A Good Snake Gone Bad

4:14 This evening I risk a bit of political correctness. I want to speak to you directly about the concern I have. I think that many of you are prejudiced. I know in saying that you get up your guard and want to deny it, but I think it's true.

4:40 I think many of you are prejudiced against snakes. Truth is, you don't like snakes. If a swarm of snakes moved in next door to your house, you'd be upset. You'd think that would lower the property values in the neighborhood. If your daughter brought a snake home for dinner, family wouldn't really welcome the snake.

5:12 You're prejudiced. You're prejudiced against snakes. You may not think that's very serious, but what you've done is let a few bad snakes ruin the reputation of all the good snakes. According to the encyclopedia, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 different kinds of snakes slithering around the planet. And most of the snakes are good snakes.

5:41 I mean, snakes eat rodents. Or if it's snakes, you'd be up to your kneecaps and mice and rats. But you don't think about that, do you? No, when you think about snakes, you think about rattlesnakes, and copperheads and cobras water moccasins let a few good snakes destroy a few bad snakes destroy the reputation of some good snakes and whatever else you want to call it that's prejudice I can give you this though that you're wise to be concerned about some bad snakes because there are snakes that are dangerous in fact the most dangerous snake I know is a good snake that is turned bad a good snake that is turned bad is absolutely deadly and we've had to deal with good snakes turn bad for centuries in fact five six hundred years before the coming of Jesus there was a young king who had to deal with a bad good snake turn bad his name was Hezekiah when Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah he was 25 years of age wasn't a boomer, he was a buster.

7:16 And like many busters, he was fed up with the setup. And the setup in Judah was anything but good. When he came to the throne, the nation was bankrupt. Because of a poor political philosophy of paying off the invaders, the coffers of the nation were empty. they had a papier-mâché army that could not defend the city, so militarily they were weak.

7:46 And morally and spiritually, the nation was in a sewer. And Hezekiah came to the throne determined to make a difference. And under his reign, there came the last great revival that Judah ever saw. I'm impressed. this 25-year-old king was used of God to bring a revival.

8:14 And he didn't have much help. Didn't get much help from his daddy. His father was a man by the name of Ahaz. Ahaz was a wicked king. He was also a weak king. And in a leader, that's a deadly combination.

8:36 And so the power brokers of Judah kicked Ahaz upstairs and put his son, Hezekiah, in his place. And Hezekiah, this 25-year-old young man, brought revival to the nation.

8:57 Whenever you have a revival, either inside the Bible or outside the Bible, there are three things that are always present. there may be more than this but never less than this one of the things that is always present is a dealing with sin usually a radical dealing with sin a second thing that's always present is a return to the god's word to the god of the word and third there is a renewal of worship those things are always present and they were present during the reign of Hezekiah.

9:38 One of the accounts of his reign is found in 2 Kings chapter 18. In 2 Kings 18, the historian says that in the third reign of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

10:03 He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 29 years. His mother's name was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah. and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his forefather David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the Asherah poles. He dealt with sin.

10:33 The high places were the places in the land that the people were worshipping pagan gods and goddesses. One of the marks of the pagan religion was it was very convenient. You didn't make this long trip into Jerusalem in order to worship. On every high hill there would be an altar. It's convenient, just like watching religious programs on television is more convenient than going to church.

11:04 And Hezekiah smashed those altars. what is more he says that he also destroyed the sacred stones this is a way of mixing business and religion the sacred stones were a way of trying to determine the mind of the gods Thank you. farmer was going to plant a crop, a businessman going to do a deal. Consult those sacred stones to get some idea whether God was for him or against him. It was pagan, and the king smashed him.

11:50 And what is more, it says he cut down the Asherah poles. the Asherah poles were stylized trees that were erected in honor of the fertility goddesses and around those poles there was all kinds of unspeakable sexual immorality and Hezekiah came through and smashed those things, destroyed them dealt with sin, the very core of the nation's life Thank you. what is more we read in verse 5 that hezekiah trusted in the lord the god of israel there's no one like him among all the kings of judah either before him or after him he held fast to the lord whereas he was glued to god didn't cease to follow him he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses and the Lord was with him he was successful in whatever he undertook not only did he deal with sin but he returned to God's word and to the God of the word God became central in his life and there was something else that he did it says in verse 4 he broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it now this was a good snake on the bad scene this is a godly snake it played a great part in Israel's history the record of it is back in numbers chapter 21 he was a snake that was in existence

13:55 700 years before you might say it was a good old snake Thank you. When the Israelis had left Egypt, they left their hearts behind. They complained all the way.

