a blessing. Let's go back to
the book of John, chapter 3. Those of you who were here last
Lord's Day, you will remember that last Lord's Day morning,
I endeavored to bring you a message on right teaching of the new
birth. And if you weren't here or if
you have not listened to that, I would advise you to do that,
though it isn't necessary you had to hear that message in order
to hear this one. But they do sort of go together
because our Lord Jesus is in the middle of speaking to Nicodemus. And in the very, after he teaches
him of the necessity of the new birth, our Lord Jesus says this
to him, verses 14 and 15. And by the way, I would remind
you, he still is speaking to Nicodemus down through verse
number 21. But he says this to Nicodemus
in verse 14, 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, they should not perish, but have eternal life. This is a true story that our
Lord draws from the Old Testament, the truth of the brazen serpent
that was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness. And the Lord
Jesus uses this as an illustration to this man Nicodemus of that
which would happen unto himself. He said, as Moses lifted up that
brazen serpent in the wilderness, and all the people who were bitten
with the fiery serpents, they were admonished, look to the
brazen Not look to Moses, not look to the tabernacle, not look
to some ointment that maybe your grandmother said you need to
put that on the bite of the serpent. No, look to the brazen serpent. The instructions were very, very
clear. Look and live. You can't get any simpler than
that. You've been bitten. You're dying. There is no hope
anywhere else. But Moses has lifted up a brazen
serpent on the pole. And God said to everyone who
is bitten, To everyone who feels the venom in them, the effects
of the venom. To everyone who's been bitten,
look. Look at that brazen serpent.
That's all you've got to do is look. Not work, not weep, not
try to keep the law. Just look. You'll live. And that's the instructions the
Lord gives to us today. And it's a very simple matter. We've been bitten by the awful,
awful serpent of sin. And if we've been made to feel
the fieriness of sinfulness, if we've been convicted of our
awful standing before God and Adam, and of our own personal
transgressions, there is a remedy for our disease. And it's very
simple. This is not for the educated. This is not for those who've
had Bible college training. This is not for those who've
studied the Word of God for years and years and years. These are
instructions for those who've been bitten and know it. And
here it is. Look and live. He says, believe. Notice verse 15. after having
said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth."
If there's anybody in here today who believed Christ Jesus, you
look to Him. You look to Him only. You cease
from your labors. You cease from your striving.
And as a guilty rebel, who understands a little bit of your need before
God. You look to the Lord Jesus who's
been lifted up to die in order that God might be just and justify
the ungodly. If you look to Him, if you believe
Him, God says you live. It's not complicated. We try
to make it complicated, but it isn't. And I find it interesting
that of all the Old Testament pictures that our Lord Jesus
could draw from about Himself, because all of the Word of God
is about Him, all of the Old Testament is about Him, Moses
and David in the Psalms and all the prophets wrote about Him,
but of all the stories, of all the pictures that our Lord could
go back and draw from, As an illustration of the means of
salvation, this, this one, is the one He chose. What a beautiful
type of our Lord Jesus. Now, how did this conversation
between our Lord and Nicodemus get to this point? In the story
of our Savior and this Pharisee, our Lord Jesus is the evangelist. He is the evangelist and this
man, he's the sinner. And here's what the evangelist,
here's what the master, here's what the Lord of glory has to
say to Nicodemus, you must be born again. In other words, Nicodemus,
in order for you to understand the things of God, in order for you to see, in order
for you to perceive this wonderful salvation that is of the Lord,
you've got to be born again. In other words, you're dead.
Nicodemus, the reason you can't grasp the things that I'm speaking
about is because you're spiritually lifeless. And you must be born
again. The Lord must take away from
you a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. What the Savior is saying is,
something has got to happen to you that you can't participate
in. You can't in any way cooperate. There has to be the work of God
in you, and with that work, you can have no part. I just said Christ was the evangelist. Nicodemus, he is the sinner. This is a striking way to approach
a sinner about the matter of salvation. In today's evangelism,
in what is typically called those who try to win souls for Jesus,
when they go out to witness to somebody, this is the last way
that they would ever approach a sinner. Because you see, we
don't go, I say we, the average person who's speaking to people
about the things of the Lord, they don't go out and say, there's
nothing you can do now. What a way to start a conversation
between an evangelist and one who is lost. by first of all
informing them in this matter of the new birth, you're absolutely
passive. But that's what the Lord is saying.
