29. Ablazing Grace: In The Wilderness Part 1

but speaking of series we find ourselves here in the midst of our ongoing series that is a walk through the Old Testament a year-long journey through the Old Testament a blazing grace a blazing grace another look at the Old Testament and we've divided the Old Testament up for those of you that have not been regulars here into seven basic chapters beginning family Exodus land Kings exile Messiah we've made our way through beginning that's Genesis we've made our way through family that's the latter part of Genesis we've made our way through Exodus and we are now two sermons in out of about nine into our chapter on the land so we're roughly halfway through our journey and today we're gonna spend all of our time in the Book of Numbers so why don't you just go there right now numbers we call it The Book of Numbers the fourth book of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers but the Jews refer to the book simply as in the wilderness right there in numbers chapter 1 verse 1 we encounter the word wilderness and so the traditional Jewish name for the book is either just wilderness or usually in the wilderness look at verse 1 now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tabernacle of meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt saying and so there's there's what we're gonna be talking about today in fact today's sermon and next week's sermon is going to be sort of two parts where we'll be taking a look at the experience of the Israelites on their sojourn that was supposed to be just a few weeks turned into 40 years in the wilderness and then after that we'll go to Joshua then we have a very very difficult sermon that I've already been in preparation for it's about three or four weeks away and we're going to be taking a look at what is sometimes referred to as the genocides of the Old Testament what's going on there why is God saying wipe out everybody in the city not just the men but also the women and the children and a lot of people read that and they're just like whoa you know that's is that the God of love is that Jesus what's going on with these seeming ethnic cleansing in the Old Testament one of the things that we decided when we sat down to study through the Old Testament in a year jarred myself and Daniel was that we did not want to avoid the difficult passages we wanted to really in as much as it's possible with the time constraints that we have to hit head on some of these thorny and problematic and difficult passages in the Old Testament and so that's gonna be a big one because shortly after this sermon and next weeks we're gonna see the baton or as you Aussies would say the baton being passed into the hand of Joshua and Joshua is going to go into the cane and land but he's not just gonna go in there to live peaceably and amicably with the Denison's that were already there they will be extirpated from their own land and in most cases killed and how do we reconcile that with a God of love and so that's coming up we're not there yet but we're heading rapidly in that direction we're gonna start with a quick board a word of Prayer and we're gonna dive right into the Book of Numbers let's pray together Father in Heaven what an appropriate book father what an appropriate book for this time numbers in the wilderness we are a church in the wilderness father we go to the book of Revelation and we see there that the church is in the wilderness for that 1260 day or year period and father that is that is us we are in a wilderness time in a wilderness place and yet father paradoxically this doesn't feel like the wilderness because we are surrounded by technology we are surrounded by electricity we are surrounded by the accoutrements of modernity so this doesn't feel like the wilderness but father spiritually speaking and chronologically speaking we are in the wilderness and so as we go back and take a look at your people Israel and how they experienced the wilderness and the lessons they learned in the trials that they underwent and father may this be a lesson not just a museum style lesson where we're looking back on a dusty old antiquated past but father may we see when we look in the Book of Numbers a mirror where we see ourselves and our own struggles and our own frailties and our own foibles and faults father be with us today may we at the end of the presentation though though we've been perhaps wounded may we not be wounded too remind us that the difference between a surgeon and a butcher is that a surgeon cuts to heal while a butcher cuts to kill and father we know that if you're going to wield the scalpel it won't be to kill us it will be to heal us and so father please come and heal us today is our prayer in Jesus name let everyone say Amen all right we're in the book of numbers in the wilderness and I'm going to invite you to direct your attention right to the screen as much as you can turn the lights down without compromising the quality of the video Nate you want to do that if you can't do it at all then I'll just trust you let me turn my clicker on here so we're in the fourth book of Moses numbers and we're calling today's presentation in the wilderness part 1 and I want to start by just sort of orienting us to the Book of Numbers next week we'll spend most of our time in the book of Deuteronomy so this is going to be a sort of one-size-fits-all message for the Book of Numbers which is not easy to do when you've got 36 chapters to wrestle through but fortunately for us there is a single story a single narrative that we're gonna find in the latter half of the Book of Numbers that really encapsulates the whole essence of what's taking place in this marvelous book what I thought I would do and when I spent a lot of time doing yesterday was just sort of surveying the lay of the land looking at the Book of Numbers trying to understand the chronology which is not always easy reminding myself of the high points sort of looking as it were at the the range the mountain range of the Book of Numbers and associating myself again with those events those tall peaks that rise above some of the others some familiar stories here and then some stories not as familiar so these are the major events just to sort of orient us first of all the first thing that takes place in the Book of Numbers is a census and that's actually why we refer to the book is the Book of Numbers there are two census that take place one right at the very beginning just as they're preparing to leave Sinai and the other at the end when they're just about to go into the Canaan land so these two census are sort of the the parentheses or the bookends around this Book of Numbers you might wonder why it's called that that's why of course the Jews as we've already mentioned called it simply in the wilderness in the wilderness so the opening chapters sort of deal with the census then moves into some additional elements of instruction regarding feasts and the priests and the remember that the children of Israel have received the sanctuary they've received Torah they have received the the the the great gospel truth from Sinai summit and they are now preparing to make their way they think on a rather simple journey into the Canaan land it should have taken them maybe a month not more than two months for this very simple journey geographically speaking but in fact this was gonna be a journey that will take the better part of 40 years and that 40 years takes place in the Book of Numbers the journey begins in chapters 9 and 10 shortly thereafter and this becomes one of the major themes of the book of numbers is really Ginn's to complain and in the first instance you might remember the story that God sends them quail ah they were longing as they said for the fleshpots of Egypt looking back through rose-colored glasses at what they what they thought was the better life and so God says okay you want some flesh I'll give you some flesh and they gorged themselves on this coil because they were tired of the manna what they called later this worthless bread we're tired of this worthless bread and if they were tired of it already what's it gonna be forty years later when they've been eating it year after year after year after year then Aaron and Miriam began to descent in Chapter 12 that takes place because Moses had married an Ethiopian woman and Aaron and Miriam didn't think this was the best and this sort of family conflict