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Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
SPIRITUAL SNAKE BITES
Numbers 21:1-9, "And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah…
This passage of scripture contains one of the strangest stories of the entire Bible, yet it contains some powerful lessons for God’s people if we will just meditate upon it for a little while.
Israel was continuing its march toward the Promised Land. God had brought them through one miraculous deliverance after another. Time and again Israel failed God and began to murmur and complain that God wasn’t giving them the good life but was leading them into the paths of destruction. There were a number of times when God decided that he had heard enough of their complaining and brought Israel to the place of judgment and correction. This incident is another example of God’s judgment and wrath, but it is tempered by his love, mercy and grace upon people who didn’t deserve it.
King Arad had attacked Israel! His quick and powerful raid had netted a prize of numbers of slaves to be used in building his own kingdom and not the Promised Land.
I want you to realize that his is a type and shadow of the journey of Christians through the dry and thirsty land of everyday living as we travel toward our eternal home.
All along the way we can see the hand of God moving on our behalf. We know that his protection and his provision are always there. With the Holy Spirit as our guide and teacher, and using the Word of God as our roadmap, we march ever onward. But God never promised us that the road would be perfectly smooth or without pitfalls.
We may be traveling along just fine when we suddenly hit a pothole in life’s road that tends to throw us off track. It’s at those moments when our faith and trust are sorely tested. It’s at those moments that we are most susceptible to fail God.
And What is the first thing we do when we face a sudden defeat in our walk with Christ?
Just like the Israelites we fall on our face before the Lord and begin to make deals with God to get back what we have lost in the first place.
Isn’t it amazing that we think that we bribe God into doing what he was going to do in the first place? It isn’t our promise to do better that causes God to work on our behalf, it’s his love, grace and mercy toward an undeserving people. Yes, true repentance is necessary but our repentance doesn’t save us, it’s the grace of God through the Blood of the Lamb. If repentance alone could do it, man could earn his way to eternal life through acts of contrition or paying of penance, but none of those things can purchase one moment of eternal life.
Israel’s promise was, God if you will help us get back our captured fellowmen, we will destroy the cities of our enemy!
Have you ever made a deal with God? Lord, if you forgive me for cheating, I promise to be better prepared for the next test. Lord, if you will give me a job, I promise to be a better employee next time. Lord, if you will put me back in the ministry, I will promise to be more faithful next time.
Do you really think that God plays “Let’s Make A Deal” with you? Does God sit in Heaven and say to you, “Come On Now, Choose the right hand and you win. Choose the wrong hand and you lose” or , “Hey, that sounds fair to me. I like your deal, let’s do it.”
That doesn’t sound like a holy, righteous, unchanging God to me. It sounds more like a game show host on TV.
God doesn’t make deals – He just does what he intended to do in the first place to bring about his will. Whether you are a part of God’s work or not will depend upon your truthful repentance and your following of his direction because God will accomplish his will with or without your cooperation.
Nevertheless, God heard the cry of Israel and allowed them to gain back their captured people. God’s will, from the very beginning of Israel’s journey to Canaan, was that every enemy they faced would be utterly destroyed from the land. God wanted no trace of idolatry and sin in the land of Israel and he knew that the only way that would ever happen was to utterly wipe out every living thing in their midst that could bring up idolatry.
Exodus 23:24, "Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images."
Israel had prayed according to the will of God and thus their prayer was answered. God still held them accountable for their promise to follow him and trust in him for that promise from Israel had never changed from the time they prayed it in Egypt. God remembers every promise we make and he does not change. We may forget but God doesn’t and he will bring us into judgment for every word we say.
Matthew 12:36-37, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
Now you would think that after such a great victory that Israel would be grateful and know that God was indeed supplying their every need, but that wasn’t the case at all.
Only hours after they defeated their enemy and destroyed his strongholds and walled cities under God’s hand of mercy, the Israelites began to murmur and complain against God.
… 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.
Oh how quickly we forget God’s mercy and grace. How quickly we forget how that God supplies our every need and performs miracles of deliverance on our behalf!
