before you this morning, a people chosen from before the
world was to be in this very place, this very moment, and
praise the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This morning, Lord, we're going
to look at one of your pictures, a picture of who your Son is,
what He has done for us and where He sits right now. And as our
brother Mike described what a painter does, Lord, I
ask this morning, I ask this morning, Father, that You might
give me the umption, the words to bring together this picture. contrasting the things that You
have shown me in Your Word. But most important of all, Lord,
pointing, pointing these dear people You have brought to this
building by Your sovereign power to hear Your Word, pointing them
to You. May all that we say and do here
this morning, Lord, raise up our Savior. raise Him up, that
those who hear Your Word may hear the truth spoken, and it
would be a blessing to them. Father, we ask this in His name,
Jesus Christ, Amen. I'd like to ask you to turn in your
Bibles to the book of Numbers, to the fourth book from the beginning
there, the book also written by Moses himself, Throughout Scripture we see pictures
of types. My title for today's message
is, A Picture of Salvation. When we look at a picture, for
instance, you might see one hanging on a wall of a farm. It's kind
of limited, isn't it? I mean, some may be with a bigger
scope, but every picture is limited to a certain point. You might
have one with just the building and a barn or something on it.
Or you might just have an old barn in the picture. Or you might
just have the house. Whatever the case is going to
be, you're still only going to see a portion of the whole thing. But there's always much, much
more that cannot be seen of that picture. Could be an outhouse,
for example. Or it might be a picture of a
lovely vegetable garden. We must look at God's pictures
in the same way. Some things are meant to be a
small picture of something. And there's a lot more to that
story, that picture, than we may see in that immediate story. Much of the Old Testament is
exactly that. It's a picture or a type. Moses
was a type of Christ. He delivered God's people from
the bondage of sin. We've seen that throughout Scripture,
where the Lord uses that as a picture of that. Moses stood before the
kings of this world, the kings who satisfied the lusts of their
eyes with all the good things that this world produces. Gold.
food, slaves, servants. Moses was used as a humble man
who had nothing, who couldn't even speak without stuttering. Oh Lord, he said, how can you
send me to talk to this king? I can't even speak right. The
Lord said, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it for
you. I understand those words that
he said, because when I was put into this position, I asked my
Lord, how could you use this man to stand before your people? And he reminded me that as Moses
did, I'm not standing here in the strength of John, I'm standing
here in the strength of God's Word, and His Word alone. Joseph, the youngest, of Jacob's
sons was a type of Christ. He held the keys of all of Pharaoh's
goods in his hands and he distributed it as he saw fit. Our Lord Jesus Christ holds all
the keys to heaven and distributes it to his people as he sees fit. All of the old sacrifices that
we read about in the Old Testament, the slaughtering of this, the
blood poured of this, they were all pictures of the only sacrifice
worthy of acceptance. In Hebrews 10 verse 1 we read
this, For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not
the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices
which they offered, year by year, continually make the comers thereunto
perfect. The law, all those sacrifices,
did nothing. Coming to the baptismal does
nothing. Coming to the Lord's table does
nothing. Christ is the one who did it.
And all these things that they did in the Old Testament points
to Christ, just as what we do today points us to Him, raises
our Savior up where He should be. And it also lowers men down
to where they should be. Says in verse 2, for then would
they not have ceased to be offered, speaking of those very ones,
those offerings, those sacrifices, because that the worshipers once
purged should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices,
there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, speaking of our Lord, he saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast prepared for me, in
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. And then he says, Lo, I, I the
Lord, come in the volume of the book. In Hebrews 1.1 we read this,
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets. That's what these types were.
Even in the New Testament, our Lord uses pictures to speak to
the people. He calls them parables. Parables
are nothing more than pictures in a descriptive word. You see,
Israel was not all Israel. Many of the people were of this
world were of this world and not of God. But God used the
people as a picture of spiritual Israel itself. The Jerusalem
of God, he calls it in scripture. The bride of Christ. The loved
of God. This morning we are looking at
a type. a picture of the salvation of
God's people. Read with me, if you will, verses
4 through 9 of Numbers, chapter 21. And they journeyed from Mount... Now this is speaking of Israel.