takes place and then God has to put Aaron and Miriam in their place chapter 13 Jared covered a Blee for us last Sabbath the spies were sent into Canaan and then of course 14 and 15 Jared also covered this pastor Jared Israel refuses to enter Canaan which leads to a rebellion against Moses a rebellion that you might remember of Korah Dathan and abiram this becomes one of the centerpieces of the Book of Numbers where where Moses leadership not only by Miriam Miriam and Aaron but also by people within Israel are questioning Moses leadership who are you we're gonna see that today who are you who made you boss over us why did you lead us here shouldn't you have led us differently and Moses leadership is regularly scrutinized and criticized in the Book of Numbers we're going to see that today then chapters 18 to 19 summit chill instruction in chapter 20 Moses strikes the rock this is the event you might recall that causes God to say to Moses Moses I wish I hadn't done that I wish you hadn't done that because you're a leader I have to hold you to a standard a very high standard a standard in which if I ignore your rebellion then that's going to cause others to feel that they are free to rebel and you pains me to say this but you are not going to be able to go into the promised land he says but I will let you see it I will let you see it Aaron dies in that chapter chapter 20 then the book sort of wraps up with the fiery serpent story that's what we're gonna spend the balance of our time here today a lengthy section given to Balak and Balaam the second census census is taken in chapter 26 the appointment of Joshua is the new leader in 27 which will be at a couple weeks and then finally some last minute sort of instructions and details before they go into the land of Canaan so that's sort of the airplane view the helicopter view of the Book of Numbers some of those stories you would have remembered right Korah Dathan and abiram and he would have remembered the quail story now here was the thing that I found most fascinating in my study the last couple weeks of the Book of Numbers is that the architecture of the book is really unusual and that way it's a little bit like the book of Genesis with this really unusual architecture that we've already discussed where in the first eleven chapters Moses covers some 2,000 years of human history and then in the next 39 chapters he covers about 300 years there seems to be this gross imbalance like why are you paying so much attention to this single family of Abraham and so little attention to the early Earth and moat and Numbers is very much like this it's not like a evenly distributed nice walk through the wilderness experience of the Israelites not at all in fact it's hugely disproportionate toward the the the experience not revolving around the 40 years the 40 years gets a very small number of chapters and verses relative to the rest of the book look at this chapters 1 to 10 covers 20 days there's only 36 chapters in the book and your 10 chapters in it's 20 days have passed right then you get two chapters chapter 11 and then 13 3 this covers just a few weeks it was actually quite fun for me to sit down and try to figure out the chronology and the places I really enjoyed it and then you get to chapter 13 for down to 14 38 that covers 40 days so all the way up to about chapter 15 you're almost halfway through the book and you've covered a few months you're almost halfway through the book you just a few months in and then you go to the period that we traditionally think about when we think about the Book of Numbers or we think about the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites and that's the 40 years but remarkably that 40 years takes place just between basically chapter 14 the end of chapter 14 in the first verse of chapter 20 forty years condensed into about five chapters where the early chapters of the book ten chapters were dedicated to just twenty days and then it closes chapters 22 27 cover just a few months or years and so there's not a lot of time given to what was taking place during the 40 years in fact there are just a few precious instances that we have access to one of which we're going to talk about today another sort of misunderstanding that many of us have when we think about the 40 years is that we I think have this idea at least I did that the Israelites were like wandering around you know sort of aimlessly you know listless lead from place to place from Camp to camp when in reality the majority of that 40 years was spent basically in one location in and around the borders of Kadesh Barnea there were some minor movements but when you actually go look at the chronology of the movements in numbers chapter 33 for the most part they were in and around a single location yes there would have been some regional shifts but it wasn't like they were just wandering aimlessly for hundreds of miles they were more or less in a single location now those are the times now let's talk about the themes and then get into our specific story today we've looked at the events we've looked at the times what are the major themes right for those of you that like to sleep during the second half of the sermon stay awake just for this part then you can take your snooze if you're inclined the big themes are these first of all the priestly ministry the tabernacle and the feasts that's most of the opening chapters things having to do with the second Passover and the Ministry of the Levites the tithes and other things that we talked about a couple week ago Israel's murmuring and complaining massive theme in the Book of Numbers we're gonna see that more in just a moment a paradox of Yahweh's leading contrasted with and coupled with Israel's wandering right and what we mean by wandering is they didn't just go in a straight line right to their destination a to B it was sort of a to B to C to D to e they spent a lot of time at E and then eventually into the Canaan land Moses intercession and leadership there are several times including in the story that we're gonna take a look at today where Moses intercession is very anticipatory of the intercession of Jesus standing between the living and the dead Aaron himself has a similar experience where where Moses is going to God and say God no gods like that's it I'm done I'm over and he's almost presented at times it's like impatient like ha I just can't handle it and Moses is like no please and so Moses intercession is a major issue here and then finally and probably the the largest overarching theme of the book is the failures and fragility of humanity now of course it's in and around the experience of Israel ancient Israel but their experience is very transpose ax baluarte a heads up s-- to the young people in the Sabbath school class today about what I was going to be talking about and one of them said all please please I'm already on thin ice with my parents on this issue don't push it too hard so we'll see how we go I told him to trust me just trust me turn of me to numbers chapter 21 numbers 21 we find herself here in the latter half of numbers racing through the 40 years in fact and this was new to me the experience of the fiery serpents takes place at the end of the 40 years right right down toward the end Aaron has died in the end of chapter 20 and we come into numbers chapter 21 and between verses 4 and 9 we encounter this experience that really encapsulates the entire Book of Numbers in just a few short verses five or six verses and you can take the whole essence the major themes of the Book of Numbers in a single idea in a single store in a single narrative and it's hugely important for us now let me just give you a little background what's happened the children of Israel have arrived at the borders of Edom and they were really keen to go on a more direct route through Edom but the king of Edom refused and said now if you come here will slay you with the sword and the children of Israel didn't have the faith to go in at that time God was not yet displacing the inhabitants of Canaan and so there they were on the borders of Edom and they could look out and see the green valleys alright they've got they've got thirty eight forty years somewhere between 38 and 40 years of wear on their sandals all right most people that would have been just middle-aged or young say in their 20s or 30s when they came to Sinai are now in their 60s and 70s and they're just tired