Such like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come.
T'was grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.
Amen. Good singing. Brother Mahid, do you mind praying for us?
May God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the name of Jesus Christ,
amen.
Amen. Alright, turn to our second song. Song 187.
Jesus loves me. Song 187.
From the first. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, He who died. Heaven's gate to open wide.
He will wash away my sin. Let His little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, He will stay close beside me all the way.
Thou has bled and died for me. I will henceforth live for Thee.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Thanks so much for coming to Pure Words Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin,
they're back there on the cabinet. It's been a while since I've been able to get
to be with you guys in person, and definitely great to be here and to see
everyone. Also, I came bearing some gifts, so we
had some movie tickets that we made recently for the
Preserved Bible, and then we have some new ones for the Sodomite Deception that
we had made a few years back, and so if
you'd like to use these as well for handouts, we have
them. Also, we got our DVDs for the Preserved
Bible. Should have brought them with me, but
Brother Dylan's gonna bring them next week, all right? So you gotta be here
Thursday. Support Brother Dylan, and he's gonna
come down with bearing gifts. Also, we've been making some shirts
for the Preserved Bible, and so maybe, I don't know exactly when
that's gonna be done, but we should be bearing even more gifts, so
and I know that there's been some cool, I've seen some cool shirts
that you guys have gotten for some of your memory challenges and stuff like
that. Brother Duncan has a cool, like,
pure words hoodie and stuff like that, but we've got some
some cool shirts that are coming down the pike for the Preserved Bible as well,
and so you can share that. In our bulletin, we have the service time,
soloing times, our church stats. Also, please be in prayer for,
well, the remaining expecting ladies, we also have the
congratulations to the Urbanics on the birth of Annalise
Joy. Seven pounds, four ounces, 21 inches long,
and so that's great for them. That's also why I'm helping just kind of
volunteer preach right now while Brother Duncan,
our evangelist, Urbanic is spending time with his family,
and it seems like he's been doing a really good job. Seems like the church
has been really going well from those that I've spoken with and
just kind of observing from afar. Also, we have upcoming events, April
15th, Soul Winning Marathon. We'll just be meeting here at the church,
and then we have the Bahamas Missions trip
in the latter part of April, and so I'm really looking forward to that trip.
Even if you're not participating with us as far as going there,
if you just at least pray that the trip would go well
and that it would go smoothly, especially traveling to a foreign country,
definitely makes it a little more difficult sometimes, and there's
challenges that, you know, exceed what you'd normally expect,
and so I think we have over 60 people that are going to be going on our trip,
60 Soul Winners, and so it's going to be a really
big trip. Hopefully, God willing, we'll make a big
impact, and I hope you'll just pray for us on that.
Other prayer requests mentioned here. Continue to pray for brother Edward's
health. Pray for Ms. Liberty's family member, Ms. Catherine, for breast
cancer. We've been praying for brother Joel. We've been praying for
Steadfast. Praying for Rocio West. We've been praying for Ms. Lydia. We've
been praying for brother Mo, one of his friends. We've been praying for
Ms. Angela Chambers, Samson's co-worker, and then we've also been
praying for brother Kevin's uncle for healing there. So there's a lot
of prayer requests for health and also
some other requests. We can just say a quick word of prayer as a church family
for our church prayer request list. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us
this evening to have church, and thank you for all of our ladies that are
expecting. Please be with them. Please help them during their pregnancies. I
pray that you would bless our upcoming trips and our
soul-winning ventures. I pray that you would also
bless our friends at other churches. I also pray that you help with those that
are struggling with health issues. I pray that you could give them
healing, give them comfort during the time of
difficulty. I pray that you'd also give them peace,
and I pray that you would just continue to allow our church to be a bright and
shining light, so that our friends and family members
would get the opportunity to hear the gospel and be saved. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen. A couple church reminders. Just
remind you, please don't allow children on the stage
at any time before, during, or after the service. Also,
please don't have them running in the service. I know they get excited, but
we just want to make sure no one's getting injured. Also,
if a child is being a distraction during the service,
if you'd please just try to take them out of the sanctuary
until they're either under control, or you could use their mother baby room,
and then you could bring them back into the sanctuary.
And then also, the mother baby room is for
mothers only and their children, but the children should be accompanied by their
parent at all times, so that way just to keep everyone safe. And also,
this is the big help, but please clean up after yourself.
It really just helps for those who do clean the church and just keeping the
church tidy and everything like that, especially when you have a smaller
church. It really, really helps out when people
kind of help clean up after themselves and take a little bit of that burden
away. Like I said, again, it's been a while
since I've been here. Hopefully, God willing, you know, I'll be
able to come a little bit more regularly. It won't be as such a long break as it's
been. You know, Steadfast has definitely had
some positive things, and we've been, you know, on the journey from our
building situations and a lot of other issues, and so that's kind of kept me
focused on them. But God willing, my schedule is going to get a little bit
better, and I'll be able to make more regular trips
down here, hopefully also on a Sunday, so I can see the Sunday morning only
crowd. But it's great to be with you guys,
and I'm excited to preach this evening. We can go ahead and go to our third song.
Brother Mo, lead us.
All right, song number three is going to be in the white handouts
or in your Bible. I'm going to sing Psalm 150.
Psalm 150.
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him with a firmament of His power.
Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His
excellent greatness. Praise Him with the
sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the
psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.
Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise Him upon both out symbols. Praise Him upon
the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son.
Praise God the Holy Ghost. Praise God in three verse songs.
Amen. Good singing. If you would turn to your Bibles
to what's the chapter?
Exodus chapter seven.
We'll go ahead and read as we pass the offering plate.
All right we're there in Exodus chapter number seven where the Bible says,
and the Lord said unto Moses, See I have made thee a God
the Pharaoh and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
Thou shall speak all that I command thee and Aaron thy brother
shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel
out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs
and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you
that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies
and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand
upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.
And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them so did they.
And Moses was four score years old and Aaron was four score and three years old
when they spake unto Pharaoh. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron saying when Pharaoh shall speak unto you saying show a miracle for
you then thou shalt say unto Aaron take thy
rod and cast it before Pharaoh and it shall
become a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh
and they did so as the Lord had commanded and Aaron cast down his rod
before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a
serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men
and the sorcerers now the magicians of Egypt
they also did in like manner with their enchantments
for they cast down every man his rod and they became servants.
But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods and he hardened Pharaoh's heart
and he arken not unto them as the Lord had said. The Lord said unto Moses
Pharaoh's heart is hardened he refuseth to let the people go.
Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning lo he goeth
out unto the water and thou shalt stand by the river's brink
against he come and the rod which was turned into a serpent
shalt thou take in thine hand and thou shalt say unto him
the Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee saying let my people go
that they may serve me in the wilderness and behold hitherto
thou wouldst not hear. Thus saith the Lord in this thou shalt
know that I am the Lord behold I will smite
with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river
and they shall be turned to blood and the fish that is in the river shall die
and the river shall stink and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink the
water of the river and the Lord spake unto Moses
say unto Aaron take thy rod and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt
upon their streams upon their rivers and upon their ponds
and upon all their pools of water that they may become blood
and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt
both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone
and Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded
and he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river
in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants and all the waters that
were in the river were turned to blood and the fish that was in the river died
and the river stank the Egyptians did not drink of the water of the river
and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt and the magicians of Egypt
did so with their enchantments and Pharaoh's heart was hardened
neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said
and Pharaoh turned and went into his house neither did he set his heart for
this also and all the Egyptians dig round about
the river for water to drink for they could not drink of the water of
the river and seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord had smitten the
river have a quick word of prayer
amen um exodus chapter seven is the confrontation of moses and aaron
with the egyptian pharaoh and moses is being commanded by god to
present himself to pharaoh to ask for the children of israel to be let go
um when moses had originally spoken with the Lord the Lord had told him he was
going to help him with signs and wonders
yet pharaoh still would not let the children of israel go now in
this confrontation this is kind of the initial um
confrontation here look what it says in verse number eight again and the Lord
spake unto moses and aaron saying when pharaoh shall speak unto you saying
show a miracle for you then thou shalt say unto aaron
take thy rod cast it before pharaoh it should become serpent so
the Lord is giving moses and aaron instruction and saying
you're going to go present yourself unto pharaoh he's going to ask
well what miracle are you going to show to prove that essentially god's on your
side or why i should let you go and they're going to throw down their
rod and it's going to become a serpent it
says in verse 10 of moses and aaron went in the pharaoh
and they did so as the Lord had commanded so apparently pharaoh asks for
a sign says here and aaron cast down his rod before pharaoh
and before his servants and it became a serpent
this is a really incredible story to think about
that you could take just a rod which is just a long stick
typically has a lot of different uses it's mostly for protection
um you know you might look at it today as some kind of a
walking aid but really for these men they're fine at walking it's really more
a picture of protection um just to stave off
animals or be used as some form of a weapon
but we see that this rod this just piece of wood
becomes an actual animal it becomes a snake
and of course i believe that this is a literal
story that everything about this story is exactly as it is
appears on the surface that he really threw down his rod it really became
a snake now of course this is what we would describe as
a miracle why because it's not something that happens in our natural
reality um and so that's really to me a definition or probably the definition
of a miracle is something that cannot be done
in a normal physical reality our bible itself contains a litany of
miracles it explains all kinds of different
events that could never happen naturally speaking
but they rather circumvent the laws of natural order they circumvent all kinds
of different things you know we have stories of a virgin giving birth
right our lord jesus christ that's that's not possible
we see the lord jesus christ dying being buried and rose again that's a miracle
we see uh the sun standing still for a day
that that's a miracle you know of course just even creation
itself is a miracle how everything
was just created out of nothing god just spake things into existence
and so we understand that miracles coincide with god's reality
which frankly speaking if you didn't have reality and if you didn't have
laws then you couldn't have miracles the reason
you have miracles is because you have a physical reality
okay it's similar to the idea of grace the only way to have grace
is to have law if you had no laws then grace wouldn't even exist
the only way that grace can exist is because there's a
just recompense unto sin there is a law therefore you could then extend grace so
we have to have a physical reality we have to have some kind of limitation
on our the world that we live in and then yet god can exceed that and do it
however he wants and these are what we would call a
miracle and god is described as being all
powerful so of course he could do these things
now what's interesting though about the bible itself
is that when god gives us miracles while they're really cool it's wouldn't it
be cool i could just turn i wouldn't really want to turn into the
snake but you can just turn a rod into an animal i mean that's kind of
that's interesting right it's cool of course that's what people try to do at
the circus or you have magicians right where they're doing
all kinds of tricks and and what they call magic
we understand that they typically they're just doing sleight of hand
or they're just kind of deceiving people but there is real magic you know there
is according to the bible notice what it
says in the next verse then pharaoh also called
the wise men and the sorcerers now the magicians of egypt they also did in the
like manner with their enchantments so according to the bible not only
can god perform a miracle meaning it supersedes
physical reality the devil and his minions
also have an ability to supersede our physical reality
now when it comes to push to shove though
who's going to win in this battle of superseding physical reality
god is going to win against the devil but you have to realize that the devil
does have power the devil does have ability the devil can supersede reality
um in fact when we talk about job in the book of job
he is granted power by the lord to afflict job and by the means which he
does supersedes our natural reality he just
causes storms to come he just gives job a disease just
out of out of the blue so obviously the devil has some ability
to just essentially spontaneously create some kind of a disease
or weather pattern storm the bible talks about in the future
that the anti-christ and by the power of the false prophet they're going to give
life under the image of the beast the bible also describes how they're
going to call fire down from heaven you know when it comes to the anti-christ
and a lot of these things people think it's going to be through the means of
technology and you know i'm not going to discount
that we have to also realize that the devil also has supernatural ability
and you know some people um don't understand
maybe the beginning of the bible but think about this if these magicians
could turn a rod into a snake
how how how is it not hard or difficult to then believe that the devil can
present himself as a serpent in the garden so you know
i've heard some people try to claim like oh the devil wasn't really a serpent in
the garden he's just showing up and he just called the serpent
no no i believe it was a literal serpent a literal snake
in the garden that's why he has the name the serpent he didn't just get the
nickname because he got the nickname because he actually
presented himself as a serpent and when you read the story literal
serpents were punished as a result of what the
devil did wouldn't that be weird that the devil showed up and he wasn't even
a serpent but then just randomly animals get punished
for what the devil did no obviously the serpent has its purpose and it's it's
kind of a cursed type animal and you know it
it being cursed also symbolizes a lot of things now
when we read this story we can just get the the basic surface reading
moses and aaron they by the power of god are able to cast a rod down and turn
into a serpent the devil's magicians are able to also
turn these into serpents says in verse 12 for they cast down
every man is rod and they became serpents but aaron's rod swallowed up
their rod so we see that god triumphs over their
power in their magic and he wins but there's a lot more to
this story and really the title of my sermon is
the serpent rod the serpent rod because there's so much meat
to this particular story that i i nearly really thought about before i just kind
of usually just read the story and it's cool but there's a
lot of other cool things that we can think about here
now as we think about this story let's let's just start unpacking some of
these images you know when it comes to the serpent the serpent was cursed in
the garden and what does the serpent typically
represent it represents sin and it kind of has that connotation
consistently throughout the bible so why would you have a rod
and then it's cast down and then it becomes a serpent what what is that
really kind of illustrating well i want to i want to go
to another place go isaiah keep your fingers
well yeah keep your finger here because we'll keep coming back but go to isaiah
chapter 11 for a moment go to isaiah chapter number 11
