Numbers chapter 21 is our Bible reading then. Numbers chapter 21. We will read from the verse number one through to the verse nine. Numbers 21 and the verse one. And when King Aaron, the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies. Then he fought Israel, he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, if thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. Verse three. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites. And they utterly destroyed them and their cities. And he called the name of the place Horma. And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And I wonder are you discouraged this morning? Verse five, and the people speck against God. And that's a danger. And you know that full well when we're discouraged. Sometimes we get to prayer and we're foolish in what we pray. Verse five, and the people speck 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 loveth this light bread. And 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, 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. 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 is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 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. Amen. We'll end our reading there at the verse number nine. Now Numbers chapter 21 begins with a war. And when King Arad, the Canaanites, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies, then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So there's a war, and this king come out to approach Israel, and he warred against them, and he was successful. That was some blow to Israel. They have been walking now for almost 40 years, within a few months of 40 years, and they're attacked and they lose some of their people. Well, what happens? God judges the people, the Canaanites, who attack the people of Israel. What you have in the first three verses is God's judgment on sinful, on believers. You see, sin has a cost. And like we read in Psalm 14 there, just like something that comes to my mind. I didn't pick it for this reason, to be honest, but that's what the psalmist was praying about. That's what he was speaking about in Psalm 14. At times the ungodly would oppose, they would consume, they would eat the people of God like bread. That's what's happening here. Israel has been attacked and they feel effect of that? Well, these people, these Canaanites, were habitual sinners. They lived habitually against God, had no time for Israel's God. That's why they fought against Israel. Well, what happens? Look at verse 2 here. This should strike you as being particularly unusual. Verse two, and Israel vowed a vow. So some of them had been taken prisoners. And Israel, one voice, like one man, vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, if thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, that's the Canaanites, then I will give you great offerings and sacrifices. Strangely, they say, I will utterly destroy their cities. And that's just not a reference to their buildings, but it's a reference to the people themselves. That's clear in the following verses. So here's Israel. Israel knew full well that they were God's instrument to administer judgment on heathen nations. They knew that. That's why they made the vow, Lord, you help us here and we'll exterminate them. And what happens? God gives them power and they do just that. The whole nation is removed from the face of earth. Think of verse three. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities, and he called the name of the place Hormat. So verse three makes it clear. They destroyed the people and their cities. That is the kind of God that we preach. You see, Let's not be limited in our minds and in our understanding. God is judge of all the earth and sin has a price. And it is God who has the rights and the responsibility as a just God to determine whether or not individuals or a nation should exist. And on this occasion, such was the sin of the people, like Sodom and Gomorrah, so sinful, so wicked were they, that the Lord said, that's enough. They must be removed from the face of the earth. Now, I want to emphasize this. It is God and God alone who has the right to make such a statement. No man. Hitler didn't have the right to go out and say who deserves to be exterminated. He had that right. He's not the creator. He's not a just God. He was a sinful, corrupt, and an evil, evil, dark-minded man. God is just and holy and did what was right. And you'll notice here, just before I move on from this, that The Lord allowed, and don't miss this, because this is most important for you and me. Sometimes the Lord allows unpleasant things to happen to us so that we vow a vow. The Lord allowed Israel to lose this battle and for some of their people to be taken prisoners. He allowed that to happen, why? So that Israel would make the vow to destroy these Canaanites. You find that often in God's word. Think on, think on Hannah. Hannah longed for a son and the Lord closed her womb that she would not have a son. And in no doubt she would have prayed and prayed and prayed, but she wasn't praying or making the vow that God required. And so the Lord took that other lady And she plagued Hannah, she made fun of