Music
One more after this I think 63 what a day that will be
Music
Song 63 on that first
There is coming a day
When no heartache shall come
No more clouds in the sky
No more tears to dim the eye
Peace forevermore on that happy golden shore
What a day, glorious day that will be
What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
And I look upon his face
The one who saved me by his grace
When he takes me by the hand
And leads me through the promised land
What a day, glorious day that will be
For the last
Highly
Jesus loves me
187
Good save, good save
Song 187, Jesus Loves Me
Music
Sing it there on the first
Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong
They are weak but he is strong
Yes, Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so
Good afternoon, welcome to Foundation Baptist Church.
Let's take our bulletins and go hear some announcements.
All right.
Do we have any bulletins left?
Does anybody need a bulletin?
Besides children?
All right.
On our front cover we have our verse of the week.
It says her children arise and call her blessed.
Her husband also and he prays with her.
That is a happy Mother's Day verse for you there, ladies.
Hope we've had a good day.
I know the pizza was good.
It's been a long time since I had round tables.
It was great.
Put me in a pizza coma.
That's good.
Anyway, on our bulletin on the inside cover we have our service times.
Our Sunday morning service is 10.30 a.m.
Our Sunday evening service is 3.30 p.m.
We'll be in Exodus chapter 16 tonight.
And our Thursday Bible study is at 6.30 p.m.
We'll be in Hebrews 12.
So many times we'll listen to the bulletins.
Does anybody have a salvation out there today?
One, two, amen.
Praise God.
I heard it was a little rough on one of the other groups.
Great.
Praise God for two more salvations.
Great job, everybody.
There's other Soloning times you can choose through the week there.
And we also have the new church plant in Seattle.
And they had eight salvations yesterday out Soloning.
So they're tearing it up.
They're knocking us around.
But we're still doing really well.
But God's really blessing that new church plant.
And a lot of people up there are getting saved.
We have new families visiting.
So it's been a blessing.
But once again, happy Mother's Day.
I hope you enjoyed your day and the tasers.
Is there any moms in here that did not
get a taser that still need one?
No?
You can practice on your husbands at home
and make sure that they work.
When they take their socks off and don't throw them
in the dirty clothes hamper or whatever.
I'm kidding.
All right, so upcoming events.
We have the church workday.
That'll be at 10.30 a.m.
Saturday.
So if you're here, I'm only asking
that people stay for a couple hours.
So we need all hands on deck to get this done.
We can get it done really fast.
We have a lot of people.
Many hands make light work.
It's a true saying.
So I'd appreciate it if you come out and help do something here.
And we're just trying to get the final touches
before the conference the week after next.
So anyway, the conference is coming up.
I don't know if y'all know about that, May 25th or 28th.
We got the hats in today.
They look really nice.
Kelly, will you bring me that hat that was sitting there,
right there?
And the t-shirts, but I didn't.
My door's locked, so I can't grab the t-shirts.
But if you want to see them after church,
you're more than welcome to.
These are the King James conference hats.
So anybody that RSVPs gets one, you snooze, you lose.
If you don't, if you don't, you know, I'm just kidding.
Well, we should have plenty, hopefully.
But if you want to guarantee that you get a hat or a t-shirt,
then you got RSVP.
So anyway, so I need the size for the ladies, too,
when you're RSVPing.
Just email the church or text our number, 360-718-3834.
And let me know who's coming, how many are coming.
And so the hats and t-shirts are for teenagers and up.
So 13 to however old Methuselah is
are able to reserve one.
So anyway, we'll have lots of stuff for the kids, too.
So don't worry.
We're not shafting the kids this time either.
So they're just going to get some different stuff.
So anyhow, we got that going on.
We got Thursday, Pastor Shelley preaching.
Friday, Pastor Anderson's preaching.
Saturday, Pastor Jimenez is preaching.
Sunday morning, Pastor Jones is preaching.
And then I'll be preaching Sunday evening.
And so that's coming up.
And if you want to help out with anything,
you're more than welcome to do that with the decorating
or anything like that.
Just come talk to me, and I'll find something for you to do.
And June 6 is the men's leadership class.
June 9 through 12 is the trip to Winnipeg.
If you're wanting to go to that, just see me
and we can talk about it.
There's going to be a Sony marathon up there
in the ordination of Brother Jim Webb as the evangelist.
June 17 is the annual men's shooting event.
And then Father's Day after that,
Pastor Anderson's coming to preach for us.
So while whoever's at the Red Hot Preaching Conference
is still going to get Red Hot Preaching here.
So who's planning on staying and not going to the Red Hot
Preaching Conference?
Would you raise your hand?
All right.
Well, the frozen chosen will be here.
And Pastor Anderson will blow the fire on you anyway.
So you'll still get the coals kindled that night.
So he is still preaching at the conference.
He's just preaching on Sunday.
I think he's preaching Sunday morning at the conference.
So let's mix it up a little.
This is the seventh Red Hot Preaching Conference.
It's been that long.
Yes, you're getting that old.
So great conference to go to.
I highly recommend it.
All the other stuff I'm going to skip through
because the announcements went too long last time.
So if you don't know, read the bulletin.
All right.
Let's sing another song.
We'll receive the offering.
All right.
Our next song will be song 144 in your Green Hymn books,
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
Song number 144, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
Song 144.
Let's sing it together on the first.
A mighty fortress is our God.
Abort, never failing.
Our helper, he amid the flood.
Of mortal hells prevailing.
For still our ancient foe.
Dost seek to work us both.
His craft and power are great.
And armed with cruel hate.
On earth is not his equal.
Then we in our own strength confide.
Our striving would be losing.
We're not the right man on our side.
A man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be.
Christ Jesus, it is me.
Lord, survey of his name.
From age to age the same.
And he must win the battle.
And though this world with devils fill.
Should threaten to undo us.
We will not fear for God hath will.
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grip.
We tremble not for him.
His rage we can endure.
For lo, his doom is sure.
One little word shall fail him.
That word above all earthly powers.
No thanks to them abideth.
The spirit and the gifts are ours.
Through him who with the slightest.
Let goods and kindreds go.
This mortal life also.
The body they may kill.
God's truth abideth still.
His kingdom is forever.
Amen. Good to see you brother.
Alex, could you bless your offering for us?
Thank you, my brother and father.
I'm just trying to take care of you.
I'm just trying to do this opportunity to serve you.
We ask you to bless and gift from the giver.
We pray for your work.
We pray for your kingdom.
And I do pray for heaven.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you.
Alright, go ahead and open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 16.
Exodus chapter 16, if you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible under the seat in front of you.
Exodus 16.
Exodus 16, the Bible reads, and they took their journey from Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came under the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and when we did eat bread to the 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 the children of Israel at even, 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 the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.
And it came to pass that at even the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the oar frost on the ground.
And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna, for they wish 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, and omer for every man according to the number of your persons.
Take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.
And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.
They gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left it until the morning.
And it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them.
And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating.
And when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man.
And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord 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 see it, and that which remaineth overlay up for you to be kept until the morning.
And they laid it up till 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 the 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 on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.
Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
So the people rested on the seventh day.
