Beeson podcast, Episode 372 Haddon Robinson December 26, 2017 https://www.beesondivinity.com/podcast/2017/A-Good-Snake-Gone-Bad Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George. Timothy George: Well Dr. Smith, I'm so excited to be here with you today to introduce a sermon by a great friend of ours who went home to be with the Lord this past summer, July of 2017, Dr. Haddon Robinson. Dr. Robinson visited Beeson many times. He was a friend and mentor to me and to you and to so many others that we know and love. One of the great preachers and great professors, teachers of preaching in our time. He was a member of the faculty of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary earlier in his life. He'd been the president of Denver Seminary. He had served on the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary. One of the best writers about preaching that I think we've had in the last hundred years or more. His book, Biblical Preaching, is a classic. Well, we're going to hear a sermon, Dr. Smith, that I think is just a fabulous sermon. It's one that he preached in our Beeson Pastor School back in 1998 called, “A Good Snake Gone Bad.” Now, as you've known Dr. Robinson, think about him with me and his role and significance for us. Robert Smith Jr: Dean George, Genesis 4:10 speaks to me about Dr. Robinson now that he's made this transition. Though dead, yet he speaks. He still speaks. I was first introduced to him and his work in 1981 at the Cincinnati Bible College, and the book we studied was Biblical Preaching. His definition of biblical preaching has informed my preaching tremendously that biblical preaching is the communication of an idea derived from Scripture and transmitted through a grammatical, historical, and literary study of a passage in context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the live personality and experience of the preacher, and then to the hearer. That's what he calls, not only his definition, but it's the idea of his big idea, his thesis. That's been huge for me and for untold numbers of individuals. I remember hearing him preach at the E.K. Bailey International Conference on Expository Preaching on a Wednesday night many years ago. He preached from Luke 12, the idea of the barn-building fool, and he gave his big idea in just a very short, concise sentence that covetousness is wanting more and more of what you already have enough of. I've never forgotten that, but that's what he would do. He would capture these crisp, pregnant sentences that, in essence, contained, if you will, the whole idea that he was trying to get across to his congregation. The memorable sermon, you just mentioned, “A Good Snake Gone Bad,” to have listened to that once is to listen to it over and over again. He was voted to be one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. It was something that was done by Baylor University that gives us an idea of the magnitude of his preaching. I am moved by the fact that he was so versatile, not only did he preach in an expository way, but not always verse by verse. For instance, his book that he authored along with his son, Torrey Robinson, It's All About How You Tell It, Preaching First Person Expository Messages. Or his article in the Preaching Magazine, “Expository Preaching in a Narrative World.” So he's influenced me. He's blessed me. We miss him, but he still speaks now that he's made the transition. I'll say this in my final remarks. One of our graduates, one of the individuals we're most proud of, Dr. Daven Watkins says, that when he dies, that when an autopsy is done on him, they will see in his DNA the name Haddon Robinson. Timothy George: What a great compliment. Let's go to our chapel now. Way back in 1998, and hear this wonderful sermon by Dr. Haddon Robinson. We offer this as a tribute to him, thanking God for his life in ministry, and this sermon typifies preaching at its best, “A Good Snake Gone Bad.” Haddon Robinson: This evening, I risk a bit of political correctness. I want to speak to you directly about a 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. 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, the family wouldn't really welcome the snake. You're prejudiced. You're prejudiced against snakes. You may not think that's very serious, but what you've done is let the 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. Snakes eat rodents. If it weren't for the snakes, you'd be up to your kneecaps in 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 and water moccasins. You let a few good snakes destroy the ... A few bad snakes destroy the reputations of 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 has turned bad. A good snake that has turned bad is absolutely deadly. And we've had to deal with good snakes turned bad for centuries. In fact 500, 600 years before the coming of Jesus, there was a young king who had to deal with a good snake turned bad. His name was Hezekiah. When Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah, he was 25 years of age. He wasn't a boomer. He was a buster, and like many busters, he was fed up with the set up. And the set up 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 nations were empty. They had a paper mache army that could not defend the city, so militarily, they were weak, and morally and spiritually, the nation was in a sewer. And Hezekiah came to the thrown determined to make a difference, and under his reign, there came the last great revival that Judah ever saw. I'm impressed by this 25-year-old king was used of God to bring a revival, 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. 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. 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. You'll see a radical dealing with sin. A second thing that's always present is a return to God's Word and 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. 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 Ela, King of Israel, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, King of Judah, began to reign. 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. The high places were the places in the land that the people were worshiping pagan gods and goddesses. One of the marks of the pagan religion was it was very convenient. They didn't make this long trip into Jerusalem in order to worship. On every high hill, there would be an altar. It was convenient just like watching religious programs on television is more convenient than going to church, 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 minds of the gods. If a farmer was going to plant a crop, a business man going to do a deal, consult those sacred stones to get some idea whether God was for them or against them. It was pagan, and the king smashed them. 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 were all kinds of unspeakable sexual immorality, and Hezekiah came through and smashed those things, destroyed them, dealt with sin at the very core of the nations’ life. What is more, we read in verse 5 that Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was 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. It wasn't a bad snake. This was a godly snake. It had played a great part in Israel's history. The record of it is back in Numbers chapter 21. It was a snake that was in existence 700 years before. You might say it was a good old snake. When the Israelis had left Egypt, they left their hearts behind. They complained all the way. They were like children in the back seat of a car who just talked and talked, "Are we there yet?" "Stop fighting." They complained. They complained about the ambiance of the desert. They remembered the wonderful land of Egypt where they were slaves and wanted to go back. They complained about the menu, and all they had was quail and manna. What they wanted was the low-fat, low-cholesterol diet of Egypt of leeks and onions. I mean, how many ways can you prepare manna? Fry it? Bake it? Put it in a manna loaf? They didn't like it. They got sick of it. 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, and finally they turned to Moses, and they 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." 