and let's look at verse number one and i want to kind of just
um prove a lot of these things even though you might pick up where i'm going
pretty quickly but isaiah chapter 11 look at verse number
one the bible says and there shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of jesse and a branch
shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the lord shall rest
upon him spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and
might spirit of knowledge and of the fear of
the lord and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of
the lord and he shall not judge after the sight of
his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears but with
righteousness shall he judge the poor and approve with equity for the meek of
the earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth
and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked
now this is a prophecy that the lord jesus christ
in fact preaches about himself in the new testament
in the new testament the lord jesus christ reads this
and then essentially talks about himself and of course we have him described here
in verse one as being a rod and so if we think about the symbolism
for a moment jesus can be represented as a rod if we
go back to our story with moses we have a rod being cast down
and then it becomes what it becomes a serpent
now go if you would to john chapter number three go to john chapter number
three
there's another time that the lord jesus christ
is pictured with one of these elements and in fact he
brings it up himself he says in john chapter three look at verse 14
and as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of
man be lift up lift that whosoever believe that him
should not perish but have eternal life so according to the bible
when and this is further in the future this is later
when moses is out in the wilderness and the children of israel are complaining
against the lord that we have this picture of the serpent
let's go there too let's go to numbers chapter 21
and i know we're just kind of dancing around for a moment but i think it's
good to get some of these pictures in our mind real quick
so we can connect a lot of different dots look at numbers
chapter 21 and then look at verse number four
the bible says and they journeyed from mount hor talking about israel by
the way of the red sea to compass 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 there is no bread neither is there any
water and our soul loatheth is light bread
wait a minute i thought you said there was no bread you know and that is
they complain there's no bread 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 or we have spoken against the lord and against thee
pray unto the lord that he take away the serpents from us
moses prayed for the people and the lord said unto moses
make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it's 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 and this is of course where we
get the great him look and live where essentially anyone
who was bitten by a serpent all they would have to do is
simply look to the brazen serpent and they would
end up being healed physically why
well the this the bite of that serpent has poison in it and if left unattended
you will eventually die what's the symbolism here it's the same with sin
that sin is a poison unto you and if left untreated you would die and
go to hell and so you need healing from that bite
of sin that sting of sin and so you look to jesus christ
you put your faith in him and you're saved
why is it pictured as a serpent well first of all
the lifting up in this particular parable or this story or this example
is that of christ being put on the cross and having been lifted up
on the earth now the reason why it's a serpent
is simply because the serpent pictures sin
and if we go to i want to i want to go to um
second corinthians chapter number five now go to second corinthians chapter
number five
we're going to actually tie all this together for a moment though
now in our initial story here in excess seven
where moses confronting pharaoh this the rod is being cast down and
yet we have the other story of it being lifted up i think that's just kind of
illustrate the two aspects of what happened to jesus christ in the
sense that he was cast down because he's being brought down and he's
being destroyed he's being looked down upon he's being rejected by everyone
and the lifting up is just simply the manner in which he would die
but he's certainly being cast down in the sense of
the jews are rejecting him and want nothing to do with him
and of course we have this picture of him becoming
the serpent now you know what does that look like well second corinthians
chapter 5 verse 21 says for he hath made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god and him so
according to the bible jesus christ became sin in the essence
that all of the sin of the entire world was
imputed unto christ and was placed upon christ and he truly
bear our sins in his own body on the trees what the bible says
so while jesus was on the cross he was literally bearing our sins in his own
body and that's why we have the picture of
the serpent on the cross it's kind of an ugly picture which of
course isaiah 53 paints it paints that his visage was so marred and that there
was no desire that we had toward him that you know the
look of the cross was an ugly picture because our sin is ugly
and the sacrifice that christ had to go through
and to bear our sins on that cross go to john chapter number eight go to
john chapter number eight and i want to show you another verse
here but it's kind of amazing that with moses
coming unto pharaoh taking this rod which is a picture of
strength protection everything like that just being cast down
and then becomes a snake but it's kind of similar in how jesus christ
who is in a position of authority he's in a position of
protection humbles himself comes down to earth
and then has to become sin for us it's kind of in the same essence of him
coming down and then becoming that serpent becoming
that snake to you know combat what the devil did and
of course sin entered in the world through adam and eve
through the what the temptation of the serpent serpent coming
bringing the sin the the serpent is a cursed animal
which is also showing how when christ is on the cross
he became a curse for us and so you know he became a curse what's the cursed
animal it's the serpent and so you have all of
these different connections being like woven all together john chapter eight
look at verse 28 then said jesus unto them when you have lifted
up the son of man then shall you know that i am he
and that i do nothing of myself but as my father taught me i speak
these things so we have that connection to
the brazen serpent that was lifted up price is also lifted up
and we have you know a beautiful picture of the gospel itself now
go if you would to first corinthians chapter 15
go to first corinthians chapter 15 but here's the thing
the rod while being a serpent then encounters something else doesn't it
and encounters other serpents and not only that encounters all the
other serpents all the serpents of the enemy and what
does he do to all the serpents of the enemy it
swallows them up doesn't it now look at this in first corinthians
chapter 15 verse 54 so when this corruptible shall put on
incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written
death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is thy sting oh grave
where is thy victory now think what is the sting you know a serpent really only
has one thing it can bite you with the sting
but you know what it was swallowed up and now it's gone
and there is no sting of death because when we die
physically we're going to heaven you know there's no
there's no pain of death that we'll ever experience
now of course you'll you'll probably if not
a hundred percent feel pain leading up to your death
like the you know leading up to us physically dying will for sure be
painful okay unless you die in your sleep virtually
i mean everyone experiences some level of discomfort
pain at death you know to me being like getting your head chopped off
might be the least painful because frankly you might be you might
have so much adrenaline and you know do you really even feel it
i don't know i mean most of the time when you get injured very severely
you don't feel it initially you know and so if you die
a martyr's death in that way it might not even be that big a deal
steven you know was rocked asleep i don't know if he felt that or not
um so there's a lot of different options here but
but here's the thing you're not going to have any pain of in death
death itself will have no pain the only pain experience of death is hell
and we don't have to experience that we don't have the taste of it in fact
according to scripture catholics have all kinds of weird
doctrines a doctrine of purgatory where even
save people in their mind have to go burn off a little bit of their sins
before they can be presented before god and then so
they're going to still experience a little bit of that pain and that
suffering of course this is nonsense some people
that are so-called christians will say that christians have to go
to the like this thousand year suffering before they can then come out and then
be with the lord like during the millennial reign some
christians are going to be in hell or the lake of fire or something you're
just like what this is nonsense okay the the bible makes it very clear
that if you believe in jesus christ you shall never die
and to die in that context means being in hell of course we will
all shed our physical body that you know that's going to happen
to every single person including the raptured will be changed and so their
physical body will no longer be with them and the bible says
to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord it also says
the body without the spirit is dead but that that kind of a death
is different than what jesus christ would refer to
