Marvin asked me to take this
first message. I've really found out what it
takes on his part to prepare two servants every week. What
a job he has to preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ. Oh, it's not a light thing. I
started last week on this message and Oh, how I grieved over it. How
I grieved over it. But with that, it's good to see
you this morning. It's good to see each one of your faces. Thank
the Lord that he's blessed us and allowed us to gather together.
I want you to turn with me to the book of John, chapter six. I want you to remember me and pray
for me as I I go through this message that the Lord would be
pleased to help me. Before we get into it, let's
look to the Lord for guidance and assistance. Our Father, we're
thankful that you have permitted us to gather together this morning
to hear your word. Lord, thankful that you have
allowed us to see one another's face once again. Now, oh, Lord,
we ask that you would. Be with us, show us your face,
Father. Show us Christ's face, help us
to honor him. Oh, Lord, I ask that you would
help these frail lips, these weak lips that would speak. Oh,
Lord, I cannot say anything that's right apart from your Holy Spirit. Speaking of the word Lord we
pray that you would bless the hearts and the ears. Oh Lord
that you would plan in them that they might not hear me but you
would plan in them the words of Christ for it's in his name
we ask and amen. I was reading recently through
this chapter in John chapter six and I came upon the part there
in verse thirty Well, it runs from verse 30 to verse 58, and
we're all familiar with this scripture where the Lord himself. Makes mention of the comparison
of himself to the man of the Old Testament, and I as I read
this, I got to thinking about what is it that I know? About
the manner. Ask myself that question, I thought,
well, I know that it came down from heaven. That's a type of
Christ. I know the Israelites ate of
it. That's a type of Christ. I knew some certain facts about
it, in other words. But really, beyond that, to my
shame, I say, that's about all I knew. That's all I knew. So
I got to researching it and reading about it. And oh, what a beautiful
picture. And that's what I want to talk
about this morning, that beautiful picture of Christ himself. But
before I do that, I want to go through some verses here in John,
chapter six. In order to lay the groundwork
for that belief, that picture. If I take a piece of scripture
and I give you a comparison to Christ without being able to
back it up. Then I'm basically giving you
my opinion. My own opinion. But if I can
show you in scripture where Christ himself has compared himself
to the manna. And that's something I want to
read about and that's something I want to hear and I'm sure that's
something you want to hear. So let's Let's look at some things
here in chapter six, and I told Marvin when he asked me to do
this, I said, Marvin, this is a lengthy subject, and
I don't know if I can really cut it down to a very short sermon. He said, well, take whatever
time you need. So I'll try to keep it short,
but there's some things that we need to say, some things we
need to learn. In chapter six it begins with
the Lord feeding the four thousand with the fishes and the bread.
And in verse 11 it says Jesus took
the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the
disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise
of the fishes as much as they would. In verse 14, realizing
and seeing the miracle, then those men, when they had seen
the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is a truth that the prophet
should come to the world. And later in the chapter, along
with about verses 22, I'm not going to read all these because
it's going to be quite lengthy and take time, but I'm going
to try to give you just a brief idea of what the scriptures are
laying out. It says the people followed him. And it doesn't say all the people
followed him. If you read in Matthew, in the
book of Matthew, it says the Pharisees and the scribes followed
him. It says they come seeking him
that they might tempt him. So let's pick up in verse 26
or verse 25. It says, When they had found
him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi,
recognizing that he was a teacher from God, when camest thou? And Jesus said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, you seek me not, not because you saw the miracles.
But because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. They
saw the miracles of the fish, if you read back in past chapters,
they saw the miracles that he performed, all these people were
following, they saw him healing people and so forth. So they
saw miracles. But yet they did not even at that time believe
according to the scripture here, because that's what the Lord
says. He says you were You were looking for meats for the belly.
And that is common religion today, yesterday, and every other day.
It's always been religion. Man seeking that what can God
do for me? How can he fill my belly? This
is the religion of the day, the prosperity gospel they preach.
