Good morning, everyone. I was
thinking there last night, Brother Ken Williams just moved here
from Montana. And our pastor just went to Montana.
And I hope Brother Ken told him about the grizzly bears out there.
Because I don't want to have to do this no more often than
I have to. If you would, if you have your
Bible, let's turn, let's begin in Numbers chapter 21. Please
turn back there. And we'll be here just a moment
and then we'll be turning over to John chapter 3. And so in Numbers 21. There's about four things here
I would like to point out. First, beginning in verse five.
If we look at verse five, we see, and the people spoke, and
the people spake against God and against Moses. The people
sinned. And then in verse six we read,
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and bit the
people and much people of Israel died. So the consequences of
sin is death. And then in verse seven, we find
about middle ways that the people confesses. Therefore, the people
came to Moses and said, we have sinned and we have spoken against
the Lord. So then now you find a confession
of sin. And then in verse nine, we have
a remedy for sin. 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. So here we have the people have
sinned, and they'll see the consequences of sin. We see their confession,
and then we see the remedy. Now the first time that I heard
this story that I remember, I was a child in Sunday school class. And I remember the teacher giving
us this story, and the first thing I thought after hearing
it is when the Lord had made the remedy, my thought was why
not just remove the serpents? The people had confessed. And
then why not just take the serpents away? And then another thing,
and I don't know how to express this other than to say my reaction
was shock. Because this serpent, said the
Sunday school teacher, represented the Lord Jesus Christ. And my
thoughts, a serpent? Christ? Should he not be a lamb? And so as a child in that Sunday
school class, I knew that it must be true,
but I was not told anything other than that. Probably because my
Sunday school teacher didn't know the gospel. So this picture
of this brazen serpent and these people in the wilderness stayed
with me for years. Now, if you will, turn to John
chapter three. And as you're turning there,
let me just say this, that My intention several months ago
when Gabe asked me to speak is this is where I wanted to come.
And as I read John chapter three and was studying, there was several
messages there that I felt that I had to speak of first before
we got to this passage. And so just very briefly this
morning, just three or four minutes, I want to do just a quick summary
of John chapter three, because the story of the brazen serpent
is in verses 14 and 15. But there's some things that
lead up to that, that I think it's important to understand
as we get there. So if we look first in John chapter
three, the first thing I want us to notice is in verse one,
And it is Nicodemus who comes to our Lord, actually in verse
two, and he says, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come
from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest. So
Nicodemus, in summary, comes to the Lord and says, I believe
you. We believe you, the people, because
we see these miracles that you're doing. And the Lord's response
in verse number two is a refutation of Nicodemus. He says in verse
two, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. And what he's telling Nicodemus is, unless a man has been born
again, he cannot perceive. He cannot know the reign of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So Nicodemus, you're coming to
me and says you believe because you see these miracles and our
Lord is, no, that's the wrong basis. You can't see based on
your testimony. Now, and the third thing that
I want us to see is that our Lord then goes on And to speak
of how is someone born again, because Nicodemus was confused.
He didn't, you have to go back into your mother's womb, he said.
He knew nothing about the new birth. So then our Lord explains
to Nicodemus what the new birth is. Look in verse five, he says, Jesus answered, except a man
be born of water and of spirit. In other words, unless a man,
unless God takes the things of Christ, the water, and God the
Holy Spirit moves upon a man, That's how a man is born again.
That's how a man is saved. In verse six, he says, that which
is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit
is spirit. Our Lord is telling him that
which is flesh is flesh. It's natural. It's separated
from that which is spirit. And then the Lord declares, his
sovereignty and salvation in verse number eight. If you look,
the wind bloweth where it listed. That wind meaning God the Holy
Spirit. The wind blows where it wills.
The wind blows where it desires. The God the Holy Spirit moves
among men as he pleases. And so then our message this
morning comes from Verses 14 and 15. And this is what seeing
is all about. This is what the Lord is telling
Nicodemus. He said, you must be born again
to see the kingdom of God. And now here in verses 14 and
15, he's speaking as to what is seen by a man who was born
of God. 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 everlasting
life. This is what I didn't understand. And this also is what Nicodemus
didn't understand. It's what my Sunday school teacher
didn't understand, and it's what religion today does not understand,
but it's the gospel. Here in verses 14 and 15 is the
gospel. Most people refer to verse 16,
and verse 16 is a wonderful, wonderful verse, but substitution
is in verse 14 and 15. Substitution is in 14 and 15,
not 16. The blood is in verses 14 and
15. So how do we look at this passage
in a way to convey the meaning of it? And I'm gonna try something
this morning. I'm gonna explain it from experience. And then I want us to look at
it. And this experience is my experience. And it is the experience
of many people who've been raised in religion. A person often begins
with a religious experience, whether it be baptism or a profession
of faith, It can be in the sacraments or whatever. It always begins
with a person doing something. Religion comes to men and tells
him, you need to do this. And we do it. And oftentimes
that leads, you know, with phone calls. So-and-so got saved. And you put it on Facebook. So-and-so
got baptized. You know, this thing is it begins
with men doing something. And then when we do it, and when
I did it, it begins with great dedication to this religion. It comes with much dedication,
a determination that I am going to serve the Lord. And then as
time goes, this zeal wears off. This dedication becomes less. And it reminds me of the verse
in Hosea that says, they shall be as the morning dew. And as
the morning cloud, it's there and then it vanishes away. It
just evaporates. And so is the zeal of religion. And it falls and it fails and
soon old habits creep back into the life. Dedication to the worship
service fades away. And then maybe there's a close
call or something. And then so then there's a rededication. You know, we started out here
and we've kind of drifted down and now we've got to get back
up here. So now we rededicate to this thing. And we do. And we fail. And so now we look
for better circumstances. So, you know, if I was in this
circumstance instead of that, then maybe I could do better.
