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The Serpent in the Wilderness By Peter Jeffery

You sitting down, I'll tell you my text for tonight. It's John 3:14, this amazing statement by the Lord Jesus that has Moses lifted up the serpent or the snake in the wilderness.
Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up.

I'll tell you a story before I start. It happened last week in Sydney. I've been preaching in Sydney for a fortnight before I came to Newcastle.
Then I preached another week at Tamworth, another week at Inverill, and then three weeks down in Melbourne before we go back to Britain. But I was preaching on this same subject last week, last night in Sydney. And after I'd spoken, a student came and spoke to me. He was a boy,22, doing science in Sydney University. He told me quite an amazing story. He told me that for a long time he'd been wanting to know if there was a God. And what he'd done was quite extreme.
He was earnest about this. Now I don't know how you feel tonight about this question, but this boy was very serious. He's a young man, 22 now, but very serious in wanting to know if there was a God and whether this God could be something for him. And so he took a year out of university and he went and lived for one year in Tasmania in a tent, just reading the Bible.
That's what he did, that's what he told me. One year in Tasmania in a tent, reading a Bible to discover if there was a God. And he came back knowing there was a God, but not knowing that God.
You see the difference? He was now convinced in his mind that God was true, and what the Bible said about God was true, but he didn't know that God. And he came to know that God last Friday night as we were preaching on this story about the serpent in the wilderness, because he was a university student and he'd been looking intellectually, but what he saw in the passage like this is what I hope I can show you tonight, that becoming a Christian is a very simple matter, it's look. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Why? That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Now John 3 is a remarkable chapter and vital to a true understanding of the Gospel. If you really want to know what the Gospel is about, set your mind to understand John 3, and if you understand John 3, you'll come to understand what the Gospel is about. There was this Pharisee, a man by the name of Nicodemus, and because he was a Pharisee he was by definition a very religious man, a very devout man, a very sincere man, and a man who was very serious about the things of God, but he didn't know God. He was in a pulpit every Sabbath teaching about God, but he was in darkness and ignorance concerning this God. And when he hears about the Lord Jesus, he is very impressed. And so one night, made it the night time because he was even embarrassed to come in the daytime, he comes to talk to Jesus. He didn't want his Pharisee cronies to see this, so he comes at night,
and he comes to talk to Jesus, and he comes to talk about the things of God. He doesn't come to have some casual conversation about politics, or sport, or the economic pressures, or the value of the dollar. He comes to talk about Jesus, and he begins to talk like this. He says, Jesus, we know you're a teacher come from God, for no man could do the miracles that you do, except God be with him. And Jesus stops him dead. He says, Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. He doesn't let him go any further. He cuts right across the conversation of this man, and he says to him, verily, verily, I say unto you, take it seriously. He says, that's what verily, verily means.
Truly, truly, this is something very important, except the man is born again, he will not see the Kingdom of Heaven. I know Nicodemus must have been shocked to have heard Jesus speak like that, but if you read the Gospels, that's the way Jesus always spoke.
He always took men to the heart of the matter. There wasn't much small talk with the Lord Jesus Christ. He shows people the first need of their heart and soul. You see, any discussion about God is purely academic, until first of all, we are clear about our position before God. So Jesus says, you must be born again. Why? Well, because in God's sight, you're dead, walking around, enjoying life, and dead, eating and drinking, and dead, spiritually dead to God. That's God's estimation of every man, woman, and child in Australia, dead spiritually before God. And we need to know that.
And so Jesus tells this man exactly where he is before God. Now, Jesus could have talked with
Nicodemus on a very high intellectual level. They could have talked about great philosophical
problems, about the problem of suffering, and the problem of evil, and why there was pain,
and why there was all these things in the world, perhaps about the existence of God. And no doubt,
a highly cultured and intelligent man like this Pharisee would have enjoyed such a conversation.
He would have found it intellectually stimulating, the talk at that level, with this great teacher
of religion. In the same way that people today don't mind a good old religious argument,
they find it quite pleasant and quite enjoyable. But you know, Jesus was never interested
in merely stimulating a man's intellect. Jesus never bypasses the mind, to speak to the heart,
but he was never really interested in merely meeting the needs of the mind. His concern
was for the soul, and for its eternal salvation. So this is what Nicodemus needs to hear. And Jesus
tells him, man you've got to be born again, you're dead before God. So it is with every one of us.
