Now we're turning in our Bible
to 2 Kings chapter 18. And I'm taking the title for
the message from what Hezekiah called the brazen serpent that
Moses had made and Moses had lifted up. Notice verse 4. Hezekiah removed the high places,
and he's talking about the high places of idolatry, worship of
Baal, break the images and cut down the groves, all the pagan
images, cut down the groves and break in pieces. He break in
pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto those
days the children of Israel did burn incense to it. That is,
they made it an object of worship. And he called it Nahashtan. That is a piece of brass. It's
just a worthless piece of brass. So the title of the message is
Nahashtan, a worthless piece of brass. Moses, as we read earlier
in Numbers 21, made this serpent of brass. According to the Word
of the Lord, it was used as a symbol of Christ lifted up upon a cross. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
had that conversation with Nicodemus in John chapter 3, remember He
said, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
that who should ever would look to that serpent would be healed.
And he said, those who look to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe
on him likewise shall be healed. So that brazen serpent lifted
up with a type and picture, a providential type and picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But Hezekiah knew something that
most people in Judah did not know. being taught of God by
the revelation of God that this brazen serpent had no spiritual
value, but rather it became a symbol of idolatry. Seems like these
people were always grasping after something visual that they could
see. Hezekiah knew that it must be
stamped out along with the images of Baal, along with the high
places, Remember reading the other Kings would not touch those
high places turn back a couple chapters chapter 14 2nd Kings
chapter 14 the other Kings it says of them Remember Joash king
of Judah and In 2 Kings 14 verse 3, he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David his father. He
did according to all things that Joash his father did, how be
it the high places were not taken away, as yet the people did sacrifice
and burnt incense upon the high places. He did some things right,
but he did not remove these symbols of idolatry, even Uzziah, Look
at chapter 15 of 2 Kings, was 16 years old when he began to
reign, verse 2, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's
name was Jokaliah of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah
had done, save that the high places were not removed. The
people sacrificed and burned incense still on the high places.
It seemed like those high places were something that the kings
would not touch, lest they would offend some of the people that
they ruled over. Hezekiah being taught of God
was bold. Verse four, he removed the high
places, 2 Kings 18. He removed the high places, break
down all the images and even cut down the groves and break
in pieces that brazen serpent. Now what a bright spot in the
dark history of Israel and of Judah was Hezekiah. Hezekiah was God's king. It says
that Hezekiah was like David. David we know the scripture said
David was a man after God's own heart seeking the glory of God
Seeking the will of the Lord he cried unto the Lord often
when he was in trouble My heart lifted up to the Lord was lifted
up to the Lord, but thank God Hezekiah was not like his father
Ahab his father was a brought a Israel and Jerusalem and Judah
to a low place, a low place. Hezekiah would not tolerate idolatry
in any form, but rather ruthlessly rooted it out and spared not. In all of his 29 years of service,
he warred against idolatry and sought the will of the Lord and
sought to serve the Lord. It says down here in verse 5
that he trusted in the Lord God of Israel. What a blessed thing
it is to trust the Lord our God for all of salvation and all
of forgiveness. And that's what Hezekiah was
blessed to do. So that after him was none like
him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.
It says in verse six that he clave unto the Lord, and departed
not from following him. That is, he walked by faith,
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of salvation, because
it says here he kept his commandments. And that is only done by faith. Through faith we don't make void
the law, we honor the law of God. which the Lord had commanded. Then look at verse 7. And the
Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. He told
that to Joshua. And that's a promise that God
gives to all of his people. And he prospered whether so ever
he went forth. And he rebelled against the king
of Assyria and served him not because he served the Lord, our
God. Now we're gonna see later on
a very interesting story how the king of Assyria came to destroy
Jerusalem and how Hezekiah cried unto the Lord and the Lord despatched
one angel and killed 185,000 Assyrians. One angel, one angel. And he cried unto the Lord for
help, and the Lord sent him help. But I thought about this. What
a shining example of the Lord's sovereign mercy was Hezekiah. His father Ahaz was a base, gross
idolater, even made his own children, remember, pass through the fire,
sacrificed some of his children unto pagan gods. Hezekiah was
raised in a very bad environment, wasn't he? Bad environment. He was raised by an idolatrous
father, Ahaz. He had a bad environment. He
had a bad education. He was raised in the way of idolatry,
paganism, and had nothing but a bad example to follow. I mean,
his father was not a good example for him to follow. Yet, despite
all those things that would hinder him, yet the Lord in his mercy,
sovereign mercy, overcame all obstacles, and the
Lord made him a trophy of His love and an object of His mercy."
