Neither let us tempt Christ. As some of them also tempted
and were destroyed as serpents. Now I have in the past wondered
why Paul used this word tempt and the tempting of Christ to
describe the events of Numbers 21 when the people complained
about being in the wilderness and said, we have no bread, we
have no water and our souls loathe this light bread. The manna has
become light bread. Now the manna hadn't changed,
but their perception of the manna had changed. It's now light bread,
it's insubstantial bread. And the Lord sent venomous snakes
into the camp and bit the people of Israel. Can you imagine how
miserable that would be? Most people are pretty squeamish
about snakes. Can you imagine just snakes, venomous snakes
being in your home? You couldn't keep them out. What
a terrible thing that would be. So they come back to Moses and
said, we've sinned. Would you please do something
to take these snakes away? We tried to keep them out of
our houses and we failed. We tried to come up with some
way to get the venom out of us, we failed. The only thing that
we have hope in is that you take these things away. The things
that are causing our death, you take them away. And the Lord, you know, told
Moses to make a brazen serpent. Put it on a pole and anyone who
looked at that serpent lived and Paul calls this event of
the children of Israel tempting Christ. Now when else is Christ
said to be tempted? Do you remember when Satan said,
if you're the son of God, prove it. took him up onto the highest
point of the temple and said, jump off, give us some proof. Because the Bible says, he shall
give his angels charge over thee, less than any time they'll hold
you up, less than any time you dash your foot against the stone.
Now prove it. The Bible says this, prove it, jump off and
demonstrate to us that you are the Christ. And remember what
the Lord said to him? It is written, thou shalt not
tempt. The Lord thy God. Now what these people were doing
at this time, the children of Israel, was tempting the Lord,
questioning the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And we're going
to see that more in a moment, but the significance of this
event is found in John chapter three. Would you turn with me
there for a moment? As a matter of fact, when the Lord is describing
the new birth This is what he uses to describe as to what takes
place when someone is born again. Now that is so important. Of all the events of the Old
Testament, he could have selected, he selected this event to illustrate
what happens when someone is born again. Now let's begin in
verse one, John chapter three. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night. Now, some have said that's because
he was ashamed to be identified with him during the day. That
might be the case. But I think what this is saying
is Nicodemus was in the dark. He had no spiritual understanding. It was night for this man. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, and this is implied, I'm giving
my thought on this. He said, Nicodemus, you know
nothing. You say, we know. Dicodemus,
you know nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a man be born again. And my marginal reading says
born from above, birthed from above. He cannot see the kingdom
of God. You talk about the things you
see, you can't see anything. unless you are born from above. Nicodemus saith unto him, how
can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter in the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? He had no idea what the
Lord was talking about. And I think, I'm not sure that
he's not being a little bit of a smart aleck when he makes this
statement. Jesus answered, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, and of the
Spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Now somebody says, what's he
talking about being born of water? Does that mean water baptism?
Is that some kind of the process of birth when the water comes
out? What's he talking about? Well, Paul speaks of the washing
of water by the word in Ephesians chapter five. He's talking about
the gospel message, the word of God. There is no new birth
apart from the word of God, the gospel message. Except a man
be born of water and of the spirit. You can hear the truth to doomsday. it won't do you any good unless
God the Holy Spirit bursts you into the Kingdom of Heaven. He
takes the Word and gives birth. And except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God,
it's impossible. And I love this next statement,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. that which is born of the flesh
can never rise above the flesh, it's that flesh, flesh, the carnal
mind, the fleshly mind is enmity against God, it can't do any
better than that. But that which is born of the Spirit, God the
Holy Spirit birthing one into the kingdom of heaven through
the Word of God, it is Spirit. You see, a believer now has a
spiritual nature, People talk about, well, I'm a spiritual
person. The only way you're a spiritual person is if you have the Holy
Spirit. The natural man's not a spiritual person. He's dead
in trespasses and sins. He doesn't have a spirit. But
God, the Holy Spirit, gives a man this spiritual life that Adam
lost when he died in the garden. And the day you eat thereof,
you surely die. Well, he died spiritually. But when someone
is born again, they're given life spiritually, that which
Adam lost in the garden. is given in the new birth, this
spiritual nature. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you,
you must be born again. The wind blows where it listeth,
where it wills. You can't control the direction
of the wind, can you? Can't control the weather. The weather does
what it wants to do. It does what God wants it to
do. The wind blows where it wills. You hear the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. Now, if we stop there, we're
left scratching our heads. What in the world does that mean?
