Let's go back to Exodus chapter
16 tonight. When the Jews made mention there
in John chapter 6 of the manna that was given to them, our Lord
Jesus made it abundantly clear to them, and I hope it's abundantly
clear to all of you, and all of you who are watching by way
of the internet, and our Lord Jesus is that true bread who
came down from heaven. Let us understand that all of
the Bible, all of the word of God is really about one person
and his special work of redemption and reconciliation according
to the purpose of God, redemption and reconciliation of his people. No matter where you read in the
Bible, and I do encourage you to read the Bible, read the Word
of God. It is God's communication to
us. But may you read the Word of
God with the help of and the power of the Holy Spirit that
we may have eyes to see that wherever we go in this book,
We need to see our Lord Jesus Christ and his redemptive work
whereby he saved sinners. You know, the history of the
Israelites in the wilderness was marked by two constant things. Two constant things, two things
were persistent and always recurrent. They happened over and over and
over again. And the two things are these.
The first constant was this. The people were always, always
sustained by a series of miracles from the hand of God. And we
can go all the way back to their liberation from their bondage
in Egypt by means of Passover lamb. God said he was gonna pass
through Egypt. And he told Moses, he said, now,
have every family take a lamb, a male of the first year, without
spot, without blemish. That lamb pictured our Lord Jesus. Remember, I started off by saying
we're always looking for him. We find him in the Bible set
forth so often as that Lamb of God. And the Lamb, the Passover
Lamb, was killed. The blood was caught in a basin.
And the father of the family, the father of the children, the
head of the household took some hyssop and he dipped that hyssop
in that bowl of blood. He went outside and he put that
blood over the door posts and on the side posts because God
said, he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now, don't you see a picture
of the blood of Christ there? Who shed the blood of Christ?
The Father did. The Father did. You say, well,
that's the Roman soldiers who killed Him. It's the Israelites
who insisted that He die. And that's all true. But He died
according to the will and purpose of God. That's why in Revelation
chapter 13 we read that our Lord Jesus, He was the Lamb who was
crucified before the foundation of the world. And the Israelites
were redeemed by the bloody death of a Lamb. A Lamb. A miracle. Who would have ever
thought that the death of a lamb and then the blood of that lamb
being put on the doorpost outside because the people on the inside
couldn't see that blood, who would have ever thought that
the blood on the outside would avail to cause the oldest offspring
in the family to live and not be killed? All of the Egyptian firstborn,
they all died. But in every house where that
Passover lamb was killed, blood caught, and applied, firstborn
lived. What a miracle. And then they
get out to the Red Sea. The Lord opens up the Red Sea.
They go through on dry ground. Another miracle. They get to
the bitter waters of Merom. God told Moses, take that tree,
throw it in, it'll sweeten the waters. Another picture of the
death of our Lord Jesus Christ, because His sacrifice, His substitutionary
death, will sweeten every cross, every trial that you bear. And
when the burden of sin becomes so bitter to you that you can't
stand it anymore, drink of the sweetened waters that our Lord
Jesus has sweetened by his own substitutionary sacrifice. And then God led them to a few
miles and they find an oasis and they enjoy an oasis. And then after a few days, they
continued their journey, and they're hungry. And they murmured
again. And you notice that generations
later, and I just read to you from John chapter 6, As their forefathers back here
in Exodus chapter 16 murmured against God, so their offspring
murmured against God there in John chapter six. But our Lord kept the series
of miracles ongoing. And that manna that came down
from heaven every morning for six mornings a week, That manna not only did them
for one day, but on Friday, that manna did them for two days.
