NUMBERS 21 SIN CAN BE FORGIVEN BUT NOT UNDONE2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Numbers 21 Sin Can Be Forgiven But Not Undone

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. As we look at Numbers chapter 21 this morning, continuing our journey through the Bible in three years here, we're with the children of Israel in the wilderness. I would ask you as we begin to consider, have you ever wished...

Have you ever looked for, have you ever desired, have you ever desperately wanted that there would be an undo button that you could press in the circumstances of life? Have you ever had those times, those situations where, boy, if only you could go back and redo that conversation?

You would do it differently for sure. If you could kind of like rewind the tape, you know, and re-go through that experience, boy, you would make different decisions. You would handle it differently. If only you could go back and

On a computer, you know, as you're working on a Word document or something or working on some project, you know, having that Control-Z or Command-Z, depending on what platform you use, but the ability to just like, hey, it's the way it was before. Nothing happened, you know, and we're able to just erase everything that happened in between. We're able to undo or do over. And when it comes to life, I'm sure that you've had that experience where you wished that

You could do that. You wish there was that button or you had that remote, right, that could kind of control things and go back and you could fix things or maybe get in Bill and Ted's time machine and go back. And that's a time machine, right, that reference going way back then. But have an excellent adventure, you know, go back and fix things that were in the past. Maybe as a kid, you know, you were one of those kids who would be in the middle of a game and you would just, you know, announce do over and you could just, you know, rewrite the rules, do what you wanted to do. You know, that

turn didn't matter. Let's start over. Everybody, you know, put your pieces back where they were on the board or, you know, go back on the field in the positions you were. We're just going to pretend like that never happened and start over again. And those kids later on grew up and started to play golf and they invented the mulligan, you know, where you can just, hey, let's just pretend like that bad shot didn't happen. Let's just pretend like there was no mistake and we'll just start here. No counts against me, you know.

It's an undo button or a do over. And I think we can all look at aspects and times of our life where we wish we could exercise that and go back and fix things that we have done or gone through.

Here as we look at Numbers chapter 21 and this situation with the children of Israel in the wilderness and the fiery serpents that came and the way that God resolved this situation, the way that God handled it, it reveals to us some very important truths about how God works. We learn a lot from this passage about the way that God deals with issues of sin and

also the offer of forgiveness and the things that result from that. We do know, of course, that God does offer forgiveness even when his people sin against him very greatly. But at the same time, I would ask you to consider this morning that although the Lord offers forgiveness and a reset as far as your relationship with him, he doesn't actually rewind the tape and

and remove that situation from ever happening. He doesn't undo the sin or necessarily the consequences of the sin, but instead he provides a way out through faith and obedience to forgiveness and right relationship with him. I've titled the message this morning, Sin Can Be Forgiven But Not Undone.

And there's a little bit of a balance that we need to have in our approach to understanding this because we do rejoice in the grace of God and the amazing goodness of God in that he provides to us the avenue and the opportunity of forgiveness. And yet at the same time, I would caution you this morning and exhort you to consider that the aftermath of sin, there are some consequences. There are some aspects to life that are, well,

Parts of judgment and parts of consequences, parts that are unpleasant as a result of our sin. And as much as the grace and mercy of God is so abundant in our lives, God does not undo the sin in such a way so that we don't experience the effects of our sin. Sin can be forgiven, but not undone.

It's the way that God has chosen to work. And so we learn here from the nation of Israel and some important truths for us to grasp hold of to help us to receive the forgiveness, but also to go forward in a way of understanding and appreciating that sin is to be avoided in our lives.

There's four points I'd like to highlight for you from this passage. We're going to camp out for a little bit with point number one in verses four through six, and that is speaking against God is sin. Here's the sin that Israel was involved with. They were speaking against God there in the wilderness. We're going to start here in verse four. Here's what it says. Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom.

As we jump into the point in time where the nation of Israel is in Numbers chapter 21, we find Israel at the end of their 40 years of wandering.

As God had brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt, you might remember, he took them through the Red Sea and into Sinai. He met with them at Mount Sinai and gave them the law, gave them the tabernacle and all of that. It took about a year for all of that to take place, for God to bring his people right to the edge of the promised land.

And there at Kadesh Barnea, as they were there right on the border, ready to go in, they sent in the spies. They learned there were giants in the land and the people, well, they struggled with faith. They struggled with believing God and they decided we're not going to go where God has called us to go into the promised land. No, we're gonna go back there.

to Egypt. And so they rebelled against God there. And God said, okay, this generation is not going to go into the promised land. Instead, this generation is going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

Here's a quick look at the geography there. So you have Egypt there on the left, and they crossed over to the Red Sea. They were in Sinai, and then they circled around the wilderness for 40 years. They were in that same location, just going in circles as the Lord led them with the cloud by day and the fire by night. Kadesh Barnea was kind of at the north end of that wilderness area, and so that's where they were when they almost went in but didn't. They've wandered around, gone past it a few times, gone over and over, and now they're back there.

