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in just a few moments we're gonna finish our series
that we've been studying here called Red we're gonna finish in the book of Numbers
if you don't know where that is just open to the first book which is Genesis
and then go to Exodus, Leviticus
Numbers alright it's a fourth book in and
you can will be there in just a moment in we've got a lotta of
television channels these days they didn't have a lot of options back in the day
now we have more options than we know what to do with and with
the proliferation of television channels you have a proliferation of television
shows
and you can almost watch anything you want to watch anytime you want to watch
it
and you can find um as peculiar a show as if you wanna find
anywhere you wanna find it there is one on
Nat Geo National Geographic Channel and its called Snake Salvation
I don't know if you've seen it but what it is is a reality show that follows
a Pentecostal Holiness preacher
from rural Kentucky and this guy
is a venomous snake handler as are his very small congregation of a
100 or 200 or whatever it is they gather together
and they handle venomous snakes believing that this is a sign up their
faith and its something that
in the in the Appalachian area of the United States there's
there's a lot of this that goes on and so
um his name is Pastor Jamie Coots and
the show is about you know venomous snake handling
and I I've watched a little bit of it and I was just like
man I mean you know they show em going out and catching snakes and then they show em
handling snakes and dancing around with these guys and I mean we're talking
about
venomous snakes he um
I don't know what they're going to do with the show the the pastor actually
passed away
the day after Valentine's Day just last night
from a snake bite. Venomous snake bite
he got bit and he died and at the
funeral his son and the church members
handled venomous snakes above his coffin because that's what he would want them
to do
I'm thinking get out while the getting is good
that's what I'm thinking but his son's taking over the
the church and they're gonna continue to handle snakes
now it's peculiar. it is a peculiar show
there's another thing that's peculiar to me. Come on out Clay
there's another thing is peculiar to me and that is when
people have snakes as pets and my buddy Clay Granger here
has Meatball and he has a snake that's a pet you stay over there
uh you can come closer
come on over here Meatball so here's Meatball real-life snake why don't you turn
the other way where his head is facing Dion
much better much better
now as long as he's cool was so
Meatball whats up?
this is a ball python and
I'm slightly wiggin out now right now
just touching him Clay doesn't seem to mind as he just kinda chills out with Clay
keeps him warm with his body temperature
and when they're home his mom Alison told me when they're home
they just let him loose in the living room and he just hangs out I was like
cool
never invite me over ever
I mean it's a to beautiful snake now snakes are kinda like fire for me
like I'm super intrigued by it but also a little bit freaked out by it
you know and so I love watching snakes and pretending like I'm not scared in
this one
as long as Clay holds it but I told him I said what I don't want is I don't wanna
be alone with one
you know I've had some interactions with snakes I grew up in Georgia
I've had some interactions with snakes before none of which were pleasant
none of which I walked away going you know I'd like to invite you into my home
so anyway I just wanted you to see that Clay is a
weird a for having a snake as a pet and get thanks man
and thank you Meatball uh if Meatball can hear
tell him everything I said was nice
because I'll go backstage and Meatball will be hanging out there going.. Jerrry
he's gonna end up on my bed or something you know whoo
man I brought back from I was in India
and I brought back from India this wooden snake
I mean it looks real and its coiled and kinda is up it's a cobra
and I brought back from India and it just shows up in funky places in our house
sometimes
you know like say when Edie's pulling back cover and getting in her bed
see she's like wahh! she just freaks out and says I told you not to do that
I still do it. it's just what guys do
we just can't help it forgive us um
there's another peculiar snake story and it's in the book of Numbers chapter number
21
and I wanna read it to you and then I'll
I'm gonna give you some context and I'll read it to you as you recall
we've we've made a long study but let me speed up the study a little bit the
children of Israel and Egypt
they get released from bondage Moses announces the plagues that are going to
come
God leads them now through Moses leads and through the Red Sea
leads them toward the land of promise Moses stops off the mountain called
Sinai there he gets commandments and instructions for how the people in
Israel are to conduct themselves and how they're to live
he also gets instructions for the building of and the maintenance
of the Tabernacle and then
after that each establishes how their to camp out and then he even tells them
when they're going to move and when they're not going to move because God
says
I'm gonna show up in a pillar of cloud by day
and a pillar of fire by night and when it moves
you move if the camp is going to move your gonna move when I move it okay
so that's what's going on now we find them now
in the land where they are wandering and here's what we
we find in verse number four of chapter 21
they traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom
but the people grew impatient
on the way they spoke against God and against Moses and said
why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness
there's no bread there is no water and we detest this miserable food
then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them
they bit the people in many Israelites died
the people came to Moses and said we sinned when we spoke against the Lord and
against you, pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us
so Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses make a snake and put
it up on a pole and anyone who's bitten can look at it and live
so Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole
then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake
they lived. It's a peculiar story isn't it?
