TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb. 13, 2026. Lesson 30-2026. Title: The Bread That Brings Life

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

In this Faith Friday edition of Morning Manna, the focus turns to John 6:49, where Jesus contrasts the manna eaten by Israel in the wilderness with the life He alone provides. Though their fathers ate manna and still died, Christ reveals that temporary provision can never produce eternal life. The verse exposes the danger of trusting in past religious experiences or outward provision while missing the living Bread standing before them. Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine why yesterday’s miracles cannot sustain today’s soul and how only Christ Himself gives life that death cannot take away. Lesson 30-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961. MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Manor. Your teachers, Rackwiles and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Well, welcome to morning, Mama. Today is Faith Friday, and this is a day dedicated to learning more about faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and all that he did for us on the cross. It's also when we participate in a worldwide virtual holy communion service with saints around the world. So if you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, you've been born again and you've been baptized into his church, in water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you are invited.

You are welcome to join with us and your brothers and sisters in many nations today in just a few minutes as we go to the Lord's table. to participate in the Lord's Supper. So the only thing you need is bread and your choice of grape juice or red wine. Our faith Bible lesson today is, we'll continue in the sixth chapter of John, the gospel of Jesus Christ according to John. And the reason we've been in this for several weeks now, because understanding the deep meaning of Jesus' words, in John 6 is essential in understanding the spiritual significance of the Lord's Supper,

which we're going to partake in just a few minutes. Now, I want to remind you that all morning Manna lessons are archived at manna Nation.com. And today's lesson is 30-2026, 30-2026. This Bible lesson every weekday, Morning Manna, is financed by faith. We operate by faith, we work by faith, we serve the Lord by faith, and you know what, the Lord has been taking care of us for many years. He is good, he is faithful. And we just trust that God will speak to his sons and daughters.

And those of you know who you are, you'll hear his voice, and you'll know it's him speaking to you to support this ministry. And we're not going to tell you how much you should give or anything like that. It's that between you and the Lord. Our responsibility is just to do what God has told us to do. And your responsibility is to do what God has told you to do. And by faith, we trust that God will tell you to give in that when all the offerings come together, at the end of the month,

this ministry needs will be met. That's the way we operate. Amen. Pretty simple idea, isn't it, Doc? Yeah, very simple. It's just walking by faith. So you can go to manna nation.com to show your support for the soul food that we serve you each day. That's what we do.

We serve soul food because we're here to nourish your soul. It's now time to receive that manna that gives eternal life, our faith in Jesus Christ. let's enter into the presence of the Lord by praying the Lord's prayer together. When is the last time you've said the Lord's prayer with other saints? There was a day that every church service started with the Lord's prayer.

Every one of them. What's happened to us? Well, hey, I'm not going to talk about that. Let's just do it ourselves. Okay, we're going to pray the Lord's prayer. Okay, let's pray. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. Well, Rick, it's impossible to live in the sinful world without getting some of its dirt on you. therefore we need to go to the divine washroom to have our father wash away with the blood of Jesus, all that grit, all that grime, and all the filth we've accumulated since our last time at his separate table. I agree, Doc.

So let's go to the Lord's washroom and get cleaned up for the Lord's meal. Come, therefore, all of you who are truly sorry for your sins, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, have confessed his name and desire to live in obedience to him. Come eagerly and joyfully with assurance of faith. For Christ, our risen Lord, invites you as guests to fellowship with him at his table. So now let's humbly confess our sins to Almighty God. O Lord, our God, we come to you as your sons and servants confess.

that we were born in sin and have continued in sin. We have broken your commandments. We have fallen short of your glory. We have not loved you with our heart, mind, and soul, and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We acknowledge our sin. We acknowledge our guilt. We rightly fall under your curse and judgment.

but we ask you to blot out our transgressions, wash us from our iniquities, and forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Oh, God, have mercy on us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Almighty God, and you, all hearts are open and all desires are known, and from you, no secrets are hit.

Lord, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord. Amen. Now hear the word of God to all who truly turned to Him in repentance. This is in Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Almighty God or Heavenly Father, who in His great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins to all those who sincerely repent and with true faith turn to him, have mercy upon you, pardon, and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Now hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments to pin all the law and the prophets. Let us confess a symbol of our faith in the words of the Apostles' Creed.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who is conceived by the Holy Spirit. Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontch's Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead, and he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen. Almighty God, in your tender mercy, you gave your only begotten sin, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption. He offered himself and made once for all time a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. He instituted this remembrance of his passion and death, which he commanded us to continue until he comes again. And so, Father, we ask you to be able to. and sanctify with your word and Holy Spirit, these gifts of bread and wine that we may partake

of his most blessed body and blood. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed once for all upon the cross. Therefore, let us keep the feast. Hallelujah. On the night that he was betrayed, for Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, take eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is given for you, preserve your body and soul to everlasting life. This is the bread of heaven. Take and eat in remembrance that Christ died for you. After supper, Jesus took the cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink this all of you, but this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many

for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me. Praise God. Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will shed for you, preserve your body and soul to everlasting life. Drink the cup of salvation and remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for you and be thankful.