We come into a meeting like this on a Saturday night, I don't know what we expect to hear,
or what we'd like to hear, but this is what God wants to tell you. It doesn't matter whether you
are a youngster or older, he wants to tell you that unless you are spiritually born, born a second
time, born by the power of the Spirit, then you will never see God. It doesn't matter what else
you might be or what else you might do, you'll never get to heaven, and you are not a Christian.
It doesn't matter what else you've done, unless you are born again, there is no spiritual life in you.
Jesus, you see, says the New Testament, came into this world to save us. But what does that mean?
How many times have you heard that from the sermon? Jesus comes to save us. But what does it mean to
be saved? And what are we saved from? And how does Jesus save us? And what are we gonna do if we are
going to be saved? Now all that is answered in this question. Jesus takes this Old Testament
story that was read a minute ago about Moses in Numbers 21, and he takes it to illustrate his
saving work. Now let me remind you of the story that was read to us. Moses was leading these people
from Egypt to the Promised Land. They were going through the desert, and the people got fed up. They
got fed up of walking through the desert, and they got fed up of what God was doing for them, and their
soul was discouraged because of the way God was leading them, and they were fed up of the manner
that God was giving them, this remarkable bread. In fact, they said there is no water and there is
no bread, which was a total lie, because God gave them water out of the rock on a couple of occasions,
and every morning there was bread, fresh bread, manner, the bread of heaven for them, but they
were fed up with it. They didn't want it. They were fed up with what God was giving them. They were fed up
with the way that God was leading them, and that was their sin. They were fed up with God.
God judged them immediately. He sent this plague of fiery serpents or poison snakes,
and these snakes were biting people, and people are dropping dead right left and center,
all over the place, young and old, people were dropping dead, because these snakes were everywhere.
Put your socks on in the morning, there was a snake there, and bam, you were dead by dinner time.
Go to lie down to the rest after lunch, and the snake would bite you, and you were dead by tea time.
There were snakes all over the place, and people were being bitten, and people were dying all over
the place, and the people realized that this was God's judgment on them because of their sin,
and they said to Moses, we've sinned. They said, you get on to God, because they were afraid to do it.
Ask God to get rid of this plague of snakes, and Moses did that, and God said, right, I will do it,
but this is what you must do first. You must take some brass, and you must model one of these snakes.
Make a model of these snakes, and then put this snake on a very, very high pole, hold it up high
in the middle of the camp, and if anybody is bitten by a snake, all he's going to do, not rush to the
doctor that looked to that snake, and he will lose, and that was the story. And Jesus said,
as Moses did that, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so I, the Son of God,
must be lifted up. Now, what does he mean when he says that he's got to be lifted up?
Well, we haven't got a guess about that. He tells us in chapter 12 of John, I'll read it to you,
so that you're not, so you can see that we're not guessing, but my business here is just to preach
the Word of God to you. John 12 and 32 and 33, and Jesus said, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to me. And then John adds this, this he said, signifying what death he should die.
So the lifting up that Jesus was referring to, was referring to the cross, signifying what death
he should die. So Jesus is saying, that this incident in the Old Testament of Moses and this
brass serpent, is a perfect example about what his death on the cross means, and all the significance
and glory and blessing that flows from that. As Moses did that, so I must do this, as they look
to that snake so they live, as people believe on me, so they shall live. Well, that's the introduction
to this old story, and what I'm going to do with you for the next half an hour or so, no more than
that, because it's too warm to go much longer than that, I think for you and for me, is to take you
through the Old Testament story very simply, and seek to show you what the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ is, and seek to answer these questions, why do I need to be saved? Why do you need to be saved?
How can you be saved? What has Jesus done to save you, and what must you do if you are to be saved?
And we'll find all these answers in the story in the Old Testament. Well, the story starts with the
people rebelling against God. Let me read you the verses four and five. And the people were
discouraged because of the way, the way God was leading them, and they spoke against God, and they
said, we have brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, there is no bread, there is no water,
and we are sick to death of this other bread. We are so loaves this bread, this manna, that God
was giving them. In other words, two things were happening there. They didn't want to go the way
that God was directing them, and they were fed up with the things that God was giving them.
