Now, whenever we train our dogs,
a lot of times we'll use bread, some kind of treat of some sort
to train them. And that's how we make our dogs. We teach them that way. Well,
the Lord uses Christ our bread to make his children faithful
dogs. That's how he proves us. proves
us. All things that God teaches us
comes through Christ the bread, through Christ our light. We
don't have any life without Him. We don't have any light without
Him. We don't have any understanding until we're brought to believe
Christ. And then we begin to understand
and we're taught through Him. Now, my message is about how
that we're proven through the manna, proven through the manna.
Now, I want you to go through Exodus 16 today, but I'm just
going to go through the first 10 verses here this hour, and
then we're going to just work our way down to my text. Let's
begin in verse 1. They took their journey from
Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came
into the wilderness of sin. which is between Elam and Sinai
on the 15th day of the second month after their departing out
of the land of Egypt. That's a good description of
this land that we're journeying through as we're going to the
land God's promised. We're traveling through the wilderness
of sin. It was called a waste-howling
wilderness. And ever since this world fell
in Adam, that's what this world is. It's a waste-howling wilderness. It is a wilderness of sin. You've
got to think about it. As Moses is going, every step
he's taking, he's leaving civilization. He's leaving Egypt. And he's
going further away, further away Further out into that wilderness,
he's going. He's got his back to that wilderness,
he's got his face to God's promise, and that's the way he's going.
That's how we travel. That's traveling by faith. He's
got two million people he's leading as he goes there. You know, I
preach to you and I bring these messages and I'm trying to show
you these precious promises that the Lord gives us. And I'm trusting
the Lord that He will bless the Word and He'll grow you in faith
as you go. But remember this too, brethren,
I'm walking by faith with you, right along with you. I'm telling
you, I know the Lord's going to bless us and we can move forward
just like Moses was doing. And I'm walking by faith the
same as you. If I didn't believe His promises, I wouldn't for
a moment preach another promise to you and tell you He's going
to bless us. But I believe Him. I believe God is able. And that's
what faith is. It's believing God is able. We
see something here about our sinfulness too. In verse 2, the
whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron in the wilderness. The Lord begins to teach us immediately
when He calls us by His grace. They were just in the wilderness
there a few months. They hadn't been gone long at
all. They just saw the Passover lamb
slain, saw them delivered out of Egypt. They came to that Red
Sea. They saw it parted. The Lord delivered them across.
They saw Him conquer the Egyptians. They were singing on the other
side of the Red Sea and rejoicing in the Lord. Bitter waters of Myra and the
Lord told them to cast in that tree, and they did, and the waters
were made sweet. He took them to Elam, where they
sat, and there was 12 wells of water, like an oasis there, and
they feasted and just enjoyed it. And now here they go. The
Lord teaches us, you know, He brings us, the Spirit of God
will teach us in the heart, and He'll teach us that when we were
dead in trespass and sin, when we had no power, no ability,
no strength in ourselves, that the Lord God sent forth His only
Son. And He sent Him forth and He
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. When as yet we were
without strength, when we were sinners, and when He did that,
God didn't spare His own Son. He delivered Him up for us. He reconciled his people unto
himself when we were enemies to God and hated God. That's
what he did for us. We had no strength, no power,
wasn't seeking him, wasn't looking after him. He did this when we
were dead in sin. Reconciled means He did everything
necessary to make us His friends so that He could show us His
grace according to His holiness. He did that for us when we were
not reconciled to Him. And then He sent forth the Spirit
and the Gospel and He taught us what He'd done for us. And
made us to see we're justified in Him. We believe on Him. We're
righteous in Him. The hard part's done. The Lord's
in glory now, and He's ruling all things, and He tells us,
if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being now reconciled, we'll be saved by
His life. He's going to save His people.
