I can't imagine, I cannot imagine
going through this life without Christ. I just can't. There was a time I never even
thought anything about it. But now, now when I see that
that manna that God provided Israel to feed them while they
were in the wilderness, to feed them on their pilgrimage journey,
and it was every day He provided for them, every single day. Every morning they got up, it's
fresh. Every day they got up. They had
it. And every day that we get up,
every day that our eyes are open, Christ is our provision for that
day. He's our provision for that day
to get us through this wilderness, get us through this pilgrimage
until we one day enter into that blessed inheritance. They just
had an earthly inheritance. We've got an eternal inheritance
reserved for us in heaven. And I'll tell you what, and I'm
going to tell you something. They had plenty to eat. But you, they didn't have nothing
to eat compared to what we have to eat. You know, how much do we have? They just have manna. We've got
Christ. We've got all that He is. We've
got all that He did. We've got all that where He is
now. We've got Him. Not just to live
on, but He Himself is our provision. He Himself is our protection. He Himself is our guide. He Himself is behind us. He Himself is around us. And oh, He's plenty. I tell you what, no wonder Todd
preached in our conference this last year. He said, Christ is
all. That He is all. He is all. Our Lord Jesus talked about the
Pharisees and Sadducees taking the keys and not using the keys. Didn't know what the keys was.
You know if you got a roll of keys and they won't unlock any
doors, you don't need them. Those folks didn't need a key.
But God gave us the key. Christ is the key to the scriptures. Keys over the door. Oh my. And now our Lord Jesus is crowned
with glory and honor. And that's where we have all
that we need in our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to keep this
and look with me over in Genesis 41. Genesis 41. My heart is heavy for Bob and
Rebecca and his two children and grandchildren. And it really
is. I've known him for so long and
loved him so much. And he's such a gracious, gracious
man. But look here in verse 53. Genesis 41, 53. Now this is, you know, this is
the story of Joseph. And he told him about that there's
going to be seven years of plenty and there's going to be seven
years of famine. And it said in verse 53, And
after the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt
were ended, and the seven years of dearth, or the famine, began
to come, according as Joseph had said, and the dearth was
in all lands, everywhere, but in all the land of Egypt there
was bread. Now watch this, and when all
the land of Egypt was famished, hungry, starving, the people
cried to Pharaoh, O Pharaoh, we got to eat, where are we going
to get any bread? Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians,
I tell you where to go. There's only one person you can
go to. Go to Joseph. You want anything
to eat? Go to Joseph. You want bread?
Go to Joseph. And what He says to you, that's
what you do. And that's the way it is. You
want bread? You want something from God?
You want provision from God? Go to Christ. Go to Christ. And I tell you, and I, God the
Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, God spoke of His blessed Son.
If you want anything from Me, go to My beloved Son. Only from Him, through Him, and
because of Him will I receive anything from you. And you'll
get anything from me only because of Him. Oh, He's God's manner. He's God's manner. He's God's
life. He's our life. He's all that
we need. Don't need anything else. Don't
need anything else. Don't want anything else. He's
sufficient for me. He's sufficient for me. Now I
want you to look here at the next thing about the golden pot.
And then the Ark of the Covenant overlaid round about wherein
was the golden pot that had manna in. And like I said, that manna,
when they took that manna, and they picked that manna up, they
had enough just for that day. If they kept any over, it bred
worms and it began to stink. Friday night, they pick up two
enough for the Sabbath day. Get two portions. Well, I tell
you what, God put this manna in that golden pot. And it never
rotted, it didn't stink. And our Lord Jesus Christ, bless
his holy name. God made him a sweet smelling
savor to us. We open this blessed book. I
seen Henry one time. He was preaching on that and
he said, Boy, you open that book and you start preaching Christ.
Oh, you smell that sweet fragrance. You smell that sweet savor. And oh boy, when we hear the
gospel, it's such a sweet taste to us, ain't it? You know, it
said it tastes like honey. And it tasted, I forget what
the other taste was, like a wafer? Oh my! You're talking about Christ
being honey. Oh, he's sweet to the taste.
