All right, if you take your Bibles
now and turn with me to Numbers. Numbers chapter 11. Numbers chapter 11. And we're going to read the first
nine verses of this chapter. Numbers 11 and verse 1 says,
And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, and the
Lord heard it. And his anger was kindled, and
the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed them that
were in the uttermost part of the camp. And the people cried
unto Moses, and Moses, when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire
was quenched. And he called the place Taborah,
because the fire of the Lord burned among them. burning, or
a burning desert. And the mixed multitude that
was among them fell elusted. And the children of Israel also
wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, and we
did eat in Egypt freely, and the cucumbers, and the melons,
and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul
is dried away, and there is nothing at all beside this manna before
our eyes. The manna was a coriander seed,
and the color thereof as the color of a doom. And the people
went about to gather it, and ground it into meals, and beat
it in a mortar, and bake it in pans, and make cakes of it. And
the taste of it was as a taste of fresh oil. And when the dew
fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon him. Now, here we have a too familiar
sight. Israel murmuring. And I have
a message, the title of this message is The Warning and Cure
for Murmuring. This was an often too familiar
sight of Israel murmuring and complaining that they were dissatisfied
with the manna that God had given them to eat. They wanted flesh. They wanted flesh. They wanted
meat. And they even remembered the
meat of Egypt. They remembered the spices of
Egypt. Now, see that this murmuring, this complaining that they had,
was no light thing in the sight of God. Murmuring is no light
thing in the sight of the Lord. Matter of fact, it says the Lord
was displeased and so displeased with their complaining that the
Lord sent a fire on the outer parts of the camp and burned
up multitudes of these people. And the only thing that saved
them was the intercession the intercession of Moses when he
cried unto the Lord. And the Lord answered, and you
know this, the fire was quenched. The fire was quenched. And we
know that in and of itself, and I'm not going to focus on that
first part, but we know that's a picture of the gospel, isn't
it? By nature, we were ready to be
consumed. And then Christ is our intercession. He intercedes and prays for us. How often have we murmured How
often have we complained, and yet deservingly we deserve to
be consumed, and yet our Lord intercedes for us. Now, imagine
those that were survivors of this. You would suppose that
fire coming down from heaven, consuming the vast multitude
around you, you would assume that that would stop their complaints. He would assume that everybody
then would be quiet. No more complaining. That fear
of God's power would have stopped their malice. But what happens
next? The very next verse, what do
we find? We find them complaining again. Murmuring again. In verse 4 we
see this, that it's a mixed multitude. This multitude that is complaining
at this point is not only Israel, but those that have joined along
the band, those that had come out of Egypt with them, those
that were in those lands that were around them, that gathered
with them, the mixed multitude. And you know what they did? They
started reminiscing. You ever reminisce? The good
old days. The good old days. You get into
a bad place and what do you do? Man, I miss the good old days.
They said, oh, remember how we ate in those flesh pods in Egypt? Remember how the Egyptians treated
us so well? They gave us melons and cucumbers
and garlic. Remember? Really, that didn't happen. But
that's how they saw it. And the Israelites joined in
with them. These people, they joined in and said, we freely
ate these things, which was a lie. In reality, they were slaves. They were captives. But what was the cause of this
complaint? Now, what's the root cause of
this murmuring? Why, then, did they think back
to Egypt and the flesh pots and the meats and the garlic and
everything? They were murmuring about the manna. They were murmuring
about what God had provided to sustain them. It was the manner
they murmured about these people said, my soul loatheth this lightbed. My soul loatheth this lightbed. Our souls are all dried up. That bread that was sent of God,
they neither labored for it, they didn't work for it, they
didn't merit it, surely they didn't merit it. They were always
murmuring and sinning and complaining, and yet God poured it out daily
for them. And where they went, as the dew
came up in the morning, they could gather this seed up and
they could make eggs out of it. They could eat it, sustain themselves,
and yet they complained. He said, Oh, my soul is dried
up for this life, man. Oh, that I had some meat, that
I had some flesh to eat. God said, You want flesh? Well,
I'll give you flesh. And you know, in the next part
of this, in verses 18 down to verse 20, we read of those quails. God sent a mass multitude of
quails. And it says, the scripture says
that it was in every direction a day's journey. A day's journey
is anywhere from 16 to 20 miles. Two to three cubits high, that's
two to three feet high. 16 miles in every direction,
God piled up herbs. He piled up this quail. And what
did they do? Did they just say thank you? Did they appreciate it? No, they
ran on it like they had never eaten meat before in their life.
