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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Exodus 16:1-16
Well, we are in chapter 16. I was I was glad to hear so many people make that correction. It meant that you also know where we are in the book of Exodus. That's always an encouragement for a preacher that people didn't just routinely open up to the wrong chapter and who knows where we are.
Yes, we are in Exodus chapter 16. And as we have been considering the personal presence of God over several weeks. Seeing God in his gracious Presence. God as the protector and as the guider. God as the provider as we saw last week.
We also see in the midst of that this sharp contrast between the people of God. God is the leader the people stubbornly refused to submit to his leading. If God is the provider the people are murmuring and complaining about his provision and we'll see this sharp contrast between who God is to his people and How God's people are to him and that's really coming into focus this morning in Exodus 16.
Now obviously we're cutting off at verse 16, which means we'll consider more in this chapter. Not next week with the week after next week. We anticipate having Jason Austin come From FBC and preach to us.
So be on your best behavior for that. So we will have sort of a delay as we work our way through chapter 16. But this morning we want to focus on this great contrast between the complaint of the people and yet the gracious provision of God and the application really draws us to consider the Kind of contentment that God wants us to have in our walks with him.
And how does that contentment come about? How will we actually grow in that contentment? So that's what we're going to do together this morning. Israel is heading further into the wilderness. They had that little Oasis experience at Elam.
But now they head into the wilderness of sin on their way to Sinai and in this wilderness every step. They take they're taking a step deeper into desolation a step deeper into deprivation. They're late being led further away from that Repast they had at Elam further into the desert into the heat into the lack of provision and that Brings about a great cry from the congregation.
So we'll kind of move through these verses in four parts first the cry from the congregation. Secondly the complaint against the Creator. Third the command from the cloud and then lastly the covering in the camp.
So first this cry from the congregation. Verses one through three. They journeyed from Elam and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of sin. Which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt.
Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
Complained.
Against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. We have this record that it's been one month since the Passover night and the Passover will be brought up again later on in these verses on the 15th of the first month God delivered his people in a mighty way by Sparing their forced-born.
Using that slaughter of the Egyptian son as it were to be the redemption of the Israelite son He brought his people out of Egypt and we read as a response to that that the whole congregation Was silent before the Lord.
In fact when Moses said God's purpose they bowed before the Lord. We read the whole congregation after the Exodus praise the Lord. Here only one month after that fateful night we read the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained.
We go from the whole congregation praising bowing in reverence adoring the wondrous miracles of God to now complaining and this complaint is Against Moses and Aaron, but as we'll see it is actually unveiled as a complaint against God himself.
The children of Israel said to them. Oh That we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt remember it was the same hand that had brought them.
Out.
But now instead of the hand that brings them out we have the hand that they wish had brought death if only we had died in the land of Egypt. A Death wish a dramatic perhaps over dramatic death wish if only we had died.
This is far worse. Yes being freed and led by God and cloud and pillar is far worse than being struck down in the land of Egypt. So deluded as they're thinking at this moment of need. Oh that we had died by the hand of the Lord and the land of Egypt when here's another delusion.
We sat by the pots of meat when we ate bread to the fill. You have brought us into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. If you ever seen that Snickers commercial, you're not you when you're hungry.
This would be apropos of the Israelites. What are you talking about? You are not yourself. Someone get them a Snickers bar. It has been said before Unbelief has a short memory. Unbelief has a short memory.
Nothing will knock down our piles of Ebeneezer's. Faster than a trial especially a trial of great need or overwhelming loss. That trial comes like a mighty wind and it knocks down all those Heap stones we had put along our way to remind us of God's goodness and faithfulness.
He brought us through this trial 13 years ago. Surely still he'll get us through and then a new trial comes and it just knocks all that memory away. Not only is the memory of God's provision short, but it becomes corrupted.
The memory becomes almost a false Remembering a vain imagination in the land of Egypt. We sat by pots of meat.
We ate bread to the full.
The land of slavery now becomes the land of R &R. This is a sandals resort. This wasn't our bondage. This was actually the greatest thing that ever happened to us when we were chained and crying out to God for mercy.
We have never read anywhere in Exodus that they sat by great pots of meat and ate bread to the full. We read the opposite that they were in misery that their cries were ascending to God's throne room day after day Morning and night and that God rescued them as a result of their great misery.
So notice here this this drama this short memory and this great delusion. And there's great room for caution here brother and sister great room for caution. Perhaps life has become difficult to you lately.
Of course, we're not spared from difficulties in life whether a believer or unbeliever. But perhaps your particular difficulty as a believer has caused you to look back. Wrongly on your former life on your life before the Lord.
Perhaps you begin to even think if only I could compromise a little here. If only I could loosen up a little there. If only I lived like this or like those around me those that I work with. Those that I once ran with how much better off I would be if I just stayed in the path.
They had been on if I just adopt somehow Christianity light versions of the way that they're walking or perhaps the world the flesh the devil is. Reminding you of your former life and the sinful things that you once enjoyed and and you have this false estimation of fulfillment.
Somehow these things were fulfilling to me. I Think in fact if I could somehow maneuver back toward them, I would find more fulfillment. I would find more purpose. I would find more peace and stability in my life.
In fact, this way has been so difficult and it must be very wrong. Maybe it's too far extreme. Maybe this is just a legalism and I'm all fouled up and I really just need to turn back and just at least get one.
Foot one leg one waist deep maybe just all the way back into Egypt. How much better off I would be if only I could go back. Look really carefully at the Israelites here. That's essentially what they're saying.
Better off dead than here in our time of need in our trial. In fact, if we were to go back, wasn't it grand? Wasn't it wonderful? Do you remember how much bread we got and all the meat that we were surrounded with?
