Well, as Brother Roberts said,
I will be preaching from Numbers chapter 21 there, so if you were
reading along with him, just hold your place there, but flip
back, if you will, for a few minutes to John chapter 3. This
is going to be the second in a little series of four messages
that I'm preaching from John chapter 3, where Christ has a
discourse with a well-known Pharisee named Nicodemus. We all know
about Nicodemus. And the subject in John 3 is
regeneration, the new birth. You must be born again, Christ
told Nicodemus. And I want to look back there
for just one or two verses, and then we'll go over the numbers,
chapter 21. But Christ has told Nicodemus
here in John chapter 3, he's told this well-respected man
now, He's a zealous religionist in his day. He's a Pharisee.
He's a ruler of the Jews. And he told this one some pretty
startling things for a man of his worldly position. He told
him that he does not know the one that he's standing in front
of. This is Christ talking to Nicodemus now. And he's told
him that he along with every other son and daughter of Adam
stands in need of a miraculous work. a work, a new birth, a
regeneration. And he's told him that when this
miraculous work takes place, the only way you can know it
is by the evidence that will prove it. Now, Nicodemus understood
what Christ was talking to him about. He understood. He didn't
understand the details of what he meant, but he understood what
he told him. And so he asked this question in verse 9 of John
3. Nicodemus answered Christ and
said unto him, concerning these things, he said, how can these
things be? And Christ answers this question,
Nicodemus asked him. Look at John 3 and verse 14. Christ says to Nicodemus, and
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Son of Man here is
Christ. Christ must be lifted up. I already told you that he told
Nicodemus about the first necessity before a man can see or enter
into the kingdom of heaven. He must be born again. He must
be born of God. God has to perform a miraculous
work in him and here is yet another necessity before a sinner can
see or enter into the kingdom of God. Here is another necessity
before the Spirit of God can perform that miraculous work
within a sinner in regeneration. Here is another must before a
sinner can give any evidence that they are truly born of God,
that they've been delivered from spiritual death. We're all born
spiritually dead. So before a sinner can give any
evidence that they're spiritually born of God, Christ must be lifted
up. This new birth and the miraculous
work from God and the evidence that will reveal it cannot happen
until Christ is lifted up. Now, what exactly does it mean
for Christ to be lifted up? Well, it means Christ declared
by the truth of His Word, by the Word that declares Him. You know, we don't know a thing
about God. We don't know a thing about Christ
except what He tells us in that Word. We have to go by that Word
to know everything we know about Him. Now people get off track,
they take things out of context, they say things about God that
aren't true, but that Word won't back them up. See, that's why
we preach the Gospel as we do. It means that Christ must be
identified and distinguished from that word. See, there's
scriptures in there. He was made He was made of the
Son of David according to the flesh, but declared to be the
Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness. He's God and man
in one person. So you can't just worship a God
that you only know, a Christ that you only know as man, and
you can't worship a Christ that you only know as Christ. He's
the God-man, and He has to be God and man to perform the work
that He came to do. That word, to see Christ lifted
up, is to see Him identified and distinguished by the Word
of God from the counterfeits and antichrists that exist in
the world in every generation. John said in his generation,
many antichrists are going out into the world. Who's an antichrist?
He's one that looks like Christ, he sounds like Christ in a lot
of ways, but he's not Christ. He's not the Christ identified
and distinguished in this word. And in our context today, Christ
lifted up means Christ must be understood as the deliverer of
those who by nature have no understanding of what we deserve as well as
no understanding of how God can be just when he delivers ungodly
sinners like us from the wrath we deserve and gives us the eternal
life that he plans to give those of his choosing. These verses,
as I studied them, brought two questions to my mind. Question
number one, why must Christ be lifted up? He must be. First
question, why must he be? Now, I'm going to explore the
answer to that question and the whole message in my next message
in this series. Today, though, we want to concentrate
on that second question that came to mind, and that's how
must Christ be lifted up? How is he to be lifted up? Well,
he said in verse 14, he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
So, if we're going to understand now how Christ must be lifted
up, we've got to go back to that Old Testament reference that
I had Brother Robert read, Numbers 21. So, that's what we'll do
in our message today. We're going to look at what Numbers
21 has to say about Christ lifted up. Now, if you're in Numbers
21, I'm not ready to read there just yet, but let me tell you
a few things. This is one story of the children of Israel. Now,
who are the children of Israel? They're God's chosen nation.