Remember, Israel is now out into the wilderness. They have left
Egypt behind. The Lord has covered the sea
back again. And they are journeyed from the
Mount Orr to 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 like 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, we have spoken against the Lord
and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpent 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 the serpent of brass, he lived." This is the very picture that
our Lord chose to use in giving that religious Pharisee, Nicodemus, The picture of what that meant.
And we'll look at that in the third chapter of John in a moment.
But let's first consider the condition of the people and this
brazen serpent for just a moment and how it could be a picture
of the one who saved his people. In verses 4 and 5 we see the
people rebelled against God. I want that to set in for a minute. You see, ever since the day that
Adam rebelled against God, every single one of us has come into
the world doing that very same thing. To say, I don't believe that
of His Word, or this of His Word, or any part of His Word, is to rebel against the Creator.
That's what rebellion is, unbelief. The people rebelled against God.
They were discouraged because of the way. And interestingly
enough, it's the very way that they chose. Back when they were
at a place called Kadesh Barnea, they chose to go this way rather
than to go the way God had told them to go, because it was an
easier path. There weren't as many mountains
to climb. There was a little easier path for them to go. Oh,
no, no, let's go that way. It's not towards the land of
milk and honey, it's not towards the land of Canaan which we were
promised to go to, but it'll take us a little longer, we'll
just go that way. They chose to go that way. It's the very way that they had
chose. They could and should have entered into the land of
milk and honey, but their unbelief turned them away from God. That's
what we read in Hebrews 3.19. Our very wanderings in this life,
in this wilderness, are of our own choosing. Because of Adam, we choose not
to believe God. That's what it says in Romans
5.12. We wanted to be our own God. To have our own way. And the consequence of that is
death. The people spoke against God. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul
says it this way, they spoke against Christ. They murmured
against Moses, God's prophet and leader. Nothing that the
Lord or Moses of his servant had done pleased them. They spoke
against the way of God and the word of God. And our generation
is no different. People want to say, oh, we've
come to so much higher standard now than we were 2,000 years
ago. No, we haven't. The nature of
men is the same. It's all about me. What pleases
me? It always has been that. Instead of recognizing that their
condition and troubles in the spirit and the flesh are of their
own making and justifying God by His judgments, they murmured
against the Lord in His way. They murmured against His servants.
The lust for our own way that we read about in Isaiah 53 got
us in the mess that we are in. Yet we still reject God's way
and desire our own. Who maketh us to differ? How
can I be turned? The people found fault with the
bread from heaven. The very one that that bread
represented, Jesus Christ, was being rejected. We've had enough
of this bread. that says, our soul loatheth
this light bread. What a horrible, what a horrible
thing to statement to make, especially in the light of the fact that
the rock that they drank from was Christ himself, and the manor
was a picture of Christ. God's gift of life. How many
in the world or religion today are content with Christ, the
bread of life, and the water of life? You know how many people
have left this very church saying, that's not enough for me. I need
more. I have my own loved ones who
have said that from this church. Our Lord says, search the Scriptures
for in them you think ye have eternal life and they are they
which testify of me and ye will not come to me that ye might
have life. In John chapter 6 verse 51 through
60 we read this, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread
he shall live forever and the bread that I will give is my
flesh which I will give for the life of the world. And then he
says right after that, the Jews therefore strove among themselves. saying, How can this man give
us his flesh to eat? And our Lord answers by this,
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. And as the living Father has
sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. Is Christ all you need, or do
you need more? Our Lord says, this is that bread
which came down from heaven, speaking of that very bread that
He gave to His people in the wilderness. The very bread that
they cried, oh, I'm so tired of it. These things said He in the synagogues
as He taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? Like Israel of old and the Jews
of the apostolic time, we will not have this man reign over
us, nor rejoice in his way of life. Next in our text in verses 6
and 7, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people because of their
sin and because of their murmuring and their rebellion against God. Fiery serpents that were filled
with venom. Sin. the very venom that destroys
the people of this world. God judged those people, sending
deadly poisonous serpents among them, and the people bitten by
the serpents died. Many died. You know, they say
that there were millions, millions of people that left Egypt at
that time. I don't know how some of them
know that, but I'm just repeating what others have said. I don't
know that for sure. Many of those people died in
that very situation. Our sins have separated us from
our God. The serpent of sin has left its
poison in every son of Adam. And the wages of sin is death.