And they find the provisions of gifts and gifts of God to be loavesome. So they rebel. They don't
want God to rule them. And you know, in essence, that's what sin is. Sin is rebellion. It's a
rejection of the way of God, and it's a rejection of the things of God. You see, and if you're one
of those people tonight who don't want to live your life according to the way that God wants
you to live your life, you're exactly like these people, in essence, aren't you? You see, God says,
this is the way you should go. This is the way you should live your life. You should behave like
that. And you say, no, I want to do the other thing. God says, you should love me with all
your heart, and I should be first. And you say, no, I'm going to be first. I'm going to do my
business. I'm going to do what I want to do. God said, you shouldn't live like this. You
shouldn't live with a sort of immorality that's rampant in the world today. Hi, but I enjoy it,
you say, and I want to do it. There's nothing wrong in it. You're exactly like these people.
They don't want to go the way that God wants to go. And they found the things of God to be
loathsome. You see, if you're one of those people tonight who find prayer the most
boring thing possible in the world, and you couldn't imagine anything more dry and boring
than being in a prayer meeting, it's because you find the things that God wants to give you as the
most precious things in this world, you find them boring and loathsome to yourself. If you're one
of those people who couldn't imagine anybody sitting down and spending half an hour reading
the Bible because you find it boring and dry and old-fashioned and irrelevant, it's because
you find the most precious gifts of God to be loathsome to yourself. You're in exactly the
same situation these people were in. We're going to see how relevant all this is. This isn't just
something pinched out of the ark and no relevance to modern life in the late 20th century. This is
the most apt, the most appropriate thing that you can find anywhere. They don't want the things of
God, and they don't want to go the way that God wants them to go. And let me ask you to be this
tonight, if nothing else, at least be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself. It doesn't
matter who brought you or what anybody else thinks. If you find prayer and the Bible to be
boring, it's because you know nothing of God. If you don't want to live your life according to the
way that God says you should live it, it's because you're in rebellion to God, and you're in exactly
the same situation that these people were in. Make no mistake about that. They were refusing
to let God be God in their lives. Now it's very easy to do that. If universities give degrees in
sin, we'd all pass with honors, because it's the natural thing of our heart. We find it very easy
to do, but it always brings a consequence. Always. Sin is easy, but it always brings a consequence.
It did for these Israelites. They were in this situation, and they were rebelling. And then we
read this, verse 6, and notice these words. Now notice them very carefully. And the Lord sent
fiery serpents. The Lord sent. Not it was a bit of bad luck, and they happened to camp that night
in a place where there was a pit of snakes, and if they'd gone another half a mile, they wouldn't
have all this trouble at all. Just a bit of bad luck, just a bad coincidence. Pity we didn't plan
it a bit better. No, it wasn't that. The Lord sent poisoned snakes among them. This, according to the
Scriptures, was a direct act of God as a consequence of their rebellion against guns. You see, God is a
fully God. He's pure and he's righteous, and he will not and he cannot tolerate sin. At the
beginning of time, God pronounced, before sin ever entered human nature, God pronounced that the
wages of sin is death. He didn't say that. That's Romans 6. But God said in effect to Adam, when he
said, if you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will die. And he was saying the same thing that
Paul said in Romans 6. The wages of sin is death, and so his holy judgment comes upon these people
through these snakes, and the people were dying, and the people were dying. Now you might say,
what on earth is that going to do with us today? God's dealings with us today may not be identical
to that of the Israelites in the wilderness, and when you sin and when I sin, we don't suddenly
find ourselves with a pile of snakes wrapping themselves around our neck and biting us. It
doesn't happen like that. And we say, well, that's got nothing to do with us then. We'd be making a
mistake if we felt that. What I would argue is this. In effect, God's dealing with us today is
exactly the same as it was with those people. In effect, might not be in detail, but in effect,
sin always brings its consequence, and the wages of sin is still death.
You see, why were these people dying? Well, because they were bitten by snakes. No, that wasn't the
reason why they were dying. The reason why they were dying was because they were under the judgment
of God, and they sinned against God. That's clear in the story. If we take the Bible seriously,
that's clear in the story. So why will you die one day? Now, you might have disagreed with
everything I said at this point, but you can't disagree with this. You are going to die. You know
it. I know it. But why? Why will you die one day? Now, when you die, and I found out that this is
exactly the same thing in Australia as it is in England, the law of the land requires that a doctor
will examine your dead body, if you haven't been under treatment for some time, and he will fill
in a death certificate. And on that death certificate, he has to put the cause of death.
