This morning I'll be speaking
to you out of the Old Testament book of Numbers chapter 21, but
I first want you to turn with me to Mark chapter 3 and hold
your place there for a moment. Mark chapter 3. Friday evening Larry and I were
talking about the unpardonable sin. I was pleased to discover
that both of us thought it to be the same thing. Over the years,
I've been asked by folks what I believe the unpardonable or
the unforgivable sin to be. What is the unpardonable sin,
folks ask. You might be surprised that many
think it to be murder. There are many who think it to
be adultery, but we know that David, the apple of God's eye,
committed both adultery and murder within a very short period of
time, killing Uriah the Hittite after sleeping with his wife
Bathsheba. And David even confessed to Nathan
the prophet that he had sinned greatly against the Lord and
had done this evil in God's sight. And yet Nathan said, the Lord
hath put away thy sin. Thou shall not die. So we know
the unpardonable sin is not adultery or murder. God was even gracious
to forgive those two great sins. So what is the unpardonable sin? Well, here in Mark chapter three,
verse 28, the Lord Jesus said, verily or truly, I say unto you,
all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies
wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against
the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. Now that word blaspheme means
to speak evil of, to speak in a disparaging, derogatory, negative
way of something or someone. In the context of verse 3 we
see that the unpardonable, the unforgivable sin is to blaspheme
against the Holy Spirit of God. To speak evil of, to speak in
a derogatory, belittling way against God's Spirit. The Holy
Spirit of God was given to teach chosen sinners who Christ is
and what Christ came to do, how He did it, and why He did so.
Who is Jesus Christ? He's God. What did He come to
do? He came to save His people from
their sin. How did he do it? By dying in
their place. Why did he do it? Because it
pleased the Father for him to do so. And these are the things
that the Holy Spirit of God reveals to chosen sinners. To blaspheme
the Holy Ghost is a refusal to believe the witness of God's
Spirit as to who Christ is and deny and reject Christ's personal
work of redemption for chosen sinners. Quickly turn over to
John chapter 16 with me. John chapter 16. The Lord Jesus, speaking here
of the Holy Spirit, in verse 8 said this. He said, and when
He, speaking of the Spirit of God, when He, the Spirit of God,
has come, this is what He'll do. Look at it. He will reprove. That word means convince, rebuke,
our reprimand, the world of sin. Secondly, he'll convince the
world of righteousness. And thirdly, he will convince
the world of judgment. And of course we know that the
world here is not meant in a universal way. This is speaking of God's
people in the world. And the Lord goes on to say in
verse nine, that Christ will convince the world of sin because
they believe not on me. What does that mean? Well, it
means this, Jesus Christ is the only remedy for sin. Just one
remedy for sin, for our sin. Sin can only be put away one
way, by believing and trusting in Christ to remove our sin. Those who do not believe that,
will be reproved. And in verse 10, Christ said
of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no
more. Christ's resurrection and ascension
proves that He is perfectly righteous and that He was perfectly righteous
and accepted of God as the sinner's substitute and the sacrifice
because God will only accept that which is perfect, holy,
just, and righteous. He's the proof of righteousness. Verse 11, he set up judgment
because the prince of this world is judged. You see, only Christ,
the perfect God-man, has all judgment committed to Him by
the Father. He who is the one mediator between
God and men has the power in heaven and in earth, and he's
the only one fit, the only one worthy to judge Satan and the
world in that great and last day of reckoning. So we see that
blaspheming the Holy Ghost is to deny, to reject, and to declare
Christ to be unworthy as the substitute for sin. Follow me
so far? To refute that Christ is the
giver of perfect righteousness and has been given the right
by God to judge the world in and by and through His righteous
work is unforgivable. To be direct, straightforward,
and even simple, the unpardonable sin, the only sin that is unforgivable,
the sin of blaspheming the Holy Ghost is simply unbelief. Unbelief is the only thing that
in the end will condemn men and women to the eternal wrath, judgment,
and justice of God. Now we're pretty much all familiar
with the story found in the book of Numbers chapter 21. Would
you turn there with me? Numbers chapter 21. I'll give
you a moment to get there. Numbers chapter 21. I want to
begin reading in verse 4. Verse 4 says, And they, and this
is speaking of Israel, They journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of
the Red Sea to come past the land of Edom. And the soul of
the people was much discouraged." Now that word discouraged there
means grieved. And they were discouraged because
of the way. Now remember, this is God's way. That's what this is talking about.