Out of all the nations on the earth, He chose Israel. He set
His love on them. He kept them together for the
main purpose of bringing Christ, the Messiah, through them. So
this is a story of God's chosen nation coming under and outpouring
of God's wrath on them during that wilderness journey. Now,
since Christ himself alluded to this incident in John 3.14,
we have to see it not just the physical facts of this story,
it's a little short story, four, five, six verses, but we also
have to see the spiritual application here as these facts point us
to Christ. In other words, it's a physical
incident, but it teaches a spiritual lesson, a spiritual truth. And
we have to see these facts as they relate specifically to regeneration. Regeneration, of course, is that
work that the Spirit does in sinners based on what Christ,
their representative, sure to substitute, has done for them
in his obedience unto death. Now, why do we have to see this
passage that way as it pertains to regeneration? Because that's
the subject that Christ is teaching Nicodemus about in John chapter
3. And that's where he references
this incident. This is how we can know that
this incident here in Numbers 21 relates specifically to regeneration. Now let me give you just a general
overview of what this little incident here is all about. This is an incident in the nation
of Israel in their wilderness journey. And let's look, let
me just give you a quick capsule of what it says in a spiritual
sense. The picture in this little story here is Christ lifted up. Christ changing the thinking
of those given eyes to see and ears to hear. In this one lifted
up, sinners are enabled to see for the first time what they
truly deserve. It's a type of Christ, the God-man,
delivering his people from the just punishment they deserve,
as well as him giving them a life they do not deserve, nor one
that they could ever obtain by their best obedience. They were
facing the eternal wrath of God. They deserved eternal death.
God put them under the sentence of death. We'll see all these
facts now come out in this little story. But because of God's provision
in Christ, They're not only delivered from the death they justly deserve,
but they're given life instead. And in the spiritual sense, sinners
are given eternal life. What Christ has done to make
these things happen is what gives God his glory in salvation as
a just God and Savior. What Christ has done. to enable
God to be just, to deliver them from His eternal wrath, and to
give them eternal life. Now, understanding what Christ
has done to bring these sinners, to bring this about is how God
is glorified in our hearts. in the new birth. And God being
glorified in our hearts in the new birth is what the new birth
is all about. He delivers us from darkness,
from death to life, darkness to light, from no fear of God
before our eyes to a reverence and respect for the God who justifies
the ungodly based on Christ's work alone. All right, now let's
look at these verses here in Numbers 21. Numbers 21 verse 4, and they
journeyed from Mount Horeb by the way of the Red Sea to compass
the land of Edom, and the soul of the people was much discouraged
because of the way. Now, as Robert said, you know,
Aaron had just died and they were already discouraged, but
then this king of Edom, you know who Edom is? That's Esau. That's
the descendants of Esau. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Well, this is his descendants.
It would have been much quicker for this nation to just go right
through that land. The promised land was just on
the other side over there. It had been a short little journey
for them. But no, the king of Edom said,
no, you can't go through my land. If you do, I'm going to come
out and fight against you. And then God told Moses, you
can't fight against them. I'm not going to let you fight
against these descendants of Edom. So they had to go around
that land. And the way was long. and it
was rocky, and it was tedious, and it was all that. And so,
in verse 5 it said, the people spoke against God and against
Moses. Wherefore, or why have you brought
us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is
no bread, neither is there any light bread, and our soul loatheth,
it hates, it despises this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much
people of Israel died. All right, the first question
I want to address right here is why did the children of Israel
find themselves in this situation? Now, here's the situation. They
grumbled and complained, and God sent poisonous, fiery, deadly
snakes to bite them, and many of the people died. Why were
they brought under this outpouring of God's wrath? Why did they
find themselves under this sentence of death? Because that's what
this was for them. If one of those snakes bit you,
you're going to die. It's just as simple as that.
