May God bless us together this
morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the Gospel of
John, chapter three, and reading verses 14 and 15. The Gospel
of John, reading verses 14 and 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life." These are wonderful words that
Jesus spoke on this occasion as he had been addressing Nicodemus. And it directs us very clearly
to the great need we all have of believing on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus uses that which had
occurred many years ago when Israel were in the wilderness.
And he speaks of that and tells us, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And perhaps we might just turn
to the 21st chapter in Numbers, which gives us this account,
the 21st chapter in Numbers, and we'll just read a few of
these verses which directs us to this situation. And we understand
then about Israel's condition. So in chapter 21, from verse
four, we read, and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of
the Red Sea to compass the land of Eden. 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. Pray unto the Lord that he may
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 everyone 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." Well, it's a very simple account. But as we read
that, we should not forget that the cause that happened was because
Israel were disobedient to the Word of God. They had rebelled
against God. They had ignored God's command. We should recognise that today,
that we cannot ignore God's commands. And we should not complain that
they did against that which God had provided for them. He had
provided very adequately, very ably for them. But they complained
and the Lord came upon them and sent these serpents that bit
them and those that were bitten died. But we see in this account
the wonderful mercy of God because God provided a way to escape. And that way to escape was very
simple. Moses was commanded to make this
brazen serpent and put it on a rod and hold it up. And everyone
that looked lived. They were cured from their condition. But the statement was that they
had to look. If they ignored that command,
then they would die. Now the picture we have is very
simple, but it's very true for us today. It's not as though
we have physical serpents which have bitten us, but we have been
bitten by that serpent of sin. And we have all disobeyed the
Word of God. We have all not been thankful
for what God has provided. And so we are all in a desperate
condition of one that brings death. And that is naturally
eternal death. And that means that in that condition
we should die in our sins as those Israelites did and go to
that eternal place of hell. Well that is a terrible thought,
isn't it? A terrible consideration. But you see, we have that picture
that Israel were told to look to the serpent and those that
looked lived. Well, the Lord tells us here
in these verses really the same truth, slightly differently put. And the truth is, whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. What it means is, if we do not
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, just like those people, if they
did not look to the serpent, then they died. And so it will
be with us. We shall die. We shall end up
in eternal hell unless God gives us that wonderful gift of his
grace to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jesus speaks
these words and it's wonderful for us today to be able to read
such great truths as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Well, how was the
Son of Man lifted up? He was lifted up upon that cross
at Calvary. The Lord Jesus was placed on
that cross. And my friends, on that cross,
he died. to take away the sins of his
people. He paid the enormous price to
atone for their sins. And what a blessing it is today
if you and I have the evidence that Jesus Christ died to take
away our sins. And if we see then as God gives
us faith to believe that Jesus, remember Jesus, the son of God,
the almighty ruler of the universe, graciously condescended to come
and to stand in the place that we deserve to stand in and to
die for us, that we might be blessed with the gift of eternal
life. It is a wonderful consideration. It is a wonderful account. And may each one of us know that
we do possess the blessing of eternal life. That whosoever,
that's a glorious word, isn't it? It's a glorious gospel word. Whosoever. You see, you and I
do not know who that word encompasses. But God knows. But what it means
is that it is a word spoken to everyone. Whosoever. And in those days of Israel,
those people that were bitten by the serpent The only deliverance
was to look to that serpent as Moses held it up. And today,
the only place, the only way of deliverance, the only way
so that we will not perish, we will not die in our sins, is
to be found believing and to be found looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have those wonderful words
in the prophecy of Isaiah, in the 45th chapter and the 22nd
verse, where the Lord says, look unto me. There's nowhere else
to look. Look unto me. There is nowhere
else for the Israelites to look apart from that serpent. There's
no other place for you and I to look today. Look unto me and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there
is none else. Many people today worship false
gods. They worship gods of their own
imagination. But here we have set before us
the true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Isaiah, under
the influence of the Spirit of God, therefore wrote these words,
look unto me. Well, do you and I find that
attractive today? Do we think how needful it is
that you and I do look to the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation? Not to look to ourselves, because
in you and me, that is, in me, in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. We cannot look to ourselves.