Isn't that amazing? And it says down here, He made
him to prosper. You see verse 7? The Lord was
with him and he prospered. He prospered. Whatever he did,
the Lord made him to prosper. Now I want you to turn to 2 Chronicles
29. because we have a little more
information. 2 Chronicles 29. If you read
this, there was a great, great revival that went on in the days
of Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 29, look at verse
3. He in the first year of his reign,
in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord
and repaired them. Now his father, it says up in
chapter 28, shut the doors of the house of the Lord. But the
first thing he did, the first month, the first year, he opened
the temple and repaired, repaired. Verse 4, he brought in the priest
and Levites and gathered them together in the east street and
said to them, hear me, you Levites, sanctify now yourselves and sanctify
and the house of the Lord, and carry forth the filthiness out
of his holy place. Now, we won't read the rest of
it there, but I would encourage you to go read it. But stay right
there in 2 Chronicles 29. I want to show you something,
just a moment. But let me read this. We see under his reign
a great time of reformation, a great time of revival, a great
time of renewal of the priest office, and the sacrifice unto
the Lord. He reinstituted the sacrifice. rebuilding of the temple, and
observing of the Passover. They hadn't been observing the
Passover. Now, look at 2 Chronicles 29 verse 28, and all the congregation
worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded, and
all this continued until the burnt offerings was finished
and when they made an end and offering, the king and all that
were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped." It was a great
time of reformation and revival. Moreover, Hezekiah the king and
the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord
with the words of David, one of the Psalms they were singing,
and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness
and they bowed their heads and worshipped. What a transformation,
what a time of revival, what a time of refreshing that Hezekiah
introduced. What a blessing was showered
upon Judah through the ministry of Hezekiah and indeed he is
a personal type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was
our King who prospers in everything that he does. You remember from
Isaiah 53 verse 10, where it says, the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
does, and it will forever. forever. Everything the Lord
Jesus Christ undertook for us on behalf of us as our mediator,
as our advocate, as our representative, God made it to prosper. We have all spiritual blessings
in Christ and we prosper. My God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And certainly we can sing the
Lamb of God, our prosperous King, worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive all honor, glory, and blessing. But I want us to
consider this evening the particulars of the boldness of Hezekiah in
destroying this religious relic. and calling it what it really
was, of no spiritual value, nehushtan. It's just a piece of brass. Just
a piece of brass. It really was a distraction to
true worship, wasn't it? Nothing but a worthless piece
of brass. You remember I've read this scripture
to you many times. Whatsoever was written aforetime
was written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scripture, that we might have hope. What Hezekiah
did in that day, Now, from the time that Moses made that serpent
until this time, I looked up the years, 726 years had passed
from the time of the wilderness until this time here and yet
somehow they hung on to that piece of brass and thought it
somehow recommended them to God or somehow would be a blessing
unto them. What Hezekiah did that day in
destroying that thing, I mean he break it up in pieces and
said it's nothing but a piece of metal. It would be comparable
to our day if someone, if they could find the actual piece of
wood that formed the cross upon which the Lord Jesus Christ was
crucified. Now what would a religious, say
the Catholic Church, They found that actual piece of wood upon
which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Now, what would they
do with it? You know what they'd do with it. They'd put it in
a shrine. People would make pilgrimages
to that place, and they would make that into the object of
worship, wouldn't they? They'd use it for financial gain.
They'd make it an object of idolatry. It would be right for us to take
that piece of wood and burn it. It's nothing but a piece of wood. That's right. It's worthless. It's just a distraction. We're
to worship God in spirit and in truth, not with visual aids. We're to worship God in spirit
and in truth around the gospel of Christ, who is the truth.
And I know this, there is no true worship apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ and the gospel. concerning the gospel of God
that's concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. He seeketh such to worship
him in spirit and in truth. We need not, therefore, visual
aids, do we? Do we need visual aids? We do
not need religious objects, nor do we need religious pictures.
Most of the pictures that people hang in their houses, that they
say, well, that's the portrait of Jesus. To me, they look like
Wild Bill Hickok. I mean, there's not much difference.
We're not to worship God in images and pictures. We worship him
in spirit and in truth. The more visual aid that we need,
the less we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. I told you the
story about the man I used to work with. His name was Jake.
I remember his last name, but I won't give it. But his name
was Jake. And I would oftentimes try to
tell him the gospel of God and try to tell him that he was a
sinner, that salvation was all of God's grace. And oftentimes
he would pull out of his pocket his keys, his key ring. And on that key ring, he had
a symbol of a cross. And then next to that, he had
a rabbit's foot. I said, Jake. He said, when I
get in trouble, I just rub that cross and that rabbit's foot.
I said, Jake. That sounds just so far-fetched,
doesn't it? But somehow he thought that recommended
him to God, or at least removed God's wrath. When I get in trouble,
I just rub that cross and rub that rabbit's foot. It's funny,
but it's so sad, isn't it? People have nothing but a rabbit
foot religion. That's all they have, a rabbit
foot religion. Good luck. If I didn't have bad
luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. I don't ever say, well, I was
lucky. Don't ever use that word. We believe in the sovereign providence
of God. We can say the Lord blessed me.
