Please turn with me if you would in your Bibles to Numbers chapter 21. Numbers 21. I would like to emphasize to everyone here that what we are about to read is a true, factual, historical account. This really did take place in time, space, and history. What we're about to read, it took place during a time known as the 40-year wilderness wanderings of Israel. This was a sentence that God had placed upon Israel because of their rebellious unbelief and because of their mistrust of the God who had so graciously taken them out of their slavery in Egypt. Please follow along as I read verses four to nine. Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you. Intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us. And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard. And it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live. And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. And it came about that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. Let's take a few moments and pray. Our Father in heaven, we gather in this place this morning Not desirous to be a social club. Or we want your spirit to dwell among us. We need your spirit. We need to dwell in truth and your spirit is the author of truth. And Lord, if this place were. Not spirit filled this morning, then what we do here is it's in vain. It's no better than being the Rotary Club or the Lions Club, or even worse, some kind of religious club. Lord, we need the Holy Spirit of God to give us guidance in truth. You've promised, Lord Jesus, you said that if I don't go, then I can't send the Spirit. And this is our desire, that the Spirit would take the things of God, reveal them to us, and then in turn bring great glory to you. You are the reason why we're here. You're the reason that we're gathered here is because we want to see you glorified and we want to see you magnified. And we want you to be the author of our lives. We want you, Lord God, to know us. And to help us on our way to heaven. We pray that you would use the things of your word and that you would help us, Lord, to look to you, help us to keep our eyes fixed where they need to be. and give us grace to understand the things that you have written. Lord, unless you are with us, we meet in vain. And so we would ask that you come and inhabit this place with your presence. Let us know. Let us be able to leave here today saying we have had dealings with the true and living God. And let us just go our way rejoicing because of such a meeting. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I would like to take a very brief amount of time to what I'm gonna call sail us through the seven C's of this passage of scripture. For those of you who take notes, and Steve, I know that you're taking notes, I have seven words that begin with the letter C that can best summarize the verses that we just read. All right, so in this account, we find Israel's complaint, and that leads to serious consequences. followed by Israel's contrition, prompting from God a command, revealing the condition that must be met in order to bring about the conclusion. Let's begin in verse 5 where we have Israel's complaint. The people of Israel, probably not all of them, but perhaps a large majority of them, spoke against God and Moses. They said, Why have you brought us up out of the land of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. Again, this isn't the first time Israel as a collective whole has raised their voices against God or against Moses, who was God's chosen instrument of revelation. Israel's constant rebellion, their continued murmuring and complaining and unbelief have already brought many chastisements upon them, including this 40-year sentence to wander through a vast wilderness before only the younger generation reach the promised destination. Since the time God liberated Israel from their slavery in the land of Egypt, there were numerous rebellions. There were numerous complaints along the journey to the promised land. Now, in a sense, there's really nothing new about their complaining here. But what I believe really aggravates their complaining is the fact that God's mercies can be seen in the very thing they're complaining about. There's an old saying, don't speak with a sharp tongue. You might cut your own throat. In their complaint, we hear these words in verse five. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt? Right? Part of their complaint contains the reality that God had delivered them from slavery, from their bondage. For 400 years, Israel was a nation of slaves, forced to make clay bricks in order to build a pagan empire. And God liberated them from that slavery. He didn't do it through what you might call diplomacy. He didn't do it through bureaucratic dealings with Pharaoh. He didn't do it through political compromises. How did God deliver Israel? Through plagues. Plagues that were supernatural judgments sent from heaven upon the Egyptians. And you see, in Israel's complaint lies the reality of this great deliverance. But secondly, look at the text. They actually say there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. Now, what food are they referring to? I mean, in one breath, they say there's no food, while at the same time, all right, there is food, but we hate it. We can't stand the food that we have. They're talking about manna, right? What was manna? Well, manna was an exclusive, unique, miraculous, God-given food that contained all the needed nutrients for the human body to be sustained. While at the same time, it didn't taste that bad either. Stuff didn't taste that bad. Exodus 16.31 tells us it tasted like wafers with honey. How bad does that sound? Numbers 11 tells