And it is upon each and every person that walks this earth,
someone is going to die for that sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ
died for His people. For by one offering, we read
in Romans 5, 17, by one offering, by one man's offering, death
reigned by one. Much more, they which received
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as the offense of
one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification
of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Folks, in Adam, all have died. And there is no human cure for
it. There is no human cure for the
guilt and the condemnation of the sin that is in us. Spiritual death is in us, physical
death is upon us, and eternal death awaits all who go through
that door marked death without the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin, it says in scripture, when
it is finished bringeth forth death. This people, this people
who were being bitten, they entreated Moses to intercede for them with
God. Lord, have great mercy upon us.
And it's only because of God's mercy that they were delivered
at all. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve, and mercy is God giving us what we do deserve. Next we see how it is God and
God alone that provides the remedy for this picture This picture
of Christ, our Redeemer, in verses 8 and 9. A serpent was made in
the likeness of fiery serpents, so Christ our Lord was made in
the likeness of flesh. In Romans 8.3 we read this, For
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. In Philippians 2.7
we read this, "...but made himself, speaking of our Lord, made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men." Our Lord was made of a woman
as you and I have been made of a woman. Bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh as we read in Luke chapter 24. He was numbered
with the transgressors as we read in Isaiah 53. Did you ever stop to think with
this brass serpent? Why would the Lord tell Moses
to make a brass serpent? The very thing
that's going around biting people. The very thing that is killing
the people. Our Lord had to be made flesh. You see, that brass serpent didn't
have any venom in it, did it? That's a picture of our Lord
being exactly like you and I, but without sin. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
being raised up on the pole, He who knew no sin, who was made
sin. Not anything you can contribute
to Himself for what He had done, for He was perfect in every way. Yet He was made sin so that you
and I would be made righteous in Him. The brass serpent had no venom,
as Christ had no sin. He was tempted as we are, yet
without sin. The serpent of brass was lifted
up on a pole, so Christ was lifted up on the cross. He bore our
sins, He was nailed to a cross, and there was but one remedy.
The serpent on the pole. There is but one Savior. One
Redeemer. One Deliverer. to the Lord Jesus
Christ, our substitute. And here's the thing about that.
All the people were required to do was look. You didn't have to go out and
prostilate people. You didn't have to go out and
feed the poor. When God Almighty shows you the
sin that is in you, and you see where you stand before God in
truth and in spirit, there's no place to go but to
look to that one who hung on the cross between heaven and
earth. God provided the remedy fully
and completely and commanded them to look. And our command
is the same, look and live. In 1 John 5.11 we read this, and this
is the record that God hath given us to eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things,
writes John, have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." The
remedy was sufficient. It was all they needed. It wasn't
the brass serpent plus whatever you were doing. It was the brass
serpent alone. It was sufficient and it was
effectual for dying sinners, no matter how severe the case,
it's still the same. Look and live. It's not a one-time
look. It's continuing to look. Every
day. Every moment. Again, in 1 John,
chapter 5. No, I've already read that. Romans 5, chapter 6. Chapter
5, verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Christ
died for sinners, people. That brazen serpent wasn't set
up there for the world. It was set up there for those
who knew they had sinned. Those who knew they were sinners.
