Finger in Numbers 21. Numbers
21 in John Chapter 3. We'll look at the corresponding
scriptures. John Chapter 3. In Numbers 21. Now a lot of folks
key on John 3.16, and John 3.16 is an absolutely wonderful verse.
It's a beautiful verse, because we know through that that God
loved his people, the elect, and that he died for his people. Christ himself said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. But in verses 14 and 15 is the
gospel. is the gospel and remember these
are the words of our master these are the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself and he proclaims 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 eternal life
and then over in Numbers 21 verses 5 to 9 we see this And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore have ye brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, we have sinned for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and
set it upon a pole and it shall come that everyone that is bitten
when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses made a serpent
of brass and put it upon a pole And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. He lived. So what we see here
in numbers is typical of a picture of the son of man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God incarnate in the flesh being lifted up, lifted
up, and whoever looks to him will live. Whoever looks to him
will live. So let's look at a few points
of this. First, Israel's sin resulted in death through serpents. The people spake against God
and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and bit the
people and much of Israel died. Likewise, sin has resulted in
our death, beloved, in our death. And the serpent was involved. The serpent was involved. The
serpent in this instance is that serpent of old, the devil, Satan.
Revelation 12, 9 says this, And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth,
and the angels were cast out with him. He was instrumental
in the fall of our parents, causing them to sin, Adam and Eve. And
Adam, when he ate, we all died in him. We all died in him. And
that fall, that fall resulted in spiritual death for all the
human race and sin entering into the world. Turn, if you would,
to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. And I'll read
Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 to 7 while you're turning there.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made and said unto the woman, Yea, hath God
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman
said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die. Ye shall not surely die. For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for fruit,
she took it, and was pleasant to the eyes, and desired to make
one wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave
also her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they
sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. They
tried to cover their nakedness. by their own works, by their
own works. And then look what Romans 5,
12 says. Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world.
And we just heard that when Adam partook of the fruit and death
by sin. And so death passed upon all
men. And look at that. We're all of sin. We're all born
sinners. Every one of us. Scriptures declare
this. Every one of us. And when Adam
died spiritually, we died in Adam. We were in his loins. That's
why every one of us come out of the womb, dead in trespasses
and sins. Dead in trespasses and sins.
So the deadly venom of sin flows through our bodies. And just
like when the serpent's deadly venom flowed through the Israelites,
it's typical of the deadly venom of sin going all through our
bodies. through our bodies, beloved,
and through entirely. We are we are sinners from the
top of our heads to the bottom of our feet. Second, Israel acknowledged
their sin against God. Look at verse seven. Therefore,
the people came to Moses and said in numbers, we have sinned
or we have spoken against the Lord. We spoken against the Lord. We know that we've all sinned
against the Lord, haven't we? Every one of us, every one of
us. We know that he who denies that
he ever sinned or boasts that he sinned. Let's turn, if you
would, to 1 John 1. I had one guy one time when I
was out talking to folks, and I had one guy declare to me that
he had never sinned after the Lord saved him. Supposedly saved
him, but he wasn't saved. And I looked at him and I said,
have you ever gotten mad? You ever gotten mad at your wife?
Oh, no, no. I said, you're a liar. Come on. Give me a break. We're all sinners,
and we sin to our shame after we're saved, too. That's why
we need a Savior. Look at 1 John 1, verses 8-10. Look at this. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. What's
the one thing that a believer does? We profess we're sinners. We didn't before, did we? for
the Lord saved us. We never said that. I always
thought someone else was a sinner. No, not me. But if we confess
our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Beloved, if we say that we have
not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So
they acknowledged their sin. And then they didn't. They desired
that God would remove their afflictions at numbers 21, seven. Pray unto
the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. Likewise, the
believer desires that God would remove everything that afflicts
us, right? We wish we could just sail right
through this life. We want ease. And we don't want
to be troubled. But that is not the pathway for
the believer. The scriptures declare many are
the afflictions of the righteous. But listen to this, but the Lord
delivereth them out of the mall. He's the one who keeps us. He's
the one who delivers us through all the afflictions we go through.
