Well, good evening, everyone.
If you would, open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter 16.
We have a rather lengthy text this evening, so I'm going to
read half of it now and the other half in a few minutes. But Exodus
16, we'll read the first 15 verses right now. And they took their journey from
Elam And all the congregation of the children of Israel came
into the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai on
the 15th day of the second month after their departing out of
the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of
the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the
wilderness. And the children of Israel said unto them, would
to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt
when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to
the full. For ye have brought us forth into this wilderness
to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then said the Lord unto
Moses, 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 on my law or no. And
it should come to pass that on the sixth day, they shall prepare
that which they bring in. And it should be twice as much
as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto
all the children of Israel, that he shall know that the Lord hath
brought you out from the land of Egypt. And in the morning,
then you shall see the glory of the Lord. For he that heareth
your murmurings against the Lord, for that he heareth your murmurings
against the Lord. And what are we that ye murmur
against us? And Moses said, this shall be,
when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat,
and in the morning bread to the full, for that the Lord heareth
your murmurings, which ye murmur against him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against
us, but against the Lord. And Moses spake unto Aaron, saying
to all the congregation of the children of Israel, come near
before the Lord, for he hath heard your murmurings. And it
came to pass as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the
children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness,
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of
the children of Israel, speak unto them, saying that even you
should eat flesh, and in the morning you should be filled
with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.
And it came to pass that at even the quails came up and 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 small round thing, as small
as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, for they wish not
what it was. And Moses said unto them, this
is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. Okay, Sean. Okay, if you would turn in your
hymnals to song number 298, and we will sing God Leads Us Along.
298. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads his dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bays
the weary one's feet. God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Sometimes on the mount where
the sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in the valley, in darkest
of night, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood, some through the fire, but all through his
blood. Some through great sorrow, but God gives us all in the night
season and all the day long. Though sorrows befall us and
Satan oppose, God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes. God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives a song. In the night season and all the
day long. Away from the mire and away from
the clay, God leads his dear children along. Away, up in glory, eternity's
day, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives a song. In the night season and all the
day long. Okay, if you would now turn in
your hymnals to song number 235, Pass Me Not. 235. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Let me at a throne of mercy find
a sweet relief. He kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, Hear my humble
cry, While on others thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Trusting only in thy merit, Would
I seek thy face? Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. That song service was such a
blessing to me. I don't know if y'all can hear
it from where you're sitting, but when we sing acapella, your
voices just roll up here. I enjoy it so much. That was,
that was good. All right. If you would now turn
back with me to Exodus 16, we'll pick up our reading in verse
16 and read down through the end of the chapter. This is the thing which the Lord
hath commanded. Gather of it every man according
to his eating. an omer for every man according
to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which
are in his tents. And the children of Israel did
so and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did meet
it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he
that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according
to his eating. And Moses said, let no man leave
of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto Moses, But some of them left of it until the morning,
and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was wroth with him.
And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating.
And when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass that
on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers
for one man. And all the rulers of the congregation
came and told Moses. And he said unto them, this is
that which the Lord has said. Tomorrow is the rest of the holy
Sabbath unto the Lord. Make that which ye will bake
today, and that ye will seethe, and that which remaineth over,
lay up for you to be kept up until the morning. And they laid
it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither
was there any worms therein. And Moses said, eat that today,
for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today you should not find
it in the field. Six days you shall gather it,
but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall
be none. And it came to pass that there
went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather,
and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses,
how long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See,
for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every
man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh
day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house
of Israel called the name thereof manna. And it was like coriander
seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with
honey. And Moses said, this is the thing
which the Lord commandeth. Fill ye an omer of it to be kept
for your generations, that ye may see the bread wherewith I
have fed you in the wilderness. when I brought you forth from
the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, take
a pot and put an omer full of manna therein and lay it up before
the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded
Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. And
the children of Israel did eat manna 40 years until they came
to a land inhabited. They did eat manna until they
came into the borders of the land of Canaan. Now an omer,
is the 10th part of an Ifa. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we've gathered here
together this evening out of the dry and barren wilderness
of this world. And Father, we've come to hear
a word from thee. We've come to gather together
and worship your holy name. And Father, I pray that you send
your spirit upon us and that you would give us a heart and
a spirit of true worship. And that you would be pleased
to speak to us through your word by your servant. Enable us to
see one more time the glory, the majesty, the awesome wonder
of Christ our Savior. And Father, enable us to believe
him. Enable us to believe and rest in Christ, our savior. Father, I thank you for this
place. I thank you. You've given us a place where
we can meet together and worship and in peace and love and harmony. And father, I pray you give each
of us the wisdom to maintain that peace and that harmony and
that love between the brethren here. I thank you for it. And
father, for your people that you brought into the time of
trouble and trial, And there are many, Father, we pray for
them. We pray you to undertake in their
behalf that you would be pleased to heal and to comfort, to deliver
as soon as it could be thy will. But Father, above all, that you
give a special portion of your presence to comfort their heart
while they're in the trial in the valley that you brought them
to endure. Father, give them a fulfillment of your promise
that you'll never leave nor forsake your people. but that you'll
be with us as we go through the deep waters and through the fire.