It was an ongoing miracle there because the Lord said, if you
try to keep that manna, if you try to preserve it for longer
than a day, it will stink and it'd be full of worms. But that
same manna that was given on Friday morning, he said, now
that'll last you. That'll last you two days. And
it didn't get worms, and it didn't stink. What a miracle. And you know, at the very end
of Exodus chapter 16, the Lord gives instructions to Aaron to
take a potful, a potful of manna. and put a top on it, and a little
later when he gives instructions regarding the pieces of furniture
in the tabernacle, he says, you put that pot of manna in the
Ark of the Covenant. And you know what? It didn't
ever stink. It didn't ever breed worms. And
it lasted through several generations. How can you ever explain all
of this without saying, this is the work of God? The work
of God. As we shall see next week, the
miracle of water from a rock. And that rock follows, or that
water followed them through the wilderness. And we learn in 1
Corinthians that rock was Christ Jesus. And the water from the
rock, that's the well of salvation. That's the waters of life. So
what I'm saying is the recurrent theme in their journey toward
Canaan, the first thing is this, a series of miracles from God. And you who are the people of
God, As you look back on your life, mustn't you say, my, what
a series of miracles. God kept me safe before I ever
knew Him, before I ever believed Him, before I knew anything about
His gospel of grace, about the Lord Jesus Christ. God watched
over me, He provided for me. What a series of miracles. Then
He sent His Spirit who led me to hear the Gospel of Christ
of salvation for sinners in the Redeemer. And we were told, we
were admonished, look to Christ alone for salvation. Not look
to the church, not look to the baptistry, not look to church
membership, but look to the Son of God who loves sinners and
died for sinners. Well, how was it that we ever
came to hear that right message? That's a miracle. And the miracle
of faith. All around us, there are people
who having heard the same message say, well, you can have it, but
that's not a message for me. I'm not interested in that. I'm
not interested in message of sovereign grace. And at first,
you weren't interested. Then all of a sudden, the Spirit
of God, as it were, kind of got your ear. And you started listening. And you began to say, yeah, you
know, that is in the Bible. And it began to make sense to
you. And you said, that's the good
news right there, that the work of redemption is done. That God
is satisfied. That the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only Savior and the Spirit of God gives you faith and you
say, this is the Savior I must have. And you find yourself believing. You know what? That believing,
that's another miracle. Because you don't have faith.
God has to give it to you. And God keeps His hand on you. He shows you that Christ defeated
all of your enemies at the cross, and that you're under the constant
protection and provision of your God. And at the end of every day,
you say, thank you, Lord. Another miraculous day in my
life. That is a recurrent theme. in the history of Israel's journey
across the wilderness. But there's a second constant.
These same people who were sustained by our Lord, they continued to
murmur against the providence of God. That is a recurrent thing. As you go through Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Over and over again, they were
just true to this. They were a murmuring people.
They were all the time complaining. And really, to murmur against
the providence of God is to be unthankful. That's what murmuring is. It's
unthankful for the circumstances in which you find yourself. And I'll tell you this, in the
book of Romans chapter one, the apostle Paul, he gives it as a special mark of the Gentile heathens because
they weren't thankful at all. It says in Romans chapter one,
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful. God help us and forgive us for
our murmuring. And I'm an offender of that,
as are you. And we must admit that. Not happy
with God's providence. And to be happy with God's providence
is not saying, well, I'll put up with it. No, it's, you know
what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, in everything, in everything
give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. That's what he said, isn't it?
Be thankful in everything. If you're well, be thankful. If you're healthy, be thankful.
If you're sick, be thankful. Well, that sickness part ain't
so easy to be thankful about that. But we're thankful because we
know that our God, if we have sickness, if we have disease,
if we have weakness, our God has brought that to pass for
our good. And he'll work it together with
everything that's going on. So those are two constants, two
recurring things that you can just track them as they go across
the wilderness. The provisions of God, the uninterrupted
series of divine miracles, and the people still murmured. I want to talk to you a little
bit about the manna. The manna came from above. It was not a product of the earth.
It didn't grow in Egypt. It didn't grow in the wilderness.
It was not produced by human efforts. It was not manufactured
by human skill. It descended from God. And though the people did not
ask God for bread, He gave it to them anyway. Why, they were
too busy murmuring. They were too busy fussing. And in the midst of their murmuring,
the Lord told Moses, behold, verse four, 16 verse four, behold,
be amazed. I will rain bread from heaven. I'm not gonna rain misery from
heaven, I'm gonna rain mercy from heaven. Here's a bellyaching
people. They're fussing on every hand.