Behold the Lamb of God. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world and blessed are those who are invited to the Married Supper of the Lamb. This sacrament is the gift of God, for the people of God. Feed on Him by faith with Thanksgiving that Christ died for you. Amen.

Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord, your son, our Savior. And for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of Christ and heirs of your eternal kingdom, you have assigned each saint a work to represent you in the world. So send us out into the world to be faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ, our king. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory now and forever.

Amen. Amen. Well, for the past several faith Fridays, we've been talking about that bread of heaven. We just participated in that bread of heaven that Christ commanded us to continue to honor until he shares it with us one day. And so we're going to continue our study in that bread of heaven from verses found in John chapter 6. Now last week we studied John chapter 6 verses 47 and 48. And there were so much information in there. And if you didn't get a chance to see it, go back to last Faith Friday and watch it again.

because it was something that was very, very deep. But those two verses we focused on last week, or verses 47 and 48, verily, verily, I say unto you, He that belief upon me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Now this week, our faith-prudy lesson is going to focus on just one verse, and that's John chapter 6, verse 49.

Very simple phrase, and yet there's so much packed in this, really, stop and think of that, it's a very short sentence, Rick. Your father's did eat man in the wilderness and are dead. One sentence. I said to Doc before we started today's lesson, I said, Doc, when's the last time you said something so profound that men and women talked about it for 2,000 years,

that universities were built to study it, Seminaries were formed and theologians studied one sentence that you said. What is the last time? We don't talk this way. Jesus can say one sentence and people talk about it for 2,000 years. That's right. And so some people would think, well, how can you do a Bible lesson for one hour and one verse? Easy.

Very easy. We had to edit out a lot of information to keep it to one hour. There's so much in this one sentence. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. Period. End of sentence. He said it in one sentence. So let's consider the context of these words.

Jesus is speaking to a crowd that had just been fed. accurately with loaves and fish, now they demand a repeat of the manna miracle that their ancestors received in the wilderness with Moses. Previously, these Galilean Jews demanded that Jesus tell them what kind of sign he would do to convince them that he is who he says he is. Now, what happens here is that he deliberately pulls the discussion out of the realm of the spectacle. You know, what sign do you do? You can just see their faces.

All right, Jesus, what sign do you do? We know about Moses. We know what he did. What about you, Jesus? What sign can you do that would make us believe in you? But now what he does is he pulls this into the discussion. and he pulls it into the realm of the meaning. The crowd wants a repeat of Moses' bread miracle,

but Jesus insists on interpreting the older miracle spiritually. Yes. Not merely admiring it historically. He says, your fathers. He deliberately addressed them on their own ground. They had just cited their father. mother's manna as proof that Moses was greater. That's what they're saying to him.

You know, Jesus, Moses was a lot. You're not even close to being Moses. That's in essence what they were saying. Jesus, you're not even close to being Moses. But now he's going to show them, he's going to show them truth. So your fathers, that phrase, refers to the generation of Israel that came out of Egypt under Moses, a people who saw God's power

and yet ultimately died in unbelief in the wilderness notice Doc he he said to them your fathers he didn't say our fathers didn't put himself in that class because they were not his fathers he has one father so they said our fathers

and Jesus did not respond to them and say, yes, our fathers, he said, your fathers. He's pointing to his higher origin. He has come down from heaven. He's not merely a descendant from Abraham's line. Your fathers did eat manna. Jesus spoke to the people who only cared about their stomachs.

They had no interest in finding anything higher. But Jesus met them at their base level, and he attempted to elevate their gaze toward heaven. He didn't condemn them. He just met them at where they're at, and then tried to get them to look up. Okay. So then he says, in the wilderness. So this is identifying the place of Israel's testing. They're wandering, and eventually they're deaf.

the very generation that ate the miracle manna perished there under judgment for unbelief, Doc? Yes. And something that, well, I want to point out to our viewers and listeners about this passage in John 6th, oftentimes Jesus addresses particulars to, like, Jewish leaders, or to the Pharisees, but he's speaking to the, people. It's the people here. And he calls them, you know, he addresses them as your father's deal,

and saying that you are part of a class of people that is asking for this. So he's really preaching the gospel to Israel at this point in the form of him being the Brit of Life. And so he's making that relationship to the man in the wilderness. us. And for those that do any kind of study in the scriptures, you begin to see the comparison between the man in the wilderness and Jesus Christ in the flesh. First of all, the manna, when it fell down from heaven, it came down like in little flakes. It was very tiny, very small. Just like Jesus, when he entered the world, came in as a child in a manger. It was small. and it represents the Savior's humility.

