Brethren, let's open our Bibles
to Numbers chapter 21. Numbers 21. We'll begin reading in verse
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 you 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, praying to the Lord that he take away
the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
set it upon a pole, and it shall come 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 a serpent
of brass, he lived." These people were bitten by serpents. They
were dying. And they were without any hope
whatsoever. And the Lord told Moses to make
this serpent out of brass. The Lord told Moses to make this
serpent in the likeness of what was causing their death. They
were dying because of a serpent. The Lord said, make a serpent.
Make a serpent and lift it up before all. Lift it up so everybody
can see it. And the Lord said, it shall come
to pass that if everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon
this serpent, lift it up, he shall live. Those who looked
in faith, believed in God, lived. The first thing we see here is
these people were bitten by serpents and they were dying without hope.
How did that begin? What was the cause of this? Well,
in verse 5 it says the people spake against God and against
Moses. Moses here represents the law
of God. God gave the law through Moses. So Moses represents the law.
In the garden, in the beginning, in Adam, We sinned against God. When we sinned against God's
law, God gave one law. Just one law. And we broke that
one law in Adam. And when we broke that one law,
we sinned against the law. We sinned against God. And what
was the result? Whenever they did this and sinned
against God, sinned against His law, what was the result of it?
Verse 6, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. These
serpents represent sin. These serpents represent the
curse pronounced by the Lord upon sinners. And they bit the
people. And much people of Israel died. When we sinned against God in
Adam, we broke God's law in Adam. And sin entered in. When God
removed His presence, when God removed His Holy Spirit from
Adam, sin entered in. Sin entered in. Into him. Polluted
his nature. And since he broke the law, sin
passed. His condemnation passed upon
all men. Because all men would come from
him. All men would be born from him. He represented all men.
Everybody that would be born of him would have his nature
and would have his... What he did would be charged
to them. But it was not much people that
died when Adam sinned. It was all people. All people
died when Adam sinned. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15
and verse 22. 1 Corinthians 15, 22. I want to preach so that our
young people can get this at least with their mind this morning. And I think if they get it, we'll
get it. At least with our head anyway. And I pray, Lord, to
give it to us in our heart. Look here at 1 Corinthians 15,
22. All died. Now look. As in Adam,
all die. So in Christ shall all be made
alive. Somebody will say, well, I don't
want God to condemn me because of what somebody else did. I
don't want to be represented by another. I don't want to be
condemned because of what Adam did. Sinner, you do want that
too. You do want that. Because the
only way we're going to be saved from our sin is being represented
by another. Being represented by Christ,
by what He did. All who Christ represented shall
live. Because He's the last Adam. Just like all who Adam represented
died. And all who Christ represented
shall live. So here we've got our problem
now. We've got a problem established. All have sinned against God.
All have broken God's law. All have come under the curse
and condemnation of God and His law. Here's our problem. Now, God is just. Here's another
problem. God is just. He's just. He's not going to pass over any
sin. Not mine and not yours. Not anybody's. God is just. He will by no means
clear the guilty. How then can God save a sinner? How then can God show mercy to
a sinner and still be just? He's not going to just look over
your sin. He's not going to show you mercy
and your sin not be taken care of. So how can He show you mercy
and save you all together by Himself, all together so that
He gets all the glory and yet His justice remain intact remain
upheld. How can that be? Alright, here's
our second point. Look back at our text in Numbers
21. The Lord told Moses, make a serpent
and lift it up. The Lord told Moses, make a serpent
and lift it up. Look at Numbers 21, verse 8.
And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and
set it upon a pole. Look at verse 9. It says, And
Moses made a serpent of brass, Put it upon a pole. Now, who
provided the answer to this problem? The Lord did. The Lord did. Before sin ever entered the world,
before we ever had this problem at all, in eternity, before God
made anything, God had already provided His own solution to
this problem. He had already taken care of
this problem from the beginning. God knew how He could remain
just and still show mercy to his people. He even will do this
in a way that he will be the justifier. He'll be the one that
does the justifying. You see, everything that took
place with Christ is to show God's wisdom. It's to show His
character, show His holiness, His justice, His righteousness,
His wisdom, and all other attributes of God. What was it the Lord
told Moses to make? He told Moses to make a serpent
of brass. They were being bitten by serpents.