God wants you to be prosperous. Well, they come looking for that
food, he says. The Lord says in verse 27, labor
not for the meat which perishes, perisheth, but for that meat
which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed."
Speaking of that spiritual meat and the term meat there, that
does not mean meat literally, it means food. And you'll notice
in this verse 25, verse 26, he speaks of the bread. This is
the first mention the Lord talks about bread. He didn't say anything
about fishes. He says bread. He speaks of bread.
So he has broached the subject of this bread, this matter that
he's about to talk about. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? And typical
of man, the natural man in religion, that's the first thing they ask.
What can I do? What can I do? That's natural. Before you that believe were
saved, Including me, I went to church. What do I need to do?
What do I need to do? That was the question. What can
I do to be saved? But look what the Lord says to
him, verse 29. Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God. Not your work. This is the work
of God, the Father, that ye believe on him who hath sent. Remember when Paul was in the
jail? A flipping jailer comes and says, Lord, what must I do
to be saved? Paul says, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Here was a natural man
asking the question, what do we need to do to do the works
of God? Here was a believer saying, what
must I do to be saved? Two different thoughts. But look
what the Pharisees said unto him. They said, therefore, unto
him, What sign shalt thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work? Well, he just got through working.
They were there when he fed the five thousand or the four thousand.
They saw the miracle, but it wasn't sufficient. They really
didn't believe that miracle. Then it says in verse 31, Our
fathers, this is their reply to the Lord. Our fathers did
eat manna in the desert. And there's the mention of manna.
There's that bread. Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. Now listen carefully to what
it says. The word he there, he's not talking
about God the Father or they weren't talking about God the
Father. They were talking about Moses. Our fathers did eat manna
in the desert, as it is written, Moses gave them bread to eat. How do I know that? Verse 32.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven. But let's add the next sentence
to that. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father. So
there he says that it was the father that gave actually gave
the bread from heaven, and he bears that out in the rest of
the verse there, listen. I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true. Bread from heaven. And that one
statement, he was saying that I am the true bread. The manna
was given to you of God as a representation of me. It's not a false, it's not a,
the true bread does not imply that there is a false bread,
but rather it says that there was a bread that was typical. That was the man, it was typical.
Let me give you an example. I take a picture of Marvin and
I've got that picture in my hand and I say, well, I can see him
sitting there. That's the true Marvin. Is this
a false Marvin? I look at that picture and I
say, that's Marvin. I can see him with his glasses
on, his hair. He has the same ears, the same
facial expression. That's Marvin. That's the typical
and in this verse in this verse this is where the Lord compares
himself to the man. For the bread of God and there
it is is he which cometh down from heaven and give us life
into the world. And he further expands on that
in verse thirty five he says I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger and he that believeth on me She'll never thirst. Over
in verse 48, he again says, listen to this, look how it's worded
this time. He says, I am that bread. Making reference again
to the manna. Of course, to himself first,
but he's in this, he's saying that that what was given you
was a picture of me. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. So I'm
going to stop right there. That just gives you a picture
of the Lord. What I said before that the Lord himself has equated
the manna of the Old Testament with himself. We need to lay
that groundwork. We absolutely need to lay that
groundwork because if we don't we're just going to make some
factual comparisons. Now, I want you to turn to Exodus,
Chapter 16, that's what we're going to look at this morning. Exodus, Chapter 16. In Exodus,
Chapter 16. The scripture. And the Scripture starts out
with the children of Israel complaining
about being led out into the desert. Verse 3, it says, The
children of Israel said unto them, Would it God we had died
by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by
the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full? For ye
have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole
assembly with hunger, Then said the Lord unto Moses behold. I will rain bread from heaven
for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate
every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my
law or no. And it shall come to pass that
on the sixth day. They shall prepare that which
they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather
daily. And what he was saying there
was Six days a week, you're going to go out and gather food for
the day. And on the sixth day, you're
going to gather twice as much to cover the Sabbath day that
you're not doing work on the Sabbath. OK, now let's go down
to verse. Verse 14, no, verse 13. It says, And it came to pass that
even the quails at the evening time The quails came up and covered
the camp. And in the morning, the dew lay
around about the host. And in verse 14, this is what
I said earlier, this is this has got to be the most beautiful,
the most beautiful picture apart from what what occurred in the
tabernacle itself. This has got to be the most beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ first. And secondly, the Lord
Jesus Christ feeding his people. So let's read it. And it says,
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. It says that the dew, the dew
is a The dew in the Hebrew is a covering. And that's not insignificant.