No, I don't remember that at all. Remember rightly in other words, that's the great encouragement from this passage. Remember rightly Don't misestimate your former conduct. Don't be deluded in your thinking don't block out all of God's goodness and faithfulness in the bondage and darkness and solitude that you once felt and have clouded corrupted memories from the world in the flesh and the devil that Convince you of things that have never been the case at all.
God's people forgot the bitter bondage. Which had made them cry out to God for redemption and almost for that same reason now they cry out against God. That's the difference that faithful memory makes Faithful memory caused you to cry out toward God.
A.
Lack of faithful memory will cause you to cry out against God. Why have you led me this way? Why am I facing this kind of need this kind of trial? Altogether God's people have overlooked his mercy his grace.
The miracles that spared them the love and the care that he had showered upon them. And if you don't watch your own heart, if you don't guard your mind in your heart in Christ Jesus. You'll always find that forgetfulness breeds this kind of murmur.
A certain species of complaint that comes about is birthed by a lack of proper remembrance and then we begin to Sort of fall out of harmony. Our own memories our own affections now are all disharmonious.
We're no longer able to sing with the Saints. We're no longer able to have that Almost song like affection for the Lord and for his people the murmuring begins to corrupt and like a piano out of tune every note Is discordant and even those around us?
They find it kind of hard to be within earshot for that very reason. Thomas Watson you brothers I hope they have pressed on a little bit with Thomas Watson. He said murmuring is the devil's music. All out of tune all discordant chases people away.
Well speaking of music we should be reminded why we're reading this very passage in exodus 616 a Few weeks ago. I had opportunity to take my girls to a classical concert and we had balcony seats at Mechanics Hall in Worcester beautiful building and as we watched the Symphony take the stage and of course, it's appropriate to stand and rise and they all sort of looked around at us, of course.
We are. Meaningfully, we are all gathered in that place to see them to behold them to look at them. We're in the balcony as spectators to see what they will do. But that is not how we ought to come to exodus 16 as Christians.
We are not in the balconies reading this narrative and seeing what they have done going. Oh, isn't that interesting? It's the other way around all of these murmuring Israelites are in the balconies looking at us.
What will we do. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 10 these things happened for your sake? Not for their sake right? They're the spectators upon what you will do from their example. So we don't come passively.
We don't come anonymously. The sight of these murmurers is upon us. How will we respond? Will we like them complain secondly complain against the Creator beginning in verse 4? And the Lord said to Moses behold I will rain bread from heaven for you and The people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them whether they'll walk in my way or not.
And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they Gather daily. Oh first notice the Lord's response to this outbreak of complaining. It's an amazing thing.
The first word is behold. Then he says I will rain and you're almost bracing for fire and brimstone upon them, right? Here's the complaint you've let a. I wish we had died. I wish we weren't brought up out of our bondage.
I wish we could just go back to our slavery and our misery if only God had left us alone. Behold says the Lord I will rain and we're expecting judgment. But what does he say?
Bread.
I'll rain bread upon you. So the answer of God to this abject rebellion is.
Provision.
Psalm 78 we won't we won't have time to look at it, but Psalm 78 cascades with this. Here's what the people of God did complained murmured rebelled refused to submit and here's what God did he provided for them?
He was patient with them. He was long-suffering for them. He did wondrous deeds in front of them. There's this constant contrast between the ways of God and the ways of his people. Instead of wrath God gives them bread from heaven.
This this manna this substance. One commentator says that the closest we can get with what manna might have meant is sort of a what's it? You know, it's not quite like bread. It's bread from heaven. It's unlike anything.
You can even get a sense of the sort of desperate attempt to describe it later on in this passage. It's sort of a small substance round. It's sort of flaky. Other descriptions go on to say it has this appearance of bdellium.
It tastes like fresh oil it scatters like dew and yet it can be gathered up. A single individual can gather up to two liters a day. That's how much God has made available for his people snowbread something like that.
Remember that in a few months when you see your kids with their mittens taking big mouthfuls Full of snow and you tell them it you know, if it's yellow or brown leave it alone. Notice that God also reveals his purpose.
That I may test them. Deuteronomy 8 makes this clear that what God is doing in this provision and in the deprivation is testing his people not Testing what he hasn't actually been cultivating or planting in their lives.
But proving his work in them as he always does in his people proving his work. Proving his law proving his grace proving the maturity of sanctification. The lives of his people. And he does that by both blessing and chastisement by withholding and providing.
This is how God is always testing and proving his people. Verse 6. Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel at evening You shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt and in the morning You shall see the glory of the Lord for he hears your complaints against the Lord.
But what are we that you complain against us? Also Moses said this shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and in the morning bread to the Full. For the Lord hears your complaints which you make against him.
And what are we your complaints are not against us but against the Lord. Remember Hebrew narrative where we have things Repeated. That's the way of emphasis and we have here a threefold repetition of the phrase complaining against the Lord a complaint against the Lord the congregation has unintentionally perhaps unconsciously Camouflage their rebellion against God.
They're simply reacting to their situation and they're murmuring grumbling they're venting their complaint against Moses and Aaron. But Moses corrects them and says no. We're simply leading as God has enabled us to lead and as we're leading you you following us is actually following God.
Which means when you've complained against our leading you're actually complaining against God's leading. You're not complaining against us. You're complaining against God and he says that three times to make the point clear.
Moses recognizes what the people cannot recognize. Their complaint is not at a Horizontal level it's at a vertical level. Moses is telling them like it is it is God against whom they complain and we need to remember this.
We need to remember this whenever we're wrestling with difficult providence in our lives. Whenever we're facing difficulty or facing need when we have Something that has provoked us or perhaps there's a genuine concern.
Maybe even a good concern to have but we may go about it in all of the wrong ways. We have to be very careful that that concern is not an opportunity for the flesh an opportunity for sin or division. God is shaping and leading us through others.
That is to say God does not only appoint the ends. But he also appoints the means and we can't just say well we trust God with the end of it all. But we refuse to trust God with the means he has provided.
