Can'T Sin Without the Snakes

There is an old adage, if you choose bad company, then be prepared to share their black eyes. And sin is like that, friend. Sin has its consequences for sure, as a black cloud has rain.

Go back in your memory, before you were saved, and think on the problems that soon accompanied your sins. When I was in college, me and a fraternity brother went out on the town, shooting tequila. Well, you can't drink tequila long, before you get sloppy drunk.

Somehow, we made it back to the fraternity house, and as soon as I walked in there, I picked a fight with a man much bigger than me. He played football, and he had to work a job at night to support himself, and the job he had was as a waiter in an old English-themed steak restaurant, and his job required him to wear tights. Well, when I saw him in my drunken condition, I made fun of his tights and questioned his manhood, and then I began to beat him over the head with a broom that I found behind the door.

Well, he punched me so hard, when I hit the door behind me, it took the hinges off. They had to pull him off of me before he killed me. The consequences of my sin were a torn shirt, a swollen face, and a bruised ego.

I quit drinking booze that night, and haven't touched liquor since in the last 40 years, but I learned a thing, and that thing was, you can't have sins without the snakes, and that's the tale of my message today, friends. You can't sin without the snakes, and my text can be found in the book of Numbers. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 21. Here we find the people of God are plagued with fiery serpents, because of their murmuring against God. We see this in verses 5 and 6. And the people spoke against God, and against Moses.

Wherefore have ye 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. I will stop there.

The people were fed by God, with the miraculous provision of the manna, but they grew tired of that, and consequently, in their complaining, they grew tired of God. I think there's a lesson there, friends. Sin is rebellion against God, and sin has its consequences, because sin will eventually bite you, and you will soon learn, friend, that you can't sin without the snakes.

I used to live in a forest in Tennessee, and on my property, there was a stream at the back of it, and a rock bed with a drainage ditch at the front of it, and copperhead snakes just loved to live at the back and front of my house. So every year, I would have to put my boots on, and go kill me some snakes. I'd take a can of gasoline in one hand, and a shovel in the other, and I'd straddle those rocks in that drainage ditch, and pour gasoline on them, and then I would wait.

Soon, snakes would slither out, one across one boot, and one across my other boot, and when they emerged, I would hit them on the head with that shovel, and then cut their head off with the edge of that spade. That's how I killed snakes. One time, I hit a baby copperhead, which is more poisonous than a big one, and it spit venom in my eye.

Fortunately for me, I was wearing glasses, and the venom hit my lens, and not my eye, but the point was, I soon learned that if I found one snake, there were other snakes nearby, and sin is like that, friend. It has a way of multiplying into something you never intended. I don't think King David intentionally planned the murder of Uriah the Hittite as soon as he saw Bathsheba bathing in the moonlight.

No, friends, one sin led to another. Adultery led to murder, and then the big cover-up. But you can't cover sin long.

My Bible says so in Proverbs 28, 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. Listen, friends, sin will take you further than you want to go.

It will leave you there longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you ever realized, because sin is costly. I was having lunch with a fellow evangelist, and he shared with me the story about his daddy, who was a pastor. One day, his daddy had an adulterous affair with the church secretary, and when it was found out, it cost him his marriage, it cost him his pastorate, and it cost him financially to such a degree that this man became homeless.

And my evangelist buddy, as he told me that sad story, he got a faraway look in his eye, and he said, with a sigh, sin is costly. And it sure is, friend. You can't sin without the snakes.

Now I want you to notice something else in our text here in Numbers, and that is the brazen serpent on a pole. In verse 8 we read, And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. If the people were bitten by the fiery serpents, all they had to do to be cured was to fix their eyes upon that brass serpent on that pole, just gaze upon it, putting their confidence in God's word that he would heal them.

And over in John's gospel, in chapter 3, we see the words of Christ, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. I want to end my message today, friends, by preaching up a bloody cross on which the prince of glory died. After the fall in Eden, God knew man was sinful, but God had a way to deal with sin, and he accomplished this in his dear son, Jesus.

I'm sure you've heard of Jesus. Jesus came into this world doing good, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and even raising the dead to life. Yet what happened? A wicked man cried away with him, and nailed him to a cross.

Go ahead, friend, look at that man on the cross. See him there, with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that blessed man on the cross.

Isaiah declares, look unto me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Look at that bloodstained Christ on that cross, friend, when all is against him, his love flows out to a world of guilty sinners. He prays, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The cross is the place where cruel men sought to get rid of him, but by his death, he becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own him as their Savior and Lord. I'm going to sing a hymn, friend, and as I sing, if the Spirit of God has troubled your conscience and brought conviction to your heart, I want you to come to this bloodstained Christ and own him as your Lord. Come to him and utter surrender with all you are to all he is and get your sins washed in his blood.

Listen, friends, Jesus is the pearl of great price. He's worth selling all for and losing all for so he can be gained. You come as I sang, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.