Back in Exodus 16, as we just looked at, the Lord has
graciously delivered His people. Whatever is the enticing sirens
of the cares of this world, calling, tempting us to not believe God. Doesn't it grieve your heart
when we look and we see how could we be so disrespectful? But then in verse 4, the Lord
says to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. Now listen, this manna that the
Lord reigned from heaven is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who came from heaven, God's
provision for His elect, I'm raining out this bread, the Lord
said to Moses, for you. I'm laying down my life for you. I shed my blood for you. This manna, it didn't fall in
Egypt. This manna was given to the nation
of Israel. in the wilderness, where we are,
that we and they might behold the marvel of the Lord's provision. Now listen, here's the marvelous
thing. Almighty God has given His precious
Son to His people in this world. Now listen. The Lord Jesus Christ
has come into this world, sent of the Father. He said, I'm His
servant. This is my righteous servant.
He shall not fail. That's what the Lord said. And
the Lord has sent the bread of heaven. He wasn't a product of
the earth. He didn't originate in the wilderness
of sin. It wasn't brought from Egypt. It was a gift of God. and it pictured and it glorified
the Lord Jesus Christ and it was to be treated with the utmost
respect. I want us to just consider in
this last service what was sent and how it was to be treated. Listen, what we have here this morning,
the gospel. of God's grace is a treasure. That's what the Lord said. Paul
voiced it, but the Lord moved on him to say, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. Now you talk about a treasure.
Now this gospel, this is the power of God unto salvation.
You know that. As I've said before, does God
bless any other message besides the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel of God's sovereign grace. Does he bless any other
message? No. No. What was the message that Paul
preached? He preached this message, man's depravity, God's electing
grace, Christ's redeeming grace, Holy Spirit's irresistible grace,
and God's preserving grace, keeping grace. What Paul said in Galatians
1.9, if any man preaches any other gospel, except this gospel. What's the sentence? Let him
be accursed. Is God going to pour out condemnation
on every message that doesn't honor his son as the Lord has
set forth? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Is it under the judgment of God?
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I want to be so careful how this
message is treated, the respect that is due. And you can't separate
the living word from the written word. Some of you say, well this
is a written word and he's the living word. These words are
life. That's what God said. And the
Lord said, I am the way and the truth and the life. Life was in Him. And here we have this treasure. Now listen, and may the Lord
give us a heart of respect. Respect for what God has to say. Heaven and earth will pass away.
All of this mess. All of these things and mess
and stuff. The Word of God. That's going
to endure. My words shall never pass away. So scripture says, then the Lord
said to Moses, verse 4, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And listen to what the Lord said
would be done with it. And the people shall go out and
gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them. whether
they will walk in my law or no, or whether they'll walk by faith.
That's what it says. Whether they'll walk. They'll
go out and gather a certain rate every day, a portion of the day,
margin, a portion that you know. Now listen, let me tell you what
we don't believe. We don't believe in salvation
because of our works. We do not believe in salvation
because of, by our works. But we certainly believe, according
to the scriptures, that grace in the heart is evidenced by
works. Not for salvation, but because
of salvation. We walk by faith, and that walk
is a walk of faith. And that's how grace in the heart
is known to somebody else. We're not justified by works. We're justified by the grace
of God. But here's how it's known to others. By our conversation
or our walk in this life. That's how it's known. If you
want to know how someone else... James, hold your place right
there. I'll just read this if you want to just listen. James
chapter 2. Scripture deals with this. James chapter 2 verse 19
to 24. Thou believest that there is
one God. Thou doest well. The devils also
believe and they tremble. You believe that there is one
God? Demons believe that. They believe that there is a
God. They know that they are going to stand before God. They
know that. But wilt thou know, or wilt thou understand, O vain,
O empty man, that faith without the evidence of faith, faith
without works, faith without an evidence, is dead faith. It's not the faith of God's elect.
Somebody says, well, I believe this, that, and the other. I
believe in five points of Calvin. I believe that. But let me ask
you something, if it is not manifested in your life, in graciousness
and meekness and kindness and love, James said, it's dead,
it's dead. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works? Now, was it his works that justified
him? No, no, no, no, no, no. Abraham
was justified by the grace of God because God chose. to take that guilt off of Abraham
and charge it to the Lord Jesus Christ and give Him the responsibility
of answering before God for Abraham and all like Abraham, elect. But Abraham, being justified
by grace in the sight of God, manifested it before others. by what he did. What did he do? Well, the scripture
says when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar. Abraham believed
God. How do we know that? God said
that he believed God, and God knows. But how did we know that
Abraham believed God? He took that boy and told those
two servants, he said, y'all stay here. And me and the lad
are going to go up yonder and we're going to worship God. Here's
the wood and here's the fire, where's the lamb? God will provide.
