If you'll take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Exodus chapter 16, I'm going to confine most of
the message tonight with the very first verse of this chapter
and then just kind of touch on the manna just a little bit.
I titled the message tonight, From Elam to Sinai. That's where they were at. They
left Elam. And they took their journey into
the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai. And Sinai is where they were
going. Now, one of the most misunderstood,
I believe, of all that concerns the Christian is the Christian
walk. I don't know of anything that
causes men and women more confusion than that. If you talk to them
about their walk, they'll start talking to you about their dress,
and they'll start talking to you about how you wear your hair,
and what kind of clothes, and so on. And it goes on and on
and on in these ideas. And it gets into the vocabulary. You have to use certain words,
and you have to adopt their type of speech. You talk to somebody
who don't go to church, and I'm not talking about cursing now.
their language, how they talk. You go down to the drug store
and talk to the druggist about medicine, and he's got a vocabulary.
When you go to church, though, the whole vocabulary changes,
and they take on this religious speech, and they've got words
that nobody else uses, and all this type of thing. And that's
all what I'm talking about in the Believer's Walk. Men and
women are totally confused about the Christian Walk, what it is,
what it is. And I believe it's given to us
in simplicity right here. What this walk is, it's a journey.
It's a journey. And God leads us along in this
journey. The believer's life is a spiritual
journey. In much of his past, he was totally
unaware of God's hand or God's purpose. In all the years that
I was raised and went to church and all of these things, I was
totally ignorant of God's purpose and His presence in my life. You know, you don't think God's
presence comes into a man's life, religion don't, until after he's
saved. My friend, God's been saving His elect from the foundation
of the world. And His presence has been called
for in all of those things. In all of His eternal counsels
and all of Christ's accomplishments and all of that, God's presence
and power and purpose all along the way, and it's no different
Paul said this in Galatians chapter 1. He said, God who separated
me from my mother's womb. Huh? God did that. Separated him from his mother's
womb. He wasn't talking about his birth. He was talking about a sanctification
of that young child from his mother's womb. He'd set him apart. separated me, and called me by
His grace. When He got ready in the fullness
of time, He called him by His grace and revealed Christ in
him. God's hand and purpose in the
believer's life, it doesn't begin at conversion. It began in eternity. It's recorded in the Word of
God all the way through it. That's what we're going to look
at tonight. It was manifested in the appearance
of Christ, and then it began to be made known to him through
the hearing of the gospel and his conversion. Then he began
to hear something about it. God had been busy all along,
but I didn't know anything about it. You didn't know anything
about it until God opened his ears and opened his eyes. Then
you begin to experience something of what this journey is and this
calling of God. Our election of God has a beginning
revelation. There was a time when we didn't
know or have any hope in Christ. And then there's a time when
we did. And there was a time when we were ignorant of the
gospel of God's sovereign grace. And a time when we began to hear
it, began to hear some things. Not all at once. We didn't hear
the whole thing all at once. You didn't open up this book
and see something. Pow! There it is. And you knew as
much right then as you know today. That just ain't so. There was a time when we were
ignorant of the Gospel and a time when we began to hear it. But
God didn't teach us everything we need to know in one isolated
experience. That experience of grace was
but the first step of what will be a lifelong journey of faith. Now I think up to this point,
I can get a lot of amens no matter who I talk to. Not just here,
I think I can go down to First Baptist Church and I can get
an amen on what I just told you. Right here is where the division
comes. Right here. And this is where
the disagreement usually When I tell folks that this walk is
a constant replay of what took place in the beginning, that's
where we find the difference. Most professing Christians believe
that a conviction of sin is a one-time thing. They believe that a man
is convicted of sin and then you never hear him talk about
that again. A man told me one time, I preached out years ago
out in Illinois. I forget the name of the little
town, but I'll tell you how religious these folks was. He named his
son John Gill. Anyway, after I preached that
message that morning, Bob Coffey and I forget who else was with
