But I'm one of five elders at our church. I've been an elder there for 33 years. And the most important thing is I've been a Christian for about 44 years. And the first time I preach at a church, I normally like to give my testimony in under a minute, just so you know that I'm a Christian.
I was raised a Roman Catholic. I was a very strict Roman Catholic, and according to the law of Rome, I was blameless. And then, I left home when I was 21, and I adopted the ways of the world in the 60s and the 70s, and I will not dignify those sins before you, but I was lost. And my brother Jim, who is a year younger than I was, began to witness to me And I kind of came to the point and said, Jim, if what you're saying is right, I'm in big trouble when I die, because I have all these sins.
My immorality, my drunkenness, those things are against me. And so I went home to Karen. We were not married. We were living together.
And I said, honey, we need to start going to a Bible study. And she was on board. She says, great, let's go. Let's do it.
And the Lord saved us at a Presbyterian church through the preaching of Jesus Christ, because I knew I couldn't save myself. And I knew my future of maybe doing all the things that were necessary according to the Ten Commandments, I couldn't do. So I had no hope in myself. So I threw myself at the mercy of the Lord Jesus, and He had mercy upon my wife and I, and converted us.
And we went to a Reformed Baptist Church, a very small Reformed Baptist Church, for five years. And then we've been at Trinity for 38 years. We have two sons that believe. They're 39, 41.
They married very well. We have five grandkids. We are very blessed, we are very happy people, and I'm glad to be here with you, and trust that hopefully I will, I'm not replacing your pastor, I'm the guy that comes in in the eighth inning, I'm a replacement pitcher, I'm a relief pitcher, so hopefully I might be able to be of help and benefit to you. And now for the ministry of the Word of God.
Introduction
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is probably the most popular Bible verse to believer as well as unbeliever, which is John 3.16, what I just quoted. I can remember before I was a Christian, sporting events in the 70s had the reference or the actual verse in baseball stadiums, basketball arenas, and football stadiums as well. It was everywhere.
It was on shirts, it was on athletes, it was on walls, whatever it could be in plain view, it was there. After I became a Christian, I noticed John 3 16 more and more, and it just seemed like it was permeating society, and you would think that such evangelism would rival the great awakening of the 1700s. And many were converted. Many of our friends and family were converted.
Very thankful. My brothers all became Christians. Close friends at work became Christians. And it would appear that there was a revival going on.
What I noticed, though, is when we would go to churches, and John 3, 16 was quoted, and many churches claimed that it was the greatest Bible verse of all time. We went to a small Hawaiian church and the pastor made that statement that this is the most important Bible verse of all time, and he proceeded to butcher the passage and not to apply it properly. It was a gross use of God's Word. Very grieving.
I think you can see the danger of such antics of saying this is the top Bible verse of all time. The Bible doesn't compete with itself. They don't have top 10 verses. they knock each other off like in some type of sporting event. The Word of God is still the Word of God, and granted there are certain aspects of God's Word that may have had a great effect upon us, may have been used for our conversion, might have been used for our reviving, might have been used to encourage us, or to reprove us, whatever it may be, it's still God's Word.
Gold in different degrees. Yes, there are other passages. I'm sure if I were to break open 2 Chronicles, or 1 Chronicles, and to go and try to expose that passage, I would put you all to sleep, unless I was really a great preacher, which I'm not. But, bottom line is, it's still the Word of God.
And just because there's been bad teaching on this verse, It doesn't mean we should despise it, we should love it, we should love that verse. I'm assuming you do indeed love it. But here's my point by way of introduction.
John 3:16 Needs Its Context
You know that John 3.16 is really not, the whole passage is really not fully quoted. You may say, what do you mean it's not fully quoted? For God so loved the world? I understand that.
But notice that it begins with the word for, it's a preposition. It's a continuing thought, for God so loved the world. You usually don't begin a story with the word for. You know, if you're writing a short story, kids, if you're writing paragraphs in school, you don't begin a story with for.
It's a continuing thought. There'd be nothing wrong if you were to say, because God so loved the world, which would prompt you to say, what's the context of John 3.16? I preached this sermon years ago at my church, and I just did a little exercise a day before the preaching. We had an event, and I went around and I asked our members, what's the context of John 3 16?
