Israel Grumbles, God Provides

What do you hunger and thirst for? What are you hungry for? What appetite controls you? Maybe it's what I would consider more a base desire, a desire and appetite for food, maybe for lust. Maybe it's an appetite of pride. You long for attention and significance, for people to look up to you and honor you. We all have appetites we seek to feed. The key issue is if those are the right appetites, and if those appetites can ever truly be satisfied. See, the more you gorge yourself with food, the greater your appetite grows. It never gets satisfied. The more you invest in pornography, the more perverse your desires grow, and the further you are from ever being satisfied in a relationship. The more you build your resume, the more honors and awards you need and the more attention you seek. We need to recognize that many of our desires cannot be satisfied and they do not bring satisfaction. We need to consider what we are seeking to be satisfied by, how we're seeking satisfaction. We look to scripture. One key verse that will be coming back to in our thoughts here is from Christ himself. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. If you're seeking satisfaction in any other way, in any other place other than Christ, it's an exercise in futility. You cannot be satisfied apart from Christ in the life that he gives. Our message this morning is this. God, by his grace, always gives us good gifts. We must respond with thanksgiving and trust him without grumbling. This is our second and a third three part series on the topic of grumbling. Isn't that exciting? We're walking through Exodus and God has just dropped in our laps right here three sermons, three episodes. So therefore, three sermons as God has ordained it on grumbling. And yes, we need it. Exodus has two of the most significant events in the Bible before Christ, two of the most significant events. There's the Red Sea deliverance. God finally getting glory, absolute, unquestionable glory of a Pharaoh. He delivers Israel through the Red Sea. He conquers Pharaoh. That is the great deliverance of the Old Testament. The second great event is Mount Sinai. where God delivers his law, his good and righteous instruction. Those are the two great events. And we need to be careful not to read over chapter 15, 16, 17 and 18 to get from one event to the other, because between those events is God's boot camp for Israel and for us to get the grumble out. His people have had a propensity for grumbling and complaining and not trusting. And God here is taking them through the wilderness, the long way, the difficult way to teach them. He's good to teach them that they can trust him to teach them that he's with them and for them and cares for them. Last week, we looked at the very short episode at the end of chapter 15. They come to the waters of Moran. They're bitter. So they complain and God Makes them sweet, makes them drinkable. Here is the longer section, the longer story and episode of their grumbling. They ask for food and we'll see God provides. Next week, we'll see them complain about water again. And again, God will provide. Let's look to chapter 16 of Exodus, and you can read with me. You don't just have to listen. But I will say this, Scripture was meant to be heard. It was written to oral societies and communities and it's a list. Learning to listen to Scripture is actually how it was intended. How it was written. So you can read or listen. They set out from Elim and the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them, would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. For you brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you and the people should go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel at evening, you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out from the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we that you grumble against us? And Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him. What are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel. Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling." And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, at twilight you shall eat meat and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. In the evening, Quell came up and covered the camp in the morning dew lay all around the camp. When the dew had gone up, there was no face of the wilderness of fine. There on the face of wilderness, a fine flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is it? For they said, for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded, gather of it, each one of you as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer according to the number of persons that each of you has in his tent. And the people of Israel did so, and they gathered some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, Let no one leave any of it over till the morning. But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till morning and it bred worms and stank and Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat. But when the sun grew hot, it melted. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. Tomorrow is the day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake you what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till morning. So they laid it aside till the morning as Moses commanded them. And it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, eat it today for today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it. But on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none. On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See, The Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day, he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place, but no one go out of his place in the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. Now that his house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed white and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Moses said, This is what the Lord has commanded. Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generation so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And Moses said to Aaron, Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations as the Lord commanded Moses. So Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. The people of the Israel ate manna 40 years till they came to the habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. And Omer is a tenth part of an ephah, in case you were wondering. The first thing we need to see here is the story begins. God placed them in the lean. It was a land of springs. It was it was a foretaste of the paradise God was going to bring them to it. It wasn't yet the paradise, but it was a foretaste of it to remind them, I'm good to you. I will take you to a good place. But he continues to move them to Sinai, where he will ratify the relationship. He will declare, you are my holy nation, my kingdom of priests. And the wilderness after God has delivered them so mightily and clearly, After he's provided water, they grumble again. Israel grumbles against their God. That's really our first section here, verses one through three. But let's just focus in on verse three. Hear what they say. Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. When we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. For you have brought us into that wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." They all grumble. The entire congregation grumbles against Moses. Notice, they're telling God they had it better in slavery. Israel has been told by God, I'm your king, essentially. And a king provides certain things. The king provides bread. He's responsible for providing bread. He's responsible for providing water and protection. And God, over and over again, went into Pharaoh and said, these are my people. They will serve me. I am their God. I am their king. In Israel here, they say it was better in slavery. Remember the good old days when we had Meat pots that were full. We ate bread till we were full. They're saying that it was better when God left them alone and left them in slavery with a man who was harsh and treated them bitterly. This is outrageous grumbling. They're accusing God of making life more difficult. The God who says, let my people go, who delivers them with his mighty right outstretched arm. Again, they say, it would be better if you just left us alone. Further, they continue to go into this morbid grumbling and complaining. It would have been better if we had died. Remember before the Red Sea, they said, were there no graves in Israel? You had to take us out into the wilderness to kill us? And God saved them. Here again, they accuse God. You brought us out here to kill us? If we're going to die even better when we're full and happy and satisfied? This is outrageous and egregious. We have to realize, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, we're like them. This is the kind of complaining and grumbling that we are also culpable for. Let's think through what's going on here with Israel. First, they're very forgetful. This is a month. This is this is just a month after. The great deliverance, this is just days after the water being supplied and they complain again and they keep heightening, they keep making it worse. Not even said it was better for us because there we were full. They're forgetful. Just like we're forgetful. We're forgetful of Christ and his death for us. We're forgetful of the great salvation we experience in God. We're forgetful of how faithful he is throughout all generations. We're forgetful of how he's cared for us and carried us. We get sidetracked by those moments of despair. We don't look up and reflect upon what good things he has always done for us. We're like them, not just in that we're forgetful like them, we're like them in that we We don't trust God. We forget that he's compassionate for us. He's committed to us. Now, as we think about this, theologically, I want to ask them, did you really think God just changes constantly? You know, theologically, I want to ask Israel, do you think God changes in his character? He was for you one day and now he's going to change. Is that the theological problem here that you just need to realize that God doesn't change or maybe that you need to realize that God is always good and that he's for you? I don't think it's that in depth here. I really think they're just so focused on their immediate needs. They lose track and they lose sight of God. They get so focused on what they think they need. They get overrun with despair and forget. that they have a God who cares for them and trust them. There's a certain level of self-deception here. It's a lie that it used to be better. There's always a lie that things used to be so much better. We went to Yellowstone one year and Lillian was about 12 weeks. And we had already driven from Louisville to Colorado. And I looked at the map and said, this is as close to Yellowstone as it'll ever be. Let's go for it. And the whole time Lisa keeps saying, you know, the great thing about vacation is you usually forget the bad parts. And it was true. We look back and we remember Yellowstone as a great time, but It was full of a crying baby. I mean, over and every day, because we were stuck here in the car for so long, it was torturous. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. But when I think of Yellowstone, I mean, I remember these things, but I look back and I remember how much better it was than what the immediate experience was. We tend to think things were always better than they really are. We tend to remember things with rose-colored lenses. and think they were always better rather than realizing God's blessing and care for us today in the present. Further, there's a self-deception that talks about that helps us think we used to be more satisfied. This is really where it just just it gets somewhat gross in terms of the sin. They're telling God Pharaoh took better care of us. They're telling God that life and slavery was more satisfying. They're forgetting all about the slavery. They're forgetting about the harsh treatment. They're forgetting about how their babies were being stolen from them and killed in the river. They're forgetting how horrible it was. You see, when we look back to our old lifestyle and we start to be tempted to think, well, those sins, they weren't that bad. They brought some satisfaction. We're telling Christ, Satan led us better than you. We're looking to Christ, our king, and we're we're saying those things that we were feeding ourselves with and we're being fed with sin. We're more satisfying than what you give us in your grace. You see, we're always tempted to look back and say, well, maybe just another taste of that sin, and that would satisfy this longing. Just one little sampling, one little taste of this sin. If this sin were somehow a medication or a balm. We have this longing, we need to to seek some sin to find that satisfaction, fulfillment we had before we were Christians. Friends, indulging in sin is never a help. Sin destroys. Sin brings death. We must not be deceived to think that things were in any way better before Christ. Sin