Oh, how sweet he is to the taste. And then look at Aaron's rotted
buddy. I want to look at Aaron's rotted buddy. Now, let me tell
you what we need to do. Go to Numbers 17 for us to understand
this. Numbers 17. to understand what it is about
Aaron's rod that budded. Now, I tell you, and you read number 17, and you know,
we read the whole thing, and in number 16 there was a revolt. They had a rebellion. There was
a rebellion against Moses and against Aaron. And a bunch of Levites who were
to carry and minister and carry the things around from one place
to the next. They decided to take upon themselves that they
had as much authority and as much power and as much right
to enter into the tabernacle as Moses or Aaron did. Well God made, He said, I'm going
to show you who is who. And Dathan, and Korah, and Abiram,
and all of them, God opened up, as Barner said, He opened up
and sent them to hell without giving them a chest pack or suitcase.
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their old families. And the rest
of them, He burned up with fire. And here they are, they again,
they're trying to see who in the world's got the authority.
Who's got the authority. And Aaron's rod didn't budge.
Now in verse 7, chapter 17, here's the first thing. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take every one
of them a rod, a stick, according to the house of their fathers,
of all their princes, according to the house of their fathers,
twelve rods. Write thou every man's name upon
his rod. Write Reuben, write Judah, write
Zebulun, write Natali, write Gad, Write the names up there. Write
Joseph. Write their names on there. Every
man write his name on that rod. And thou shalt write Aaron's
name upon the rod of Levi. The tribe of Levi. Write Aaron's
name on that one. And one rod shall be for the
house of their fathers. Lay them up in the tabernacle
before the congregation, before the testimony where I'll meet
with you. And I tell you what, this revolt caused jealousy. And they did this against two,
God's two blessed people, Moses and Aaron. And these rose and
they put their names on them and they laid up these rods.
And look what he said in verse 5. And it shall come to pass
that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, whom I shall choose,
It's like the tabernacle. Shows us that God alone is the
one that set the pattern. God alone chose the pattern.
God alone told everybody what to do. God said, I'll meet you
there on the mercy seat. Showing us the salvations of
the Lord. And he said, the rod whom I shall choose shall blossom.
I'm going to cause a stick about that long and fit in that arc.
I'm going to cause a stick to bloom. Cause it to blossom. And not only blossom, but watch
what he says. And I'll make to cease from the
murmurings of the children of Israel whereby they murmur against
you. And he told them all to do what they said. Verse 7, Moses
laid up the rod before the Lord in the tabernacle of the wilderness.
And it came to pass on the morrow, Moses went into the tabernacle
of witness. And listen to this now. Behold
the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi was budded, brought forth bloods, and bloomed
blossoms, and had almonds on it. And the Lord said unto Moses
in verse 10, bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to
be kept for a token against the rebels. We're going to know who
God chose. We're going to know that. And
thou shalt quite take away their murmurs from me, that they die
not. And so here they told them, they
wrote all these names on these rods and they laid them up. They
laid them up in the tabernacle. They all went in there and they
was all laying in line. When they went in there, there
was twelve of them. Twelve of them. But there was
only one had a miracle rod on it. Only one had supernatural
power on it. Only one had a miracle rod on
it. Only one that was dead was brought
to life. Only one that had, that could
not do, that rod could do nothing for itself. Nothing. Like me and you, dead, couldn't
do nothing. And I'll tell you what, and this
gives us lots of typical meaning. The whole question of the ministry
and the priestly ministry and who had the right to exercise
that ministry was taken completely out of man's hands and was shown
by God alone, I'll put in the ministry who I want in the ministry.
