Let's turn in our Bibles, please, to Exodus chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16. We want just to keep our Bibles open. We'll seek the face of the Lord in prayer. We'll ask God to bless the ministry of his word here in the house. Our Father, we humbly beseech Thee now to do something for this meeting that no mere individual man or woman could ever do, and that is to lift a meeting like this out of the natural realm and bring it into the supernatural with Thyself. Lord, lift it out of an ordinary Sunday evening meeting. Bring it into an extraordinary one by the power of thy Holy Spirit. We pray, Lord, that thou wouldst bring it out of the usual meeting into the unusual, because the Holy Ghost is working. Christ is being exalted and uplifted. To this end, almighty God, I pray for preparation of each heart. We pray, Lord, there may be one here like Lydia of old, whose heart the Lord opened to attend unto the things spoken. We pray, O God, that thou wouldst come and thou wouldst open blinded eyes and unstop the deaf ear. We pray that we might hear the word at thy mouth. Grant, O God, that I might stand now before thee in this congregation as a candidate for the infilling of the Spirit of the living God. I pray, Lord, that thou wouldst cleanse me afresh in the precious blood of the Lamb. I realize, O God, just how loathsome sin is and heinous in the sight of a holy God. I realize, our Father, how offensive and, Lord, how grievous our sin is to Thee. And we ask humbly and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst pardon our transgressions, that Thou wouldst forgive all our sin on the merit of the shed blood of Christ. on the ground of the finished work of Calvary. I pray, O God, that thou wouldst apply the full merit and value and virtue of the precious blood of Christ. Now to my heart is the blood applied. Glory to his name. And the vessel cleansed now by precious blood. I pray, Lord, that thou wouldst fit for holy use and service. Grant to me that anointing to preach the infilling now of thy Holy Spirit of promise with wisdom and power. Create a highway for the preaching of thy word. May it run and have free course, and may it be glorified in all of our hearts. And Father, in answer now to prayer, glorify thy dear Son, and the people of God said, Amen. You know, there are many pictures in the Bible of our Lord Jesus Christ. They come in the Old Testament especially under what is known as types and shadows. A type is simply a picture. It is an illustration given by God whereby he is setting forth to the human eye and to the human mind, a wonderful description of his dear son. Every type, every shadow, all the ceremonies of the old economy all point us to our Lord Jesus Christ. The types and the shadows of the Bible, they make no sense unless you introduce Christ into the theme or into the passage. Christ is the anti-type of every type. He is the substance of every shadow. He is the fulfillment of every rite and ritual and ceremony under the old economy of Israel. And you cannot understand the Old Testament. You will never come to any other conclusion. unless you introduce Christ as to the full meaning of what God was doing. The remarkable thing is this, that there are those who change certain words in the Bible. They go to types like this, and they lift out words, and they're trying to be smarter than God. And they somehow say, well, it doesn't mean that, it means this. And I'm telling you, God has so preserved the type that to change it, even in the slightest bit in translation, you destroy what God is trying to teach. You destroy completely. And if those who got into a chapter like this in some of the modern versions, they would butcher the type. They would leave it so obscure that you would miss the great spiritual truths that God is setting forth in the types. Perhaps, in all of the types of the Bible, there is none clearer nor Christ-like than in the manna. Even our Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the manna of life, the bread of life. After Israel had left Elam, I'm sure you know your Bible history, they camped at the Red Sea, and they came into what is known as the wilderness of sin. We know it doesn't mean sin, but it's well named, for that's what it was to them, a wilderness of 40 years of rebellion in sin. So after they left the place of seventy springs and palm trees, they entered into the wilderness, and there was no water. And so God provided by the smiting of the rock. Remember, the rock, Paul says, writing to the church at Corinth, was a type of Christ. For he said, that rock was Christ. And even the rock that was smitten is a type of calvary. I didn't want to preach on that. That would digress. That's my problem. I pad out the sermon too much and go off on a tangent. Let me stick to the burden of my message. But along with that there came a murmuring and a complaining. They not only wanted food to eat, But they were literally wanting flesh as well. And God provided quails for them. And he also provided for their physical need. And he gave to them what is known as manna. The word manna in the Hebrew is a simple phrase. It simply means, what is it? That's exactly what the word manna means. Because they saw it one day, and they looked at it, and they uttered that word manna. In other words, what is this? And that's how it derived its name. It simply was an expression, a phrase that was used