Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, it is a blessing to be here with y'all, and God has been really good to allow us to be here. Consider it a great honor. My wife and I do. This is my wife, Jill. Jill, you can wave there.
[00:00:14] And we're going to be in John, chapter three and verse 13.
[00:00:19] As you find your spot there, I want to let you know, Jill and I, we.
[00:00:28] We were trying our best to serve the Lord faithfully since 1990 in a little church south of here in west Columbia, South Carolina.
[00:00:40] And we went to a missions jubilee in Walterboro, South Carolina.
[00:00:50] And I had taken a week of vacation from my secular job, and my wife and I and our five children went down there to shout her out.
[00:01:01] I really didn't know what a mission's jubilee was. I felt like Jubilee had shout her out, and I was always volunteering for that.
[00:01:11] And we got down there, and it was a missions conference called a Jubilee. But it was missionaries and preaching on missions and different things.
[00:01:20] And that meeting, it changed our lives.
[00:01:31] And we were called to go to Sri Lanka from that meeting.
[00:01:35] And it didn't just change our lives, it changed our children's lives.
[00:01:40] It didn't just change our children's lives, it changed the lives of I don't know how many in that little country of Sri Lanka, but it was a meeting just like this, and God used it in our lives in a very, very mighty way. So we love missions, conferences, whatever they're called, and we're honored. I mean that. Pastor Wood, it's a great privilege that you would allow us, ask us to be here.
[00:02:13] I'll do my best to follow God while we're here this week. So you found your verse? John, chapter three, verse 13.
[00:02:22] And I met Brother Burgess. Brother Burgess, does your pastor normally have folks stand when he reads this text, or do you all remain seated?
[00:02:33] Brother Burgess, what does your pastor normally do?
[00:02:39] Let's stay seated, then. Okay, we'll stay seated.
[00:02:43] John, chapter three and verse 13. We'll read probably three or four verses here.
[00:02:52] Actually, we're going to start with verse yes, 13 and no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that cometh down from heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven.
[00:03:03] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.
[00:03:11] That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
[00:03:18] For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you that you're God and you're lord. You're lord of all and you're Lord of the harvest.
[00:03:38] And we praise you for the church that's taken the time this week to focus on getting your word to the world. And I know that's a part of what we do daily in your churches. And, Lord God, we just praise you for letting us be here. I pray you'd fill me with your spirit. Every saved person in here tonight, all of us. God, fill us with your spirit. May we have ears to hear. May your word find good ground. Do what you want to do in our lives, every one of us. God, may we leave here differently.
[00:04:09] And, Lord, we ask you, if there's a lost soul here tonight, it would be a perfect night to meet Jesus. And we ask you also, Lord, to please send laborers into your harvest. In Jesus name. Amen. So you see the text there? It talks about Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. And of course, that's the context of John 316. Jesus goes straight from Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. Even so, must the son of man be lifted up. And of course, we know we're talking about the cross there. And in that same context, he goes into four God so loved the world, etcetera, etcetera. So I want us to go back to the, actually, it's in the book of numbers, if you'll go back there with me. And we're going to look at this scripture in numbers, chapter 21 and verse five. And this is the scripture that the Lord Jesus uses, or in his context, as he's talking to Nicodemus and telling him that as for God so loved the world, etcetera, etcetera. So we're going to go back in numbers, chapter 21, verse five. And we're going to look at the context of this tonight.
[00:05:18] The Bible says, and the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
[00:05:29] For there is no bread, neither is there any water.
[00:05:34] And our soul loatheth this light bread. So here they are. And you know the story. They've left Egypt. They're in the wilderness. God's taken such good care of them, feeding them with manna from heaven, giving them food daily, miraculously taking care of them and feeding them. But the Bible says they spake against God, and they began to murmur and they began to complain because of the way God was taking care of them. And this miraculous food that God was giving them on a daily basis. They had the audacity to say, our soul loatheth this light bread.
