And God gave them a preacher.
He gave them Moses to lead them. He gave them brethren. And He
gave them His word of promise. Christ was leading them. Now,
that's what we have in this place. That's what we have in this place.
But many that were in the congregation of Israel became troubled. They
became troubled. And they thought they knew the
cure. They thought they knew the cure. But there was only
one cure. And they turned their back on
that one cure. Now that's what our subject is
this morning. Only one cure. First of all,
if Christ has fixed you in this body, if He's assembled you,
then He'll lead you. And that means we'll have to
follow Him by faith. Now, the congregation had gone
three days' journey in the wilderness. And the ark of the covenant of
the Lord went before them. Look here in verse 33. Numbers
10, 33. And they departed from the mount
of the Lord three days' journey. Now watch this. And the ark of
the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days'
journey to search out a resting place for them. By faith, The
true believer is following Christ our ark. That's what we're doing
here together. Like they were going through
the wilderness, we're going through the wilderness following Christ
our ark. He's our mercy seat. God meets
with us in Christ and has mercy on His people in Christ. Christ
is the one in whom God has made His everlasting covenant of grace
and through whom He makes that covenant into our hearts. And
Christ goes before us. He goes before us. Christ is
the way to God. And Christ is the way... He makes
the way for His church in this wilderness. He leads the way. And Christ is our resting place.
He goes before us and He searches out a resting place for us in
this wilderness. Now the believer has Christ to
cover us. As His church, we have Christ
to cover us and to defend us constantly. Look at verse 34.
The cloud of the Lord was upon them by day, and when they went
out of the camp, the cloud of the Lord was upon them. Now,
brethren, Christ is the covering over our assembly. Christ is
our covering. As citizens of heavenly Mount
Zion, this is God's promise to every assembly that He has assembled. Listen to this from Isaiah 4-5.
The Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion
and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining
of a flaming fire by night, for upon all the glory shall be a
defense." His glory shall be the defense. And he says, and
there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from
the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from
storm and rain. Now brethren, Christ is that
glory. Christ is that glory. Christ is that defense. Christ
is that refuge. He's that covert. Isaiah 32,
2 says, A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert
from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the Lord said, And
my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation. and in sure dwellings
and in quiet resting places. This is God's promise to us,
brethren. He says, He that dwelleth in
the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. Brethren, God's given us something
more valuable than all the treasures in this world combined. He's
fixed us together in His assembly under Christ's headship, with
Christ as our covering, with Christ as our defense, with Christ
as the glory overshadowing us, and He's leading us through this
wilderness and searching out a resting place for us as we
go. There's nothing we have to fear
with Christ as our head. And that's so. That's true of
his church. Now, believing Christ requires
that the believer follow the Lord. Now look here in verse
35. It came to pass when the ark set forward, when the ark
went forward, Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies
be scattered. And let them that hate thee flee
before thee. And when it rested, when the
ark rested, when it stopped moving, Moses said, return, O Lord, unto
the many thousands of Israel. When Christ moves, He gives His
messenger the faith to declare to His people, it's time to rise
up. It's time to move. It's time
to go. And the messenger of the Lord does so, praying, Lord,
will you rise up? Lord, will you let thine enemies
be scattered? Will you let them that hate thee
flee before thee? If He doesn't lead us, we can't
go forward. We're no match for our enemies.
And when Christ rests, and He would have His people to rest,
He gives His messenger the faith to declare to His people, return,
rest. And we do so praying to the Lord. Lord, Will you return? Will you
make us to rest? Will you rest upon all your people
in Israel? Because if you don't make us
to rest, we won't rest. We'll go forward when we ought
to be sitting still. Ain't that right? Now that's
the first thing. That's what we have. That's what
they had. That's what they had. What a
great privilege. What a great blessing. But here's
the second thing we see. Flesh lusts only for flesh. Alright, look here. Many in the
congregation were not satisfied with what God had given them.
They weren't satisfied with what He was doing in their midst.