They're back there in that same position where they were 40 years earlier. Most of the previous generation has died. So now it's the new generation, the generation that God said they're going to go into the promised land. And so here they are right on the edge, right on the border. In verses 1 through 3 of chapter 21, we see there's a little battle that takes place that some of the Canaanites come out of Canaan. They come down, they attack, and

take some of the people captive and they cry out to God and ask for help and they fight back and they deliver the people who are taken captive and so they have a victory. But here they are right on the border. They've had a little bit of a battle. They're right about to enter into the promised land and they could see it.

But there's something in between. They could see the promised land. In fact, if you would look at this, you would think, okay, the path to get to the promised land is just straight up. Just keep going north. There's the land of Canaan. That's where God's called us to. It's right there. We can see it. But the land of Edom was between them and the promised land. And the king of Edom had declared, you cannot go through our territory. We're not going to allow you. If you start coming through our territory, we're going to come and fight you. And God gave them specific instructions that

Well, don't go through the land of Edom then. You're not going to fight them. I'm not going to give you victory over the Edomites. And so verse five, I'm sorry, verse four here is describing to us the way they had to go instead. They couldn't just go straight up through because the land of Edom was there. Instead, they had to go back around and go around Edom, go all the way around the Dead Sea, and then come into the promised land from the side across the Jordan River.

They were so close. Like they could just, they could see the border right across. I mean like, yeah, there it is. It's right there across the land of Edom. But they couldn't cross. They were right there. And then they had to turn, go the opposite direction. The route that they took is probably a little bit different than I'm illustrating here. But just to kind of give you the point, they had to go like the wrong direction and go all the way, the long way around in order to get to the promised land.

And it says they're on this route as they can see the promised land. They're right there, but they have to turn around. They have to walk away. They have to go back through the wilderness, back through the desert. It's along that way that these events transpire. And it tells us here in verse four that the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. I think you and I can look at this situation. We can look at the route that they had to take. We can kind of

Really sympathize with the nation of Israel here, can't we? We can recognize how discouraging that would be. This is a generation that has been promised the promised land. They've grown up with their parents. They've watched, you know, the previous generation die as they've wandered around. They've been waiting for this time. They're just weeks away from actually entering into the promised land. They're so close. They're right there. And then now to have to turn back and go the long way around. They become very discouraged.

along the way. It's difficult. We could all relate to that. We can all understand that. And at the same time, I would encourage us to make sure in our lives as we have similar kinds of situations where what we desire and maybe even what has been promised to us is right there, but it's just not quite time yet. And there seems to be some more difficulty, a little bit more journey, a little bit more travel left. And we can feel that same sense of discouragement that Israel felt.

And as we look at this example, I would encourage you and remind you to not let discouragement become sin. Don't let discouragement become sin in your life. Up to this point, we've only read one verse. Verse four, it's not a sin issue yet. They're discouraged along the way. That's okay. As far as their hearts with God, they're not in sin yet. They haven't rebelled against God yet. To be discouraged is not the issue.

To have that wrestling with those emotions and the discouragement and the disappointment and all of that, that wasn't necessarily an issue yet. They haven't committed the sin yet, but they take that discouragement and they allow that then to become sin in their lives. And that is not a requirement. That doesn't have to happen. I would encourage you to consider the example of Job.

Talking about discouragement, right? Talking about a difficult path, talking about those kinds of things. We can understand Job had much reason to be discouraged, much reason to be depressed. He was afflicted. He was, you know, struck like no one else has been struck before apart from Jesus Christ. And yet through all of that, the Lord is pretty clear that Job, although he was discouraged and depressed, he was

He did not move into the territory of sin like the nation of Israel did. You might remember Job's wife in Job chapter two. She gives him great encouragement. She says, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. Look at all the stuff you're experiencing. Look at all the affliction, the difficulty. Like, why don't you just curse God, rebel against God, give up and just die already? I mean, why are you still holding on? And Job responds to her in verse 10. He says, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks.

Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? And then notice the commentary about Job and his message there. It says, in all this, Job did not sin with his lips. At this point in Job chapter two, Job has experienced all of the affliction that, that, you know, the enemy wanted to unleash upon him, except for the friends. The friends haven't showed up yet. And those were extra affliction that were added to his pains. But Job,

But although he'd experienced the loss of everything and great pain and personal difficulty, he did not sin with his lips. Was Job discouraged? Was he perplexed? Was he confused? Was he depressed? Did he have to deal with severe emotions? Well, the rest of the chapters of Job pretty clearly illustrate that, yes, he did. I mean, he was confused. He was not sure what was going on. He was going through great severe emotions.

