You'll take your Bibles and turn
back with me to John chapter 3. John chapter 3, and we'll be
looking at verses mainly through verse 10 through verse 15 this
morning. The title of the message is,
The Gospel in Earthly Language. the gospel in earthy language. Our text will be found in verse
14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Here in our text, the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a man who
was supposed to have great knowledge, a man who was very educated,
very learned man, came to Jesus by night being afraid of being
seen with Him during the day, came to Him and expressed all
that He knew. He said, We know. We know. Thou art a teacher come from
God. No man do these miracles except he be sent of God." We
know this. We know you're of God. Nicodemus
started telling the Lord all that he knew. But the truth was,
this man didn't know anything. Any man thinketh he knoweth anything,
he knoweth nothing, as he ought to know. Nothing. This man Nicodemus
was dead, ignorant, Blind and lost. This man thought he knew
everything, but he knew nothing. Nothing. He did not know the
necessity of the new birth. Jesus said, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. This man, Nicodemus,
did not know that. He did not know the result of
the new birth, a new nature, a new heart. Jesus said, that
which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit
is Spirit. This man didn't know anything
about a new birth or a new nature. He had no idea. He was ignorant. He was ignorant of the new nature
that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, as the wind blows,
you don't have any idea where it's coming from and where it's
going, and I tell you, even so does this new birth come by the
Spirit. I don't know where it's going
and I don't know where it's coming, I don't know how long He'll last,
but I know this, I can see the effects of it. The effects is
a new nature, a new heart, a new life. I know this, the Spirit of God
isn't impeded by any man. I'm so thankful for that, that
the Spirit of God does not hinder, is not hindered by man. How many
times have you witnessed thinking, oh, I messed up. Oh boy, I did
it now. They're not going to believe
now. I really did it. No, you didn't do anything. The
Spirit of God is not hindered, nor is it helped by man. God
does this. God sends His Spirit where He
will. Nicodemus then is a picture of
all of us by nature, ignorant of God's salvation. Man by nature
is ignorant of God's salvation. Now, we truly believe there's
none righteous. No, not one. Isn't that right? We believe
there's none that doeth good. No, not one. But we also must
believe there's none that understandeth. That's also part of that Scripture
in Romans chapter 3, isn't it? There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. Man by nature doesn't seek
after God because he can't know God. He doesn't know God. There's
none that seeketh after God. I know this, when God's Spirit
came to me and you who believe, this is true of you. You weren't
seeking God. No man seeks after God. God comes
to him and gives him life. Then, we begin to seek and to
search after God by faith in Christ, by the new life. The
Word of God is full than of pictures for us. None of man understands
God. Think of the creation. I've been
meditating on this for a while this week, thinking about God's
heavens. Do you know how vast they are?
I could tell you, but I still wouldn't understand. I've been
trying to understand this, and I still can't understand it.
You know, it takes 100,000 light years to cross just our galaxy.
Now one light year is how much light travels in one year. Do
you realize it takes 240 billion years for our galaxy
to spin? Not our solar system, but the
galaxy we're in. That's how big it is. That's
how long it takes it to go around one time. And it's moving 600,000
miles a minute. Now, that's a long time, isn't
it? I can say it. I can tell you about it. Our
minds can go, woo! That's a lot. That's all we can
do. We just don't know. We have no clue. God is so infinite. This creation is so wonderful.
And yet, we can study this creation. We can learn about this. And
we could still not know anything about God. Man is ignorant about God. But
yet God, in His rich mercy, gave us His words in a very earthy
language. This book was written so that
children can understand these pictures. These types, these
shadows of what God is doing spiritually. Everything that
is spiritual can be represented by things that are in the earth.
So we can understand them. The Word of God is full of earthly
pictures and types of spiritual things. The Lord here uses the
new birth. He uses birth. as a picture of
a spiritual thing, of a heavenly thing. Now, we all know what
birth is. We all know what life is. We've
got an idea. It's an earthly thing that we
can see, that we can perceive and understand. But God tells
us there's a bigger thing here. At stake, it's a spiritual birth. What did you have to do with
your first birth? Nothing. What do you have to do with your
second birth? Nothing. You see? Who created you? Who made you?
God. Who created the inner man, the
new man? God. Who gives you life right
now in breath? God. Who gives the inner man
life and breath? God. It's all of God. The Old Testament is filled with
earthy representations of heavenly things. But no amount of studying
these things or education or fleshly wisdom can give us the
understanding, the true meaning of this. Only God can. Only God can reveal these things
to us. Go to 1 Corinthians 2. Verse
6. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 6, how be
it? We speak wisdom among them that are mature, perfect, yet
not the wisdom of the world nor of the princes of the world that
come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God,
look at this, in a mystery. What's a mystery? Can you understand
a mystery? Well, if you understood a mystery,
then it wouldn't be a mystery. In order for it to be a mystery,
it's got to be hard to understand. It's got to be difficult. It's
got to be impossible to understand. Otherwise, it's not a mystery.
