Exodus chapter 16 will be our text this morning. And I also want you to mark John
chapter 6. John chapter 6. Now, this morning we'll look
at a few ways that the manna in the wilderness is a picture
of Christ, the bread from heaven. titled this, The Manna and the
Bread from Heaven. Exodus 16.14 begins, And when
the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the
wilderness there lay a small round thing as small as the hoarfrost
on the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, It is manna, for they wish not
what it was. Manna was a strange thing to
the children of Israel. The name means, what is this?
It was a strange thing to the children of Israel. What can be more mysterious than
God coming down incarnate in human flesh? What can be more
mysterious than that? Scriptures tell us without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He who made the world was in
the world. He who made the woman was made
of a woman. That's amazing. I understand
fully why it takes the sovereign grace of God to create life in
a sinner and bring him to believe God because that's a mystery. That's a mystery to believe that
God was manifest in the flesh. John 1.14 says, The Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father. full of grace
and truth. He was subjected to the same
trials and the same temptations that you are. God in human flesh and yet without
sin. The bread which came down in
the wilderness came down with no help from man. No aid from
man whatsoever. It came down. It was given by
God. Man didn't plow. They didn't
sow. They didn't reap. They didn't do anything to get
this bread. It came down freely of God. And that's how the Son of God
was conceived and came forth into this world. Look over at
Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1 and verse 30. The Lord, the angel, said unto
Mary, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. Luke
1, chapter 30. Thou hast found favor with God,
and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth
a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. Now ladies, the angel of the Lord comes to
you and just tells you, Fear not. You're going to conceive in your
womb and bring forth a son, and here's what you're going to name
him. That's what God did to Mary. And he shall be great and shall
be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. And Mary said unto the angel,
How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? I have not done anything
to produce a son. And the angel answered and said
unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. Just as that manna came down from heaven and was a mystery
to those in Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
was formed in the womb of a virgin. And He who is God, who made the
world, made the woman, came into the world made of a woman. Look
back there at Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4 and verse
4. Look these scriptures up with
me. I want you to see this this morning. We'll go kind of slow
here so you can get to them. Galatians 4 verse 4. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, flesh, and bone,
blood, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. That's an amazing thing. And
then this manna came down in the dew in the morning. Scriptures
tell us the Lord said in Deuteronomy 32 to my doctrine shall drop
as the rain and my speech shall Distill as the dew as the small
rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass
Paul said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I It's
the power of God. It's the dunamis, it's the dynamite,
but that power is life. It's the life. It's where life's
going to come through, that gospel. unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, the Jew first and also the Greek. As the rain comes
down, Isaiah said, and the snow from heaven and returns not thither,
but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth in bud that it
may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. He said,
so shall my word be that goes forth. It won't return to me,
for this dew reminds me of the gospel through which Christ comes
and enters into the heart and is the life in a sinner. The
dew from heaven. Well, then secondly, you notice
here in verse 15, Exodus 16, 15, it says, And when the children
of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It's manna, for they
wish not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This
is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. It was a mystery
to them, first of all. But secondly of all, it was a
gift given by God. You know, Moses' gospel was the
same as my gospel. He said, this is the bread which
the Lord hath given you to eat. Look over there in John 6. In
John 6. The natural man has this all
wrong. Look at John 6 in verse 26. The
Lord had fed a bunch of folks. And they followed Him. And He
fed them. And they followed Him. And Jesus
answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek
Me not because you saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the
loaves and were filled. And He said, 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. And they said, 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. And then they said unto him,
What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work? You know when the Lord said,
when Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, He shall have no form nor comeliness
about Him that when we shall see Him, we shall desire Him?
Not just that He wasn't physically attractive to look at. That's
not what He's talking about. There was nothing done by Him. by His deeds, by the flesh that
He did that appeared to the carnal eye to be what carnal man views
as righteous. They just said it. They said,
what can we do? The Jews seek after a sign. They
said, what can we do that we might work the works of God?
