Let's turn to Numbers chapter
21. We'll begin reading here in verse 4. Numbers 21.4. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom.
And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way. 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. They came to a mediator. They
came to one who stood between them and God. and ask for mercy. Confess their sin and ask for
mercy. 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 to pass that every one 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. Now our Lord Himself chose this
picture. Turn with me to John 3. Our Lord
chose this picture to illustrate the gospel. We know this is a
picture of Christ because the Lord used it Himself. Now look
here in John 3, 14. John 3, 14. He said, 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. For God so loved the world. We've seen what this word so
means. It means for God, after this
manner, loved the world. He did it after this manner,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world. The serpents
were already there. The people were already dying
from the serpents, weren't they? The Lord didn't send Christ to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Now, go back with me to Numbers
21 and what I want to show you here in this picture is this. Just as the people were saved
by looking to the brazen serpent, Sinners are saved one way, by
looking to Christ, believing on Christ. Just like they looked
to that serpent and lived, we look to Christ, believe on Christ,
cast all your care on Christ and that's how we're given eternal
life. Now first of all, we can only
be saved by Christ because we sinned against God. We can only
be saved by God because we sinned against God. We can only be saved
by His Son in the way God is pleased to save because we have
no say in the matter. We have to come to God in God's
way. Now, we go back there to verse 4, Numbers 21, 4. They
journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass
the land of Edom. You know why they were going
that way? Because of their own unbelief. It says, and the soul
of the people, this was in there, very heart of hearts, was discouraged
because of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses, saying, Wherefore have ye brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Blaming God for just
bringing them out there to die. Blaming Moses, just bringing
them out there to die. For there's no bread. Neither
is there any water, and our soul loatheth." Our soul hates this
light bread. This people is a picture of all
men in Adam. This is a picture of all of us
in Adam. They were bitten by serpents and death entered because
they sinned. That's why they were bitten.
That's why God sent the judgment, the serpents and they were bitten
and they died because they sinned. The people spake against God
and they spake against Moses. That's why He sent the serpents. Moses is a picture of the law.
He sent the judgment because they sinned against God and against
His law. In the garden, in the beginning,
there was one man, Adam. And we sinned against God in
Adam. We broke God's law in Adam. And so the result was... Death
entered by sin. Look at verse 6. Because they
murmured and they were blaming God and they were sinning against
God, verse 6 says, the Lord sent fiery serpents. The Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much
people of Israel died. Those serpents represent sin
and death. They represent the curse, the
judgment, the law pronounced by the Lord when He said that
we're under the curse. They bit the people and much
people died. Listen up. The text, the Romans
tells us, this is what we have pictured here, as by one man.
Sin entered the world and death by sin. And so, because Adam
sinned, because Adam brought in sin and death, And because
Adam was a federal seminal head, for this reason, because we sinned
in Adam, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. When we sinned against God in
Adam, that's when sin entered. That's when God sent the serpents.
And the venom entered us and we died just like the serpents
bite causes death. Sin caused us to die. We came under the curse and condemnation
of the law. But what do we come into this
world doing? What do we come into this world
doing? We come into this world blaming God. See, we're conceived
in sin. Sin's passed upon us legally,
but also we're conceived in sin. So we come forth doing what they
did right in the very beginning, sinning against God, murmuring
against God, blaming God for every problem that we have. But it's our own fault. It's
man's fault. It's not God's fault. It's man's
fault that sin entered in death by sin. They were wandering in
that wilderness for one reason. God had brought them to the land
of Canaan. God had given them a messenger to preach the truth
to them. They heard all God's promises
concerning how He would deliver them from the hand of their enemies.
and they thought they were smarter than God. They looked at that
land and they sent spies in there. And it was just like God said
it would be. Well, that part of what God said
was true. Why didn't they believe the other
part of what God said was true when He said, I'll deliver all
your enemies into your hand? They saw that the enemies were
greater than them. Why didn't they believe God when
He said, I'll deliver those enemies into your hand? Unbelief doesn't
make any sense, does it? And so it was that reason, that's
the reason they were wandering around in this wilderness, their
own unbelief. You know why sinners are wandering
around in the world, blaming God, murmuring against God, complaining
that everything's God's fault? Why would it just God allow such
bad things happen to good people? Well, first off, there's not
any good people. But God can do what He will because
we sinned against God. He don't owe us anything. And
the problem is our own unbelief. It's our own unbelief. God gave
them bread from heaven and water from the rock. Bread from heaven
and water from the rock. And they said, there's no water. There's no water. And our soul
hates this light bread. Sinners today are no different.