They ran out there and they, the scripture says they gathered
ten homers. H-O-M-E-R-S. A homer is an assload. They took ten donkeys and they
piled up enough quail to load down ten assloads and that was
the minimum that they got. Now, you know how much the manor
they were required to get every day? One homer, not a homer,
an omer, which is three quarts. Three quarts per person in the
household. And they took these 10 assloads,
and they loaded up, and they went. And the result of their
greed was this. You suppose that they were satisfied
Suppose that when they got what they wanted, that they were fine. No, it didn't satisfy. No, in
fact, God cursed it and they died of a plague while the meat
was in their teeth. Some believe that they didn't
even wait to cook it. That they were so greedy for
it that they ate the blood of it and it was cursed. And God
killed it. God killed it. There are many
lessons to be learned, who we who are the children of God can
learn from this history. And I pray the Holy Ghost will
teach us this thing, but the main thing is this. Discontentment
and murmuring concerning Christ is displeasing to God. Now, I'm
going to show you this in a minute, you know it to be true. The manner
that God gave them was a picture of Christ. And you know how God
protects these pictures. And when these people were dissatisfied
with the picture, they were dissatisfied with Christ. And God is no more,
the most displeasing thing of the Lord is when we murmur concerning
Christ. Now like these Israelites who
are a picture, they're a type of us who believe. You are believers
in Christ. We know this, that you and I
are spiritual Israels. We are the true Israel of God. Paul says in, I believe it's
Romans chapter 2 or chapter 3, he says, they that are circumcised
in the heart are true Israel. And so this pictures us, these
people here in this text surely picture God's people. Our Lord
Jesus Christ told us that I want you to see this, that this mixed
multitude in verse 4, it says the mixed multitude. I want this
to remind us of this, we're always among the mixed multitude in
the church. The church is always going to be made up, the local
assembly is always going to be made up of a mixed multitude
of believers and false professors. Always. Our Lord said that the
tares and the wheat grow up together. The goats and the sheep are always
present in the church, and we're not to root them out. Our Lord
says this, you know, you're going to get it wrong. You start guessing
who's mine and who's not, you'll pick up the wrong one. So it's
not for us to do that. But it is this, as a preacher
of the gospel, I must continually preach Christ. It's not for me to determine
that. who the wheat and the tares are. It is simply this, for me
to declare the gospel to you. I constantly preach Christ. And
I want you to know, just as that manna appeared every morning,
that's what we do when we preach the gospel. We preach the manna
of God. We preach Christ in you. We preach
this of necessity. Paul said, necessity is laid
upon me. The preachers go, woe is me if
I preach not the gospel. And what is the gospel? We are
to declare the total depravity of man. It's necessary. One man
said this, you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all.
That's true. You missed this premise and you're wrong. If
man has some ability in himself, then all your gospel is going
to be wrong. We declare that by God's grace
is a sovereign election, that the Father chose the people and
loved them, that he purposed their salvation, that he had
put them into union with Christ, who is to be their surrogate.
That God purposed that he, by his work, by his work, should
present them blameless before his throne. We set forth the
person of Jesus Christ when we preach. We preach the great person
of Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man. We set forth that God was manifest
in the flesh, and this God-Man came as a representative of all
that the Father had given me. How many times the Lord say that?