First of all, fleshly men do not like having to follow the
Lord or to wait on the Lord. Verse 1 says, coming right after
that word out of Numbers 10, there about how they went when
the ark went forward and they rested when the ark stopped.
And now he says, and when the people complained, they didn't
like it. They didn't like that. They didn't
like having to move only when the Lord moved and wait when
the Lord waited. The words here indicate that
those in the uttermost part of the camp were whispering and
planning to just go back to Egypt. They were saying, we're just
going to go back to Egypt. When he goes forward next time,
we're not moving. We're just not going. We're going
to go back. We're going to go back. Look
at verse 1. It displeased the Lord. And the Lord heard it, and His
anger was kindled. And the fire of the Lord burnt
among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts
of the camp. Brethren, do not even think about
going back to Egypt. Don't even think about it. Don't
even let it enter your mind of returning to this world and this
world's religion. Don't ever think about it. Now
notice Moses' faith at this time. Verse 2. And the people cried
unto Moses. And when Moses prayed unto the
Lord, Moses believed the Lord. He went to the Lord with this
issue. The fire was quenched. When he
prayed to the Lord, the Lord stopped the fire. And he called
the name of the place Taborah because the fire of the Lord
burned among them. Moses, in faith, in love for
the children of Israel, he went to the Lord on behalf of Israel
and he interceded with the Lord and begged the Lord to stop this
fire of judgment upon the people. What a picture of Christ our
intercessor. Christ our intercessor has borne the wrath, the fiery
wrath of God's judgment in the place of His people. And now
He ever lives to stand between us and His people like Moses
stood there between them. He stands there between His people
and God, and He intercedes with God not to pour out wrath upon
His people. And so therefore, brethren, The
only ones who will be consumed by God's fire are those who are
not His people, those who He has not laid down His life for. Those are the ones who will be
consumed, but not God's people, because the Lord intercedes. Now, here's the second thing.
They were fleshly men, so they longed for flesh rather than
the manna from heaven. They didn't want to follow the
Lord, they didn't want to wait on the Lord, and here's the other
thing, they wanted fleshly meat. That's what they wanted. Verse
4, The mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting, and
the children of Israel also wept again. These were Gentiles amongst
Israelites, the mixed multitude. In every congregation there's
a mixed multitude. There's a mixed multitude. There's
regenerated believers and unregenerated folks in every congregation.
Some join the Lord's people professing to believe on Christ for vain
reasons, for fleshly reasons. But the Holy Spirit hadn't regenerated
them. He hadn't given them faith in Christ. And so they go a while,
but then they'll start to complain. And their complaining, you notice
here, their complaining made the children of Israel complain.
We're going to see this in the second hour. Unbelief breeds
unbelief. The flesh feeds the flesh. And
that's what happened here. Be not deceived, evil communications
corrupt good manners. And a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. Look at what they lusted after,
verse 4. They said, Who shall give us
flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we
did eat in Egypt freely. The cucumbers and the melons
and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul
is dried away. There's nothing at all besides
this manna before our eyes. What an instructive picture.
What an instructive picture. Let's bring this down to our
day, where we live right now. A false believer joins with God's
people, and he goes for a while rejoicing, and then he doesn't
have the Spirit of God sustaining his heart. And so after a little
while, he began to long for the world. Or he began to long for
what he had when he was in free will works religion. He began
to look back and he began to say, oh, I remember the programs
we had. I remember the humanitarian services. I remember the community services
and the activities and the plays and the awards and the Sunday
school pins and how my name got put up on the board and everybody
got to see it pat me on the back. And men began to say in their
hearts, we ate so freely then. Brethren, everybody in works
religion and everybody in this world is in bondage and sin themselves. And there's nothing about that
works religion that's free. It all comes with a great price.
Every bit of it comes with a great price. And men will say, but
now our soul is dried away. A man's flesh might wither under
the sound of the gospel because he's not going to get any flesh-pleasing
meat. So his flesh may wither. But if a man's soul is dried
up, it's not the gospel's fault. It's because he's not eating.