The typical evangelist speaking with a sinner today, his methods
involve questions like this. Will you? Will you accept Jesus? Will you
let God save you? Will you open your heart to the
Lord? And my, how drastically different
is our Lord's approach. Because the very first thing
He tells Nicodemus is this, there's nothing you can do. Now, why
would the Lord say that to him? Because he's a Pharisee. He finds
in himself self-sufficiency, self-righteousness. In fact,
if you would ask him, he would probably just say this, I'm self-saved. I fast twice in the week. I keep
the law. I tithe of all that I possess. I do all of these things. Yeah,
and you're a participant in all of that, but that which has got
to happen to you, Nicodemus, and that which has got to happen
to each of us is a work that is altogether outside of ourselves. What a striking way this is for
our Lord Jesus to approach this man. His methods are quite different. The Savior is saying, in effect,
you must be born again. There's nothing you can do to
cause that to happen. What would it be like if you
were speaking to your neighbor or someone you work with, and
you began to talk about salvation and the new birth, and then this
is the way you went about it? Well, there's one thing for sure,
you'd fail Evangelism 101 today. Because that is just not the
way men do it. But this is the way the Lord
did it. You wouldn't find fault with
this, would you? Why, no. And I say to you, to all of you,
whether you're super religious, moderately religious, a little
bit religious, or non-religious, There's nothing you can do in
order to add to or work with God in the matter of the new
birth. It's of God. Nicodemus has to
be made to understand something, and we've got to be made to understand
the same thing. And it's just this, salvations
of the Lord. If you think you've got a part
in it, if you think it involves you raising your hand, or you
walking the aisle, or you saying yes to a few questions, you've
got it wrong! And it's very much high time
that somebody stood up and said, listen, in this matter of salvation,
the sinner is passive and God alone is active. He was active
in His purpose of grace. He was active in His purchase
of redemption by the blood of the Lord Jesus. He's active in
the power that brings about the new birth within us. He's active
in preserving us. And He's active in justifying
us. And He's active in glorifying
us. Let him that glory, glory in the Lord. This is how the
Lord deals with Nicodemus. Here's a man who's locked up
in spiritual ignorance. Look at verse nine. Nicodemus
answered and said to the Lord Jesus, after our Savior likens
the spirit to the wind, he said, how can these things be? I don't
understand. I know you don't, Nicodemus,
because you're still dead. And there may be someone who's
listening to me this morning, one of you, or one of you on
the internet, you say, I don't understand these things. That's
because your issue is, or your situation is, one of spiritual
death. And get it out of your mind. This is what religion today has
done for us. It has put into the minds of
the people, there's something that God demands that we cooperate
with Him over in this matter of salvation. And that's why
you say, why do you always preach salvation is of the Lord? Because
we've got that mentality. That pervades religion today. That this matter of a right relationship
with God involves God doing His part and me doing my part. That's not the way it is. Salvation
is not a cooperative effort. It's of God and of God only. Here's a man who doesn't know.