In the sovereign providence of God, this is the way that God
sent them. Instead of rejoicing, instead
of being thankful that God had delivered them from 400 years
of bondage in Egypt, the hearts and the souls of these people
was much discouraged, it said. Very grieved because of the way,
because of God's way. That's simply unbelief. Denying
God had their best interest at heart. Denying that God was out
to do them good. And look at verse five. And the
people spake against God and against Moses. And they said,
wherefore have ye brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? God had delivered them with a
mighty hand. God had promised to give them
a land that flowed with milk and honey. The Lord went before
them by day in a pillar of a cloud. He led them in the way. Christ
was in their presence. He led them by night through
a pillar of fire to give them light. while God had rained down
bread from heaven for them to eat, and a rock followed them
from which they drank. And what did they say in the
last part of verse five? They said, for there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. That was a lie. They had bread. Every day, God rained it down
from heaven. It's here that we see their great sin. Now listen.
They rejected and denied God's singular provision of Jesus Christ,
the Lord. They wanted something other than
what God had provided. And it's the same today. Men
and women want something other than Christ, the one and only
provision and remedy for sin. God in and by and through his
beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the substitute, the substitute,
only one, the sacrifice, the only sacrifice that God will
accept, the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
provides for God's elect people, the only solution, the only payment,
the only satisfaction of the holy law and justice of God and
men and women Loathe, loathe, they despise, they hate, they're
grieved at Christ, the bread of life. And what they're saying
here in verse five is this, we're sick and tired of the manna and
we don't want it anymore. And that's the issue. That was
the issue then, and that's the issue now. Men and women will
not, have Christ to rule over them. They loathe what they call
light bread. God has provided one thing for
the salvation of His people, and there's only one thing needful.
That's Christ. And if you're not satisfied with
Him, then you're guilty of the only sin that is unpardonable.
And that is the rejection of Christ, the bread of life. It's unpardonable. If you go
out to meet God without Christ as your substitute, without Christ
as your sacrifice for sin, you will be forever damned. But yet,
as long as there's breath, there's hope. First Numbers chapter one,
let me tell you, is about sin and about sin's remedy. That's
what this story is about. That's what God's people are
interested in. Matter of fact, that's pretty
much all that they're interested in. What's the remedy for my
sin? How do I get rid of it? How can
it be put away? Look at verse six. 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've 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. There are some in this world
that God makes aware of their sin. Not all, but some that God
reveals to them their sin. They see and they understand
that they've been bitten with the serpent's poison of sin. And it permeates their being
and this poison, this venom, travels through their bloodstream
and paralyzes them so that they cannot move a muscle to save
themselves. And they see that. They experience
that. For all practical purposes, they're
dead. The venom of sin is destroying
them moment by moment, little by little. With each second,
they come closer to death. God shows them something of their
sin. Has God shown you something of
your sin? God convicts and convinces them
that they're sinners. Has God shown you that you're
a sinner? They confess that they've sinned.
They pray unto the Lord that He take away their sin. and the
Lord in mercy and in grace hears their prayer. Look at verse eight. And the Lord said unto Moses,
make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall
come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon
it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and he put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bit any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. Now there they lay in the desert
sand, that wilderness of a world that they were in, and they couldn't
move. Couldn't move to the front of the church or anywhere else.
