It’s the Same Old Story!

4th Sunday in Lent, 3/11/18
Numbers 21:4-9


It’s the Same Old Story!
I. Our sin
II. God’s grace


What’s your reaction to a story you’ve heard before? I guess that depends.

If you’re listening to a friend who tends to live life in the depressing lane, and you’ve heard this hard-luck story about something that happened to them years ago already more than once, you might roll your eyes, silently scream in your head, “Here we go again!” and look for something to occupy your time while your friend drones on once again. You’ve heard this all before!

Or, if the TV program is a rerun and you didn’t particularly enjoy it the first time it was shown and you have 143 other channels to watch, you quickly activate the channel button on the TV remote. You’ve heard it all before.

But, if the person speaking to you is your granddaughter and she’s reminiscing about a special time she shared with you a few years ago, you’re smiling inside and out. From your perspective, she can literally go on forever even though you could tell the story just as accurately as she can. You’ve heard it all before but you’re pleased as punch to hear it again…and again…and again.

Or, if the story you’re reading is one of your favorites from long ago and re-reading it brings back all sorts of pleasant memories, you don’t care if it takes you days to reach “the end.” You savor every printed word you read.

There are times when I announce via email what the next Sunday Bible class will study. I hope you read those emails and find them useful. But I don’t usually do that to announce what’s coming in the next Sunday’s worship. Maybe I should. But would you be more likely or less likely to attend worship if I announced that I have nothing new to tell you? Would you be thrilled to know I’m going to repeat this Sunday pretty much the same thing I shared with you last Sunday? Probably not. That’s not much of an attention-grabber nor is it even minimally motivating.

But that’s exactly what I have to share with you this morning. Now, before you tune me out or walk right out of here, please hear me out. Our greatest spiritual problem is sin and that means forgiveness for our sins is our greatest need. And only the grace of God supplies it. And that’s what I have to share with you this morning from this event in Numbers 21. It’s the same old story, but it’s exactly what we need to hear today. Will you listen to it with me again?

Part I.

Times have changed, wouldn’t you agree? So, if I am guilty of a little indiscretion—and I’m not admitting any wrongdoing—but even if so, is it really all that bad? Or…“So I helped myself to something that wasn’t technically mine to have. It just happened to be some of the congregation’s funds. We’re all a little dishonest at times, aren’t we?” Or…“So, I knowingly falsified my income information on my tax return. Everyone does it.” I’m hoping that, by now, all of you are saying to yourselves, “Pastor, this is NOT OK. Stop rationalizing it! Everyone is NOT doing it. As a pastor, you should be the example for how to live our lives.”

OK. Fair enough. But how about this one? “I complained about my life yesterday. In fact, I got pretty mean and ugly and down in the mouth about it.” I’m guessing this time you’re saying to yourself, “Pastor, that’s OK. We’ve all done that. No big deal.”

No big deal. But let’s listen to our sermon text once again. “The people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’” So, what was their situation that led them to complain like this? They had spent the last 38 years wandering in the wilderness. They were now getting close to the Promised Land. To get there, the easier route led them through the country of Edom. The Edomites were cousins of the Israelites, but the Edomites refused them passage. So, they had to take the longer, harder route around Edom. And it was no walk in the park. This is some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. But the Lord had sustained this nation of nearly 2 million people with manna from heaven every day and with water when needed. In fact, the Bible declares that their clothing and their sandals did not wear out the entire time. God had been miraculously providing for them. Just so you get my point…the Lord used miracles right before their eyes every day for 38 years to provide for them.

And now their reaction? “They spoke against God and against Moses.” They blamed God for their situation. They accused him of failure to care for them properly. The denied his love, grace, mercy and care.

In short, God had a rebellion on his hands. Did you hear that? I placed an equal sign between their grumbling and rebellion against God. Am I exaggerating? I mean, everybody complains from time to time. It’s just what we do. We have to get it off our chests. So we blow off a little steam against God. What’s the big deal?

Apparently the Lord felt it was a big deal. Look what happened. We’ll talk about it a little more in a few minutes. Bottom line—this was sin against God and sin is rebellion. It attempts to stomp on the Divine in order to replace God with ourselves. Really? A little grumbling? Really. A little grumbling. God calls it sin.

But you’ve heard this before. It’s the same old story—our sin.

Yup. Same old story. Our sin. In fact, we’ve heard this story so often that we’re tone deaf to it. It’s as if God were just like our mother who nagged us occasionally about cleaning our bedrooms. It’s what she does every now and then and we just let her do it and eventually she gets over it. First of all, that’s sinful disrespect. Second, this isn’t your mother talking; this is your God. The holy God. And he doesn’t tolerate sin. He won’t put up with excuses and he doesn’t buy our attempts to rationalize the sins we’ve committed. Sin is rebellion against God who created us to love and serve him. In fact, he’s so serious about sin, that he damns us for it. He holds us entirely accountable to him. Bottom line, he won’t stand for sin.

But he will nail himself to a cross for it. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? He won’t stand for sin. He calls us out on every infraction of his holy will. Our sins make him white-hot angry. But then he sacrifices himself for our sins. That’s what this season of Lent is all about. Our sins made Christ’s suffering and death necessary. But you’ve heard this before. Thank God you’ve not only heard it before, you also believe it!

Part II.

Rebellion. It’s an ugly word. It’s just as ugly seeing it before your eyes. As a parent, what did you do or what didn’t you do with a rebellious child? Different parents have different ways of dealing with it, but one thing I don’t advise you to do is to completely ignore it. Don’t let your child get away with sin. Don’t let your child think that sin is OK.

Listen again to what God did when faced with rebellion from his children. “Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.” Was he over-reacting? It might seem so at first, but God doesn’t do that. He always acts perfectly in every situation. This time he used venomous snakes to teach his people a lesson. You see, this wasn’t punishment from God; it was discipline. He was making them suffer the consequences of their sin in order to teach them the gravity of rebelling against him and to teach them that they can’t and won’t get away with it.

But what kind of God would do such a thing? Some of them died! Well, a loving God does such a thing. That’s right—a loving God. A God who doesn’t care about his people lets them sin without consequence. A loving God uses whatever it takes to call his people back to their spiritual senses so that they realize their sin and repent of it.

And when God receives a repentant heart, then he does what he promises to do—to forgive. He did that in a dramatic way in this event. “The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” He offered them forgiveness and salvation. That’s because the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. He forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin (Ex. 34:6-7). That’s who our God is and that’s what he always does.

It’s the same old story. Our sin. God’s grace.

There’s an old hymn that’s likely familiar to you and loved by many. Perhaps we should have sung it today. It speaks about the same old story—the story of the cross. And that’s the story before us right now. Take down the bronze serpent and replace it with the God-man Jesus. That’s our Savior on the cross and he there’s for me. For you. For the whole world. If you ever get tired of seeing that Savior on the cross for you, it means you’ve denied your sins and what they really are—rebellion against God. And when you admit and confess that your life is the same old story last week as it has been all the weeks of your life—just a unbroken string of sinful weeks—then the cross has meaning—deep meaning—for you. When our sins no longer horrify us, the cross no longer astounds us. So embrace the same old story. Own up to it! Confess the way your sins have revealed your rebellion against God. Then look to the cross—the one with your Savior nailed to it. There see God’s astounding love and devotion to you. Believe that in the cross is your forgiveness and eternal life.

Yes, it’s the same old story. But this is one we love to hear. Hear it. Believe it! Live in thanks to God for it! Amen.