John 3. Let's go first to John
chapter 3. Our Lord spoke of the serpent
on the pole. And as said before, few people
know the verses preceding John 3.16. Ralph Martin one time that said,
the gospel, there's no gospel in John 3, 16 without John 3,
14 and 15. John 3, 14 and 15 are explained,
verse 16. John 3, 14 and 15 are substitution. We find out in verse 16, God
gave the world so, love, this is the way. that God gave His
Son. Okay, look at John 3, 14. As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. Christ said He must suffer. If anyone wants to live, Christ
must die. That whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have Eternal life. Him who hung on the cross. Now go back to Numbers 21 with
me. The story. Look at this story
which our Lord spoke of. Numbers 21. Because of sin, man is dead and dying. Because of Satan, the serpent,
According to God's purpose, the first man and woman were bitten
by his poison, his lies, his deceit. And he injected the poison
of sin in mankind, in mankind's bloodstream, in his heart, his
mind, his will, his way. In Adam all died. Our Lord said that. Today you'll
die. And dying you shall die. And
he died spiritually. He came dead in sin. dead to
God and dying a slow death in the flesh. Well, now it's a very
brief death, life. But God, let me hurry up and
say that. God says, look, and you live,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. What about him? He's Christ on
the cross, crucified. That's what this is all about,
okay? Not just believe in Jesus, but look to the Lamb of God,
serpent on a pole. This was requested by one of
our sisters. I told you a while back that
if there's something you want me to preach on, request it and
I may do it. Well, a sister did. I had two
requests. Wednesday, Lord John, Lord William,
we may look at 2 Corinthians 5. You requested that. But somebody
doesn't know this story. Our Lord is the one that alluded
to this. This is told in Numbers 21. Our Lord says, Look and live,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt live, not die.
It's another story of the journeys The children of Israel, sons
of Jacob. Jacob have I loved. I am the
God of Israel, he said. God who doesn't change, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I'm not going to let you be consumed.
Why? He made a way to escape. Look, I may say that a hundred
times. They were journeying, but murmuring
and complaining the whole time. Look at it, verse 4. They journeyed
from Mount Hoar by the way of the Red Sea. By the way, if you
haven't read that, look at the previous chapter, read it for
yourself, where Aaron went up on Mount Hoar and God killed
him there. Stripped him and killed him. What a picture of Christ
crucified that is. And put his garment on his son.
See, Christ crucifies everywhere. Everywhere. Well, they journeyed
from Mount Hoare by way of the Red Sea to compass the land of
Edom. The soul of the people was much
discouraged because of the way. They were all on a journey. All
of them were on this journey from birth to earth or death. And so are we. We call it life's
journey, don't we? Passing through. It's a journey.
We're passing through. We're not staying here. Nobody's
staying here. Right? We're all passing through. Where are we going to end up? Wouldn't that be wise to consider
our latter end? Wouldn't that be wise? Isn't
that what Scripture says? Oh, that they were wise to consider
their latter end. Where are you going to end up?
How's this all going to end? It's going to end for everybody.
Listen to Psalm 37. Listen. I'm going to do most
of the turning for you. Psalm 37. You love this psalm,
don't you? Listen, it says in verse 9, the
evildoers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the
Lord, they're going to inherit the earth. A little while, the wicked shall
not be. You'll diligently consider his
play, shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the
earth and delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Listen to this. The wicked will
perish, the enemies of the Lord, like the fat of land, will consume
into smoke, fire, that is. But such as are blessed of him
shall inherit the earth. Listen. Listen to this. Verse 35, it says, I've seen
the wicked in great power spreading himself like a green bay tree,
yet he passed away. He was not. I sought him, I couldn't
find him. Mark the perfect man. Behold
the upright. The end of that man is peace. Mark the perfect man, that person
that's in Christ. end of that man, that woman,
is peace. Transgressors shall be destroyed.
The end of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of
the righteous is of the Lord. The Lord will help him. The Lord
will deliver him. He'll deliver him from the wicked.
He'll save him because he trusts in Him. Is that worth hearing? Oh my. So look at our text. It says they journeyed. They
all journeyed. They all ended up someplace.
Some of them, most of them didn't go into the promised land. And their souls were discouraged
because of the way. You see that? The way. Who purposed for them to go the
way they took? Their steps were ordered by the
Lord. The way they went was ordered
and so is your life. step you've ever taken. Everything
that's ever happened in your life, the Lord ordered that. It's God's purpose. Well, they
went by way of the Red Sea. Do you see that? The Red Sea?