He doesn't see, and the Lord Jesus says in verse 10, are you
a master? Literally, are you the master
of Israel and you don't know these things? You've read your
Bible, you're a teacher of the teachers and preachers, and you
don't know these things. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
truly, truly, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord, we
speak that we do know, we testify we've seen. And you receive not
our witness, and by the way, the word ye, is not just you
as in one person, but it's you all. All of you Pharisees, this
is in the plural, you receive not our witness. You men, all
of you of the Sanhedrin, all 71 men of you, 70 plus the high
priest, all of you together, you don't receive the witness
of God. You believe the traditions of
your fathers, you believe the traditions of the elders, but
you won't bow to the Word of God. And the Savior says in verse
12, if I've told you earthly things and you believe not, I've
likened the new birth to a physical birth. just as you have no participation
in your physical birth, you have no participation in the spiritual
birth. He says, if I've told you earthly
things and you believe not, in other words, you can't connect
the dots. You don't understand what I'm saying. If I've told
you earthly things and you believe not, how in the world would you
believe if I got into deeper things? You can't receive those
either. And then he says this, and no
man has ever ascended up to heaven to see and view the secret counsels
of God. But he that came down from heaven,
he has even the son of man, which is in heaven. In other words,
the Savior is saying, Now there are men who've gone to heaven,
who've entered into heaven, but not ascended into heaven and
then come back to tell about it. There's nobody who's ascended
into heaven, whose abode has been in heaven, and then he comes
back to reveal to us the very truth of God. But the Son of
God did, the Son of Man did. And he says, which is in heaven,
that is our Lord Jesus in His deity, He's everywhere. He was with the Father. And He
was on earth. And then our Lord, immediately
He transitions into this story about the brazen serpent that
was lifted up. Now, keep in mind, before I go,
because I'm going to send you to an Old Testament passage.
Keep in mind, our Lord Jesus, He is the source, the only source
of heavenly truth. Believe no other message but
His message. His message to Nicodemus is this. Number one, the necessity of
the new birth. Our Lord is getting Nicodemus
out of the notion that the new birth is something in which he
could have a part. And if you believed the error
of false religion that says, believe on Jesus and get born
again, you're all wrong. You're all together wrong. The
new birth, life precedes faith. Faith is a gift of God. We don't
have the ability to believe unless God gives us life. So first of
all, he tells him of the necessity of the new birth, and then he
tells him the necessity of the Son of Man being lifted up. He
says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, verse
14, even so must the Son of Man be lifted. He must be lifted
up to die. He must be suspended between
earth and heaven in order to satisfy God's justice that says
the soul that sinned shall die. Our Lord Jesus came into the
world to die for the sins of His people. He came to honor
the Lord. He came to honor the law. This
is how God can be just and justify the ungodly. But wait a minute. Our Lord Jesus also in the third
place, He stresses the necessity of us believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ, which results in eternal life. So he says this in verse
15, and you must not leave this out, because verse 14 is not
the end of the statement. That whosoever believeth in him, those people, they shall not
perish. but have eternal life. He stresses it again as we go
deeper. Look at verse 18. He that believeth
in him, he tells Nicodemus, you must believe on me. 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.
See, Nicodemus is like us. He was ruined by the fall. That's
the reason he's dead. Well, what is the remedy to the
fall? The Savior being lifted up to
die. The one who came down from above. He has to be lifted up according
to the purpose of God, as illustrated in the lifting up of the brazen
serpent. See, here's another very simple illustration. And
I love the way the Lord dealt with Nicodemus. He dealt with
him on the level of, he's like a child. And you know, when it comes to
the things of God, that's the way we've got to deal with people
in a very elementary way. He said, you must be born again. Though you have no participation
in the new birth, you can understand what he's saying. It's an absolute
necessity. You gotta be born again. You
can't see the kingdom of God. What does he mean when he said,
except a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God?
He means you can't understand. If I tell you something and then
I say, you see what I'm saying? I don't mean do you see with
these eyes, Do you understand this concept I'm setting before
you? And the Lord Jesus says, except
a man be born again, he can't see, he can't understand, he
can't grasp, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God. And then
He says, you must be born again. It's a simple illustration. Just like you had nothing to
do with your physical birth, you have nothing to do with your
spiritual birth. And then he says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. That's simple. That's not complicated. One of the things about the Lord
Jesus that as a preacher of the Gospel and
as one who looks to Him as the perfect example, one of the many,
many things I appreciate in Him is that He didn't speak over
the heads of the people. He's not coming across as an
intellectual, though he has all the wisdom of God. He deals with
this man as though he were a little child. And he speaks to him in
words that he, though there's no spiritual comprehension, he
can at least in his mind understand to a degree what the Savior is
saying. And then the Savior says, about
the brazen serpent. And you know Nicodemus knew all
about the brazen serpent. He's a teacher of Old Testament
history. Why, he knew that story up one side and down another.
