spiritual meat. This is a reference to them eating
the manna that fell down from heaven in the wilderness. And if you would understand something
about faith, if I would understand something about I think we're
going to learn something from this manna that fell down from
heaven. It was there every morning. It
came down from heaven. When they first saw it, they
said, what is it? It was small, like a corander seed, round,
white, and it would be like the frost on the ground, and everybody
was called upon every day to gather this manna. And they would gather the same
amount. About a homer, I think is what,
is two liters is what it comes down to. But they would gather
the same amount. The people that gathered a lot
would end up with the same amount. The people that gathered little
would end up with the same amount. The people who tried to gather
some extra that they could use for the next day. If they ate
it, it would breed worms and stink. And they would have that
in their mouth. If they tried to eat yesterday's
manna, it would do the same thing. Now that ought to tell us something
about faith in Christ. I'm not to try to look at something
I'm going to do for tomorrow. I'm not to look at something
that happened to me yesterday, something I experienced yesterday,
something I felt like even I learned yesterday. I'm to look to Christ
today, right now, the same way every day. Now this manna. fell every morning for 40 years. The Lord provided for his people
every morning for 40 years and did not cease. until they entered
the promised land. And the psalmist tells us they
ate angel's food when he spake of this manna. Now we know from
John chapter six that this manna typifies the Lord himself. Turn
with me for a moment to John chapter six. Let me read these
verses. Verse 29, Jesus answered and
said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe on him
whom he hath sent. You hear what he said? They didn't. They said therefore unto him,
what signs showest thou then that we may see and believe? What dost thou work? Now they'd
already seen the feeding of the 5,000. They didn't need to see
anything else. But what sign showest thou? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. As it's written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. They ate 40 years. You fed us one time. Big deal. Moses fed them every day for
40 years. Do something a little bit more impressive. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven. He knew what they were thinking. They were thinking
somehow this had something to do with Moses. Moses didn't give
you that bread from heaven. But my Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he which cometh
down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. That is the bread
of God that came down from heaven. So obviously this bread is a
type of Christ, but it's also given to illustrate Saving faith,
and I don't think there's anything that illustrates saving faith
more simply and beautifully than eating this bread. Now would
you turn with me to Exodus chapter 16? Exodus chapter 16, here's
where we're introduced to this manna. 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 died by the hand of the Lord in the
land of Egypt. We wish we would have died. When we sat by the
flesh pots, when we did eat bread to the full, for you brought
us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with
hunger. We were wicked, evil, unbelieving,
ungrateful. Sound like anybody you know? Maybe some, that person you look
at when you look in the mirror, I know that. Verse four, then said the Lord unto Moses,
behold, I will rain fire and brimstone from heaven upon you. Didn't say that, does it? I will rain bread. upon you. Now this bread came
down from heaven. That's why it's called spiritual
bread. It's not of this earth. It's not of this world. It came
down from heaven. Now we're going to read of quails
that came at night and this was more of a providential miracle.
They weren't created. Somehow the Lord had these quails
come into the camp and they'd lay there, come down and They'd
eat the quails at night. This is more of a providential
miracle, how the Lord caused this. But this was a supernatural
miracle where manna actually came down from heaven. And he calls it spiritual meat. And it was the gift of grace. These people certainly didn't
deserve this bread. As a matter of fact, they demerited
this bread. Not only did they not merit it,
they demerited it by their conduct and by their action and by their
attitude and by their grumbling and complaining and unbelief. You see, this bread had to be
a gift of free grace. I'll ask you a personal question. How much grace is necessary for
you to be saved? Answer that question in your
own heart. How much of your salvation must be by grace? Ephesians 2, 4, and 5 says, 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 are you saved. How much grace was involved in
God electing you? Think about that. Did he elect
you because he saw something in you where you could add to
his kingdom or some goodness in you? No, you know that it's
the election of grace in your case. How much grace was needed for
you to be justified? To stand before God, having never
sinned, without guilt, perfectly righteous. How much of that was
by grace? How much grace was involved in
your redemption when the Lord, scripture says, by himself purged
our sins? How much of that was by grace?
