Lord willing, tonight I'm going
to be preaching on the butler, the baker, and the gospel out
of Genesis chapter 40. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Look and Live. I hope every one of us, me and
you, will pray that the Lord will enable us to do just that
as we hear this message. Look and live. One of the things that
I find so amazing about this story is how, for lack of a better
word, uncomplicated it is. Look, when I say that, no one
says, well, what are you talking about? Look, John chapter three is a passage
of great importance. In John chapter three, we have
the Lord telling us about being born again, or born from above. Verse one, There was a man of
the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He's saying, Nicodemus, you know,
nothing except you're born again. You cannot see the kingdom of
God. Now what is this thing of being
born again? If I understand that the Bible teaches a man
is dead in sins, now hear this very carefully. In Genesis chapter
two, verse 17, God said to Adam, in the day you eat thereof, You
shall surely die. Well, he ate and he died. He didn't die physically, but
he died spiritually. Hence the necessity of the new
birth. If you're dead spiritually, you
breathe, you Have your heart pumping and blood going through
your veins. You're physically alive. Your
soul's alive. You're a human being, but you
have no spiritual life. You lack the capacity to believe
the gospel. You lack the capacity to love
God. Dead in sins. That's a bad place to be. Dead. in sins, hence the necessity
of being born from above, born again. Now, how much did you
have to do with creating your first life? Nothing. How much power do you have in
this new birth? Zilch. Nothing. Verse four, Nicodemus saith unto
him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? I'm not real sure that
there's not a little bit of smart aleck going on there. Jesus answered, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of
God. Except a man be born of water. Now is he talking about baptism? No. Listen to these scriptures.
Ephesians 5, 26 says the washing of water by the word. The washing
of water by the word. It's the word. that washes. It's the word that begets life. Psalm 119 verse 9, whether with
all shall a young man cleanse his ways by taking heed thereunto
according to thy word. Now, when he's speaking of water,
That's the word of God that washes, that regenerates. Of his own
will began he us through the word of truth. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now it's God, the Holy
Spirit. taking the word to beget life. Not the preacher's words, but
the word of God. That's what God uses to beget
this spiritual life. Now, what I think is very interesting
is of all the scriptures that the Lord could have used to demonstrate
what it is to hear the word. And to have eternal life, he
uses what we just read about in Numbers chapter 21. And that
gives us some idea of the importance of this passage of scripture.
Look what he says in verse 14. Remember this, uh, John chapter
three, the message is not over until verse 21. Uh, you know, I was thinking
about this. I could give the proper teaching, uh, concerning
the new birth and nobody be born again, but I might preach John
three, 14 and 15 look and live. And somebody might not understand
what it means to be born again, but they're born again when they
live, they look and live. I mean, this is the gospel. This is the passage that the
Savior selected to demonstrate what it is to believe the gospel
and have this new birth, this eternal life. When he's talking
about eternal life, he's not talking about the longevity of
the eternal life, but the essence, the quality of this life, the
life of God in the soul. THIS IS HOW IT COMES THROUGH
WHAT IS TAKING PLACE IN THIS PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE. Let's go back to Numbers chapter
21. In order to understand what's
going on in Numbers 21. Let's look at Numbers 20, verse
15. Verse 14, And Moses sent messengers
from Kadesh unto the king of Edom. Now remember, Edom is the
descendants of Esau. Thus saith thy brother Israel,
Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us, how our
fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a
long time, and the Egyptians vexed us and our fathers. And
when we cried unto the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent
an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt. And behold,
we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border. Let
us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass
through the fields or through the vineyards, neither will we
drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the King's highway.
We'll not turn to the right nor to the left until we have passed
thy borders. He's saying, let us pass through
your country. This'll save us a lot of time.
Let us pass through your country, the country of the Edomites.
Verse 18, and Edom said unto him, thou shalt not pass by me,
lest I come out against thee with the sword. And the children
of Israel said unto them, We'll go by the highway, and if I and
my cattle drink of thy water, then I'll pay for it. I will
only, without doing anything else, go through on my feet. And he, Edom, said, Thou shalt
not go through. And Edom came out against him
with much people and with a strong hand, and Edom refused to give
Israel passage through the border. Wherefore Israel turned away
from Now, because they were not going to pass through Edom, what
I read, it would take them an extra three weeks in the hot
desert sun, traveling on foot. This was not good news to them. Verse four, chapter 21, and they journeyed
from Manhor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of
Edom, to go around the land of Edom. They couldn't pass through
it. They had to go along the border,
adding much to their journey. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. It was hot. It was uncomfortable. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. Discouragement. Discouragement. Know anything about that? Much
discouragement. The common conundrum of humanity. Discouragement. Disappointment. Disillusioned. Circumstances are difficult,
heavy, hard. Things have not gone as I planned.