But I preach to you something that's a mystery. I know some of you stand here
and say, well, Sunday after Sunday, and you say, well, what is that
man saying? Well, to you, it's a mystery. It's a mystery what
I'm saying. We speak of mystery, even the
hidden wisdom. which God ordained before the
world unto our glory. How is it that we understand
the mystery? How is it that I can proclaim
to you things that I wasn't there to witness? I wasn't there at
the beginning. I didn't see these things by
my physical eyes. How is it that I understand the
mysteries of God's purpose? The mysteries of God's wisdom
and decrees? Look at verse 10. "...but God
hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." That's how. How
do I understand these mysteries that man by nature can't understand?
I have received them of God the Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what knoweth the
things of man save the Spirit of man which is in him? Even
so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God." We who are born again understand
the mysteries of God not by our natural wisdom. We didn't learn these things
because we're smart. The only way we knew these things
is that God the Holy Spirit gave them to us to know. Where then
is boasting in that? Is there any boasting in your
understanding or knowledge? No. I have what I have by the
grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Not by what I've done, not by what I've studied, not by
what I know, but by the grace of God. That which is born of
flesh is flesh. It cannot understand the mysteries
of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. Neither can he know them. Because, why? He's spiritually
judged, spiritually dead. That's why he can't know them.
What makes the difference? We have received these things
of God. Look at verse... 15. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who knoweth
the mind of the Lord, that they may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. We have been given the mind of
Christ. That's why we know these things. If you know anything
about Christ, or any spiritual thing, it is because Christ gave
it to you. We have been freely given these
things. Therefore, Jesus said, no man hath ascended up to heaven.
Go back to your text. Jesus told Nicodemus, He said,
these things you've studied and you don't know. He said, I've
testified to you of earthly things. How then can you believe heavenly
things? He said, no man ascended up to heaven. But he that came down from heaven.
What is that saying? He said, no man has gone up to
heaven to learn the things of God. No man has gone up to heaven
to bring the things of God down to you. Other than He who was
in heaven already, Jesus, He was in heaven, He witnessed those
things that God had done before the world began, and He came
down and told us these things. We could not have known God's
electing love had Christ not come down and showed us. We could
not have known of God's redeeming love had Christ not come down
and showed us. We could not have experienced
the grace of God in the new birth unless Christ sent his spirit
to us. We could not. You who hear the gospel of Jesus
Christ, listen very carefully, you should rejoice with all your
heart because it's given to you. You who don't know anything about
Christ, you who do not believe, the only thing I know is that
it hasn't been given to you. You don't know anything about
Christ or spiritual things because God Almighty has not reached
down His hand and give it to you. Blessed are your eyes, for
they see, and your ears, for they hear. Now listen, does everybody
hear? Can you hear? I'm sure my voice
can reach in the back, right? You can hear me back there. Can
you see me? Can you see me? Some of you may
have a hard time, there may be a blurry vision up here, but
you can see me. But I'll tell you what, only
God can give you spiritual eyes and spiritual ears. That's it. Everyone can hear
me, but not everyone sees and hears what I'm saying. Not everyone
knows what I'm saying. This is because God doesn't give
it to everyone. Hear the gospel as Jesus preaches
it to Nicodemus now in our text. Hear what the Lord has said.
And he's going to use a very earthy thing, something you can
see, something you can understand. He's going back to the Old Testament,
and he's going to use something that happened in the history
of Israel to show you a spiritual, heavenly thing. Here it is. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness. This is a very earthy history
that everyone and every child can understand. Listen, the children
of Israel were in the wilderness. They had disobeyed God. They
had been rejected. They had been cast out of the
land of Canaan. They were wandering around in the wilderness. God
was so gracious to them that he gave them bread from heaven.
Manna. Every morning they could pick
it up, eat it, sustain themselves. But eventually, they got tired
of that bread. They got tired of it. And what
did they say? Our souls loathe this light bread. I can't stand this bread. If
I eat another piece of this bread, I'm just going to throw up. I
hate it so much. And they began to murmur and
say, Well, why didn't you just leave us in Egypt? Why did you
bring us out here to eat this bread? And we could have enjoyed
Egypt. Now, they done forgot how horrible
Egypt really was. They murmured against God, and
they said, I hate this bread. And so God, in judgment, sent
snakes. Not one or two, multitudes of
snakes. And they began to bite the children
of Israel. And everyone that was bitten
was sure to die. There was no cure. There was
no remedy. These snakes, as soon as you
were bitten, sentence of death was passed to you. You were going
to die. Go over to Numbers. See it for
yourself. Numbers chapter 21. We read in verse 5, 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 against the Lord, for we have
spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that
he take away these serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the
people. Is this not understandable to
your ears? not a very complicated story. They sinned, God sent serpents,
they bit them, and those that were bitten died. The rest who
were bitten began to cry out seeing the others have died.
