Look there again with me in verse
4. We'll read this again. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom.
Edom was Esau, that's his name. And this is a country named after
him. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Whatever happens, when you get
discouraged, don't speak against God. And don't start blaming
the preacher. If the preacher was doing what
he ought to do, things would be better. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. And they said, wherefore have
you brought us up out of Egypt to dine the wilderness? For there
is no bread, and neither is there any water. And our soul loathes
this light bread, what God gave them every morning. They said,
we hate it, we loathe it. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people. And much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against God,
spoken against the Lord, and against you. Pray unto the Lord
that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for
the people. Ain't that the way our Lord Jesus
Christ is? We murmur, complain, find fault,
get discouraged, and yet our Lord prays for us, prays for
us. And Moses prayed for the people,
and the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, set
it on a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is
bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses made a
serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that
if a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the brass, he
lived. Now our Lord Jesus Christ, when
I read over there in John, he told Nicodemus. Nicodemus was
a religious leader. Our Lord said, you're a master
in Israel. You're one of the leaders here. And yet you don't
know a thing in the world. He was devout. He was a Pharisee. Supposed to have been a student
of the Old Testament. And he told him, he says, you're
a master of Israel and you don't know these things. And then he
began to refer to himself. He said, Nicodemus, this is the
way that a man gets life. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth on him shall have everlasting life. And he
used his death for sinners using an Old Testament type. Now all
of God's people who've been born again, who've been regenerated,
they see things. We see the kingdom of God. We
see Christ and His kingdom. We're in the kingdom of God.
Not a kingdom that's gonna come, a kingdom that's right now. We're
in the kingdom of God. And Noah, they see things from
God's word. We see the kingdom of God and
we see things that other word from God's word that other men
do not see. And he said, we see it and we
enter into the kingdom of God. A bunch of Pharisees and Jews
came to the Lord one day and said, if you're the Christ, if
you are the Christ, just tell us plainly. We want to know.
And he said, I've told you, but you believe not. And you know
why you don't believe? Because you're not of my sheep.
He said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
And what a joy, what a blessing to be able to see our salvation
by the Lord Jesus Christ in the types and pictures of the Old
Testament. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
all the Old Testament pictures are just shadows. When Christ
came, he was the actual substance. And they were pictures of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so let's look together at
this serpent of brass, which, typical, was a type of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It showed of our Lord's death
on the cross for sinners. And I tell you, I believe we
can see the gospel of grace preached here in this picture that we'll
look at tonight, or this morning. And let me tell you, first of
all, the serpent was an appropriate figure. Why? Because it was a
serpent in the garden that deceived our mother Eve. It was a serpent. It was a snake. And Satan appeared
as a serpent. And he's called that old serpent
in the Revelation. He's called Apollon. He's called
that because he's a deceiver. You can't recognize him. And
he appeared as a serpent. An old sneaky, sorry, filthy,
rotten snake. And our Lord even called Those
Pharisees, he called them serpents one time, vipers and serpents,
he called them that. And so it deceived Eve and we
was cursed, Adam was cursed. Because of that. And the curse
came upon the human race because of what Adam did in the Garden
of Eden. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
cursed for us. He was made a curse for us to
save us from the curse of the law. And why wasn't it one of
the actual serpents? One of those serpents that died,
why didn't he take that and put it up on a pole? Why didn't he
do that? Because it would have been like
a sinner representing himself. So it had to be something other
than that one that destroyed him. You know, that one that
bit him and it caused him to die. What it would be, it would
be a sinner representing himself. It was a serpent that bit him,
and how can you put a serpent that bit him up on a pole? It'd
be like sinner saving himself. And there had to be brass. It
had to be a breast, a likeness, made just like that fiery serpent,
made in an image of that fiery serpent. And that's the way our
Lord Jesus Christ was. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. He was not sinful flesh. He had
a body like we have, but he was a sinless man, a perfect man. He was the God man. And I tell
you what, in our Lord Jesus Christ, God made Him, took Him and put
Him in our place, made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, that
we could be made the righteousness of God in Him. And this serpent
that was lifted up in the wilderness was just a type of our Lord Jesus
Christ lifted up on the cross. And why was it a serpent of brass?
Why? Why was it a serpent of brass?