He said, make a serpent of brass. This thing that was biting them,
He said, make something that's just like it. And He says, and
lift this thing up on a pole. Now turn over to John chapter
3. John chapter 3. That's a strange thing, isn't
it? A strange thing for God to do.
Why would He do that? to John chapter 3. The Lord Jesus
is speaking here. This is God's own Son, the Son
of God, the second person in the Trinity who came into this
world. And He said this, John 3, 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." Now those
Christ came to save, look at Romans chapter 8. Those Christ came to save were
flesh and blood. So Christ was made flesh. He was made flesh. He came and
was made flesh. Look at Romans 8 verse 3 and
4. What the law could not do, or
what we could not do through the law, That's what it's saying.
What we couldn't do through the law. What the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh. That is, our flesh. Our
sinful flesh. God sent in His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. Moses said, you make something
like their problem. Christ came like us. He became
a man like us. Then look at 2 Corinthians 5.21.
2 Corinthians 5.21. Sin caused Christ's people to
die. Sin caused His people to die.
So Christ was made sin. He was made sin. 2 Corinthians
5.21 says, "...He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
Then look at Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. That serpent represented the
curse and condemnation of the law. Christ was made a curse. That serpent that Moses lifted
up was made like that curse and condemnation. Christ lifted up
on the cross was made a curse. Look at Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us. He didn't
try to do it. He did it. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree." Christ said in John 3, I must
be lifted up. I must be lifted up. And He was
lifted up. He was crucified on the cross.
Why was it a must? Why was it a must that He be
lifted up? By Christ being made sin, by Him being made flesh,
by Him being made sin, by Him being made a curse, God was just
execute on his son the law instead of his people. He was just to
execute the justice of the law on his son instead of his people. And because God executed justice
on his son rather than his people, now God is just, God has justified
his people, and the law is satisfied toward his people. The law has
nothing else whatsoever to say to God's people. Because Christ
satisfied the law for His people. Now, since all this work is finished,
all this work is finished by Christ, what is left for a sinner
to do? What's left for us? The work's
done. What's left for a sinner to do? Nothing. Nothing. Oh, you can't tell a sinner he's
not to do nothing. That's all I'm telling sinners.
I'm trying to get sinners to do nothing. Nothing. You can
get a man to do something. You can get a man to do something.
That's not easy at all. But to get a man to do nothing?
You can't hardly do that. It takes God to do that. Go back to our text now. Look
at this. Numbers 21. Here's what God told them to
do. God told them to look at the serpent, and He promised
that with nothing but a look, they would live. Look at verse
8. Second part of verse 8 there.
He says, And it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten,
when he looketh upon it, he shall live. Look at verse 9, at the
second part. What God promised, God did. Look
at the second part of verse 9. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. What's the lesson in this? Those
who look to Christ in faith shall live. They will have eternal
life. He said that whosoever believeth
on Him may have eternal life. Faith is believing God. That's
what faith is. Faith is believing God. Not believing
in God. People say, well, I believe there's
a God. The devils believe that. Faith is believing God. When
they looked to that serpent, and God had said, if you look
to this serpent, you're going to live. When they looked to
that serpent, they were saying, I believe God. I believe Him. I believe I'm going to live by
looking at this serpent. Faith is believing Christ crucified
is all my salvation. When they looked to that serpent,
they were saying, this is all my salvation right here. The
only thing that's going to save me is this serpent right here.
And when we look to Christ crucified, we're saying, He's the only one
that can save me. He's the only one that can save
me. Faith looks to Christ only. Not to Christ plus something.
To Christ only. Only to Christ. I want to give
you seven things here that Mr. Pink gave. Arthur Pink gave these
seven things. And he said these are seven things
they were not told to do. And it's important to get this
now. They were not told to do this. One, they were not told
to produce their own cure for healing their wounds. They were
not told to do that. In our day, preachers are preaching,
great doctors, great minds, great doctors of divinity, impressive
men, and they're telling sinners there's something for sinners
to do. They're subtle about this. Satan's subtle the way he works,
and he does his best work in the pulpit. He's very subtle. He won't out and out tell you
that you can be saved by your work. He'll tell you, oh, this
is not for righteousness. But he'll preach morality, and
he'll preach works, and he'll preach these things, but never
preaching Christ, never shutting up a sinner to Christ, so that
the man that's sitting there, all he hears is these works.