That's true in a in a home. You know for children they have parents that the Lord has given them. You might say well, I'd be better off. I'd be better off in life better off spiritually if I had a different mom or a different dad.
Well, God hasn't just appointed the end for you. He's appointed the means. So a complaint against them and a refusal to honor the fifth commandment is a refusal against God and it's a dishonoring of God.
It's a distrust of his means. Or a wife to a husband or a husband to a wife I'd be so much better off the different spouse or a different kind of marriage or if we weren't led in this way or we weren't facing these kinds of.
Things.
But again God doesn't just appoint the ends he appoints the means when we vent and direct all of our murmuring and frustration against others. Maybe even involuntarily those others being the cause of our need or our concern or our difficulty if we do so in a way that we refuse to See God's hand.
We refuse to see God's timing his work of providence. It may be that we end up complaining not against them but against God himself. I love David's response when when he was provoked and he was sort of at one of the most desperate trials in his life and When he was being cursed out by Shimei and his bodyguard said why does this dead dog insult the king?
I'm gonna go collect his head for you to mount somewhere. And what does David say? Let him alone got God put it on him to curse me. David was so dejected. It was almost like you couldn't insult him at that moment.
He was already down so far those insults didn't even reach him, but he also had this recognition. What am I gonna stand up for myself now? Am I gonna defend my ego? Is this the right time to make sure that no disrespect is shown to me?
Or am I actually in this deep pit of humility? Am I just all that really matters right now is what the Lord is going to do. Who else can add anything right sticks and stones, but I need the Lord. I need the Lord.
Try to imagine brother and sister. When we murmur when we complain when we vent our frustration when we take some provoking jab. And we speak it to someone else or about someone else and we're only thinking in horizontal terms.
Think of how different it would be if that same vent that same murmur that same complaint that same jab. Was spoken to the Lord Jesus himself how different it would be. How different it would be if the Lord were Present in a visible way and the very way we see in this chapter when the Shekinah glory Descends in the form of the cloud how different it is when only Moses and Aaron are visible and we can complain against them.
And we feel vindicated Justified to complain against them and to rattle up others to complain against them. In fact, look at we're all unified. You're the issue. You're the problem and there's no vertical dimension to our complaining or our frustration.
But as soon as that glory cloud descends Shame descends upon the complainer or at least it ought to. When we complain against others in this way, we're complaining against the Lord. That's what Exodus 16 is saying.
That doesn't mean there's never a place for valid concern valid complaint. A Striving bringing something to attention. It doesn't mean leaders are flawless or infallible or always right in their own. Forethought and direction might mean they need to be Approached might mean that something has to be brought to their attention, but never do so with a utterly horizontal view always Understand the horizontal dimension to say I trust both the ends and the means and therefore recognizing.
There's all sorts of landmines. Surrounding this in my own flesh at play. I'm going to approach it very carefully very spiritually very prayerfully. That's vital. Because we often think well when the Lord comes he'll agree with me.
That's what Miriam thought. That's what Aaron thought when they were the ones joining in the complaint against Moses. And when the Lord descends, he doesn't agree with them. We often think the Lord is on our side.
The Lord will vindicate us. It just shows how deluded our own complaining and murmuring can be. The Lord appoints not only the ends but the means when we complain. We should picture as though the Lord were present and we were voicing our complaint to him.
When you're with another brother or two or three are gathered or you know. You're in a huddle of sisters and some issue some provocation some circumstance some relationship is in discussion. What would it be for the Lord to be there among you?
How differently that discussion would? Unravel how differently? You'd be tripping over yourself to say well, I know I'm probably not thinking right. I probably shouldn't even be saying I should probably really didn't pray about it.
You'd be tripping over yourself with all the safeguards. You instinctively know ought to be there. But when you're only thinking horizontally when you only see Moses and Aaron. You almost can't help yourself to slip into the flesh.
That's the danger. But notice here and thirdly we have a command from the cloud. The Lord does come. Moses spoke to Aaron say to all the congregation of the children of Israel come near before the Lord for he has heard your complaints.
I Love Moses, even when he's complained against he's always and ever the mediator and ultimately the Lord Jesus the more perfect a fulfillment of that very thing Jesus the perfect mediator who transforms our complaining and murmuring into Provisions from God.
That's what Moses is doing here. Come near before the Lord. He's heard your complaints. I've heard your complaints. I've had it up to here with your complaints, but come near before the Lord. He's heard your complaints and it comes to pass as Aaron speaks to the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
They look toward the wilderness and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. So the glory cloud descends. This is something that we'll see thematically as we work our way through Exodus the glory cloud the presence of God in the camp of his people.
Notice that they had refused to acknowledge God and their complaining. They had refused to acknowledge God and their complaining and yet he acknowledged their complaint. Isn't that amazing? He refused to they refused to acknowledge God and their complaining and yet he acknowledged their complaint.
The Lord has heard your complaint. You didn't mean for it to go to the Lord. You were just venting you were just frustrated you were just upset. You were just wounded. You were just insulted. You didn't mean for it to get with an earshot of the Lord, but guess what the Lord the Lord heard it and The Lord moves now the Lord answers.
They refused to recall God's promises or his past provision and yet he continues to keep his promise and continues to provide for them. They did not want to be kept in the way. But God keeps them in the way.
This is a picture of God's grace over the lives of his people. God bears with them like a father. Bearing with the youngest of his children knowing how ignorant that little one is seeking to gently Break in a certain level of trust and obedience.
So he doesn't take infantile Israel fresh off the chains and then sternly punish them at every wrong turn. We see at least in the last two chapters this this gracious patience of God as their father. Looking to train them up and instill a certain level of trust in them.
He's going to then prove and test that work and that's when chastisement will come. So a good illustration of how we ought to be as fathers and mothers. Not not sternly punishing Them for things that are beyond them things that we haven't even worked into them things that we haven't trained them in.
