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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/clark-logan/food-for-the-believer/
What are we to complain about when we are so richly blessed? We have everything we need in Him. And although we all grow discouraged, we thank God that the Lord Jesus is the one who lifts people up. He has lifted us up in salvation.
He is bearing us up day by day underneath of the everlasting arms. And one day, He is going to take us up and take us in to be with Him and to be like Him forever. Now, shall we read this afternoon, first of all, from the book of Exodus and chapter 12?
Exodus and chapter 12, reading from verse 8. And they, that is the Israelites, shall eat the flesh, that is the flesh of the paschal lamb, in that night. Roast with fire, and on leavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire. His head, with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning. And that which remaineth of it until the morning, ye shall burn with fire.
And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. Now, come over, please, to chapter 16, Exodus 16.
I have five short readings. This is the second one, Exodus 16 and verse 4. 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.
Verse 16. 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.
Now, down to verse 21, for the sake of time. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating, and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. Verse 36 at the end of the chapter. Now, and Omer is the tenth part of Anipha.
Now, over to the little book of Ruth. The little book of Ruth in chapter 2 for a verse. Ruth chapter 2, and there we will read verse 17. So she, that is Ruth, gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned, and it was about Anipha of barley.
Our fourth reading in 2 Kings chapter 7. 2 Kings chapter 7, verse 3. There was a famine in Samaria, verse 3. And there were four leprous men at the entry in of the gate, and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?
If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live, and if they kill us, we shall die.
Down to verse 8. When these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried then silver and gold and raiment, and went and hid it. And came and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.
Verse 9. Then they said one to another, We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that we may go and tell the king's household.
Now finally, the book of Daniel and chapter 1. The prophecy of Daniel. Reading from chapter 1, verse 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.
Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Verse 12. He said to Melzar, Prove thy servants I beseech thee ten days, and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.
Verse 15. And at the end of ten days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in the flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Now that's all we shall read just now from the scriptures of truth.
My mother had a fridge magnet which said this, Food is the best medicine. She liked her food even though she was diabetic. Food is the best medicine. And if I was visiting after I'd left home and she thought I looked a bit peaky or a bit pale, she used to say, You know son, what you need is a good feed.
That's the way she put it. And she would put it on the kettle or put it on the frying pan or whatever and she made sure that I left differently from how I came. Food is the best medicine. We were speaking this morning about our diet, that we should have good food to be growing and to become healthy, to have a regular balanced diet.
Another thing to think about is we are what we eat because when we see something that we eat it, we ingest it, we digest it and then that is incorporated into the structure of our body. We are what we eat.
There are spiritual parallels that I want to bring out this afternoon. Our food, as I try to point out, is this book, the Word of God. And we should be known as the people of the book. In Botswana quite often we have strangers coming along and maybe visiting just on an occasion but they would say, You know, what we like about coming here is that you read from the book, the Bible and you explain what the Bible says.
Some of them have got used to another form of Christianity as it were. We should be people of the book. This is our food. The first reference we read, we want to think about feasting on the lamb, the divine provision that God gave them on the night he redeemed them from Egypt.
They were to take a little lamb, an unblemished male of the first year and we read all wonderful things about that little lamb. They were to take it and keep it and kill it and strike it and eat it and roast it and what was left was to be burnt with fire.
The Paschal lamb, the Passover lamb. And thank God in the divine provision they were able to feast on the lamb. They were sheltered by the blood that was applied. They were satisfied with the lamb by feasting on the lamb.
We see something of their pilgrim character for they are leaving Egypt, freed from Egypt, bound for Canaan. It should have only taken them a very short time, you know, to get to Canaan. Their wandering in the desert, in the wilderness was because of disobedience.
You remember the verse somewhere that says it was just 11 days journey from one place to another, nearly there. Why the wandering? Now, we can learn lessons from Israel in the wilderness but let us be clear on this, dear child of God.
The desert, the wilderness is not normative for the child of God. We feel we're in a wilderness. We feel we're in the desert. Yes, we understand that. But in another sense, it is not normative. We need not wander home to heaven as they did.
We are not to complain and moan and groan and mumble and grumble as they did. That's not normative. We are not to rebel against our leaders as they did. That is not normative. So the wilderness experience in that sense should not, need not be ours.
But they fed upon the lamb, the head, the legs and the pertinence, the insides thereof. Doesn't it remind us? Of course, it reminds us. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. And every day, I'm going to suggest to you, you need to feed upon the lamb.
That is Christ. You say, what does that mean? What are you talking about? How can I feed upon the lamb? Let me try and explain. You take your Bible and you read it. And you look for Christ wherever you read.