All these things we ask and we give thanks in that name, which
is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now I titled the lesson this
evening, Manna in the Wilderness. And I'll tell you, I have thoroughly,
thoroughly enjoyed studying this passage this week. I don't know
that I've ever brought a message on the manna before, It's such
a wonderful picture of Christ. And specifically, I want us to
learn tonight how the Lord provides for his people as we travel through
this sinful world here below on our way home to glory. It's
a hard, hard journey, isn't it? I mean, this is a hard place
to live. It's a hard journey, but the Lord always provides
grace for his people. And you know, a lot of times,
we make the journey harder than it has to be by our own sin and
our own stubbornness. But the Lord still provides grace
that's sufficient for his people as we go through this journey.
And that's what's pictured here. And how the Lord gave the children
of Israel a murmuring and complaining of faithless people, he still
gave them manna, deed in the wilderness, for 40 years. He
gave grace, sufficient, didn't he? So here's the first thing
I want us to see. The first thing a believer learns
on our trip home is the sufficiency of Christ. Look back up at chapter
15, verse 27. And they came to Elam, where
there were 12 wells of water and three score and 10 palm trees,
and they encamped there by the waters. Now in Elam, there was
plenty of water for everybody. There were 12 wells of water,
one for each tribe, There were 70 palm trees that gave them
shade from the desert sun. This must have been a big oasis.
And you know the children of Israel loved being there. I mean,
life was pretty easy and pretty good there. They had no worries
about what are we going to drink. There's plenty of water. The
bitter waters of Marah are behind them. This was a time of rest,
enjoying their families, enjoying the plenty that was there. It
almost seemed like paradise. Now it wasn't, but it almost
seemed like it. But the thing is, as wonderful
as that place was, they had to leave that place if they're going
to get to the land that God promised to give them. And to get there,
between here and there, they had to travel through this wilderness
of sin. And you know, that's the believer's
experience, isn't it? When the Lord first saves us.
You remember when the Lord first revealed himself to you? When
you first saw him, when you first believed him, there was such
joy at that time in our lives, wasn't it? The Lord has revealed
himself to me, of all people, in his mercy, in his grace. He's given me eyes to see Christ.
I used to not be able to see. I couldn't see what the big deal
was about. I couldn't see what all these people were disloving. But I see Christ now. I believe
Him. I can't not believe Him because
God's given me faith to trust Christ and to love Him. And it
seems like every message is just a learning experience for me.
It's just a blessing, a mountaintop experience for me. I'm just learning
something just every time I open the Word, every time I hear Christ
preach. I'm enjoying such rest and peace
and joy and confidence in Christ. It's wonderful. I just can't
imagine ever having a bad day ever again. It almost seems like
paradise, except it's not because nothing in this world ever is. And that's a glorious, wonderful
time. And I think that's a time that
the Lord gives those his babes. time to get some nourishment,
time to, you know, to start feeding. But if we're going to get to
the place where Christ is, we're going to be in glory with Christ.
We're going to have to leave this place and we're going to
have to travel through this, this sinful world. And there's
going to be tough days. There's going to be dark days.