us it tasted like cakes baked with oil. I mean, God could have made this stuff taste like liver. And for those of you who like liver, I apologize, but this stuff could have tasted really bad. God could have said, I'm going to give you food, but it's not going to taste very well. That's not the case. So you see, this complaining on Israel's part, it's not like the, ow, I stubbed my toe, and it really, really hurts kind of complaining. This is high-handed rebellion. This is fist shaking in the face of the God who took this people out of slavery, called them his people. He's feeding them, he's caring for them, he's preserving them, he's bringing them to a new land, a land that they didn't purchase, work for, or earn. And he's doing it for the sake of his own glory and in covenant with the promise he made to Abraham generations earlier. Now, this ought to make us want to just stop and ask the question, what do I have to complain about? Right? What do I really have to complain about? And how does God view my complaining? Are we sometimes guilty, even as believers, of our own little subtle forms of fish shaking in the face of God? You know, sometimes murmuring and sometimes complaining over what God either has given us or hasn't given us. Well, Israel's complaint, their rebellious fish shaking in the face of God, leads to a necessary consequence. A necessary consequence, verse six. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. This consequence bears a familiar likeness to some of the plagues that were sent upon the Egyptians, only this is worse, this is far worse. You know, if you remember back, those plagues in Egypt, the plague of frogs, the plague of gnats, the plague of locusts. I mean, these were an overpopulation of creatures that truly were meant to bring trouble upon Egypt, but none of these things were meant to inflict deadly venomous bites upon the Egyptians. In here, right here in Israel, is a plague of sorts. It's a sudden overpopulation of venomous snakes. Fiery serpents, they're called. We can't be sure what's meant by the fiery and fiery serpents. Maybe this was an indication of their color. Maybe these were snakes with bright red and orange markings on their backs. This is possible because God has seen fit in the animal kingdom to often give the most venomous species the brightest colors, right? As a warning, you know, don't mess with me, I'm poisonous. Now, some have speculated that maybe the fiery and the fiery serpents could have indicated what the bite felt like. It could have caused a hot, burning, stinging sensation that would travel from the site of the wound right on into the bloodstream, right? Causing the victim to burn with hot fever. Or it's possible that maybe the word fiery was used simply to indicate that this was God's judgment upon them. Fire is an element that's often connected with the judgments of God, right? Hell is referred to as a lake of unquenchable fire. Peter calls the coming judgment day of God a day in which the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements melt away with intense heat. In any case, we don't really know why they're called fiery serpents, but whatever the case may be, these fiery snakes are sent by God throughout the encampment of Israel, where many Israelites are being bitten and many are dying. This brings us to our third C word. Third C word, Israel's contrition, the contrition of the people. Verse seven. So the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned. because we've spoken against the Lord and you. Intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us." And Moses interceded for the people. The people of Israel, probably a representative group, come to Moses and they confess their sin. They say, we have spoken against the Lord and you. And they request of Moses to intercede. They request his intercession. They want him to be the go-between between them and God. This was to rightly recognize who Moses was. Moses was an intercessor. The one who could plead Israel's case before God, he was a type and a shadow. He was a forerunner of the great intercessor that would yet come. And their request of their intercessor is that God would remove these snakes from among them. Take them away. Get rid of these things that are biting us and killing us. You see, Israel only sees one remedy for this situation. They can only see one remedy for the horror that's come upon them. Get rid of these things. You know, just remove them from our midst so that we will live and not die. But God has a different remedy. And this brings us to both the command and the condition. The command and the condition. Instead of removing these fiery serpents from the midst of Israel, God commands Moses to add one. Verse 8, Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard, and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live. God's command to Moses is to reproduce one of these things out of bronze or brass and take it and mount it to the top of a high pole so that it sticks out high above the many square miles of Israel's campsite. Now you see, this was God's remedy. This is not quite what Israel asked for, was it? How often has God shown you a different remedy? How often has God had to show you something that you never thought of, right? You come to the place in your life where you say, oh no, I'm facing some trouble here. There can only be one way out of this. Or maybe you said, there's no way out of this. And you pray and God comes and shows you a completely different remedy. He shows you something otherwise, right? I can't help but think of Elijah. Your altars have been torn down. They've killed all of your prophets. I'm the only one left. Just take my life. Just