But as soon as we're training them to actually be on top of that bring Exhortation bring chastisement keep them in the way you've trained them. So you don't begin as judge dread. In fact, you never really want to end as judge dread either but you begin as a gracious patient parent and You're only admonishing and disciplining and chastising as a way of keeping in the very things that you've taught and worked.
And trained them toward that's what we see here in Exodus. Had they learned the lesson from the bitter waters? No, have we learned the lessons from our bitter waters. These things happen to them for our sake.
Never be tempted to view the Christian life as though it's some static Passive thing you just sort of float along and maintain the status quo. Go through the rhythms. Use the means of grace and it's just sort of this straight line in the same direction.
There's nothing dynamic about it. There's no seasons. There's no trials. There's no proving grounds. There's no threshing floors. Don't view the Christian life as some static maintain, you know system to maintain the Christian life is a life filled with the personal dynamic presence of God who moves his people through seasons and proves them through tests and trials and adds Blessings but also brings rebuke and chastisement and to view your Christian life as dynamic in this way ought to keep our hearts very tender toward the Lord and The Israelites here ought to have very tender hearts to the Lord when they consider their complaints have brought about this response.
Verse 12. I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel speak this to them at Twilight you will eat meat in the morning. You'll be filled with bread and you will know that I am the Lord your God.
That's the best complaint customer service department I've ever heard of. I Think that's one of the worst jobs. You could possibly have especially this time of year right customer service. You had in you know January and on and there's just a 15 minute wait and you're just dealing with people that are frustrated and dejected and upset.
Everything went wrong. This was the perfect gift and it came ruined. It was shipped damaged pieces were missing this broke. It was cheaply made and you have to put a smile on and say I'm so sorry to hear about that.
We can offer you store credit and it really must wear on the patience. Look at how God handles the complaints of his people. I've heard your complaints. I've heard your murmuring. I've heard your your sinful distrust your unbelief your death wish to be back in slavery.
And here's how I'm going to respond. I'm gonna give you meat every night. I'm gonna fill your stomachs with bread. You'll never hunger. This is how you'll know that I'm your God. Isn't that amazing. He doesn't say I've heard you and you'll each have three croutons use them wisely.
Yeah, you'll only get three per day. Be very careful it's just Quail manna, right you go out and gather up all of this wondrous food. It's this picture of Covenant faithfulness even to murmurers and that's fourth.
Lastly the the covering in the camp verses 13 through 16. The whole camp is covered now with the abundant provision of God. So it was quail came up at evening and covered the camp and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.
This is a hunter's dream, right? The quail come to you. You just wake up open the tent door and there's game birds everywhere. When the layer of dew lifted there on the surface of the wilderness was a small round substance as fine as frost on the ground.
When the children of Israel saw it they said to one another what is it. They didn't know what it was. And Moses said to them this is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded.
Let every man gather it according to each one's need. God has a concern about each.
One's.
Need.
It doesn't say. Well, at least most of them will be filled. Now only lose about 33 in this season that's pretty good statistically. He's concerned about each one's need. Every Individual among his people he has an eye of provision upon them.
What do they need? How will I provide for them? How will I continue them on to what I have promised for them? This is how the Lord keeps his faithfulness. God pitied them. He looked to their need more than he heard their complaints.
It would be well Christian for you to look to people's needs more than their complaints. It would be well for us to be the kind of church that can deflect and see through a barrage of.
Misguided.
Conversation of posturing and preening of gossip of maybe even insult or complaint or venting frustrations if we could see through that all and say What does this brother or sister really need and how can I serve them according to that need?
This is to be Christlike a.
Mother.
Does not as soon as a newborn baby cries, right? The empty stomach triggering the response in the brain through the vocal cords and this desperate cry the mother doesn't say that's it. You know had enough.
It's an amazing thing. I've seen it now four times. It doesn't matter how tired how sleep-deprived a mother is when that crying starts. There's there's no anger in her face. There's a lot of exhaustion.
There's a lot of fatigue. There's a lot of. You know, I can't wait for this season to pass but there's no anger directed at the baby. The baby has a need and though there's a great wailing of complaints and maybe even the baby the infant is getting angry.
There's no anger on the part of the mother. There's just this self sacrificial way of providing this instinctive way of saying yes, and now I will fill you now I will nourish you. And that's how the Lord is.
He looks to our need more than our complaining he hears our cry and not our complaint. Isn't that amazing? Our prayers are so faithless because they're often more More like ornate complaints flowery complaints than they are actual prayers.
Prayers of faith and trust and praise. In fact as as one said God treats our murmurings almost like they were prayers. He answers what we should have asked. That's the faithfulness of God. He answers what we should have asked.
We say Lord if you would just give me this everything would be great. And he says no, I'm gonna actually answer what you should be praying for. I have something much better for you. Speaking of Ebeneezer's aren't you glad to look back and See that at different times in your life all the things that you prayed for and thought would be the best things for you.
God did not allow to be answered. Aren't you grateful for that? I'm so grateful that God didn't answer most of my prayers when I was a teenager. Very thankful for that Word to the teenagers in the congregation.
You want what God wants for you? You'll never hear another testimony. Complaints command contentment. When we see God Answering our prayers. We can't help but see his compassion in this way when we see God Answering the prayers we should have asked.
When we hear God not receiving our complaints, but answering our need. We see a compassion that is beyond our human experience. This is a compassion that defies all sympathy of understanding. We can't understand what it's like for God to be the God of mercy in this way.
For God to be as holy as he is and yet have this kind of compassion we see a glimpse of it in Matthew 15 when the multitudes come to Jesus and they're gathering this this train of lame and mute and blind and maimed and many others and there's just this constant train of these people in need being laid at the feet of Jesus and So he's healing them and healing them and healing them and the multitude of the healed are turning in awe and this has a General effect on the multitude of the people thousands that are now gathering Moment by moment hour by hour to look at the one who has this power to heal who has the very Word of God.
