proved. Our first parents had
all the garden of Eden eat. No, given one temptation to eat
one forbidden fruit, and they fell. Our Lord was in the wilderness,
and he had forty days where he ate nothing, and he was tempted
in that very corner. If thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made dead. And the Lord answered by the
word of the Lord, and it is written, and here we have in our text,
Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Our Lord, our Captain, stood
that fiery test. The first parents, first Adam,
did not. And we shall have those fiery
tests too. We won't stand in our own strength.
None can. But as the Lord gives grace and
strength and help, we will stand. Himmler, it says, our captain,
stood before his head, and we shall stand through him. On to look then in the third
place, a people proved and taught. How does God achieve his purpose? And he will achieve his purpose. We know, of course, that every
one of us children, it is an individual part. He deals with
them as individuals. Some will have a deeper path
than others. Some will have a smoother path.
Some will have a much rougher path. He deals with them as individuals. We cannot dictate and say every
time that God will go through these things in this way. But we are told here what the
Lord did in verse 3, and He humbly and suffered thee to hunger,
and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did
thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Now whatever the Lord is doing,
there is in our text a real end effect. And it's that feeding upon bread
from heaven. Our Lord reproved those, though
it were those miracles of the loaves and the fishes, they followed
him, and he said he reproved them. He said not because he
saw the miracles, the miracles testified that he was the Son
of God, but because he ate of the loaves and were filled. And
no doubt though, poor people are glad of those things. But
there's many that will follow the Lord from loaves and fishes.
That is, for what the Lord will give them. The Lord will give
you a good job, give you a well-spread table, give you a good family.
And they don't look past it to the Saviour, the Redeemer. All
they want from the Lord is temporal things, not eternal things. It's like the dying thieves.
One said, what he wanted from the Lord, save thyself and us,
come down from the cross. The other one said, Lord, remember
those when thou comest into thy kingdom. One had his sights on
heaven, the other on earth. They still wanted benefit from
the Lord, but in very different ways. And the Lord went from
reproving, that they were following the load from the loaves and
the fishes, to teach about the manner, the spiritual manner.
He said, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son
of Man, ye have no life in you. Man shall live by the word of
the Lord, centering in the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's coming back to the ordinances
again. The whole life of the people
of God is bound up in the Lord. He says, because I live, ye shall
live also. And that is absolutely vital. When the Lord speaks in John
15, He pictures the church as united to Him as a living vine. The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine. Neither can ye, except
ye abide in Me. And then He addresses it in this
way, My words abide in you, ye shall hear. Man living upon the
words of the Lord, living upon what he has done at Calvary,
living upon his promises, feeding upon his word. It is spiritual
fruit, not natural fruit. And that's why many left him,
walked no more with him, because they said, how can this man give
us his flesh to eat? They're offended. They were interpreting
it in a natural way. It's a blessed thing to know
what it is, to come into the house of God, to read the word
of God, and the Lord gives you spiritual food, and you feed
upon that. You meditate upon it, you think
of the clean bees. The clean bees, they graze, and
they go and they sit. They bring it up, and they chew
over it again. They chew the gut, And that's
a good thing. The Bereans are like that. They
heard Paul preaching. Then they went home and searched
the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. Therefore
many of them believed. And so it is in this way the
Lord brought them through the wilderness. He brought them to
the Red Sea first. An impossible situation. God
had to appear. And He appeared and He divided
the Red Sea. What was their reaction first?
They'd been brought into the wilderness to be slain, to be
killed. But in spite of their unbelief
and limiting the Lord, He brought them through. And the very thing
that bring them through was a means that their enemies would destroy.
