We'd look Wednesday night at
the brazen serpent lifted up. Christ was that brazen serpent.
He was the one lifted up for his people to look to. The Lord
had sent vipers in the desert to Israel because they complained.
They had murmured. They were at war with God. They said they don't have any
water. Lord willing, tonight we'll look at Christ that rock.
They had water. They said, we have no bread,
and we loathe this white bread. This bread we do have, we don't
like it. That's what I want to look at
this morning, manna from heaven. We can't escape by nature what
we are. We ain't ever going to get away
from that. A believer will be ever reminded of what we are. We're sin. throughout. In our natural-born state, there
ain't no good in us. We'll be ever reminded of that.
We'll be ever reminded of our need. And it's not just misery. I hate that. I'm miserable. I
have a need. I have a need of Christ. We ain't gonna get away from
that. If we do, we're on something else. It's another gospel, which
is not another, as Paul said. It's something drastically different,
not something similar. Thanks be to God. Every time
we have a need like that, we're reminded of what we are, and
we're brought into remembrance once again of Christ's righteousness,
of His holiness, His perfect work, who He is, what He did.
That's why we're always brought. And the work's completed. That
it's finished. God gave manna from heaven. This
is a great picture of our Lord's graciousness. This is a great
picture of Him delighting to show mercy to an undeserving
people. A people that was at war with
Him. Israel is a perfect picture of us. Of God's people. Murmuring, complaining, cursing
God, charging Him with heinous crimes. He said, I never did
that. Yeah, we have. Yeah, we have. They were brought out of Egypt.
They witnessed all those plagues that went through Egypt. They
saw every bit of it. They witnessed firsthand the
Passover. Blood was put on their door by the head of their house.
They saw the Red Sea parted. Wouldn't that be something to
see? They walked through it. I saw that sea parted and the
Lord gave them faith to go between them walls of water to the other
side. We're on dry ground. You can say there's dry ground.
I stepped on it. They walked it. Pharaoh's army was drowned. They saw that. They were brought
to that oasis at Elam. That's where we're at now. There
was 12 wells there at Elam. There's 12 tribes of Israel.
A well per tribe. There's 70 palm trees. There's
perfect shade. Perfect rest, perfect covering
for them. And again, they were led into the desert. They were
brought from those horrible things, those trials, to perfect rest,
comfort, and peace. They were brought back into the
wilderness again. Where do you think his people are going to
end up? Perfect rest, comfort, and peace. This ain't a one time,
this ain't one shot, one kill. This is an ever going and ever
going life, a journey we have through this world. Ups and downs.
Alright, Exodus 16. Exodus 16. Children of Israel were laid
back out in the desert again. They were filled with unbelief.
They were ungrateful. And they charged God with murder.
Exodus 16, verse 1. And they took their journey from
Elam And all the congregation of the children of Israel came
into the wilderness of sin, which was between Elam and Sinai. And
on the 15th day of the second month after they departed out
of the land of Egypt, that's 45 days after leaving Egypt,
all those things we just talked about, it's fresh in their mind.
That was a month and a half ago that they lived it. And the whole
congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron in the wilderness, 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 flesh pots and we did
eat bread to the full. For you have brought us forth
unto this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." That's harsh language. What won't a believer do? What
won't they say? It's us, isn't it? Millennials are ruining this
country, ain't they? Boy, we ain't got no hope. They're driving
this stuff down. You know, I'm the youngest pastor in this generation.
I don't feel like it, but I was talking to somebody the other
day. Everyone that's going to come up is going to be what we
murmured against, isn't it? Boy, that changes their attitude,
don't it? That puts it in perspective, don't it? Have we murmured? I don't like the way they're
doing that. That's screaming. Would to God he'd have let us
die when we had plenty to eat and plenty to drink. Absolutely. Things are getting more expensive,
ain't they? Gas is going up. Meat's going up. Red meat's through
the roof. Lord, did you bring me out here
to starve to death? He won't, has he? I'll feel that
way. I'll be brought to the end of
my sin and the full completion of my need. It appears they were
charging Moses and Aaron, but to complain against divine providence
is to complain against God himself. Why? He works all things after
the counsel of his own will, doesn't he? If we kick against
his providence, we're kicking him. I'm kicking him. The Lord would have been just
and He would have been holy to rain down fire and brimstone right
there to kill every one of them. And you know what He did? That's
us. That's us. That's where He found us. Every
one of us. In loving mercy, He rained down
manna from heaven. Manna from heaven. He gave them
the thing they needed most. We're going to starve to death.