me, but anyway, we were over at the house. This fella said, Preacher, I
got a bone to pick with you over your message this morning. He
said, I enjoyed almost all of it, except this one thing. And
he said, we did an extensive study of this. Now, you know
when a man tells you that, that he don't know what in the world
he's talking about. When they start this stuff about doing
extensive studies on the Word of God. This thing comes by revelation. I know you study the Word of
God. I study the Word of God. And I studied before I stand
up here to preach. But everything I know has come
by revelation. It doesn't come by much study. But anyway, he said, we've done
an extensive study on this. And he said, nowhere in the Bible
does God ever refer to a Christian as a sinner once he's converted. I just went blank. This is the
last question in the world I'm expecting to come from a man
who called me and invited me out to preach. It's the last
thing. Now, I might expect somebody
who was visiting to ask me that, but not the man who invited me
home to eat in his house who just heard me preach. And I just
went blank. And I looked over at Henry Mahan's
son-in-law, Bob Coffey, and he was blank. But the fellow that
was with us, He hadn't been saved very long. He hadn't been converted
very long. And he said, well, what about
this one? He said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Paul said,
of whom I am chief. Not used to be. I am chief. That's what he said. Well, he
said, we might have overlooked that one. I'm telling you, this journey
Believe it or not, get upset or not, this journey is a replay
that plays time and again, time and again throughout the believer's
life. That's his walk. He's always walking from Elim
to Sinai, back to Elim and back to Sinai, back to Elim and back
to Sinai. I'm going to tell you what that
means here in just a little bit. Most of them believe this is
a one-time thing. They believe that this convincing
of righteousness is a one-time thing, and this convincing of
judgment, satisfied, is a one-time thing. I'm convinced. Now, that's
it. Let's move on. Let's move on. If we continue to preach these
things, men tell me that that's just a vain repetition of things
already accomplished. Why do you need to stand up here
every week and we go on the same journey? Because that is the
journey of the believer. That's what it is. And I believe
that's what He's showing us here. I believe He's right up at the
get-go. He's going to show us the sweetness
of the cross. There's nothing in this land
sweet except the cross of Christ that they threw in there. All
the rest of the waters are bitter. This is the only thing that's
going to make them sweet. And then He took them down to
Elam, to those deep wells in Elam, which I'm going to show
you. It's a type of the church. And He takes them there and they
drink from those deep wells. And then God takes them to Sinai
through the wilderness of sin. And that's replayed in their
lives a hundred times, over and over and over. And men tell me
all the time, we get it, we get it. Now let's move on. Well,
you don't get it. If you got it, you wouldn't be
wanting to move on. You'd understand that this is
what it is. I've got to be constantly, I've
got to be constantly proved by the Holy Spirit of God that I'm
a sinner. He has to do that over and over
and over. I leave here mourning over my
sins and I'll go home, by tomorrow morning I'll be self-righteous.
Every little thing appears righteous to me. myself, feel good about
myself. And he has to take me to Sinai
again through the wilderness. And then he takes you back to
Elam, lets you drink from those deep wells of grace, and then
he takes you right back out into that wilderness again over to
Sinai. The believer is made over and
over to know his sins. over and over convinced of the
righteousness of Christ and over and over assured through these
things that there is now no condemnation. Now I want you to listen to this.
This would be a good commentary on Romans 8.1. Just what I've
just told you. This walk from Elam to Sinai. What a commentary on Romans 8.1.
Listen to this. He said, There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now watch.
Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Huh? No condemnation in them. How
come? Because He kills them daily.
He kills them daily in their experience. He takes them to
Sinai. He takes them out in that wilderness and shows them what
they are. Israel's journey and the Christian
walk are described here as a journey from Elam to Sinai. Our life is a life that begins
in the refreshing grace of Elam. And it takes its journey through
the wilderness of sin to see that awful curse and condemnation
of the law. And that's where you have to
see it. From the wilderness. From the wilderness. Now let
me give you three or four things concerning this experience. The
first thing I know about this whole experience is that it begins
in Elohim. That's where it begins. You know,
when Peter talks about this thing, he said, if so be you tasted.