I'm discouraged. Much discouragement because of
the way. Now, when we're discouraged,
we're certainly not believing God, are we? I'm not saying that
harshly. I understand discouragement.
I hate it when I'm discouraged. The people were much discouraged
because of the way. Verse five. Now, before I read this, remember
the Lord had delivered them from Egypt. He parted the Red Sea
for them to go through. They had taken with them the
riches of Egypt. He had given them manna from
heaven on a daily basis. And you remember that rock that
was smitten in Exodus chapter 17? Water gushed from that rock. And we know that we're given
that to picture Christ. He was smitten and the water
of grace, the water of his forgiveness of salvation comes from him. And first Corinthians 10, four
says that rock followed them. It followed them. Somebody says,
well, how could that be? Well, if water can come out of
the rock, it can follow them. That rock followed them. manna from heaven, water from
the rock. And the people spake against
God after all that God had done for them. The people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Now, how could they say something
like that? Same way me and you could. Let's don't get too hard
on them. You and I have done the same
thing. For there's no bread, neither
is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread. Now, wait a minute. Bread from
heaven had fallen that very day. Manna. It came every day. And water had come from that
rock. But what is their assessment
of what took place? There's no bread. We're not going
to call that manna bread. There's no water. Our soul loatheth
this light bread. The bread was the same. The composition
was the same. The taste was the same. The bread
hadn't changed. that they had. The bread is no longer manna
from heaven, it's light bread, insubstantial bread, not enough
to satisfy bread. I can remember one time Somehow
in our house we had light bread. It had 30 calories a slice and
you couldn't taste the 30 calories. It wouldn't do anybody any good
at all. It was not satisfying bread.
It was light bread. When the gospel is gospel light, the reason is I've moved away
from Christ being all and I need something else. I've moved away
from being complete in Christ. Something else is needed. And the manna has become light
bread, insubstantial bread, not enough to satisfy I need something
else. Verse six, and the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people and they bit the people and much people of
Israel died. Now snakes, serpents. I live with two women who despise
serpents, scared to death of them. I think they'll both vouch
for that. Disgusted by, revolted by snakes. Now what if you had poisonous
snakes filled in your house, in your tent, coming out of the
ceiling, coming through the windows. Can you imagine how miserable
that existence would be? You'd be doing everything you
could to keep those snakes out. You'd try to make your house
snake-proof. You'd fill in every crack. You'd
do whatever it took to keep those snakes out. But here, it didn't
work. The snakes still were coming
in, fiery snakes, when they would bite, fire would be filled in
your veins and you'd die. Can you imagine how terrifying
that would be? Fiery serpents, and there's nothing
you could do to prevent them from acting upon you. If you and I were in that camp,
And there's nothing we could do to protect ourselves from
the snakes. Can you imagine what a miserable condition that would
be? Now they were much discouraged
because of the way, but I guarantee you, this was a whole lot worse.
Fiery snakes, the venom of sin biting the people. Verse seven. Therefore, the people
came to Moses and said, we have sinned. What a blessed place to be. We have sinned. You know what they're doing at
this time? They're taking sides with God against themselves. This is all of our fault. We
have sinned. Everything we've done is wicked. It's evil. We've sinned against
light. We've sinned against love. We've
sinned against grace. We have sinned. Have you ever made that confession?
I'm not talking about before men, before God. You're taking sides with God
against yourself. Now we know that what things,
whoever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty. before God, guilty as charged. 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. Now, Moses is a beautiful type
of Christ here. What do the people do? They don't
come to God on their own, they come through Moses. Not through
the law, Moses being a type of Christ at this time. Moses prayed
for us. You know, whenever Moses prayed
for somebody, the Lord heard. Wouldn't you like to have Moses
praying for you? Well, how much more would you like to have the
Lord Jesus Christ praying for you? They say to Moses, pray
to the Lord for us. We can't come on our own. And
I think this is interesting what they requested. Pray to the Lord
for us that he take away the serpents from us. He doesn't,
or they don't say, teach us how to defeat these serpents. teaches
how to keep them out, enable us to kill these serpents. He
says, take them away. The only hope that I have that
we have is that you take away the problem. We can't fight it.
