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We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. Years ago, I was at Tennessee Temple. I was listening to Dr. Lee Robertson. He had gone to this church to preach. And I was a bus captain at the time. So, me and Lenten fallen, a few others, we went to hear Dr. Lee Robertson preach now. Back at that time, he had the largest independent, I had to school in America, fundamental school.

And not as clear on the gospel, no. There’s a time when they would make it clear, and it’s time they wouldn’t. But anyway, we went to hear Dr. Leroberson preach. And I’ll never forget him telling this story. I said, turn, I listened. And he started telling this story. He says, now, there was this young couple. Coming out of the depression, they was driving along the road in a car. And they got tired. And there was no place to stop.

They were weary, hungry, thirsty. And the longer they drove, the tired of they got, and the later it was getting in the evening, and they didn’t know what they were going to do. They saw this old abandoned house. So they went to this old abandoned house, went inside and they had a little girl with them. And she was tired and cold and hungry. She began to cry. The daddy says, stop your crying. And she said, well, I’m hungry. Well, we don’t have anything to eat, so stop your crying.

And she kept sniveling, you know. And then the mama told her to be quiet. She just started crying and couldn’t stop. She started deep sobs and she just cried. So the daddy went over there and got her by the arm, and he opened up one of the closet doors and put her in the closet, said, when you stop your crying, I’ll let you out. There’s no lights in there. And he closed the door. And then she really cried. She was scared.

She cried. She screamed. And the mother says, well, maybe you better let her out. He says, isn’t he gonna take long? She’ll stop crying in a minute. And it wasn’t long before she stopped pounding on the door, screams got less and less. So they went over there and opened the door, and her body was laying on the floor with rattlesnakes all over her body. They had no idea there were rattlesnakes in that closet. You and I Have no idea How bad a rattlesnake bite can be But let’s just pretend for a moment Let’s just pretend that here I am I’ve been up those mountains of Colorado But they say it a certain altitude that you don’t have to worry about rattlesnakes because they don’t go that high up because of the altitude So we’re going to take me down off the mountain and we’re going to put me out there in some

desert someplace. And little behold, a big old rattlesnake bites me on the neck. What is probably going to happen to me if I get bit by a rattlesnake? Anybody have any clue what might happen to me? Yes. All right. That’s that’s one thing that I could do. I could I could bite the snake back. So as I look at this snake and realize that this snake just bit me, I’m going to get even. I’m going to bite the snake back.

But I might look at it and think, you know, it wasn’t that bad. You know, there’s some people. that are really bad sinners. And then there’s some sinners that don’t consider themselves that bad. I only got a little bite, but you ought to see Peter Amato, he got a big bite. I mean, a big rattlesnake got a whole ham. Did you know that when we’re born into this world, We all have that venom that bit Adam running through our veins and That’s why we are going to die because we’ve all been bitten by the serpent and what killed Adam killed Eve and what killed their children is what killed our Parents and on down the line and that’s why you and I are facing death because there was a time when the serpent bit someone and passed on to them that venom that causes death.

Now you and I can look at this and think you know I looked at that old snake bite and I don’t think it’s that bad but of course everybody before me has all died but I don’t think it’s gonna happen because I’m I mean I’m That’s a small snake bite that got me. I have talked to people and they’ve said, I’m so bad God can’t save me. And then you have others that think they’re too good and they don’t need to be saved.

They just don’t know how bad the snake bite is. But they need to understand that regardless of how bad you may be. Christ can save anybody and everybody. Now, so we know that, well, that was pretty good over there Peter, I appreciate that. Now, there’s another thing I could do. If it snake bites me and I, and I realized I got to do something, I got to do something to save my life. So I can bite the snake back so I can kill the snake.

Just kill the snake. But if I kill the snake, does that solve my problem? Killing that snake is not going to solve my problem. You know what I ought to do? Still killing the snake? I’m just going to feed the snake. Maybe that’s why the snake was hungry. You know all those Muslim nations over there that hate America? It’s because we made them mad. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves. I think what we ought to do is appease them.

Let’s just give them this country and that’ll appease them. Then everybody will live in peace. Right? No. So you can feed the snake. And it might seem like the right thing to do. But the problem is, it’s not going to solve your problem. It’s just not going to work. You know what we need to do? We need to apologize to that serpent. After all, you know, that snake wouldn’t have bit me if I hadn’t got too close to it and scared it.

So it was all my fault. Well, there’s people today They are just apologizing to serpents all over this country. And I don’t like that. You know what else we could do? We could just fall down and worship the snake. Just worship the snake, bow to the snake. Because see, if we’d have done whatever that snake wanted us to do to start with, it wouldn’t have bit us. So it’s all our fault. We need to worship the snake. You think that’ll work?

that make me better? That’ll solve my problems? No, that won’t work either. You know if I do, if I really look and could see, got a mirror, it could see the snake bite. Oh, I got to do it. Put a band-aid on it. See if I put a band-aid on it, I’ll be alright. And so as you go down and you stop and think, we’ve all been bitten by and we’re all trying to figure out how to stay alive.