leads to death. Let's particularly think of the sin of grumbling. Do you ever just get frustrated and you think, if I could just let this complaint out, it'll all be better. I don't need to voice this complaint. I need to voice my complaint and my grumble and then I'll feel better. You never feel better. Especially if you're speaking to someone else about it. It never satisfied, it never brings healing, it never brings the balm, it only brings more guilt because it's more sin. So we're like them and that we're forgetful, we do not trust God and we're self-deceptive. I want to point one last thing out with the bread. I referenced it last week. Adam and Eve, the first sin, had to do with food. All of these wilderness episodes, they have to do with food, with water. Jesus's first temptation, it had to do with food. The great temptations have to do with our most basic need. This is why I think we see the importance of fasting in the New Testament. Learning to control those appetites, learning to depend upon the word of God, not just our ability to bring our own satisfaction. So the first thing we see here is this is an outrageous and egregious. Grumbling. The second is God corrects and instructs Israel versus four through 12. Let me just read verse four, particularly. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. Behold, anytime the word behold or as As Andrew read earlier in John, truly, truly, there there's certain things in scripture, words that that should draw our attention to these particular statements. God responds to this grumbling by bringing our attention. Behold, I will bring bread. Now, God could respond, behold, you fail. If we turn over to chapter 15, he says, will you walk in my according to my statutes and my commandments? And they're obviously not here. They've already failed. But this is this is the gospel, this is what it's all about, that that God doesn't ever give up on his people. God loves sinners. God shows grace to sinners. Here there is great grace. Behold, I am about to rain bread. I've heard your grumbling. I've heard the grumbling you've grumbled against me, he even says, just to make sure, you know, I've heard your grumbling and you're grumbling against me. I will respond and I will give you bread. And notice it's just bread for the day. This is part of the boot camp. This is part of teaching them not to complain, not to lose heart, but to trust them, that they have to trust him every day. They never get to gather the whole week's worth. They always have to go out and trust him anew. Every night they have to go to bed and they have to wonder, is God going to provide? Every morning they wake up, God provided. Every evening, meat comes down. God provides. Every day. Repetition over and over again. God is teaching them like a young child. You can trust me. I am for you. I'm going to take care of you. It reminds us of Jesus. His prayer, give us this day our daily bread. This is how we're supposed to approach God. Give us every day our needs. What's interesting here in this verse, he provides for them, he cares for them, he's teaching them to trust him. And he says that I may test them. Again, when God is testing us, he's training us. He's training us to rely upon him, to depend upon him. He's not testing us so that we know how great we are. No, he's testing us so that we know how great he is. Moses reflects upon this event in Deuteronomy 8, please listen as I read this section for you, the whole commandment that I commanded you today that you should be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of the Lord swore to give your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you, and he let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that a man does not live by bread alone. But man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. This testing is an opportunity for God to show you can trust me to provide for you. But the bigger lesson here is that you have to trust every word that comes out of my mouth. You have to trust that what I say is good and where I lead you, it's for your good. Whatever I declare is right and good for you. They have to learn that God guides his people. with goodness. Look down at verse six in chapter 16 of Exodus. So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel at evening, you shall know that it is the Lord who brought you out of Egypt. If you're new with us, this is the, this is the theme throughout Exodus. This is the whole purpose. Well, really the whole Bible, but Exodus, particularly God is making his name known. He wanted Egypt to know that Yahweh alone was God, and they found out the hard way that Yahweh alone is God. Now he's focused on Israel, that they will know that Yahweh alone is God and that he is their God. And they, too, are learning a hard way. By grumbling and complaining, they'll continue to see that he is their God. He is for them and he provides for them. Notice verse seven, you will see the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord is when the Lord comes into the cloud with his glory and the glory of the Lord is connected to his providing for them. The amazing part of seeing the glory of the Lord is it's because he heard their grumbling. That's how God responds to their grumbling. I will show you my glory. I will provide for your need. The one last thing I want to point out in this section. Verse eight, Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat in the morning, bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him, what are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but the Lord. This really is echoing what Moses and God, their dialogue from Exodus chapter three. When God was calling Moses, he said, I'm going to deliver Israel from Egypt. And Moses said, yeah, that's great. I will send you. And Moses responds, who am I? And God never explains to him why he's choosing him. He just simply says, well, it doesn't really matter who you are. I'm sending you. I will be with you. That's all you need to know. There, Moses is trying to use his lack of being special. As an excuse to not do the will of God, he doesn't have quite yet. Why does it matter that he's unimportant? Here, he really shows faithfulness. I gave him a hard time in chapter three, so I want to give him some credit here. He says, why are you grumbling against us? Who are we? It's God you're complaining against. He has a proper perspective. It's not about Moses. It's about Israel and their obedience to God. Let's look at our third section. This is God providing the bread. Verses 13 to 18. In the evening, Quell came up and covered the camp and the morning dew lay all around the camp. When the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded. Gather at each one of you as much as you can eat. Yet you shall each take an omer, according to the number of persons that each of you has in his tent. And the people of Israel did so. They gathered some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over. Whoever gathered little has no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat." Here we see God provides the bread they need. They've asked for bread. God has provided bread. And it's not just God's provision. It's not just God demonstrating that Israel can trust them here. This passage has a certain depth to it. It has another layer to it. Hear again what Jesus said in John 6. I'll begin in verse 26. Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, You are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures the eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, God, the Father, has set his seal." Then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God. that you believe in him whom God has sent. So, they said to him, then what signs do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate man in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you 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 and gives life to the world. They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. After Jesus feeds the five thousand, they come and they're seeking and they're wanting this bread. They want the bread they gave him. And Jesus said, you're only coming because you had your full of loaves. You're still missing the point. You're not getting what God is truly doing here. Verses 28 and 29, they ask, what should we do? Jesus says very clearly, believe in me. Verse 30, Israel, do you have a sign, you know, like Moses and the manna? Jesus says, truly, truly, the Father has given you true bread. Israel, they ask the logical question, well, we want this bread always. What is this true bread? And Jesus says, I am the bread. Jesus is here saying this bread that we're reading about is pointing to him. This is what we call typology. The bread is a type, it's foreshadowing, it's pointing us to Jesus. Last week, there may have been some typology. It'll be what I call the art of typology. It's possible that the log being thrown into the water, turning it from bitter to sweet, that could be a reference to the cross. The New Testament never says it is, so I didn't want to declare it was, but it's possible. When I read scripture, I see that's a real possibility. Thankfully, there's no question this morning, because of what I call the science of typology. Jesus himself said, this bread is pointing to me. As God provided their need in the wilderness, I am the true bread that you should seek. Jesus himself says this bread is pouring in. Let's see, how does the bread in Israel, in Exodus, parallel with the bread that Jesus declares that he is? First, they both come down from heaven. They both are a gift from God for God's people that God provides. They meet the needs of God, people of God's people. But really, we see the power of the bread imagery and the contrast. Listen to verses 48 through 50 of John six, I am the bread of life, your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If any of you eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life and of the world is my flesh. See, Jesus is saying, I am the bread. First, I am. That's the name of God, Yahweh. He's already identifying himself with the one God who commended himself to Israel. By saying he is the bread, he is a source of life. And that bread is not perishable. That bread does not spoil. Jesus has an indestructible life at the right hand of the Father, where he mediates forever. He is the life source for eternal life. If you believe in him, if you participate and partake in that bread of Christ, you never die. You also are a fool. We're going to eat bread after this. We're all going to eat today and then you'll have to eat tomorrow and you'll have to eat the next day. You have to constantly take in more food because that food source loses nutritional value and you have to eat again. It's a reminder constantly you need more food, but Christ sees the bread that once you believe in him, what he seeks to accomplish, it's fixed forever. When you believe in Christ, what He does is He gives you eternal life. Because when we believe in Christ, we're believing that He died for our sins. He once for all died for our sins. He never dies again. We never have to believe again in that way. Once we believe in Christ, He seals us. He gives us eternal life. He gives us a right standing with God. To come to believe in Christ as he calls us here in this passage. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. We must first see that we're spiritually dead. We don't just need physical food, we need forgiveness. God's wrath is against us and we need someone who's going to provide forgiveness. We are dead. We are under the wrath of God. We need someone who's going to give us life. and forgiveness. That's the gospel here is quite beautiful. God sends down bread and he doesn't just sound bread to give us. He himself comes down to be bread for us. Jesus himself is God who took upon the form of human nature yet without sin so that he could die in our place so that the wrath of God was poured out upon him for our sin and we no longer are guilty of our sin. Let's go back to Exodus. Verses 19 through 20. And Moses said to them, let no one leave any of it over till the morning. And they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till morning and it bred worms and stank. This is amazing. They've grumbled. God responded graciously. He provides and they still don't listen. God's trying to repair them. They're going to get the 10 instructions, the 10 words from God that will guide and direct their life. And they can't even not go out and get more bread that God supplies and what God has said. The rule is to help them and train them to teach them to rely upon God every day, but they have a hard time doing that. See, it's their lack of trust in God that sends them back out to gather more than they should. Finally, I won't read our last section in its entirety, but I do want to point out to us verse 23. We'll focus on the Sabbath and the Lord's Day when we get to the Ten Commandments more specifically. But let me just point out here, verse 23, this is what the Lord had commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. God is going to rest. On the Sabbath, this reflects the creation