They couldn't raise their hand as a symbol of their desire to
make Jesus Lord. Well, they couldn't talk. They
couldn't pray or repeat a sinner's prayer. Well, they could do anything
to save themselves. But God made a way that they
could be saved. They could look. They could look. they could behold. God put his
Son upon a pole, the cross, and every single sin-bitten sinner
that desires to live can look to Christ high and lifted up
and be saved. Now this serpent of brass that
is raised upon a pole is no doubt a type and a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his substitutionary work at Calvary. We know that
because of what the Lord said in John chapter 3. It's a type
and a picture of the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus. And we
say it all the time, but it's so. Substitution is the heart
of the gospel. For Christ, the substitute is
salvation. Christ died in the room instead
of His people. And in His death, He satisfied
the perfect requirements of the law, and He satisfied the holy
justice of God, and He worked out a perfect righteousness for
His people that is eternal and can never, ever be taken away. Now I know some people claim
that you can lose your salvation. And I suppose that if it's your
salvation, that you certainly can. But not if it's God's. Not
if it's God's salvation. If you can choose it, you can
lose it. But you can't lose that which God gives by His mercy
and grace. You know why? Because with the
salvation comes the promise of being kept by His power. It's forever. It's eternal according
to the Scripture. Secondly, Numbers 21 is about
faith. It's about a look. It's about
beholding the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
When the Lord Jesus came upon the Jordan River that day where
John was baptizing, John looked at Him and said, Behold the Lamb
of God! Look to Him! He's the Lamb of
God that takes away the sin of His people in this world. The
Lord Jesus Himself said, look unto me and be ye saved all ye
ends of the earth for I am God and there's none else. And isn't
it clear by these verses that there's no other that we can
look to? Isn't it clear that if we don't look to Him, we will
never be saved? Salvation in the scriptures is
very specific. The brazen serpent represents
and pictures Christ. Look over at John chapter 3 with
me if you would. John chapter 3. John chapter
3 verse 14. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. There's no one I'd rather hear
talk about these things than Christ. And the Lord Jesus says
in verse 14, remember salvation is very narrow and it's very
specific. In verse 14, the Lord said, and
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, he said, even
so must, must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth
in him, whosoever has faith in him should not perish, but have
eternal life. Eternal life. Oh, do you have
any interest in eternal life? This serpent on a pole is God's
remedy for our sin. That's what I want you to see.
It's supplied at God's command. It's received only by faith.
Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. The serpent on the pole was made
of fiery brass. It wasn't made of silver. It
wasn't made of gold. Silver and gold are precious
metals, but not brass. Brass is not a precious metal.
Brass signifies judgment. Brass is able to stand intense
fire and heat. Christ is the bearer of the fiery
wrath of God. When this brass serpent was raised
up by Moses in the wilderness, it had already been through the
fire. It had already been fashioned in the fire. We must trust in
Christ's finished work. He's already been through the
fire of God's wrath and judgment. Christ is not on a cross, friends.
He's on God's throne. That's why I don't see the infatuation
with crosses myself. If someone killed a loved one
of mine with a gun, I wouldn't wear a symbol of a gun around
my neck. I just wouldn't. I wouldn't wear
it around my rear view mirror, and I certainly wouldn't hang
one on my wall. The serpent of brass here pictures
the finished work of judgment. God poured all His wrath on Christ
and it was exhausted. And God said, I'm satisfied.
And Christ said, it's finished. The work of judgment is accomplished.
You know, I was thinking about that. God's people don't go through
judgments. We often mistake God's loving
chastisement and correction for judgment, but it's not judgment.
Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. And if you endure chastening,
God deals with you as sons and as daughters. For what son or
daughter is he or she whom the Father chasteneth not? You know,
it took me a long time, almost, until I was probably a teenager
to understand that when my mother used to whoop the tar out of
me, she said, I'm doing this because I love you. I didn't
quite believe that, to be honest with you, but you know what?