And that's Psalm 34, 19. Hebrews 10, 33 says this, partly
was you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions
and partly while she became companions and them that were so used. And there's no record that Israel
prayed that the Lord would deliver them from their afflictions. They pray that they be delivered
from the afflictors, causing them afflictions, but we do not
read that they prayed to be delivered from the afflictions caused by
the afflictors. Maybe they thought they could
come up with their own means to heal themselves, but no, no. What a picture of a natural man
who believes that they can be relieved by the affliction of
sin by their own works. It's impossible, isn't it? It's
impossible. Man and natural state are like
Israel. They're convinced that they may
heal themselves and think of the ones who didn't look. They
probably. Moses was holding that serpent
and all they had to do was look, but no, in their stiff neckness,
they wouldn't look. Natural man's the same way convinced
they may heal themselves through their own merit or their own
supposed free will, which is bound by their nature. The will
is bound by the nature. There's only one free will in
this whole world, in this universe, and that's God. He can do whatever
he pleases. And look here in Numbers 21,
8 and 9, Jehovah himself is the one who provided the means by
which the afflicted might live. 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 put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if the serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. And note, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he lived. God, in his sovereign mercy and
grace, did more than the people requested. He provided that which
they did not request, but sorely needed. The serpent typified
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
John 3.14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
And in turn, if you would, over to John chapter 12. Now, when
he's talking there in John 3.14, he's not referring to his exaltation
to heaven. or his exaltation through the
preaching of the gospel, but rather his death upon the cross,
beloved. His death upon the cross. Look
and live. John 12, 32 and 33 says this,
and if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
me. He draws all his people to him,
to him. Through his death upon the cross. This, he said, signifying what
death he should die. So we see again in the Old Testament
here a picture, a shadow, a type pointing to Christ. Jesus Christ was lifted up in
his death. And then this typified the serpent
being lifted up by Moses. Now Moses lifted up a divinely
ordained serpent. Who was the one who told him
to do it? Who was the one who ordained that the Israelites
would look to that serpent? God. God told Moses to do it. So it's divinely ordained that
they would look to the serpent. The one that God told Moses to
make and lift up. Likewise, beloved, Christ was
divinely ordained by God to be lifted up that sinners would
look to Him. Scripture declares this. Turn
if you would to Acts chapter 4. The Holy Spirit declares that
Christ was lifted up by the determinant purpose and foreknowledge of
God. Acts 4 verses 26 to 28. For the kings of the earth stood
up and rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against
his Christ. For a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
has anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together. Now, folks
often say, oh, I remember hearing this when I was in dispensationalism
and I believed it when I was in dispensationalism until the
Lord revealed in scripture what this next scripture says, this
verse says. They used to say, that Christ came to save the
Jews and they rejected him, so then it went on to the Gentiles. And then now they have their
chance. Beloved, beloved. The death of Christ upon the
cross was divinely ordained by God to save both Jew and Gentile
who are called the elect of God, the elect of God, God's people,
the ones given to Christ before the foundation of the world.
And look at here for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. This is an absolute sovereign
God. And that is the God of the Bible.
He does whatever he pleases. He saves sinners. That's us,
right? Sinners, people who have been
shown what they are and who they are and who look to Christ, just
as the Israelites look to the serpent that was raised just
like that. And God in his under in in undeserving
mercy to us, and His sovereignty and His grace ordained the lifting
up of Moses' serpent, and so did He in undeserved mercy to
us. The Israelites didn't deserve
it just as much as we didn't deserve it, right? Because they
had rebelled against God. But God in His undeserved mercy
and sovereign grace to us, ordained the lifting up of the Lord Jesus
Christ to die, the sinner's substitute. And God's people just praise
his name for his mercy to us in his grace. Moses lifted up
a representing serpent. His serpent was not an actual
serpent. But it was a shadow which pictured Christ, who is
the substance, Christ, who is the substance. Likewise, the uplifted Christ
was the believers, the one believers are to look to and live. Just
as the ones, the only thing that could save them was to look to
that serpent, right? What's the only thing that can
save we sinners? Christ, Christ, and look into
Christ, right? Not any of our works, because
they're not worth a heap before God. The only way we're saved,
is by coming empty-handed before our God, our Savior, and looking
to Him. And we know that He's the one
who draws us. He's the one who makes us willing,
because none of us would seek God. And we know it was the same
with them Israelites, too, right? Who were the ones who looked?
The ones who God made willing to look. The other ones were
just stiff-necked and left there, and what a picture, beloved.
What a picture. Look unto me and be you saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.
