Would you turn with me to the
book of Exodus chapter 16? I want to read this entire chapter. It's a long reading, but it's
the word of God. And they took their journey from
Elam And let's back up and see what
was in Elam, verse 27. And they came to Elam where were
12 wells of water, three score and 10 palm trees. And they encamped there by the
waters. Now this place, Elam, if numbers
mean anything, which I believe they do in the scripture, 12 the number of the apostles, the
number of the patriarchs, the apostles' doctrine, 70. Do you remember how the Lord
sent out 70 disciples, two by two? I think that this has some
kind of reference to the truth, the ministry of the word, this
place of Elam. And they took their journey from
Elam. They left Elam. And all the congregation
of the children of Israel came into the wilderness of sin. That's
a unusual name, isn't it? The wilderness of sin. And indeed
we find that it is 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 that we had died by the hand of the
Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh parts and
when we did eat bread to the full, for you 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
shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove
them whether they will walk in my law or no. And it shall come
to pass that on the sixth day that they shall prepare that
which they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather
daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto
all the children of Israel, even, then you 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 that he
heareth your murmurings against the Lord, and what are we that
you 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 the Lord heareth your
murmurings, which you 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 had 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've heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak
unto them, saying, And even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning
ye shall be filled with bread, and ye 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's manna. Or what is it? Literally, whatness. For they wished not what it was.
And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath
given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord
hath commanded, gather of every man according to his eating,
an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons,
taking 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. Not withstanding, they hearken
not into Moses, but some of them left it into the morning and
it bred worms and stank. And Moses was wrath with them. And they gathered it every morning,
every man according to his eating. And when the sun was 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. Bake that which you will bake
today and see that which you will see, then that which remains
over, lay up for you to be kept into the morning. And they laid
it up to the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink. Neither
was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat that today,
for today is Sabbath unto the Lord. Today you shall 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 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. Literally, whiteness. 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 commanded, fill an omer
of it to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith
I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you up forth from the
land of Egypt. And Moses said, and 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 to
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 under the borders of the land of Canaan. Now, Anomer is
the 10th part of Anipha. Look back at verse 15. And the children of Israel saw
it. And they said one to another. What is it? What is it? What is this stuff laying on
the ground? Now we know from that passage
of Scripture I just read in John chapter six that this manna This
whatness typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the bread
that came down from heaven. Now, what I want us to consider
is the giving of this bread, the bread itself, and the gathering
and the eating of this bread. And we learn something about
what the life of faith is. through this manna, and I pray
that God will enable us to eat this heavenly manna tonight. The giving of this manna. Now, one thing that's apparent
to me, this was altogether a gift of grace. Now, when you read
about the children of Israel in verses two and three, You've
got to be struck with their wickedness, with their unbelief. Has there
ever been a more evil bunch of people than this crowd here in
the wilderness? Look at this description again, verse 2. This
is just after all they've seen. 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. Well, that's loose using of his
name, isn't it? Wood to God we had died by the
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. We had it made in Egypt
when we sat by the flesh pots and we did eat bread to the full.
For you brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole
assembly with hunger. Now there has never been a more
wicked, unbelieving and ungrateful group of people on the face of
God's earth. But you know what strikes me
about this? Are they any different than me? Really, are they any different
than me? The answer to that is no. Now let's go on reading verse
four. Then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain. You know what I would expect
it to say? What would you expect that to
say? I'll rain fire and brimstone from heaven and destroy this
bunch. That's what I would expect it to say. You can see why I
said that, can't you? But what does he say? I will
reign bread from heaven. This shows us the true character
of God's grace. These people positively in no
sense under any sense whatsoever deserved any bread from God,
did they? After all the Lord had done for them, and they say
this. This was their attitude. What a wicked bunch of people.
Yet he says, I will reign bread from heaven. Now this reminds
me of the character of this bread. This bread is gracious bread. Now what came to my mind? I thought
of that passage of scripture in Ephesians chapter 2. Would
you turn over there, hold your finger there in Exodus 16 and
turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Now Paul is describing you and
I in verse one. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein, in times past, you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and the mind. And we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But you turned things around.
But you repented. But you turned over a new leaf. But you changed things. But you
saw differently. But you started... No. But God. Is there a better definition
of grace anywhere in the Bible than that? But God. There's the difference. But God,
who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved
us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace, you are saved. And this is another reminder
to us, and I'll reign bread from heaven, the Lord will provide.