Well, let's go on reading. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, how can these things be? I don't get it. Jesus answered
and said unto him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these
things? It's what the scriptures always taught. Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel
36, a new heart will I give you, my spirit will I put within you.
This has been the clear teaching of the Old Testament. You ought
to know these things. You don't. You're a master of
Israel. You claim to be a teacher and
you don't know these things. Verse 11, verily, verily, I say unto
you, we speak that we do know and testify that which we have
seen. And you receive not our witness if I've told you of earthly
things, and you believe not how shall you believe if I tell you
of heavenly things. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but
he that came down from heaven, even the son of man which is
in heaven. Now what a statement. I came
down from heaven. And while I'm talking to you
right now, I'm in heaven. I descended from heaven, and
right now as I speak, I'm in heaven. Only Jesus Christ could
say that. Now, verse 14. Remember, the
teaching is the new birth. 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. Now, when the Lord is giving
his teaching with regard to the new birth. This is only found
like this here in John chapter 3. Of all the events of the Old
Testament, he picks out this passage from Numbers chapter
21 about Moses lifting up that serpent on a pole in the wilderness
and anyone who looked at it lived. Now would you turn with me to
Numbers 21. You cannot separate the new birth
from the gospel message. Now do you hear that? There is
no new birth. There is no spiritual birth apart
from hearing and believing the gospel message. Someone who has
never heard the gospel message, I'm talking about the message
of the Bible. Whatever he is, he may be religious,
but he's never been born again. There's no new birth apart from
the gospel message. Now, Numbers chapter 21. Beginning in verse four. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea, so to compass the land of Eden.
Now, we know that the Edomites refused to let them go through
their land. Notice they were encompassing
the land of Eden. They could have got directly
into Canaan real quick if the Edomites would let them in, but
they didn't. And so this is adding six weeks to their journey in
that hot desert. Now, can you imagine, I hate
being hot, being in a desert for six weeks? dirty, sandy. We're going to have to have six
more weeks of this." They were upset. They journeyed from Mount
Hoare by the way of the Red Sea to Compass to encircle the land
of Edom and the soul of the people was much discouraged because
of the way. Can we bear traveling through
this desert anymore? Why? They were much discouraged
because of the way. Discouragement. I know something about that.
Discouragement. I know a whole lot about that
as a matter of fact. And I dare say you do too. It's the occupational
hazard of being human. It's the common conundrum. Discouragement. disappointment, disillusioned, dejected, dispirited,
despondent, disgruntled, depressed, demoralized. I'm not happy. That's the language of discouragement. I'm not happy. This is not how I expected it
to be. Discouraged because of unfavorable
circumstances that weighed heavy. Discouragement by others. Disappointment
in others. Putting too much emphasis on
others and becoming disappointed by their conduct and their actions
and the way they have treated you. Discouraged by yourself. Discouraged by yourself. Much discouraged. Have you ever
been there? Much discouraged. I know I have,
and my marginal reading says shortened. Shortened. Certainly short-sighted. Much
discouraged because of the way. I hope you can identify with
this. much discouraged because of the way. Verse five, and the
people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there's no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul
loatheth this light bread. Now, all murmuring and all complaining
is against God. Every murmuring word, every complaining
word, every complaining thought that comes out of my mouth is
against God. And the scripture says they spake
against Moses. He was easier to get to. And
they spake against Moses. Now, I don't know how many times
as the pastor of this church, I've had people, this has happened
numerous occasions. It's happened, I'm sure, to every
pastor. I'm not leaving this church because
of the message it's preached. I'm leaving because of you. You're
the problem. I've heard that numerous occasions,
and I'm sure that I've probably created things that have caused
that. People get frustrated with me.
I'm sure I've done people wrong or been in, I know it, I know
it, but is getting mad at the preacher ever a reason to leave
the church if the gospel is preached? Absolutely not. The only reason
to leave a church is because the gospel is not preached. There
is no other reason. Now these people were speaking
as victims, as critics, as judges of God, judges and critics of
Moses. Why did you bring us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? We've been victimized by this
action of yours. Their perception was based upon
falsehood. They said, for there's no bread. They'd eat manna that very day.
There's no water. Water came from the rock that
very day. It was following them. And our
soul loatheth this light bread. This manna that came down from
heaven is now light bread. I remember some 25, 30 years
ago, I tried to get on one of these fat-free diets, tried to
lose weight with a fat-free diet. I remember they had light bread.
