I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Numbers, chapter 21,
Numbers 21. I'm gonna be looking, Lord willing,
at verses four to nine, chapter 21, verses four to nine. But
before I read those scriptures, though I know it to be so, it's almost incomprehensible
that man by nature, I know it's so, but how man can be so calloused
and so insensitive toward the God of all grace. Whenever, whenever anybody, anybody
shows any kind of kindness or compassion or graciousness to
anybody, just common courtesy would be to show some kind of
appreciation. But I see in myself a coldness and insensitiveness toward the
Lord's mercy. Everything that we have We've
got sunshine. You just took a breath of air.
And do you realize what it would have been? I don't even know
what it would feel like, Corey, if I couldn't have taken a breath
of air. I just, fear, just total chaos. The Lord had delivered Israel. out of the bondage of Egypt. He led them to the brink of the
Red Sea and then opened the Red Sea for them to cross over. And while they were in the desert,
in the wilderness, he provided for them. Their clothes didn't
wear out. They fed them. And with such manifestations
of grace, you'd think, you'd think they'd never died him again. They'd never have any kind of
complaint. But I want us to look at a verse
of scripture, passage of scripture that we've all read it. We know the story. But as I was
reading over this morning, I began to see some things that
just absolutely shocked me, shocked me. Not only because of what
was done and said by Israel, but that God Almighty would have
mercy. I want to look at four things
today in the story of when the Lord sent fiery serpents to the
nation of Israel because of what they did and what they said.
And I want us to consider these four things, the deceitfulness
of sin, the judgment or chastisement
of that sin, the evidence of an awakened heart toward the
Lord. and then the deliverance from
that sin. The deceitfulness of sin. Numbers
21 verses four and five. And they journeyed from Mount
Har by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses, wherefore have ye brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither
is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. I looked up light bread. This
is where it started with me. I wonder how many times I've
read this passage of scripture and heard that. You've heard
that. Our soul loatheth this light bread. Light bread. It's light bread that God sent,
which Psalm 78, 25 says is angel's food. And this is what The people
in the wilderness say it concerning this light, worthless, worthless,
contemptible, and insubstantial, meaning it's not solid, worthless,
worthless. They're in the desert. and God is sending them angels'
food. And they began to complain. The
scripture declares back in verse 4, as they journeyed from Mount
Har by the way of Red Sea to compass the land of Edom, and
the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
Edom was not going to let them go through. So the Lord was going
to send them around. Providentially, the Lord had
sent them around because it was best for them. It was going to
teach them something. And because they're having to
go around Edom, they're complaining to the Lord that they're having
to walk extra because of the way. That's what it is. They
were much discouraged because of the way. Isn't it amazing how quickly
we began to complain of God's providence? The way that the
Lord deals with us. What he sends us. What he sends
our way. No matter what it is. I want
to be well. Now that's me, Kevin. I want
to be well. But if God sends me an affliction, if I go to
the doctor one day and the doctor says, this is the way it is,
the first thing in my mind, I'm not going to like it. That's
going to be me. That's the way I am. Instead
of me remembering that all things work together for good to them
that love God. I'm complaining about the way
things are in this world today. I'm complaining about the government.
I'm complaining about this. I'm complaining about that. I'm
complaining about everything. They were much discouraged because
of the way. Playing against him because what
I'm saying in my heart, I'm not going to say this outwardly because
I'll say it to you. and I guess everybody in the
world is going to know it because it's going to be on the internet, but I'll
say this in my heart. Lord, are you sure about this? Are you sure this is the way
it's supposed to go? Are you sure this is the type
situation that we're supposed to be in? They were much discouraged,
unthankful. Scripture says, verse five, the
people spake against God and against Moses. You notice how
the scripture bears out who they complained against first, against
God. They said it to Moses, wherefore
have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
There's no bread, no water, and our soul loatheth, loatheth,
This bread, we abhor this. I looked this
word up, loatheth. We're disgusted with it. We're
weary of it. We're weary. Oh, how disrespectful,
how mad we get. Again, I'm not gonna say we say
this outwardly. People say, I don't think that.
The Spirit of God has revealed that the carnal mind is enmity
against God. That old heart, that old man
that's still right here, may say, I don't think like that.