That rocks Christ. And that bread is Christ. He
is the bread from heaven. How many in our day find fault
with the true Christ of the Bible? This is the answer. And how many
people find fault with the true Christ of the Bible? How many
who claim to believe the true Christ of the Bible Pretty soon,
just like they did. They started out eating that
light bread thinking this is the greatest thing ever. And
before long, they are saying, we hate this light bread with
every fiber of our being. So many start out professing
Christ. And before long, they are blaming
the preacher saying all he ever does is preach Christ. Do you
have anything else? I've had men tell me, what am
I leaving? I'm not leaving anything. All
you do is preach Christ. Thank you. Thank you. You couldn't
have given me a better compliment. Thank you. Our soul loatheth this light
red. Sinners today are no different
from them, brethren. No different at all. Man's condition
is due to his own sin and unbelief. But he blames God, blames God's
way, blames God's messengers, blames God's word. A sinner won't
confess he's wrong about anything. When you watch the news today,
what's the number one? If you cut away all the smoke
and all the mirrors and get right down to the essence of it, what
is everybody saying? Somebody else is wrong. It's
somebody else's fault. That's the problem. Nobody is willing to say, I'm
the only one to blame. I'm the only one to blame. I've
not gotten myself into the mess I'm in. Nobody else has gotten
me into the mess I'm in. I'm the only one that did it.
God says, let the wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked forsake
his way. and the unrighteous man his thoughts. You that are still trying to
go your way and think your thoughts, where has that gotten you? Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
and He will have mercy on him. He will. He says, come to our
God for He will abundantly pardon. God says, for my thoughts are
not your thoughts. And your ways are not my ways,
saith the Lord. And I'll give you an example.
Somebody will hear about this federal seminal headship and
they'll say, I don't want to be represented by another man.
I don't like that way. I don't want you to tell me that
another man sinned and I was represented in that man and I
died in that man. I don't want to be told that.
Yes, you do, sinner. Yes, you do, because Adam is
a type of Christ. And just as Adam was the head,
Christ is the head of the people. And the only way we are going
to be saved is in Christ alone. As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. So yeah, I want to be in Adam. I can't be represented by the
second Adam, the last Adam, unless I am willing to bow and confess
that I was represented by that first Adam. But God's just now. He's just. This is the whole
purpose of God making this world and sending His Son into this
world, is to manifest that God is holy, that God is righteous,
that God is just. That's the whole purpose. That's
our gospel, the righteousness of God. This is why we preach
that a man can't be saved by his works. This is why we preach
a man can't be saved by the law. Because man is not righteous.
God alone is righteous. And the whole shooting match
was set in order by God to declare this thing. God is righteous.
God is holy. God is righteous. Now what does
that mean? That means He will by no means clear the guilty. That means everybody that's broken
God's law. There's no loopholes that's going
to get us out from under God's judgment. Like you can get out
from under things in this world. Man's courts are not just. This
court is just. This judge is just. There's no
loopholes. We're all guilty. We all sin. We're all guilty. And we all must and shall die. We all must and we all shall
die. Now there is no way around that.
Every sinner must and shall die under the justice of God. Well
then how is it that God can save some? If we all must die, we're
all guilty, we all must die, and we all shall die, how then
can God save some, have mercy on some, justify some, and some
be given life? How can that be? The Lord told Moses to make a
serpent. and lift it up on a pole. Isn't
that a strange thing? Look here, Numbers 21.8. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent and set
it upon a pole. Verse 9. And Moses made a serpent
of brass and put it upon a pole. Now first of all, who provided
the answer to the problem? The Lord did. The Lord did. In eternity before sin ever entered
and death by sin, God had already solved this problem. It was never
a problem to God. He had already determined how
He would take care of this sin issue for His people. Scripture
says, Blessed be God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. God blessed somebody in eternity
in heaven before He ever made this world. And He not only blessed
us, He blessed us with all spiritual blessings. And it says, He did
it in heavenly places in Christ according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And
He did all this according to the good pleasure of His will.
He didn't ask my permission. He didn't ask your permission.
He didn't ask any man's permission. He wasn't concerned about your
will or my will in the matter. He did it according to His own
will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace. That means God freely, without
a cause, chose these people that He chose. That's what grace is. Unmerited, without a cause, He
chose whom He would in Christ and He made us accepted in Him.