And he thinks, well, this is how I'm saved. This is how I'm
saved. Those who seek spiritual relief by something they do are
like that woman that went to many doctors. She had an issue
of blood, and she went to many doctors. And the Scripture says,
and she wasn't made any better. She was made worse. She was made
worse. Number two, they were not told
they'd be healed by ministering or serving others who were wounded. They didn't tell them, now you
go start serving your brother over there who's bitten, so you
go start ministering to him and this is going to heal you. They
didn't tell them that. This is huge in our day. Folks
in our day are running all over the place doing works of charity.
And they're expecting that somehow that's going to counteract this
deadly poison of sin and going to make up for this sin. Christ
said, don't do your arms to be seen of men. Don't do any good
work, any beneficial work, any work that will benefit others. Don't do it to be seen of men. And churches advertise what they're
doing. They market how many missionaries
they're supporting and how many trips they're going on and how
many humanitarian efforts they're doing and all of that. What good
is it for one to jump into deep water to rescue a drowning man
if he can't swim? Is that going to help any at
all? Well, sinner, you can't swim. You see, you're a sinner. And so if you try to minister
somebody else and do good things to others to put away your sin,
that's like a man that can't swim trying to save a drowning
man. You can't save him. You can't
put away your own sin. What's left, let's help somebody
else with theirs. And then number three, they were
not told to fight the serpents. They weren't told to try to stop
the serpents. I hear preachers telling men
to stop sinning. I hear them telling them they've
got to fight their sin. They've got to do something about
their sin. They've got to curb their sin. I've got news for
you. You can't do it. I've tried to
do it. I've tried to do it. You can't
do it. Because sin is what we are. That's what we are. We're
conceived in sin. We're shaped in iniquity. We're
formed in iniquity. We come from the mother's womb
sinners. And so we sin. That's all our
old man is in the believer is sin. And you just can't stop
it. You want to. You desire to be
free from it. God may subdue it a little bit
so it doesn't have the reign over you it once had, but you
can't stop it. You can't stop it. Now, let's
suppose you could. What if you could stop sinning
today and you're not sinning anymore from here on the rest
of your life? What about all those past sins? You've still
got past sins that's got to be dealt with. If you could stop
today and could do that, what about every sin in your past?
They've got to be dealt with. They've got to be taken care
of. So sinner, it's not going to help you to stop sinning. We've got to be born of God,
born anew, created anew, and brought to cast all our care
on Christ and Him alone. There's all these crusades against
intemperance and profanity and vice, and they never, ever improve
society. They make society worse. You
think about all the things that we had from the 20s up to up
to the 80s or 90s. And look at the shape we're in
in this nation. It hasn't improved anything. Since the day Adam
sinned in the garden, we haven't been going closer to God. We've
been going further away from God. In our flesh, in our flesh,
they don't ever bring a single sinner closer to Christ. None
of that does. Here's the fourth thing. They
were not told to make an offering to that serpent on the pole.
They weren't told to do any kind of sacrificing to that serpent
on the pole. And our day folks are being told
that they've got to produce some sort of payment for their healing. Some sort of payment in return
for their healing, for what Christ has done. Preachers are begging
sinners, give your hearts to Jesus. Turn your life over to
Jesus. Look at what He's done. After
all He's done, now you ought to turn your life over to Jesus.
If that's the reason, First of all, we don't have a life or
we don't have a heart either until God gives us one. And the
second thing is, if that's the reason we bow into Christ and
serve in Christ, that's a mighty poor reason. It's a mighty poor
reason. If you do something for somebody
and they pay you back in some way, then what they did ceases
being a gift. And likewise, it becomes a service
that they bought from you. And that's so with grace. Grace
is a gift. Grace is not something you do
in return or for payment. Grace is free. Grace is unmerited. Now, if you want to serve Christ
freely, constrained by His love, that we all do. But not as a
payment, not as trying to to get a reward or try to get God
to give us something. We can't buy redemption. We can't earn salvation. Salvation
is free. Here's number five. They were
not told to come down to Moses and pray at a mourner's bench.
They weren't told to come down there and pray in front of that
serpent or pray in front of Moses at a mourner's bench. This is
not, praying at a mourner's bench is not, I don't think it's as
popular in our day as it used to be. But you do see them occasionally. I see them in churches sometimes.