There's going to be rainy days. There's going to be stormy days,
but we've got to go through it because that's the only way to
get from here to glory. And here's the second thing I
want us to see. Now God has saved his people. They're born again,
God's given them faith in Christ, he has saved his people. But they will always be sinners
still. Verse one, chapter 16. And they
took their journey from Elam, and all the congregation of the
children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which
is between Elam and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month.
after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole
congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said
unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord
at the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and when
we did eat bread to the full for you brought us forth into
this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Now
the children of Israel, They left the comforts and the joys
of Elam, and they traveled out into the wilderness of sin. That's
where they had to go. They had to travel through the
wilderness of sin if they're going to get to the land flowing
with milk and honey that God promised to give them. The wilderness
of sin, that word sin, means thorns. Thorns are always in
scripture a picture of the curse of sin. The earth only brought
forth thorns after Adam fell. And the children of Israel had
to pass through this wilderness of all the effect of our sin,
the thorns and thistles that our sin brings forth before they
could get to the promised land. And I point this out, this is
true of them and us too. They weren't passing through
a land of other people's sin. What made this the wilderness
of thorns and the pain and the pricking and everything that
thorns does to you is we're traveling home with our own sin. That's
the issue. It's never somebody else's sin.
It's my sin. That's what makes it so hard.
Now this has just been 30 days. 30 days since the children of
Israel went through the Red Sea on dry ground with walls of water
on both sides. They walked through that on dry
ground and they turned and watched Pharaoh and the mightiest fighting
force on earth destroyed in those waters. It had just been 30 days
since they'd seen God's miraculous power there. In the meantime,
they saw God's power and his provision at the bitter waters
of Mara, didn't they? Just 30 days. And they're murmuring
and complaining about the way that God is praying to them and
the way that God is providing for them. After seeing all of
God's provision for them, after hearing of God's promises to
them, they're worried they're going to starve to death in the
wilderness. And they actually wished they were back in captivity
in Egypt. That is how blind and wretched
our sin nature is. We got the same nature that they
had, exact same sin nature. And they were murmuring against
Moses and Aaron because that's who they could take it out on,
that's who was there. But really, their complaining
and their sin was against God. See that in verse eight? And
Moses said, this shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the
evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full,
For that the Lord heareth your murmurings, which you murmur
against him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against
us, but against the Lord. Remember, the Lord told Samuel
the same thing. Samuel, they're not murmuring
against you. It's against me. Their murmuring and their complaining
was against God. And I point that out because
the exact same thing is true of you and me today. When we
murmur and complain about our circumstances, You know what
we're doing? We're murmuring against God's
good provision for us and his will and purpose for us. We're
complaining about God's providence for us after he has provided
us with countless blessings from his hand. And the first time
we think we might go without, we murmur and complain. That's
our wicked nature. All that murmuring and complaining
is against God. You know, when I say, I'm just
not as happy as I wanna be. This thing's just not turning
out like I thought it would go. I thought God was gonna do it
this way. He's not doing it this way. It's not the way I thought
it was gonna go. I don't like this. That's complaining
against our God, the same way the children of Israel did. Paul
was right. In the book of Romans, he said,
we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they're all
under sin. All of us are under sin, all
of us have this horrible sin nature and our murmuring and
our complaining about our lot in life or our situation in life
at any given time, all that is is complaining about the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning me. When scripture tells us actually
in all things we're to be thankful. We're to be thankful for the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning me. Now it's just shame, I mean
that's shameful. I mean I burn with shame as I
say that because I do this. It's shameful for a believer
who's experienced God's grace to then complain about how God's
providing for us. I mean what a great sin. And
we're gonna deal with that sin nature this whole way on our
journey home. Because that which is born of
the flesh is flesh. is always gonna be dead, stinking,
sinful flesh. It's our shameful sin, the sin
nature that we just have to face. But that brings me to the third
thing. God's grace is always greater than our sin. And that
grace is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the people,
They murmured against God, and that was shameful. No question
about it. But the Lord still graciously
provided for them anyway, because that's what grace does. You know,
God doesn't provide things for us because we do things right.
