I mean, uh, 16. Exodus chapter 16. We're going to return tonight to our
questions series, where we've been going through the Scriptures
and looking at questions that God asks to sinners. And you
know that God never asks a question for information. So far, in every
one of these questions, God has asked the question to reveal
to the sinner his sin. That's been the purpose of the
question so far. Our subject will be this question
tonight. Exodus 16 verse 28. And the Lord
said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and
my laws? The Lord said this unto Moses. He said, How long refuse ye to
keep my commandments and my laws? I want to look first of all at
who this question was directed to and why. And then secondly,
how does a sinner keep all God's commandments and all God's laws?
And then thirdly, we'll answer the question itself. How long
refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? Alright, first of
all, notice who this question was addressed to. It says in
verse 28, the Lord said unto Moses, The Lord said this unto
Moses. Now Moses was a faithful man. Moses was faithful to God. He
had been faithful to believe God, been faithful to declare
the gospel, the message that God gave him to declare. Everything
God commanded him, that's what Moses did in leading the people. had given him life by his spirit. And so Moses, from his heart,
with his heart humbled by God's grace, Moses was faithful. He
followed the Lord. He walked by faith, looking to
Christ. He was constrained by the love
of God for him. And he was led of God the Holy
Spirit, just like believers are today. Before Pharaoh, Pharaoh
the most powerful man in the world, before Pharaoh, Moses
stood toe to toe and declared the word God gave him to preach.
He was faithful. Moses in Egypt, he was faithful
so that God worked through him to bring all those curses upon
Egypt. He was faithful concerning the
Passover and gave everything that the Lord told him concerning
the Passover. And he was there leading the
people whenever they went out of Egypt and left Egypt. When
they got to the Red Sea, he was faithful to declare the word
of God to them at the Red Sea. They left there and they came
to the bitter waters of Marah. And he was faithful to declare
the word of the Lord there. And here they are now and they're
in the wilderness of sin and Moses is still faithful. He's
declared exactly what God told him to say. Moses was bold. He was bold to stand against
sinners. and to stand with God against
sinners. That's why it's said of Moses
that he was very meek above all the men which are upon the face
of the earth. It's because he stood with God and spoke out
against sinners who were rebelling against God. Hebrews 3.5 says
Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony
of those things which to be spoken after. It wasn't until much,
much later from where we are in our text that the children
of Israel finally got the best of Moses. They got under his
skin. And the scripture says, so that
it went ill with Moses for their sakes because they provoked his
spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. But up to this
point where we are now, Moses is faithful. It was the children
of Israel who had disobeyed God. They had been disobeyed. And
all the places Moses had been faithful, they had been disobedient.
And that was the case right here. Look back at Exodus 16 and verse
16. God had given manna from heaven. And look at what Moses said,
verse 16. This is the thing which the Lord
hath commanded. That's what Moses is speaking.
This is what the Lord has commanded. Gather of it every man according
to his eating, and Omer for every man. That's how much they were
together, according to the number of your persons. Every many folks
you got in your family. Take ye every man for them which
are in his tents. And the children of Israel did
so, and gathered some more, some less, and when they did meet
it with an Omer, He that gathered much had nothing over. He didn't
have any excess. And he that gathered little had
no lack. They gathered every man according
to his eating. When it was all said and done,
they had exactly what they needed for that day. Now, God proved
himself faithful in this. He showed them that they would
when they went out and gathered, that they would not have any
extra, no less than what they needed, they would have what
they needed. And that's what they had. So he proved himself faithful
so they had every reason to trust him. But did they? Look at verse
19. And Moses said, Let no man leave
of it till the morning, notwithstanding, notwithstanding having seen the
faithfulness of God. Notwithstanding, 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 them."