And you know, His provision isn't dependent on us deserving that
provision. Aren't you thankful the Lord rains bread from heaven
without reference to you deserving it? He does it because He's gracious.
He rains bread down from heaven. The Lord will provide. He'll
never let any of His own go without provision. He always takes care
of His own. You can just write that down.
He always takes care of his own. The Lord will provide. And of
course, his provision is free. Obviously it is. If it's by grace,
it must be free. There's nothing we can pay for
this provision. He gives it freely. And notice in verse four, how
we respond to this bread as a test. Notice what he says. He says,
behold, I'll rain bread from heaven for you. And the people
should go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove
them. that I may test them whether
they will walk in my law, how we view this manna, how we eat
this manna will reveal what we're really made of. Now, let's consider
the manna itself. It's a wonderful type of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the first thing that comes
to my mind when I think about this manna is it's all together
from heaven. There was nothing earthly about
it. It didn't come up out of the earth. It came down from
heaven. It was altogether supernatural. And is that not the Lord Jesus
Christ? You know, it came at night. I think that's glorious.
It came at night. When the dew hit the ground at
night, it was at night when nobody could see. Mysterious. It came
at night. And they come up and say, what
is it? They couldn't know until Moses told them. Now here's another
scripture that came to my mind when I thought about this manna.
The Lord said this in John 8, 23. He said, ye are from beneath.
I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. Now look at the description of
the manna itself. Look in verse 14. And when the dew that lay was
gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a
small, round thing. Now this is the manna, this is
the bread. It wasn't any bigger than a seed.
A coriander seed was a very small seed. And it was spherical, it
was perfectly round, and it was small. The first thing that's
pointed out about this manna is it was small. Most people
believe that if something is small, God can't have anything
to do with it. Small? Wow, we like big churches,
influence, big preachers, big influence around the world. We
like big, yet God says, who hath despised the day of small things? Now you think of the smallness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Elijah, the Lord brings him out
and he sees a great mighty wind that broke rocks in pieces. And
the scripture says, the Lord wasn't in the wind. And then
he felt an earthquake and the Lord wasn't in the earthquake.
And then there was a fire and the Lord wasn't in the fire.
And then there was a still, small voice. And that's where God was. Now you think of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was born into this world, a whole lot lower than
any of us were born. He was born in a barn, a cow
stable. He didn't have any of what this
world would call desirable. He didn't have any wealth. He
didn't even have a, he didn't have a, any property. He was
what the world would call right now a street person. He didn't
even have a place to go home and lay down. He didn't have
any wealth. He didn't have any education.
He didn't have any influence. He didn't have any worldly influence.
He didn't have any armies behind him. Small. insignificant. Look at His disciples,
a bunch of ignorant, uneducated fishermen, people who were nobodies
in this world, who had no strength, no power. There they are, the
smallness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the scripture says
regarding him, he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall
see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He had
nothing of what this world would call big or desirable. You know, when the, when the
thief saw the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the cross and he looked
at him and he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
You reckon anybody snickered at him? Can you believe he called
him Lord? Hey, you don't look like Lord to me. Sitting there
hanging on a cross, so helpless, so weak, so, so seemingly out
of control. He has no control over any of
this. There he is hanging on a cross. Lord? Yet that one hanging
on the cross was he whose goings forth are of old from everlasting. That one hanging on the cross
is the one controlling all things. He is the Lord. Who would have
ever thought that that one hanging on the cross was the savior of
the world? Who would have ever thought that that one hanging
on the cross was God the Creator? Nobody would have ever guessed
it. The Gospels believe by a few. We have such small churches.
I repeat, who hath despised the day of small things? It was small and it was round. You could not see a beginning
or an end. It was spherical. No first or
last point. the Son of God. He said, I am
the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning
and the end, the eternal Son of God. It was the size of a
small round seed, like a coriander seed. Look in verse 31. And the house of Israel called
the name there of man. It was like a coriander seed.
The third thing that's pointed out about it, it was white. It
was white. It was small. It was round. And it was white. And whiteness
denotes purity. Purity. What's purity? If something's pure, that means
it's 100% what it is. It's not 99% one thing and 1%
another. It's not 50-50. It's utterly pure. White, pure. Jesus
Christ is utterly pure. He's pure God. He's 100% God. He's not half
God, half man. He's 100% God. He's 100% man. He's utterly unique. There's
nobody like Him. He's 100% sovereign. He's absolutely
sovereign. He's 100% justice. He's pure
justice. He's pure grace. Everything that
He is, He purely is. The purity of the Son of God.