We hear that gospel, and we believe Him, and we rejoice in our hearts
filled, and then just a short time later, The trial comes and
we start murmuring again, we start doubting God again. We
need to remember to be patient with one another because this
is the case with all of us, brethren. It's not just one or two, it's
everybody. Look at Exodus 16, the whole
congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron. It's easy to
say, well, why is he or she complaining? Why are they complaining? That's
easy to say when our belly's full, when the trial's not at
our door, but when the trial is at our door and we're hungry,
what then? So we need to be patient every
hour. We need Him every hour. And look now how full of unbelief
or how full of sin and exaggeration unbelief is, verse 3. And the
children of Israel said unto them, Would to 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." They didn't sit when they were in Egypt.
The taskmasters made their life bitter with hard bondage the
whole time they were in Egypt. They didn't eat bread to the
full when they were in Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. Moses
didn't bring them forth. Moses and Aaron didn't bring
them out. The Lord brought them out. They knew Moses didn't divide
that sea. God did. And Moses and Aaron
didn't have any ill intent toward them. They were following the
command of the Lord. But who were they murmuring against?
Look down at verse 8 at the end. Your murmurings are not against
us, but it's against the Lord. Against the Lord. We need to
remember this, brethren. Every thorn, every one of them,
from the least to the greatest, every thorn as we go through
this wilderness of sin. Every one of them is completely
in the ordered and worked by God. He's the first cause. And they're all worked and ordered
to teach us not to distrust our Father, not to look anywhere
else, but to trust Him. Christ is our advocate. You know
why we aren't consumed when we murmur and we complain and we're
just full of sin and unbelief and all this exaggeration? You
know why we aren't consumed? This is His intercession for
us. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. That's why we
aren't consumed, because we have an advocate with the Father.
Now, by all means, try not to let the thorns separate us from
the Lord, but know this, that it's the Lord, His advocacy,
His intercession is the reason why we're going to travel through
this world, and those thorns won't be allowed to separate
us from Him, and He'll keep us from the evil. All right, now
let's see something about God's goodness. Verse 4, Then said
the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven
for you. Now the bread, let's look at
John 6. And you want to hold your place
in John 6. We'll go back and forth here today between Exodus
and John 6. This bread, you know, it came
down. It's a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's look here, John 6.30. They said therefore unto him,
What signs showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work? And speaking to the Lord Jesus
Christ, he said, Our fathers did eat manna in the desert.
As is it written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said
they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. 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.
Look down at verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I'm the bread
of life. That's what he means by eating
his flesh and his blood. He that believeth on me, he has
everlasting life. I'm the bread of life. God gave
that manna when that whole congregation was sinning against Him, just
like He sent forth His Son when this whole world had done everything
contrary to God to forsake any merit of mercy, any deserving
of any kind of grace or mercy from God. That was true of all
of God's children in this world. We didn't have anything in us
to make us worthy of this gift any more than they did right
there. They didn't have anything to make them worthy of this gift.
Here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us
and sent forth His Son to be the propitiation, to be the seed
of mercy between us and God. Paul said, when you were without
strength, in due time Christ died for who? The ungodly. For a righteous man, he said,
for a righteous man, one will die. And even for somebody that's
not really righteous, just a good man, somebody will die. But God
commendeth his love toward us, and while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified.
by His blood will be saved from wrath through Him." We see the
goodness and grace of God to send forth His Son in the midst
of a wilderness of sin where there was nothing but murmuring
and complaining against Him, against God. And then we see
something here too about how this grace and this goodness
is particular toward His children because this Lord promised, I'm
going to rain down manna for you and He didn't do it in Egypt. He didn't do it in Canaan. He
didn't do it in any of those nations around them. He did it
for Israel. It fell for them. This grace
is particular. It's electing sovereign grace
that comes to His people. And it's for us particularly
because the Lord said, He said there, I'll rain down, He told
Moses, I'll rain down breath of heaven for you. That's what
He said, for you. And that's His goodness, His
grace is towards His particular children whom He's loved. We
don't deserve it. He said, Behold, I'll rain. Not
fire and brimstone. That's what we deserve, like
Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what they deserve. That's
what we deserve. But He said, I'll rain down bread.