And yet at the same time,

Job did not sin with his lips. At the end of the book of Job, in Job chapter 42, the Lord himself testifies. He talks to Job's friends and he says, look, you guys, you've misrepresented me. You've done terrible things to Job. You need to pray and ask Job to pray to me that you would be forgiven because of what you've done. And in Job chapter 42 verse seven, God says, you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.

And so from the beginning of the book to the ending of the book, God's testimony about Job is clear. He went through great discouragement, but he didn't let that turn into sin in his life where he began to speak against God and charge God with wrong or charge God with sin. But the nation of Israel, well, they didn't handle it so well. In verse five, it goes on to say, the people spoke against God and against Moses and

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and our soul loathes this worthless bread. We can all relate to, we can all sympathize with the nation of Israel in the discouragement that they experienced. But now we see them move on past discouragement. They allow that discouragement to be an excuse for them to speak against God.

And it tells us here they speak against God and Moses. This idea of speaking against is, well, it might sound kind of minor, you know, to speak against, but the issue is not so much that they had questions, or again, they had discouragement, or even that they expressed discouragement

the discouragement. Again, as you look at the book of Job, you see Job expressed his emotions. He expressed what he was feeling, but there's a difference in talking about the difficulty that's going on and processing the emotions that are there to then having a position of opposition to God. They spoke against God. They said, why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?

They're questioning God's motives. They're questioning God's capability. They're questioning God altogether and saying, God, you did wrong in bringing us out of Egypt. You didn't do the right thing. Why did you do the wrong thing towards us? Why did you treat us the wrong way? They're in opposition to God at this point. And part of the reason is

Well, they don't like the way that they're being provided for. They say there's no food and there's no water and our soul loathes this worthless bread. There's no food, there's no water. Now here is the nation of Israel. And if you haven't been following along with us, you know, maybe you kind of are not seeing the whole scope of what's going on here. But this is a people that for 40 years,

God has provided for miraculously on a daily basis. In the wilderness, the wilderness was not set up to sustain this kind of people, this many people. There wasn't water resources for them in the desert for this many people. But miraculously, supernaturally, God has provided for them over and over again. And they've complained and cried out to God and spoken against God in the past. And God has met their need for food and water.

They've experienced, again, this is primarily the younger generation now about to enter into the promised land. For their whole lives, they've experienced this daily provision of manna where they didn't have to plow fields and plant wheat and then harvest it. No, every day they would go out and there the manna would be on the dew on the ground. And they were provided for daily, miraculously, supernaturally by God for 40 years in the wilderness. And now they're

against God saying, this is worthless bread. God, the provision that you've given to us and what you've done for us, it's worthless. We don't like it. We don't want it. We want nothing to do with it. You can see this is pretty severe in their attitude against God. Now, I would make sure to point out, it is okay

to be real with the struggles and difficulties that we face in life and to be real about the emotions that we experience and even the discouragement that goes with it. This is not to say that we have to pretend like everything is great and there are no problems and everything is just always roses and glorious. But the issue comes when we then allow that to put us in a position where we are complaining against God.

where we're complaining about God's provision and God's leading and God's direction, where we are putting ourselves in opposition to God. And God was offended by this. This was a sin issue to a great degree. And so it tells us in verse six, so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died. Many people died because

because of this attitude of opposition, this against God position that they took, complaining about his direction, his leading, his provision. It was a serious sin to speak against God, to despise what he has done and the way that he has provided for them all of these years. And so there's some consequences to that sin. There's some judgment for that sin. And

The Lord sends fiery serpents. It's a direct response. It's a direct consequence to their sin. God sends. He brings fiery serpents. They weren't there before, but now they're there because God has brought them and they bit the people and many people died. This is really important for us to consider. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 says,

talks about the Old Testament kind of in general and says, look, all of this was written as an example for us. But in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 9, he specifically mentions this instance. And he says, look, this was written, this was recorded for us so that we would learn to not tempt the Lord in the way that they did, to not test his patience, to not complain against God the way that they did.

And so we have this passage before us this morning and it's a reminder, it's a call for us to pay attention to the position of our hearts, to keep ourselves, although we may face discouragement. Listen, again, we can sympathize with Israel. We all know what it's like and we will all continue to face situations in our lives where we will experience and feel discouragement. And

where we'll have questions, where we'll be perplexed about what God is doing and why do we have to go this way and why is it so hard? And there will be those kinds of situations in our lives, but we need to be careful and we need to recognize that to despise God's provision and God's leading and God's direction, well, it puts us in opposition to God. Speaking against God is sin.