Blind seeing lame jumping up for joy all the things he said he would fulfill at the synagogue in Luke 4 the very things that Isaiah said would be true of this suffering servant and Jesus called his disciples to himself and he said Matthew 15 verse 33.
I have compassion on the multitude. Because they've continued with me now three days, but they have nothing to eat and I don't want to send them away hungry. Lest they faint on the way. I've never seen a health and wealth preacher with that kind of concern.
You know, I must get to my Rolls-Royce. You know, I can't meet too many people on the way out of the football stadium. But what does Jesus do when he has a stadium full of people surrounding him? He says well, I've healed all their lame.
I've cured all their blind. I've I've made pure all their lepers. But what about they themselves? I don't want to send them away hungry. I don't want them to faint on the way. Jesus has a concern and the mix of that multitude even for an empty stomach.
The people that were there witnessing were so caught up in the awe of what he was doing. They probably weren't even thinking about their need for a meal, but Jesus is. He has concern for the things that have yet to develop as concerns for themselves.
His disciples, of course understand the logistics of this whole operation which leads to this miraculous feeding. Where can we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude? So you have people that are weary hungry and God refuses to send them faint on their way.
God will fill them though. They're in a wilderness. He will rain bread upon them. That's what he's doing in Exodus 16 and here in Matthew 15. Jesus is fulfilling that Jesus now is saying that was all corresponding to who I am what I will do what I am.
I won't allow the people who come to me to be sent away empty to go on the road. To go off and starve to go off and faint on the way if they've come to me, I will rain bread upon them. But Lord where it's a fallen world.
It's a dark world Lord. Where are we gonna find that kind of bread in a wilderness like this? You go to John 6. John 6 he says That he is the bread. Not the manna that melts every morning.
But a living bread.
You seek me because you saw signs and you ate of the loaves and you were filled but don't labor for the food that perishes. Right don't gather the manna every morning and watch it melt through your fingers.
I'm providing now bread in the wilderness, but don't just seek after the sign. Don't just fill your stomach for a three days journey. Look for the food that endures to everlasting life. This is the work of God.
He says that you believe in him whom he sent. What sign then will you do? We've seen all these signs all these miraculous healings. But but what sign will you perform that we may believe in you that you are the one whom God has sent and you have the words that we need that you are the one who gives life and This is how Jesus responds right out of Exodus 16.
Our fathers ate manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Most assuredly I say to you Moses did not give you the bread from heaven. But my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven gives his life.
For the world.
And the people say the best thing that they could have said at that moment give us this bread always. Give us this bread. I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger. He who believes in me will never thirst.
So Jesus points to himself as.
The.
Fulfillment the consummation the purpose of what we're actually looking at in Exodus chapter 16. We have this picture of God's compassionate provision. Those that come to him he will not send away with empty stomachs.
But those stomachs those physical needs are far outweighed by their spiritual need and even there he says I Will fill them in such a way that they will never hunger again. I am the bread of life. Truly Moses did not give bread from heaven.
He just symbolically Displayed what I am. I am the true bread from heaven. Well brothers and sisters as we move to application now, I want to consider three points about contentment. Moving from complaint to Contentment.
I think it requires three things and I see them as all interconnected. Learning submitting trusting. These are the three things that must happen in successive order for us to actually move from a Spirit of murmuring and complaining to a spirit of contentment and peace.
And I trust if you're here this morning. You want you strive you would delight in having a spirit and an atmosphere of contentment and peace so learning submitting and trusting. First and I'll try to show the logic of how these things connect first to have contentment.
You must learn. To have contentment you must learn what is God doing in Exodus, but teaching his people lessons teaching them deprivation and provision. Deprivation and provision. Going from Mara to Elam going from sin to Sinai and so forth.
God is constantly maneuvering his people in this way that they will learn of him and not only learn of his way. But learn who he is and what he's like if we have contentment. It's because we have learned of God.
The Apostle Paul makes this point very clear. From Philippians not that I speak in regard to need right? He's he's trying to raise up funds. From the Philippian believers and he says not that I speak in regard to need.
You're not doing this for me. So much as for your own gain. I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be a based. I know how to abound. Everywhere in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need.
There's something about the faith and trust that Paul has in God. That corresponds to this ability to not be thrown either by an excess or by a lack. Why. Because he's stoic because he has some philosophy no because he has learned.
He has learned the all-important verb here is that Paul learned to be content learning. Infers that something has been taught and as we said trials and blessings. Times of withdrawing in times of powerful presence.
These are the ways that God is teaching us you know that story of Horatio Spafford and the great loss he faced and when he was on a ship passing over where his Family was lost. How he penned the words whatever my lot thou has taught me to say it is well with my soul.
All right. This wasn't something he began with this wasn't something that just Mustered up from his bootstraps. Whatever my lot thou has taught me to say he had to learn. That it is well with his soul.
Do you recognize as a believer that you are always and ever being taught by God. Lessons that must be learned. This is why I say never view the Christian life as some static passive thing. God is dynamically in a proportionate way teaching you lessons as you grow.
Some of you mothers are starting homeschooling or about to start homeschooling and all of your teaching is proportionate to your child's ability or capacity. You know, you don't start with, you know AP Latin if they don't even know their ABCs, right you have to stage these things out.
And so it is with the Lord dynamically teaching us lessons that are appropriate for our season for our growth for our maturity in the Christian Life, so you look at someone like Bruce Binney since he's been on a lot of our hearts and in a lot of our prayers.
He's learning a hard lesson right now. He's being taught a hard lesson right now. Because he learned and successfully passed a lot of other tests along the way up to this. That's just to say as we mature we can expect the examination to be tougher.