Hannah, she mocked Hannah, she grieved Hannah, so much so that Hannah said, Lord, I vow you give me a son and I'll give him back to you. She had a son. She had a son. once the vow was made. And you'll find that with many of the judges and with the kings, that the Lord puts them into a situation where they are distressed, where they are in trouble, and they vow a vow to do something that they would not ordinarily do. And so that's how the Lord often deals with his people. I say that just in passing because I don't intend on focusing upon these three verses, but I just want to show you Here was God's judgment on these Canaanite unbelievers. God judges sin amongst the unbeliever. But then you come to verse 4, and now you have the Lord dealing with sin amongst his own people. Because it's not only the Canaanite pagans that sin. Verse 4 onwards, here you have Israel, who were sinning against the Lord, and so God rebuked them in the strongest terms. And that's where we are this morning. Verses 4 to 9. You see, sin has a price to pay. There's judgment for sin. And you cannot, cannot think, or even entertain for a moment, that if you sin, you'll get away with it. Sin, always the bite. Always. And so when, believer, you sin against God, know this, wherever you live, as if there is no God, well, you live foolishly. And you enter into that which is ungodly, you expect, you expect the bite. Sin has a price. So let's look here. First, I want to show you the people's rage. Look at verse 4. Here's Israel. And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom. and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way... Now, our English Bible, as you know, is a translation of the Hebrew original. And the word, the Hebrew word is here translated as discouraged. And that's fine, but the literal word, the Hebrew word that's used means short, short. And when you use that word to describe somebody emotionally, in some way their emotions are short. It may be a short temper. They may be short in patience. They may be short in endurance. And no doubt, all of those were true of Israel here. The words, fine, but the Hebrew has a fuller sense of what's actually happening here. In a moment or two, we'll look at their words, and their words don't only describe somebody who was discouraged, but someone who was enraged and angry. They were angry against God. And that's a problem. Well, why were they so? Discouraged. Why were they enraged? Well, look at verse 4 again. The reason they're enraged is this. And they journeyed from Mount Hoare, by the way of the Red Sea, to Compass, the land of Edom. That means they went round it. That's the idea. It would have been much easier if they had passed straight through it, but the Edomites wouldn't let them. Last week, we deliberately didn't read this passage, but if you go back a chapter to Numbers 20, and look what happens here. Verse 14, Numbers 20, 14, and Moses sent messengers from Kadesh onto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us. And then go down to verse 17. Moses says, let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king's highway. We will not turn to the right hand nor to the left. "'until we have passed thy borders.'" And so they're essentially saying to Edom, let us pass through. It's a long walk around you. Let us go through the highway, the main journey, the main furrow through. We'll not touch anything. We won't touch your food. We won't touch your water. What was the answer? Verse 18. "'And Edom,' this is verse 18 of chapter 20, "'and Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me.'" lest I come out against thee with the sword. And so Edom said, no, no, you're not accepted. And so the people of Israel had to walk around Edom. And that was a significant journey. Apparently the way was harsh, difficult, dry, mountainous in parts and dangerous. But Edom wouldn't let them pass. Now, who was Edom? Well, Edom actually had a biological responsibility to assist Israel, because Edom was indeed their brother. And you see that being referred to there in verse 14, I think it was, where Moses addresses them as his brother. Thy brother Israel, he says. We're your brother. Why was that? Well, who is Edom? Edom was Esau. And who was Esau's brother Jacob? Esau's name was changed to Edom. Jacob's name was changed to Israel. So Edom and Israel were two brothers. And you know the story that came from those two men. Here's their families as they have grown. And so Edom had a biological responsibility to help Israel, but they wouldn't do it. He ignored and refused. that very natural desire to help those who are nearest and dearest to us. And again, later on in the Bible, God judges Edom for their failure. But we do have a responsibility with our kith and kin to support and encourage and help those that belong to us in their times of need. Anyway, Let's go back to our passage, chapter 21, verse 4, and we read that, and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom to go around it. Therefore, the soul of the people was much discouraged. They had run out of patience, and they're venting their rage and their anger, and who do they blame? They blame Moses again. This is about the eighth time they accuse Moses of leading