Well, here's the reason. They spoke against God. They
question His promise, His faithfulness. See, God was bringing this nation
into a land flowing with milk and honey. A promise He made
to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all their fathers for years. He was
bringing this nation into that land. And here they are, headed
toward that land. Christ is providing everything
they need. Now, He's certainly not giving
them everything they want, but He's giving them everything they
need. And yet they... questioned God's promise. They
questioned his faithfulness. They said, we're going to die
out here in this wilderness. Why did you, Moses, why did you
bring us out here? And so they're questioning Moses
and God's faithfulness. And they accused them wrongly,
because that's not why God brought them out. He brought them out
to bring them into that land. They misrepresented their situation. And then it says they despised,
they loathed Christ. They loathed that light bread.
See, they murmured and complained. Just like we do so many times,
don't we? See, this is a picture of God bringing His elect people
into that rest that they'll find in this life, in Christ, and
in Christ alone. That's what the Promised Land
is all about. It's about that rest we find
in the finished work of Christ. And that's what He's doing. He's
bringing these people there. So, we are headed in our pilgrimage,
in our journey. It's like us being in the wilderness
up to the time God brings us to regeneration. Up to the time
he saves us, shows us who Christ is, delivers us from our counterfeit
Christ, and brings us to faith and godly repentance. And we
murmur and complain. Don't you murmur and complain?
I murmur and complain all the time. Now, why did they? Why does anyone in this world
ever murmur and complain? Now, I've got a bottom line.
I could give you a lot of reasons, and we could all come up with
a multitude of reasons, but why does anyone ever complain? Well,
I'll tell you why. Because we don't think we're
getting what we deserve in this world, or we think we're getting
something we don't deserve. One of those two is really the
same thing. We complain because we think
we deserve better. But all of that murmuring and
complaining is revealing one specific wrongdoing here. And
the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, tells us
why the children of Israel came under this outpouring of God's
wrath. And he narrows it down to that one specific. Look at
1 Corinthians 10 with me, if you will. 1 Corinthians 10. And look at verse 9. Now this
is the Apostle Paul here is teaching the Corinthians about a lot of
different incidences where God poured out his wrath on sinners
as they journeyed in that wilderness toward the promised land. And
this is just one incident here. He says in verse 9, verse Corinthians
10 and verse 9, he said, neither let us tempt Christ as some of
them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. And just in case
you're wondering if these things recorded in numbers have anything
to do, if they have any application to us today, just look on down
in 1 Corinthians 10 at verse 11. He said, Now all these things
happen unto them, the children of Israel, in the wilderness
for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom
the ends of the world are come. The children of Israel were put
under an outpouring of God's wrath for one specific reason,
it says, because they tempted Christ. They displayed contempt
for Christ. Now, they loathe that light bread,
it says. What was that light bread a picture
of? It was a picture of Christ. That light bread is the bread
God sent down from heaven every day to sustain them in their
wilderness journey. And without it, they would have
died of hunger. But they weren't going to die
of hunger because God provided them that light bread. It was
a picture of Christ. 1 Corinthians says, and they
did all drink of that same spiritual drink, for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. It was Christ who was providing
the children of Israel everything they needed to sustain them through
this wilderness journey. And it was their contempt for
Christ that brought them under this outpouring of God's wrath. They tempted Christ. Have you
and I ever tempted Christ? Of course we have. Any and every
time we sought acceptance with God based on anything other than
the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we were
tempted in Christ. Now, contempt for Christ is any
disregard for Christ, the God-man, who alone has done what is required
for sinners to enter into heaven. Now how is it tempting Christ
to look elsewhere for salvation? Well, it's tempting Christ just
to leave us alone. Just to leave us where we are. To leave us in that standing
we have there with no fear of God before our eyes. What happens
if God leaves natural minded sinners alone? Well, they go
on tempting Christ. They go on not following after
a just God and Savior. They go on in their fear of death,
and their end is perishing. The children of Israel found
themselves under an outpouring of God's wrath. God put them
under the sentence of death. He sent fiery serpents among
them. Fiery means they're deadly. Their
poison was so infectious that no one could survive a bite of
these serpents. Their bite meant certain death. There was no medicine, no potion,
no cure, no snake oil, nothing could deliver them from death.
The long and short of it, if you're bitten by these serpents,
you die. Now the picture here, they just
died physical death, but the picture here is eternal death.