Moses was angry with them. Well, then God gave them the
Sabbath. He gave them the Sabbath. The first mention of God giving
the Sabbath to Israel was right here. And He gave it to them
so they could rest from their works. Now look here in verse
22. And it came to pass that on the
sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two almers for
one man. And all the rulers of the congregation
came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is
that which the Lord hath said. Tomorrow is the rest of the holy
Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you hath gathered
today. and seethe that you will seethe,
and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until
the morning. And they laid it up till the
morning, as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there
any worm therein. God gave two more proofs of his
faithfulness right here. He had told them beforehand there
was going to be extra provided for them on the sixth day. They
got up on the sixth day, guess what? There was extra provided
for them. He told them, lay it up till
the next morning and it will not breed worms and stink like
it did when you laid it up for yourself. They laid it up the
next day. Sure enough, they got up. It
had not bred worms. It did not stink. It was good
to eat. So they had two more proofs that God was faithful.
So surely they obeyed this time. Verse 25, and Moses said, Eat
that today, for today is a 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. And it came to pass that there
went out some of the people on the seventh day for together,
and they found none. You see, it was the children
of Israel that were disobedient. It wasn't Moses. But look at
verse 28. And the Lord said unto Moses,
How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? So
why did the Lord say this to Moses? Why did he address Moses
with this when it was the children of Israel that had done the disobeying?
Well, here's the first reason. God addressed Moses because Moses
was accountable to God for the children that God gave to him
to lead. Moses was accountable to God
for them. You remember Hebrews 13, 17 says,
Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves
for they watch for your souls as they that must give account. Give account to God. Pastors
are accountable to God for the people that God's entrusted to
them to lead. Fathers and mothers are accountable
to God for the children that God has entrusted them to lead.
We are. We're accountable to God for
those. That's why your pastor and your
mothers and fathers beseech you to come hear the gospel. That's
why we beseech you to listen attentively. to get your Bible
out and look up these scriptures. Follow along and read these scriptures. That's why we encourage you to
make sure that nothing about you is a distraction. And that's
why we make sure that we want you to hear this message and
not distract others from hearing it. Because we're accountable
to God for you. That means something to me. Have
you ever thought about that? That's a serious thing. It's
a serious thing. Well, that's the first reason
God addressed Moses. Here's the second reason he addressed
Moses on this is because Moses is a type of the law. He's a
type of the law. What do you think of when you
hear the words commandments and laws? What comes to your mind? Do you think about the Ten Commandments?
You know at the time that God is speaking this, they did not
have the Ten Commandments. And yet God said, how long refuse
ye to keep my commandments and my laws? And they didn't have
the Ten Commandments. When you hear the words commandments,
when you hear the word law, when you hear the word statutes in
the scripture, try to stop thinking about the letter of the law written
on stone and think about God Himself. Think about God himself. God himself is the one that's
being disobeyed. God himself. When we speak about
the law, about statutes, about the word, about commandments,
it's God who gave them. It's God who gave them. From
the time that God sent Moses to them, in every word that he
spoke for God, they had God's commandments delivered to them.
It's what he got. Moses was just making stuff up.
He got it from God. So everything God told him to
do that was the commandment of God that was coming to them and
everything he was telling them. Now most of the things that Moses
gave to them from the Lord and most of what the Lord was doing
with them was was trials of faith, is what it was. He was proving
them whether or not they believed the Lord and trusted that the
Lord could save them. Psalm 78 tells us that. If you want to turn there, Psalm
78, 22, I can just read it to you, but it says, Psalm 78, 22,
here's why God was angry with them. because they believed not in
God and trusted not in His salvation. Though He had commanded the clouds
from above and opened the doors of heaven and had rained down
manna upon them to eat and had given them of the corn of heaven,
they didn't believe God. Verse 30 says they were not estranged
from their lusts. They wanted what they wanted
according to their flesh and they didn't care if God wanted
it or not. They didn't believe God. So they didn't have the
Ten Commandments, but by disobeying God's Word delivered by God's
messenger, they broke the whole law. They broke the whole law
of God. Listen to this. Whosoever shall
keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of
all. He's guilty of all. That's why
God said, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my
laws? Now, so you got Moses here. He's a type of the law. So everything
he's telling them is what God is telling them. It's the word
of God, the commandment of God. Now, what do we learn about all
this disobedience to Moses? I mean, every time Moses would
say something, the next thing you know, they're murmuring against
Moses. In this passage, they're accused Moses of bringing them
out here to kill them with hunger. Well, what do we learn about
that? Well, just as Moses could not make them obedient from the
heart, the law of God cannot make a sinner obedient from the
heart. It just can't. This is what Romans
8, 3 says. What the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh. There's nothing wrong
with the law. There's nothing defective about
the law. The defect is our sin nature
because it's our sin nature to disobey God. It's our sin nature
to hate God. It's our sin nature to think
we're wiser than God and we know better than God and so we do
just the opposite of what God commands. That's our nature that
we're born with. For example, What was it that
made the children of Israel save the manna that they gathered
up rather than eat it all? Because they didn't trust God
was going to give it to them tomorrow. And they thought the
wise thing to do would be not to obey God, but to save some
of this for tomorrow. You know why they saved that
for tomorrow? Because God told them not to. That's why. That's
why. At the bottom of it, that's why
they did it. What made them want to go out on the Sabbath day
and work rather than rest? God had showed them He was faithful.