when he speaks of the fact that us that are alive
and believe you know whosoever liveth in me shall never die believeth thou this
what is he saying he's saying that you will never taste of
hell you'll never go to hell you'll never experience hell you know
that's what jesus did for us and so not only
did he die on the cross he became sin for us before that so that was an agony
i mean there's so much that jesus did for us you know jesus
he bare all the sicknesses of the people of israel you know that
probably wasn't fun i personally really hate going to the
hospital like who who loves going to the hospital okay no
all right you know just even being around sick people is kind of depressing
it's kind of uh it's kind of sad at times it's kind of
loathsome the hospital is usually not the most cheery of places
it's not the most enjoyable experience and of course we all do it
and it's not like there's anything wrong with needing to go to the hospital
most everybody has to do it at least once in their life but
you know jesus literally was going around and visiting people
in their lowest condition in their worst condition they were sick
they were diseased they were having all kinds of problems
he's you know and he's having to be around these individuals
and he's bearing their burdens he's bearing their sicknesses and he's
um you know tirelessly going around preaching the gospel he's fasting he's
praying he he weeps for people who died i mean
lazarus dies and he's truly weeping so there's a lot of suffering that christ
went through he went through the suffering
of bearing people's burdens he went through the suffering
of his death in a lot of ways he had to be betrayed by judas
which is a form of great grief and suffering unto him then he had to be
mocked and spit upon and beaten by the chief priests and the pharisees
then he was brought to the romans and then they drug him over to harrod
and then with the harrod they whipped him and then they put a robe on him and
then they mocked them some more and then then they drug him through
town and people are spitting on him he imagines people spitting on jesus
the lord i mean the god of the universe people
spitting on him and mocking him and then they gave him you know poisonous
you know beverage to drink that he did spit out
but just all of that experience is terrible he's having to carry his own
cross i mean that was that wasn't fun he
couldn't even really do it someone else had to come and bear his
cross for him then when he finally gets all the way to
to mount calvary they strip him of his clothes
you know the embarrassment the shame then they have to nail him to the cross
i'm sure each nail hurt really bad then they
have to lift him up then he has to go through all the agony
of being on the cross and on top of all just the physical
suffering god literally put every sin of every person of all
humanity of all time all on him and he became the serpent on
the cross um i believe that he was placed there
essentially around 9 a.m if you study the chronology of the
bible and didn't pass until about 3 p.m so
six hours on the cross suffering for
mankind and then at his death you know his soul was not uh left in hell
neither especially corruption he did raise again from the dead
but it wasn't for it wasn't immediate you know he had to experience the pains
of death according to the bible and he wasn't loosed from that until the
resurrection and we kind of see a similar thing here
with the serpent you know we have the serpent form on the ground
it then conquers all the other serpents so it's like
swallowing up death and it also makes a lot of other pictures for me
revelation 118 i have the keys of hell and of death now i don't know how many
serpents are actually there but if you just kind of think of like
two enemy snakes you know it's like you got
death and hell and jesus christ is swallowing them both up
and he's conquering both of them and then of course what happens
they pick up the snake and it becomes a rod again
and so we kind of see that that death burial
and resurrection the entire gospel message
of jesus christ being preached in a a physical example before for
before pharaoh pharaoh if think about this
pharaoh is getting the gospel preached to him and he asked for it he
said give me a miracle what's the miracle the death burn
resurrection and if you think about it all the miracles are like that
you know whenever we have jesus being confronted with the jews and the
pharisees they're like what sign show us thou and he's like
i'll give you the sign of jonas and and what is that sign
whereas jonas was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth
or in the whale's belly i'm sorry so should the son of man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth so it's the exact same gospel message
Nineveh gets what the gospel message through jonah
pharaoh and the egyptians get the gospel message through the serpent
and consistently throughout the bible if you really study it
everybody's getting the same gospel message and that's the miracle that god
wants to give unto them that god wants to show them and when you
really study the bible every miracle somehow pictures the
gospel message and the gospel story and and that's what's really incredible
about the bible is how you can have all these interwoven stories and they all
connect and say the exact same thing there's no way it's just all these
random guys just came up with the same story
perfectly interwoven and of course think about the
think about this too not only is the bible so perfectly woven together like
this but the king james bible is an english
translation and look how much it preserves
all the interwoven story exactly how god would have it intended as well
and so you know that's why we love the king james bible it's god's word
it's living now go over to exodus 4 go all the way back
to exodus chapter number 4 and you say what is the point of these
miracles what was the point of jesus performing
miracles so that people would believe on him right
in fact in exodus chapter 4 god already told
moses that he was going to do exactly what he did in exodus chapter 7 look at
exodus chapter 4 verse 1 and moses answered and said but behold
they will not believe me nor hearken in my voice for
they will say the lord hath not appeared on thee
and the lord said on him what is that in thine hand and he said a rod and he said
cast it on the ground and he cast it on the ground it became a
serpent and moses fled from before it and the lord said of the moses put forth
thine hand and take it by the tail and he put forth his hand and caught it
and it became a rod and his hand that they may believe that the lord god
of their fathers the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob had
appeared on thee now if you understand this story
what what is happening moses gets the literal gospel preached to him here
through this physical example then moses goes to the children of israel
and he does this this miracle before them they get the gospel
then he goes to pharaoh and he gives them this physical example
of the gospel message so the gospel is truly being preached to everyone
everyone's getting it but here's a big difference moses believes it
the children of israel as a whole not necessarily every single person but
generally most of them believe it but who doesn't believe it pharaoh pharaoh
does not believe in the gospel message go back to excess chapter number seven
where we had kind of started and look at verse number 13 the bible
says and he hardened pharaoh's heart
that he hearkened not unto them as the lord had said now
here's what you have to understand about pharaoh is while it does say that the
lord hardened his heart here it's it's ultimately in accordance to
pharaoh's will and and you can see this look at chapter
eight and look at verse 15 but when pharaoh saw that there was
respite he hardened his heart and hearkened not on them as the lord
so notice he's hardening his heart and consistently throughout the bible you
kind of have pharaoh hardening his heart and then the lord's also hardening his
heart but when you get such a great gospel
message presented to you and you decide not to believe in it not
to accept the gospel message what god will do is he'll harden your
heart and then he'll just keep hardening it
and unfortunately it can get to a point where it's considered
reprobate and that just simply means rejected
meaning it's never going to that heart is never going to believe in jesus
christ and so this is a symptom
of being presented with the miracles of god
it was another group of people that are exactly like this
the jews and specifically the pharisees because in john chapter number 12
let's just go there let's go to john chapter number 12
let's see the exact same thing you know some people get confused about the
reprobate doctrine or what that really means the word
reprobate simply means to be rejected it's possible that the word reprobate or
reprobation could be in reference to something
multiple multiple things multiple contexts because
you could just you know say like hey this water bottle i don't want it
i reprobated it okay but that means this water bottle is going to go to hell
no okay so so just simply put just like repentance
repentance just means a turn okay in the context of salvation
what does repentance mean it means that you turn from whatever you were
believing or trusting in to get you to heaven
and you changed and you put that in something else
and specifically to be saved you'd put it in jesus christ his death burn
resurrection has the payment for your sin that's
what saves you but repent could be used in other contexts
can it and in fact doesn't repent have places in the bible where it's
mentioning like repenting of a sin or changing your mind about a different
subject so just i believe that's the same with
reprobation you have to realize that there are places in the bible or
situations where the word reprobate could be used and
it's not necessarily always referring to the exact same thing
but for the context that we're bringing it into
