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This study may be freely posted on other bbs' and distributed to others provided this leader remains with the study text at all times. ======================================================================== EAT TO LIVE Sermon text John 6:30-63; note especially the following verses: 54) Whoso EATETH my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 56) He that EATETH my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57) As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so HE THAT EATETH ME, even he shall live by me. 63) It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; THE WORDS that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. It is easily understood from JOHN 6 that manna is a "type" or symbol of Christ, but it pictures Him in a special manner. There are multitudes of people today who feel certain that when they partake of what is commonly called the Lord's supper, they are fulfilling what Jesus said to do here. When we begin to read these passages of scripture we need to realize that Jesus was not speaking literally of partaking of his flesh or even literally partaking of bread and wine (grape juice) as symbols of his flesh. We cannot receive the fulfillment of a "type" by simply partaking of another "type" or symbol of the same REALITY. Jesus tells us in verse 63 that it's the spirit that quickeneth (giveth life). He continues and says that the flesh profits nothing! The problem people had back then was that they saw only the fleshly aspect! When Jesus said, "You must drink of my blood and eat of my flesh," all they could think of was this literal, physical body! Jesus made it plain that the flesh profits nothing! You could have eaten the entire body of Jesus Christ, and that would not have provided any spiritual help or life! Jesus said HIS WORDS were spirit and life! The Church that Jesus purchased with His blood (Acts 20:28) was built on Christ as a manifestation of the living word of God which Christians may feed on today just as Jesus taught. The children of Israel ate the literal manna in the wilderness and they died, but if you eat the spiritual manna today, you won't die! You will have everlasting life! Jesus said it is very important that we eat this bread if we want to live forever with him! If we don't feed on heavenly bread, we are not going to make it to glory! Let's turn to the book of Exodus and study the types of manna just as the Bible gives them. In the 12th chapter we read where the children of Israel were delivered from the bondage of Egypt's Pharoah and taskmasters (picturing salvation from the bondage of Satan and his agencies). Then we come to the place where the children of Israel began to get hungry. You will find that when you get saved (redeemed from Egypt), you begin to have an appetite for spiritual food. You begin to get hungry for the things of God. I have seen people get so hungry for spiritual things that they didn't want to eat any physical food anymore (naturally they still had to). You will find that when the children of Israel had been redeemed and had gone into the wilderness, they became hungry. Lets read about it in Exodus 16:1-2: 1) And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2) And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Here we have a group of people, approximately two to three million in number (the Bible shows 600,000 fighting MEN), who had just been redeemed by this blood of the lamb (as a "type"). Yet where are they now? The same place you go when you get delivered. They were in the wilderness of Sin! Someone might say, "Well, the Lord doesn't save us to sin!" True, but he still leaves you where sin goes on all around you. The wilderness of Sin was all around them and it made them hungry. They couldn't find anything there suitable for food. When we get saved, we begin to look around us and there is nothing in this world to feed us! There is nothing here that will satisfy us when we are a redeemed people! When you were out in sin, perhaps you went out every night of the week trying to find something to satisfy! That's why people do things like smoking, drinking, and partying around with the world. They are trying to find something that satisfies. When you get saved you suddenly realize that smoking, drinking, cussing, gambling, lusting, etc., do not satisfy anymore! Yet, on every side, it is wilderness, sinful wilderness, and you are spiritually hungry! As a babe in Christ, if you are not careful you will begin to murmur as Israel did! They didn't know how to say, "God we are hungry, feed us." So what did they do? They murmured and complained! Those people had just seen the miracle of God in the passover night! They had just seen the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea! Yet after all God had done for them, they still questioned whether He could provide them with food. Looking back it would be easy to condemn them for their lack of faith. However, no babe in Christ is strong in faith! So there they were out in the wilderness, hungry and murmuring. They didn't know that God was going to bring them some manna. It's the same situation today. There are people that get saved in false religion but they are just babes in Christ. They begin to murmur and complain. They don't understand that if they would