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[0:00] So last Sunday we finished chapter 15, and we watched how God led His people off of this high of deliverance from the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army into the wilderness three days to a bitter place called Marah.

[0:19] And we learned that God does that. He absolutely does that, and He does it on purpose. He does it to prove His people. He sends us to bitter places. And I showed you three reasons why from the passage last week.

[0:32] It's a place of calibration, that it's a place to get you centered. It's a place to get you balanced. We're not going to expect health and wealth like some moronic preachers declare all the time.

[0:43] It's wrong. God will take you to a bitter place and He'll get you centered. It's a place of confrontation where God used this bitter place to bring some things to their attention, that this life is not a one-way street where I just give, give, give, bless, bless, bless, but rather I'm expectant that you're going to obey me and my ways and my laws.

[1:05] I'm going to be a God unto you, and you're going to be a people unto me. And then we saw it's a place of commitment because at that place decisions need to be made, where you'll humble yourself and submit to the Word of God and surrender to the ways of God.

[1:21] And so whether you think of it this way or not, thank God for the bitter places that He brings you to in life. It doesn't feel good. You want it to be over fast, but it can be for your good, and you can grow from it, and you can make those decisions, and you can set some parameters and restore some conviction to your life.

[1:40] It's in those places that this happens. So we're going to move now to chapter 16, and we're going to see that they're in verse 1 taking their journey. And so they're marching through the wilderness, and as we just sang, they're bound for the promised land, and their eyes of faith are seeing this land of milk and honey, this land of rest, and this blessing and peace from God.

[2:03] And while their faith is looking forward in anticipation of just a better place and a better day, and what God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to seeing this all come to pass, while that's out in the future, what they need today in this wilderness life is to be strong in faith.

[2:26] They need to be strong in faith because this journey is going to test them. It already did, and it's going to do it again. And that's just the way He deals. It's what this wilderness is about.

[2:38] And it's in these trials, the testings or the hardships, that's going to bring out the worst in the children of Israel, just like it does in you and me.

[2:49] And so we're going to see ourselves in this picture very, very clearly in chapter 16. Because we, with the eyes of faith, we sing about it, and we think when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing.

[3:03] We have faith that one day it will be all better, and all the sorrows are gone, and we just sang these very words, that death and sin and sorrow, it's all behind us in the past.

[3:14] And so we rejoice in that thought. But what that truly is, is not so much faith as it is hope. God has given us hope of a better day.

[3:27] And we look for hope, what's the word I'm looking for? The blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

[3:39] So that's hope. That's something He's put inside of us, that His promises are true. He's given us His word, and we can cling to that. That's hope. But the faith that God has given us, and expects us to live by, is faith to deal with the trials, and to deal with the wilderness life, and not to fall away, not to quit, but to trust Him all the way through these trials.

[4:05] God's going to make us walk this wilderness life. He hasn't given us heaven yet, but He's given us the faith to trust Him. And to walk with Him. And so while we're in this wilderness life, much like the children of Israel, we're confronted with an old familiar foe.

[4:26] We're confronted with a person that has never done anything, but bring us down, has never helped us to do right, has only caused bad situations to get worse, and in some cases, far worse.

[4:39] It's our old sinful nature, called the flesh. And in this passage, we're going to see the children of Israel, revealing to us what the flesh looks like, and how in tough times, and in trials, instead of walking by faith, the flesh shows up, and makes things worse.

[5:00] It's especially in the troubles of life, that the flesh shows up, and is very vocal, and is very demanding. And we're going to see that exposed in this chapter this morning.

[5:11] And if we're not careful, and if we're not strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, we will fall. We will fall out. We will make messes. We will make bad things worse, and we're to blame.

[5:23] So by the grace of God, and with His help, I want to preach to you, and warn you about your flesh, about your old sinful nature, who is right there, every step of the way, through this wilderness.