I mean, it was only 30 calories. It was light bread. I hated it.
It was light bread. It was insubstantial. It didn't
get the job done. And they were saying, with regard
to this manna, This is not substantial. It's not enough to satisfy us.
It's leaving us wanting more. This that was food from heaven,
angel's food, now has become light bread. And what they were
really complaining about is the sufficiency of Christ, the onlyness
of Christ, the simplicity of Christ, because he said himself,
I am that bread that came down from heaven. What they were doing
at this time was complaining about the onlyness, the simplicity
of Christ. Now, what do I mean by the simplicity
of Christ? What do I mean by that? The only thing I have that will
make me accepted before God is Jesus Christ. I don't have anything
else. All I have is Christ. I wish I could say that the way
I'd love to say it. All I have is Jesus Christ. Somebody said, Oh, Christ is
all you need. He's all you have. I think it's better to say that
all you need. That's like, no, he's all you
have. You don't have anything else.
Jesus Christ alone. The only way I can be saved is
by Jesus Christ alone. Christ is all. In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in
him. The simplicity of Christ is it
is finished. Nothing left to be done. The
onlyness of Christ. He only is my rock and my salvation. Oh, the simplicity of Christ.
Now, when somebody hears that and they don't really believe
it, they say, there's got to be more than that. This is not enough to motivate
me. This is not enough to cause me
to persevere. I need something else to motivate me to a life
of obedience and good works. Well, all this will do is make
people indifferent. You're saying by that you don't
need any, Where's my motivation for obedience? Only you say I
complete in Christ and I need nothing else. And he's all, that's
not enough. There's got to be something else. This is light bread. This is
insufficient bread. And that was the tempting of
Christ. Our souls loathe this light bread. It's not enough. We need more
to motivate us, which is called covetousness. That's all it was,
covetousness. But we need more. We loathe this light. Verse six. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people. And they bit the people, and
much people of Israel died. This was the Lord's judgment
regarding this wickedness, because that's all you could call it,
when they said, our souls loathe this light bread. He sends these
fiery serpents. Now remember, these people were
victims. Nothing was their fault. And
it comes out in what they said. And let me say this about if
I'm a victim, and it's not my fault, I've never taken personal
responsibility for my sin. There's the problem. As long
as it's somebody else's fault, it's not my fault. And let me
tell you something you don't do when your sin's not your fault. You don't ask for mercy. The
only time you sue for mercy is if all your sin is all your fault. You can't blame mom and dad.
You can't blame your circumstances. You can't blame your upbringing.
It's all my fault. But before the Lord sent these
fiery serpents, their victims. Look what you've done bringing
us out here into Egypt to die in the wilderness. We had it
much better in Egypt, but now much people died. Verse seven. Therefore, the people
came to Moses and said, how different this is. We've sinned. Now there's a short, brief illustration of what the confession
of sin is. We've sinned. Everything about
us is sin. We've sinned. For we have spoken
against the Lord. This murmuring was against the
Lord and against thee. We have sinned. Now in true confession of sin,
you assume full responsibility. It's all my fault. You take sides with God against
yourself. Now the confession of sin, if
we confess our sins, that doesn't mean that you're able to confess
each one of your individual sins because you don't know what most
of them are, I don't know what most of them are, and we don't
have enough time in the day. If I had to confess every one
of my sins, what else would I be doing? To confess sins means you agree
with what God says with regard to your sin. You take sides with
God against yourself. That's what it is to confess
your sin. We've sinned. We've spoken against God. and
against you, and it's all our fault. I think of what David
said, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercy, blot out my
transgression, wash me throughly from my sin. For I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin as ever before me against thee,
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when you speak. All your judgments
against me are right and clear when you judge. Whatever you
do is right. That's the confession of sin.
You take sides with God against yourself. No excuses. And look what they asked Moses
to do. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from
us. Take away that which is causing
the problem, the serpents. We can't do anything about them.
We've tried. We failed. Now can you imagine, I don't
know how long this went, but can you imagine how they tried
to cram every hole in their tents to make sure those serpents couldn't
get in? Can you imagine the lengths they would have gone to keep
these serpents out? Can you imagine how afraid they
were? Take up your covers, there's
a serpent in there. You open up the cabinets, there's
a serpent in there. And they're biting the people
and there's nothing they could do to get rid of them. So what
do they ask the Lord to do? We can't get rid of them. We
can't do anything about the venom. We're asking you, take them away. Take them away. We've tried to get rid of them
and we failed. Our only hope is for the Lord to take them
away. And my only hope is for the Lord to do something about
my sin. I can't do anything about it.