And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it was like a 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, fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations,
that they may see the bread whereeth 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 omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.
As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be kept.
And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited.
They did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephod.
Brother Robert, we pray for you.
Amen.
All right, we're in Exodus chapter 16.
If you remember last week, we dealt with the song of Moses, and we also kind of found out that Moses wrote a couple other songs.
And his one in Deuteronomy 32 is definitely worthy of the top 40 up in heaven at some point.
So it's not going to get on the radio here, but Moses definitely had some good songs that he wrote, Psalm 90.
And basically he rehearsed that song and taught the children of Israel that song after their great victory that God gave them, of course, at the Red Sea.
And so the children of Israel are free. Now they're moving on to the wilderness.
And a lot of times when we're in the wilderness or when we're lacking things is when people start to lack faith and they start to complain.
And so this is where you, I mean, they complained already once, pretty badly.
And it seems like every time they complain, God does answer what they're asking for.
But the way that they ask for it, the way that they go about it is kind of like a spoiled brat, if you've noticed.
And, you know, sometimes parents will even give in to our children, even if they're being a spoiled brat.
And, you know, we shouldn't do that. But at the same time, they still got to eat, they still got to drink.
You know, you can't starve them or whatever.
But, you know, we do got to deal with sometimes when our children are not, you know, when they rebel against us.
And they start early. They start like day one. Like, you know, they're already grumbling and telling mom what they want.
You know, that's how they do it. It's like, you know, I need that milk or whatever.
But that's the only way babies know how to communicate. I understand that.
But when they get older, they start to test your boundaries, you know.
And then you have to really have a firm hand with kids sometimes, especially the ones that are really just really rebellious.
They're just always, you know, they're always questioning why you do things.
And it seems like when kids become teenagers too, that's when they're like, well, why?
But why? It's just like, you don't need to know why. Just shut up and do what I said.
And that's kind of the attitude that God gets here sometimes with the children of Israel.
Let's look at verse number one. The title of the sermon tonight is The Bread from Heaven. The Bread from Heaven.
Exodus 16 one says, And they took their journey to Elam and the congregation of the children of Israel,
came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing of the land of Egypt.
So he gives us this time stamp. This is the fifteenth day and the second month after they've left Egypt.
So a couple months have passed, two and a half months have passed here.
And it says, And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
So it only took two and a half months for the honeymoon phase to be over, and now they're complaining again.
And they're complaining and they're in the, notice it says they're in the wilderness.
And the wilderness is a place that's hard to get water. It's hard to get food.
You have to really know what you're doing. Like you'll see those survival shows and things like that.
How they'll be in a jungle or whatever and they'll try to, they'll get water from certain sources or in the desert.
There are certain ways to find water that you can make your own little water finder sometimes.
And there's a lot of things that you can eat that you might not realize you can eat.
And apparently they haven't learned this yet, but again there's millions of people.
So even if there is some sort of resources in a scarce place, it's going to still be hard to find food and water for millions of people.
And they also have cattle and all the different animals that are with them.
So, I mean, I understand that people would be upset if they didn't have anything to drink or didn't have anything to eat.
So they're upset, but like I said, the way they go about it is not the right way.
Because if God can do all these miracles and God's promised to take care of them, he said,
I'm going to take you to the promised land, they kind of just have to be a little bit patient.
But what about just saying, hey Moses, will you talk to God for us and maybe find us a watering hole or just ask nicely.
But instead they're just complaining and they're murmuring.
And murmuring means when you're saying stuff under your breath, kind of.
You know, when someone, you could tell they're mad, you say something to them, they're...
You know, they just kind of, you can't hear what they're saying, but you know they're talking crap.
You know what I'm talking about? That's kind of what it is.
You're talking lowly so that not everybody can hear what you're saying, and it's complaining.
Verse 3, And the children of Israel said unto them,
Wood to God we had died at 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.
So here's the accusation, and here's the pity party.
You know, I wish God would have just killed us in Egypt, and you brought us out here to kill us.
And obviously that's not why God brought them out there.
But again, they're complaining. They're talking about the flesh pots,
obviously some kind of boiled meat that they're eating, and the bread to the full,
and you know, but they forget really quickly how that they were slaves in Egypt,
and that they were in hard bondage, and then when Moses came it was even worse.
So I guess they're just raring to just be enslaved by somebody again because they're complaining.
But you know, the things that really affect human beings the most is when they're without food,
and without water, and you can only live without water for like a few days.
And also depending on what environment you're in, you know, if you're burning lots of calories,
you're in a hot desert, you know, three days might be not, I mean you could die probably before that,
depending on how dehydrated you get, but just the sun itself will take you down.
But when you're hungry and you're thirsty, that's when people will start to act and do some weird things.
I mean, people, even when they're starving to death, they'll turn on each other and eat human beings.
I mean, it's happened. I mean, what is that, the...
Huh? The Donner Party. Yeah.
There was actually people that survived that whole winter without ever eating anybody,
but a lot of them did eat other people, and when they would die, they would just eat them.
It's pretty ghoulish, isn't it? But I mean, they were in the worst winter recorded in history.
Like, that winter was the worst recorded winter in history in the Sierra Nevadas.
And there was a ship, a canning ship that was trying, or not a canning ship,
but there were a ship just trying to make the Northwest Passage.
They were trying to find the route around so they didn't have to go all the way down past South America,
and they got frozen in the ice. They had three years' supply of food, and eventually,
I mean, the ship just never came unstuck. The winter was so bad that they just got stuck.
The ice never broke up, so they ended up abandoning the ship, and every single person,
I think it was like 300 sailors all died, every single one of them, because they ran out of food.
They had three years worth of food. That ran out. They were dead.
But, I mean, who knows what kind of, you know, things and bad things happen with that little story.
We don't know because nobody lived to tell the tale, so. But people will do some really drastic things,
and so right away, the first thing you're going to do is complain about the fact that you're hungry and thirsty.
You don't have anything to eat or drink. So, but notice that they're attacking Moses and Aaron,
and Moses and Aaron aren't the ones that necessarily brought them.
They were what God used to bring them out of Egypt, but that's not who brought them out of Egypt.
God very clearly, the Bible says, brought them out of Egypt.
And so they're having misplaced anger against the leadership.
They're just doing what God said, and they're just there to lead.
So, but they're, I mean, there's other chapters where they're ready to stone Moses and Aaron.
They're ready to kill them over some of this stuff.
But look at verse 4, it says,
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 known.
So, you have this term, bread from heaven.
Now, the Lord Jesus Christ claimed to be this bread that came down from heaven.
This is a bread that they actually ate for sustenance that God gave them.
But what did it represent?
It represented the fact that God was going to give the Son of God,
and He was going to come down from heaven,
and if you eat of Him, then you'll have everlasting life.
Now, the Catholic Church takes this really literally,
and then they do this hocus pocus or whatever.
When they do their communion, they say that when they do communion,
that the bread and the wine literally turn into the real body and real blood of Jesus.
And so, all the Catholics are cannibals in their minds, in their hearts.
I mean, because that's what they think it really literally is.
It's called transubstantiation, I think.
