When we get the message, let's go to God in prayer again. Remember those that are sick, those who are unable to be with us. I know Terrence and him are traveling a lot and going back and forth, so pray for them, please. I know they're going through great trials and others that you don't see. Remember them.

Remember God's grace and mercy that keeps us. God's grace and mercy sustains us. We know this, that if God left us to ourselves, where would we be? What a horrible thought, that God would leave me alone. And I hope that the message tonight will prove the opposite. It always does. The message always proves God's faithfulness. God's grace by showing us again our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that he'll be set forth and dispel all of our doubts and fears and complaints.

Yes? Right. Okay. Well, that is good news. I know they're thinking about that. Yeah. Well, pray for her. Pray for Zoe and pray for Annie and the family. I know they've been going through great trials, troubles. Very thankful God has been gracious in that. That's a very good thing. We prayed for it and now the Lord has given it to us. God help us to be thankful. Be thankful for it.

I ask your prayers for me. I've thought about this message a lot. Tonight I'm preaching on murmuring. And I don't know if you understand how hard it is to preach this. from somebody who I have to bow my head in shame when I take these messages and they come and they hit me. Because I identify with these things.

And God's people do. But I pray that God would help us with this. These things are mentioned in scripture for our learning. And may God teach us and help us to be more thankful. Man, we've got so much to be thankful for. We really do. And I pray that God would help us in these things, to be thankful, be content.

I think about, it's so amazing to me, I don't think we can grasp it, what heaven's like, to not ever have a want, to not ever have a need of anything, perfectly satisfied every single day. You know what that's like? I mean, we have no experience, very real experience. We desire it, we know it so. We long to be satisfied and content, but here we are, stuck in this mortal frame.

And so, God help us in this. I need this message as much as you do. More, okay? Just more. Pray for me as I preach it to you. God, give me the liberty of His Spirit. I just wanted to encourage you. I don't go on there very often, but I believe that the Lord is using these messages.

We're getting a lot of people watching them. I don't know who they are. They just are. I don't know how to read those things on counters or whatever they got. I don't know if it's people listening to the whole, but if half of those people are listening, that's an amazing number. It's an amazing thing. The Lord is using his word, and I'm very thankful that the Lord is putting it out.

I know I don't allow those comments, because I don't like being trolled and spending my time trying to answer foolish questions. You know, I put my phone number on there. If they want to call me and ask a question, they're welcome to. So I don't leave those chat rooms open. Most of those people just want to hear themselves talk. I don't have time for that.

But if they want to call, they're welcome to call and ask their questions. Seems like the Lord is blessing it, so I'm very thankful for that. I thought I'd encourage you with it. Any other requests need to be mentioned? Anything else? Chuck and Patty, pray for her mom. I know that they're doing that. I don't think, I don't, hopefully they're well. Did anybody hear from them? No? Okay, we'll pray for them.

Let's go to Him in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, we thank you. Father, I thank you that you have brought us together, that you have moved aside time and eternity, and you have brought us to this place at this moment, at this time, to hear this message. And I ask you, Father, for grace, for strength, for understanding and liberty, that you might open the text to our hearts and minds, Father, that we should be careful not to complain and murmur but rather be thankful that we should constantly be attuned to the gospel of Jesus Christ in consideration of his perfect work and person. Father, I do ask this night that you would be with those that are sick, those who are struggling in the body, those who struggle in their minds, those who struggle in great darkness and difficulties and afflictions, and griefs. Father, but I want to thank you for the things that you have answered, the things that you have heard, the things that you have been so merciful to give us. Thank you for the gospel of Christ. I thank you that you have opened this book to our hearts and minds when so many are blind So many are dead. You've given us life.

Help us that we should not complain, but rather bow ourselves in submission to your will and trust in your grace and love. Father, I pray for your men wherever they are tonight. I'm asking you to help them as I'm asking you to help me. Those that came to hear them, please help them as you help these. Strengthen us, encourage us. Keep us in the gospel, looking only and always to Christ. For you said the just shall live by faith. I pray that we would not be moved from it. Forgive us our sins. And I ask you to do these things in the name of Jesus and for his sake, amen.