And I would encourage you this morning, don't let discouragement in your life and the discouraging situations and the depressing things bring you to the place where you begin to speak against God and to think little of all that he has done for you. We have a sign on our living room wall. It says, there's always something to be grateful for. And I was looking at that sign yesterday and thinking, man, I'm glad that's there.

I was working on some technical stuff and not having a good time with it. Things weren't coming together the way that I had hoped and anticipated and expected. And the Lord had spoken some things to me. I don't know if he does this with you, but God speaks programming code to me sometimes. And he gave some code to me in the morning and I put it to work and it worked, but it didn't take me as far as I thought. I was like right there on the border of the promised land. It was like right there. It's like I could, it's almost working all the way.

and I couldn't get it to work, and man, I was like bummed, and then I'm laying there, and I'm seeing the sign on the living room. There's always something to be grateful for. We need to be careful that we don't allow the things that we face, the situations that we face, the discouragement that we come up against to bring us to the place to cause us to forget how good God is.

And how good God has been to us. God has daily provision for you if you will receive it. Think about what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. He said, Paul is talking about the great difficulty that he's experiencing in 2 Corinthians 4.

Again, he's talking about his difficulty. He's talking about his discouragement. He's talking about the perplexity of, I don't understand the difficulties that we're facing and why it's so hard. And I mean, he's being real about all of that. But in the midst of that, he said, we're not losing heart. We're not letting this discouragement become sin for us and that we speak against God. Instead, I'm coming to God day by day and being renewed, right?

And this is what God has for you. If you will receive it, God has daily provision for you. Like they receive the manna every day. God has manna for you every day to help you be renewed within day by day. So that as the circumstances around, the outward things are discouraging and oppressing and difficult, and yet you can experience that inward renewal from the Lord day by day.

Don't allow yourself to go to that place of speaking against God, dissatisfied with God's work, God's provision, God's will, God's ways. Instead, learn to run to God day by day and be renewed. Well, as we continue on in the passage here, we're going to look now at verse seven for point number two, and that is forgiveness is requested with confession.

Here, Israel, they failed in this regard. They completely blew it and they sinned against God and they experienced the consequences of that sin, which was severe. Many people died as a result. But that's not the end of the story. God now is going to give them the opportunity to be forgiven and to have life even in the midst of the...

attacks of these snakes and the consequences of their sin. There's the opportunity for forgiveness, but we find an important truth here in verse 7, and that is that forgiveness is requested with confession. Forgiveness isn't just automatically applied. It's not just, you know, given to everybody no matter what. There is a request that is made along with the confession. Verse 7 says, Therefore,

The people came to Moses and said, we have sinned. For we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Here the nation of Israel comes to Moses with confession. This idea of confession, it's an acknowledgement of

It's an agreement with God. What we did was wrong. We have sinned. Notice the change that has taken place. In the previous verse, we saw they spoke against God. There was this opposition against God and against Moses. But now they come to Moses and to the Lord. They're asking for prayer. They come now to, they were against, but now they're changing their direction and

and they're coming to Moses. We spoke against you. We have sinned. You can understand that would be quite humbling, but that was exactly what was needed. It didn't happen this way, but I can kind of picture it in my head. The people complaining, there's no food out here, and why did you take us this way? Why did you bring us out of Egypt? We had it great there, which they didn't, but the people are complaining, and Moses saying something along the lines of, don't come crawling back to me when the serpents start biting.

I could see that happening. I could envision that in my head. That's not what happened. But we all have those kinds of scenarios. We've experienced those. We've been on both sides of it probably, right? I told you so, you know, that kind of thing and that kind of attitude. And for us to come back after we've blown it and to say, I was wrong. I have sinned. Sometimes that's one of the most difficult things that we ever have to do.

Boy, our pride gets in our way so often and that even when we know we're wrong, the difference between knowing we're wrong and coming to the place where we can admit it and say, I have sinned, I was wrong. And sometimes, although we know we're wrong, we can't even bring ourselves to that place to be able to openly acknowledge that and recognize that and admit that. But this is the way the children of Israel come to Moses.

And they're gonna experience the forgiveness of God because this is the way that you experience forgiveness from God. They didn't come to Moses and say, you know, Moses, I mean, what we did wasn't really good. We spoke against you. We spoke against God. But you know, we were really discouraged, right?