That works. No, we sin, and God provides
for us anyway, because God's gracious. He is a gracious God,
And that's His glory, isn't it? To be gracious to whom He will
be gracious. And the way that God fed His
people in the wilderness of sin was by giving them manna in the
morning. Now, every single person here
already knows that the manna is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the true bread from heaven. And I don't wanna shock you,
but I'm gonna give you 10 pictures of Christ from the manna that
God gave to Israel, and I promise you, I will be brief. Number
one is this, the Lord Jesus Christ is the gift of God. In verse
four, then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will reign 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'll walk in
my law or no. Now, after all this shameful
murmuring and complaining, God didn't say, all right, I'm gonna
give the people some food. I'll give them a little bit of
food. God said he's gonna rain bread from heaven. This is not
just a little bit. This is grace in abundance. The people are gonna have abundance
of bread, everything they need and everything they want. That's
God's grace to his people. Well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the gift of God to sinners. Remember when the Savior, he
met that woman at the well. and he asked her to give him
a drink. And he said, if you knew the gift of God and who
it is that saith unto thee, give me the drink, you would have
asked of him and he would have given thee living water. Christ
is the gift, isn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
gift of God that through him, through the Lord Jesus Christ,
almighty God gives salvation to his people freely. He gives
them full forgiveness of their sin. He cleanses them from all
their sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. He makes his people the very
righteousness of God in him. He makes his people holy. He
gives them peace with God. He gives them, he promises them
security in his mighty hand. No man is able to pluck them
out of my hand. I mean, you just go on and on
and on and on. What we have in Christ, what
a gift. That's the gift of God. And I
promise you this, if you're a sinner, he's everything you need and
he's all you'll ever want. You won't want any more than
him. Then number two, the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal savior. In verse 13, it came to pass
that at even, the quails came up and covered the camp. 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 small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. The manna was small. That's our
Lord Jesus Christ. The scribes and the Pharisees
and the bigwigs of the day thought he was small and insignificant. This is the carpenter's son.
He's from Nazareth. Can you even think about Nazareth?
The manna was small and it was round. And that round manna pictures
the eternality of Christ. It's just like our wedding rings. They picture a love that doesn't
have an ending. It never ends. That's why we
promise when we get married till death do us part. The Lord Jesus
Christ is eternal. He doesn't have a beginning and
he doesn't have an ending and everything in him and everything
that he gives is just like he is. It's eternal. His love for
his people is eternal. If almighty God has ever set
his love upon you, He'll never quit loving you, no matter what
you do. Now, I know somebody, I don't
think anybody here, I mean, I know nobody here would say this, but
somebody would hear that and say, oh, well, that means I'll
just go out and sin all I want, and it doesn't matter, I don't
have to worry. If God's love means anything to you, you don't
wanna go out and sin against him. You love him. You're just not gonna say, well,
I'll just sin that grace may abound. God forbid, if God has
ever loved you, he will always love you. And boy, there's going
to come a time you're laid so low. I mean, you just, you're
so low down at the bottom. You, you can't see up. I mean,
you just can't see daylight and what a comfort and a strength
that will be to your soul. That even here, no matter how
this feels, God loves me. He loves me. I may not know where
I'm at, but he does. He does. His salvation is eternal. His righteousness that he gives
his people is eternal. You can never mess it up. This
is why I say that we think about Adam in the garden and think
how wonderful that was. But salvation in Christ is much
better. infinitely better than what Adam
had in the garden. I don't know if you could say
Adam had a righteousness, but he had an innocence for sure,
didn't he? But he could lose it. If Christ has made you righteous,
you can never sully it. You can never lose it. Christ
has justified his people. He's forgiven all of their sin. He says, I've cast it behind
my back. Now, One of the attributes of
God is He's everywhere at once. Where's God's back? What that
means is He's made our sin to be no more. He'll never bring
it up again. And not only will it never end,
it never had a beginning. I point that out to say this,
if it's eternal, it can't fail. It can't fail. The Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, is eternal. He cannot fail. to save any that
the Father gave Him to save. Now that just thrills my heart.
That makes the Lord Jesus Christ exactly the Savior a sinner like
me needs. An eternal Savior who provides
eternal salvation for a sinful people. That's the only kind
of Savior that can save me. It's the only kind I want and
that's who He is. And here's the third thing. The Lord Jesus
Christ Oh, he is so wonderful. I mean, he just, it's, human
language can't say how wonderful he is. You'd think everybody
would see him and want to know him and believe him. But you
know, somebody has to preach and tell us who Christ is. And
they have to do it over and over and over again. Verse 15, and
when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another,
it's manna. For they was not what it was. And Moses said unto
them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.