All that the Father had given me, they shall come to me. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all He had given me, I should lose nothing. He
was a representative man. He represented the elect of God,
and by His obedience, by His faithfulness, He obtained righteousness
for the elect. Not only this, that He obtained
their righteousness, but by His death, By His crucifixion, He
bore their sins in His own body on the tree. And it was there
that God imputed our sins to Christ, and it was there the
wrath of God reigned on Him without measure. God poured out justice
upon Christ for the sins of His people. This is what we declare. This is the manna that comes
down from God is Christ. He came down to suffer in the
stead of his people, and when God's justice said, that's enough. Friends, I'm telling you, that
was enough. Christ said, it is finished.
Redemption accomplished. Atonement made. It was there that the elect of
God were justified. Completely innocent. before the
eyes of God. Therefore, he in boldness said
this, I should lose nothing. I should lose nothing. This is
the manna of God. This is the bread of life. We
preach Christ. We preach Christ crucified. And
we preach Christ victorious. This is the manna, the gospel.
that is preached to you, we preach a victorious Savior. Listen,
if Christ only made salvation possible, then what hope have
we of ever finishing? If it's just possible, and there's
something left for you or me to do, then I'll tell you this,
salvation is not possible, it's impossible. I'll invite that That story of the Catholic saint,
there was this Catholic saint, he was beheaded. And the legend
is that he picked up his head and he ran a mile or more. Now, listen, I could believe
he could run 10 miles, if I believe he could have took the first
step. But we know this, he was beheaded.
That's what we are by nature, dear. And if one step is, if
that's the thing we need, that one step, then we're all doomed. But listen, I'm preaching this.
Christ didn't make it possible. He actually saved us. He actually
accomplished our redemption. I tell you what, I don't want
a possible Savior. I don't want a Savior. I want
one who actually saves, because that's what I need. I need someone
who actually has done it, and Christ has finished it. He who
died for his people, and God says he rose again from the dead
so that it might be manifest that he won, that the victory
was done. And now then that Christ has
ascended, listen to what he said in John 17. As thou hast given
him power over all flesh, You know that Christ has power over
all things. Now, how much is all power? How
much is all power? Well, it's all power. If you
have any strength in the eyes, you know who will give you that?
The one who has all power. He has all power and is working
all things for this. That he should give eternal life. What he purchased. what he accomplished
by himself, that he should give eternal life to who? As many
as the Father hath given him. How many is going to be saved? As many as the Father has given
him. He will give eternal life to
them. Therefore, the Spirit of God
is now sent into the world to apply that blood to the people
of God. He is sent into the world to
apply this to life and faith. And I know this, every one of
you that believe, you still believe because you're kept by the power
of God. You're kept. This is an amazing thing, because
I tell you, we're always fearful of not being kept. I know God's
people are. We're always afraid. We sin, like we're going to see,
we murmur, we complain. And yet, why is it that we are
not considered? Scripture says, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not considered. He sins his spirit, and so neither
As I hold Christ before you, I want you to see this. This
is the manna of God. This is the manna of God. Jesus
declares this in John 6, I am the bread of life, which cometh
down from heaven. That's how that manna came down
from heaven, didn't it? It came from God to Israel. And that's what I just preached
to you. I preached to you the manna of God, Christ, the Savior. and all who eat his flesh, all
who drink his blood, shall have eternal life and never perish. So what is it to eat this manna?
How is it that we eat this manna? Simply this, it's by faith. To
believe on him is to eat the manna. It is to feast on him. So when Christ is preached, and
you hear it, you believe it. That's what it is to evil. These
things I'm telling you, you know them well. And when you hear
them again, it is the new nature that sings, that rejoices for
this. The old man is still dragging
us to the earth, but we in the new man, this is a joy to us. And it's a necessity. just as
it was necessary for these Israelites to eat that manna. If they didn't
have that manna, they would have died. So it is with us. We need to be fed Christ constantly,
daily, to feed on Him. So He says, I'm the bread that
came down from heaven. Whosoever eats this by faith
shall never hunger or thirst for righteousness. We shall never
lack Peace with God, we shall never lack the grace of God.