kinda seems to come out of nowhere when we look at this story we just gonna go
what?
I mean that's sometimes you read it and go what? its its peculiar
and what we see we were introduced to the story is we run into the people of
Israel who are doing what they have become very good at since they have made
their way into the land
of the wilderness making their way toward the land of promise
we see them whining and complaining and moaning
and being generally ungrateful this is what we say
in fact we see it in a number of places if you were to flip back to numbers
chapter eleven you don't have to cause I'll show it to you
listen to what he says in Numbers 11 the people complained about their
hardships in the hearing that the Lord and when he heard them his anger was
aroused and then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some the
outskirts of the camp
when the people cried out to Moses he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down
so that place was called Taberah because fire from the Lord had burned among them
the rabble with them begin to crave other food and again the Israelites
started wailing and said
if only we had meat to eat we remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost
at no cost? how bout your freedom?
also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic
who'd want to go back to onions? but now we have lost our appetite we have never seen
anything but this manna
so you can hear them cry and belly aching and moaning
and then you fast forward to Numbers chapter 14 you see this
that night all the members of the community raise their voices and wept
aloud and all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly
said to them
if only we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness why is the Lord bringing us
to this land only to let us fall by the sword
our wives and children will be taken as plunder wouldn't it be better for us to
go back to Egypt?
and they said to each other we should choose a leader and go back to Egypt
their whining and moaning and complaining again and then we see in
verse number five Numbers chapter 21 where we're reading
listen to what it says they did they spoke against God
and against Moses and said why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness? there's no bread
there's no water and we detest this miserable food!
well first of all their complaining is a little bit
out of whack because when they said that there's no water
just in the previous chapter in chapter 20 you can just go back
literally in that chapter and you could see that what happened was this:
is that water came from a rock for them that God miraculously gave them water
from a rock
Moses was to speak to the rock ended up striking the rock but Moses was to speak
to the rock and the rock poured out water for them
fresh water for them to drink it's not true that they didn't have any water
they did in fact when you continue reading first
in chapter 21 you go past this story and keep on reading
God leads them into a well they had water
and God was providing it for them they also had things to eat
he delivered quayle to them while they were out there and so they had meat from
quayle
but he also was giving them provision every single day in the manna
this supernatural provision that he was providing for them
out in the wilderness so that they could live he was also providing for the
materially in the fact that their clothes and their sandals
never wore out forty years
some of you have socks that old but not many have you
and you havent been walking around in the desert the whole time
forty years and their clothing and their sandals do not wear out
they have absolutely nothing to be complaining about because God is
providing for them
every step of the way and He is leading them toward the land of promise
yet they are griping and complaining and moaning in so here's what God does
he says I'm tired of it. you keep complaining against me
and against the person I've appointed to lead you and you keep bellyaching
and you keep whining and you're ungrateful and so you know what he does?
he sends venomous snakes
okay venomous snakes
those snakes are all over the camp
and they start biting people and some of those people died
it's not a good scenario when your camp is infested
with venomous snakes you're not in the house
you're in a tent. is there are worse
kinda nightmare to think about
then a snake in a tent? some of you saw the movie Snakes on a Plane you're going that would be one
snake in a tents not a very good one either is it?
and snakes everywhere in fact the snakes when you read
this in the Hebrew it's actually there they were called by them
burners because when they
when they bit you obviously it began to burn
and then many people ended up dying so God deals with them he's tired of this
and so you know what the people do after they you know take their time to realize okay
this is what's going on
they wise up and they say uh Mr. Moses?