You read to observe and you seek to understand and interpret. The hardest step of Bible study, of course, is doing it, the application, from observation and interpretation to application. But you look for Christ.
Why? Because He's in all the Scriptures. He's the center and circumference of it all. Beginning at Moses and the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. He's found in all the Scriptures.
Start looking for your Savior in all of the book. And then when you get a little nugget, just enjoy it. Think about it. Turn it over this way, turn it over that way as you go through the day. And you're thinking about Him.
And you're enjoying Him. You're feeding upon Christ. And that will strengthen you. That will encourage you. And that's what we must do. We must learn to feed upon Christ. And you will find Him in all of the Scriptures.
There is a book that has been written, Christ in all the Scriptures, I think. I do have it on my shelves. And I just love the idea that you'll find Him everywhere. Little pictures, little glimpses here and there.
Some of the books. But you'll find Him all through the Bible. You search for Him. You seek for Him. You look for Him. And you feed upon what you find. Just enjoy Christ. Listen, make Him your Savior. Make Him your Lord.
This is not a theoretical thing out there, an idea, a philosophy. This is real. To get to know my Savior, who knows me through and through. To love Him who loved me first. To live for Him who gave all for me.
Make Him your Savior. Make this book your book. Your very own. And feed upon Christ the divine provision. Stay close to Calvary, where the Lamb was slain, where He was wounded, for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.
Jesus, keep me near the cross. Every day you seek to feed. Feast on the Lamb. Feed on Christ, the divine provision. The second passage deals with the gathering of the manna. That was another food. That was the food that God provided for over 2 million people for 40 years.
So it must have been balanced. It was God's provision for them, yes. But the thing I want to emphasize, now we've left Egypt, now we're in the wilderness. The daily portion, you remember I was saying a little bit earlier, every day, are you listening?
Every child of God must spend time alone with God and His word. It's a daily portion. Of course they complained about it. It was easier to take them out of Egypt than to take Egypt out of them. That's just like us.
Oh, this manna. We're tired of it. Oh, we're thinking of the fish and the cucumber and the leeks and the garlics and all the things that we had in Egypt. They never seem to remember the whip. They remember the food of Egypt, but not the persecution.
Isn't it strange? Human nature is so perverse at times and we all have it. They were moaning and groaning and as we know, they nearly broke Moses' heart. But God's provision was this, a daily portion.
Every morning they were together according to their capacity. And the manna speaks of Christ. And we could bring out lessons about the smallness and the roundness and the wideness of this special provision that God had made for them.
And the fragrance and the sweetness, yes. Every day it satisfied and sustained them for 40 years, even though at times they were wanting back to the food of Egypt. Take care what you ingest. There's a lot of junk around that come into your mind and into your heart and that you can feed upon.
We know that. All of us know that. But every day, please, I plead with you. I think I'm allowed to do that. I plead with you. Learn to read your Bible every day and if possible, early in the morning. When I was a young Christian, I grew very discouraged.
It wasn't happening. I would make efforts at this and that and it was just a bit of mumble, jumble really. And I decided, listen, I have to do something. This can't go on. For me, it meant this. I bought an alarm clock and I set it to go off a little bit earlier than I normally would rise.
That was my answer. I'm not saying it has to be yours. Maybe you don't have a problem, but that was a problem for me. And I had to admit it and humble myself and be honest enough. So I would get up half an hour earlier to spend time alone.
Begin the day with God. You know, when an orchestra is going to give a concert, before they give the concert, they tune up. They must. Otherwise, there'll be a cacophony. They'll all be out of tune, especially these violins and violas and cellos and double basses.
They have to be tuned before they give the concert. Now, if you're going to begin the day and live it for God, you'll need to tune up. You really will. And the time came after some months, I didn't need the alarm clock any longer.
It was the best time for me and I think it's a good time and you'll read throughout the Old Testament how the Lord sent the prophets rising up early and you'll find servants of God getting at it early.
Because if you miss that time, and all sorts of things crowd in, you women, you mothers are very busy in the morning and you husbands too and for various reasons. But listen, this is vital to your spiritual health.
Every day, I'm going to hear the voice of God. I'm going to read His Word to seek to understand it and to seek to put it into practice because God has something to teach me for this day. Gathering the manna.
They remembered that by having a golden pot and putting in some manna and that went into the ark. Sadly, when you come to 1 Kings 8 and they are restoring the temple, there was no golden pot of manna.
I think to myself, I've thought about this a little bit. I have no real answer. What happened is, it was a special memorial in the ark. When did someone take it out and just leave it to the side or cast it away?