And the doctor will come and look at you one day, and he will examine you, and he will say,
this person died of a heart attack, or of cancer, or pneumonia, or was banged down by a double-decker
bus or something, or was run over by something else, and they died, and this is the cause of death.
And can I suggest to you that every doctor who's ever filled in a death certificate has always been
wrong, that that is not the cause of death, that cancer, or pneumonia, or old age, or whatever it is
which will put you in a box, is not the cause of death, that is merely the means by which death
takes you. The cause of death, according to the bible, is sin. What was the cause of these
people's death? It was not the snakes, the snakes was the means by which death took them, the cause
was their sin. And when you die and I die, there is only one explanation, and it is not medical,
it is theological, that it is God's judgment upon sin, that the wage of sin is death. Death physical,
which is the separation of the soul from the body, and death spiritual, which is the separation from
the soul from God, and death eternal, which is spiritual death made permanent. And you will die
because you're a sinner. That's the only reason why anybody dies. All have sinned, all dying.
Now if that's true, and it's unquestionably the clear teaching of Jesus and the bible,
the vital question is this, is that absolute? Is there no escape from this? And it's at that point
you see that the gospel comes. The gospel as you know literally means good news, good news.
And what better news could there be than that a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, can be saved
from the consequence of their sin, saved from death, so that death instead of being an endless separation
from God merely becomes a stepping stone into the eternal presence of God. What better news can there
be than that death can lose its sting and that the grave can lose its victory. And that's the message
of the gospel. In the amazing words of Paul to Timothy that Christ has abolished death.
A tremendous statement. Christ has abolished death. He's taken the sting out of it, he's taken the
consequence out of it, so that death, if you're a Christian, is no more terrible thing to come and
engulf you, but merely the stepping stone into the presence of God. That's what you're saved from,
from the consequence of death, of sin, which is death. Well how does this salvation come?
Welcome back to the story. Here were these people, they'd sinned against God, they were
being bitten by snakes, they were dying all over the place. Then the people said, verse 7, we have
sinned. That's when the answer started. When they said, we have sinned. In other words,
there was a confession of their sin and I think very strongly implied there was that there was
a repentance. They were sorry and they wanted to be right with God. Now these people didn't pretend
everything was okay. They didn't say, well you know we're not sinners. They didn't even say,
well okay we are sinners, but oh God, God, we don't deserve all this you're giving us.
I mean we're good people, we're not like those folk over there, who would I call it as God,
you shouldn't be doing this to us. They didn't argue. All they said is, we have sinned.
And then God provided the answer. I wonder if you ever come to that point. I think it's the
most difficult point for any human being to come to, to say I am a sinner and mean it.
People can mouth the word sometimes, you can sing it in hymns sometimes,
but to really mean it you can say, I have sinned before God and any judgment that God would pour
upon me, I deserve. You come to that point here. If you haven't, you're not a Christian.
It is absolutely biblically impossible for you to be a Christian if you've not come to that point
where you can say before God, I have sinned not, I have sinned but you know I'm all right really
and I'm as good as the next man and I'm trying my best and really I'm not as bad as some people I
could speak of, but I have sinned, full stop. And until you have come to that position I tell you
with all the authority of God's word behind me, you are not, most definitely not a Christian.
There is no salvation without conviction and there is certainly no salvation biblically
without repentance. And if it isn't a biblical salvation it's no salvation.
These people had to come to that point and oh how difficult it is for people to get there. But when
they got there, God provided an answer and it was a very strange answer. It was God said right now,
make a model of this snake that's causing all the trouble and put it on this high pole. High
pole so that there'll be no excuse, anybody can see it if they want. Put it in the middle of the
camp, anybody bitten just looks. It was a strange answer but mark this, it was the only answer.
There was no alternative. God didn't say to these people right if they don't like this come back
next week and I'll give you another answer. And if you can think of something better you come and
make a suggestion to me. God didn't say that. He says this is my answer to my judgment on you a sin
and that's what it was. It was an answer to God's judgment on their sin.
Now the scripture doesn't say this but human nature being what it is, I believe that some
would have looked. There's a man bitten by a snake, he would look to that and he would live
and some would not look and they would die. Some bitten by these snakes would look to that serpent
and they would not understand how this thing could possibly work but they trusted God. They said
this is what God has provided as his answer to his judgment on my sin and in faith and confidence
in the word and promise of God they looked and they lived. And others would have said well no
this is ridiculous, this is stupid. I mean I've got poison flowing all through my body how can
look into that lump of brass up there possibly deal with this problem I've got here. They would
say this is irrational, this is unreasonable, this is unscientific and we will not look.