Mosey
who they've been whining and complaining against the whole time and then
they butter up Moses and say Moses would you would you speak to God you know the
one that we've been griping to
and complaining about and speaking against and you
but would you speak to God and ask him if he would mind
taken the snakes out. would he mind just getting the snakes gone that would be
really awesome thank you for the consideration
we greatly appreciate it. and so you know what God did?
just what you think he would do. look again in verse 8
the Lord said to Moses make a snake
and put it up on a pole. anyone who's bitten can look at it and live. so Moses
made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole
then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake
they lived. Isn't it interesting what God did
Moses goes before to God and says God they've asked would you please remove
the snakes and God says
nah
I'm gonna leave the snakes, and I'm gonna let em keep biting
here's what I want you to do though Moses make a snake
and put it on a pole
okay so what you're suggesting is the very thing that's killing everyone
to put it on a pole so everybody can see it
like they didn't know this was killing em
so he makes a snake and puts it on a pole
now why in the world was God saying
to Moses make a snake and put it on a pole
it's a good question and I think maybe the answer is
along this line because God wanted them to get to the root
of their problem and not just deal with
the symptoms
see if I can explain
we have a tendency sometimes to want to deal with our own problems
my guess is the Israelites were no different because we would be the same
if you're experiencing snakes in the camp
you don't want to do a lot of self-examination you just wanna figure
out how you can deal with it
so somebody comes up with a great idea and says you know what
I've gone and I've I'm gonna shaved down some of these trees
and I've made these great leggings
and I've got kinda these bark leggings so that maybe the snakes won't be able to
get us
so much now. we're all just gonna wear these
that doesn't work or
maybe they say what we're going to do is
around the encampment were gonna put a number of stones
and put em up so that they have trouble being able to get through into the camp
itself
that doesn't work or we're going to put fire around our camp so the snakes won't
be able to get in through the fire we'll chase them all out and then we'll build fire a
they're just trying to figure out a way or maybe somebody came up with a great
idea you know I've heard
that pomegranate juice mixed with olive oil is a great anti-venom
so will just carry that out in our little knapsack and then whenever we get
bit we'll just drink the anti-venom that we've made and somehow that'll fix it up
or
maybe one of the more physical people in the group you know said you know what
here's what I think I think we all need to get in shape
because if we were in better shape and had some more flexibility we could dodge
the snakes
yeah da dah right
so they're gonna plug in like you know the Jewish version of Richard Simmons
and they're gonna work out
they're gonna sweat to the oldies and then they're gonna get a little bit red
people trying their dead level best to figure out how they can do this because
that's what we have a tendency to do but
doesn't work God's not warning them to deal with the symptoms
he wants to deal with the problem the root problem
and when is the last time in the minds eye of these people of Israel when is the
last time in their mind's eye
that they were talking about a snake
was in the garden, it was a serpent
who was lying and breathing lies
to Adam and Eve you can be your own gods you can do your own thing
I believe what God was doing in saying to Moses I want you to put this snake
up on a pole is because the problem wasn't snakes
it was that they were sinful to the core
and he didn't want them just dealing with the symptoms
of snakes and snakes bites but he wanted them face to face
with the problem itself
and then he didn't just make any snake he made a bronze snake
that's important for us to see because it says that Moses made a bronze
snake the reason thats importance because we see through the book of Exodus and into
the book of Numbers that there's a theme developing here
and the theme is this is that bronze
really means for us oftentimes judgment
you see when you looked at the tabernacle itself and you look at which we talked
about last week
and you see the tabernacle you see the altar when you first come in in it is a
bronze
alter because there is where judgment is going to be
affected on an animal and you move beyond that into a
a bronze lavor where the cleansing from that sacrifice is going to happen you
see bronze now
is made up of a snake the idea there behind this being a bronze snake is that
there is an idea
of judgment and so he says to them I want you to look
at this this is what I want you to look at that moves you beyond just the
symptoms
and helps you to see the root problem
what is it that God wanted them to see listen
I think that what God wanted them to see when they look at that poll
was this that they were more sinful
then they even dared to realize
they were more sinful than they even dared
to realize you see when they were busy trying to figure out how they were going
to keep the snakes out and keep the snake bite
down do the antivenom you know and do that
do the exercise classes so that they have the flexibility to avoid them and all
that jazz
they were looking at all the wrong things all the wrong things
God wanted them to be face to face with their own sinfulness
and they were sinful more than they even
dared to realize
maybe some of them even in the camp official didn't even want to look at the