The scripture tells us that manna, they were little round flakes. If you could imagine like a large snowflake and they were round. And that represents eternity. They were also white and that represents purity. The Bible says that it was sweet.

Psalm 348 says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed it is the man that trusteth in him. And one other feature about that manna is arrived in the overnight hours in the dark of the night and was there ready on that bright and glorious morning the next day. And it represents Christ coming in the midst of spiritual darkness. There are so many parallels to manna and Christ coming in the flesh. Jesus is, correcting the crowd's error here, Rick.

The crowd, and once again, he's addressing this to the people, is treating manna as the goal, the ideal, and Jesus as the candidate who has to match up to it. Jesus treats manna as the shadow, the picture, and himself as the substance. So he was saying that the manna points to meet and to me alone.

So the manna argument is not simply about bread. It's about authority. The people implicitly rank Moses above Christ unless Christ can perform Moses-like wonders, right? Isn't that what they're testing him on? They're saying, be like Moses do, Moses-level miracles. But Jesus steadily recolocates authority from Moses as the provider to God as the giver

and Christ himself as the gift. In other words, Moses points to Christ. So Manna represents a real providential gift. Yet it also exposes the limits of external religion.

One can eat heavenly bread, and that's what Manna was, and still miss the heavenly meeting. Isn't that what happened? They received bread every day, for 40 years, except for the Sabbath. They received mana every day,

and yet they missed the meaning behind it. Miracles never replaced the need for trust in God's self-revelation. You hear what I said. Miracles can never replace the need for God's self-revelation. So that manna arrived daily, it was necessary, it taught dependence, yet the crowd's demand here in John chapter 6, six reveals that distorted dependence, dependence on the gift rather than the dependence on the giver. So Jesus steers them toward a faith that rested in him as a person, not really what he can

provide. The sign that should have led Israel to worship becomes in unbelieving hands, Rick, a weapon to resist the one the sign foretold. And that was the sad thing about that moment. when Jesus was addressing the people. And what does he say next to them? And he said, and are dead. Your fathers, your fathers that ate that manna in the wilderness are dead in the discussion, period.

So he delivers a sobering conclusion to their ancestors unbelieve in the wilderness. said, oh, there's a statement of fact, they died. They ate the miracle, but they died. They ate the miracle, but died. There's a lot in that statement. They ate the miracle bread, but they died. You know, Spurgeon said it was, you know,

it was the original angel food. Yeah. It was angel food cake. But it didn't keep them alive, did it? Did not keep them alive? So despite eating miraculous heavenly bread every day for 40 years, the entire generation except for Joshua and Caleb and the younger Israelites, all the older Israelites died in the wilderness.

That whole generation, that ate the heavenly bread, died. The ones that they said, our fathers. this group of Jews who are standing in front of Jesus whom he had fed with loaves and fish, and then they followed him and they said, hey, do something again, do something greater than Moses. We might believe in you. You got to top Moses. And he's telling them, by the way, your fathers, your ancestors that ate that food that came down from heaven when God honored Moses?

Oh, by the way, they all died. So why did Jesus say that? What was the point of saying, yeah, your relatives died? I mean, if you were talking to someone and they said, you know, by the way, your mama and your papa died, that's a pretty serious statement. Yeah. Thanks for bringing it back up.

Right, you know. So his reasoning is different. devastating. Here's why. If the manna were the ultimate gift, it would have preserved their lives. But the very men and women in ancient Israel who ate the manna fell dead in the wilderness. Their carcasses littered the sand. It might have been what, Doc, a million, two million, how many of them? Well, the estimate is that 6 million people arrived in Israel, up to 6 million, depending on who you ask. Okay, arrived after? Right.

Who would end to Canaan? Yes. Okay. Well, those were the only young people. That's right. That would mean that a whole generation, maybe 2 to 3 million died in the wilderness. Can you imagine? And by the way, they just kept walking around giant circles for 40 years.

Can you imagine walking back around every year and you see grandpappy land there? I mean, that's really what it was because they were dying in the wilderness. Yes. And nobody said, hey, no, we've been by here a couple times. So death came to all of them who were in unbelief. Manna prolonged their lives for 40 years. But it cannot prevent the grave. Amen.

It had no power over death. And Jesus said, and are dead. That's exposing the limitation of all earthly blessings, no matter how miraculous, they cannot give eternal life. The fact that the ancient Israelites ate manna and still died in itself exposes the inadequate. of any earthly provision to meet

the deepest needs of mankind. The manna kept their bodies alive for season. But their souls went down to the grave. Only Christ can give life that never ends. Amen. The manna was heaven sent, but it was not heaven itself.