And He said, believe. You can't see that. Then they
said, well then what do you do that we might see and believe? We can't see any righteousness
in you. We don't see anything lovely
about you. We don't see anything comely about you. Show us something. Do something righteous. He's
the very righteousness of God standing in their midst. And
they're saying, unless we see something assigned, we can see
some righteousness and see it come forth and see something
done that appears righteous that we validate as being righteous,
we don't believe you. And he said, this is that bread
you're laboring for that perishes, that's not worth a cent to you. And he said to them here, they
said, verse 31, What they're saying is Moses did something
and we saw, we can see what Moses did. And they said, our fathers
did eat manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread
from heaven to eat. They're saying Moses did that.
Moses said that the Lord gave you this. That's what he told
them. They didn't hear him. Just like the carnal man can't
hear me speaking right now. Just like the unregenerate man
can't enter into what I'm saying right now. They didn't hear Moses
say, the Lord gave you this. They passed it from generation
to generation to generation to say, can't you just hear a message
preached on this? Oh, if you want to follow God,
you need to... You know what Moses did in the
wilderness? He loved the brethren so much that he gave them bread
to eat. Now, you're going to have to be a Moses In a rebellious
world, you've got to make the choice to be a Moses now. Moses
said, I didn't do anything. God gave you this. I didn't give
it to you. And now these come along and
they're preaching the same message to Christ and saying, look, Moses
did this. You're going to have to do something
righteous. And he said, verse 32, 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." They didn't believe Moses and they didn't
believe Christ. They didn't believe Moses and
they didn't believe Christ. This is a gift. It's a gift. This is a gift. Salvation is
a gift. What did the Lord say to the
Samaritan woman? of Him. Those Pharisees weren't
coming and asking anything of Him. They were saying, tell us,
you just tell us what we can do so that we can produce an
outward sign of righteousness. And He said, believe, that's
all there is to do. And they said, well then you
do something, show us something. There was no form, no covenants
about Him that they would see Him in Nazareth. He's the gift
of God. The gift of God is His Son. He's the unspeakable gift of
God's love. Look at John 3, verse 13. This world loves to speak of
love. The religious world loves to
speak of love. Turn to John 3, verse 13. How
does God love? How does God love? John 3.13,
The Lord Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, No man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of
Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world. For
in this manner God loved the world. God loved the world giving
his only begotten son to be lifted up in the room instead of his
people God gave His only begotten Son to be made a curse for us. God gave His only begotten Son
to die the just for the unjust, that in that work that His Son
performed, He would make those He died for without sin and the
righteousness of God in Him. That's how God loved the world.
That's what, for God so loved, that means in this manner God
loved. He just said Moses took a serpent. The serpents were biting them.
And that thing that would save them was made like unto that
thing that was biting them. Our Savior, Christ the Lord,
was made sin. Because sin is what was death
and a sin. And He was made sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And He, that's
why we read in Ephesians 1, 6, to the praise of the glory of
God's grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
Christ. That's how God loved the world.
That's the manner in which God loved the world. So that whosoever,
it doesn't matter if he's a Jew, if he's a Gentile, if he's rich,
if he's poor, if he's a prince, he's a pauper, he's a wise man
or he's ignorant and unlearned. When the Spirit of God enters
into him and gives him this new birth that the Lord is speaking
to Nicodemus about, that man will look and whosoever, whoever
he is, it doesn't matter, this blood is so effectual. and accomplish
the salvation of his people so fully that it doesn't matter
who the man is, whosoever looks on him is going to live, believes
on him, they'll live. Because it's not in me, it's
in how great that sacrifice was that he made. And that's how
God loved the world. John, 1 John, look there with
me. 1 John chapter 4 and verse 9. And if you want to go through
the book of John, let me tell you what the book of John is.
Go read this book with this thought in mind. Read this book with
this thought in mind. It's teaching us two things.
