I remember the Sampson family,
and I have passed away today, so I remember that family in
your prayers. Seek the Lord's help for a hard
thing, an impossibly hard thing for a parent to lose a child.
I mean, my mother was in her 90s when my brother died at 75,
and she was never the same after that, because it was her firstborn. It's always difficult, so do
remember me in your prayers. I also remember Wanda, who's
feeling some better, and the others who requested prayer.
Let's see what I missed on Trish. I hadn't talked to Trish, but
she's getting over COVID, so I remember her. And I continue
to remember Dee Parks. I don't have any word on him
lately, so I'm expecting more from Sandy pretty soon. Let's
begin our worship service with hymn number 267, All Things Work
Out for Good. 267. All things work out for good
we know, such is God's great design. He orders all our steps
below, for purpose is divine, for purpose is This is the faith that keeps
me still No matter what the test And lets me glory in His will
For well I know it is best For well I know it is best So now
the future holds no fear God guards the work begun And mortals
are immortal here Until their work is done Until their work
is done Someday the path He chose for me Hymn number two, we hadn't
sung this in a while. It's a beautiful old hymn. Love divine, all loves excelling. Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down. Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
All thy faithful mercies crown. ? Jesus thou art all compassion
? Pure unbounded love thou art ? Visit us with thy salvation
? Enter every trembling heart ? Breathe oh breathe thy loving
spirit into every troubled breast. Let us all in Thee inherit. Let us find that second rest. Take away our bent to sinning,
Alpha and Omega be. End of faith as it's beginning,
let our hearts at liberty Come almighty to deliver, let us all
thy life receive. Suddenly return and never, nevermore
thy temples leave. ? Thee we would be always blessing
? ? Serve thee as thy host above ? ? Pray and praise thee without
ceasing ? ? Glory in thy perfect love ? ? Finish then thy new
creation ? ? Pure and spotless let us be ? Let us see thy great
salvation ? Perfectly restored in thee ? Changed from glory
into glory ? Till in heaven we take our place We cast our crowns
before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise. If you have your Bibles, turn with me
to Exodus chapter 16. We're going to read verses 1
through 8. 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 fifteenth day of the second month after departing out of
the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of
the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the
wilderness. And the children of Israel said
unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when
we did eat to the full. For you have brought us forth
into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger.
Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from
heaven for you. People should go out and gather
a certain rate every day, and I may prove them whether they
will walk in my law or not. And it shall come to pass that
on the sixth day 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 the children of Israel, And even then ye shall
know that the Lord hath brought you out of the land of Egypt.
And in the morning ye shall see the glory of the Lord, for he
heareth your murmurings against the Lord, what are we that you
murmur against us? And Moses said, This shall be
when the Lord shall give you the evening flesh to eat, and
the morning bread to the full, for that the Lord heareth your
murmurings which ye murmur against him. And what are we? Your murmurings
are not against us, but against the Lord. Let us pray. We come in the name of Jesus
Christ, the blessed name, the only name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. It is in that name we
seek your help for this time of need, approaching boldly to
the throne of grace, making our desires known. You know what
we ought to pray before we pray it, before the words are upon
our tongues. You already know what they are.
Father, we ask tonight for those who are sick and going through
troubles, ask for the Sampson family at the loss of this young
child. We grieve for them and grieve with them when He asks,
Lord, you tenderize and touch their heart and move them to
Christ. Continue to pray for Wanda and
for Trish and for Dee Parks and for the others who requested
prayer. Ask Lord you'll help for them. Continue to pray for
Fred as he's struggling with this results of this chemotherapy
we ask lord you be with him and be with those doctors they minister
to him and be with Arlene. Father we pray for ourselves
tonight as we gather here that you might be pleased to cause
us in our hearts by your spirit to worship you in spirit and
truth as we see these things that are set before us. Grant
us worship father cause us to do so we pray in Christ's name.
Amen. Now this chapter begins with
the attitude that will define the 40-year journey of the children
of Israel. We find them murmuring against
Aaron and Moses, as we did in our last study, because they
are hungry and there is no bread. This is the mark of the natural
mind, to be in a constant state of dissatisfaction, born of a
sense of entitlement. And this sense of entitlement,
in part, comes from an erroneous view of election. This was God's
elect nation. He chose this nation out of all
other nations, not because they were big, but because they were
small. Not because they were great, because they weren't.
Not because they were good, because they weren't. He chose them to
show forth the kind of people that he elected unto salvation
in the great covenant of grace. It was a natural election, this
Israel, and not the election of grace, which is unto salvation.
Their election and numerous deliverances were temporal and often repeated,
often repeated in their deliverances, and they were all types and pictures.
