I'm glad y'all do that now, y'all may not do that when I get done singing. Amen. Well, it's good to be saved tonight, amen? Good to be in the house of the Lord, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here in this service with you folks tonight, and thank the Lord for it, amen. We'll try to sing a little bit, and I appreciate Man, y'all had a great lineup last week, and y'all got a good lineup the rest of the week, and y'all are scraping the bottom of the barrel tonight and tomorrow night, amen. But at least I'm in the barrel, all right? Amen. more than my share, and sometimes my burdens seem too great to bear. It's then I tell Satan that I've had enough, and now he can't touch me, cause I'm bought by the blood, bought by the blood. ♪ Secure in His mercy, I'm bound in His love. ♪ No need to give in, to quit or give up. ♪ And now thanks to Calvary, I'm bought by the blood. ♪ When I have failed Him, Jesus still loves me so. Even though I've forsaken Him, He won't let me go. For He went to the cross, which was more than enough. And now thanks to Calvary, I'm bought by the blood, bought by the blood. I'm bought by the blood. Securing his mercy, I'm bound in his love. No need to give in, to quit or give up. And now thanks to Calvary, I'm bought by the blood. Amen. Thank God for the blood, amen. I had no one to blame How I longed to hide my shame I was so ashamed Of all the wrongs I'd done And I knew I had to pay I was bound to face hell's flame I'd be there today My friend but for the blood But for the blood shed on Calvary's side But for the blood there'd be no hope for you and me For all my righteousness is filthy rags and that's all I'd ever be But for the blood that cleansed and made me Now I get so old You know the devil lets me know I'm so undeserving I'm unworthy of God's love I know, yes, I know it's true But here I am with the chosen few I'm saved today My friend just by the book ♪ But for the blood shed on Calvary Street ♪ But for the blood, there'd be no hope for you and me ♪ For all my righteousness is filthy rags ♪ And that's all I'd ever be ♪ But for the blood that cleansed and made me For all my righteousness is filthy rags and that's all I'd ever be. But for the blood that cleansed and made me free. Thank God, because of the blood, that I'll never feel the flames of hell, amen? And preachers testifying about the Lord coming again and going to heaven, I say amen to that. I'm young, I'm only 30, and I didn't understand it a long time ago when people said they were ready to go to heaven. I'm like, man, I wanna live, I wanna see a lot of things. Well, George won the national championship, Bray's won the World Series, I'm ready to go, amen? And I'm ready to see Jesus, amen? And I tell you, this world's crazy. Somebody said the world's lost their mind. They never had one. There's four people in the world in the book of Genesis, and one kills the other one. Sin's always been bad. It's always been wicked. But I'm glad there's a better land, and I'm glad I'm headed there, amen? It's a long and a dusty road that my feet, they are traveling on. And sometimes the clouds are dark and low. Oh, but I've got, I've got to keep the faith and walk that straight and narrow way to reach that place that I will call my home. For my home is just around the bend. I think about it every now and then. by the millions everywhere. Here's the best part. But the one that I so long to see is the one who bled and died for me. My home, my home, a place I long to be. Now so many hold this old world so dear But I am just a stranger here Just passing through on a temporary stay Oh, but I'm looking forward to the time when all of heaven, it will be mine. I'll watch and pray, for it could be just any day. For my home is just around the bend. I think about it every now and then. by the millions there everywhere. Oh, but the one that I so long to see is the one who bled and he died for me. My home, my home, a place I long to be. For my home is just around the bend. I think about it every now and then. My home, my home. Go ahead and reach, all right. Hey man, I'm assuming I need, put that on? All right. I think, red means go. So yeah, red, back in January, I got, give you a little background. I'm married, got three children, two boys and a girl, and our little girl was born back in January, on January the 4th. Is that your birthday? Oh, praise the Lord. I was hoping it'd be like January 6th. That'd be a cool date. Ah, never mind. Moving on. Sorry. It just, it was there and I said it and I'm not taking it back and I'm not sorry. All right. was I talking about? Oh, anyway, we, am I in a blue state or red state? I'll find out in a minute, Amen. But anyway, we, I was supposed to preach a meeting that night in Lexington at Walter's Grove for Brother Chris Simpson. They was having their camp meeting and I was supposed to preach that night and my wife comes. She wasn't due till like next week. My wife comes and The officer, she said, are you having trouble figuring out what to preach? I'm like, eh, kind of. I said, why? She said, well, I think I'm in labor. I'm like, well, who cares? I'm having a hard time figuring out what to preach. Let's go. I hit 103 on the interstate and ran two red lights. Somebody said, why'd you do that? Well, number one, I didn't want to have a baby in my truck. Number two, I just got my truck. And I wish I could say I was kidding, but I ran two red lights. So red meant go that day, man. And it's good to be saved. Numbers chapter 21 tonight, Numbers chapter number 21. And I want to say while you're turning, I appreciate the invitation by your pastor to be here. And that is so unique. I was his pastor's pastor, and they're both older than me. And I loved, well, I won't say that in the past tense, I love Brother Glenn Sanford. You know, if somebody knows the Lord and they pass away, you ain't got to say you loved them or you knew them one time, you still do. They're just in another country, and you're going to see them again. I love Brother Sanford, and I love Miss Frances, and I