I'm not saying that these Israelites died an eternal death. I'm not
saying they perished. We don't know with any certainty
that that's what was taking place here. But the picture here is
of those who die eternally while if they're left under their fear
of death, their fear of punishment. It's a picture of those that
God does not deliver from their fear of death. He does not deliver
from their contempt for Christ. The only reason any sinner in
this world is ever facing the eternal wrath of God, since the
beginning of the world, all the way to the end, the only reason
any sinner will ever be facing the eternal wrath of God is just
one reason. Because they're not delivered
from their contempt for the Christ of this world. They're not delivered
from looking to a counterfeit. They're not delivered from no
fear of God before their eyes. Now who in this world, in any
generation, is facing that? Only those not resting their
whole salvation in the true Christ of this world, the one God sent.
John 3.36 says, He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. He believes because he has life. But he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. So the only reason any sinner
will perish eternally is because they don't look to Christ, the
Christ of this work, the Christ of the gospel. Now the children
of Israel saw their sin. They saw God executing the sentence
of death on their brethren, as well as putting them under the
possibility that he might bring that death on them. They acknowledged
that they deserved some punishment, so they did what all of us do. They sought relief. They sought
a solution to their problem. They knew that that solution
had to come from the one who sent those fiery serpents. They
knew that without an intervention from God, that situation could
go on indefinitely. And in their minds, as long as
those serpents remained among them, they'd continue to be bitten,
they'd continue to die. So they asked Moses to pray that
God would take away the serpents from us. Look at verse 7. It
says, therefore the people came to Moses and said, we've sinned.
We've 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. Why did Moses pray for the people?
Why didn't they just go to God on their own? Because back then,
under the Old Testament, Moses was the mediator. He was the
type of Christ in that capacity. He was the one mediator between
God, a holy just God, and that nation Israel. So he's the one
who did the praying. He's the one who went before
God and then he told the people what God told him. So he did
the praying. Moses prayed for the people.
These Israelites were under an outpouring of God's wrath. God
was executing the sentence of death on them because of their
contempt for Christ. And their solution was this.
ask God to take away the serpents. That sounds like a reasonable
thing to do, right? I mean, that sounds like something
to pray for. But let me tell you what they
were doing here. What that means, take away the
serpents from us. That's like asking God to set
aside His judgment. You see, those serpents were
God's judgment against them for their contempt for Christ. And
that's like asking God just to set aside, take that back. Don't do that anymore. That's
what that's like. Ask God to take away that punishment
He's put us under. We realize we've sinned. We realize
we deserve to be punished, but we don't deserve death for our
sin, do we? Ask God to end that punishment.
Ask God to restore us back to the status we had before we complained. Their solution is a denial that
they deserve this judgment. This is God's just judgment. And it's a denial that they deserve
this judgment. Or either it's thinking that
because they asked that God could just set this judgment aside.
What these Israelites are expressing here is the thinking, the reasoning
of natural man. This is natural man's solution
to their sin problem. This is what's preached in the
false churches of this world. You just do this, pray this,
and God will deliver you from his punishment. No, he won't. I can tell you, he will not.
It's in fact asking God to forgive their sin without punishing their
sin. But if God can be just just to
set aside his punishment, just to not punish a sinner, then
I didn't really deserve his just punishment in the first place
if he could do that. You see, when God forgives sin,
it's got to be on a just ground. It's got to be because his justice
has been satisfied. And there's no justice satisfied
here in him just setting aside his punishment. That's injustice. God can't do that. Now, the natural
man in all of us wants to be saved. We want deliverance. We
want to go to heaven. We never even consider, though,
in that want, in that desire we have to go to heaven, we never
even consider whether God is being just in taking us to heaven
or not. We never even consider his justice
in the matter of salvation. The bottom line indictment on
fallen humanity That's every son and daughter of Adam. We've
read it hundreds of times. It's in Romans 3 in verse 18.
I'm talking a lot about bottom lines today, but this is a bottom
line indictment against fallen humanity. There is no fear of
God before their eyes. There is no reverence in regard
for God as a just God and Savior, and that's true of all of us
by nature. There's no understanding, no perception of whether God
is doing right, whether He's being just when He saves a sinner,
when He doesn't pour out His eternal wrath on him and gives
him eternal life. These sinners don't know that
if God does not pour out His wrath on sinners, there must
be a just reason why He doesn't do it. Now, this understanding
or lack of it is what makes us ungodly. God justifies the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly.