Who had the venom of poison flowing through their veins. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet preadventure for
a good man some would even dare to die, but God..." Don't you
love those words? But God. Oh, I love that. "...commendeth His love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through Him. Folks,
God's mercy is for the miserable. It's for those who cannot help
themselves. Imagine what it was like to be
in that camp and be bit, and know that there's nothing, absolutely
nothing you can do. That's what it means to be a
sinner. To know that there's absolutely
nothing you can do. We have no gospel for sham sinners,
for those who pretend to be. We have no gospel for those who
pretend to know the Lord. Our gospel is for the lost, as Moses' serpent was for the
hopeless, bitten people of Israel. Let's look at John chapter 3
and see our Lord's use of this event in Israel's history. If
you would turn over to John chapter 3. Over in the book of John, in
chapter 3, our Lord gives an account of a man who came in
the night. He was a rabbi. He was a leader
of the religious Israel. He was one of those who would
stand before the people and say, if you'll just do this, if you'll just do that, The Jews were all full of those
kinds of things. You think Catholics were the
only ones walking around shaking the little thing with smoke in
it and stuff, incense? No. Jews had all kinds of rituals
just as the Catholics do. Just as the Baptists do. Just
as all religions do. This man, as we read in verse
1, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. The same came to Jesus by night. He was ashamed. I don't want people to see me.
Those who hold me up as something, I don't want them to see me go
over to this guy that tells us we don't need to do anything.
This guy who says he's fulfilled the law for us. I don't want
them to see that. The same came to Jesus by night
and he said unto him, Rabbi, We know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Did you catch that? Read these words carefully, folks,
for this is the exact picture that our Lord is painting here
to show Nicodemus. And Nicodemus knew the story
of the brazen serpent very well. Do you think he knew it for the
truth of what it was? I don't think so. Read along. Nicodemus saith unto
him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Now Nicodemus knew that
couldn't be. Just as much as you and I know
that can't be. What are you talking about, Lord?
What does it mean to be born again? Remember, we're talking
about all those Israelites in that large camp. Some of those looked. to the serpent, didn't they?
Some of those looked to the thing on the pole and were saved, weren't
they? Who maketh us to differ? Who
makes you and I to differ from anybody else that's out here
in the world? Our Lord and Savior. Some have been made to be vessels
of mercy. and others have been made to
be vessels of wrath. God's Word says that. I know there are many in this
world who would not like to believe that, would rather just know
God loves everybody. But that's not what our Lord
says. He says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And you cannot
argue that. That's about as plain as that
message that you brought before us this morning in Bible study,
brother. Plain as can be. Yet there are those who still
will not read that and believe it, aren't there? How can a man be born again when
he is old? Can he enter into his second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered and
said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born
of the spirit is spirit. It's a heart matter. It's a spiritual
matter. We must have spiritual life. And you cannot get it on your
own. Marvel not, our Lord goes on
to say in verse 7, that I said unto you, ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 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, now we've got Nicodemus
all in a, whew, what was that? And Nicodemus answered in verse
9, he said unto him, How can these things be? And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel? Aren't you kind of in charge
of something here? Don't you know what it means
to be in charge? The one who stands before you, he didn't
say these words, but the very one who stands before you is
in charge of everything. It's easy for me to do these
things, because I rule everything is what the Lord says. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, we speak that we do not know, and testify
that we have seen, and you receive not our witness. Our Lord has
told them over and over again, I and my Father are one. Look at all the miracles that
He had done to prove it. Yet He told those unbelieving
Jews, you are not My sheep, My sheep hear My voice. You think that applied to any
of those Israelites that were looking to the brass serpent? Those ones who didn't look weren't
the sheep of God. Plain and simple. He says, if I have told you earthly
things, in verse 12, and you believe not, how shall you believe
if I tell you of the heavenly things? And no man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son
of Man, which is in heaven. And here we go, folks. Here's
where I wanted to see this focal point of the picture. We've seen
the contrast as our brother Mike has pointed out. We have colors
of this and opposite colors of this and how they come together
and you bring out the hot and the cold. This is exactly what
we're doing. We've shown you what the venom of the serpent means and
now let's see what the serpent on the pole means. And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Can't get any plainer
than that. Just as He did out there in the
wilderness, the very story that Nicodemus knew about, but had
no knowledge of what it meant, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. That's pretty plain. Even simple
people like myself can understand that. Our Lord and Savior must
be lifted up. You want to be saved? Is the
Lord tugging at your heart? A new heart that He has given
you to see what you are as far as sin is concerned? Then do what He commands. Look
to Him. Don't walk away and say, I'll not have that man. I'll
not have that religion. I'll not have the religion of
a sovereign God rule over me. I've got my own religion that
says I have power to do what I want. That's making myself
a God, is it not? Our Lord must be lifted up above
everything. And then he goes on to explain
what that means in detail, that whosoever believeth, whosoever
looketh to Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever Whosoever that
He loveth, whosoever that belongs to Him, all those that the Father
gaveth Him shall believe in Him and should not perish, but have
everlasting life. But He doesn't leave it with
that alone, does He? Catch this next part in verse 17. For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world to 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."