We shall never lack the love of God. Have you eaten of Christ? If you've eaten of Christ, you know
this. This bread is for hungry people. This bread is for those
that are hungry. Oh, everyone that's thirsty,
come to the water, come buy wine and milk without money, without
price. Wherefore do you spend your money?
For that which is not bread. People spend their lives for
their jobs and their families and their fortunes and their
fame and their pleasure. That's not, that bread won't
satisfy. This is the only bread to give
eternal life. And I'll tell you, it's only
for those that are needing So, we who eat, we find all our
life and all our salvation and all our joy in Christ. And listen,
we have not stopped eating this bread. This is a necessity for
us to constantly hear and think on these things. Scripture says this, As it is
written, the just shall live. constant evil of this gospel,
of this man. But I'll tell you this, there's
always a mixed group when this gospel is preached. There's always
a mixed group in the early church like there was here, in this
mixed multitude. And there are some who are never
satisfied with this message of Christ alone. There's some that are just not
content hear this message of Christ and Him crucified. They,
like this group in our text, they long for something more. Something meaning. Something
fleshly. Something they can get their
arms around. Something they can get their
minds around. Something they can stir their feelings and emotions
and tactics. That's what they want. They want
something fleshly. something they can see, something
they can touch. Listen, if it's something you
can see, something you can feel, and something you can touch,
it's not faith. It's not faith, is it? No, you
can see it. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, evidence of things what? Not seen! Not seen. I remember this guy, he was came
into the church building and he started talking to me about,
he was a preacher. And I said, oh, really? Okay.
And he started talking to me, he started trying to preach to
me. Automatically, I could see this guy didn't know Christ,
he didn't know the gospel at all. And I began to quote the
scripture. I said, if that's true, then
what about the scripture that says, it's not of him that witheth,
nor of him that runneth, but God the show of mercy. You know
what he said? He said, well, I had this vision. Not faith. Not faith. He's resting on a
vision or something that he felt, something that he's seen, something
that he experienced. And so basically, he would take
the Word of God and throw it away because he had something
he could touch. Well, that's what this mixed
multitude wanted. They wanted some flesh. That's what the religious
world wants. They said, surely we must preach
the gospel. They don't throw that out. You
know, they don't dare say something like that. I said, well, you
don't want the gospel? Oh, no, no, you need preacher
gospel. Yeah, that's right. You need preacher gospel. But
what we need is we need something more. You can't just have a church
based on the gospel alone. You've got to have something
else. They've got to move on to other
things. We've heard that before. We need to hear something new. We need to be progressive. We need to keep moving, keep
things rolling in our church. Therefore, like these who desire
the flesh and the carnal lust of birds, such men search out
carnal means to keep people. They impose laws upon them. They try to keep people by entertainment
and amusement. Why? Because the gospel is not
sufficient enough. My soul loatheth this light bread. You've got to give me something
more. So they don't like the gospel. They need something more.
They desire flesh to eat. They loathe the light bread of
the gospel. They loathe Christ alone is not
sufficient to sustain or strengthen us or to cause this church to
grow. These are the ones that creep
in unaware, those who are discontent with the gospel of Christ. I've
ran into several of these people over the years. They come into
the church, they acknowledge the doctrine of grace, they acknowledge
all of the, they check off all the boxes of doctrine, right?