And that's where they think that the priest just transforms this stuff,
the elements, into the actual blood and body of Christ.
So, every Catholic that takes a drink of that, you know what they think?
They're drinking the real blood of Jesus.
They're eating the real body of Jesus.
And that's a spiritual thing.
And this is what happens when unsaved people rest the Scriptures to their own destruction,
is that they come up with these strange doctrines,
and we'll go ahead and turn over to John chapter 6,
and we'll see where Jesus teaches about this.
So, what is the bread that's being rained down from heaven?
It represents the fact that Jesus Christ is going to come for us,
and He is the bread of life.
He is the thing that sustains us into everlasting life.
John chapter 6, verse 29, the Bible says,
Jesus answered and said unto them,
This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent.
So, multiple times Jesus will tell people, especially in the book of John,
I was sent from heaven. I came from heaven. God sent me from heaven.
They said therefore unto him, What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work?
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert.
As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
So, they're quoting Scripture back to Him, these people, these Pharisees and stuff,
and they're asking Him, you know, show us a sign.
And this is what the Jews always do, just show us a sign.
And like Jesus has got some kind of circus performer or something.
He's not going to do that. He's not there to do what they say.
We're here to do what God says.
That's the problem with even churches today that they, people want to do it their own way.
And that's why you have churches like Saddleback and these other kind of churches that send out little questionnaires.
Well, what kind of music do you want to listen to?
What kind of preaching would you like to listen to?
What kind of church building would you like?
And they send out these questionnaires and then they start the churches based upon what the people want.
But see, that's always a bad idea.
It's always a bad idea to pattern your churches after what the people want.
You should pattern your churches after what God wants for the people.
That's the difference. He's God. We're man.
We're not the ones that make the rules. He makes the rules.
Look what it says in verse 32.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven,
but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
So again, so what's he referencing back to?
He's referencing back to this story that we're reading tonight.
He's referencing back to the fact that Moses, you know, he's the one that told them,
you know, they're getting this bread from heaven, but that bread wasn't the literal bread.
So there's no transubstantiation going on.
It's just a picture of the fact that Jesus is that true bread.
He is that true bread from heaven. Isn't that what it says?
But my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
In context, he's talking about him being sent to them, right?
Look at verse 33.
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.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
I mean, he's pretty much just laying it out there so anybody can pick that up, right?
He is the bread of life.
He represents the manna.
The manna that came down from heaven was a temporary thing.
It was a 40-year thing, and it was a miracle.
And the fact that Jesus is sent down to us is a miracle from God also.
And it says in verse 38, let's go ahead and skip to verse 38.
It says, For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father, the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me,
I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
So why is it represented in bread?
Because bread sustains man.
In the thousands of years of mankind, bread has been the staple of mankind.
It can preserve people, and people can live off bread alone.
Except for, of course, when you're talking about God's Word, the Bible says we shouldn't live by bread alone.
But I'm just saying you could survive nutritionally on bread alone if you had to.
For long periods of time, people have done it for thousands of years.
Yeah, I mean, obviously it's nice that we live in America where you can just go to Costco
and they have plums from different places of the world.
They have all this organic fruit and stuff like that.
And we get stuff shipped in from all over the world.
And we have a smorgasbord of whatever we want to eat in this country.
But it hasn't always been so in times past.
And this time, also, same thing.
I mean, bread is the staple of society and what they live off of.
So it would make sense that Jesus is saying, I am the bread of life.
I'm the one that's really, truly going to sustain you.
It says in verse 40,
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son,
that believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day.
So he's promising them everlasting life.
And so if you partake of this bread, this everlasting bread,
then you will last forever. You will live forever.
Look at verse 41.
Then the Jews, look at that word right there. What's it say?
Murmured. Somebody said it low.
Say it low. Murmured.
Perfect. Alright.
So notice that it says, murmured.
I don't think that that's an accident there.
Now it says, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
They didn't like that.
Because, you know, they follow Moses.
But Moses followed God.
Moses followed Jesus.
Moses wrote of him.
It says in verse 42, And they said,
Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them,
Murmur not among yourselves.
I think it's really interesting.
Because the chapter that they're referencing in this story
is going back to Exodus, and what did the people do?
They murmured against Moses.
They murmured against Aaron.
And so this is a pattern of things that happen with leadership.
And it doesn't matter how good of a leader the person is,
people will always complain against them.
It's just the way it is.
They complained against Jesus.
They murmured against Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.
So if they'll murmur against him, if they'll crucify him,
if they'll call him Beelzebub,
then what are they going to do to his followers?
The same stuff.
But I don't think this is accidental in the fact that Jesus is talking about this
and then they murmur against him,
and then he says, Murmur not among yourselves.
It makes God angry when we complain.
It makes him angry.
So Moses wasn't good enough for the people,
but what is Moses considered one of the greatest men of God in the whole Bible?
No matter what religion you're in, people know who Moses is.
People have heard of Moses.
People have heard of the Ten Commandments.
He was the person that God used to bring that first covenant with the children of Israel.
He's the one that sprinkled the blood on everything, right?
Now obviously they killed and sacrificed animals and stuff like that.
He didn't shed his own blood like Jesus Christ did,
but Moses couldn't shed his own blood.
Moses was sinful.
So Moses could not be the Savior.
There's only one Savior. That's the Lord Jesus Christ who was perfect,
who was a perfect sacrifice for us.
But he says, Murmur not among yourselves.
Talking to these Jews here in verse 47, skip down there, it says,
Verily, verily, I say unto you that he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
That's a pretty simple statement there, isn't it?
And this is the thing that people think you have to do more than just that.
But Jesus makes it real simple.
He leaves salvation down on the bottom shelf for anybody to get.
If you believe on him, if you trust in him, if you have faith in him, you're saved.
You don't have to do anything else.
The Bible says it's not of works lest any man should boast.
And that is the scourge of false salvation that we are fighting against.
This church, this is a battle that we face every single week in door-to-door solely
because most people think that they're good people.
And by our standards, a lot of people would be good people.
But a lot of people, the Bible says most men will proclaim their own goodness, right?
So most people, when you ask them, do you think you're a good person,
they're going to say, yeah, I do.
A lot of people think they're good enough to get to heaven.
And they'll say, well, what do you trust it in to go to heaven?
Well, I'm a good person.
I mean, that is probably, what would you say, like seven out of ten people
that when you ask and they actually talk back to you, that's what they say.
Well, I'm a good person.
So depending on where you're at, but most people think they're good enough to get to heaven.
That's not true.
Now look what he says again, verse 48.
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.
I mean, he's making some really definitive statements here, isn't he?
He's just making it really clear that manna that you ate in the wilderness
or that your father's ate in the wilderness is not the same manna that you're talking to right now.
He is the bread of life.
He is the living bread.
And if you eat that living bread, you ingest that living bread into you,
you're taking upon yourself the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But people just think that you can just get saved by dumbing things down for people
so that they can understand it.
But the Bible is very clear that it's the Word of God that saves people.
And Jesus Christ is the Word of God, isn't he?
So you must have the Word of God to be saved.
So let me read down here further.
