You can turn to Exodus 16. I'm going to read from Exodus
16, and then I'm going to read from John chapter 6, which is
the fulfillment of Exodus 16. I've been singing a song to myself
this morning, Heavenly Sunlight. I don't think you all have sung
it, but I was walking across the parking lot and just a beautiful
sunshine. And I thought of that song that
Mike used to lead us in singing back at 13th Street, Heavenly
Sunlight. And I pray this morning that
the Lord will give us that in this service. Heavenly S O N
light. The title of this is Jesus Christ
It's a long title for me, you can shorten it, but Jesus Christ
is the true manna from heaven. He is the true manna. He is the
true bread of life that came down from heaven. Sin of God
to give life to sinners like you and me. Exodus 16, I'm gonna
read in verse 11 through 18 and verse 31. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children
of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, At evening
ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with
bread, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it
came to pass that at even, the quails came up and covered the
camp, and in the morning the dew lay around about the host. 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's manna, or what is it? What
is it? They'd never seen it before.
Well, they wished not what it was. And Moses said unto them,
this is the bread which the Lord hath given you. to eat. And I like that what Moses said,
this is the bread, which the Lord has given you to eat. Now,
when you go, when we go over to John chapter six, they attribute
that to Moses. And the Lord said, Moses gave
you not that bread. Moses didn't do that. And here,
Moses says, the Lord has given you this bread to eat. This is
the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every
man according to his eating, an omer for every man according
to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which
are in his tents. And the children of Israel did
so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did meet
it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he
that gathered little had no lack." You know, Christ is enough. Christ
is enough. And they gathered every man according
to his eating. 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. Now go to John 6. In John 6 verse 28, Then said
they unto him, Wait till I hear the pages quit
rattling. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him,
what sign showest thou then that we may see and believest thou? What dost thou work? Our fathers
did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven, and they are referring to Moses. 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. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. And now look down in verse 48.
I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am
the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." We
had the manna back in Exodus, a type, a picture, and that's
all it was. It was a type, a picture. And
here we have the real. We have the real manna, the true
bread from heaven. And we who preach the gospel
are to preach Christ and Him crucified, not only from the
New Testament, but from the Old Testament also. It's to take
Christ revealed in the New Testament and take him back to the Old
Testament in our preaching and take the type and say, here,
and put them together. Here it is. And it has such a
clear message and such a clear picture because the scriptures
are all about him. You know, the Bible is one book. We call it Old New Testament,
but it's one book. It's God's word. It's one book
with one message. Christ and Him crucified. And
it's given by the one and only true God. God has given us this
book. It was written by men. God used
men just like He's using me this morning. But it's given of God. It's inspired of God. God breathed. And our Lord here in John chapter
6, He reaches back to that Old Testament type and identifies
himself as the fulfillment of it. I'm the bread from heaven. I'm the manna. I'm the life-giving
manna. You see, that manna in the Old
Testament, it didn't give life. Christ says, I'm the life-giving
bread. Because once it was kept, if it was kept overnight, it
stank, it says, it stank. Our Lord never stinks. He's the
ever-living bread. You see, bread that's not living,
what's it do? It molds. I took a piece of bread
out here a week or two ago, and I took a bite into it, and it
was molded on one side. I looked at that when I took,
oh my soul, I threw that whole loaf away. Our Lord never molds. He's ever-living. He's the living
bread. If it's living, it doesn't mold.
If it's dead, it'll mold. And he's the living bread. He's
the true bread from heaven. You know, it's written in Revelation
2, 17, John writes, to him that overcometh will I give to eat
of the hidden manna, hidden from the world. The world doesn't
know him. You do. You know him, but the world out
there doesn't know him. The religious world out there
doesn't know him. They don't know him, but you
do. God has enabled us, some of us here, to eat of the hidden
manna. And it also speaks of that manna
that was put in a golden pot and put in the ark. It was put
in there and it was kept in there. Christ is that true manna, that
hidden manna. Well, what I want to do here,
I want to make a comparison of the type and the real. Benjamin Keech, has a book that
I have in there, it's about that thick, and it's a good book. It's Preaching from the Types
and Metaphors of the Bible. Henry used it in this outline.
And I went back, a couple days ago, I went back, and he had
so many comparisons, but I just put down a few of them. Some
of them was what Henry had, and some of them was just what John
Teach had. But first of all, manna, manna was of God. It was of God. Israelites didn't
come up with this. It's not something they come
up with. It's of God. And it was given to Israel, listen,
in the wilderness. It wasn't given to them in Egypt.
It wasn't until they was in the wilderness. They couldn't provide
for themselves. They moved all the time. They
didn't have time to plant a garden. They were constantly moving.
So God gave them this bread, and this bread was of God. It
was given to Israel. It was not given to Egypt. It
was given to Israel. Christ is given to His church,
His people. He's received by His church.