They got it up here. But soon they're gonna, if that's
all you've got is the head knowledge of Christ, then soon you're gonna
want something more. You're gonna want something more. They creep in and they become
discontent. But instead of leaving, like
you hope they do, you think that if they don't like it, that they'd
go, there's plenty of flesh pods out there, plenty of false free
will work collision out there. Why are they gonna stick around
here? But they do. They stick around. And what do
they do? They're constant murmuring and
complaining. Constantly against the preaching
of the gospel always trying to allure God's people. And listen
to me, you who are God's people, I want you to understand and
remember this, our flesh is prone to murmuring. Murmuring is a very contagious
disease. When you have one person murmuring,
very soon you can have a whole church full of murmuring. Why? Because we're prone to it. It's
just in our old nature. This mixed multitude, they began
to spout out these lies. Remember back to when it was
good? That's what they did. They weren't content with the
manner. They said, hey, remember back to sometimes when they aren't
content with the gospel, they're going to start reminiscing. Remember
what life was like before we came to Christ? Remember how
free you were? Remember how wonderful things
were? And so it is with sin that tries
to appeal to our pledge to remember how things were before Christ.
They look at the world and how it has all the wealth and they
seem to live life to the fullest. There seem to be no consequences.
And I'll tell you that, you and I look out in this world and
that bothers us. God's people are under constant
struggle, constant sorrow, constant grief. And we look at the world,
and you see how prosperous they are? You see how the, Asa found
this out in Psalm 73. You read that Psalm, and Asa
said, look, I know God's good to Israel, but as for me, I've
already said it. I mean, my faith is nigh well gone. I looked at
the suffering of God's people and I looked at the prosperity
of the wicked and he said this, I find no fans in their death.
They're not afraid like we are. They set their mouth against
God and against heaven and they only increase. They only increase. This no doubt
troubles our flesh. It troubles us and moves the
believer. It moves us to complain. It does. Maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm
the only one. Me and him. When I see the prosperity of
the wicked and I look at the suffering of my life, my flesh
begins to complain. Begins to murmur. But only by the word of God was
Asa made to see the truth. And it's only again by feeding
on this manna that we are able to see the truth, that these
things, these extra things, lead to death and not joy. The end of sin is always misery
and death, the opposite of what it promises. So believer, let us pray that
we keep our minds and hearts fixed on Christ. You see, when I preach the gospel
to you and I preach Christ and then crucify, this is on purpose.
I do this on purpose because this is what we need. I don't deviate from Christ and
then crucify. I don't preach any other gospel
to you than that which was preached. Because I know this, if we deviate
from it, it leads to murmuring and complaining. But if we set
our eyes upon Christ, it cures our murmuring. Cures our complaining. Now I got four things about murmuring.
Pray the Lord bless this to us. Four things. First of all, discontentment
is displeasing to God. We should understand this. Our
murmuring Our murmuring is discontentment or displeasing God. Look at verse
one. It says, when the people complained, what did it do? It
displeased the Lord. Look at verse 33 in this chapter. It says, and while the flesh
was in their mouth, 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. This matter of discontentment,
concerning the gospel of Christ is a great sin. Now, let's look upon a man. Think about this for a minute.
You have a man. He has no food. No home. He's unable to provide for his
needs. He's disabled. And somehow, in pity, you look
upon this man. You take him in. You're home. You feed him. You clothe him,
you mend his wounds, you find him a job, you give him all the
means that he needs to keep that job, you give him a car, you
give him everything he needs. And then he begins to mock you. He's not content with his wages
that you give him. He curses you because his car
is not as good as your car. His food is not as good as your
food. He mocks you among your friends. He curses your name. He grumbles
all the time. How long do you suppose your
patience would last with a man always murmuring and you always
giving? How much more is it with God
than that? Truly man by nature has no value
to God. Can man add anything to God?