That's why Paul said we're bound to give thanks always to God,
brethren. You who believe the Gospel, you know why? Should
we thank you? Should we thank me that I gave
my heart to Jesus and I allowed the Lord to His blood to be effectual
for me? Is that who I should thank? No. We are bound to thank God always,
beloved, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
He did that. He did that. God knew how He would remain
just and yet show mercy to sinners like us. Now how did He do it? How would He remain just? How
would He pour out that law and execute everybody that He is
going to save? How did He do that and save them
and give them life? He told Moses, make a serpent
of brass. Now listen to what He is telling
Moses to do. This was as real as Moses could do it, because
Moses was a man. But he's telling Moses, you make
the very thing that's killing the people and put it on a pole. A serpent was biting them, a
picture of sin. He said, you make a picture of
sin, put it up on a pole. Lift it up so all can see it. The Lord tells us that this picture
is Him made sin and lifted up on the cross. He said, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. He must be lifted up. The only
way to save His people was that Christ must be made like unto
His brethren. Go to Hebrews 2. Hebrews chapter
2. The Son of God had to be made
like unto His brethren. How much did He have to be made
like unto His brethren? Look at Hebrews 2.17. Wherefore
in all things, in all things it behooved Him to be made like
unto His brethren. that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. This was a must. Those Christ
came to save were flesh and blood under the law. Christ must be
made flesh, made under the law. Sin accepted. He had to be made
flesh, made of a woman, made under the law. When the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law that
we might receive the adoption of Son. The Lord couldn't say,
we're just going to say it's as if you were made flesh and
made of a woman and made under the law. No, He had to come do
it. Sin caused Christ's people to
be unjust. Sin caused Christ's people to
be unjust, to be guilty. So Christ, if He is going to
stand in our room instead, must be made sin. The Scripture says,
He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. I love this that we looked
the other day at how, I'm going to preach from Isaiah 53 today,
but we looked at how Christ bore the sickness of His people. Took
our sicknesses. And that was a picture of Him
going and bearing the sin. But even just the fact that He
took our sickness. Scripture says He bore it. I
can't explain that. It's beyond me. I can't tell
you... I can't do it and so therefore
my natural inclination is to say it can't be done. But I'm
not God. God did it. He did it. He was
there. People were healed. He did it.
And that was just... That was just the symptom. That
was the symptom. He went to the cross and He made
him sin. He made him the cause of the
sickness. And that was the actual full
fulfillment of that prophecy. His people then were under the
curse of the law. We came under the curse, we were
made a curse once sin entered and death by sin. God came to
Adam then and He said, now you're under the curse of the law. What's
the curse of the law? It means you're going to die.
You're going to bear justice. If somebody don't intervene,
you're going to die under the curse of the law and perish in
hell for eternity. So having been made sin now,
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made
a curse for us. He bore that cross. Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree that cross. is a symbol of the
totality of everything Christ bore on that cross when He was
paying the wages of sin. So brethren, this is what Christ
meant when He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. It was
a must. Why was all of this a must? Because
Hebrews 2.17 says, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God. If it would have been you
and me, if it would have been pertaining to us, you and I are
not that strict. We'll just say it's okay. It looks good enough to us. Now
with God, it's strict. He is righteous. Every eye dotted,
every teeth crossed. That He might be a merciful,
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of His people. That's why. There was no other
way. There was no other way for God
to be just and the justifier of His people. But brethren,
the good news is because Christ was made sin, God was just to
execute justice upon Him. instead of His people. He had
made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
what? The righteousness of God. What
is the righteousness of God? Perfect justice. Perfectly just. That's why He made Him sin, that
God might be perfectly just and make us perfectly just in Him.
And by manifesting His own righteousness now, God is just. God is the
justifier of all who believe on Christ. Go to Romans 3.25.
Romans 3.25. whom God hath set forth to be
of propitiation, satisfaction, through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Go back to Romans 1. This is
why the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. This is why
the gospel we preach is the power of God unto salvation. Look,
Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Paul
said, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you at Rome also, for
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek, because therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it's written, the just
shall live by faith. The righteousness of God is our
gospel. What I'm telling you today is
our gospel. It is our gospel. The righteousness
of God. There's no way to manifest the
righteousness of God except in a way that is perfectly righteous. You couldn't do something that
was not righteous. You couldn't do something unjust
and manifest righteousness by it. The way you want to manifest
righteousness is it's got to be perfectly righteous. And so therefore, it was a must. And bless God, now that law is
satisfied. Now God is just to show His people
mercy. That's why Christ said, I must
be lifted up. I must be. Now, seeing that all
the work is finished, in justifying His people, saying it's God Himself
who through His Son, the Lord Jesus, is just. He's executed
His law upon all His people. Everybody that God has saved,
that God shall save, everybody He's going to call, He calls
somebody today through this gospel. They died over 2,000 years ago
under the justice of God in Christ. The same as they sinned in Adam
at the very beginning of this world and died spiritually in
him, they died under the justice of God over 2,000 years ago in
Christ. That means they don't even know
it yet, but the law of God already has nothing to say to them in
Christ. Now in themselves, They're under
the condemnation. They don't know it. They're sinners.