we're talking about someone who in their heart hates god
will not believe in him because of the gospel message
and as a result they are rejected by god meaning
that they're never going to believe in him and to prove that
beyond a shadow of a doubt that that's even a doctrine
the bible literally says this now look what it says in verse 35 then jesus said
unto them yet a little while is the light with you
walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you
for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whether he goeth
while you have light believe in the light that you may be the children of
light these things speak jesus and departed
and did hide himself from them you know what jesus is saying
is that you have a limited window to get saved
there's a limited window when light is going to shine upon you
and so you need to believe in that light when you have that opportunity
so that you can become a child of light because if the light comes upon you and
you choose not to trust in that light then what can happen
is you end up it goes over it overpasses you
and then you're just in darkness and this happens for
egypt as a whole as a nation they one of their plagues
that comes upon them they are in literal darkness according to the bible which
can be felt you want to know a darkness that can be
felt hell because it's outer darkness but you
know what you're going to feel it you're going to just be i mean it is
there's a lot of feeling going on in hell but notice what it says this in
verse 37 but though he had done so many miracles
before them yet they believed not on him isn't that
the same with with pharaoh even though they did so
many miracles before pharaoh yet he just didn't believe in the lord he
didn't trust in the lord he still rejected the lord
and it says this verse 38 that the saying of isaias the prophet might be
fulfilled which he spake lord who hath believed
our report and to whom hath the arm of the lord
been revealed therefore they could not believe because
that isaias said again he has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes
nor understand with their heart and be converted and i should heal them
so notice according to the bible in verse 39
it says they could not believe so you know the calvinist would have you
believe that this is everyone you know no one can believe in you know
a dead man can't believe in jesus no no the reason why someone couldn't
believe is because they've been presented with the truth so
many times and they rejected it over and over and over and over to the point where
god then blinded their eyes and then god then hardened their heart
and then at that point they couldn't believe but here's the thing
god is not according to calvin is god he didn't even have to do anything you
just couldn't believe this is talking about god doing something
to you to where then you can't believe he's he's cursing you beyond just being
a normal person to where you have this extra blindness
this extra hardness of heart where it's just
so difficult to want to get saved and you know it makes sense
why children are so much easier to be saved
because they haven't been presented with the gospel hardly ever yet they haven't
had this these opportunities so their hearts just
aren't as hard you know whereas older people that have
been have been presented with the gospel a lot
you can just tell how hard their heart gets and how difficult it could be to
reach some of those individuals when you go
to foreign countries and you talk to elderly people that have
not been presented with the gospel that often or very much or maybe even at
all they're still actually a lot of times very tender and capable of being
saved whereas elderly people in america are
typically some of the most difficult people to get saved because
you can just almost bet they've been presented the gospel a lot of times
they've had a lot of opportunities the lights come upon them so many different
um points in their life and because they've just rejected over and over that
their heart has just gotten so hardened and so you kind of see that effect that
happens to people that's why it's important to preach the
gospel to the young and to the youth and to the teenagers and to the young adults
while they have the light while they have the opportunity
to be saved that we're presenting it to them and of course i would present the
gospel to anyone but you can just see this this process
taking place and it it comes to a point where
there's no healing you know i'm not saying that as soon as god hardens
someone's heart a little bit they can't be saved
but there is a point where it can cross like it's being explained here where
they can't believe just like pharaoh and of course romans
one let's go there for a moment romans one explains this romans one
explains that hey you saw the serpent
ate the other serpents and you just decided not to believe it
but but think about think about how ridiculous that is
i mean can you imagine someone comes in and says i'm of god
okay well show me a miracle how about a rod into a serpent
that's pretty unique and then it's like well my my magicians can do that too
but then what happens his snake eats all of your snakes up
and then he puts it back into a rod the only way
to just continue to not believe that is to just be in just a complete
reality denier you're just denying the clear reality
and and let me say something those who reject the gospel when presented are
just clearly denying reality now the bible says that the bible is
saying that the rejection of god is similar and equivalent to a
rejection of reality okay romans chapter one
look at what it says in verse 18 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven
against all ungodless and righteous men who hold the truth
in unrighteousness because that which may be known of god
is manifest in them for god hath showed it unto them
for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his
eternal power and got it so they're without excuse
god is saying i've you have the truth it was showed you clearly you know it
and you have no excuse what would be an example of this
pharaoh seeing the rod turn into the serpent
the serpent eat the other serpents come back to a rod
it's not like pharaoh didn't see it it's not like pharaoh didn't have the truth
inside of him it's not like it wasn't manifested to
him what did he do he still rejected it this is what
is the process of reprobation is having it clearly shown
clearly seeing and just clearly denying and the bible is even saying
that the invisible things of god are just manifested
and of course there's a lot of things that are invisible that we
know all about and we can see in evidence like wind
like gravity just even abstract concepts such as math or physics or
all the different laws of thermodynamics you know there's all kinds of different
things that we can't necessarily see taste touch but we experience we know
that they're there and even just from a spiritual perspective
i mean just just the heavens and this the sun and the moon and just everything
that's going on i mean it's just it's just so obvious that god is real
and god exists to deny god is to deny your eyes
is to deny your nose is to deny your mouth is the desire
it's just to deny your brain everything that we have
in this world just screams of god's existence
it's just so clear and it's just denied it's a denial of reality
to think that god doesn't exist that's why he
goes on to say in verse 21 because that when they knew god
does it say that they don't know god says that they know god
they glorified him not as god neither were thankful became vain in their
imaginations their foolish heart was darkened
so it's not that they don't know that god is the one that created everything
they just don't want to give him the honor
they don't want to give him the glory so it's like when pharaoh saw that miracle
he knew god did the miracle but he just didn't want to give god the recognition
for the miracle did he you know even later in the story it's
very clear when pharaoh says hey the lord is
righteous me and my servants are wicked like it
wasn't like hey i don't know that god exists
he just hates god he just doesn't like god
and doesn't want to give him that glory and of course what happens as a result
of it is you become very dumb you become very foolish verse 22
professing themselves to be wise to begin fools
so of course those who hate god the most they love to
pontificate and pretend like they're very smart
this is what you see in american academics today the professors
and the scholarship of many universities in our world today are filled with
atheists and they love to just pretend that
they're so smart and so intelligent when really they're the dumbest people
on the planet and they make some of the dumbest
decisions and you don't you don't want to learn
anything from these people verse 23 and change the glory of the
uncorruptible god into an image made like corruptible men to
birds and four-footed beasts and creepy things
yeah that's like evolution you know the the
theory of evolution that goes all the way back into
claiming that we're from monkeys and from
all kinds of different animals that you know they even turn
the tyrannosaurus rex into a chicken you know i mean it's just like what is this
you know it's just bizarre what they think and then they turn us all into
rocks and then they just all turn us into nothing
you know what what just like what could be worse to compare
the creator of the universe to nothing because isn't that what the big bang
teaches nothing exploded and created everything
so they hate god so much they have to turn him into nothing
but you know what god's going to turn them into nothing okay
so they're going to get what they deserve look at verse 24 wherefore god
also gave them up to uncleanness and lust of their own
hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves
who changed the truth of god into a lie and worship and serve the creature more
than the creator is blessed forever amen so these people love to worship creation