Did you know the reason for all of the so-called losing weight, standing shape, and all these things, because we’re trying to buy a little more time. True? I mean, we’re just trying to stay alive a little bit longer and enjoy the time that we do have. But we all know somewhere along the line we are susceptible to death. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We’re all going to die. Because we’ve all been bitten by the serpent and we have this venom in our bodies.

And there’s nothing you can do to change that. Not in this whole physical body. You’re not going to change that. You’re not. I’m not. Some people would say, you know, all I got to do is just get the right serum. I need the serum. I’m at a dope. So I don’t die. And I’ve read about the flight for life and how that some people will get bit by a snake and they’ve only got so much time to get to a place and then it’s touching go and some people make it and some people don’t.

I remember one time when I was living up there in Virginia, I was about 15, 16 years old and I was living with my aunt and uncle. And my aunt and uncle, they love to go fishing. Love to go fishing. My uncle loved to have me paddle the boat while he basished. That’s a lot of fun. Paddling the boat all day long so that your uncle can cast and have a great time. I had to keep him so far away from the bank so that, and so many times I’d be pennant and just tell.

That boat drifted into the bush underneath the trees. Anyway, those were good moments. But we would fish certain holes. And one day, lo and behold, there was a water moccasin in a tree on a limb. And we came right by it. And we looked up and Manko says, there’s a water moccasin in the tree. Not even though they could climb a tree, but there’s a water moccasin in the tree. And just that quick, that water moccasin came into the water and attacked the boat was coming at us in the boat.

Big water moccasin. I was petrified. I had no clue what to do. My uncle, he got that paddle that he had and he came back to the back of the boat and he took that thing and he just kept on a slash until finally that it then broke his back in several places. Now, I didn’t know a water moccasin would attack you in the boat and got out of a tree and come after you. You said they won’t do that.

Yes, they will. I’ll defy anybody who says any different. I saw it in my own eyes. Scared to death. We went home. And the next day we was reading in the paper, next day a couple days later. Some teenagers had decided to go fishing down at the river. one that we was at. They had a little place that was cleared off and so they would begin to run and race and say, see you in the river! Last one in the rotten egg!

And this one kid outrun everybody, jumped into the water and was swimming all around and splashing and so forth. And when the rest of them got up there, he hollered back and says, don’t come in the water, don’t come in the water. He says, something’s eating me. Something’s eating me. He got to the bank and they pulled them out and he had almost, I think it was 50 or 60 snake bites where the water moccons of them had attacked him in the water and he in just a few minutes he was dead scared those teenagers to death.

So yeah snakes can be a very scary thing but I want you to look at this story. Look there in verse 5 verse 5 and the people Let’s speak against God, against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread.” In other words, they were sick and tired of eating manna. And look in verse 6, and the Lord, 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, but we have spoken against the Lord and against the prey unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us, and Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, May the fiery serpent And set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he look up on it shall live. And Moses made a serpent a 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 a brass he lived. He lived. Now, what if some of those people that had been bitten by these serpents, and they looked at it and said, you know, mine’s only a little nick. Mine’s not that bad. Of course, everybody else that was bitten has died, and your just said, well, mine’s not that bad. Who was supposed to look at the serpent? Everyone that was bitten.

Everyone that was bitten. Didn’t Moses tell them what you need to do is start stopping and killing these snakes? He didn’t tell them that. He didn’t say bow down and start worshiping the snakes. He didn’t tell them to start feeding the snakes. He didn’t tell them to do that. Moses did not tell them, Look at me! You and I are not to look through any preacher, pope, plant, anybody, or to look to the cross. No one else. No place else.

They didn’t have to change anything, stop anything, all they had to do was look and live. There even a song has been written about that look and live. Look and live, my brother live. Look to Jesus now and live. Have you ever heard that song before? A lot of people are saying this is what it’s about. And all they had to do was look and live. They didn’t have to apologize. They didn’t have to say anything. They didn’t have to do anything.

They didn’t have to look for some kind of a magical serum. They didn’t have to do anything. All they had to do was look at that brazen serpent on the cross that pole and they would live. Now here’s Jesus, all these years later, talking to a very intelligent Jewish rabbi. He says, don’t you know that story? Don’t you understand it’s about the new birth? Now you and I might read this and say, I don’t see anything like that in there.

We wouldn’t have known that if he hadn’t have told him. There’s a lot more in these scriptures than what you and I see. And who knows how many other stories where God has made the gospel clear, service clear, the two natures clear. everything we teach in the New Testament, I believe is taught in the Old Testament, we just don’t see it because it’s like a veil over the eyes of Israel and they cannot see. And sometimes the Old Testament is like a veil over our eyes and we just don’t see it.

And by using the light of the New Testament, we can go back and dispel the darkness in the Old Testament. But I like that simple little statement in verse 8. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. Now he uses the same story in the Gospel of John chapter 3, where it says, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the Son of Man be lifted up.