of living in tents tired of being immigrants tired of being refugees just tired of living in the desert and they came right up to the borders of Edom there and they could see beautiful green valleys they could see palm trees it must have looked like an away cease to them and they just made a simple request please let us pass through your land we won't take anything and the king of Edom refused but the way around Edom was way out into the the desert up into the wastes of the of the land around Edom and they didn't want to go and so they sent a second request to the king of Edom please can we pass through we promise we won't take anything that's not ours and the king of Edom said no again and so they find themselves having to go on this rather rounded circuitous journey around a place that would have otherwise been quite nice quite comparably leisurely and they are now having to go wander into the wilderness the wastes of the wilderness and we pick it up in verse 4 that Orient's us to verse 4 then they journeyed from mount hor by the 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 soul of the people became very discouraged your translation if you're reading something other than King James or New King James probably says the people became impatient literally in the Hebrew what it says is the soul of the people was short the soul was short we have similar kind of language in the English language we'll say things like similar sort of idioms we'll say don't be short with me don't be impatient with me right oh he was a bit short short-tempered this idea that that that there's a shortness that your patients you're down to a single nerve and somebody's standing on it and and the people are frustrated they've already got 30 plus years almost 40 years in their sandals and in their feet and in their legs and in their muscles and tendons and ligaments and they don't want to walk any longer than they have to walk and now they've been told because of the discourteous Nisour the king of edom hey you've got to go around and they don't like it and so there's this wasn't the plan here ahead have you ever had plans go wrong you made plans and it didn't turn out that way if you're anything like me you want to know who do we blame who's to blame for this inconvenience who's to blame for this for this detour but I want to tell you something not everything that happens to us is God's will not everything that happens to us is some part of God's grand design and blueprint and I know there's a lot of preachers that preach that there's a lot of people that believe that but you can do yourself a giant favor and disabuse your mind of it right now there are lots of things that happen in this world not just to others but to you that are not a part of God's plan one of the great effrontery stew the goodness of God in the character of God is when well-meaning preachers and Christians will say to that young girl who was abused or that young girl who was raped or that young family whose child was murdered or somebody died in a in a drunk driving accident they'll say oh you know God knows it's all the part of God's play no it's not how dare you insult the Most High the holy God Jehovah the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and suggest that something of that nature some cruel disgusting repulsive abusive oppressive manipulative thing could ever be a part of his larger plan God uses certain things but that does not mean he chooses those things can somebody say Amen there's just things that happen just a product of living on a broken planet surrounded by thousands and millions of broken people that make decisions and sometimes when people make decisions it reacts and reverberates negatively in your life not everything that happens to you is God's fault and not everything that happens to you is even God's plan there are things that happen that even God does oh I wish that hadn't happened we do a huge disservice to God and to scripture and to believers when we say to them Oh sister I'm so sorry that happened to you but but God will work it all out it's all a part of his big plan yes God will work it all out but that doesn't mean it's a part of his big plan scripture says all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose Romans 8:28 it doesn't say that all things are good just that they work out for good and here who was to blame the king of Edom but who was really to blame well they were God had never intended for them to be in this particular situation at all right on the borders of of Edom some 40 years after their original appointment and they're like oh we're gonna see here in a moment who they complain against and they complain not against the ones that they should have been complaining against which I suppose could have been perhaps the king of Edom but more precisely themselves they end up complaining against God and Moses the first and most important thing we want to take away here is that not everything that happens to you is somehow a part of God's giant blueprint or master plan there are evil agents in the world both human and demonic and they have the ability to influence the world if somebody drinks too much alcohol and gets in a car and drives down a road and kills a family of four that's not God's plan that's a product of an agent making a decision that has reverberations in the lives of others and if you think wow that makes the world a little more scary a little more terrifying to know that God's not in control of every single detail and every single elements in every single action well the world should feel a little scary because we find ourselves the scripture presents in in a war zone on a battlefield someone quipped that the world looks like a war zone because it is a war zone sometimes we feel a little too complacent a little too comfortable living here the azure blue waters of the Gold Coast the swaying Paul you know beautiful sunshiny 300 sunshiny days out of the year doesn't feel like a war zone here but I'm telling you in Afghanistan feels like a war zone in Iran it feels like a war zone and much of the world feels like a war zone in some ways these people have a significant service done to them a favor done to them because you don't have to persuade them that they're in a great controversy you don't have to persuade them that they're in a war zone it's obvious to them for those of us though that are accustomed to leisure and custom to the comforts and accoutrements of life we we have a sense of entitlement and we don't feel like we're at war we feel like it's a beautiful day we're gonna get some food in the park after this gonna go surfing tomorrow what it doesn't feel like a war zone but it is we live in a place where our very lives at any moment could be snatched away not because God snatched it away but because agents both human and angelic do evil things we're gonna talk about the nature of that in just a second there are two kinds of things in life things that you uh can change and things that you want now forgive me I run the risk of oversimplification here but I want you to think about everything in your life that happens to you or everything in your life that is some consequence of others decisions that reverberates into your life and I want you to think about it in a very simple compartmentalize way there's only two kinds of things that are happening to you things that you can change things that you can influence things that you can affect the outcome of and things that you can't and the things that you can't are a call not to worry not to grumbling not to murmuring not to complaining things like your genetics right there's just things that you cannot control these are calls to patience and prayer but if it is something that you can change if it's something that you can't affect the outcome of that is a call to action can the church say Amen or not to sit idly and apathetically why's that woe is us woe is me lost people all around needy people all around there's nothing we can do no there is something we can do the fact that we can't change it for everyone doesn't mean we can't change it for someone can the church say Amen come on now things you can change and things you cannot change two kinds of things I love this statement one of my favorites from the pen of Ellen White great controversy page 525 it is part of God's plan to grant us an answer to the prayer of faith that which he could not bestow if we didn't