And the Lord helped me, but don't ever say, well, I was lucky.
I got lucky that day. Oh, no. God's not the God of
luck. He's the God of grace. The Lord
said, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth,
I am God and there is no other. Saving faith is always looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now having said that, I want
to go back for a little bit to Numbers 21 and look at this story
for just a minute, then we'll come back to 2 Kings 18. Numbers 21. And let's see the
story behind this brazen serpent lifted up. You see, this is a
gospel story in Numbers 21. Numbers 21 verse 4 and 5. They journeyed, that is, they
had been delivered from Egyptian bondage, they had crossed the
Red Sea, they had heard Moses say that salvation is of the
Lord, and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red
Sea to compass the land of Edom, or to go around the land of Edom.
Edom was the children of Esau, the descendants of Esau. And
the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
I mean, it was a hard way out in the wilderness, out in the
desert. And the people spake against God. And they spake against
Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
up, and they said this more than one time, you brought us up out
of Egypt to just die in the wilderness. We would have been better off,
they said. They remember the one time they picked up stones
to stone Moses. They said, we'd been better off
if we would have died in Egypt with a full belly. And you brought
us out here to die in the wilderness of hunger and thirst. There is
no bread. Neither is there any water. Now
they lied on both counts. God brought water out of that
rock. He rained bread from heaven.
And then they said, We hate this light bread, that
bread that fell from heaven. The scriptures in the Psalms
calls it angel's food. It fell from heaven six days
a week and they said nothing but we hate this bread. The problem is, don't you, I
hated God. They were in rebellion against
God. Here's a sinful people complaining
against God, His way, and the servant of God, Moses. And certainly
we can see a picture of fallen sinful humanity and our own selves,
can't we? We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not
one. They hated the way, That weighs
Christ. They hated His Word through God's
servant Moses. They hated the bread from heaven,
the manna that rained from heaven. And they said there was no water.
Moses was told by God to smite that rock, and out of that rock
came water. And it says in the Scripture
that that water followed them. They had water. They had bread. Their problem was they sinned
against God. People haven't changed. We're
still just as sinful as those people who were delivered from
Egyptian bondage. It is the bent and will of our
fallen nature left to ourselves to speak against God, not for
Him, to speak against His Word, to speak against His way. People
haven't changed. We're still sinners. We're not
evolving to be better. It's just all downhill. Adam
came in on the high point. created in righteousness and
true holiness, He has fallen off that high point all the way
down here in the valley, and we're born in sin, shapen in
iniquity. We are sinners by birth, sinners
by practice, and sinners by choice. By nature we love darkness and
not the light. The second thing is this, because
if there's sin against God, look at verse 6, the Lord sent, Numbers
21.6, The Lord sent fiery snakes among them, among the people,
and those snakes bit the people, and many people of Israel died. Now, keep in mind that there's
several million people out here in this wilderness, and the Lord
just sent a whole herd of snakes Multiple snakes. I don't know
what you call snakes. I know a flock or herd or something. A
lot of them. A what? Okay. The Lord sent a fiery serpent
among the people and they bit the people and much people did
not die. The reason that we die is because
the bite of sin has smitten us. And the people cried out. Because
of their sin against the Lord, He sent fiery serpents among
them. Many were bitten and many died. No doubt thousands did. Thousands of people died. Then
they cried to the Lord for help. Then they cried for mercy, confessing
their sins. Look at verse 7. Therefore the
people came to Moses and said, we've sinned. You reckon he knew
it? I reckon he knew it, didn't he?
We've sinned for we've spoken against the Lord and we've spoken
against you. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. They knew they couldn't do anything
about it. I'm sure they took whatever they could, rocks or
whatever, to try to kill the serpents, but there's too many
of them, and they just kept viciously attacking. They take away the
serpents from us, and Moses prayed for the people. They cried for help. and Moses
interceded from them." Our sin has separated us from God. The
serpent of sin has bitten us, and we know there's no human
cure for this disease, this virus of sin. For our guilt and condemnation,
we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And if God
doesn't intervene for us, if God doesn't provide the remedy
and take away our sin, notice what he said there, Pray to the
Lord that He take away this serpent. Pray to the Lord that He would
take away our sin. If God doesn't intervene for
us and mediate for us, we too shall surely die in our sins. The wages of sin is death. God
says, if you believe not that I am He, you'll die in your sins.