He's not eating. That's the problem. The false
professor begins to think there's nothing at all besides this manna
before our eyes. The manna represented Christ
our bread from heaven. And a man will go for a while
and he wants that earthly flesh instead of this manna. We don't spread the table with
any of the flesh-pleasing meat that works religion spreads the
table with. And so men will go for a little
while and they'll say, all he ever does is preaches Christ
and Him crucified. That's all we ever get in that
place is Christ and Him crucified. There's more than Christ. That's
what a man will say. That's what a man will say. Well,
God tells us plainly what the problem was. And He tells us
this is the problem with men when they do that. In Psalm 106.12
He said this, They believed When they saw His works and they sang
His praise, and it says, but they soon forgot His works. You
know why we preach His works? Because God has told us to preach
His works. That's what God sends His preacher
to do, is preach His works. Psalm 911 says, Sing praises
to the Lord which dwelleth in Zion. Declare among the people
His doings. Psalm 105.1 says, Give thanks
unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among
the people. Psalm 107.22 says, Let them sacrifice
the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto
Him, talk ye of all His wondrous works. Isaiah 12.3 says, Therefore
with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.
He says, and in that day shall you say, praise the Lord, call
upon His name, declare His doings among the people. Make mention
that His name is exalted. You see, the more His works are
preached, the more you want His works to be preached. He said,
in that day, you're going to draw out of these wells of salvation,
and when you do, you're going to say, sing His praises, preach
His work. That's what I want to hear. I
want to hear about Him. We do so to turn men from their
works His works. That's not what religion's doing.
Religion is turning men to their works away from His works. We're
turning men from their works to His works. You know why? Because
Christ said, He that doeth truth cometh to the light that his
deeds may be manifest that they're wrought in God. He comes to Christ
that He may say loud and clear to everybody, I'm God's workmanship. I didn't do this. God did this.
We preach the works of the triune God in Christ so that we will
not soon forget His works. Because we will. We will soon
forget them. This is the second thing Psalm
106 says they did. They waited not for God's counsel.
Men who don't believe God won't wait for God to bring His works
to pass. It takes patience to wait on
God. God's not moving on our timetable, He's moving on His.
And He's not going to just up and do things that we want done
and make things happen like we want them to happen in our time.
He's going to do them in His time. Unbelief makes a man impatient. It makes him not want to wait
on God to do what God's promised by His gospel. And here's the
third thing it said it did. They lusted exceedingly and tempted
God. They forgot His works, they wouldn't
wait on His counsel, and they lusted after fleshly things.
Now that's the problem all the time, brethren. Any time that
a man longs to return to free will religion or go back out
into the world and leave the gospel, it's because their flesh
and flesh lusts after flesh. That's it. That's it. And guess
what happened? God gave them what they wanted.
He gave them what they wanted. Be careful what you ask for.
Be careful what you ask for. Here's the third thing. And this
is our primary point. The only cure is the gospel. That's the only cure, brethren.
Christ Jesus is food for our souls. Look here in verse 7. Numbers 11, 7. And the manna
was as coriander seed. They despised this manna. And
it says, and the manna was as coriander seed. You know what? Coriander seed is tiny little
seed. It's tiny. And so to a man who's
perishing in unbelief, it appears as a very insignificant thing. But you know what else is true
about coriander seed? It's extremely plentiful. It's
plentiful. Now brethren, Christ our bread,
He comes down in the gospel to His people and He blesses us
from His fullness. From His fullness. Of His fullness
have all we received grace for grace. And He gives this to us
through His gospel. It means that when His gospel
is being preached, Christ accomplishes the work of grace in the hearts
of those that He's redeemed by His blood. He whom God has sent
speaketh the words of God. As speaking of Christ said that
of Himself. He whom God has sent speaketh the words of God. That's
what Christ speaks. For God giveth not the Spirit
a measure unto him." Whenever he stood there and there were
some that had been born of the Spirit by what Christ was speaking.