And he took that boy and put him on the altar and God intervened. But I'm telling you, that boy
was dead. In Abraham's heart, he's dead. He believed that God
would raise him up. But he was justified before others
by what he did. Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works? And by works was faith made perfect? That's what you say. He wasn't
justified because of. He was justified by grace and
evidenced by works. So in the gathering, back in
Exodus 60, in the gathering all went out. All of them were to
go and they were to pick it up. Did they produce it? No, they
didn't produce it. Where did it come from? It came
from heaven. God rained it down. But he said
this is the way that it will be treated. You are to go out
every day and you pick up a certain rate that I may prove you, that
I may show whether you walk by faith or not. But especially
found within the Lord's command to the people, in the gathering
of that manner, there was to be a continual remembrance of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Sabbath. You will go out,
you'll pick this up, On the days that I tell you, but there was
a stipulation given by God. This is how it's gonna be treated.
Verse five, it came to pass that on the sixth day, it shall come
to pass, I'm sorry. On the sixth day, they shall
prepare that which they bring in and it shall be twice as much
as they gather daily. On the sixth day, you will gather
twice as much as you normally gather, because there's going
to be a day of rest. What did that picture? It pictures
that the Lord Jesus Christ is our rest from the attempts to
justify ourselves before God by our works. We need a rest
from our laboring to try to satisfy God. And Christ is our Sabbath
day rest. That's what it's pictured. You
will not work. There will be a day of remembrance
that my Son has satisfied me. Because you can't. You will pick
up only that which I require every day except one. You'll pick up twice as much
because of the Sabbath. because of the day of rest. Paul
said in Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. And then the
scripture says not only were they to go out every day, pick
out a certain portion every day, they were to go out at a certain
time. They gathered the manna at a
certain Time. And according to the word of
the Lord, that time had great significance. Look at 6 and 7.
Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even,
then you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from
the land of Egypt. And in the morning, then you
shall see the glory of the Lord. For that he heareth your murmurings
against the Lord. And what are we that you murmur
against us? After Moses and Aaron had been
instructed by the Lord concerning God's revelation that He was
going to send the manna, they told the people that all that
which was to be done according to the Lord's deliverance out
of Egypt, Red Sea, all of that was done by the Lord. Not by
them. That's what he said in verse
6. Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, even
then you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out of
the land of Egypt. The Lord brought you out. They
were murmuring against Moses and Aaron. They could get to
them. But Moses said, listen, we didn't
bring you out. We didn't deliver you. We're
not sending the manna. The Lord did that. And you're
going to see in the mornings, they would go out in the mornings,
and the manna, we'll see that in just a minute, and the manna
would be... Then the Lord revealed, not only
that they would go, that He would send, that they would go, and
when they would go, and then the Lord revealed that that there
would surely be a fulfillment of His promise, and that He would
let them know, I'm doing this for you, you that I've heard
murmuring. Look at verse 8, 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, that the Lord heareth
your murmurings, which you murmur against Him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against
us, but against the Lord. Now listen to me. Anytime you
find fault with God's people, you're not finding fault with
them, you're finding fault with God. Now, we all need to hear
that. Moses said, God sent me to tell
you this. He said, your complainings are
not against me and Aaron. Your complainings are against
the Lord. And according to God's promise
that the people would see the glory of the Lord in the morning,
the same glory that John said we saw. When John said we beheld
His glory, what did he mean? They saw Him and knew Him to
be who He was. That's what He was saying. We
saw the Lord. We touched Him. I heard Him. I heard Him. We looked upon Him. Our hands have handled of the
Word of Life. Now, the Scripture says here
that they were promised by Moses, you're going to see the glory
of the Lord in the morning. And in the fulfillment, Of that
truth, look at verses 9 and 10. Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto
all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the
Lord, for he hath heard your murmurings. How many times did
he say that? I counted them. Three times he told them. Three
times. Three times. I heard your murmuring.
I heard. I heard. They said, well, I said
that in secret. No. No, we didn't. The Lord heard it. The Lord hears.