The world can't receive Him. Listen to what Paul wrote in
1 Corinthians 2.14. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, The natural man doesn't
receive Jesus Christ or the blessings of Christ. But you do. God's people do. For they are
foolishness unto him, neither can they know them, because they
are spiritually discerned. This true bread from heaven is
given to God's people. That's who it's given to. And
it's given to them where? In the wilderness. Where are
we? the wilderness this world is
the wilderness and God's given it to us God's given his son
to us and then manna was white speaking of his purity speak
this speaks of the purity of our Lord Christ knew no sin the
bread from heaven knew no sin tempted in all points as we are
yet without sin No sin of thought. There was no sin in his birth
because he wasn't born from the seed of a man. God created him. That's right. Jesus Christ is
the man. The man is a creation of God
unto us. A son is given unto us. A child
is born. You see, the son is given, but
the child is born and he's given him to us. But it speaks here
of His purity. The Lord Jesus Christ is holy. He's called the Holy One of Israel.
And then manna was a small round thing. It said there in verse
14 of Exodus. It's a small round thing. You
know, if you see something that's round, this is, this hit me when
I was reading this. When you see a round circle,
if it's a circle, what is it? It's complete. It's complete. Our Lord is complete. You know
the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily? In Him
you are complete because He is complete. It's a small, round
thing. And then small, our Lord is small
in the eyes of this world. He was despised and rejected
of men. He was small in the eyes of the Jews when He came. Who
are you? You're the carpenter's son. You're the carpenter's son. He's not small in your eyes,
is he? But he is in the eyes of this
world. He really is. And then man, it was a strange,
mysterious thing. That's why they said, when they
saw it, what is it? Man, what is it? They'd never
seen it before. They didn't know what it was.
They said, what is it? You know, our Lord, is a very mysterious
person. He's very mysterious. He said
to those Jews, you neither know me nor my father. They thought they knew. We know
you. You're the gardener's son. You neither know me nor my father. You don't know who I am. You
don't know me at all. He is God incarnate. Jesus Christ
is God in human flesh. great it says in first timothy
3 16 great is the mystery of godliness god was manifest in
the flesh the one who made the world came into the world and
the world didn't even know him they didn't know who he was God
standing in their midst, God standing in front of them, and
they didn't know him, didn't recognize him at all. The living
God became a real man and dwelt among us. He was numbered with
the transgressors. He stood in line with us. What
a mystery. And they didn't know him. We
didn't know him either until he made himself known to us.
If He had not revealed Himself to us, we would still not know
Him. We wouldn't know Him at all.
We'd be caught up. We'd be religious. We're all
religious by nature. You know, most of those whom
the Lord saves come out of religion, come out of false religion. Most
whom God saves come out of false religion. Rarely is it someone
who's not made some kind of a profession or confessions, rarely. They
come out of false religion. And then this, listen, it's mysterious. It appeared without the assistance
of the Israelites or any man, any person. It just appeared.
They got up that morning, went out and the dew melted off and
there was manna. There was manna. You know, our Lord came into
this world without the assistance of any man. A virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. There was no assistance whatsoever
by any human being in the birth of Christ. He's a creation of the Holy Spirit
in the womb of that virgin. And then manna was prepared,
listen, it was prepared in heaven and it came to earth. It wasn't
prepared on earth. It came down. It came down from
heaven. You know, the people of, it says
in number 11.9, the people of Israel had to have food. They didn't have any. They couldn't
plant, as I said, they couldn't plant a garden. They were constantly
traveling. They were constantly on the move
in the wilderness. They were pilgrims, just like us. We were
pilgrims. And so they couldn't plant any
food, and it was impossible for them to provide anything for
themselves in the wilderness. So God provided for them from
heaven. Jesus Christ is God's provision
for a multitude of lost sinners that one day all of them are
going to wind up in paradise. All of them, every one of them. Our Lord said this, a body has
thou prepared me. He came down from heaven and
all the nourishment that we need is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know that, you know that they ate this for 40 years and
we don't read anywhere where they was ever sick. Their shoes
didn't wax old. Remember that? Their shoes didn't
wax old, their clothes. God provided for them. God provided. They were never sick. God provided
for them. He gave them manna, water out
of a rock. God provided for them. God has
provided all things for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, that
ought to thrill us every time we hear it. Every time we think
of it, the Lord has provided for us. We don't have to provide
anything. And this manna was provided for
them who were hungry. You hungry? Did you come here
hungry? I assure you this, if you came
hungry, God will feed you the bread of life this morning. If
you didn't come hungry, you're not gonna get anything. You're
not hungry. Have you ever had somebody that's
fixed food and said, here, have these? I'm not hungry. I'm not
hungry. But I tell you this, the hungry
eat, and the thirsty drink. They do. And then here's something that
I thought of here. I read this this morning, and
I added this in. The manna was beaten and baked. It speaks of Christ's suffering
and death, that we may eat him, eat his flesh, drink his blood. It's Christ crucified, isn't
it? It's not just Christ. It's Christ and him crucified.