appreciate that they're a precious couple. He come in, and they joined the church, and he walked out the door that morning. He said, I've had four pastors my whole ministry, because he pastored for over 50 years plus, probably. And he said, my first pastor, was Brother Jack Hudson. Brother Hudson pastored in Charlotte, North Carolina, Northside Baptist Church for years. It was a great, sadly it's nothing now, but it was a great powerhouse church back in the day. And then he went to Tennessee, he went to Bob Jones, and Dr. Bob Jones Sr. was his pastor. And actually five pastors. Then he went to Tennessee Temple and Dr. Lee Robertson was his pastor. And then in between pastorates he joined Gospel Light in Walkertown and Brother Bobby Robertson was his pastor and then me. I said, well, that went downhill quick. I mean, quick. And he was such a blessing to me. The Lord sent him, Miss France, to our church at a time when our church needed him, but me and my wife needed them. And I appreciate him so much. And so I'm glad that through his ministry, we made that connection. And it's an honor to be with you tonight. And I leaned over to appreciate Pastor Fitzgerald, being how I'm supposed to be at their church in June. I think it's a Sunday after, Monday after Father's Day, I think. Yes, sir. And I leaned over to him, I said, boy, this is rough tonight. Number one, it's Monday after the second week. Monday night of the second week. I've had all that good preaching. I sat down in a new church. I don't know anybody. And the Lord's making me preach a new sermon that he gave me about 6.05 tonight. And so this is either going to be really good or going to be really short. All right. But I can't get this off my heart. I mentioned this in Sunday school yesterday morning and was really praying about what the Lord has preached tonight. And the Lord really just made evident this direction. So I desire your prayers tonight. And I thank you for your prayers. I know you've already prayed for me. I'll say this, and I'm trying to get my feet on the ground where I'm not so nervous. The Lord answered the prayer. I had a safe trip up here today. Oftentimes we pray and ask the Lord to do things like that. Give them travel and mercy to keep them safe. The Lord does that and we don't say thank you for it. That's a great answer to prayer, especially I spent time on 85 today. and so I'm grateful for your prayers. Let's stand please. Numbers chapter number 21 and we'll begin reading in verse number 4. Thank you for the very, very nice hotel room and your kindness to us already. I appreciate that so much. Numbers chapter 21 and verse number 4. The Bible says, And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, took them past the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, Neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. For we have spoken against the Lord and against thee, praying to the Lord that he may take away the serpents from us, and Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Let's go to God in just a moment of prayer. Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, I want to thank you, Lord, for the day. Thank you, Lord, for your blessings upon us. Thank you for your kindness to us and your mercy. Lord, I want to thank you, Lord, for the good report of what you've done in these recent days in this meeting. And Lord, I thank you for the prayers of God's people. Lord, we understand that all is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Lord, I believe this pastor has prayed. I know he has. I know these people have prayed. And Lord, if we don't have your help tonight, Lord, it'll all be in vain. So I ask you, God, tonight, that you would cleanse me of sin. You would empty us of self fill us with thy spirit what I pray that every heart could be and we'll be spoken to from the word of God tonight or you know my frailties or you know my My insufficiency Lord, you know, this text is new to me tonight or I do feel like this is where you'd have us be I pray your grant is preaching liberty and I pray most of all we'd see no man save Jesus only bless protect my family I'm away tonight in Jesus name. Amen Amen. Thank you for standing. You may be seated. I appreciate you for standing for the Word of God and prayer tonight. We understand when we come to Numbers chapter number 21 that we are dealing with the children of Israel. They've come out obviously of the land of Egypt. It's amazing in the book of Exodus they cried out for a redeemer. They've been in Egyptian bondage for over 400 years, and they cried and asked God for a redeemer, and God raised up a man by the name of Moses. I've often heard people say, I have several young families in our church, I'm grateful to God for that, and one of the things that I've dealt with young families, they said, Preacher, how in the world, with this world being so crazy, how can we have children in this wicked world? And I remind them of Exodus chapter number two. They were killing all those male babies in Exodus two, but thank God for Amram and Jochabed that didn't allow society to dictate their family to them, but they decided they wanted to have a family to raise them for the Lord and to honor God. And let me say this, you can still raise a family to honor God and serve the Lord. You know what Amram and Jochebed did? They did the best thing you could do for your children. They sheltered and they hid them from the world, and when it was time to let them go, they put in that ark and they sent him down that river and put him in the hands of God. I'm telling y'all to raise your children right in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord and there's gonna come a time where you got to let them set sail down the river. But I'll tell you, you put more in them than what the world can put on them. You put them in the hand of God and you ain't no telling what God might do with them. And that's what happened in Moses' life. And God raised up this man Moses. He died at the age of 120. His life can be broken up into 40-year