It's teaching us not to walk in sin. And it's teaching us
if we do, if you or your brother is found walking in sin, to know
we have an advocate with the Father. And the love of God is
this. Don't walk in sin. Don't go after
sin. If you love God, you can't. And
if you see your brother in sin, if you love God, you can't treat
him as if he don't have an advocate with the Father. And if you do,
that's darkness and that ain't light. Loving God is knowing
that my sin's been put away in Christ and my brethren's sin
has been put away in Christ. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. And the whole book is telling
us this brethren to treat one another as brethren the brethren
love one another and treat your brethren Knowing that your sins
been put away That you've been made perfection in Christ What
is it? This is this is the hope he says
wherein we may have boldness in the day of judgment as he
is so are we in this world and so everything that's been said
here is to encourage you to walk in the light and That is, don't
turn again to the darkness of treating a brother or a sister
as if there's something else for them to do, or there's something
they're going to have to make amends for, or they're going
to have to make up for in order for you to accept them. Because they have an advocate
with a father. Who can condemn them? Christ died for them. Now
look here at 1 John 4 and verse 9. Read the whole letter here with
that thought in mind sometime, but here's 1 John 4, verse 9. "...And this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through Him." You know,
I've told you this before, but when you're reading about what
Christ accomplished and what God did, and you read a word
like might, it don't mean possibility. It means that it shall happen.
He sent His Son into the world that we shall live through Him. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us. Now how is it He could love us
if we didn't love Him? And in fact, Scripture says not
only did we not love Him, we hated Him. So how is it He could
love us if we hated Him and didn't love Him? Freely. without a cause,
without anything in you whatsoever or me whatsoever. This is love
and He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Do you know what that word propitiation
is? I'm not going to define it for you. Let me illustrate it
for you. Here's what that word propitiation
is. Here's what it is. Whenever the
priest took the lamb that was slain, and He took the blood
of that lamb by Himself. That lamb was slain in the place
of a particular person, a particular people. They're called the Israel
of God. And He took the blood of that
lamb, and He went in. Christ is the lamb. And He's
the high priest. And that high priest took the
blood of that lamb and went into the holiest of holies where nobody,
no man, no priest, but the high priest could go once a year.
Picture of the very throne of God. And that high priest went
in there and he took that blood and he sprinkled that blood on
a mercy seat that overshadowed the law of God. And he sprinkled
that blood on that mercy seat, on the ark, And he came out of
there, and he sanctified the altar. He sanctified everything
in the temple. He worked his way out of there,
sanctifying everything in that whole tabernacle. That high priest
did it. sanctifying everything, making
it holy before God through the blood. Everything in the temple,
every vessel in the temple, every instrument in the temple, everything
about it is his to sanctify and to make perfect before God. And
that's what the high priest did. And then when he got out of there,
he put his hands on a scapegoat. There was another goat, another
lamb. He put his hand on that one. Symbolizing all the sins
of that Israel of God going on that goat on that. It's called
the scapegoat and Then he sent it away into the wilderness with
all their sins on it and it went away gone forever That's propitiation
It's atonement the high priest did it all and all those vessels
that he sanctified and after He went in and made atonement.
All those vessels He sanctified in that tabernacle are pictures
and types of His elect people whom He sanctifies, whom He covers
in His blood and sprinkles with His blood and sanctifies them. And their sins are gone. Now,
John says, that's why I tell you, if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father. Now, treat your brethren that
way. And don't turn again to the Mount Sinai and treat them
like a rebel against God. Treat them like you know what
Christ has done. And he said, and this is love.
This is the manner in which God loves. This is a gift, brethren. And it's a gift of God. Let's look at Isaiah 55. Are
you working for a righteousness? Are you working for a justification?
Are you working for sanctification? Are you working to try to free
yourselves from sins? Are you trying to make yourself
more acceptable to God? Or are you resting in Christ
who has done all the work? Here's what we read in Isaiah
55, verse 1. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, your
money is no good here. He that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. How can you buy without any money?
He paid the price. So the bounty is free because
he paid it. Come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfieth not? You know, it's sure not going
to satisfy God, and it really don't satisfy you and me either.
If it did, Adam and Eve would have been content with their
fig leaves. But when they heard the voice of God, they started
looking for cover in the trees. They weren't satisfied. God wasn't
either. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is
good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. And cloud
your ear, come unto me here, and your soul shall live, and
I'll make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David. You know why? Because the wages
of sin is death, but the gift of eternal life is by God. Well, this manna in the wilderness
was a mysterious thing, and the bread from heaven's even more.