14:17 They were like children in the back seat of a car who just talked and talked. Are we there yet? Let's stop. Stop fighting. and they complained. They complained about the ambience of the desert. They remembered the wonderful land of Egypt where they were slaves and wanted to go back.

14:41 They complained about the menu. All they had was quail and manna. What they wanted was the low-fat, low-cholesterol diet of Egypt, the leeks and onions. I mean, how many ways can you prepare manna? Fry it, bake it, put it in a manna loaf? I mean, they didn't like it. They got sick of it.

15:07 And they also complained about Moses. That's always true. You can always tell the leader he's the one that's got the arrows in his back. and they kept at it, and God got sick of it. And God sent serpents into the camp, poisonous snakes with a bite like fire. Many of the people died. And there were others who were bitten who didn't die, who wished they were dead.

15:40 And finally, they turned to Moses and said, Look, talk to God about this. and Moses went to God and God said to Moses, put up a pole. And on the top of that pole put a bronze serpent. Whoever looks at that bronze serpent will live.

16:03 Interesting way to cure snake bite. The serpent that had been the cause of their death now on that pole in bronze became the means of life. the serpents that had been a part of God's judgment now the serpent has become part of God's deliverance and it worked people were healed a few weeks later when they broke camp took down the pole and somebody said you know what a snake that's an important snake so they wrapped it in styrofoam and somebody was in charge of carrying it 38 years they wandered in the desert and somebody had charged the snake and after 38 years as they were about to go into the new land apparently this man said to his son this is your burden now, I've carried it 38 years you carry it, whatever you do, don't lose it this is an important snake so somebody did, they carried it during the conquest of Joshua and all the time of the judges.

17:17 400 years. They were passing that snake one to another. Maybe it was within the family. During the reign of David, somebody had that snake. And 700 years later, when they built the temple, and the curator of the temple was given the snake. Put it up out in the front yard of the temple.

17:44 I gather he did it as an object lesson. I mean, the snake that had been the object of their redemption now became an object lesson to remind people of what God had done in the past. I imagine it worked. You can think of a father and a son coming to the temple area.

18:07 Boy says, hey, look, Dad. Look. Look at the snake. How come they got a snake here, Dad? We don't worship snakes, do we? And the father said, no, no, son, we don't worship snakes. But that's an important snake. You get close enough to that snake, you can see the thumbprint of Moses on it. That's an old snake. That's a good old snake, son. And he would tell them the story of how God in the past had used the serpent to deliver the people. but then something happened other people coming to the temple area saw that good old snake and they began to light incense to it and now the snake that had been the object of redemption and an object lesson of God's deliverance now became an object of worship and Hezekiah had to deal with it says he called it which means just a piece of metal you made too much of this and he smashed it destroyed it now times have changed people haven't I mean you know there are all kinds of people who are attached to that old snake in fact that it turned bad didn't mean anything no they started a committee the SOS committee save our snake and then you know somebody passed around the petition the purpose was to get rid of the king they'd rather get rid of Hezekiah than get rid of that snake but Hezekiah destroyed it broke it in pieces because it was a good old snake that had turned bad and God could not do anything new and vital until they were done with him no good snakes to turn back

20:16 are dangerous we've had to contend with them throughout the history of the church when Jesus came the worst opposition he got was from religious people one particular group a group of men called Pharisees Pharisees were laymen not professional religionists they were laymen and what they wanted was to see righteousness in the nation they may have gone back as far as the time I mean, that was Ezra, but they were there for quite a while.

20:55 Certainly can't quarrel with that. That's a good snake. And they felt that every area of life ought to be under the control of God. They felt when people sat down to eat, it was important that they be reminded that they were God's people and that this food was sacred. It was a great way to make people conscious of God. when they ate they would wash their hands not for hygiene but for religious purposes it was very important that's how you knew that you were righteous it's all fine and good nothing wrong with making something special out of the meal it's a good snake until Jesus comes and he and his men did not wash their hands.

