Snakes Alive!

Take your Bibles and turn to Numbers chapter 21. It's our last time in the book of Numbers this summer. Numbers 21, let's pray. God of heaven, now we come to you expecting you, Lord, to work. You've met with us in our singing and our giving. we've heard your words in your word we have addressed you in prayer now we come to hearing your voice speak directly to us from your word help us now to listen to believe to obey to change so that the name of our Savior would be exalted the glory of our God would be seen.

The power of the Spirit would be evident. Help us now that all these things will happen as we understand and follow Your Word. Pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. When I was a boy, I had this incredible fascination with snakes, especially poisonous ones, right?

They had a special fascination. I always wanted to see a rattlesnake. I just wish I could come across one sometime just to see what it was like. Now I have a son whose fascination with snakes has never ended. He's not very popular with the custodial staff at school because he tends to lose them. And they don't like that.

He just got back from Costa Rica a couple weeks ago. And he's showing these pictures. He shows us this picture of this snake. And he says, do you know that this snake right here, the one that he stood there and took a picture of, is one of the most venomous snakes in the world. And so many people died this last week because of that snake. It's like, okay, great.

Some people love snakes. Most people hate snakes. They just go crazy when they see them. You can see pictures of them. and yet snakes are one of the things that God used to communicate something about his grace poisonous snakes let read the story in numbers 21 beginning in verse 4 you follow as we read the text for mount hor they set out by the way to the red sea to go around the land of edom and the people became impatient on the way and the people spoke against God and against Moses.

Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.

So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. And everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Now, God did not record this story for the sake of tickling our curiosity and putting snakes in our faces.

Rather, rather, they serve as a vehicle to teach us the holiness and righteousness of God who hate and punish his sin and that we would see him and adore him for his mercy and his grace that's why it's here really the snakes aren't the main issue are they they're not this main issue at all it's to show us who God is what kind of God he is now before we see God's mercy and grace you must recognize your own sinfulness we see that in verses four and five from mount or they set out by the way to the red sea to go around the land of edom and the people became impatient on the way and the people spoke against god and against moses why have you brought us up out of egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no food and no water and we loathe this worthless food once more we find these people complaining griping and whining We have seen this before have we not as we gone through this book as we looked at certain incidents in this book And notice, it's almost the same complaint as before. Now, they weren't allowed. How did they get here?

They weren't allowed to go through the territory of Edom. They had asked permission. If you read the back story, Edom had shown up with all its forces, and so they decided to go the long way around. a roundabout journey that was longer and more arduous than the than the route that they had chosen now once more it would profit us to look at what caused this complaining all right and by the way i think we really need to take those apart we've seen is by the way do those complaints sound familiar to you it's like what they say every time right and it's like they don't get it they say the same thing every time and the Lord responds to them and they don't seem to get it.

Well, what caused this complaining? Well, there was hardship. They had to take another way, a detour that was more physically straining and difficult. Now, you never complain when things are going your way, right? That's not typically when you complain. In fact, I don't think you probably ever complain when things are going well.

But when things go bad, when the things aren't what you want them to be, as we talked about in the very first time we looked at numbers, we always want, not always, we start complaining because we want an alternate reality. Not the reality God's given us, but the one that we want. In fact, we can dream it up. We know what it is we want. These people did not want a hard trip.

They did not handle the hardship correctly, but became impatient. They started grumbling and complaining. What caused that impatience? Please look at their complaints. First of all, they forgot God's goodness in delivering them from Egypt. They forgot all the marvelous signs, the powerful signs.

Do you think he's going to let them die in the wilderness? he did incredibly powerful things those ten plagues on Egypt swept across the land humbled the most powerful man in the world and then when everything looked hopeless he split the Red Sea for them and now for 40 years he's provided for them they forgot God goodness they forgot God provision they been getting water they even got water from a rock When everything looked hopeless We saw that last week Do you remember Had he not provided food all the way along. They had never gone hungry. But they forgot God's provision.

They were unthankful for what God gave them. For the provision he had given them. This, what do they call it? Loathsome food. God provided food every day. They're tired of it.

They're just tired of it. God was giving them everything they needed, but they wanted something different. This all mixed together made for a pretty nasty stew called blasphemy. That's what's happening when you come to verse 5. They spoke against God and they spoke against Moses. Now we have a tendency to excuse the sin of complaining, don't we?

We have a tendency to take in gratitude as just one of those minor kinds of things. You know, stop complaining, right? You know, and we approach it like, you know, the other day I was complaining about the shoes that my mother bought me and then I saw a man with no feet. As if the path to thankfulness is to find somebody who's worse off than you, right?

Or stop complaining and start counting your blessings. That's good. That's good. But we tend to just kind of, ah, ingratitude. That's sad. That's too bad.

It makes for a bad holiday in November, but you know, get over it. God looks at complaining and in gratitude in a, in a different light, a much deeper light, a much, he sees it much deeper than we do. Why is ingratitude so bad? Let me show you something. Look at Romans one for a moment. Romans 1 Romans 1 Let's start in 18.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived. Ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse, right?