them into the wilderness to slay them. I'm sure Moses was beyond weary of this accusation by now. Not only do they blame Moses, but they also blame God. Look at verse five. And the people speck against God and against Moses. And I take issue with that. Here's the reason why. We're like that sometimes. We have a problem. We blame other people. Maybe we blame leaders. Or maybe we blame God. But in actual fact, on this occasion, it was Edom they should have been blaming. They should have complained. Edom. What kind of relative is Edom? But they don't. They want to blame something nearer to hand. They can't get at Edom. And so they blame Moses. And they blame God. And we're often like that, men and women. People don't need facts to bring accusations against people. Very often people will simply blame other people because they want to blame somebody. That's what's happening here. And it was wrong. And it was sinful. You see, here's what's happening. Israel had allowed, now listen to me here. Israel had allowed their emotions to control them instead of logic. That's what's happening. Their emotions are overtaking them here. They're not thinking straight at all. And emotionalism usually is dangerous. That's why William Cowper prayed, oh, for a calm and a heavenly frame. And that's what we want men and women, a calm and a heavenly frame. Not being emotionally driven, rollercoaster-like lifestyle, no, that's not helpful. Up one day and down the next, no, to be consistent in walking. That's what Christ was like. Christ had the perfectly calm and heavenly frame. And that's one of the things that make Christ so fascinating and so beautiful to read about. In every situation, he's just so calm and heavenly and it's attractive. You remember those occasions when the Pharisees, the scribes, they came and they accused the Lord, they tried the Lord, and on every occasion, the Lord with such calmness and heavenly mindedness dealt with them. No fuss, no drama. That being said, I'm not saying the Lord was a pushover because you know full well that that calm and heavenly frame was the same frame that took him in the temple and turned over the changers of money. Now, sometimes we look at that scene and we imagine Christ with a face of fury and rage and maybe the veins pulsating. That wasn't the case. He'd have turned over the money changers, used the whip in the most calm and heavenly way you could possibly imagine. He's beautiful. Beautiful to behold. That's what Kuyper was praying about. That's what Israel needed. That's what we need. You see, and I was listening to someone recently who made this statement and it's very, very true. Not a believer by any means, but he said, when we are happy, we tend to do silly things. And that's right. Let me put it slightly differently. When we're jovial, When we're having, as it were, an exciting time, we tend to be silly. And that is nowhere more clear but in children. Adults, we don't, I suppose we tend to lose that ability to get excited. As we get older, we don't, you know, an older person cannot, to the same extent, be as jovial and happy and as excited as a child can be. Okay, children are just, they're wired that way to be full of excitement. We don't have that, we lose that as we get older. But, isn't it in children you see the greatest manifestations of human silliness? When we're happy, jovial, we tend to be silly. I could say also, when we're angry, here's another emotion, when we're angry, we tend to be harsh. We speak harshly. We behave harshly. When we're discouraged, we are excessively negative. And those are all true because your emotions have an effect upon you. And if you're driven by your emotions, you'll either be silly, harsh, negative, whatever else you want to mention. Now, there's plenty more that can be said, but that's the sample. Well, Israel here are guilty of the last two. They're not happy, they're not being silly. You find that elsewhere in the Bible where people are drinking and feasting and entering into marriage and they're silly. They're just silly. But Israel here were angry and harsh. They were discouraged and therefore negative. And look at verse five and you see this. Look at their words, you know somebody by how they behave and what they say. And the people speck against God and against Moses. Not logical here, but that's what we're doing. Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Again, not logical, not true. For there is no bread. Not true. Neither is there any water. Not true. And are so loath of this light bread. Well, that's a problem. That's ingratitude. You see, there was bread because there was manna. And they contradict themselves. They say there is no bread, and then they go on to say we loathe this light bread. You can see how emotionalism is driving them, and they're becoming just bitter, and harsh, and corrupt. Can I say, just at this point, men and women, before you speak, think logically. Before you speak, take a little minute to consider the circumstances, take a step back. That's very often, you know, why when there are wars or strife, sometimes a mediator is brought in to negotiate between the two sides, because the two sides will be driven by emotionalism, and they're ready to fight