Exodus 16. Thank you, Jeanette
and John. If you notice the hymns that
Jeanette chose to prepare us, they were prelude preparation
music before the message. They were so fitting. Satisfied
all my long I panted for a draft from some clear spring that would
satisfy my longing. Hallelujah! I've found Him whom
my soul so long has craved. Read with me verse 4 of chapter
16. Then said the Lord, after their
complaining, did you notice with me how many times He mentioned
their murmuring? After that He said, Behold, I
will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people should go
out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them
whether they will walk in my law or not. Verse 15. And when the children of Israel
came in the morning, they said a question. What is this? What is it? They saw it. And that's what
they said. It is manner. What is this? They
didn't know what to make of it. And then Moses said unto them,
This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is
the bread. My, my. Just a few days in their journey,
they became hungry and thirsty, and as said, they began to murmur
and complain and talk about going back to Egypt. And go back to bondage. Go back
to the slime pits. to the flesh pots. You read that
with me. They said we were sitting by
the flesh pots. But God, you see how loving and
merciful and gracious He is. God fed, so mercifully fed and
watered them and gave them what they wanted. He gave them flesh.
He gave them flesh. But he gave them the one thing
they needed. They didn't ask for bread. Bread from heaven.
Deuteronomy 8, let me read this to you. The Lord said this when
it was all over. They were just about to go in.
And you know, they started murmuring even then, right at the end.
They were just right on the verge of going in. They were still
murmuring. But Deuteronomy 8, here's what the Lord said. He
said, remember all the way the Lord led you these 40 years in
the wilderness to humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
or no. And he humbled thee and suffered
thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which you didn't know,
you knew not, neither did your fathers know. that he might make
thee know, man doth not live by bread only, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Bread
from God, that's what you need. That's what the Lord has fed
you. Moses went up on the mountain,
remember, and what did he get from God to bring down to the
people? Water. And that's what he fed
them for 40 years. They needed that. That's what
they're going to live on. God is so merciful. God is so
good. God is so kind. God feeds and
provides for everything that lives. Do you know that nearly whatever
a man wants and goes after, he can get it? God's good. Puts the world in
people's heart. Go after it. You want the flesh
pots? Go after it. You'll get it. You'll
get it. But God's people, He gives them
bread from heaven. Bread from heaven. In love and
mercy, God gives us what we really need. Christ. The bread of life. This is Israel. Now Israel wasn't
happy in Egypt, were they? They weren't happy there. They
weren't happy. But they no sooner had been out
in the wilderness a few days that they weren't happy again.
And we already saw that you're not going to find it out there.
You're passing through it. We have here no continued city.
There's no place on earth, there's no place on earth, nothing on
earth that's going to satisfy us, okay? But here's the thing,
the fact that God is bringing us out of this world, the fact
that God is bringing us through this wilderness of sin, of hardships,
of trials, and we taste the bitter waters, and we go through all
these troubles, that ought to make us the happiest people on
earth. You know that? We ought to be the happiest people
on earth, right? We ought to be singing the song
of Moses. We ought to be singing for 40 years and never quit.
We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. And
never quit singing that. Wake up, doesn't matter. What's
the day holds for us? Come we that love the Lord. Call somebody. Start singing
that. Seriously. And I'm talking to
myself here. Stop our murmuring and complaining.
We ought to be the happiest people on earth. If we're miserable
in this world, we ought to be the happiest people on earth.
It's good. It's good. And we come here on the Lord's
day and what do we find? Manna. Water. What's the next chapter been?
The smitten rock. They all drank from it. They
all under the cow. They all passed through the sea.
Every one of us. We're so blessed. We're so blessed. After their murmuring and complaining,
God said, I'm going to write bread from heaven for you. Is this man? You know what I'd
have said? I'm going to withhold bread from
you for 30 days. No, no, no. I'm going to rain
bread from heaven. A few bunch of murmuring complainers.
I'm going to send bread down from heaven. Now what's that? What is this? No, no, no. It's
not a what. It's hmm. David said, He shall
come down like rain that watereth this dry and thirsty
land. Like bread. John 6. Go over there. John chapter 6. All of you should
know this. We've eaten it so many times.