I bet you probably the thought came to his mind, there's nothing
you can tell me about the brazen serpent event that I don't already
know. I teach that in my Old Testament
101 class to all those who want to be rabbis. He's smart. He's smart up here, but he's
empty here in his heart. So the Lord deals with him in
simplicity. Now go back to Numbers. Let's
go real quick back to Numbers 21. Let me show you this. Numbers chapter 21. And I'll
give this to you very simply. Numbers chapter 21. Of course,
Israel, they're on their way from Egypt to the land of Canaan. We know that. And it says in
Numbers 21 verse four, and they journeyed, you with me? Numbers
chapter 21 and verse four. And they, the children of Israel,
journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to compass the
land of Edom. and the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. I'll just stop right there
for the time being. And I'll ask, in this story,
I'll ask five questions. Question number one, what was
the problem with the Israelites? What was their problem? What
was their issue? What's wrong here? Well, number one, They didn't like the way God
was leading them. That's what it says. They were
discouraged because of the way. They are rebellious people. They're
dissatisfied with life, like so many people today. They grumble
about the providence of God. Lots of people grumble about
God's providence. And it is very sad that even
the people of God often fall into that category. People who
are full of objections, full of criticisms of the route God
is leading them. But these people, I will remind
you, are being led by the Lord. He led them by a pillar of cloud
by day and a pillar of fire by night. The Lord is leading them. But they didn't like the way. And today, as we preach the gospel
of God's grace, and we set forth that the Lord Jesus is the only
way to God, people have difficulty with that. Now wait a minute!
You're saying you're right and everybody else is wrong? I'm
saying God's right. And God says, there's no other
way to the Father, there's no other way to everlasting life,
there's no other way to salvation except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
whom you must believe. That's the way. Well, that's
too narrow-minded, preacher. Well, it is a narrow way, the
Scripture says, and few there be that find it. You're not discouraged with the
way, are you? You don't find fault with God's
way, do you? There's one way of life, one
way of salvation, one way of acceptance. I know Proverbs says
this in Proverbs 14, 12 and Proverbs 16, 25. There is a way that seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Here's what the Lord said to
Israel. I brought you out of Egypt, I'm taking you to the
promised land, and this is the way you're going. And they said,
we don't like this way. And I'm telling you, the Lord,
in taking His people to the land of promise, He takes us one way. And if you find fault with that
one way and you try to go up another way, the end thereof
is a way of death. There's just one way of life. One way to the heavenly Canaan. I like that passage in Isaiah
chapter 30 and verse 21. Thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee saying, this is the way. This is the way. Walk in it. This is the way. Christ and Him crucified. I want something else. What about
this and what about that? This is the way. This is the
way. Secondly, the people not only
didn't like the way, secondly, they didn't like the food. Look at the next verse. Verse
5, the people spake against God. But of course, they couldn't
see God, so they spoke against Moses, who is his spokesman. Wherefore hath he brought us
up out of the land of Egypt, to die in the wilderness? There
is no bread. There is no bread. And the last
statement of verse 5 says, Our soul loathes this light bread. We hate this. And David in the
Psalms calls it angel's food. Prepared by God Himself. And
that manner, that also speaks of Christ Jesus. Who is the bread
come down from heaven. What do you do with bread? You
eat it! And you live! He said, I am the life that cometh
down from heaven. I'm the living bread that came
down. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.
And the bread that I will give is my flesh that I won't give
for the life of the world." But the people didn't like the bread
of God. And people today, they don't like the bread of God.
I'll tell you what they like. Baptism. They like that. Make a decision. Do some good
works. Keep God's law. All of these
things they like. But when you say you must eat
of Christ Jesus, you must receive Him. He's the bread that came
down from God. I don't like that bread. That's
what the Israelites said. They found fault with the food. Thirdly, they didn't like the
drink. It says here in verse 5, in the middle of it or toward
the end of it, for there is no bread, neither is there any water."