Isaiah 45, 22. We'll look at that one more time
in the latter part of the message. You know, the law could never
save us. It only condemns us, right? Turn, if you would, to
Romans chapter eight. Law can never save us, it just
condemns us. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the one. He's the divinely
appointed one that we are to look to, that we are to look
to. And he's the one who's raised. He's the one who's raised up
and he's the one who believers look to look to. And he's our
only hope. Beloved Romans eight verses three
and four for what the law could not do. What could it not do?
It couldn't save us. It could condemn us. But it can
never save us, beloved. But what law could not do. That
it was weak. Through the flesh, God send in
his own son. Oh, here. God sends his own son. God sends his son to fulfill
the law for sinners. In our place, in the place of
his people. See, he fulfilled the law in
the place of his people, and he died in the place of his people.
He was a substitute his whole life. His whole life, his work
was one of substitution. This is what he came to do. Redeem
his people from their sins sending this son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin for sin for who said he's sinless My son
and if you're a believer for your sin He came for that. He came to redeem us to purchase
us God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin condemned sin in the flesh It is that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. Beloved, Christ and Christ alone
has redeemed his people from the curse of the law. Galatians
says this, Christ hath redeemed us. Now let these words sink
in. It's not, well, he made a chance
for us to be savable, is it? No, it doesn't say that, does
it? Turn if you would to Galatians chapter three. It doesn't say
that. Galatians three says this, verse 13 and 14, Christ hath. He hath. What has He done? He hath redeemed us. From what? From the curse of
the law. From that which we could never fulfill. We were in a heap
of trouble. Be it made a curse for us, all
our sins were laid upon Him. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessings of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. What a Savior! What a redeemer. God himself
leaves heaven to die as a sinner's substitute to redeem us. So we're his twice, right? As the old story goes, we're
of his making. He made us and then he bought
us. He made us and then he bought
us. Oh my. He has destroyed the power
of the devil. Galatians 3.15 says, And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel. Our Lord has all power. All power. When you view Christ
lifted up on the cross, it's like the Israelites when they
look to the serpent. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
For as much then as children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetimes subject to bondage." And you hear in religion
they give so much power to the devil? I remember hearing a grace preacher
say, he's God's devil. God's sovereign over him. And he can only do what our God
allows. Now we're no match for him. But our Redeemer crushed him
at the cross, beloved. Let us always be reminded when
someone starts to talk foolishness. Oh, the devil made me do it.
Most of the time it's our flesh, beloved. We really want to be
honest. And His power's been destroyed
at the cross, beloved. Our God is King. Satan's simply
a created being. Our God is the God. He's God
Almighty. He's absolutely sovereign. Now, Moses lifted up a bronze
serpent. Bronze is a non-precious metal.
Moses was to lift up a lowly instrument of salvation, not
an idol of gold or silver to be worshipped. Not an idol. Now, there's church out there.
They have so many different gold and all different colored symbols,
and these people bow down to these crucifixes and stuff. Foolishness,
idolatry. Idolatry. Psalm 115, four says
this. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of man's hands. They bow down to something that
a man's made. Beloved, we look to and we bow
down to God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ. Him alone, him
alone. Christ on the cross is a lowly
instrument of salvation. Think of this. because he condescended
from the glory of heaven and became a man. Became a man. The king of glory. God incarnate
in the flesh is not an idol of precious materials or metals,
but God himself. God himself. The king of the
universe. Became a man, became something
that he wasn't. that he might redeem us from
our sins. And now our blessed Redeemer
is seated at the right hand of the Father, the God-man. And
where the head is, the body shall soon follow, beloved. The body
shall soon follow. Moses lifted up a single serpent,
didn't he? Just a single serpent. God told
Moses to make one serpent, one. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That does away with any man who
says he's a mediator between God. There's only one. That means all these priests,
and I will name it, all these priests, because I came out of
that, who claim to be mediators between God and men, they're
lying, beloved, because the scripture declares right here in 1 Timothy
2.5, for there is one God and one mediator. There's only one,
one. It's not a man, not a man like
you and I. It's the God-man, God incarnate
in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. For there's one God and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. God incarnate in the flesh, so
do not look to salvation to another Jesus or any other man-made device
or scheme. There's only salvation in Christ
and Him alone. And looking to the serpent for
healing typified believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
Everyone looking to the uplifted serpent, they lived. Likewise,
everyone who believes on the uplifted Christ lives. We have eternal life in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. In both instances, looking and
believing directly correspond. Believing on Christ is looking
to Christ. Looking to Him with the eye of
faith. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 45, and put your
finger in John chapter 6, verse 40, and we'll compare Scripture
with Scripture here. Isaiah 45. Wonderful verse. I could park here for years.
