Shake off the Viper
Pastor Joe Bachman
February 20, 2005
Tonight I want to give you a little medical knowledge and help you to learn how to apply that into your Spiritual lives
I want to talk about a touchy subject with some people
I want to talk about snakes
And now...the list of the Top Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World.
10) Death Adder Australia and New Guinea. Is closely related to the cobras. A dosage of 10mg of Death Adder venom is enough to kill a human. A good sized Death Adder can deliver up to 180mg in a single bite.
9) Boomslang Africa. The Boomslang is the most seriously venomous rear-fanged snake in the world. They have very long fangs and can open their mouths a full 180 degrees to bite. Snake handler Karl P. Schmidt died 28 hours after a Boomslang bite. The day after the bite, he called in to say he felt well and would be in to work...2 hours before he literally dropped dead from the bite.
8) Coral Snake North America. Coral Snakes have a very potent venom but many are too small to deliver enough venom to kill a human. This is a (relative of the cobras and mambas)
7) Saw Scaled Viper Middle East Asia. Saw Scaled Vipers kill more people in Africa that all the other venomous African snakes combined. Its venom is 5 times more toxic than that of the cobra and 16 more toxic than the Russell’s Viper.
6) Beaked Sea Snake The beaked sea snake is a highly poisonous snake that is widespread in shallow seas from the Persian Gulf to northern coastal Australia. Most of the victims of the beaked sea snake tend to be fishermen who accidentally tread on them in muddy estuaries or when trying to remove the snake from their fishing nets. This is a very dangerous snake and is responsible for more than half of all cases of sea snake bites, and 90% of all fatalities.
5) Tiger Snake Australia. The Tiger snake is a very aggressive snake that kills more people in Australia that any other snake on that continent.
4) Taipan Australia. The venom delivered in a single Taipan bite is enough to kill up to 12,000 guinea pigs.
3) Malayan Krait Southeast Asia and Indonesia. 50% of the bites from this snake are fatal even with the use of antivenin treatment.
2) Australian Brown Snake Australia. One 1/14,000 of an ounce of this venom is enough to kill a person.
1) Fierce Snake Australia. The most toxic venom of any snake. Maximum yield recorded (for one bite) is 110mg. That would probably be enough to kill over 100 people or 250,000 mice. These rare snakes are virtually unknown in collections outside of Australia.
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This is a picture of an eyelash viper
This is a picture of a eyelash viper striking
Let me tell you a little about venom
Venom is a prey-immobilizing substance in snakes
Venom is not composed of a single substance, but is a toxic saliva consisting of a complex mixture of chemicals called enzymes.
Almost all venoms are composed of approximately 90% proteins.
Two general types of toxins are known, neurotoxins and hemotoxins.
Neurotoxic
venom attacks the victim’s central nervous system and usually result in heart failure and/or breathing difficulties.
Hemotoxic
venom attacks the circulatory system and muscle tissue causing excessive scarring, gangrene, permanent disuse of motor skills, and sometimes leads to amputation of the affected area.
Some snake have both types of venom
There are approximately 20 types of toxic enzymes found in snake poisons throughout the world known to man.
These are only a few of the enzymes found in the chemistry of snake venom known today.
• cholinesterase; attacks the nervous system, relaxing muscles to the point where the victim has very little control.
• amino acid oxidase; plays a part in digestion and the triggering of other enzymes, (is responsible for venom’s characteristic light yellowish coloring.)
• hyaluronidase; causes other enzymes to be absorbed more rapidly by the victim.
• proteinase; plays a large part in the digestive process, breaking down tissues at an accelerated rate. (causes extensive tissue damage in human victims)
• adenosine triphosphatase; believed to be one of the central agents resulting in the shock of the victim and immobilizing smaller prey. (probably present in most snakes.)
• phosphodiesterase; accounts for the negative cardiac reactions in victims, most notably a rapid drop in blood pressure.
Now that we know about the venom let’s look at how the snake injects its venom
The snake lays in wait for its pray
Then at just the right moment the snake lunges forward sinking its fangs into its victim.
Then the snake constricts or tightens its mussels around the sack that contains the venom
That pushes the venom out of the sack through a hallow opening in the fangs of the snake
The venom is then absorbed into the tissues and into the bloodstream
This then will start to make the victim weak, sick and they will eventually die if untreated.
Now you may be saying I thought I came to church to get a bible lesson
But it seem like I came to school to get a biology lesson about snakes
I will tie this all together some how
Right now I don’t know how but it will come to me soon.
Really what I am doing is setting the stage for the message.
The word snake is mentioned 6 times
The word serpent is mentioned 50 times
Almost every time it is talking about evil or bad things
Num 21:6
6 The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Jer 8:17
17 "For behold, I am sending serpents against you,
Adders, for which there is no charm,
And they will bite you," declares the LORD.
Amos 5:19
19 As when a man flees from a lion
And a bear meets him,
Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall
And a snake bites him.
God also refers to them by specific names such as tree snake, adder and as in the text that I want us to look at tonight a viper
Acts 28:1-6
When they had been brought safely through, then we found out that the island was called Malta.
2 The natives showed us extraordinary kindness; for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all.
3 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand.
4 When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, "Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live."
5 However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm.
6 But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.
Paul had just been through a storm and a ship wreck
He was no doubt very tired, very hungry and very cold
So he wanted to help he went and gathered some wood for a fire and what happened to him
A viper came out of the wood and latched on to his hand
So what does Paul do?
He walked around with this snake attached on to his hand right?
Of course not
It say he shook the creature off into the fire
He shook off the viper it fell into the fire and died
The people were standing around waiting for him to show signs of the venom
But nothing happened
So the people thought he was a God
He wasn’t a God but he served a great God
The same great God we serve today
Let me tell you about another snake story
Adam & Eve
Gen 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, "You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?"
look at that the snake shows up
Gen 3:2-3
2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’"
Can you see that
There is the bite of the snake
Gen 3:4-5
4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!
5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Eve here had the chance to shake the serpent off and walk away
But she didn’t did she
So what happens the snake here in injecting the poison into her.
Gen 3:6-7
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
Now the poison starts to take effect.
And what happen
Gen 3:19
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return."
The venom of the serpent caused the death that we still feel today
Guess what folks the serpent is still trying to strike and bite us today
We walk around all happy
Praising God for all his blessings that he has given us then what happens
Satan bites us
He tries to inject his venom into us
What is that venom
It’s the venom of self destruction
It’s the venom of Spiritual destruction
It is the venom of
Bad health
Depression
But you know what folks God offers an anti-venom
The Devils venom is Gods anti-venom
Hatred love
Sadness joy
Chaos peace
Being not patient patience
Unkindness kindness
Anger goodness
Unfaithfulness faithfulness
Harshness gentleness
Being out of control self-control
You see the devil offers just the opposite of the things God offers
Satan tries to counterfeit everything God is doing
STORY OF PREACHER
That kind of teaching is a venom from the serpent
Just like
Bad health
Depression
Hatred
Sadness
Chaos
Being not patient
unkindness
anger
Unfaithfulness
Harshness
Being out of control
Is all venom
But we can avoid this venom by doing what Paul did and shake off the viper
you need to shake off the viper tonight folks before he injects enough poison to destroy you