He's not in parts. He's whole. He's absolutely pure. Think of the purity of His life. Can you imagine never sinning?
Can you imagine never having an evil thought, never having
an unbelieving thought? He never sinned. The Scripture
says regarding Him, He knew no sin. He wouldn't have understood. I don't understand what this
means, but He wouldn't have. He couldn't relate with sin.
He couldn't understand it. He's pure, altogether holy. He
kept God's law perfectly. He's utterly white. You know
that fine linen, clean and white that we read about that is the
righteousness of the saints? That's the pureness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the fine linen, clean
and white. That's His righteousness, His merits, His gospel. This is what is so wonderful.
His gospel actually takes somebody like me who's filthy and sinful
in and of myself and His gospel makes me pure. pure as the driven
snow. I'm righteous. perfectly righteous. I have His
righteousness imputed to me. It makes me perfectly righteous
in His sight. I have His righteousness imparted
to me, given to me in the new birth. The King's daughter is
all-glorious, the Scripture says, within, in Psalm 45. She's made
of gold-wrought needlework, altogether pure. Jesus Christ is white. Now this bread that they ate,
it was small, it was round, It was white and look what else
is said about it in verse 31. It had the taste. The taste of
it was like wafers made with honey. It tasted good. Numbers 11, eight says it tasted
like fresh oil. You know, believing in Christ
tastes good. It tastes good to simply trust
Him, to really believe that because of Him I'm righteous before God,
inside and out. That tastes good. It tastes like
wafers and honey. It tastes like fresh oil. It's
good food. Oh, the joy and peace of believing.
And you know what is interesting about this manna? It was cooked
in a lot of different ways. Seethed, boiled. baked, fried,
broiled. Numbers 11.8 says they ground
it in mills, they beat it with a mortar, they baked it in pans
and made cakes of it. Sometimes it tasted like fresh
oil, sometimes it tasted like wafers and honey. I guess it
had different tastes at different times. Maybe for breakfast it
tasted one way and then when they ate it for lunch it tasted
another way, but it was still the same thing. It was still
just manna, but it met every need they had. Oh, the different
tastes, thank God for that. You know, there's different tastes
of Christ. I taste Him as my prophet. He's the Word of God. I taste Him as my priest, the
one who represents me before the Father. I taste Him as my
King, the Lord of my life. I taste Him as my husband. All
these different tastes. What a variety of tastes, yet
it's all one thing. It's the manna. The manna that
came down from heaven. Now what were they to do with
this manna? Look in verse 4 of Exodus chapter 16. Then said the Lord unto Moses,
behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. You just stay
there in your houses and all of a sudden it'll appear on the
plate. Start eating. No, it doesn't work that way,
does it? They were to go out and gather that man. Now the
Lord could have made it to where it just popped up in the plate,
couldn't he? But they were to go out and make an effort to
gather that manna. We're to give ourselves to gathering
this bread. Now, if you stayed home tonight,
you wouldn't get this meal. You were to go out and gather
that bread. There's some effort involved,
and surely there's some effort involved in hearing the gospel. You know, there's some effort
involved in preaching. I ask the Lord, Lord, give me
grace to preach your word. Give me grace to bring it in
a fresh way, in a way that's interesting, in a way that is
edifying to people. Give me grace to do that. But
you know what? It takes just as much grace from God to hear
as it does to preach. You're just as dependent to hear
as I am to preach. And we're to prepare. Lord, give
me a word from you. Give me hearing ears. Give me
a thirst. Give me a hunger. Prepare my
heart to worship. Don't come in unprepared. They
were to go out and gather that bread. And you and I are to go
out and gather this bread. There's some preparation involved.
And it was to be gathered daily. Look what happened if you tried
to get enough for two days. Look in verse 20. Notwithstanding,
they hearken not unto Moses, but some of them left it until
the morning. They had extra and they thought, well, we can have
that. We won't have to go out in the morning and gather because
we're just going to have what we got yesterday. But what took
place? It bred worms and it stank. Oh, it was disgusting to have
that stuff in your house. You could not eat yesterday's
manna. You couldn't think today's manner
would do you any good tomorrow. Now what this reminds me of,
and this is a very important point, faith is always in the
present. It's always right now. If I try to live off yesterday's
faith, what's it going to do? It's going to breed worms. And
it's going to stink. And it's not going to do me any
good at all. As a matter of fact, if I'm looking to yesterday's
faith, I'm making a work out of it, aren't I? I'm not looking
to Christ. I'm looking to some experience I had yesterday. And
that's not the thing to do. I'm to look to Christ right now. Now, if I look for assurance
of salvation because something that happened yesterday, I'm
looking in the wrong place. I'm to look to Christ right now.