But, I'll show you later on, God's people aren't left in their
ungodliness. That's what he does in regeneration.
He delivers us from such thinking. Now that's what these sinners
are demonstrating here, and their requested remedy is what shows
us that. They said, just set that judgment aside. Don't punish
us. We don't know anything about
a just ground, but just don't punish us. Now this is natural
man's supposed remedy for those facing the eternal wrath of God.
Just take away the serpent. Ask God just to set aside his
judgment. Take away our punishment and
our problem will be solved. But you know what? Their solution wouldn't be a
permanent solution. I mean, God could have taken
away the serpents. Well, he couldn't because that's
not what he intended. But if he had taken away the
serpents, next week, next month, next year, they'd live in fear
that he was going to send them again, would they not? fear of
punishment. That's what we're all under till
God delivers us from it. These sinners are still in bondage. They're still under the fear
of death, which is the fear of punishment. How do you know that?
Because of their proposed solution to the problem. Why are they
still here? Why are they still under a fear
of God? Because they've not yet seen
God's remedy, His solution to their problem. And therefore,
they hadn't really seen their real problem. They deserve the
eternal wrath of God. Is it just them? No, it's all
of fallen humanity. The soul that sins, that soul
shall surely die. We all are deserving of God's
eternal wrath. And if we remain under that wrath,
if we're not ever delivered from our fear of that wrath, through
the remedy God gives, then we'll perish just like those in the
first part of our lesson here. This is where every sinner is
found as we're born into this world. This is what every sinner
looks like. It's what every sinner is doing
when God graciously sends us to the gospel or sends the gospel
to us. See, this is a picture here of
fallen humanity. That's what I'm saying. All without
exception, according to this word, are, by nature, children
of wrath. What does that mean? It means
we look just like those that will end up under the eternal
wrath of God. We look like them. We say what
they say. We do what they do. We look to
the God they look to. We trust the Christ they trust
in. For how long? Until God delivers us from that.
all without exception, have no fear of God before their eyes.
That's why we must be born again. That's why God has to bring us
to this place where he shows us his remedy and then shows
us our deservedness of the Christ who bore the eternal wrath of
God in the place of his people. But God didn't leave the Israelites
here. See, that's not the end of the story. Thank goodness
that's not the end of the story. God didn't leave them here. He
didn't leave them in bondage. That's where they were. The remedy
given is not the one the people requested. They wanted Him to
take the serpents away from them. But God showed them His remedy. The only remedy for their bondage. God intended this brazen serpent
to be a picture of the coming Messiah. It was a type of Christ. You know, the only reason Moses
could make this brazen serpent was because God had showed him
Christ. Christ is the anti-type. And all the types were made in
relation to Him. He's the Savior from the foundation
of the world. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. And all salvation is in Him. It's always been in Him. It was
Him before the world began. So in order for Moses to even
make this type, he had to look to Christ. God intended this brazen serpent
to be a picture of the coming Messiah, and therefore it must
represent not a temporary, but a permanent solution here. See,
God's solution is not temporary. It's not something that you can
fall into and out of. No, it's permanent. Sin is an
eternal problem, and it requires an eternal solution. When a sinner
is given eternal life, that means he's been delivered from the
eternal death he deserves. They're not facing the judgment
of God, the wrath of God, the punishment of sin. They're delivered
from the legal guilt of sin, and God declares them not legally
guilty, but righteous in His sight, based on Christ's imputed
righteousness alone. Because God is just, He couldn't
give Israel what they asked for. Now Moses prayed for them. I
don't know what Moses prayed, but I doubt if he prayed what
they asked for, because he knew better. But God couldn't give
them what they wanted him to just take away the serpents,
and he couldn't give them that. But he did, however, provide
them a solution, a remedy to their problem. He gave Moses,
the mediator, his remedy for Israel's problem. Look at Numbers
21 in verse 8. It says, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it
shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looks
upon it, shall live." God's solution, His remedy to Israel's problem,
was a fiery serpent. One that looked just like the
one that bit them. Its image was just like it, just like the
one causing their death. It looked the same, but it wasn't
like them. How so? The Serpent of Brass
was the source of their life. And before he could be the source
of their life, he had to be the one that ended their death. You
see, this Serpent of Brass was the image of the one who brought
death. But there's no death in him.