Amen. Amen. It sustained life for a season, but it could not impart eternal life. The manna was a gracious gift from God, yet the people remained mortal. It left the people's hearts unchanged. The bread they received could not satisfy the hunger of the soul. Their external provision could not quicken. they're dead souls.

So, Doc, again, the manna came from heaven, but it wasn't heaven. Jesus is heaven. Yes. Amen. So eating bread from heaven will not give you eternal life. You have to eat the one who is the bread of life. That's right, Rick. And that's what we just did a few minutes ago.

Yes. Jesus said, verse 14. I am the bread of life, of life, of life. So the Israelites, they ate and were satisfied for the moment, day to day. But even though they received miracle food, miracle food, think about every single day. They saw a miracle every day. They saw a miracle every single day when they got up in the morning.

And yet they all dined in the wilderness. that physical bread can only prolong life. It never can conquer death. That's why you need the bread of life. So on the one hand, that manna was a daily mercy, but it could not deliver from the curse of sin or the grave. It never could. And now we bring it back up to John chapter 6.

So you got the spiritual blindness of these Galilean Jews. demanding of Jesus that he outperform Moses fit the pattern of the Israelites back in the Exodus. Now, wilderness generation saw miracle after miracle day, after day, after day. They saw the cloud by day, they saw the fire by night. My goodness, Rick, it was a complete charismatic meeting,

miracles every day, right? They saw the Red Sea part. That's right. I mean, they saw it, but they saw it every day. I mean, it wasn't just once, you know, in a generation event. Every day, they got up in the morning. There's manna out there for us to collect. Every day when they saw the cloud, they saw the fire.

And yet, they died in unbelief. Think about it. They died in unbelief. So eating physical bread, eating that physical bread, that manna, even though it was miracle bread, did not produce saving faith. So what does that mean? that means that their unbelief nullified the blessing. Rick, my favorite verse in the Bible is Hebrews 4-2.

And it reads, for unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them, being the people in the wilderness, as well as unto them. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. They heard the gospel in the wilderness, Hebrews tells us, Rick. they heard the gospel. It spells it out in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament,

and yet they died in the wilderness. So even with the daily man, that wilderness generation perished because, why? Unbelieved. They died in unbelief. They died in unbelief. So what's the lesson for us today? Well, the unbelieving Israelites ate man in the wilderness and died.

They were the chosen people. They were the people of God, right? They were the people God delivered. the bread they ate was perishable but christ christ is a food that endures to eternal life that man in the wilderness was a shadow for the mystery yet to come it nourished the body but left the soul hungry only faith in christ rick satisfies absolutely forever amen faith is the the missing ingredient the fathers, the ancient Israelite fathers and mothers, ate manna but lacked faith. And so death reigned because they did not trust the giver or look beyond the gift.

They were only looking at the gift. And it was simply to fill their stomachs. Presbyterian theologian Matthew Henry said that the best earthly food cannot keep the soul from death or hell. Angleton Charles Bridges said that the fathers died under the sentence of sin. Manna could not remove the curse or quicken the dead soul. In Baptist John Gill taught that the Israelites died in unbelief and only the bread of life gives resurrection life. Presbyterian Albert Burns said that, our dead, talking about our dead, is the decisive fact. Manon could not conquer death.

Only Christ can raise the dead and give eternal life. And Baptist Alexander McLaren reminds us that the wilderness generation died in unbelief despite daily manner, because faith, not food, is the pathway to eternal life. Faith is the pathway to eternal life. Congregationalist G. Campbell Morgan observed that phrase, and are dead, is the end of every human hope. That's the end of every human hope. All earthly bread, Rick, fails at the grave. And we'll go way back in time. St. Cyril of Alexandria taught that the fathers died in the wilderness because they did not believe manna could not save those who rejected the giver.

And St. Augustine had this observation. They ate manna and died. We eat Christ and live forever. because he is the resurrection in the life. I feel those old boys could preach. They sure could. There's some good sermons there with these guys. So let's take it up a notch. Okay. How does this apply to us today?

When Jesus said, and are dead, talking about their ancestors, his reference to death was more than physical death. It included spiritual death, like they are still dead today, spiritually, which is frightening. It's absolutely frightening to me. You don't think about that. I shiver to think, I can't. There is nobody on earth that I hate and despise that I would desire them to experience eternal death.

I just when I when I stopped to think about a soul separated from God for eternity it's it's the scariest thought that I can ever have doc those

yeah go ahead dog it just occurred to me just now you really said something pretty profound there they're dead they are dead they exist in death right now remember he would refer to Abraham, Isaac, and others as alive, right?