[00:06:18] And so we read the next verse. So the Bible says, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. And they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. So God heard this murmuring, not only against Moses, their leader, but also against him. And so God sent fiery serpents among them. Now, a fiery serpent. If you don't know what that is, that's a serpent. That's fiery.
[00:06:49] Amen. And I don't. And I don't know what it, you know, looks like, but I don't want to be. I don't like to be around non fiery serpents. So a fiery serpent would be, you know, pretty rough. So the Bible says that they bit the people, and much people of Israel died.
[00:07:13] Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, these three words will start you on a path to getting right with God every single time. We have sinned.
[00:07:27] And they have. They had. For we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. So not only they say, we have sinned, but they confessed specifically what their sin was. Here's what we did. They didn't say, if we have sinned, please forgive us. That's not confession.
[00:07:49] Confession is owning it. They owned it. We did it. And here's what we did. It's kind of like an apology.
[00:07:59] This is not an apology, honey. If I offended you, I'm sorry. That's not an apology.
[00:08:06] This is an apology, honey. I know I offended you. I was wrong.
[00:08:12] Whoa. What?
[00:08:14] I was wrong, and I'm sorry. Do you see the difference?
[00:08:19] So they confessed. They said that they had sinned. They said what they'd done. And so. For we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
[00:08:37] And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole. And it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. So he gave him a simple thing to do. And so. And Moses made a serpent of brass. Put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that if a serpent came, had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. So it was a simple thing. So God told Moses what to do. Make a serpent. He did. He made a fiery serpent. We'll just. I'm gonna use your giraffe, brother, if that's okay. I'm gonna use your giraffe, now this is pretend. This is a serpent. It's not. It's a giraffe. But, and so he told Moses, he said, you make a fiery serpent, you put it on a pole, and all you had to do to live, everyone that was bitten, all they had to do was look at it. Right?
[00:09:40] Look. And you've heard that message. Maybe. If not, it's a really good message because that's kind of how you get saved. You look to Jesus through an eye of faith and you get salvation. You look. It's hard not to look, isn't it?
[00:09:55] I mean, I don't know everyone. I don't know if anyone. I don't know anyone here. I don't know if anyone in here has not looked yet. But you can try not to look someone. Hello, up here I am.
[00:10:10] But the, but the Bible says Jesus, God told most what to do and he did it. And everyone that looked that had been bitten, they were healed.
[00:10:23] And so.
[00:10:25] But the Bible says, you remember as we started into this, the Bible tells us that much people died, didn't they? Much people died. Did you read that part?
[00:10:37] Now, here's what we don't know.
[00:10:40] We know much people died.
[00:10:43] Maybe the ones who died all died before the remedy. We don't know that.
[00:10:52] But do you think it's conceivable that some people died after the Moses, when Moses put the serpent on the pole and held it up? Do you think that's conceivable that after this, after the solution was given, after the remedy, do you think it's conceivable? Now, the Bible doesn't say now, but I would say it's conceivable that some people even after that died. Would you not agree? Let me ask you this. Did they have to die? No. Cause this was enough for everybody.
[00:11:31] But some people died, and it's conceivable they work. That they did. Now, here's maybe somebody, maybe somebody said, hey, Moses has a serpent on a pole up there, and if you'll look at it, you'll live. And somebody in his tent said, I don't believe that I'm dying. Hey, I'm in here.
[00:11:55] Dying from a fiery serpent bite was probably, probably not an easy death. I mean, I don't know.
[00:12:02] It was like laying in a tea saying, look, I'm dying.
[00:12:06] There's no way I'm going to do. That's too simple. I'm not going to do it. Now. I don't know. This Bible doesn't tell us, and I certainly don't want to stretch beyond where the Bible is. But it's certainly conceivable. But somebody that was that way, and it's probably conceivable also and said, moses, I hate that man. I ain't going to do a thing. He says, do you think that's conceivable?