All right, take your Bibles and turn with me to Numbers chapter 11. Oh, almost didn't cut that on. Boy, I almost got after the message, I would have heard. I got it though, I got it. Thank the Lord. I looked. OK, Numbers chapter 11. You want to make sure that it's going up and down just to make sure? Again, I'd much rather just make sure before I get calls later on, because they come in. And is it going up and down? OK, we're good. All right, thank you. Numbers chapter 11. You know, reading in verse 1, we'll read it again. I read it to you earlier, but I want to read it again.

The Scripture says, And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD, and the LORD heard it. And His anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost part of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses. And when Moses had prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched.

Now, we see here a very familiar sight. You read in the Old Testament the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. You will read this constantly. They murmured. They complained. Now, at this point, you realize that they were only eight miles from Sinai. They had only traveled eight miles. They hadn't even gone a whole day's journey, and yet they just began to complain.

And the idea of this word, complain, is not necessarily just grumble. They were literally looking for a way to overthrow. The word has the connotation of overthrowing somebody. They were scheming within themselves to overthrow Moses and ultimately overthrow the Lord. And so here they are, eight miles from Sinai, and they complain. And the Lord was displeased with this, and he sent a fire down from heaven, and consumed the utmost part of the camp. And then we read that Moses, they cried to Moses because of this, and he interceded for them, and the Lord questioned. Now this is a common theme. It's a common theme, intercession. They murmured, God chastened them, They cried, Moses interceded, the Lord stopped. Common theme.

Now, when this happened, you would suppose that that would have ceased complaining, right? You suppose that that would have been an exclamation point. Hey, don't complain! It displeased the Lord. You see, this was no light thing. Can you see that? It's not a light thing. Murmuring is not a light thing.

It displeased the Lord so much He sent fire and consumed them. Now, look at verse 4. Now, after this, the scripture says, And a mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting, and the children of Israel wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? Again, we've not gone too far. It's only been a few days the Lord had given them manna from heaven to eat. And now then they're complaining, well we haven't had any meat. We haven't had any flesh to eat.

And notice this, this mixed multitude. These were the people, I want you to understand, the Israelites weren't alone. Some of those people from Egypt came with them. Some of them were proselytes to the Jewish religion. And so you had this mixed group of people who were Egyptians, mingled in, and they started asking about meat. They started complaining, there's no meat here, there's no meat here. And what did that do? It wasn't long before the children of Israel started to complain. that there's no meat. And then they started reminiscing. Look at this. They said, we remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely. The cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic.

But now our soul is dried away and there's nothing at all besides this manna. See, what they were complaining about was the manna. this manna that God gave them, this light bread from heaven. Every morning they woke up, they didn't have to work for it, they didn't have to do anything. All they had to do was scoop it up and put it in a pot. Then they would meet it together and they would make cakes out of it. It tasted like fresh oil. It was good. There was nothing wrong with it. It was good.

And notice this, they were so upset at this, verse 10, look at this. Moses heard the people weep throughout the families, every man at the door of his tent. You got every father at the door of his tent now weeping because he doesn't have any meat. Crying. And it displeased the Lord and Moses, the scripture says. And then in verse 18 through 20, You can read this on your own.

Our Lord said then, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to give them what they want. And the Lord said He was going to give them quail to eat. Quail. And the Lord caused a great wind to come up, and I'm going to give you the numbers of this because I still can't wrap my mind around it, and I guess you're going to struggle with it too. When the Lord brought the quail in, it was stacked three feet high, in every direction for 16 to 20 miles. I think the computer estimated it to be like a billion quail.

The Lord said, I'm going to give you so much quail, it's coming out your nose. And He did. He gave it to them. And the scripture says that the least of them took ten homers of quail. Now a homer is an ass load. You take an ass and you put these bags on it and you weigh it down to its maximum capacity. That's a homer. And the least of them took ten ass loads of quail.

And the scripture says that it wasn't a blessing. You imagine that they thought it was a blessing. They thought God heard their complaints. God heard their murmuring. And He gave them all this quail and they said, look, what a blessing. And the scripture says, as soon as they put it in their teeth, God struck them with a plague. God struck them with a plague. And they died. They died. Now, Why was this so grievous to the Lord?