This manna was unearned, the gift of God, Christ the bread
from heaven's, the gift of God's love. This is the record. God has given to us eternal life,
and this life's in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. Well, thirdly, the
manna met the need of those who were hungry enough to eat it.
Look at verse 16, Exodus 16, 16. This is the thing which the Lord
hath commanded. Gather of it every man according
to his eating, and Omer for every man. We don't really know how
much measurement that is now, but what he said was every man,
here's what you can have. You can have this specific amount,
every man. And according to the number of
your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his tent.
So if you had, the Dormientos would be collecting a lot more
manna than the Curtis's would. They'd go home with a lot more,
but they'd have just what they needed for each person, you see.
All right. And he says here, he says here,
take it and for every man that's in his tent. Now, everybody in
that camp of Israel was starving. They were hungry. Everybody in
that camp was hungry. You know, there's a lesson in
hunger. There's a profound lesson in
hunger. Isn't that right? The rich get
hungry, and the poor get hungry. The man that's in prison gets
hungry, and the man that's out walking the street gets hungry. Nobody is exempt from hunger. Everybody gets hungry. Well, nobody is exempt from starving
or being starved of righteousness before God. And therefore, unless
every man has the bread from heaven, Christ the Lord, they'll
die. They'll just die. unless they
have that bread. Everybody in that camp was hungry.
Everybody in that camp was hungry and starving and had no way to
feed themselves. Is that not a picture of a sinner?
A sinner born in this world is hungry and starving and has absolutely
no way to feed themselves. Nothing. They had nothing to
feed themselves. The best they could do. And I
guarantee you, when they were murmuring against Moses and complaining
against Moses, God tells it like it is in the Word and says it
that they murmured against Him in these things, but they probably
spun it to make it sound like they were being righteous. And
yet, God said, all it is is murmuring. It's just murmuring against Me.
All it is is complaining against Me. Because they can't feed themselves. They can't do anything to feed
themselves. Jesus said, and look back over
there at John 6. John 6. We're going to go back and forth
here a few times. John 6. He said there in verse 53, He said, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His
blood, ye have no life in you. There's the Gospel. Except ye. Why except I believe on Christ? Why except I feed on Christ?
Because you have no life in you. And except ye believe on Him
and partake of Him, you have no life in you. That was the
problem that they had and what caused them to murmur in Israel.
Christ is the only Savior and He's the only bread. He's the
only bread. The husband is the head of the
wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and He is the
Savior of the body. He's the Savior. The manna filled
everybody there, though, who ate. Look at verse 17. Exodus 16, 17. The children of
Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less, And when they
did meet it with an omer, when they measured out for each person
in their house and everybody took on, he that gathered much
had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.
They gathered every man according to his eating. God provided a
full sufficiency for everyone there who went out and ate. They
had it. They had nothing over, nothing
less. Believers, we feed on Christ daily. every day. We can't neglect feeding on Christ
any more than we can neglect eating a meal. Why? Because you're hungry for Him. Those strong in faith, that are
strong in faith, they don't have anything over. And those that
are weak in faith don't have anything lacking. Because it's
not our faith. It wasn't their gathering that
fed them. It was the bread that fed them. Christ is sufficient so that
we never go hungry. Now look back at John 6 there.
John 6. Isn't that what He said to them? John 6, 35. John 6, verse 35. They said,
Lord, evermore give us this bread. If this bread is that good, we'll
never hunger, we'll never do without, everyone will have sufficient
bread. Give us this bread. And he said, Jesus said unto
them, verse 35, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger. You'll never do without. You'll
never be without. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. But I said unto you that you
also have seen me and believe not." Do you notice there he
didn't say, you've seen what I've done? That's why they were
following him, because they saw him do some miracles. That was
impressive to them. But here he says, you've seen
me, but don't believe on me. If I didn't do those miracles,
you wouldn't be here right now standing in front of me. Look down at verse 53. Then Jesus
said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have
no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in Him. Now that's
life. That's what He said. This is
life. When I dwell in you and you dwell in Me, this is where
you have life. And the Living Father, as the
Living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that
eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that bread which
came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum." You know, if you're full, you can
have a porterhouse steak set in front of you and just abhor
it. If somebody tried to feed you
whatever your favorite food is, if you're full and somebody tried
to feed it to you, you just don't want it. It offends you. For somebody to try to feed you
when you're full. Even if it's something you like. But if you're
hungry, they could set a cracker in front of you and you would
delight in it. If you're starving. That's why
they didn't want, they just, this wasn't hard to understand.
