Numbers 21:
4. And they journeyed from mount Hor 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.
5. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
6. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
7. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, 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.
8. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that looketh upon it, shall live.
9. 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.

In this passage of scripture, God's people despised the way He was leading them, and told the man of God this in no uncertain terms. In response, God sent judgement upon them in the form of poisonous snakes which bit many of them. As a result, there were many who perished from this judgement. The people finally confessed their sin, and through their actions admitted that God's way was the best way, as seen in verse 9. When the people did what God had commanded through the man of God, (i.e. look on the serpent), they were healed of the venomous bite of the serpent. Those who would not look, surely perished.

There is a parallel that we can draw from this passage regarding salvation. Lost men have always despised God's way in salvation, but even those in the church have begun to despise it now. In many quarters, the church has turned to ways other than that set forth by God to get folk saved. Plans, programs, prayers, and promise claiming, have taken the place of repentance toward God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which comes after Holy Ghost conviction has produced godly sorrow in an individual. I want to deal with this problem in the following paragraphs.

Notice, first of all, why the people came to despise the ways of God. Verse 4 states, "The soul of the people was discouraged because of the way." The word 'discouraged' means 'impatient,' or 'short' (as in short tempered), and also has reference to 'harvesting,' or 'reaping.' The people, then, were upset with God because there was not an abundant food supply and no quick access to food. They were upset that they had to depend on God to dispense, or to give them the food. The church got this same attitude when God didn't save people fast enough and in as great a number as they thought He should have. Added to this was the fact that folks didn't like what God put them through to get saved, and they certainly didn't like God having control over the dispensing of salvation.

In the passage above we see that the people despised three things relating to God's provision; the way, the truth, and the life. That they despised the way is seen in verse 5, where they questioned the way God was leading them. They were saying, in effect, "God, your way is going to kill us, why don't you do it another way?" That they despised the truth is shown by the fact that they lied. They said there was no bread or water, but Exodus 16:4-8, and 17:5-6, tell us that there was both. And both were provided by God! They despised life, as demonstrated in their statement that their souls loathed, or hated the manna. Yet it was the manna that was what sustained them. They were saying, "We'd rather die than eat this."

Jesus said in John 14:6, that He was these very three things that the people hate, but that to get to God one must accept God's way, God's truth, and God's life. If one doesn't come to love it and embrace it, they will never get to God.

Space keeps us from going to all the scriptures, but the reader will recall that the children of Israel attempted to implement their own ways as a result of despising God's ways. They tried to appoint captains to go back to Egypt in Numbers 14:1-4. They tried to gather more than one day's supply of manna during the week in Exodus 16:20, and looked for manna on the Sabbath in 16:27, contrary to God's ways. The church has done the same thing today in the area of salvation. They have appointed them captains, which is a fulfillment of the warning of Paul in II Timothy 4, that the so-called people of God would not endure the truth, but would 'heap to themselves teachers.' They have instituted their own ways to replace God's ways. Just as "God gave [the children of Israel] their request, but sent leanness to their souls," according to David, in Psalm 106:15, so God has allowed the churches to practice their ways today. But it has sent leanness to their souls, in the form of unconverted members, and sin and division in the camp, not to mention a lack of power.

God finally had enough of the sin of the children of Israel, and sent judgement upon them. Many of the people died with no provision for deliverance. While in the account of our text, it was a literal death, in the churches it is a spiritual death. God judged the practices of the children of Israel, and according to verse 6 of the above text, "...much people...died." This forced those who saw the affect of this to face what their ways produced. This caused them to cry out in helplessness for deliverance.