Now I see it so. She chastened me, she corrected
me because she loved me, and my father did too. This is a
picture of Christ. This is also a picture of preaching
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses lifted up
the serpent on a pole. And if we lift up Christ in our
preaching as the one who was crucified in the room instead
of His people, is that not what we're doing? The serpent on the
pole was not a serpent. The serpent on the pole was not
a serpent. It was in the likeness of a serpent. This shows Christ
in His incarnation. in taking on the likeness of
men. Sin is what we are, but Christ
knew no sin. He was only made in our likeness,
yet without sin. And brass, as I said a moment
ago, is a lowly metal. And I think about Christ making
Himself of no reputation. He who was God. came to earth
as a man and he made himself of no reputation. There was no
hoopla. He took on the form of a servant
and being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He said of himself, I am meek and lowly in heart. What a condescension. I'm convinced we don't know anything
about condescension. We're just maggots on a dunghill,
pictured by those plague of flies that we've been studying in Exodus
chapter 8. You know, we can't go any lower. What do we know about condescension?
But the Lord Jesus Christ laid aside His glory as God and became
a man. He knows something about it.
And this reveals the necessity and the reason for his substitution. Now listen, Christ was made in
the likeness of that which was the deadly problem that faced
his people. The serpent pictured the sin
of these people and the result of that sin was death. Christ
was made what we are. He was made sin so that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. How was that accomplished? By His death. By His death. By the wrath of God, the justice
of God poured out upon Him. The serpent was put on a pole
and lifted up. First thing I know that comes
to our mind when we think of being lifted up on a pole is
the cross, and rightfully so. But you know, the Greek word
for cross is styrus, and it means a post or a pole, not a cross-membered
piece of wood as we know it. Now, I'm not gonna argue whether
the cross was just a single pole or a cross-section piece of wood.
It doesn't matter. There's nothing special about
the cross. What's special is the one who
hung upon it. If I had a piece of the original
cross, it would have no real value. We'd just take it and
make an idol out of it and worship it. Now, it makes sense to me
that the cross may have been a pole instead of a cross-membered
section of wood, in the sense that the cause of death in crucifixion
was actually asphyxiation. On a pole, a man's hands would
have been placed above his head, nailed, and the reason that the
nails were then put into the feet was to keep the man from
dying immediately. He could and was able to push
his feet up from the nail in the feet to keep his lungs from
filling up and suffocating. And if one hung on the cross
longer than his accusers or punishers desired, they'd break his legs
so that he would asphyxiate. That's the significance of what
we read in John 19. We see that Christ gave up the
ghost before that happened, fulfilling the prophecy that none of his
bones would be broken. I also found it interesting that
the word pole in Numbers chapter 21, our text actually means a
banner, an ensign. It's called a flagstaff, that
pole that men hold up a flag with, a banner or an ensign.
It's a rallying point. It's where men gather and pledge
allegiance. That's what God's people look
to. That's where we plead our allegiance. Christ is our banner.
We've been bitten. We've been wounded. We have been
infected. We're dying from the poison of
sin and we must look and we must rally around and pledge allegiance
to Christ in order to be saved. Christ is the object of our faith.
He is our righteousness. He's our salvation. Looking to
this brazen serpent basically said two things. It was a confession
that they'd been bitten. It was a confession that they
were dying. It was a confession that they
had hated that bread which God had provided. It was a confession
of being wrong. It was a confession of repentance. It was saying, I now look to
Christ, the one that I once rejected. Secondly, it was a plea and a
cry for help. It was a cry for mercy, for redemption,
until God shows you that you've been bitten. You'll never cry
for mercy. When God shows you that in and
of yourself you are dying, listen, it's then you'll cry. It's then
that you'll confess your sin and look to Christ alone. I was
thinking about this earlier in the week as I read these verses.
It was Moses who lifted the brazen serpent. We know that Moses represents
the law. And I found it interesting that
the law is only called the law of God seven times in all of
scripture. Some 22 other times, it's called
the law of Moses. And the reason that is, is because
that Moses is associated with the law in such a way, is because
he's the one that went on Mount Sinai to receive it from God.