We don't know. But thank God in the days of Josiah, what happened? They found the book. They found the book. And everything started to turn the corner when they paid attention to the book. And they remembered the lamb.
They revived the Passover, you remember, in the days of Josiah. And they cleared away the idol. And he trumped them to dust. And he burnt them. He destroyed them thoroughly because he was committing himself to God.
Even as a little boy, he had been seeking after God. The revival under King Josiah. They discovered the book. They started to read it. He read it. The people, they heard it being read. And so we're thinking of the daily portion.
So please, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, make it part of your day. Whether it be the morning or some other time. You're alone with God, reading the word of God. And the family altar, of course.
Sometimes, something of a rarity these days where the father and the mother are sitting down with their children around the table. And when the children are small, it has to be pretty short. But we would try with our children, as best we could, to have a little time in the morning, reading maybe just a verse or two.
And then we would try to sing a little verse of a hymn or a chorus to tune up for the day. Gathering the manna. The daily portion. When we come to the lovely, lovely story of Ruth, we learn about diligent labor.
Beating out the gleanings. The Lord has a great big heart for widows, orphans, and strangers. Foreigners. The Lord has a big heart for them. So should we. The Lord had told the reapers in Israel, you know when you're reaping the field, leave the corners.
Don't push it right to every corner. Leave it for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. When you're gleaning from the tree, just give it one big shake. Take the olives. But if you see you've left a few behind, don't go back.
Leave it for the widows, the orphans, and the strangers. And you know the beautiful story of Ruth. You remember the family that went to Moab. Then you remember the famine that led them there. And then the failure, and then the funeral.
Oh, it was sad. Naomi came back eventually with Ruth. As you know, many of you know the story. And they said, look, that's Naomi has come back. They hardly recognized her. She says, don't call me Naomi.
Oh, no, please, don't call me Naomi, which means a sweetness. Call me Mara, which means bitterness. God had disciplined her, and she acknowledged that. She wasn't complaining against God. She was just acknowledging the fact that I required the discipline of God for my waywardness.
Do you remember? I was just thinking when they were in the wilderness, there was the bitter water of Mara. That was made sweet. Naomi became Mara, but there was Mara made sweet. How did they make it sweet?
By a tree. Just reminds me that Calvary makes everything sweet when we understand what has been done for us. So Ruth, she sets about gleaning. She's allowed to glean in the fields. But what impresses me with her is the hard work that was involved right to the evening.
And if you follow through the lovely little book, you will find that her portion just grows and grows and grows. Let me point out to you, without us reading it, in chapter 2, verse 3, it's the ordinary gleanings.
But she had to beat it out to get the benefit of the grain and to leave the husks to the side. You have to beat it out. You have to labor in, if you like, to apply it to the scriptures, to labor in the scriptures to get the maximum benefit from it.
It's not just reading the Bible. We are to be students of our Bible. The ordinary gleanings. And then she was given parts corn because it's the story of Boaz, too, the kinsman redeemer who wanted to redeem her, who was both willing and able eventually to do so.
Lovely picture of the Lord Jesus. Ah, but my... Touches my heart when I read of the word Boaz. Let her glean among the sheaves. She should have been really following on all the rest of it. I'll let her go on ahead and go in there.
And then, isn't it so beautiful? He says to his reapers, I want you to draw handfuls of purpose. Little bit of extra. Don't pick it all up yourself. You deliberately drop some handfuls extra for this dear lady.
No wonder, she says. Why have I found grace in thy sight? Seeing I am a stranger. Why this care for me? Oh, now she has the handfuls of purpose. And we read that she beat out and it turned to be an ephah.
In chapter 3, of course, she is not laboring in his field. She is lying at his feet. And what does she receive that night? Oh, she receives two measures of barley. Six measures of barley, I beg your pardon.
Which is two ephahs. She received twice as much at his feet than she received working in his field when it was one ephah, even after she had beat it out. What's the lesson? You'll have to beat out. You'll have to study.
You'll have to look for the value, the precious things when you read your Bible. Feed on Christ. Do it every day. Labor to get the maximum benefit from the word. Don't just get hold of the word. Let the word take hold of you.
The diligent labor. We started in Egypt. We were in the wilderness. Now we're in the land. The next story, and I must go very, very quickly here. 40 and 40, 80. Five minutes. Am I five minutes? Is that right, about five minutes?
I have to go on to 340. Is that right? Okay, then I'll just relax a little bit here. I'll slow down. If I finish before 340, I don't think anyone will complain, will you? I'm sure not. There were difficult times.
There was famine. And there were these poor lepers. And they sort of worked out a lesson. Whatever we do could end in death. Let's go to the camp of the enemy and see what there might be. Maybe they'll kill us.