They were passages in the gospel. He referred to them, Abraham is. I talked with Abraham. I know, but these fathers are dead. Not only did they die physically in the wilderness. They died spiritually in the wilderness, too. And they're still spiritually dead. Yes. Wow.

And 10 million years from now, they will still be spiritually dead. those who ate without faith remained under judgment eating us listen to this folks eating a sign without trusting the signified prophets nothing St. Augustine perceived the death of the fathers as both physical and spiritual he warned early Christians not to eat the sacraments of the Lord's without faith, less they to eat and die.

That's right. So just participating, if I'm hearing you right, Rick, just as you participate in communion, the Lord's Supper, that's not what saves you, is it? It's your faith, that you're eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the one who lives. That's why I tremble at so many modern churches

that treat the Lord's Supper with such irreverence. It's like, oh, we have to do this. Our denomination requires us to do this every three months. Right. Or they just pay, you know, hey, we're going to hand out the crackers and the Jews, let's do this. And there's no reference for what they're doing.

It becomes a habit, it becomes a rote. Yes, and there's no faith. So, Doc, Apostle, Paul warned the church. Yeah, he did. He was very explicit with the church in Corinth. And he said to him, do not go to the Lord's table in another worthy manner. So if you've got your Bible, turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1st Corinthians chapter 11 versus 27 through 29.

That's 1st Corinthians chapter 11 versus 27 through 29. You don't hear too many sermons preached on this passage. okay why because it hold people accountable Paul said to the church in Corinth in 1st Corinthians 117 through 29 wherefore whosoever whosoever that pretty much means everybody whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord

unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord but let a man examine himself and so let him either that bread a drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drink is unworthly, eateth and drink a damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Those are some pretty intense, tough words, Rick. Drinking damnation to yourself? Yeah, I would say that's serious. I mean, if somebody handed you a cup and said, hey, this is a cup of damnation, would you drink it? Yeah, take a big dough, would you? But, Doctor, the early churches, they'd be. taught this from the beginning of the church of Cyril of Alexandria. It was the patriarch of the

Egyptian Coptic church in the 5th century. And he taught that Christ contrast himself with all creative gifts. Even miraculous provision from God remains creaturely and therefore subject to corruption, that only the uncreated word incarnate can impart incorruptible life. Yes. So, Doc, our Eastern Orthodox Church brothers and sisters teach a concept called theosis. You know, I've never heard this because we're not exposed to it. but without going into a deep dive I would say that the Orthodox Church's

theosis is similar to the Protestant's justification it's just a different word that's my view theosis describes the process of becoming more like God through union with him we become holy and more like Christ through the gift of grace. This is as the Orthodox teach it. The Orthodox Church teaches that theosis must be the goal of every Christian saint because it represents the fulfillment of humankind's creation in God's

image. So according to the Orthodox Church, our assignment from God to us is to commune with him and and join with him and become as we were in the Garden of Eden. So it signifies a profound union with our maker. Almighty God, through communion with His Son, Jesus Christ. The only way to do this is through communion with His Son. What did we just participate in at the beginning of this class? Holy Communion. What did we do?

We ate the bread. We drank the blood. We entered into communion with Christ. So this whole concept of theosis, it's not earned. It's a gift of divine grace. And this is what's important. It's rooted in the incarnation of Jesus.

God came down from heaven and became incarnate as a human being in the Virgin Mary. Right. St. Anaeus. Athanasius. Anthanasius. Anthonyaceous. Let me say it.

St. Athanasius. Believe the incarnation made possible fallen humankind's union with the maker. Okay. That the incarnation of Christ was what was necessary, I want to say the incarnation, God coming down from heaven, becoming a human being, that that was necessary for humans to enter into union with their maker.

We were separated from our maker from the fall in the Garden of Eden. So the active presence of the Holy Spirit brings believers into communion with God. And so the spiritual process of theosis is fostered through inner purification, living a virtuous life, living a holy life, having the Holy Spirit active in your life, being in communion with God. And all this is done, it produces a mystical union with our Creator

through his son Jesus Christ. So what does this have to do with today's Bible verse? And the Lord's Supper. Jesus said, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. The name of this Bible teaching ministry is morning manna. What is the manna that we serve you each morning? we serve the Word of God. Doc, what or who is the Word of God?

What are we serving every day on Morning Manor? Jesus Christ. So that Word of God is Jesus himself, Rick. So the Apostle with John, John said so in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. He said, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.

Him without him was not anything made that was made. And here's the kicker. In him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the light shith in darkness. And the darkness comprehended it not. Now, it's just making sense to you now. God, we basically shut down our previous ministry.