We get an example of that in Psalm 107, if you want to turn
there. It says this of the people of
God, in verse 5 and 6, it says, Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them, Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them out of their distresses. Then if you
look at verse 11 through 14, Because they rebelled against
the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the Most High,
therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down,
and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death, and broke their bands asunder. And look at verses 18 and 19. Their soul abhorreth all manner
of meat, and they draw near to the graves of dates of death.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth
them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed
them, and delivered them from their destructions. Then down
in verse 28 it says, Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm
to come, so that the waves thereof are still. They and they are
glad, because they be quiet. So he bringeth them into their
desired haven. time and time again the story
of this elect nation was that they got themselves in trouble
usually with their mouth they run their mouth too much they
were full of murmurings and disputings and god would send trouble to
them and then they would cry unto him and he would deliver
them out of their troubles now all that was a picture of what
god does when he saves a sinner he gets him into trouble The idea of religion today is
that preachers like to stand up in front of people and say,
well, you need Jesus. I hear this all the time. Well,
ask them. They'll probably tell you, I
don't need Jesus, but if they ever do, get to the place where
they need him which they will get there by the grace and mercy
of God bringing them down and shutting them up then they will
call on the name of the Lord that's the way our Lord does
it and Israel didn't call on the name of the Lord until they
were in trouble until they were cast down and they got in trouble
because God PUT them in trouble. Well, that's what God will do
for HIS children, His elect. He will bring them down to a
place where they have nowhere to go, they will be shut up to
His grace, and they will call on Him for salvation. Israel's view of election is
mirrored by false religion that looks at those who believe what
the Scriptures teach about the election of grace. They assert
that such believers think they are special and entitled. Israel
thought themselves special and entitled because they were God's
people. We see that often in our lords dealing with the Pharisees. They kept telling them, Well,
we'll be sons of Abraham. We read Moses. We were entitled. We're God's people. God's our
father. He says, your father's the devil.
They said, no, God's our father. They felt entitled. There was
a sense of entitlement because that's the view they had of election. They didn't understand election
of grace. They thought they were elected because they were a special
people. But they weren't. Those who have tasted the grace
of God know that the election of grace is an absolute and true
assessment. of the want and lack of any merit
on part of the recipient of that grace. We don't have any merit,
and God showed us grace. God showed us grace. We don't
think we're special. In fact, those who understand
election know that God chose His people out of the worst of
humanity, the offscouring of the universe, not many noble,
not many wise. God has chosen the foolish and
the nothings of this world to show forth the glory of His grace. These people felt entitled. But the believer knows he's entitled
to nothing save the eternal punishment that he has earned. Yet by grace,
the believer has received all things from his gracious benefactor,
the Lord God. Now the children held the wrong
view of their election and it filled them with a gall and wormwood
of pride. Any discomfort to them was an
assault on their privilege and their sense of entitlement. Any
discomfort. And it didn't take much. It didn't take much. They
murmured against God when it came to the waters of Myra. They
murmured against Moses and Aaron and said, we can't drink his
water. There was no water. And so the Lord showed Moses
a tree, and he cast it into the water, and it became sweet. But
they've forgotten that. It's just a little while later,
and they've forgotten that that took place. These children held
the wrong view of their election. It filled them with pride. And
having been, as it were, miraculously delivered from abject slavery,
they seem to have forgotten that, they soon forgot God's mercy
and asserted their rights to Moses and Aaron. They forgot
the waters of Myrrh being made sweet. They slumped into the
bitterness of discontent. In Numbers 11, the word says
the children were complainers. It doesn't say they, not only
did it say they complained, it said they were complainers. They
were complainers. That suggests a state of being,
not an occasional tantrum. They were complainers. This is
what they did. This was, this is how they lived. The old saying
goes, if they ain't got nothing to complain about, they'll complain
about the weather. So, you know, everybody's got something to
complain about. This suggests a state of being. They murmured
against Aaron and Moses, and their complaint is recorded in
verse 3. They say, And the children of
Israel said unto Moses and Aaron, Would to God we had died by the
hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the
flesh pots And when we did eat bread to the full, for you have
brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with
hunger." That's quite a statement, isn't it? It's quite a statement.
Their complaint is recorded forth. They said they wished God had
killed them in Egypt. And they used the name Jehovah,
Lord, that designates God as in the capacity of Savior. To
wish the Savior had killed them instead of saving them is to
declare that the title of Savior meant nothing. There is no such
thing as a Savior of unsaved men. It doesn't exist. In one
place the Scripture says of lost men that their God is their belly,
and this seems to be true in this sense, in this occasion
at least. They said they wished God had
killed them when they sat by the flesh pots and when they
ate bread to the full. They said we should kill them
while our bellies were full. Now our bellies are empty and
you brought us out to kill us and we're hungry. We're hungry. They say they'd rather die with
a full stomach and live to be hungry and free. Their God is
their belly. Their own desires, their own
self is what they're interested in. Now the Lord does not respond
to their murmurings with wrath. In fact, what he does, he does
not act in response at all. He says that this will all according
to a predestinated purpose. He brought them to the land of
empty gullets to give them bread and flesh aplenty. That's what
he said he did. We see this is so because he
says he will give them manna and quails to prove them. So this is all according to purpose.