Was there anything in you that merited this? That something
in you that drew out God to do this for you? How much of your regeneration
is by grace? The new birth. What about preservation,
the fact that you've been preserved up to this point and haven't
fallen away? How much of that is by grace? Why is it that you
have persevered in the faith? How much of that is by grace? How about the faith you have?
Is it the gift of grace? Or is it the product of some
decision you made to believe? What about repentance? If you
exercise true repentance before God, this change of mind before
God, how much of that's by grace? Glorification. When you stand
before God glorified, perfectly conformed to the image of Christ,
how much of that's by grace? You know, we're just saying,
oh, to grace. How great a debtor daily I'm
constrained to be. I love what Zachariah said of
Jeroboam. He shall bring forth a headstone
thereof with shoutings crying, grace, grace, unto it. This manna was the gift of grace. Now every single Sunday through
Friday, they would gather the bread. Go out in the morning,
gather the bread. Two days worth on Friday because
of the rest of the Sabbath. On that day, Friday, they were
to gather two days worth and not do anything on the Sabbath
day. Now this is very significant.
They had not yet received the commandment, remember the Sabbath,
to keep it holy. Hadn't received that yet. But
you know, the Sabbath originated in creation, didn't it? And it's
given for one purpose, to teach us to rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the purpose of the Sabbath.
It's not a day to keep. Now with them it was, but they
didn't really understand the meaning of it. But we're not
under the Old Testament covenant of law. And it's not a day to
keep. I love what the writer to the
Hebrews said, there remaineth a rest for the people of God,
for he that's entered into his rest. hath ceased from his own
works, as God did from his. Have you ever ceased working?
I mean, just, you see, it's not gonna do you any good. You can't
be saved by your works. To him that worketh not. That's
what it is to keep Sabbath. It's to work not and to look
to Christ only. This was on them at this time. They weren't looking at this
as a law to keep. teaching them to rest, the Sabbath
of rest. I love the way that God looked
at everything he'd done and behold, it was very good and he ceased. Why? There wasn't anything you
could add to it. The Sabbath, even then, they
would gather two days worth on Friday so they could not work
on Saturday, the Sabbath, verse four. Then said the Lord unto Moses,
behold, I will rain bread from heaven for
you. Now, like I said, I would have expected to say, I'll rain
fire and brimstone down upon you. The way they acted, that
unbelief, that wicked murmuring and complaining, but that's not
what the Lord says. He says, I will rain down from
heaven this bread upon you. As a matter of fact, look in
verse six, no, verse seven. And in the morning,
then you shall see the glory of the Lord. When you see that
manna, He calls it the glory of the Lord. The glory of the
Lord is his capacity to save people like them and people like
me and you. That is his glory. I love the way he calls it that. Now, let's go on reading verse
four. 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. Now, what is this about proving
them? Could they trust what the Lord
said for their food? Isn't that what faith is? Trusting what the Lord has said.
The Lord said you're gonna have it every day. The Lord is utterly
trustworthy. He can't lie. His promise is
always good. Could they trust him for their
food every day? Well, no, a lot of them didn't.
They went ahead and gathered up bread, a bunch of it, and
of course it bred worms and stank. You can read about that as you
read in this chapter. But he says, I'm doing this to
prove them whether they'll walk in my law or no. And what that
means is, am I going to look to Christ only every day? Or
I'm gonna look to something that happened yesterday? Or am I gonna
look to something I plan on doing tomorrow, for tomorrow? No, I'm
to look, oh, may God give me the grace to do this, to see
this, to believe this. I'm to look to Christ only right
now, all the time, nowhere else. That's what is being taught in
this man. And he said, I'm going to test
them in that. Verse five, and it shall 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 into
all the children of Israel, even then you shall know that the
Lord had brought you out from the land of Egypt. Had they forgotten
that? He said that and they're going to forget it soon enough
in a few weeks. They're going to say, they're going to make
a golden cow and say, these be thy gods which brought you up
out of the land of Egypt. Yeah, they forget real quick.