[5:35] And when things go wrong, oh boy, that's when He shows up quick. So we're going to read a good chunk of this chapter. Would you follow along as we read from verse 1?

[5:46] And I think we'll go to 30. We'll see if we get all the way there. Would you please follow? And they took their journey from Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin.

[5:58] What a name. The wilderness of Sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. So just put a note and understand in your mind, this is authenticated and real history.

[6:11] We're reading about places, literal places on this planet. We're reading about literal days and a time frame that took place from Egypt till now. This is not some just made up nonsense.

[6:22] This is all truth and historical accounts. Verse 2. The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

[6:34] You'll note that word showing up a lot. And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full.

[6:46] For ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. 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.

[7:04] And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out of the land of Egypt.

[7:18] And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord. For that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord. And what are we that ye murmur against us? And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full.

[7:34] For that the Lord heareth your murmurings, which ye murmur against him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord, for he hath heard your murmurings.

[7:51] And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.

[8:04] Speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall see 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.

[8:18] When the dew was lay, or 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 hoarfrost on the ground.

[8:30] 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.

[8:42] 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 your tents.

[8:53] The children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did meet it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.

[9:04] They gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it till the morning.

[9:15] And it bred worms, and stank. And Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating. When the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

[9:33] Verse 23, And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that ye will seethe.

[9:47] And that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up until the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord.

[10:00] Today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

[10:14] And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath. Therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days.

[10:25] Abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And we'll stop there in this passage. So there's an institution of a couple new things here.

[10:39] The Sabbath day is brand new, as well as this giving of manna and quails and flesh, how God's going to supply their needs out here in the wilderness. But we're not going to be able to spend much time on that, because this morning, as I already stated, we're going to notice their nature coming out of them, and relate that to your sinful flesh that you have.

[11:00] If you're born again, that flesh is just as alive and part of you as it always has been. It's your old nature. It's called in the Bible the old man. It's called the flesh that wars against the spirit, also called the new man.

[11:14] And if this is new stuff to you, and I don't have time to really break it all down, but it's a very simple doctrine, that when Jesus Christ saves you, and the Holy Ghost comes inside of you, he doesn't just transform who you are, but no, he puts a new creature in you, a new man where he resides.

[11:32] And now inside of you is that sinful person that always was there, but a new creature that wants God, the new creature that has righteousness in him, and true holiness, and will walk with the Lord, and wants to keep his law, and obey his word.

[11:47] And so now there's a battle. Galatians chapter 5 describes that battle. And it doesn't go away until you're gone. So today let's expose the flesh, and a few things about it.

[11:58] Would you come back to the beginning of our passage, in chapter 16, in verse number 2, where we see that the whole congregation, of the children of Israel, murmured against Moses and Aaron, in the wilderness.

[12:17] The first thing I want us to see about our flesh, is that your flesh, will express its disapproval, and its discontentment. As soon as your comfort is compromised, there goes your mouth.

[12:32] The bottom jaw drops, the tongue starts flapping, and doing what? Complaining. Criticizing. Murmuring.

[12:45] Fighting. Envying. It starts flowing. As soon as your comfort is compromised, that word murmur shows up, eight different times in this passage.

[12:58] These people murmured against the Lord, against Moses. Moses said, you're not murmuring against us, it's against the Lord. You're not satisfied with what He's given you. And your flesh will be quick, to express its disapproval.

[13:12] It didn't open, their mouths did not open up in praise. Their mouths did not open up in faith. Their mouths did not open up with any determination. There was no thanksgiving for what we have.

[13:24] It was just complaining about what we don't have, or what we think we need and deserve. And you might say, well, come on. I mean, you need food, right? You need water.

[13:36] Didn't Jesus Christ say something in the book of Matthew, that your heavenly Father knoweth, that ye have need of all these things? Did something change?

[13:47] Did God not know the needs of these people? Were they not trusting Him? No. They were murmuring. The flesh shows up and opens His mouth. And the murmuring is what reveals an absence of faith.