They looked at me like I had a third eye, but I was kind of amazed in one sense that they didn't really know. And this is a congregation that's been very well taught, and it's no crime if I don't know the reference to John 3 16. There's nothing wrong with it. It's John 3 14.
I went to my work at my place of employment, and again, There are a lot of Christians there. I just simply ask them, what's the context of John 3.16? My assistant says, well, it's John 3.15. Well, it's really not.
It's John 3.14.
The Context: John 3:14
John 3.14 is what it is. And our Lord here is teaching Nicodemus about the necessity of the new birth. I know you're going to turn to John chapter 3, but hold on before you do that, because our Lord is teaching Nicodemus of the necessity the new birth. Without the new birth you cannot see the kingdom of heaven.
And Nicodemus is just thrown off by our Lord's teaching to the point where he says, how can these things be? He is bewildered. He has no idea where our Lord is going. And then our Lord uses an Old Testament reference from the book of Numbers.
And it's found in verse 14, John chapter 3, Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Ah, there we go. There's an Old Testament passage that our Lord used, which is a common practice of the Lord Jesus when he taught. Whether it be the flood, whether it be Sodom and Gomorrah, he would use the Old Testament to bring out a point to his hearers.
And the apostles did the same thing. And they would reference Balaam, they would reference Korah, the flood, Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, just start going through it. So away with such foolishness that the Old Testament doesn't reveal Jesus Christ. It does.
These are they which testify of Him. Now,
Scripture Reading: Numbers 21:1–9
in order for us to understand John 3, 14, 15, and 16, now we can turn to Numbers chapter 21. You can turn to Numbers 21. And my plan here for today, just so you know, is that I'm going to read Numbers 21 1 through 9. I'm going to preach basically from 4 through 9 to help us get an idea of what our Lord is talking about, and then I'm going to do something I normally don't like to do.
I'm going to stop the sermon with numbers, and I'm not going to give you gospel applications. I will give you some applications that are obvious from the passage, and I want you to come back tonight and hear the gospel references the application to Numbers 21. So I ask that you might be patient and hang in. There's a two-part message I'm gonna read.
This is the Word of the Living God from Numbers 21, 1 through 9.
Reading of Numbers 21:1–9
The king of Arap, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the south, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharon. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. Very discouraging time right now. So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, if you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.
And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Orma. Okay, now our passage. Then they journeyed from Mount Orr by way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, And the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.
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, no water. Our soul loathes this worthless bread.
So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people. And many of the people of Israel died. Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned. But 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. Then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent, set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, put it on a pole.
And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, He lived.
Background to Numbers 21
Well, by way of background, because we're right here in the middle of Numbers 21, and I just want to give you a context of what's going on. The Israelites had been released from slavery from Egypt, and God had delivered them with the ten plagues, as well as the Egyptians were chasing them. They get to the Red Sea, the Red Sea parts, they go on dry land, their enemies go after them. God causes the water to come over, so he destroys their enemies.
They've had great success in terms of God being merciful unto them. And then God gives them the command to go in and take the land. This is in the beginning of Numbers. And they are to go in and take the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Well, they send out 12 surveyors to look at the land. Ten of them come back and give a bad report. They say, these guys are too big. We can't take them.
And they discourage the people and convince the people, okay, we're not going to take the land. So they disobeyed God. They disobeyed Him. Ten of the twelve surveyors convinced the people not to obey God.
And they disobeyed Him. And God gave them consequences for their disobedience. They now had to travel in a circuit around a hot, dry desert. I'm being redundant.
Hot and dry deserts, all they are is hot and dry. And they had to do it for 40 years. At this point, what we just read, Aaron and Miriam had already died. Moses is near the end of the 40 years, and he's given the promise that he is not going to partake of the land as well.
But God gave them water at times, even from a rock. He rained manna down daily, except for on the Sabbath, to feed them. There's a lot of people there. Over 600,000, some would guess, maybe close to a million.
And God was very gracious to them. In spite of the fact that they disobeyed God and didn't take the land, He still gave them water. He still gave them bread. It was out of His grace towards them.