ask God, He would lead them to the truth and a true Pastor (Shepherd) who would feed them (see Acts 20:28 and Jeremiah 3:14- 15). Instead, they begin to murmur and complain! Sometimes, they even rebel against God and return to desiring the sinful things they had left behind. We read in 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." Notice that the source of manna is from heaven. He said, "I will rain bread from heaven." It didn't grow in the wilderness! We need to get this thing straight. For Bible preaching to be genuine manna, it MUST be heaven sent! The preacher must get it directly from God! Manna has to come from heaven or it does no one any good. Manna from on high is not invented, produced, or manufactured by men. This is why we constantly emphasize to people that the Bible contains God's word but it is not God's word by itself! The Holy Spirit must help us feed on it! If the Bible is God's word in itself then everybody can get God's word; everybody can go in the store and buy manna. Let me tell you something; Paul said the natural man (lost) cannot receive the deeper spiritual truths (I Corinthians 2:7-14). A lost person can read the Bible, but they cannot receive the true manna that comes down from heaven. There is a lot of preaching right out of the Bible that is not manna from heaven! It is not manna if it is invented, manufactured, pieced together, or dreamed up by men! A lot of people are being led astray by false preachers because, as they say, "he is reading it out of the Bible." Friend, the Bible is not the Word of God! The word of God comes down from heaven! Men had the word of God before they even had the Bible! They preached the word before the Bible was ever printed! You will never find one place in the Bible where Jesus referred to printed pages as being the word of God. He called it scripture. The Holy Spirit has to take the scriptures and reveal the hidden spiritual truths that lost people can't see due to their spiritual blindness (II Corinthians 4:3-4, Matthew 13:10, etc...). Exodus 16:4, "Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold I will rain bread down 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." Why did God send manna from heaven? Many people don't realize why God sends His word to us to eat. There are so many people today who just sit there and say, "Bless me Lord, bless me Lord." Brother, He didn't send it to bless. He sent it so you would obey it! He blesses you for obeying it! Someone might say, "Why do I sit under the sound of the gospel and get blessed?" It's because your heart is reaching out and saying, "Yes, Lord I'll do it!" God knows if you mean business and if your heart says "Amen." When your heart says it is willing, God blesses you. However, don't ever fool yourself and think that He just sends the word to bless you. He blesses you for obedience! He sends the manna to test us and then if we pass the test, we get blessed. I have set under the Word of God and gotten blessed but the reason I received a blessing is because I was willing to obey. Friend, if you set back and are not willing to make a promise in your heart to do what is being preached you will never get blessed by the preaching! If you get blessed it will be because of a submissive spirit. There are some folks that think just because the word of God goes forth that they will get blessed. If they don't get blessed they say it's not the word of God. They had better look out because that may be what sends their soul to hell. I've known people that have walked away from the truth just because they didn't get blessed by hearing it. There is a reason why people don't get blessed by hearing it! It is because they weren't submissive enough in their heart to say, "Lord, if this is your will, I'll do it!" Someone might say, "I'm not sure it's his will." One reason a lot of people are uncertain is that they are hoping it isn't the truth. They don't want to measure up! You can be blessed by false preaching! One way is if you are not truly saved and a false preacher gives you false comfort. Then the devil blesses you and you think it's of God. Another way that you can get blessed by a false preacher is to be a saint of God who lacks understanding of genuine blessings. Your flesh can get blessed by his preaching under a false spirit. How is that? If you are an emotional person he may stir your emotions and you will probably mistake it for spiritual blessing. Flesh will bear witness with flesh and you will think it blesses you. If the preacher preaches about something that the flesh likes (ie: material prosperity), you will feel blessed, but only in the flesh. We have to watch out for this thing because this is how the devil deceives people. Some people set under the manna of God, get a little burnt, and don't like it! They say, "This guy must be a false prophet, a fanatic!" Then they go set under what is suppose to be the word of God and just feel so good! They are accepting the false and casting out the genuine! My friend, we have go to be careful of this thing. Read with me again from 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. In our language today, we would say, "Whether they would walk in it or not." Most people would say that manna was sent from heaven to fill their bellies. No! Manna is sent from heaven to test us. If it's really