So it says in verse 52,
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying,
How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man,
and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Now, of course, I think he's laying this on pretty thick to them
because it's just getting them more mad.
He's like, well, let me just double down.
You've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood or you're not going to heaven.
But here's the thing. They don't understand that Jesus' words are spiritual.
His word is spirit. He is truth.
He's proclaiming a truth and using bread to kind of drive that home.
And, you know, his blood is obviously what was sinless and shed for us
so that we could be saved.
Anyway, it says,
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
And verse 56,
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him.
As the living Father has sent me, 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.
So he's definitely driving that point home,
but he's not talking literally, folks.
And this is where the Catholics are wrong.
This is where a lot of people are wrong, the Orthodox Church.
And they're saying it's literally you have to do this.
You know, God did not call us to be cannibals to be saved, okay?
He's making a point.
He's using, you know, earthly things to preach a spiritual truth.
Now, look at 1 Peter, chapter 123.
I didn't have it in my notes, but I think it's a very important verse.
Because this is tied to the Word of God,
obviously because Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
Jesus Christ spoke the world into existence.
And without getting the engrafted word into you,
that's why it's a picture of you having to consume this bread,
because the Word of God has to get into you and make a difference, right?
Look at 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 23.
It says,
Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the grass withereth,
and the flower thereof fadeth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you.
So, in order for a person to get saved, someone has to preach the gospel to them.
Someone has to take the Word of God.
That's why when we go to people's doors,
we ask people, can I show you from the Bible what it takes to be saved?
And then if they say yes, then we just start Romans 3.23,
and we just go through the scriptures and we show them what the Bible says,
because this is the truth.
This is the Word of God.
This is what saves people.
And a spirit-filled man or woman can take these words and explain them to somebody
so that they can be saved also.
The Bible talks about in Romans 1 how it's faith to faith.
Someone saved has to get someone else saved.
You're not going to get saved reading a billboard sign.
Now, those things might affect you in some positive way.
Maybe you look at it and you think, well, what does that mean?
But someone still has to take those things and explain them to you.
People that just read the Bible on their own are not going to just get saved by that way alone.
They have to have someone explain it to them.
Let's look back at our text at Exodus 16, verse 5.
The Bible says,
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.
So they're supposed to gather this manna, and it says twice as much before the Sabbath.
Because on the Sabbath they're not supposed to be working.
They're supposed to be resting.
And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel,
At even, when you shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt,
and in the morning, then you shall see the glory of the Lord,
for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord,
and what are we that ye murmur against us?
So Moses mentions this a couple times.
He's trying to get the point across to the people that you're complaining to the wrong people.
You're blaming us for what you're going for, or what you're going through,
and you're murmuring against us, but it's really not that you're murmuring against us.
They're murmuring against God, right?
And he explains that here in just a minute, but he says,
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.
So Moses makes it real clear.
First he says it one time, then he says it again,
What are we?
And then he explains to them,
When you're complaining about us,
when you're murmuring against us,
it's not us that you're really upset with.
It's God, because God is the one that's leading Moses and Aaron in the way that they should go.
So, now, also notice in this verse that it talks about he's going to give them
in the evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full.
I believe this is a picture of Bible reading and Bible consumption.
Because, go ahead and keep your finger here, turn to Joshua chapter 1.
Joshua chapter 1.
And, you know, this picture that they're supposed to,
what are they supposed to do?
They're supposed to gather this stuff in the morning,
and then in the evening the quails are going to come,
and it's food nourishment for them.
But isn't the word of God like food for us too?
It's spiritual food.
And we're supposed to consume that spiritual food in the morning and in the evening.
Look what it says in Joshua 1a, it says,
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth,
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night,
that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous,
and then thou shalt have good success.
So, every single day as Christians we have the word of God,
and we have the opportunity to pick up our Bibles and read in the morning,
and pick up our Bibles at night and read it in the night.
Isn't that what Joshua is saying to do?
He's saying, It shall not depart out of thy mouth,
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night.
So God wants us to read our Bible day and night.
He wants us to not just read it just for some kind of check mark,
but it says meditate.
That means you're musing upon it.
That means you're thinking about it.
And in reality we should be really thinking about God's word whenever we get a chance to.
But obviously we have work to do, and there's other things we have to focus on,
but he wants us to take some time every single day to soak that word in.
And I guess the meat, the quail meat, would maybe represent the stronger meat of the word,
and the morning, the bread of life.
It's what you wake up to.
And we really ought not to get on with our day without...
Obviously some people in here don't eat breakfast.
There's a lot of people I think in our church that just skip breakfast, but some people don't.
But you should never skip your spiritual breakfast.
Your spiritual breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
I don't know if they did that to sell bacon in the 50s and eggs and all that stuff and orange juice.
We're definitely preyed upon by certain companies and,
Oh yeah, it's the most important meal of the day.
But really the Bible and the word of God is the most important meal of the day.
If you're going to skip something, I guess lunch is probably what it's saying to skip.
Look at... go ahead and turn to Acts.
Actually turn to Matthew chapter 4.
And Jesus, after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights,
which I don't recommend, by the way, unless you want to go nuts or something.
He didn't go nuts. I'm just saying that there's only a couple people in the Bible that even did it.
Three people exactly.
Jesus Christ, Elijah, and Moses.
They're the only people that are said in the Bible to have fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
So it's just, you know, it's going to bring you problems.
You know, you're going to be real skinny and, I mean, obviously if you want to do it, go ahead and try.
But I would say, why don't we get past day one and then we'll talk, right?
But look at Matthew chapter 4 verse 3, it says,
And when the tempter came to him, he said,
If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
What's he doing? He's tempting him.
After being... where was he at again?
Oh, was Jesus... where was Jesus at?
In the wilderness.
You know, the place where all the people were whining that they didn't have any bread or any food.
He just intentionally went out there with no food to eat and fasting for 40 days and 40 nights.
But what did Jesus say to the devil?
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.
So, not just some of the words, not just flip your Bible open in the morning and go, Jesus wept.
Alright, well I got my scriptures for the day.
I mean, if you did that, that's better than nothing.
But it's not, you know, obviously if you're just going to give God your junk time all the time,
that's probably not very pleasing to him either.
It's not very respectful.
But, Jesus said that,
Man shall not live by bread alone.
So, there's something else we're supposed to be eating. What is it?
It's the word of God. Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
And so, when you read a little bit of that in the morning,
and you pillow your head at night in the evening and you've read the word of God,
you're doing what Joshua said to do, right?
You're doing what the principle is showing here in Exodus chapter 16.
And the principle is that we should take in the word of God on a daily basis.
They were given commandments on how they were supposed to gather it,
how much they were supposed to get,
and you could get as much as you wanted.
Right? There was no limitation.
And some people would gather a lot and some people would gather a little bit,
but no man lacked anything.
But it's when they started not doing what God said to do concerning those gatherings
that got him upset,
and the fact that they're constantly complaining about things.
So, it must have been pretty bad.
I mean, I'll hear people complain or I'll hear rumors of people in church complaining about stuff,
and you know what? Most of the time I just don't really care.
I honestly don't.
