When the Church Gets Sick of Manna
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5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Introduction
Introduction
Israel had many advantages in their wilderness journey.
They were promised a land flowing with milk and honey.
They had a Vindicated Prophet as their leader.
They had been delivered from the bondage of Egypt.
They shouted on the banks of the Red Sea as they watched their persecutors drown, never to be seen again.
Their bitter water was made sweet.
The smitten rock followed them, providing water wherever they went.
They had manna to eat. Literally Angel’s food.
What is manna?
14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.
16 This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
This manna was a type of Christ
48 I am that bread of life.
49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
How do you get tired of this bread?
It’s free, it comes from heaven.
Israel, a type of the called out, the church, got sick of manna because they were in a test. God allowed them to go through a dry place to be tested, and they began to complain.
When a fellow receives Christ as his Saviour, everything is on the housetop. But, before this man can come into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, this person, he must first have a sanctifying process. He must have a testing time in his life.
“Every son that cometh to God, is first scourged, chastened, chastised. And if we cannot stand chastisement, then it shows we’re not children of God; we are bastards, and not children of God,” the Bible said.
But if we can stand the chastisement, knowing that “all things work together for good to them that love God,” then we are sons and daughters of God, then He seals us with the Holy Spirit until the day of our redemption.
See, that’s the chastisement, the strain, the thing we go through. And Israel, as a historical type, had to take this chastisement. 61-0723M - “The Ever-Present Water From The Rock”
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
So then that process of time, there’s where the great falling away come, in Israel. When this great crowding-in time, then the people began to fall away, from one side to the other.
Then in their chatting, “Well, we wish we were back down in Egypt. Our souls loatheth this light bread.” In other words, if I would take it historically now, that’s what they said.
Now in the modern day, it would be, “Oh, every Wednesday night, prayer meeting! Every Sunday morning, back to the church! What do we hear? The same thing; the preacher stand up and preach; songs; go on back.”
See, then you’re just going as a line of duty. You’re not a worshipper. A worshipper goes there to worship, to express hisself before his God, to praise God for His goodness; to every Word, he hangs onto It.
If you was going with a girl because you knew it was a duty, or you going with a boy, when you were young. “Mama wants me to go with this guy, but I just can’t stand him.” You don’t get nothing of him coming to see you.
Or, if it’s the same way about the girl to the boy, or boy to the girl. You go with her, she bores you; mama wants you to go with her because she is the type of girl that mama likes. See, it bores you; no love affair.
But you don’t care, you don’t want to clean up, you don’t want to go see her. And it’s a…Why, it’s a horrible thing. And when he is coming to see you, my, you just wish he would hurry on, go home.
That’s the same way it is when you, “Why does he preach so long? What about all this stuff, and everything?” See, you’re not in love.
But when you really hang on to every Word, as the Spirit gave you warning this morning, see, “Hanging on to every Word.” That might be what He has been talking to you about. Holding on! It’s Eternal Life, every Word of God.
It’s a joy to go to church, under any circumstance. Whether it’s hot, cold, indifferent, whether the people are fussing, growling, whatever they are doing, it’s still a joy to hear the Word of the Lord. Then you’re in love then with Christ, see, you love to go to church.
“Well, honey, here it’s Sunday morning again, I guess we have to wash up the young’ns and get down there. My, it’s boresome!” See, you’re not in love.
But if you are really in love, you just can’t wait till Sunday morning comes, you’ve just got to get down there with them. And we get, and to leave…The people of God, they don’t bore you. Why, they are brothers and sisters.
(“Thick as Sorghum molasses on a cold morning.”)
And what we love, each other, is not because that we’re somebody; but it’s the Christ in one another, that we love, you see. It’s the God that’s in our beings, that we love. Now we love to come together.
When one has had a blessing, we are all happy about it. When one is sad, we are sad with him. We want to all be together. Now that’s the way we’re supposed to be.
And that’s the way Israel was supposed to be. But it become burdensome, “Oh, this ol’ light bread!” Angels’ bread, “Well, what do we care about this ol’ light bread? Our souls loatheth this stuff!
And everything is wrong. And this ol’ manna that falls out every night, why, we would rather have some garlic and leek out of Egypt.” You see, their hearts wasn’t ready for the journey.
And when a man or a woman begins to complain about going to church, they get so tired of going to church, they’re not ready for the journey. That’s right. There is something wrong somewhere.
Oh, when you love God, and thinking you’re going to Heaven, and all of you are going together:
(Bro. Branham sings “what a fellowship”)
Now you’re getting ready for the journey, see, you’re ready for to go into the promised Land. The testing times, there’s the danger ground; the wilderness, the testing times.