This is the chapter on Christ the bread. John 6. Where He calls
Himself true bread. John chapter 6. Bread from heaven. Look at John 6 verse 33. Our
Lord said, He said in verse 33, the bread
of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto
the world. They said unto Him, Lord evermore
give us this bread. He 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. What a, what a, what mercy. Verse 47, look at this. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. I do, don't you? Do you? Do you? I do. Why? There was a time I
didn't. I do. There was a time I didn't
want this bread. But now I do. Why? He that hath
the Son hath life. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. Hath life, not shall have it, hath it. You wouldn't
believe on Him if you didn't have life. Does that comfort
you? I am that bread of life, he said. Christ is God. He's bread. Do you find in Christ all you
need? Does He meet your hunger? Huh? Whereas nothing else and no one
else can. Does He really? Man, if you know Him, I want
to see your head nod. Does he? Really? He said in verse
49, Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness of death. This
is the bread that cometh down from heaven, a man eat thereof
and not die. I am the living bread, he said,
which came down from heaven. If a man eat of this bread, he'll
live forever. The bread I give is my flesh,
which I'll give for the life of the world. Not just Jews,
but Gentiles. Well, the Jews, verse 52 murmured. Verse 54, Whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. I will raise him up at
the last day. My flesh is meat and beans. My
blood is drink. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. Brothers and sisters, why
do you come here? I want to try to give you a little
comfort here. What the Lord said. Why do you come here? See the
choir? There ain't none. See the preacher? He ain't much. Then why do you come here? Some
of you have been coming for 40 years. To eat this? To hear Christ preach? Do you
really? Do you really? Charles, you've been coming a
long time. Do you really come here to hear about Christ's crucifixion? You have life. But, but, but, no buts about
it. But God. Man, but I'm a murmur. But God said I'm going to send
them bread. That's who He came for. That's
who Christ came for. Sinners. Those that are hungry
and thirsty. Blessed are those that are hungry
and thirsty. Blessed are those that are hungry
and thirsty after what? Righteousness. What's your righteousness? What
is righteousness? What's that mean? You've heard
it a thousand times. It's Christ. You know how blessed
we are? We eat one thing here. No, we're
so blessed. Minnie and I drove by that Catholic
place again this morning. I used to, you know, kind of
scoff at them and, you know, turn my nose. Really, I'm being
honest with you. I'm just being honest with you.
I'd go by that place and there was a bunch of ignoramuses. Now
I feel sorry for them. Now you know what I'm thinking?
We could be there. What are they doing? Feeding
on husks. That's where swine feed. But God, He took you out of that
hog pen, Robin. The hog pen's called Methodism.
Took you out of that. Where'd He put you? In the land
flowing with milk and honey. Bread to the fullest. Like wafers
dipped in honey. Jeanette last Sunday said, I
felt like shouting. I said, please do. I said, it
might start a real revival here. The other ladies get courage.
I'm telling you, we're so blessed. Let us never grow tired of this
manna. The Pilgrim of Israel, many of
them grew tired and said, we've had enough of this. Christ said, I'm the bread. Bread. What is bread? I love
bread. I know some of you are lactose
intolerant. I'm sorry. I know it's a genuine
problem. I know that. But listen, bread
is a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing. Christ
called himself bread. How does it begin? Where does
bread begin? Seed. Seed. That's Christ. Who made seed? What came first, the tree or
the seed? Well, the tree. Oh, you can't
have a tree without a seed. Well, God made it. What's that? Well, Christ is the tree. He
is the seed. He had no beginning. He was a
tree. Oh, yes, He did. He had a beginning. He was a
seed. A woman seed. Which is it? It's both. He's
a tree. He's a seed. Without beginning,
without end, but he had a beginning as a man. He had to come as seed,
a woman's seed, planted in a woman's womb. And he grew up as a tender
plant, our Lord said, like a corn of wheat that falls in the ground
and dies and has to grow up, has to fall in the ground and
die. He grew up as a tender plant, a root out of what? Dry ground. He's bread, he's water, he's
a fountain. That little plant will grow up
like a corn, a stalk of corn, if you're going to make cornmeal
and cornbread. Grow up as a stalk of corn. And
what does it bear? What is corn? Fruit. Fruit. The older it gets, what will
it be? What will that corn start to
do? Lower its head. Christ said, I'm meek and lowly. Oh, he bore fruit unto his father,
didn't he? Why? It's for us to eat. Him. All right? That seed, and then
that tender plant, and it grows up and bears fruit, the glory
of God for us, for His people, second Adam from above, kept
the law. And it's what? Cut it down. Got to die. Got to die. Grounded. Crushed. Crushed. Our Lord was cut down. Isaiah 53a is cut off out of
the land of the living. Why? For the transgression of
my people, was he smitten. Then what? What do you do with
that flower? You put it and knead it in the
hand. The hand of God crushed his son. He put it in the furnace. Our
Lord, hanging on the cross, endured the fiery wrath of God, didn't
He? And He's put in the ground, buried,
three days. What happened? Three days, He
arose. He had no leaven. How can you
rise without leaven? He did. That's why He rose. And it was no sin to put our
sin away, the leaven. He arose. What is He? What is
this? Manna. Bread from heaven. Bread from heaven. Oh, and we've
got to eat it. Didn't He say, you eat this bread.