But he's proving that he's done even more work even more grace in our lives as a Christian. You are being constantly taught. But are you learning big difference between being taught by God and actually learning from God big difference?
And many Christians I fear are stunted in their growth and far more immature than they ought to be because They have no interest in learning the lessons that God seeks to teach them. And so they keep getting held back in the same grade spiritually speaking most of my life.
I was a C student. I only did well in classes that I cared about. It was because I had a care to learn and it was effortless for me to get an A as long as I had a Care in the material if I didn't care it was a struggle.
It was a struggle to even pass. I just checked out I just wasn't interested. Part of the Lord's work of grace in my life was actually recognizing I have to love him with my mind as much as anything else.
And so I couldn't just slack off in in classes or in courses. I didn't care about. I had to do my utmost for him. That good Reformation insight whether you eat or drink you give glory to God. Word to the wise homeschooler students here.
But I didn't care and so I didn't do well I didn't want to learn the lessons that were being taught. And it can never be that way if you're a Christian. You must always have a mind to say Lord. There's certain things.
I would love to grow and I want you to teach me. But I recognize there's things that I don't want to learn and there's ways I don't want you to teach me and give me the faith and give me the trust and help me to submit to those lessons.
And that's how we connect. Learn to submit. If you want contentment you must not only learn you must Submit Jeremiah Burroughs. I think I think our sister plugged this book last week. It is a tremendous book.
There's several books of the Puritans wrote on contentment. Thomas Brooks has another one that's very good. But perhaps Jeremiah Burroughs is one of the best the rare jewel of Christian contentment, and this is his definition of contentment.
Christian contentment is that sweet inward quiet gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal of every condition. Notice contentment is sweet. Inward quiet.
Gracious it's a frame of your spirit. All right. There's some wiggle room, but your frame is inward and sweet and quiet and gracious.
And.
Then it allows you what to freely submit. Freely submit to God's Lessons, so you must learn and the only path to learn is a path of submission. So that's the the second point here to have contentment.
We must submit. Notice that he says it's quiet and gracious. It's very opposite of what we see the Israelites Doing in Exodus 16, they're crying out. They're complaining. They're aggravated. They're frustrated.
They're dejected. But a spirit that has learned and Is submissive is quiet and full of grace. It silences that frustration and that and that clamor a.
Murmurer.
Cannot pray unless they silence their murmurs. You'll notice it's if you have a if you have a complaint you won't be able to pray. Alicia and I do this back and Forth. I'm probably embarrassing her as much as I'm gonna embarrass myself.
But usually we're pretty good about keeping each other in check more often than not and if we're. If we have some concern or some concern is putting it really nicely if we have some spat. And we're convinced the other person is not Thinking talking viewing things rightly whether about us or something else.
We'll both check each other in this way to say why don't you pray? Why don't you pray? And if you can't pray you don't have a right spirit. And we don't do it in any way to kind of profane or provoke Prayer.
I don't want to have a wrong view of prayer, but it's a way of saying You're coming at this from a wrong view. You have a wrong spirit if you can't actually pray. Because you'll find that Complaining is very different than praying and you have to disarm and you have to actually humble yourself to get into a right way of Praying and so usually we know and it's almost the rebuke that kind of closes that it's end of discussion.
Well, why don't you pray and it's just like You got me what can I do now. It silences the lips it makes that spirit submissive. It destroys Any sort of fleshly structure that would make us refuse to have this gracious spirit of submission.
Submission has fallen on hard times as I trust we all know I could call it the s-word among Christians. You know that word that we shouldn't use we shouldn't speak of the s-word submission. We're embarrassed about it.
Evangelicals are certainly embarrassed about it. They trip over themselves to find ways to say submission doesn't really mean what you think it means and it's just some weird Western white Patriarchal thing that you know came out of sort of you know, the 1950s and really just need to do away with it.
It's all you know, you know free and proud and independent and didn't you know Jesus was radically Libertarian and you know championed autonomy. No, I didn't know that. In fact, that's completely wrong because if anything is true of Jesus It's that he is the perfect display of what submission looks like.
Jesus dignifies submission in a way that believers ought to have a great admiration for submission as a high and lofty virtue in the Christians life and I fear that there's a cultural pole even among us.
We're salmon swimming in the opposite direction of the worldly stream in this regard. But even among us that current's pretty strong and we can be tempted to be pulled along by it. And all sudden where we find submission awkward and we want to define it as something other than what it is.
And in that way, we actually remove the dignity that Christ places upon submission. Christ is the example for us of what it means to be submissive. He crowns it with honor and with beauty there's perhaps nothing as a Quality more pleasing to the eye of the father than a submissive heart.
Isn't that true of you as a parent is there nothing that pleases you more than just that Sort of automatic submissive spirit and hopefully you have seen that as a parent. You know, it might be your children wanting a reward or you know.
Trying to make themselves appear better than their siblings. It can come from all the wrong places, but where and ever it's been genuine. It's just been this response of I just I love you and I want to honor you and I want to follow you when that Child comes up and they say yes.
Okay. I will I want to do that. It's just like oh This is amazing. Then you're like we need to go to the toy store. Now. You need some ice cream. Yeah, you just want to shower them with good thing. This is incredible.
You know, you have to restrain yourself. And so it is with our Heavenly Father I can't think of a quality that it's more pleasing to God than a submissive spirit. Than a willingness in fact an eagerness to be submissive to his will as he sees fit because you Trust him and we're gonna connect submit to trust shortly so the Christian who rides and twists and anxiety Wrestles with deep waters of just discontent May actually need to be confronted with the reality of their situation.
They may have a lot of Job's friends surrounding them and what I mean is they're given wrong advice. So they're they're lashing about they're wrestling. They're full of anxiety and discontentment and you have a lot of well-meaning friends that come alongside and say oh I know it's so hard and you know, just just keep kind of keep going on and it's okay.