I'll let you know who the life has got, who's the one that I'm
using and whom I won't use. And so I tell you what, and that's
just like everything else. Everything we've got has been
used by God alone. God alone decides who's going
to be saved. God alone decided who His Savior
would be. God alone decided how He would
save a sinner. God alone gave His blessed word. It's not God and us, you know,
it's not a cooperated effort. Oh, if you'll just let God, let
God, let God. Oh! Did that stick let God do
something for it? Did that stick let God do something
for it? Oh my, these rods were lifeless
things. Lifeless like anybody outside
of Christ, lifeless. But with omnipotence, with Almighty
God, when God in His sovereignty comes in power, comes in might,
comes in glory, life's got to come. And this old dead stick,
this old dead stick, this is something He walked with. But oh my, and I tell you this
lifeless rod had a miracle in resurrection life appeared. And
I tell you beloved, Moses and Aaron were typical of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You know in number 16 it showed
their rebellion against him, against Moses and against Aaron.
And that showed all man's kind rebellion against God and His
One. His blessed son. His blessed
son. And I tell you what, it's not
something we have to guess about. No, no. I mean, you know, was
there a time that you were against Christ? Was there a time when
you didn't know Christ? When there was a time that you
didn't know you didn't have life? Dead men don't know that they
don't have life. This stick didn't know it didn't
have life. And when they rebelled against God and it's the whole
mankind rebelled against God. And for all the member of the
human race rebelled against God. One fellow said years ago, he's
done gone. He said, I've been a believer,
I've believed the Bible all my life, been a believer all my
life. I say, well, if you've been a believer all your life,
you've been a believer way too long. Huh? You better believe it way too
long. I'm going to tell you this, without
God doing something for you, you won't even believe the Bible.
You'll believe the parts that you like. You'll believe the
parts that suit you. You'll believe John 3.16 and
believe that and believe everybody in the whole world. You'll believe
that God loves everybody and He has good intentions for everybody. You'll believe that all you've
got to do is open your heart and let Jesus come in. That's
what I mean. Unless God does something for
you and gives you life, you won't even believe the Bible. You won't. You'll believe the parts you
like about it. It's like a fellow, you know,
going to seminary, and a guy there, and God taught him the
gospel, and he started reading the scriptures, and he started
saying, well, listen, read Romans 9. Well, he said, I ain't gonna
do it, because if I do, I'll believe like you do. Don't want to do that. You know. Yeah, I tell you, you
open this book, and you see that God alone makes
the choices of everything. God was the first one to speak
in the Bible. God said, let there be, and there
was. He said, I want a tree, and a
tree sprouted. He didn't go plant a tree. He said,
let there be trees, and trees was there. Let there be light,
and there was light. And when God said, you're going
to have life, bless his holy name, you're going to have life.
You're dead as a stick, and when God speaks, you start sprouting
fruit. Ain't that right? And I tell you what, men rebelled
against God. They rebelled against God's appointed
one, His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're still
against Him. They're still against Him. Oh,
yes. Yes, they're still against Him.
Moses was God's prophet. And Moses proclaimed the truth. He, you know, Moses was God's
spokesman. And God said, you go tell them
what I said. And he would say just exactly
what God said. Always spoke the truth. Aaron,
the high priest, he expressed the grace of God. This is how
you can approach me, by this blood, by this shedding of blood,
by these sacrifices. He expressed the grace of God
and the mercies of God. And both of these men were hated
without a cause. Like our Lord Jesus Christ said,
they hated me without a cause. Is there a cause? You know I
read this morning, he said, for this cause came I into the world.