Well, yes we do, because the scripture says we do. And because
the scripture says we do, we do. But we're so disrespectful,
murmuring, finding fault with the Lord. They tell Moses, why
have you brought us up there? God was directing Moses. God
has directed all of us here, so here we are. We're ignorant,
we're ignorant. They traveled, which in their
mind was the wrong way. Why have you brought us this
way? Why'd you turn here? Don't you know if you? But the most arresting thing
is that deceitfulness of man's heart,
his natural heart, to be hostile toward the Lord. They spake against
God. They were hostile. Hostile. Let me tell you what it says.
Carnal mind is enmity. Let me tell you what that's saying.
Carnal mind is enmity against God. Here's what it's saying.
I hate you. I hate your son, and I hate what
you do. I didn't realize it was that
bad. Well, it's that bad. That's the way we are. That's the way we are. And the
Lord had provided so graciously. He sent them food. Turn over, just hold your place
right there. Turn to Exodus 16 for a minute. Exodus 16. Exodus 16, verses 10 to 15. Exodus 16, 10. And it came to pass, as Aaron
spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that
they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the
Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, I've heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, speak
unto them, saying, At even you shall eat flesh, and in the morning
you shall be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am
the Lord your God. And it came to pass that at even
the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning
the dew lay round about the host, and when the dew that lay was
gone, Behold, upon the face of the wilderness, there lay a small
round thing, as small as the horror frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, it is manna, or my margin says,
what is this? For they wist not what it was.
And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath
given you to eat. Now keep that in mind, this is
the bread. that the Lord has given you to
eat. Look at verse 35 of that same
chapter. And the children of Israel did
eat manna 40 years until they came to a land inhabited. They
did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the land
of Canaan. Now, holding your place still
in Numbers 21, turn over to John 6, John chapter 6. John 6, verse 32, 33. John 6, 32. Then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. Now, the significance of the
people of Israel saying in the wilderness, we loathe this light
bread. The Lord in John 6 revealed that
light bread that they loathed was a type of hymn. Moses didn't give you that bread,
my father gave you that bread. I'm the true bread that came
down from heaven. So you see the significance of
what they were saying. And brethren, this is us. I mean, let's don't let's don't
look at them and just, you know, want to kick them, you know,
under the under the bus. This is all of us by nature.
We're all disrespect. We're all unappreciative by nature. We are disrespectful unto the
Lord. This is the condemnation, the
scripture says. Light has come into the world
and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. There's the deceitfulness of
sin. Now let's look secondly at the
just judgment for sin back in Numbers 21. Now here's what they
did. I'll just read that fifth verse
again. And the people spake against
God, against Moses, wherefore have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no bread, there's
no water, our soul loatheth. We're disgusted with this worthless
bread, this insubstantial, has no solidness to it, nothing. This is what God has given us
and it's worthless. Verse six says, and the Lord
sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people
and much people of Israel died. I began to look and read that,
began to realize how merciful. is our Lord. Pat, when you read
that this morning, because judgment is not executed swiftly, I thought
to myself, how providential is that? How merciful, merciful. I remember when I was growing
up, and I'd start complaining, and I remember my mama saying
how many times She said, if you don't stop crying and whining,
I'm gonna give you something to cry about. Y'all ever heard
that? You ever tell y'all that too?
She told me a lot. Our Lord is a just God. He's just. And the scripture
says that he will by no means clear the guilty. Here they were in the wilderness.
God had delivered them out, delivered them through the Red Sea, fed
them quails, gave them some meat, gave them some bread. They drank
water out of a rock that followed them and then complained to God. This
is worthless. And almighty God sent fiery serpents,
you know, for whom the Lord loveth. he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son he receiveth. Hebrews 12, 6. And if you be found without chastisement,
and I'll tell you this, I've said this before, everybody gets
sick. Somebody says, well, I tell you what, I'm well, so evidently.