Well, brass speaks of two things, two things. First of all, it's
an emblem or a picture of God's judgment. You remember when you
first went in the tabernacle, when the first thing you saw,
other than the light over on the left side and the table of
showbread here, but right in the center of it, right in the
center of it, there was an altar of brass. brazen altar, and those
sacrifices was put on that brazen altar, and it was fire that consumed
those sacrifices on that brazen altar. And that shows us that
the fire that was on that and consumed those sacrifices on
that brazen altar was a representative of God's judgment upon the sacrifice. And I tell you what, if fire
fell on those things, And it always speaks of judgment. And
God himself said that sometimes he'd make the heavens brass for
us. And I'll tell you what, when they get brass, it gets awful.
It gets awful. And I'll let Lord Jesus Christ,
when he's represented as the judge, coming back to be a judge,
He is represented there as having feet of brass. Why does he have
feet of brass? To trample his enemies. To trample
in judgment upon his enemies. No wonder they said, oh, hide
us from the face of the wrath of the Lamb that sits upon that
throne. And I tell you, the second thing
that brass speaks of is harder than iron, harder than silver,
harder than gold. And what that talks about is
our Lord's mighty strength, our Lord's great and glorious strength,
because He is able, He was able when He was on that cross to
bear the awful judgment that should have fell on us, but because
he was the God-man, because he was Christ and he had the strength
and the power to stand there and take the judgment of God
and the fire of God in our room instead and able to bear it.
Now let me give you seven things, seven things that these people
were not told to do. Don't do these things. Don't
do these things. Seven things. The first one is
don't go out here and buy you some salve or manufacture you
some kind of an ointment. Don't manufacture some kind of
a salve. Don't go out and get you some
herbs and rub them together and get all that. to heal yourself
and put it on that, where you're bitten by that serpent. Put that
on there to deal with that serpent. No, our Lord, He told him here,
He said, look, look at that fiery serpent. He put that brush, He
said, look up yonder. See, here's the thing, a multitude
had already died. A multitude already died. And
here's the thing about it, we died in our father Adam. We was
all bitten with fiery serpents, we all got bad blood. And that
bad blood, the only thing that can heal that bad blood is the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell
you what, it's like that woman, when she went to all the physicians,
she had an issue of blood. She went to every doctor, spent
every penny she had, and you know what the scripture said?
She just got worse. She got worse. You know when
she was healed? She said, if I can just touch
the hem of his garment. Oh my. I tell you, beloved, and
I tell you what, People, you know, they go over to Israel
and they'll get a bottle of water, get it out of the Jordan River. And these preachers and them
stuff, the guys go over there and get some of that water out
of the Jordan River and bring it back and sell it to people
and say, this is holy water. They got all kinds of, you know,
all kinds of stuff to try to get folks to do anything but
look to Christ. And the second thing they were
told, don't minister to others. Don't minister to others. Don't
go out and start trying to win souls and knocking on doors to
soothe yourselves and to heal yourselves, to get relief for
yourselves. And this social gospel that tells
people that if you do good, and you'll help the poor, and you'll
go feed the hungry, and you'll go on Thanksgiving, and you'll
stand there and cut the turkey, and give them the gravy, and
give them the dressing, and you do that, and you go and get all
these places, and do that, and then give a whole bunch of food,
and all that kind of stuff. Don't minister to others. Don't
believe this social gospel. A drowning man can't save another
drowning man. And I tell you, a dead man can't
raise another dead man. You can witness all you want
to. You can, we ought to witness. We ought to pray for people.
We ought to help people. But here's the thing about it.
It's not to save your soul. There's nothing you can do that
will get to relief to your soul. Don't go out here and try to
do something for somebody else because I tell you what, just
to get relief for yourself because it won't work. It won't work.
And here's another thing, here's a third thing they were told
not to do. Don't get you a stick and go killing snakes. Don't get you a stick, don't
go fighting them, don't go fighting them serpents. Don't go fighting
them. Don't go fighting them. Oh my,
if they'd have killed a thousand serpents, they still would die. They still would die. Because
they were already bitten. And you know the Abbey Baptist
Church, the Abbey's Church anywhere, what they'll do is say, well,
let's get a committee together. We need a committee. Who's going
to be the chairman of it? Well, what are we going to do?
We're going to kill serpents. We're going to kill snakes. How
are you going to do it? Well, we're going to fight. We're
going to fight. I tell you what, we're going
to fight communism. We're going to fight drinking. Oh my, we're
going to fight strong drink. We're going to fight picture
shows. Oh, don't you dare go to a picture show. We're going
to fight abortion. We're going to fight rock music. We're going to fight everything.