Israel, in her testing time, she got to quarreling and fussing with one another, and loathing over the bread. And they wanted to go back to Egypt.
(When the food gets boring to you, its easy to believe things Satan whispers to you about the one feeding you)
And then they begin to complaining about their leader. Oh, they was afraid that he was leading them astray; after he had showed himself to be a leader, and God had proved that he was the leader.
“Well, maybe we’ve acted a little bit fanatically. And maybe we’ve got off, all on the wrong foot,” or, something like that, see, they was chatting against God and against Moses, God and His leader.
Now when we get to a place, saying, “I don’t know whether the Word means This, or not,” and, “I don’t know about the Holy Spirit; I’m a little bit skeptic of That. I know others that don’t.” Well, go on to Egypt. See?
But if you are really determined to stay on the road, stay right with this Leader, the Holy Spirit, stay right with the Word. And if you stay with the Spirit, It’ll keep you in the Word. That’s right. It’ll take you right down along the line, the path of the Word.
And don’t be afraid of It. It won’t hurt nothing, It’ll just help you if you are hurt. It’ll heal all the hurts, the Holy Spirit will. 61-0723M - “The Ever-Present Water From The Rock”
Their complaining caused them to get bitten by serpents.
4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
6 And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
God doesn’t want us to murmur among ourselves, but to take our complaints to Him.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Grudge means complain.
4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
The brass serpent was sin judged.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:
22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: For I am God, and there is none else.
Look and live.
Illustrate: Pool of Bethesda
Do you want to be well?
He had to change what he was looking at.
What are you looking at? What are you waiting for? Uh-huh. It’s time. The waters are being troubled. Move in now; the signs of the last days.
“It shall be Light in the evening time,” you know. Yes. “It shall be,” Haywood said. And that’s right. “The path of Glory you’ll surely find.” Yes, in these last days, you would do it. 63-0428 - “Look”
What are you looking to, church? Oh, these last days, oh, He’s been right among us, people, and we forgot it. He set right among us, and we didn’t know it.
The Holy Spirit is here this morning, and maybe many will go away and forget it. Maybe many that’s sick will forget to believe and anchor their faith right where it should be now.
Truly the pool is troubled. The waters are whirling backwards from the natural, showing the supernatural. The Holy Spirit is here, taking a normal bunch of people, intelligent, setting here, well-dressed, well-educated, looking.
The Holy Spirit fall upon them, and something whirls them around. They holler, “Glory to God! Hallelujah!” What’s the matter? The troubling of the water. Amen.
Sinners setting there, backsliders, prostitutes, drunkards, and everything else, are saintly, godly. You can’t put a finger on their lives, anywhere, since they receive it. What is it? The troubling of the waters. 63-0428 - “Look”
Have you gotten sick of the manna? Look at the Word and live.
He’s here to trouble the waters.
Elijah looked for rain, in a desert and he saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand.
The troubling of the water, that first little move, people jumped in.
The sign of the hand in the sky, Elijah said, “That cloud, the size of a man’s hand, like a vapor.” What was it? He kept believing. “I hear the sound of abundance of rain.” That cloud become two clouds.
Two clouds become a hill. A hill become a mountain. The mountain become another mountain. The first thing you know, the whole skies were thundering, rain was falling. What was it? He accepted what God sent.
And this morning, if that little Thing has touched your heart, and says, “I need that,” that’s that little sign, the size of a hand of a man. Come. 63-0428 - “Look”
Where is our love for the word? Do we still love to hear it? Do we love to sit together in heavenly places?
I don’t want to ever get sick of manna.
In this age we have been given the hidden manna.
17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
Like Jesus giving a portion to the disciples to distribute to the crowd, each messenger was given a portion to give to his age.
We were given the full portion.
We can’t even fully appreciate that in these bodies.
Now in every age the messenger of the Lord to that age was given the revelation of God for that specific period. Once the messenger was enlightened by truth, he would bring that truth to the people. And they whose ears had been opened by the Spirit would hear that truth, believe it, and live it.
Now then, there is also the thought of the future partaking of the hidden manna. I think it will be the eternal partaking of the revelation of Jesus Christ in the eternal ages to come. How else could we begin to know the unsearchable riches of His own Being?
All that we have longed to know, all our unanswered questions, all that will be revealed. It will be from Christ Who is our life that we receive it.
Oh, sometimes we think we get to know a little of Him and His Word down here, and it is so good, it makes us rejoice; but one day when our flesh changes, that Word and He will become what we had never dreamed possible. An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages (5 - The Pergamean Church Age)
Conclusion
Conclusion
I want the hidden manna of God. Lord help me to appreciate it!
Sing: What a Beautiful Name It Is
Sing: How Great is Our God