take me." And God has to come to him and say, no, Elijah, I've got 7,000 that you don't even know about. You pray for patience, right? And you just want God to just instill the virtue of patience right into your heart. And what does he do? He brings all kinds of things that test your patience, right? We're so limited in the way we think, but God is never limited. We're limited in our beings, in our finiteness, in our knowledge, in our thinking, in the way we perceive things. We're limited in the way we trust God, but God is limitless. Everything's open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He sees it all. He knows it all. And if you're a Christian, here's the best part. He actually cares. I mean, he really, really cares. If you're a child of God, he just doesn't know. He cares. This is why Peter exhorts his readers to cast their anxieties upon him, because he cares. So I stop here and ask you, Christian, what challenges are you facing right now? You got any major mountains in front of you that have to be climbed? God knows the remedy. He knows what you're up against. He knows what you need more than you do. And he really cares. And God's remedy for Moses and for Israel is that Moses construct this bronze serpent. Now, when you think about it, I wonder, how long did it take Moses to make this thing? We're not talking about a little souvenir shop trinket here. This thing had to be pretty sizable, right? Moses would have had to have called in the craftsmen, melt the metal, do the specs for it. They had to cast it, form it, shape it. They had to mount it to a pole. This was no small task, right? And Israel at this point is perhaps, perhaps two to two and a half million in population. You ever see aerial footage of Woodstock from 1969? I mean, there's just a sea of, I think they said 400,000 people attended Woodstock. It's a sea of people. And then you think how many people, how many square miles is two million people? You don't just whip one of these things up in the matter of a day, right? So I would just wonder, how many days did it take to make this thing, and how many people were still being bitten and dying during the production of this thing? Well, I guess we really don't know. But what we do know is the condition that God put into place once this thing was constructed and set up, the condition. Again, verse 8, it shall come about that everyone who is bitten When he looks at it, he will live. See, God's remedy for this judgment sent upon Israel was to be a simple act of faith. That's what it was. If you're bitten by one of these snakes, you are to immediately look up, gaze up, fix your eyes upon that bronze serpent if you want it to live and not die. Sounds so simple, right? And I, personally, I cannot imagine anyone who, upon being bitten by one of these things, would not want to take full advantage of that remedy. Can you? Can you imagine? I mean, can you imagine someone being bitten by one of these things and saying, ah, that bronze serpent stuff, it's just superstition. That's just a bunch of religious gobbledygook. I'll be fine. Honey, get me some Epsom salts. You know, I'll suck the poison out. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I don't need to look at the bronze serpent. Would anybody here do that? Put yourself there. Kids, close your eyes for a second. Put yourself there. Let's say you're an Israelite. And let's say you've already seen some of your neighbors get bitten, and die. You've already seen people succumb to the poison. You've got to be nervous about it. You've got to be scared about this. I'll tell you something, snake venom is a disgusting, horrible way to die. Snake venom often contains something called a neurotoxin. And neurotoxins literally attack the human nervous system upon entering the body. And so what happens is when you're bit, you begin with severe pain and swelling. And that's quickly followed by profuse sweating and uncontrolled vomiting. And then you start shaking and you go into convulsions. And that's eventually followed by paralysis, which causes breathing difficulty, leading to cardiac arrest. And then you die. Respiratory failure, cardiac arrest, you die a quivering mass of feverish flesh. But think about this now. You're an Israelite man or you're an Israelite boy, and you're out collecting firewood, and one of these things slithers out from under a log before you even have a chance to think it's fastened itself onto your hand. You shake it off in horror, but you look down, there's the bite. What are you going to do? or you're an Israelite woman or an Israelite girl, and there you are whistling one sunny morning, you're in your tent, and you're pulling up the bedroll in the tent, but one of these things got in the tent overnight, and it comes out from under a linen, and it bites you right on the ankle, right between the thongs of your sandal. What are you gonna do? Who here would not run? to get within view of that bronze serpent to look up at it. Who would not do that? Who would not hasten, as fast as you can, to get within view of this thing to look at it? Remember, God did not supply medicine. God did not prescribe a particular type of therapy that you have to undergo. He's not requiring you to perform some kind of ceremonial snake dance. The only remedy that God has given is that you believe, is that you believe what he has told you to do. God orders you to trust him in this case. God said, just believe what I told you. You just trust the one remedy that I provided. You just look up at that bronze serpent and you will live and you will not die. Would you trust his word? Would you trust what God told you? God is always true to his word. Verse nine tells us, it