If so be you tasted. If you've not tasted, then he
couldn't go any further, could he? He couldn't give you any
relief. He couldn't give you any comfort.
talking about those lively stones built upon that foundation, or
drinking that pure milk of the gospel. He couldn't do those
things until you tasted. And this thing of tasting begins
in Elam. That's where it begins. And I
see in Elam a type of the local church. And we're talking about
Christ and we're talking about His gospel. I'm not talking about
a building and a few members that gather here on a certain
day. I'm talking about the gospel that God has raised this church
up to preach and what they believe. They're the pillar and ground
of the truth, this local assembly. And I believe Elam, as I told
you last week, I believe it's a type of that. God raised it
up and put it there because all those He purposed to save, He
was going to cross their path through this direction. That's
where He puts His churches. God don't put churches there
to make it convenient for you because you have a good paying
job and you don't want to move somewhere or your family is mostly
located around here. That don't even tie in with consideration
where God raises up a church. He raises up a church to call
out His elect and to minister to His elect. Now, that's what
the church is all about. People sit around and calculate
all this big religious hoop-a-roh, and they sit around and they
calculate. Now, let's see. Here's what we're
looking for. We're looking for some middle-class white folks,
and we want an income level about $75,000 or up, and we want this
and we want that. And so they calculate where to
put this church and where to build it, where it suits all
those things. And they go out there, but they're not ministering
to God's elect. God raises His church up in some
of the most unlikely places. Dingus, West Virginia. You know, sometimes I talk about
this church being out in the country. You ain't been to the
country until you went to Dingus, West Virginia. There ain't nothing
up there but coal trucks. That's it. Just mountains. You drive along the road and
you talk about A depressed area, you drive along the road up there
in the wintertime at night and you can see the light from the
house shining through the floor on the ground. And there's no
glass in the windows. There's cardboard in the wintertime
and just open windows in the summertime. We're talking about
poverty. But God raised up a gospel church
in Dingus. In Dingus. And what about this
place? Huh? I don't hardly think you
compare this place to Memphis or Little Rock. I usually tell
people, they say, where are you located? I said, I'm in Walker's
Creek. Huh? Where's that? Oh, my. Some of the most unlikely
places. And right here in the middle
of the desert, God raises up Elo. He puts Elo. Why didn't
he put it in the middle of the desert? Why didn't he put it
somewhere close to a populated area? He put it in the desert
because that's the direction his elect were traveling. That's
why he put it there. And he ministered to them. Their business is the business
of preaching. Preaching is God's ordained means
to call out His elect and to minister to those who are His
elect. Converted under his gospel, he
feeds them through the gospel. Where does he do it? He does
it where they assemble together, where two or more are gathered
in my name. He said, there I am in the midst.
And it's through gospel preaching that chosen sinners learn how
God saves sinners. It's where they learn the only
name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. A question
was asked last week. How do you call on Him? Well,
that's how you call on Him. There's only one name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. And that's His name. That's what preaching is all
about. It's a declaration of that name. That name. You look
to Him, whosoever calleth upon that name, he'll be saved. I
don't care who He is. But you can't call on an unrevealed
Christ. That's what he says. And how
are you going to hear without a preacher? He says in 1 Corinthians
1.21, After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believed. It pleased God. That
was God's wisdom from the get-go. And local churches are raised
up and sent pastors to preach the Gospel and watch over those
men's souls. And it's in these places where
two or more are gathered that the Holy Spirit's promised to
be, where revelations promised to give, and Christ promised
to be made known in these places. And I'll tell you this, He don't
do it for our convenience, and He don't do it because our families
live there. But whether we're talking about these churches, these churches
are where God raises them up. They're where God raises them
up. Now, what's all this got to do with what we're talking
about tonight? Well, whether we're talking about the beginning
of your journey or whether we're talking about the repetition
of it, it finds its beginning in Elam. That replay begins here
just like it did on the first time. It begins right here. This
is where God fills the heart. This is where you drink from
the deep well. You come in here, God gives me
a message and He gives it to you. And He lays it on your heart
and He fills you full. And you taste that grace and
you taste of that Spirit and He blesses your heart with it.