Now, we know this. I want you to understand. It's not a sin to eat quail. I imagine if some old guy came out there and he shot down a quail of his own, went back to his house and ate some quail, I don't think that they really would. You know, it's out in the desert. That's why they didn't have any out there. There was no meat in the desert. But if one old boy shot a quail, I don't imagine that it was a sin to eat it. But listen, the sin was they despised the manna. They despised the manna. There's nothing here except that. Except that. Except that manna. And so this was the sin.

Remember, manna, and we're going to see this, manna is a picture of Christ. Man is a picture of Christ. How often does God guard the types in the Old Testament? Remember the Ark of the Covenant when it was taken the wrong way on that cart and it stumbled and Uzzah put his hand to hold it steady?

Now that was nothing. You think about that. He was being sincere. He was just trying to keep the Ark from falling into the ditch. But it was God's type. The type of Christ, and he put his hand to it, and God killed him. Why? Because if you put your work to Christ, God will kill you. They despised and complained of the manner which was a type of his son. It was an offense unto God. That's why.

Now, we know this, that every Old Testament story concerning Israel, that Israel is a picture of us. You and I who are believers in Christ, we are the true Israel of God. We are the true Israel of God. Our Lord Jesus told us, according to Scripture, that we are The spiritual Israel.

But now look at this in verse 4. Remember there's a mixed multitude. Now what is this? I want you to understand that in the church there's always a mixed multitude. In the church there's always tares with the wheat. There's always going to be goats with the sheep. Our Lord told us that there would be a mixture. of those who truly believe and those who are only vain professors. So you see this mixed multitude is a type of the church. And what is our purpose in the church?

It's not to pull out the tares. It's not to point out the goats. That's not our business. The business of the church is to preach the gospel. That's our business. That's what we are sent into this world to do. Preach the Word, he said. Paul said, Preach the Word, in season, out of season. And that's what we do. We preach the Gospel. What do we preach? We preach, this is the Gospel, we preach the absolute depravity and ruin of man. We declare, according to God's Word, that every man is born dead in sins. This is the gospel. This is the message we preach. One person said if you get that wrong, you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. You missed this, you missed everything. Man is totally depraved and cannot save himself.

We've preached that God by grace in eternity chose a people that he would save, the elect, God purposed in a covenant grace with himself that he would save a people by one means by Jesus Christ according as he had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be whole in without blame before him in love having predestinies under adoption children listen by Jesus Christ God always purpose to save his elect by Jesus Christ So what do we preach? We preach the election of grace, the covenant of grace.

And then we preach Christ came to save his people from their sins. All that the father gave to Christ. Christ came into the world to provide for us a righteousness. Acceptable to God. Now, the only righteousness acceptable to God is the righteousness of God. And that's what he provided.

We preach that Christ came to die in the stead of His people. That He came to bear our sins in His own body on the tree. God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. That we, we who only knew sin, that we should be made the righteousness of God in Him. And when the justice of God fell on him, he said, it is finished.

This is our message. What's our message? It is finished. Salvation's accomplished. We preach a successful Savior. We preach a triumphant Savior. We preach a Savior who died for our sins and rose again from the dead. Our Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.

He is now ascended to the throne of glory where He now sits ruling all things. You know that? That our Savior rules all things, that He sits upon the throne of glory and God has given into His hands all flesh, all time, all eternity, all the providence of man is happening according to His will. And our Lord Jesus Christ said this in John 17 too, He said, as thou hast given him power over all flesh," listen to what he's going to do, "...that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." Now, this is what he determined to do, to give eternal life to who? The elect. And now that the Spirit of God is sent forth into the world, What does He do? He applies that blood. He applies that righteousness to the sinner.

There we were. We were dead in sins. No hope in ourselves. And by the grace and power of God, He gave us life. One minute we were dead, and the very next we were alive. And what did we have to do with that? We didn't have anything to do with that. Nothing at all. It was an act of divine grace, and He gave us faith in Christ. We believe on Him. We trust in Him, and we do not desire to trust in another. Do you want to look to another? Is there any other place you want to go? No, we believe in Christ.