And Moses and Aaron see this. He says, have you forgotten already?
I mean, here you are rumbling and complaining and unbelief
like he's not going to Supply you with anything? He's brought
you out here in the wilderness to kill you? Have you forgotten
that it was the Lord who actually brought you out of Egypt? The
Red Sea was parted for you. Have you forgotten? Yes, they
had. Verse 7, And in the morning,
then you shall see the glory of the Lord. For that he hearth
your murmurings against the Lord. And what are we that you murmur
against us? Your problem was with him, not with us. He hears
your murmurings, the glory of the Lord. Now, the glory of the
Lord, I love thinking about this, the glory of the Lord is Him
saving somebody like me. That's the actual glory of the
Lord, Him saving a sinner. You know, I think it is amazing,
I'm ashamed that we think this way. Why doesn't the Lord save
more people? Now I have to say, I would be
glad if it was Lord's will if he saved everybody, wouldn't
you? I'd love to see everybody bow the knee to Christ. But when
we think, why didn't he save more people? All of them was
finding fault with him. Why did he elect just a number
and not more? You know what we're doing when
we say things like that or even think things like that? We're thinking,
I'm more merciful than he is. Now let me tell you something
that I know is so. If salvation were up to me or you, No one
would be saved but me. Oh, we make big claims. Oh, I'd
make sure everybody's saved, but let somebody cross you once,
twice, 10 million times. You'd have a breaking point.
Not the Lord. His glory. is His capacity to
save people as evil as the Israelites and me and you. That is His glory. Verse eight, and Moses said,
this shall be when the Lord shall give you an evening flesh to
eat and in the morning bread to the full for the Lord heareth
your murmurings, what you murmur against Him, what are we? Your
murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. Remember
this, any murmuring I have, any complaining I have, any dissatisfaction
with God's providence in any way is murmuring against the
Lord. Now, I know some people have
heavy trials to bear, heavy griefs. I would not discount that in
any way, but if I'm a believer, I'm to know who sent it. He's too wise to err. He's too
kind to be cruel. And whatever he does is for my
good. That is the glory of the Lord. Verse nine. 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 murmuring of
the children of Israel, speaking to them, saying, And even you
shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread,
and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came
to pass that even the quails came up, and covered the camp,
and in the morning the dew lay around 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 an hoarfrost
on the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, it's manna. And my marginal reading
says, what is it? For they wish not what it was.
And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath
given you to eat. Now let's consider these descriptions
of this manna. First, it was small. Very small. Like a corner seed. Men are impressed with big things,
more impressive to the flesh. God said, who has despised the
day of small things. And when the Jews were looking
for a Messiah, they were looking for somebody big, somebody with
military might, wealth, power that could free them from Roman
impression. They didn't understand that what
they needed was a savior from sin. Not a savior from Roman
oppression, but a savior from sin. So they were looking for
somebody big. The Lord was born in a cow stable.
The scripture says there's no comeliness that we should desire
him when we see him. He came from a poor family with
no influence. He had no wealth. He had no education.
He had no armies. By our twisted human standards,
he was small, despised, and rejected by the world. They had no idea
who he was or who he is. He's the creator. He's the utter
independent God, the God of glory, who holds the universe in his
hands. They couldn't see. Little, despised. How could he be a messiah? How
could he be a savior? It was round. Spherical. When something's round, there's
no starting point. There's no beginning point. There's
no ending point. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
eternal Son of God with no beginning, no ending. I think the smallness
speaks of his humanity and this roundness speaks of his deity
as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And his salvation
is eternal. You know, a ring represents an
eternal commitment. When someone is married and they
give a ring, they're saying, I'm committed to you for life.