Listen to this in Numbers 11, 8. And the people went about and
gathered it, the manna, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a
mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it. This speaks
of his suffering, his death. Here's something else interesting.
I'm not going to go back and read it, but in Numbers 11, you
remember when I very first read this, it said the people, God
has heard your murmuring, complaining. Well, over in Numbers chapter
11, go back and read that. It says they were a mixed company.
There was a company that came out with them of Egyptians that
came out with them and they started complaining. They wanted to fish.
And the leaves and the onions and all that they had back in
Egypt. And then they, and the people of Israel was drawn into
that. It was drawn into that. Evil
companions corrupt good manners. The next company got them to
complain to him because they were complaining. And the next
thing you know, they're all complaining. And the point being evil companions
corrupt good manners. We are the company we keep. But in verse eight there, they
grounded it in meals and they beat it in a mortar and then
they baked it. Lord, does that not speak of
the sufferings of Christ? It does. And then the manna was
pleasant to the taste. It tasted like wafer made with
honey. 1 Peter 2, 3, if so be ye have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. Have you tasted that the Lord
is gracious? Is his grace still amazing to
you? Is it still amazing? You know,
after nearly almost 50 years now, God's grace is still, it's
more amazing to me. I mean that, it's more amazing
that God would save me that God would make me one of his own,
that God would make me a son, that God would save my soul,
that God would let bring me into his heaven, his presence, his
holy presence, and allow me and let me enjoy eternity in paradise. And I had zero to do with it,
nothing. There by the grace of God, psalm 34 8 oh taste and see that
the lord is good sweet to the taste it said grace
poured from his lips blessed is the man that trusteth
in him our lord becomes all things to
those who need him now in closing Benjamin Keech
pointed these things out and Henry pointed them out. Type,
any type can only go so far because that's what it is. It's type.
Christ is the real, he's the perfection of the type. But in
a lot of ways, the type has to stop. In Exodus, if they gathered On
the Sabbath day, they were in trouble for that. But if they
kept it for an extra day, it stank. It just putrefied. But listen here, manna was for
food for the body, the outward man, the body. Christ is food
for the soul. The true bread from heaven is,
he's food for that inner man. And then the manna was eaten
by those who later died. Didn't the Lord say, your fathers
ate manna in the wilderness and are dead? We eat Christ and we never die. We never die. Those of you who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you feast on Christ, you will
never die. Put that on your refrigerator.
You will never die. I have buried the body of believers
here, but I've never buried the believer. They're in heaven. I just buried the house. I buried
the house. That's all I did. And then the
manna, listen, the manna rotted and decayed when it was kept
too long. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's the living man, and he ever
lives. And he abides the same, yesterday,
today, and forever. He never stinks. He never gets old. Not to those
of you who believe. Now, there was a bunch of them
that got sick and tired of it. They called it light bread. Light
bread, we're tired of this light bread. A free meal, and they
got sick and tired of it. Beggars can't be choosers. How
many beggars goes down to the food bank and says, here's my
order for tomorrow? No, you're going to eat what
is put in front of you. God has given us his son to feast
on forever, not just a day, but forever. And then the man was
only found in the morning. He didn't find it at noon. You didn't find it in the evening.
Quail's in the evening. God flooded that place with quail
every day. Every day. I mean, they came
into camp, and I, my mind got a little carried away with this
one. I was thinking they had to be tame to be chasing around
like chickens in a yard. But they weren't. They just,
there they came, and they just reached down and picked them
up, just like they did the manna. You didn't see a bunch of Israelites
running all over the place trying to catch a quail. And then the manna ceased when
they entered Canaan. They didn't have the manna no
more. Our Lord, our Lord, who's the bread of life is our bread
forever. It says, I read that to you there
in Revelations chapter two, I think it was. I'll give them, those
who overcome, I'll give them to eat of the hidden manna. He's
forever. Christ, the bread of life, we
will feast on Him spiritually forever. We will feed on Him
forever. The life we have in glory is
the continual life flowing from Christ to us. It's His life in us. We have
His life. In glory, our Lord will be the subject
of praise. He'll be the subject of our song.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. We'll sing that. We'll sing it
perfectly as we ought to sing it. And we'll love Him as we
ought to love Him. And for the first time, we'll
worship Him as we ought to worship Him. Worship Him without being
molested by sin. You can't sit there in a service,
and I know, and stand here and preach in a service and not be
molested by sin. And then sooner or later, that's
going to be gone. And it's going to be a true worship
service. Jesus Christ is the true manna,
the bread that comes down from heaven and give us life into
the world. All right.