If the skies aren't beautiful and if they don't have full bellies,
if they don't have some money in their pockets, they are not
happy. And they murmur. They murmur
about every direction God sent them. But I remind you, God did
send them in the direction that they went. Because there was
a pillar of cloud, but they followed. And in your life, there is, as
it were, a pillar of cloud that is leading you. He leadeth me. Oh, blessed thought. He leads
me. The Lord said, I'll rain down
bread from heaven. And he did. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, he's not a product of this earth. At first man, Adam,
he was of the earth, earthy. The second man, he's the Lord
from heaven. And he came down, unasked for
and unsought, unwanted. And I'll tell you this about
this manna. It was very strange to the people
and unrecognized. Look at verse 15. And when the
children of Israel saw it, when they saw the manna, they said
to one another, it is manna, for they wist not what it was.
And literally they said, what is this? What is this? It was very unrecognizable to
them. So was our Lord Jesus. In Matthew
21 verse 10, when he began to enter into Jerusalem, you know
what the people said? Who is this? Who is this? They said, we know his mom and
his daddy, we know his brothers and his sisters, who is this?
And of course, that was what was said over there in John chapter
six. In John chapter six, Our Lord
said, I'm the true bread that came down from heaven. They said,
wait a minute, we know who you are. We know your parents, we
know your family, we know your kinfolk. Who is this? Our Lord came, the scripture
says in John one, he came into his own and his own received
him not. He was unrecognized and he was
unwelcome. I tell you, the Lord Jesus Christ
didn't come to this world because men were begging for Him. Men
wanted to see Him. Men said, we need Him. Oh, no. He came into this world because
God sent Him. because God purposed that his
son must come into this world. He must lay down his life in
order that God be a just God and a righteous God and still
show mercy and grace to sinful people like you and me. Tell you something else, this
manna appeared upon the dew. Verses 13 and 14. And it came
to pass that the evening the quails came up The Lord gave
them quails in the evening, but our Lord is never likened unto
a quail. He gave them flesh to satisfy
their desires for flesh. They covered the camp. And in
the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the
dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness
there lay a little small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost
on the ground. Our Lord appeared in this world. Did you know that God's word
is called the dew from heaven. And our Lord came as the word
of God declared that he would. He appeared miraculously and
mysteriously. And this man that came upon the
dew, let me ask you a question. Several of you are older than
I am. Have you ever seen the dew fall? You can sit out all
night and you're not gonna see the dew fall because it comes
mysteriously and miraculously. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. The word said he was coming and
he did. And nobody recognized him save
except a few souls in Israel who looked for the Redeemer.
He appeared upon the dew. Tell you something else, the
manna was white. That picture's the purity and
the righteousness of Christ. The dew and the manna, it covered
the muck and the mire of the filthy earth. in the wilderness,
the earth that had been, was stained by the footprints of
men, by the waste of the animals, all those animals they had. And
the dew fell and covered all that, and then upon the dew came
the manna, and he was white. Our Lord was pure, perfect, undefiled. Tell you something else, that
manna was just very little. Very small and round. Oh so small. Insignificant if
you took one little piece of manna. Our Lord Jesus made himself small. He's so large, he fills eternity. And he made himself so small
as to be formed in the womb of a virgin. Wow. He was insignificant to the world
around him. Why, He was made so small and
so low, He was made lower than the angels. And that manna was round, had
no beginning and no end. That's our eternal Savior. Who can measure His beginning?