They were scared. They began to be nervous. What is it? There's no cure for
this. Moses, we've sinned. We need you to pray to God for
us and take away these serpents. Now here's the spiritual part
of it. Man by nature is full of unbelief
and loathes the bread of life. You, listen to me, that hate
this gospel, you are saying to God, I hate your son and I despise
this light bread. You keep preaching the same thing
over and over and over and over and over and over. Can't you
preach something different? Can't you preach something that
I'm interested in? No! I'm not going to. I'm not going to. I have one
message, this light bread. Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. When he said that, do you know
the Jews began to murmur and complain? He said, how is it
that this man says he's the bread that came down from heaven? And
Jesus said, don't murmur among yourselves. Why are you debating
this? No man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. You can't understand
this unless God draws you by His Holy Spirit. You who will not believe on Christ,
it is even because you cannot believe. But you, like Israel, have been
bitten by the fiery serpents of sin. You have been bitten by sin and
are dead. The sentence of death has already
been passed to you. What a fitting type the serpent
is because that's where the scripture traces sin to originate. From
the serpent. It was the serpent that tempted
our parents. It was the serpent's bite that
bit into our parents and caused them to die. And that death, that venom of
sin, has been passed down from generation to generation to ourselves. The venom of sin courses through
our veins and affects every part of our life. What part of your
life has not been affected by sin? Can you name anything? Other than my salvation. And
truly, Christ was made sin for us, which we'll get to in a minute.
But every aspect of our life, sin has been part of it. God said, I will put enmity between
thy seed, talking to the serpent, between thy seed and her seed,
between sinners and Christ. I hope that you see this. If
you don't believe on Christ, it's because you hate him. That's the only reason you don't
believe on Christ. You hate Him. You despise the Lord Jesus Christ. And how fitly does the serpent's
bite show sin in that bite unto death. In the day our Father
ate, He died. And the whole venom of sin courses
through our whole system. And God says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall surely die. What's the remedy? You have been
bitten by sin. Your soul is dead. What's the
remedy? Do you not have an interest in a
remedy? Anybody who's made sensible of
sin, you should have an interest in this. And look at the remedy.
Look what God gave for a remedy. It's not what anybody would expect.
It's not what anybody wanted. What did they want? Look at that.
They said, pray the Lord He'd take away the serpents. The Lord
didn't take away the serpents. What did He do? Look at this.
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 on a pole. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he had beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived." Now, is that not earthy language that you
can understand? God said to Moses, I want you
to take some brass, and I want you to make a serpent out of
the brass. And you're going to put it on
a pole. And you're going to put that pole up. You're going to
lift it up high. So everyone can see this serpent
of brass. And when a man is bitten, if
he looks on the serpent of brass, God said he will live. And you know what happened? When
men looked, they lived. Now, is that not understandable?
They were bitten. They needed a remedy. God didn't give them
the remedy they wanted. He gave them this remedy. A serpent
lifted up on a pole. And everyone that looked lived. And notice the spiritual application
of this. Have you been bitten? Now, I just told you every man's
been bitten. But I'll tell you what, you're
not going to look on this serpent, you're not going to look on this
serpent lifted up, unless you've been bitten. Now what interest
would anybody have if they hadn't been bitten? And I'll tell you
this, if you're not a sinner, you won't have anything, any
interest in that. If you don't have any idea of
God's justice, you won't have any interest in this. But, if
you've been bitten, then I've got a remedy. I've
got a remedy. for only those who have been
bitten. There is only one remedy. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Jesus, who was lifted up on the
cross, is pictured by this serpent of brass. Well, how could the Son of God
typify, how could this serpent of brass typify the Son of God? Why did God use a brazen serpent? What was the purpose of that? How could it typify the righteous
Son of God? To be made like a snake, like
the source of sin. How is it possible? Well, in
His holy character, He couldn't. But in His death, He could have.
Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. This is why a real serpent wasn't
put up there. Because it would have ruined
the type. The serpent was made of brass because the brass was
a symbol of God's judgment. What was the altar made of? Was
it not the brazen altar? made of brass. Why? Because brass
could withstand the fire of the burnt offerings. Brass could
not be melted or consumed like gold. It was brazen because it
typified the justice of God. And even so, Jesus was made a
curse for us. Made sin for us. And under His character, His
deity, He undergirded Himself with strength so that He withstood
the judgment of God in our stead. He put a real serpent up there.
He could have been burned up. He could have been destroyed.