Why did they go out and look when God said there's not going
to be any there? Because they didn't believe God and God told
them not to. God told them, don't go look.
They said, we need to go check this out. They disobeyed God. That's what Paul's talking about
when he said, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins,
which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth
fruit unto death. God said, don't do this. We said,
well, I'm going to do it anyway. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid, if there had been
a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. So now, here we have Moses, who
is in one hand, he's just like us. He's responsible for others
in his sphere of influence, just like we're responsible for these
in our sphere of influence. And yet, And yet, the law will
not make sinners obedient from the heart, so what should we
do? So what should we do? Well, here's
the third reason God spoke to Moses. It's because Moses represented
God to the people. Moses represented God to the
people. Therefore, God gave Moses the word to declare to them,
and then Moses declared it. Now, notice this, how in this
next verse, or in these two verses, it goes from God speaking to
Moses, from that to Moses speaking to the people. It's like you
can't tell where God It turns from God speaking to Moses to
Moses speaking to the people. Because this is how God works. He speaks to a mediator and the
mediator speaks to us. In this, Moses is a picture of
Christ greatly because God speaks to Christ and Christ speaks in
our hearts. And Christ does it through His messengers. Now look
at this, verse 28. And the Lord said unto Moses,
How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? And
then Moses starts to declare to them what God said to him.
Look at 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 of his place
on the seventh day. And so the people rested on the
seventh day. You see that? I had to look at
this for a while to realize, who's talking here? Is Moses
speaking or is the Lord speaking? But from verse 28 to verse 29,
Moses is saying, see what the Lord has given to you? He's given
you this Sabbath. And it's because the Lord first
talked to Moses and gave him the word and he goes and talks
to them. And what he says to them here is the gospel in type,
is what he said. For those under our sphere of
influence, this is what we're supposed to do. We're supposed
to go see what God says. and then speak the gospel that
God gives us. That's what we're supposed to
do. That's what we're supposed to do. Because the gospel of
Christ, our bread, the gospel of Christ, our Sabbath, that's
what we're supposed to do. Now, we're going to look at those
verses a little bit later, but get this point now. Why did Moses
say this? Why did God say this to Moses
when Moses wasn't the one who had disobeyed God? He said it
to him because number one, Moses was responsible for those people
to God. He was accountable. Number two,
he was a pitcher of the law. The law will not make a man obedient. We can tell them to come hear
the gospel. We can tell them to pay attention.
We can tell them to open their Bible. We can tell them to follow
along in the Bible. But we have to trust God to give
them a heart to obey from the heart. But then thirdly, that's
what we see in Moses too. God said, preach this gospel
to them. And so he went and said, God's
given you this Sabbath. And he told them what it was
for. Now let's look at that. Here's the second question. How does a sinner keep all God's
commandments and all his laws? God says there in verse 28, how
long refuse you to keep my commandments and to keep my laws? Now how
does a sinner do that? Listen carefully. A sinner establishes
the law one way. We establish the law of God.
We keep all His commandments and all His laws one way. Through faith in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. That is
the only way. Romans 3. Let's go to Romans
and look at this. Romans 3. We establish the law through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ apart from any law obedience
on our behalf. You understand that? Through
faith in Christ apart from any law obedience on our behalf. It's not our obedience that that
is righteousness. That's not it's Christ alone.