And so they wouldn't and they lie in the dust of the desert rational, reasonable, scientific and dead.
But they weren't rational at all and they certainly weren't scientific at all
and they certainly weren't reasonable. What they were arrogant and foolish because what
they would have been saying in effect is this if I can't understand it, it can't be.
And I argue with you that's not science that's arrogance and they would not look and they would die.
And there are so many people like that in the world today. So many people who view the gospel
and they hear the gospel perhaps they've come to the point where they see that they're sinners,
they see that their life isn't what it ought to be, isn't what it was meant to be, they aren't
what they were meant to be and they hear the gospel and the gospel says trust in the Lord Jesus
and they say ah no no no there must be something more than that. And they refused a simple faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ and they will not look to him and they will not believe in him and they
will not trust in him and they will die without him and if they die without him then they will
go to hell. That's what he says and I wonder if you were like that tonight. You see that was the
position that that young fellow was in I was talking about at the beginning. He'd come to see
there was a God and he was all up here in his mind. He wasn't an atheist, he was 12 months before
but he moved from that. He knew there was a God but he wanted to understand everything. He wanted
to see everything. He wanted to understand how it all worked out and as long as he was in that
situation he was always going to be in a situation of rejecting faith as a means of salvation.
And there are many people like that, many many people who will not look to what God has done.
You see Jesus was lifted up on the cross. He died on the cross to deal with our sin. God laid our
sin upon him. Your sin, my sin, he laid it upon him and he dealt with that sin at Calvary. He
judged that sin. You see there are only two places in the whole of the universe where God deals with
sin either on Calvary or in hell and your sin and my sin is dealt with either at Calvary or in hell.
At Calvary where Jesus pays the price, in hell where you pay the price. That's what the gospel
is presenting us with. You pay the debt and go to hell or you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
who died in you a place and go to heaven. That's the simplicity of the gospel. There's nothing
complicated about the gospel and God says now I've done all this for you. What you must do is look.
I am providing says God an answer to my judgment upon your sin and the answer is the cross of
Calvary the death of my son who came into this world to bear your sins in his own body on the
tree. Now he says look, have faith, believe in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and the
moment you do that you become a Christian and that young fella did that in Sydney last week.
He suddenly realized it wasn't a matter of understanding everything. He was never going
to understand everything but he could have faith in God. He knew what he was. He saw God's answer
and he says God I believe. Forgive me my sins and the joy and the peace of God came into his
heart. That week his parents had kicked him out. That week his girlfriend had gave him up. On
Friday night he was converted and he said it's the best week of my life. The best week of my life
because all that year of certain you think of it one year in a tent in Tasmania reading the Bible
and come to a great glorious culmination and stand no Baptist church. It was a week last night
and that's what God can do for anyone of us. Let me tell you the story of two men before I finish.
One man is a man who runs the longest running television program on British television. His name
is Patrick Moore and if you see him in Australia he's got a program looking at the stars
and looking at astronomy and that sort of thing. It's the longest running program
on British television and I heard that man on a children's radio program several years ago
on a religious children's radio program typical BBC in England telling the children why he was
an atheist and he said I am an atheist because I am a scientist. He says I cannot believe things
unless I can prove them. As a scientist he argued I'm used to putting things in a test tube and
trying it and running through a series of experiments and only then do I believe it.
I cannot do that to God so I do not believe in God. That's a typical sort of view of man I should
imagine. I saw the same man a year or two after that on television being interviewed in one of
those chat programs Michael Parkinson chat show and Michael Parkinson asked the man this question
do you believe he says that there is life on the other planets? He was an expert on this sort of
thing you see. Do you believe there is life on the other planet? And this was his answer verbatim
I cannot prove it he says but I believe there is life on the other planets. The man who cannot
believe God because he cannot prove him believes that. What I'm saying is this don't you whatever
you do tonight go out of here with the arrogance of thinking that because you're 17 or 18 or 19
and have a little bit of education and have learned a little bit in school that you know
too much to know God. You know too much to believe in God. You go out from here rejecting
God because you're an unbeliever not because you're clever. There is nothing clever in rejecting
the God who gives you breath to breathe. There is nothing clever or intellectual or educational
about going to hell and I will not argue or tolerate people who stand up and say we are
too clever to be Christians. We've got too many education or degrees like Patrick Moore says
when those men stand on television and of the audacity to tell people that they don't believe
in God because they know too much and it's about time he stood up and said man you are wrong you're
a hypocrite you don't even live by your own standards. You believe there's life up there but
you can't prove it. Whatever else you might do tonight my friends let me tell you this
don't think your education has put you beyond faith in Christ. Some of the greatest brains
this world has ever known are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a marvelous man in
Scotland many years ago Sir James Young Simpson. He was a great medical scientist. He was the man
who discovered chloroform as the first anesthetic. Can you imagine what that meant through in a
breakthrough in operations? Instead of going in to have your appendix out and they bang you on
the head with a mallet or something they give you a chloroform. A tremendous breakthrough.