when it was first noticed on the ground. And the children of Israel in Exodus 16, they came and they said, what is this? That's where it derives its name, manna, from. heaven ministered to the physical need, and God provided bread from heaven to sustain that need for 40 years in the wilderness journeys of the children of Israel. And the manna was a type of Christ. It not only served to nourish them physically and to meet their need physically, to sustain them in their body physically for 40 years in the wilderness. But God also had a primary purpose, and that was he was setting forth His Son, and teaching about Jesus Christ, His Son, our Savior, in the manna. And if we alter one single word, if we change a single phrase, if we literally choose to go in another direction and call the manna or something about the manna different, we completely mar an obscure and some have destroyed the type. We want to stick as close to what we have in our authorized version, translation to the English language, because I feel our translators have properly armed, I believe, divinely. preserve the type of Christ in the manna. Let me get to the burden of my message this evening. I want us to consider the manna as a wonderful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to think first of all of the description of the manna. The Bible tells us several things about this strange, small thing that had fallen on the ground during the night. I want you to think that it pictures Christ in its size. If you look with me there at the verse 14, it says, When the Jew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the whorefrost on the ground. Now, remember this. If translators of modern versions leave that little word small out, if they leave that word small out, then we lose the type. We lose some great truths that God is teaching us. Remember, the manna is a type of Christ, and God preserves every word that's in connection with his dear son. And over in verse 31, we have another little phrase, and it tells us there in verse 31 of chapter 16, and the house of Israel called the name of it manna, and it was like coriander seed. I don't know if you've ever seen the coriander seed. I remember going down to Clandy Boy Lodge. I was invited out by this couple along with my wife and they said, we want to take you out for a meal. And I was expecting a chippy, but it wasn't. It was the Clandy Boy Lodge. Now I'm telling you, I'm telling you the truth. I looked at the menu and I couldn't even pronounce the actual food that I was about to eat. I'd never heard of coriander and carrot soup in my life, but I thought, well, at least carrots I could eat. I looked down the list that was on. I'm telling you, it was a la carte. I couldn't even pronounce Italian names, French names. Why did they not just do it in English? There was no burger and chip. There was no fish and chip. There was no sausage and chip. And there was no, believe it or not, pasty supper, which your own minister would love, by the way, especially coming from East Belfast. There was nothing on the menu. And so I says, I think I'll have a starter. At least I know I'll get something to eat. I'll take coriander and carrot soup. And there they were, floating on top. Seeds that were called part of coriander seed. Tiny, tiny little seeds. Small. And the Bible says the manna was like onto coriander seed. Now think of it. A small thing, round thing, on the ground. A type of Christ. And in its smallness. And God is exact in the type. For he's teaching us something in the manna. It says in its description that it pictures Christ in its size. It's small. It's like coriander seed. In other words, it's very difficult to see. Only it was literally in mass numbers, and it was multiplied across the ground. If it had fallen every hundred yards, and just one, you never would have seen it. It fell like snow, like a flake, upon flake, upon flake, upon flake. That's how they gathered it. But one individual piece of manna was small, and it was the size of a coriander seed. It's like one snowflake. You would never build a snowman out of one snowflake, no matter how much snow that you're looking for. One flake, you know, will never build a snowman, nor would it make a snowball to hit the minister with, as my children do. I'll tell you this. God preserves the type of his Son. It's small. This speaks of the humility of Christ. It speaks of Christ first coming into this world. He came, and in many ways, he came in obscurity, Christ came in great humility. He who is God and the object of heaven's worship, and the universe must bow down before him and worship him in deity because he's God, the second person of the Godhead. And yet he became a little child in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He was born in an old stable. He was laid in that manger, and very few people welcomed his birth. There were no royal dignities except those wise men from the east, the shepherds and angels that had left heaven to sing the praises of the birth of the Messiah. And when he came, Isaiah said, there is no form. nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. And he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And God is teaching us in the manna something about his son. I'm telling you, there's no book in the world like your Bible. No history book No book of philosophy, no encyclopedia, no Wikipedia, no Google search or Yahoo or whatever