[14:01] Because there's no faith in the old man. It doesn't exist. The old man cannot believe and trust in a God that he cannot see. Why?

[14:11] Because the old man walks by sight. And the Bible says, we walk by faith, not by sight. But the old man needs to see it. The old man says, this bill's got to be paid.

[14:24] And I need money in my hand. And I don't see a God putting money in my hand. And so he starts opening his mouth. Because he can't trust. He can't go to prayer.

[14:36] The mouth, the murmuring is not words of prayer. It's complaining. It's, I need something. I need something. And that's the flesh.

[14:47] The flesh is not content unless its needs are met. It does not remember the goodness of God. It does not remember the care of God. Because the flesh does not operate in faith.

[14:59] And your flesh has no relationship with God. It doesn't exist and it never has. And God's not interested in that old sinful nature. That's why he put a new man in you.

[15:11] The old man has no relationship Godward. He cannot. It just doesn't exist. God doesn't exist to him. He doesn't see a God. And he doesn't have a God that sees him.

[15:23] As far as the flesh is concerned, God doesn't care about me. God doesn't know what I'm going through. God's not going to supply my needs. God's not going to help. He's not available.

[15:33] And he's not trustworthy. And he's not listening for my prayers. That's the way the flesh operates. By sight. And when the flesh isn't happy, it expresses it right away.

[15:45] In murmurings. In complainings. Now tell me. Don't tell me. You know you're guilty. You know it. You know it.

[15:56] You know it. Your mouth will run quickly when you're not happy. When you're not satisfied. Or when you feel, I have a need. I have to get this fixed. And then your flesh just starts.

[16:09] It'll run your mouth against people that are good people. It'll run your mouth against the man of God. It'll run your mouth against God himself. Because it's your flesh.

[16:20] And he doesn't have a relationship with the Lord. He doesn't see God as being good to him. You need to recognize this. We're trying to expose something here this morning. And you, by God's grace, by his spirit, he'll open your eyes and let you see, Hey, that's me.

[16:36] That is exactly how I react. I do that all the time. I'm a regular on this. That's my flesh. And it's sin. There's another thing. I'm going to give you five this morning.

[16:47] So I'm going to move quickly. The second thing in verse number three. Would you look back at verse three? The children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots, when we did eat bread to the full.

[17:04] Oh, it was so good back in Egypt. For ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, notice, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

[17:19] Now let's consider that. What they're accusing Moses, ultimately God of, is torturing them in a very slow, agonizing, painful, despicable death.

[17:38] killing them with hunger. That doesn't happen in two days. It doesn't happen in five days. That'll take a full month, two months.

[17:48] I don't know how long a human being can go without food. It varies based on you. They accuse God of doing that to them.

[17:58] Now, first of all, nobody's dying on God's watch here in the wilderness. That is not happening at all. But the flesh says it is.

[18:12] So the flesh, number two, will exaggerate the situation. It'll make it sound so much worse than it is. And it'll look at something else in the past, like Egypt, and imagine that it was so much better than it was.

[18:30] Do you think they sat by the flesh pots? That's a big, maybe a cauldron or a pot where the meat was boiling, was cooking in that. They were just sitting by that, just fanning themselves, sipping on sweet tea, waiting on the meal to get finished.

[18:47] Was that their life in Egypt, just sitting by the flesh pots, eating as much as they could possibly eat? Oh, no more. I've had enough. Were they eating bread to the full?

[19:00] I'm not saying that they were starved in Egypt, but what I do know is that their lives were bitter. I do know they were slaves. I don't imagine that the king of the Pharaoh was just, what else do you guys want?

[19:14] What else do you guys want? Those days are long gone, because Joseph's gone and the new king doesn't know Joseph. They weren't getting treated good. Remember they murdered their babies?

[19:25] You think he was feeding them? So that's imagined, or that's exaggerated to say the least. Speaking as if God's torturing them to death, talking about dying.