[00:12:29] So I'm just saying that it's possible that some people died basically because they didn't believe the. They didn't believe the report and so they weren't going to do it.
[00:12:47] They just weren't.
[00:12:50] Now, I want to share a verse with you. It's in the book of Exodus, chapter twelve, verse 37. Just quickly, Exodus 1237. Here's what the Bible says.
[00:13:08] And the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Succoth, about 600,000 on foot that were men.
[00:13:18] So the Bible is telling you right here that 600,000 men, we're in this camp right now for 600,000 men.
[00:13:31] Then odds are how many women are there?
[00:13:35] About another 600,000.
[00:13:38] Now, I don't want to get too, you know, mathy on you here tonight, but if you have 600,000 men, these are men, not children, and 600,000 women, then right now you have six and six and twelve 1.2 million adults. Would you not agree? We okay with that?
[00:14:00] And if each couple has a couple young un's, then that's.
[00:14:08] I think I'm right on this. That's another 1.2 million, am I right? So you got 600,000 men, 600,000 women. So you got 600,000 families. If each family has only two children, that's another 1.2 million people. Would you not agree?
[00:14:24] Now the jewish people aren't custom on having two young ones. I mean, I read about a lot of those in the Bible, but let's just say it's two. So it's 1.2 million adults and 1.2 million children.
[00:14:40] So you're talking about, at least this is not an exaggeration. We're getting it all from the Bible. I'm not going to any archaeological evidence. I'm not going to any, you know, outside of the Bible resources. But we can see from the scriptures with our own eyes that we're probably talking about at least two and a half million people. Would you not agree with that? Now we start out of Egypt and Pastor Wood's got him and his family and me and my wife, we got our family and we're headed down the road. Now we got more than two each. Amen. But anyway, we're headed down the road doing great. And maybe we're, maybe we're kind of all me and him and two or three other families living under one tent. But you know what? After 30 days, 40 days, 50 days a year, two years, you know what I'm gonna say? Look, I gotta have my own tent.
[00:15:26] This ain't working. Okay? I mean, you know, I mean, I want my own tent. And so, I mean, they've been in wilderness a long time, brothers and sisters, so it would make, certainly it would make sense that every family has its own tent.
[00:15:40] Now, if there's 600,000 families and I got a tent, everybody's got a tent.
[00:15:52] Well, we got these tents laid out.
[00:15:58] And the best you can possibly do with a bunch of tents is if you had. Let's suppose you have 25 tenths. Then probably the best you could do space wise would be about five across, right? Think of a checkerboard about five across and about how many back?
[00:16:16] About five back. And you got 25 tenths. Am I right? Everybody get that? I told you I didn't want to go too mathy, but now if you had, let's suppose we had 16 tenths. You'd have to put them out in the most efficient manner. You'd have about four across the front, right.
[00:16:37] And four going back. Right? Four rows, four columns. You can think spreadsheet if you. If anybody works with those. And you got 16:00 a.m.. I, right? Everybody good?
[00:16:48] All right. What if you had 49?
[00:16:51] How many across?
[00:16:56] Time to start going up to another story. They didn't do that, though, didn't they? But that's what we do today. And how many go back?
[00:17:03] What if you had 64?
[00:17:06] Eight across.
[00:17:08] Eight back. Everybody with me?
[00:17:10] You sure?
[00:17:13] Okay. What have you had? 100?
[00:17:16] 1010. Here's a toughie. What if you had 140? 412?
[00:17:23] Twelve. Everybody's with me 100%. Got 100% participation now. Okay. They didn't have any of that.
[00:17:31] They had 600,000.
[00:17:35] So you can do the math.
[00:17:37] You can trust me on it or you can do the math.
[00:17:40] That's 775 this way and 775 that way.
[00:17:56] Okay?
[00:17:58] Because 775, 777, blah, blah, blah. You got it? You okay?
[00:18:03] You ain't mad at me for causing. You have flashbacks back to high school, are you?