21:52 And the Pharisees were furious. That good snake had turned bad. They wouldn't hear him. They wouldn't listen to him. They would not respond to him. Ultimately, they killed him. Jesus said that they were snakes. they were vipers because they had taken a good snake that had turned bad and that good snake turning bad was deadly because God was working in Jesus and they missed it In the early church, the earliest Christians worshipped on a Saturday, usually on a late Saturday afternoon on the Sabbath. Then somebody said, look, this doesn't seem to be the best time for us to worship.

22:53 Jesus rose on the first day of the week. wouldn't it be better in the light of what he has done for us to worship on what we would call Sunday it seemed like a pretty reasonable thing to do but there were people who were attached to the Jewish Sabbath were very upset about the change nothing particularly wrong about worshipping on Saturday or Sunday or Tuesday but that day had become so important to them and certainly there's nothing wrong with worshiping on the Sabbath,

23:36 but the good snake turned bad. and there was a great division there were a group of people we called them the Judaizers but they were very concerned about what day you worshipped on and they stood in opposition to what Paul was preaching and teaching they followed him they tore down what he had built up good snake had turned back In fact, Paul deals with that in Romans 14, does too in the book of Colossians. When a good snake turns bad, it's deadly and you've got to destroy it. by the end of that first century into the second century Christians began to worship not in the evening but in the morning somebody said that in the Old Testament the sun of righteousness arises with healing in his wings certainly that speaks of Jesus it would be better if we worshipped in the morning that the church would worship.

24:50 They had a sunrise service every Sunday. And there were certain things they did in that service. They began with a lengthy reading of the scriptures. And then they chanted the psalms, or sometimes passages from the New Testament. And then they would have teaching based on the reading of the scriptures. and then they would have singing and then finally the communion. For a while, somebody said, you know, it's nice that we chant the songs.

25:29 Well, it's kind of Jewish. Wouldn't it be better if we used a Greek meter so that the singing reflected the people around us? people say in the church you can't do that it's the singing of the psalms the chanting of the psalms that's what God has given us that's his music and believe it or not hard to believe this little island of truth in the midst of a sea of paganism the people on that island began to fight with each other almost unbelievable People get upset about music. and divide. Nothing wrong with chanting the songs.

26:23 Gregorian chant, beautiful music. That's a good snake. But when that becomes so important to you that it is like an act of worship and you cannot worship without it, that's a good snake turned bad. and you better deal with it break it up, destroy it because a good snake turned bad can be deadly. About a hundred years later, they began to sing Greek meter, Greek songs.

27:07 And there were Christians who said, you know, it would be better, wouldn't it, if we sang our songs to the tune of Roman marching songs. I mean, that's what the people of our day love. That's their music. Can't we do that? and there were folks that can't do that we're singing Greek meat and that's what God wants us to sing the church has been doing it for a hundred years once again the good snake had turned bad.

27:47 And Christians who should have had a view of reaching their society turned in on each other. became an issue. old dead snakes turn back do that You can go through the church and see that. Early part of the 18th century, 1700s, two men arose in England,

28:19 John and Charles Wesley. They came up out of the church, they had been ordained, but then John Wesley evidently had a conversion experience. His heart was warmed and changed. He was changed.

28:40 He had a vision to reach people. He had a brother by the name of Charles who was a musician. They began to preach, not the formal sermons of the church, but the free sermons. And Charles Wesley began to write hymns to go with it. some of the hymns were written to the drinking songs the miners sang when they were in the taverns that did not go down well with many of the people in the churches John and Charles Wesley preached out in the fields not because they liked air conditioning but because in the church there were people who were holding on to good snakes that had turned bad, old dead snakes.

29:38 They become snake handlers. And those snakes, the link to the past was so important to them that God was moving out in the fields with the Wesleys. And the church missed it. good snakes can be good snakes when they turn bad they are deadly over in the United States at the same colonies at the same time there was a great revival we call it the great awakening it came under a man by the name of Jonathan Edwards Yale University said that he was one of the three great minds America's ever produced.

30:26 He preached in Enfield in Massachusetts, and he preached a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was actually the way he preached it, a reflection of the rhetoric of Europe that appealed to the imagination and thus to the emotions. And God used it. he was joined by a man from Britain by the name of George Whitefield.

30:55 Whitefield made seven trips back and forth across the Atlantic, and he didn't fly by United. In fact, it is estimated that George Whitefield was heard by 80% of the people in the colonies. And wherever he went, there was great revival. I think everybody before that, don't they? If it wasn't true.