I'll give you bread. That's physical, wasn't it? Christ,
the bread of life, is the one thing needed. I'm going to perish. I'm going to die in my sin. I'm
going to suffer that eternal death. I need Christ." And he
rained it down from heaven. Abundance. Do we need Him like
we need food? Do I need Him like I need food?
Am I hungry? Am I thirsty? Am I poor? Am I
needy? Meek? Needing Him. Clinging to Him.
He said in John 6, Christ gives us good commentary on this manna
from heaven. It says, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my
Father giveth you the true bread from heaven, the bread of God,
which is he. What's that bread? He. What's
that manna? He, which cometh down from heaven
and giveth life unto the world. Jew and Gentile. God physically
gave physical Israel bread from heaven so they would live. They
didn't die from hunger. And He gives Christ our spiritual
bread to His spiritual Israel so we can live. I want us to
look at some of the ways Christ is like this manna from heaven.
I'm going to try to get through all of them. I hope I can. If
not, I'll jump to the end. It's nice at the end. Where did
it fall? It says there in verse 1, it
was in the wilderness of sin. What could be a better description
of what we're living in right now? This world then, this world
100 years ago, this world today. What do you think this world
is going to be like tomorrow if the Lord doesn't end it? It's a wilderness of
sin. That's where Christ came. It
was barren. It was harsh. And the Son of
God left His throne in glory. Was made human flesh. And He
lived in a world that looked to kill Him from the time He
was born. There wasn't no room in the inn. There was no place
to lay His head while He ministered on this earth. And He was always
constantly under the microscope of all them religionists who
sought to kill Him. How can we stone Him? Let's trip Him up
in His words. What can we do to Him? Lay a trap for him. And
he never spoke an evil word. He never had a cross look. He
never had an evil thought. He was perfect and holy and served
his father the whole time. And what was his reward for doing
that? How'd they deal with him? They hung him on a cross. They
killed him as a criminal after the way of Rome. They didn't
even stone him after the Jewish tradition. They hung him on a
cross. We'll kill him like them heathens
kill people. Let's do it that way. Why did
He come down from heaven? He came into this world for this
purpose for His people, to save His people from their sins. He came to give life. He came
to save His people from their sins. He came into the wilderness
of sin, lived perfectly and righteously. He fulfilled the holy law of
God and satisfied holy justice so His people had life. Who was this for? That's where
it was. Who was it for? He did all this
for a particular people. He did it for his spiritual Israel. People say, well, no, there's
physical Israel. I don't know about the spiritual.
Paul told us plainly, didn't he? He said, they're not all
Israel, which are of Israel, neither because they are the
seed of Abraham or their children, but in Isaac shall their seed
be called. That's the children of Abraham. That's doing the
works of your father Abraham. Being a spiritual child, His
spiritual people. It says there in verse 4, Exodus 16, verse
4. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, I will rain down bread
from heaven for you. For you. And the people shall
go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them,
whether they will walk in my law or no. And it shall come
to pass on that sixth day they shall prepare that which they
bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily."
It's not recorded to this manifest anywhere else in the world. It
didn't fall in Egypt. It didn't fall in Canaan. It
didn't fall in Rome. Just on the people of God. Just
on those that are in the wilderness of sin. Not those in the fancy
buildings. Not those in the high places.
The wilderness of sin. Hungry. Desperate. Christ the
bread of life is the substance, the food, the nutrition, the
nourishment for all that are ordained unto eternal life. I
need something to feed on. I'm hungry. He's it. He's only
it. These people, they were needy
and hungry. It had been a while since they left Egypt. 45 days. How much food can you
carry on your back? You probably run out in about
45 days, don't you? All those leftover things, all
those preparations they had made. You're going to leave town and
put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in your pocket. You're
going to have something to munch on on the road, don't you? That's
exhausted. Everything that was of their
doing was gone. There was nothing in their backpacks,
nothing in their bellies. They were hungry. Where did this
bread come from? It came down from heaven. It
came down from heaven. The Lord tells us there in John
6, this is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man
may eat thereof and not die. He says, I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. That's where He was. That's where
He came from. This is where he came to. That physical bread,
they did not grow it in Egypt. They didn't grow it in the wilderness.