There's a meaning there. The dew, a covering. Over in
Numbers chapter 11, we're having, and you don't have to turn there
with me, I'll read it to you because it's just one verse. Here's what it says. And when
the dew fell upon the camp in the night, The manna fell upon
it. So we have a picture there of
the dew coming down, covering the camp, the manna coming down on top
of the dew. What we have in the dew in the
covering. In the Old Testament economy was the sacrifices and
types, the law and the prophets covered the camp of Israel. But
look what was on top of it. It was Christ himself. Christ
himself in the sacrifices. Christ himself in all that covered
that camp. The protection of God in the
Old Testament economy was the Law and the Prophets. But in
that Law and the Prophets was Christ covering it. Was Christ
in it. The Lord himself. And look what it says. It says that it was gone up.
Let me get it straight in my head here. It says it was gone
up when the dew that lay was gone up. In other words, when
it evaporated, when the dew raised. Behold, upon the face of the
wilderness, there lay a small round thing. The Old Testament
In its prophecies, in its laws, in its types, in its figures,
in its shadows, one day was raised and Christ himself was revealed
personally to the world. A beautiful picture. That's a
beautiful picture. And you have the same thing in
today's life for you, the believer. From all eternity, God had a
covering over you. predetermined, elected of God,
kept of God, until such a time that that covering, that blindness in your eye was
lifted and Christ was revealed to your heart. Beautiful picture. Beautiful picture. But it gets better. Oh, it gets
better. Yeah. Behold, upon the face of
the wilderness, there lay a small round thing as small as the hoar
frost on the ground." Now, you've all seen frost. It's a covering. The hoar frost, I've seen it
one time in my life, and it's hard to explain. It's a real
heavy frost that I actually saw, like the plant sticking out of
the ground, the frost stuck out in needles-like points. I mean,
it was magnificent. I never saw anything like it.
And that's what we call the hoarfrost. But this thing, it says it was
small as the hoarfrost on the ground. Now, the first thing
that comes to our mind in small round thing, well, you think,
well, it's a little, well, it might have been, scripture says
it was a wafer, like a wafer made with honey. It might have
been small. I don't know how big a round.
you don't get a clear picture of what that manna actually looked
like. So that's what I want to look
at here for a minute. I want to look at this term, small round
thing. You look up the original Hebrew,
listen to what small means. It means thin. It means lean. It means to crush. It means to
tread down. picture of Christ in his humanity. It's a picture of Christ in his
humanity. Isaiah 52 or 53 too says, he shall grow up before
him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. And when we
see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Here is
the term small, Christ himself in his humanity, in his humanity. Beautiful picture. Look at the second term. Round. Of course, like I said, we think
it's just something round. That's not what it means in Hebrew. Listen carefully to this. Round
means to peel. It means to shred. And it means to scale. And as
I thought, I had a real tough time on that one. I asked the Lord all over and
over for some insight into this, and I had a general idea. But
let me give you an example of what it means. To peel. You've got an onion, and you've
got that onion that has a skin on it. You can't eat that. What do you have to do? You have
to take that onion and you start peeling off the outer layers.
You peel off those outer layers to get to the good part, the
inner part. Shred. It means to shred. This is kind of maybe a poor
analogy, but I got to think about a head of lettuce. When you ladies
are making a lettuce salad, you don't throw that head of lettuce
in that pot and say, heat it, or in that pan. with the tomatoes
and everything, you take that lettuce and you shred it. You
tear it up. Again, why? So it's edible, right? So it's
edible. And thirdly, it means to scale.