that you will find, there's no book like the Bible. It's inspired. And Christ is in every chapter. Christ is in every page. The Bible tells me in the book of Philippians chapter two, he made himself of no reputation, the smallness of the manna. He took upon himself the form of a servant who is King of kings and Lord of lords, who is the God of all glory, and yet he was made in the likeness of men, and being found in the fashion of a man, he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Christ not only became a child born in a manger, he became a servant to do the Father's will, to die for our sins, suffer at the place called Calvary. It pictures Christ not only in its size, but it pictures Christ in its shape or its symmetry. If you look with me at verse 14, it tells us there in verse 14 that there lay a small round thing. Do you see that? Let's say we changed our version and says, well, we really don't know what shape it was. In fact, the coriander seed is not as round as you think. It says it was like, and if we're talking about smallness, that's what the Lord was saying about. The Lord here gives us the type. He says it was round. And then later on in verse 31, it was like onto coriander seed. He didn't say it was the shape of coriander seed. And coriander seed would not be round. And if we were to change the type, we would lose what God is speaking about. The Bible says that only it pictures Christ in its size, but in its shape, a small, round thing. It did not have any jagged edges. It wasn't triangular. It wasn't oblong. No, it was round in its shape because God is teaching in type. That's why the manna was literally shaped like that. That's why God gave the manna that shape. There's not a slice of bread, unless maybe there are some in buns that you would toast and so on, but bread usually is square, rectangular. If you get the bread that we get in our house, it's crammed into the freezer when it comes out. I don't know what shape you would call that. The bread's wearing a girdle. You ever seen bread like that? It's hard to toast, it's even impossible to butter, and jam, and fold. But I'll tell you this, the circle speaks of eternity. It is neither beginning nor end. One of the reasons why, in tradition, that's all, in tradition, they exchange rings at a wedding. And it's because it speaks of the eternal love. Till the very day you die, you stay with the one you marry. That's exactly why the rings are exchanged. Speaks of God's eternal love for us as well, doesn't it? And that ring has no beginning. That circle has no beginning, no end. You can't say it begins here and ends there. No, it continues. And there is no beginning and there is no ending. And God's preserving the type of his son. You see how perfect? Well, we can't say it's perfect because it would be the anti-type, but you see how precise and specific God is to preserve the type of his son? It was round. It wasn't oblong. It wasn't triangular. We dare not touch the Scripture. We dare not alter the translation. We must not go against the type. We destroy it if we do so. We lose great teaching if we do so. It's round, meaning it speaks of Christ as the eternal God. We have already seen him in its smallness. He's a man. We've also seen Him in His shape. It's round, eternal. How can a man be eternal? How can a man have no beginning? How can a man have no ending? I'm telling you, it's a type of Christ. He's without beginning. He's without ending. Christ inhabits eternity. Christ is God, veiled in human flesh. God is teaching us the deity of his Son, the second person of the Godhead. And not only we see a picture in Christ in its size and in its shape or its symmetry, we also say it picturing Christ in its shade. If you notice in verse 31, it tells us the actual color of the manna in verse 31. And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it was like coriander seed, white, white. Now, we do not change the picture, because if we say, well, it was black, Or we say, well, it was a fluorescent color. We lose the type. The Bible is specific, isn't it? It tells us it was small. It tells us it was round, and then it tells us it's white. And so the picture is building of God's dear Son. God is building a picture. Now, if you were drawing a picture, you don't draw that picture all at once. You add parts. If someone was drawing a picture of me, I suppose that's not a great example, by the way. You just draw a round body and a round head, and you're nearly there. But if they were drawing a picture of me, they wouldn't have literally one sweep, arms, legs, eyes. I'm going to say hair, but hair at the back. They would just draw bit by bit, and suddenly, we've seen people drawing pictures on our holidays, and you wonder, how on earth is this ever going to resemble this person? And they're sketching, and they're doing things, but they've got the picture in their mind, they've got the picture beside them, and they're drawing. They know what they're doing. And all of a sudden, no eyes, no nose, no mouth. And there they are, no hair, no nothing, but the shape of the body. And you even say to yourself, I just can't see it. Then bit by bit is added, and suddenly you see the likeness. Ah, there's the look, there's the nose, there's the face, it's round, it's pointed, and so on and so on. There's the chin with me, there's the double chin, triple chin, there's all the chins. But bit by bit is