It's an eternal commitment. And this roundness tells us of
our eternal Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Smallness, this is what we're
eating, Humanity, the roundness, is deity. 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, according to the number of your persons,
and take ye every man from them which are in his tents. And this
is quoted in 2 Corinthians chapter nine, you'll probably recognize
it. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more,
some less. You know, I bet some people gathered
bushels of it. I mean, we're gonna get, they
intended to get a lot of it. And some, maybe they were feeble,
and they just couldn't get that much. But you know, at the end,
if you gathered a whole lot, and if you gathered just a little
bit, it ended up being the same thing, an omer. the exact same
thing. Everybody had the exact same
amount, a number. I thought of the atonement money,
the silver shekel. If you were a billionaire What
did you give? Half a silver shekel. If you
were a pauper and didn't have a dime to your name, what did
you give? The half shekel made of silver, the atonement money.
As a matter of fact, when they took the census in Israel, you
had to give that half shekel in the sentence. And when David
took the sentence without that, that's when the Lord killed 74,000
people because he was considering people, Israelites, apart from
the atonement. You can't do that. What makes
somebody a child of God is the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he was considering it without that. He was just
thinking of the numbers, how big and how powerful we are.
And the Lord plagued Israel and 77,000 people died because of
it. I think of the workers in the vineyard. The ones that worked
12 hours, what'd they get? A penny. That's what they had
agreed to. And the ones that worked nine
hours, and six hours, and three hours, and one hour, what'd they
all get? A penny. And the Lord said, whatsoever's
right, that will I give you. You know, he's gonna give you
what's right. You can count on that. He's gonna give you what's
right. Everybody got the same thing.
Now, great faith. There is such a thing. You remember
when the Lord said to the Syrophoenician woman, O woman, great is thy
faith. He said to that Roman centurion whose servant was sick,
I've not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. There's such
a thing as great faith. And there's such a thing as weak
faith. Oh, ye of little faith. And one
time he said, where is your faith? If it's there, I don't even see
it. Now, we have great faith. Some gathered a bunch. Some gathered
just a little bit. They all ended up with the same
thing. Do you know if you have great faith, what a blessing
if the Lord gives you that. I want to have great faith, don't
you? Everybody in here ought to have great faith. We ought
to. We have a great God, a great Savior. We ought to have great
faith. And there are some people who have weak faith, small faith. Is the guy with great faith any
more saved than the guy with small faith? Nope. Is a guy with small faith any
less saved than the man with great faith? No. Because it's
not the faith that saves, it's the Savior who saves. It's Christ
who saves, not your faith. Faith believes that. So don't
you love the fact that whatever they gathered, everybody ended
up with an omer, according to his eating. And they were to gather this
daily. Every single day. And it was just enough. Nothing
over. You know, if you have Christ,
you've got everything. You're not going to have anything
over Him, are you? There's nothing you can add to Him or you have
nothing over. You have nothing too little either. In Christ you have all things.
All we eat is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it. And
we eat Jesus Christ and Him crucified every single day looking to Him
alone. And anytime we're not doing that,
that's when we get in trouble. May the Lord give us this faith
to just gather what He gives us for that day and look to Him
only. There'll be no lack. Look what
it says. In verse 17, and the children
of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less, and when
they did eat it with an omer, meet it with an omer. He that
gathered much had nothing over. If you have Christ, there's nothing
over him. There's nothing to be added to
him. And he that gathered little had no lack. You see, you're
complete in Christ. There's nothing else you need,
complete in him. And it was to be gathered daily.
You could not eat yesterday's. It would breed worms and stink.
If you save some of it for tomorrow and you try to eat it, it'd breed
worms and stink. It's just daily looking to Christ
only. Faith is always in the present. It's for today. Don't look to
yesterday's experience. Don't look to tomorrow's intentions.
Both are works. Both are false refuges. You look
to Christ right now. Now look in verse 31 of this
same chapter. And Moses said, this is the thing
of verse 31, in the house of Israel called the name thereof
manna. And it was like a coriander seed, white. And the taste of
it was like wafers made with honey. Now, it was white, whole
is the meaning, whole, absolutely pure. Jesus Christ is pure God, just
as if he were not man at all. In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And he is pure man, just as if
he were not God at all. He's not made of parts. God's
not made of parts. God's not part merciful, part
just, part gracious, and all the parts end up making the whole.