But not the brazen serpent. This is a picture of Jesus who
must be lifted up on the cross. The necessity of the gospel,
the Son of Man must be lifted up. because nobody else could
endure the justice of God. The only way that those who were
bitten by the serpent could live was to look to the brazen serpent
on a pole. Now this doesn't sound very wise,
does it? That doesn't sound like it would
be a reasonable cure. Surely there would have been
a different way. Surely there would have been
an easier way. No! There is only one way. And it is by Jesus Christ being
lifted up to die. Christ said, whosoever believeth
in me should not perish, but have eternal life. These who
were bitten were told not to make anointment. which may seem reasonable to
the natural man, even so religious doctors are manufacturing ointments
of law, ointments of religious ceremony. They say, hey, do this,
do this, rub this in the wound, then you'll be okay. No! No, that doesn't heal, that doesn't
cure. Remember the woman who spent
all she had on doctors and grew none the better but grew worse.
You try to follow religious laws and ordinances and ceremonies,
you'll not get better, you'll get worse. The Scripture says,
look and live. Look to Jesus Christ who died
for sin and live. These people were not told to
minister to others. I tell you, there are many people
trying to save others who themselves are bitten and not cured. How many people out there preaching
Calvinism, but who themselves have not looked to Christ? Your ministering to others and
helping others is not going to help you. You must first look to Christ
and live. Then you may be able to tell
others to look and live. These people were not told to
fight the serpents. Today, many preachers are getting
people organized to fight sin, aren't they? They've got anti-abortion
groups. They've got anti-divorce groups.
They've got these anti-drug groups, anti-alcohol groups. And they
say, wait, we're going out there and we're going to cut some snakes'
heads off. That's how we're going to save
people. No! No! Moses didn't organize a snake-hunting
party. God told him to put a serpent,
a brass, on a pole and tell people to look. I'm not organizing any
parties. I'm pointing. Look. God has provided a Savior. You You look. You look and live. The only cure for sin is that
Jesus Christ died for sin. You can mortify this body, but
that will not save you. These people were not told to
give to the serpent. In other words, you can't buy
salvation. You can't merit it. You can't
earn it. Just look. Oh, everyone that
thirsteth, come. Come to the waters. Come buy
wine and milk without money and without price. Come. Why would
you continue to labor for that which satisfies not? Have you
found anything in this world satisfying? Why would you labor for that
when all I'm doing is telling you to look and live? Believe
on Christ and live. And they were not told to look
to Moses. Don't look to me. I can't help
you. All I can do is point you to
the one who can. They were not told to look at
their wounds either. A lot of you are looking at your
wounds and saying, oh, my wound, it's too big. I'm too far gone. I've done too
much. I have too much sin. There's
no way he could save me. Don't look at your wound. Look
to him. Look to Christ and live. Some
of you say, well, my wound isn't big enough. I've got to feel
more guilty. No, no. Remember what we just sang, if
you tarry till you're better. If you're waiting for some event,
some epiphany, some kind of lightning to strike you, no! Look now,
everyone! You've been beaten! Look to Christ
and live! Don't wait. God didn't tell you to wait until
you feel guilty enough. Simply look and live. And look what our Lord says,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Whosoever. That could mean you. I qualify as whosoever, don't
you? If you've been bitten, you qualify. look and live. Whosoever believeth
on me shall not perish, but have eternal life." We look and behold Jesus Christ. He is all my righteousness. How much more righteousness do
I need than His? I don't need any more. He's got
it all. When I look to Christ, I see all the payment for my
sin. What else do I need to suffer? What else do I need to pay for?
Nothing. It's paid. It's done. The result of looking is eternal
life. Now, how long is eternal life? Well, it's eternal. It means I never went without
it. It means I'll never do without
it. It means that God is going to give me eternal life. And I'll live forever. Whosoever
believeth in me shall never die. Julian Gilburns did not die. He did not die. His body died,
but he did not die. And you who believe in Jesus
Christ, when your body dies, you believe this, you shall not
die. Why? You've been cured. Sin has no more power over you. And friends, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He was the one lifted up. And His blood was shed for our
sins. Do you realize if one person
that Christ died for is lost, that His blood means absolutely
nothing? But that's not so. His blood
actually accomplished our redemption. It's done. He said it was finished. Have you looked? Have you found
Him to be everything? I found Him to be altogether
lovely. To me, He is everything. Have you looked? I'll tell you
this, if you've looked, you won't forget it. You won't forget it. Because He's given us His Spirit,
and His Spirit is constantly reminding us to do what? Look. I haven't stopped looking, have
you? and praise God by His sovereign
mercy, I'll never stop looking. I have eternal life to you. Look
and live. May God reveal this earthly language
to you by His Holy Spirit. Let's stand and be dismissed.