The children of Israel didn't know what the manna was. They
called it manna, which literally means, what is it? What is it? And Moses had to tell them, it's
bread from heaven. It's bread that God has sent
from heaven to feed and nourish you so that you will not starve
to death because God sent you this bread from heaven. Now look
over at John chapter six. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
bread from heaven, sent by the Father to give spiritual life
to his people. John 6 verse 31. Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. If you read all this in context,
what they're just deedling the Lord for is when Moses gave us
this bread from heaven, he did it for 40 years. Why don't you
keep giving us this bread? Why don't you keep providing
these, performing these miracles, giving us bread? They just wanted
a free lunch. They just wanted to lower their grocery bill.
That's what they were wanting. But look what the Lord told them,
verse 32. Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto
you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, But my father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God
is he. It's not it or that, the bread
of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto
the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Now the one saying this to these
pious religious people was a man. The Lord Jesus was a man. He
looked just like every other Jewish man. Nothing about him
looked like God. There wasn't a halo over his
head, not a soft glow, you know, always behind his head that would
let people know, oh, this is the son of God in human flesh.
No one could look at Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh. and see
our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Nobody could
see him and see our prophet, priest, and king. Nobody could
look at Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh and see that he is
God's salvation. Not just that he brings salvation,
he is God's salvation. Nobody can see that unless God
gives us eyes to see. He has to give us eyes to see,
and he has to send us a preacher. to tell us who Christ is so that
we'll know who he is and so that we'll believe on him. See, God
cannot be known with the human mind. I think about this congregation
and your intelligence and talents and the things that you can do
is wow. But I don't care how intelligent
a person is, we can't know God with this dead mind. We cannot
know him. But our God is so gracious, he
gives his elect a mind to know Christ and gives them faith to
believe on Christ when they hear him preached. The most intelligent
person in the world cannot know God by their natural understanding
But somebody with a third grade education that can barely read
or write their name can know God and trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Isn't that something? That's
God's grace to his people. Salvation is of the Lord, isn't
it? Here's the fourth thing we find. Christ is always enough. Verse 16 says, this is the thing
which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according
to his eating, An omer for every man, according to the number
of your persons, take ye every man for them which are in his
tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more,
some less. And when they did meet it with
an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that
gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according
to his eating. I don't care how much man a different
people gathered, it was always enough. Whatever they gathered,
they didn't go hungry. You know, if one person gathered
a whole lot and another person just gathered a little, it ended
up being enough for both of them. Now that's a picture of faith
in Christ. You know, there are some people who have great faith,
great faith. Our Lord said that centurion
had great faith. Remember, he said, Lord, you're
not worthy. I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof to
say the word. My daughter will be healed. The Lord said, you
have great faith. Remember that Syrophoenician woman, her daughter
was grievously vexed with the devil. She called herself a dog. I'm a dog. You're right, Lord,
but I'm your dog. Dogs eat the crumbs that fall
from the master's table. Our Lord told that woman at his
feet, oh woman, great is your faith. She had great faith. And
some people have little faith. The disciples. The men who became
the apostles, how many times did our Lord call them, O ye
of little faith? But you know what? Both are equally
saved because it's not the size of our faith that saves. Christ
is who saves. Christ saves. He is enough for
all of his people. He is everything that we need. Just trust him. Just trust Him. Just right now in your heart,
come to Him and trust Him. I promise you, He's enough for
your soul. Then here's the fifth thing.
Faith is for today. Faith is not about yesterday. It's not about tomorrow. Faith
is for today. Verse 19, Moses said, let no
man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearken
not unto Moses, But some of them left of it until the morning,
and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was wroth with them.
And they gathered every morning, every man according to his eating.
And when the sun waxed hot, it melted. Now the Lord told them,
don't gather more manna than you can eat for the day. Unless
it's Friday, tomorrow's a Sabbath and you gather twice as much.
But other than that, don't collect more than you can eat in a day.
Because tomorrow, it's gonna be full of worms. You got to
go out and collect manna every day. Every day, every morning. That's what saving faith is.