ask him one of my prayers for this church one of my longing desires for this church and and I think myself and pastor Jared in the leadership team here we're really excited about a lot of projects and and ministry teams and growth groups and opportunities evangelistic and otherwise man we're planning we're strategizing but I'll tell you at the end of the day I want this church to be a praying Church my elders will tell you my elders to tell you we get in those elders meetings and I'm leaning on them I'm leading hard on them and I'm saying fellas ladies when church is done don't just start talking about the game don't just start talking about the surf don't just start talking about whatever it is that your mind wanders to not that those things are inappropriate necessarily but if if you're in church and a spiritual high moment has just taken place a sermon and a decision it's very likely that there are people there who are in a moment of spiritual vulnerability spiritual open a spiritual transparency find those people and pray for them don't say I will pray for you in fact let me just let me just put this out there for the whole church not just the elders every time you catch yourself in this building or with a church member or somebody outside of this building and you're tempted to say I will pray for you just say let's pray because then you're not lying how many times have we said I will pray for you and then some some morning comes I think a man who does that anyway Lord you remember but rather than setting yourself up for a lie just say let's pray in fact let's practice that together let's see we can say those two words together those are it's gonna be hard let's see we can do it one two three let's pray that was hard to do wasn't let's try it again one two three let's pray I tell you one thing that would thrill my heart would be to see in this church before church after church between Sabbath School just just it doesn't have to be a 10-minute prayer 20 minute prayer 30 minute purchase throw your arm around that sister throw your armor on that brother and just have a brief prayer for whatever that pressing need is maybe it's a grandson that's unwell or maybe it's job that's been lost or something people is there anybody in this room that needs prayer come on now don't be like my my youth in this Abba school class you got to pull the prayer requests out of them all right is that yeah do you need prayer yes or no of course should you and so when opportunity presents itself to be with a spiritual brother a spiritual sister in a spiritual context in a spiritual building on a spiritual day don't just say I pray for your brother I gotta go eat my haystacks say let's pray man I want this church to be a praying church can somebody say Amen and so the Israelites are presented with the situation here the kind of thing that they either can or cannot change and they couldn't change the king of Edom his mind so this was a call to prayer and it was a call to patience but it ended up being an opportunity for complaining verse 5 and this the people spoke against Moses and against God where they got the target of their anger and their frustration and their incredulity wrong the ones they should have been angry at were the ones that were looking them in the mirror they could have I suppose been upset with the king of Edom but the real the real object of their frustration should have been themselves it was they that decided not to go in on the report of Caleb Caleb and Joshua they had placed himself in that situation and how often do we do this we place ourselves in a compromised situation and then we complain to God some of us live our whole lives of intemperance we don't take care of ourselves we eat sugar like it's going out of style we might end up smoking cigarettes or staying up late all night and we're breaking continually the laws of health and then we get into our 50s 60s and 70s and we end up with some debilitating disease that threatens to end our lives well in advance of the average age that we should be getting to we're like oh god please heal me now and there is a place for asking God for healing can somebody say Amen but I want to tell you an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure if we consistently place ourselves in a position of compromise whether it's spiritual health or physical health or family health people turn around in their 15 and 16 year old kids are distant from them emotionally distant from them physically distant from them in all sort of ways that like what happened what happened and then they go and they try to run the rescue operation you know the the the the pricked dad or the or the concerned mother at you know your child 16 17 and just trying to re-establish a relationship that should have been established when six seven eight nine ten and I'm telling him hey that ship has sailed I'm sorry that ship has sailed I'm telling you we so and we so and we so and we so and then we complain when we reap are you hearing me yes or no oh and who do we complain against we complain against God God why did I get cancer now this is not to suggest that everybody that gets cancers in violation of the laws of health doesn't suggest that at all some people are just genetically disposed and it's going to happen almost no matter what you do but why stack the odds in the favor of a disease why stack the odds in favor of a broken relationship why stack the odds against us create situations as the Bible says God has not mocked whatever a man shows that he will also reap God does not normally perform miracles and work outside of the normal relationship of cause and effect God prefers to work with in this beautiful symmetrical logical Newtonian world that he has created where actions have reactions and somebody say Amen and so when we end up feeling the sting of our own bad decisions don't complain to God go take a long hard look in the mirror and ask God to restore the years that the locusts have eaten he can do it he can restore those broken relationships he can restore broken bodies and he can restore broken churches can the church say Amen but let's not go blaming God so they complained against Moses and against God why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness of course God had brought them up for no such purpose he brought them up to live and to be free for freedom of Christ to set you free Galatians 5:1 there is no food there is no water and our soul loathes this worthless bread there it is forty years of eating that man and they were over it there was like wheat mixed to the extreme verse six so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died I want to talk about that lame language there so the Lord sent this is a giant point there's gonna be two major points and if we can get each of them across we will have accomplished our task the first one is I want to talk to you about the nature of judgment the nature of judgment maybe you could bring those lights down just a little bit Nate just for this particular slide or Eli I want you to see this demonic creature look at this guy it's called a sauce scaled Viper Equis Caron ADIS and this is the other sauce scaled Viper Equis collar a tiss saw scaled Vipers these are very fascinating creatures and it's likely that these were the very they're they're not long they're about 40 centimeters long these were very likely the the creatures that were the fiery serpents and you know what's so interesting I did a little research on these echis Vipers and check this out from Wikipedia Equis is a genus of venomous Vipers found in the dry regions of Africa the Middle East Pakistan India and Sri Lanka they have a characteristic threat display of rubbing sections of their body together to produce a sizzling warning sound in other words when they're about to strike they sound like a sizzling fire their fiery serpents they get their scales together in the car they rub their scales right and not only that they're poisonous and it's a it's a it's a certain kind of poison that doesn't happen immediately it's not like you died within hours it usually would take a day or two which fits very consistently with what we find in the story because people are in the process of dying when God introduces his solution these fiery serpents came into the camp look at this very interesting the name Equis is a Greek word for Viper their common name is saw scaled Vipers and they include some