I mean, the promised land was like right there. Like we were so close. We were right there. And then we had to turn around. And so, you know, on that journey, you know, it just was really hard. And we're just seeing more dirt and desert and we were thirsty and stuff. And so what we did was wrong, but it wasn't that bad because I mean, we were just, normally I wouldn't behave that way. Normally I wouldn't speak against you like that, but it was just really discouraging time for us. They didn't come with

Their reasonings for why their sin shouldn't be considered so bad as it was, they didn't, and if you think about that, I mean, realistically, them coming back in that way would be still saying, God, you're not doing what's right. You know, you're treating us too harshly. That's, you know, you should understand we were discouraged, but they weren't coming back with their excuses. They weren't coming back with their reasons why what they did shouldn't be considered so bad, right?

They came back with confession saying, we have sinned. If you want to ask for forgiveness, listen, God is excited to give out forgiveness. He rejoices to give out forgiveness. But not everybody receives forgiveness. There's a key to the door of forgiveness. And that key is confession. Not coming with excuses. Confession.

Not coming with reasonings why, well, I normally wouldn't do that. I wouldn't talk that way. I wouldn't behave that way. But, you know, here's all the situations that were going on in my life. And that's why, although I did and it was bad, it was wrong. But, you know, it wasn't that bad because of, and that excusing away of our behavior, that's not the way to receive the forgiveness of God. Forgiveness is requested with confession. Pastor J. Vernon McGee puts it this way.

The only way that God will begin with us is as sinners. You see, Christ died for sinners and he loves sinners. If you can't come in under that category, then Christ is not for you. He came for sinners. You and I, when we come to the Lord, when we come to God, whether that's initially or day by day or on a Sunday morning, that we must come to God first.

Not as those who produce our own righteousness. Not as those who have earned the blessings of God or presence of God or forgiveness of God. But we are in a perpetual state of coming before God as sinners. And we need to learn to come to God not with our, you know, look at how good I've been, God, our efforts.

Also, not our excuses. Hey, I've not been so good, but there's good reasons why I've not been so good. So you can kind of excuse that. No, we need to come before God. We need to learn to come before God with a real acknowledgement about the condition of our heart and the sin that we've involved ourselves in.

This past Wednesday, we looked at 2 Samuel chapter 11 as we work our way through, working our way through the books of Samuel, following along with the life of David. And we saw the encounter, the incident with David and his adultery with Bathsheba there in 2 Samuel chapter 11. And we'll continue to see that into chapter 12 as we look at it this Wednesday and continue to consider the recovery of David from that sin. But

At first, David is not requesting forgiveness with confession. Now, what we saw in chapter 11 is instead he tries to cover his sin. He doesn't repent of his sin. He doesn't confess his sin. He tries to cover his sin. And he makes things worse as it takes him from adultery then into murder. And there's some serious issues going on in his heart and some serious consequences that follow later.

Now he will come to the place of confession and repentance and we'll see that develop, but that's not his first approach. And like Israel, we can sympathize with David, can't we? But we know what that's like also, to have the sin issue and then try to fix it by covering it in some way, in some form, in some fashion, whether it be with some kind of cover-up or excuses or reasons or whatever.

There's all kinds of ways that we do that, but it's not the way to receive forgiveness. How do we receive forgiveness? It's with confession. The apostle John tells us in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we confess our sins, then he's faithful and just to forgive us. Not if you go to the Lord and tell him why what you did wasn't so bad because of all the circumstances that you were involved with. Then you can be forgiven, right? Lord, I wouldn't normally treat her that way, but I mean, she was treating me this way and then she said this and then that other thing happened and then I was just, it was just a moment of weakness. And so instead of owning, confessing, admitting,

our part in the sin. You see, it doesn't matter how bad you treat me. That doesn't give me the right or excuse me from sinning against God. And that's not going to help if I explain, well, Jeff treated me this way. You know, he messed up my car and then cut me off. And then he tricked me when I was walking. And so that's why I did to him what I did to him.

And while you and I as human beings, we can sympathize with that rationality and okay, I understand, yeah, coming to that place and behaving that way, okay, I can sympathize with what you were going through. But when it comes to receiving forgiveness, it doesn't come that way. It doesn't come from getting sympathy or explaining why, you know, there's all the reasons why it's not as bad as it looks or it's not as bad or I wouldn't have normally done that.

When we come to God, when we come for forgiveness, it needs to be with confession, without the excuses, without the reasons, but just being open and honest with the Lord, admitting this is what I have done. Forgiveness is requested with confession. Now, along with this confession, the Israelites do have a request. They ask Moses to pray to the Lord and

And notice the request there in verse 7. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. Here the Israelites are asking for an undo button. Undo, undo, take away the serpents. You're right, we have sinned. Please remove the consequences from that, the judgment for that. Now as we go forward here, we'll see them receive forgiveness.