But they still do the same thing in principle. Preachers urge
sinners to go through an outward form, a show of repentance. In our day, it takes this place.
Now, in the 80s, they used to say, walk down the aisle. They
don't really say that as much anymore either. Now they say,
we got some folks up here off to the side. Come to them. They'll
take you in the back. They'll ask you, are you a sinner?
Yeah, I'm a sinner. Do you know you need Jesus? Yeah,
I know I need Jesus. You giving your heart to Jesus?
Yeah, I'm giving my heart to Jesus. All right then, pray this. And they'll tell you what to
pray. And you pray it. And they say, okay, now you're saved. And it's
all a show. It's all a form. It's all been
conjured up by a creature and an impulse that a person got
because they got all mushy inside from hearing some sad sentimental
message or from somebody scaring them with threats of hell. And
as Pink said, they tread the clean side of the broad way for
a little while. And that's true. A man will switch
from one side of the broadway to the other side of the broadway
and not go near all those centers on that side, but they're all
still in the broadway. Christ said, you make him two-fold
more the child of hell than yourselves. That's what he told the Pharisee.
Why two-fold more? Now he's lost, but he thinks
he's found. Now he's lost, but he thinks
he's saved. Now he's blind, but he thinks he can see. That's
a two-fold more child of hell. That kind of person is more desperately
difficult to bring to bow to the Lord and empty their hands
than somebody who is just an out and out sinner. Christ told
the Pharisees that over and over. He said the harlots will go in
before you do. Six, they were told not to look
at Moses. Or they were not told to look
at Moses. They had been crying to Moses. And Moses represents
the law. But the law was given for one
reason. Do you know why the law was given? Listen to this. Romans
5.20. The law entered that the offense
might abound. You see, we sinned in Adam. And
the law didn't enter until Moses. And the reason the law entered
was that that offense in the garden might abound. That we
might see what great sinners we are. Romans 3.19 says that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty
before God. Galatians 3.24 says, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith, by looking, by looking. But after that faith
has come, we're no longer on a schoolmaster. You know how
they knew they needed to look to that serpent? He said, when
they're bitten. When they see they're bitten.
God's got to bring us to see we've been bitten. And when He
makes you see you've been bitten, and makes you see that you're
dying, you know I guarantee you if somebody here was really bitten
by a snake a literal snake and you knew we got where I come
from there's some big old rattlesnakes and big old they call them cotton
mouths and if you're bitten by one of them you got a short time
to make it to the doctor if you do make it to the doctor but
I guarantee you when you know you've been bitten by one of
them you don't put up a fight to get to the physician And when
God makes you know you've been bitten and your sin is pulsing
through you like venom from a snake, you won't put up a fight to get
to the Great Physician, to Christ. You'll come to Him. And that's
what that law is for. That law is to show us that.
But God took their eyes off Moses and put their eyes on the serpent,
on Christ. Because salvation is not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us. I want you to get this. I want
you to get this. Look at Romans 8. Romans 8. I want you to get this. If you
believe God, if you believe on Christ, this right here would
just make you thrilled. Now, if you don't believe it,
you'll have problems with this. But listen. Christ is the righteousness
of God. Christ is the righteousness of
the law. He is the righteousness of the
law. Without doing anything, just being who He is, He's the
righteousness of the law. He is. And Christ is the end
of the law for everyone who believes because of what Christ did for
His people. Christ, He established the law
fully for His people. And we establish the law through
faith in Him who established it for us. He fulfilled it. He established it so that it's
done. It's worked as good as it can
be worked. And we worked it in Christ, each of us who believe
on it. We worked it in Him. He established
it for us. But not only that, brethren,
He made it so that each and every one of us who have been called
to faith in Him, He's made it so that His people can never,
ever, again be condemned by even one sin. Never. You can't be
charged with a sin. And I look at myself, and I know
what you do. You look at yourself and you
say, all I do is break the law constantly. Christ has put away
our sin. Christ has fulfilled the law
for His people. Now look at this, Romans 8, 33.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Isn't that good news? Justified
means there is no charge that can be
laid against you. Not from the womb to the tomb. A charge can't be laid against
one of God's people because of what Christ did. Man, that's
good news. That makes me now realize when
I'm looking at my sin, I'm looking in the wrong direction. I'll
not be even worried about it. Listen now. And another thing
Moses represents a man, a preacher. He represents a man, a preacher.
