Grumbling is Contagious and the Remedy For It - Kevin Williams

Ok, if you open with me in your Bibles

to Exodus 16.

I'm not going to read it beforehand.

We're just going to make comments

as we go,

and bring out points there as we go.

The title of this sermons is,

"Grumbling is Contagious

and the Remedy For It."

We've been going through Exodus

back home in Manchester.

And every sermon's about

grumbling and murmuring now

because once they leave Egypt,

that's all they ever do

on the way to the Promised Land.

So, let's pray.

Our Father,

we ask that You should show us

wonderous things from Your law,

from Your Word this morning.

That this text would be real to us

and helpful to us to live

for Your glory.

Search our hearts.

Help us, we ask.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Ok, so, in v. 1 then of Exodus 16,

we read, "They..." that is the Israelites,

of course, "...set out from Elim,

and all the congregation of the people

of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin,

which is between Elim and Sinai..."

And this wilderness of Sin

where they are now,

it has nothing to do

with the English word "sin,"

although as we'll see in a moment,

they do a lot of sinning

while they're here.

But it's simply called this

because they're in the Sinai region.

"On the fifteenth day of the second month

after they had departed

from the land of Egypt..."

We're simply being told this

because they left on the 15th day

of the first month,

so what we're being told in that detail

is this happens now exactly one month

since they left Egypt

since they were delivered from the slavery

and bondage there

going through the Red Sea, of course.

And v. 2 continues,

"...the whole congregation
of the people of Israel

grumbled against Moses and Aaron

in the wilderness."

And so the wording here

with the whole congregation grumbling

against Moses and Aaron,

it's highlighting a contrast

between in the previous chapter,

we saw it said the people grumbled

against the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

That time, an angry mob of people

in the congregation -

in the midst, were grumbling

when they went through the trial there

of not having any water

that the murmuring that was at Marah.

Whereas this time,

now it's the whole congregation -

or at least the majority of them

are now grumbling, murmuring

against Moses and Aaron.

So now what we have is

a full-blown rebellion.

And so, the first application -

the first point I want you to take note of

here and learn from in this passage

is that grumbling and murmuring

is contagious.

Grumbling and murmuring

is like a disease

that if you're around it long enough,

then you're going to catch it.

You know, people think of this murmuring

and grumbling and being divisive there

as just being a little thing,

but in Proverbs 6 it's

one of the six things the Lord hates;

the seven that are an abomination to Him -

he who sows discord among the brethren.

You see, when you murmur and grumble

in a bad way like these are doing here,

what happens is you sow discord -

you plant a seed in others.

And so when you're around

whiners and murmurers long enough

they will plant the seed in us.

And another point worth noting here

is that the last time they were grumbling

when it was just less of them,

they faced a much bigger trial

of having no water.

And it was just a large mob

of murmurers among the congregation

in this faithless state of rebellion.

And last time,

the rebellious grumblers -

they were shown to be wrong

in what happened there

in the events of Marah.

But when the next trial comes along,

even though as we'll see in a moment,

this is nothing compared to

the previous trial they've had.

You see, the seed of discord

has already been planted in them.

And so now the whole congregation

are murmuring against Moses and Aaron.

Yet, the people here, no doubt,

being led by a few chief grumblers

amongst them, stirring things up,

in there,

starting to complain.

Moses and Aaron -

and this is what you get;

you get a theme of this

as they're on the way
to the Promised Land.

Moses and Aaron,

if you were really leading us

in the correct way,

before the Lord,

then we wouldn't be facing another trial.

I mean, this is just too many times now,

Moses and Aaron.

They're saying, look, Moses,

I'm the expert on how to do things

around here.

And if you don't change the way

you're doing things to what I say,

then we're going to face another trial.

We've had no water.

And then, we've had the lack of food

and the different trials.

There's one trial after another.

But the thing is,

Moses and Aaron are taking them the way

that God has told them.

And trials are guaranteed

on the Christian's journey

through the wilderness of this life.

You see, the grumbling will only continue

unless these people's hearts are changed

and they learn from this,

which is what I want us to do today.

You know, recently, it wasn't too long ago

was it?

They had the Zika virus in Brazil.

And history is filled, isn't it,

with highly contagious diseases

like the bubonic plague,

the Black Death there.