came about that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. He lived. And that's our conclusion. That is our conclusion. God's word is true. So you say, well, thanks. Fascinating story. What a fascinating account. But what's it got to do with me? What does it have to do with me living in 21st century Pennsylvania? Well, the answer is it has everything to do with you. Everything. How many of you were counting my C's? Steve, how many C's did I give? I gave six C's. I didn't give you the final C, did I? There's a seventh and final C word. And it's vitally connected to this passage of scripture, and that seventh C word connects you to this passage of scripture. If you recall, I began this morning by saying what we're about to read is a true and factual historical account. Now, I know that it's a true, factual, and historical account because it's written in the Old Testament portion of God's holy word. But I also know it's a true and factual account because Jesus himself validates this account for us in the New Testament portion of God's holy word. So for the seventh C word, here's what we have to do. We've got to fast forward in time. We've got to zip ahead approximately 1500 years. We've got to go from numbers 21 and we've got to fast forward right on up to first century Jerusalem around the year 31 AD. Now, to do that, I would ask you to turn in the New Testament portion of your Bibles to John's Gospel, Chapter 3. John's Gospel, Chapter 3. And while you're turning, allow me to, for a few minutes, set the stage for you. Let me set the stage. In John 3, we meet a Jewish religious leader by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus is sitting quietly in his home tonight. He's possibly looking out the window because he's waiting for the sun to go down. He's waiting for the cover of darkness so that he can go out unseen, unnoticed, incognito, to meet with Jesus of Nazareth. You see, Nicodemus is a thinking man. And he's got a ton of nagging questions that are swimming around in his head, and he wants these questions answered. He's been haunted by recent events, and he can't seem to stop thinking about this Jesus of Nazareth. He can't stop. He thinks back, way back to hearing the claims of that weird, austere Baptist named John. Always talking about the Messiah is here, the Messiah is here. He remembers this. He had also recently seen that 12 of the most unlikely men, men with nothing or little in common, have attached themselves to this rabbi, this Jesus. Now, two of these guys happen to be a Jewish zealot and a tax collector. These are two men that would normally have nothing to do with one another. You wouldn't even wanna stick these guys in the same room together. And yet, here they are, united around this Jesus. And then, of course, you've got these four fishermen. These guys are blue-collar, rough-cut types. They're uneducated, and they're following around a teacher, a rabbi. The tax collector has left his very lucrative money-making operation. The fishermen have abandoned the only trade they've ever known, and all 12 of these unlikely men are all united around this one man, and they're hanging upon his every word. Now, that's weird. And then, of course, Nicodemus thinks back to the rumors of that incident back in Cana of Galilee. Water becoming wine? But then maybe it happened for Nicodemus. Maybe it happened. Maybe he got to see Jesus with his own eyes, and at the most recent Passover feast, maybe he got to see Jesus perform signs and wonders that no mere man can do. Now, you see, he knows there's something to this Jesus. He knows it. And he's brimming to know. He's brimming with curiosity to know what is it about this Jesus of Nazareth. He's driven by a powerful need to go and to meet and to talk to Jesus in person. But at the same time, he's a little nervous about it. He's a little fearful about it because you see, everyone in Nicodemus' world, everyone in his little corner of the world, his family, his friends, certainly his coworkers, they want nothing to do with this Jesus. In fact, they've got some pretty harsh things to say about him. And so he waits for the sun to set and he goes off quietly, anonymously to meet Jesus of Nazareth. And instead of coming to Jesus with all of these questions that have been swimming around in his head for some reason, he lets loose this open-ended statement, a statement that's definitely meant to elicit a response. Look with me at verses 1 and 2 of John 3. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God. as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Open-ended statement, right? And Jesus responds. He responds to Nicodemus by getting right to the crux of the matter. He gets right to the point. And the first thing Jesus says to this man is so radical, so unexpected, That Nicodemus can't even wrap his brain around it. He can't understand, he can't grasp the concept that Jesus is talking about. Look at verse three. Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, you see, up until now, Nicodemus had always believed that his heritage and his own outward efforts were his keys to the kingdom. That's what he was convinced of. I mean, he was a Jewish leader. He was a teacher. This guy was an expert in the law. He was probably a very moral, honest man, seeking as best he could to obey the ceremonial and the moral law of God. These were the things, he thought, that were his salvation. See, Jesus is introducing something radically new to this man, something that is outside of his Jewish birthright and something that is, I'm sorry, apart from his Jewish birthright and outside of his own efforts. It's called new birth. Jesus says it's new birth, new creaturehood. As radical and unique a thing as when a baby emerges from a woman's womb. But Nicodemus, poor Nicodemus, he doesn't get it. He doesn't understand the concept. And so he says to Jesus, and I believe with sincerity, how? What are you talking about? How can a man be born again? He's confused. And so Jesus, with a love for this man's soul, is gonna spell it out for him. Jesus is gonna use an illustration that Nicodemus is gonna understand. In essence, he says, Nicodemus, do you wanna understand how one must be born again? Do you wanna understand how one must really see the kingdom of God? Where does he take this Old Testament scholar? He takes him right back to the event in Numbers 21. He says to Nicodemus in verse 14, as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so the son of man is going to be lifted up. And you see this here is our seventh C word. We've seen the complaint. We've seen the consequence. We've seen the contrition, the command, the condition, and the conclusion. We come here to our seventh C word, the cross. The event that takes place in Numbers 21 is meant to point to the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus wants Nicodemus, and he wants us to understand that the new birth he's talking about, this new birth that has as its basis for whether one ever sees the kingdom of God, this new birth has as its womb the cross. and the condition upon how one may receive it is the very same condition seen back in Numbers 21. Jesus said, Nicodemus, in the same way that Moses lifted up that bronze serpent on a high pole, mounted it for all of Israel to see, he's saying, so too am I going to be mounted. I'm going to be mounted to a pole. I'm going to be exhibited, planted in the ground for all to see, lifted up for all to see. And look at verse 15. He says, so that whoever believes will in him, in me, have eternal life. You see, the cross is the one and only single remedy that God has provided. to save us from an even deadlier, more devastating poison than snake venom. I mean, here's the truth. We've all been bitten. Every single one of us have been bitten. There is, right now, in every single one of us, with no exceptions, a moral and spiritual neurotoxin at work in every one of us. And it's far worse than any snake venom. We are all, we come into this world infected with the poison of sin. And scripture tells us, it reminds us, all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. And what this means is that even though you might be able to surpass one another's standard of good, oh, I'm better than him. All right, I might not be better than him, but I know I'm better than him. We might be able to surpass one another's standards of good. We all fall short of God's standard of good. What is God's standard of good? Well, it's His holy law, right? Bound in the Ten Commandments, the sum of that which represents perfect love to God and perfect love to man. You see, God has a perfect law. It represents who He is. It represents His perfection. It represents His holiness. And you and I have transgressed that law. We've broken that law. Are you aware of this? Now, I don't know if there's anyone in this room who needs to be convinced of this. I don't know. But if there is, I mean, just look at the law of God. You just have to look at it. The very first commandment is what? You shall have no other gods before me. Right? Have you ever loved anything or anyone more than you loved God? Or has every single moment of every single day of your life been filled with this irrepressible love and desire to glorify God in your life? You see, if you're honest, you have to admit you can't get past the first commandment without having broken it. The first half of God's law has to do with loving God perfectly. Have you loved God perfectly? Or have you taken his name in vain? Do you love God perfectly or have you failed to remember to keep that one day a week a holy day of worship to him? Have you loved your fellow man perfectly? You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery. Jesus told us in Matthew's Gospel that murder and adultery, they're sins that take place here. before they take place anywhere else, they start right here. Have you ever lashed out at someone in anger? Or have you ever just quietly smoldered with hatred towards someone? And God's law says you're guilty. Have you ever lusted over someone in your heart? You're guilty. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You ever take something that didn't belong to you? Have you ever lied? These are just a few of the commandments. James 2 tells us if anyone tries to keep that whole law and stumbles at just one point, he's become guilty of the whole thing. See, God's law, you take the Ten Commandments, it's like a big pain glass window. Try to just break part of a pain glass window. You can't. You throw a rock through a pane glass window, you ruin the whole thing. Now, I don't know, maybe somebody's sitting here thinking, wait a minute, you know, nobody's perfect. But you see, that's not true. God is perfect. God is perfect and holy and just and righteous, and so is his son. Remember, this law reflects God. It reflects who he is, and it reflects his son. Jesus is perfect. He came into this world for the purpose of living a perfect life, an obedient life to the law of God. And then Jesus took that perfect life and he laid it down. Who did he lay it down for? For all who will believe. For all who will believe. Anyone who will look to him with the eyes of faith. You see, when Christ was lifted up like that bronze serpent, God the Father was punishing Him. God was letting out His anger. He was pouring out His righteous anger upon Jesus. For what? For His