Exodus Chapter I believe it's 16 get
there myself Yes, Exodus chapter 16 Sweet manna, that's we're gonna
look at sweet manna Exodus chapter 16 look at one verse and For
now, and then we'll look at a few verses in the same chapter. Exodus 16 and verse 35. Exodus 16 and verse 35. And the children of Israel did
eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited,
they did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the
land of Canaan." So the manna stopped. The cloudy pillar stopped. The flame stopped. And when they
were crossed over, all they had was the ark, picture of Christ. This is like the believer. As
we go through this wilderness wandering, how are we going to
make it? The manna. The manna. This sweet
manna is undoubtedly a glorious picture of two things, the Word
of God, the Holy Bible, and the Lord Jesus Christ, more specifically
the Lord Jesus Christ, or the written Word and the incarnate
Word. which dwelt among us." Let's
look at this this morning. Now there's a bunch more in here.
There's a bunch more types of both of these. I'm just going
to hit the highlights, the ones that blessed me in study. Manna,
first of all, manna as the written word. Manna as this book here,
as we read it. The first thing we know, if we
know anything about the story of the manna, is that it came
down from heaven. They didn't ask, I don't know
if they really asked for it, but they got that and they got
the quail. They were hungry. They were going to starve to
death. And the Lord brought this by. So it's a supernatural gift. It's a supernatural gift. This
book is no less a supernatural gift to humans. Written by around 40 authors
over 1,500 years, 66 books, yet God breathed. Inspiration is
God breathed. That's what the word inspired
by God. God breathed without air. Able, says the scriptures, to
make one wise unto salvation. We would do well to daily crack
this book open because it's from God. It came down from heaven
from the God who is blessed over all forever. Second thing about
this word, now it says, I think it's specifically in verse 14
of Exodus 16, when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon
the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as a
small, as a hoarfrost on the ground. It was small, it was
round, symmetrical, complete, whole. What you saw is what you
got. That was it right there. So too
is this blessed book. It is perfect in its symmetry
regarding sin, salvation, and the complete work of our Kinsman
Redeemer. If you thought about it, you
couldn't really add. I mean, even the most theologically
studied scholars, if they looked at it, what would you add to
it? What would you take away from it? It's complete. It's whole. It's perfectly harmonious. I remember Gary Shepard preached
a message years ago at a conference. He talked about the harmonious,
the harmony of the gospel. And he started up here and talked
about all these different things and then different things and
when he finished he got back to where he started. This gospel
is perfectly harmonious. How many times have we needed
a precise help in time of need. And you talk to your friend,
old friend, new friend, believing friend, unbelieving friend, and
it just doesn't do you any good. You read some good books, it
doesn't do you any good. And then you open the Bible,
and bam, the Lord by the inspiration, by the Holy Spirit With our spirit,
next thing you know you're crying Abba Father. You may be weeping
Abba Father, but it's tears of joy. Only this book has perfect
harmony, symmetry in its architecture, in its scope, in its fulfillment. Every jot and tittle of this
book, like the manna, it met their need. It was to be eaten. The manna, they crushed it, they
did different things with it. It was sweet like honey. It was
to be eaten. This book, you should read. I should read. You can't be saved. Your parents can't save you.
Your friends and neighbors can't save you. You can't save them.
But you can. They need to look at the book. They need to look
at the book. Because in here is Christ and Him crucified.
Every page, every jot and tittle is concerning His Son. This sacred
Word, we are to take it in, in Word, we are to digest it, chew
it. This is to be done, look at verse
18, And when they did meet out 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. They were to eat
it. It's amazing how even as being
one who confesses Christ, how often, how slow I am to go to
look at this book. I'll go any which way. I've got
an issue, trouble, I'll grab the wallet first, try to solve
it financially. We just do everything but look
to Christ. And we find Christ in this book.