This was a vast gulf fixed between them and the Promised Land. Deep
waters. And it all had to go through
that. Didn't it? We just read that
in 1 Corinthians 10. In Hebrews 11, listen to this. Hebrews 11, it says, they all
did pass through the Red Sea, which the Egyptians assaying
to do, or attempted to do, they were drowned. The Egyptians didn't
make it. They all drowned. All the Egyptians,
which represents the world, they didn't make it. They drowned.
But all God's true people, they went through. They passed through.
Listen to 1 Timothy 6. As I said, I'm going to do all
the work for you. And this is work. You know, it's
work. Much work is studying and looking up scriptures and scriptures. 1 Timothy 6, listen to this.
Godliness. That's thinking on things above
and worshiping God and the things of God with contentment is great
gain. Christ, things of Christ, great
gain. You don't lose anything. We brought
nothing into this world. It's certain that we can carry
nothing out. Having food and raiment, let us therefore be
content, especially with the manna from above, Christ's body
and blood and raiment. His raiment is going to cover
your sin. It does cover you. But they that
will be rich fall into temptation and snare and many foolish and
hurtful lusts which drowned men in destruction and perdition,
consumed them to where they are finally destroyed by it. Oh,
but he says, O man of God, flee these things. Follow after righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, patience, be patient. Fight the good fight
of faith. Lay hold of eternal life. That's how you fight, looking
unto Jesus. So, we read there in 1 Corinthians
10, many of them, God was not pleased with them, they were
overthrown. But all of them were discouraged by the way, verse
4 says, they were all discouraged by the way, the way the Lord
led them, not the easy way. You know, if you look at the
map, are you with me? If you look at the map in your
Bible, and it's very good to look at those maps. If you look
at the maps where our Lord traveled, you know how far He walked to
save just one sinner? You know how merciful and gracious
He is? Look at the map. Thousands of miles on foot in
a boat. But they were all discouraged
because the way was long and hard. The scripture said, our
Lord said, you must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom
of heaven. The way is not easy. God makes
it hard. The way of the transgressor is
hard. But Christ sends his people through rough seas and difficult
trials and deep waters and these things to keep us from wanting
to stay here. We must. Man born of woman is
a few days and full of troubles. And God shows that to His people.
Full of troubles. Why? Why do we have to go through
so much trouble? Well, sin is the reason. It started
in the garden. That's where all man's troubles,
the first marriage suffered trouble, a marital problem. Problems with
their son. Their firstborn son gave them
troubles. And death. Sin. This is not just a subject for
preachers. This is the whole problem with
mankind and everything. All our troubles, the sin. Let's not avoid it. Let's look
at it plain and in faith. And let's look and see how we
can keep from being destroyed by it. Only one way. Look. The lamb. The serpent on the
pole. Sin, the serpent in the garden. stung mankind, bit, deceit, lies,
lust, sin, death caused him to question God. Verse 5, it says in our text,
people spake against God. Brothers and sisters, everything
is of God. To speak against anybody or anything,
to murmur and complain, is to murmur and complain against God.
God's the first cause of all things. He said, I the Lord do
all these things. It's all good. We're going to see someday. How
that God, exceeding the riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through the Lord Jesus Christ, how that every single
thing worked together for good to us. God's people who are called
according to His purpose, who love Him only because He gave
us, He first loved us and showed us. We're going to see that everything
was so good to us. Everything God did was so good
for us. Don't murmur. Don't complain.
The children of Israel murmured in their tents. They had tents. Our Lord did. They spake against
God. They spake against God. And as said, all murmuring and
complaining, no matter who or what it is that happens, it's
God that did it. Listen to Psalm 145. I love this. Listen to this. He's full of grace. He's full
of compassion. Slow to anger. How long would
you have put up with this world? Thomas, how long would you have
put up with mankind? I'd have wiped this mess out
a long time ago, including me. Starting with me. Slow to anger. He's of great mercy. The Lord
is good to all. His tender mercy is over all
His works. Why would man murmur against
God that's so good. We come in here today to worship
God. He's worthy, isn't He? That's all. We're not telling
people to get up and do anything or say anything or do anything. We tell them to sit and listen
to what all God's done for us. Let's just worship God. Let's
just sing a few songs and praise Him. Thank You, Lord. Thank You.