God told us to transition to a ministry called Morning Manna, to just teach the word. The word is Jesus. In the beginning was the word, and the word was made flesh. We just participated in the Lord's supper. We ate his flesh. We drank his blood. Jesus told the Jews,

your fathers ate the manna, but they died. The reason they died is that they had no faith in the God who sent the manna. The purpose of mourning manna is to be. to serve Jesus Christ to you, that you would dine on him, that you would feast on him in faith. Why? So that you won't die. So that you won't die. I'm talking spiritually. That you will not die spiritually. Because Jesus said, if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, I will raise you up on the last day.

I will resurrect you. now does this make sense of why we have morning manna why we invite you to come and study the word because you're studying Jesus you're dining on Christ himself when I said at the beginning we serve soul food I meant it we're serving food for your soul we're not serving physical bread we're serving spiritual bread so Earlier today, we went to the Lord's table for his divine meal, his flesh and blood. We ate the bread representing his flesh. We drank the wine or the grape juice representing his blood.

Jesus said, this is my flesh. This is my blood. He didn't say, hey, this is this cracker. Think about me as my body. He didn't say that. He said, this is my flesh. He didn't hold up the cup and say, now here's a couple of words. on, and you pretend that this is my blood.

He didn't say it. He said, this is my blood. How does that happen? How is that true? My faith. By faith. I like the Orthodox Church. They just say, hey, we can't figure it out.

It's a holy mystery. We just believe it. And that's where I'm at. I can't figure it out. It's way above my head. I'm not going to argue about, does they, Does the cracker turn in? I'm not going to argue about it.

He said eat it by faith and believe. Drink it by faith and believe. I don't want to be spiritually dead. I'm going to go to the Lord's table in faith and live by faith. So somehow, somehow, and it's a mystery, when we eat the bread by faith, When we drink the wine or juice by faith, the sacraments become somehow the flesh and the blood of our Savior. Again, I don't understand it. I can't explain it. It's a holy mystery.

What makes Christ's flesh life giving to us during Holy Communion? It is that it is the flesh of the Logos, the living word. When we eat, you read the scripture document, the beginning was the word. Logos, the Greek word for the word. We eat the word. We eat Christ, who is the word. He is the living word. So eating him unites us to the source of life itself.

And that's why the early church fathers warned their congregations not to receive the sacraments of bread and wine without faith, less they too eat and die. Yes, that's right. And here's the cold, brutal fact about this. Jesus concluded his thought here with a jarring monosyllabic reality check and are dead. They're dead. They died and they're still dead. They remained dead. The grave claimed them all. And as we mentioned before, this dead here has a devil meaning. They died physically. And they died spiritually in unbelief.

And they are dead. And are dead. Their carcasses fell in the desert, but their spirits are still dead to this day. So there's a passage in 1st Corinthians. 1st Corinthians chapter 10, verse 5 that says, but with many of them, talking about the ones in the world,

God was not well pleased. But they were over three. in the wilderness. They were overthrown in the wilderness. Wow. I was just thinking, this is a whole weather left. We could build another lesson out of what I'm about to say. But we recited the Apostles' Creed at the beginning of today's lesson. And it said he went down, he descended to the place of the dead. We know that he preached to the captives. Doc, is it possible that many of these Israelites who died in the wilderness

heard Jesus when he descended to the dead? And then they said, this time I'm believing. I'm coming out of here. Well, you wouldn't be the first person to make that hypothesis there, but I'm of the opinion that they heard the gospel long before then. Because Hebrews tells us that the gospel was preached in the wilderness. Yes, it was. The gospel was.

preached in the wilderness. They are without excuse. The so-called chosen people of God are without excuse. They heard the gospel and rejected it. They died and are dead. They died and are dead. We're told that Abraham kept the commandments. That's right. But wait a minute, Abraham lived centuries before Moses. How could Abraham keep the commandments if God didn't give the commandments until Moses's day. Because the gospel was preached. The gospel was preached. I think Methuselah preached the gospel.

I think Noah preached to gospel. McElzadegh preached to God. Adam, at some point, probably was preaching to Noah. So I'll tell you what I learned. Getting kicked out of the garden. Rick, Jesus, verse 48, Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life.

And for any of us to try to find any other way to have eternal life, other than Jesus Christ, who himself declared himself that. He was either completely nuts or he was the bread of life. There's no little ground there. And so as believers, we really need to step into this and really begin to understand. You know, when we go into the Lord's table, it's a time of worship and sovereignty,

It's also a sign of what Christ has done for us. He has resurrected us spiritually now, but the promise that bread of life is toward a resurrection on that final day where he will resurrect after this body has gone to dust. Those bodies in the wilderness are going to be resurrected to torment, to judgment. This body that I'm in is going to be resurrected to, new life. I'm ready to preach. I'm excited today. Doug, I have invited people, people that I know. I've invited people to join us on Faith Friday for Communion. These are Christians, people that say they're

Christians. And they'll say, oh, well, I'm busy. I won't be able to do that. Okay. Okay. You know what they really said? It's not that important. to me. That's what they're really saying. It's not that important. Because you know why? You don't have to be here at 8 a.m. when we're doing it live. It's on archives. If you have something that you're playing, you can say, you know what, I can't do it at 8 a.m. with you, but I'll watch it later and I'll participate. But they don't. And the reason they don't is because it's not important to them. Yeah. It's not life to them. Is it? No. It's not lies to them. Oh, we don't need to collect manna today. There'll be manna there tomorrow.