So, 40 years, almost up. And what Israel now had to do, after they had a great victory against the Canaanites. You just see that in the first, oh, first three verses that I read. great victory. Some of them were taken by the Canaanites and they fought against them.
They made a vow to the Lord and the Lord answered it and they had great success. Great success and they recovered them from their enemy. So they had great victory here. However, they now had to take a more indirect and longer route to get to the promised land and now they begin to complain.
So that's the context. Hopefully I've briefly, as best that I can, giving you an idea of where we're at. And so
Two Points from the Passage
when we look at the passage verses four through nine, we're going to look at two things. And the first thing we'll look at is the sin as well as the consequence of the people of God. And then secondly, we will look at the remedy that God has for the people of God. Again, I ask that you would come back tonight because of the gospel application, which would be very encouraging. for believer and unbeliever as well.
So anyway, let's take a look at their sin. They journey from Mount Orr by way of the Red Sea. They go around the land of Edom. They can't go directly to Edom.
Edom will not let them go, even though they say, hey, we'll give you money for the water that we take. That's not going to happen. So the soul of the people became very discouraged. Now there's nothing wrong with being discouraged, going through a very difficult time.
It's how you respond to it. They should have made it a matter of prayer. as it did when they lost some of their people to the Canaanites. They didn't do that at all. Instead, in spite of the difficult providence that they had, and the fact that they had to look for a different solution, they had to walk a lot longer is what they had to do in a hot desert.
The Sin and Its Consequence
They sinned by complaining against God and against Moses. I mean, look at the words that they use. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? No food, no water.
They're lying. They're God didn't. He gave them food and water, and they loathe this worthless bread. It's a sin against God.
Now just think for a moment. These people have been delivered from cruel Egyptians that had them working seven days a week. God delivers them, and even though they are delivered And even though they do sin along the way and do not take the land, God is still merciful to them and still provides for their needs. You just see so much mercy here.
And then they begin to complain. Now, in this day and age, some do not think of complaining as that big of a deal. Spouses complain against spouses. Children complain about their parents.
We might even complain against our bossmen, and we have to be careful with regards to complaining about the government. And sometimes we look at that as not that big of a deal. Well, I would submit to you that is a very big deal. Some would say, well, it's not murder or adultery.
But remember that we serve an infinitely holy God. God does not tolerate complaining, disobedience. He simply does not. When you complain against God, and this is some application here, what we will get to later on, it does indeed violate the first commandment.
We are to have the Lord our God before His eyes. And when we are praying, we have God before our eyes. When we're complaining, I should say when we are complaining, we're not having God before our eyes. When we're praying, we have God before our eyes.
But it also violates the 10th commandment of covetousness. We just don't have what we want, And as a result, there's this intense desire. They have an intense desire right here, but it's a complain. So complaining, sometimes people don't think it's that big of a deal, but it is.
It is. And there's consequences to their particular sin. And we're continuing on here as we see that God sends fiery serpents. That's the consequence of their sin of complaining.
He sends fiery serpents. Now, the reason why Moses wrote fiery serpents. It could be the color of the snakes or it could have been when they were bitten. The poison going through them was a burning sensation that produced a fever.
But one thing we do know that the consequence eventually ended in death. They died. Now the snakes had probably always been there. You're in a desert and there's snakes in a desert.
So the chances are the snakes were probably there in the desert, but God kept them from harming the people, but yet the people commit a very serious offense, and then when they are bitten and some of them die, now they're going to come to their senses and do the right thing and make it a matter of prayer, and they decide then to go to the Lord through Moses and ask Moses, because of their transgression, they acknowledge their transgression, go to the Lord and take away these snakes. That's what their request is. Now, I notice something here in my study. They did something that Pharaoh did.
Notice the Israelites wanted them to take away the snakes. Pharaoh and the Egyptians did some of that take away the snake stuff when they were asking Moses, okay take away the flies, take away the frogs. Instead of the dealing with their sin, take away my sin, it's take away the consequence of my sin. And here they imitate their past slave driver, Pharaoh.