they love to worship the environment they love to worship animals they're
they're very obsessed with these two different things that's
why people that are obsessed with animals the environment are almost
always unsaved atheist leftists just a very
common denominator you don't see these right wing people that are conservative
typically just so in love with the environment and
animals or you know the conservatives are just like
burn the gas and kill the animal and eat it you know
and the left wing people are like you know let's merge with the earth or
something you know let's it's just like what in the world and
it's it's just so the bible is just so evident it explains
everything that you see in this world today
you want to know about leftists read romans one okay
it'll tell you everything you need to know about the reality denying
god hating atheists of our planet and so of course what god does though
because these people hate him so much and they want to turn him into nothing
and they just despise everything about him he's like you know what
i'm gonna punish you right i mean how why wouldn't you punish people that are
like this so he's gonna punish them that's why it
also remember what it said in verse 18 for the wrath of god is revealed what
does something mean to be revealed may be made obvious something that's
really clear to us something we can see you're showing us
something he's going to show us wrath okay he's
going to show us god's anger what is god's anger towards
those who hate him they know him they've seen it
they rejected it they want nothing to do with it they've turned them into nothing
they blaspheme him what is he going to do to these
individuals well it says in verse 26 for this cause
notice that important phrase for that what was the cause
for this cause what what is that he's saying because they hated me
because they had the truth because they rejected me because they want nothing
to do with me because of that god gave them up
unto vile affections for even their women to change the
natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men
leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another
men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving themselves that
recompense of their error which was meet so what does the bible say god punishes
those who hate him so much and will never believe in him
with homosexuality that's what the bible says
and then we get to see wow you don't want to mess with god
because when you reject him and you call him nothing
he makes you a faggot okay which it's like
that's the worst it's like oh you want to call me nothing you want to you want
to blaspheme me you want to say all this trash about me
then he just turns them into queers he turns them into lesbians and sodomites
and of course these people then just destroy themselves
i mean the women they'll shave their hair
which is a glory you know women having long hair
makes them beautiful i mean it's it's it's great
but they'll shave it off and they'll dye it purple
and weird colors and stuff like that and then
they'll just like wear men's clothing which look
women don't look better in men's clothing they look better in women's
clothing just just facts okay why is it that the
lesbians just want to wear pants so bad it's because they hate god
and so god's like okay i'll make you so dumb you'll make yourself ugly on
purpose the sodomite community is ugly on
purpose and they do it to themselves they make
themselves look like trash and they just they'll mutilate themselves
i mean we're seeing it in america today there are so many people
and why do you think it is that america is like the sodomite capital of the
world basically now it's because we have the gospel being
given unto us folks why is it that pharaoh got his heart
hardened because he's got he got the most
incredible miracle performed right before him
you know so the countries that haven't had
as clear of a gospel haven't had the truth just manifested to them
as much are going to have less of this reprobation
less of this wrath being revealed and made evident obvious to everyone
but look america is the powerhouse of christianity for the last several
hundred years it's had churches and the gospel and
it's had soul winners and it's had i mean it has the king james bible
i mean it just has so much truth and just so much power and the gospel
just being shown before them that there's going to be people
that reject it and as a result what happens to those individuals
well they destroy themselves and when we see the wrath of god
being poured out on their lives you know they women now are mutilating their
bodies and and and taking away the best parts of
their body and men are are just ugh
i mean the men are so gross what they're doing to themselves
you know there's never been a beautiful man it just doesn't exist they're all
ugly okay and and yet the sodomites are the
ugliest for sure putting on dresses putting on makeup
clown and look they're like trying to dress up like satan and go around
and pretend like they love children they don't love children they don't love
anyone they know they're destined for hell and
just like their father the devil they want to drag as many people down
to hell with them as possible they're they're a cancer
on society and they just want to destroy anything and everything they come in
contact with and they are what we see that is the
wrath of god and it is a wrath because that as a
grown man there is no worse punishment i could
think of than being that i mean that is the worst
punishment john christosome said he'd rather die ten thousand times
than be a sodomite you know he said that he's but
they've sodomites have betrayed not only men
and women they're not even worthy to be called dogs you know they're just
betrayed everything they're just the most disgusting
beast imagine john christensen was just send me to hell for all of eternity
just don't make me a sodomite you know because that's embarrassing
and let me tell you something you you don't even realize how many sodomites
exist in america like our politicians and the hollywood
elite and all those individuals they're all like that
and they're virtually and they're just all disgusting
and you know god is going to punish our nation for a while
because of these individuals but you know what
he punished pharaoh very severely and it was a really dark time for egypt
you know what it did it gave a lot of glory to god give a lot of glory to god
and he still rescued his people out of a really dark world and he protected them
even through the midst of the wrath of god being poured out
and this is what i believe i believe that god can still protect
his people in america while simultaneously pouring out his wrath
on those that hate him and reject him and despise him
and you know what praise god for people that'll show up to a church
while egypt is being destroyed and say well you know what i'm still going to
serve god you know what i'm not going to be like
the wicked and reject the serpent rod and just reject the
miracles that god's performed no no i'll go to church and i'll still
serve god and i'll even be persecuted if i have to
but you know what i'm just not going to stop serving god
and be scared and intimidated by pharaoh be scared and intimidated by the
reprobates and be scared and intimidated by the freaks
and the weirdos and the sideshow freaks i mean frankly some people like the
front row i heard some kid was like taking a picture out there he thought it
was cool you know with all the sodomites on sunday morning or whatever
he's like sweet but you know at the end of the day
you know they're these people are going to exist whether you like it or not
why would you let that stop you from serving god you know i mean they're
going to exist but you know we exist why can't we just
do our thing and you say well if you just stop
preaching you know then these people will go away
they're not going to go away they'll just go harass someone else
they'll just go harass other people i mean the best thing that's happened to
us is how virtually everyone's getting
harassed now because now now it's not like we're these weirdos that are the
only ones that get protested anymore it's like we're in the cool kids club
like yeah we're protested too you know but think about it i mean you go to
virtually any conservative state their legislator is being protested by
these people and school board meetings and city
council meetings and just up and down the street and every kind
of business and just any kind of conservative company i mean
they're all getting the hatred they're all getting the ire
and they're all seeing for themselves the wrath of god being poured out
and you know what it should do is it should motivate people to believe the
gospel of jesus christ and to say you know what i don't want to
go down that road i need the gospel but right now is is is a crucial time in
america because like jesus said while you have light
believe in that light and let me say something the light is being shown
in america right now and people need to get saved our loved ones and our family
members and our friends that we are caring about getting saved
we need to get them saved now you know now is the accepted time now is
the day of salvation we don't want to wait we don't want to
delay this is the most important time for us to be going soul winning
and preaching the gospel and making it manifest how to get saved
because when people don't they're so much more likely to go down this dark
road
go to romans chapter nine go to romans chapter number nine
you know some people could be discouraged by the time that we live in
but frankly speaking you know all the other times in the bible that were so
peaceful we didn't we don't know about
you know all the times that are peaceful it's just like and there was peace from
the land four years
and there's just peace it's just like or we'll just skip it'll just be like all
of a sudden 500 years later you know it's like all the cool stuff is