That's what's meant here in verse 21 where it says now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. It means without your obedience
to the law. Now the righteousness of God
is without the laws manifested. It's witnessed by the law and
the prophets. even the righteousness of God which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."
God sent His Son to establish the righteousness of the law.
Because he proved through Israel, we won't keep the law, we can't
keep the law. And the law's got to be kept,
it's got to be honored. And so he sent his son to do
for his people what we could not do. And so Christ came forth
and he did it. Now look at Romans 8, verse 3.
This is what I quoted to you just a moment ago. I want you
to see that again. The rest of it. Romans 8, 3.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh. That means we couldn't keep it.
We couldn't obtain a righteousness that God will accept by our law
obedience. Therefore God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. Look
at Romans 9. Look at verse 30. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained
to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith. The righteousness
which is of faith. But Israel which followed after
the law of righteousness have not attained to the law of righteousness,
wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were,
by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone, Christ Jesus. Look at Romans 10 and verse 3.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, they were going
about, they were trying to keep the law, they were going about
being very strict and very observant of the law. And Paul says they
being ignorant of God's righteousness. They don't know how fully a man's
got to keep the law. They don't know that the law
looks on the heart. They don't know that it's not
just outward in your hands and your feet. They don't know that
it's in the heart too. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish. Now that's a critical word. Watch
that word. Going about to establish their
own righteousness. so that they have not submitted
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law. That means Christ is that righteousness
to everyone that believes. He is the righteousness of the
law, the righteousness of faith, the righteousness of God to everyone
that believes. Now look at that word established.
Hold your place there in Romans 10 and go back to Romans 3 verse
31. I hear this passage misquoted
a lot or misinterpreted a lot. But look at this now, verse 31.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. We establish the law. Now men
will say, oh we don't make void the law through faith. No, we
believe God and we work hard to try to keep the law. We work
hard to strictly obey the law. That's very important, men will
say. That's not what he means. That's not what he means. That's
taking it completely out of context. Because the whole context from
Romans 3 over there to Romans 10 is that Christ is the fulfillment
of the law. He's that righteousness. Now
look at here. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law through faith. Now look back at Romans 10. But
if we turn back to the law for righteousness, to sanctify our
flesh, then we're, look at verse 3, we're being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish our own righteousness. Do you see that? And we've not submitted ourselves
unto the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God, the
righteousness of the law is established by the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ who kept the law in precept and then went to the cross and
was made sin for his people and bore the judgment of God in place
of his people to pay for the penalty of the law that we deserve. So he's obeyed the law fully
so that now by what he's done His people are righteous, and
that righteousness that is Christ, our righteousness, is imputed
to us, charged to us, accounted to us, through faith. Through
faith. Without us doing anything, it's
through faith. Through faith alone. Abel, Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All of them. They lived in a
day where they fully established the law of God in perfect righteousness
and they lived and died without ever having the Ten Commandments. How did they do that? The same
way a believer does it today. Through faith. Through faith
in Christ who established the law, the believer establishes
the law. Not by our works. Not by our
obedience. It's without our obedience to
the law. It's all by His. That's how a
sinner keeps the commandments and all the laws of God. Now
let's go back to Exodus 16 and look at verse 29. Now we have it pictured here
in what Moses was sent to tell them. I said this was the gospel
in type. Now look back at Exodus 16 and
verse 29. We see the rest that we have
in Christ. This is by whom we cease to go
about to establish our own righteousness. When we're brought right here,
verse 29. See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath. The
Sabbath. He's given you rest. Christ Jesus
is that seventh Sabbath. Seventh for perfect, Sabbath
for rest. He's that perfect rest given
to His people by God. That's who Christ is. I've got
to show this to you. I want you to see it. Colossians
2, verse 16. That's what the Sabbaths typify. They've typified the rest that
God gives His people from the burden and curse of the law in
Christ. Look at Colossians 2, verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or of the new moon
or of the Sabbath days. You see the Sabbath days there?
Which are a shadow of things to come. That's what they were
given for. A shadow, a picture, a type of things to come. And
what was the thing to come? But the body is of Christ. That
was the thing to come. They pictured Christ. They pictured
Christ. That's what they pictured. Now
go back to Exodus 16 and look at verse 29. Again. The Lord hath given you the Sabbath.