[00:18:08] Okay? Now a 10th plot.
[00:18:13] I mean, it's me and my wife. We got a few young ones. We got a chicken or two, maybe a sheep. You know, I'm saying 15ft by 15ft square would probably be about the least we need. At least that. Would you not agree? Okay, so here's the thing. I got 775 tenths this way and 775 tenths going that way. 775 times 15 is. Listen to this. 11,625ft this way and 11,625ft that way.
[00:18:59] So 11,000ft is about, what, 2 miles?
[00:19:04] So I'm standing here, and I'm Moses, and I'm looking out over these tents 2 miles this way, so I'm in the middle. So I got a mile that way and a mile that way and 2 miles back. Everybody see that in your mind, we're good, right?
[00:19:26] And I'm holding up a pole.
[00:19:30] Hey.
[00:19:33] Hey, everybody.
[00:19:36] This here pole has a serpent on it.
[00:19:40] If you'll look, you'll live.
[00:19:48] Hey.
[00:19:52] And about 200 yards back, somebody says, hey, honey, I see Moses up there. What's he doing?
[00:20:05] About a half a mile back, who is that up there?
[00:20:13] And about a mile back, nobody knows what's going on.
[00:20:22] Now, these folks up here in the front row, they're hearing it all.
[00:20:29] And one of them says, hey, you know what Moses just said? You've been bitten. All you got to do is look and live. He looks, he lives. He says, guess what? It works.
[00:20:39] And everybody in his tent, they look and they live. And they're singing songs about it.
[00:20:47] Look and live.
[00:20:49] Look and live. One day I was bitten by a big old fiery serpent.
[00:20:57] Then I looked and I lived.
[00:21:05] So these folks up here in the front, they're getting it all, aren't they?
[00:21:14] Now, this feller, he's about hundred yards this way, and he saw, but he realizes his neighbor's chickens are laying eggs and being too loud and they don't know what's going on.
[00:21:31] What kind of sorry Israelite would go back in his tent and not tell his neighbors?
[00:21:45] Who would do that?
[00:21:52] Can't you take two minutes and say, hey, if anybody in your house been bitten, Moses has a solution up there.
[00:22:03] Look and live.
[00:22:08] Who wouldn't do that?
[00:22:12] And let me ask you this.
[00:22:15] Those folks two, 2 miles back, do you think somebody would get some initiative and say, you know what? There's no way they can hear what Moses is saying.
[00:22:36] Can somebody please go back a mile or two and tell some folks what's going on up there?
[00:22:46] Because if they didn't look, they're going to die.
[00:22:54] And here's, I guarantee you this, nobody's going to wake up one morning and say, you know what?
[00:22:59] Maybe Moses has a snake on a pole, and if we look at it, we'll live. Nobody makes that up in their mind.
[00:23:06] Nobody's going to wake up one morning and say, you know what? Maybe God sent his son to die for us on a cross, and maybe if we'll believe that, nobody's going to wake up one. Well, you can't make that up. Here's the kind of gods we make up. We make up the gods that crush you. We make up the gods that if you don't pay them a lot of money, they're going to kill you and your children. That's the gods we invented. Nobody invents a God like our God. Nobody thinks this up. Hey, let's invent a God that loves us so much he'd send his own son to die on a cross for us. Hey, maybe that'll happen. Nobody makes that up. We don't come up with that in our own mind. Guess what? Just like those folks 2 miles back, somebody's got to tell them about the remedy.
[00:23:54] Do you see that?
[00:23:56] Because, brothers and sisters, we're back in the tents now.
[00:24:00] If you're sitting in your tent watching tv, if you're sitting in your tent trying to take enough pain medication so that this bite that you're experiencing, that's killing you doesn't drive you crazy before you die, you ain't going out there to look for a snake on a pole unless what somebody tells you.
[00:24:28] We don't have that plan in the Bible. God doesn't tell us how word was spread in the wilderness, does he?