And you go out here and you take that journey again. And we take
it every day. Every day. Over and over and
over. It finds its beginning in Eden.
Using God's Israel as a type, you can't journey to Sinai until
you drink from the deep wells. And then secondly, this walk
is always through the wilderness of sin. That's what it is. Oh, I tell you how often God
warns us concerning this world. Love not the world. Ain't that
what He said? Love not the world. Oh, I just
love the fish. Huh? I just love to shop. I just love this. I just love
that. And we do. We do that. And he
plainly tells us, love not the world. Well, he wasn't talking
about that. Well, let's see if he was. He
said, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
Huh? Now, the first part didn't get
it. The second part did. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life
are not of the father, but of this world. And this world, he
said, passeth away. Passeth away. He said, if you
were of the world, the world would love his own. But you're
not of the world. Therefore, the world hateth you.
By one man, he said, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all is sin. And he calls this place where
our journey is this present evil world. Ain't that what he called
it? We're in the world, and what's worse, the world is in us. It's
in all we do, and all we think, and all we say, this world, this
world. Oh, Paul said, old wretched man
that I am. David prayed, wash me throughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my... This is a man after
God's own heart praying this. That don't sound like the preacher
down here at the Baptist Church, does it? That don't sound like
that fella down here at the Pentecostal Church who claims a second definite
work of sanctification. I don't sound like these holy
men that I hear on TV. David prayed, wash me throughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Oh, he said,
my sin, my sin is ever before me. Hide thy face from my sins
and blood out all mine iniquity. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. I don't sound to me
like some holy man. I sound to me like a sinner.
crying out for grace. Brethren, God meant for Israel
to learn the truth about the wilderness of sin. That's why
He's put them out there. He's going to have them taste
it, and sleep in it, and eat in it, and walk in it, and feel
it, and try to live out there for a little while. And then
after they've done that, He's going to take them to Sinai.
Over and over, every step of the way, Israel will walk through
this wilderness of sin. The elements are not going to
give in. The place is not going to change. And I'll tell you
this, you're never going to get used to its effects. You're never
going to get used to it. It'll be as much a torment at
the edge of Canaan as it was the first step out of Egypt.
As soon as they stepped out from under that palm tree, boom, that
sun hit them. And that dry, hot sand on their
feet. And they're back in the wilderness. Grace is not something
that encourages us to love this world. It's something that sustains
us in a journey through the wilderness. That's what it is. And you can
expect nothing, no contribution whatsoever at all from this world. God will have every believer
come to see and experience this world for what it is, a wilderness
of sin. And then thirdly, this journey
is headed for a place of despair. Well, I would have thought that
wilderness would have been enough despair. Oh, no. He has to take
you to the wilderness before he shows you despair. God must
bring his people in their cursed condition to see the mountain
of God. God's law is given from the highest
place in the land. It's given from Sinai, the highest
place in the land. It's the figure of the very throne
of God and the glory of His character is in it who gave it. The law
says, as we studied there in Matthew 5 last Sunday, be ye
perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. That's what
the law demands. And the only place you can find
it is in that righteousness of Christ. You can walk in that,
you can walk in that righteousness. And that's what God brought them
to Sinai to see. As believers, we must be brought
time and again to Sinai to hear what the law really demands.
The law demands doing. Not the hearers of the law are
justified before God, but the doers. That's what Romans 2,
verse 13. It demands continual obedience,
not just one or two days a week, or once sometime in some isolated
experience, but a continual, unbroken obedience to that law.