He's just a Serpent of Brass here. He's a picture of Christ.
There's no death. In fact, in him, there is the
image of one delivered from the death of the Fiery Serpent. That's
what the brazen serpent typified. It typifies a savior whose obedience
unto death provides the righteousness which enables God to justify
a sinner as well as provides them the source of their eternal
life. That's why Christ referenced
this incident in his discourse in John 3, because the subject
there is regeneration. It's the new birth, the giving
of eternal life. And before that can take place,
Christ must be lifted up. He must be lifted up as the one
whose death ended sin's just punishment, as well as the one
whose obedience unto death established the one righteousness by which
God is just to justify the ungodly. The serpent of brass did two
things for these Israelites. These Israelites who were bitten
and beheld him. They looked to him, did two things. It delivered them from certain
death. If one of these serpents bit
you, you're going to die. So it delivered them from that
death. And it gave them life in its place. Christ, the God-Man,
the Antitype, is two things to every believing sinner. He's
first God's remedy for our sin, and second, He's the reason for
our life. He's the sacrifice who saves
us, and He's the righteousness by whom we have life. Before
spiritual, eternal life can be given, there has to be a just
end to eternal death. Before eternal life can be given,
Christ must be seen as the God-man who died under the legal guilt
of the imputed sins of those he were given in order to suffer
that punishment in the place of his people, and to put that
punishment away, to end that punishment forever. No possibility
one Christ died for will ever come under the eternal wrath
of God. That's what I'm saying. And he
must be seen as the one who ended that punishment, made an end
of it for every sinner he died for. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? Why? Because it's Christ who
died in their place under the legal guilt of imputed sin, suffering
the punishment of those sinners, and ended that punishment forever.
And because Christ fulfilled the law of God in precept and
penalty, because He satisfied the justice of God, because He
ended the punishment God's justice demands of every soul that sins,
every soul He died for, He also established the one righteousness
which is the source of eternal life. It's because He ended their
death, obedience unto death. Not just death, but life based
on the righteousness He established. All right, I got one more point.
I'm getting close to running out of time, but y'all gonna
have to bear with me here. Who is this remedy for? Let's
take a look at that in a little more detail. Who benefited from
this serpent lifted up in the wilderness? And who ultimately
benefits from God's eternal remedy, Christ, the substitute? This
serpent Moses made was a remedy only to those who were bitten. Came to pass that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld a serpent of brass, he lived. God provided a remedy for those
facing certain death from an outpouring of his wrath. But
that remedy is specific because the sin it remedies is specific. It's a specific remedy for those
facing certain death from the bite of these serpents. It's
a specific remedy for those alone who found themselves, because
of the serpent, they found themselves under the sentence of death.
They've been bitten and their death was certain. Much people
of Israel died, it said, under the bite of these serpents. Without
God's provision, that serpent lifted up, those who were bitten
died. The sentence of death that came
on them was executed on them. Now that's a picture, like I
said, of God's eternal wrath. This is not a remedy here, this
serpent lifted up, this brazen serpent, it's not a remedy for
those dying of leprosy in Israel, or those dying from a battle
wound, or dying from any other cause. It's a specific remedy
for those dying under the eternal wrath of God. Only those bitten
would look to and value God's remedy. In other words, they
said, take away these serpents from us. Ask God to do that.
But it was the bite of these serpents that put them in need
of God's remedy. This is a really important point. I hope I can get it across to
you. Who are the bitten in this life? Who does this apply to
overall? They're those who find themselves
in need of God's remedy for their sin problem. The bitten are those
who are enabled by the Spirit of God to see that without a
remedy, without God's remedy for their sin, they perish. We
deserve to perish. And they also see, they're enabled
to see that their remedy, their remedy, the one we thought we
had before God brought us to His remedy, we also see the insufficiency
the vanity of that remedy. No sinner will acknowledge a
greater need than they can see a remedy for. That's why we look
to a counterfeit, because we didn't see that the need was
deliverance from eternal death. So we didn't need to look to
God the Son incarnate, the only one who could end eternal death
and bring in an infinite everlasting righteousness by which God could
save us. God brought these sinners who
had no regard, only contempt for God's remedy, into a total
dependence upon that remedy. See, they had contempt for Christ,
no regard for Christ whatsoever, but he made them look to his
remedy, and it was a picture of the same one that brought
their death, only without death. The problem is always uncovered. It's always discovered by the
solution that solves the problem. Now, let me give you a for instance.