We can leave church, having been in the very presence of Almighty God, after hearing the good Word of God, after feeling the sweet Holy Spirit moving in our hearts, after seeing God do great things in our hearts – and the very next thing we say is something like, “I just don’t know how I’m going to make it tomorrow. I’m so tired.”
We walk out the door and have “roast preacher” for dinner, or we “murder a brother or sister in the Lord with our tongue”, or we complain and murmur about the life that we live and the things that God has blessed us with. We place ourselves in the same danger that Israel faced, often with the same consequences too.
… And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
What were these fiery serpents sent among the people? They were the direct judgment of God against a rebellious and sinful people. They lost faith in God. They turned on God and God’s chosen leadership, and they looked back again to the land of Egypt. As a result God sent the vipers among the camp.
There were poisonous snakes in the bed rolls, under the seat cushions, in the food storage bins, inside the wagons and under the rocks. There was no safe place. Everywhere that the Israelites went they had to deal with a poisonous snake. The bites were both painful and deadly and there was no medicine to stop its power to kill. The venom would quickly enter the blood stream and invade the nervous system. It was as though the blood was on fire and the pain was unbearable until finally, in a short period of time, death came. Death itself was no relief, because those who died in rebellion, went from the burning and pain of the snake venom to the eternal burning flames of hell and they are still burning today!
One of Satan’s favorite tricks to draw Christians away from Christ is to get them to see only the good times of their past life of sin. They quickly forget the sleepless nights, sin-sick soul, the chains of despair and destruction, and the eternal sentence of death that hung over their heads. They forget the power of sin to control everything they do and they remember only the “don’t worry, be happy” attitudes.
Child of God, don’t turn your back on God and look again at your old life of sin. God will not let you go unpunished. His judgments are always designed to bring you back to him.
If you turn away don’t think it strange when your troubles begin to multiply! Don’t think it strange when God’s hand of correction begins to reach out and pull you back to him! Just what God will do to bring you back is his choice but I can promise you this – GOD’S MERCY, LOVE AND GRACE WILL SEND SOME FIERY SERPENTS INTO YOUR LIFE IN THE FORM OF TRIALS AND TESTS AND TROUBLES!
The fires of sin will burn your life into a life of fear, doubt, dread and death! There is no cure outside of Christ! Your soul will burn and there will be nothing to satisfy you in this life, then in the eternal realms of hell, your soul will ever burn with a fire that will not be quenched, ever!
When the fiery serpents come and your judgment begins, how will you react to them? Will you harden your heart against God and blame him for bringing them in the first place or will you realize that you brought this upon yourself through your own rebellious attitude toward God?
…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 serpents from us.
If there is one thing that I am thankful for, it is the fact that Israel at least knew who was at fault. It was their own actions and not that of God that brought the serpents among them. They called upon God, through Moses, to take away the snakes from their camp.
There’s your answer my friend! When the fires of judgment come, there is only one answer – turn back to Jesus in true repentance and seek the deliverance and salvation that can only be had through the power of the Blood of Christ.
…And Moses prayed for the people. 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, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
Moses is the type of Christ for you and I. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
Jesus was made our sacrifice! He was lifted up upon that cross just as the serpent of brass was lifted up for the people to see!
John 12:32, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
Have you been snake bitten by sin? Have you been guilty of murmuring and complaining? Have you turned away from God, even for a time, and felt the hand of God as he allowed the serpents to strike?
Then Jesus is your answer! Turn your eyes back on Jesus and look full into his wonderful face! Look upon Jesus and live! Look to Jesus in repentance and then he will wash away your sin and give your life back to you once again!
Your life is eternal! Where will you spend that life? Will you be burning forever in the fires of the pit or will you spend that life in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ enjoying the wonders of Heaven?
All of us fall short of the will of God at times! There is none righteous within ourselves! We are only made righteous through the Blood of Jesus!
Turn to God, look upon Jesus upon the cross and realize that it is through His sacrifice upon the cross that you can be delivered from the fiery bite of the serpent of sin! God’s judgments are still tempered by his mercy, grace and love. He waits for us to turn back to him with open arms.