snake that was on a pole because it was detestable to them could you imagine
that the very thing that was responsible for killing you
and for killing some other people around you now is put up on a pole for
everybody to see in to look at
and some of them might have said I'm not doing that
this is detestable to me. this is like this is the source of death
this represents death to us why am I gonna just stare at this thing
because it just reminds me of death so maybe they didn't want to look at it
in fact when he says that you are to look at this that word look in the
Hebrew language is not just a passing glance
it is the idea that you are to gaze and to give thoughtful reflection
that's the idea behind the term when he says how I want you to look at it it's
not just a
ok glance at it. I want you to pause and I want you to reflect and I want you to
give thoughtful attention to what you're seeing
because at first he did not want them just to see the
symptoms he wanted them to see the route of the problem just imagine you're
there
K imagine you're in the camp and I wanted you to get
to get some sense of a snake a real snake
that was right here among us so that she had that kinda lodged in your memory
these weren't pythons that were there but they were venomous snakes
burners so you're there in
their snakes all in your camp
and you get hit and all the sudden you go down
and you grab for your leg and your leg is burning
but you know what the instruction that Moses gave was in an instruction was
gonna be a snake on a pole that's going to be held up
gonna be lifted up and your're to look at it
and give thoughtful reflection and when you do you gonna live
so you get bit and you're laying down on the ground
and you're looking up at the snake on a pole that's been lifted up
they're still snakes around you by the way because they've infected the camp
same one that bit you and others that are still around but you're laying there
writhing in pain because
you've got burning sensation going on in your leg in your thinking this could be
it
and you look up at that and you begin to ponder
and you're looking at that snake and you're realizing that snake
the just bit you was sent here by God
it was sent here by God because of people like you
cause how ungrateful you are
to God and you begin to ponder to yourself we were
we were slaves and God miraculously set us free
he let us through the Red Sea in the enemy that was approaching it didn't
it didn't grab us when we got here on our way to the promised land we just
kept looking back it at Egypt
and longing for it even though that's no way to live
now we're free and God's given us everything that we need
he's providing every single thing yet you start as you're staring at that
snake on a pole you start being reminded the shame you're feeling for your own in
gratitude to God
now you've been one of those who've been speaking against God and speaking
against Moses
and you start to feel the shame is that
and you realize you've even trying to been playing God why don't I just pick my
own leader
and then we'll make our way back to Egypt that everything that God wanted in
everything that God had provided you were saying nah
I think I'll do something different
and you begin to come face to face with that reality
and then you start realizing God was justified
he was justified to send those snakes to us
to turn our attention back to him and so you're pondering this for
a number of minutes as you're looking at that snake on the pole
and then you kinda come to an realize that your legs are not burning anymore
and that you're gonna live
and you stand up and you realize it was just like God said
I could look at this and ponder and think
and live now with that kind of thing
with that kind of thing that God just did for them in the wilderness here's
what you think
you would think that they would grab hold of that and they would get it
and it would change everything and for the Israelites and generations to come
that they would grab hold of it and it would change everything
but guess what it took a little time for this lesson to take root
not only in this generation but in the generations that followed it and on and
on and on it went in fact we fast forward seven hundred years
to the time after the kingdom had been divided after David after Solomon and the
divisions that the kingdom
of Israel and Judah a northern and a southern kingdom
you've got kings that are ruling that are not very faithful and you've actually
got the people of Israel now who are setting up
idols and pagan altars in the high places and worshipping false gods
you've got them up making sacred stones
and you've got them um honoring some of these pagan gods that are lifted up on a
pole
Asherah poles they were called a Caninine
fertility goddess
and then you have a king that finally comes to power in Judah
who is a Godly king and his name is Hezekiah
and notice what he does in second Kings chapter 18
Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord just as his father
David had done and he removed the high places and he smashed the sacred stones
and he cut down the Asherah poles
and then he broke into pieces
the bronze snake Moses had made
for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it it was
called
Nehushtan. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord the God of Israel
there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah either before him
or after him. Do you realize what they were doing
they were making an idol out of something that was even a good thing
and they made an idol out it. this poll this snake on a pole that had been
kept in Israel's lineage
now hundreds of years later they're burning incense to it and worshipping it
like it's some kind of deity
it was crazy but you know why they were doing it?