There is nothing good in ourselves. We have to look out of ourselves
and we have to look to the Lord Jesus Christ as our only way
of salvation. So the question surely is this
morning, what does the Lord Jesus mean to you and to me? Have we received that blessed
gift of God to believe in him, and to believe that he came into
the world to save sinners, as the Apostle Paul said, of whom
I am chief. Now, it is sinners that can say,
and only they how precious is the Saviour. If the Holy Spirit
of God has not convinced and convicted us of our sin, we will
not be looking unto the Saviour. Those Israelites, unless they
were convicted of the need to look to that serpent, they died. They perished. in their sins,
but those that looked, they lived. And so today, may we know the
power of God in our souls, directing our eyes to look up to the Lord
Jesus Christ as our only Saviour. May we have a little view of
the preciousness. And when we use the word precious,
we mean that Christ is valuable. Christ is the most valuable. How do you and I view Christ
today? In Him is all our hope of salvation. all our hope. We're not relying
on ourselves. We're looking out of ourselves
and we're looking to the Blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not forget those words in
Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me, look unto me and be ye saved. That's the blessing. It's not
just a casual look. It's a desire, it's a looking
to the Saviour with an earnestness that our soul might be saved. These Israelites, they were dying. Unless they looked, they died.
It's the same to us today. unless we receive that gift to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, unless we look to the Lord Jesus
Christ as the only means of our salvation, we shall die in our
sins. We shall perish. We shall perish. That's why the Lord uses these
words, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Well, The line is very clear. You and I are on one side of
this line or the other. We are either on the line on
the side that we shall perish, or we are on the other side and
we shall not perish. And the difference is very simple. Those who perish have not believed. Those who shall not perish have
believed. Well, it may seem, and it is,
a glorious truth, but my friends, you and I need the blessed influence
of the Spirit's power to believe such great and glorious truths.
And when God gives that power, the evidence is that we are then
born again of the Spirit of God. We have passed from death to
life, from darkness to light. It is the most amazing, the most
wonderful, the most blessed occasion in your life and my life. And all of us need to know that
we are amongst those who will not perish, because those who
perish Well, it's terrible to think of, isn't it? And people
today do not really consider what will happen to them when
they die. Most people just hope that's
the end. But people realize it's not the
end. There is an eternity. There is an eternal state where
you and I must live forever. And there are only two places
where you and I will live forever. One is in hell. One is in heaven. There is no
escape. You and I have been born and
we possess a never-dying soul. You and I will live eternally. Our soul will never die. And
that should be a very, very important consideration. Our life, the
Bible describes our life as a vapour. You think of a steam coming from
a kettle or from a saucepan. You see the steam and then it
vanishes away. It's so, so brief, so short. And that's the illustration,
the picture that God gives with regards to the length of our
life as it's compared to eternity. Now when we think of the very
brief seconds that vapour, that steam exists, that really is
a simple analogy, a simple picture concerning our souls. My friends, how do we stand today
in the eye of God? We do not have to impress people,
but you and I stand before God, and God it is that looks into
our heart. And God it is sees whether we
are amongst those who have believed the truth of his word, whether
we have believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, or
whether we have just ignored the word of God. Those who ignored
the word of Moses perished, they died. Those who ignore the Word
of God today, they perish, they die. And so, such a truth is
so, so important. And this morning, we should be
very thankful that God has spoken such words here very simple,
very clear, but very important for all of us. Everyone here
this morning needs to hear such a word as this, and such a word
of this, to speak right into our hearts. So we're told, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
be lifted up. He had to die upon that cross
at Calvary. He had to be lifted up so that
people could look unto Him as that crucified Saviour. It was so necessary. It was the
plan of God. It was the wonderful plan of
salvation. It is a plan which is so simple
and yet so glorious. My friends, it's the plan of
Almighty God. And we should not think nothing
of it. We should not belittle it and
think, well, it's of no consequence. The truth is that all of us here
are blessed with being able to read and to hear the Word of
God. What does that mean? It means
that we are all without excuse. You will never be able to stand
before God on that great day of judgement and say, I was never
told. I never read. Because we have
all been told and we have all read. So therefore none of us
have any excuse when we stand on that great day of judgement
before Almighty God. Let us not forget that we will
all be there, every person. None will be able to hide. No,
everyone will be summoned to that great day of judgement. And so, here we have this very
simple statement, even so, must the son of man be lifted up. You see, it's God that became
man. so that he could stand and be
our substitute. He stood in our place as a man,
in all his bodily weakness as a man. Do not ever underestimate
the great cost of our salvation, that Almighty God came down into
this sinful world to die that great glorious death so that
you and I will not perish in our sins if we are blessed with