Not give a little bit. I'll rain it down. I'll bring
it forth in abundance to you. You know, people don't like to,
sometimes don't like to talk about the electing grace of God,
but the multitudes that the Lord passed by don't want to come
to Him. He said, you will not come to me that you might have
life. The question is not what about the multitudes, the question
is what about you? The question is will you believe
on the Lord? Will you believe on Him? You
don't find out you're the elect of God until you believe on Christ.
That's how we come to understand that God chose His people from
before the world began. It's in the light of Christ.
Okay, now here's where I want to get to. This is what I want
you to see this morning. Exodus 16, 4. The Lord proves
through Christ our bread. Let's look at verse 4. 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 Do you see that? 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." The Lord gave them some basic rules here to gather in
this bread. We're going to see that more
in the second hour. But what I want you to see here
is the Lord is using the bread to prove the children of Israel. Christ is, he's either the uniter,
the one that unites his children together, or he's the one that
divides those who will not come to God in him. But Christ is
that way. Now you remember when they came
out of Egypt, the scripture tells us in Exodus 12, 38, there was
a mixed multitude that went up also with them. That means that
some were Egyptians that went with them. Some were from other
nations that had been taken captive slaves in Egypt. There was different
nations that went with that nation Israel. They went with them.
Some of them had married into families, and they went with
their loved ones. Some of them saw the great things
the Lord had done, and they thought, this is the place. We need to
go with this people. And they went with them. And here's the message
of that. Some believed God. Some were
the true Israel of God, but some were not. Some went for other
reasons. How are they going to be proven?
How is it going to be made manifest, those that are approved of God,
that He's called by His grace? It's going to be through the
bread. It's going to be through Christ Jesus the Lord. That's
the only way. Look at John 6, 26. Everything that the Lord taught
in Exodus 16, I think the Lord Jesus Christ taught in John 6,
through the miracle He wrought in feeding the multitude and
then what He taught them about that when they came to seek Him.
But many, when He fed that multitude, they came out to seek Him. They
came following Him too, just like Peter and John and the others
did. But here's what the Lord said
to them, verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles,
not because you believe that I am the Lord, Jesus Christ,
but because you ate the loaves and were filled. You came after
me because you got your belly full. That's why, for temporal
reasons. Now look at Numbers 11. Look
at Numbers 11. Later on, This mixed multitude was proven
unfaithful through that manner. Numbers 11, look at verse 4.
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting,
and the children of Israel also wept again. Here they all are
together weeping again. And it said, Who shall give us
flesh to eat? We want flesh to eat. We remember
the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely. There they go again.
The cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions
and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away and there's nothing
at all besides this manna before our eyes. Later they would say
this. They said our soul loatheth this
light bread. We hate this bread. This is how
God's gonna, he's gonna make it known who his children are
through the bread. Now, look down at verse 33. And
the Lord said to them, He said, I'm going to give them flesh
until it comes out their nose. And He brought up quail upon
that land to the point that it said they went out and gathered
ten homers. That's different than an omer
with an O. That's a homer with an H. A homer
with an H is equivalent to a 55-gallon drum. The one that gathered the
least, it says, gathered ten homers. Ten 55-gallon drums of
quail. And the Scripture says here,
verse 33, And while the flesh was yet between their teeth,
ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against
the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great
plague, and He called the name of that place Kibberoth Havah,
because there they buried the people that lusted. It means
graves of the longing, or graves of those who lusted. You see,
they didn't want the bread. They wanted things of the flesh.
That's what they wanted. They didn't want the bread, the
manna, the bread from heaven. And this is the difference. Some
people don't want Christ. Some people come out for the
temporal bread. Some people come out for the
things of the flesh, and they want those things. They'll take
all the service of the Lord. They'll take all the great things
that churches do in this land in the name of the Lord, and
all the activities. They'll take those things, But
start preaching Christ, start preaching Christ the bread, setting
forth Christ the bread faithfully, consistently, showing that this
is the one in whom our life is. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but by Him. And you'll find they'll say,
Oh, we're dried up and we don't even know why we even left Egypt.