Blessed are they that hunger. If you have a hunger for Christ,
if you have a need for Christ, if you have a thirst for Christ,
if you keep coming to hear of Christ and never grow weary of
hearing Christ, if you can hear Christ right now after 30 or
40 years of hearing Christ and this gospel is still sweet to
you, oh, you're so blessed. You have life. You have Christ
in you. You eat Christ, you eat food,
you eat bread out of hunger and need. You eat bread because you
like the taste of it. I love the taste of bread. I
can be full and many of them make bread and I still, give
me a slice of that. I'm still, I like the taste of
it. I like the smell of it, don't you? They say if you're going
to sell a house, just bake bread. Doesn't matter what the house
looks like, you'll sell it. Because it's so, there's nothing like
it. Nothing has the fragrance. Nothing has the appeal that fresh
baked bread does. And there's nothing that God
has ever created quite so fragrant and savory and wonderful as the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing on earth. Nothing. Man, the people saw it. People saw it. And they said,
what is this? They didn't know what to call
it. There had never been anything like it. There had never been
bread from heaven. And they all saw it. A little
round, no beginning or end. Round, no beginning or end. White,
black coriander seed. Over in Numbers it says, Bedellum.
What's that? The color of a pearl. You know, a pearl's not just
white, is it? You look at a pearl in the light,
it's iridescent. It has a luster unlike anything
you've ever... Right, doesn't it? That's Christ. And you say, what
is this? When the angels were announcing, when the angels were
announcing the birth of the God-man, God was manifested. Never before
was there ever. God had never been a man. He took a form here and there,
but he became a man. He literally became flesh. There
were times when he just robed himself in flesh, but now he
became bone of our bones and flesh of our bones. And the angels,
Saw God enter this womb and God become a child. And they said,
you know what they said? This holy thing. They didn't know what to call
it. Him. John wrote of it and said, that.
First thing, John wrote, that life, that word of life, that
holy thing. When Christ came into Jerusalem,
the whole city was moved, saying, who is this? Who is this? Manna, bread from heaven, the
reigning bread from heaven, king. Isn't that something? I thought I'm going to quit talking
about their complaining and just talk about the manna. Let's talk
about the manna. Here's what the Lord told him
here in our text, Exodus 16. Look at verse 4. He told his
people. He said, I will rain bread from
heaven for you. The people shall go out and gather
it. You go out and get it. Go out and gather it. Now hold
on. Melody, now do you see this?
God says, I'm going to rain bread. It's going to come to you. But
you're going to go get it. Which is it? It's both. Both. Christ said, Lo, I am come to
do thy will, O God. Christ came from the Father,
sent by the Father, the bread from heaven. And then He stood
one day and said, Come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, any man thirst, come unto me. Christ came to the woman
at the well, didn't she? She'd have never heard His voice
if He hadn't come to her. The Gospel has come here. The
Gospel's come here. The Gospel's right here every
Sunday and every Wednesday. Is it? Is it? It's here. What you got to do?
You got to come gather the Gospel. There you go. There you go. You
hungry? If you're hungry, you will. You
know who went out and gathered? Hungry. Hungry. Oh, blessed are
they that hunger. Down in verse 16, this is the
thing the Lord commanded. Gather every man according to
his eating. If you're hungry, gather. Come. Forsake not the
assembly of yourselves together as a matter of something else.
You won't if you're hungry. Every man gather. Our Lord said every
man must eat. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath life, hath life. Every man, like the lamb. Remember,
every man had to have a lamb. Every single person had to eat
that lamb. And look at verse 17. The children
of Israel did so. And some gathered more, some
less. If you're real hungry, Gather
it. You're not going to exhaust it.
It's going to last for 40 years. Now, an omer is a gallon of flour. How much bread can you make with
a gallon? Those who make bread, Sarah's
been making bread, great bread. She doesn't have time to make
it for you. Great bread. How much bread could you make
with a gallon of bread? Every day. Every day. Here's the point. How much grace
do you need? What do you need? Scripture says God is full of
mercy. How much mercy do you need? You
know where it's found? It's found in Christ. It's found in the
Gospel. It's found in God's Word. How
much mercy do you need? Come, gather it. Just listen. Just sit. On the Sabbath day,
they didn't gather any of it. Why? It's already ready. You
can have twice as much. Some gathered a little bit, some
less. But you know what? If you gathered any, you're Israel. You're hungry. You got a little
faith? I don't have much faith, preacher.
Oh, hold on. You got any? Yeah, I believe. Stop right there. You have life. You have life. I got a little
faith. Good enough. Good enough. They didn't meet an old man.
He didn't gather much. Had nothing over. And he that
gathered little had no lack, he says. No lack. Nothing wanting. No wasting. Nothing over. Every man according to his eating.