Tremendous breakthrough. This man was being interviewed in a great conference in Glasgow
and he was asked on a scientific platform what is the greatest discovery you've ever made and
they knew what he was going to say of course but what he said was this the greatest discovery I've
ever made is that I have a savior. No it was the greatest discovery that I have a savior
that I've got a God who loves me. Now that can be your discovery tonight that you have a savior.
How? Look it's as simple as that. It really is as simple as that. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see if tonight you know that you're a sinner. If you know that God loves sinners.
If you know that Christ has died on the cross for your sin and if you know that God is speaking to
your heart and convicting of your sin and saying to you listen I want you to come to me then you
know enough to be saved. You add to your faith knowledge and you go on for the rest of your life
understanding things you haven't got a clue about now but you start with a simple faith. God
nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling. That's how you become a Christian.
That's how that young fellow Michael became a Christian. That's how I became a Christian
and that's how every Christian year became a Christian. Might have worked in different ways
but in the end it all came to the same thing. We've got to trust the Lord Jesus and he is an
amazing person to trust. He's a glorious savior but let me tell you this don't play about with it.
Don't you go looking for God and saying well okay I'll become a Christian as if it's something
casual and something indifferent. Don't you do that. It's the most important thing there is in
the world and you come seeking God seriously. Seriously. I remember on the fellow in rugby
in my church several years ago he came to see me one Sunday night. His wife was a Christian
and he was a lovely lovely man. One of the nicest men you could have and he came to me and he said
pastor I want to become a Christian and I asked him the question. I asked everybody in that situation
why and he began to tell me why he wanted to become a Christian and I felt that this dear man
was far too casual about it. I said you go away and think about it some more and pray about it
and I'll pray about it. He came back the following Sunday and he says pastor I want to become a
Christian. I said why and we talked again and I felt he was too casual, much too casual.
You can't come to God as if you're going out to Wilworth to buy a pack of sweets.
You're coming before God, the eternal sovereign God. You're asking for forgiveness of sins or a
loaf of bread. You're asking for the greatest thing a man or woman can ever know in this life
and you can't come casual and I said to this dear man I said I know but you go away I said
and think about it again and pray about it again. You went away and I went on holidays.
When I came back from holidays he was one of the first men I met in the church and I came back
and I took one look at him and I knew he was a Christian. God had dealt with him then and I said
well tell me what happened. Oh he says you know what you said about being being a bit too casual
and I went away and I didn't understand it he said but one morning he says I got up to go to work
about six o'clock and I was in the bathroom he says shaving. Six o'clock or so in the morning
shaving with the lather on his face and he says I was overwhelmed with a sense of my own sin
and the greatness of God's love and that man was converted in his own bathroom in the middle of
shaving at six o'clock in the morning nothing casual the lather on his face but a sense of
sin in his heart and a sense of the wonder of God's love coming into his soul and his mind
and there was repentance and there was faith that he was saved and he wasn't the same man since.
He's a different man not casual any longer longing to know peace with God even as Moses lifted up the
serpent he says and they looked and God's judgment this was God's answer to even so
must I be lifted up on the cross and God's judgment upon sin which is death and hell
this is my answer this is God's answer to that there is no other answer this is God's answer
the cross and the atoning death of Jesus and so he says look believe trust receive
ask that God will forgive you your sins and he will shall we pray we thank you our father for
the glory and yet the simplicity of the gospel we thank you for the majesty and yet a wonder
of it all that the youngest here tonight can believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
oh God give us grace to look tonight to believe to receive the Lord Jesus as our God and Savior
we ask it for your glory and honor amen