And as I thought about this, I thought about a fish. Here's
a fish. You catch a fish, the first thing you got to do, you
got to get that rough outward scale off that fish so you can
get to the meat. The delicacy is underneath. And I'm sure this meaning can
go far beyond this, but this is the way I interpret it. The term round means that the
Lord God has peeled back our Lord's weak nature. His weak humanity to feed us. And let me get this point straight.
We're talking here about the children of Israel feeding on
Christ. This is what this text is about. Eating. He's peeled back the
Lord's weak humanity to feed us with a sight of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That inner man. That inner perfection. And what is it that we feed on? We feed on his perfection. We feed on his grace. We feed
on his mercy. That's what we're doing here
this morning. We feed on the truth that we
read here. We feed on his justice. We feed on his holiness. We feed
on his righteousness. We feed on his long suffering.
All these things are not seen in that human flesh, that weak
human flesh. It was not seen. That had to
be laid back on the cross, that had to be opened on the cross
that we might be partakers of Him. Now it says small round things. Thing there in the Hebrew again
and I'm like I'm like Brother Marvin if that man's taught me
one thing about scriptures is to look up these words because
if you just read the natural words you miss the whole thing. Thing means in the Hebrew a matter
spoken of or to commune. The Lord God, our Lord Christ,
our Savior, communes with us by the Holy Spirit through his
word. You know, I think Marvin mentioned
this here in one of his sermons. I've never heard an audible word
from God. Never heard a voice from heaven speak to me. But
how often? Brother Don, We was down to conference.
We heard messages. How often was your heart warmed,
your heart softened with what you heard? That is the Lord speaking. That is the Lord. We come here
this morning to be fed. We want to hear of him. You remember
when Elijah in the Old Testament was in the cave, it says there
was a there was an earthquake, I believe, and it says the Lord
wasn't in the earthquake. There was a thunder. It says
the Lord wasn't in the thunder. Then Isaiah heard the still small
voice. The still small voice. That was
Christ speaking. That was that communing with
us. So what I'm saying this small
round thing, that's a beautiful picture. That's a beautiful picture
of our Lord. What he's done for us. Well,
let's move on. Because we're talking again,
I said we're talking about feeding. I want you to keep this in mind
because this is what we talked about Christ here in verse 14.
Now we're going to get into the feeding of you who are believers. And when the children of Israel
saw it, the manna, they said one to another, it is manna,
for they wist not what it was. They didn't know what it was. They called it manna. Why did
they call it manna? Manna in the Hebrew means. What is it. Strange. That's what they call
it. What is it. What is it. And I
would I would venture to say that. You that this morning here
who believe would stand up and tell me what it is that dwells
within you. You can't explain it. I was telling
some of them one time, I think I told you this, Brother Marvin,
that when I was young, attending church here, and people were
making a profession of faith, believers, I got to ask them,
well, how do you know you're saved? And you know, I never did get
an answer for that. Because you can't answer it. If you try to
explain, if you try to explain to somebody what it is within
you, we know it's Christ. The Word teaches us that. We
know He is. But to explain that how it came
to be. How the Lord entered in what
we know he's deep in our heart. But I can't explain that I can't
explain that. And that's what they said it
is manna for they knew it was not they didn't know what it
was. Below the scripture says Moses said unto them this is
the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. Christ himself. Same thing that we read over
in John. Exactly the same thing. There are those people that say,
well, the Old Testament was a different economy. That was a different
dispensation. That's all a lie. Christ the same yesterday and
forever. That's what Scripture says. There's
been no change. Christ covered that camp. His
protection was over that camp. And those true believers at that
time knew that. Obviously, in the in the nation
of Israel at that time, there were a lot of people didn't believe.
We know that from the the the the complaining they did. Now, verse 16, it says, This
is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Now, listen carefully
to this. God has prescribed how we are
to eat. I'm not talking about works.
I'm talking about eating. God appoints the way we ought
to eat. And if you have a question on that, look what the scripture
says. It says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.