But it's to be eaten, individually, personally. The next thing about
the manna, it was preserved in the ark. Look at verses 33 and
34. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take
a pot, and put an omar full of manna therein, and lay it upon
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." It was preserved. They put it in the ark. They
preserved it. So too has God preserved His
Word as it regards Himself. I got to looking. This was this
morning. I got thinking more about it
last night. How many book burnings has there been in history? a
lot. Our mind goes back to Nazi Germany,
but if you go back to Jeremiah chapter 36, that's maybe the
first time. Jeremiah the prophet, he wrote
some stuff down, and he gave it to his scribe, and his scribe
read it to the king of Babylon, and the king of Babylon heard
it and didn't like it. There was a hearth burned right
there, he cut him up with scissors, it says a knife, he cut, and
he threw it in there. So from that point, and there
may have been earlier, but from that point, I was scrolling on
like that. That's how many I was going,
before I got to Nazi Germany. Luther, same thing. Pope, burnt. Wycliffe, a lot of his writings,
Grace of God and the Gospel, burnt. So how many book burnings
has there been? Dozens throughout history. Yet this book has been passed
down throughout the ages. It's astonishing indeed that
this has survived. Why? Because God will not leave
Himself without testimony. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1
Peter chapter 1. And verse 25, verse 24, for all flesh is as
grass, all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass
withers, the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord
endures forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you, until that last elect sheep is
drawn in, His Word will not, it's just going to get, it endures
forever. It endures forever. And we've got it written down
here. I was looking, we have the Protestants, 66 books, the
Catholics have 73. This book is preserved. It's preserved. It's been translated
in more languages than any other book. It's manna. Gift from God. Let us open it. Let us meditate
on it. Let us chew it. Let us digest
it. Let us gather together around
it. Let us encourage one another through it. Like I said last week, there's
nothing that we can go through that we cannot find comfort and
aid, protection, assistance in this book. And I'm thankful that
it's so. Secondly, this manna is a type
of Christ, and we know that. Some of the illustrations, it
comes down from heaven, etc. Christ came down from... we know
that. But here, the first thought, this just is so startling to
me, it is so much like me, it is so much like you, it is so
disgusting, so vile. Look with me at the first four
verses of the chapter 16. Now they're just starting to
take their journey. They had just seen, not just, but a month
or so, they'd seen what God had done to the Egyptians. He wiped
them all out. He preserved them. They took
their journey from Elam and all the congregation of the children
of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, that's interesting, which
is between Elam and Sinai. on the 15th day of the second
month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. So it had
not been that long ago that they'd seen the glory of God in protecting
grace. The whole congregation of the
children of Israel murmured, that's us. Against Moses and
Aaron in the wilderness and the children of Israel son to 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 to the fool for you have brought us forth into this wilderness
To kill this whole assembly with hunger. No wonder. It's called
the wilderness of sin They're tried now they're hungry
and they're tired and But didn't they just get, shouldn't they
have been annihilated when they were back, were against the Red
Sea? So what do you, what do you, what do you suspect God's
gonna do? This is Old Testament now. What do you suspect, expect
God to do? Fire and brimstone, right? Look
at verse three. Then the Lord said to Moses,
behold, I will rain fire, no, I will rain bread from heaven
for you. And the people shall go out and
gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether
they will walk in my law or no." So the first thought of Christ,
the man of being Christ, instead of justice and wrath, look at
what he says, verse 7, behold, listen, stop, pay attention to
what's going to be written afterwards and as Moses, pay attention to
what Moses is going to speak to you regarding my command. Do we not see how gracious and
merciful our Lord is by sending us His darling Son instead of
mass destruction? If this country could only see
this, what a glorious day that would be. But this country is
so self-absorbed, Oh, we're the best country in the world. I
think that's true, but that's not in a prideful way, in a gracious
way, but this, the politicians and the people who run, no, it's
just pride, pride, arrogancy, all these different things. It's
a wonder the Lord has not knocked up props out from underneath
us and made us like Ethiopia, made us like these other countries.
that instead of having extra money to do things, recreational
things, they have money to just... Melinda and I were talking about
this. They're looking for that day's bread to spend that money
for that day. We have so much in this country
and we're so unthankful. We're just like these people.
What? You're going to make me wait?