[19:41] Nobody's dying. Nobody's dead. But they said, you brought us out here to kill us. Now does that sound familiar? You would have been through this study.

[19:53] Back in chapter 14, they came up to the shores of the Red Sea, and they saw behind them Pharaoh and his armies coming and pursuing and overtaking them, and they said, Moses, it's because there was no graves in Egypt.

[20:09] You brought us out here to die. We're dead men. What was that talking? We already studied that. It said that they were sore afraid.

[20:20] That's why they said that. That's not faith. That's fear. That's the old nature. God has not given us the spirit of fear. God's given us the spirit of faith.

[20:31] The fruit of the spirit is faith. And so that's the flesh talking again. Talking about we're going to die. We're going to die. Nobody's going to die. Keep your place, but would you flip to Psalm, the book of the Psalms 105.

[20:46] Psalm 105. I just want to point out one little statement of a verse here that recalls this very time. Psalm 105.

[21:06] And it describes in the 30s, 27, 28, 29, 30, the plagues. And verse 37.

[21:21] Psalm 105, 37. He brought them forth also with silver and gold. Notice this. There was not one feeble person among their tribes.

[21:33] There wasn't somebody in a wheelchair. There wasn't somebody on crutches. There wasn't people with ailments or broken legs or things like that. That wasn't happening among these people.

[21:44] God had protected, had miraculously cared over these people to bring them forth in such a path that they could take marching through the wilderness.

[21:55] And you know the passage or you've heard it already. We'll get there someday maybe with their garments, their shoes, their things not waxing old that God just miraculously protected and allowed them to be able to sustain this long journey.

[22:16] They weren't feeble people. And now they're talking like, oh, we're dying here. No, you're not. You know what it is? Your flesh. Your sorry, wicked, big mouth flesh is what it is.

[22:29] And when your flesh isn't comfortable and when it's in a tough spot, it'll deceive you into thinking, this is the end. It's over now.

[22:39] There is no solution to this problem right here. You know what we should probably do? The flesh always comes up with this idea.

[22:51] We should go back to Egypt. That's what they said before. That's what they're going to say again out there in the future when Moses is up there on Mount Sinai. You know what? We should go back to Egypt.

[23:02] The flesh always wants to go back to Egypt. He's exaggerating the situation terribly. The flesh feels that pressure.

[23:13] It exaggerates so much and it deceives your mind to think there's no solution here. So we have got to do something. We've got to do it now. Come on.

[23:24] Come up with something. We need to fix this. Faith doesn't talk like that. Faith is a still, small, peaceable, gentle, easy-to-be-entreated voice of wisdom that says pray about it.

[23:41] Talk to God about it. Take it before the throne of God because He promised that if you'll cast your care upon Him and if you'll go to the throne of grace, you'll get mercy, you'll get grace to help in time of need.

[23:56] The flesh says, I don't even know about that. I've got to do something because this thing is out of control. It's your flesh. It's your old nature.

[24:08] He won't trust God. He won't do it. And He'll exaggerate the situation. Pressure you into do something that's not of faith. Pressure you into acting on your own instincts and lean on your own understanding.

[24:24] Start to ask other people for help. What should we do over here and not learn how to go to God? The flesh. It's going to express its disapproval and its discontentment.

[24:35] It's going to exaggerate the situation. And now let's go a little further into this passage and skip ahead to verses 14 and 15. And I want you to see that God had told them that there would be bread in the morning.

[24:52] And in verse 14, 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 hoarfrost on the ground.

[25:09] And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna. For they wist not what it was. They wist not means they knew not.

[25:20] They didn't understand what this was happening, what's going on. The word manna is derived from something that would be saying, what is this thing?

[25:34] It's a statement of curiosity and a statement of confoundment when they're looking at this small round thing all over the face of the wilderness.

[25:47] and they're curious yet confounded to say it's manna. We don't know what it is. Now what's the point of this?