And it demands complete obedience in every precept, all 635 of
them, all of them continually. We don't even know what they
are. And we stand up and talk about keeping the law. And it
demands this obedience with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And anybody that ain't a liar going to tell you he can't keep
this law. and to be equal in affection
and thought to the righteous obedience exemplified and manifested
in Christ. You know, most people don't believe
that. They don't believe the law demands from you what Christ
exhibited or manifested in His walk. People don't believe that.
They believe He was a perfect man and He manifested all these
things. Now, you just need to do the best you can but try to
follow His example. That's not what the law demands.
Well, how do you know that? I know that because I read Acts
chapter 17. It said, God hath appointed a day in which he'll
judge this world in righteousness by that man. Now, you want to
know what righteousness is? There it is. And that's how judgment's
going to be. So before you go toting a bucket
full of your own righteousness up there, you need to take a
long look at the righteousness of Christ, because that's the
standard. And the only place you're going
to find it is in Him. This is what Isaiah the prophet
referred to when he said on God's behalf, he said, judgment will
I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet. You know what
a plumbob is? You know, we check lasers with
a plumb bob out on the job, out on construction site. We hang
a plumb bob down to check the laser to make sure it's right.
That's how accurate that plumb bob is. He said, I'm going to
lay righteousness to the plummet. And Sinai is the place of cursedness
because it demands from a man that which he has no heart and
no will and no nature to produce. And we've got to often be brought
to Sinai. It's our nature of sin, as it's
declared in Romans 3, 9 through 18. I don't know if you've ever
stopped to think about it, but before Paul tells you what the
law says, he tells you what you are to whom this law is speaking. He's first going to describe
your nature in detail. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone astray. They
are unprofitable servants, every one of them. Poison of ash is
under their lips, and on and on and on he goes. No fear of
God before their eyes. After describing that, then he
tells you, now he brings you to the law, and he said, what
thing soever the law saith it saith to them who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped. So here's what's going
on here. He leads them out into this wilderness
of sin. to show them what their nature
is, to show them who they are. Then he's going to bring them
over here to Mount Sinai and tell them what holiness demands.
That total despair. And this is the journey of every
true believer who drinks from the deep wells of Elam. Our journey
again and again begins in Elam. It's manifested in the wilderness
of sin and it's brought to a mountain of despair. Well, how then, where's the hope
in all of that? That hope rains down from heaven. It was back in those wells of
Elam, and now it rains down from heaven as the bread, the manna. I don't want you to go away without
this. We're sustained in this journey
by heavenly bread, bread never before seen by man. Heavenly
bread, bread never before handled by man. Bread never before ingested
by man. Gracious bread. Bread for the
gathering. Bread for the hungry. Bread for
every son of Israel. Bread without money or price.
All they had to do was go gather it up. But this bread had a strange
nature about it. It was only good for the day. By the next day, it stank. Couldn't eat it. Had to be eaten
when God gives it. That's how the gospel is. That's
how the gospel is. I know folks go out this door
all the time. They think, well, I'll go home and chew on that,
maybe tomorrow, maybe next. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. You'll
gather God's bread when He gives it. When He gives it. And you
won't put it up. You won't save it for tomorrow.
You'll eat it right now today. You eat it right now today. If
you don't, He may take it away. That's what He did with the manna.
He took it away. He took it away. It's only good
for the day. And there was only one day when
two days' worth could be taken. On the sixth day, they could
not gather double for the Sabbath. And this is not talking about
the person and work of Christ or what He accomplished. Both
He and His work are eternally sufficient. That's not what He's
talking about here. This is talking about our feeding.
That's what this is talking about. He's talking about what He gives
and what we gather and what we eat. That's what He's talking
about here. What we gather for the day is
sufficient for the day. And tomorrow, we're going to
gather manna again. We're going to gather it up again.