And then he turned around and said, they hated me without a
cause. Is there a cause, anything in Christ, anything in our blessed
Savior, that would cause somebody to hate Him? Not if they knew
Him. No, no, no. And I tell you, in
our Lord Jesus, the Scripture said who was full of grace, full
of grace, grace to redeem man, grace to reveal God, grace to
save man, and truth to come down and reveal God and tell us about
God. He was despised. He was rejected
of men. And they put him to a horrible,
horrible, shameful death. But what did God do? You know
what He did? Oh, they crucified Him. He was
dead. He was dead. They took him down
off the cross, that lifeless body, wrapped it up, put it in
the tomb, put a stone over it. Got over there early one Sunday
morning, they went over there and there's two angels sitting
there saying, who you looking for? Jesus. Well, he's not here. Where's
he at? Well, she went and told Simon,
Peter and John and they come running down there and Peter
looked out. He just looked in. He just looked in. But John got
on his hands and knees and he went in there. And every one
of them come back and said, he's not there. That's like Aaron's
rotted bottom. Out of death came this glorious
fruit. And here we set the fruit of
the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. God said,
I'm going to show you who I chose. I'm going to show you that you
rejected Him, you despised Him, you crucified Him, but I want
you to know this. That's my anointed one. That's
the one who's got the fruit. That's the one who's got the
power. That's the one who's got the right. That's the one who's
got the glory. That's the one who's got the might. That's the
savior. That's the mediator. That's the
one who can only do something for you. Oh, bless his holy name. And I tell you what, he raised
you from the dead. And I'll tell you something. He was seen of many brethren
and at one time above 500 men. 500 men after that. And I'll tell you what, and Moses
entered the tabernacle the next morning. And boy, when he looked
there, could you imagine how Moses felt? He went in there
and he saw all those sticks. And there's one of them that
was alive. One of them sticks was alive. And not only was it light, but
it had blooms on it. It had buds on it. You know,
that thing bloomed from top to bottom. It had buds on it. You
know, trees come out in the spring, they have buds on them. Then
they have blooms on them. And then they have fruit on them.
He said this had buds, then it had blossoms, and then it had
almonds. I'm telling you, that shows you
when he walked in there and saw that. He said, boy, I said, wait till
I take these out there and show them to that bunch of rebels.
You wait till God shows his blessed son to a bunch of rebels. When
he says every knee gonna bow, every tongue's gonna confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
They're gonna find out who he is one of these days. And I'm
telling you, and they entered that, Moses entered that tabernacle
saw the evidence of God's resurrection power supernatural power And
I'll tell you that's just like they when they entered into that
tomb And I'll tell you this rod was laid up before the Lord And
that gives us a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ said in God's
right hand and all and that was in that ark and speaks of God's
wondrous, wondrous provision for His people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And look there in verse 10 of
chapter number 17. Oh, this is what He said. I'll
read it to you if you don't want to look. But He said here, And
the Lord said unto Moses, Bring Aaron's rod again before the
testimony, to be kept, keep it, for a token against the rebels,
the children, And thou shalt quite take away their murmurs
from me. And listen to this, that they die not. That they
die not. Oh my. So that ministry of Aaron
was to preserve God's people so that they die not. This is
where the life was. This is the one that God said.
He let everybody know. Moses and Aaron are my two men.
Now look at this rod that shows you that you better pay attention
to Aaron. And Aaron was the one that God chose to preserve God's
people before him at that tabernacle through the sacrifices, through
the offerings, through the incest, through everything that happened
in that tabernacle. while they were passing through
this wilderness. And what a picture of our blessed
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a preserver. What a
preserver. I believe every believer in this
building. I believe every believer in this building right now. At
no minute telling how many times in your life as a believer you
said, Lord, please do not leave me to myself. Yeah, you know
what? As long as he's on the throne
and he's the one preserving you, you'll be alright. You'll be
alright. But that's just something, you
know why we pray like that? Because we know ourselves. We're
scared of ourselves. Scared of ourselves. And I tell
you our Lord Jesus our preserver while we go through this wilderness
and our great high priest is in heaven sitting at the right
hand of God. And there is constantly making
intercession for us. And this rod was a token against
the rebels to take away their murmuring from me that they die
not. And when we think of this rod that budded, a picture of
the living Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God, I pray that it
takes away our murmurings that we die not. Oh, help us not to
murmur. That's one thing that I find
so hard, so hard to understand. And I hope I'm not being too
critical. I've been through a thing or
two in my life, not much, not very much at all. The one thing that if I am going
to make any complaints, I'm going to complain to God. I'm not going
to fill your ear or anybody else's ear with all that's wrong with
me. Murmuring as a person who believes in the sovereignty of
God and believes in Romans 8.28, all things work together for
them that are called of God and loved of God and called according
to His purpose. It's just so against everything
that the Bible teaches. You know we say we believe in
grace and that God's will be done. And then murmur about everything
that happens to us. God help us not to do that. If you got anything to murmur
about. Something going on in your life that is not comfortable
for you. There's nothing wrong with saying,
listen, pray for me, I got to go through this, that and the
other thing. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not what
I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying when you
have troubles and great trials and your heart feels heavy and
you feel like you want to, tell the Lord about it. Tell the Lord
about it. He's the only one going to be
able to do anything about it anyway. Because when you ask somebody to pray
for you, that's what you're saying, you ask God to do for me. Well,
He'll hear you just like He does anybody else. Don't He? Oh, here's God's provision for
us. I'll tell you what, manna, food to strengthen us and keep
us, and a priestly grace to sustain us. And when it says that Aaron's
robbed and butted, That was a prophecy of the priesthood of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In several ways, let me give
you a couple of them. His priesthood, our Lord Jesus
Christ, as Aaron's rod budded, showed that all life was in him.