And you have children. Your children are valuable to
you. Now why? Because they add to
you. They add to you. They're pleasing to you. But consider this, what can we
add to God? What do we have that is not given
of God? And yet our nature is set in
utter rebellion. The natural man receiveth not
the things that are of God. Foolishness deeds. He rebels, he's squandered. We've
squandered our inheritance. And yet God still supplies men's
needs. And more than that, most of our
wants. He sustains our life. He daily,
constantly, and yet we daily, constantly defy His rules. How
foolish, then, is it for men to quarrel against God, or murmur
against the One who supplies his very life? But how much worse is it for
one who has been given faith in Christ? Now, that's a natural
man. As it's bad for a natural man to murmur, how much more
is it for us who God sent His only Son into
the world to save to die for us. And then we murmur against
Him. We murmur against God. We've been quickened, we've been
chosen, we've been loved of God, we've been given all the promises
of peace and eternal life, and yet because we are in bad providence,
we murmur, we complain, I always have that thing in my
office, let me not talk of the sovereignty of God and then complain
of my lot in life. Isn't that inconsistent? We preach
the sovereignty of God, we declare it, we embrace it, and yet when
something goes wrong in our life, what do we do? We complain as
though God had no control. You see why it's displeasing? I'm just preaching myself. You know it's hard to be a preacher
when you struggle with these same things I'm telling you.
But I do. God's people do. Dark Providence
has come. They begin to murmur. But consider
the great grace of God. He put us in union with His Son.
He hitched your wagon to Christ. And everything then that belongs
to Christ belongs to you. What then do we have? I like
that in, I believe it's Lamentations, why does a living man yet complain? If cups can be eternal life,
why are we complaining if you take sisters? It don't make any sense. He's put us in union with Christ.
The love of God has sent His Son to be the offering, the Passover
lamb whose blood has redeemed us. He has bought us with the
price, and listen to this, hey, we are not our own. People always talking about how
bad slavery is, you know? All a slave. Jesus Christ. Is that bad? That's good. We've been bought
with love. Our Savior has laid down His
life for us. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his brethren. Do you believe that? Do you believe
Christ will free you? You don't need to breathe. Then what in the world is protecting
you that your friend is not aware of? Anything? Was there any sorrow like in
his sorrow? Take your sorrow and put it against
him. Is there any sorrow like unto
myself? Will the Lord have afflicted you? No. As a matter of fact,
he said this, I restored what I didn't take away. I didn't
sin, and yet I restored it. I restored justice for the sinner. Behold, how that we have sinned,
We have rebelled against God. We were lost and undone without
God or His Son. But in grace, in free grace,
He reached down His hand to us. The Holy Spirit then awakened
us and dwells in us and He keeps us, He sustains us, He gives
us His gospel to feed on. We believe on Christ. We are
given faith by the hand of God. But now in some divine providence
of God we are made to walk in troubled times. Now we are, by
the providence of God, we are led to a point in time, a point
of sorrow, a point of suffering, a point of sickness, a way of
hardship, the hill is steep, the desert is dry and barren. And yet the Word of God declares
His purpose and intent. Only for your good. Only for your good. Listen, I'm
not saying this takes away the pain, no. It doesn't. The pain
is necessary. The pain is needed. But God said it's going to be
for your good. And you're often likely to assert
it. You know, the surgeon has to
cut away the cancer, cut away the flesh. And in the process,
it doesn't mean it's going to be painless. It's going to be
very painful, but it has a purpose. It has a purpose to take away
that which is killing you. What is God doing? Taking that
which is killing you. Doing you good. God said this
in Jeremiah 32. He said, I will make an everlasting
covenant with them. that I will not turn away from
them to do them good." Is that true or not? Is it true or not? In your dark providence, has
God turned away to do you good? No, He has not turned away. He
said, I'll make an everlasting covenant with them, and I'll
never turn away from them to do them good. This is what I'm
gonna do, I'll put my fear in their hearts. What is this? Love. You have love and reverence for
God. Do you? Who put that there? God put that there. And listen, He did it that you
would not depart from Him. You that are in trouble, where
are you going to go? Where are you going to go? Our Lord said that those
who side with Him will go away also. We ain't got nowhere to go. You
have the word of eternal life, and we believe you are the Christ,
the Son of the Father, the Holy Spirit. God put that in our hearts. Isn't that good? Isn't that good
you have it turned away? Isn't that good you have it left? Give that to me. It's not turning away from the
good. It's not departing from the good. Yea, I will rejoice
over them to do them good. How often will they do you good? Always. Always do you good. In all things,
and I will plant them in the land assuredly, listen, with
my whole heart and soul. How much of God is engaged in
saving you? You ever thought of that? What
part of God is engaged in saving you? All of it. It was the Father that loved
you and chose you. It was the Son who redeemed you
in love. It was the Spirit of love who
called you, quickened you, and teaches you. All God Himself
is engaged in bringing you home to His Son. And so then, why would we murmur? Why should we complain? Secondly, I don't want to get
off the wall, but secondly, discontentment. All will never be satisfied by
earthly things. When we are in a bad place, we
are discontent. What are we going to look for?