Pharaoh just asks, instead of forgive me of my sins, it's take these things away from me. And the people do the same thing. Yet God is very gracious here. Very gracious.
Now, their request is take away the serpents. That's their request. Moses proves himself a man of God by praying for his people. These people at times wanted to stone him.
These people spoke against him. He could easily have said, well, you made your bed, sleep in it. He could have said, you're getting what you deserve. Doesn't do that.
He's a man of God. It would be ungodly for him to say that. Instead, he shows himself to be a godly man and he prays for the people. And now we come to the remedy.
The Remedy God Provides
God doesn't answer their request their way. He doesn't remove the snakes, but provides a remedy, because God knows what is best. It's worth noting that God answered the request of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, take away the flies, take away the frogs, take away this, that, and the other. God answered that request to him.
But for the people of God here, he doesn't answer that request. I find that interesting. He gives a completely different solution. What is the solution?
Well, Moses prays and a bronze snake on a pole. That's the solution. That's the remedy. Now, I think it is legitimate to ask the question, Why a bronze serpent on a pole?
Because we know God doesn't do anything in an arbitrary manner. God does things according to his wisdom. So there has to be a reason why Moses is directed to erect a bronze snake and it to be lifted up and the people would be healed. It would appear to be foolish.
It does nothing. There's no connection there between lifting up something in the desert And I've been bitten by a poisonous snake, rattlesnake, some sort, whatever it may be. And just by looking at this, I'm going to be healed? It would appear to be foolishness.
You fast forward to 2 Kings chapter 5. You'll see why I'm mentioning this. And there's a man there by the name of Naaman. He was a Syrian, and he had leprosy.
He goes to Elisha. Elisha won't even go to the front door for him. He just sends his servant, telling him to go dip in the Jordan seven times. And Naaman's all upset.
He says, he didn't even come out and talk to me. And aren't there better rivers, better bodies of water than the Jordan? And his servants said, well, look it, I'm just going to use 21st century language. He said, what have you got to lose?
If he told you to do something great, would you do that? Well, yeah. Then go do that. He goes, he does, and he's healed.
See, just at times, God will provide that answer. That doesn't sometimes make sense, but it's always best to obey God, like Naaman the Syrian. And here, God is going to do something a lot different, and He is not going to remove the snakes, but provide a remedy for those who were bitten. Now it is legitimate to ask the question, why bronze?
Why bronze? And here I'm just being suggestive. I'm not gonna be dogmatic. I wouldn't build a church around this.
But if it's bronze, remember one of the altars that we use to sacrifice the animals for sin was bronze, and it was a picture of judgment. Bronze at times, or brass, can be looked upon as a judgment. When the people of God were to forsake God in the book of Deuteronomy, the heavens will be as brass. That's judgment right there.
And of course, in Revelation chapter one, where the Lord Jesus has feet of bronze, it's to trample his enemies. It is indeed a potentially a picture of judgment. But also remember that it's durable. Bronze is durable.
If you were to take, kill one of those snakes and staple it and fasten it to a beam and hold it up, well after three, four days, let's face it, that snake's going to rot. So it's going to last. It's going to endure. So that is probably one of the reasons why bronze was used.
But why a snake? Why does he use a snake? You know, really a snake is not exactly a picture of health, is it? In this particular case, it's a reminder of their sin as well as the consequence of their sin.
There's a reason for their deadly estate. It wasn't Moses' fault. It wasn't Edom's fault. It wasn't God's fault.
It was their fault. They're the ones that committed the crime. It was their grumbling, their complaining, their discontentment against God and his leader, which was Moses. And as a result, This snake is a painful reminder of their crime against God.
Now, no one enjoys getting their nose rubbed into their sin or the consequence of their sin. No one enjoys that. I am certain when Adam had to bury Abel, he had to have thought the reason my son died is because of my sin. He had to have thought that.
Again, I'm being suggestive here. When David walked on his roof after he had committed adultery, I'm sure he walked on that roof a different way, looking at the sin that he had committed. Maybe even looking into the face of Bathsheba would remind him of his sin. How about Peter walking on the courtyard where he had denied his Lord?