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 had become a 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, we got to save that snake. That's an important snake." So they wrapped in Styrofoam, and someone was in charge of carrying it. Thirty-eight years, they wondered in the desert, and somebody was in charge of the snake. Then after 38 years, as they were about to go into the new land, apparently, this man said to his son, "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, 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. I gather he did it as an object lesson. 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. Think of a father and his son coming to the temple area, and the boy says, "Hey look Dad. Look. Look it's a snake. How come they got a snake here Dad? We don't worship snakes do we?" The father said, "No, no, Son. We don't worship snakes. But that's an important snake. If 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 him 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. It says he called it (Hebrew term), which means just a piece of metal. You've made too much of this, and he smashed it, destroyed it. Now times have changed. People haven't. You know there were all kinds of people who were attached to that old snake. The fact that it turned bad didn't mean anything. No, they started a committee, the SOS committee, Save Our Snake. And then somebody passed around the petition, and 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 into 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 it. No, good snakes that turned bad 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. The Pharisees were laymen, not professional religionists. They were laymen, and what they wanted was to see righteousness in the nation, and may have gone back as far as the time of Ezra, but they were there quite a while. 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 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. That'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, and the Pharisees were furious. That good snake had turned bad, and 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 worshiped 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. 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. They were very upset about the change. Nothing particularly wrong about worshiping 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, but the good snake turned bad, and there was a great division. There were a group of people. We call them the Judaizers, but they were very concerned about what day you worshiped 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 bad. In fact, Paul deals with that in Romans 14. He does it 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 Son of Righteousness arises with healing in his wings. Certainly that speaks of Jesus. It would be better if we worshiped in the morning. Well the church would worship. 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 well it's nice that we chant the Psalms. That'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 in the church said, "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. 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 that people get upset about music and divide. Nothing wrong with chanting the Psalms. 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. Now 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, 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 said, "Can't do that. We're singing Greek meter. 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, and Christians who should have had a view of reaching their society turned in on each other. It became an issue. All dead snakes turned bad, do they? You can go through the church and see that. Early part of the 18th century, 1700's, two men arose in England, John and Charles Wesley. Now 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. 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 people who were holding on to good snakes that had turned bad, old, dead snakes. 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 ... In the 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. He preached in Enfield in Massachusetts, and he preached a sermon called, “Sinners in the Hand 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 Whitfield. Whitfield made seven trips back and forth across the Atlantic, and he didn't fly by United. In fact, it is estimated that George Whitfield was heard by 80% of the people in the colonies, and wherever he went, there was great revival. I think everybody before that ... If it wasn't true. There emerged out of that, the new lights and the old lights. The old lights were 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. Well granting, there was a wildfire, they rejected the whole fire. They'd have 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 onto good snakes that turned bad, and they should have destroyed them and seen what God was doing. At the end of that century, there was a man by the name of Robert Rakes. He came from Britain. He became concerned about the urchins in the great cities, children that worked in the factory six days a week. They were ignorant. And he decided it would be a good idea to have Sunday School, 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, and these children will not be decent or orderly." By the way, whenever you find a good snake that's turned bad, almost always, there's a Bible verse hung around it's neck. 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. It was in the 1960's. It was among the people that we sometimes refer to as the hippies. I remember in about 1964 or ‘65 going out to California between Christmas and New Years. I spoke to a group of hippies, probably 400 of them. I get up. I preached, and when I was through, the leader got up and said, "Now Dr. Robinson's going to take a little rest, and 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, so 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'd come out of the drug culture. They had changed. They had long hair, wore sandals. Do you know when they tried to come into our churches, our churches would not let them in? 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. I mean, nothing wrong with wearing a nice dress or a suit, 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 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. It's 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. It's a cry. In fact, the truth is, they are asking our questions. What is tragic is they do not believe that the institutional church has the answers, but if 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 Young wrote, "The great question is whether men and women can have any relation to the infinite." Then he went on to say that really is the only question. Beside that, the other questions don't matter. 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 him, and then he would tell the story. 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?" No response. He said, "Well, 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 got an idea what I have in mind." And finally one youngster had mercy on him and put up his hand. He said, "I know the answer is Jesus, but it sounds like a squirrel to me." I'd like to borrow that punch line to say that there are scores, thousands of young people who are asking our questions, 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, but it 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, in new forms of worship, new ways for people to express their praise to God? And I better be careful that a good snake that comes from the past, as valuable as it is, hasn't turned bad. Because if you're clinging to some old bad snake for God's sake, for the church's sake, for the world's sake, break it. Smash it. Be rid of it. Let God do something fresh and new in our time. Announcer: You've been listening to the Beeson Podcast with host Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson Podcast at our website BeesonDivinity.com. Beeson Divinity School is an interdenominational evangelical divinity school, training men and women in the service of Jesus Christ. We pray that this podcast will aid and encourage your work, and we hope you will listen to each upcoming edition of the Beeson Podcast. https://www.beesondivinity.com/podcast/2017/A-Good-Snake-Gone-Bad