Remember what Christ said when he stood there in person? He
said in John 15, 3, Now you are clean through the word which
I have spoken unto you. And after he ascended, after
he was no longer there present bodily, Peter went to a lame
man and he preached to this lame man, Christ, and the lame man
believed and his strength came into his body and he stood up
and walked around in front of everybody. And this is what Peter
said, Christ's name. Christ's name through faith in
His name. That's who we're preaching. We're
preaching Christ's name. And He said, Christ's name through
faith in His name hath made this man strong whom you see and know. Now listen to this. Yea, the
faith which is by Christ. The faith which is by Christ
hath given this lame man perfect soundness in the presence of
you all. Christ is food for our souls.
He's the one that speaks and nourishes our inward man because
in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. in whom
we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath
abounded toward us in wisdom and prudence." He abounded in
wisdom and prudence when he worked that work, when he walked this
earth, and he's abounded in wisdom and prudence to reveal it in
our hearts, brethren, through the gospel. Listen to what...
Look at 1 Corinthians 1.5. Look at 1 Corinthians 1.5. Now
this is true of every believer right here. Look at this. Look at this, verse 4. Let's
read verse 4. He said, I thank my God always on your behalf
for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. Now listen, that in everything
you are enriched by Him. by Christ in all utterance, in
all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
He says, even as you believe the gospel. That's why you believed
it. By Him. By Him speaking into your heart.
That's how you believed it. So that you come behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall also confirm you unto the end. He'll keep you to the end,
that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And he says in Ephesians 4, 7, unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Christ Jesus has, he has, I don't
know if this is how to illustrate it, but he's bought for his people
all the grace and all the riches and all the gifts of God's grace. And he's got all the fullness
of grace and all the storehouse of this great grace for his people,
and he's just doling it out to his people. through the gospel. And He's not being diminished
one iota. He's giving it out of His fullness
and He's never diminished. And He keeps giving grace for
grace to His people. He gives more grace. When you
need grace, He gives more grace. And He keeps doing it. He keeps
doing it. There was a place I used to go
to when I was in college called Sarah's Soul Food Kitchen. And
this lady, you could walk into her, it was her house. And she
turned it into a restaurant. You walked into her house and
she had chafing dishes lined up on the cabinet. And the first
thing she did is she gave you a spoon. A spoon for each dish. And you could just go down through
there and sample everything she had cooked. And it was nothing
but soul food. I'm talking about beans and peas
and corn and all kinds of vegetables and roasts and some fresh tomatoes
and all that. Her sign, the slogan on her sign
was, the home of no cans and no boxes. She had a garden right
there. She was planting everything,
growing everything, and I'm telling you, it was five dollars, and
she'd fill your plate up, and when you got through eating,
she'd say, are you full? And if you weren't, she'd take
your plate back, fill it up, and bring it back to your table.
You left that place full, and it was soul food. It's what we
call food that'll stick to your ribs. That's what Christ is. Christ is gospel soul food, brethren. It's soul food. It's how we're
nourished. When Christ speaks affectionately
in our hearts, Christ becomes precious to the believer. Precious. Look here, verse 7. The color
thereof is as the color of bedlam. It means as the color of a precious
stone. It means the color of a pearl,
the color of a pearl, a round white stone. Let me read Revelation
2.17 to you. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh,
you know how we overcome? By faith, by believing Christ.
So he said, to him that believes on Christ will I give to eat
of the hidden manna. and I'll give him a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving
him that receive it." When the Holy Spirit forms Christ in the
heart, we're given the hidden manna through faith. And Christ
becomes that pearl of great price to us, and His name is our name,
the Lord our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. And
that precious white stone, Christ Jesus Himself, makes a man willing
to depart with Egypt, depart with all earthly meat and all
His works, and to sell everything that he's ever worked for, and
that he might buy Christ and follow Him. Christ said, The
kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly
pearls. And when he found one pearl of
great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought that
one pearl. That's what the gospel is. And
the price is free. He says, Come ye, buy, eat, without
money and without price. It's free. Christ and His gospel
is the only cure for our unbelief. Here's why. Look at verse 8.