I'm sure if he even hears a rooster crowing, it might be a painful reminder of his sin. There are consequences to sin. There are painful reminders to sin. I'm sure all of you that are in Christ may have painful reminders of sin, but it's there for a reason.
Definitely there for a reason, and it is to humble us under his mighty hand. So the snakes also could remind the Hebrews of something else. When I see a snake, for some reason, I think of Adam and Eve. They were deceived.
Eve was deceived. Adam, being our federal head, sinned by partaking of the fruit. And can it be that this bronze snake would remind these Hebrews of their original state? All of our original state.
We derive our nature from Adam. And our nature from Adam is sin continually. And so it could have been a reminder of that. You know what I noticed too,
Grace Displayed in the Remedy
the snake is lifted up as a reminder that the very God that he complained against was very gracious to them. See the sin? They complained, you see the consequence of the sin, they see that. And God was very gracious.
He didn't command them to go on a long pilgrimage to a far country for healing. Could have, but he didn't. Nor did he command them to go to some snake healer. He didn't command them to figure out a solution, come up with some miracle anti-venom, and He didn't command them a long list of penance or good works to offset their bad works, their sin.
If they would have done that, they would have died. If they did not look, look was the solution. That's all it was. It was look to that servant.
Believe God's word and look to that serpent and you will be healed. God gave them a remedy. God did the healing by his appointed means to look. Just the serpent alone wouldn't heal them, they had to look to that serpent.
And of course God does not always remove the consequence of our sin. You know before being a Christian, The drunk who does come to Christ doesn't get a brand new liver. He's got consequence to his sin. The lazy worker, though he is a Christian, and let's say he does remain lazy, he suffers hunger.
The death row prisoner that becomes a Christian, even though he is a Christian, still has a consequence to pay. It might be his death or it might be a life in prison. There are consequences to pay. It's not pleasant.
But here, You see how gracious God has been to give them the snake. A snake on a pole. Might be a painful reminder, but he didn't remove the snakes. He granted them healing.
Healing. Now, there are those who are upset with the consequences of their sins more than their sin. And I'll touch on that a little bit later, but just keep that in mind. There are those who are more concerned about the consequences of sin.
Could be the child getting a spanking for disobeying, instead of them being grieved at the disobedience, they're grieved that they get spanked, if I could use that illustration. But it happens to all of us in different ways. But
Answer to Skeptics
I want to address the skeptics of our day that look upon a story like this and they reason, how could a bronze serpent heal? These are just stories in the Bible. They're not true. They don't make any sense whatsoever.
You get bit by a snake and you look at this bronze pole and you're healed, and they were skeptics of this day that doubt the miracles that go on here in God's Word. They may have even told the bitten Jews, you know, how can a bronze serpent heal you? The problem is the snakes. Get rid of the snakes.
Just say no to snakes. That's what they would say. Well, The problem is not the snakes, it's what brought about the snakes, and that is their sin. And they're complaining, their discontentment against a good God.
But I want you to notice that none of the ones that got bitten here doubted. You don't hear of any of them dying. When they got bitten, they looked, they were healed, there were no skeptics. Now, we're sitting here in a nice cool auditorium. have bitten by a snake, but the experience of getting bit by a snake, I was almost bitten by a snake, and that scared the daylights out of me.
Imagine getting bit by that snake, and you are going to be pretty desperate, and when the command comes from Moses, look to that serpent, no problem. They're going to look, they're going to give up all other remedies, and just look to the Lord their God to obey Moses' word here, I would submit to you, took faith. They believed God's word. They believed the servant that was given to them, Moses, and in his preaching, if you will, they believed.
And again, here you see such grace on God's part to heal them in spite of the fact that if they did complain, they were bitten by the snakes, they looked, and they were healed. Now imagine the first one that was bitten. So all of your friends have died that have been hit by the snakes. You get hit by that snake.
It took great faith, even greater faith for that first one. Because after the first one looks and is healed, and the second one, you gain momentum and faith when you start seeing all these being healed of their snake bites, if you will. So I think this was a... A very encouraging time for the people, even though later on they still continue to complain.
It's a grief. Obviously, it's a lot like us at times, which we need to take heed to. Can you imagine if God took away the snakes and provided no remedy? People would still die.