We're going to look for a remedy to our discontent. When you are
discontent with the providence of God, you are discontent then
with the gospel of Christ. The gospel's not doing it, not
being satisfied. What do you start looking for?
You start looking for earthly things around you to fill it. Listen, when Israel, they started
playing with it, what'd they say? Well, the gospel's not enough.
I need something else. I was talking with someone who
had moved away from the gospel. And they moved away from the
church. And they had what we call good reasons. They had logical
reasons. The place they were was getting
bad. The place they were living was
getting bad. And they had that support. These children, and
the children needed a good school. There was no good school in this
area. And they just packed up and moved, and they went away.
And everybody's thinking, yeah, well, that sounds good. No, you
want to get your kids a good education. We've got to get them
out of here. We've got to get them out of this place, and get
them to a place where we can raise them right, and so forth.
Isn't that a good logic? Get to that. You know what the
problem was? Against the word of God.
For save not the assembling of yourselves together as a matter
of some use." They left the gospel. For what a good reason. Now what
were they doing? They were discontent and they were trying to fulfill
their discontentment with an earthly rational way. Instead
they should have listened to God's word. Why? Because it never
satisfies. It never fulfills what it promises. These Israelites were a product
of this. What did they want? They wanted
meat. And when God gave them meat, what did they do? Did it
satisfy them? No. A lot of them died. I think of old Limelech. Remember
him and Ruth? Limelech, he was a good man,
a believer in Christ. His name means God is King. What
does his name mean? And there was a famine coming.
And you know what he did? He thought. He said, I got this.
We're going to pack up. We're going to move to Moab.
There's food in Moab. There's a famine here. Everybody
said, you're a pretty smart guy moving out there where there's
food. You know what happened to him? He died in Moab. Both with his son died in Moab. I tell you this, God brought
good from it, because Ruth came and was saved. Now God intended
good out of their sin, but the consequences of their murmuring.
They left the house of bread. That's what the house of Judah
means, the house of bread and praise. Isn't that right? House
of bread. They left the bread, they left
the gospel, and they went to God's wash pot, Moab. You know
what? They didn't find any satisfaction.
They found heartache and sorrow and pain. And that's what happened
to the children of Israel. God giving these discontented
the desires of their heart is not always a blessing. If we
murmur and we want things that are not of the gospel, You know
what the worst thing that's going to happen? God gives it to you. God gives it to you. The birds, imagine the day they
saw those birds do it. What did they think? What a blessing. But the moment they put their
teeth in it, they found out it was a trick. How often do you
have to ask God for things and He gives it to you and returns
the ash from the mountain. God keep us from
murmuring. God keep us from complaining. Listen, I'm telling you this.
This can happen to God's people. I'm not just... This happens
to the law. The laws come in, they're discontent with the gospel,
they leave, they go away. God's people... God's people
are capable of such evil things as murmuring and complaining.