God's word it will be a challenge to us to live in such a manner as to deserve God's blessing. It won't be the kind of message that just hands it out, "Here come and get it, and I'll heal you, or provide for you, or bless you." If you want this help from God you are going to have to be willing to commit yourself to the will of God and follow Him. If you want physical blessings, you are going to have to be willing to commit yourself to the will of God whatever it might be. Preachers come around and give people the impression that they can just grab these things up. It's not that way! God sends manna from heaven to test us and if we pass the test He will provide for us! Any preacher that preaches the blessings of God and doesn't lay down the conditions for being blessed is preaching false doctrine. When I was in false religion, I was always hearing messages on the blessings of God. They implied that I would be blessed without being tested. Friend, the preaching is only manna when it comes and digs into our life and promises blessings if we live according to the will of God. Away with this devilish preaching that hands out blessings to everyone. Reading in 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." He didn't send it to those in Egypt, did he? He didn't send it to those who thought they were full and didn't have any needs. He didn't come for those that were well! He came for those who realized that they were hungry and needed to be filled. The only way we can have the word of God (manna from heaven) is for God to send it to us personally. Then we must be willing to labor in order to gather up what God has sent. Surely if we must labor to earn our physical food it will be necessary to labor for the spiritual! Many of the saints in this congregation drive nearly a hundred miles or more each way just to come here to gather manna. Verse 11, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, speak unto them, saying, at even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground." Notice where this manna was accumulated. It was round about the host. In other words, it was all around the camp. Just think; there might have been folks down in Egypt that would have liked to taste some manna but they weren't in the right place! You would have had to be in the camp of Israel and delivered from Egypt before you could get the manna. A lot of folks today would like to have the manna but they are too far away spiritually speaking. The manna was round; a small round thing. There's truth in that thought, that thrills me every time I think of it. Friend, do you realize that no matter where you start in God's word you will always end up coming back to the same place? You'll find that truth will always fit all the pieces of the puzzle together perfectly. Truth in Genesis always fits snugly with truth in Revelation. Jesus said He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. A round object always has its beginning and ending at the same spot. This is true no matter where you start, so what better symbol of Jesus and the word? As you study, you'll find that you will follow scriptures that intertwine and interconnect (in thought and teaching) throughout the Bible. Eventually, you'll end up returning to your original text. For example, to study Revelation you'll work your way to Genesis and on through the Bible. You'll eventually end up right back in Revelation. The Word of God will never contradict itself! The Bible does because of translation problems, etc. However, God's word is round like the manna so it "rolls out" smoothly! Verse 14 said it was a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. Isn't it amazing how something so small could feed so many? There's lots of it though and God will never run out. If we had a congregation of one trillion people we could still get enough out of the little book to feed every one of them. Can you imagine all those people, 2 to 3 million or more, being fed by those little round things that lay like frost on the ground? Verse 16 says, "This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man." An omer is three to three and a half quarts. They were going to have quail in the evening. They needed the manna to last them through the day. You don't need much strength through the evening because you are going to bed. The manna is what gave them strength for their labors through the day. Most people's stomachs are supposed to hold only a pint and three and a half quarts is seven pints. The Lord gave them plenty to eat didn't he? When you eat God's manna, do you eat until you're full? God wasn't trying to make gluttons out of them but He was trying to feed them plenty! They probably griped about him giving them too much! That's the way it goes today too! First people complain about starving; then they complain about the long messages! It must have taken a long time to gather three quarts of something that was as small as frost! It is the same way spiritually. You can't fill your bucket in a hurry! It is impossible to truly feed God's sheep with sufficient food in a short period of time. Thirty-minute sermonettes just won't do it. If God sent down just enough manna to feed every person it would have taken a train about 325 box cars long just to feed about two million people. If there were three million people, it would have taken