The snakes leave, the people might conclude, well, either chance or luck drove the snakes away. But there would be no faith needed. And without faith, it's impossible to please God, to believe upon those means that He has ordained. Because they were not to look to themselves or to Moses, they were to look to the God-ordained means, which was the serpent on a pole.
Now, there's two things to note. this day and age about this serpent on a pole. Eventually, this symbol here had to be destroyed in 2 Kings chapter 18, because the nation of Israel began to worship it and burn incense to it. Now, you may say we don't have that around today, do we? I was raised a Roman Catholic, and they had a dead man in all their churches on a cross and people burned incense to it, bowed to it, worshipped it.
And I see a connection there. Whenever you are in a religious service and people are bowing, whether it's statues or whatever it may be, it's in violation of the Second Commandment. And it does indeed appear to be somewhat connected to what these folks did in the Second Kings when the pole with the serpent had to be destroyed because of that. Another thing I want you to notice for this day and age is that we can see a serpent on a pole these days.
Do you guys know that? You see them on ambulances. I was watching a TV show with my wife and sure enough, there's the two serpents on the pole. And I thought, This is a while ago when I thought this.
I wonder if this is in reference to Numbers 21. So, of course, I go to Wikipedia and they don't mention anything at all about Numbers 21. It's about some god, Hermes. But the article did say, however, it doesn't make any sense that a snake would be a symbol of healing.
It appears to me that it looks like the internet and man is just completely ignored this story here in Numbers 21, which gets quoted by our Lord in John 3, 14, 15, 16. I'm at work talking to people that are not believers, and I just asked them, I said, do you guys know anything at all about those two serpents on the pole? That's on ambulances, that's at doctors, when you go to your doctor's office, it's there. You ever notice that?
They go, yeah, why is that? I said, I would submit to you. It's from, and I just told them the story of Numbers 21 and how that happened. I'm saying all that to say I find it vexing that it's not even referenced at all in Wikipedia.
I even checked two days ago and looked at it just to make sure I wasn't speaking lies here. And sure enough, there's nothing in there. It deals with Hermes, it deals with some other false god. And this is completely ignored, which is a great grief.
So just remember, it can be a possible witness tool when you're talking to someone and you see it's all over the place. You can't miss it. Just notice it this week when you do your driving and look at the ambulances, look at the hospital, the doctors, it's there. So it might be an opportunity there.
Application
Now, I'm going to have some application. But later this afternoon, we will apply this past. I know it's the third time I said this. Not pleading with you, but encouraging you.
Try to come back here for the evening service and we'll have gospel application. Because I'm going to give you a bunch of don'ts. And I hate when the preacher gives you a bunch of don'ts and that's it. I hate that and I'm going to do that right now.
But for now, our application is pretty simple. Don't complain. Don't complain against God. authority. It is our pattern to complain.
Children, it's your pattern to complain against your parents. You may not see it outwardly, but inwardly you're probably not going to tolerate to get out of this place. Could be. Or if I was a parent, I would eat chocolate ice cream for dinner.
But you need to be careful kids of complaining against your parents. If you do, repent of that. Turn to the Lord, ask him to forgive you of that. Spouses, if you complain against each other with other people, you should repent of that.
Brethren, should not be complaining against brethren. Should not be complaining against your pastor. I have no idea if you do that. I'm just a guest preacher here, so don't think that, you know, Pastor Butler is telling me about four or five, whatever it may be.
Congregation of the size, there's bound to be some people bumping up against each other. The Lord's Supper is a good place to put that all behind you. and to move forward. But also regarding your complaint against your boss man, the one that you work for. Don't do that.
Just work for him. And realize that those in positions of authority over us are for our protection. Kids, your parents were given to you to protect you. It's the first commandment with a promise.
Honor your father and mother that your days may be long. All the days of your life. That's not absolute, but that's a good way to live a little bit longer, is obey your parents. But remember, parents were given to you, kids, for your protection, just like spouses, wives.
The husband was given to you for your protection, and husbands, the wife is given to you. Granted, you are the head of the house. Remember, that is for your protection. Pastors have been given to a flock like this for your protection.