Well, you see, when you
put your arms around

and you give air to constant grumbling

and the hypercritical spirit -

always hypercritical of everything -

you know the person who's always

tearing everything down,

it's like putting your arm around someone

with the bubonic plague.

Or putting your arm around someone

with the Zika virus there

and saying let's go for a walk together

among these mosquitos.

So, number one, the point here

in this enlarging

is grumbling -

this hypercritical spirit is contagious.

You know, in these days we live in,

there's all these Internet ministries -

not a good one like you have here,

but there are these really bad ones

out there aren't they,

with these hypercritical teachers?

It's normally some guy

and he's sat in his bedroom there,

giving Bible studies.

They don't have a church

because they've kind of already upset

every single person in the world.

And it's so-called discernment ministries.

But what is the fruit of these things?

The fruit of their disciples
who watch them

is they also become professional grumblers

and professionals with
a hypercritical spirit also.

So number one, the first warning

about grumbling here is it's

a highly contagious disease.

So beware.

It may go down like a tasty trifle

as the Proverbs says,

but don't trifle with it.

Number two though,

this really comes out in this text.

Grumbling and a murmuring spirit

distorts the past.

We can see this in v. 3 here, can't we?

"And the people of Israel said to them,

(to Moses and Aaron)

'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.'"

Notice here, it's been one month.

One month. That's all,

since they left Egypt.

And in their grumbling spirit,

they've already forgotten

about their heavy labor there

where they had to make the bricks

and they even had to gather

their own straw

to make the bricks with.

They've forgotten about the whips

upon their backs

and the chains in Egypt.

Just after a month.

And now they're saying here,

"... in the land of Egypt

when we sat by the meat pots

and ate bread to the full."

You see, in their distorted reality

they now hold of the past -

which grumbling paints -

they now have this false picture

in their mind of when they're in Egypt.

You know, as if they were sat down

in comfort each day.

Like, darling, would you pass me

another burger from the barby, please?

Would you like some chicken with that?

And they say here,

"would that we had died

by the hand of the Lord

in the land of Egypt."

In other words,

we could have continued

a happy and a comfortable life

until we died of old age,

of natural causes there.

But what really happened?

You see how distorted the picture

of the past that grumbling paints.

I mean, what really happened

when they were back in Egypt?

We get told earlier

that what happened was the people groaned.

They groaned because of
their slavery there,

and they cried out for help.

And their cry for rescue

came up to the Lord.

So, as well as being contagious,

the second danger of

a grumbling, hypercritical spirit here

we learn in this passage is

grumbling and murmuring distorts

the past.

It has to to carry on.

Kevin DeYoung said on this -

I think this is a good quote -

he said,

"We tend to remember a golden age

that didn't really exist.

The good old days weren't always so good.

Listen, if you tend to complain

about everything now,

chances are that you complained

about everything back then

whenever it was."

You see, for grumbling and murmuring

to continue, it relies upon

a distortion of past reality.

But number three,

another thing we learn about this

from this passage is

grumbling and murmuring exaggerates

the present and the future woes.

We see this in the next part of v. 3

here when they accuse Moses and Aaron.

"For you have brought us out

into the wilderness to kill

this whole assembly with hunger."

Ahhh, they say.

You've brought us all to kill us now.

We're all going to die.

Brethren, you know, aside from the fact

they have just seen

the Lord's provision in providing them

the water.

In fact, aside from the fact

that they've just seen

the Lord's faithfulness many, many times.

And so they have no reason to panic

in this here.

But, I want you to consider

how exaggerated this trial is here.

Because when they left Egypt,

did they not leave with
all their livestock?

Their flocks and their animals there.

Could they not get some milk and cheese

from their cows?

If they're that desperate for meat,

could they not slaughter an animal

and roast it?

You see, the point is that grumblers

exaggerate their misery.

And it's very easy to see, isn't it?

I mean, you just think,

in our own lives,

when we've fallen into this sinful state

of grumbling or murmuring,

when you think back now,

was it as bad as you made out back then?

Was all the panic really worth it?

And the fourth thing we can learn

about this though -

this state of murmuring from this passage,

is that it's really murmuring against God.

We see this in v. 7 when Moses

replies to them after God spoke to him:

"And in the morning, you shall see

the glory of the Lord

because He has heard your grumbling

against the Lord."

You see, these people,

they were kidding themselves

that their constant grumbling

and their whining was
against Moses and Aaron

and their leadership there.