nearly five hundred cars. That is a lot of folks to feed a lot of food to give them. Then every Friday there would be a double train load coming in! I am talking about God's gospel train. The gospel train rolled in and dumped out the manna. I would have liked to have seen that but it's even better to see the real spiritual manna coming down today. In the 14th verse, he said it was as small as hoar frost; a small round thing. Notice also where it was. It was on the ground! It is the same way today. You are not going to get it by standing up and saying how righteous and holy you are! Back then when people went out to pick up those little pieces of manna they would not have gotten to do much standing up! They had to bend over and they may have even gotten down on their knees. Brother, that's how we are going to have to do it today. If we want to feed on heavenly food we must get down and humble ourselves! We must get our eyes open enough to see our own weaknesses and quit allowing the devil to blind us so we only see our brother's sins! A holier-than-thou attitude is a stench in the nostrils of God according to Isaiah 65 and other passages. No one will ever get much heavenly food to eat until they realize they are nothing and Jesus is everything! Israel either gathered the manna or trampled it under their feet. It was all around the camp so as they went out they either picked it up or walked on it! It is the same way today with God's manna from on high. Either you are going to gather it up or you are going to trample it under your feet. To feed on this bread of life is to take it into your spiritual being to the extent that it actually becomes part of you. This will enable you to live a life influenced by the manna. Otherwise, you are just trampling it under foot! Verses 17 and 18 say, "And the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less. And when they did mete it with a omer he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating." Someone might say, "God said for each man take an omer but some of them didn't and it almost sounds like that was alright." God wants us to take an omer but if we take less it doesn't mean that he is going to come and cut us off. It simply means we won't have as much to eat for strength! Some people require more strength than others don't they? Some people use their strength more than others do! Some people labor more to help others find Christ and so use more spiritual energy. Those who take more manna have more strength to accomplish more for God. Some take less but it's not because God wants them to! God's word was "Take every man an omer" but some didn't. It's the same today friend. If we don't take it we are the losers. Verse 19, "And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning." If you don't "eat" what is preached at a service, tomorrow will be too late. It isn't going to stay around or hang in the air! You are going to lose it! Don't just let God's word go in one ear and out the other. Eat it fresh! Verse 15, "And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another it is manna, for they wist not (knew not) what it was, and Moses said unto them this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat." If you look at the word manna in the Hebrew it means "What is it?" That is still a good name for the Word of God today as far as the natural man is concerned! The natural man still says "What is it; I don't get it; what do you mean?" The natural man can read the Bible, but he can't feed on the word! To help us see this type, look in verse 31. It says, "and the house of Israel called the name thereof manna, and it was like corriander seed, white: and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." Everyone knows what white symbolizes. White is always a symbol of purity throughout the scriptures. Someone might say, "it must be a type of Jesus." Friend, Jesus is a manifestation of the word of God and the Word of God is just as pure as Jesus. Read Psalms 119:140 and it will show you the reason the saints of God love the Word of God. Read Proverbs 30:5 and it will tell you that every word of God is pure! It's white! In Exodus 16:31, it said the taste of the manna was like wafers made with honey. Psalms 19 will tell you that the law and the judgments of God are sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. Only a christian can feel that way! No lost person feels the judgments of God are sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. Why? because they don't like them a bit! It's not manna to them, it's only manna to the people of God! Lost people just don't like the taste of it! If you will notice in verses 19 and 20, you will see why they don't. "Moses said let no man leave of it till the morning. (A lost person has to leave it; they cannot eat it.) "Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until morning and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them." Is it any wonder why lost people don't like the taste? They can't get it down, so they leave it until the morning and try again when it's full of worms and stinking. No wonder they don't like it! The law of God shows them their need, but it's not sweet to them! If you don't love God's law and delight in it as Paul said he did (Romans 7:22), then friend, you are lost! Many people say, "How do you know