They sung the song of Moses. We read about it later in the
Revelation. In the great conquest for the
church of God, they sing the song of Moses, a song of deliverance. And then they had just three
days later, they had no water. Again, they were murmuring. And the Lord showed, and then
they came to the waters of Mara that were bitter. He showed Moses
a tree which he had cast in, made the water sweet, beautiful
type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bitter waters of providence,
afflictions, illness, sickness, but the Lord Jesus Christ cast
in But, you know, each of these
times, and we may look at another few more, but each of these times
there is that which humbles them. If they were to think of the
Red Sea Blessing and the Waters of Mara Blessing, They don't
just say, oh, the Lord wonderfully brought me through the Red Sea
and he gave us this water to drink. They're going to say,
well, yeah, we didn't believe he could, and we murmured, and
we strove. And there are those things to
remember that are very humbling. You might have in your mind,
if you're a real Christian, you'll have a life, you'll be able to
think, how graciously I acted there, and how wonderfully I
acted there, and dealt in such a wonderful way, and things have
brought me through. But if you're like me, just about
every step of the way, there's some painful thoughts, something
that's very humbling, something that, like I said, about all
the way you run, I forget that. Things you've said and done and
acted, but that's what the Lord is doing, to humble us. Don't
think to be humbled is not a painful thing, it is. And the Lord will do that. He
won't spare us in that, painful as it is. And so then they came
to Mount Sinai. And there they had to learn the
law of God. But what did they do there? Immediately
idolatry, and the stones were broken, a broken wall. How hard
then to remember that matter. Broken wall. Paul says the law
is the schoolmaster under Christ. And God's children are learned
this. that by the deeds of the law
shall no man living be justified. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and the whole reason for the law being
given was that all the world might become guilty before God. But what was the blessing of
that sign? God wrote another law, and that then was put in
the archetype of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled
the law and made it honourable. He has fulfilled it. We will
never fulfill it, but He has, in every job and title, and fulfilled
it for His people, and suffered the penalty of the law in dying
the accursed death of the cross, shedding His precious blood and
rising again. It is by faith in the finished
work of Christ that God's people live. Their hope is based on
Him, not them. on grace, on mercy, not on wax. And that is proved right through
our wilderness journey. Him, Lord, it says, if ever my
poor soul be saved, tis Christ must be the way. The Word says,
but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have this idea of getting
better and better and better as a Christian, but no, what
is grace? Growing more and more, realizing
all my works, all my righteousness is filthy rags, and all my hope
is in what Christ has done, what Christ has accomplished. And so we read here how he suffered
them to hunger. You think of it now in a spiritual
way. Some of you may say this, but
it's been so long since I fed from the Word of God, so long
since I really enjoyed the world, but the Lord gives that word
softly, and he gives it from heaven. That makes those times
precious to us all. There's another aspect of that
too. To find this world as an aching
void, the world cannot fill, and your poor soul longs and
hungers after the Lord. He wants something different
than the empty things of this world. Vanity of vanity, he said
to the preacher, all is vanity, do you know what that is? The
fear of this world, the vanity, the empty things. But when we
come to the word of God, my words were found and I believed them.
They were to the joy and rejoicing of my soul. They were lovely
to my soul. So, the Lord says, he fed with
manna, fed with that which comes from heaven. the Lord achieves it and brings
us so that our eyes are looking unto the Lord and feeding upon
Him. He is our eye. Paul says when
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear
with Him. As we go on, I believe more and
more we will be persuaded that without Him we must perish. that
He is the one thing needful. In the beginning we may say with
Peter, when the Lord says to, will you also go away, we may
say to whom can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And later on we may go more and
more and deeper and deeper. How precious the Lord is, how
needful, die without Him, perish must. There is a blessed thing
with those lessons I learned, however painful, right through
the wilderness journey. Those that lead to heaven at
last. John Baptist said, he must increase,
I must decrease. And that will be what our experience
will be. And these are things we are to
remember, painful as they are, But each painful time when the
Lord puts us in the dust, and the Lord then raises up a home
for who can tell, and sets us in the way again, keeps us in
the way, revives our prayers, revives our appetite, revives
our love for Him and His Word and His people, revives our desire
for a heavenly country. May we truly know the blessings
of the way of the people of God, where the Lord brings them into
the way, achieves his purposes, tries them, proves them, and
brings them forth to heaven at last. Amen.