But ultimately,

their murmuring was against God.

It is God Who was the One

they had the problem with.

As Moses continues to say there in v. 7,

"...for what are we that you grumble

against us?"

For what are we that you grumble

against us? Moses says.

In other words, Moses tells

these people here,

don't shoot the messenger.

I'm only telling you what

the Word of the Lord has said -

what the Bible says.

If you've got a problem with this,

then your problem's not with me,

it's with God.

And then in v. 8,

Moses said, "the Lord gives you

in the evening meat to eat

and 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."

You see in grumbling against Moses,

their pastor here -

when he's only trying to do right

before the Lord.

They're grumbling against the Lord.

He's just the messenger leading

as the Lord has told him to do.

You see,

when these people are murmuring here,

and saying Moses and Aaron -

they don't really care about us

or the leadership is harsh,

or whatever they're saying -

many different things you can put in here.

But what they really believe

is God is harsh.

Or God is guilty of whatever.

And He's the One Who doesn't care,

because it's His Word Moses and Aaron

are following here, you see.

So, those are the dangers then

of a grumbling spirit in this passage.

It's contagious.

It distorts the past.

It exaggerates the future woes.

And it has to depend on those things.

But now for the remedy,

also in this passage.

If you want to sum it up though,

it's basically this.

This is the remedy for grumbling

and murmuring.

Repent and trust the Lord.

You know, when you go to see a doctor,

he or she will normally

write out for you a prescription

that tells you what you need to do

in order to get better.

You need to take this "x" number of times

a day and so forth.

Refrain from doing this.

You see, this is God's prescription

for the disease of a murmuring

or hypercritical spirit here.

Repent and trust the Lord.

From v. 4, it says,

"Then the Lord said to Moses,

'Behold, I am 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 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

of the land of Egypt.'"

I want you to notice that phrase there

in God providing the provision for them.

He says so that you shall know

Who He is.

You shall know Who is the Lord.

You see, that's the remedy.

We know Who the Lord is.

You see, when someone falls into

a state of murmuring
and grumbling like this,

they've either forgotten

or they never knew in the first place

Who God is.

And then in v. 9-12, we read,

"Moses said to Aaron,

'say to the whole congregation,

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.'"

You see, God provides their need here

in order that you shall know Who God is.

You shall know what God is like.

And so, the first thing God gives them

in this passage is a remedy, if you like.

In the remedy, to trust Him,

the Lord teaches them about His character.

In order that they my trust the Lord,

He teaches them about His character here -

what He's like.

And the first thing He teaches them

in providing is His patience,

isn't it, brethren?

I mean, notice the expected response

from the Lord here to their grumbling.

After all, you see them one time

after another just shove

His mercy in the Lord's face, so to speak,

and despise it and carry on grumbling

one time after another.

The kind of natural response you'd expect

is the Lord to rain down fire from heaven

upon these people.

Saying look, I've had
enough of you this time.

But here we see, the first thing

God teaches them is His patience.

That He is long suffering towards them.

That He is slow to anger.

When you realize these
things about the Lord,

it's going to help you
to trust Him, isn't it?

But the second thing

that God teaches them here about Himself

in a remedy, if you like, to grumbling

so they can learn to trust Him

is that He cares for them

and He provides for their needs.

You see, the grumbling
and murmuring spirit

thinks God doesn't care enough for them

and won't provide.

So they think they have to be anxious

about the future,

exaggerating present woes

of what might be.

From v. 13, look at

the Lord's care and provision here.

It says, "In the evening,

quail came upon and covered the camp.

And in the morning, dew
lay around the camp."

The Lord provided them meat to eat

there in the quail.

V. 14, "And 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?'

They did not know what it was.

And Moses said to them,

'It is the bread that the Lord

has given you to eat.'"

So the Lord - He gives them this manna,

this bread

which miraculously appears on the ground.

In the original, it's a
play on words here.

They named this bread that God

miraculously provided: manna.

The word manna means "what is it?"

And so they named this bread "manna"

because when they first saw it

on the ground,

they said, "what is it?"

And so they called it, "what is it?"

You can imagine their conversations

in the houses, the tents, can't you?

You know, mom, what are
we having for tea tonight?

Well, you don't say tea,

is it supper down here? Or dinner?

What are we having?

We're having "what is it?"

No, what is it?