You know. You got to just wrestle and you've got to kind of vent and lodge your complaint and so on. And and I have to be really careful here because again There's a whole way that this is true and right and the Psalms speak to this.
But let me just ignore the qualifications that I'm sure in times past I've made and just kind of go for the point here. So bear with me. There's a needed footnote and I'm not gonna say it. So bear with me.
It might take in Eliphaz. It might take what that one friend that's actually the closest truth to the truth to say. For all the wrestling and all the anxiety and all the venting and all the crying and all the Discontentment that has overtaken you could it be that you are refusing to submit to God's will?
Could it be as we've mourned with you as we've prayed with you as we've borne you up as we've been patient with you as We're trying to encourage you. Could it now be the time to say brother or sister?
At the end of the day you're refusing to submit to God. You will not submit to his providence. You will not submit to his will you keep wanting to go in your own way in your Own direction. You don't want the things that he wants for you and you're refusing to submit to him.
Which means you'll never learn the lesson. He's trying to teach you so the Christian who learns contentment is a Christian who has a submissive spirit a Submissive response to the will of God to the way of God to the providence of God.
Paul says he had to learn it. He had to learn how to submit to hunger how to submit to need how to submit to you know being in prison how to Submit to being shipwrecked how to submit to being stoned in the public square and left for dead.
He had to learn how to submit to these things and find contentment. And so you must submit to the lessons that God teaches you submitting doesn't mean Everyone else has to validate my trial my need my frustration.
I need other people to join in and reinforce me and really amplify this thing up. Remember. It's a quiet inward gracious Spirit that's what submission is and it leads to contentment. The world and the devil and the flesh would have you think that submission will never lead to that.
You got to fight for your rights. You got to stand up. What are you a doormat? You'll never have peace. You'll never have joy. You'll never have delight if you're just walked all over. Don't be submissive.
That's a fool's errand. That's what the world that's what your flesh. That's what the devil would whisper into your ear. But a Christian knows no actually this inward sweet quiet Self-relenting God trusting.
Submissive spirit will lead to my genuine joy my genuine hope my genuine peace in life. Do you want to submit. I asked the question. Do you want contentment? Because you can't have one without the other.
Do you want to submit if I'm being honest? No. Well, do you want contentment? Yes a hundredfold. Well, then you must submit. You must submit to God and To those relationships and means that God has appointed for your life and for your path.
You must submit. This is God's way of leading you. Do we sing this hymn with our lives with our thoughts with our actions with our attitude? Do we sing the lyrics in this way? What air my God ordains is wrong.
Incorrect his will abideth. I will thrash about whatever he doth and turn back from where he guideth. No, whatever my God ordains is right. Holy his will abideth. I will be still Whatever he doth and follow where he guided the need to submit leads us to lastly the need to trust.
It's very hard to submit to one that you don't trust. For a young wife learning how to submit to a husband for a new church member learning how to submit to a leader in the church. You don't have enough of a relationship of enough of a context enough of a trust.
It makes submission very hard. The good news there for that young wife or that new church member. Whatever relationship of authority that we all have in our lives may be we trust God through the people that he calls us to trust and follow after and So it is to to have this kind of trust developed.
We see it in Exodus 16. God doesn't punish. He doesn't chastise. He's building up trust. So that his people will submit. So that they will be content. But if they don't trust they won't submit and for that reason they'll never be content.
They'll never enter into the promised blessing. They'll in fact be dragged away unto judgment. So I hope you see the logic of this to have contentment we must learn and To be able to learn rightly we must submit and to be able to submit we must trust to have contentment.
You must trust you must believe. You must have faith that God is leading. God has appointed seasons. God is behind every blessing and every storm. This is not optimism. This is not faith blindly looking for some bright side in a dark situation.
It's an active conscience exercise of faith. It's not saying well a cat always lands on its feet. I know I'll get through this one way or another. Well, I appreciate your spirit, but that's that's not trusting God.
That's not gonna bring about contentment. That's just gonna passively try to protect your own feelings. That's an insulation of your fears and anxieties rather than a purposeful trust in God. I'm so confident in his leading in his providence that I'm going to seek and Squeeze out every purpose he has for me in this trial.
I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna be dejected and pad myself and just say one one way or another it'll end how it'll end. No, I'm gonna seek after him and say Lord show me show me your glory hide me in the cleft.
I want everything you have for me in this that's faith. That's trust and Psalm 131 David says neither do I concern myself with great matters. Nor were things to prove too profound for me. That's trust.
I don't concern myself with great matters things too profound for me. God has a purpose. It's beyond me. His ways are not my ways. Sometimes I find it hard to trust his ways for that reason. But at the same time I look back in my life as we said I look back in my 10s and 20s, and I'm so glad that his ways are not my ways.
And so there I develop a trust. He's essentially saying I don't concern myself with great matters. I don't concern myself with things too profound for me. I just trust him. I Trust him. You are the one who has me here Lord.
You are the one who's brought me to this place. You're the one that is in control of all things. So I don't concern myself with things that I couldn't grasp couldn't solve couldn't get myself through anyway.
It's too lofty and I'm too simple and so I just humble myself in trust. Jesus warns about us about this in the Sermon on the Mount worrisome troubles of today that want to ruin our tomorrow. He says today's trouble is sufficient for itself.
But somehow trouble always moves east on our calendar. This is always heading in that direction. Why be consumed with toil and anxiety? And David says problems that are always beyond our control beyond our power to change.
These are the problems that should cause us to be still to submit and Trust God. Spurgeon says when these trials come We may groan, but we may never grumble. We may groan, but we may never grumble. And as your light would have starved though manna was all around them on the camp.
Every morning.
Quail outside the door of the tent manna like frost knee-deep in every direction. And yet any Israelites who did not walk outside and actually scoop up and actually partake would have starved to death and.
That.