This is fast food. I want my food now. Murmuring
and complaining all the time. We have technology and everything,
all these different things. Ungrateful. Ungrateful. Even believers, and I'm not speaking
to anybody else but who's here, murmured and complained. They
had just seen the grace of God and protection from death and
red sea. Murmured against God, against Moses, against Aaron,
in the wilderness of sin. That's our issue. It's always
our issue. Something goes, we get crossways,
we get aggravated. We can't find one of 200 pairs
of shoes, but it's not the shoe I want. I can't find the other
shoe. Socks, oh, they're going to match. These are things that we just
don't even think about, but we take for granted. Last week or something, I was
just sideways. I said, I don't know what, I'm aggravated. that
I did and saw, and she did aggravated me. And then I just saw for what
it was. No, it's just foolishness. It's
just sin. I could get on Facebook and friend
one of my friends in Africa, and I bet you he's just trying
to make a living. That day's bread. Do they have
refrigerators? I don't know. We do, and we got
them packed full of food. Are we happy? No, because the
turkeys were Oh my, you had to pay four or five dollars more
this year. We got meat on the table. You see what I'm saying? It's a wonder that we are still
standing. It's a wonder the Lord just hasn't
wiped us out. Why? Because, behold, I will rain,
I should rain, you deserve to have rain, fire and brimstone,
but I'm going to rain bread from heaven. Bread from heaven. Rebellion is met with grace,
mercy, and truth found only in the Son, the Man from Heaven,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He, by the freeness of His favor,
sends the Lamb of God among sinners. Those sinners knew Him not. Food
sent instead of fire and brimstone. Though we fail and sin time and
time again, yet He remains faithful. He will honor His covenant, He
will honor His Son's work, and He will honor the Holy Spirit's
enabling. Why do we, you know, Thanksgiving, and I enjoy Thanksgiving,
most of the holidays, we need to be thankful. Isn't that what
the believer should be every day? Once a year? Turn with me to Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65 and verse 24. This is the grace of God to you
and I if we know Him. Isaiah 65 verse 24, And it shall
come to pass, that before they call, I will answer, and while
they are yet speaking, I will hear. People say that you believe in
election and predestination and all, you make God a monster.
No, we see God as holy and just, but so merciful. He is not giving
us what we deserve, is what it says in another place in the
Scriptures. He has not dealt with us after our iniquities. Secondly, the people partook
of the manna. The Old Testament saints, The
New Testament saints, us, future generations, the Jews only, all
of God's elect, or Israel, will enjoy the bounties of God's unmeasurable,
super-abounding grace. Whether you're weak, you're strong,
you're young or old, Christ is the sum and substance of all
grace to every one of His chosen seed. Every one of them per ticket.
Some more, some less. If you were hungry, it was there.
And that's what I say to us here today. If we're hungry, the Word
is the written Word and the incarnate Word. And that's why we gather
together to speak of Him and enjoy His presence. Thirdly,
the manna came to the people. The Israelites were in immediate
danger of starvation. But at this moment, He says,
Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. At this moment,
at this exact time, at this exact place, God in Christ Jesus is
a very present Redeemer. A very present Redeemer. He came
unto His own, but His own received Him not. He came from heaven.
We tried to go to heaven one time, but we tried to construct
a tower of Babel and were confused. And that's the way man's works
are. No matter how small it is, if it's 99% grace, And 1% works, it's not grace. He must do the work. It's a look
and live. It's a taste and we'll see the
experience as goodness. It's a trust and we know all
is well. Believe upon Him and thou shalt
be saved. He's very present. Fourthly,
daily they tasted the sweetness of this manna. Every day they
would go out. Now they didn't go out Sunday,
it was the Sabbath. They would gather more. And of
course, you read in here, and then some went out on the Sabbath,
and there wasn't any there. And they were told not to hoard
it, just take exactly what you need. And some took more than
they needed, and it bred worms and stunk. But on Saturday, they
got twice as much, and it didn't stink. That doesn't make sense. No. Nothing in the Bible makes
sense to our flesh. Nothing makes common sense. It's
by faith. It didn't breed worms on the Sabbath. They collected
extra. They were told not to collect
extra during those days. Give us this day our daily bread. And I know I've said this before,
and it's not for me, it's Henry or Scott or somebody. He was
talking to somebody and they're concerned about dying grace. He said, I don't know if I'm
going to have dying grace. He just cut through like these older
guys could. He just cut through. He says, are you dying? Well,
no. He goes, you don't need it. You don't need dying grace right
now. You will. And we talked about
one this morning, John and Betty. Give us this day our daily bread."
And I got thinking about that. I almost said something, but
we were running out of time in Bible class. I was thinking about something,
and Lynn and I were talking about it. John and Betty, who simply
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, they were not complicated, complex
people. They didn't have much. They didn't
have hardly anything. They were always in debt, and
that was always a bother. But the Lord took care of them.
What an example! I mean, I was thinking about
that. We look at ourselves and we have so much extra. There were times they were down
to one car. They were always concerned about
money, but the Lord provided for them. Shame on us! We have
this extra, extra, extra. The Lord will take care of us. They tasted the sweetness of
the manna every day. And we should look into this
book every day, but more so, we ought to go to the Lord, who's
been so gracious to us, and not worry about if there's an atomic
attack and the electricity goes out and all this kind of stuff.