the war either with words or guns or whatever. And sometimes a mediator comes in because a mediator will not be emotional. It's somebody who's unaffected by the decision. And he will counsel and speak. He should be at least logical and not emotional and try to bring a conclusion to the situation. I'll just simply state at this point, let's not fall into the trap of Israel here in being silly or being harsh or being, in their case here, negative. You see, there was war. There was war. Because the Lord didn't have to miraculously provide it. There was bread, it was from the heavens. And that bread they loathed was the most beautiful bread on planet Earth. The problem's not what they have, it's their heart. But anyway, these people, they refuse to be content. That's the problem in verse five. They refuse to be content with God's provision. And in disgust and in ingratitude, they turn away from the Lord. And how often, men and women, are you and I like that? Because of ingratitude, because of disgust at what God has given us. Maybe we begin to find that we become unhappy with many a thing. People become unhappy with their spouse for all the wrong reasons. People can become happy with their job, with their life. They're not happy with God's provision anymore. Because what they're saying is, well, I'm not happy with this. It's problematic. It's not what I want. I deserve better. That's the problem. Pride is a root sin. Israel are saying, we deserve better than this. We shouldn't be out here eating this loathsome bread. We shouldn't have to trump through the wilderness like this. They're not happy. That's exactly what happened in the other serpent story in the Bible where sin came to the fore, Adam and Eve. And how did the devil deceive Eve? Well, he spoke to Eve about what she could have. The devil tempted Eve, Eve, eat the fruit and you'll be like God. And all of a sudden Eve became very discontented with what she had. So sin had already entered. Sin was there. She was sinning at that point. Unhappy with what God had given her, she reaches for the fruit and she gives to Adam and the human race is plunged into the fall. Still the same problem today. Would you turn just for a moment, please, to 1 Corinthians? So we're over the New Testament, 1 Corinthians. And the chapter 10, 1 Corinthians 10, verse 9. Here, the apostle Paul is speaking about Israel. We'll actually just go back to verse 8 to get the flow here. So 1 Corinthians 10, verse 8. Nihilor, let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and 20,000. Verse 9. Nihilor, let us tempt Christ. As some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. That's a reference to what we're looking at here today. And Paul said they tempted Christ. But you might say, well, Christ, the anointed one, wasn't born until he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Well, you and I know full well he existed before his birth. And Paul says, Israel tempted Christ. So go back to our passage in Numbers 21. How did they tempt Christ? What does that mean? Well, they enticed the Lord to judge them because of their complaining, because of their ingratitude, because of their lack of contentment with what God had bountifully provided, and the promise that was before them. The people here are entering in to the most blessed land, the promised land. They are on the very brinks of entering in now, and they're gurning and complaining. They're not happy with the home that God has prepared. And you and I are like that, you know. We're on the brink of going home to glory. We've nothing to complain about. We're going to walk the golden streets. We'll be with Christ. We'll have no sin, no more sorrow. So why are we complaining when God has given us so much just around the corner? And even now, we're so blessed. being forgiven by our sins and many a practical blessing we have. You see, Israel here, they were focused upon the bad and they ignored the good. They are fixated upon the clouds, fixated upon the problems, and they forgot to be thankful. And it's an awful, awful place to be when we forget to be thankful. or dried up, as it were, of fresh blessings. So be careful to be content with what God has given you. There are occasions in the Christian life when we'll be walking through the green pastures. I think it's maybe Spurgeon who made a reference to this one time. I'm not just sure, but anyway. Sometimes life is like walking through green pastures. Everything's pleasant, easy, at hand. We're filled with joy other times. It's like we're walking through a barren, Edom-like wilderness where there's mountains and not as much provision and luxuries as we would enjoy. That's the way it is. The pilgrimage home is diverse. Sometimes green pastures, sometimes a wilderness. But either way, let us journey home in a manner where we are calm and heavenly and filled with gratitude for what we do have. Secondly here, and I know time's pushing on, but let me rile through this as quick as I can. Secondly, I want you to see the people's rebuke, because the people were rebuked. In verse six now, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. They were judged for their foolish words. The instrument that God used was serpents. You see, these