[00:24:42] Look with me. In John, chapter ten, verse 13.
[00:24:53] I said John. I meant Romans. I'm sorry about that. Romans 1013. The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved. Do you believe that?
[00:25:07] Do you believe that anyone on the planet who's a sinner, and that includes all of us, if they'll call on the name of the Lord, they'll be saved. Do you believe that?
[00:25:19] He says, how shall they.
[00:25:22] The Bible says, next, how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? I'm sorry. I skipped beginning of 14. How, then, shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
[00:25:39] So they won't call on him if they haven't believed.
[00:25:43] And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
[00:25:48] They can't believe unless they hear. They can't call unless they believe. They won't be saved unless they call. The first step has to be hearing, brothers and sisters, I don't know if you've ever considered this or ever thought of this, but people who don't hear about Jesus go to hell.
[00:26:14] Right?
[00:26:18] You have to hear before you can believe faith cometh by hearing.
[00:26:27] Now, if they hear, there's no guarantee they're getting saved.
[00:26:32] But if they don't hear, guarantee they won't get saved.
[00:26:38] Do you see that from the Bible that does. Now, I know a lot of people, they'll say this. Well, that's not fair.
[00:26:50] What's not fair is that any of us get to go to heaven.
[00:26:55] If we want fair, we don't want fair.
[00:26:59] So if we got fair, we'd all be in hell. You understand that, don't you? That's just because God said it.
[00:27:05] If you sin, you're gonna die.
[00:27:09] So that's fair.
[00:27:13] So here's what God did. God said, I want them all to hear.
[00:27:17] And so when you hear and believe, here's your number one job, tell everybody else. Ain't that. It isn't that simple. God said, I tell you what I want them all to hear.
[00:27:30] I want them all to hear.
[00:27:32] And here's your job, tell them.
[00:27:37] That's why, brothers and sisters, I'm not trying to.
[00:27:44] I'm not trying to manipulate your mind into a place the Bible is not.
[00:27:49] But I'm gonna make this statement. When you got saved, it would have been a lot easier for you and everybody else if God just take you right to heaven.
[00:27:59] No more trials, no more heartaches. You can praise him, worship him up there a lot better than you can down here. But God left us here because there's people a quarter mile back that don't know what you know.
[00:28:11] There's people a mile and a half back that don't know what you know. And there's some people in some tents that they're in the situation this young man's in and they can't get out.
[00:28:23] And somebody's got to go in the door of their house and tell them they're deaf people.
[00:28:32] If somebody doesn't tell them, they got a chance worldwide. Brothers and sisters, that's why we're here.
[00:28:42] That's why we're here this week, and that's why we're here on this planet.
[00:28:48] Can I just put it this way? You say, well, God created us for his glory, right?
[00:28:53] Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. Amen. We're here on this planet to get the gospel to people. Do you see that?
[00:29:04] And I want to show you now, all of that being the case, we're not talking about tents anymore. We're talking about Tanzania. We're talking about Sri Lanka, India, China. We're talking about countries all over this world. Where hundreds of millions and billions of people are. And I wanna show you the most knowing and understanding what we just comprehended here tonight. I wanna show you the most precious, one of the most precious verses in the Bible. Look at Philippians chapter four, verse 15.
[00:29:39] Turn there with me. Philippians 415.
[00:29:49] Look what the bible says.
[00:29:52] Now, ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, that's when Paul got his macedonian call and began to go out into Asia Minor.
[00:30:06] No church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only communicate. No church interchanged. No church interchanged with me concerning giving. It wasn't that he was teaching them how to give. They were giving. They said, paul, hey, you've got to go over there to Ephesus, and you got to go over there to Philippi. They said, we want to send you here. We'll buy your ticket. Here's a boat, here's some food. Here's some money so you can buy food when you get there. And he's telling his church in Philippi, he says, nobody did that but you.