31:23 There emerged out of that the new lights and the old lights. The old lights. Into old snakes. Good snakes, to be sure, but somehow they turned bad. what they objected to in that revival was enthusiasm they had similar theologies but they objected to the enthusiasm by granting there was a wild fire but they rejected the whole fire it had nothing to do with it I live in New England there are churches in New England that are as dead on the inside as the graveyards on the outside and some of that goes back to the fact that when God was at work moving across that territory folks holding on to good snakes that turn bad they should have destroyed them seeing what God was doing at the end of that century there was a man by the name of Robert Rakes came from Britain he became concerned about the urchins in the great cities children worked in the factory six days a week they were ignorant and he decided it would be a good idea to have Sunday school.

33:08 And in Sunday school they taught reading and writing and arithmetic and religion. A total package. Many of the churches embraced it. They brought that over to the United States, to New York, New York City. There's a record of many of the churches in New York rejecting that. you know what they said we let those children into this church and they will destroy it God says we are to do things decently and in order these children will not be decent or order By the way, whenever you find a good snake that's turned bad, almost always there's a Bible verse hung around its neck.

34:05 But God was at work in that movement. And there were many churches that missed it. God keeps doing his work. But when churches and religious leaders hang on to snakes that have gone bad, he does his work. He lets them go. only once in my life have I been involved in a revival in the 1960s it was among the people that we sometimes refer to as the hippies I remember in about 1964 or 5 going out to California between Christmas and New Year's.

35:02 I spoke to a group of hippies, probably 400 of them. I got up, I preached, and when I was through, the leader got up and said, Dr. Robinson's going to take a little rest. We're going to take a break. We'll be back in half an hour. He'll be up here to teach us again. Never told me about that. They assembled, I taught them some more, they broke for lunch, I came back, spent all day teaching. These were folks who back then sang on guitars. They had come out of the drug culture, they had changed, had long hair, wore sandals. Do you know when they tried to come into our churches, our churches would not let them in?

36:04 Some churches actually stood at the door and forbade them to come in. We don't want people with long hair in our church. I think it's great to look nice when you go to church. Nothing wrong with wearing a nice dress or a suit.

36:28 But when that good thing, good snake, becomes so important to you that that's what you think worship is about, that's a good snake turned bad and there were many many churches that missed that movement of God there are many of the Christian leaders today that came out of that movement but the churches missed it they were singing about revival they were preaching about revival but when God gave a revival they didn't to see it in their door. good snakes that turn bad do that I believe there is a moving of God in our country today. You've seen something of it on many of our Christian college campuses.

37:31 It spread like a flame from campus to campus. This is a time of magnificent opportunity. The young people today are more open to things spiritual than any time since I have been in ministry. If you can listen to their music. It's music of despair. It's music that sings about suicide. Kurt Cobain, one of their singers, sang about suicide before he took his own life. to cry.

38:25 In fact, the truth is they are asking our questions. But as tragic as they do not believe that the institutional church has the answers. we don't have the answers to their questions then we ought to get out of the business years ago just before he died Carl Jung wrote the great question is whether men and women can have any relation to the infinite many went on to say that really is the only question beside that the other questions don't matter.

39:19 I have a friend who told me about a pastor who liked to tell stories to the children during the service. He'd have all the youngsters come up, and they would sit around them, and then he would tell a story.

39:40 One day he said to the children, boys and girls, I'd like to tell you a story about a little creature that lives in the woods, but you often see him on your lawn running about. Anybody have any idea what I have in mind? No takers. He said, well, I'm thinking about a little animal that has a bushy tail and likes to eat nuts. Anybody have any idea what I have in mind? Oh, he's fine. He said, I'm thinking about a creature that you see in your yard, has a bushy tail, likes to eat nuts, climbs trees, jumps from one tree to another. Anybody have an idea of what I have in mind? Finally, one youngster had mercy on him, put up his hand.

40:33 He said, I know the answer is Jesus, but it sounded like a squirrel to me. I'd like to borrow that punchline to say that there are scores, thousands of young people who are asking our questions.

41:01 But when they turn to many of our churches hanging on to old snakes that may have turned bad, they often say I think the answer might be Jesus looks like an old dead snake to me Whenever God moves, there's a renewal in worship. The music I like or don't like doesn't matter. the question is is God doing something new new forms of worship new ways for people to express their praise to God I better be careful that a good snake that comes from the past, as valuable as it is.

42:04 hasn't turned bad. because if you're clinging to some old bad snake for God's sake