But, you know, it can get old to hear people complaining about how things are done
or whatever or the leadership.
You know, it gets old. If someone's complaining about you and you hear it,
it's just like, yeah, it gets kind of old.
And Moses kind of gets fed up multiple times in the Bible.
I mean, again, losing his chance at the Promised Land when he was right there
and he was about to go over, and then they complain one last time.
He's just like, he just freaks out.
It's not the first time Moses freaked out.
He had a bad temper, obviously.
You don't want to be around him when he's got a couple tables of stone in his hands.
So, anyway, let's look at Acts 17, verse 11.
I'm going to read Psalm, chapter 119, verse 97.
Psalm 119, verse 97 says,
Oh, how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day.
So, you have in Psalm 119 David writing how he loves and meditates on his law all the day.
So, obviously, you know, get some Bible reading in.
That's the moral of the story here.
Look at Acts 17, 11.
And this is talking about Christians in the New Testament.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind
and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
So, Berea was known as a place that when they were ready to receive God's word.
And this is what we need to be ready for also.
When you actually read the Bible, are you ready to receive something that God has for you that day?
Or are you just reading the story for entertainment?
And, obviously, it is entertaining.
I love the Bible. I love all the stories in the Bible.
It's entertaining. Obviously, some parts are more entertaining to me than others.
But God didn't write the Bible to entertain us.
He wrote the Bible so that we could live by the principles that are found therein
and to meditate in them and to receive that word with all readiness of mind.
When I'm done preaching, do you ever go home and say,
Well, I wonder what he said was really true.
I don't care if you do that. I want you to.
And if I say something wrong, then please correct me.
And I'll let the scriptures correct me.
But I don't have a problem with that.
But it says whether those things were so.
So we're supposed to search out the scriptures.
We're supposed to check the preaching and make sure that the preaching is correct
according to the Word of God.
Turn back to Exodus 16, verse 8.
The Bible says that 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 you murmur against him.
And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.
I'm repeating that verse because I had a little more to say about that.
But the blaming of leadership is a phenomenon, like I said.
It's practice. It happens. It's happened for thousands of years.
Everybody complains about their boss to some extent, right?
People just, as sinful people, we have the tendency to rebel against people that are in charge of us.
And it's just a bad way to live your life.
If you're constantly just questioning, you're constantly breaking the rules all the time,
just for the sake of doing that, that's a bad attitude.
It's just not what we're supposed to be like, and as Christians we're supposed to be even better.
We're supposed to be a cut above. We're supposed to be people that the boss can count on.
We're supposed to be people that are the hardest workers at our job,
the best mothers in our homes, the best dads in our homes,
the best children in society should be those of the Christian family.
It shouldn't be said about us that everything we do is rebellion against God,
rebellion against His Word, rebellion against what He teaches and His principles,
and all the things that He has for us in the Bible,
but it seems like there are some people that just constantly,
and I preached about it before, the habitual line stepper,
that they just continuously want to break the rules.
And Moses had a faction like that here, and you know,
every church probably has a faction of people that do those types of things.
And you know, it's wrong.
And if you realize that you're the one that's doing that or that's your attitude,
maybe you should just let the Word of God change you
and mold you into what He wants you to be,
instead of always just crossing the line,
always just, you're the one that always has to be talked to about the rules being broken.
You're the one that always has to have rules made up
because you're the one that's breaking the rules.
That's annoying.
It's really annoying to have, you know what I find annoying?
Just having to make rules in general that are not, that are outside the Bible.
It is annoying, especially when it's just because, you know,
it just seems like anything that we have nice in this church,
it seems like people just want to break it,
or they want to allow their children to break it or something.
That kind of stuff drives me nuts.
You know, we built these new chairs,
and kids are just jumping on, grabbing them with their grimy hands,
and you know, this is not a jungle gym, kids.
This is a church.
This isn't, I mean, I want you to have fun,
but I don't want you tearing up this church.
You know, that's the kind of stuff that really irritates me.
You know, it's just uncalled for.
Like, you wouldn't let your kids do that at home,
so why do you let them do it here?
I just have a hard time with that.
Like, correct your kids.
It's not that hard.
You know, and if you think it's hard,
I mean, do you bring your kids here just so they can just,
it's a bounce house or something?
It's Chuck E. Cheese?
I mean, we should have some kind of restraints
on what our children are allowed to do here.
Not to jump and lay in the, you know, man, never mind.
I've got to move on.
I'm going to run out of time here.
So, you know, look, I love the kids in this church.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm just saying that parents,
I'm really, I'm talking to parents right now.
Strain your children from doing things
that they're not supposed to be doing.
If that door's left open,
your children should never walk into that door.
Ever.
And if you see them in there, then they should be corrected.
I'm not saying you have to spank them,
but, and obviously we're going to just keep that door closed from now on,
but, you know, I mean, that's not a place for kids to play in.
So, and, you know, if the kids are off and going into places
they're not supposed to be, that's on you.
And, look, I want this church to stay nice.
We spent a lot of time making it look nice lately,
and I don't want it to just get trashed because people don't care,
you know, because they didn't do it.
They're not the ones that built it.
They're not the ones that took the time
and crafted all these things together.
And then just watch your children just rip things off the walls
and swing from the curtains and, you know, I mean, it's just,
you got to stop it.
You have to restrain them because, you know what,
if you don't restrain them now,
they're going to be too big to restrain later on.
So, anyway, I had to get that off my chest
because, you know, we had that issue with the microphone
and the issue was that somebody went in there
and messed around with the controls
and that's why the microphone wasn't working
and it's just like, you know, it's just,
it just shouldn't be happening.
It just should not be happening, you know.
This microphone right here was an expensive microphone
and they were like, well, it's out.
I was like, I don't think so.
I don't think it's out.
And, you know, something happened, you know,
while people weren't paying attention.
That's just what it is.
So, obviously, again, you know, you're like,
well, Pesto, now I'm going to complain against you.
Now I'm going to murmur against you.
You're talking about my kids.
I'm not talking about your kids.
I'm talking about you.
That makes it even worse, doesn't it?
But it just, please, let's have respect for God's house
and for the things that are being done around here.
It's really hard.
I think it's really hard for people
that work really hard around here
to see it undone in seconds.
And then you don't care.
You don't care.
Why don't you care?
Well, because you didn't do it.
You didn't build it.
You didn't do it.
And you're not going to have to clean it up, someone else is.
So let me complain now as the leader.
Anyway, let's move on.
So no matter how good the leader is, though,
when it comes to Moses, when it comes to Jesus,
and I'm definitely not one of those guys,
but, you know, it doesn't matter how good you are,
the people are always going to murmur and complain.
And again, that's not everybody.
So there's just, it's factions.
And this is what it was in the Bible here, too.
You just have a few people that were bad apples
or a few people that were just trying to cause problems intentionally
that made things kind of miserable for the leadership.
And, you know, sometimes the few voices that sound the loudest,
you know, they say the term, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
You ever heard that term before?
That's usually the person that's squeaking is going to get the attention.
Look at verse 9. It says,
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 the children of Israel,
that they looked toward the wilderness,
and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel speak unto them,
saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread,
and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.