Faith feeds daily and it's sustained on God's bread. The just shall
live by faith. That's what it says. And to all
who gathered this bread, there was a personal sufficiency. An omer per man, it says. It
told the amount. And He said, he that gathereth
much had nothing left over. And he that gathereth little,
he had sufficient. He had enough. The Lord tells us four things
about this manna. It says in Exodus 16, 14 that
it was small. It was small. I think in that I see the humility
of Christ. Tiny, small, unrecognizable. Unrecognizable. He had no form
or comeliness, Isaiah said, no outstanding features or marks
of strength, no beauty that we should desire. A man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men. The flesh,
the flesh, listen to me, the flesh all but disappeared in
Christ. I don't see a single thing in
there that talks about His looks. Not a single verse of Scripture
anywhere talks about His looks. Samson, they talked about his
strength, didn't they? David was a comely man. Talked
about his looks. All that there gives you exactly,
but not Christ. In Christ, the flesh all but
disappears, because that's not what He was here to manifest. It all but disappeared in His
life, and it was within that the glory was manifested. Manna
was small. And then it says it's round.
The roundness of it speaks of its everlasting sufficiency and
eternality. There's no end to something that's
round. No end. speaks of a never-ending sufficiency
of His sacrifice. And then it tells us that it
was white. Its color, no doubt, speaks of its purity. This is
heavenly bread. He tells us that over in John
6. It's bread from God's table.
In God's hand, it's holy bread. And then, fourthly, this manna
was sweet. It was sweet. Like a wafer, he
said, made with honey. It was sweet. Sweet to eat. It was all that a hungry soul
could want and all that a hungry soul could desire. And unlike
those bitter judgments of God that are better off swallowed
whole, manna could be chewed. You could chew on manna. You
could chew it because it was sweet. It was sweet. God takes His children from Elam
to Sinai. And it's a journey that believers
make over and over. Not to disturb life, but to show
them in the sweet experience of their daily lives that there's
nothing in this place to contribute to the salvation of their soul
and nothing in this world to long to stay for. It's all up
there. It's all in Him. All in Him. And all that God demands, He'll
freely give to all that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll
give you everything you need for this journey. Everything
you need. And then let me close with this.
Every man must gather for himself. I can't gather manna for you.
You've got to gather your own. You've got to gather your own.
I can't believe for you. You have to believe. When they
asked old Ben Franklin, he was going down there to where one
of those great preachers was preaching. And they said, Ben,
why are you going down there and listening to him? You don't
believe what he preaches. He said, no, but he does. He does. And I'm like that. I want to
listen to a man who believes what he preaches. But that man
can't believe for you. You have to gather your own man
up. You've got to gather your own. All who were hungry gathered
what God freely gave. Every hungry soul found what
he was looking for. And every hungry soul found what
he was looking for in Christ. Everyone that God makes to hunger. The manna. I read this. And we're going to talk about
this some more next week. This is not all I've got to say
about manna. But I just wanted to point out a few things to
you in the light of that total despair and that journey through
that wilderness to Sinai. Along that way, God is going
to cause the man to fall down from heaven. And over and over
in this journey, it's the same way. You walk out in this wilderness
of this flesh and in the wilderness of this world, and He takes you
over to Sinai in your nothingness of nature and shows you the holiness
of God, what that law demands. And we looked, and then we're
hungry, then we're thirsty, then we cry for the bread. But I also
saw this, that manna appeared to all Israel. They all saw it. It wasn't hidden from any of
them. They all saw it. They walked out there, and when
the dew was lifted, there was the manna. There was the manna. And they saw it, and they knew
what it was, and they gathered it for themselves in their houses,
and they ate it. And that's what we do when we
stand to preach. That's what I hope for. That's why the Lord
sent preachers. That's why He raised up church,
to feed His elect. May the Lord be pleased to do
just that. Our Father, we thank You for
this day. All the wonders of Your grace in
a day that go by unnoticed and unseen. How unthankful we are
for things that Not only things that we're ignorant of, but things
that we do see. How often we pass over and don't
give thanks. We thank you for this day. We
thank you for this time, for the hearts that you've brought
here hungry to hear. And pray that you've filled them
with humanity tonight. Be pleased to continue to bless
this ministry for Christ's sake. Amen.