Because everything we have and are, we've received from above
and we don't deserve any of it. Especially the gospel, Christ
crucified, which sure don't deserve that. Let's sit and listen to
what great love and mercy and grace God has shown to some worthless,
hell-deserving sinner by sending Christ to hang on the cross to
die for their sins so they won't die forever. They'll live with
God someday. It's our reasonable service, isn't it? And if He's
ever shown you some of all that, you're just glad to come here
and sit and thank You, Lord. Thank You. I'm so undeserving.
Just thank You for letting me be here and letting me thank
You. Thank You that I'm thankful. I didn't want to hear this before. I wasn't interested, but now
I am. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.
He turned our eyes from the world to Him. and see ourselves and
see Him. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I heard that song when I was
a boy, or this man singing it, and I loved the tune, I loved
his voice, and I loved him, but I didn't know what he was talking
about. I do now. I can sing the song. I know what...
I'm just a poor, I'm a worthless, needy sinner. Wayfaring. I'm not staying here. I'll be
70 years old this year. Unbelievable. That just boggles
my mind. Jacob just graduated from high
school. That seemed like yesterday, Jacob. I remember the day. I remember that graduation. I remember that very day. The
next day. Thank you for your mercy. The
next day I said, I'm out of here. But God brought this prodigal
back. Should have destroyed me right
there and then. But He didn't. You know what
He caused me to do, John David? Look! Look at yourself. Look at the
world. Look at your old cronies. Look
at your friends. Look what you've done to yourself. Look what you've
done to God. Look what you've done to yourself. Look what you're
going to do. Now look to me. Look what I've done for you.
It's the only thing that will keep us from dying and destroying
ourselves. This world will destroy us. Let's
pray against God. Thousand years later, thousands
of years later, the name of God's on everybody's lips and tongue,
even little children. Not to praise Him, but to cuss
Him. It's about over. Do you understand
that? God's about done with this mess. But God. The gospel, I'm still preaching
the gospel. The doors of this ark is still open. I'm still
preaching. I can't help but think, somebody
is going to look. I can't make them. I can only
preach. All I can do, like Moses lifted
up the serpent, all I can do is lift up Christ high. You've got to do it every time.
Isn't that what I'm supposed to do? Christ said, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw all men. I'm not playing games here. I'm not
entertaining sinners on the road to hell. We're preaching a remedy
for sin. Everybody that looks don't live.
If you don't look, you're going to die. It's really serious.
Am I a serious preacher? That's because it's serious.
It's life or death. It really is. Do I smile every
now and then? Boy, if somebody gets in that
pool, I'm smiling. One more soul saved from perdition. Somebody we love. Serious. I got one thing to do. And that's
what this building is all about. That's what this place is all
about. That's what we do here. We lift up the serpent on the
pole. Christ crucified. They spoke against Moses, too. You see that? Spoke against Moses. Who was Moses? Just a man. He
was nobody. He was in Egypt until he was
40 years old. A sinner. But God sent him. Didn't he? God raised him up. God called
him. Well, he's no better than anybody. He knew that better
than anybody. But God sent him. And he was doing the best of
his God-given ability to feed and lead those people. And he
did it for 40 years faithfully. 40 years. Didn't he? But they
kept murmuring against him because they couldn't get to God. Our
Lord told Samuel one time, he said, Samuel, it's not you they
hate, it's me. Not you they reject, it's me. They murmured against
Moses. Oh, Moses, he didn't want the
job. Somebody's got to. Somebody's got to stand up. Somebody's
got to lead. Did he make a mistake? Did Moses
make a mistake? Oh, my. Now, verse 5, it says they murmured. I said, why have you brought
us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There's no bread. There's no water. Oh, yes, there
was. Hang on. No bread? It never quit
raining bread until they got to the Jordan and went over to
the promised land, right? Bread? That's manna. What it
was is they began to hunger for something else. They wanted something more tasty.
No water? Yes, there was. That rock followed
them all the way to the promised land. Yes, it did. What it was,
is they wanted some of the waters of the world. Other waters. More satisfying. They were just
tired of that. Read Deuteronomy 8 for yourself
sometime. It's like 1 Corinthians 10. The
Lord said, I'm going to prove, I proved you. He said, I proved
you. Deuteronomy is a rehearsal of
everything that went before. You know that? In repeating everything
that went before through the first four books. Deuteronomy
is reminding them. That's the New Testament reminding
us. The epistles reminding us of
what Christ did and said in the gospel. But in Deuteronomy 8
he said, You better remember, all the way I led you, fed you,
watered you, took care of you, so I girded you, though you didn't
know me. He said, I fed you manna from above to prove you. Prove you. And he kept sending
manna, kept sending manna, kept sending. They didn't deserve
that. And then when they said this
right here, God sent fiery serpents, they said, our soul loatheth
this light bread. We are tired of this manna. Please listen to me now. Please
listen to me. This manna is Christ crucified.