Well, now, wait a minute. There is water, because Moses
smoked the rock, and the river of water followed them. But they
said, is that all we've got to drink? This is all we've got
to eat, and this is all we've got to drink, is this water? Where is the wine? Where is the
juice? Where is some other beverage? They didn't like the drink. Is this not also a picture of
Christ Jesus? Who is Himself the water of life? The last day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto
Me and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But there was something else
that they murmured about. They murmured about the means
or the way by which God brought them out of Egyptian bondage. Go back to verse five again.
The people spake against God and against Moses, wherefore
have you brought us up out of Egypt? We don't like the fact
that you brought us up out of Egypt. Well, we were okay there. It
was a little hard, but hey, we had food, we had drink. And then
you brought us up out of Egypt. What did that involve? A Passover
lamb. A Passover lamb. This is the
means God used to bring them out, which also pictured Christ
Jesus. You see, whatever God did for
them, they found fault. They found fault. And the problem
with the natural man is, he finds fault with God, doesn't like
the way God does things. Well, whether you like the way
God does things or not, this is the way it is. There is one
way to God. There is one bread that came
down from heaven. There is one water of life. If
you're thirsty, come and drink. And there's one means whereby
he delivers us out of bondage and slavery. That's by means
of the Passover lamb. Oh, how simple. See, it's simple.
Christ is the way, Christ is the bread, Christ is the water,
Christ is the lamb, but they didn't have any interest in him.
And you won't either. unless you're born again. All
right, here's the second question very briefly. What did God do? Verse six, the Lord sent fiery
serpents. Who sent them? The devil? No.
The Egyptians? No. Who sent the fiery serpents? The Lord did. And they bit the
people. And much people died. God sent
these in judgment. God's sentiment and judgment.
Third question. What did the people then do? Well, now they're beginning to
come to their senses, and the scripture says in verse 7, therefore
the people came to Moses and said, let me tell you something,
this is a good first step. We have sinned. That's a good place to start.
See, we've all been bitten by the serpent of sin. Poison's
in us. It's the poison of death. We've
sinned. We've spoken against the Lord.
Against His way. Against His food. Against His
water. Against His means of deliverance.
We've spoken against the Lord. And Moses, we've spoken against
thee. We want you to pray unto the
Lord. and he'd take away the serpents from us. And Moses, he prayed for the
people. He prayed for them. The people did something. They prayed. You know, the message of salvation
to the natural mind is just confusing. And even to those of us who've
been born again, we understand there are things about this salvation
that are really beyond our comprehension. Because on the one hand, the
Lord says, you must be born again, and you made no contribution
to that. On the other hand, He says, believe and live. Look and live. Question. These people who were bitten,
And you'll notice in verse 8, at the end of it, it says, everyone
that is bitten when he looks upon this brazen serpent shall
live. I asked you this question. You were bitten. You're dying. There's a brazen serpent been
lifted up. If you look, you'll live. How
are you going to live? By looking. By looking. And I know we're dead in trespasses
and sins, and God's got to do His work, but that is His work. But do we not have any responsibility
toward God? Yes, we do, and it's to believe
Him. You hear that? You've got to
believe Him. You say, well, but we can't believe
apart from the new birth. That's a fact. But still we must
believe Him. And here's somebody dying due
to having been bitten. What are they to do? You say,
preacher, I'm in a mess. What am I to do? Look and live. And if you do look, I'll tell
you why you look. It's because the Lord has made
you spiritually alive. There's nobody in here who believes
the doctrine of salvation by God's free and sovereign grace
any more than I do. And at the same time, I also
believe this. If you believe, God will save
you. And if you refuse to believe,
you've got nobody to blame but yourself. Now that's the truth. So I can't figure that out, preacher.