serpents didn't appear out of nowhere, they were already there, and we don't have time to look at it, but in Deuteronomy chapter 8, I think it is, we learn there that God protected Israel from these fiery serpents. They were always there, but he protected them. And there was another occasion when they were going to battle, and the Lord rid them of the serpents so they could move exceedingly fast to overtake the enemy. Anyway, on this occasion, because of their sin, God withdrew his protecting hand. That's the problem. He withdrew his protecting hand and gave them something to complain about. They're called fiery serpents. We don't know exactly why. It may be because of how they looked. or it may be because of the burning sensation that was there after they were bitten. Either is possible. Either way, they complained, and the Lord responded. The instrument was the serpents, but look at the inflection that they caused. The serpents literally bit them, and many of them died. You see that in verse six. They completely didn't work. The complaining cured nothing. They're still eating this, as they call it, loathsome bread. They still have this lack of water, which they perceive is there. They still speak about having no bread. They're still in the wilderness, but they now have the additional problem they have serpents biting them as well. So complaining once again shows to be a failure and unhelpful. Some of them died. So what clearly happened was the venom in the snake. Once it broke the skin, went into the bloodstream, like as it is with any bite of this nature, the venom goes in, it travels round the bloodstream, the heart pumps it round the body, and then the venom attacks the organs, and the organs cease working, and the person dies. And many people had already died, and then they got to prayer. It's a sad thing, isn't it? They should have been praying long before this. They should have got to prayer long before this. But now many has died and they've seen the seriousness of their actions. So I want you to see the outcome of this. God's judging them. God's rebuking them for their sin. And see the outcome in verse eight. Sorry, verse seven. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned and we have spoken against the Lord and against thee, praying on to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. That was the outcome. And it was the right outcome. What happened? First of all, they acknowledged their sin. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, they acknowledge it now. They didn't before, they were filled with pride and they thought we deserve better than this. But now they come, they acknowledge their sin. And furthermore, they confess their sin. We have sinned. What was our sin? We have spoken against the Lord and against thee. You see, sometimes people will, that they'll come and look for forgiveness. What I mean by that is sometimes people will come and say sorry to you. And you might push back a little bit and say, well, what exactly are you sorry for? And sometimes people shrug the shoulders and say, well, I'm just sorry. And what that means is they are sorry because of the effects that they're suffering because of their offense. Again, you see this most clearly in children. A child might disobey, and because of their disobedience, in some way they are put into punishment or discipline for what they have done that's wrong. And the child might come and say, I'm sorry, but you don't feel well. They're saying that because they just want out of the punishment. That's it. That's all. You push back and say, what are you sorry for? And if they don't know what they're sorry for, well, the punishment continues until they learn. Because if someone doesn't know what they're sorry for, you can be dead on sure they'll do it again and again and again because they don't even know what they've done. Confession is so important. So they acknowledged that they were sinners. And they specifically confessed what their sin was. They had spoken against God and Moses. And therefore they requested that the serpents would be taken away. And that was the right order. Acknowledgement of sin, confession of sin, and then they request that the punishment is removed. That's the way of salvation. We acknowledge our sin, we confess our sin, and we pray that God will deliver us from the punishment that we deserve. Now, I want to push on quickly here to verse 8, and here you have now the remedy for the people. Okay, the people's remedy. Verse 8. And the Lord said unto Moses, here's the Lord now intervening, make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that everyone that abideth when he looketh upon it shall live. And I don't want to finish this morning. If I was here tonight, I would take the evening service and look at this, but I'll be, that's not possible this evening. So let me deal with it very, very quickly. You'll notice here that it wasn't Moses and it wasn't any man who dreamt up the way to cure the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent. It was God who prescribed the way of salvation. Was it man-made? And the cross, men and women, isn't man-made. It's not somebody's idea as a way to be forgiven of sins. It's God. He