I can't avoid the serpents. I can't do anything about my
sin. My only hope is for the Lord to take it away. The publican in the temple said,
God be propitious. That word merciful is propitious. Be a sin removing sacrifice. Do something about my sin. I can't do anything about it.
Take it away. That was the cry of the publican
in the temple. And that's my cry right now.
Lord, do something about my sin. Take it away. I cannot do anything
about it. Only you can take it away. I hope that's my and your prayer
tonight. Perhaps we've been guilty of
what the children of Israel were guilty of in seeing the man of
the gospel as light bread, insubstantial. We need more, but maybe the Lord
has shown you and me like he did the children of Israel this
time. They now say, Lord, take my sin
away. Verse eight. Well, Moses prayed for the people
and the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent And
we know from verse nine that it was a serpent of brass. A
serpent of brass. Brass is made of copper and tin. You blend copper and melt copper
and tin together and you got brass. Now, I don't have any
doubt that that speaks of the two natures of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. I love saying that. He's the
creator of the universe. He's God over all, blessed forever. He's the absolute sovereign of
the universe. He's in absolute control of everything,
everybody and every event. It's His will always that is
done. Anything that happens, it goes
through the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. He is God, Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is just as human
as you and I are, sin accepted. What a glorious person. The two
natures of Jesus Christ, fully God, just as if he were not man
at all, fully man. just as if you were not God at
all, in one man, the man Christ Jesus. That's what the brass
speaks of, the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse eight, and the Lord said
unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole. Now, I feel quite sure that the
cross is not this. I know that's, as a matter of
fact, a religious symbol. It was a pole. They wouldn't
have taken the time to put a cross together to nail someone to a
cross. It was stretched out on a pole, nailed on a pole, just
like that serpent was put upon a pole. And the Lord said unto
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole, and it shall
come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall
live. Who looked? Everyone that was
bitten. Now, if you were bitten, not
bitten, you probably thought, well, that's good to know if
I ever need it. I'm glad to hear that. That sounds good. All I
have to do is look. You know, if somebody was bitten,
you know what they did? They looked. They looked. Now, think of the
simplicity of this. And the Lord says, even as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, talking about this
event, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And I love the fact that it's
just a look. Just a look. I love the simplicity
of that. Just look. Nobody says, well,
what's that mean? You just look. Well, what do
you mean by that? You just look. I love the passage of Scripture
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 22. The Jews require a sign. The
religious. They need some kind of visible,
tangible, empirical evidence that I can see and touch to prove
to me that this is real. The Jews require a sign. The
Greeks, the intellectuals, they seek after wisdom. I need to
know how to make this world a better place and how to improve the
culture and make education better and the economy better and healthcare
better. I want wisdom to do this and
that's a noble thing. I'm glad you do. Paul says, but
we preach Christ crucified. That's our message. This serpent
lifted up on a pole. Now this brazen serpent didn't
have venom. The Lord Jesus Christ never sinned.
But here he is lifted up on this pole. He uses this as the example
of what takes place in the new birth. This is looking unto him. We preach Christ crucified and
the Jews a stumbling block. Why? That's the same thing as
saying a lot bread. All that is is light bread. To
the Greeks, it's foolishness. How am I gonna improve the world
with that? But unto them which are thee called, both Jews and
Greeks. Christ, the power of God. Christ, the wisdom of God. He's the power of God to put
away that sin, He's the wisdom of God to find a way to put away
that sin. Remember when they came to him, they said, do something
about my sin. I can't do anything about it.