Saving faith is trusting Christ right now. Right now. It's not yesterday's faith. It's
not. Well, I look back and I think
about an experience that I had in time or a time when, you know,
when I could say, I believe faith looks to Christ to be my salvation
right now. Right now. I can't look back
on yesterday and I can't look forward to tomorrow. Faith always
trusts that Christ is enough right now. Right now. And if
the Lord lets us wake up in the morning, we're going to look
to Him all over again, won't we? Then here's the sixth thing,
and this is such a wonderful thing. Remember, we're talking
about traveling through the wilderness of sin. Now, I don't know about
you, man, I need a day off every once in a while. I mean, I just,
you know, even through the day, I find as I get older, I need
to do this more often. I need to rest a little bit,
physically and mentally, just let me rest for a minute. In
our journey through this wilderness of sin below, Christ gives us
rest. Christ is our Sabbath rest. Verse 22 says, and it came to
pass on the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers
for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and
told Moses. And he said unto them, this is
that which the Lord has said, Tomorrow is the rest of the Holy
Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake
today, and seethe that you will seethe, and that which remaineth
over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid
it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not sting, neither
was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat that today,
for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today you should not find
it in the field, six days you should gather it, but on the
seventh day, That's the Sabbath, and in it there shall be done. Now, the Lord instituted the
Sabbath on the seventh day of creation, didn't he? Remember,
the seventh day of creation, the Lord rested from all of his
works after six days of creation because it was perfect. God looked
at it all, and God said he saw it was very good. There was nothing
else to do. That's why God rested. God didn't
rest because he was tired. He rested because there was nothing
else to do. And I find this very interesting. Before the law was
ever given at Sinai, the law commanded a rest for his people. On the seventh day, you'll not
go out and gather any manna. You gathered up twice as much
yesterday and today, you're to rest. And you eat the manna that's
been stored up. And the manna was still fresh.
It was still good. It didn't breed worms. Now that's
a picture given to us of full, complete salvation in our Lord
Jesus Christ. As a man, under the law, the
Lord Jesus worked out a perfect righteousness by his perfect
obedience. He worked out a perfect justification
by his bloody sacrifice on Calvary's tree and removed all of the sin
of his people. He only gave, gave up the ghost
and said, father, into thy hand, I commend my spirit. When there
was nothing else to do. It is finished. He said, and
only then did he give up the ghost because all the work was,
was, was done. All the work was done. And our
gracious savior freely gives all of that to his people. Now,
there is nothing left for you to do. to make salvation effectual
for you. You just believe Christ and rest
in him. Rest. You rest, not because you're
lazy, but because there's nothing left to do. There's nothing left
to do to add to your righteousness. There's nothing left to do to
make yourself justified. There's nothing left to do to
make God forgive you. Christ did it all. Now you come rest in him. You
come rest. Don't you need rest? Come rest
from your fears, rest from your worries, rest from your works
of the law, and enjoy full, free salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. Then here's the seventh thing.
Christ is the Holy One. In verse 31, it says that the
house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it was like
coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made
with honey. Now the eternal God came to earth
as a real man. He was a real man. And since
he's God, he's holy. He's perfectly sinless. He obeyed the law always in every
jot and every tittle. Now that's a wonder to behold.
I mean, you and I can't even imagine such a thing, a wholly
sinless man. It's just beyond our comprehension.
There's only ever been one of them, and that's our Savior.
But the greater, if I can say it this way, the greater miracle
is not just that the Lord Jesus himself was holy, of course God's
holy. The greater miracle is he came to make his people holy. The word holy means separateness. He is separate from sinners.
He is everything that we're not. He is holy. He's other, he's
separate from sinners. Yet this one who's separate from
sinners, who's everything that we're not, he came to save his
people, to make them holy and give them eternal life. The holy
son of God was not ashamed to rub shoulders with sinners like
you and me. Isn't that something else? Aren't
you thankful? He is our holiness. And then
the eighth thing is Christ is the sweetness of the gospel. It says there at the end of verse
31, the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. You know,
the Lord gave Israel bread to eat in the wilderness that tasted
good. My dear, dear wife, I don't know why she does this,
but every once in a while she gets on this kick. White bread
can't be very good for you. And she buys this hard, hard
bread that's just, ugh. I just do not like it. The Lord
did not give his people in the wilderness something that didn't
taste good, that they just had to eat because there's nothing
else to eat. It was sweet. Oh, it tasted good. Tasted good. Gary and I have talked about
having a sweet tooth. This has been good for us, Gary. If you
have a sweet tooth, it tasted sweet. But isn't that the gospel? The gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ is sweet. You know, we don't just preach
a set of doctrines that, you know, a series of true statements,
although it is true. But when Christ is preached correctly,
He is sweet to the taste. David said sweeter than honey
in the honeycomb. The gospel is sweet. It's sweet
in its free forgiveness of sin. It's sweet in how it reveals
this Savior who's holy and not afraid to rub shoulders with
the likes of us. Everything about him is sweet.