This manna is Christ himself, the word of God which speaks
of Christ. Christ said, I'm the bread of God. I'm the bread of
life. He said, I'm the bread from heaven.
He said, Moses didn't give you that bread. He said, my father
gave you bread. I'm the bread. For God so loved
the world, he gave his son as the bread. He said, take, eat.
This is my body broken for you. He broke bread. This was his
body. This is Christ crucified. This is Christ and him crucified,
the bread from heaven. And these people said, we're
tired of this. We want something more. They wanted flesh. Give us some flesh. This is so,
are you with me? Are you reading between the lines
here? Religion, Christ crucified, the gospel is not enough. We
want some flesh. We want some entertainment. We
want something else. Oh, yeah, yeah, we accepted Jesus.
We know He died, but let's go on to something else. Oh, no.
And that's when God got angry. That's when God sent these fiery
serpents. Are you with me? That's when He sent these fiery
serpents. And many of them died. Why? They got tired of hearing
the Gospel. This proves us. The gospel proves
this. If Christ is all, is Christ all
to you? If He is, He's all you're going
to want to hear. He's all you're going to want
to preach, hear preach. It's really so. And the people
said this, we're tired of this. It doesn't taste good to us anymore.
It's no longer sweet. When they first tasted that manna,
they all said, this is wonderful. Oh, it's so sweet. Isn't this
wonderful? And some of them, they confessed
they made a profession, and same here. You know how many people
started out and how many people fell into wilderness? You know
how many people have come here and hear this gospel and gotten
in that pool and baptized like 1 Corinthians 10 and they're
gone? So many I wish I'd never done that. But I can't see their
heart, I don't know. But what proves us is after 40 years,
After a journey through this world, after a life through this
world, if Christ and Him crucified is still your greatest need,
still your greatest desire, still the thing that thrills your soul,
if you still hunger and thirst after righteousness, and that's
Christ Himself. If you still love to hear this
gospel after 40 years, you're going in the promised land. Because
that's all they're doing up there. That's all they're doing. Your
dad and Henry, your dad and Henry Sword are right now side by side
worshiping the Lamb that was slain, like they did here. These all died in the faith.
And they died in the faith. That's the way I want to die,
don't you Stephen? I hope one day you and I are
standing side by side, and there's Joe and there's Henry. Worshiping
the Lamb. That's what we're doing now.
I'm not tired of preaching it. You might be tired of me. I'm it. I'm sorry. But I got a message, buddy. I
got a message. If you look, you'll live. Yes,
you will. If you don't, you'll die. Fiery
serpents. Fiery serpents. What are these
fiery serpents? Well, Satan was the serpent.
Third chapter of Genesis. Satan, the serpent. The third
from the last chapter of Revelation. It's a serpent. I last mentioned
that. Until he finally cast the serpent
in. Satan, the serpent. And Adam
all died because of Satan's lies and deceit. Fiery serpents. That's demons and devils and
lusts and fiery lusts. Heart, mind, flesh burn within. Burning desires. Lust to the
flesh. Burn with envy. Burn with jealousy. Burn with ambition. Burn with
anger. Fires rage within. Can't put them out. Cannot be
extinguished. Only one way. Only one way. You know, I thought
of this, wrote it down while I was shaving. I'm smiling. But I thought, passions. The
Lord puts within human beings passion. Fires, you know, that
burn and, you know, a zest for whatever life. desires, physical
desires, fleshly desires, a man for a woman and vice versa. God
gives that. It's a good thing, unless it's
out of control. Fires of ambition. God puts these
things within people to do this, to get it done. I've got a job
to do. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to scale this mountain. I'm going to fight this war.