Isn't that the attitude? That's the attitude. Doc, when I participate in the Lord's Supper, it is comforting and it's reassuring. Because it reassures me that I'm going to be resurrected on the last day. It's comforting that I know that I'm in communion with my Lord. and Savior today. I'm in communion with him. But it's reassuring in knowing that when I take my last breath, he's not going to say, and Rick is dead. And is dead. And is dead and will be dead. No, he is dead. Yeah, he's going to say, I will raise you up on the last day. Hallelujah.

I will raise you up. So, you know, I want to close this lesson here in the next few minutes here. this. The miracle food, this is what we're, the message we want you to understand. The miracle food in the wilderness did not confer immortality. It did not change their nature.

Nor did it exempt them from the wages of sin. The generation that ate the most miracles also filled the most graves. Oh, God is shocking. Feltled. G. Campbell Morgan. I love G. Campbell Morgan.

That man changed my life when I started reading his books. He believed that the death of that generation was a judicial act, meaning an act by God, the judge. He said that they died in the wilderness because they refused to believe God for the promised land. Thus, the manna became the food of their judgment. Yes. Because they would not believe that they would possess the promised land. Every time they ate the manna, they ate judgment. Yes.

So they ate manna just to sustain them long enough to wander around and die. That's right. So when people go to church and do not take the Lord's supper seriously, Do not have faith that they are eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ and not believing that they're going to possess the promised land and not really believing that he's going to raise them up on the last day. They're drinking and eating damnation to themselves. They're eating their own judgment.

That's right. Yeah. I mean, literally, it's a bread of death. Jesus is the bread of life. But that, when it was eaten in unbelief was the bread of death. Okay, so Dr. Go back to what Paul told the church in Corinth about eating the Lord's supper unworthily. Yeah.

He said, and the reason why some of you are sick and dine is because of this. Yes. You never, Rick, let me ask you, have you ever heard a servant preached on that passage ever in your whole life? Yes. But not the way we're preaching it. The only one I'm. heard as one I preached.

Doc, what I was taught in church was that what Paul meant was, you're coming in here acting like a bunch of hooligans. Right. You know, you're stuffing your gut over here because they would have the agape meal. Right, a buffet bar. Buffy bar. That's what it was. The agape meal was a, it was a potluck supper.

That's how church. Church, we. invented potluck summers, okay? The early church would meet for dinner. Okay, everybody brought food. Everybody was fed, and then they had the church service, and they ended the meal with the Lord's supper. And so the way it was taught to me, Doc, was that Paul meant, you guys are a bunch of hooligan, you're a bunch of, you know, you don't have any table manners. You're not sure the food with one another. Yeah, I've heard those messages too.

And then you come in here and you eat the Lord's Supper and you don't even know what you're doing. That's not what it meant. No, we're talking about belief and unbelief here. You know, you don't have faith. Yeah, that's right. So, Reform Baptist Charles Spurgeon had this to say about this passage, about this thought about eating and drinking and worthy.

He said, they died, talking about those folks in the wilderness. They died, though they ate angels food. like you're referencing before. The bread of the body cannot feed the soul. You may sit at the Lord's table and yet be lost. You may sit at the Lord's table and yet be lost. If you have nothing but the outward sign, you will die. You must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man.

If you don't believe that, you're drinking unworthly. Rick, am I speaking harshly in that statement? No, you're just quoting a guy named Spurgeon. Right. And so in other words, Spurgeon says that the manor could not turn them into angels or keep them from turning into dust. The food of the body cannot nourish the soul. So even the very best nutrition,

the healthiest diet, even the most miraculous physical healing that you might have witnessed, I witness miracles, physical healings in people's bodies. But they can't postpone the inevitable, Rick. They can't postpone the inevitable. Jesus refuses to be a Savior who merely just extends your life out, who extends your mortality. He came to abolish your mortality,

to get rid of mortality and have you enter into immortality. So Jesus is delivering a decisive, here against those Jews in particular who trusted in just the racial ancestry or the religious history. If we're going to paraphrase the Lord, we could say in modern parents, your DNA will not save you. Your father's had Moses. They had the manna. They had the pillar of the fire. They had the cloud. They had the tabernacle. And yet they all died. They all died.