Maybe I could send less and then maybe I could serve the Lord.
So for me, it was getting back to a specific church and getting
back to a specific preacher and getting back to the circumstances
where I could serve the Lord. But it didn't work. I fail. And with the failure comes anxiety. And you begin begging. You guys
up here and you fail. You get up and you fail. And
then you begin begging the Lord. And oh, you sin. And you fail. And then you find the Lord is
I've gone to him so many times. I've gone to him so many times
confessing. And then you make the mistake
of promising. You promise God that you're going
to do better. And you can't. Now you're in
trouble. You promised God that you would
do better. And you didn't. It would have
been better that you had never promised God than to promise
God Almighty and fail. Now you're in trouble. Now your
heart's pounding. You go outside, nobody's looking,
and you sit on the porch and you put your hands in your face.
Oh God, I'm in trouble. Is there any hope for me? You're
in deep despair. You go to the preachers that
you know, and you find out they're physicians of no value. They
don't understand your dilemma. You're bound by your nature of
sin. You're trapped in sin and you
can't get out. You have followed all the rules
of religion, and then now you face death. You have venom blowing
through your veins, the venom of sin, and now you're looking
at death. Then, then comes along a gospel
preacher, a man who preaches Christ. What does he preach to
you? Look to Christ is his message. Look and live just as Moses told
those in the wilderness. Look at this brazen serpent is
his message. but you don't understand. You
just don't understand. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
5. How can our Lord be a picture of a serpent? Verse 21. For he, the Lamb of God, for
he, God the Father, I'm sorry, hath made him, the Lamb, to be
sin, the serpent for us. For he hath made him to be sin
for us. You see, I am that sin. I am that serpent. But God has made him, that lamb,
to be me. And when the preacher says, look,
and I look, there is my sin before me. And there is my guilt before
me. And there is my shame before
me. He is suffering it in my place. He is experiencing there on the
cross my separation. He is experiencing my darkness
when I go out and I've, oh my soul, oh my soul, the sin. That is my Lord dying for me. He is experiencing my sorrows
on the cross. And he is experiencing my death
on the cross. The judgment against sin is death. And God the Father is judging
his son right there on the cross. He's judging him on my behalf. That is substitution. He is experiencing
my judgment. If you will turn to Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53, Isaiah is telling
us this very same thing. Look with me at verse number
three. He, speaking of our Lord Jesus
Christ, is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. I used to look at this verse
and think of him as a man of sorrows in his life. But you
know, in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, he was a happy
man. He was a content man. He had
perfect fellowship with God the Father. He had perfect peace
in his life. He was in perfect unity with
the Father. This is speaking of his death. Look at verse four. Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. The carrying of
those griefs and sorrows are upon the cross in his substitutional
death for us. Verse five, but he was wounded
for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastenment of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. Verse six, the last portion,
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. There on the cross, he is dying
with our iniquities upon him. He was made sin. There is that serpent upon the
cross. Verse eight, last part. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. Substitution. And in verse 11,
The last portion, he shall bear their iniquities. And then in verse 12, the last
portion, he was numbered, he was numbered with the transgressors
and bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Now, looking back in closing
at my experience in Sunday school when I was a boy, my question,
why didn't the Lord just remove those serpents in the wilderness? And the reason I learned is because
God is holy and he must be just and sin must be punished. The penalty of sin is death.
Justice must be satisfied. And in my confusion, why not
a lamb? Why a serpent and not a lamb? And the answer I found was, he
was the lamb. But this spotless lamb was made
to be my sin, the serpent. And my shock, how could a terrible
serpent represent the Lord Jesus Christ? How can a serpent represent
Christ? By the Lord Jesus Christ representing
me on the cross. What I know now, that this story
of the brazen serpent is the gospel and it's brought peace
to me. Amen.