Why did we come out of that place where they were yoking us with
the law and making our lives miserable with hard bondage?
Why did we even come out there? At least there we ate to the
full. We got all the flesh. We got
all the fleshly service we could stand there. All we got here
is Christ the bread. Oh, poor pitiful me. All we got
is Christ the bread. But through the manna, Others
are proven to believe God. They're proven to believe God.
That word proven means some are proven not to believe Him. But
others are proven to believe Him. It means they're taught.
They're taught of God. He teaches us to walk by the
law of faith. to look to Him, not to our own
wisdom and strength, to Him. Hebrews 4.12 says, For the word
of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. You see, this bread determined
this word, the incarnate word, Christ the Lord, through his
gospel, he discerns, it's just the discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Whether the men come out walking
by the law of faith or they come out walking by sight, by their
own hand, filling their belly. But through Christ our bread,
this is what the Lord teaches us. He teaches Israel, His true
Israel, His true children that He calls, He teaches us to walk
by the law of faith. to trust Him, to live upon the
Word of the Lord, to feed upon and rest in Christ, be satisfied
that God's provided all grace for today in Christ and He'll
provide all grace for tomorrow in Christ. And believers born
of the Spirit are taught that through Christ our bread. Look
at John 6.57. We're taught to walk by faith. Look at what the Lord said there,
John 6.57. Let's look at verse 56. He said,
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. As the living Father has sent
me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. Hebrews 10.38 says, the just
shall live by faith. That's how we live. We live by
faith. We're united to Him, one with Him. We walk by faith. We live by faith. Paul said,
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life that I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. We walk in by faith. We live
upon the word of God. And if any, my Hebrew writer
said, and if any draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
it. Now, look at John 6 and look here in verse 5. I want you to
notice this. I never saw this before, though
I was studying this this week, but just before the Lord told
that multitude that He's the true bread from heaven, just
before the Lord fed that multitude with the loaves and fishes, and
then He went forth and He told them what that meant. I'm the
true bread, He told them. But just before he did that,
look at what he did, John 6, 5. When Jesus then lifted up
his eyes and saw a great company come unto him, he said unto Philip,
when shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said
to prove him. just like the Lord did over there
in Exodus 16. He said, I'm going to use the
bread to prove him. And there's the bread, Christ
our bread. He's standing there. And he himself said to Philip,
how are we going to feed all these children, Philip? How are
we going to feed all this multitude, Philip? And he said this to prove
him, for he himself knew what he would do. The Lord knew what
he himself would do, and the Lord knew what Philip was going
to do. He didn't do this to try to, because he didn't know what
was in Philip's heart. He did it because he knew what
was in Philip's heart, and he was teaching Philip what was
in his heart. Just like he's teaching. He's proving us, teaching
us what's in our heart. And Philip answered, 200 penny
worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them
may eat. Yeah, just a little. And one
of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, there's
a lad here which has five barley loaves and two small fishes,
but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, make the men
sit down. And there was grass in that place. Look, and Jesus
took the loaves, verse 11, and he gave thanks and he distributed
to the disciples and disciples to them that were set down and
likewise the fishes as much as they would. And when they were
filled, he said unto the disciples, gather up the fragments that
remain, that nothing be lost. They gathered them together and
filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which
remained over and above unto them that had eaten. You see
that? What do you think Phillip and
Anthony were thinking when they were out there picking up all
that extra that was left over? After they just got through saying,
oh, we can't buy enough to feed these people. And Andrew said,
well, here's a boy that's got a few fish in those. Well, we
can't feed them with that. What do you think they're thinking
now? They're out there taking up all those extra loaves that's
left over, 12 basket full. They're thinking what God teaches
you and me when he puts us through trials like this and proves us
through Christ the bread. They're thinking, all I am in
myself is unbelief. an absolute weakness. I have
no strength in myself. I'll never ever look anywhere
but to Christ. He's my salvation. He's my life.