And it came to pass that at even the quails came up and covered the camp,
and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
So, again, he's laying these things out. He's telling him what's going to happen.
But what's really interesting, I think, about the Gospels is that you have the four books.
You have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
And those tell the same basic story, but with different details from a different witness.
So, you know, and I think that that makes the Bible even more reliable, in my opinion.
It's still jiving and saying the same things.
And, you know, you're getting perspectives from a different witness
that might have seen things a little bit differently,
but it doesn't mean that what they said wasn't true.
It's all true.
But in the books of Moses, you have the book of Genesis,
which explains to us the beginnings of everything
and how God made the heaven and the earth and the first families and all that stuff,
and then who he would let the line of the Messiah go through,
ending in Jacob there.
And then in the books of Moses, you have the children of Israel being freed
from the bondage of Egyptians 430 years later.
Now, you have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
So you have, I mean, besides the book of beginnings,
you have four different kind of, you know, some of the details that are in Exodus
are going to be also talked about in Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Numbers.
So there's parallel things.
Like, Numbers kind of tells the whole story and adds different details to it,
but it also adds, like, that's why it's called Numbers,
because there's a lot of numbers in it, you know.
But there's, go ahead and turn to Numbers 11.
Numbers 11, and you'll see, because, like, you really don't see in this chapter
what God does because of their murmuring and complaining.
You don't really see the full extent of how angry God really is about this,
because he says, well, God's heard what you're saying,
but in Numbers, it explains to him just how displeased he really is.
And look at Numbers 11, 1, it says,
And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord,
and the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled,
and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them
that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
And so that's why people say the most backslidden people are the ones that sit in the back.
No offense, I know that that's not the case here, but,
but God's picking off the people that are on the outer edges of the camp for a reason.
Maybe they already had that last foot out the door or whatever, I don't know.
But it says,
And the people cried unto Moses,
and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched.
And he called the name of that place Tabirah because the fire of the Lord burnt among them.
And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a-lusting,
and the children of Israel also wept again and said,
Who shall give us flesh to eat?
So the mixed multitude, they're a problem throughout the whole journeys here.
And it says, we remember the fish,
which we did eat in Egypt freely,
the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, and the onions and garlic,
but now our soul is dried away,
there is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes.
What does the manna represent again?
The manna represents the word of God,
it represents the Lord Jesus Christ,
and so their soul is dried away because all they got is Jesus.
I mean, that's a pretty wicked thing to say.
And that might not be exactly what they meant,
but that is the gift that God sent down specifically to feed them.
And they're whining about it.
And look at verse 7, it says,
And the manna was as coriander seed,
and the color thereof was the color of delion.
So I looked up coriander seed,
and they're basically like little small balls.
And so I think it's just trying to explain to us what manna looked like.
And what it looked like was probably little tiny balls of dough that were white.
And the people went about and gathered it and ground it in the mills,
or beat it into a mortar and baked it in pans and made cakes of it,
and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.
And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.
So in Exodus we'll see where it was like fresh oil,
but it was also tasted like honey.
It was sweet.
And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it,
and Moses heard the people weep throughout their families,
every man at the door of his tent.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly,
and Moses also was displeased.
So they're both mad at the same time.
And Moses said unto the Lord,
Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?
And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight,
that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?
Have I conceived all this people?
Have I begotten them that thou shouldst say unto me,
Carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father beareth the suckling child
unto the land which thou swearest unto their fathers?
Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people?
And they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat.
I am not able to bear all this people alone,
because it is too heavy for me.
So basically, essentially right here, Moses is done.
Moses is officially ready to quit the ministry.
And it says, And if thou deal thus with me,
kill me, I pray thee, out of hand,
if I have found favor in thy sight,
and let me not see my wretchedness.
So he's really done.
He's like, If you're just going to allow this to keep going on,
just kill me.
And I mean, I guess I could see his point.
He's stressed out.
He's got millions of people to deal with.
They're all complaining.
They're all crying.
They're weeping in their tents.
They're not satisfied with what God actually gave them.
Because don't they talk about the food that God gave them for free?
I mean, never look a gift horse in the mouth,
is another saying that's out there.
And they're just rebelling against God.
They want what they want.
They don't want what God wants to give them,
and that's their problem.
Look at verse, skip to verse 31, it says,
And there went forth a wind from the Lord,
and brought quails from the sea,
and let them fall by the camp,
as it were a day's journey on this side,
and as it were a day's journey on the other side,
round about the camp,
and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
And the people stood up all the day,
and all that night, and all the next day,
and they gathered quails.
He that least gathered ten omers,
and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
So all these quails are just coming to them,
and it's like they don't have to hunt them.
They don't have to shoot at them with a bow and arrow.
They're just coming,
and God's just allowing them to come here
so that they can just gather them up and eat them.
And it says in verse 33,
And while the flesh was yet between their teeth,
I love this verse,
ere it was chewed,
so they're just like right about to eat their fried chicken or whatever,
and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.
So God still provided for them
because he said he was going to provide for them,
but is he happy about it?
He's not happy about how they asked for it.
He's not happy about how they complained about it.
Oh, you got this round table pizza?
You know, it's like they're, you know,
they're complaining over something that they got for free
that's still good, right?
I mean, it tastes like fresh oil.
It tastes like it's sweet like honey.
It's free.
They just have to roll it, you know,
just roll it out and make some cakes with it,
and God's sustaining them,
and they're whining and complaining about it.
They're whining and complaining that they don't get meat,
and he sends them all these quail,
and if you've never tried quail before,
it's actually pretty tasty,
but there's not a lot of meat on them,
so that's why they had to gather so much.
But you can tell just by this, though,
how God feels about murmuring and complaining
and attacking men of God in leadership.
It's wrong.
It is wrong, and you know what's just as wrong?
Is if you leave this place,
and you talk bad about the pastor on your way home,
in front of your kids,
and what is that teaching them?
It's teaching them to rebel against the leader
when they're adults also,
and that it's okay for you to just talk trash
about your leadership.
And look, it's not just pastors.
It's your boss.
It's whoever's in authority over you.
If you have just this overmuch complaint
against your leadership,
you're always rebelling,
you can't ever keep rules,
you're rebellious.
And you know, look, the Bible,
Jesus died for all of our sins.
He died for that sin, too, the sin of rebellion.
And as I talked about this morning,
what happened?
Eve rebelled against God
simply by not doing what he said.
So look at Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17.
Hebrews 13, 17.
The Bible says,
Obey them that have the rule over you,
and submit yourselves,
for they watch for your souls,
as they that must give account
that they may do it with joy,
and not with grief,
for that is unprofitable for you.
And this is a great verse
because it helps us to kind of get ourselves in check.
Hey, what does God expect from us?
He expects us to obey those that have the rule over you.
If that's your boss,
if that's your husband,
if that's your parents,
or if it's your pastor
when it comes to things of church, okay?
I'm not going to tell you what color of car to pick.
I'm not going to tell you what loans you should get.
I'm not going to pick out your house for you.
Those are your things to do.
But when it comes to the things of this house,
then I'm the one that's supposed to be ruling this house.
