Doing good. A little nervous? Something a little different? Always nervous. Been teaching Sunday school for a while, but always nervous that I'm going to mess something up or get something out of context and not share the Word of God, for it is the Word of God. That's how I always want to share it. I'm going to open up with a word of prayer this morning. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 16, pretty much going through the whole chapter. So I'm not going to ask you to stand while we read the whole chapter. I'm going to open up with a word of prayer, and we're going to get started. Father in heaven, Lord, we bow before you in your precious name of Christ, Lord. Lord, we thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for the opportunity, Lord, to share your word. Lord, I ask you to just be merciful, Lord, and show grace, Lord, to me, Lord. Use me as your mouthpiece, Father. Let it not be about me, Lord, but about you and your word, Lord, that it would bring you honor and glory, Father. Lord, I ask that I'd say nothing that would disappoint you, Lord, or be against you in any way, Lord, that all I would do would be to glorify you, Lord. Thank you for meeting with us here today in Christ's name. Amen. The title of the message is, Are We Content with Heavenly Manna? So I looked up this word, manna, and in the Old Testament it's number 4478 of the Hebrew in the Strong's Concordance. In the New Testament it's number 3131 of the Greek in the Strong's Concordance. It simply means food given by God to the generation of Exodus, the grain of heaven. Looked it up in the Webster's 1828 edition of the dictionary, and it's defined as a substance miraculously furnished as food for the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia. Notice this says miraculously, something provided by God. We can only look at it as a miracle. And the Bible states in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11, Now all these things happen unto them for examples, for they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world come. Here we see that the Word of God is written for our examples in the Old Testament. For the Jeremy mentioned in Sunday School who's been teaching in the Old Testament a while, since he's been in the New Testament. And he used this verse to launch his study in Malachi. that those things are written for our examples. That's what we're going to see here in Exodus chapter 16. We're going to read verses 1-12 and expand on those. I've kind of broken it down into a few sections. In Exodus chapter 16 and verse 1, it says, And they took their journey from Elam, and all the congregations of the children of Israel came unto 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 it, 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 bread to be full, For ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or no. And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At eve, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt. And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord. For that he 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 in the evening flesh to eat, and in 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. And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto 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 Israel, or the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying at eve, ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God." And here in these verses in 1 through 12, it starts off in In verse 1, it kind of tells us where they are. It tells us it's the 15th day of the second month. So on average, they've been in the wilderness now for about six weeks. And we see that they start murmuring. They think about the food and things that they had in Egypt. And they're wondering now that they've consumed up all that they could carry with them out of the land of Egypt. And so they start thinking back, even though they were slaves, that the Egyptians provided food water, a place for them to live. They start thinking fleshly. They forget about their spiritual well-being. They start thinking that we're going to die. Why did the Lord bring us out here? Why did we follow you out into this wilderness as opposed to look what the Lord delivered us from? The Lord delivered them from the bondage of slavery, which is a type and picture of sin. Delivered them from the famines and diseases that He spread on the Egyptians until they were released. But they forgot about those things. They were more concerned with their fleshly needs. So they started to murmur and complain. Why are we out here? Why did we leave our comfort? All the things that they were used to, and now it's something new. Even though at this point, by this point in their journey, they saw the Lord open the Red Sea. Mighty walls of water on their right hand and on their left, the Bible says. Blew a wind and dried the ground that they walked across on dry land. I don't believe they got a speck of mud on their sandals or their feet. Because the Bible says it was dry. I think they got dust on their sandals and their feet. But they forgot about those things and then he closed up the sea on Pharaoh and his army so that they couldn't chase after them. They forgot about these miracles that they had saw of God. So they started murmuring and complaining. They lost their faith. Brother Jeremy talked about faith. In Sunday school, Brother Jimmy talked about being in unity. What happened with all these Jews? And I read the number and I didn't write it down and I forget how many it said of men there were. So there had to be, and I remember thinking there had to be somewhere close to a million people walking around in the wilderness with Moses and Aaron. Brother Jimmy corrected me. He's telling me it's two. Okay, I didn't study enough. I apologize. But there was like 650,000 men. So you count their families, that's a lot of people. And the Lord provided, He let them bring enough stuff with them to provide for six weeks. I couldn't imagine, as y'all can see, I like to eat as much as I eat. I couldn't imagine I could pack six weeks worth of stuff on my back to carry out with me into the wilderness. But they started thinking fleshly, and they forgot about those things. They lost their faith that God could provide. They lost their things. They started thinking about what they