He's able. Why did I even... Why don't I
just put my hand on my mouth and hush my mouth? Next time
the Lord asks me a question, I'm just going to say, Lord,
you know. You know. That's what He teaches us through
this thing. Look, let me show you that. Deuteronomy 8, 3. I'll
show you that's why the Lord was teaching this to them. Deuteronomy
8, 3. Verse 2, let's look at Deuteronomy
8. He said, Thou shalt remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what
was in thine heart. Again, not that he might know
that, he might teach us what's in our heart. And he said, whether
thou would keep His commandments or no. And He says, And He humbled
thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which
thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that He might
make thee know that man does not live by bread only, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord does
man live. Why is He teaching them that?
Why is He teaching them that as He went before He blessed
them further? He said, He looked at verse 4. He said,
You raiment wax not old, neither did your foot swell these forty
years. Thou should also consider in thine heart that as a man
chastened at his son, so the Lord God chastened at thee. He's
teaching his children. Why is he teaching us? Therefore
thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk
in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord's bringing thee
into a good land, a land of brooks of water and of fountains and
depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and
barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of oil
and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness.
Thou shalt like anything in it, a land whose stones are iron,
out of whose hills thou must dig brass. He said, get this
now, He didn't give them the law and teach them this through
the law. He gave them bread and He taught
them this through bread. You're not going to understand
the Lord and walk after Him by the law. That's not what's going
to make a man obedient to God. It's seeing God's mercy and grace.
and His chastening hand through Christ our bread, our life. That's
what's going to make us obedient and walk in all His ways and
all His words and follow after Him. You can preach, you can
preach, thou shalt not commit adultery all you want to. And
everybody sitting here that don't think they're committing adultery
will say, I'm so glad I've never done that. Look at me, I know
old so and so does that, but I don't do that. And you swell
up in pride and thank God to receive you and all the while
committing spiritual adultery against God. Looking to ourselves,
looking to this flesh and playing the harlot against God Almighty.
But He teaches us through this bread what we all are so that
we'll follow Him. So that as He increases us in
grace and gives us more and more abundance like He did them, this
is why He does it. Look at verse 17. Look down at
verse 17. Well, let's look at verse 14.
He said, He's doing it so that our heart won't be lifted up,
and we won't forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth
out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led
thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery
serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water, who
brought thee forth out of the rock of Flint, who fed thee in
the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he
might humble thee, that he might prove thee to do thee good at
thy latter end. He's doing it so that when he gives us more
grace, verse 17, we won't say in your heart, my power and the
might of my hand hath got me this wealth. But thou shalt remember
the Lord thy God, for it's he that giveth thee power to get
wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto
thy fathers. And it is as it is this day. And it'll be if thou'd all forget
the Lord thy God and walk after other gods and serve them and
worship them. And that's what we do. We turn
to our wisdom and we turn to our works and we turn to our
law keeping and our obedience and think, I by my own hand have
got me this. Well, look how far I've come
in holding this. I got this myself. You know what happens when we're
doing that? We're serving another God. We're serving another God
called M.E., the God of self. And he says here, he says, I
testify against you this day that you shall surely perish
as the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face and
so shall you perish because you would not be obedient unto the
voice of the Lord your God. Now, here's what he teaches us
through Christ our bread. He teaches us that Christ is
our Redeemer and He shows us His glory in His Son. Look at
verse 6 and 7. Moses and Aaron said unto all
the children of Israel that even at the evening you shall know
that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. That's
what He's going to teach. He's our Redeemer. That's a deliverance.
The Lord brought you out. He delivered you. He redeemed
you. God did. And in the morning then you'll
see the glory of the Lord. for that he heareth your murmurings
against the Lord." Now didn't they know the Lord brought them
out from the land of Egypt? Didn't they know that the Lord...
Don't we, huh? Don't we know that it's the Lord
our Redeemer who came into this earth and paid everything? Who
is that Lamb who established the law and everlasting righteousness
and who justified us from all our sins and who paid God, God's
holy justice, everything we owe and redeemed us from all iniquity.