But the sin is not undone. And we'll dwell on that on the last point. But first point number three, found in verses eight and nine, forgiveness is received by faith. It's requested with confession. You ask for forgiveness with confession, being real with God, admitting your sin. But as the Lord offers that forgiveness to you, now you receive it by faith. Verse eight and nine says this,

Then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and 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 and put it on a pole. And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Here in verses eight and nine, we have these two verses that are pretty peculiar, right?

I mean, pretty amazing and awesome and cool, but also kind of weird. Let me ask you, what is the medicinal value of looking at a bronze serpent? How does that help you recover from a poisonous bite? What kind of healing process is going on there? Have you ever had a doctor prescribe for you to look at a bronze statue in order to recover from some ailment?

There were other scenarios in Israel's history where things came in contact as God was doing a work like this, right? Remember the waters that were bitter, and the Lord showed Moses a tree, and he put the tree in the water, and in our minds, we can kind of think like, okay, so there was, I mean, the Lord can do anything. He works miracles, but you know, there was something happening with the tree. There's some, you know, value that tree had that putting it in the water, you know, there's some

natural events taking place and somehow the bacteria, you know, is being taken care of or, you know, the virus is being killed or whatever it is, you know, like there's some contact and we can imagine if God had said, you know, if anybody's bitten and they come and touch the snake, then they will be healed, they will live. And we can imagine in our minds like, well, there's some type of, you know, transfer that's happening, you know, some type of effect that it's having. But here,

The way that God sets it up, there's no opportunity for that kind of thinking. God could do it that way, but he decided, no, I just want people to look at it. Now, what kind of sight can you see to heal a poisonous bite? There is none. There's no logical thing happening here. There's no medical thing happening here. There is a supernatural work of God, and God put them in a position where

where they would have to believe God at his word in order to receive this healing that he offered. I mean, it would be great, right, if this always worked. If you had a peanut allergy and you just kind of carried around a little bronze peanut statue, so you could have peanuts and then just look at it and you're healed. No allergy. That would be nice. It doesn't work that way, right? That is not a technique for practicing medicine, right?

But instead, it's an opportunity to believe God by faith that they would be saved, just as he said, that they would be forgiven, just as he declared. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way, they had to trust that something as seemingly foolish as looking at the serpent on a pole was enough to save them. Surely some perish because they thought it too foolish to do that.

Now, we don't have a record of anybody perishing, but the potential is there. The possibility is there. And you could understand the reasoning, right? I mean, if you are the one who's bit and Moses says, all you got to do is look, and there's a lot of arguments that we can make. Like, what kind of sense does that make? Like, that's not a good way to practice medicine. That's not a way to receive healing. That doesn't make any sense. And some people, perhaps in opposition, in stubbornness,

I said, no, I'm not going to receive that. I'm not going to look at that. That's foolishness. God set it up so that they would receive forgiveness, but it wouldn't be by their efforts. If God had set it up so that they had to touch the snake, right? Then they could applaud themselves. I was bit by a snake and then I crawled three miles to touch the snake so I could be healed. And you should be proud of me because I crawled three miles, you know, suffering the effects of poison.

And we would, you know, look at our efforts and how, you know, hard we worked and we're able to finally get that forgiveness, you know? And that is not the way that God set it up because forgiveness is received by faith.

You don't have to work hard to get there. You don't have to climb there. You don't have to do 25 jumping jacks and then run around three miles and then, you know, and then you can be forgiven. You don't have to, you know, say these words over and over and over again and then you can be forgiven or, you know, do this, you know, matter of penitence and then you can be forgiven. It's received by faith, by looking at the object of salvation that the Lord has provided.

And as you look at this, this is about faith and it's intertwined with, it's combined with repentance. Repentance is doing the opposite of the sin that you've been involved with. Repentance is always that. And here God is calling them to do the opposite where they were questioning God and saying, God, your ways are not good and you're not providing for us. Now God is saying, you must make a deliberate choice

and say, I'm gonna look to what God has provided and trust him. They were looking at what God has provided and scowling and despising and not liking it and disagreeing and not wanting it and putting themselves in opposition to God. But now repentance, they're turning around. They have to do the opposite. They have to look at what God has provided and believe God at his word and say, I receive what God has for me. Repentance is always the opposite of the sin that has been going on.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul talks about those who have been lying. He says, you need to stop lying and start speaking the truth. Repentance is not just the stop lying part, but it's the turning around and doing the opposite, speaking the truth. He speaks to those who were stealing. And again, it's not just stop stealing, but he tells them to work so that you have something to give. And the give is the opposite of the stealing. That's what repentance looks like.