And as Jesus said, and our dead. Religion without the sun ends in death. And so Jesus, when he points out the death of the fathers, Jesus is calling, what was calling his generation, that crowd of Galilean Jews, and telling us today to stop looking backwards to Moses and start looking forward to them. Messiah. The old covenant ends in a grave.

The old covenant ends in a grave. The new covenant ends in resurrection. Why anyone want to hold on to an old covenant that leads to death is beyond my comprehension. I want a contract. I want a covenant that makes me live forever. The new covenant started with an empty tomb. Amen. For life. Not death, life. So if your faith is built on manna, physical blessings, health, prosperity, comfort,

if that's your Christian faith, your faith will die when your body dies. If your Jesus is only someone to bless you in this life, and he will, he does bless us, But if that's all he is to you, when you die, Jesus will say, and they're dead. They are dead. True faith must be anchored in the person, the person of Christ, the one who conquered death. Hallelujah.

You can't have your faith in the miracles of Christ, the blessings of Christ. your faith must be in Christ himself All right so all this what we're doing We're setting the stage for next Friday's faith lesson Okay And that's going to be on verse 50 Which says this is the bread which comes down from heaven That a man may eat thereof and not die

So if the bread of heaven if the bread of heaven resulted in death, what they ate was the bread of heaven. Yes. Jesus is not the bread of heaven. He's the bread of life. Yes. They ate the bread of heaven and died.

Genuine miracle bread from heaven. God created bread from heaven, and yet they died. Yes. We're not to eat the bread of heaven. We are to eat the bread of life. Amen. So the true bread must offer a life that death cannot touch.

Hallelujah. Rick, we're going to share some quotations from some of the church elders in past century, but in preparation for today's lesson, I came across that I'd never seen before. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything and asking you this, but where was Jesus born? Well, he wasn't born. or are you talking about on earth? You're talking about on earth? Yeah.

In Bethlehem. Do you know the name Bethlehem means? I used to and you got me on this vendok. What is it? House of bread. House of bread. Yes. The bread of life was born in the house of bread.

House of bread. I mean, God makes it so obvious, doesn't? Yes. He made it so obvious to the people of his day. He makes it glaringly obvious to us. Now that we've had 2,000 years to reflect back on it. The bread of life comes from the house of bread. That's God. I just the God, the bread of love. As a great way to end today's lesson. Now every time when we think about

Bethlehem at Christmas, see, that connects it to Resurrection Day. Amen. Praise God. The Christmas is connected to Resurrection Day. The one who was born in the House of Bread becomes the bread of life. Yes. And when you eat the bread of life, you shall lie. You shall live, you shall not die. Yeah, let's look at the quotations here, Doc. I'll start off with St. Augustine here,

and this is really a profound quote. Why did they die? Talking about the people in the wilderness. Why did they die? Because they understood the visible food, but they did not understand the spiritual word they ate the manna but they did not eat of the Lord who we are not free church of Scotland

the manna was a specific miracle for a specific temporary purpose it had no power to perpetuate life the eaters of it died it is the nature of the creature to perish it is the prerogative of the creator to live Gee Campbell Morgan, thinking along those same lines, said this to say, that manna in the wilderness was the sustenance of life that had no permanence. It was the food of the wilderness, not the food of the promised land.

Think about that. It was the food of the wilderness, not the food of the promised land. It was a provision for the way, not the life of the destination. Speaking of those words, Ann or dead, Adam Clark said, the manna which they did eat, excuse me, the manna which they ate, did not preserve them from death, and they have been dead for many hundreds of years. Their souls were not nourished by it, for they were not partakers of the divine nature. Yes.

And John Yell had this to say about that phrase, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness. He said this was thrown in by the Jews to say, set off the greatness of Moses and the miracle they were on. Right? He's saying, look what Moses did and are dead. Holy dead. They're physically dead and they're dead spiritually. And they're dead eternally. Accepting some few as like Caleb and Joshua.

Very small percentage made it, Rick. That means only a very small percentage of that whole generation believed. And I think that's an indication. resurrection day. A very small percentage will actually come out of the graves and meet the Lord. Everybody's going to come out of the graves, but not everybody's going to meet the Lord. I mean, Adolf Hitler's going to come out of his grave, but he's certainly not going to meet the Lord in the air. He's going to be bundled and burned.

Alexander McLaurin said, manna was a great thing, but it was only a thing. It sustained the physical frame, but it could not touch the seat of death. It could not keep the breath in the body, nor could it breathe life into the spirit. And then J.C. Riley, we don't get to quote him enough here. He said, they ate manna,

the bread from heaven, and yet died. They could not keep death away. It was food for the body, but not for the soul. we must not rest in the use of outward means. We may eat the bread and drink the wine at the Lord's table and yet still die in our sins. Wow. We're going to let those be the final words for today's lesson.

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