You think that's for God's benefit? No, no, it's to feed the sheep. You're here this morning to eat
of him. Feed my sheep. Another scripture says study.
to show thyself approved. Study. How are you going to learn of
Christ? How are you going to eat of Christ if you don't study? Another scripture says, pray
without ceasing. This is in order for you to eat,
in order for you to feed. All meant to strengthen the inner
man is grace given. In verse 16 it goes on to say,
gather it every man according to his eating. And Omer for every man. O-M-E-R. The margin of my Bible says that's
a measure of 6.7 pints. But the original Hebrew It means
to heap or pile up. You remember, we've read in the
Book of Ruth where they went out to garner and gather the
sheaves. It's gathering of sheaves. Bring
it in to a pile. Heap, pile up. I like what Brother
Scott used to say, and I've heard this since I was just a kid.
He said, God's put all his eggs in one basket. You've all heard
that, haven't you? And that's it. He's heaped up.
He's heaped up. God has piled up all things in
Christ. All things in Christ. It says,
gather ye every man according to his eating and Omer for every
man according to the number of your persons. If there were four
people in the family, they were to gather four omens. Six people,
they were to gather six omens. Take ye every man for them which
are in his tents. I wrote down here, Believers
may not have the same graces, and we know that to be true.
We all don't have the same graces. But all have the same Christ. I have no more of Christ than
you do. You have no more of Christ than
me. You have no more Christ than This person, that person. We
all, we all have the same Lord. And they were commanded. They
had a measure. They had an Omer measure there of some type. They
probably had some pottery. They went out there and they
gathered that man and they put it in that pot until it was level.
If there were four people in the family, they gathered four
pots. Again, a perfect picture of Christ. And we know that because the
Lord commanded later on this chapter and I'm not going to
get into it because it's. I'm going to run out of time.
He commanded him to put it put it in the ark to take an omer
put it in a pot and put it in that ark of the covenant. Which
represented Christ. That exact amount that omer of
manna the manna was in there measured measured measured Verse 17 says, And the children
of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. Meaning
again, that a man went out to gather for his family. If he
had four people, he gathered four omers. Another person may
gather six, ten. Exact amount. No more, no less. And when they did meet it with
an omer, in verse 18, he that gathered much had nothing left
over, And he that gathered little had no luck. They gathered every
man according to his eating. The manna that they gathered
was sufficient for that day. No food for tomorrow. That's
exactly what they needed. And is this not the position
of you the believer today? We get up in the morning and
we we ask the Lord for mercy for the day. He's going to give
you exactly what you need. He's going to give you enough,
not more than you need. We have more grace than we need. If he would do that, we would
become proud and insolent. You know. Look at me. No, you just have enough for
the day. Verse 19 says. And Moses said,
let no man leave of it till the morning. But look what the unbelievers
did. Verse 20 says, notwithstanding, they hearken not unto Moses.
He didn't always talk about that. But some of them left it until
the morning. And it bred worms and stank.
And Moses was wroth with them. The feeding that we have today
cannot be expected to satisfy tomorrow's hunger. That's what
he's saying. In this passage, let me ask you a question. What do you associate with Breeding
worms and stinking. Death. Death. There's nothing left of yesterday's
food that can feed us today. We must eat of Christ afresh.
That's why we're here this morning. That's why we're here. You can look back to it. We went
down to the conference last weekend. Yeah, the previous weekend. I
heard some good messages. Oh, they blessed my heart. But
you know, I'm looking back now. I know what the messages were
about, but they're gone. They're gone. Nothing there. Jim, nothing there. Barely remember
what they are. We must eat again today. Remember what the Lord told the
people, the disciples, in teaching them to pray? Some called it
the Lord's Prayer. It's not the Lord's Prayer. It's
what he taught them to pray. Give us this day our daily bread. I used to read that and think,
well, that meant our food for the day. But that's not it. Every morning we need to get
up. Oh, Lord. Lord, have mercy on me this day.