of the species responsible I thought this was interesting for causing the most snakebite cases and deaths in the world this particular genus of vie for the Equis Viper is the deadliest snake in the world not by potency of venom but by the number of people killed hundreds and sometimes thousands of people a year still in modern times killed by these people and so all of a sudden these echis Vipers very likely these echoes Vipers begin to come into the camp and scripture presents us with this seemingly horrific option that it was God that sent them it says it I'll read it again here so the Lord sent and how do we square that with the picture that we see of Jesus this kind-hearted generous gentle magnanimous how do we couple that with this picture that we have of Jesus well let's see if we can let's see if we can sort of unpack that a little bit here first of all I want to read you two statement from the pen of Ellen White the first one from the book great controversy we cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection that we enjoy can somebody say Amen like I was saying the azure waters and the the waving palms of the Gold Coast we just feel like ah ha this isn't a war zone this is Club Med all right and Ellen White comes to us with a word of caution as the scripture we don't know how much we owe to Christ with a piece of protection that we presently enjoy it is the restraining power of God that prevents notice the language restraining prevents keeping back from passing fully under the control of Satan's suit on the enemy the adversary the great serpent the great fiery serpent the disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel and malignant power of the Evil One but when we pass the limits of divine for parents forbearance that restraint is removed a very different picture now this is not God actively sending this is God removing protection that allows in this case a natural phenomenon or perhaps a supernatural phenomenon under the influence of the great fiery serpent to come into the camp it's not that God is actively causing something to happen that might not otherwise happen God removes his protection he removes his restraint and this is a mind-blowing one this is in a letter that Ellen White one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church wrote to another founder one of the founders of the seventh-day Evans church a man by the name of Uriah Smith very interesting look at what she said in this private letter to your eyes Smith I was shown that the judgments of God would not come directly out from the Lord what no no I was young I was shown that when the judgments came out they didn't come directly they didn't come what's that word everyone they didn't come directly from the Lord look at this but in this sweat in other words not like that God's judgment she says don't come directly from him they happen like this well how they placed themselves beyond his protection he warns he corrects here approves he points out the only path of safety then if those who have been objects of special care will follow their own course independent of the Spirit of God after repeated warnings if they choose their own way then he does not Commission his angels to what's the word there he doesn't Commission as angels to prevent prevent Satan's decided to tax upon them it is Satan's power that is at work at sea and on land bringing calamity and distress sweeping off multitudes to make sure of his prey and storm and tempest both in sea and land will be for Satan has come down in great wrath he is at work he knows that his time is short and if he is not what's the word restrained we shall see more terrible manifestations of his power than we have ever dreamed of see this is a very different picture this is the picture of Revelation chapter 7 where the angels are depicted as holding back the winds of strife the winds have strive for trying to break upon the earth the winds of strife are trying to break upon God's people and they're depicted as being held back by the angelic power being held back by God's God's goodness being held back by God's mercy being held back by his restraint but if we place ourselves consistently rebellious ly and in fortunately outside of God's protective power God doesn't actively send us something he just allows the natural or in some cases in Satan's case the supernatural consequence to come upon us what a fascinating idea that God is not directly sending judgment he is allowing us to have the consequences of our own choices God says okay you want to do that I'm gonna let you do that in fact there's this very interesting idea that comes up in the book of Romans Romans chapter 1 which is one of the most fascinating passages on the wrath of God and right right contained in that in that chapter Romans chapter 1 where Paul is discussing the wrath of God against the Gentiles and then in Chapter 2 against the Jews it's so interesting he uses this phrase God gave them up now if we if we had only that that would sound really harsh and really capricious and really terrible God gives people hop laughs oh God of God is he I thought this was the God that said that that I will never leave you or forsake you that no one could pluck you out of my hand how does God give them up but doesn't say God gives them up it says that God gives them up - and in Romans 1 the thing that he gives them up to is their own choices God never gives up on anyone can the church say Amen no no no no but when we have elected habitually and consistently to give up on God eventually when that threshold of divine forbearances is passed God gives us up to our own choices and I'll tell you if you're out there as a parent do you know that this is one of the great struggles of parenthood when to protect your children from the consequences of their bad choices and when to allow them to suffer the consequences of their bad choices it's a difficult thing and there are parents that overcompensate in both areas there are some parents that always protect their children oh he couldn't have done wrong he couldn't have done that he couldn't he couldn't if he couldn't have she couldn't if she couldn't she couldn't have oh my child is an angel can't say anything bad about my child always protecting always shielding oh my child couldn't have lied my child couldn't have spoken an untruth my child couldn't have been impatience my child could have and the the child goes through life feeling like an absolute angel because they've been told they're an angel and they are but sometimes they're a fallen angel always angels just sometimes fallen angels are you with me and then there's the parent who never protects who never shields who doesn't look out for I don't care when you come home I don't care what you get for grades I don't care I don't care I don't care I don't care don't care both of these are wrong and the trick for good parenting is to know when to shield and when to give over when to give over to the consequences of the bad choices and when to shield and here Israel has pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and complained and complained and now they complain not just against Moses but against God and gods like all right and the thing that kept saying is we're gonna die we're gonna die we're gonna die and he's like okay you apprehend death you anticipate death you see death you think that's what this is about then you will have what you think you're going to get because like what can I do so he doesn't send as much as he allows to be sent and in this case these fiery sizzling saw-scaled Vipers make their way into the camp and again doing their thing look at this verse seven therefore the people came to Moses and they said they have a sudden realization the moans and cries it says many in Israel died we don't know if it was hundreds or thousands but many begin to die and they come to the people in ice they come to Moses and say we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and we have spoken against you pray to the Lord there's one of those major themes Moses intercession pray to Jehovah they will take away the Serpent's from us so Moses prayed for the people I love this idea that Moses prays for the people he intercedes his patience was often tested in fact it was tested just the just shortly around this time when he struck the rock God had said just speak to the rock and he was so must we fetch water from this rock for your