I heard your murmuring. I heard your murmuring. I heard
your murmuring. Moses spake unto Aaron, verse
9, 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 behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. Wisely, the Lord who revealed
three times to them, I heard your murmuring, told the people
of His mercy, of His kindness to show mercy. He who knew the
inclination of man to complain about the cares of this world,
He Himself appeared in the cloud. It says in verse 10, the congregation
of the children of Israel that they looked toward the wilderness
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. They saw the Lord that Abraham
saw. When the Lord came and those
two angels that came with him before they went into Sodom,
The Lord Himself. Abraham saw Him. The Lord appeared
before He was actually made flesh and stayed and tabernacled among
us. He appeared. These people saw
Him. The glory of the Lord was beheld. And then, to substantiate Moses'
word. Moses had said, Thus saith the
Lord. The Lord has said, The Lord has
declared. Well, somebody say, well you
say that the Lord said. You say. But I want you to watch
what happened. In verse 10, they looked toward
the wilderness and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in
the cloud and the Lord spake unto Moses while they were seeing
him and said, I have heard the murmurings of the children of
Israel. Now they're listening to Him.
Talk to Moses. 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. And the scripture says, it came
to pass. They heard him. They heard him
say it. Moses said he said it, and then they heard him say it.
He's talking to Moses, and he says to Moses, Moses, you tell
them. And they're listening. It came
to pass that even the quails came up, covered the camp. In
the morning, the dew lay round about the host. And when the
dew that lay was gone, behold, upon the face of the wilderness
there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on
the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, for they wist not
what it was." You may have a marginal reading right there. This is
what it means. What is this? What is this? They called it manna. What is
that? For they wished 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 of it 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. In the wilderness, Every man,
or the scripture says in that last verse, according to the
number of the persons in his tents. You take every man according
to his eating, according to his appetite. Except on the Sabbath,
he was to take a certain amount. He could gather just enough.
He could take an omer. Now, I looked it up. An omer,
my looking up, 9.3 cups is an Omer. 9.3 cups. That was one
day supply. One day. That was enough for
one day. 9.3 cups. An Omer. That is a picture. That is a
picture of God's grace. I'll show you that in just a
second. That's a picture. Salvation is a personal thing. Every one of you All of you will
eat 9.3 cups. Every one of you will eat an
omer. They were not saved because they
were born into the right family. They weren't saved by the will
of the flesh. They weren't saved by the will of man. They were
saved, regenerated, all God's elect by the grace of God. And
every morning, every one of them, this is the way it's going to
be. I'm going to send it. You go pick it up. This is when you'll
pick it up. This is how much you'll pick
up. This is how much you'll have. Every morning, each was to go
gather for himself or for his family, according to their appetites,
as much as he was allowed, permitted. Here, we behold, every day, every
day, every day, save one. Every day, you come. God's people,
cometh unto the Lord. He that cometh unto me. I told you before, when people
say, well, I came to the Lord, I can tell you this, that's too
far back. He that cometh. He that cometh. If we're not coming right now,
if we're not coming to Him right now, then we've never come before.
He that cometh unto me, laying hold upon it every day, every
morning, gathering that which I have supplied. Is that not
what we're doing here? Who has sent, Mark, this bread
from heaven? Did we produce it? How much are we allowed to have? Exactly what the Lord says we
need. One omer for them? The Lord says, when Paul had
that thorn in the flesh, he said, I've asked the Lord thrice to
take this away. And here's what he said, my grace
is sufficient. Verse 17, 18, the children of
Israel did so. They gathered some more, some
less. When they didn't meet it out,
they gathered it in something. But when they measured it all
out with an omer, how much are you going to get? How much are
you going to get? I'm going to get one omer. They measured it
out and when they did meet it with an omer, he that had gathered
much had nothing over. He that gathered little had no
lack. They gathered every man according
to his eating. When the Lord supplied, it was
exactly what was needed. I understand, maybe there was
somebody out there and they can just, they're a fast gatherer.
They were picking it up by the handfuls. And he that gathered
much, and here's somebody and they're coming out and they're
just trying to pick up this. But when he that had gathered
much, when they measured it out, Pat, they got a number. They
didn't have anything left over. And the one that could only pick
up just so fast. When He measured it out, He had
an omer. My God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Scripture says in Moses verse
19 said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. You know
how much we'll eat this morning of that which the Lord has provided
this morning? All of it. All of it. There's
no way in the world we can say, well, I'll just kind of let some
of this slide over until in the morning. I won't take all of
this in. No, eat all of it. Don't leave
any of it until tomorrow. The Lord has provided. That manna that they gathered
today wouldn't suffice. For tomorrow, they had a daily
need. We're in a world that we eat
exactly what the Lord provides. We have no promise of tomorrow.
The Lord said don't leave it until tomorrow. How do you know?
Here a few days ago, Rupert was here. Just a few days ago. Brother Scott was here. Rob was
here. Martha was here. Louis Cates
was here. And they're gone. You and I may
not see tomorrow. Take, Lord, that which You've
provided for me. Grant me the grace to eat all
of this. Lord, grant me faith to believe
what You've said. Grant me the faith, Lord, to
take of the bread of heaven. and feast upon it right now. If the Lord allows us to be here
tomorrow, the Lord will provide. But as the case always is, there
were some within the midst of the body that didn't believe.