It's just beautiful, beloved. Look unto me. When we look at
somebody, we're not doing any work, are we? We're looking.
We're just looking. You're looking. Look unto Me. Isaiah 45, 23,
and what? And be ye saved. Notice, look unto Me. Single. And be ye saved. All the ends
of the earth. For I am God, and there is none else. Now note
that. For I am God, and there is none
else. This is the Old Testament, right? Isaiah 45, 22. Turn to
John chapter 6. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, right? The God-man mediator. And Brother John, you hit this
in your study. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. You want to know what God's will
is? Folks always trying to figure out God's will. My, this is the will of Him that
sent me. That everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. And look
at this, and I will raise Him up at the last day. Everyone
which what? Seeth the Son. How do you see
the Son? By looking to Him. By looking to Him, beloved. It's the will of God that all
who God gave to Christ in eternity shall be saved. Shall be. There's no doubt about
it. Shall be saved. And here raise him up the last
day. So look into the uplifted serpent for healing, typified
believing in the uplifted Christ for salvation in the following
ways. We look to Christ even if some mock this means of salvation
because salvation is in Christ and Him alone. It's nowhere else.
Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. We know that in 1 Corinthians
Paul is going to correct the Corinthian church over some errors,
but first of all what he does, and John and I were talking with
Billy about this the other day, is he takes, and this is Brother
Norm Wells brought this out, he takes like a music musical
tuning fork. And if you read chapter one all
through, he's pointing the Corinthians to Christ ting ting, just like
a beautiful musical tuning fork pointing before he cracks them.
He's going to center them in Christ, center them in Christ
and him alone. And that's when you hear someone
who's not preaching the gospel. It's gone. There's no there's
no melodious sound there. But when someone's uplifting
Christ, it's melodious to the believers here. We love to hear
Christ preached and Him crucified. But look at this, but we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called.
Now there, he makes a distinction here, doesn't he? 1 Corinthians 1.24, but unto them
which are called, both Jews and Greeks. Now there's the elect
from Jews and Greeks, so Jews and Gentiles. them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. So he's mentioned Christ being
crucified, he's mentioned Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble are called, But God had chosen the foolish things
of the world, and that does not mean now. I remember what Brother
Henry said. Foolish there means common. He's
he's. He saved common folks. That's
me. The foolish things of the world,
what to confound the wise and God had chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are which are mighty
and the basings of the world and things which are despised
have God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
Christ in him alone is the only means of salvation, and he is
the only one we are to glory in, beloved. He's the only one
we're to glory. He's the only one we're to look
to. Paul preached Christ crucified, and he said unto the Jews, a
stomach block, and unto the Greeks, a foolishness. So even if people
mock what we believe, we don't. We're just going to keep going
forward, don't we? We'll just keep going forward. Because you
know what? Think of this. We at one time
mocked too. But now Christ is the power of
God to us, the wisdom of God. My. The Israelites were not to
look to to any other object exalted by any other person. They were
to look to Moses, serpent alone. They were to look to Moses, serpent
alone. Likewise, we are not to look to any other object or person
exalted by anyone else, except Christ. He is the one we look
to. We don't look to the preacher.
We don't look to the church. We look to Christ, don't we?
Christ alone. Christ and Him alone. We are
to look to Christ alone. We're not to look to the law.
We're not to look to the law to save us because it can't save
us. We're not to look to the Sabbath because Christ is our
Sabbath. See, people will look to anything
else but Christ. And you know what it all centers
around them? It all centers around them. in what they do. But for the believer it all centers
around Christ and what He's done. That's why we look to Him. That's
why we look to our blessed Redeemer and Him alone. As the serpent was lifted up
in the pole, so was Christ. And as Moses, or as Isaiah said,
look and live, all who look to that serpent that Moses held
up live. And all who look to Christ shall live, shall live. May God give you grace and strength
to look to Christ if you don't know him, if you don't know him. And may we believers, we who
believe in Christ, may we keep looking, may we keep looking
to Christ. Keep your eyes fixed upon him
and him alone. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank you for your goodness and mercy and grace to us this morning
and every day, every day. Your mercies are new every morning
to us. And we're so thankful for your
goodness to us and your mercy to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified today and magnified
in the preaching, singing and all that we do here today. In
Jesus name. Amen.