when he rested on the seventh day. Israel is told, do not go out. Not because there's not just anything out there, but because they're supposed to be reflecting God. As Israel's people under his headship, he's the king, if he's going to rest on the seventh day, they should rest on the seventh day. This gets to the whole point of why God even called Israel out, so that they could reflect him. They could follow Him. What He does, they're supposed to do. What He says, they're supposed to do. God is going to rest in their being disobedient, not trusting Him, by going out and looking for what is not there. Again, you see these hard hearts and stiff necks. As we look to application, As we said last week, we're looking to see how to get the grumble out. These sections are all tied together with grumbling, and we're going to continue to think, how do we get the grumble out? Because this is what God is trying to do. Last week, we began be warned by the example of Israel. We've already seen the warning of what they do. Paul tells us about this warning in first Corinthians 10. The second way we were exhorted to get the grumble out is to follow the example of Christ. In Hebrews 12 specifically. This morning, our next instruction for how we can get the grumble out. We need to keep our souls still and do not let our mouths to be loosed. We need to keep our souls still. This is what causes the grumble. We're discontent. We're unsettled, we're unhappy, we keep thinking something else is supposed to bring us happiness and our souls, they begin to grumble. When scripture has the command, be still, it's actually saying, quiet your sinful hearts, stop speaking. We saw this with Moses and before the Red Sea, they start grumbling and Moses just says, keep quiet, just stop talking. Because the more you let your sinful heart out, the worse it's actually getting for you. We need to learn to be still, listen to the instruction in the Psalms. Psalm 46, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I'll be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 37, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil. For the evildoer shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. Psalm 62 For God alone, my soul, waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They blast with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. For God alone, my soul waits in silence. For my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken on God. Rest my salvation and my glory, my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times. Oh, people brought your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. When life is not settled, the first thing I want to do is complain. When life brings us difficult, the first thing we want to do is complain where we need to have self-control. We need to guard our hearts from being unleashed against God so that it comes out in our mouths and our actions. We have sinful hearts. We must learn to contain them. We must keep them from speaking blasphemy against God, as we've seen Israel do it. But it's not just being quiet. See, the heart speaks, the heart has a direction, the heart must say something. We must keep the sinful tendency quiet and we must learn to rejoice. We must learn to put thanksgiving. So our first point was to quiet your souls. And really we're speaking there the sinful tendency of the soul. The second one is rejoice in God. You see, grumbling goes against every fruit of the spirit. Patience, self-control. Specifically joy? We're supposed to count it joy in all trials? We're supposed to rejoice in God? The theme of Philippians is rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. Listen to chapter two, verse 14. Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent. Children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life so that the day of Christ may be poured, may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Are we a grumbling people? Do we complain and grumble so that the world sees us that we're just like them? Are we a light to the world in that we refuse to grumble? No, we rejoice. We have a song of thanksgiving when suffering comes. We should be like Paul. The letter of St. Corinthians continues to astound me because Paul just wants his weakness and his sin made known so that he can glory and boast of Christ all the more. It's an amazing book to reflect upon the weakness and sinfulness of man, your weakness and your sinfulness, and see how the glory and the power of God is manifested in our weaknesses and our sin. But in order to rejoice like that, you have to have the gospel. The gospel has to be at the forefront of every thing you think about. Because the only way you rejoice in everything is that you see every suffering as a way of participating in the suffering of Christ. You glory in the suffering of Christ because it is what has brought you life and you learn to glory in your own suffering because it allows you to appreciate the suffering. It's not just the suffering, but you glory in the suffering because you know that it purifies you. It helps you become a better worshipper. It helps you long for the day when Christ returns and you are risen with him. We must grow to be more and more thankful. If you're not growing more and more thankful, you're growing more and more better. We either look at life and we see what it isn't giving us and we we see that we should be being satisfied with this world. Or we look and we see this world has nothing that satisfies us and we glory in Christ and His righteousness and we seek that which does satisfy us. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Christ, you are our bread. We thank you that you have given your body to be broken for us. We thank you that you came to die for us, to be risen again so that we have hope in life. Teach us to reflect upon your life and what you've done for us in every circumstance, in every circumstance of temptation that seeks to ensnare us and every suffering that seeks to distract us. Help us to be a people that can truly say all things work together for the good of us, because we see how you are always at work teaching us, testing us and training us. Help us to be thankful, Lord. Help us always be more and more thankful for your good work in us. We thank you that you are gracious, We thank you that you are patient. We thank you that you love sinners. You love sinners that you knew would grumble and complain, and you have loved us through those grumblings and complainings. Teach us not. Teach us to simply praise you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.