The Lord sent Christ. Verse 29. Therefore He giveth
you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Alright, here's... Christ came and He on the... in the six days that he worked.
Just like you work six days and on Saturday many of you are off
work. Saturday was the Sabbath, that
was the Jewish Sabbath. Christ came to this earth and
he worked six days as it were, not literally, but he worked
all the work that was to be done in six days and finish the work. He completely finished everything
that was to be done. Christ is our bread, He's our
life, and He's our perfect righteous given to us freely of God. That's what He is. Now look here
at verse 29. And this is the commandment that
God gives to His child. He says, Abide ye every man in
his place. Let no man go out of his place
on the seventh day. God commands His child to abide
in Christ, who is our place. Christ is our place. He's our
abode, just like their houses, their tents were their abode.
And we're to abide in Christ because He is our place of Sabbath,
our place of rest. God commands His child not to
go out of Christ our place to do any works by our own hand,
seeking life thereby. Don't go out doing anything like
they went out there on that seventh day. They didn't stay in the
house where God told them to stay. They went out there into
the field and was going to work to try to get them some more
life. Pictured in that manner. God says don't go out of Christ.
Stay in... He's your abode. He's your place.
Stay in Him where you have rest and don't leave Him to go out
there and try to work. and gain life or favor with God
thereby. That's what John said. John told
us this because this is what Christ told him. Listen to this.
In 1 John 2, 28, he says, Now little children, abide in him. See it there in our text? Abide
ye, every man, in his place. Where's your place? If you belong
to Christ and trust Christ for all your righteousness, Christ
is your place. And John says, little children,
abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. Just imagine how
ashamed those, you just picture them. Here they are, they're
sitting in their tent on the seventh day. And they're sitting
there and they got plenty of, they got everything they need
right there. Because God's provided everything they need. But instead
of staying in their place, they get up and they go out and they
start looking around for some food. Imagine, just imagine if
God showed up right then with them, right there face to face
so that they could see Christ standing there in their midst
and He said, I told you not to leave your house. Would they
be ashamed? Don't you know they'd be ashamed?
You know how you feel when you get caught? They'd be so ashamed. That's what John says. You better
abide in Christ, little children. That way when Christ returns,
you won't be ashamed at His coming because you've got the righteousness
and holiness without which no man will see the Lord. Abide
in Christ. Abide in Him that we may have
confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. Look
over at Hebrews 4. Hebrews chapter 4. Don't make the mistake Israel
made. They didn't believe God, so they tried to provide life
for themselves. And they abode not in the rest
that He provided. Hebrews 4, 1. Let us therefore
fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. I don't know who
wrote Hebrews, but what he's telling us is, let us therefore
fear. You see, fear is a healthy thing
when you're dealing with God. Let us therefore fear. Paul said,
knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Let us therefore
fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was
the gospel preached as well as unto them. But the word preached
didn't profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that
heard it. He's talking about them back there in the wilderness.
The word was preached to them. They heard the gospel preached
to them, just like you're hearing it preached to you right now. But you know what? They didn't
believe God. They didn't believe Him. Verse 3. For we which have
believed, we do enter into His rest. Into rest. Look at verse
9. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest, into Christ's rest, he also hath ceased from his own
works as God did from his. There's two things that can apply
to. Back at the beginning of creation, when God made the world
in six days, on the seventh day, you know what God did? He rested. He entered into rest because
there was nothing else to be done. The works were finished.
You know what Christ did at the end of... when He cried out,
it's finished. You know what Christ did after
that? God, our Savior, He sat down because He had by Himself
purged our sins and there was nothing else to be done. He sat
down. See, it says there, he that's entered into his rest,
he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. When we enter into the rest of
Christ, we stop trying to work to obtain favor and salvation
from God. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. Why do I have to labor to enter
that rest? Because your flesh and my flesh and this whole world
is laboring to keep us out of that rest. That's why. It's a
fight. You have to fight against your
flesh every day. I have to fight against my flesh constantly.