sin? He had none. He was doing it. He was pouring out His anger upon Christ for the sins of a great multitude who believe, who will believe. a multitude that only God knows the number. And listen, I'm here to tell you this morning that if your heart, whoever you are, if your heart is contrite enough to look to Jesus Christ by faith, God promises you your sins will be paid for in full at the cross. And God will look upon you, the lawbreaker, as completely not guilty, completely righteous, based upon the righteousness of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, right? So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And friends, the condition, the condition upon becoming a righteousness of God in him is to believe. It is to believe. But the consequence, there is a consequence for not believing, and the consequence is death. But it's not the death of Numbers 21, that was a physical death. The consequence for not believing upon Christ is an eternal death. Hell is the absence of God's mercy and the presence of God's wrath forever, for all eternity. Now, I ask you, Are you prepared to dismiss all of this as mere superstition? Anyone here prepared to just shrug it off and say, you know, thanks, but no thanks. I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but I'm good. You don't need to worry about me. Really? God has provided one remedy. for the natural poison that's at work in every one of us. I challenge you this morning, what are you gonna do? John's gospel ended well for Nicodemus. We have much reason to believe that he came to believe. Perhaps it was at the foot of the cross where suddenly it dawned on Nicodemus, I get it, I'm looking at this one being crucified, this perfect righteous one. I get it. And perhaps that was his moment. But here's my question. You have a choice. You're either going to die with this poison in you. Or you're going to look upon him who was lifted up. God provided only one single remedy for man's salvation. And this is Jesus, this is his attitude to you right now. He opens up his arms and he says, this is what I've done, now you come, you come. He's willing to save you. One of the most evangelistic verses in all the Bible. I'll bet everyone in here knows that verse. It's right there in John 3, right where we left off in his conversation with Nicodemus. It's a very clear one-verse gospel message that was spoken by Jesus to Nicodemus that very night. John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. He will not perish, but he will have eternal life. There are many in this room I know who have believed and are trusting in that cross. Christian, isn't it amazing when you think the eternal Son of God, He was watching from heaven as that bronze serpent was being raised up in the wilderness, knowing that this was to signify what He was yet going to come to earth to accomplish for the sake of His people. Aren't you grateful for the anti-venom? Aren't you grateful for the cross? The cross, that one remedy provided for you? I mean, you think about the mountain of sin that you're guilty of. The sin that's been removed as far as east is from west because of the one who voluntarily gave himself to be lifted up, providing that one single remedy, that one anti-venom. for the sin that was going to kill us eternally. When you think of the pride of the heart, the mother of all sin, the unrighteous anger, the lust, the covetousness, the laziness, the idolatries, you heard about a lot of these things this morning. It's important to remember that as long as we remain in these earthly bodies, the leftover traces of that spiritual neurotoxin are gonna continue to attack. They haven't been erased altogether. Sin is always going to try to seek to regain new ground in your life. And if it can, it's going to try to choke the life out of you, send you into spiritual cardiac arrest, stop your spiritual heart from beating. That's what sin does. The great thing is, Christian, the remedy hasn't changed. You just need to remember that same original remedy. You keep the cross before you. You always look to the cross. Listen, don't ever let the enemy tell you that you can't go back to the cross, because the enemy will do that. Yeah, the little whisperings in the ear, you can't. You've out sinned grace this time, pal. Uh-uh. No way. How many times have you committed the same sin over and over again? You can't go back. You're done. Don't listen to that. You say, no, you're wrong, because God's word says if I confess my sins, he's faithful and righteous. To forgive my sins and cleanse me from every trace of unrighteousness. Christian, the remedy's the same, you go back. You go back and you look upon your Savior. When sin tries to gain new ground, you run, you flee, you hasten back to the cross, and you look upon the one that so loved you. You go back, and as often as necessary, you go back to that fountain that is always open for sin and uncleanness, and you will find a fresh storehouse of grace. Bless God for his son. our Redeemer and our anti-venom. May God use his word to both save and sanctify. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that these things were written for our instruction And we thank you, Lord, that you didn't leave us to ourselves. You didn't leave us groping around, wondering how to be saved, wondering how we might become friends with you, our creator, who we've offended. You make it so clear in the gospel how you provided one single remedy for our salvation. Oh, Lord, may you make that remedy come alive for many hearts this day. And Lord, we thank you that your word, it is such a source of light to us. It lights our path, and we give you thanks and praise for it, and we pray that you