And so, what is the gospel that I just preached to you? Listen to me. It's the manna. The gospel of Christ is the manna from heaven given to us to eat. Jesus told us that, didn't he? In John 6, he said, I am the bread of life. And he contrasted himself with that manna. He said, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. But I am the bread which came down from heaven.

He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood shall never hunger and never thirst. What does that mean? He that believes on me. He that trusts in me. These are spiritual words. You that believe in Him. You that trust in Him. Listen, have you not eaten this bread? And isn't this bread the most wonderful thing? This is the bread of life. It's our hope. It's our joy. It's our peace.

And listen to me, just as freely as that manna fail in the wilderness. So does this manna freely fall to us? Listen, you can eat this anytime you want to. You could you could taste this anytime you want to. It's free. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what we eat daily, isn't it? The scripture tells us the just shall live how? How are the just going to live? We, the just, shall live by faith. We live by continually eating upon Christ.

Listen, tonight, as you heard of His blood, and His righteousness and you lay hold on that. What have you done? You've eaten this. You've eaten this. You've received this into yourself for your strength, for your encouragement, for your life. You have to have it. Can you do without it? It's my life. This is the manna in which we eat.

But you see in this mixed group here, in the mixture of the local church, there are some who are never satisfied with this message. There are some who endure this message for a while, but pretty soon they're like the mixed group of Israel. They want something more. The manna is not sufficient for them. What do they want? They want flesh. They want flesh.

They say this, there's got to be something more than the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's got to be something more. They profess, well, yes, we need to preach the gospel, but once a man's heard it, we've got to move on. You can't keep harping on this same thing over and over and over again.

We need some real meat around here. And so what do they look to? They look to flesh. They look to carnal things, entertainment, amusement. We got to get people in here. How are we going to do that unless we appeal to what? Their flesh. We got to start talking about how to get their joy back, how to get their peace back, how to grow their family and make their family happy. We've got to really get to where they're at.

Not me. No, I won't stay here. Paul said, I determine not to know anything among you except this, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Why? This is our purpose. Christ sent me not to baptize Paul's head. He sent me to preach the gospel, to preach Christ. These men suppose that there's something more. And so they not only go to carnal things like earthly joys and earthly relationships. A lot of them go from Christ to the law. They suppose their justification and redemption belong to Christ, but somehow their sanctification and righteousness belong to them.

What is that? That is contempt for the manna. That is contempt for the gospel. It's looking to the flesh. But I want you to know this. that these who are discontent with the gospel are never going to be satisfied being alone. One of the most contagious things there is, is discontentment. Why? Because we are all prone to it. We are all prone to discontentment. These mixed multitudes begin then to spout lies. That's what they did in this text, didn't it?

They said, remember back in Egypt when we had it good. I mean, they weren't just a few months removed from the time that they were slaves. And these Egyptians are in there saying, hey, remember how good we had it? And then the Israelites go, hmm, yeah, you know what?

I think we might have had it good. And so they sprout these lies? Even so, is it with the law? I mean, this is what men do with the law. They say, man, you know, salvation by grace is good, but we got to know how to live. They don't remember that they were captives to the law. They don't remember they were in bondage to the law. They remember the law fondly. as though it were their friend.

Others in this mixed group say, look how good the world has it. I think of Asaph a lot in Psalm 73. Remember him? He said that my faith had nigh well slipped. He looked at the wicked of the world and he saw how good they had it. And he looked at the righteous, and he saw how miserable they had it. And his faith nigh well slipped. So sometimes we look at the things of the world, we look at the religious men of the world, and we see how happy they are, we see how they appear to be content.

And what do we find? We find that we are in sorrow. Often we feel the guilt and shame of our sin, often, We long for Christ often. And so what does this entice us to do? It entices us to complain. It allures us to murmur against God. So as we read this, believer, let us pray that God keep us from this. from this discontentment.

I know there are many times that I was in the congregation. There are many times that I would sit there constantly and I wouldn't be getting anything. You know what? I remember trying to think, well man, what's wrong with David? What's wrong with my pastor? Wasn't anything wrong with him? It was me. It was me. My heart was cold. My heart was indifferent.