Most cancer, you know, has no cure. I mean, there's just no
cure for it. Why? Because scientists don't
yet know what causes it. Now, if God ever enables one
of them to see what causes it, to bring about a solution, then
they'll see the problem. You can't see the problem until
you've seen the solution. That's what I'm saying. And that's
the same way in our story here. When we are by nature looking
to our remedy, the remedy we thought we needed, the remedy
we looked to before God brought us to His remedy, when we are
under that remedy, our remedy, we don't see our true need. We
can't see our true need. It's not revealed there. We don't
see our real problem. The only place we see our true
need is in the Savior God has provided to deliver a sinner
from that need. We need one who is God and man. Why? Because he's the only one
that can deliver us from the eternal wrath we deserve. We
need one who's God and man. Why? Because he's the only one
that can establish an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
by which God can justify sinners like us. Now, the natural-minded
sinner may say, I know I deserve the eternal wrath of God. But
let me tell you, I can know that's not true. The Christ they look
to contradicts what they say. They're not looking to a savior
who's God and man, the one who died under the legal guilt of
imputed sin and established the righteous. This story is a picture
of God bringing a sinner who has no regard, only contempt
for Christ into a total dependence on Christ, his righteousness
imputed for all of salvation. It's a picture of God making
his people willing in the day of his power to do what? To rest
in Christ alone and repent of everything they ever thought
could recommend them other than Christ. Christ came to deliver
his people, not from physical death, we're all going to die
physically, but he came to deliver his people from eternal death.
And that's what he accomplished at the cross, but he also came
to deliver his people from the fear of death. Hebrews 2.14 says,
and he, Christ, would deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Justification is
God declaring ungodly sinners righteous in his sight. Regeneration
is God delivering those ungodly sinners from their ungodliness.
The ungodly won't stand at the judgment. Now, God justified
us in ungodliness, but he's got to deliver us from that, and
that's what he does in regeneration. We're not in the kingdom of God
because we've been delivered from what we deserve. Christ
delivered The chosen, he redeemed them at the cross. They were
chosen in Christ unto salvation before the world began. Christ
redeemed them. God has justified them based
on the imputed righteousness of Christ. But we're not in the
kingdom of God yet, see, until God brings us into regeneration. We're born into the kingdom.
That new birth is how we get there. We're in the kingdom of God only
when God has brought us to know that one who delivered us from
the wrath we deserve, as well as the one who entitles us to
a life we could never deserve. John 17, 3 says, and this is
life eternal. This is the ones that have eternal
life. Those that know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. It's not just Christ crucified
and risen again, it's Christ the God-man crucified justly
under the legal guilt of imputed sin, and it's Christ risen again
because by his obedience he established the one righteousness by which
God justifies ungodly sinners. And it's Christ risen again who
gives life to spiritually dead sinners. His righteousness is
not only the ground of their justification, It's also the
source of their eternal life. Those who truly look to Christ,
those who truly rest in the Christ of His word, the one God lifted
up on the cross and who lifts up in the gospel and who lifts
up in the sinner's heart, those who truly look to Christ see
the death of condemnation, the death of legal guilt, the death
of sin's punishment. and they see the righteousness
Christ's death established as the only source of eternal life. You're in my fitness for heaven
is first of all to know the one who delivered you from what you
deserve, which is eternal death, and to know the one who's given
you what you could never deserve, which is eternal life. Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness as God's remedy, the only remedy for those facing
the eternal wrath of God. And he lifted up that serpent
as God's remedy, the only remedy for those who continue to look
into their remedy. and are therefore in bondage
under the fear of death. Now that's how Christ, that's
how Christ has to be lifted up. That's how God lifts him up in
the preaching of the gospel so sinners can understand him, so
they can see who he is, so they can see what he accomplished
for those he came for. Christ's righteousness imputed
must be seen as the only ground of a sinner's justification as
well as the only ground, only source of his eternal life. Now, that's how Christ must be
lifted up. And the next time I'm going to
tell you why. Because in this context, John 3, we see three
reasons why Christ must be lifted up. Thank you.