He brought them to this place, got them hungry, remember what
I said, He gets them in trouble, and then they cry. But they didn't
cry unto the Lord, they cried against Moses because of their
hunger. But our Lord said He did this, and what did He do?
Well, He brought them to this place, emptied their bellies,
so they'd cry out for some food, and then He gave them food, but
He didn't give them food just to assuage their hunger, He gave
them food to prove them. What does that mean? That word
prude means to test, it means to assay, it means to try, to
bring to a trial. We've seen it. This is how the
Lord has operated. He brings His people into Egypt
for a 430 year trial and then delivers them. He brings them
to the water of Marah. It was a trial. It was a trial. Always our Lord tries his people
and he does it to prove them. In chapter 15 and verse 25 he
said this, And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed
him a tree which he cast into the waters, and the waters were
made sweet. There he made for them a statement and an ordinance,
and there he proved them. He proved them, he tried them,
he tested them. Over in Deuteronomy chapter 8
when it talks about the giving of the manna, We see the reason why the Lord
gave them manna. We know it was to feed them so
they'd have food for 40 years. And it says in chapter 8 in verse
1, All the commandments which I command thee this day shall
ye observe to do, and ye may live, and multiply, and go in
and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led
thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove
thee, to know what was right in thy heart, whether thou would
keepest his commandments. And he humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee
know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord does man live. He
gave this manna, sure, it fed him, gave this man, he gave those
quails in the evening. It fed them, but he did it to
test them. To test them. Would this gracious
act, would this merciful act of God, this kindness of God
toward them, would that change their hearts? Would that move
them to worship the Lord, to fall down? The only time you
find them worshiping is when the Lord kills a whole bunch
of them. And then they worship out of slavish fear rather than
love for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is all according to predestinated
purpose. This is a trial. Ordained and
predestinated to reveal a result. And the result to be revealed
is to see if they were walking the Lord's law or not. How did they do in that? This
was a trial. This particular thing was a trial.
This manna. Equality is a manner in our next
study, but this manner that was given it was a trial For them
how did they how did that fare? How did they fare look at numbers
chapter 21? Numbers chapter 21 in verse 5 and the people spake
against God and against Moses wherefore have you brought us
out of egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no bread there was
bread every morning for forty years some estimate because of
the numbers of the tribes of israel that our lord delivered
one million seven hundred and ten thousand bushels of manna
every week for forty years every week That's over 60, 70 million
bushels of manna, bread from heaven. When they got up in the
morning, there it was, like the dew. And they gathered it for
their day's food. How did they? They said, there is no bread.
No bread? There's bread every morning.
Neither is there any water. That's a lie, too, because already
the Lord has had Moses speak to the rock and the rock brought
forth gushing water, and it says in 1 Corinthians 10 that that
rock followed them wherever they went. There was always water.
So they're lying. And they're mad at God because
they want some other kind. They want some of that Egyptian
rye bread or something. They don't want this light bread
that the Lord has given. It says, neither is any bread,
neither is any water. And our soul loatheth this light
bread. This manna. This manna from heaven. The people were complainers and
now they've been tried and proved. They were not satisfied with
the manna, which says spiritually they were not satisfied with
Christ because He's the manna from heaven. He's the only thing
God has given to His people. He's not given them anything
else. He's given them all things in Christ. Only Christ is the
gift. He is the perfect gift. Even
in the light of their ingratitude, the Lord is merciful and kind,
even as Naomi said, the Lord has visited His people and He's
given them bread. in giving them bread, is actually
what she said. The Lord has visited his people
in giving them bread. The modus explains the manner
in which the bread was to be handled. Five days a week they
were to gather bread for the household, and six days they
were to gather twice as much, so that no servile work would
be done on the seventh day, which was the Lord's Sabbath. It has
been estimated, as I said, there were 1,710,000 bushels of manna
every week for 40 years. These Sabbath restrictions had
to do with the finished work of Christ. The reason there was
no work to be done on the Sabbath was because it was the Lord's
rest. And that's what it's called.
It's not our rest. It's not the people's rest. And Sabbath is
Saturday. It's not Sunday. We don't worship
the Lord on the new Sabbath. Saturday is still the Sabbath
if it was a day. But it speaks of the Lord's rest.