added, and then you realize, picture is seen, and God's painting a picture on the canvas of Holy Scripture, in its smallness, Christ leaving heaven, coming into this world, and in its shape Christ, who is God, became a man, and now in its shade, white, and it speaks of righteousness. In the book of the Revelation, chapter 6, 11, chapter 7, verses 9 and 13, and there are other portions whereby we could draw together to prove to you from the Bible that white is always a type of righteousness. In fact, Revelation chapter 6 reminds us that the rider on the white horse is a picture of Christ, riding in righteousness at the end of the day and at the end of the age. But the Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ is the sinless, spotless, impeccable Son of the living God. Peter reminds us that He is our sacrifice, and that He is without blemish, and He's without spot. And in the Old Testament, the lamb, or the animal that was to be taken, it was examined, and it was looked at, and it was literally inspected. Its teeth were looked at. its eyes, its ears, its nose, its feet, underneath the fleece, its tail, and it was lifted up, and the high priest would have lifted up the lamb for the sacrifice and would have said, I find no fault in this lamb. And here's a remarkable parallel, because as our Lord Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem, it was the Passover time, whenever He was standing before Pilate, and whenever He was standing before Herod, there was something going on secondary. There was something going on parallel to what was happening to Christ. I'll tell you what was going on. The priests and the high priests were looking at the sheep gate at Elam. They were inspecting a lamb, and at the same time, God's lamb was being inspected by Pilate, by Pilate's wife, and then Herod, and then back to Pilate. And there was a parallel, and in the moment, and I believe this was the time, I believe the moment the priest or the high priest lifted up the lamb for the sacrifice in the Passover and said, I find no fault in this lamb. That was the exact time that Pilate said, find no fault in him." The exact time. What a beautiful preservation of the purity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The filmmakers take Christ and they destroy his impeccable righteousness. The attack upon Christ has always been the fact that he's sinlessly perfect. They bring blemishes to Christ. They speak of Christ in immoral relationships. They speak of Christ as a wicked individual and a man who had a secret past. They always want to destroy. impeccable righteousness. But God preserves it in the book. We have it before us tonight. The manna is a type of Christ. Christ is the perfect lamb. He is the perfect substitute for sinners. He knew no sin, in him was no sin, and he did no sin. He is not able to sin. None posse peccari, not able to sin. The great debate in Christendom has been the reverse of those Latin words, non posse peccari. Posse non peccari, meaning not able to sin. We can say of Christ that he could never have sinned. He was not able to sin. There are Christians who say Christ was able to sin if he chose to. He was able not to sin. That is not true. That is not theologically sound. Christ was not able to sin at all. He was not able to sin. It was an impossibility for Christ, either as God or as man, to sin. He is and always will be spotlessly perfect, the perfect servant of Jehovah, and in Him, in Him, is no sin, nothing to be tempted in Christ, everything to be tempted in me, but nothing in Him. He knew no sin, He did no sin, and in Him was no sin. And He said to His enemies, Which of you accuseth me of sin? Could you say that? There's not a man or a woman, there's not a king nor a queen, there's neither priest, pope, nor pastor, nor minister could ever stand and say, Find. Sin in me, you'll not find it, but you will. You will find it, but not in Christ. God's preserving and painting the picture himself. God does not need any help to paint the picture. He is more than a professional artist. He's omniscient, knowing all things, and he tells us about his Son. And the Bible tells us that Christ offered himself a perfect sacrifice for sin. God has accepted that perfect sacrifice on your behalf and mine. And through faith in Christ and repentance of our sin, we embrace Christ, we receive Christ, we trust in Christ, and we rest in Christ. It not only pictures Christ in its size and shape and shade, but it pictures Christ in its sweetness. Look at verse 31. I think this is remarkable. The house of Israel called the name of it manna, and it was like coriander seed white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. I don't believe the English language, and I'm sure in many ways, even the Hebrew perfect tongue does not convey to us the sweetness of the manna. We were very tired over the weekend. I don't drink coffee, but I was forced to, just to keep awake. I can't drink it without sugar. A small cup, I put three spoonfuls in, heaped them in. Might as well pour the coffee into the sugar bowl, tell you the truth. And boy, you talk about enlightenment? Wow! The eyes, it was better than Red Bull. Not that I encourage anybody to take those high-energy drinks, but it was the sweetness. and it just seemed to give me instant energy, and it just excited every tastebud that's still left in this mouth of mine. But I'll tell you this, Christ is