And I've been in places where true statements have been made,
but there's no sweetness. That's a problem. If Christ is
preached the way he ought to be preached, it's sweet, it's
sweet to the soul. Then ninth, Christ is the risen
savior because he's incorruptible. Verse 32, and Moses said, this
is the thing which the Lord commandeth. Fill an omer of it to be kept
for your generations that you may see the bread wherewith I
fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from the
land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, take a pot and put
an omer full of manna therein and lay it up before the Lord
to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses,
so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. They gathered
up this manna and put it in a pot and however long it was later,
years or months or however long it was, they took that pot of
manna and they put that manna inside the Ark of the Covenant.
And there it stayed for hundreds of years. I mean, how long did
it stay there? You know, I don't know, but hundreds
of years. And it never rotted. It never
bred worms. If you and I tried to try, you
know, on Monday, try to collect enough manna, we'd have to go
out on Tuesday and breed worms. Here, this manna for hundreds
of years was as fresh as the day they collected it. Still
would have tasted good, never bred worms. That's a picture
of our sinless Savior. He suffered and he died, but
his body never decayed because his sacrifice put away all of
the sin that was laid on him. His blood put it away. And when there's no sin, there's
no decay. Our incorruptible savior ever
liveth, making intercession for us sinners as we travel through
this wilderness of sin on our way home to be with him. And
like I said earlier, oftentimes the way will be so hard. It will
be so painful. You just think you, there's just,
it's not possible for you to take another step. It's not possible,
not just to make it through the day, but through the next minute.
But all of God's elect will reach the finish line. You know why? Because our savior has made them
perfect. And he ever liveth making intercession
for us. He's always pleading his sacrifice
for his people, and that will always be enough to bring us
to him. And here's the last thing, it's
the faithfulness of Christ. The children of Israel, verse
35, did eat manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited.
They did eat manna until they came into the borders of the
land of Canaan. The manna was there every day
for 40 years. without fail, it was there, until
the children of Israel crossed into the promised land. And when
they crossed into the promised land, remember the Lord drove
out the people little by little. Children of Israel came to the
promised land. The Lord sent hornets and drove the people
out. They got there right at dinnertime. The people all ran
away. Dinner's on the stove. Just put
it on the plates and eat. Crops are in the field ready.
We'll probably harvest tomorrow. The Lord just brought them in
at the right time. But until then, the Lord gave them manna
every single day. Now, the only thing our journey
through the wilderness of sin can be is long and hard. In those hard, hard, dark days,
I have found this, that one of the best prayers is, Lord, give
me grace sufficient for this minute. Not even so much make
the trial go away. Not even so much make the clouds
go away. Not so much make the pain and
the heartache go away. Lord, give me grace for this
minute. And I can promise you this, our
Savior will be there. He'll be there to sustain us.
He'll be there to give us grace that's sufficient. He'll be there
to give us strength for the journey every single step of the way
until we step from this world into the next. I know he will
because his name is faithful and true. If his name is faithful
and true, I believe we can trust him, don't you? I believe we
can trust him. All right, I hope that study's
been as much a blessing to you as it was to me this week. Let's
bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
this precious portion of your word and how we thank you for
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the true bread from heaven. that
you sent down to save the likes of sinful men and women like
we are. Father, how we thank you. Father,
I pray you take your word as it's been preached and cause
our hearts to be thrilled at the thought, at the sight by
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, be with us, be with us
and strengthen us and lead us and guide us and order our steps
as we continue through on this journey below. And we beg of
you that you would keep giving us grace that's sufficient for
each step that you ordained for us to take. And we're thankful
to be able to trust your grace, your strength, and your faithfulness.
Father, we thank you. In the precious name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number 127 and stand as we sing Hallelujah,
What a Savior. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah. What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
spotless Lamb of God was He, full atonement Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die, it is
finished was his cry now in heaven exalted high hallelujah what
a savior when he comes our glorious King, all His ransom home to
bring. Then anew this song we'll sing,
hallelujah, what a Savior.