I don't think anybody ever said you're supposed to figure out
the ways of an infinite God. I know what your duty is. I know
what your responsibility is. And I know what my responsibility
is. And it doesn't matter to me whether
people call me a Calvinist or an Armenian. I'm just trying
to be consistent with the Word of God. Believe, you'll live. If you've been bitten and you
feel the... or is it in you? And you're convicted, oh my soul,
I'm dying in my sin. I'm going out to meet a holy
God. I need a Savior. He's been lifted
up on a cross to die. I look to Him. The Scripture
says you live. So I don't understand. Nobody
ever said you had to understand. But you do have to believe. You
do have to believe. Well, what is the remedy here?
God said, Moses, make a serpent of brass. Go to the blacksmith,
tell him to make a serpent out of brass, not of gold, not of
silver, make it out of brass, and make it in the likeness of
a fiery serpent. I expect the blacksmith said,
that's the most foolish thing I've ever heard in my life. Well,
it may be foolish to you, but you go ahead and make it. How did we get in the mess that
we're in anyway? Been bitten by the serpent of
sin due to the fall of Adam. What did God do? He sent another
man. Listen to this. For what the
law could not do, and 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. For by man came death, By Christ
shall man be made alive. Then he said, lift it up on a
pole. Don't put it in the tabernacle where nobody can see it but the
priests. Lift it up on a pole between
heaven and earth. What is the way of salvation?
Here you are. You say, I want to know God. I want to be saved. I want my
sins forgiven. What is the way to heaven and
to God? The way of the cross leads home. Christ crucified. That's the
way. That's the way. Lifted up on a pole. It isn't
Christ in the manger that saves, though we're glad he came. It
isn't Christ performing miracles that saves, though we're thankful
He's the great miracle worker. It isn't Christ holding the little
children in His lap that saves, though we're thankful for His
tenderness and His compassion. It's Christ lifted up to die. That's how God can be just and
justify. That's how sins can be put away
and were put away. That's how sinners are saved.
This is the remedy. We're ruined by the fall. The
remedy is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And here's the last
question. What were the people to do in
order to live? You can be an old hard shell
and deny man's responsibility all the way to hell if you want
to. If these people had said, you know what? If I'm going to
live, I'm going to live. After all, I'm a predestinarian.
Well, so am I. So if God wants to heal me, He
can heal me. If He doesn't, I'll just die.
Go ahead and die. He told his neighbor that. He said,
you know, I believe if God wants to heal me, He'll heal me. I'm
not interested in a brazen serpent. And his neighbor says, well,
you can go ahead and die if you want to. I'll tell you what I'm going
to do. I'm going to get off my sick bed, and if I have to use
both my crutches, and I'm going to get out of this tent, and
I'm going to look at that brazen serpent. It's a long ways away.
But if I can just get a glimpse of it. Moses said, if I'd look,
I'd live. He got up, and he hobbled on
his crutch. I can see him, can't you? He
hobbles, he gets out of that tent, and he looks just like
that. He's healed. Just like that. Well, who did it? God did it. God did it. It's a man who believed
God. And this is what, we can't give
ourselves life. I know that. We can't save ourselves. But as God enables us, look. Can you look to Christ Jesus?
Listen to what He says in the book of Isaiah. Look unto Me,
and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. Can you look? I'm
looking. I'm looking, aren't you? I've
been bitten. I'm guilty. But I see a Savior
in the Word of God. I see Him lifted up on a cross
for sinners like me. And He says, look. And it doesn't
just say, look and you'll be healed. It doesn't just say,
look and you'll be restored. It says, whoever look shall live. That's what I do. And that's
what I call upon you to do. You can't give yourself spiritual
life. That's God's business. But I'll tell you what you are
commanded to do. God Himself commands you to believe
on His Son. He lifted Him up on a cross.
That's the only way of God. He's the way. He's the bread. He's the water. He's the Lamb. And I'll tell you, He's pictured
in that brazen serpent. And if you'll look, oh, God help
you to look. God enabled you to look. You'll
live. And you'll live forever. And
you'll live with Him. That's a wonderful story, isn't
it?