because they were more sinful then they
ever dared to realize
this was part of what God was trying to point out to them
and to help them see so this divided kingdom
left the people of Israel the people of Judah
open and kinda prey for bigger empires
it wouldn't be long before the Babylonians would take them
and carry them and cart them off in the captivity and they would be under
oppression there
but for Israel it would just go from one oppression to another over the course of
time
because if it wasn't the Babylonians that ultimately
in the century and a half before the birth of Jesus it would be the Roman
Empire
and now the Roman Empire is overseeing Israel and putting its finger on it
and living Israel's now living under the thumb and then Jesus
is born and he's born into this oppression
he's born into this empire
in Jesus grows in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man he is
he is God with skin on he begins preaching a message after his
baptism and the time of his temptation he begins to preach a message of the
kingdom of the heavens is among us
and he's preaching repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and he's
he's he's healing people he's touching people
blind eyes are seeing deaf ears are hearing
people that were dead are not dead anymore
it's a shocking thing it's an amazing thing is he is demonstrating the power
of God
God himself with skin on then guess what happens
Jesus makes his way maybe for the first time in his ministry years
he makes his way at the time of Passover to Jerusalem
as would every other Jew and while he's there it was interesting because he
definitely had some people's attention
because he went into the temple complex and he started flipping tables
like a man on a mission he says this is not
you don't do this in my father's house you don't just take advantage of people
and up charge everybody for their sacrificial stuff
that's not what you do here and he starts flipping tables he also makes statements
about the temple itself and he says
you tear down this temple in three days I'll build it back again
he had everybody's attention the religious leaders he had their attention
to and then there was one night where there was a religious leader
who came to Jesus at nighttime and wanted to talk to it
names Nicodemus. Nick at Nite
Nick comes to him and he's a teacher
and he's talking to Jesus about the kingdom and about
salvation about life with God
and Jesus begins to unpack for him what this looks like and what it means
and even tells him you're a teacher and you don't understand these things that
you've got to be born
from above that there has to be a second birth
for you to know what it means to enter into the kingdom of God
but in that course of conversation notice what Jesus
says in John chapter 3
just as Moses lifted up the snake
in the wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted out that everyone who believes
may have eternal life in him
Jesus actually made a comparison to what Moses did
in the wilderness and he said just like Moses lifted up the snake in the
wilderness so to the Son of Man referring to himself
must be lifted and lifted up he was
because you and I both know that ultimately what happened to Jesus is
that he entered Jerusalem for the
probably the third time in his ministry
during the time of Passover and He came in like a king
and people cheered for him and waved palm branches
but soon enough the tide of popular opinion had turned on him
and by the end of that week would happen is they had made him carry
wood beam up to
or over to a site where they crucified people
it was a common Roman practice this idea of crucifixion and they did it in public
places so that
everybody could see in would be fearful
they layed Jesus on this
two wooden cross beams and a they nailed his hands
and they nailed his feet into it and then day
lifted him up
that's what they did. they lifted him
up. And Jesus says
just like the snake that was lifted up in the wilderness so to the Son of Man
must be lifted up
Jesus compared himself to the snake
isn't that interesting? he made a direct comparison to the snake in the
wilderness
how was Jesus like this snake? well
to many of his people he was detestable
to those religious leaders he was detestable
for a number of reasons one because they couldn't hardly could not hardly believe
all the things that he done
and they felt like he was a blasphemor but also because of where he was
he was on a pole do you know how the testable that was to the people of
Israel
in many instances because what did their law say
in Deuteronomy chapter 21 it says that
all the men of his town Jesus I mean God is giving instructions to the Israelites
about people who are you know what they should do he said all the men of his town are to
stone him to death and you must purge the evil from among you
all Israel will hear the to be afraid if someone is guilty of a capital offense
is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole
you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight
be sure to bury it that same day because anyone who is hung on a pole is under
God's curse
you must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as
and inheritance. Anyone who is hanging on a pole
is under God's curse that's exactly what they were viewing