He had the authority. He was the high priest, and God
proved it. God proved it. This is his rod
budding, and life. But our Lord Jesus Christ priesthood
was not like Aaron's. Aaron was subject to death. Every
high priest eventually died. And a son took over and then
he died. And then a son took over and he died. But our Lord
Jesus Christ, He's a high priest forever. He's a high priest forever. And the Son of God should come
here and bring the throne of God down from heaven. And that
God gave him omnipotent power and grace to offer himself in
a sacrificial death. And that he might rise again.
And from heaven sent at God's right hand. Right now. Right now. Right this instant. Right this moment. He sets at
the throne of God. At God's right hand. And that's
our high priest. He's right there in God's presence
for us. What does he got? He's got grace
that just keeps on coming. He said grace for grace. You
know what that means? When you get grace, here comes
some more. Get grace, here comes some more. Here comes some more.
Here comes some more. And he said, that's God's right
hand. Aaron's rod butted. Our rod has
life. Our Lord Jesus Christ has life.
Ah, bless His name. No one like Him. No one like
Him. I wish he was here right now.
I'd just put my arms around him and hug him. Oh, I'd hug him.
And I believe he'd hug me back. I believe he'd hug me back. Oh,
if he was here, I'd just, oh. It's like sometimes you see somebody
you haven't seen in a long, long time, you just hug them and you
know. I've squeezed preachers I haven't seen in a long time.
I've seen them in a long time and I'd squeeze them and they'd say,
oh, oh, you hurt me, you hurt me. I wouldn't hurt Christ and
Christ wouldn't hurt me. But always it'd be something
to put your arms around Him. And He'll put His arms around
you. But He does us that way. He does
us that way. He's doing us all that way right
now. With His glorious, wondrous presence, we thank Him and praise
Him for it. Oh, Lord Jesus. Oh, Lord, we
bless You. We praise You. We lift up our
hearts to You at Thanksgiving. Oh, Father, we thank You. Oh,
how we praise you. And I do pray for Bob, Rebecca, Luke, Kerry, the grandchildren,
that congregation, Gabe and the congregation there. God bless
them. Lord have mercy. Either raise Bob up or take him
home. Whichever one pleases you and
brings the most glory to you. We pray for him in that way.
Father, bless these dear saints of God as they get up and go
their ways. Protect them and keep them and
preserve them. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Let's sing number 51 in the hymn
book. Number 51. Let's stand together. You know, I tell you, for all to feel the presence
of Christ. What a blessed day it is. 51. Praise the Savior
and me who know Him, who can tell Jesus is the name that charms
us Nothing moves or nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him. Neither force nor God can sever
those He loves from Him Trust in Him, saints forever He is
faithful, changing never Neither force nor God can sever I love
this one Receiving promise joy Then we shall be what we should
be, things that are.