Don't we know that? They knew that they'd been brought
up, but they had to be taught it over again. And it was taught
them through the bread. And they were taught this, and
they made to see the glory of the Lord through the bread. The
glory of God's elect and grace is seen in Christ the bread.
God chose Him. Aren't you glad He chose Him?
I'm glad He chose Him, and He didn't choose Adam. Because if
He chose Adam to be our eternal representative, it'd be over.
We died in Him. But He chose Christ to be the
representative of His people. We see the glory of His redeeming
grace. This is the only way God can be just and the justifier.
We see in the face of Christ Jesus the glory of His reigning,
God's reigning grace. God has said, I set my King on
my holy hill of Zion. He's God's King just like He's
God's Christ, His Son. And He says, bow down and kiss
Him. He's governing everything. He's ruling everything. He's
doing this mighty work for His people. That's where we see the
glory of God's power and holiness is in Christ. And we see the
whole glory, the fullness of the Godhead bodily in the face
of Christ. I get so tired of people acting like because you
preach Christ and crucified that you don't preach God the Father.
You don't preach God the Holy Spirit. God the Father said,
this is my Son, hear ye Him. And of the Holy Spirit it said
when He comes He won't speak of Himself, He's going to speak
of me. When you preach Christ in crucified, that's where you're
going to see the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. Without Him, you don't see His
glory. It's all seen in the glory through the bread. All through
the bread. And then notice this too. How
was this knowledge and this understanding given to the children? Did God
just hear Moses and say, alright, I'm going to do this, and then
He just dropped it down out of heaven and started feeding them
all of a sudden? No. He told Moses and He sent Moses
and Aaron in the midst of the congregation and said, go preach
this to them. Go declare this word to them,
what I'm going to do. He never worked a miracle for
the children of Israel, except first he gave his word to those
messengers he provided them, and then he sent those messengers
in their midst to preach it. And through the preaching of
it, he made it known what he was about to do. God's going
to have, He's going to have His glory announced. The glory of
the King's going to be announced. You know when a king's coming,
in days of old I read about when a king would be coming to a city,
they sent somebody ahead of them to announce the king's coming.
Get ready, the king's coming to this city. I mean, you think
about our president. When he goes to a city, the Secret
Service goes there, and man, they prepare everything, they
get everything ready, because he's coming. When he comes, everybody's
ready, and they're eager to see him come. God's going to do that
through His Gospel. Look at verse 10. And it came
to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the
children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness,
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the clouds.
He didn't appear separate from that Word being spoken to Him.
That's where He appeared. John Gill said, Christ in the
brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His
person appeared in that cloud in some visible display of His
majesty which made it very observable to them. He teaches us through
Christ. Look at John 6.45. The Father
teaches us through Christ, and Christ teaches us now through
the messengers He sends. This is what the Lord said when
He was sitting there teaching them. It's written in the Prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me. You see,
He's not only proven us through the bread, He's proven us by
His means of grace, whether we'll obey Him or not. One minute they're
sitting there arguing that Moses and Aaron said, these men, we
don't want to have anything to do with them. What made the difference?
Why did they hear Moses come forth and speaking through Aaron
and they heard him speak the word and then all of a sudden
they obeyed him, they started heeding his word. They saw the
glory. They saw the glory of the Lord
through that word. The Lord made himself known. We start journeying
through this wilderness. We spend our time out in it.
We get out in it, we get hungry. We get hungry, and we start murmuring,
and we start complaining, and we start finding fault with everybody,
and we're tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. And we
come in, and we sit down, and we hear the Word, and the Lord
blesses the preaching of the Word, and makes His glory appear
in our heart, and makes us to see His glory in the face of
Christ Jesus. He feeds us Christ our bread.
And when He does that, you know what happens? The things of this
world become strangely dim. And we say with Peter, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we're sure, we believe and
we're sure, thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. God
does this through the bread. And through that bread, just
like you do with your dog, he makes his faithful Caleb, his
faithful dog, he makes them faithful through this bread. Amen.