this wonderful favour of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle John wrote this gospel,
but he also wrote those letters, those epistles, and in those
epistles he spoke there of the great need that we have to believe. And in the third chapter of the
first epistle of John, towards the end of that chapter, We read
these words from verse 22, and whatsoever we ask, we receive
of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given
us. We see there God's command to
believe. And we may say, well, I don't
seem to be able to believe. I want to believe, but I don't
seem able to believe. I don't seem to be able to receive
the blessing that I think I will when I believe. Well, we're not
promised any great blessings when God gives us grace to believe,
but we do have an encouraging example in the Word of God. When the Lord came to a man and
he asked him if he believed, and he said this, Lord, I do
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. What that means is he wanted
to believe. He did not want to not believe. He wanted to believe. And surely
if we come to God asking in this way, he hears our prayers and
he will give us grace to believe. And we will therefore come under
this blessing that we keep his commandments. What a favour it
is to be found in that position. Now then, just to help our understanding,
in the 5th chapter of this same epistle, and in the 9th verse
in this 5th chapter, If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself." You and I are blessed
with a witness in ourself. that God has given us grace to
believe. Now how important that is for
you and me to look today into our hearts to see whether we
do believe. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his son. So we see here very clearly those
who believe and those who do not believe. And you and I this
morning are one of those two people. We are either amongst
those who believe and those who do not believe. So let us ask
ourselves the question this morning. Do we have the witness, the evidence
in our heart that God has given us grace to believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ so that he is all our hope of salvation? Now if we do, we can bless God
and we can praise God. But my friends, if we do not,
how we need to pray, how we need to come to God, how we need to
pray that he will indeed have mercy upon us, so that whatsoever
we ask, we may come asking, that he will have mercy upon us. and
he will save our souls. There are many things in this
world, many things that people want, many things that people
expect, many things that people go after. But the great and important
thing that every one of us needs to know is that we are born again. of the Spirit of God. The Lord
spoke, didn't he, to Nicodemus and he made this very clear and
important statement. He said, ye must be born again. Many things in our life are not
very important. Most things in our life are not
very important. But this is very important. He must be born again. And if we are to be born again,
we are amongst those who have the evidence in our heart that
we have believed on the only begotten Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, as our salvation. We can So speak those words of
the hymn writer when he said, my hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That means that you and I are
dependent upon the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ died so
that we might live. He died To take away our sin,
He bore the punishment that was due to us instead. Now then, do we not have a great
and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ? And think, the
Word of God contains in that all that you and I need to know
about the Saviour, and all that you and I need to know about
ourselves. So can we this morning bless
God for his word, not man's word, God's word, that's the difference. And again, may we have had the
evidence that God's word has spoken to our heart. God's word
has spoken to our heart. And so therefore, we are able
to acknowledge the truth of these words, that whosoever, and that
you and I might be numbered amongst those who are included in those
who believe in him and therefore will not perish, but have eternal
life. Or let us realise the vast importance
of such a word, eternal. That means there is no time. That means there is no end. It continues forever and ever. Eternal. Well, this morning,
may we have the evidence, the truth of God in our heart, which
shows to us that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to
save sinners. And he came into this world to
save me. He came to save my soul. And therefore we have the evidence
of this great and blessed work. We read together the blessed
evident work of the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit's work. And Jesus tells us very simply
what that is. He says, I said unto thee, ye
must be born again, the wind bloweth where it listeth." That
means, you know, the wind, it comes, doesn't it? We don't know
where it comes from, we don't know where it goes to. The wind
bloweth where it listeth. Now here is the sound thereof,
But canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth,
so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Well then, what
that means is, have we heard the word of Christ speaking to
our souls? And because of that, have we
received faith like those Israelites? not to look to the serpent, but
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, every one of us needs
to receive that faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we here this morning, all of us here, are amongst either those
who have looked or those who have not looked. May we be found
amongst those who have looked to the Lord Jesus Christ as our
only way of salvation, and have seen at the cross of Christ,
as he hung there, as he gave his life, as he shed his most
precious blood, and he did everything that was needful to save our
souls so that we will not perish, but we will be blessed with the
gift of eternal life. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Amen.