We die. If we sit here, we die. So that's what happened. In the mercy of God, when they got to the enemy camp, it was deserted. But all the food was there. And all the treasures were there. So they sat down.
And as my mother would say, they had a good feed. But then something struck their conscience. Here are we, enjoying all this goodness and all this food. It's a day of good tidings. But we're keeping it all to ourselves.
We should be sharing it with our fellow, our brethren and our sisters. And that's what they resolved to do. So when you feed upon Christ, the Paschal Lamb, and you do it daily, you gather the manna, and you work hard at beating it out to glean the maximum benefit, you've got something very precious.
And it's so valuable that you dare not keep it to yourself. Now, let me make an application. If salvation is so worth having, it is worth sharing. Would you agree? If we have come into the good of God's blessing through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are forgiven, we are set free, we are reconciled, we have peace with God, we have hope, we have joy, we have new life, we have a future that is secure, is that the sort of message you would want to keep to yourself?
My dear brother, my dear sister in Christ, you have a responsibility to share the blessing of God in your life. You may not be a preacher, you may be a dear sister, but if your heart is overflowing with thankfulness to God for Christ and all that you have received, would you not share it?
Why are you quiet? Why are you silent? We can talk about the weather, we can talk about politics and sport and work and money. People need to hear about Christ from our lips. And every believer, should every believer read the word of God, every believer should be a missionary telling others about the Lord Jesus.
That's how it's spread in the days of the Acts. Don't leave it to the gospel preachers. They can't do it on their own. Not enough of them. But listen, here's the thing. Will you just think it through for me a minute?
You live in Garneville. I don't think Garneville maybe has too many shops and stores and what not, but there's a few. It's a small town. But when you ladies go to the shop, listen, you are meeting people I will never meet.
They are your responsibility. When I go around the village, we live in an African village on tribal land. When I'm going around the village, well, in Botswana, I'm meeting people you'll never meet. They are not your responsibility.
They are mine. To share the good news of the gospel with our friends, with our neighbors, with the folks in the shop, any little opportunity we can get just to speak well of Christ. To flood Garneville with good news.
Maybe just to pass on a tract. Or maybe just to say, is that dear lady I met in the bus, you know, that dear lady who loved the Lord so much? Oh, the Lord is so good. God is so good. Oh, you can say that, can't you?
Because you know that is true. Share it. Don't be greedy. Don't be selfish. Don't keep it to yourself. The Lord said to the Gadarenean demoniac, go home and tell the great things that he has done for you.
How he had mercy and compassion upon you. Go and tell. Share it. So that's what the lepers did. They went and shared it. And so can you. So you're reading. You're feasting upon Christ. You're learning a little more about him through the scriptures you're reading.
You're doing that every day. It's part of your life. My dear colleague Jim Legge said to me, you know, Clark, routines. He had a very fixed routine. He was an early riser and he had a little routine. He says, you know, when things are falling apart that routine that you have built into your life will hold you together.
And you troubled saints we have acknowledged and confessed as we believe there may be troubled saints here today and things seem to be falling apart. But if there is that little routine of rising in the morning, getting off to a good start, getting in tune, reading your Bible, trying to get some value out of it and sharing it.
We can share it with others. Let's really take it seriously to go home and tell. I remember the night I was saved as a little boy of seven. That was a great night. That was the best night in my life. There's little boys and girls here today who need to be saved.
I speak to them now. You need to be saved. You need to get to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You need forgiveness of your sins to make sure that He is your Savior and on your way to heaven. But my missionary service began the night I was saved.
I want you to try and understand that because I just wanted to tell others. I wanted to share it. My father had taken me to the Gospel meeting. The preacher was the first to know because he helped me to understand that I was a guilty sinner but for the first time in my life I realized Jesus died for me.
I speak to the young ones. That's how I was saved. That's all I have. That's all I need. I was a guilty sinner but Jesus died for me. So the preacher got to know and then I told my father who would take me to the meeting.
I couldn't wait home. I couldn't wait to get home to tell my mother. Banging on the front door with my fist Mommy, Mommy, I got saved tonight! It was worth having and worth sharing. Monday morning was school.
My teacher was called Miss McKeown. Miss McKeown, I was never her favorite. I was well down the list. But that Monday morning I marched up to the front. I said Miss McKeown, I have got something to tell you.
I got saved on Friday night. I think I just slipped to the very bottom of the rankings that morning, with her at least. She didn't know what I was talking about but I knew I'm forgiven. I have eternal life.
I'm on my way to heaven. Christ is my Savior. Is it not worth sharing? At school, there were those who were saved, I remember. At university, there were those who were saved. I'm not claiming anything in that regard that it was through me.