This wasn't hard, difficult to understand. They didn't want
Christ. They wanted the work of their
hand. They wanted to do something.
They had a good thing going. They had folks under them that
they were ruling over that they could tell them to do this and
they'd do it. And those folks were paying them and they had
an easy life. They were fat and full and sassy. They didn't have any reason to
turn to this man and forsake all that and trust him. They
were full. The Lord's got to make us hungry,
but when He makes us hungry, we want the bread. We want the
bread. Well, He's a mystery to this
world, but He's the gift of God's love to His people, and He fills
those who are hungry, that hunger for righteousness. And then fourthly,
it says here in verse 31, Exodus 16, 31. Look there. And the house of Israel called
the name thereof manna, and it was like coriander seed, white,
and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. This
is the fourth thing. The manna was pleasant to taste.
It was pleasant to taste. The psalmist said, How sweet
are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. Are there certain foods that
you like so much that when you start eating them, you just wish
you didn't get full? Crawfish is kind of that way
with me. When I start eating them, and I just wish I just,
when I start from the beginning, I'm thinking, man, I'm going
to get full eventually, and these are so good, I wish I'd just
eat them all the time. That's how it is with Christ.
The man that God gives a heart for Christ, He don't get full
of Him, though. But He just longs to... He's
so sweet, He just wants to feed and feed and feed on Christ all
the time. I don't even know if one of my
friends told me this a long time ago. There was a fellow in the
church that was kind of getting to the point where he wasn't
content with this bread from heaven. And one of my friends
was talking to him, and it just seemed, just, you know, you know
how you are, how you just love it, and you love Christ, and
you're trying to encourage somebody back to Christ. My friend was
doing that. This fellow who was having problems, he said, you
see, what your problem is, you just want to feed, feed, feed. You don't want to work. You don't
want to do anything. All you want to do is feed, feed, feed.
That's what God's people want to do. That's what... This is
the work of God that you believe on Him, that you feed, feed,
feed on Him. And that's the way it was pleasant.
This is what our Solomon, our Christ, our wise, our wisdom,
this is what He says to us in Proverbs 24, 13, My son, eat
thou honey, because it's good. and the honeycomb, which is sweet
to thy taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom
be unto thy soul when thou hast found it. Then there shall be
a reward, and thy expectations shall not be cut off." That's
just the long and short of it. When you find Christ, you've
found it all then. His newborn babes desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if so be
that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. It's had a good
taste to them. Now let me give you something
here fifthly, and this is just going to be brief, but I want
to show you a few ways, two ways that the man in the wilderness
differs in type from Christ the bread from heaven. That manna
was food for the flesh. That manna was food for the outward
man. That's all it was. Christ is
the bread of eternal life for the soul. The Lord said in John
6.58, this is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as
your fathers did eat manna and are dead, he that eateth of this
bread shall live forever. And here's another thing. That
manna rotted if they kept it too long. Just like your bread
gets moldy if you keep it too long. That manna rotted. It ceased altogether when they
entered into Canaan. But Christ Jesus is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He never grows old. And when
we get into Cana, into Heaven's glory, He'll be our bread forever. Forever. And we won't eat any
junk food then. We eat a lot of junk food right
now in this life. But then we won't eat anything
but the bread from Heaven. That's all. Well, here's the
conclusion. Look at Numbers 21 with me. Some
people, you know, they delighted in that bread. They marveled
over it there at the first and they delighted in it. But then something happened.