I'm going to do it. Consumes you. Passions, desires,
ambitions of the Lord for man to do things, do them well, whatever
your hand finds to do with all your might, but don't let it
consume you. Because if it does, it'll destroy
you. It'll destroy you. How can we
keep from being consumed by these passions, by these desires? You and I can't extinguish any
of these fires. We can't put down. And they'll
rage within us if we keep fueling them, keep fueling them. You
add wood to the fire, make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill
the lust thereof. It'll just burn hotter and longer
and be more difficult to put out. Do you hear me? How do you extinguish these flames? Look, he said, without me, you
can do nothing. Look, to the precious promises,
you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that's in the world through love. Look, the
Holy Spirit, don't quench the Holy Spirit. He's a fire. Don't quench this fire. He's
the only one that can quench this fire, the fires of blood. As we see Christ on the cross,
who endured the fiery wrath of God against the sins we committed,
we see that. That will extinguish. That's
the only thing. Only thing. Keep us from being
consumed, burning out of control, all-consuming desire. Man has
these things within us, these fires, and if they don't look,
They burn out of control until God casts them into a lake of
fire where the worm dieth not. And no way to satiate, no way
to satisfy or put out these fires that burn out in there. No way. But God, the goodness of God,
leads us to repentance. Look at verse 6. The Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people. They bit the people, and much
people of Israel died. And therefore the people came
to Moses and said, We've sinned. All of them did. Some of them died. Have you come
to Christ? Huh? Have you come to God by
Christ? We come to the law and Moses
represents the law. Has God showed you the law? What
does the law say? And some people don't know what
the law says. They desire to be under the law,
don't they? They don't hear it. But those whom the Holy Spirit
takes the law as a schoolmaster to send us to cry, we come to
the law and we read in Romans 3, guilty! Against who? God! It's the goodness of God
to take the law and show us you're guilty on every point. That God
doesn't look on the outside, but on the inside. You see that? He brings us to Moses. He brings us to Christ. Moses
the law that brings us to Christ. And on the cross. And they said,
we've sinned. Look at it, verse 7. We've spoken
against the Lord. Against the Lord. All our murmuring,
all our complaining. You know, listen to this. I'm
turning for you. Job 33. That man, his life, he's
chastened, he's in pain, his life, he abhors his life, his
flesh is consumed away. His soul draws near to the grave. But if there's a messenger, that's
me, an interpreter. One among a thousand. There aren't
many. To show man his uprightness.
God's uprightness. God's righteousness. He's great
and God's gracious unto him. And he's saying to that man,
deliver him. Deliver him from going down into
the pit. I've found a ransom. What is this ransom? What is
this deliverance? Not a what, it's a who. It says, he looks upon me and
if any say, I've got to holler this. How do you think Moses
said, look, look, look, look, I said look. Look! Everybody dying around him. If
any say I've sinned, If any say, I've sinned, any
sin, He'll deliver his soul from going down into the pit, and
his life shall see light. That's Job 33. That's the best
message you've ever heard, right there. I said lie here, you preach
one message. Listen, listen, I'll turn for
you. If any say that, We've sinned
against God. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender
mercy. Blot out my transgression. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgression. My sin is ever before me. Against
Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.
You're going to be justified when you speak. You'll be clear
if you throw me into hell. Oh, but purge me with hyssop,
and I'll be clean. That's the hyssop that took the
blood of the lamb and put it on a doorpost in the lamb. That's
Christ crucified. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass it over to you. The first person that looks is
God. He looks at the blood that He applied on ourselves. And
then He tells you, now look. Oh, look at our text again. I
got a clue. The Lord sent these fiery serpents. The people said
we've sinned against the Lord. We've spoken against the Lord
and against Moses. He was just telling us, leading
us, feeding us. We went against him. How could
we do that? Pray unto the Lord. Pray unto
the Lord, they said to Moses, that he take away these serpents.
And Moses prayed for the people. A mediator, an intercessor, someone
prayed for them. And God answered. Who is our
mediator? There is one mediator between
God and men. The man. Not Mary. The man, Christ
Jesus. Not Saint Christopher. No, no,
no. Christ. Not St. Paul. He would have ripped his
garment to see the word saint in front of his name. Not St. John. It's not the revelation
of St. John. It's the revelation of Christ.
They prayed to Moses and said, you pray for us. And he did.
What's our salvation? It's not anybody's prayer for
us but Christ's. Christ prayed in the garden.