And as Israel has been in sin, speaking against God and against God ways, now in repentance, combined with, you know, their obedience, their faith, they're making a deliberate choice. I will look to God and I will believe him. They're not going to try to earn this forgiveness. They're not going to try to work for it or deserve it or, you know, have their efforts be involved. They're just going to receive it by looking at what God has provided.

J. Vernon McGee says this about them. He says, they can't come to God with the promise that from now on they will be good because they won't be good, but they can believe God and God is going to let them come to him by faith. That idea of coming to God with the promise, hey, I'm going to be good from now on. And we, you know, give ourselves too much credit with those promises that we make. And we think kind of, you know, hey, I'm making this promise. So it means more now.

And you can believe me, God, and you can forgive me because I promise I'm not going to do it again. That's not what God is demanding of us. Make a promise that you can't keep. No, not your efforts, not your promises, not your discipline or your, you know, works. Forgiveness is received by faith. It's received by trusting God at his word and accepting the salvation, the forgiveness that he offers.

Jesus used this passage to illustrate his purpose in John chapter 3 as he was having that conversation with Nicodemus about the need to be born again. You must be born again to see the kingdom of God. In John chapter 3 verse 14, Jesus says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus looks back and says, remember how that serpent had to be lifted up? And then anybody who would look at, they've been bitten, but they look at the serpent, they look at that object that has been lifted up, they would be saved. And Jesus says in the same way, you've been bitten by sin. Every one of us has.

We all have that poison. We are all on the route to death as a result. But if we will look up at the one who has lifted up, the son of man, Jesus, who died upon the cross for us, then we will not perish. We won't die from that poisonous bite, that sin, but we will have eternal life. It's the same concept. It's a deliberate choice. I will look to God and believe him. That's how we receive forgiveness.

Initially, when we first come to God and are born again, and that is how we continue to receive forgiveness as we continue to seek to live and walk with God, but fall short and fail and face discouragement and speak against God and have issues of our hearts and participate in sin, we need to come back by faith to the Lord to receive the forgiveness that he offers. We ask for it with confession and then we receive it by faith. We receive it by faith.

We don't work for it. We don't earn it. We just receive it. Trusting God at his word. This forgiveness is amazing. God's grace to us and his mercy, it's unfathomable really, but it's the way that God works. It's the way that God has designed our relationship with him. And so we have no other choice but to approach God in the way that he has established. With confession, by faith, we receive the forgiveness that we need.

But as we wrap up our time together this morning, I close with a little bit of a warning. And the final point is a warning. And not to take away and not to diminish the grace and the mercy and the goodness of God in our lives, but because we need the balance in our lives that we receive the grace of God, we receive the forgiveness of God, and that leads some to treat the grace of God as something that it's not.

Point number four this morning, still looking at verses eight and nine, is that forgiveness doesn't remove all consequences. Forgiveness is, again, it's an amazing gift of God. And in forgiveness, God gives us access to him and relates to us as if we had never sinned. That's the idea of justified. That's about our relationship with him and our access to him as

But it's also important to recognize that that doesn't mean that all of the effects and the consequences of sin are just removed. It's not an undo button. It's not a rewind the tape and now life will progress just as if you had never sinned. No, you relate to God just as if you had never sinned. And he gives you access to himself as if you had never sinned. And you get to walk with God and know God and love God. And he works in your life. And

Yet in the midst of that, he is working in the context of, well, the havoc that you have made for yourself because of sin. There's not an undo button that just, it's what we want, right? In verse seven, again, they say, pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. They're saying, undo, undo. The Lord responded to their confession and the request for forgiveness, right? But did he take away the serpents? No. No.

They continued to get bit by serpents, even though God had provided this means of forgiveness, this means of life. They kept getting bit. Now, God could have removed the serpents, right? It wasn't that long ago. They were in Egypt. The 10 plagues were happening, and one of the plagues was the flies, and there was just flies everywhere, covered everything. And in Exodus 31, it tells us the Lord...

responding to Moses's prayer, removed the flies from the land so that not one remained. I mean, we had like three or four flies here in the sanctuary this morning and we've been battling them all day. They were covered and then not one remained. That was a miraculous removing of flies by the Lord. And then later on, there was the plague of the locusts and the locusts covered everything. Exodus chapter 10, it tells us the Lord stirred up a strong wind and it

removed the locusts from the land completely. God could have removed the serpents entirely, but he didn't do that. The serpents came as a direct result of their sin and the serpents stayed even in the midst of the forgiveness that God offered. And they continued to bite. I don't know about you, but being bitten by a snake doesn't sound exciting to me. Even if I know it's not poisonous, I'm not signing up for that.