If you be without chastisement, right here, If it doesn't bother you because
of the disrespect, I'm talking to me and all of us. If it doesn't
bother us because of the disrespect and unappreciate, on being unappreciable,
appreciable? If that's not a word, you know
what I mean. If I don't appreciate that which
the Lord's done and how unthankful I know I am. If there is no conviction, if
you be without chastisement, he says, because you're none
of his. If I'm left to myself, it says, if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards. You're not
sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers
of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of
spirits and live? Justly, graciously, but justly. We're made to feel the pain of
correction, but I'm telling you it's in the heart. It's in the
heart. Does it bother me when I find
myself disrespectful? Does it bother me when I find
myself being unthankful. Does it bother me? Lord, don't
leave me to me. You know, I began to seek some
information on this thing of these fiery serpents. Like I
said, I just didn't want to become so familiar with this passage
of scripture. Oh, I've read this before. I've
heard this before. I looked up and I found out that these fiery
serpents were called that probably because of the bite that they
would inflict upon people. It inflamed the body. It says, putting it immediately
into a high fever, scorching it with an insatiable thirst. I looked back up and I thought,
here's what they said in verse 5. Did you bring us up out of
Egypt into the wilderness to die. There's no bread and there's
no water. There was water. God provided. God didn't leave
them without water. But because they complained about
it, the Lord sent them something to cause them to thirst that
water wasn't gonna fix. We don't have anything to drink.
You think you're thirsty now? The Lord knew their need. He told us, He's told us, He
said, I'm not gonna leave you, I'm not gonna forsake you. They, in arrogant pride, had
lifted up themselves up against the Lord, and God Almighty, in
mercy, in mercy, was going to humble them. I told you this, I tell my kids,
I tell them, I said, I'm not gonna let you act like this.
I am not gonna let you act like that. I'm not gonna let you talk
like this. I'm going to give you a spanking. And I'm telling
you, we all need a good spanking. We all do. Parents, listen to
me. Your kids need, they want you
to discipline them. They want to know where the lines
are. They wanna know. You leave them to themselves,
I'm telling you, they can't handle it. Teach them, teach them. So the Lord sent these fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much
people of Israel died. Listen to this, here's my third
point. The evidence of an awakened heart. Oh, how quickly the Lord causes
His people to confess their fault. Here's what they said. Verse
seven, therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned
for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto
the Lord that he take away the serpent from us. And Moses prayed
for the people. I need an intercessor. I need
one to approach God for me because I'm guilty. I'm guilty. All have sinned. We've all come
short of the glory of God, but how quickly, whenever the Lord
makes it evident to us. Now here's the chastisement right
here. I've sinned against God. What
that prodigal said. I've sinned against heaven, and
I've done it right in your face. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, we
began to feel the presence of sin, its horrible effects, We
admit that it's good, that's what David said, it's good that
I've been afflicted, that I might learn of your statutes. Isn't
it wonderful to see, I'm just talking about kids now, and I
used to tell my children, here again, I learned a lot from raising
kids, sure did. I'd tell them, I'd say, let me
tell you something. You wanna know why I'm so hard on you?
Because nobody, No other children wants to be around undisciplined
children. No kids wants to be around undisciplined
children. They don't. And no adults want
to be around undisciplined children. I just don't want to be around
them. You got kids and they're just undisciplined. You're just,
you know, after a while, kids are kids. I get it. I get it.
But after a while, enough's enough. Almighty God is not going to
let his kids. to be undisciplined. Why? Because
he loves them. Whom the Lord loveth, he chastened,
and scourgeth every son that he receiveth. We need, we need
discipline. We need to, and the Lord's gonna
make sure we get it. Being made conscious of their
rebellion. The people beg Moses, and they
realize what they've, They've done, and they asked, well, what
they did was, therefore, the people, verse 17, came to Moses,
we've sinned, we've spoken against the Lord, we've spoken against,
praying to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. The Lord did not take the serpents
away. He had protected them from the
serpents. But they wanted to take them
away, God's gonna provide for them true deliverance. Here's my last point. The only
deliverance that God was gonna give them. Take the serpents
away. No, I'm gonna show you how I'm
gonna keep you from the death of these serpents and what these
serpents represented. These serpents represented sin.