We're going to fight anything that moves, rides, and wriggles.
We're going to find something wrong with it. But I'll tell
you what, you can fight pornography, you can fight everything that
everybody does, but I'll tell you one thing, it's never, ever
healed one soul or brought one person to Christ. There's 6,000
or 7,000 preachers got together here recently, and they got to
dealing with one thing. They all decided they was gonna
deal with one thing and missed the gospel. But we can fight
everything under the sun, but I'm telling you one thing, it
won't bring one soul to Christ. It won't do it. I don't believe,
I don't like communism, but that's not the gospel. Preaching against
abortion is not the gospel. Preaching against culture music
or rock music or any other kind of music is not the gospel. And you know, people have geographical
sins. Fellas tell me the other day,
he was doing something and sitting out in his back, out of his back,
and he was enjoying himself and smoking a cigarette and sitting
there and this woman next door come over and said, boy, you
said, you know, I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. And you know, found out some
other things, but she was living with the fellow next door. You know, I ain't smoke a cigarette,
I ain't take a drink, but I'm living fornication, I'm living
adultery. And I remember years ago, fundamentalists, you know, they
used to think this, they said, a fellow asked a guy one time,
do y'all do mixed bathing? He said, no, when I get in the
bathtub, I get that by myself. He said, no, I'm talking about
swimming. Talk about swimming, do you men and women swim together?
He said, well yeah, of course we do. And I know a preacher that I
used to go preach for, when he'd go to the beach, he'd wear a
white shirt, black pants, and white shoes because he was afraid
to be on the beach in shorts or anything. He thought he'd
dishonor the Lord. But people, that's what I'm telling
you, they think these kind of things makes them more commendable
and that they're fighting sin. They're really fighting sin.
But once you're bitten by that fiery serpent, fight it all you
want to, but you will not put away one of them and kill a thousand
serpents and it won't help. Huh? Oh my. And here's the fourth
thing they were told not to do. Don't make an offering to the
serpent. Oh my. Bring your tithe to the storehouse
and God will open the heavens. Oh my. He'll give you so much.
But there's no payment price for healing for life. You can't
buy grace. You can't buy grace. You can't
buy grace by working. People say, I believe salvation
is by grace, but God will give you grace if But if it's of works,
it's no longer grace. And it's of grace, it's not of
works, it's not of merit, it's not of worth, it's not anything
that you can do. I tell you what, if you ever
try to get God to do something for you, the minute you try to
do that, the second you do that, it ceases to be grace. If you
pray expecting God to do something, you know, that you're because,
just because you pray, that gives you some insight. Just because
you attend a service, because you give some money, and you
think that, well, surely God will bless that. The only reason
God blesses anybody for anything in this world is because of the
Lord Jesus Christ, nothing we've ever said, done, or thought.
If I ever get anything from God, it's going to be because of Christ.
Huh? I'm not going to bring my preaching. I'm not going to bring my prayers.
I'm not going to bring my tears. I'm not going to bring my church
attendance. I'm not going to bring my devotion. I'm coming,
I'm coming just like I did the first time I come. Holding your
steadfast, your confidence beginning to the end. What was my confidence
when I first come to Christ? That I was a sinner and Christ
was the only one that could save me, and I'm going to stay right
there until God calls me home. That's where I'm going. I'm going
to drop my stake down there. I come to Christ as a sinner,
and I'm going to stay right there. I ain't got any better. If I
have anything else, I've got worse. I've got worse. It wouldn't do for y'all to hang
around my house and see how sorry I am. It just wouldn't do. It
just wouldn't do. Oh, don't hang around. Come visit
me every once in a while, but don't stay too long. I'll end
up making, I'll end up doing something, saying something that'll
say, oh, that preacher, I don't know if I want to hear him again.
Oh, my. And I tell you, here's the fifth
thing they were told not to do. They were told not to pray to
the serpent. Oh, they were told not to pray. Oh, if I can just,
oh, I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna pray
through. I'm gonna pray. I said, oh, I
seen something the other day. It was called knee mail. You
ever heard of knee mail? It gets on your knees and you
send mail to heaven. Yeah, sure, sure, sit down on
your knees, send an email up. Does God need mail? You reckon
God gets mail? People write to Santa Claus,
he don't exist. Send up an email, oh my. But that's what people say, if
I could just pray through. And people say this all the time.