Even if I know I won't die as a result, I'm not going to sign up for that. That's not what anybody wants. That's not what the children of Israel wanted. If they could have had it a different way, they would have chosen a different way where they didn't continue to get bitten by the snakes. They still had the consequences for speaking against God, for their attitude against God, for their heart against God. God could have removed the snakes, but typically that's not the way that God works. He doesn't just eliminate all the effects of sin and

that happen in our lives. He offers us forgiveness and we can come to God and life is far better receiving that forgiveness and we have life because of that forgiveness. But we also need to be reminded of the warning. Listen, God calls sin, sin because it destroys your life. It brings destruction. It inserts poison into the system. It messes with things and there are serious long-term effects as a result. Forgiveness, it's offered to you

For free, you ask for it with confession, you receive it by faith, but don't think of that as an excuse or as a reason to just sin whenever, however, and to take it lightly because it will bring pain.

It will bring destruction. And you'll wish there was an undo button. You'll wish there was a do over and you could rewind and go back and have a different conversation than you had or have a different set of actions than what you took. And we could all wish for that. We all know what that's like. But that's not the way that God has established this life.

amazing grace that God offers to us and that we can come to him for life and forgiveness and have access to God and have the promise of eternity. But don't take that for granted in a way that allows for you to live how you want to live, to do what you want to do, to allow sin to remain in your life, to allow your heart to be upset with God and that you're against God, you disagree with God, you're fighting against God. Don't

Don't allow that discouragement to become sin in your life because there will be consequences. I remember many years ago, Joanna with the children's ministry had a little game with the kids and they had to like race to see who could get the most toothpaste out of a tube of toothpaste. And so the kids were all like squeezing hard and everything. And you know, there's toothpaste everywhere. And the game was just the setup to the illustration and

of now try to put that toothpaste back into the tube and the kids are making a mess trying to put, you can't get the toothpaste back in the tube. It doesn't, once it's out, it's out. In a similar way, when we are involved in sin, oh, there's forgiveness, but there's also effects on your life. There are long-term effects, like a snake bite. You don't want those effects. You don't want that to continue. Don't take such a light view of sin.

that you allow yourself to just get bit by snakes every day. God has so much better for you, so much more for you than that kind of wrecked and messed up life. I was looking at some images of what it looks like when someone's bit by a poisonous snake. I don't recommend that. It's pretty horrific what happens, but it actually pictures what happens in our lives with sin. It brings that corruption, that destruction. It can be forgiven.

And praise God, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus, for that. But don't forget, it's also not undone. And some of those effects will be with you for the rest of your life. The Lord told David, after he sinned with Bathsheba, when he came to the point of confession, God says, you're forgiven. But for the rest of your life, you're gonna have difficulty. For the rest of your life, you're gonna be involved in battles. There's forgiveness, but there's also the aftermath of the sin that we commit. Let that be...

A reminder to us to stay away from sin, to seek after God. And again, like the Apostle Paul, to go to him daily for what we need, that we would be renewed day by day. The Apostle Paul said, these things are all for an examples for us so that we learn not to do what they did, not to lust like they lusted, not to complain like they complained. Let's learn the lesson. And as we finish up our service this morning with the time of communion,

Boy, it's an appropriate subject for us to be in as we consider the forgiveness that's offered through the one who is lifted up. And we have in the elements of communion the reminders of that. The bread, which represents the body of Jesus Christ being broken. And the cup, which represents his blood being shed. Jesus gave us these reminders so that we could look. Remember again in John 3, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up.

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This morning, let's look up to the one who is lifted up. As we partake of communion, let's look at Jesus and remember and receive, coming to him with real confession, not with excuses about our sin that we've been involved with, but coming to him with an admission, with acknowledgement, with confession, and to ask for forgiveness. And do so as you partake, receiving forgiveness,

By faith. You don't have to feel something amazing. You don't have to have like, you know, the heavens open and shine down on you. You don't have to give some extra amount or do some extra effort. You can receive that forgiveness right now by faith because of Christ and what he has done. And we get the opportunity to remember that this morning, to partake of communion and to think about what Christ has done, to look at the one that God has lifted up and receive that forgiveness.

And as we do, I would encourage you also to invite the Lord to show you if there's areas of sin in your life where the Lord would say, there's some snake bites that come along with that. And I don't want you to experience those bites for the rest of your life. You need to turn from that sin. You need to repent of that and walk with me in the way that I've called you to. So I'm gonna invite the worship team to come up and the ushers are gonna pass out the bread and the cup. And at any time during this worship song, you're free to partake between you and the Lord as you...

Have this conversation with him and have this discourse with him. Come to him with confession. Receive his forgiveness by faith and let him show you if there's things that he wants to call you out of that you would turn from sin and not continue to experience the effects and consequences that it brings. Let's worship the Lord together as we reflect on him and his grace towards us.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.