rebels Kabam Kabam and gods like ah Moses was a human as well his patience could also be stretched and here we find Moses not in an impatient moment but in a gem genuinely patient moment and the people come back to him and just like our own teenagers just like our own children they've gotten into trouble they're suffering the consequences of their own choices and now they want to come back and make it right and our natural inclination as parents is to say I told you so come on parents am I kidding or not I told you so I told you if you I told you I told you and not that there's not a time to say I told you so but I think better than I told you in those moments of vulnerability in those moments of repentance in those moments of contrition is not I told you but I love you I was hoping for a name in there then God says a very interesting thing to Moses fascinating thing he says it's it's highly unusual and it becomes a central feature in the New Testament the Lord said to Moses not just okay the people are healed which certainly would have been well within the parameters of the resources of omnipotence at God's disposal no no Moses make a fiery Serpent set it on a pole and it shall be that when whoever is bitten everyone who has bitten when he looks at that he will live so amazed us most has made a bronze serpent he put it on a pole and so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone when he looked at the bronze serpent he lived what an unusual thing what a strange remedy I mean is this how medical is this dr. Mahoney right how is this can you imagine saying to that if somebody came in with an ulcer okay may come you know make a mold of a cancer put it on a pole and look at it they'd be like I'm gonna go to another doctor if you don't mind what a serpent on a pole and this becomes a central passage in the New Testament John chapter 3 when Jesus was speaking to the two Nicodemus Nicodemus is not getting it how can a man be born again does he crawl back into his mother's womb and Jesus is like huh you got to be kidding me if I talk to you about spiritual things and you can't discern it if I'm talking to you about just regular human things you can't discern what if I talked about spiritual things you're gonna lose the plot he says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so just like this in the same way must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life can somebody say Amen and here it comes say it with me 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 for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved can somebody say Amen the best-known most quoted best-loved verse in all of the Bible and what's the context it's numbers 21 it's the serpent on a pole it's the fiery serpents it's the rebellion it's the complaining it's the murmuring it's the impatience and it's this strange bronze serpent at the top of a pole seemingly incongruous seemingly impossible to work therapeutically rationally how could that work John chapter 8 verse 28 then jesus said to them when you lift up the Son of man then you will know that I am he and I do nothing of myself but as my father has taught me I speak these things when you lift him up all of the Jews the religious leaders to whom he was speaking in John eight would have immediately understood serpent on the pole in John chapter 12 personal favorite beginning in verse 32 and I if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all peoples to myself this he said signifying by what death he would die in anticipation of his crucifixion then the people answered him we have heard from the law that Christ remains forever Messiah it's not gonna die they didn't understand that it would've been a resurrection that's another story and how can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up who is this son of man and here's something we need to bear in mind the camp of Israel had hundreds of thousands of people and it perhaps as many as a couple million people now there might not have been as many at this time because they've been wandering for so long but we'll use round figures of a million people it's a lot of people a lot of people a million people in that camp and hundreds and perhaps thousands have been bids and it would have been some energy it would have been some effort to have gone to the pole they wouldn't have had the architectural ability to raise up an Empire State Building or a World Trade Center tower I don't know how high it would have been maybe maybe 10 meters and you would have had to make some effort you would have had to make some energy to go to see the thing and that's what Jesus is saying when he says I will draw all men to me people from the outer skirts and the fringes of the camp would have had to make a special trip to go look and they would have been weakened and they would have thought man huh what I wanted to look at this silly metal snake on a pole that's absurd in fact there were some really really good reasons not to look I can think of at least five maybe you can think of some others why not look well I can think of several here's one many had already died there was the evidence of death all around you and somebody saying hey there's a metal snake on the top of a pole go look at it you'll be better yeah cheers for that you mock me in my in my in my pain you mock me and my woundedness number two it would have been inconvenient for some to have traveled even if it was only the equivalent of a city block or two or three you think you think of an encampment of a million people that's not the size of this church sanctuary right that's that's a large area and people would have had to made an energy and an effort to have gone and people that's inconvenient I'll just stay over here in my tent and die the venomous serpents were real Braun's thing was just a bronze this is bronze don't talk to me about metal snakes dude I got bit by a real one with real scales it made a sizzling sound like a fire I'm talking about metal snakes the bronze serpent was powerless anybody knew that they'd made it themselves hasn't God been telling them again and again that Idol is nothing an idol is nothing an idol is nothing come on there's no power in that oh of course they knew there was no power in that and finally it made no sense it was I can think of reasons not to look good reasons defensible reasons but there was one really good reason to look and the good reason was is that you got to live several years ago I took a trip to Africa and I found out that I was going to an area that was high in malaria high malarial concentration and I said hey you know called a friend of mine who'd been a missionary in Africa for 15 years said hey I'm going to the certain areas oh that's a lot of malaria there and I said yeah tell me I need to take this medicine and he's like yeah yeah what medicine are they advising and I told him what it was and he said oh yeah and I said you know I hear there's some nasty side effects and I went down the list and he's like yeah yeah there's all that that's all true I've taken that he says all that could very well happen I've experienced some of those side effects he said but there is a really good side effect and I was like oh maybe I get better looking maybe I get you know I was like I was like oh really there's some good side effects too he's like yeah you get to live it was inconvenient and it was irrational and it was seemingly absurd but there was one big upside of going and looking at the serpent and that was you got to live it says that the people looked and lived in Jesus in the Gospel of John John chapter 3 John chapter 8 John chapter 12 Jesus uses this story and why a serpent what an absurd symbol or picture or figure of Jesus why a serpent well isn't it obvious for he has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him Jesus becomes the serpent Jesus becomes the snake Jesus becomes the filth Jesus becomes death Jesus becomes the curse when he was lifted up he bore the sin of the world on his person he became sin for us he was like the serpens and we look to Jesus there the offscouring of the earth as it says there in Isaiah 53 we esteemed him not stricken smitten of God and afflicted we couldn't even look on and we turned our eyes away because it was such a rad esteem and repulsive idea to think that somebody hanging on a roman instrument of torture bruised and bleeding hundreds now thousands of years ago how could that