God has revealed himself so clearly that no one, not one human being will ever say there was never enough to show me God. But then notice what he says. What did they do? For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or, what? Give thanks to him. but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things where does the sin of ingratitude lead you down the most horrible path you can imagine if you read the rest of the chapter it becomes more and more evident until at the end of the chapter you see all kinds of sins catalogued.

Where does it start? It starts with this ingratitude. I know God, but I don't give thanks to Him. Not giving thanks is the first step in a journey that will take you deeper into sin than you can imagine. That's why ingratitude is so, so serious. Look at Romans 2, verse 4.

Romans chapter 2 verse 4 Paul lays out this indictment of all of humanity in Romans 2 verse 4 he says or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance alright that it's supposed to lead you to repentance and what happens what happens when we when we notice what he goes on to say, but because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. God is rich in his goodness, and when we don't recognize that, we're storing up wrath. We store up wrath.

We're calling into question the very character of God. That is why ingratitude is such a serious thing. is such a serious thing. As we confessed today, and I hope you meant it from your heart as we read our confession, what we say, we commit treason against God with our hearts and our lips. How How Because He doesn do what we want He doesn do our bidding he doesn answer the way we want him to answer right We confessed that we act as if he doesn't know our suffering and doesn't care, which is what these folks are doing. ingratitude forgetting god's goodness forgetting god's provision being unthankful leads to horrible things so is god so severe then in his judgment verse 6 he sends fiery serpents among them serpents that are poisonous that are venomous and people die when they're bitten As you contemplate the darkness of your own sin, always realize the rightness of God's judgment.

Always realize that God is right in his judgment. Now, you know what's interesting is after this, they don't complain anymore. After this, they don't complain anymore. And I don't think it's because of the snakes. I don't think it's because of the snakes you know God's leveled judgment against them every time they've complained hasn't he? he's leveled judgment against them every time they complain after this they don't why? in this instance God shows incredible grace he shows grace God shows himself to you as gracious now what is grace? what is grace? see it here let me suggest to you that the definition of grace, unmerited favor, is not enough.

I don't think that says it clearly enough. Grace is unmerited help. Grace is unmerited rescue. It is not just God looking at you favorably, it is God acting towards you favorably when you don't deserve it. It's unmerited help, it's unmerited rescue. Was God obligated to save these blaspheming rebels?

And the answer is no. He could have said no. He could have said, die you ungrateful wretches. And he would have been completely righteous. Here you find unmerited help He reaches down and he rescues He doesn merely watch He doesn merely say oh I feel bad for you He does something In grace, God not only imposes the penalty, but provides the remedy. The same God who judges provides the remedy.

It's not someone else coming along and appeasing him. It is God himself providing the remedy to the penalty that he imposes. And it is conspicuous. That help can only be attributed to God and to God alone. It can't be attributed to anything else. If the snakes were merely removed, what could we say?

Well, they just happened to trip across the snakes in their normal seasonal migratory pattern. And they left. And they left. You know what's interesting to me? And I didn't even notice it until this morning as I was reviewing, as I was going over the sermon and trying to get it in my head again. Here's what I noticed.

What do the people ask Moses to do? Let's look at it. Verse 7, And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. What did they want him to pray? Take the serpents away.

Did God remove the serpents? No. That's fascinating to me. He didn't take the serpents away. But he did provide rescue and help in the midst of it all. All right?

And what is the help that he provides? The absurdity, the foolishness of raising a bronze snake that everyone could look at. Now, have you thought that? Have you thought that thought? This is absurd. Get rid of the snakes.

He doesn't get rid of the snakes. It was clear that the remedy was God's. There was no other remedy. Nothing they could do, nothing they could do could preserve their lives. Now here, you must recognize the grace of God. Any self-effort, any self-effort is doomed to failure.

Alright let get a squad together and let go out and kill snakes No God raised his put together a snake and hoist him up When people look at that snake they won die Fascinating. Now some, some may only see God's judgment. You need to see his grace. You need to see his grace. some of you may be sitting here and saying, you know, I've blown it this week.

In fact, if I look over the last year or so, I've just really blown it. You know what? You need to look to God's grace. You need to look to God's grace. Now there's more to see here. You have to realize the necessity of repentance and faith.

As the snakes move through the camp, they see their folly and they're humbled by God. Now look at verse 7. Look at verse 7. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Now what's different about this is that they recognize that they have sinned. Do you remember what happened when they stood on the banks of the Jordan?

They're ready to go over. Right? They're ready to go over. And God says, because you didn't believe me, because you didn't believe my promises, you're going to die in the wilderness. Remember what they did the next day? Let's turn back to chapter 14.

We were there a couple weeks ago. So God condemns them to 40 years in the wilderness to die. all right so the next day they say and they rose early in the morning and went up to the heights of the hill country saying here we are we will go up to the place that the lord has promised for we have sinned okay we blew it we better get with the program here there's no really repentance here there's no sorrow there's no seeking god's mercy they say oh you know we really blew it let's try to do better. There's no repentance there.

There's no saying. We've sinned against God. We have sinned horribly against God. We've sinned against you, Moses. This is repentance. Repentance is dissatisfaction with yourself.