Humanly speaking, if our power grid goes down, there's going
to be massive deaths. Because nobody knows how to live
without a refrigerator, nobody knows how to live without salt.
They don't know any of this stuff. But am I going to worry about
that? Am I going to be an in-time person? Am I going to be a conspiracy
theorist? No, because I know my God is
on the throne, and He has done whatsoever He has pleased, as
we heard this morning, and He's for us and He's not against us.
Or as one of the old Puritans would say, or we're going to
be ushered to glory. We worry about so many things
that never happen. We've got a new grandson. Wonderful,
lovely. A whole set of problems to worry. A whole set of things. It's of the Lord. He will do
what's fit, what's right. And He cannot do wrong. He cannot
do wrong by His people. Give us this day our daily bread,
our daily Christ, our daily needs supplied, our daily frailness
strengthened, It says, Christ is my body and blood. Eat that. We partake of Christ. We do Lord's
Supper, and every time we gather together, we break bread, break
open the Word. He is altogether lovely. He is
our only hope, our only comfort, and our only peace. And the more
you live in this world, the more you look in the Word, the more
you'll realize that. You'll realize this world is... Completely I thought you know
when I when Linda and I first got married. I thought well.
I'm gonna change her You know she's gonna like sports. She's
gonna like this like that Because she wasn't sports minded nothing
and now I'm more like her. I think sports are just it's
a waste of time Any country that's got that spend so much time worshiping.
It's idolatry. It really is I remember our I
remember years ago I Somebody said sports was of the devil
and I just thought that was the stupidest thing. And I thought
about that last week and this has probably been 40 years. Hold on, look at me, 40
years. We've been married. And I thought, you know, that
ain't too far off. It's got the kids. Wednesday
doesn't matter anymore. Sunday doesn't matter anymore.
Sports, sports, sports. All the time. And that's just
one thing. You don't even talk about drinking.
Don't talk about the social media, all this stuff. It's amazing. Christ is all we need every day. Every day. Every day. When the brethren in the New
Testament, they gathered together and they had such thing as common,
they daily edified one and they talked about the things of the
grace of God. They didn't talk about all this
other stuff. And I'm not saying we don't need to talk about it.
I'm saying just live your life. Like Bruce says, live your life.
But we live a lot of it outside with our eyes off Christ. He is altogether lovely, He is
the only hope, the only comfort, the only peace. Lastly, really,
Israel had no other sustenance. They had the quail, but it says
in the last part of this verse, this is the last, verse 35, that
the children of Israel did eat manna, Forty years until they
came to the land inhabited was promised. They did eat manna
until they came into the borders of the land of Canaan. So we
know this, there was no other sustenance. And if you want to
talk about the quail, quails is a picture of Christ as well.
He's our meat. He is our only bread from heaven. We only really need Him for eternal
life. You know, somebody years ago,
you can't live on love. We live on Christ's love. We come unto Him, we labor, and
we're heavy laden, and He gives us rest, and He supplies us all
these things. He supplies us with food and
groceries and money and time and all these things that other
places really wish they had. He is our portion, our life,
our glory, both here and hereafter. Acts says He's the only Savior
among men. He's the only Savior. Not Buddha, not Muhammad, not
Joseph Smith, not the Pope, Christ and Christ alone. So in closing,
may we feed upon this book and may we feed and meditate upon
Him. Turn with me to Psalms 104 in
closing. Psalms 104 verse 33 and 34. I will sing unto the Lord as long
as I live. I will sing praise to my God
while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be
sweet. Just like that manna. I will
be glad in the Lord. We're glad in a lot of things.
And I'm glad in a lot of things. But really, the only true spiritual
gladness is in Christ. And I'm not saying don't enjoy,
you know, in a couple days I'm going to enjoy a grandson. We're
going to enjoy these things. Christ is what we glory in. Christ is what we're glad in.
Christ is most sweet to us. And I'm thankful that He's shown
us this. And that last verse in Exodus,
it said they had manna all the time until they came and we must
feed on this Word and He will never leave us nor forsake us
until we go to heaven. Then we'll be with them forever.
Just like the manna, they had it every day. He will never leave
us or forsake us, but lead us into his everlasting arms as
we pass over Jordan and we come into Canaan. But the desire of
the believer is, like in Revelations, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
We desire to see you face to face. Bruce, would you close
us?