so they may have a look at this and said this is detestable to us
just like they did with a snake in the wilderness. I'll tell you what else
Jesus is like a snake in the wilderness because Jesus hanging on across
suspended between earth and heaven is a sign of God's judgment
just like the bronze snake Jesus is now hanging on a cross
for judgment
there to pay for sin of humanity
it's a judgment now
all that said you remember what was told to the people of Israel when
they got bit by a snake
look and live I want to do the same thing for just a moment
I want you to take a moment in your mind's eye
and I want you to look at Jesus their on a cross
who has been lifted up like the snake was in the desert
I want you to look at him in your mind's eye right now
I want you to look at him and I don't want you to glance
I want you to focus
I want you to lock into Jesus hanging on a cross
he's innocent yet he's there
he shouldn't be there he doesn't deserve it
he's done nothing wrong he's perfect
and he's hanging on a cross
and as you continue to look don't look away
he's hanging on a cross because of you
and because of me
every lie you've ever told
poured on him
every evil thought poured on him
every word of gossip
in this last week and in your entire life
that's what he's there for every
ungrateful time you have you've shown in gratitude to God
ingratitude people it's wise there
every selfish thing that you have done
the you tried to masquerade as noble
or nice every single time you have manipulated someone
for your own gain every single moment you have stared
at that *** every
single moment you spent time in that *** fantasy
every single time you have made gods of other things
like money and stuff that's why is there
so what happens when you spend long enough
looking at that here's what happens
here's what you realize we
are more sinful then we
ever dared to realize we
are more sinful then we ever dared
to realize. but don't stop looking
because the gospel
when we hear this word the gospel you know what it means?
good news. do you know why news is good?
the only reason news is good news because there's
there's bad news if there wasn't any bad news there's not really good news it's
just news
the bad news is
yes you and I are more sinful
then we ever dared to realize
but keep looking at the cross
because what that is Jesus hanging on a pole
is a reminder judgment is justified
and only God can provide the remedy
that's what the people of Israel found out wasn't it?
they tried whatever other way they could to fend off the snakes and defend of the
snake bites and they couldn't do any of that
the judgment was justified and only God could provide the remedy
for them to live and he said
it's a bronze snake on a pole if you'll look and you'll think then you will live
God has done the same thing for us
he's done the exact same thing for us
so keep looking at the cross there is a remedy
for your snake bit soul. there is a remedy for the venom
of sin and do you know if you keep staring at the cross
do you know what you'll see you know what you'll find
here it is. we
are more sinful than we ever dared to realize
but we are more loved than we ever dared to imagine.
we are more sinful
then we ever dared to realize but we are more loved
then we ever dared to imagine.
that God's justice is justified
and he is the only one that can provide the remedy for our snake bitten souls
do you know that's why it's so important for us to remember what Paul says in 2nd
Corinthians chapter 5
God made him who had
no sin to
be sin for us
so that in the him we might become
the righteousness of God. Jesus who knew no sin
became sin for us
the very thing that the Jews looked at the cross
as a sign of their death this is the way the Romans are oppressing us
this is the way the Romans are killing us and they were detested they they
found a detestable
it is the same thing Jesus
the one that is on the cross that will save them he's the remedy
that's why when Nicodemus came to Jesus
and Jesus referred to when I am lifted up
remember what he said in full context you'll know it
in John chapter 3 just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the
Son of man must be lifted up
that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him
for God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
but have eternal life
for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save
the world
through him. Ladies and gentleman God's judgment
is justified
and it's justified against you
but the perfect one Jesus became as the snake on a pole
he was the judgment and the judged
he took upon himself your sin and my sin and now
when we look to what Jesus has done on the cross and through his resurrection
when we look and we pause here's what will happen
we will begin to understand that we are more sinful than we ever dared
to realize but we are more loved
then we ever dared to imagine
that is a beautiful picture of the gospel
you need to be lost so that you could be found
they needed snakes to turn their attention
to God
but let me remind you of something
do not make the same mistake they did hundreds of years later
you don't worship a cross
you don't woship a book
you don't worship a wafer and wine
you worship Jesus
that's who you worship - Jesus.