A man didn't grow it. It wasn't manufactured. It didn't
come in a can. It wasn't pre-packaged for your
convenience. It descended from the Lord, come
down from heaven, and it was a free gift. You couldn't buy
that manna. You couldn't win it. You couldn't
earn it. It was without money and without price. Paul wrote
to us, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Christ
is that unspeakable gift. And it's personal. He says, it's
for you. It's for you. Before I can tell
somebody else what God's done for me, God's going to have to
do something for me. I'm going to have to eat that bread before
I can say, hey, there's bread over here. Is it any good? I
don't know. I ain't ate it. Go try it. No, it's good. I've
ate it. It's for you, you individually.
And this man comes right to where his people are. Look at verse
13, end of verse 13. Exodus 16, 13. And in the morning,
the dew lay round about the host. It landed right outside their
tents. They woke up, they walked outside their tent, and there
it was. They didn't have to go far. It came right to their door.
Every child of God, the preaching of the gospel comes right to
them. It comes to Him. It's the means God used to save
His people. It pleased Him through the foolishness
of preaching. He chose to do that. Now, they may be shipwrecking
Paul on an island. You may fall in love with somebody
and they happen to go to church and you just want to be with
them. The Lord may open your ears. You may break your leg.
The Lord may make your vehicle, a timing chain, go out in your
vehicle right in front of the church. You don't know what He may do.
But He puts His people under His Word of Truth. He doesn't
save them under a lie. He saves them under the truth
and He put them there. He gathers them. Two or three
are gathered. He gathers them. He puts them
under the shadow of the truth. Some say, well, I found the Lord.
He ain't lost. You are. And His people know
that, don't they? He found me. He comes to me. He used means and providence
to do it, to put me under His Word, but that was Him finding
me. Every believer's got a story of how God came to them. How
they were starving in that wilderness of sin, but God found them. I was thirsty, but God watered
me. We might not have even known we was hungry and thirsty. But
God showed me I was hungry and thirsty. I was empty. I had 45 days of not having nothing.
He showed me. He gave me a need. We don't know
at the time how it landed in front of us, where this manna
came from, but we know it's there. I don't understand how that worked,
but I know that's what it is, and I know it's where it is.
When Christ is preached, when that manna falls from heaven,
you walk outside of your tent and you either gather it up and
eat it or you trample on it. You either gather it up and eat
it or you scoop it up and make yourself a path and get it out
of your way. There ain't no in between. You
don't put it in your mouth like a lifesaver and suck on it a
while and then spit it back out. That's spitting it out. You either
consume it or you don't. You either eat that white bread
or you loathe that white bread. You love Christ or you don't.
It's that simple. to one or the other. There ain't
no in-between. This manna, it was small in size. It says in
verse 14, and when the dew that was laid was gone up, behold,
upon the face of the wilderness, there lay a small round thing,
as small as the whole frost on the ground. Verse 31 says it
was like coriander seed. That ain't big, is it? That ain't
big, is it? What a picture of Christ. What
a picture of the Word of Christ. The Word of God. They're the
same, ain't they? They said the beginning was the Word, the Word
was with God, the Word was God. It's amazing to think that all
the revealed truth of God for His people is in a book that
we can carry around. People have got them all over
their coffee tables, they keep them in their vehicles, and all
over this world. You can go buy them by the dozen
down at the store, can't you? That's a small thing. Have it
on your phone. Have it on tablets. I don't like
those things. I don't think they're good. But power goes out, you
can't read nothing. But it's accessible, isn't it?
We have those things. And this book's all that's needed
to sustain a believer as we walk through the wilderness of sin.
All that's needed to make a child of God perfect and complete for
the holy God we were at war with. The one we charged with murder,
the one we cursed, the one we hated, we loathed. And it's a
book about Christ, our bread of life. He said, these scriptures
and these prophets, every bit of it testifies to me. Isn't
that what he said? Right there it is. Small thing,
isn't it? We're told this man is small.
By nature, we like things big, don't we? I like big houses.
I want big cars. We want big, strong children.
We just looked at that in Genesis 6 the other day, didn't we? Boy,
look at them kids. Boy, strong. Growing good. That's what we
brag on people when they have kids. Boy, that's big. Growing. Big. Big churches. We like big crowds,
don't we? Big name speakers. Oh, did you
know so-and-so's coming? Boy, we'll put on a tie for that
one. We'll get all spruced up. Woo! We'll get there early. Big
crowds. The Lord asked us in Zechariah
4, for who hath despised the day of small things? We like
big stuff. You despise small things? God
told Elijah, He said, you go stand on that mountain. And they
said, the Lord is going to pass by in a great strong wind. Rent
the mountains. It broke the rocks in half. But
the Lord wasn't in the wind. And the earthquake, the land
shook. But the Lord wasn't in the earthquake.