In the churches of our day, God has allowed the practices of man to lead to the spiritual death of multitudes to wake us up to the reality of what happens when we violate His ways. God has allowed great numbers in the church to be deceived into thinking they were saved when they were not, and it cost them their souls. It was so in Jesus' day also. You may say, "Wait a minute preacher, God would not allow that to happen." Matthew 7:22 tells me otherwise. Many have preached that those described there were depending on works to save them, which may be true. But the significance is that God will allow folks to be deceived if they do not follow His ways. If man comes up with ways contrary to God's ways, it is not God's fault, nor is it His obligation to help man out until man has turned from those ways. We are told in II Thessalonians that the time is coming when God will not only allow those who fight the truth to be deceived, but GOD will actually, "...send them strong delusion, that they all might believe a lie and be damned..." These are tough words, but they are Bible words!

Lest someone be so bold and so foolish as to charge God with cruelty, or injustice, remember that He is merely giving man what man asks for. God's judgement was right in the passage above and is right in the way He deals with truth haters in the churches. The natural man races headlong for hell, and it is only by the grace of God that any are snatched from the fire.

We see that when God sent judgement among the people, it awakened them to the fact that they had sinned. They began to cry out to the man of God for help. God has allowed many to be deceived, but it is producing the desired effect in some places. There are some folks here and there who have begun to see that the sin of 'easy-believism,' or 'decisional evangelism,' which replaces the ways of God with man's contrived method's as a result of his depraved nature, have sacrificed multitudes. Just as the man of God was the only hope for Israel, God's men are the only hope for the churches today. I speak of the true men of God, who desire to return to God's ways and the truth, no matter what pressure is applied to try to get them to remain with the present teaching and practices. Those among us who desire to see God work salvation in the old fashioned way, where a person is transformed by a miracle of God-given faith into a new creation in Christ Jesus. Not a work of the flesh, but of the Spirit of God, brought about by the preaching of God's ways. Paul said in Romans 10:14, and I Corinthians 1:21, that it is preaching that leads to salvation of the lost. In Acts 10:6, and 11:4, God gave Peter the words to preach to Cornelius that led to salvation of his entire house. It was the preaching of the truth by Stephen that led to the Ethiopian eunuch's salvation in Acts 8:26-37. It is a return to sound preaching on salvation, with proper practices at the altar, that is our only hope today. Men cannot be saved without preaching!

One may ask,"How did the plans, prayers, programs, and promise claiming, take the place of God's ways in salvation?" Some of the ways have obviously been made up by men, even as the ways chosen by the children of Israel in the examples shown above. Some, however, like the 'sinner's prayer,' are a perversion of the actual ways that God appears to operate. In the case of the prayer, some have taken one instance in the Word of God, [Luke 18:13], where a man seems by some to have been justified by certain words that he said, and have tried to apply this to every individual. Yet it is not what the man said, or what he did, nor a combination of the two, that caused God to forgive him. It was his humble attitude, and his heart-felt cry to God that prevailed. If we apply this instance to all individuals, why do we not insist that they 'smite their breast,' when they pray as the man did? Why do we not command them to 'look at the ground?' Man has made a program out of a misinterpretation of one instance in the Bible and made it a 'simple plan of salvation.' A prayer may be said by an individual, but it is not the prayer that is the cause in salvation, neither is it the means of salvation. One is saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, with or without a prayer.

In the book of II Kings we are told in Chapter 18, verse 4, that the Israelites had begun to worship the brazen serpent, and even burned incense to it. They made it an object of worship, as if it were salvation itself. And worse, they did this for many years before anyone saw it was wrong and did something about it! Today, the churches have set up their plans, programs, prayers, and promise claiming, as salvation. They worship them, not in an open manner, but in their attitudes towards them. It is in their regard for these things and what they are believed to produce that this worship is established. The multitudes do not even realize this is so. It has continued for as long or longer than many of us have been alive. It is hard to determine when and where it began, and was most likely a gradual process. It matters not that we cannot trace its roots with certainty, but we can surely see the trunk and branches which have sprung from them. Just as the serpent had to be destroyed by king Hezekiah, we must destroy the objects of false religion that are killing so many today, and among them many of those who are near and dear to us. Let us return to God's ways and love and embrace them, before it's too late. - J. M. G. 08/95

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