What does that engender? Complaint. Complaint. And so these who come in, they creep in and they rebel and they want to bring others with them. I know this, again, no one who is a murmurer likes to be alone. They love others to murmur with them. And it becomes contagious. That's what happened here in this text.

But what does this discontentment do? Listen, discontentment and murmuring always move us from the manna. It takes our eyes off of the gospel and puts them on the things of earth, of time. And it takes us off of the most precious thing that we have. The gospel. Now then, I've got four things about murmuring. Four things about murmuring. First of all, I want you to see this. Murmuring is displeasing to God. Do you know what the text said? In verse 1 it says, And the people complained, and it displeased the Lord. In verse 10, we read that again. And the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. The Lord is displeased with murmuring.

Now, let's suppose you have a man who is without any means. He's out on the street. He's out there starving to death. His clothes are in tatters. He has no one. He's sickly. And suppose you have some means to take care of this man, and overwhelmed with compassion, you bring this man into your home, you bathe him, you make sure that he has plenty of clothes, you set a hot meal before him, and he eats. You supply him with work so he has a job. And then, recognizing he needs transportation, you give him a car so he can go to and from.

And then all of a sudden this man looks around and he sees that his clothes are not as good as others. He sees that his car is not as good as yours. His meals aren't as good as yours. And then what does he begin to do? He begins to complain. He murmurs. He goes behind your back and talks about you to all your friends, to everybody who knows you. Now listen, if that happened to us, how long would that man stay in our house?

And yet this is exactly what man does to God. Man by nature is born of God and every breath he breathes is a gift of God. Everything he eats, everything he has, every job he has, the relationship he has, everything he has is a gift of God and yet what does man by nature do? Constantly he murmurs and complains against God. He rails against God. Why? This is our nature. This is what we did. When we were born into this world, for men the scripture tells us that we are born at enmity against God.

How foolish is that? To murmur against the one who gives you all that you have. We say that's foolish, isn't it? You would agree that's foolish? To shake your fist in the face of God? It is most foolish. I'm going to tell you something even more foolish.

Is when God gives a man spiritual life, when God sent his only son into the world to die in your state, to send his spirit specifically into your heart to give you eternal life, perfect righteousness, acceptance with God, and then you murmur, at your lot. That's more foolish than someone who doesn't know God. It is not becoming of God's saints to murmur. This text comes to my mind. How does the living man complain? You that believe in Christ, tell me what you have to complain about. Seeing God has given you everything. What do we have to complain about?

I know this. You and I who believe in Christ, we are often in great peril. I know we are. I know we are in great trouble. We are constantly at the point of sorrow and suffering. I know this. The way is hard. The hill is steep. We live in a barren wasteland.

And I'll tell you, in these times, We are often tempted to murmur, to complain of our lot in life. We are tempted then to estrange ourselves from the gospel. Isn't this always the way when we get into trouble, the first thing that goes is the gospel? It just seems that way, that that gets put out. And the trouble that's before us is magnified. We're tempted to set aside the gospel.

We are allured to eat another gospel or to listen, but rather listen to another than to listen to God. But listen to this, you that are tempted, listen, you that are tempted to murmur concerning your certain lot, go to Jeremiah. I want you to see God's intention.

What is God's intention concerning your difficulty? Well, we know this is not for you to murmur. That's not His intention. That's not what He intended for you to do. Look at Jeremiah chapter 32. Look at verse 40. Notice why God sends our suffering. Look at this.

He said, I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Isn't that what He did? Isn't your salvation based on everlasting covenant? It is. And this is this, that I will not turn away from them to do them what? Good. But I will put my fear in their hearts. Do you see what our struggles are for? Our struggles are to put reverence in our hearts, reverence to God, love toward God, honor toward God. Why?

That they should not depart from me. God's intent is this, you should never leave him. That's what he intends. That you should never leave Him. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good. When does God rejoice over you to do you good? Always. Do you not understand that? Is that not what He's telling you? That He does us good in all things.