And when I say that I want something done or not done,
that should be just, okay, okay pastor.
But like, so why do I have to keep saying stuff
about the same things all the time?
Why?
I just don't understand it.
It's just, it's disrespect.
It's just blatantly just saying,
I don't care what you say,
I'm going to do it anyway.
And that's a wicked attitude to have.
And you should not allow your children to do it,
you shouldn't allow your spouse to do it,
and husbands, you shouldn't be doing it.
And if you don't know what I'm talking about,
then I mean, I guess you're just oblivious,
but like, why do I have to make rules all the time?
Because people are making me,
because of transgressions, I have to make laws.
Which is something I've said recently quite a few times.
But it's just like, even with just playing on the piano,
I mean, I had to make a rule, a hardline rule about that,
but then people still want to keep breaking that rule.
It's just like, I just don't get it.
Like, don't you have a piano?
If you don't have a piano to play at home,
if you're not doing a special,
you have no business over on the piano, period.
It's just that simple.
You know, you shouldn't be climbing up on chairs
and jumping off of them.
It's really that simple.
You're not supposed to let your kids go
and mess up the mother-baby room in between church services.
That's not what the room's for.
Or at least clean up after them once you're done doing it.
By the way, I want to say I appreciate
all the people who cleaned up in the kitchen.
I mean, in the room back there.
Breathe a sigh of relief there.
But sometimes I just have to say stuff like this
because it's just, you know, I don't want to be the bad guy.
I don't want to be bad cop.
I don't want to be Officer Thompson.
But sometimes I have to be.
And, you know, if you don't like that,
I mean, go to an old IFB church
and jump on one of their pianos and see what they do.
Just do it.
See what they're gonna do.
Do you think they're gonna let you do it?
Do you think that they're gonna just let your kids
jump off of the, you know, or climb all over the pulpit
or anything like, do you think that's a,
I've never seen that before.
I just don't get it.
I don't understand it.
So maybe it's just something that needs to be said
from time to time.
Anyhow, let me move on.
I'm done.
You can stop shooting darts of hatred towards me now.
But look at verse 14 back in our text.
It says,
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 wished not what it was.
Moses said unto them,
This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.
And so, once again,
it's the bread that the Lord hath given you to eat.
Has he given them the bread that they want to eat?
Or the bread that he wants to give them to eat?
That's the difference.
That's the mindset that we have to have
about the things of God,
about the Word of God,
about how salvation...
Look, if it's in the Bible,
that's what God wants.
So, if this is the bread that the Lord wants to give you to eat,
it's this.
In this church, it's the King James Bible.
Eat it.
Eat what he provided for you.
Quit trying to find some easier version to read or something.
The easier versions are not easier.
They just sound like robots.
They pumped it into AI or something.
It's just...
It's not the Word of God.
When you have a verse that says,
He has showed thee, O human one...
I mean, in a modern Bible verse,
that's not what...
He has showed thee, O man.
And they want to gender-nutrify everything.
And the NIV wants to make the Bible gender-neutral.
Well, you know, God's a man.
God is a male.
He didn't make women after his image.
He made men after his image.
That's what the Bible says.
And look, women aren't lesser.
God loves women just as much.
We're all equal in Christ Jesus,
but don't try to make things that aren't there.
That's not true.
God is not some...
And people will even say about the Holy Spirit.
They'll say the Holy Spirit is the female part of God.
There is no female part of God.
That is blasphemy of the highest order.
Anybody that preaches that,
you should walk directly out of their church immediately.
God is not a woman.
And they'll say, like, his name is Shekinah, or whatever.
The Shekinah glory of God, or whatever.
Yeah, that's straight out of the pit of hell.
The Bible doesn't teach that at all.
This, you know, feminizing God garbage.
Anyway, I don't know why I got off on that, but...
Oh yeah, so the point I'm trying to make here is that,
you know, the manna that God gave
is the manna that we need.
And the manna that came down from heaven,
which is the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's the savior that we needed.
That's the one that he provided for us,
and that's the one you have to believe in to be saved.
You know, people just think that this world is like a buffet
for their own pleasure.
Well, maybe I'll just pick this God.
I'll pick this God to believe in.
Well, I don't really like this God because he's too mean,
so I'm going to go to Shiva, which is even meaner.
But anyway, there's all these different gods in the world
that people want to believe in,
because they don't want to believe the one that God provided for them.
They don't want to believe in the savior that God sent for them.
They don't want to take the manna that came down from heaven,
that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
and apply that to themselves,
and be saved for everlasting life.
They want to just have their own kind of bread.
That's why they said,
we don't want this manna before our eyes.
All we have is this manna.
Well, that's all you're going to get, folks.
You're going to get the manna.
Look at verse 16, it says,
And this is the thing which the Lord had commanded.
Gather it, every man, according to the eating of an omer,
for every man, according to the number of the persons,
take ye every man for them which are in the tents.
And the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.
And when they did meet it with an omer,
he that gathered much had nothing over,
and he that gathered little had no lack.
They gathered every man according to his eating.
And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
So he's still giving them rules to go by, right?
And it says, Gather every man according to his eating.
And so if you're applying this to Bible reading,
you know, your children are not going to be able to read as much Bible as you can.
And maybe you can't read as much as the next man in here,
because you have other responsibilities,
or you just don't have that time.
Some people have more time than others.
But we're supposed to gather every man according to his eating.
And you know what? We should eat that spiritual food that God has provided for us.
Look, we have a Bible that's preserved.
We have the best translation of the Bible that's ever been in the history of mankind.
You know, like, what about the originals?
Moses destroyed the originals, remember?
He smashed them into a million pieces, and then he remade them.
The original manuscript-only thing is complete trash. It's not true.
Just because you find something older in the desert somewhere,
doesn't mean it's the Word of God.
It means it didn't get read. That's what it means.
Because a book that's read has creases on it,
it has highlights in it,
it has pages ripped out of it,
and when you use the Word of God,
you're going to have to get another one really quickly,
because you're just always handling it.
You're always dealing with it and reading from it.
But if it's some garbage Bible version that you never read,
like I have some garbage Bible versions,
and they don't even have a crease on them at all, but you know why?
Because I don't read them!
Because they're trash.
The only time I use them is to prove how wrong they are.
That's it.
So, Moses said don't let anything leave off to the morning.
Don't put off your Bible reading,
because you're not going to get back the day that you had to read the Bible that day before.
That day passed.
That's why the Bible talks about redeeming the time,
because the days are evil.
You can't get that day back,
you can't go back in time unless you're flying or something.
But I doubt you want to fly to Australia just so you can catch up on your Bible reading or whatever.
You know what I'm saying?
So that's why he said don't leave it till the morning.
I believe that that principle is there for a reason,
so that we'll know that we need to get the Bible reading done by the end of the night.
Eat your quails at night.
Eat your breakfast of the morning, your spiritual breakfast.
So, don't put off the Bible reading.
You're not going to get it back.
Don't waste the day that God's given to us.
Verse 20, notwithstanding,
they hearkened not unto Moses,
but some of them left of it until the morning,
and breadworms and stink,
and Moses wroth with them.