Listen to me real carefully. I'm to look to Christ right now
the same way I looked to Him the first time I ever looked
to Him. Now, I don't know when it was when I first looked to
the Lord Jesus Christ, but I know this, when I did, I didn't have
anything to recommend myself. I didn't have any experience
to look back to. I didn't have anything to commend me. All I
had was Christ. Has it changed any since then?
No. As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, Paul said, how did you receive Him? As a sinner needing
His mercy, you received Him gratefully, thankfully, receiving Him, knowing
He was the only hope you had. As you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk ye in Him. That's my walk. They couldn't
live off yesterday's manna. It would breed worms and stink. Now, this thing of believing on Christ
is always in the present. And they were to gather it early.
Look in verse 21. And they gathered it every morning,
every man according to his eating. When the sun waxed hot, it melted. If you didn't get it early, you
didn't get it. It would melt. You know what
that tells me? I'm to seek first the kingdom
of God. Not, I'm going to seek it one
of these days. Not, I'm going to believe on Christ one of these
days. I seek first the kingdom of God. I seek early. If I put
this off, it's going to melt and I'm never, it's not going
to do me any good. I'm to believe on Christ right now. Today is
the day of salvation. There's nothing to wait about.
They were together at early. And I think this is very interesting.
Look in six, verse 16. Everybody got the exact same
amount. Look in verse 16. This is the
thing which the Lord hath commanded, gather of it every man according
to his eating. an omer for every man. That was a measurement. Everybody
got the precise same amount. They all got an omer. According
to the number of your persons, if there were five people there,
five omers were gathered. But everybody got an omer. Take
ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children
of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less, some maybe
had the strength to gather up A ton of it. They couldn't hardly
bring it into the house. Maybe some were so weak, they
couldn't get much in. Some gathered a lot, some weren't
able to gather much. There were different abilities,
but look what it says. And when they did meet it out
with an omer, he that gathered much had what? Nothing over. Still, all he had was an omer.
And that was plenty. And he that gathered little had
what? No lack. everybody was given the precise
same thing. Now in Christ, I have nothing
over. Understand this about faith in
Christ. Faith in Christ is the minimum, but it's also the maximum. You
have nothing over. Faith in Christ is What the newborn
babe does, he believes. It's what the old, mature believer
does, he believes. And he has nothing over. Nothing
can be added to this. I love that passage of Scripture
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, where it says, for he has made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Can you add anything to that?
Nothing over. If you have Christ, you can't
add anything to that. Nothing over, but what else does
it say in verse 18? And when they did meet it out
with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he
that gathered little had no lack. Faith in Christ, I lack nothing. Colossians chapter 2, verses
9 and 10 says, In Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ dwells, resides
all the fullness of the Godhead in a body. Now that boggles my
mind. I like, all the vastness and
fullness of the Godhead dwells in the body of Jesus Christ.
In Him, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a body and
you are, what's the next word? Complete. You know what that
means? You lack nothing. You can't get any more love.
You can't get any more saved. You can't get any more accepted.
You can't get any more holy. You can't get any more justified.
You can't get any more sanctified. You can't get any more glorified
than you are right now in the person of Christ. You lack nothing. That person with weakness that
gathered just a little bit, that person with weak faith who was
scared to death, that person is just as complete as that person
who gathered much. You see, it's the object of faith
that saves. That's why this is. I mean, weak
faith saves just as surely as strong faith does. Gathering
little gives you just as much as gathering a lot, because it's
not the faith that saves, it's the object of the faith that
saves. And he that gathered much, he
had nothing over. He that gathered little, he had
no lack. Look in verse 35. 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 you and I are going to be
eating manna. And that's what faith in Christ
is. You and I are going to be eating manna until we come into
heaven. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're eating bread from heaven, faith in Christ. But
one of these days, faith is no longer going to be needed. I can't imagine what it's going
to be like to eat in heaven, you know, to be eaten in heaven. Scripture
points that out. And, uh, but we're, we're happy
with the manner that we have now. Let's pray together.