Christ prayed on the cross. The first thing he said after
they crucified, Father, forgive them. Did he? Yes, he did. He said, I pray not for the world,
in John 17, I pray for them that thou hast given me. Love were with you, love me,
you loved them. I have given them thy word, and
on and on he went in his blessed prayer. So Moses prayed, and
the Lord said, here's what you do, Moses, verse 8. Make thee
a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole. And it shall come to
pass, 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." Brass
is an alloy of two metals, right? Copper and zinc. Christ is God
and man. Brass. The laver of water was
brass. The altar was brass covered with
gold. That's Christ. That's Christ
crucified. And the Lord said, when you look,
we're not looking at the pole. It's just a pole. It doesn't
say the pole. It says a pole. The pole. Not the pole. A pole. A serpent of brass, Christ, Scripture
says, was made in the likeness of sin. I do want you to turn
to one Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5. This is the
clearest, one of the clearest gospel verses in all the Bible. If you want a verse of Scripture
that declares the gospel more than any other, this is it. Okay? 2 Corinthians 5. Turn over there. Like the serpent
on the pole, Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh,
yet without sin, impervious sin, brass, holy nature. Oh, no. God sent his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. Scripture says, for as much as
the children were flesh and blood, he himself also took part of
the same, that through death he might destroy him that had
departed. Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He knew no sin, a perfect sacrifice,
a lamb without spot and blemish. But now look at this, and it's
a mystery. Verse 17. If any man be in, verse
18, all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ. See that? He's given us this
ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling
the world, a world against Him, unto Himself. Not imputing, not
charging their trespasses unto them. and have committed unto
us, me, the gospel preacher, this word, this gospel of reconciliation,
that is, God's love and mercy and grace and purpose to save
in Christ, remind you. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, for, here it is, verse
21, God hath made Christ to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? Brass. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We who knew no righteousness,
now righteous. We got two natures in that. A new birth. How? Christ on the
cross. Blood and water. He travailed
and burned. So go back to our text and I'll
close. Christ on the cross. Serpent
on the pole. Okay? Serpent on the pole. He says, look. Now all the Lord
said to these people that were bitten and dying was, look. Didn't
it? Didn't it? Look. Anything else? Look. The word look, you know
you can look without seeing something. He didn't say, do you see? He
said, look. They're blind. They're bitten. Look and live. Look and you'll
see light. Isaiah 8 says, they'll look to
the earth and see darkness and dimness and anguish of spirit
and nothing but trouble. Don't look to Egypt. Don't look
to Pharaoh. Don't look to anybody. Don't
look to yourself. Don't look anywhere. But look. Well, I can't
see. Look anyway. Look. Look means this. It means
to turn your eyes in the direction of something. Look means to seek. Look means to search. David said, when you said, seek
my face, I said, I'll seek your face. David said this in Psalm
5. He said, my voice you'll hear
in the morning. My prayers shall be unto thee and I'll call upon
thee and I'm going to look up. I'm going to look. First thing
in the morning, look, listen to this and I'll turn for you.
I love it. Never forget the first time I
read it. I've got to hurry. But I want to read this. It says,
Unto thee lift up my eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to their master, as the
eyes of a maiden unto her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord
our God until He have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord.
Have mercy upon us. Look. Christ is the mercy of
God. Look. Our Lord said in Isaiah
45, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. None
of them could, you know, they're dying. I believe they're lying
on the ground and Moses is lifting up the serpent, but some of them
I don't think could see what they're looking. They're looking. Just look. Diligently, Hebrews
11 says, looking unto Jesus. Author and finisher of that.
Looking diligently, watchfully, prayerfully, continually, keep
looking. You don't look one time, you keep looking. Look is presence,
ongoing. Look, look, look, look. Look. And look at the promise. Look
what happened. Look what happened. Verse 9 says,
Any man had been bitten when he beheld the serpent of brass
live. Anybody. It doesn't matter who
it is. When they beheld, Isaiah 42,
Behold My servant. When Christ rose from the grave,
He came to His disciples and said, Peace be unto you. And
He showed them His hands. He said, Behold. Behold My hands
and My feet. And He said, I crucify thee. Do you understand the serpent
of the Father? The American Medical Association
has as their logo. You ever seen that? Serpent on
pole. That's idolatry. You know that? They found that
serpent one time. And here's a guy who had it ground
to powder and threw it in the river. He said, that's a worthless
piece of brass. We don't glory in a cross. We
don't wear a cross. We don't wear our religion on
a t-shirt or on our bumper sticker. That's idolatry. That's a graven
image. This was just an image of the
real thing of Christ. We look to a person, a living
Lord on a throne. Look. You can't see Him, but
you can look. And we do see Him. You know what?
If you keep looking, you will see Him. You will see Him. Yes, you will. Okay, Brother
John, you come lead us in a closing hymn. What is it? Look and Live?