No, he's altogether gracious, altogether just, altogether wrath,
altogether sovereign. He's not made of parts. He's
who he is. This was white, signifying its
purity, its pureness, its wholeness, and the taste of man. Called
in Psalm 78, angel's food, there are two descriptions given. One, wafers with honey, the sweetness
of the gospel. Oh, it's sweet to feed on Christ.
It's sweet to know that he only is my salvation and I look nowhere
else. Oh, how sweet the taste of this
wafers and honey. And in another place, it was
said it tasted like, I think it's in numbers 11, it tasted
like fresh oil. Not stale, not old. Fresh, new,
fresh oil. The gospel when heard in the
power of the Holy Spirit is fresh. It's new, it's not old. You never
say, well, I already knew that. No, it comes, it may be something
you already knew, but now you know it like you knew it for
the first time. It comes as fresh. What a wonderful food. Wafers and honey, sweet, always
fresh. Now look in verse 32. And Moses said, this is the thing
which the Lord commanded, fill an omer of it. That's what they
all had, an omer, about two liters is what I've read that is. Fill
an omer of it to be kept for your generation, that they may
see the bread wherewith I fed you in the wilderness when I
brought you forth from the land of Egypt. Now, you know what
he's saying? When the tabernacle's built, you have that ark, and
you have the ark of the covenant, there's something you're gonna
put in it. You're gonna put in a Omer of manna, and you're going
to put in the law of God, and you're going to put in Aaron's
rod that budded. Within that ark, there was the
Ten Commandments, Christ my righteousness, Aaron's rod that budded, Christ
my life, and manna. Christ my sustenance. In closing, turn to Romans, I
mean Numbers 21. Verse 4, Numbers 21 verse 4. And they journeyed from Anhor
by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And
the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. I'm sure everybody in here understands
that. much discouraged because of the
way things are not happening the way I thought they would. And the people do what they do
so often. The people spake against God and against Moses. How many times did they do this?
Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness? For there's no bread. Neither is there any water, and
our soul loatheth this light bread. This angel's food had become
to them light bread, insubstantial. This is not enough to satisfy
us. This is like light foods or whatever's light. It isn't a real thing. It doesn't
have enough of whatever. This is light bread. We can't
be sustained by this light bread. We need something more. At one
time, it was heavenly angels' food. And now it's light bread. That's what they said about the
manna. And the Lord who brings good
out of evil brings this glorious gospel message from this. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, We sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord
and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people
and the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and
set it upon a pole. And it shall come to pass that
everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass
and put it upon a pole and came to pass that if a serpent had
bitten any man, When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. John chapter three. Verse 14, and as Moses, this
is the Lord using this. How thankful we are for this.
You know one of the things I love about the Old Testament, men
try to come up with illustrations for the gospel. I think, why
don't you just get them out of the Old Testament? They're a
lot better. They're better than anything
any man can come up with. Well, this is a great illustration.
It's not as good as this one. This is God's illustration. He
knows what we need to hear. And the Lord says in verse 14,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Even so must
the son of man be lifted up. And we know he's talking about
being nailed to a pole and lifted up and having it dropped in the
stand, lifted up, crucified. That whosoever believeth in him,
except looking to the serpent, should not perish, but have eternal life. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
son which came down from heaven, the true bread of God. And Lord,
we ask that we might feed upon him by faith. Look to him only. Lord, cause us to do that daily,
looking nowhere else but him. Don't let us look for something
we expect to do tomorrow. Don't let us look to something
we've done in the past. Let us look to Him only. How we thank You for the salvation
that's in Him. We ask that You would bless this
message for Your glory and our good as we face this coming week. Lord, we ask that You would be
pleased to open up doors for us to preach the gospel to other
people. Bless us for Christ's sake. In His name we pray. Amen.