And they gathered it every morning,
and every man to his eating,
and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
And it came to pass that on the sixth day,
they gathered twice as much bread,
two omers for one man,
and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
And he said unto them,
That is that which the Lord hath said,
Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord.
Bake that which you will bake today,
and see that which you will see,
and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept to the morning.
So basically that's the smart thing.
You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath back then.
So they gathered twice as much
so that they wouldn't have to break God's commandment and break the Sabbath.
But see, you know, they're always just breaking the rules,
and Moses is getting mad.
And it's maddening when people won't follow the rules.
So let me skip through this.
I know I've got to be done here,
but let's get down to verse...
Let's go down to verse 31.
It says,
And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna,
and it was like a coriander seed, white,
and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
So in the other description in Numbers,
it told us that it tasted like fresh oil.
So fresh oil with honey, that sounds like good bread to me.
And, you know, the Bible talks about the word of God
being compared to the sweetness of honey
Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll.
He says it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
Because the word of God is sweet.
And to the same person, it's a sweet taste to us.
But sometimes, you know, and it talks about when it goes into the belly and becomes bitter,
that's because the word of God affects us sometimes,
and we're not right with God.
It's going to affect us in a way that makes us feel, you know, hurt inside.
Because sometimes, you know, sometimes the Bible corrects us and kicks us in the pants.
And when we need to change something in our life,
that word of God becomes bitter to us.
But, you know, we should take that and use it for good to correct ourselves and our lives.
So I was kind of thinking of wafers.
It says it tasted like wafers.
And it says it's small, white, and round.
So it's the same thing as it said in Numbers chapter 11,
and Ephesus said it was like coriander seed there too.
But, you know, and here's the thing.
Why is it white?
Well, God's word is pure.
God's words are pure words.
And, you know, we're supposed to eat a little bit of it at a time.
You know, obviously, in the picture of the Exodus chapter 16,
some people gathered more than others.
Some people can take in a lot of God's word.
But we should at least take in some nuggets every day.
Take in some of those wafers every day.
It says it was like wafers.
And when I think of wafers, I think of Nutty Buddies.
I don't know if you guys have ever had Nutty Buddies, but they're pretty good.
It doesn't say peanut butter, though, so.
But you've probably heard of Nilla wafers, right?
Those are good.
Put them on a little bit of, like, jello or something.
Or not jello, but pudding.
Make some kind of dessert out of them or whatever.
Or just eat them like they are. They're pretty good.
But, anyway, there's different kinds of wafers.
You know those ones that they have, and they're, like, rectangular?
And they're different colored, and they come in packages.
You know what I'm talking about?
Like, vanilla wafers, I guess?
Yeah, so.
But the point is, is that I think God's telling us it didn't taste like dirt.
It didn't taste bad.
It tasted good.
But yet, some people just, you know, they're bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
You know, they just, they want to be contrarian about everything.
And that's just the problem of mankind.
You know, we tend to complain when really we have it so good
that we complain about things that are really not that big of a deal.
I mean, we could have it worse. We could live in the Philippines
where children are walking up and begging for food
and walking up and begging you for money, skinny and starving
and eating out of sacks of rice on the ground.
And some of the people in this room have been to the Philippines,
and they know exactly what I'm talking about.
We have it really good here, but yet we complain.
You know what? We have a really good God,
and yet sometimes we complain about the things that He provides for us.
And maybe we complain about the things that God asks from us.
Maybe we complain about the children that we've been given.
Maybe we complain about the spouse we've been given.
But you know what? Those things are wicked.
We should not be doing that.
We should be, you know, thankful for what God has given us.
And, you know, if your spouse is, you and your spouse are having problems,
then pray about it.
Pray and ask God to change your heart.
You're having trouble with your kids?
Do what the Bible says.
Just chasing them early.
Love them.
Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,
and they will be like a rest to you later on.
Some kids are just hard at the beginning,
and Remy was like the hardest.
But look at him now. He's just, you know, in his right mind.
Where's he at? Is he not even here?
Did he go back to work? Man.
So, anyway.
So, but Remy was, he was like, he was bad.
But he was also really sweet, too.
You know, he has his moments of tenderness and sweetness,
but he was a little rough.
But, you know, he's a good kid.
He turned out right. Married a good wife.
Has great kids.
So, anyway, I know I've got to be done.
But if you want to look for reference,
Revelation chapter 10 talks about how the book was eaten
and it was tasted as honey in their mouth
and so on and so forth and bitter in the belly.
But Moses memorializes this moment,
and he tells them to put, you know,
an omer of full manna into the ark.
And so that's one of the things that were put into the ark.
There was the rod that budded, which was Aaron's rod.
The two tables of stones.
The second manuscripts, not the original manuscripts,
but the first, or the second ones,
and then this pot of manna.
So, it's significant in the Bible.
It's actually why Jesus was talking about it
and referring back to this story
is because he is that bread of life.
He's the bread that we have to receive
to have everlasting life.
So, anyway, when we have time to read our daily Bible reading,
make time. Make a schedule. Set some alarms.
Try not to get through your day
without having at least some of the Word of God read.
Why? Because you need that daily sustenance.
Man shall not live by bread alone,
but every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
You know, and God didn't stutter. Jesus didn't stutter.
He really meant that. He wants us to read it.
So, if you read it, it's going to bless your life.
And it's not going to develop worms and stink,
like, you know, when they left the manna overnight.
I mean, when they didn't deal with the manna
the way they were supposed to, it was corrupted, wasn't it?
So, take that manna in your life,
that daily bread that we're supposed to be reading,
collect it, grind it in your teeth, meditate on it,
chew on it, mull it over, and think about it
and apply it to your life.
And remember to collect what you need for the day.
Don't forget about it.
In the morning and in the evening,
we should be reading the Bible
because we're not supposed to live by food or bread alone.
So, day and night, we can read it.
Read the Bible once a year, 15 minutes a day,
seven and a half minutes in the morning,
seven and a half minutes at night. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you so much for the Scriptures,
and we just pray that, Lord, you would bless this church, Lord,
and we thank you for a full, great day.
We thank you for the two people that got saved,
and Lord, for the man that's about to get baptized.
We pray that you bless his life, Lord,
and lead him in the way he should go.
We pray, Lord, that you would just bless everybody
as they go their separate ways,
and we come back better for it on Thursday night.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We have a baptism.
Honey in the Rock.
Song number 266 in your Green Hymn books,
Honey in the Rock.
Song 266, let's sing it on the first.
Oh, my brother, do you know the Savior
who is wondrous, kind, and true?
He's the rock of your salvation.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Leave your sins for the blood to cover.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious?
Do you walk in the way that's new?
Have you drunk from the living fountain?
There's honey in the rock for you.
Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Leave your sins for the blood to cover.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Do you pray unto God the Father?
What wilt thou have me to do?
Never fear, He will surely answer.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Leave your sins for the blood to cover.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Then go out through the streets and highways.
Reach the Word to the many who are new.
Say to every fallen brother,
There's honey in the rock for you.
Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.
There's honey in the rock for you.
Leave your sins for the blood to cover.
There's honey in the rock for you.