Yeah, that's what I'm asking you.

What is it?

But look here, look at

the Lord's provision and care.

From v. 16, it continues,

Then as the Lord commanded them,

"Gather of it each one of you

as much as he can eat.

You shall take an omer..."

There's a bit of debate about the size,

but I believe it's about two liters.

"...according to the number of persons

that each of you have in his tent."

So, they're all living in tents

as I said.

When I preached on this at home,

we have a church camping holiday,

and there was a lot of protest.

We don't want a camping holiday.

We don't like camping.

So I said, look, if you
don't like camping,

you're not biblical.

But v. 17 though,

"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,

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
over until the morning,'

but they did not listen to Moses.

Some left part of it till the 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."

So they had to gather this manna early

before the sunrise or it stank.

And God is teaching there -

as Calvin said -

number one, a work ethic.

If they'd been left all day

to gather it, they could have been

casual about it.

But also, I think much more than that,

in that it stank there

for those who did not listen

to the command of God.

The teaching there is if you're gathering

the manna of God's Word,

but not doing it,

then you stink.

If we're hearing or reading

the Word of God,

but not doing it,

or learning it and not doing it,

then that's the testimony, isn't it,

it leaves before others.

It stinks.

But above all that,

the Lord is teaching us here

that we can depend on Him

day by day.

This is the teaching here.

You see, this text here,

I think it's what our Lord

likely had in mind

when He said in the Sermon on the Mount;

when He taught us to pray there:

Give us this day our daily bread.

Not tomorrow's mercies in advance.

But you see, we can
trust the Lord each day

is the teaching.

As He said there,

but if God so clothes the
grass of the field,

which today is alive

and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,

will He not much more clothe you,

O ye of little faith?

Therefore do not be anxious,

saying what shall we eat

or what shall we drink

or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles (the unconverted)

seek after these things,

and your heavenly Father knows

you have need of them all.

But seek first the Kingdom of God

and His righteousness,

and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore, do not be
anxious about tomorrow.

For tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for today is its own trouble.

You see, grumbling tends to exaggerate

the woes and the trials of the future

as does anxiety.

But we are being taught in this

that we can trust the Lord day by day.

Not being told a month in advance

or a year in advance.

You see, worry and anxiety,

it's basically living out the future

before it comes.

(Incomplete thought)

The devil can really use this

and get you to exaggerate the woes.

The result of it is it causes people

to distrust the Lord in the present

and do things wrong there.

But we're taught here about how

we can trust the Lord day by day.

And then from v. 22 to the end

of the chapter.

We get this about the Sabbath here.

"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 a day of solemn rest;

a holy Sabbath to the Lord.

Bake what you will bake

and boil what you will boil,

All that is left over and lay aside

to be kept till the morning.'

So they laid it aside till the morning

as Moses had commanded them,

and it did not stink

and there were no worms in it."

Now, that's a test of faith

and obedience, isn't it?

Because in the previous days,

if they left some over,

it stunk.

That's what they'd see.

But then, they were rather

asked to gather two days worth

before the Sabbath.

And it did not stink.

V. 25, "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.'"

I want you to think here

about the link -

what is the link

in the midst of a passage

about grumbling -

and he gives us much in the way

God deals with them

or a remedy for grumbling.

Why does he suddenly start talking

about the Sabbath day?

What is the link here?

I think the Lord is
teaching us here, brethren,

you can trust the Lord enough to rest.

You know, the world won't stop revolving

if you stop worrying for just one second,

believe it or not.

You know, it's easy for parents, isn't it,

that when you go through a trial

and you spend scheduled time

with your children

or some other family member

you're supposed to be spending time with,

you can be spending time with them -

your children - but
you're not really there

because you're thinking about

whatever trial there is on your mind.

But I've kind of learned after time,

God can cope without me worrying

about something for a few seconds

and to spend that time with them.

You know, as a pastor at home

I have a kind of Monday off, if you like,

where basically I don't do any counseling

on a Monday,

or the normal churchy things on a Monday

that I do on other days.

And it's been a hard
lesson for me to learn.

At first, I was like,

Lord, are You sure You can manage

without me and run the church for a day?

And you know, it's like the Lord says,

well, let Me think about that one.

You know, I made the world in six days

at the command of My voice.

I placed the stars in orbit.

I parted the Red Sea.