And then a fire came. Big fancy fire, bright, shining.
The Lord wasn't in the fire. And after the fire, a still small
voice. That man of small, still small
voice. Don't despise, don't loathe the
day of small things. Christ made himself with no reputation.
He made himself small. He came into this world. He was
born into poverty. In our day, if we saw Him, we
would say in our vernacular, He's experiencing homelessness.
It gets me every time I hear that. And we are too. Those that are in Him, this is
not our home. We don't live here. We're just passing through. Isaiah
wrote, He hath no form nor comeliness when we shall see Him. There
is no beauty that we should desire Him. But to a sinner, to a hungry
person, that manna looks good, don't it? If you're starving
to death, not a little bit hungry, I could have some dessert. If
you're starving, that manna looks good. If you're hungry, if you
thirst for righteousness, hunger for righteousness, if you're
poor in spirit, He's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. He's our salvation, and we put
all our trust in Him. And this man, it was small and
it was round. It was a small, round thing.
There were no sides to it. There wasn't a top and a bottom.
There wasn't a left side and a right side. No beginning and
no end. It was round. You think it was
on purpose? The Lord said, I'm Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. He's Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. John told us, herein is our love
made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.
Because as He is, so are we in this world. We're loved with
that eternal love, that everlasting love. We're given His eternal
righteousness. There's no end to it. Where does
that start? Where does He start and I end? We're one, ain't we? Continuous,
perfect, holy, righteous. Right now is His people. and
forever. As He is, so are we. What peace
and rest that is. Everything that's required of
me to live is in Him and it's done. It's complete. Paul said,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Right now we're perfect. Perfect,
pure, holy forever. We'll shed this body of sin one
day, and I look forward to that. We're perfect in it right now.
It says that manna was white. It was a small round thing that
was white. White throughout the scripture
speaks of purity. The Word of God is absolutely pure. Christ is absolutely pure. And if something's pure, it can't
be 99.99% something and that little .01% of something else.
That ain't pure. It's close. It ain't pure, is
it? It's not completely pure. David
wrote to us and said, the words of the Lord are pure as silver
tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. He's perfectly pure. Perfectly perfect. He said in
Psalm 119, the Word is very pure, and thy servant loveth it. Do
you love that Christ is holy? Do you love that He's the only
one that's pure that ever lived? His purity is excellent, and
we love it, and the only reason I'm pure, the only reason you're
pure is because He is, because of our union with Him. I wouldn't
have it any other way. If anything rested on me at all, .01%, I'd
ruin it. I'll ruin it. It's ever bitten
him. He was without spot or blemish.
There's no guile in his mouth. He was pure, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. The amazing thing, it's not that
Christ is holy and He's perfect. People argue over the silliest
things on the face of the earth. That's not the amazing thing
to me. What's amazing to me is that His righteousness is mine.
He made me holy as He is. He was made my sin. He was made
me and I was made His righteousness before God. That's amazing. That's good news. It's mysterious
and I'm in awe of it. That's what He's done for us.
John said, we know that when He shall appear, we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We are given the perfect
righteousness of Christ, our living bread, and the Father
will accept nothing else. He won't take less. And that's
exactly what we're given. This man was small, round, and
white, and Israel had to gather it every day. Israel gathered
it every day. They didn't just lay back in
their tent, open their mouth, and it fell in like a baby bird.
They had to walk out of that tent and go get it. There's a
little bit of effort required in gathering the bread. The believer,
they build their lives around the worship of God, not the worship
of God around their life. It had to be gathered and it
had to be eaten the day it fell. If it wouldn't, it bred worms
and it stunk. It was for right then. It was
for right now. Look here in verse 4. And the
Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you,
and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day. You couldn't gather yesterday's
manna. It's gone. Yesterday's faith won't do you
any good. I need daily bread. Isn't that
what the Lord told us to pray for? Lord, give us today our
daily bread. I need Christ today. I need to
feed on Him today. I may not be in this world tomorrow.
Well, next week I'll feast on Him. He may not be here next
week. He may have starved to death by next week. We need Him
today. And we seek Him. We gather Him while He may be
found. Oh, that's where He is. That's
where I'm going to be. Why? I'm hungry. How come you're hungry?
He made me hungry. He did it. He found me. He sent
me bread. That manna wasn't found on trees.