Notwithstanding, verse 20, they hearkened not unto Moses, but
some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms
and stank, and Moses was wroth with They didn't trust God. They didn't believe the Lord.
And out of that carnal heart of unbelief that the Lord would
supply, that manna that was set by, I tell you what, I might
just need something a little extra in the morning. I might
be a little bit more hungry. That which was given for the
good and for the sustenance of God's elect, it was left over
into the morning and it bred worms. It rotted. It decomposed. And that which was heavenly bread
to some, it had the savor of life because they ate it. To
others, It possessed the savor of death. Oh, but not so on the
Sabbath. That didn't happen on the Sabbath.
The Scriptures declared in verses 24-26, they laid it up till the
morning as Moses bade, that is on the Sabbath, and it did not
stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said,
eat that today. For today is the Sabbath unto
the Lord. Today you shall not find it in the field. Six days
you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath,
in it there shall be none. So, accept the Lord, give a man
a heart to believe God, to trust the Lord. Disobedience is ever
found. Look at verse 27. It came to
pass, here it was, on the Sabbath. It came to pass that there went
out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather and
they found none. Works, unbelief, distrust, it's
bound in the heart of an old man. It's bound in that carnal
heart. It always sets forth our ability,
thinking that we can't accomplish what we think that we can do. And it's always rebellion against
God to think that. Verse 29. See, for that the Lord
hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day
the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out on his place
on the Sabbath day. But for God's people. Verse 30. The people rested on the seventh
day. And by the grace of God, spiritually
speaking, we do too. Verse 31, and the house of Israel
called the name thereof manna. And it was like coriander seed,
white. The taste of it like wafers made with honey. Now, as I come
to the close, we'll look at these last few verses. Just for a second,
look back at verse 15. When the people first saw it,
Verse 15, When the children of Israel saw it, they said one
to another, It is manna, for they wist not what it was. They
saw it, and what they called it, manna, translated, what is
it? What is that? They didn't know
what it was. And here, in this verse, verse
31, and the house of Israel called the name thereof, Manna, with
a capital M, Manna. It was a picture of the Lord,
a picture of God. But when they first saw it, they
didn't know. You remember when Saul of Tarsus
was on the road to Damascus, and the Lord stopped him. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And Saul said this, Who art thou, Lord? He asked a question not knowing. Who are you? When the Lord said,
I'm Jesus, Whom thou persecutest. It's hard. It's dangerous. That's what it means. It's dangerous
for thee to kick against the pricks. He was going after God's
people. And the Lord told him, He said,
What you're doing is very dangerous. It's hard. And Saul of Tarsus then said,
Lord, what would you have me to do? He didn't know who He was at
first. Who art thou, Lord? What would you have me to do? Almighty God sent bread from
heaven. What is that? What is that? What is that? Until the Spirit
of God opens our heart and gives us a revelation of Christ, we
don't know who He is. We'll worship who we think He
is. We worship who men falsely say
He is. But when the Spirit of God opens
this Word and reveals unto us the Lord, we'll say like Thomas,
my Lord and my God. It's the Lord. That's what John
told Peter when he was out there in the pub. It's the Lord. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. He was like coriander. It tasted
like wafers made with honey. I just imagined in my mind, you
know, what that sweet, good, old-tasted seed, that He is good. And the Scripture sets forth,
Moses verse 32 said, This is the thing which the Lord commandeth. Fill an omer of it to be kept
for your generations, that you may see the bread wherewith I
have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth out
of the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, take
a pot, put an omer, a picture of the sufficiency of God's grace,
put an omer full of manna therein and lay it up before the Lord
to be kept for your generations. And the Lord commanded Moses,
so Aaron laid it up before before the testimony to be kept. Isn't
it amazing how that which would putrefy in less than 24 hours,
God sustained it for all those generations. And the children
of Israel did eat manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited. They did eat manna until they
came unto the borders of the land of Canaan, an Omer, 10th
part of Nephi. The food of heaven. Though the murmurings were ever
present, never ceased, through their entire journey to Canaan,
I just imagine our situation here. In all that we are as being
found in Adam, in all of the frailties of our flesh, the manna
never ceases. As long as the Lord is pleased
to allow us to be in this world, on this journey, He said, I will
supply all of your needs, as I said a moment ago, according
to His riches in Christ Jesus. The manna didn't stop when they
went into Canaan. It was over. May God bless this
to our heart for Christ's sake.