They haven't been brought to Christ yet. But before God, the
matter is already settled before they even know about it. That's
how real this thing is. So what is there left to do then
for you and I to do seeing that all this free justification is
accomplished? If I'm going to have this free
justification from my sin, what do I have to do to have it? What did the Lord tell them to
do? Just one thing. Look. That's all. Just look. Look here at verse
8. Numbers 21. It shall come to pass that everyone
that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. Verse 9. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. He lived. Now understand what
they were not told to do. They weren't told to produce
their own cure to heal their wounds. You and I can do nothing
to produce this balm of Gilead. We can't produce the antidote
for our sin. We can't do it. We can't justify
ourselves. They were not told that they'd
be healed by ministering or serving others that were wounded. They didn't say, now, you'll
be healed if you can go around and gather up other people that
are bitten and say, now, you look, you look, you look, and
if you can get, say, five to look, then you'll be healed.
No. You're not going to be healed by ministering to others. That's
what religion is all about. You go witness and go witness,
so one day you can stand before God and say, didn't we cast out
devils? Didn't we do many wonderful works?
Look at all these people we brought to Christ. That's what Paul meant
when he said, they try to constrain you to do something so they can
glory in what they made you do. So they can stand before God
and glory in it. And say, we deserve to be saved. If I can't
swim, it's going to do me no good to jump into deep water
and try to save somebody that's drowning. And brethren, you and
I can't swim. We can't get out of sin. So it
won't do any good to try to help others out of it and think we're
going to be saved that way. They weren't told to fight the
serpents. I can't fight my sin. I can't stop my sin. There's
nothing I can do about it. I can't give myself a new heart.
I can't justify myself. They weren't told to make an
offering to the serpent on the pole. A lot of preachers are
telling you there's some things you've got to do to clean up
your act before you can come to Christ. They weren't told
to make an offering to the serpent on the pole. They weren't told to come down
to Moses and pray through. It won't do you any good to go
to a preacher. It won't do you any good to say 10,000 Hail Marys. That won't help you. And it won't
do you any good in front of a Protestant Pope either. They stand in the
First Baptist Church and come down to Him and pray with Him.
It won't do you any good to pray with that man over there in the
funny hat. Neither one of them will help you. They weren't told
to look at Moses who represents the law. The law was given for
one reason. The law entered that the offense
might abound. The law entered to declare us
guilty and shut our mouth. The law entered to put us in
the dust until Christ come and give us faith to trust Him. They
were not told to look at their wounds. Some people think that
you can get sinners to repent if you just get them to look
at what a terrible sinner they are. And by looking at their
sins and mourning their sins and hating their sins, that that's
repentance. That's not repentance. Your sins
won't make you repent. That's why you see so many people
that claim to have been saved from their sin get up when it's
time to give their bragamony and tell about what an awful
sinner they were and just rejoice in it, talking about it, and
repent from it. What will make a man repent?
They shall look upon Me whom they've pierced. That's what
the Lord said. He didn't tell them to look until
they're looking. That's the big one now. At least I got my faith. You're not going to be saved
looking to your faith. We don't have faith in faith. God commanded
them to look to that pole, to that serpent on that pole, and
they'd have life. That's all. That's all, but I'm
telling you, to get a sinner to stop everything else and only
do that, only God can do that. Only God can make a sinner stop
trying to do all these other insane things and believe on
Christ. John 3.14, let's go back there
and let's read what our Lord said. How did they prove that
they believed Christ? I mean, how did they prove that
they believed God? That His Word was true, that
they had to live? How did they prove it? They looked
to that serpent. The only one way you are going
to prove that you believe God's Word. You hear people say, well,
I believe God. The only one way you can prove
it. Quit doing, quit trying to save yourself, quit trying to
come to God another way and rest entirely in Christ. That's the
only way. Watch this now, verse 14. 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. For God, after this manner, loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be saved. He's got elects scattered
all over this world. Christ died for people that are
scattered all over this world. Nicodemus thought it was the
Jews only. And our Lord's saying, you're
not going to be saved because of who your mama and your daddy
was. God has an elect people all over the world. That's why
he's using the word world. Because Nicodemus was a Jew thinking
he was only the Jew. And they called Gentiles the
world. And the Lord said to him, I've got people all over this
world. The world through Him might be saved. He that believeth
on Him is not condemned. To you that believe, there is
therefore now no condemnation. The law of God is satisfied.
It will never say another word to you. But he that believeth
not is condemned already. Christ didn't do that. He already
condemned. Why? Because you hadn't come
to the only cure. Because you hadn't believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray God will bless that make
His people believe Him. Let's stand together. Father, thank You for Your Word.
We pray now You'll bless it to the hearts of Your people. Keep
us and bring us again the second hour and teach us Your Gospel. Forgive us our sins, Lord. In
Christ's name we pray. Amen.