Take it away. He was manifested to what? Take away our sins in him. is no sin. We have the promise of Romans
11 27. This is my covenant with him.
When I shall take away their sins, my soul, that's what I
need. I need him to do something about my sin. I need him to take
it away. That's what they're asking. Take
it You see, the blood of bulls and goats could never take away
sins. No religious works could ever
take away sins. I need my sins taken away. I'm no match for these fiery
serpents. Will you take them away? And Moses prayed for the people. Look in verse eight. And the Lord said, aren't you
thankful for those words? And the Lord said, oh, I'm so
thankful for the word of God. And the Lord said, and remember,
this is what the Savior uses to illustrate what it is to have
eternal life, what it is to believe the gospel. Let's begin with
what the Lord said. And the Lord said unto Moses,
make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole. Now we know from the next verse
that this was a serpent made of brass. And I think it's interesting,
if you go on down through the history of Israel, in Hezekiah's
time, hundreds of years later, they still had that serpent of
brass. You know what they started doing? They started worshiping
it. and burning incense to it. And
you know what Hezekiah did? He grounded into powder and said,
it's nothing but a worthless piece of brass. So don't worship
the brass, the serpent of brass, but what the serpent represents,
the Lord Jesus Christ being nailed to a cross. That's what the serpent
represents. Now, brass, tin, and copper,
a compound. I really believe that the reason
it's made of two things is to represent the two natures of
Jesus Christ. Complete manhood, complete deity. Not half man and half God. All man, just as if he were not
God at all, the man Christ Jesus. All God, as if he were not man
at all, the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ, fully God in him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in a body, fully man. Now somebody says, why would
they want snakes are the problem? Why would you want to put snake
of the snake on a pole? This is how the problem is taken
away, by Christ being nailed to a cross. You take that serpent
and you put it on a pole. Now turn back, hold your finger
there in Numbers and turn back to John chapter 3. Here is the Lord's comment on
this snake being placed on a pole. Verse 14, And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must. Don't miss that. This is absolutely
necessary. Even so, must the Son of Man
be lifted up, nailed to a pole and lifted up. Somebody says, well, I thought
he was nailed to a cross. Well, I think the cross is nothing
more than a pole. The cross, there's no indication that that's
what the Lord was nailed on. A cross is simply a pole. And
he was nailed to a pole and it was lifted up. As Moses
lifted up the servant in the wilderness, even so must the
son of man be lifted up from the earth. Why must he be lifted
up? Why is this necessary? Number
one, because it's God's eternal purpose. That's a good enough
reason, isn't it? God created the universe for
this event. The manifestation of his glory
through his son being nailed to a cross. Yes, it's necessary. God's purpose is always done. He must be nailed to a cross.
Secondly, because God is just. First, it's His purpose. Christ
is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Him being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of
God. God's purpose. God's justice. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. I want you to pretend like you've never heard this verse
of scripture before. We ought to have the Bible notes.
Well, we have it all memorized. I know that's impossible, but,
uh, it'd be good. Wouldn't it? If we memorized
every scripture and I'm going to, I certainly want to memorize
this scripture, but every time I come to it, I want to come
to it. Like I've never seen it before
for the very first time. Second Corinthians chapter five,
verse 21. Here's why Jesus Christ was nailed
to a pole. For He, God the Father, hath
MADE Him to be sin for us. And notice the to be is in italics. For He hath made Him sin for us, who knew no sin. The Lord Jesus Christ never sinned. He knew no sin. He knew nothing of the horror
of sin. He knew how evil it was. But
he didn't know it the way you and I do. The Father made him sin. Now, what all is involved in
that? I don't know. I just read it and I'm amazed. The father made him sin. I wish I could comment on that
the way it ought to be commented on, but I can't. I can't. There it is. The father made
him sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now let's take that passage of
Scripture at its face value. I think we hurt ourselves, do violence to
the Scripture whenever we try to imply certain things from
it, let's just take it for what it says on the very surface. It does not say that Christ was
made a sinner. Nor does it say that we are made
righteous. That's not what the passage says. It does not say God IMPUTED sin
to him, nor does it say God IMPUTED righteousness to us. It does
not say that God IMPARTED sin to him. It does not say that
God IMPARTED righteousness to us. It does not say that God
treated him as if he were guilty. Nor does it say that God treats
us as if we are not guilty. It says he made him sin that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's why he must be lifted
up. Why must he be lifted up? Verse