I can't walk with myself. Oh, Lord, I'm going to stumble
unless you walk with me. Feed me. Feed me with Christ.
Verse 21, it says, and they gathered it every morning. To the believer, to you who believe, you feed of Christ afresh every
morning. Every morning. You must. You
must. Why? Well, because of what it says
in the letter for that verse. And they gathered every morning,
every man according to his eating. And when the sun waxed hot, it
says it melted. The manna melted. I wrote down three points here
I want to make about this sun waxing hot and the manna melting. There is. Number one, there is
a season of grace to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
know we eat of him constantly, but there are special seasons.
This morning is one of them. There's a special scene, there's
a season here this morning to partake of him, to hear what
Marvin has to say in his preaching. There's Wednesday night, same
way, and I'm not talking about limited to those, but There's
a time that the Lord will come to you. And the gospel may come
to you, and if you don't listen, you don't hear, he may pass you
by. That's scriptural. Secondly, spiritual sloth in
feeding will leave us lacking. I'm sure you think about this.
Now, this was a whole nation getting up in the morning and
going out and gathering this manner. There were likely some
people that said, well, boy, I'm awful tired this morning.
I just, I don't think I'll go out and do that. I'll go out
a little later. Or I don't feel well. I'm sick this morning. I'll just wait a little bit.
I got other things to do. How many people say that when
it means going to come to church? And thirdly, Thirdly, this lacking. This lacking. And that's what
we're talking about here. A lacking. When the sun waxed hot, this
lacking will be most evident during trials and temptations.
Pictured by the hot sun. Nothing to eat. Comfortless.
We don't feed of him now. Don't look for him in trials
and troubles. Israelites went through that time and time again
if you read the Old Testament and they're coming out of Egypt
and going through the wilderness. Oh their hearts grew weak. They
didn't care that the Lord would come and the Lord would bless
them and turn them back and in a while they go away again and
what happened trials would come. And there they are again in the
same situation over and over and over again. Now we know we know I don't want
to animate here that this can happen to a believer. Because
God keeps these people. But even in a church inside there
are people there's wheat among the tears there always will be
and this is a warning to the tears. This is a warning to the
tears here. Oh if you don't if you don't
eat now if you don't eat now if you don't eat daily. Oh, my
soul. Trials are going to come, and
you can better believe they're going to come. You better believe
they're going to come. Believers will face the same
thing. If you haven't been feeding on
Christ, if you do not feed of Christ, you've got no hope. Where are you going to go? Where
am I going to go? You see what I'm getting at? And it says in verse 22, And it came to pass that on the
sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for
every man. And all the rulers of the congregation
came and told Moses. They gathered two omers on the
day before the Sabbath. And I've got to wind this down.
Time is running out. I haven't begun to touch this
because on down in verse 31 it says, It was like the manna was like
coriander seed. And I looked up coriander seed
and did a little bit of study on it. It was white. Taste of
it was as wafers made with honey. Well, if you read about the wafers,
remember when Marvin taught us about the sacrifices in the book
of Leviticus? Wafers were used in the wave
offering. In the book of Numbers, chapter
11, It says the manna was the taste of fresh oil. Fresh oil
was used in the tabernacle in the wave offering. So there's
even more comparison here that we don't have time to go into
this morning. You might take it and read it
yourself. I just want to leave you with this in closing. I want
to turn you to show that the Lord, the Lord himself, the finality,
of the Lord's equating this with himself. Turn with me to Revelation
chapter 2, verse 17. Revelation chapter 2, verse 17. He was speaking to the church
of Pergamos here. In verse 17, he says, He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the spirits say unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna." What is that hidden manna? Right
now we look through a glass darkly. We see Christ by the eyes of
faith. But one day that faith is going
to be lifted and we're going to see him as he is. Scripture
says, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So
the manna, again, the manna was a picture, an absolute beautiful
picture of the Lord himself that he himself equates. So I hope
that's been a help to you and maybe an understanding. I pray
the Lord would bless it. It helped me a bunch. Thank you.