It was on the ground. I thought long and hard about
that. It was on the ground. Why was that disrespectful? That's
our mind. My first thought was, that's
disrespectful. Don't let this Bible touch the
ground. Don't do anything. You had the stoop to get it.
If you're hungry, if you're needy, you're going to bow. You have
to get on your knees. Where's Christ found on your
knees? Knees of your heart, maybe. But we're going to come down. We brought Lo to find Him. Manna
was gathered in the morning. It says in verse 7, And in the
morning ye shall see the glory of the Lord. What a blessing
it would be if we're given the ability to see the glory of God
first thing in the morning. Would that start your day off
better? You think I may have a little bit different attitude
throughout the day if I woke up and instead of turning on
the news channel and getting mad, if I turned to the Word
of the Lord, looked at His promises, read something about Him, listened
to a message on Him, read a bulletin article about what my God's accomplished,
His perfection, His holiness, beginning each day remembering
who He is, what's been promised to His people, and what's been
fulfilled in Him for His people. And that manna was given to be
eaten. It wasn't given to look at. It wasn't given to talk about.
It wasn't given to just only admire. Let's get a big couple
handfuls. Let's sit around and just look
at this bread and talk. No, you've got to eat it. That's what it
was given for, wasn't it? Consumption. It was for nourishment. It is all that was needed for
life. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi,
but my God shall supply all your need. according to His riches
and glory by Christ Jesus. That's saying good. We have a
need, and He's the one thing needful. And He will be supplied
according to the riches of His glory. This manna was eaten individually. You take it to be your own, personally. It's a fact. This gospel's true,
it's good news, and we declare it to others. But we take it
personally. I'm His, and He's mine. He's
mine. Feast on Him. That man is not
understood, and it's not perceived. It's not seen, as we saw with
Nicodemus the other day, by natural man. Look here in verse 15. I thought this was precious.
Exodus 16, 15, And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one
to another, It is manna. for they wist not what it was."
They said it's manna because they didn't know what it was.
You know what manna means? If you've got a marginal reference
Bible, it'll show you there. But the Hebrew word for manna
means whatness. What is it? Well, everyone knows that white
rounds, small things, are Christ. No, what's that? I don't know.
What is it? They didn't know what it was.
They didn't understand. They had to be taught. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned." Moses had to tell them, God gave
this bread, go eat it, take it up every day. He told Moses to
tell them all those things, didn't he? Take it up every day, you
take an omer, you can get into, that's 1.25 gallons, it's enough
for a man. And some took little, some took
more if they had a bigger house. Everybody had the same. No one
lacked and no one had over. We have Christ, we don't have
any lack at all. And we don't have anything over.
Why? Ain't nothing more than Him.
Nothing's more abundant than His grace and His mercy for His
people, is it? When we're given eyes to see,
ears to hear, hearts to understand, we see Christ as that bread that
was broken for us. And we take His table and we
see our need of it. When we're hungry, we come and
we eat. Some don't come because they're not hungry, do they?
I pray the Lord makes me hungry. Makes me hungry. And you know,
I've heard this before, you know what the best seasoning ever
is for a meal? Hunger. Isn't that right? If you ever been real hungry,
and you go to a new restaurant, and you get you a hamburger,
was that hamburger good? Yeah, you wanna go back? Well, I don't
know, I was starving. I may have just thought it was real good.
It may have been mediocre. Well, if you're hungry, that's
the best flavor. Best flavor, best seasoning. It says there
in verse 31, Exodus 16, 31. The taste of it, at the end of
verse 31, the taste of it was like wafers made of honey. He tells us over in Numbers 11
that the taste was of fresh oil. That's sweet, isn't it? Christ our manna is sweet to
the believer. It's sustaining like fresh oil
is. There's no bitterness to it.
It's precious. And if you read through Numbers
11, you'll see how they prepared this manna. There's a lot of
different ways. You could grind it in a mill,
and they could pound it in a mortar and pestle, and they would shape
it and make it into cakes. and then make it into bread,
different things. Prepare it different ways. You
take manna and you make a breakfast out of it. You take manna and
fix it some other way for lunch and make it another way for supper.
But it was all manna, wasn't it? Isn't that the way we have
our Lord? He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. But there's days that that's my kinsman redeemer. That's my husband. And there's
days that he's my high priest. And there's days he's my king.
There's days he's the great comforter, isn't it? He's always the same.
Our need for him doesn't change. But boy, he sure meets us where
we're needing him, don't he? The way that we need him for
that day. He's precious to us. I hope that's a blessing.