whenever there's conflict isn't there all the cool stuff is when there's
pharaoh and there's the miracles and there's the plagues and
you know people there's war and fight i mean there's all that's the cool stuff
that's all the part of the bible we read and it's like why do i want to live in
this boring time when it's just like man peace peace flipped over you know
it's like no i want to live in the time when you know there's plagues and
there's just all this turmoil and people are actually we're
actually fighting it actually matters i mean 50 years ago if i preach a sermon
like this everybody wouldn't have no idea what i'm talking about
he'll be just like what are you talking about you know like who cares
like sodomized they don't even exist or whatever and it's just like
now you preach it and it's just like man it's just every day you know every
day i'm just inundated with this garbage and it just manifested you know
it's happening to our church and you know it's just the reality but you know
god still gets glory out of this look at
romans chapter 9 verse 17 for the scripture sayeth unto pharaoh
even for the same purpose have i raised the up
that i might show my power in thee and that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth
notice why pharaoh being reprobated has a big impact because he can show
so many miracles and he just still won't believe
and then just shows like whoa like there's something off here
even his own staff is like dude this is the finger of god what are you
doing and he's just trying to make a point
like oh you don't want to believe in me fine
let me show you what it's like to not believe in me
you can be like this guy and you know it should be a warning to all those
atheists out there that haven't become a reprobate yet
oh you think it's cool to be an atheist i'll show you what it's like not to
believe in me you'll be these trannies because i
guarantee even though atheists might not like us
that much they don't want to be a tranny okay
they're terrified they hate that but i'm telling you
while you have the light believe in the light and you know what the
manifestation of all these freaks and weirdos and people that are mutilating
themselves out there i mean how could you convince grown men
to mutilate themselves in that part of their body
that is bizarre but you know what god's saying hey you don't want to believe in
me i'll make you do that to yourself i'll
make you do things you wish you would never
at could even dreamed of to yourself and of course that action
and those people themselves aren't a glory to god
but what he's what the glory to god is showing how powerful and how wrathful he
is that's the power and that's the glory
that we see and we see the victory of the children of
israel over him let me say this
you will fulfill god's will regardless of if you accept or reject
them barrow hey barrow thinks that he's special
oh you know what nuts to god i don't want to do his will
you're still doing his will buddy in fact you're doing exactly what he
thought you were going to do you're doing exactly what he knew you
would do that's why it's so foolish they're like oh no no
god wants me to be a christian or wants me to get saved
it's like well if you don't you're going to fulfill his will by going to hell
and you're going to show how just he is you're not clever
you're not cool you're not going to do something that god didn't already think
of look at verse 18 therefore have the mercy on whom you
have mercy and on whom he will he hardeneth
thou wilt say then unto me why did he yet find fault for rather resist his
will well you know to some degree this
question is funny because technically you can't but at the same
time it's not to say it's not calvinism okay
obviously everybody has free choice to decide if they're going to believe or
not believe in him but at the end of the day your destiny
is sealed regardless of what you want to believe about god you know you can
you can try to resist his will but you know what his will be
will be realized in the sense that if you don't believe in him you're still
going to go to hell it's like you can you can try all you
want but you're going to go to hell if you don't believe in him
and if you believe in him no matter what you're going to heaven okay so you
can't really change those you can't escape
that destiny the destiny has already been set the game's already being
played you're either going to win or lose
there's no escaping that reality so why not just join the winning side
and then if you're already on the winning side why would you not then
commit to just serving god with your life
and just accepting what he has for you you know we have miracles
in the bible but you know and you say well i wish i had a miracle
the gospel is a miracle and we have that and we got saved but there's so many
other miracles that we don't even realize
and i would say this just the fact that we even exist is actually a miracle
because you know when scientists talk about the statistical probability of the
earth and life and oxygen levels and the distance from the sun and just all the
different calculations that go into the fact
that human existence is even here it's such a it's a miracle
defies reality defies you know anything the fact that you even exist as a
miracle as a person the the miracle of life is
incredible i mean if you've seen a baby being born and developed and all the
things that are necessary and of course you know when we're when
we're initially conceived we're so tiny and just the fact that you're preserved
and grow and mature and develop and then your birth
i mean you're so vulnerable it'd be so easy for you to not live
yet you go through all of that and you survive then as a baby and as a toddler
and i mean look if my toddlers were left alone they
would not live they would perish they're so they're
such a danger to themselves they're getting on tall things using sharp
instruments you're just you're just thinking like how did you not die today
sometimes or you're just thinking like how to
survive that i mean it's just like a miracle that toddlers
live through toddler life and then five-year-olds and then they
just keep going i mean have you ever been on the highway on houston
it's a miracle that you survived it
i mean it to me it's a miracle that almost everybody that's an adult has a
driver's license and we have just a few amount of
accidents we actually have i mean i remember driving in houston one
time and this guy's like obviously drunk and i no one died you know he was just
like he was just like swerving everywhere and just like hitting the
wall just like whoa but no one died it was just like man
this guy's trying and he can't even kill himself you know it's like
what's going on the fact that we're saved from hell
through the miracle of the gospel that's a miracle and
look the fact that we just continue existing as a species
you know as as a as a creation of god is is just simply a miracle every single
day it would just be so easy to die
i mean just there's so many things that can happen i mean we have so you have so
many parts of your body that are necessary for you to sustain life
your heart and your lungs and your your brain it i mean it just
and it just takes one one time just one choking event just one drowning event
just one just turn the wheel wrong just i mean it just is so easy
to just die that you have to realize like it's like we're just experiencing
miracle after miracle that we're even here and so if you
realize like i'm on a journey of about 10 000 miracles
to even be here like then i should just say you know what
let's just do whatever god wants me to do anyways but so many people they're
just trying to like grip on tight to just being here and just all their stuff
and their money and their 401k in their house
and your their friends or whatever and it's just like they don't even realize
you hanging on has no impact anyways you're riding on a trail of miracles
even exist and to persist in this life so why don't
you just embrace the miracle that we're still here
and just start following god the children of israel have to go
from miracle to miracle to miracle to miracle to get to the promised land
don't they in fact their daily food is an actual
miracle and sometimes even it's amazing our daily
food you know the fact that we even have the food we
have it seems like a miracle to live in america and to have all the delicacies
we have to walk into the supermarket and to have all the luxuries and the food
that we have i mean it's incredible that we have all of these provisions
that i could never i mean look without the dependence of so many other people
you know i'm not going to be feasting on all the different delicacies and
cuisines and i don't even know how to make pasta
you know if everybody that knew how to make pasta died i would probably go
without having pasta the rest of my life because i don't even know how to make it
like how do we even how do you even make pasta i don't know
but it's amazing i love pasta you know there's so many different things that
chocolate i don't even know how to make chocolate you know if you just gave me
cocoa beans or whatever i'd be like let's try it and they're like ah you
know they're like somehow you can make this
into chocolate you know i don't even know how but you can
i mean you don't even realize how much you just your life
is just you're so dependent as much as that
one day old baby is dependent on its parents for everything
is how dependent we are on god for our daily lives
and then yet instead of just trusting in him and following his path for our lives
we try to hang on and try to sustain ourselves don't we
well what you know i gotta make sure that i'm going out there and and doing
you know what i think's right no no you need to what god thinks is right
like church three times a week like reading the bible like praying
like soul winning like seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and
all these things shall be added unto you but when you you have this idea of like