Constantly. Because The flesh was warned
against us. It's waging war against us. And
the flesh don't want you trusting Christ alone. It's against everything
that has anything to do with God. We got to fight our own
flesh. And this world don't want us
trusting God. I was watching an interview this week with a
guy in the news and he was interviewing a preacher. And I don't care
much for this preacher either, but just because the preacher
represented, was supposed to be representing God, this guy
that was interviewing him, man, he was just trying his best to
get this preacher ruffled. He was trying his best to get
him to say something that he could use against him. And the
preacher didn't give him any ammunition. He was calm the whole
time. And what they were talking about
was tolerance. Tolerance of homosexuals. That's
what they were talking about. But the interviewer wasn't tolerant
of the preacher's view at all. He hated everything the preacher
had to say about what God says. He wasn't tolerant of that at
all. And yet he said, but you need to be tolerant of two boys
getting it on. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. All right, go back now. We got
the point here on this. The only way for a sinner to
establish the law is through faith in Christ. That's the only
way. We don't make void of the law through faith. Just the opposite.
Through faith in Christ, apart from our own law obedience, we
establish the law. What does it mean, by the way,
to establish the law? To establish the law before God
means that through faith in Christ I have perfectly fulfilled everything
God says in His law so that there can't be one charge laid against
me. That's to establish His law.
It's done. It's perfectly established. Alright,
let's go back now and let's see this last thing. Briefly, let's answer this question
right here. There's a whole lot, let me say
this, there's some more notes I have here on this point. Go
in your own time and read the rest of that second point. There's
some notes in it and there's some good scripture to look into.
Let's go here thirdly though and look at this last point.
Turn over to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Here's our question. How long refuse ye to keep my
commandments and my laws? So let's answer this question.
How long then? We've seen now why God said this
to Moses. He represented the people. He
was responsible for the people. He represented the law and he
represented God to the people. All right, we saw how one can
obtain or fulfill the law and keep the commandments of God
one way, through faith in Christ, apart from our own works. So,
let's answer this question. How long will you refuse to keep
God's commandments and keep His laws then? In other words, how
long will you refuse to believe on Christ? That's the question.
If they're all fulfilled in Christ, then the question comes down
to this. How long will you refuse to believe on Christ? How long
will a sinner do that? A sinner will refuse to where
born again of God by Christ our life being formed in us. Christ
is life. He's life. He not only gives
life, He is the life. Christ has to be formed in us.
He's the bread of life. Typified in that manner. Whenever
the children of Israel saved their bread for the next day
and then they went out to work after God said rest, what they
were doing was they were showing that they did not believe God
and they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God.
That's what they were showing. And what they are is they're
an example of a sinner who may claim he believes on God, may
claim they believe Christ, but Christ is not their life. Christ is not their righteousness.
They prove it because they keep seeking life and they keep seeking
righteousness by their works, by their deeds, by what they're
doing. A sinner won't repent from that vain way and believe
on Christ only. until he hears this word right
here, spoken effectually in his heart. This is what you've got
to hear in your heart. Look at John 6, 27. You've got
to hear Christ speak in the heart and say, labor not for the meat
which 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. That's what we've got to hear.
You see, just like we have to labor to enter into that rest,
he says here, labor not for that which perishes, but for that
which endures to everlasting life. You see, we've got to fight
to just believe Christ. This world's laboring to please
God and satisfy God. And here's the deceitfulness
of the human heart. Men will say with their mouth, oh, I'm
not doing this to try to obtain a righteousness. I'm not doing
this to seek favor with God. I'm just doing this because I
want to. until one day then God speaks in their heart and they
find out everything I've been saying is a lie. I have been
doing this to try to earn God's favor. But see, when God speaks
this in their heart, then look at what they said. Then said
they unto him, verse 28, What shall we do that we might work
the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. Is there something else? Not
if Christ is enough. Surely there is something else
I must do, not if Christ is enough. Believe on him whom he hath sent. Verse 35, And Jesus said unto
them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Whenever
somebody is brought to Christ and they believe on Christ, They
hunger for Christ now and they thirst for Christ now, but they
no longer hunger and thirst after those things that they thought
God was pleased with. They no longer hunger and thirst
after the pant after the world anymore. God turns them to Christ
and they hunger and thirst after Him. They may have a lot of sin
in them, but their hunger of their heart, of their inner man
is after Christ. It's after Him. Those who believe
on Christ give God all the glory, That's the second thing. You
stop bragging on yourself and start giving him all the glory.