[25:57] The point is the flesh cannot recognize the hand of God because God had already told them in the morning you're going to have bread to the full.

[26:10] Look earlier in this passage, look at verse, look at 12. Verse 12, I've heard the murmurings of children of Israel speaking to them saying, at even ye shall eat flesh in the morning ye shall be filled with bread.

[26:24] And verse 13, it came to pass that at even the quails came up just like God said. So shouldn't they be anticipating the bread in the morning? I mean the quails was something out of nowhere.

[26:39] That wasn't normal to have the whole of a sudden out of doom quails, flesh for them to eat. That was absolutely supernatural. Something they could not have explained or understood.

[26:52] But they didn't say, what's this? No, they ate flesh. They enjoyed it. Thank you Lord. And then in the next morning they go out and say, well, what is this?

[27:03] What's going on here? They couldn't recognize that this was what God was doing. They should have expected to see something based on the word of God, based on what they had experienced in the past, last even.

[27:19] They should be expecting the Lord to do what He said He would do. I want you to consider, now I know they've never seen this before. I know that they've never, they don't have a name for this stuff and the Bible calls it angel's food in the Psalms.

[27:38] They don't know what to say about this stuff. I get that, but understand, Moses informed them what it was. But remember, Moses never saw it before either.

[27:52] This is the first time Moses set his eyes on that and he's like, in verse, let's catch verse 15, after they wished not what it was and Moses said to them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

[28:05] He knew exactly what it was and exactly what to do with it because he believed that God was going to do it and there it was. But not the flesh. The flesh doesn't recognize the hand of God.

[28:19] The flesh never sees God's hand in the trial, in the troublesome time, in the problem, in the stress, or the adversity. He never sees the hand of God working because it's too busy complaining, too busy saying how bad this is and I'll never get it fixed and they blinded, you blinded yourself to seeing that God is operating right here, right in front of your face.

[28:48] But they wished not what it was. the flesh recognizes the discomfort. It doesn't have any trouble identifying that. But when God is at work, your flesh will miss it completely and just think, this is weird.

[29:07] This is weird. Never saw this before. But you know what God does sometimes? God works in weird ways. You know, they say that the Lord works in mysterious ways.

[29:20] Isn't that kind of a common statement? The Lord works in ways that are just unimaginable, unforeseeable, just unpredictable, how God's going to work this together for good.

[29:34] And one reason He might do that is so that He alone gets the glory because you'll say, well, I never saw that come. I never thought that would work. I never saw this. He gets the glory.

[29:47] He deserves the glory. If it's unexplainable, it's God did this. God did what only God could do. And God gets the glory for it.

[29:57] But the flesh will not operate that way, will not recognize that God's hand is doing something here. It doesn't see it. Number four, verse 19, when they did meet it, that means they measured it against an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, he that gathered little had no lack.

[30:20] They gathered every man according to his eating and Moses said, verse 19, let no man leave of it till the morning. Let no man leave of it till the morning. That's a command.

[30:31] So if you partake, you take the measurement, I mean the measurement is what it is, not every individual is going to eat the same every day, but there's a standard that just makes sense.

[30:42] And otherwise, the flesh would lust and take as much, you know, and keep it for themselves. But the measurement's there and not everybody eats it all. That happens every day in your house.

[30:53] There's leftovers or there's just scraps or what are you going to do with that? Well, Moses said, discard it, get rid of it. That's the way this is going to work.

[31:06] Notwithstanding, verse 20, they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning and it bred worms and stank. And now Moses is angry, wroth, he's frustrated with this people that just, the simplest thing, you couldn't even follow that one, but you chose, I'll do what I want to do instead.

[31:30] And the flesh, number four, the flesh holds on to what God says, get rid of that. Get rid of that. The flesh holds on to, the right thing to do was to obey, to discard it, and to trust God for the next day.

[31:51] But they hearkened not. They decided, it's really not a problem if I hold on to this. What's the harm in that? Why would I waste it?