And, believe it or not, government leaders are given to us for our protection. Now, I understand that there are times when our government leaders do not practice justice. There's something that rises up within us when they come out with, okay, we're going to close the churches down and yet they continue to keep the abortion clinics open. And something rises up within us that's grieving and maybe angry.
That's justice. God has made us into his own image. It's not infallible. Because you mix sin in there, and sometimes the way we respond is sinful.
But remember this, is that there's that sense of justice within us. But we have to be careful that we still respect our leaders, pray for them, pray for their conversion, pray to God to work in them in such a way that we might lead a peaceful life with reverence. And if they're overly wicked, pray for their removal. But we shouldn't be always complaining about it.
There's nothing wrong with talking about how things are just not just. That's fine. Be careful of always talking about it. I'm 70 years old.
I don't want to be a bitter old man where I'm just walking around the cafeteria screaming against socialism. I don't want to be bitter. And for us as Christians, we want the law of kindness on our lips. We want to be gracious.
And even though there are things that are going on that is completely against God's justice, grace be upon our lips. When you consider how the apostles dealt with their persecution, I mean, Nero, give me a break. He torched Christians and yet the command still came to submit to those who are in authority over you. Remember that they are indeed God's ministers.
For those who do evil, we must not be those who do evil. A good way to stop complaining is pray. Pray. Make it a matter of prayer to pray for your government leaders, to pray for your spouse, to pray for your parents, parents to pray for the children, because that will give us a very humble approach to God, which is very important.
Remember, think of this for a moment. What do you deserve? And then consider how gracious God has been to you. And some of the sins committed against us are nothing compared to the sins that we have committed against God.
And yet in the gospel, we have forgiveness of sins, peace with God. A word to the wise is enough right there. And then secondly, I've touched on this. There are consequences to our sin.
That indeed is a whole new sermon, but I do want to mention that sometimes we may be just more aggrieved at the consequence of our sin than the sin itself. The adulterer that now is getting divorced and has to pay child support, whatever, sometimes the adulterer is more upset about having to do that as opposed to being upset with the fact that he or she had committed adultery against God, or if children have been disobedient and they get spanked. and they're more concerned or more grieved at the spanking as opposed to the fact they sinned against God. Children, when you disobey your parents, remember this, you're disobeying God. He's the one that gave the command.
He's the one that gave your parents for your protection. And so, whether you are turning from sin because of the consequence of your sin, whether you're turning from your sin because you know that you're sinning against a good God, take it! Take it. I'll take anything.
It is important for us that, name the name of Christ, not to reason our way into sin, but we should think, what would God have me to do? And if the consequences stings you, great. The sin stings you, great. Let's just say you're just not, you haven't been doing well spiritually, the consequence of the sin is something that keeps you from the sin.
Great. Keep praying that God might give you eyes to see your sin as well. And this afternoon, tonight, we will see the remedy found in Jesus Christ. So, here we see in John chapter 3, Verses 14 and 15 and 16, and I'll open this up a little bit tonight as well.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, we know that now, I hope we know it very well right now, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. We'll look at what that means tonight. That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Let's pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for being gracious to us. We thank you for giving us your word. We give you thanks and praise that you love to feed your people. Our prayers, the message will be remembered, the messenger forgotten, that you will be glorified, that we walk away giving thanks and praise to you for your kindness to us.
We thank you, O Father, for having children here in this assembly, save them from their sins. For us, cause us to grow in that grace and knowledge that we would be a gracious people with the law of kindness upon our lips. But we worship you, we praise you, we give you thanks for your word. You've not taken this word and hidden it somewhere, but it is openly proclaimed throughout this country, throughout the United States of America.
We thank you for that, richly blessed pastors and your people throughout these two countries this day, hear our prayers, do good to our souls, encourage the souls of your people, for we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. We will close the service by singing the doxology, number 568, in your hymnal. And then after we have finished singing, there will be a time of meditation. When the piano finishes playing, then you are dismissed.
Peace on earth, all blessings flow. ♪ Praise him all creatures dearly adored ♪ ♪ Praise him above the heav'nly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