And I will plant them in the land assuredly with my whole heart and my whole soul. So then, Instead of murmuring, what should we be doing? How about this? Trusting. God said, I intend to do you good. Is that not what he said? Instead of murmuring, why not trust? Proverbs chapter 3, trust in the Lord with all thine heart at all times. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding. You see where murmuring comes from? If we lean to our own understanding, what will we do? We'll complain. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. Who's doing this to us? Who put us in these difficult situations? Who put us in these dark providences? Is it not God?

In all thy ways acknowledge His sovereignty, His power, His love, His grace. Acknowledge it! And what does He promise to do? And He shall direct thy paths. Believer, let us not murmur, for it is unbecoming. Isn't it? It displeases our Lord. Secondly, we should not murmur and be discontent because the things of the world will never satisfy it. You know what murmuring begets? More murmuring.

Why? Because whatever you want, when you get it, it won't stop it. If I could just get to this point, then I'll stop complaining. Liar! Because that's exactly what happens to me every time I say it, and I know this, every time I get it, it doesn't stop the murmuring. There's always something more to be had.

Nothing in the flesh will satisfy the flesh. Isn't that what these found out? When they wanted flesh, you know what God said? I'm going to give them so much of what they want, it's going to come out their nose. Listen, when we murmur and complain, we need to be aware when God gives us what we murmur for, it's usually not a blessing. It's not a blessing.

I know this, when those quails came in, everybody thought, wow, this is great. This is awesome. We've got flesh to eat. They picked them up. They started loading their bags. The scripture says they did it day and night. They didn't stop. Now, manna, you didn't have to work for it. You just scooped it up. But they didn't. For this, they worked their butts off for it. They worked hard day and night to get it, and they got it. And the scripture says as soon as they put it in their mouth, it was a plague. It was a plague. I knew a man that he really seemed to believe the gospel and loved it very much as far as I knew. He just adored the gospel.

But then he started having trouble at home and he started having trouble at work, his job was miserable, and his wife made him even more miserable. And boy, he just couldn't get off of it. He just kept constantly talking and complaining about it. And pretty soon, just didn't see him anymore. He just left. Now why did he leave? Well, God gave him a better job. God gave him a new wife. Everything was well! Except what? Except he left the gospel. He left the gospel. See, the new job and the new wife wasn't a blessing. It was a curse. It was a curse.

And so it is with those who want to seek after the things of the flesh. I don't know if that man is a true believer, if he ever came back or if he, what? I don't have any clue about that. I know this. There's a very thin line between apostate and a wayward believer at times. Can't even tell. Sometimes you can't even tell. Can a believer leave the gospel for the things of the world?

Yes. Yes. I'll give you an illustration of it. Remember Asa in 1 Kings chapter 15, I think it is. Asa was a king that scripture says his heart was perfect before the Lord. And this was a man that God loved. Asa wanted some timber from a place called Ramah. He lusted after it. He wanted it. But he knew he could not attack his own kindred. So what did he do? covenanted with the enemies of God to take Ramah. And God sent a prophet and said, you're wrong for doing that. He rebuked him. And you know what Asa did? Asa, like a pouting child, refused to repent. Scripture says in 2 Chronicles 16 that God gave him gout in his feet and he was in great pain the rest of his days.

You know what this is? The Scripture says, that he would not seek the Lord for healing. Now this was a man who was loved of God. Can believers be duped into that? You bet you can. That's why we are given these warnings about murmuring. It's displeasing to God. And we could be duped into it. We could be duped into it. Now the third thing is this. The product of murmuring is always for the believer chastisement.

Now here makes the difference, right? God's people can and do fall into these fits of murmuring, complaining. But one thing about God is that he never leaves his people there. He never leaves his sheep, his sons, in that condition. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. And I'll tell you this, if you're tempted to murmur and complain, listen to this. This is a good thing to do. Verse 3.

For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds." You know what the best thing to do when you're tempted to murmur? Consider him. Paul's saying this, look, take your trouble and compare it to his. Take your lot and compare it to His lot. Consider Christ. In other words, feast on Him. Don't fuel the complaint. Feast on Christ, the manna. It is to believe on Him. It is to embrace Him. It is to find your contentment in Him. and not the lust of the flesh. And this food will strengthen you so that you don't faint. Do you feel like you're going to faint? What are you going to eat? Are you going to eat the flesh of quails or are you going to eat the manna? The manna will give you strength.