I pray really, really hard. How do you pray really, really
hard? How do you do that? Either you
pray or you don't. You can pray without opening
your limbs. You remember when Eli was sitting
there, the high priest, and Hannah came in, and she was praying,
and her lips weren't moving? I mean, you know, and she was
praying, and her lips were moving, and he thought, well, boy, she's
drunk. She's just in here, and her lips
are not moving. She's not praying. She said,
oh, no, no, no, I'm praying. He said, what are you doing?
You're drunk. She said, I'm praying. But her lips weren't moving.
He said, well, what in the world are you doing? She said, I'm
asking God to do something for me. And her lips never moved.
It's like coming to Christ. You can come to Christ and not
move a muscle. You can pray to God and never
open your lips. How do people pray that can't
talk? How do people look to Christ
that's blind? How does that happen? How do
people hear the voice of God that's deaf? Oh my. Pray through, pray through,
pray through to what? People use such, and listen.
I wish, I wish you all would pray hard for me. How do you
do that? Oh my. And here's the sixth thing
they were told not to do. Don't look over under at Moses.
Moses came in. Moses represents the law. All the law came by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. You know when our Lord
Jesus Christ was on the Mount of Transfiguration, he changed
and glistened like the sun. It appeared Moses and Elijah
appeared unto him. And they come to talk about what
his death would accomplish. And I tell you what, in all to
him, you know, talking about Moses, to him all the prophets
gave witness. And I tell you, Moses, you know,
our Lord Jesus said, if you believed Moses, you'd believe me. Moses wrote of me. Moses, when
he wrote this story right here about that serpent lifted up,
he was writing about Christ. When he said in Deuteronomy 6,
18, 15, said, there shall be a prophet risen up like unto
me. Him shall God give witness. Him shall God give his word.
So all he talked about was the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell
you what, don't look to Moses. Don't look to the law. The only thing the law can do
is show you how bad you've been bitten. And here's the last thing
they were told not to do, the seventh thing. Don't look at
your wounds. Boy, don't look at your wounds.
Oh my, what am I gonna do about my wounds? I get skinned up worse than anybody.
I put on a shirt this morning and I had two or three skins
on there and got blood on them. Had to change shirts and put
band-aids all over my arm. Surely did. But I tell you what,
if I don't look at my wounds, no, no. And this is what people
do when they look at their wounds. Well, I don't know if I'm a big
enough sinner. I don't know if I've felt sinful
enough. I don't know if I'm a bad enough sinner. You know, I don't
know if I've sinned enough. You're just born with enough
sin. He was born with it. But oh my, don't look at the
wounds, don't look and see how bad you have to be. How bad do
I have to be? Well I tell you what, they say
if I get to where I can be a bad enough sinner, then maybe God
will save me. No. No, all I had to do was be bitten. Just bitten. And then Moses said,
look up yonder. Look at that serpent on that
brass pole. Now, here's the positive side, that's the negative side,
let's look at the positive side. Back over here in numbers, look
at it with me. When these people were bitten,
and that serpent had venom in it, and it caused these people
to die. And look at this, this serpent
was provided by God Himself. In verse 8, the Lord said unto
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole. This was
the Lord's provision. God made this provision for these
people. These people spake against God,
spake against Moses. And if you know, and God let
a multitude of them die. But boy, to save them, to save
those that would look God said, listen, make the vast serpent,
put it on a pole. God told him to do this. It was
the Lord's provision. Moses was commended by God to
make the serpent. The people were stunned by this
fiery serpent and mortally wounded. I mean, they're gonna die. And
that blood was, that poison that was filled in those fiery serpents
had poison in it, caused them to die. Cause them to die. And that's the way we are. We
got blood, our blood got sin in it, sin in it, sin in it.
And that serpent was lifted up under Moses, the law. And that
serpent, when it was lifted up under Moses, the law, Moses couldn't
do anything. All he could do is say, look.
The law says, look to Christ. Don't look to me. And that serpent
was lifted up. And here's the second thing.
The Lord provided this. This is the thing. Our Lord God,
God in Heaven Himself, Almighty God, Sovereign God, Immutable
God, before the world ever began, our Lord Heavenly Father, our
God, He sent His Son on purpose to do one thing and that was
to live a life that you and I could not live, to die a death we could
not die, to pay a debt we could not pay. And he who has hung
out publicly, God provided for us. That's why I said, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And this
is the reason Christ came. God so loved, God so loved, who? The world, what kind of world?