And if I be lifted up, I will draw all men on the man. So he says, all that they had to do was look and live. Do you believe that salvation could be so simple. All that would have to do is look and live. Fifty-one years ago in a little-low living rooms, I looked and I lived. And I never have to do it again because who so ever believeth on me looks to him, he will give you as a free gift ever lasting life, and you never have to do it again.

Best news in all the world. Go back there to the Gospel of John in chapter 3. John chapter 3 is the devil real, is he real? pictures him as the serpent and a serpent. Was that which was cursed by God in the garden? The serpent was what was placed upon the pole and it was God that sent the serpent to reveal the sin. And so all that have sinned will die. But if we look, we can live forever. So here in John chapter 3, look at it again.

See there in verse 13, No man had to send it up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, and that’s explained even more in chapter 6 of John, the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That word must, it’s almost like the word must up there when he talks about you must be born again in verse 7. some things that you just must do.

The soul that sineth must die. Christ is coming back, but without sin and the salvation. You see, the first time he came was to become sin for us. So whenever you see the serpent, which is cursed of God, Jesus Christ takes all the sin of the world upon himself and being placed upon a cross, became cursed for you and I. died in our place. And if we look and believe that He did that for me. He paid for my sins, and all I have to do is look and live.

So He says here in verse 15, that whosoever believe it then him should not perish but have eternal life. That is equal to look and live. So simple. It’s not hard. Just like talking to the woman at the well, he says, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith in the day, give me to drink thou, would have I asked him in? I would have given you living water. And she says, did you just have no dealings with the Samaritans?

Where are you going to get this water from? The well is deep. You don’t even have a rope. Let it on a bucket. He says, you drink the water that’s in this well. You’re thirst again. But if you drink the water that I give to you, you’ll never thirst again. One look good forever. One drink, good forever. And he also made the statement that I am the bread of life. He says, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.

But he that eats the bread that came down from heaven, the true bread, he says, well, never hunger. I took one bite, 51 years ago. Never have to take another one. Why? It’s satisfied. I’m satisfied. I never have to do it again. Because he saved me then and I never had to do it again. Now if I can lose my salvation, I might need another dose of the Holy Ghost, but it never has to happen again because I can’t lose eternal salvation.

I have eternal life and I’m going to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for me. You see John 3 16 is simply an explanation of what happened back there in Numbers chapter 21 1 verses 5 down to those scriptures. This hand represents you and me. The Bible says that we have sin. This sin is all the things that we do that’s wrong. And why do we do all these wrong things, these bad things, because we have within us the venom of the devil himself?

And that’s why Christ made this statement. And he’s a ye are of your Father the devil. He was a murder from the beginning, a liar, and the Father of it. He says, that’s where you come from. That’s why you’re going to die. Now the Bible says God loves us but He hates our sin. And to pay for sin, eternal separation from God in hell. But God wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God.

None of us are perfect. None of us are righteous. We have all been bitten and we’re all going to die. There is no way out of this. We must die. Jesus Christ came into the world. You see, He didn’t have any of that venom in His body. He says, the body has to prepare me. He didn’t have a sinful nature. No sinful nature, He didn’t sin. Didn’t sin, didn’t have to die. So He came into the world because He loves us.

Hates our sin because it separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ, who had no sin, didn’t have to die, so He took all the sin of all the world and became cursed for us. So Jesus Christ, He was on the cross, curses is everyone, because see, everyone of us was on that cross. He died for everyone, but the payments only put to the person that believed that he did it for him. If you will look, you will live. But if you look for any other way of salvation, you can look to your works.

You can look to your preacher. You can look to a church, you can look for anything and anybody, but there is no salvation unless you look to Christ. They didn’t have to look to Moses or to each other or to the leaders or to Joshua or Caleb, they had to look at that cross, that pole. And it was a picture of Jesus Christ down on the cross for our sins. When we believe He did it for us, He gives us as a free gift of everlasting life.

We get to go to heaven on what He did for us. Let’s pray, shall we? The hedge-bound knives close and no one looking around. Or if you’re watching by internet tonight, you may never have understood before. But I want you to know that God does love you and that He sent His Son to down the cross and pay for your sins. Jesus Christ was lifted up just like that serpent in the wilderness. And all he asked you to do is just look and live.

Look and believe that he died for you, would you trust him? If you will trust him right now as your Savior, God said he would save you right now, give you eternal life. And you can know that you’re going to heaven because of what Christ did on the cross for you. Our Father, we thank you so much for the free gift of eternal life and that you’ve given your words and these things have already done to you that believe that you may know that you have eternal life.

We ask your blessings up on each person here and follow. We also pray, Lord, that you’ll meet the needs of each person here. Some people don’t even have a job and we just pray that doors would be open where they could find just what they need and Lord, there’s just so much that’s going on, especially here in our country. follow we know we can’t put our trust in man, but we know that you do work through man. We pray that because of your love for us, I’m sure there’s a few righteous people left in this country.

So for their sake, our children, we pray for peace and for all of our needs to be made for your protection and all these matters. Thank you for this church and all that you’ve done for us. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free, 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10 30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.