The Serpent In The Wilderness
Romans 4:4-5
Sermon By Pastor Dennis Gleason -- February 27, 2005
Do you ever feel overworked, over-regulated, under-leisured, under-benefited? Take heart. This notice was found in the ruins of a London office building. It was dated 1852.
1. This firm has reduced the hours of work, and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.
2. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colors, nor will they wear hose unless in good repair.
3. Overshoes and topcoats may not be worn in the office, but neck scarves and headwear may be worn in inclement weather.
4. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It is recommended that each member of the clerical staff bring four pounds of coal each day during the cold weather.
5. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from the supervisor.
6. No talking is allowed during business hours.
7. The craving for tobacco, wine, or spirits is a human weakness, and as such is forbidden to all members of the clerical staff.
8. Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food is allowed between 11:30 and noon, but work will not on any account cease.
9. Members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. A new sharpener is available on application to the supervisor.
10. The supervisor will nominate a senior clerk to be responsible for the cleanliness of the main office and the private office. All boys and juniors will report to him 40 minutes before prayers and will remain after closing hours for similar work. Brushes, brooms, scrubber, and soap are provided by the owners.
11. The owners recognize the generosity of the new labor laws, but will expect a great rise in output of work to compensate for these near Utopian conditions.
According to a 1993 poll: 88% of Catholics and a majority of Presbyterian and Methodist evangelizers [those who actively try to share their "faith"] believe that "if people are generally good, or do enough good things for others during their lives, they will earn a place in heaven."
I read about an instant cake mix that was a big flop. The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The company couldn't understand why it didn't sell -- until their research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. Apparently people thought it was too easy. So the company altered the formula and changed the directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.
That story reminds me of how some people react to the plan of salvation. To them it sounds too easy and simple to be true, even though the Bible says, "By grace you have been saved through faith...; it is the gift of God, not of works" (Eph. 2:8-9). They feel that there is something more they must do, something they must add to God's "recipe" for salvation. They think they must perform good works to gain God's favor and earn eternal life. But the Bible is clear -- we are saved, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5). Unlike the cake-mix manufacturer, God has not changed His "formula" to make salvation more marketable. The gospel we proclaim must be free of works, even though it may sound too easy.
As we continue our thoughts on the question of God’s forgiveness and how people are made righteous, we come to Paul’s next statement regarding the fact that righteousness comes by faith and not by what we do.
Romans 4:4-5
When people work, their wages are not a gift. Workers earn what they receive. 5But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.
We know that there is a tremendous difference between wages we earn and gifts we are given. The law recognizes the right of a worker to collect his or her wages. If you are not paid for the work you do, you have certain rights that will allow you to collect what is owed you. You could place a lien on the employer’s property; you could take them to small claims court or even have your lawyer file suit against them in order to have your claim satisfied. Wages are a debt owed.
Gifts we are given, however, are a different matter. You never earn a gift. A gift is an expression of grace on the part of the giver. It is an expression of favor that we do not deserve. We have not earned it. If we ever did earn it somehow, it would cease to be a gift.
Think if you will about what Paul has been saying about how we become righteous before God…it is by faith he repeats over and over again. Why does he labor the point?
He does so in order that we might clearly understand something very important. If it were possible for us to earn righteousness by good works or by developing a good character then man could go to Heaven with all boldness. He could stand at the gate of Heaven and demand entrance in much the same way that a worker could demand his wages. The worker has punched the time clock or put his hours in and on payday he rightly expects to be paid.
If any of us could produce works that are worthy of Heaven, God would have no right to keep us out of Heaven. We would approach Heaven not as one demanding a favor, but as one claiming our rights. “Make room for me God, because I have now arrived and want what is my own by right of my own abilities.”
Paul’s point is that man is morally and spiritually bankrupt. He cannot ever do anything to gain the right to Heaven on his own. He has clearly told us that …”All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
A chain has been forged that contains three links that will forever bind man to doom without there ever being any hope in his favor. The chain has three links: the law, transgression and wrath. God has given His law. Man has transgressed that law. And the wrath of God will flow out against the transgressor. Unless God acts man has no hope.