People like us. Ever tried, ever kindred, ever
known, ever tongue, ever people on the face of this earth. Every
kind of character like people like us in this service here.
And I tell you what, God provided it, God did it. And man wants
to do everything but do what God says to do. When God told
Moses to make a fire serpent and put it on a pole, What if
Moses said, no, I don't want to do that. You all deserve to
die. Every one of you deserve to die.
You've been talking about God and you don't like what He provides
for you. I tell you, every one of you
ought to die. But no, no. And if God had left
us to ourselves, we would have died and we would have been in
hell a long time ago. But God provided for us this
blessed Savior and lifted Him up. Huh? God did that. God did that. And I tell you,
here's the second thing. That serpent was hung out publicly. Publicly. That everybody could
look. Everybody could look. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, He was set out publicly. Oh my, our Lord
Jesus Christ, Paul said, this thing wasn't done in a corner.
God set Him forth, set Him forth in His Word, set Him forth in
this world, set Him forth on the cross, and hung Him up for
everybody to see. And I'll tell you what, you know,
the only thing he had on his body, he didn't have one of these
little aprons hung around him. He was hanging there naked. Not
a, the only thing he had on, there was a crown of thorns on
his body. He was hanging there bloody,
beaten, and broken. beaten to a bloody pulp, and
he was hung there, and when he was hanging there publicly, there
was five people there that believed him, and trusted him, and looked
to him, and then there was a sixth one, and that was that thief
who was hung on the cross beside him, and said, Lord, remember
me! When? When you come to your kingdom. He knew right then and there
that it was a kingdom. Nicodemus didn't know it. I know
it, you know it, that there's a kingdom. And that's what he
said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. He
said today. And he hung him out publicly.
And beloved, there's not very many people that'll look to Christ.
But without looking to him, there is no salvation for anybody.
And I'll tell you this much. If God don't give you eyes to
see, you'll never see. You'll be like Nicodemus. How
can I be born again? I'm gonna get in my mother's
womb and come out? You'll be just like he was the
first time he was born. Flesh! But I tell you, our Lord
was hung out publicly. And even that man, that centurion
there that was responsible for crucifying him that day. When
he cried out and all those things happened after his death. The
rocks rolled into him, and the veils rolled in, and the earth
quaked. He said, truly, truly, this was
the Son of God, this righteous man. Oh my, he was made a public
spectacle, a public spectacle. And oh my, and you know what,
them Pharisees, they said, I tell you what, That deceiver said
that he's gonna rise again on the third day. He said just to
make sure that they don't come and steal his body and say that
he rose again, put a watch on it. Get some guards and sit there
and watch that grave, make sure he don't come back out and they
don't steal him. Guards, watch the Lord's tomb
to make sure he don't get out. That means somebody wants to
know my grave. Make sure we don't race from
the dead when we're in our graves. Oh my goodness. If you're standing
on somebody's grave, this is decoration. People love to, we
go and decorate our loved ones' graves. We put flowers, and we
go and show our love for them, our respect for them, and for
the military, we put out our flags. But I'll tell you one thing,
if you're standing there, putting flowers on your loved one's graves,
the day the Lord Jesus comes back, you're gonna be surprised
because they're coming up, and then after they get up, and they
all start going up, while you're standing there, watching them
come up, you're gonna be changed in a moment to twinkling of an
eye, and you're gonna be caught up together with them, meet the
Lord there. How would you like to be standing there and watch
one of them come up? You say, how can that happen?
Same way God made the world. If he can make a world, believe
me, he can bring everybody out of the grave. Ain't that something
to look forward to? Oh my. Oh my. I'll tell you. And then there's the Lord's promise.
Here's the third thing, the Lord's promise. Look what he said, verse
8 and 9 here. He says this, the Lord said unto
Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole, and this
shall come to pass, and it always does when God says so, that everyone
that is bitten, now here's the key right here, everyone that's
bitten, if you got sin, you've been bitten, and you got Adam's
sin in you, and you got this blood that's got sin in it, And
here, listen, he said, if you bring everyone that's been bitten,
when he looketh upon that brass serpent, he shall live, shall
live. And that's a promise that God
made. And Moses made that serpent of
brass, put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, just like God
said it was, it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten
any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. He lived. God said, you look, and you can
have life. Huh? Oh, I tell you, Moses, not
the law, couldn't save these people. The only way they were
saved, the only way they was healed, the only way they was
made whole, was by looking to that brazen serpent. And only,
only by salvation, the only way, and this is why we, is by looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I never get tired of hearing
that, looking to Christ. And I tell you what, Peter stood
and he said this, on the day of Pentecost, he said, he said,
there's no other name, there's not a name under heaven, not
a name under heaven, not Moses, not Abraham, not Noah, Not Peter, not Paul, not the
Pope. No man. No name under heaven given among
men. And listen to this, whereby we
must, must be saved other than Jesus Christ. And if I have told
you this time and time and time again, if I could ever get a
multitude to preach to, that's all I would preach. I would preach
to them that there's no other, there's not a Savior. There's
not, Allah doesn't exist. There's no other God, there's
no other Savior, there's nobody in this universe that can do
anything for anybody other than the Lord Jesus Christ. God said
that. God said, I gave him a name.