whether a person is saved or lost." Ask them if they love the law of God! If they don't love it with all their heart, they are not saved (Psalms 1:2 and Psalms 119- 47)! Verse 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 bread which the Lord hath given you." A lot of folks just look at it! A lot of folks just listen to the preaching with their head and not their heart. Friend, you have got to eat it! It doesn't do you any good at all just to look! It doesn't do you any good at all just to hear about it! You must eat it to do you any good! Not everyone likes to eat it today and not everyone there liked to eat it! In Numbers 11:4 and 5 it says, "And the mixed multitudes that were among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." Friend, there is nothing wrong with those vegetables, but they represent (among other things)that which causes the "stinking breath" spirits of people in Egypt. According to the scriptures people in sin are a stench in the nostrils of God! Verse 6, "But now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes." They didn't like it did they? Who was that speaking? That was the "mixed multitude"! Today you have lost people and hypocrites right among the people of God. They are mixed multitudes and all they do is complain about the manna! You can always tell a hypocrite or lost person because they complain about the manna! To a lost person, the preaching of truth is either boring, too lengthy, offensive, or is just not of any interest to them! Verse 8 says, "And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil." Isn't it amazing how people are always trying to improve on manna. They were trying to fix it up where it would taste better. They ground it, they beat it, they baked it, and they made cakes out of it. That means they must have sweetened it! Isn't that what folks in the religious world are doing today to the manna from heaven? Brother, they don't like it the way it is! They have got to bake it, cook the food value out of it, beat it, or at least, sweeten it and make cake out of it. Friend, let me tell you something, just the plain manna from on high will feed you. However, any preacher that changes the manna (Word of God) is feeding false doctrine! Satan's preachers (II Corinthians 11:13-15) still make use of the basic manna. They deceive by changing it here and there. They don't like it the way God gives it. Someone might say, "Brother Armstrong, I like to eat the manna. I like to feed on it, but I just can't seem to find much real spiritual food." I would like for you to see the reason why many people can't get the manna of God. It's not that he doesn't want to give it. Revelation 2:17 (Jesus speaking), "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat the hidden manna." Friend, there is some manna that you can just go and gather up as a babe in Christ. You can start picking it up and start feeding on it. Then there is the hidden manna which God has hidden for a special kind of people. Who are they? Those who are overcomers! As a babe in Christ, you perhaps haven't had the opportunity to overcome. You must eat, so he pours you out a little milk. Friend, when you want to get into the hidden manna (the meat of God's word) you are going to have to be an overcomer or he won't let you feed on it! We need it to take us through hese trying times but, unless we are overcomers, we can't get it. Someone may say, "How can I be an overcomer?" First you must allow the milk of the word to give you spiritual strength to exercise your feeble "baby" faith. Place your trust totally in Jesus to give you victory in your little battles. As you overcome, the Lord will allow you to feed on some of the "hidden manna." Then you will have greater power to overcome the enemy! When you eat the stronger meat the Lord provided, it will become a part of you spiritually (just like literal food becomes a part of you physically). This will make you stronger and help you overcome in greater battles!" Remember Paul's words in I Corinthians 2:10 as he spoke of the mystery wisdom of God's word, "But God hath revealed them the deep truths) unto us by His spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Friend, do you realize that modern religion has been so deceived by the devil that they no longer "discern" (ie: know the truth pertaining to....I Corinthians 11:29) the LORD'S body? They concern themselves about the type (literal symbolic picture of a spiritual fulfillment! Our Lord wants to feed us with true manna! everything that takes place in the Bible (from the creation until the death of Jesus) is not only true historically, but is also a spiritually interpreted picture of truth for God's people today! A true pastor will teach these deep truths to his congregation (Jeremiah 3:14-15, Ephesians 4:11-15, Acts 20:28). This is the only reason that we even exist as a congregation. We come from all different kinds of religious denominational backgrounds. We live in many different parts of the country (ie: Dayton; Union; Cincinnati; Middletown; Caesar's Creek; Franklin; West Carrollton; New Lebanon; Hamilton; Fairfield; Trotwood; Monroe; Peebles, Ohio area; Newark, Ohio area; Farmland and Brookville, INDIANA areas), but we gather together every Sunday and Thursday to gather manna from our precious Bibles! We invite you to come and "eat" with us!