[32:01] Why would I, I spent good money on that, why would I throw that away? And so the flesh gives a reason to hang on to it. Just hang on to it a little bit longer. It's not a problem.

[32:14] Yeah, but it bred worms. And it stinks. It's making the house stink. Get it out of here. God said, get it out of here. It's making you stink.

[32:25] Remember we saw that, that with Pharaoh, that he was holding on to something he was supposed to let go of. He's a type of the devil. And there, there the flesh is, just acting just like it's daddy, the devil.

[32:39] Holding on to things you're supposed to get rid of. Not obeying the voice of God. They could have covered it with saran wrap, cling wrap.

[32:50] They could have put it in their finest vessel and put the cover on. And it still would have bred worms. They could have hid it from view so that nobody in the camp knew that they kept a little extra manna for later on.

[33:05] And it would have stank. And the stink would have betrayed that they had disobeyed God. That they were holding on to something to let go of. And Christian, when God says it needs to go, your flesh says, hold on.

[33:24] Come on. You know, you bought, you spent money on all that music. It'd be a shame to just throw it in the garbage. You probably should sell it or just hang on to it.

[33:38] You know, you never know. Just don't get rid of it. Whatever you do, don't get rid of it. You don't have to listen to it. Just don't get rid of it. It's what the flesh says. God said, get rid of it.

[33:49] Get it out of the house. It stinks. The flesh says, no, we should hang on to that. The flesh says, the Lord says, it's time for you to stop sucking on these cigarettes and to start treating this temple like it belongs to me.

[34:11] And stop having a testimony amongst the world or your friends or your neighbors that that's what you do. I want you to give them up. I want you to give them up. The Lord tells you that in your heart.

[34:22] Not the pastor in the pulpit. The Lord tells you that in your heart. And you say, yeah, but I don't, I just got half a carton left.

[34:32] I can't, you know how much that cost? You know how much that bottle of brandy cost me or that whiskey cost me? It'd be stupid of me to throw it out. I'd just leave it in the count. You know, I'm not going to drink any.

[34:43] I'm not going to smoke. I'm just going to keep it there. God says, get that junk out of the house. It has no business being in your life. But your flesh says, don't throw it away.

[34:55] Don't throw it away. You know, it's really not that complicated. There are things that don't belong in your life as a child of God. There are things, I'm throwing out these ideas, there's a multitude of things.

[35:09] It could be a person, a relationship. There's so many things you could be hanging on to that you need to get rid of and you know it inside that this is not walking as a child of light.

[35:22] This is the unfruitful works of darkness and I just won't get rid of them. It's your flesh. It's exactly what it is. It's the old sinner inside of you who's telling God, no.

[35:35] It'll help you to know this. It'll help you to come to grips with this and then to realize, do I want to keep obeying the sinner? Do I want to keep giving my flesh its will and way?

[35:48] When am I going to grow up and start trusting my Heavenly Father and just start obeying His voice? When are you going to grow up? One of the hardest things to do is to let go of something that you enjoy.

[36:02] to let go of something that you even inside you love it. It brings you joy. It brings you pleasure. And sometimes this is a sometimes it's not even a wicked thing.

[36:14] It's just something God says, you're putting that above me. I want it out. God will do that. He has the right to do that individually to deal with you in His own private, personal matter.

[36:27] but the flesh says, hold on to it. Just hold on to it a little longer and God wants to see a commitment. He wants to see a decision.

[36:38] He wants to see you obey Him when He speaks. Let no man leave of it till the morning. If God's speaking to you about something right now, don't leave of it till the morning.

[36:50] Get it out today. Deal with it when you get home. Deal with it on the altar. Make a promise. Get it right. And then go forward by the grace of God.

[37:02] I'll tell you just a personal testimony. There's things I've struggled with in my past that I committed to the Lord and I got rid of and cleaned house and it was just six months later I was right back to it.