And look at verse 19. He said, Don't leave it until
the morning. No, no. You have to go out again
in the morning and get it. Every day. His mercies are what
every morning? New every morning. Just for the
asking. The bread is right here for the taking every morning.
How hungry are you? You know what you'll do during
the day if you don't wake up and seek His face and ask Him
to feed you with Himself, the bread from heaven? You know what
you'll do during the day? You'll starve. You'll hunger. It said in our text, let me see
if I can find it. Oh, in the verse, let's see,
verse 12. Look at it. Verse 12, it says,
I've heard your murmurings. You say, in the evening you're
going to eat flesh. Tell me, do you feed on God's
Word all day long? Do you? Do you really? I'm afraid we get caught up in
the flesh. We go after flesh. The Lord knows
that. We're flesh. He knows that. He
gave them flesh. Are you with me? Are you with
me? He gave them flesh. Now, it's going to stink, but
you're flesh. He knows that which is flesh
is flesh and He gives us flesh. We're in this world, but he said,
now this man, he said in the morning, look at verse 12, you're
going to eat flesh in the evening, but in the morning you're going
to be filled with bread. This bread is going to fulfill
you. Flesh is not. Over numbers, they murmured and
complained and said, okay. You remember? All right. I'm
going to give you so much flesh, it's going to come out your nostrils.
Remember that? Until they got sick of the flesh. Wasn't that the goodness of God?
Wasn't that the goodness of God? We live, we live, we're flesh.
Flesh has to have flesh, and we live in the flesh, and we
enjoy the things of the flesh. But oh, make the Lord make us
sick of it. and make us see one thing fulfills,
one thing and one only, and this is what I need to live by, Him. Does that make sense? In the morning, where does faith
come from? Hearing. Hearing what? The Word
of God. How shall they hear without a
what? Preacher. Preacher. This is the time. He
said, don't gather. I mean, you come on the Lord's
Day. It's all prepared. It's all ready.
They had to prepare. They had to prepare, didn't they? But then come, and that day you
don't gather. It's all just fed to you. And
you rest and be fed. But they had to prepare, didn't
they? You want this bread to feed you? Prepare. How's that? Lord, make me hungry. Lord, feed me. Lord, here I am. Feed me. So, you can't live on yesterday's
bread. And every morning, I'm here to
tell you from God's Word, every morning, you want faith, you
want assurance, you want some confidence, you want some peace.
Where does it come from? Christ. Where is Christ to be
found? How does Christ speak to us?
Right here. Right here. Eat. I tell you,
they ate a lot. Or a little. It helped them.
It helped them. Now look, let me close with this.
Look at verse 32. Moses said, This is the thing
which the Lord commanded. Fill an omer of it. is to be
kept for generations, as you may see the bread that I fed
you in the wilderness." What's that? That's the word, a written
word that he kept up. You know, I know most of you
know this, but in that Ark of the Covenant, with that mercy
seal, and Lord willing, we're going to get to that. I hope
you're looking forward to that. In that Ark of the Covenant,
there were three things, right? Could you tell me what they were?
The manna, pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded. You remember
how it all started? Throw that rod down and become
a serpent. It's going to divide the sea
and so forth. And the testimony, the written law of God. These three things were put in
that ark. And these three things are what?
One. One person. Christ the bread. And he said, you write, you put
this in the ark, you put it there for everybody to see from now
on. Generations. Write it down. Anybody
hungry? Christ is the bread. Anybody need a sovereign ruler? Christ is He that reigns over
us and rules over us, does all things, by the scepter of His
righteousness. Anybody need a word from God? Anybody guilty of breaking
the law, huh? It's under that mercy seat. Kept. Complete. And you're complete. Come on. You're complete. These
three. Now you put it up forever, he
said. For everybody to see. From now on. Christ the bread. And verse 35, the children of
Israel ate manna for 40 years. Forty years it just rained bread
every day. Surely, you know, we've murmured
and complained so long. Surely the bread's going to stop. John, you read it with me. Right in the beginning, they
started murmuring what God do. Sent the bread. And they murmured
for forty years what God do. Sent the bread. Kept sending
the bread. Isn't God good? Aren't we rotten? Isn't He good? Now he said, Omer's
a gallon. A gallon a day for 40 years? I've sinned against God's grace.
There's no more grace for me. Go out to that ocean and stick
your toe in it. Have you fathomed the depths
of that? Take a glass of water from that
ocean and drink it. Now there's no more left. There's
a whole lot more where that came from. And His mercies are new
every morning. His compassions, they fail not.
He knows our frame. Murmurers and complainers. And
what does He keep doing? Sending the Gospel. Somebody
say Amen. Jeanette, say Amen. Okay. John, you come lead us in closing
here.