sweet to the taste. God's telling us there's no sourness in Christ. Someone testified one time, I think it was in our own church, and jokingly they said, you know, I thought becoming a Christian would ruin my life. If I give my life to Christ, well, and this is what he said, I thought I would say to myself, well, here's my last smile before I come to Jesus. That's what he said in the meeting. And I thought about it. And that's how people view Christ. It'll ruin my life. I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't go there. It'll stop me doing this, that, and the other, to give up this, that, and it'll just ruin my life completely. Isn't that what people say to you as a Christian? You're a killjoy. You're a sore individual. You don't permit this, that, and the other, and you're just a killjoy. That's what they tell you. But I'm telling you, we sung it, now none but Christ can satisfy. There are individuals here, and they have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. And they know there's a sweetness in Christ you'll never find in anything in this world. There's nothing in all God's created universe, apart from Christ, that's sweet to the taste. Christ does not destroy lives, he gives life. And he gives it with a capital L, did you know that? And he gives it more abundantly, and it's eternal life, you'll never be lost. I'm telling you, it's not a bed of roses, I know that, but I'm telling you, there's a sweetness in Christ. We find him sweet to the taste. We find him, oh, beautiful. And we find Christ as someone that we can feed upon and feast on and enjoy. The Jews did not like the taste of the manna. In fact, they said on one occasion, our soul loatheth this light bread. That's what they said. Give us the leeks and the garlics of Egypt. I can guarantee you, even if I was backslidden, I wouldn't be desiring leeks and garlic. I can assure you 100%. But I'll tell you this. They loathe that light bread. It was a type of Christ. Any wonder God sent fiery serpents among them. Commentators who are critics of the Bible will say, what a dirty bully God is. Just because they didn't like the manna, he sent fiery serpents and he killed them. And he's a dirty bully, a God like that I don't want to know. That's what they're saying. But I'll tell you something, here's the truth. These people despised Christ. That's why he punished them. It's a type of what will happen to the sinner when they loathe the gospel, when they hate Christ, and they die without Christ, and they will not gather the manna, and they will not feed on the manna, they will not seek Christ for salvation. And the Bible tells me that the end of that Christ-rejecter's life, that loathing of the gospel, that hating of Christ, will bring eternal sarness, no satisfaction in hell. pictures Christ not only in its sweetness and all the rest, but it pictures Christ in its sufficiency. If you notice in verse 18, look what it says in verse 18, And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered much has nothing over, and he He that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. Let's say you got up early that morning, you got out of your tent, and you entered in, and there was the man lying around the camp, and you started gathering handfuls of it, and you say to yourself, I seem to have gathered more than I really need, and a bit of greed sets in, and you gather armfuls of it, and you put it into a basket or some container, or you put it as a woman would do in her apron, or somebody else comes along with children, and they're bringing it back to the tent. He that gathered much, Nothing left over. And let's say you didn't get up in time, and all of a sudden the sun was about to rise, and the manna would then be melted, and you needed to gather, and you didn't get it gathered, and it melted, and you're only a small handful, and you have a family of about seven or eight, or maybe 12 to feed. When you come in, it was still sufficient. He that gathered much had nothing over. He that gathered little had no lack. I'm telling you, it's a beautiful picture of Christ, isn't it? There's a sufficiency in Christ. He can meet your every need. It matters little how small that need is or how big that need is. Christ is sufficient. Christ is all you need. I'm telling you, you don't need to add to Christ. You don't need to take away from Christ. There is a sufficiency in Christ that meets you at the point of your need. And He's all sufficient to those who repent and believe in Him. It pictures Christ also and what it was subjected to. You need to turn over to the book of Numbers, and we'll move on very quickly. Book of Numbers in the chapter 11, please. Turn over to the book of Numbers in the chapter 11. You'll see exactly what the Lord is saying here in the type. Numbers chapter 11. Look at verse 8 with me. Numbers chapter 11 and verse 8. And we read there, And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans." Underline those words, what they did to the manna. They gathered it, but they ground it, and then they beat it, and then they baked it. That's exactly what the manna was subject to. And it's a picture of Christ and what it was subjected to. Because our Lord Jesus Christ Think of what happened to him. Christ was crushed. He was literally pounded by the wrath of God. Christ was crushed under the burden and weight of our sin. He was beaten by sinful and wicked men. And