[00:30:44] And he says, for even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity. My necessity is, you took care of me, you fed me, you took clothes on my back, you put food in my belly. You did that. Do you know something, brothers and sisters, my wife and I have been serving the Lord Jesus for several years. Praised to his name. It's all him. There's nothing. There's nothing I have that God's people didn't provide for me. Nothing. Every stitch of clothes, every meal I eat, the car we drive, the gas we put in it. There's nothing. There's nothing we have. There's nothing we've ever done in Sri Lanka that didn't come from the pockets of somebody on a pew, just like you. Never. There's not a soul saved over there. There's not a we ever ate that wasn't given to us from somebody just like you that went out and worked a job, and you worked hard and you labored, and God touched your heart about putting whatever you put in offering late for missions. And that came into our pockets, and that allowed us. I want you to get this. Nothing. We did nothing. I have nothing at all. Not these glasses, not these shoes. My wife bought me this ring, but this is. I've got another wedding ring that she bought me before we started serving God. So that came out of her pocket. But we don't take that to Sri Lanka. Cause I'm afraid I'll lose it. But this one she bought me about five or six years ago. That came from your money.
[00:32:11] It all came from you. People just like you.
[00:32:15] And now look what the Bible says.
[00:32:18] For even in Thessaloniki you sent once again in my necessity. Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. I want you to get this.
[00:32:32] When you support a missionary in.
[00:32:35] I don't know. I don't. Is that Brazil? No. Is that Iran? Iraq? India. Thanks. When you. Thanks. When you support this guy. When you support a man in India.
[00:32:46] God doesn't put a big old gold star by his name. And a little check mark by yours. You get the same star.
[00:32:55] Do you get that?
[00:32:57] You don't have to go to India.
[00:33:00] You don't have to learn how to do things in India that you never think about doing.
[00:33:06] You don't have to fight snakes as long as that pew.
[00:33:13] You don't have to worry about rogue elephants. You don't have to step on spiders that'll come out both sides of your boot.
[00:33:23] You don't have to do that.
[00:33:26] But when you get involved with helping somebody else do it.
[00:33:33] It abounds to your account the same as it does to theirs. Isn't that amazing?
[00:33:39] Incredible.
[00:33:42] So here's our job.
[00:33:45] Your job is do whatever God tells you to do.
[00:33:48] But you're in your tent and there's folks beside you and around you in their tents that you can reach directly.
[00:33:57] And there's folks in these other tents.
[00:34:00] Even if you went to one of those places, you couldn't go to all of them.
[00:34:04] But when you send a missionary there, you say, well, we don't always give them $50 a month. Or are we gives $100 a month. God didn't say that you get one 1000th on your account. It's on your account.
[00:34:22] It's like you did it.
[00:34:25] You want to do something for Jesus.
[00:34:29] That's what this is about.
[00:34:32] Do you see that? Do you own that?
[00:34:36] Here's what I want to do.
[00:34:39] I want to give.
[00:34:44] To get the gospel to those guys 2 miles back. And 1 mile that way. And 1 mile that way.
[00:34:52] Like I wish I had given.
[00:34:55] When I stand before Jesus, you know in a couple hundred years I won't have this opportunity.
[00:35:08] That's not an effort.
[00:35:12] I want you to see this, brothers and sisters.
[00:35:15] And I want you to know my heart on this. I hope you see this. That's not an effort to get money out of you. It's not.
[00:35:23] Do you?
[00:35:25] God's not about. I just need more money.
[00:35:29] God's about. I want all of us together to go to the world and get the gospel to everybody.
[00:35:40] And I'm going to provide a way so that we can.
[00:35:44] And some people I'm going to send there directly. Some people I'm going to say, get out of your tent and walk 2 miles back and tell somebody. And some people I won't be able to do that. Some people, they can pack them a lunch so they can go all up and down the aisles and do that.
[00:35:58] But we all get equal from God on that. Do you see that?
[00:36:06] Then let's pray.