[37:16] And then down the road God deals with me. I get right. I surrender. I get rid of it all again. I get rid of this again. And then six months later it's back in my life.

[37:27] In my car. In my house. Or wherever the case was. So was I wrong to get rid of it when God spoke to me? And was I wrong to surrender?

[37:38] You know what? I'm thankful despite the fact that I fell back into the sin. I'm thankful that I had a tender heart at the time to say yes to God. And that tender heart led to making it not so hard to have a tender heart another time.

[37:53] But every time you step up against God and say I will not you're hardening your heart more and more and more. And the more he pricks and the more he pushes and the more he convicts and deals the more you say not for me.

[38:08] Not for me. And you'll stay away and you'll hold on. You'll hold on tighter. You'll grip it harder and harder and harder. You better recognize who that is. That's that wicked devil inside of you your flesh.

[38:21] And he will not give in to God. One more thing and that is verse 27 and 8. Verse 27 It came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather and they found none.

[38:37] They weren't supposed to go on the seventh day. They were supposed to gather double on the sixth day. That was very clear. But they didn't listen. And the Lord said unto Moses How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

[38:49] Finally, very simply the flesh refuses to submit to God's ways. To God's word. To God's leading. To God's conviction.

[39:02] The ways of God. The flesh refuses to submit. Now God is establishing in this chapter his Sabbath day. This is the first time they're getting word of it.

[39:14] He's establishing with them that the seventh day is going to be a day of rest. And he doesn't give them this whole speech about rest from all of your laborers or gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

[39:25] The only thing he gives them is you're not going out gathering this bread. It's not going to be there. But you're going to stay in your place. And so he's instituting he's initiating this Sabbath day for his people.

[39:42] And it's something that's important to him. It carries forward into the law of Moses from Mount Sinai giving. It carries forward for generations the Sabbath day.

[39:53] Now in Ezekiel I think it's chapter 20 it's called a sign. God says I gave my Sabbaths to Israel as a sign unto them. This is a special element of God's relationship to this people.

[40:09] This is not something that's ever been put on the church despite what the seventh day Adventists pretend. They're full of nonsense and don't know how to rightly divide the word of truth. The Sabbath day was given to Israel and it was part of their relationship with their God.

[40:25] It was a special thing and it was special to God. He expected their compliance he expected their obedience to him. And yet the flesh refuses to submit to the ways of God.

[40:39] God's will is not on his radar. The bucket list of the flesh does not have the name of God on it.

[40:51] It says you get yours today you get yours every day it says you do what you want to do you do what pleases you if it feels good do it but there's no reference to the Lord God on the flesh's bucket list.

[41:07] He's not looking he's refusing rather to submit to God's ways. I want to turn to one passage you can be finished here.

[41:19] I want to turn to Romans chapter 8 and we read a verse on Wednesday night just this past Wednesday from this chapter dealing with your tongue and I want to bring that back and read a few more in this area of your flesh.

[41:38] the flesh refuses to submit to God's way and I want you to get some Bible on this why. Romans chapter 8 and let's read 5 through 8 and this is strong stuff here this is so plain and true so understand in the context of your old nature he's called here the carnal mind or the flesh verse 5 for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit could I pause there and say that in that day the seventh day the flesh said I want to go out and get something to eat I want what I want and I'm going to go do what I did Monday Tuesday Wednesday I'm doing it exactly the way I did it before and that's all he can do he can only mind his own way whatever he desires I'm hungry I'm going to do what I want to do they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but

[42:42] God said don't go I don't care what God said I'm going because that's what I want to do but they are after the spirit the things of the spirit verse six for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace you want that because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God notice neither indeed can be it's impossible for your flesh to be in subjection to the law of God that's operating in faith the flesh doesn't operate that way verse eight so that they that are in the flesh cannot please God cannot please God so God has a will for your life or a plan for your life if it's not something maybe that we could say is like some exact path it is definitely a purpose for your life there are things