after man in their cruelty had done their worst to the body of Christ, then lifted up was he to die. And he was baked in the oven of divine wrath and the fiery judgment of God upon our sin. Think of his rejection. Think of His betrayal. Think of His terrible, awful crucifixion. It's sweet calvary to you, but it's dark calvary to Him. Think of the blows and the bruises that Christ was inflicted upon by cruel and wicked men. He was smitten with the hand, bruised by the reed. He was spat upon. He was scourged, and we could elaborate. He was scorned by those He came to save. And then under the wrath of God for our sins as the perfect substitute, Christ was literally battered, beaten and ground to pulp. Death itself for your sins and mine. He was literally roasted as the lamb was to be in the type in the Passover feast. And so the manna was baked in the fiery oven. It was placed in there and the fire literally attacked the manna in order for it to produce what they needed to eat. And as a result of that, it's a type of Christ afflicted and smitten for our iniquities, wounded and pierced for our transgressions. He felt intense pain, real, literal pain, not mysterious. Not metaphorically speaking. He carried those sorrows in His heart. He bore the wrath of God upon His literal body. Deity upheld His humanity on the cross as the second Adam. He restored to us in His death all that the first Adam had lost. Christ could say, is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold and see. If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of this fierce anger. And the hymn-reader penned those beautiful words, man of sorrows, what a name! For the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a Saviour, bearing shame. scoffing rude. In my place condemned he stood, beaten, battered, and baked in the oven of divine wrath, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Do you know him? Is he your savior tonight? We not only have thought of the description, I want you to think secondly and quickly of the descent of the manna. If your Bible's open at chapter 11 of the book of Numbers, then look at verse 9, the descent of the manna. And when the Jew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. Remember, God is building the picture of his dear son. You notice that it came down from heaven. It tells us when the Jew fell, the manna came. The Jew falls from heaven in that process of how God watered the earth in the beginning. The Jew is there. It mysteriously comes. It has a descent, and it comes in the night season. We'll see that in a moment. But it comes from heaven. You see, the Israelites did not export this manna and this bread from Egypt. They did not go to some of the neighboring countries in Canaan and elsewhere that had the heathen, and says, we'd buy bread of you to sustain in the wilderness. Oh, no, they did not. It was a miracle provided by God to meet their need. It was something that God sent of his own accord. It was something that God gave to them, even though they didn't deserve it, and it came down from heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ, now listen to this, and I'll move on. Let the Lord Jesus Christ give the interpretation rather than me. In John's Gospel he says this, I quote, that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. So he's saying that manna sustained life, physical life, but I am the bread that gives eternal life, of which if you eat, you'll never die. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, the manna, Christ, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live. forever! Forever! And the bread that I give is my flesh. Do you see? Christ is saying, The bread that I give is my body. The crucifixion and judgment upon the cross. And I will give my life. That's the sharing of his blood. That's what it means, by the way. When we speak and preach on the sharing of the blood, we mean the pouring of a lovely, sinlessly perfect life out in death. And I will give for my life for the world. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. Christ has come to where we are. has come. Not only do we see in its description and in the declaration given concerning the manna, but we also see not only it came down from heaven, but it came down at night. That's significant, by the way. If we change the type here and we change the version and we change the wording and we simply say, well, it came first thing in the morning and first come, first served, that would ruin the type. The Bible makes it clear in the book of Numbers it came down through the night. Why the night? Why not first thing in the morning? Why not when the sun was about to rise and the light was there? Why not in the afternoon? Why not at stages throughout the day? Why through the night when they were sleeping, when they weren't looking for it? I'll tell you why. Because it's a type of Christ. Christ came into this world that's dark as night. Christ came into the world when it was at its darkest. A sin had risen to its pinnacle, and when Christ came, we know that it rose to its highest height in the crucifixion of God's dear Son. And so the people gathered the manna first thing in the morning because it fell in the night, and Christ came into the world when it was in darkness. And he says these words, I am, the light of the world." So it means the world's in darkness. It has no light apart from Christ. And when Christ came into this dark world, he came to bring light. And he is the light of the world. The lost sinner remains in darkness. The Bible tells us that. Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, speaks about those who are blinded, those who are in darkness. He's writing to the church at Ephesus, and he speaks about sinners being in darkness. And at such a time, in the darkness of man's sin, in the nighttime of man's rebellion, guess what? God sent forth his Son. The manna fell. Christ came, who's God blessed forevermore. Notice something in this description and declaration of the manna. It came down upon the Jew. Now, that's important. Numbers 11, verse 9 says, when the Jew fell. Now, that's the order. That's important. The Jew fell and the manna fell on top of the Jew. It's as though God put out a tablecloth. Can you imagine going to someone's house, maybe tonight, Maybe a farmyard. Hopefully this doesn't happen. And there, there's a chicken walking about the table. It's not a chicken goujon. It's actually a live chicken. And you can see that it's missed the whole table. And there's a cat up on the table. And you can see that there's hers all over the table as well. Is that your table I'm describing? Sorry about that. And then you look at it, and you say, there's gravy stain. There's a spud. I don't know where it's from, this week or last. There's something there, and it has a bit of blue mold on it. It's like fungus cream on the table. And they say to you, I'll make you a sandwich. And they set it on the table with no plate. Now listen, if you go into that same house, even though the table's like that, and you put a beautiful tablecloth over it, it covers it all, doesn't it? When you put the food on it, it's sitting on a tablecloth, no matter how dirty the table is. Well, God put a tablecloth down, the Jew, in the manna phial. You see, it speaks that Christ is without corruption. The bread didn't fall upon the dust. The dust speaks of corruption. God said to Adam, dust thou art. Unto dust shalt thou return. And Christ was not like Adam. He's the second Adam. He's sinlessly perfect, and he always will be. He's without corruption, and the Bible says in Psalm 16, verse 11, or in that Psalm 16, he says, he will not suffer his holy one to see corruption, neither the body nor the blood. nor the person of our Lord Jesus Christ saw corruption, not even in the grave. God preserved the body of his dear Son, and he preserved the type in causing the Jew to come first, and for the manna to fall upon the Jew. Dust or dirt remains as of our corrupt humanity, remains as of the filthiness of this earth. You don't set things down on a dirty ground and then feed upon it, no. You set the cloth down even when you're having a picnic, knowing that you cover the dirt. And God covered the earth with the dew. And then the manna fell. It's a beautiful picture of the Spirit of God who brings to us, I believe, Christ, the sinful, fallen, rebellious man. Furthermore, it came down in the wilderness. Exodus 16 and verse 1, it tells us they entered into the wilderness of sin. The descent of this manna, we not only have its description, but the descent, it literally came down in the wilderness. Now think of that, in the wilderness. It was in the place where, literally, there was a hostile environment. There's little groves in the wilderness, there's little life in the wilderness, and it speaks of the wilderness of this world. And Christ came into a hostile world. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. He came not only to a hostile world, but did he not come to a rebellious people? Because it came down to rebels? Because the Bible tells us there in the wilderness, they rebelled against God, and after they rebelled against God, and they literally cried out against God and Moses, and they were going to stone Him, God sent the manna. So it came to a hostile world, and it came to rebels. How beautiful the type is! Christ came into a world that is sinful, that is rebellious, and He comes to a people that are sinners and are rebels from Him, and yet He sends the manna to sustain them and to feed them. And it came to where they were. Remarkable, isn't it? You didn't have to travel a hundred miles to get the manna. You didn't have to go to the borders of the wilderness of sin. You didn't have to get up at four in the morning, or three in the morning, and trek right across the wilderness in search of this manna. All you had to do was open your tent door, and it was in front of you. The manna came to where the people were. There was no traveling, no journey to be made. As we see children in East Africa now, and other places that are war-torn, traveling tens, 20, 30 miles just to get water, carrying it upon their heads, carrying it in their arms, and bringing other instruments to carry that water. And there they are, traveling for miles to get the water, but not the manna. The manna fell exactly where the people were. And let me tell you something, what a tape it is. Christ is accessible. You don't have to go to Israel. You don't have to go to Mecca. You don't have to go to Lourdes. You don't have to go to any of those places in order to find Christ. You don't have to climb the mountain and croak Patrick. You don't have to climb Donard in your bare feet. You don't have to do this, that, and the other, and wait in some production line until you establish righteousness and