had, what they could provide for themselves, what they had in their own hands. They forgot that God's a good keeper of His storehouse. That His storehouse is never empty. They were ungrateful. They started to be ungrateful for what God had delivered them from and they concentrate on the here and now. Was in a trial all of a sudden and wanted to throw themselves a pity party. But, they complained to Moses. God heard their murmurings and He told Moses, it's okay, I'm going to provide. Miraculously, that only He is able. Brother Jeremy talked about could we understand. I couldn't imagine waking up tomorrow morning and there's food in my front yard. I couldn't possibly fathom that could happen. The Bible teaches us it can happen because the Lord can and He did it here in Exodus. But I couldn't imagine just walking down to the front porch and picking up something that I can eat. That I want to eat that would be good for me. There might be something out there I could pick up that probably wouldn't be good for me to eat. But something that the Lord provided overnight while I slept. You know, but as I looked at this, I happened to think, you think about it, we get up, we walk to a cabinet that we open our refrigerator. Who provided? The Lord did. Sometimes in our flesh, you know, as being a man, the head of the household, I want to say I work and provide for my family. Only because the Lord allows. Only because the Lord provides a job, He provides a wage, He provides a grocery store that we can go buy groceries at. only by and through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Psalms 78, verses 17-19, it references this. The Bible says this. I won't make you flip, but it's going to read through the verses. You can write them down if you want to look at them later. Starting in verse 17 of Psalms 78, it says, And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. In verse 18, and they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Verse 19 says, yeah, they spake against God. They said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? You know, how many times do we get down in our trials and throw ourselves a pity party and we want to question God? God, can you help me? God, did you throw me out here in the wilderness like the Israelites all alone? Or, I am out here in the wilderness and I'm all alone. How many times do we say, we know you can provide even though we are out here all alone. Even though we think we're out there all alone with no provisions. He can always provide. I'm going to continue in Exodus chapter 16. It says, starting in verse 13, it says, And it came to pass that at eve the quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna. For they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omar for every man, according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for them which are in his tents. As the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. And when they did meet in which an omar, he that gathered much had nothing over. He that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses. But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered every morning every man according to his eating. And when the sun waxed hot, it melted." And here we see, starting off in verse 13, it talks about the quails coming near the camp. I know there's a lot of us in here that like to hunt. I don't do a whole lot of bird hunting, but what little bit I have done, they hard to hit. Typically, it's not easy to gather those quails. It depends on how many people they had in their tent they were trying to feed. That really wasn't an easy task. But the Bible doesn't say that those quails were in the wilderness and they had to go hunt them. It says they came to the camp. They were easy. They were roundabout. They were easy for them to kill and provide meat for their family. Even though a few verses earlier, they were wondering if God could provide. If I could walk out in my front yard and pick up a quail and wring his neck, God provided. Because I'm too fat to chase him down, and I'd be out of breath by the time he took flight. So I definitely couldn't chase him until he quit flying. But God provided that I could put my hands on him. And that's what they see here. It talks about them gathering. The manna came down in the dew and the manna could be ground into a meal or beaten into a mortar. I had to look up that word mortar. I wasn't sure what that was. It's a vessel of wood or metal in the form of an inverted veil that a substance is pounded or bruised with a pedestal so that they could bake it and make cakes and feed their families out of it. But notice some of them still didn't have that faith in God's storehouse or God's ability to provide. Because it said, gather what you need to feed your house. And I paraphrase, not the exact wording, but gather what you need to feed yourself and your family. But they didn't do that. Some of them did, but some of them didn't. Some of them gathered more than what they needed. And what does it teach us to happen? It bred worms and it stank. It wasn't no good the next day. It wasn't fit for them to eat. When they didn't trust that God would provide tomorrow morning and thought they had to provide for themselves, thought they had to get in the flesh and do their own thing and not obey God, it didn't work out like they thought. How many of us are guilty of that? I can tell you I am. Every time I think I can handle it on my own, that's the first thought that I goofed up on. That's the one I need to go back and repent of and ask God to do it because that's right where I messed up. It all goes crazy from there. There's a few things in this little passage that we were taught here. One is to be diligent in providing food for our household. God's bounty leaves room for man's duty. God's bounty in providing for them in the wilderness left a duty that He told them to do. Only to gather what you needed when you need it. Don't try to store your own. Depend on Me. What is one of our biggest responsibilities in Christianity? Trust and faith in Him. Salvation by grace through faith. If we don't have any responsibility to look to Him and we're always looking at ourselves, unless you're a lot better off than I am, I assure you, you're going to mess up. Because I will. But we have to look to Him. Next is to be content. To be content with enough. Be