He's always existed. And He will always exist. He
didn't have a beginning. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, but Christ is the one who began everything. He began the beginning. Who can calculate the length
of His days? He's eternal. And the manna was a seed. that came upon the dew. Look again in verse 14. And when the dew that lay was
gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness, there lay
a small round thing, as little as small as the hoarfrost on
the ground. Look at verse 31. And the house
of Israel called the name thereof Mammon. And it was like coriander
seed. White, white. And the taste of
it was like wafers made with honey. Do you have any idea how
big a coriander seed is and was back then? Any of y'all got a pepper mill? I do. I like fresh ground pepper. Do you know how big a peppercorn
is? That's the size of a coriander
seed. And it was everywhere. Millions
of them. They just went out every morning. Somebody told me, I thought it
was just like bread laying on the ground. No, no, it's like
coriander seed. Just a whole mess of them. I
mean, you couldn't count them all. And that's our Lord Jesus Christ. He's so little, but He's so great. He's so great that He sits upon
His throne in glory, ruling over everything, but He's so little,
if I may put it that way, that He dwells in our hearts. Now
figure that now. and the man who was sent to the
Israelites. Verse four of chapter 16, it
says, then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread
from heaven for you. For you. It was for Israel and nobody
else. Christ came to save his people
from their sins. It was for a chosen nation. Christ
came for a chosen people. Our Lord said in John 17, for
their sake I sanctify myself. I set myself apart. It was for the sheep that he
came, not the goats. And this manna was sent to a
needy and foodless people. Whatever food they brought out
of Egypt, it's long gone. He came to feed his people spiritually. And you know what? That manna,
it came right down to where the people were. And that's what Christ did. He came
right to where we are. Born in the city of David in
Bethlehem, right where people live. So I said, well, I heard
there's a newborn baby there in the stable, in the manger. Yeah, another baby. Born right there in the midst
of people. See, our Lord had to come down
here where we lived. If we gonna live where he lives,
he's gonna have to come down here and live where we live.
And he's gonna have to live in obedience to the law of God and
then go to the cross of Calvary, bearing the sins of all of his
people in his own body on the tree and bear the wrath of God
for us. He did that. You see, that manna,
that manna had to be ground, pummeled, crushed to make dough, and then put into
the fire. And men, as it were, crushed
our Lord Jesus Christ And God put him in the fire. The fire of his wrath, the fire
of his anger against sin. And he endured the fullness of
the fury of the anger of God against the sins of all of his
people. He put him in the fire. And he's like, Sweet bread with
honey to his people and we feast on him And the manna Not only came where
they were but it was it was gathered by the people And it's that way
spiritually Receiving Christ is a personal matter and I can't
believe for you, you can't believe for me. Saving faith is that act whereby
each regenerated sinner appropriates Christ unto himself or herself. And I'll tell you, the man I
met a daily need. You notice in verse four there
it says, and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate
every day. Every day. See, you can't do a thing about
tomorrow. And you can't do a thing about yesterday. But I'll tell
you what you do have today. That's why the Bible says now,
now is the accepted time, not tomorrow. You may not have a
tomorrow. Or maybe you will, I don't know.
But now's the accepted time to come to Christ. And I'll tell you this, the manna
was given in the night. during the hours of darkness,
while men and women slept. The manna came. And our Lord
Jesus Christ was given in the blackness, in the darkness of
the night, the religious night, when he was born in a manger.
When superstition ruled everywhere, False religion was powerful and
strong. Darkness was upon the whole earth. That's when he came. For 4,000 years, men had tried
this religious thing and that religious thing, all to no avail. And after they had exhausted
every idea, every false religion that they could ever come up
with, in the night of false religion,
God gave His Son. He pierced the darkness. That's
what He does for us. He pierces our darkness, our
helplessness. And every day the manna fell and the people gathered. And
I tell you, my advice to you is feed on Christ every day. Every
day. He's the true bread from heaven.
Oh God, give all of us a spiritual appetite for him whom to know
his life everlasting. That's right, isn't it, Ron?
To know him, his life everlasting. Brandon, that's right, isn't
it? Joe, all you people know. He's the bread from heaven. God,
give me an appetite. That's what we need, isn't it,
Ronnie? An appetite. An appetite. I've preached. and I've had people listen to
me and say, well, he preaches too much Christ. They don't have
an appetite, Martin. They don't have an appetite. But I'll tell you what, if you
ever see how sweet and wonderful and gracious God is in giving
his son, who is the savior of sinners like you and me, You'll say, we don't want to
hear anything else but that message right there. Jesus Christ and
him crucified, buried, risen again. Whoever lives to make
intercession for us. He's the bread come down from
heaven. Well, let's sing the closing song, shall we?