morality. God will accept you. I'm telling you, Christ is accessible. He's here in Drumore tonight. He's come to where you are. The manna is outside your heart's door. And all you've got to do, sinner, is get up. You gather that manna by faith. You have finally not only the description and descent of the manna, but you have the declaration concerning the manna. In Exodus 16 and verse 16, we read various things about the manna, but if you notice there in verse three, it was gathered out of a sense of need. These people needed this manna. They had nothing else. If they ever wanted to live, they needed the manna. I'll not labor the point, but you'll understand. We're living in a world of unsatisfied and spiritual hunger. There's nothing in this world can satisfy but Christ. And even Isaiah says, why do you spend money for that which does not satisfy? And come, buy milk, bread from me without price, without money. It was gathered, if you notice, in verse 16 by the stooping of the knees. Now, that's important. Why was the manna not literally falling on top of little bushes and shrubs and trees? If there were trees in the wilderness, or even if there was some tree growing, why did it not fall on something that was tall that you just had to reach up and get it? Why on the ground? You had to stoop. You had to bend the knee. You couldn't gather the manna any other way. without stooping. I guarantee you, no matter how much money you have in your purse, no matter what size of the 5, 20 or 50 pound note that you drop, I guarantee you just standing like this, you will never pick that 50 pound up. No matter how much you strain, you'll pull a muscle in every part of your body of your state as I am to get that 50 pound. You might even try to lift it with your toes and get it up. Now if you've done that, very good, because I couldn't do that, but you'd have to stoop. get down on your knees. That's a type of the sinner receiving Christ. You cannot receive Christ high and mighty. You cannot receive Christ in the heights of self-righteousness and morality. You stoop down. You've got to kneel. You've got to bow the knee. You've got to repent of your sin, acknowledge you're a sinner, and come by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. Could I say in closing that it was gathered early? In other words, there came a time when the manna wasn't available. If you decided in your tent to lie on in your bed, And the children says, mom, you need to get up and gather that manna. Give me a few more moments in bed. In fact, tell your father to go and get it. And he says, no, I'm tired. I didn't get to sleep last night and I'm not well. I'm not getting up. And the children refused to go. And someone says, well, if the sun comes up, it'll melt. You needed to gather it early. And if they didn't do that, then suddenly they all fell asleep, and they overslept, they suddenly got up, and they saw other people grinding it, and beating it, and baking it, and other people having their breakfast, and they go out to look for it, they go for miles as those did on the Sabbath day and found it not. And there's no manna. And they were told by other people, why did you not get up? You were told that when the sun rises, the manna melts. Whatever's left, whatever we haven't gathered, it melts. The sun melts it. You needed to be up. You needed to be up early. And I'm telling you, that entire family would starve that day. Because remember this, they gathered it for families, and they only had enough for their family. He that gathered little had enough for their family. He that gathered much couldn't share it with anybody else, for they had nothing left over to share it. It had to be gathered early. And I'm telling you, you need to come to Christ tonight. You need to come before the sun of death, judgment, or the Lord's second coming rises upon your soul. You need to come to Christ now, for behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Get up, sinner, and gather the manna. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we take this opportunity to give Thee thanks for a sense of the divine presence. How grateful we are, Lord, for the wonderful types preserved in our Bible. We thank Thee, O God, that it's a dangerous thing to change these types, and we thank Thee for Lord, preserving them for us, that we might be able to look at them, preach upon them, and feed upon them, and see afresh thy blessed Son, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we praise thee, Lord, for the message of the manna. We thank thee, O God, for Christ, who is the bread of life. And we pray that individuals might come to him and feed on him by faith. We pray they might repent of their sin, that they might confess that sin, they might turn from it, They may believe that Christ died for them on the cross. They may receive him into their heart and into their life as their own and personal Saviour, and that Christ would enter in and give to them eternal life. So, hear our prayer just now. And Lord, remember us as we leave the house. May we do so prayerfully. and very carefully pondering the things that we have heard. Bless the activities of the house this incoming week. Remember especially the congregation in the absence of the under-shepherd. Go before thy servants this incoming week, and the weeks that lie to hand, we offer prayer with thanksgiving in the Saviour's precious and worthy name. Amen.