have any medicinal benefit how could it have any therapeutic benefit it's absurd and yet Jesus says just luck believe I want to close with two statements from the pen of Ellen White and then I want to talk about these computer screens here too for many had brought their offerings to God and they had felt that in bringing their offerings they had made atonement for their sins but they did not rely upon the Redeemer to come of whom these offerings were only a type the Lord would now teach them that their sacrifices in themselves had no more power than the serpent of brass but were like that to lead their minds to Christ the great sin offering nothing but the righteousness of Christ can entitle us to the covenants of grace and somebody better say Amen nothing but the righteousness of Christ I love this idea we've already spent time on this how the notion the idea that we would bring a sacrifice that we would what with what shall I come before the Lord with thousands of rams will he be satisfied with rivers of blood should I present my own son we've already learned that the whole notion of sacrifice was to give us a picture a window into the great sacrifice that's not something that we provide it's something that God himself provided can you say Amen there's no power in the sacrifice there was no power in the bronze serpent either God is teaching them the lesson these are just windows these are just vehicles these are models or miniatures or arrows pointing you to me to my goodness to my mercy to my power and to my salvation and so two of us what are the things what are the religious things that we think are powerful let me tell you they're not powerful our songs are not powerful our praise is not powerful our prayers are not powerful even these religious accoutrements these seemingly nice religious things they're not powerful in and of themselves they are only powerful in as much as they direct our minds to him who possesses all power and all goodness and all mercy and all love your prayer isn't powerful God is powerful your praise isn't powerful God is powerful your money's not powerful God is powerful the serpent wasn't powerful God was powerful God was good God was merciful and I love this line nothing nothing nothing but the righteousness of Christ can give us access to the covenant of grace as the old hymn writer said nothing in my hand I bring I'm just clinging to that cross I'm just clinging to that pole I'm just clinging to that pole with that bronze serpent but when Jesus came it wasn't a bronze serpent he was a flesh and blood and bruised and beaten and battered and bloodied human who took the form as it were of a serpent when our sin and our rebellion in our oppression and our injustice in our rape and our murder and our unkindness and our disease and our ugliness and our meanness and our gossip was laid on Jesus and he bore it and he wore it and God says look and believe and live close with this look and live look at this the lifting up of the brazen serpent was to teach is real an important lesson they could not save themselves from the fatal effect of the poison that was in their wounds there it is there's the wound the snake got me right there the poisons in there what can I do can't do anything the poison of cancer is in you guys poison of cancers in me the poison of sinners in me selfishness is in me what can I do should I put a tourniquet on it should I put a charcoal poultice on it there's a garlic gonna take away my sin no no no no no they could not save themselves in the fatal effect of the poison in their wounds God alone was able to heal them can the church say Amen we are not to yield to discouragement well that's what happened in Israel oh we are not to yield to discouragement but to rely on the merits of a crucified and risen Savior look and live he will save all who come to him though millions who need to be healed will reject his offered mercy no one who trusts in his merits will be left to perish please say Amen Church please no one not one not a single one many are unwilling to accept of Christ until the whole mystery of the plan of salvation shall be made plain to them they refuse the look of faith although they see that thousands have looked and have felt the power of looking to the cross of Christ many wander in the mazes of philosophy in search of reasons and evidence which they will never find while they reject the evidence which God has been pleased to give they refuse to walk in the light of the Sun of righteousness until the reason of its shining shall be sufficiently explained all who persist in this course will fail to come to a knowledge of the truth God will never remove every occasion for doubt he gives sufficient evidence upon which to base faith and if this is not accepted the mind is left in darkness if those who were bitten by the serpents had stopped to doubt and question before they would consent to look they would have perished it is our duty first to look and the look of faith will give us life beloved the message of the gospel is look and live and believe that God became sin for you God in Christ bore your sin he bore your stubbornness he bore your rebellion he bore your your your all of your ugliness he bore it and you believe it and you look and you live now I have a question for you as we close and that is what are you looking at but in many cases I already know you're looking at these things look at these things that I brought up they come in all sizes these fiery serpents they come in the 1980s size 1980s they come in the 1990s mm size they come in the 2000 they come in this size you ever seen one of these look it opens up it can sit on your lap laptop just sit right there you don't have to move it used to be so far away when the television was all the way across the room everybody have to get up to change the channel ah the indignity have it all black and white coat hangers sticking out of the top of that box try to get the oh and now you just set it right there the whole world at your fingertips even right now I'm online already I'm getting facebook updates as I open look at this and if that's a little too big for you you like something a little more discreet maybe something like this what's do you go lovely with that snappy spring ensemble that you've been looking at great but even this is so big nowadays look at that thing it's old it's like it's like Henry Ford had these things back with the Model T no no you can get this sighs look at that the mini comes with its own case set it right up look at that oh it's getting so oh maybe that's even too big maybe you need something like this this is much better little television it doesn't have to be across the room in fact it's for most of us it's never further away than our arm where's my phone in our sabbath-school room this morning we did something and I thought a few of the young people gonna have a heart attack we had a cell phone freeze on all cell phones off we provided paper bibles some of them had ever seen a paper Bible before so what is this what is the strange thin substance and there are words now I'm not falling for that old I'll look at it on my Bible trap because I know how that works it happens on me too I get these little push notifications and it's like I go to look up a text and oh that's it before I know it the text is like it's like four layers back of attention span now I want to tell you something here's a fascinating point you might be saying are you saying and if you're not yet ready to let your have have your children have phones then you can give them the much more innocuous iPod so what do you want you want the 12 year old iPod the 10 year old iPod or maybe you've graduated to the you know the teen with their phone just can't even conceive of a world without it or maybe you're more of an iPad person what what size serpent would you like to be bitten by now here's the point some of you are thinking is he saying these things are all serpents why I am kind of saying that but here's the larger point those serpents were in the wilderness God didn't have to create them they were there they just hadn't been bitten just because this is in your home doesn't mean you've been bitten but some of you surely have you see the serpent in the wilderness wasn't in and of itself a danger but when it bites you it's a danger a smartphone is just a phone until it's not and then it becomes that thing that you cannot get your eyes