There's nothing but plague in the flesh. Verse four, you have not resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise thou not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou rebuke of him. Have you fallen into complaints? Has God brought his chastening hand to you? Listen, that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing.

Why? Because God doesn't leave his children in this condition. God will always come and chasten his children. Look at verse 6, For whom the Lord loveth what he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. The sting of our sorrow and sin is great, And often God brings dire consequences because of our murmuring and complaining. David lost three sons. You know that? He lost three sons, he lost his kingdom and his dignity. All because of his sin.

Can you not see clearly then the difference between Judas and Peter? Did not both of them betray the Lord? Both of them betrayed Him. Both of them denied Him. But what made the difference? Judas repented to the priest. Christ said to Peter, I have prayed for thee.

What makes the difference? Why are you still here? Why have you not succumbed to your murmuring so as to leave the manna? Why? Because Christ has prayed for you. Because Christ comes to you. Because Christ speaks to you. When He speaks to you, is there anything more you want than to hear Him? When God chastens us, man, there is nothing more we want than to hear His voice. To know that I'm in Christ. Is there anything greater than to know you're in Christ?

And so God chastens every one of His sons. He scourges us. Why? Because He loves us. Our difficulties are not intended for our death. They're intended for our blessing. He scourges every son he receives. And the last thing I want you to see is this. What's the cure? The cure is always the same. It's the manna. It's rejecting the flesh and eating the manna. It's the gospel.

I'm going to give you this and you can read it later. Numbers chapter 21. You read again, they complained. Numbers chapter 21, they again complained. And this one, you remember the Lord sent those fiery serpents, right? He sent those fiery serpents and they bit them, and he bit Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole.

And you remember what the command was, look and live. Look and live. The cure for murmuring is simply to look. The gospel is not a set of doctrines, is it? It's a person. When I preach a doctrine, I'm describing a person. And so what's the remedy of our complaint? It's to look to Him! To behold Him! To consider Him! view again his perfect salvation. And listen, with that comes contentment. If you have him and you lost everything else, what have you lost? What have you lost? You've lost nothing. You've lost nothing. Matter of fact, you still have everything.

I like these verses, it says, being justified by faith, we have peace. Are you looking for peace? Why look for it, you have it. If you look at him, you have it. Because you're justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, you have peace. Look, I'm not looking for redemption, I have redemption. I'm not looking for eternal life, I have eternal life. Well I'm not looking, I have forgiveness, I have pardon, why? Because it's all in Christ. I have all of these things in Christ. Paul says in Hebrews 13, he said, let your conversation be without covetous. Be content with such things as you have. Now why in the world should you be content?

For, I like this, he said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Should that not bring total contentment that He has never left you? And He never will. And when your love grows cold, when your love grows indifference, His remains the same. And because of Christ, He'll never leave you. So then, what do we have to complain about? If you have God, what do you need to complain about? Contentment with godliness is great gain. Isn't it great gain if you find contentment? Is it not great gain? Is it not peace of mind? Peace of heart?

It is. I'm going to quote this. I've got this in my office, and I read it. Somebody wrote it. It says a non, so I guess I don't know who this non person is, but it sure was good. I need constantly to remind myself that all things are of God. Let me not preach sovereignty and then complain of my lot in life. Let me not talk of divine purpose and then spend my days murmuring about my trials and troubles. It is totally inconsistent with faith in the sovereign Christ for me to question his good providence. Paul called covetousness idolatry and said, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.

I pray for submission, for with this comes peace and rest. Should believers complain? It's displeasing to our God. Why should we complain? Murmuring always seems to remove us from the gospel. Murmuring brings chastisement, but yet the cure for it is very simple. Look to Christ. Feed on Christ. And stop feeding on the flesh. With this comes contentment. God help us not to complain.

I need that. I need his power. I need his grace. I need his spirit. Because it's just natural for this flesh to complain. God help us. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Gracious Father in heaven, we pray for the mercy to forgive us of our complaints. Forgive us of our murmuring spirits. Set our minds and hearts upon Christ. Give us the strength and wisdom to rest being content with your promises and the grace we have in Him. In Christ's name I ask. Amen.