periods. The first 40 years of his life, he spent in Egypt thinking he was somebody. The next 40 years of his life, he spent on the backside of the desert learning that he was a nobody. And the next 40 years of his life, when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt and led them to the brink of the Canaan land, he learned that God can take a nobody and do something with him, amen? And in this text tonight we find they're in that wilderness journey. We understand they've already rebelled against the Lord as far as they sent the spies to the land. And you know the story, Tim came back with an evil report and Joshua and Caleb come back with a good report. And they believe the report of the ten instead of the report of the two. And because they were in the land of Canaan for 40 days, surveying the land, God said, I'm going to make you stay in the wilderness one year for every year that you do not believe me. And so for 40 years, they spent wandering in the wilderness. And that is the context of where we're at tonight. I want to preach on this thought and the Lord being my helper and very, very, very simple message. But in this text, we find the people complain and God sent these fiery serpents in and begin to, they begin to bite the people. And I want to go on record and say, I hate snakes with a passion. Amen. We don't handle, in our church, we handle snakes with a nine millimeter and a shotgun. Amen. And we make sure they're dead. Amen. So I said don't kill a black snake. They'll kill a copperhead. I don't care what color they are I don't care what they look like a snakes a snake and a snake on a dog I get a man out of that a man And so these serpents came in and begin to begin to bite these people they begin to die, but God God gave the man of God a remedy. He said, you make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole. And he said, whoever looks shall live. Can I say this tonight? Jesus made that application in John chapter 3 and verse 14 of Nicodemus. He said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Hey, we're living in a world tonight that is sick with the poison of sin. But I'm telling you, I'm going to report to you tonight. look and you can live. I want to preach on those couple words tonight. Just look and live. Let's look at the text very quickly. First of all in verse number five I noticed the rebellion. The Bible says in verse number five, and the people spake against God and had against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread." I'm going to tell you, and I'm going to draw a picture between the children of Israel and I and the sin-cursed world if you allow me. I see the rebellion. First of all, in their accusation. You know what they said? Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt? You know, ain't it amazing the Bible said that they spake against God and Moses? And ain't it amazing how the world is and even sometimes how the church world can be when things begin to go wrong, we automatically blame the Lord? Why did God let that happen? Why did God allow that? A lot of bad things happen because men are sinners. They're depraved. They have a wicked sin nature. I said it a moment ago. There's two brothers on the earth, Cain and Abel, and Cain kills his brother. There wasn't a TV. There wasn't a bar. I'm against alcohol. I'm against immorality. You understand that? There wasn't any drugs. There wasn't any gangs, anything like that. It was just two people, but that sin nature inside of Cain calls him to have that and that animosity towards his brother. And he took his brother's life. And I'm telling you tonight, that's the way the world is. They want to accuse God, and they want to say it's God's fault. I tell you, it's not God's fault tonight. The Bible said wherefore has by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin. And so death is passed upon all men, for all have sinned. People want to blame God. It's not God's fault. God's done nothing wrong. Their accusation, they blame God, but then they blame the preacher. You say, I sent the world, they blame God, but we good church folks, we're good at blaming the preacher. I mean, if it's a good service, what a preacher we have. If it's a dead service, what's wrong with the preacher? I say, if it's a going good, thank God for our preacher. If it's a going bad, I'm telling you, that's your preacher. I'm just telling you right now. Have you ever thought about it might be you? Moses didn't do anything. He is doing what God told him to do. It was the people's fault. But I tell you, there's an application I see from this tonight. I see that we are quick to place the blame everywhere else, except this direction. You know what Isaiah did in Isaiah chapter 5? He pronounced six woes on the nation of Israel. Woe to them, woe to them, woe to them. But you know what happened when he saw the Lord in Isaiah 6? He said, woe is me. You know what? When you get a view of the Lord and I'm against preaching, I'm for preaching against you. And it's not the world's fault, the church's. It's not the Bible's. I'm talking about the church as a whole, do you understand? It's not the world's fault. a sister but it's me oh lord standing in the need of prayer so their accusation but then notice their assumption the Bible said in verse number five he said wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt watch it now to die in the wilderness now think about how goofy that sounds if God wanted to kill him he just let him die in Egypt but watch this now when our heart ain't right with God we'll think ways that ain't even right don't even make sense Don't even make sense. Well, so and so did. So I see, I see their assumption, I see their their accusations, their attitude. Watch this now. For there is no bread, neither is there any water. Now, this is interesting to me as I was reading this verse from Motel Earth. And our soul loathes this light bread. Hang on. Dennis said there wasn't no bread. Independent fundamental Baptist right here. Ain't no bread. I don't like that bread either.