off of gotta have it got a look at it Facebook Instagram Twitter or it could even be more nefarious could go the pornography or out could go then I've already had this conversation and I want to say this again I took a few hits for it I'm gonna say it again parents if you have teenage children and you have unlimited internet access in your phone you are making a colossal a bad choice I'm gonna switch to this name if you have the if you have the Internet in your house unlimited and your children could go in their own room teenage children at any hour and look at the Internet at anytime on their devices I'm telling you right now the kids might hate me for this you are making a terrible parenting choice and I have no problem saying that not because your kids are bad kids but because you're not sending your children into the library and then saying stay away from the CD section you're not sending them into the book store and saying stay away from the CD section you're sending them into the strip club and saying now look at your Bible because all it takes is three four letters all it takes is is one click all it takes is one and and all the sudden all of the Filth's all of the you see for those of us that are 30 and old or 25 and older we can't even we don't understand our children have never known another world this is their world where at the end of their fingertips just at any moment in any place under any circumstance filth that you would never put in front of your eyes can be right in front of them and if it's not filth it's the utter distraction of continually we know how this is and I want to challenge my young people because at the end of the day you don't need discipline you need self-discipline if you're waiting for your parents to lay down the rules and by the way some of your parents should be laying down far better and more reasonable rules and you say why is he harping on this the 11 I am deeply concerned about our young people and I'm concerned not just about the young people I'm concerned about you how much time are we looking at these fiery serpents are we looking at filth I used to be able to say I don't know a television and I don't but that doesn't matter anymore now I've got dozens of these little televisions not literally dozens but effectively every disgusting television program right there ready for the download right and your kids are a lot smarter than you are by the way on the internet far smarter you said oh no I checked his history history tells you nothing all you have to do is click the little button that says private history tells you nothing you just clicked the private button and you're off to the races and you go look at your son your daughter's history and everything looks fine I'm telling you it's entirely possible that the soul of your family is being robbed right from underneath you and I'm not saying be controlling I'm saying have a relationship with your children and children have a relationship with your parents talk openly and honestly we do occasionally watch movies in our home but I watch movies with my children and when something comes up a nice pause it and I say land what do you think about this table what do you think about this is this a good idea it's a bad idea this decision that this person is about ready to make and we don't watch filth but we'll watch something as I hey what do you think Oh dad I think this is a bad think he's gonna make a bad decision and there will be occasional movies where we'll start we'll get 30 minutes and I'll say sorry boys I can't have this in my home you see the one reaction is to say no no none for you well that's an overreaction and then you'll basically be pulling the rubber band back and creating a slingshot effect where your kids can't wait to have it but the other is to say ah I trust you go ahead and I know the kids in this church and they are generally good kids in fact all of them I love the young people of this church that's one of the reasons I volunteered to teach their Sabbath school class but I want to tell you the snake crawled in the tents it bit them in the tents it can happen in your house it can happen on the bus it can happen anywhere I'm telling you whether it's these not all video games are bad but there are some video games that these kids are playing that are insane hugely addictive in fact they've done study after study and I'll just throw this out there there are new studies in which pediatricians are saying that you should not set a screen in front of your children under the age of 8 you're independent of the content content has nothing to do with what they're seeing it's a flashing screen that they're now beginning to see is actually affecting the neural development of children and yet some children that is their babysitter just just non-stop never more than an arm's length away and I want to challenge you what are you looking at for many of us this is what we're looking at right and it's not just on the kids it's on some of you too watching ridiculous my question is is are you looking at the serpent on a pole I want to challenge you to spend at least as much time looking at the bronze serpent as you spend looking at the flashing screen I want to challenge you to spend at least as much time looking at the bronze serpent I had a privileged day yesterday it was an unusual day for me my appointments just sort of opened up and I ended up with like six hours to sit on my back porch and just bathe myself in the book of numbers and I tell you it was so awesome now most of us we don't get that I don't get every deck and spent six hours in Scripture that's a rarity but man just to bathe yourself in the text better than any movie better than any Facebook post better than any Instagram better than any pornography site just to bathe yourself in God in His goodness in his word and in the righteousness of Christ I plead with you Church look and live father in heaven the righteousness of Christ is right there available and not just available but abundantly available universally available not one should be lost not one should be cast aside and father just as that serpent was available there it was all you had to do was you didn't have to do 50 pushups you didn't have to run a mile just look and father I want to pray for my church and I want to pray for this world father our soul is being stolen by the flashing lights and so many of us are just so amesh in this mechanical technological social media world we can't conceive of life without it father I want to pray I want to plead for the soul of my young people father I don't think they're gonna get rid of their phones I don't I don't think that's even necessary but father I plead that you will fill them with your spirit and fill them with grace and fill them with the love of Jesus that they'll be what we learned about today on our Sabbath school there'll be men and women chiseled a character chiseled by the grace of God Father give them not just discipline parental discipline but father I pray especially for those in the 12 to 20 years old give them self-discipline make them men and women after your own heart and father for us as parents Lord we're we're out of our depth here we're we're in way over our head this is a world that we could have never imagined this is a world of Buck Rogers world of the 21st century only it's stranger and weirder than we could have ever thought and many of us father have the blinders on because as parents we should either be almost totally discouraged or we are totally ignorant when we think about the access that our children have to things that we would have never thought about 20 years ago 40 years ago so father may we not be either discouraged or ignorant but may we be intelligent proactive spirit-filled god-fearing righteousness of Christ believing parents and may we speak openly and honestly and vulnerably with our children father I plead with you on behalf of Christ save our families I claim the promise of Isaiah verse chapter 49 verse 25 I will contend with him that contends with you and I will save your children father save us save our children save this church teach us to look and to live in the name of Jesus Christ let everyone say Amen

Channel: Kingscliff Church

Views: 11,446

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Keywords: Kingscliff SDA Church

Id: Oc5mcbvS-AU

Length: 66min 44sec (4004 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2015