content that God has provided and that we have enough. Boy, that's kind of contrary to what we see in this world today, right? This world today teaches us that bigger, better, shinier, faster, the more the merrier. That wasn't what we saw the Israelites here in the wilderness when they thought the more the merrier, it's full. Overnight. Pretty quick. But when they thought they had to have more to be better off, or if I'm a little bit skinnier, a little bit in better shape, I can run around the wilderness and gather two baskets instead of the one that I need, and I'll have extra. Or maybe they were thinking they could be lazy and sleep late the next day and not have to gather. I'm not sure. The Bible doesn't tell me what they were thinking. But the Bible taught that only together, and it ruined. When they thought they could gather more and more was better, it wasn't. The third thing, trust in God. to provide from his resources. Trust that he manages his storehouse to never run out. He can always provide for us. And my note there is that we saw the ones that gathered more. It melted. It went away. Another lesson that I thought about as I studied this as well is that it talked about the man of being there when the dude was gone. They had to get up early and pursue after what God provided. Think about the times in the New Testament where it teaches us that Christ got up early and got with the Father. So this is an example of where He taught them they had to get up early. You couldn't sleep until noon and wait until it was 100 degrees outside because it teaches that it melted. It was gone. So then you couldn't gather bread to feed your family. You couldn't gather to eat. They'd have been murmuring again. There's also a reference to this in Psalm 78 verses 23 through 29. And the Bible says this. though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of heaven. Verse 24. And it rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Verse 25. Man did eat angels' food. He sent them meat to the full. Verse 26. He caused an east wind to blow into heaven, and by His power He brought in the south wind. Verse 27, He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. Verse 28, And He let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their habitations. And verse 29, So they did eat and were filled, for He gave them their own desire. Even though they murmured and complained, He still gave them what they desired. And I hate to use that, what they desired in their own lust, because so many times we see that twisted and turned in our world today, that God wants to give you the desires of your heart, but only when they line up with His. Only when we study and we're in His Word, and we realize what His will is for our life, and we draw an eye to Him and He draws an eye to us and gives us that direction, our desires have to line up with His or it's not going to be what we want. We're not going to wake up and think that we want something this world system tells us we're supposed to have and all of a sudden it's sitting in the front yard tomorrow. I don't see it working that way. The Bible doesn't teach us that it works that way. Next we're going to look back in Exodus chapter 16 and verses 22 through 31. Starting in verse 22, And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omars for one man. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake today, and seeth that ye will seeth. And that which remaineth over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up to the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people, and on the seventh day for together, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day, and the house of Israel called the name thereof manna. And it was like corander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." And here we see that God gave them enough in six days to protect the Sabbath day. And we see that some of them followed what the Lord said and they gathered enough on day six that they could bake it and have it left over to the seventh on the Sabbath day. Notice the difference whenever they gathered it before to keep it for tomorrow, and it was of themselves. And when they obeyed the Lord on the sixth day and gathered two for tomorrow. It lasted. It was still good the next day. It says it didn't stink or it didn't have worms in it. So it lasted when they obeyed the Lord. When they obeyed the Lord, it was right. When they thought of their own and their own flesh, it wasn't. And it didn't work out as they thought. So we see here that God did that so He could preserve the Sabbath day. So they didn't have to go out and gather. They could spend that day as a holy day reverencing the Lord. The same reason we're all here today. A day of the week to set aside for us to observe the Holy God of Heaven. To honor and glorify Him. Try to put off the things of this world, the cares of this world, and be focused solely on the Lord. He tells them He didn't want them to go out. Let me find my place here. See, the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. The Lord provided so they didn't have to go out and gather this matter of work on that day. They could be focused on Him. Next we're going to look at verses 31 through 36. And the house of Israel called the name there of manna, and it was like corander seed white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded Phil and Ober of it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread wherein I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot and put an omar full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord. to be kept for your generations. And the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat manna 40 years until they came to the land inhabited. They did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Now, an omar is a tenth part of an ephraim. It tells us here that they were in the wilderness for 40 years and God provided this manna for 2 million people. That's a lot of manna to rain from heaven. That's a lot for the Lord to have stored up, to manage His storehouse and His resources so that He didn't run out. Do you ever think that somewhere along those 40 years, God might have had to rain less one day so He could provide for the next? No. God's sovereign. He always knows exactly what He's doing. He always knows exactly what's best for us, even when we think