Here's the third thing. God provided the remedy for them,
didn't He? God provided the remedy. Look
at verse 8. And the Lord said to Moses, How
longsuffering is our Lord? He should have said, I'm going
to kill all of them. I'm going to kill every one of them. At
one time, He told Moses that. I'm going to kill every one of
them. I'm going to make a whole new nation out of you. And the
Lord said to Moses, Make thee 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, he shall live. And Moses made a serpent
of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if any
serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at that serpent of
brass lifted up, he was healed." Now, Moses was instructed to
make this brazen serpent likened to the fiery serpents, and lifted
up upon the pole. And then everyone that looks
to it shall be healed." Now don't turn. Let me turn and read it
to you because you're familiar with that. Over here in John
chapter 3, the Lord used that as A picture and type of the gospel
when he preached the gospel to Nicodemus, told him he must be
born again. 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, several things about this
serpent. The brazen serpent was made in
the likeness of those fiery serpents. And we know the Scriptures teach,
Romans 8, verse 3, that the Lord Jesus Christ was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh. He had no sin. The brazen serpent,
see, had no venom, right? And the Lord Jesus Christ had
no sin. He did no sin and He knew no
sin. He was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The brazen serpent
was also lifted up upon a pole. So to the Lord Jesus Christ was
lifted up upon the cross bearing our sin in His own body on the
tree. There was just one remedy in
that day, one brazen serpent. The people weren't told to do
this or do that or do this. God spoke to Moses, make one
brazen serpent and lift it up. And there's just one remedy,
there's one Lord, one faith, one gospel, one mediator between
God and men, that's the man Christ Jesus. There's just one way,
Christ is that way, the truth and the life. There's just one
remedy today to put away our sin. And we all know what that
way is, don't we? Christ and Him crucified. The
blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all our sin. The people were given a very
simple and effective instruction. Look. Look. Look and live. Look and be healed. And the gospel has the same instruction. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be made whole. Whosoever believeth on the Son
hath life, life. He said, Look unto me, and be
ye saved. All the ends of the earth I am God, and there is
no other God but me, the only just God and Savior. Don't look
anywhere else but to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Don't look to an experience. A lot of people, they have religious
experiences. They go back to their religious
experiences. Well, I had this, I had that.
Forget it. Forget it. Salvation is not an
experience. Don't look to your feelings.
Feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My
warrant is the Word of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
Look only to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen carefully. Don't look
to the cross. of the Christ. Look to the Christ
of the cross. We don't worship a cross. We
worship the Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified for us. The Apostle Paul told that Philippian
jailer when he asked the question, what must I do to be saved? He didn't give him anything to
do. He said, look, look, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shall be saved. Now back to 2 Kings 18 for a
moment. Back to our story. 726 years
later, when Hezekiah came to the throne, And he removed the high places,
break down the images, cut down the groves, break in pieces the
brazen serpent that Moses had made. For unto those days the
children of Israel did burn incense to it, but he called it nothing
but a piece of brass." These Israelites hung on to that piece
of brass. and thought somehow it would
be of some spiritual value, but Hezekiah, knowing the truth of
the matter, destroyed it, rightly so. People today have done the
same deadly thing. They have made themselves idols
of different things, various things, whether it be crosses,
whether it be steeples on churches, whether it be temples of men,
whether it be church buildings or places on this earth. A lot
of people think they have to make a pilgrimage to the holy
land, they call it, over there in Jerusalem, to see some of
the holy sites. Nothing holy about that land.
We can say it's the biblical land where these things took
place, but that land over there is not any more holy than this
land right here. Not at all. You see, we don't
have to go to places and go through experiences and feelings for
salvation in a person. The Lord Jesus Christ is looking
to Him. Let us throw every idol away
and worship only the Lord Jesus Christ. We are the true Israel,
which worship God in the Spirit, that rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and we have No confidence in the flesh. No confidence in any
idol. We only look to Christ alone. Always. I found this hymn and
I didn't know it was in our hymn book. by William Cowper. We sing his song all the time
on page 222. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's vein, and sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stain. But there was another
song that kept ringing in the back of my mind, and I didn't
know it was in our songbook. So I looked up in the index,
William Cowper, and he had the song on page 222, but also page
336. And one of the lines in that
song, and I don't know where I've heard this, I don't think
we've ever sung that song, 336, 336. But the third stanza in that
song says this, the dearest idol I have known, whatever idol,
whatever that idol be, Lord help me to get from thy throne and
worship only thee. 336, is that it? Yeah. I don't think we've ever sung
that song that I know of, but it would be a good song maybe
that we could learn. But that's the truth. Look to
Christ, look to Christ. Everything else, everything else
is Nahushtin. Really, everything else is Nahushtin. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Him dwells all the fullness of Godhead bodily, and in Christ
we stand complete. Colossians 3.11 says that Christ
is all and in all. He's all of our salvation. He's
everything in salvation. Christ is all and in all.