You know Asa, the king of... Judah. Scripture says this, Asa's
heart was perfect all his days. Good king. Godly king. There
came a time when he started to complain. There was some wood
in this place called Ramah, right? And he coveted after that wood. He wanted that forest out there
in Ramah. But instead of asking God, you
know, he conspired with his enemy, God's enemy. to get that place. And God's prophet come back and
rebuked him for that. And you know what, Asa? Scripture
says that he wouldn't repent. That's just
God's plan. Instead, he murmured against
God. You know what God did? God put
a disease on his feet. He had gaps in his feet. And
the scripture says this, that he sought not the Lord. He sought the position. Sometimes
the child of God, when we begin to murmur and complain and go
after the things that we want, sometimes God will chase us.
That's the third point of this. Murmuring with the child of God
always leads to chastisement. Murmuring always leads to chastisement. Hebrews says this, for consider
him, Hebrews 12 and verse 3, for consider him that endures
his contradictions and sinners against himself. What did he
say? He said, consider Christ, eat
the bread. Don't be discontented, eat the
bread, eat Christ. Consider him, lest you be weary
and faint in your mind. Consider Christ. Feast on the
gospel. Believe on Him. Embrace Him.
Find your contentment in Him. And what happens if you don't?
You have not resisted the blood striving against sin, for have
you forgotten the exhortation to speak of unto children? My
son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint in our
rebuke of evil. We fall into murmuring and complaining.
When we have lusted and desiring something more than the man of
Christ, what does God do? He chastens us. Out of hatred
or love? Which is it? How do you know
chastisement's good? Scriptures are clear. The Lord
chasteneth who he loves. And scourges every son. And if
you leave without chastisement, with murmur, what do we expect?
We expect this, that the things of this world are not going to
satisfy us. We should expect this, the Lord will chasten us.
And when we are chastened with Him, thank God. Don't be, don't
thank Him. Know this, this is a good thing.
The Lord chastens. Chastens and scourges sons, but
what did He say? If you be without chastisement,
then are you bastards and not sons. See the beauty then of God's
chastening hand concerning our murmuring? Because the end of
our, of such chastisement without, such murmuring without chastisement
is death. It's death. So then, he that despises and
murmurs, doesn't murmur against men. Remember,
we're murmuring against God. And what is the remedy of this?
It is simply this. Forsake the quaver. and eat the
man. Forsake the world and your thoughts. Forsake your reasoning and peace on the cross. And this is the last point. The
remedy for murmuring is simply this. It is the man. It is the
man. Have you fallen? Have you lusted
after the world? Have you despised the gospel? Have you forsaken the gospel
for your own fault, your own feeling, your own pleasure? Friends, return unto the gospel. The result of chastisement has
one result. It is always to bring us back
to Christ, isn't it? I'll tell you this, it feels
like God's destroyed me. I like that hymn Newton said,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death? That would have been right. His chasing hand feels like he's
pursuing us to death. But no, he says this in reply,
this is how I answer, pray for grace. This is how he draws us
back. Let your conversation, then Paul
says in Hebrews 13, let your conversation be without covetousness. Listen to this. I'm going to stab my own self in
the heart with this one. Do you contend
with such things? Why? What's the reason for such
things as this one? Four. Four. He has said, I will never leave
the people who have forsaken me. That's why he should be relieved
of the man. I will never leave. Now then,
do you understand that? You can say this boldly. so that
we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what
man can do. Do you not desire that boldness? We did have murmuring in that
boldness. May God help us to cease those
murmurs. May God give us grace to see
that the end of murmuring, that murmuring cannot be remedied
by the fleshly things of this world. May God help us who are murmuring
understand chastening is chastening and medicine. And fourthly, that murmuring,
the remedy for murmuring is Christ. It's the gospel. It's the man. And God help us forsake the odors
of quail and meet the owner of man, the contender of Christ. Why would you be contender of
Christ? Don't you have everything in
Christ? All things are you. All things
are good. Why would a man who has
everything be discontinued? God help us not to be discontinued.