I don't mean it like that, but the opportunities. You don't cross an ocean and become a soul winner. You're to be a missionary at home. Go home and tell. So I challenge you. I hope in love and in compassion and not in any harsh way at all.
Dear brother, dear sister, if it's worth having, it's worth sharing. So that's what the lepers felt when they went and told others, listen folks, we have found a food store. We have found riches. Come and enjoy it.
Share it with us. God will bless you. And you know, God will bless you so much that you could hardly understand it until you get home to heaven. When you get home to heaven, just imagine that and you're walking along the golden street.
Let's use a little bit of sanctified imagination and somebody stops you. They say, oh, hello, it's you. And you'll say, sorry, I don't know who you are. Who might you be? Oh, do you not remember I was in your Sunday school class and you shared the message with me?
I wasn't saved just then, but years later I remembered. I got saved. I think that's going to be heaven full of surprises because we sought to share it. We sought to scatter the seed, to sow it, to say there is bounty in Christ.
There's everything you need in Christ and if you just remain here with the things of the world, you have lost everything for now and for eternity. I've labored the point, but I think you've got it. Share it.
Share it. The last scripture is of Daniel. Now we're not in Egypt. We're not in the wilderness. We're not in the land. We're not in Samaria. Well, actually, we're in Babylon. Babylon is a picture in one way, too, of the world as Egypt is in different respects.
We won't go into that just now. But Daniel was the first in three waves of people taken to Babylon. It happened, the exile happened in three waves and he was the choice one in the first wave, these young men.
And what the Babylonians wanted to do was to take these young men and turn them into Babylonians. So they changed their names from names that glorified God to names that glorified their idols. That's the point in the name change.
When you read of El in the name, that's short for Elohim, Daniel, Ezekiel, all those Els are God's name in that name. If you read the name with an I-A-H I-A, that's short for Jehovah. Those are all the names pointing to Jehovah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and so on.
They tried to change their names. They tried to change their language so that they would speak the language of Babylon and forget the Hebrew that was their home language. They tried to change their dress so that they would look like Babylonians and then they tried to change their diet to give them the richest, the finest, the very best food from the king's table.
Dear young men, listen, and young ladies too, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, the food of Babylon. So by God's grace he was allowed to put the challenge, would you mind just giving us some vegetables and some water for ten days for this period of testing?
And he was in such good terms that they were allowed to do that. And at the end of the ten days, what was the result? Well, it says they were firmer and fatter. I'm not sure how fat you can get in the feed of vegetables, but anyway, we won't go into that.
They look better, far better than these young Babylonian men. I say to my young brothers and sisters, be prepared to be different. If you are different, you will suffer for the sake of Christ. You may be mocked at times, you may be scorned and laughed at, and joked about.
But if you're just the same as the Babylonians, what does that say to the Babylonians? That's no testimony at all. And if we're just like the young men and women of the world in all of these habits, what impact does that make?
There's no difference. I say, you're just the same as us. You just talk like us. You eat like us. You have the same desires, and you go to the same places and do it. No impact. Now, here's the thing. Don't act different.
It's not putting on an act. It's being what you are. You are different. You're a child of God. And be what you are. Don't be afraid to be different. There's a lovely verse in the prophecy of Daniel. It says this,.
But the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. That's an exciting verse, isn't it? But the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits. Like turning the world upside down.
Like revolutionizing a town or an area with the gospel. There are enemies that we face, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And you see in Daniel and his friends with his food, that would appeal to the flesh.
And then his friends before the idol refusing to bow down just to keep in with the world. They overcame that. And then finally, you remember in the lion's den that reminds us of the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
I'm thinking about along these lines. Don't think of Daniel in the lion's den as a young man. He was about 86. They reckon. When he was in the lion's den and God gave him the victory. The people that know their God, whether it be in Babylon or back there in the land shall be strong and do exploits.
So we come to the end of our little study concerning our food. Concerning our diet. Dear brother, dear sister in Christ, will you rediscover the Bible for yourself and feed upon Christ? I was going to say, yeah, to love him more might be the most respectful way to say it.
To love him more, get to know him better through this book, through the word. Not so you might become full of knowledge and be able to discuss this and that's all and very, very important, but that you might become more like him because you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
You might prove that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Be not conformed to this world. Don't let the world pour you into its mold, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind through this precious, precious book.
This is our food and as I said, we should be reading it, loving it, learning it, living it day by day. Now we never did get into the New Testament. My time is gone, but we could have gone on with the milk and the meat.
We'll leave that for another time, maybe. May the Lord bless his word to us all this afternoon. Thank you.