They got tired of the fact that all they had was manna. And they lusted after some variety. Surely we can have something
else with this manna. And so they said this in Numbers
21.5, the people spake against God and against Moses and they
said, wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt? Why did you deliver us out of
that cruel bondage of slavery to die in this wilderness? For
there's no bread, They had bread. There's no water. They had the
smitten rock. They had bread and water. They
didn't have the bread and water they wanted. That's what he said. They said, our soul loatheth
this light bread. You've got something else. We
have something else to add to this, in addition to this, so
that we can have something besides just Christ. They said, we loathe
just Christ. But of those professing and those
professing disciples that followed after Christ, look over at John
6, verse 60. What did they do? John 6, verse 60. They were following
Him. He was feeding them and they
were following Him and going after Him. And He said all this
to them that He is the bread of life. He brought this thing
home to the heart to where He said, You know why you follow
me. You follow me for handouts. Fleshly
handouts is all you've come in here for. He said, either believe
on me and have eternal life or perish in your sin. And here's
what they said. Verse 60, Many therefore of his
disciples, when they had heard this, they said, This is a hard
saying. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew
in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto
them, Does this offend you? What? And if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before. It's the Spirit that
quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they're Spirit and they are life. This is the dew from heaven.
This is the manna from heaven. But there are some of you that
believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore said
I unto you that no man can come unto Me except it were given
unto him of My Father. And from that time many of His
disciples, many of those who professed to be His disciples,
proved they never were His disciples, never were born of Him. They
went back and they walked no more with Him. just like those
ones in the wilderness. But now look down here at verse
67. Moses didn't do that. Moses didn't
complain. Aaron wasn't complaining. Caleb
wasn't complaining in the wilderness. Joshua wasn't complaining in
the wilderness. And the apostles weren't either. And those who
have been fed right here today aren't complaining either. Verse
67, Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? When you've got the best, where
are you going to go? Well, 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. Now, let me give you two things.
Psalm 34. Psalm 34, verse 8. Psalm 34,
verse 8. This is Christ our King, Christ
our King David, Christ our Psalmist. This is His Word to every one
of you here. And this is His Word effectually
in the hearts of those He's redeemed. From the beginning and throughout
the rest of our day, this is His command. And those that are
born of Him hear this command and obey it. And here it is.
Psalm 34 A. O taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Here's His command to you. It's
going out a general call right now. And I pray, by His grace,
it will be effectual in the hearts of many. But here's what He says.
Taste and see. The Lord's good. Taste and see. And now, here's the second thing.
Revelation 2. Verse 17. Now, are you like those
that followed Christ and said, now give us something to do?
Is that enough of an application for you? That's what He told
them to do. Taste and see that the Lord is
good. That's a tall order for a sinner
like me and you. We can't do that unless He gives
us the grace to do it. You mean just taste and see? You've got to give us a taste
for it, don't you? and understanding. He's got to
make us delight, taste and see. But now here's what He says to
you that have tasted of Him and have seen that He's good and
trust Him and are following Him. Here's His command to you. Keep
on. Keep on tasting. Keep on delighting.
Keep on eating this feast of bread. And here's what He says
to you in Revelation 2.17. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh,
Will I give to eat of the hidden manna? Forever and ever and ever and
ever. That's good news to a believer.
That'll make the believer say, oh, I'm glad I came to the table
today and ate. I see again that the Lord's good.
And I'm looking forward to that day when I come into His kingdom
and I sit down at His table to that bounty where He's seated
there at the head of that table. And you'll sit down there at
that table. Is it going to be spread with a big old feast and
a bunch of food and wine and plates and fine china and all
that stuff sitting around there? I don't know if it will be or
not. I have no idea if it will be or not. But it could be a
bare table with nothing on it. Absolutely nothing on it. Because
the feast is the one that's sitting at the head of the table. And
I guarantee you with Him sitting at the head of the table, I don't
care what He puts on your plate. If it is a feast of literal food,
I don't care if it is, you won't even be looking at that. You'll
be just looking at the one at the head of the table. That's
where you'll be feeding, right there. All right.