Well, what does God tell Moses to do? You take that brazen serpent
and put it on a pole. And what were the bitten children
of Israel called upon to do? Did not the Lord say, look unto
me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth? For I am God and
beside me is none else. Look. You're familiar with that
passage of scripture in Hebrews chapter 12, looking unto Jesus. And that word looking is the
only time that word is used in the New Testament. It means look
away from all other things and put your gaze only upon him. He's no light bread. He's the
bread that came down from heaven. Looking unto Jesus. How do I look to him? As the
author. of faith. If I have faith, He's
the author of it. He gave it to me. And the finisher,
the perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was said before
and the joy of glorifying His Father, the joy of magnifying
His Father, the joy of saving His people, He endured the cross,
despising the shame, counting as nothing the shame. And this
gives us some idea of what was going on If you did something, I might
be embarrassed for you, but I'm not ashamed. But I'm ashamed
if I did it. And the sin of my sin, the sins
of all of God's elect became Christ so much that he became
ashamed of himself before his father. Now, do I understand
that? Of course not. Do I believe it
with all my heart? Yeah, but he said it not the shame for
the joy that was set before him. And he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high Moses was to lift that serpent up on
a pole and there was one singular thing the people were to do,
not try to extract the venom, not try to prevent the snakes
from biting them, look to that serpent on that pole. You and I are to look to Christ
Jesus. And this is one of the great
descriptions of faith, looking to Christ. Looking to Christ. Somebody says,
I can't see him. Then you're not looking. If you
look, you'll see. If you don't see, you're not looking. This was the divine remedy. Look to Christ in his person. He's God. He's perfect humanity. Can he fail? He's incapable of
failure because of who He is. I look to Him in His suretyship,
when He stood as a surety for God's elect before time began
and when He took complete responsibility for my salvation. I'm looking
to Him there. I looked to Him in His incarnation
when He became flesh, when He became man. God was manifest
in the flesh. He lived 33 years on this earth
in perfect obedience to His Father. I looked to that 33 years of
righteousness as my personal righteousness before God. I looked
to Him in His death. When He died, my sin was paid
for. When He was raised from the dead,
I was justified. I look to Him only. I'm not looking
to myself. I'm not looking to you. Your
discouragement comes from either looking to yourself or looking
at other people. That's where that discouragement
comes from. No, look to Christ and you won't be discouraged.
Look to Him. They looked to Him and were lightened
and their faces were not ashamed. The grand results of looking
to Christ, look to Him right now. Everybody who looked, they
were completely healed. The Lord said in John chapter
three, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the son of man be lifted up. Why must he? Because this
is God's purpose. This is God's will. He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, therefore he must
be slain in time. He must be lifted up in the preaching
of the gospel. And I love the way he uses the
word lifted up. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Do you know that word lifted up is the exact same word that's
translated many times in the New Testament, exalted. The death
of Jesus Christ on the cross is the absolute exalting of Jesus
Christ. And when he says, and I, if I
be lifted up, I'll draw all men to me, this signifying what death
he should die. If I be lifted up from the earth,
if I be crucified, if I be exalted, And this is the high exaltation
of Jesus Christ. I will draw all men. And the
word man is not in the original, it's literally the whole of the
elect. The whole I'll draw to me. The crucified Christ is the exalted
Christ. Now I want to end by asking you
to turn to 2 Kings chapter 18. 2 Kings chapter 18. Now it came
to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Eliah king of Israel
that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign and
he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name
was Abbi the daughter of Zechariah and he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father
did. He removed the high places. He
break the images. He cut down the groves and break,
listen to this, and break in pieces the brazen serpent that
Moses had made. Now, can you imagine breaking
that thing up? It had been around for centuries.
This is something that God had called upon Moses to make. And
look at the way the Lord used this brazen serpent. And what
did Hezekiah do? Was that sacrilegious? He tore
it up. He broke it. Let's go on reading. He break in pieces the brazen
serpent that Moses had made, for unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense to it. And he called it, Nehushtan,
a worthless piece of brass. Don't you admire that? He saw that the brazen serpent
was nothing. What the brazen serpent represented
was everything. Jesus Christ in him crucified. He trusted in the Lord God of
Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings
of Judah. nor any that were after him,
for he claimed to the Lord, and departed not from following him,
but kept the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses. And
the Lord was with him, and he prospered, whether so ever he
went forth. And he rebelled against the king
of Syria, and served him not." You can go on reading that interesting
history. But think of this, that brazen
serpent, he broke it and called it a worthless piece of brass.
Now, here's how I interpret this. God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom? He didn't say by which or by
what. By whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. story the Lord uses to illustrate
being born again. You know when you're born again?
When you look to Christ. That simple. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
Word. How we thank you that as Moses Lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness even so your son was lifted up that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. We
ask in his name that we would all be enabled just like the
children of Israel who were bitten to look and be healed. Oh Lord give us the grace And
Lord, we can't do it apart from you birthing us into the kingdom
of God through your word, but we ask that you would give us
the grace to look to thy dear son alone for his glory. In his name we pray, amen.