Why? Look at verse 44. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me drawing, and I'll raise him up
at the last day. Look at verse 45. It's written
in the prophets, and they shall be all told of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me. They shall be all taught of God.
That's written in the Scriptures. And you know what? If something's
written in the Scriptures, you know what that means? It's going
to be fulfilled. Every single elect child of God
is going to be taught of God. They shall be all taught of God. And you know what the effectual
result is? When you have heard and learned of God the Father
teaching you in the heart, you come to Christ. And that's why
he says, Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of
God cometh to me. They all do. And they all come
to God not bragging that they brought themselves to God. They
come bragging that God brought them to God. We stop bragging
on ourselves. Because we see now Christ is
truly our bread. He's our life. And the reason
true believers are not working for salvation is because we believe
Christ. Look at verse 47. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me, he has everlasting life. He has it. I am that bread of
life. Your fathers did eat man in the
wilderness and they're dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. You
know what happens when Christ tells you now, stop laboring
for this meat that perishes and labor for the Son of God. Go
after Christ. Lay hold of Christ. Believe on
Christ. And He makes you to see that you didn't do this by yourself.
God drew you to Him because He's taught you in your heart. And
He makes you to see now that you have eternal life. You know
what you do? You're not trying to get life
anymore. You're not worried anymore that
I'm not going to have life. I have life. I have life eternal. Christ is my bread and He says
I'll never die. Now, from then on, the believer
walks by faith, obeying Christ, and he doesn't turn back to his
works anymore because we live by Christ. Look at this, verse
57. As the Living Father hath sent
me, and I live by the Father. So he that eateth me believeth
on me, even he shall live by me. You see, faith in Christ
is not a one-time deal. Faith in Christ is a continual
living by Christ. Now, if Christ can be separated
from the sinner so that the sinner is separated from Him, then he
can stop living by Christ. But that can't happen. And so
then every child that he brings himself, they're all going to
live by Christ. They're going to live by Christ.
That's the chief lesson that's taught in the manna. That's the
chief lesson taught there. I don't have time to get you
to turn there, but I'm going to quote from you from Deuteronomy
8 in verse 3. Listen to this. He humbled thee
and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna. that he
might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only. That's a natural thing. That's
a natural thing. But by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. You see, God wasn't
giving them that bread in the wilderness just for them to go
out and get some bread and fill up their gut with it. He was
teaching them, live, you live by my word. And he taught them
in a negative way. Because they thought they were
living by the manna that came down. That physical, earthy manna. They thought they were living
by that. And that's all they were concerned about. And they
wanted quails to eat. They just wanted earthy things.
And they proved that a man don't live by those things because
as Christ just said, they're dead. They died. He means by that, eternally.
They died eternally. But he says here, those that
I've called, they live by me. Every word that proceeds out
of my mouth. That's right. We are living following Christ. The just shall live by faith.
And I think more and more that's a capital F. Because the believer
is justified by Christ and we live by Christ. The just shall
live by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight,
and we live upon the Word of Christ. Every word. Every word
of Christ. So do we have this point? A man
will refuse to obey God until God forms Christ within, giving
us life and faith to rest in Christ. We have to have life
first, and then He gives us faith to rest in Christ. And He gives
us repentance from trying to gather extra than what we have
in Christ. We stop trying to hoard up for
tomorrow and we feed on Christ every day. You can't feed on
Christ today and just think, well, this will get me through
tomorrow. That's going to breed worms and stink. You got to feed
on Christ tomorrow. And we don't go outside of Christ
now looking for righteousness or life somewhere else. We found
life. We have it in Christ. And so
we stay there. Faith and repentance are just
opposite sides of the same coin. When you have faith, you've got
repentance. When you've got repentance, you've got faith. And you can't
have one without the other. Then we say with Peter, look
at John 6, 68. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. That's when Christ is enough,
because Christ is our all. He's our life, He's our righteousness,
He's our rest, He's everything. Do you see that? Alright, amen.