But I got to thinking about that and my question, the question
that I asked myself was this, how does the law of Moses lift
up Christ on the cross? Christ was lifted up on the cross
to meet all the demands of the law and fulfill and to glorify
the law of God for God's people. The law required death because
the wages of sin is death and the soul that sinneth shall surely
die and Christ, high and lifted up, died the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God. When they came for Christ in
the garden, The first time, when he asked him, do you seek? They
said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. He said, I
am he. But that's italicized, and they
fell backwards. But the second time, the Lord
asked them who they saw. This time, his words didn't knock
them down. But he said again, I am. But he added this. He said, if
you therefore seek me, you let these go their way. Oh, that's
substitution. The law and justice of God cannot
punish Christ and Christ's people too. You see, that'd make God
unjust. Christ is the only way that a
chosen sinner can be justified and God can still be and remain
just. Now, are you still in John? Here's
what the Lord's teaching us concerning Numbers 21. Look at John 3 verse
14 again. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
He must be. Why? That whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now you
know that word whosoever there, that worries a lot of Calvinists.
It really does. Whosoever. But it doesn't bother
God's people at all. Remember Christ is talking here
about Numbers chapter 21. The whosoever that believes is
those whosoever have been bitten and looked to Christ for salvation. Whoever they are that look to
Christ, they are the elect of God. You don't have to believe
an election to be saved. You've got to believe in Christ
to be saved. You don't have to understand the doctrine of election,
and I'm so glad. You don't have to understand
the doctrine of election to be saved, because nobody can understand
it. How God would choose unworthy sinners before time ever was,
and determined to give them to Christ and save them by His grace.
Who can understand? But you've got to look to Christ
high and lifted up in order to live. I know that much. He is
the one remedy for sin. And remember the sin of the Israelites
was that they rejected Christ. They rejected Him as the singular
provision, as the bread of life. We don't want any more of this
bread. We loathe it. We loathe it. And you know religion
tries very hard to shove Christ down people's throat, even if
they don't want him. They endeavor to pressure men
and women, boys and girls, into a profession of faith in Christ
and whom they've yet to see. They tell folks, you need Christ.
But they don't. Just ask them. They don't see
their need. And if they do, you don't have
to tell them. You won't have to beg a drowning man to take
a life preserver. Not if he wants to live. He'll
take it if he's drowned. And he'll take it because he
sees he needs it. Whosoever believes in Christ
is whosoever needs Christ. Do you need Christ? If you're
dying of a snake bite, and the only way you can be saved is
by looking to a serpent on a pole. And you want to be saved, you're
going to look. In the wilderness, the ones who
were bitten were the ones who were told to look. Now you think
about that. Let me say it again. Those who
were bitten by the serpents in the wilderness were the ones
who were told to look. They are the whosoevers. Not
everybody. We're not told that everybody
in Israel were bitten by these serpents. God told Moses that
everyone that is bitten or whosoever is bitten, when they look to
that serpent on a pole, they shall live. I immediately thought
about what our Lord said, those that are well have no need of
a physician. A man that's not bitten has no
need to look. In the fall of Adam, all mankind
has been bitten. I understand that. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. But God doesn't reveal it
to everyone. But whosoever is bitten, whosoever
feels the effect of the poison of sin, whosoever sees that they're
dying, they'll look. They'll look. all that God might
enable you who have been bitten and know it to look. May God enable you to look. Verse
six of Numbers 21 says that when the Lord sent the fiery serpents
among the people and they bit the people, much people of Israel
died. So we know that many who were
bitten did not look, for if they had have looked, they would have
lived. Here's the sad conclusion. There were some who were bitten
that didn't look. But there were some who looked and lived. Oh,
that God might enable you who have been bitten, whosoever you
are that know it, to look to Christ. Oh, there's life in the
look at the Savior. Oh, there's life. abundant life
to those who look at the Savior. But if you reject this command
to look, you will forever die in your sin, and in the end,
your unbelief will be unpardonable. Unpardonable. Unforgivable. That's
the only thing that'll keep you from being in glory with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Unbelief. Oh, may God enable
us to believe. Believe in Him. Look to Him.
Look and live.