That's what was biting the people. That was the picture. And whenever
God Almighty revealed to them what they had done and what their
problem was, take it away, take it away. No, I'm gonna show you
the deliverance. Verses eight and nine, numbers
21. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and
set it upon a pole. And it shall come to pass that
every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and put it upon a pole that came to pass, that if a serpent had
bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. While the people deserve the
just penalty of their rebellion. Now again, remember, these serpents
represent sin. Sin that has bitten us. And whenever
they were made to see that they were bitten, do you know it's not until the
Lord reveals to a sinner, sin is your problem. Until that,
they don't know that sin is their problem. They don't know it,
they don't care. Oh, they'll justify anything
they do. But really, my problem is that I'm a sinner. I am a sinner. I can do nothing
but sin. And so the Lord, in mercy, just
think of what they'd said to him. We don't appreciate anything
you're doing. I don't appreciate what you sent
me. I don't appreciate you taking me out of Egypt. You just brought
me out here to die. You think the Lord brought him
out there to die? You think the Lord has brought us through all
the trials and tribulations that we've gone through to kill us? If He's gonna kill us, He just
left us to ourself. Just let me go to hell. That's
all you gotta do, just leave me alone. I'll just go to hell
on my own. But because He was not gonna
let me go to hell, He revealed to them, this is your problem.
And these snakes started biting them. They realized. This is my problem. God made
a solution. He ordered Moses to make a brass
serpent, a fiery serpent, and he set it up on a pole. Picked that pole up so it could
be seen from all over the camp. And here's a picture of our Lord
as Moses lifted up the serpent. This is a picture of Christ being
lifted up upon the cross. And he told Moses, you make this
serpent out of brass, and whosoever is bitten, whosoever realizes,
I got a problem. I got a problem that I can't
fix. I'm bitten by something that if left unchecked is going
to eternally kill me. I'm going to die. not gonna go well with me. Now
if there's a sinner, if there's a sinner out here somewhere,
if there's anywhere, if there's somebody that realizes God is
just and we're rebels against God by nature, if God has revealed
that to anybody, I got some good news for you. If you realize
what has happened, In the garden, it's just passed right on down
to me. I came forth from my mother's womb speaking. And if you, if
God has given you any insight, thank God for that. He's delivered
you from the foolishness of thinking that I can do something. He said,
you put this brass serpent up on a pole. And if anybody looks on that serpent, looks at it.
Here's a picture of the look by faith. Moses said, God said,
if you look at this, you know what man by nature is gonna say?
By nature, I ain't looking at nothing. I ain't looking. If they tried to do anything
else, I got this old wives remedy. I think I can put some salve
on where it was, you know. I think I could just ignore it.
I don't think these snakes are really that dangerous. You tried
anything else, you died. You're gonna die. But if any
man looked, he lived. That fiery serpent,
this is the picture of being bitten. by the lies of Satan and succumbing
to it, just like Eve did. See, the scripture set forth
in Genesis 3, 1, now the serpent, that's where it all started,
was more subtle than any beast of the field. God had made and
he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, you shall not
eat of the tree of the garden. That's what God said. Oh, he
said, you're not gonna die. You're not gonna, that's a lie.
That is a lie. but almighty God for a people
that he's everlastingly loved. That's what Israel represented.
It represented the true Israel, the people, the elect, the chosen,
the remnant, the bride, those everlastingly betrothed unto
the Lord. Because he had found a ransom,
they were so disrespectful. They were so disrespectful. So
disrespectful. God found a ransom. He said,
you deliver them from going down to the pit. I found a ransom
and God's ransom. The Lord Jesus Christ. Here's
how he set forth Christ to these people. He told Moses, he said,
you make this brass serpent. Christ was made to be. that which had bitten the people. Those fiery snakes, picture of
sin. He hath made him, Father hath
made him sin. And when Moses lifted up that
brass serpent, this is what it said. In type and picture, this
is what it said. The reality Christ has born for
his people, for his elect. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's who he
died for. He was made what was biting the
people. He was made sin. That's what those snakes represented. and they were killing the people.
But he said, you tell Moses, you make it, you lift it up.
Any man that looks, any man that has a heart to look, any man
that believes, this is what Isaiah moved to write concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me and
be you saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God. There is none else. There's one cure. There's one
cure. One cure for the penalty of sin. One cure. It's not your free
will. It's not the baptismal pool. It doesn't save us. It's not
walking down an aisle and coming down here and crying and crying
and crying. Look unto me. Look unto me. As Peter, when he began to sink,
when he saw the Lord walking on the water, he said, Lord,
if that's you, bid me. The Lord bid him. He came out
there, and the scripture says, when he saw the wind, he began
to sink. And what did he say? Lord, save
me. Lord, save me. Lord, don't leave
me to myself. I pray God bless this to our
hearts for Christ's sake. Amen. All right.