You see that what you've done is wrong. You're dissatisfied with yourself. You see that compared to what God requires, you have failed miserably and you hate it. You hate it. Okay? Okay?

Repentance is seeking to be reconciled to God. Okay? You want to be reconciled to God. You hate, there's this self-loathing, I've sinned against God, I hate it, and now you want to be reconciled to God. You want to go in another direction. You're determined to say, I don't want to go that way anymore.

I want to do what God says. Alright? Right. So you self-condemned, you seek to be reconciled to God and God holds out hope to those who repent. He holds out hope to those who repent. He gives them the snake here.

Right. He holds out hope. If you look at that. OK, you've repented. If you look at that, you will live. Now, see God's mercy and grace here.

He stands ready to help anyone who's truly repentant. He stands ready to help anyone who's truly repentant. He doesn't just stand around ready to judge. How do you see God? Now, listen, we need to see God as a God who's going to judge. He's going to judge unrighteousness.

He is holy. He cannot overlook sin. And yet God is the one who stands ready all the time for mercy. He stands ready to help anyone. Who's contrite? It's interesting to me that when it comes to judging these people, God is incredibly long-suffering and he holds back.

He holds back. You know, one of the things that we look at the Old Testament is we oftentimes say, well, they didn't keep the terms of the covenant, so God wiped them out of the land. I want you to note something. God waited 900 years to do that. but as soon as you repent, he's ready to step in. Right He ready to step in He offers help Notice he offers help immediately upon repentance Immediately But there's also the necessity of faith here.

Now hear me right. Faith is an act of obedience. It's not an act of obedience by which you accumulate merit. But faith means I obey what God tells me to do. and he says believe. He says hoist up that snake and anybody who looks at it will live. Now it doesn't mean you just catch it in your peripheral vision.

He's talking about here the fact that you look at it and believe that that's what will save you. Now again, that doesn't make any sense. But it is obeying the command to look, to look. And listen, when Jesus holds out gives salvation to you and says, believe, like the Apostle Paul said to the Philippian jailer, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

That's not, well, it is a command. Believe. You've got to believe. It's a command to be obeyed. And faith is taking God at His word. Faith is taking God at his word, even when it seems foolish to our natural judgment.

Would you have looked at the snake, or would you have thought, this is absurd. What a foolish thing to do. Looking at a reddish colored snake on a pole. That just doesn't make any sense. That's ridiculous. John Calvin puts it this way. but it is the peculiar virtue of faith that we should willingly be fools in order that we may learn to be wise only from the mouth of God turn over to first Corinthians 1 for a moment now listen how the apostle Paul puts it first Corinthians 1 beginning in verse 20 Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom but we preach notice in contrast to that we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Faith is taking God at his word even when it doesn't make sense. If God says it, that's the way. Now, listen, how silly to believe that God's going to save someone who's going to save you, who to everyone else looks like a condemned criminal. When Jesus is hanging on the cross, the people looked at him.

If you saw someone hanging on a cross, what would you think? Wow, that guy's a bad dude. He's a criminal. they save the worst for the worst. And that's the instrument that God's going to save people? Through a criminal? Or what appears to be a criminal?

Doesn't make any sense. Not a bit of sense. Right? The Jews read in the Old Testament, anyone who's hung on a tree is cursed by God. He's cursed. How is that the way of salvation?

It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense at all. And then you have God saying to you, see that Jesus hanging on the cross? The only thing you have to do is entrust yourself to Him. Nothing more. That's it.

You know, it comes to my mind. I was thinking about this verse this week. I mentioned this to someone this week. Isaiah 66.2 Notice what Isaiah 66.2 says. Here's God speaking. Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool what is the house that you would build for me and what is the place of my rest god is so great there no place even to house him and then he says all these things my hand has made and so all these things came to be declares the lord i made everything i am so incredibly glorious and powerful but this is the one to whom i will look he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

That's it. That's all that God requires. Contrite heart. No more. No more. Doesn't seem to make any sense. how foolish to believe that God will forgive me and change me by believing in this one called Jesus who died and was raised again that's faith that's faith who is this God that we've seen in this book well one thing we've seen is he's righteous he does not back down when his people were in rebellion he judged them he cannot and he will not overlook sin in his people or in anyone but he's merciful and gracious the one who imposes the penalty provides the rescue and he stands ready if we repent and trust there's a reason why John says the son of man has to be lifted up like that snake so when you look at him you'll have eternal life that's all there is to it you say pastor we know all this we know all this listen we have a real temptation to get real sophisticated and what God has done is a very it's beyond human imagining.

But on the other hand, it's simple. It's simple. Your only hope. is just Jesus. That's it. Father, thank You for Your Word. Lord, this is simple, and yet, beyond...

It's simple, but we would never have thought of it. your wisdom that appears weak is greater than the strength of men. Help us to be those who repent and believe. Help us not to glory in our wisdom. Help us not to glory in our learning. Help us not to glory in anything, but to glory simply in the fact that You are ready to save. You have provided the rescue.

All we need to do is just believe. us simple-minded in the right way, so that Your name will be exalted. Not our sophistication, but Your rescue. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.