Remember, last week we considered the fact that the Law is like a mirror. A mirror can only show you what you look like. It cannot fix what you see. It can drive you to soap and water and a comb or brush but it can’t do any more than reveal what you look like. The Law is the same. It can only show man that he is sinful, a transgressor of God’s Law. It cannot fix anything. It can only drive us to God and his offer of forgiveness and righteousness or lead us into hopelessness and despair.
Paul also makes it clear that God has acted. He has forged another chain and that chain has three links: grace, promise and faith. God has given us a promise of forgiveness, and righteousness. The promise is given only by grace. It is undeserved, absolutely and totally. It can only be accepted by faith.
Paul makes it clear that it is absurd for men to believe that a man can be saved by works and that we receive forgiveness and salvation by simply believing what God has said and taking God at His Word.
Paul takes us to Abraham and his faith. He does this because if such a man as Abraham, who was close to God and whom God was not ashamed to call His friend could not work to provide for his salvation then neither can we. He walked closely with God because he was saved and Abraham was saved because he believed the promise of God. He believed God. And when he did, it was accounted to him as righteousness. God placed righteousness into his account and was pleased with him.
Now at this point, we need to consider a time in the life of the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness. They were traveling from the Red Sea and the promised land on the border of Edom. The people began to grumble and become impatient because of the difficulties of the way they were going. They began to murmur against God and Moses.
Numbers 21:4-9
4Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea? to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient along the way, 5and they began to murmur against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this wretched manna!”
6So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among them, and many of them were bitten and died. 7Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8Then the LORD told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to the top of a pole. Those who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 9So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to the top of a pole. Whenever those who were bitten looked at the bronze snake, they recovered!
God’s response to their rebellious attitudes and their grumbling was to send fiery serpents into their midst. As a result, many people were bitten by the snakes and died. The people of Israel became repentant and came to Moses. They acknowledged their sinfulness and asked him to intercede for them with the Lord. When God responded to Moses He told Moses to make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole. Anyone who was bitten by one of the snakes could look to the serpent on the pole and be healed.
Now, think about it. The idea that you could look at a serpent on a pole to be healed from a snake bite is absurd. If you get bitten by a poisonous serpent, you had better hope that there is some anti-venom handy. No one is going to suggest that there is any therapeutic value in looking at a serpent on a stick in the middle of the camp.
Notice if you will, that the people are not told to make for themselves a remedy. Making a remedy would have given them all something to do and would have satisfied man’s natural instinct to work for his own cure. People want to add the egg to the cake mix! People want something to do to get salvation. But there is no human remedy for sin and the death that follows it.
The second thing that did not happen there in the wilderness was this: The people were not told to help each other. No, they were told to look at the serpent on the pole. Today there would be a rash of self-help articles on the internet. You could do a google search to find someone to help. However, a man who does not know how to swim cannot dive into the water to save a drowning man. He will only add his own death to the death of the drowning person.
The third thing we should see is that the people in the desert were not told to fight the serpents. Today in Evangelical Christianity there would be a rush to establish a Society for the Extermination of poisonous serpents. There would be TV broadcasts with appeals for money to carry on the fight. Mailings would go out and James Dobson would be enlisted to tell us how fighting the serpents would be good for our family. You would be able to go on line to see heaps of serpents that had already been killed. There is not a single line in the pages of your Bible that tells you that you should fight against sin.
Enoch did not fight against sin. He just exposed it and pronounced judgment on it.
Noah did not fight the evil of his day. He was simply obedient to the command of God to build the ark to save himself and his family from the flood that was coming.
Moses never fought against sin, except when he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Moses declared the Law to God’s people.
All of this does not mean that we should not hate sin. The more we are like Jesus the more we should expect that we will hate sin.
Jesus hated sin and as a result He simply went to the cross and died for sin.
What did Jesus tell us about all of this? Notice what Jesus had to say just before he gave us those wonderful words in John 3:16:
John 3:14-17
And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole, 15so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
Salvation is by faith and faith alone. The people of Israel had been bitten by serpents and they were dying. God’s command to them was for them to look to the serpent on the pole. They simply had to believe God and look and they would live.
Today, it is the same for us. We have all been bitten by sin and are dying. God’s command is the same. Today we look to Jesus who was lifted up on the cross and died there for us. God says all you have to do is look to Jesus and believe that what he did there will be sufficient to deal with your sin. When you believe it you will have life instead of death.
Salvation is by God’s grace and is given as a gift to all who believe God.
--Dennis Gleason