When did He rest? After He had finished creation. He rested. Why? Because He was
tired. no he rested because there was nothing left to do it was
all done and this speaks of Christ's work after he had finished the
salvation he entered into his rest it says in Hebrews chapter
4 and we enter into that rest also why because the work is
done there's nothing left to do there's nothing for us to
do God will supply. Why gather twice as much on Friday? On the fifth day? Or the sixth
day? Why? Because God supplies their need. They
don't need to gather anything on the seventh day because they
have the supply. This applies to the finished
work of Christ. We're to do nothing because there's
nothing to be done. No human work was added to or
included in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the saving of
his people. Now, I entitled this message, Why Me? I did so because
of the question Moses asked twice about this people. This question
centers on the true error of the people and the error of mankind
when it comes to contrary circumstances. Men assess God in light of circumstance,
instead of assessing circumstance in light of God. God is the first
cause, and any complaint uttered is uttered against God, though
men look for a peer or a thing to blame. They cannot except
by grace judge otherwise. Only by sovereign grace can one
see that all things, time, tide, circumstance, good or contrary,
are controlled and determined by him who sits enthroned in
heaven. This is the assurance that all things work together.
We're just saying all things work together for good. All things
work together for good that them love God, that them are called
according to his purpose. This is the assurance of that
fact. God is in control. How do we know everything's working
for good? It's because we're good? No, we're none good. No,
not one. Because we're righteous, there's
none that's righteous. Why? Because God's in control. The
God of heaven, our God, the God who saved us. So Moses asked
this twice. He says, you're complaining against
me and Aaron. What are we? That's what he asked
twice. Your complaint is all wrong.
You're blaming me for something I had nothing to do with. I sit
on no throne and control nothing. your murmurings are not against
us, he said, but against God. He says in verses seven and eight,
In the morning ye shall see the glory of the Lord, for the Lord
heareth your murmurings against the Lord. And what are we that
ye murmur against us? And Moses said, This shall be
when the Lord shall give you the evening flesh to eat, and
the morning bread to the full, that the Lord heareth your murmurings
which ye murmur against him. And what are we? What are we? Your murmurings are not against
us, but against the Lord that's what I show our complaints again
if we indeed believe that God is sovereign and in control of
all things I'll tell you I feel miserable in this country I complain
about a lot of things I do and I think you know as far as the
world goes and nature goes there's a lot to complain about but then
I think wait a minute this is bad circumstances These are occurrences. God is on His throne. Look at a few verses of Scripture
and we will close out with a scene. Job chapter 33. Job chapter 33 verse 12 says,
Behold, in this thou art not just. He was accusing God of
something. Behold in this thou art not just,
I will answer thee, God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive
against him? For he giveth not account of
his matters." He's not going to tell you why he's doing what
he's doing. He's not going to tell you what he's doing. The
only way you know what he's doing is to look at the newspaper and
find out what he did. Isaiah chapter forty-five. after the Lord declares that
He does all the things that people think a lot of things that He
has nothing to do with, He does all things. He says in verse
5 of Isaiah 45, For I am the Lord, there is none else. There
is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me. I was the one that kept you alive. You didn't even
know it. That ye may know from the rising of the sun and from
the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there
is none else. I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. Drop down ye heavens from above
and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open. Let her bring
forth salvation. Let the righteousness spring
up together. I the Lord have created it. Woe
unto him that striveth against his maker. Let the potsherds
strive with the potsherds. of the earth, shall the clay
say unto him that fashioned it, Why makest thou for thy work
he hath no hands? In Psalm 115, David, when confronted with the false
gods that men make with their hands and how pretty and clever
they are, he said this when they said, Well, here's our God, where's
your God? he said verse 3 of 115 but our
God is in the heavens he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased
what does God what has God done whatever he wanted to whatever
he wanted to this is the God who rules in the world in the
Epic of Nazareth after he came out of his madness fit for a
season and the Lord sent him back gave him his right mind
he said dominion belongs to the Lord from everlasting, dominion
upon dominion, and then he said, the Lord doeth, in Daniel 4,
34 and 35, the Lord doeth his will, or according to his will,
in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand. You can't stop him. He
cannot be stopped. None can stay his hand, or none
can even ask, what doest thou? Why? Because you're replying
against your maker. You're a potsherd. Reply against
us other potsherds, fine. Don't reply against your maker. When a man, in Romans chapter
9, after seeing that God is sovereign, setting up Pharaoh to bring him
down, he said, well if God is sovereign, God is sovereign,
and it makes me a vessel of wrath rather than a vessel of mercy.
How can he find fault with me? It's a good logical question.
You know what the answer is? Oh man, who art thou that replyest
against God? Shall the thing form, say unto
him that form it, why hast thou made me dust? made me thus, hath
not the potter the power over the clay to make one vessel under
honor and another under dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vast vessels fitted to destruction that he might make known unto
them his grace which he has prepared in glory? God's in control. This is what Moses said. Don't
look at me. I didn't do anything. God's in
control. Father bless us to understand
you pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right.