prescribed Calvary. He prescribed the cross. And Moses here is like the evangelist. He was to take the cure, put it on a pole, and show it to the people, present the cure that people may look and live when they see the serpent. That serpent, you see it to this very day. It's a medical symbol. You'll see the pole and the serpent wound around it. And I know that many people will say, well, that's a Greek god of healing. That's the mythology behind it, they say. There's a Greek god associated with healing, and that symbol was carried down through the ages. But this passage predates the Greek mythology. And here you have a pole been set up, and a serpent, and it brought a cure. And again, later in the future, the people of Israel, they were worshipping that, and they gave it a name. They worshipped that pole, and so it was Hezekiah, Hezekiah, who took it off the pole and burnt it and melted it to remove it because the people were worshiping it. And that's how it came into existence. And so I would put it to you today, that medical symbol is based upon this very passage we're reading this morning. But here's the thing, you see, it wasn't the serpent that cured anybody. That brazen serpent didn't help anyone. It was simply an object of faith. And what I mean by that is, that was the object that the people would look to in faith, and that would cure them. Now, sorry, and God would cure them in response to their obedience. Now, people on that day may have looked at the, at this brazen serpent, And some people could have looked at it and thought, well, I haven't looked long enough. I better look some more. I'll repeat the point of thought, well, I didn't look with the right motivations. My heart wasn't in the right place when I was looking at it. That'll be daft. Wouldn't you say that'll be daft? Because it doesn't matter how long they looked at it, it doesn't matter what their motivations were, they simply looked and lived. And salvation's the same. And many a Christian struggles with assurance, and here's how they process it, I didn't pray the right words! I didn't pray looking to Christ the right way. I had the right motives. Listen, it's not so much to do with the words or your personal motives. It's the fact that you look to the object, which is Christ. When you look to Christ, what are you doing? You're showing that you're depending upon him. You'll never say the right words. You'll never look long enough. You'll never deal with the perfect motivation. But the emphasis here isn't on you, isn't on the people, it's on the object. People, look to the serpent on the pole. People, look to Christ who was lifted up. Look to him to save you. And that's it. It is super simple and sufficient for all who come. You see, Christ, this is a type of Christ because the serpent was a cursed creature. And it was a serpent that brought about the people's death. And so here's the Lord when he comes. He takes the curse upon himself. Cursed is he that dieth upon the cross. And he died there. He died to be your substitute and to be your savior. And all we have to do is look to him. He's the object of our faith now. We look to Him and He saves. You see, the people didn't look to their wounds. The people didn't run to their doctors. They ran to Christ. So let me close this morning by taking you to John chapter three. just in case you're of the opinion that, well, Mr. Brown, you're taking quite the quantum leap there. Well, I'm not, because Christ himself used that very passage to teach the same truth. Who doesn't know John 3 and 16, for God so loved the world? We all know that verse. But just move on down the chapter here to the verse 14. John 3, 14. Christ speaks here, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man, capital S, that's the divine Son, the divine Son of Man, that's Christ, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever looketh or believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. Life is found in looking to Christ's prescribed cure. The cure for sin is Jesus Christ. I'm sure in Moses' day, we're not told this, but I'm sure there were many people who didn't bother looking. They thought, What nonsense, what's Moses doing now? People would have belittled it and ignored it, and they would have died. But there were plenty other people, the vast majority, who did look. They had nothing to lose. It was so simple, just look and live. And that's what happened. And I would encourage you today, dear unsafe, do not continue to live in sin and accept the fact that you're bitten by sin, but go to the prescribed cure and enjoy freedom and salvation this very day. Our Lord and our God, as we just close this time, we pray that you would help us as thy people not to live foolishly, as if there is no God who will rebuke our sin. Help us to be tender, help us to be compassionate. Lord, help us not to be driven by emotionalism, but help us to have that calm and heavenly frame. And Lord, for any who are unsaved here today, oh Lord, we pray that they would not simply content themselves with sin and with the sorrows of it, but they would Look to Thee, look to the prescribed cure and enjoy salvation, the remedy, this very day. Be with us now, in Jesus' name we ask, Amen and Amen.