Yeah, I think I can just about manage

for a little bit without you.

But you see, brethren,

in that illustration
how ridiculous we get

when we don't think we can rest.

What a distrust of the Lord it is, really.

You know, it's funny though,

when, at least in my experience,

when I do have the Monday off,

normally it's the more grumbly,

hypercritical spirit who are the ones

who are always trying
to intrude upon that.

Desperate for me to sort out whatever.

It's like I don't care what day it is.

If I say, "jump,"

I expect my pastor to say, "how high?"

But anyway, then in v. 27-28,

we see the Sabbath breakers.

From v. 26, once again,

"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?'"

And I think there's application

for the Lord's Day here.

Just as these Israelites,

they prepared before the Sabbath

by gathering what they needed

the day before there.

I think it's good, isn't it,

to prepare for the Lord's Day?

If you can.

As in make sure you're not overly tired

to come in and be with the people.

That you've done things

so you're not rushing around like crazy.

I'm not saying you can't go to the shop

for some milk or something

if you've run out or anything like that.

But from v. 29,

"See the Lord has given you the Sabbath.

Therefore, on the sixth day,

He gives you bread for two days.

Remain each in his place.

Let no one go out of his place

on the seventh day.

So the people rested on the seventh day."

Notice that lastly.

The people rested on the seventh day.

Once again, Sabbath,

and that principle there of rest.

What's your idea of Sabbath rest?

Or the Lord's Day?

Is it a long list of burdensome rules?

You know, our Lord Jesus said,

didn't He, the thing you must know

about the Sabbath is it was made for man.

That is, can you trust Me

enough to rest?

And the thing He most wants us to learn

most of all though

is that you can trust in Him

and rest in what He's done for salvation.

In that picture of the Gospel rest

which it ultimately points to there.

I think I've used this
illustration before here.

My wife always tells me off

for using the same illustrations.

So forgive me if I have.

She always says when
you use an illustration

you've given before,

I just switch off.

But you have that picture, don't you,

in Genesis of God making the world.

There was an evening and a morning -

the first day.

An evening and a morning, the second day.

An evening, a morning, a third day.

Until you get to the Sabbath day.

And there's no evening and morning.

It's just a continual day.

When God rested on the Sabbath day there,

it's not that He rested
and then He carried on

on the following day.

But He rested from it

because it's finished.

The work is all done.

So He entered into His rest.

And you see, that's the picture

of what Christ would do on the cross

there when He said, "It is finished."

He's done everything needed

for salvation.

And you see, that is where

salvation comes, doesn't it?

Resting in what Christ has done for you.

And so, to really finish then,

from v. 31-36,

we're told how some of the manna

was stored, just so later,

it would be one of the items

in the ark of the covenant there.

He tells them to take a
jar of it and so forth,

but in John 6,

people came to Jesus and they said to Him,

"What must we do

to be doing the works of God?"

What must we do to be doing the works,

the miracles of God?

They asked Jesus there in John 6.

You see, these people,

they had just seen Jesus feed the 5,000

with five loaves and two fishes.

So they were asking Him,

what must we do?

So we can do a miracle like this.

As Jesus had just said to them,

you are seeking Me for the wrong reasons.

You see, in the miracle of the feeding

of the 5,000, they didn't come to realize

Who He was.

And so they wanted to do
miracles, these people,

rather than seeking Him.

Well, Jesus answered them,

"This is the work of God:

that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.

So they said to Him,

'then what sign do you do

that we may see Him and believe You,

and what work You may perform?

Our fathers ate the manna

in the wilderness.

As it is written,

'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'

Jesus said to them,

'Truly, truly, I say to you,

it was not Moses who gave you

the 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 comes to Me shall not thirst.'"

You see, He is the true Manna.

Christ is not some temporary provision

that lasted forty
years, in other words,

but everlasting.

You see, Jesus is the One

you must come to to rest in,

and feed from Him for everlasting life.

You see, just as this manna

sustained in the wilderness,

Christ is the One

Who must sustain you before the judgment,

Who we are to feed upon there.

So that's what I have to say.

Let's pray.

Our Father, I just pray that these words

would be helpful to the
brothers and sisters,

for the unity of the church here,

to knit hearts together
as David and Jonathan.

Keep us from evil, we ask.

Keep us from a grumbling spirit.

Keep us from temptation.

Help us to feed on You.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.