Son of God who died who rose from the dead
so me just ask you something some of you that are in this room you've been
playing around with God
for a while I want you to understand this
you have been bitten
and the venom of sin is your reality
and you cannot listen you can not
be healed of your sinful condition
by trying to figure out how to do it on your own
you think you can self-help your way into
a relationship with God if you do enough things in you make some changes in your
life and
go to church a little bit more give a few more bucks
you can't do this there is one remedy God has given it
it is the man Jesus who was lifted up on a pole
to pay the penalty for your sin
and until you turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus
until you look to him and live
you will not truly live
the venon of sin runs through our through our veins
through our blood some of you have been kicking the tires and playing around
with God
and for you it's either a religious or an intellectual exercise
I'm here to say to you that all the scripture points to Jesus
and for you to say no to Jesus is for you to say no to God
Jesus is God their is no other
there is no other only one
has paid the price of sin. only one
has died as the perfect substitute
only one has risen from the dead never to die again
it is Jesus if you've never surrendered your life to Him
I just be honest with you sir I don't know what you're waiting on
but whatever it is it's the wrong thing
ma'am I don't know what you waiting on but whatever it is
it will disappoint you
it's Jesus. Would you bow your heads with me
before we're dismissed if you're here and you would say Jerry
I need to settle this issue in my heart I need to settle the issue
that I've turned from my sin and put my faith and trust in Jesus
and that I now am forgiven and a part of the family of God
because I'm not sure that I've ever really done that and Jerry I need to
settle that issue
if you're in this room East Worship Center lockport campus wherever you are
our heads about our eyes are closed but if you say Jerry that's me I need to
settle that issue put your hand up in the air right now and say hey
that's me I need to settle that
put it up high in this room
go ahead put it up be brave keep it up there for a moment
thanks keep it up there looking all over the room
thanks others of you Worship Center at the Lockport campus do it it's just a signal
kinda drawing a line in the sand thank you you can put your hands down
if you just raised your hand heres what I want you to do
is going to take a little courage yeah but let's be honest
Jesus went to a cross naked beaten
hung on a pole for you if you can't get up in an air-conditioned church where
everybody's on your team and cheering for you
you're not going to be able to do much in this world
when we dismiss in a moment those of you who raise your hands
I want to make a beeline to the Fireside Room
if you're on this campus, at the Lockport Campus Pastor Jonathan's gonna follow up with you
you make a beeline over there
no more games no more kicking the tires
you're saying I'm gonna give my life to Jesus
I want you to walk in the door I don't you take the first pastor you see by
by their hand and I want you to tell them that
I'm here to give my life to Jesus that's what I'm here for
they'll know what to do with you but I'm gonna put it on you
Father I'd pray you'd give courage to those who are responding in faith
and that you give all of us a reminder today
that the good news is good because the bad news is bad
the bad news is that we are more sinful than we ever dared
to realize
the good news is that we are more loved than we ever dared to imagine
and it is a love that has given
the Son of God
to die in our place to rise from the dead
and to give us hope in this life and in the life to come
thank you for love that covers our sin
thank you for a grace that is greater then our failure
you are so good to us
may we never be found to be people who have
a whining embittered, complaining heart against
God who has demonstrated his love for us
in such magnificent ways
not only in the everyday blessings of provision
but how you have provided for our souls that when we look to you
we found life and we were healed
from that which bit us
I pray that you remind us that reality God and that we would be a people of great
compassion
for the people around us who also need to know that reality
I trust you again got to give courage and strength to those have entrusted their
life to you
that they would drive a spiritual stake this day
and begin to walk with you and I pray this in Jesus name
Amen. God bless you guys have a great week