no of course i'm here by my own strength power and will
no you're not you little baby you you can't even sustain yourself
you wet yourself just go you know you need to change you need a diaper change
okay you can't sustain yourself how foolish
it is for you to think that you have and so when you get the right perspective
it makes the world less scary because when i look at america
you're just like man we're doomed you know it's like as a country
politically socially civilly you know every it's just like doom education
and this country's doomed the local government seems doomed
i mean it's just like everything is just falling apart
and destroying itself but wait a minute i'm in god's hand so i i can't it
doesn't matter he can sustain me i mean you really think
the children of israel walking through the wilderness they're
like you know it seems pretty good economically around here
what's the economy of the wilderness like it's zero
it's just imminent death okay is on the horizon
and then god what does god do here's manna from heaven
right i mean they're walking there's zero water and then it's just like hey
we'll just crush a rock and then water comes out of it
and you you're sitting here thinking like well how how are we going to
sustain you know i mean the dollar is going to crash and you know china is
going to come in here and the jews are going to
give us the central baking digital currency and you know how are we going
to feed ourselves it's like i don't care yea though i walk through the valley of
the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me
i can't sustain myself i have no chance of sustaining myself
you know i learned about some guy go to psalm 2
and we'll finish on this point but i learned about this guy
from a friend of mine um he is like extra prepper and i mean
it sounds impressive i mean this guy he's got like his whole house is lined
with batteries and he's got all these generators he's
got a copper distillery he's got a garden he's got animals he's
got food stored for days he's got a barn filled with supplies of
lumber and bolts and he's got 40 ham radios
and he's got ammunition and he's got guns
i mean he is just like he is ready for the zombie apocalypse
folks and he's like he's buttering up all of his neighbors and telling them
how you know look whenever push comes a shove we got to form our own little
community and i can sustain everything and it's just like
but just one brain ransom you're dead you know you have all that supply you
have all that good you know and it's just just one little
thing or just you know your wife poisons your
chili or whatever you know this is like i mean
oops or a snake comes out of where a black widow comes out of somewhere and
you get bit i mean like you could have so much
planning you could go hide yourself and get a moat and get a castle and get i
mean it's just like but then god could just take your life
like that and then you could be in the in the belly
of a whale and god sustains you and what's the
economy like in there it probably is kind of fishy you know
stinks
i mean it's it's just it's we get these weird viewpoints because we're just so
carnal by nature we're of the flesh but it's like when we
just kind of just think look we don't have a chance
here it's like one of the children of israel chances against egypt zero
but you know what god is able to take them out of it god's it
what are the chances of getting across the red sea zero
but they got across and i mean look they got across with babies
you know sometimes we think like oh well how am i going to do it i have babies
and i'm toddlers and i have you know people
mothers really care about this you know what god was able
to give them enough time with their even babies and infants to get across the red
sea while the egyptian army is just hanging
out with some fire and then he gives them just enough time
to come in there and then they all did this die
and then all the babies and toddlers and women and everything
they win you know they're they're stronger in might
babies are stronger in might than the egyptian army with their chariots
why because god is on their side so it's like don't get the wrong idea here
and and the title of the sermon was the serpent rod
who is what are we supposed to trust in we're supposed to trust in that
the gospel that's what we trust in to get saved you know what beyond that we
just keep trusting and and what does the rod do well the rod
does a lot of things it leads it guides um it protects it also destroys
look what it says in psalm chapter two verse number nine thou shalt break them
with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them and pieces like a potter's vessel you
know your only chance to defeat your enemies
is with the rod of god is the rod of jesus christ and he will
dash them if he says i can't do it i can't defeat them go to psalm 23 last
verse i want to bring up
and stop and don't spend this week trusting in yourself
trust in this trust in this rod this is your rod this is your life
this is your economy this is your rock i mean this is everything is your
strength this is your joy this you know and it's easy to be discouraged
in the day we live in because we're walking through a wilderness
in fact sometimes it feels like we're walking through a valley of the shadow
of death what does the bible say in psalm 23 it
says the lord is my shepherd i shall not want
he maketh me lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he
restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake yea though i walk through the valley of
the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me notice this thy
rod and thy staff they come for me hey you
know what let the rod of gods comfort you today
just like the gospel message comfort you from not having to go to hell
why don't you let the rod of jesus christ comfort you in your daily
life and trust him to be a faithful creator
you know i'm not promising you that you will never suffer in this life of course
i already told you earlier you're going to suffer before you die right you're
probably going to have a somewhat painful death
but you know what our suffering in this world is not worthy to be compared
to the glory which shall be revealed you know the suffering of the present time
is not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed
in us and and so it's easy to be afraid easy to be fearful
it's easy to get distracted easy to care about all those other things
that are going on but let me tell you something you know there's
there's the miracle of jesus christ every single day that he's going to
sustain us he's going to give us life he's going to
protect us he's going to guide us and you know he's making you to lie down
green pastures that sounds great he's making you to
you know drink of the still waters you know not the rocky waters not the
bud light that's for sure the still waters okay and so so let us
you know put more trust in him today than ever before
and and let us not allow the trials and the stormy winds of our
society and our culture get us to be more fearful
let it help us to trust in him more and rely on him even more and and become
humble you know it's it's humble to say i can't i
can't sustain myself i'm not i'm not capable of doing that
just like a child i mean children they're not capable of sustaining
themselves they have to just 100 be like mom and dad got me
and and how would you love it if every day you went home and your kids are just
like i'm so afraid what's gonna happen it's like i got it
you know how are we gonna pay the bills how are we gonna do it it's like
i got it you know how are we gonna make pasta
i bought it you know it's like i'm afraid i don't know how to make pasta
it's like i don't either but you know what
the store has it and we can eat wonderful pasta right we can eat
and of course we can eat all kinds of different things the beef and
everything that we have but you know again the serpent rod is a
great picture in the bible but let's not just only think of it in
carnal means let's let's reflect on the spiritual truths that we have
in the bible let's go in prayer thank you heavenly
heavenly father for giving us this great story of
of what happened with pharaoh and with with moses and with this
rod and this this serpent so that we could understand the greater truths of
what your son did for us and had his death burn resurrection gives us
salvation but not only does it give us salvation
from hell but it also gives us an opportunity to live
and to walk in newness of life to walk in the spirit
to actually be pleasing unto you i pray that we would
uh dispel the spirit of fear in our lives
you know you haven't given us a spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound
mind i pray that we would not be afraid of the dark valley
that's before us but rather we would walk
with confidence we would walk with a sound mind in fact we would just run
to the battle we would go out and we preach the gospel we could help be a
bright and shining light in this dark world
so that we could reach many others and help give them the opportunity
believe and be saved in jesus name we pray amen
amen to our last song for the for the night
we've got a song 372
372 let the lower lights be burning
they're on the first rightly be is our father's mercy
from his lighthouse evermore but to us he gives the keeping
of the lights along the shore let the lower lights be running
soon to gleam across the wave some poor fainting struggling seamen
you may rescue you may save dark the night of sin has settled
love the angry bellows roar eager eyes are watching longing
for the lights along the shore let the lower lights be burning
send the gleam across the wave some poor fainting struggling seamen
you may rescue you may save trim your feet let my brother
some poor sailor tempest toss trying now to make the harbor
in the darkness may be lost let the low lights be burning
to gleam across the wave some poor fainting struggling seamen
you may rescue you may save amen great singing you're all dismissed