[43:43] God has purposed for you the flesh will not give in to any of them it cannot it cannot be in subjection in faith to what God says but what God says is in just simple terms he just desires that you walk with him and that you obey his will and his word but the old nature will not be in subjection to God as his authority the old nature will never bow and what he wants he goes and gets and he doesn't ask for permission so to review this morning your flesh pictured in Exodus chapter 16 it has a mouth that will run when it's not happy and it shows there's no faith here it reveals a lack of faith it has secondly it makes things seem worse than they truly are and therefore it pressures you to act and to do something that is not in accordance to the Lord thirdly your flesh will blind you to the working of

[44:48] God never sees the hand of God never sees him working in a trial and he's not looking for God to get the glory in some way he's only looking for himself to be God says get rid of and fifthly he refuses to submit to the Lord and to his word now God is your creator if you don't have if there's no God there's no you God is not only your creator but if you've come to Calvary by faith and received Christ he's your savior without him you're on your way to hell you have no hope but God as your creator and as your savior offers a better life and offers to guide and to clean up and to protect and provide throughout these days and to seek to receive glory and pleasure from your obedience to him but please get this if you haven't gotten anything today the old man inside of you will never bow to

[46:02] God he will not do it he will refuse to do it he's a rebel that's what Moses said how long refuse ye it takes faith to believe that the Lord's ways are right it takes faith to believe and to obey that what the Lord wants for me is what's best for me and if he says get rid of it it's what's best for me if he's testing me to see if I'll obey like he did with Abraham and Isaac back in Genesis 22 if it's just a test well I want to pass it I don't want to fail it I want to pass the test so I'm going to obey his voice and let him lead me when you're walking by faith things look much different than they do back here in Exodus there's a different attitude there's different actions there's different words it's a different spirit it's compliance it's submission it's peace but the old man boy that guy will deceive you and he'll destroy you and when you give in in any way even in a small way as you give into your flesh you're weakening the new man you're denying the

[47:24] Lord and let's learn from this passage let's learn from what these people did and may God give us strength and conviction to not follow that but to walk in his ways and to bow and to be in submission and in prayer and in faith to our Father all right let's bow our heads and we're going to be dismissed shortly here I want to just give you an opportunity to respond if in fact the Lord's dealing with your heart on anything this morning then the right thing and the only thing for you to do is to respond and as to respond in faith if you need to commit something to God do it today if you need to surrender something to him do it today if you need to clear the air about something some path you've been heading down some thoughts that have been swirling in your mind if they're not thoughts of faith if they're fear then lay them at the throne do it this morning it's a good place to do it while the

[48:30] Lord is speaking and dealing with your heart I invite you to come and pray some are praying would you pray would you humble yourself God give us strength over our old natures man they can be strong that old nature is the biggest trouble I have every day of my life and I don't think I'm the only one here father please give us strength you've exposed what we are inside but now Lord give us strength to fight to be strong in the power of your might to put on the whole armor of God to walk in the new man to put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ oh God help us to resist the devil that he'd flee from us draw us to the throne of grace to receive grace to help mercy we're a needy needy people this world is designed to appeal to our flesh and sometimes we're blind to your hand we don't walk by faith we give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils and sometimes we love to have it so because we're sinful we pray you'll remember our frame this morning remember that we're dust that in us dwells no good thing

[50:17] Lord give us resolve and conviction I pray you'll give some people victory this morning that are struggling some hear issues I don't know anything about Lord give them strength speak into their heart walk close to them carry them as they surrender to you as they bow and obey lift them up strengthen them with might by your spirit in the inner man that we might work the works of righteousness and those things which are pleasing in thy sight help us to love you with all of our heart with all of our strength pray you give us victory over our sins help us to be busy about our father's business and in no way held back by our sinful flesh we pray and ask for these things in the name of the one that can give them to us in the

[51:33]  Lord Jesus Christ it's in his name we pray amen amen