we know what's best for us. Usually when I think I know best, that's when I goof up. When I look to Him, I find out, yeah, He knows best. And we see in these verses, He told Moses and Aaron to take up an Omar so that it could be remembered throughout your generations. There's a lot of miracles a lot of mercies that God shows for us to remember throughout His Word. He has those things written. He inspired men to write those so that they would be put there for our remembrance. We also see here, it talks about the manna from heaven. The Word of God is manna for our souls. We see this in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 4. After Christ has fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, we see that the devil came through and tempted Him to turn some stones into bread. And I'm sure most of us are thinking in our flesh, 40 days and 40 nights, that's a long time to go without food. If I could, I might return anything into food at that point so I could eat it. Here we see Christ is tempted. Had the power to do so. He could have easily just said, hey, I need some food. Probably could have called some angels to bring him food. The Bible doesn't tell us all that, but we know He has all power. He's in control of everything. But here's how Christ answered the devil. In Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4, the Bible says, But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. How do we know the words that proceeded out of the mouth of God? by His Word, recorded by inspired men in His Book. What does the Bible teach us is the Word. You see that in John chapter 1, it teaches that Christ is the Word. I'm going to ask you to flip to John chapter 6 with me. We're going to look at some verses in John chapter 6. We're going to start in verse 31. I'm going to read down through verse 35 and then we're going to skip and look at verse 47-58. In John 6, verse 31, it says, Our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Here we see it written, we see it written to remember it's a miracle that God provided. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not the 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. Then said they unto Him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. And he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Here in these few verses, we see Christ referenced back to the manna that the Father gave their fathers in the wilderness. miraculous, something to be remembered, something to be counted. But then he tells them there's something even better. There's a bread of life sent from heaven that my Father giveth the true bread from heaven. Not just a manna or the bread for your body, but something to feed your soul. Something that we all, this is the bread that we have to have for salvation. He goes on in verse 35 and says, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Doesn't mean right there that he's going to provide us bread and water every day. That's a spiritual hunger and a spiritual thirst. We may thirst after righteousness, but where is that provided? From Christ, from His Word. provided to us from that bread from heaven. John chapter 6, starting in verse 47. It says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, 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. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Barely, barely, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Brother Jerry made a reference to this in Sunday School of what we're saved for, wrath or the condemnation, eternal death. We need Christ to overcome eternal death. Without Christ, it's going to be eternal death, eternal torments. I've got a few bullet points to read through. It's God the Father who gave their fathers the food from heaven to support their natural lives. Now Jesus was telling him that the Father gives them the true bread of salvation for their souls. Christ shows that He is the true bread. He is to the soul what bread is to the body. He sustains it. He nourishes it. He keeps us on the right path. The bread which the Father gives, we is made, is food for our soul, which nourishes only the powers of the living body. But Christ is Himself a living bread and nourishes by His own power, which nourishes us, keeps us, feeds us daily, reveals to us things in His Word that we can live, gives us an example to live by. He is the bread which came down from heaven, also denotes the divinity of Christ's person and His authority. Also the divine origin, of all the good which flows through him. We see that when he denotes that he is the bread from heaven, he is the true bread that came down from heaven. It shows his defined nature to us. The advantage of the man in the wilderness was small and only referred to this life. Only gave them nourishment in their flesh like bodies. But the living bread is so excellent that the man who feedeth on it shall never die." If we feed on the living bread of Christ, we shall have life eternal. This bread is Christ's human nature, which He took to present to the Father as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, to purchase all things pertaining to life and godliness for the sinner of every nation who repent and believe in Him. The flesh and the blood of the Son of Man denotes that He's a Redeemer in nature. that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. So His body had to be broken and He had to bleed. And thank God He did for us. Where would we be without Him? Shows His divine nature as a Redeemer. Christ and Him crucified in redemption, brought by Him with all the precious benefits of redemption, pardon of sins, acceptance with God, the way to the throne of grace, the promises of the covenants, and eternal life. With Christ's flesh being purchased by the breaking of His body and the shedding of blood, because they are meat and drink of our souls. And in closing, I just have a question for us. We saw the man in the Old Testament. We saw the Israelites murmur and complain. They weren't content. Some gathered more than what they should. They didn't trust in God that He would provide tomorrow. We see an example here in John chapter 6 in the New Testament of Christ that God provided, sufficient for us. But are we content with that heavenly man that God has sent for us? Christ. Perfect life. Crucified. Buried. Risen again. Ever living to make a better session for us.