Sinner, not the will of your flesh, not any kind of blood
relationship you have with anybody on this earth, no other sinner,
and not the will of any other man can save you." Those that
were born in John's day were born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Alright, here's the seventh thing.
They were not told to look at their wounds. Now this is what
we just saw. They weren't told to look at
their wounds. Some look to their sins to try to produce repentance. I've heard men say that. They're
always talking about their sin, always looking at their sin,
always trying to bow down and humble down looking at their
sin. You can be real proud of your humility. And I can too. We will never ever come to repentance
looking at our sin. Ever. Ever. That's not how sinners
are brought to repentance. Not ever. Can you produce something
right by looking at something wrong? Can you produce heat by
looking at the snow? Can you produce light by looking
at darkness? Well, how on earth are we going to produce repentance
by looking at us and looking at our sin? It can't be done.
How's it done? Sinner, you'll never repent from
your sins until you look in faith to Christ. Listen to this now. Zechariah 12, 10. The Lord said,
I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. He's talking about my elect people,
whether they're Jew or Gentile. And he says, I'm going to pour
the Spirit of grace upon them and the Spirit of supplication.
I'm going to show them what I've done by my grace. I'm going to
show them how to supplicate me. I'm going to show them how to
cry unto me. And he says this, and they shall look upon me. We're talking about a look. He
said, look to that fire and search. They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. That's faith. Looking to Christ.
They're going to believe me. They're going to look at me whom
they've pierced. And here's the result. They're
going to mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son. And
they'll be in bitterness for Him as one that's in bitterness
for his firstborn. God-given faith is the beginning
of all godliness. And when God brings you in faith
to look at Christ, faith and repentance are two sides of the
same coin. When you look at Christ, For
the first time, you're repenting from yourself. For the first
time, you're not looking at you. And that's repentance. You're
believing Him. You're looking at Him. And now
you're not looking at you anymore. That's faith and repentance.
And here I'm going to add something, and this is common in our day.
Somehow, Satan has got sinners to put confidence in their looking. To put faith in their faith.
And Moses didn't tell, God didn't tell them to look to their faith.
Now you hear people say, well, at least I got my faith. You
can go to hell with your faith too if you're looking to it.
If you think, if you think it's your faith, that your faith is
the object you're looking to, to save you, you'll go to hell
with that, that kind of faith. I guarantee you. God doesn't
tell us to look to our looking. He says look to Christ. He doesn't
say believe in your believing. He says believe on Christ. All
these things, brethren, are deadly. But sinners being taught that
salvation is in these things, they're going to perish. They
may say, I'm a child of God, I believe God, and they'll argue
with God about it. Christ said they would. He said,
they're going to say, Lord, Lord, didn't we? Didn't we? Didn't
we? Look at what we did. And they'll argue with Him. And
he said, I'm going to say to them that day, depart from me,
you that are right now here in my presence working iniquity
right now in front of me by bragging on what you've done. Just what
you did all your life was brag about what you've done. Big I,
little J, Jesus. But those who are brought to
put all their confidence in Christ. Here's what we're being taught.
Christ is all. That's all the Lord told them
to do. Look to Christ. Look and live. Look and live. Salvation is in a look. Because Christ Jesus the Lord
does all the work. And that's good news if you know
you can't work. That's good news. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren.
We'll be dismissed. Father, thank You that You've
made us to see by Your grace. You've made us to hear by Your
grace. You've made us to live by Your grace. You've made us
to look to Christ by Your grace. And by Your grace, You've given
us eternal life. Life in Your Son. Life by what
He's done. Life that can never be taken
away. accepted of God. Lord, make us never look away
from Him. Make us ever look to Him, never
look to ourselves. And Lord, if You will, make Your
people, make those lost sinners, wherever they are, make them
look to You. We ask it of You, depending upon You. Pray and
You'll do it in Your time and Your will and Your power and
Your wisdom. that Christ and Him crucified
might get all the glory, all the preeminence, just as you
are pleased that He have all preeminence. Forgive us of our
sins, Lord. Forgive us of our unbelief. And
forgive us of our looking from Him. We ask it in His holy name. Amen.