Agency of getting up and going out and drawing near and. Ingesting and digesting that is faith. That's the operation of faith. Manna, of course is set forth to us as Christ. We already saw that in John 6 the true bread from heaven the bread that nourishes the bread that gives a life.
That the sustenance that God has provided the life giver is sweet as honey to our souls given by God's grace from heaven descended to us and. So gracious that we don't have to climb Mount Everest. We don't have to be the few that make it up to the extreme heights.
To just get a little bit to make us last a little bit longer. He graciously puts it right on our lap as it were but that's not enough. Trust says I will actually go out gather and eat and I will trust that what you have provided for the day is enough.
It's sufficient. I won't hoard. I won't gather what will melt or spoil. I trust you for today. I'll trust you again tomorrow and I'll trust you again the day after that. I trust you and so this picture that God is giving of what faith must look like God has provided.
But do you trust in other words? Do you partake? Faith is partaking. Faith is partaking of what God has provided. That means that it's all of God. It's sovereignly monogistically of God's provision and yet.
You're not inactive in the process of reception. Believe Augustine says and you have eaten Trust and you have eaten. Now, what does this trust actually look like? What's the who and the what and the how of trust as we come toward a close.
I Think we get the who the what and the how all held together in Philippians 419 where Paul says my God Shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory. That's the who that's the what and that's the how who?
My God and your God the covenant keeping God. The God who fully manifests himself in the person and work of Christ our Savior. My God and your God shall supply what all your need not most of your needs.
Not a few needs from time to time not all of your needs once in one time only. But always all of your needs. Not your wants not your ambitions or desires, but your actual Heavenly guided needs according to his wisdom and not your own.
And how does this come about? From your own labors from your own efforts from your own wisdom for your own stratagems. No from his Riches in glory his riches in glory. My God supplying your need according to his riches in glory.
It takes us to the dizzying heights of God as this personal dynamic provider and it calls us to learn the lessons that. Don't come from some blind watchmaker some detached deity. But from the personal covenant keeping God are we gonna learn every lesson he has designed in a customary Individualistic way for us as individuals.
Every Israelite going out to scoop up manna or partake of quail. Are you gonna trust him? Are you going to submit to him? Are you going to learn from him? This is what it will require of you. If you would have contentment AW pink has a story of a Scottish pastor.
Just so you know, I never give nationality unless it's Scottish. You probably picked up on that. You know, I just kind of skip over a pastor. A woman a saint. But if it's Scottish, I got a I got a name drop it.
A Scottish pastor. Once called upon an elderly woman Who was part of the congregation and when he visited her she handed the Bible. He asked to take up a reading from it. He said, you know, can I can I use your Bible?
He wanted to kind of see. Have you actually cracked open the gilding on this thing? You know, are there any dog-eared pages of things that we like to see as? Believers and so she handed him her Bible and As he opened it to read he noticed that on almost every page that he turned as he was flipping.
He would find letters either T.
Or.
TP these abbreviated letters. So everywhere he looked along the margins of the page either T or TP and it was just all scattered about. He's thinking. She's off her rocker. Now. He said well, what does this mean?
What is the meaning of this? And this is what this saintly old woman said. Every time I read scripture I I understand God is telling me something promising me something encouraging me or exhorting me to something.
So whenever I come across a passage or a verse that is speaking to me in this way I if I've experienced it if I've known it to be true, I put tried and proven Tried and proven TP. If it's something that I know will be true but it hasn't come to fruition yet, then I just put T and Then the whole course of my life.
I've had occasion as I read scripture To add peas to the teas and to see the faithfulness of God. Has he tried me has he tried me has he tried me? This is what he's promised. This is what he's promised.
It's not true this year. But then that year comes that season comes that time comes where yes, he's proven. He's proven it. What a goal to have brothers and sisters to have the Word of God Marked in this way that we have tried him at his word and he has proven himself to us again and again and again Our God supplying all of our need According to his riches in glory.
This woman had learned from God Patiently she had learned how to submit to God she was trusting in his word and that's why she was so content and If you would have her contentment You also must learn must submit and Must trust the Lord God.
Amen, let's pray father. Thank you for your word. Thank you Lord that you do so Far above abundantly beyond our wildest expectations provide for our needs. Lord you you are faithful to provide even where we're faithless to ask.
Especially at this time and in this part of the world Lord, we don't take thought for what we're going to eat. Rarely, do we take thought of the troubles of tomorrow that? So many others in the world today must take thought of Lord not knowing where food or water will come from not knowing how health or Provision or security or stability will be provided.
So Lord forgive us because we are those with short memories. Short prayers short gratitude a lack of dependence At least perceived a Lack of self-awareness Lord. Thank you that despite all of our Murmuring both intentional and unintentional you look to our need and you provide abundantly.
You are so good. And if that's true just of our physical needs which is reason enough for angels to praise you Reason enough Lord for Eternally to be filled with your Saints surrounding your throne that you are our Creator.
That you've always provided for us and you've seen us through if that's enough how much more so. That you actually came to take our place to die our death to be our life. That you're our Redeemer and our Savior and our consummator.
Oh Lord melt away our frozen in gratitude. Give us hearts overflowing with contentment the kind of contentment that Bears fruit of submission in our lives. Let this be a church That restores that dignity that crown to the virtue of submission.
May it be so among our children as they Seek to submit to you by submitting to their mothers and fathers. May it be true of wives submitting to husbands. May it be true of congregants submitting to leaders.
In whatever form a relationship it may be. Lord will you be honored and will we have that inward sweet? Gracious frame that is pleasing to you. Where that is not the case Lord show it to us. We pray Lord that any way that is not right within us should be exposed.
That may be rectified and made right through repentance and faith and let that faith Be taking great heaping handfuls of the living bread that sustains and nourishes. Let us feed upon our Savior who gave his life to be our bread.
In whose name we pray.
Amen.