16 tells us in John chapter 3, for God so loved the world He must be lifted up because
God is love. Now, this is interesting. I love
John 3.16. Lord willing, I'd like to preach
on that next week and then bring another message from John 3.16
through 21 sometime down the road. But John 3.16 may be the
most often quoted scripture in the Bible. Matter of fact, when
you see athletes, they'll have John 3, 16 on their cheeks. You
know, when they're, when they're, uh, uh, people have it branded
on them, John 3, 16. And you know, very few people
know anything about John 3, 14 and 15 and John 3, 16 cannot
possibly understood, be understood without John 3, 14 and 15. This
passage of scripture concerning the gospel. God loves sinners. You hear that? God, the infinite
God, loves sinners. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but have eternal life. life. Herein is love, not
that we love God, but that he loved us. Let's go back to our text in
Numbers now. Verse eight. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Make the fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come
to pass that everyone that's bitten. Now, if you're not bitten, you
don't have much interest in looking at that pole. You don't need
to. Who is it that looked upon that
pole? Everyone that was bitten. Bitten with the venom of sin
that you know you'll die. Everyone that was bitten. Those are the only folks who
looked. Everyone that was bitten. When he looked. when he looketh upon it shall live."
Now, don't you love the simplicity of that? When he looks. When he looks. Now, I doubt that Moses at this
time when he was going back and forth through the camp saying,
look, look, I seriously doubt that he was asking them about
their lapsarian views or whether they were pre-, post- or all-millennialists. He didn't tell them they first
needed to repent of their sins and get their lives straightened
out before they could look. I feel sure he didn't say what
they needed to do was change the culture in that place and
infiltrate proper principles. I'm sure politics and social
injustices were not touched. He didn't try to make himself
relevant. He just said, look, look and live. And that's the message
of the cross. Look. Somebody says, I don't see then
you've never looked. If you look, you will see. And if you do not
see, you have not looked. I have no doubt about this. If
somebody was blind, if they would have turned their sightless eye
sockets to that serpent on a pole, they were healed. Scripture says,
look ye blind and see. Verse nine. And Moses made a serpent of brass, just as God said, and put it
upon a pole. I don't know how high that pole
was, but you can bet it was high because people throughout the
camp were to look upon that. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten Any man. I love that, any man. It doesn't say if the sergeant
had been in an elect center. It didn't say, it didn't give
any adjective description, just any man. Is that you? Are you in that demographic?
Any man. I don't care who you are. Any
man. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld, when he just
looked, the serpent of brass, he lived. Hebrews 12.2 says, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, looking unto Jesus. Do you believe looking at the
God-man, the two natures, fully God, fully perfect humanity,
is he able to save you? without any of your contribution,
without any of your help? Looking at him as the surety
before the foundation of the world when he agreed, I'll save
them. If he's your surety, is there
any doubt of your salvation? If he agreed to save you before
time began, before you had any existence, Is there any doubt
that saved you must be? Well, how can I know if he is
my surety? You look to it. That's the only
evidence. You look to it. He's your surety.
Look to him in his perfect life. His law keeping, his obedience
to God's holy law. He never sinned. There's your
righteousness. Look to him as your personal
righteousness before God. You look to him in his death. There's your sin payment. Jesus
paid it all. We just heard that all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as
snow. We don't sing Jesus paid a half
the other half I owe. No, Jesus paid it all, all the
debt I owe. I look at his death as God's
satisfaction. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. We look to his resurrection as
our justification. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. The moment he died, I was justified. Don't you have to believe to
be justified? Of course you do. You got to
believe that. When he was raised from the dead, I was justified
by what he did. Let me tell you the reason I
persevere, I'm looking to Him to intercede for me. The man
Christ Jesus, the reason I persevere is because He prays for me. I look for His return as my glorification. When He appears, we'll be like
Him. Isn't that glorification? When He appears, we'll be like
Him. For we shall see Him as He is. Heaven will be looking upon Him. If you've never looked, look now. Don't wait for anything. Look
to Him now. And if you have looked, keep
on looking. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in the high and
holy name of Him who was nailed to a pole to make a way for you
to be just and justify us. We ask in his name that you would
give everybody in this room, for Christ's sake, the grace
to look to him and to look nowhere else. In his name we pray, amen.