You see, folks, this is the condemnation. This is what condemns every man
and woman and child who walks this earth unless the Lord intercedes
that light is come into the world, verse 19, and men love darkness
rather than light. because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
and they are wrought in God. Many went to the grave that very
day in unbelief, but some were saved. Look to Christ, and thou
shalt be saved. One last thing, and I'll bring
this to a close. Turn, if you will, to 2 Kings
chapter 18, if you would please. 2 Kings chapter 18. We've looked at what this brazen
serpent was a picture of. Could you imagine? You folks
have all been around a little while. You've heard the stories,
I'm sure, how people have gone crazy over what they thought
was a Christ pictured in a piece of burnt toast, right? I'm not
the only one who's heard that. OK. Does that not tell you how
crazy things can get? Could you imagine if they found
one piece of Noah's Ark? Do you know how hard people are
looking for that? There are people who have spent
their entire life savings and earnings at trying to find. It's
just like those people who found that treasure on some island
around here. It's on one of the cable channels.
They finally found it. Oh, that gives us hope. Maybe
we can find Noah's Ark, or maybe we can find a piece of the cross
that Christ was hung on. I mean, seriously. Don't they treat those places
over in Israel that very way? Don't they go over there where
they think the Lord was buried and spend all day worshiping
it? I've heard people say this, you
know, you really got to go over to Israel. You can feel it in
the ground you walk on. Look at verses 1-4 of 2 Kings
18 with me, will you? Now it came to pass in the third
year of Hosea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the
son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Twenty and five years
old was he when he began to reign. And he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, the
daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father
did. And here's what I want you to read. He removed the high
places and break the images and cut down the groves and break
in the pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. For unto
those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it and he
called it Nishan. Isn't that interesting? These people. Did you see God do a work right
there? They saved the serpent of brass and then they began
to worship it. Why? The Lord saved some who didn't
even see the brazen serpent for what it truly was, but yet there
were some who did. There's always, as you said brother
Mike, there's always a remnant of God who goes out and preaches
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. His Word will always
go forth. There will never be a time when
there won't be a small little place here, as you said, a small
little place there, where the Lord's Word will not go forward
until that day when the last one is called out of darkness.
And then our Lord will come back. The King of Judah had to destroy
it, calling it only pieces of brass. Isn't it a wonder that
people today tend to worship the land where Christ lived,
calling it the Holy Land? Do they not worship the place
where He died and lay buried? Is not the cross itself an object
of worship that we wear around our necks? What idolatry. Our Lord says to each and every
one of His children, keep yourselves from idols. There's only one way to do that,
people. You know, Polly was sharing with me a contrast situation
earlier. Do you mind? Is it okay if I
bring that up? Okay. I should have asked you
that first. I'm sorry, it just came to mind. The Lord blessed her, and then
she tripped. She's got a pretty good mark
on her shoulder there. It's not good for ladies or men
of our age to do that. He answers her prayer with a
great blessing. And then he reminded her, I am
God. My will shall be done. And she
was brought right back to looking to Him again and again, just
moments after he had answered her prayer. You see, our Lord
does that out of love for all of His children. It hurts, yes. Painful, maybe. But it keeps
us looking to Him. Just as we come to this table
to remember who He is, what he has done and where he sits now,
he will bring us back to him each and every time and continue
to look to him. Will you stand with me?