The people went about and gathered it. Now why did they do that?
Why did they do that? They were hungry. They were hungry. What do you do when you're hungry?
Do you run from the table? No, you come to the table. They
went out and gathered the manna. Brethren, by the Spirit giving
us a hunger and a thirst after righteousness, the believer doesn't
depart from the table. We assemble and we gather Christ
our manna. That's what we're doing here
today. We've assembled to gather the manna. He makes us hunger
to hear His gospel. He makes us thirsty after the
sincere milk of the Word. And look what happened. They
took that manna and they ground it in meals, or beat it in a
mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it, and the
taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. While they were
preparing it, they looked at that manna, they looked at it,
and they saw that manna being ground in those meals, or beaten
in a mortar. You know what happens while we're
sitting here gathering Christ our manna, Christ our bread from
heaven? We behold him wounded for our
transgressions. We behold Him who was bruised
for our iniquities. And as they prepared it, they
watched that manna being baked in the pans. When we're sitting
here gathering this manna, we behold Christ bearing the fire
of God's wrath in our room instead, in the room instead of all God's
elect people. And then they made cakes and
they ate it. We don't just come here and listen. We eat Christ. We eat Him by
faith. That's what He meant when He
said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have
no life in you. That's what we're doing through
faith as we hear His gospel. And by the Holy Spirit's discernment,
the taste is as fresh oil. We have peace with God. He makes
us see we have peace with God in Christ our peace. He makes
us see that by His work we're justified and made righteous
in Him. And brethren, you know what this
food does? It nourishes our inward man. And it makes it so that the outer
man withers away and the inward man is made stronger. When we're
murmuring and complaining and doubting and looking back to
Egypt and looking to the flesh and looking to false religion
and looking at what all the big churches have and all these things
and then looking at our little assembly and all that, you know
what we're doing? We're eating fleshly meat. And
that's making that fleshly man stronger and stronger and stronger,
and it's withering that inward man. But when we partake in the
Christ, it's making the inward man stronger, and it's making
that fleshly man weaker. That's what we have to have.
That's what we have to have. And we don't do any of this ourselves. We don't do... Look at this,
verse 9 says, The dew fell upon the camp in the night, and the
manna fell upon it. The Holy Spirit falls upon us
in this world of night, and on our dark, unbelieving hearts,
and like that dew fell upon the camp in the night. And as the
Holy Spirit enters, Christ falls upon us to the nourishment of
our souls, just like that manna fall of that dew. Now, in 25
years, in 25 years, I've seen this time and time again. Men and women come and they hear
the gospel and they get real excited. And then a little time goes by
and they become troubled. And they whisper. They whisper
their complaints. And they want to talk about their
troubles. They want somebody to tell them what to do about
their troubles. And then they begin looking back. And then they vanish. Will you listen to what I'm saying?
Try to hear what I'm saying. If you truly desire a cure for
the withering away of your soul. For any and every trouble you
have. assemble with God's people under the sound of the gospel
constantly. Give your undivided attention
to hear and study Christ. Follow the ark under the cloud
together with God's people as we hear of His wonderful works
and wait on the Lord to do those works. Christ and His gospel is the
cure. And it's the only cure for every
sin and every trouble we have. I hope God will give you grace
to hear that. I hope He'll make it stick. I
can't. I hope He will. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, thank You for Your Word.
Thank You for using the whole nation to give us a picture of
our assembly, of what You're doing in our midst, of the troubles
we have in our flesh, and the strength of Your grace, and the
cure of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Lord, make us now to eat
Christ. Make us to believe on him and
strengthen our inner man that we might obey you for that which
is the best thing in the world, for the good of ourselves and
our family and our children. Forgive us our doubting and our
unbelief, Lord. Thank you for blessing us. Thank
you for meeting with us now and blessing it to our heart. In
Christ's name we pray. Amen.