What's in a name? In Christ, everything. I gave him a name that's above
every name. And because he gave him a name
above every name one of these days, he said, I swear by righteousness
that every knee's gonna bow. Every tongue's gonna confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. So God'll get all the glory.
And you know that's how we know we know the gospel? Does God
get all the glory in your salvation? Does he get all, every bit of
it? You don't take none to yourself, do you? What did you do to save
yourself? What'd you do to make better
yourself? Oh my, our Lord says no man comes
under the Father but by me. And that serpent was lifted up,
lifted up, so those who, I mean there were people right about
on the verge of dying. I mean on the verge of dying.
Old people, young people, I mean it's all in between. Husbands
and wives, both of them bit. And they said, just look, just
look, just look. And if you was down and you had
to turn your head like this to look, as long as you looked,
you could get up and walk. You could get up and move. That
venom in you was gone just that quick. And that's what meant
by stripes were healed. And let me give you this right
quick. A serpent killed and wounded these people. A serpent brought
life and healed these people. And I tell you what, it brought
life by a look. A serpent killed them, a serpent
lifted up was what healed them. Life by a look. As far as God's
concerned, there's only two men in this world. Two men in this
world. Adam and Christ. Two men. God looks at everybody, one or
the other. Two men in God's purpose. By one man, this man Adam, sin
entered into this world. And death passed upon all men
because every one of us sinned. Death passed upon us. But then,
by one man's righteousness, and that of gifts, many were made
righteous. You see, by Adam came death. By Christ came life. By Adam came sin. By Christ came
righteousness. By Adam, we got an evil nature. By Christ, we get a holy nature. By Adam, we're separated from
God. By Christ, we're reconciled to
God. We have reconciliation. And let
me tell you this, that brazen serpent healed only the wounds
of the body, and he's safe from temporal death. He's gonna die
anyway, eventually. But our Lord Jesus Christ, by
his stripes we're healed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he heals
not only the, he, the serpents just healed the body. And they're
going to just release them from temple death. But Christ saves
eternally. Christ, when he gives you life,
it's an eternal life. I tell you what, you know, and he put away the cause of
death, which was sin. Yeah, he put away the cause of
death, which was sin. And I tell you what, our Lord
Jesus Christ, He heals the root, not just the branches. And I
tell you, He heals all who are bitten. And here's the third thing about
it. The serpent lost its virtue to heal. Do you know that? After
a while, that serpent didn't heal any more people. Didn't
heal any more people. Not anymore people. And I'm going
to show you why. Look over here in 2 Kings 18. Look here in 2 Kings 18. In verse 4. I'll wait on you to
get over there. The serpent lost his virtue to
heal and saved, and was not to be worshipped. Look what he said here. In verse 4. I'm in 1 Kings. I'm not even
in 2 Kings. I'm sorry. Did I tell you 2 Kings? Okay. It wouldn't hurt for me to be
there. I'm sorry. Look what he says here now in
verse 4. Talking about Hezekiah, he would
move the high places and break the images or statues that the
people had made, cut down the groves, and listen to this, and
break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made. For unto
those days the children of Israel did burn incense unto it, and
he called it nehushtan, that is, a piece of brass. These folks
turned that piece of brass into salvation for themselves. But
I tell you what, that lost its virtue to heal and was not to
be worshipped. But our Lord's blood and power
to save will never ever lose its power. Jesus Christ the same
today, yesterday, and forever. Oh my, he's to be worshipped
forever. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. And let me hurry, I'll tell you
what, I didn't realize I've taken so much, I'm sorry. No matter
how many times and how much poison was in a man, he was told to
look and to live. If the eyes was weak, they could
still look and live. And weak faith, if you got the
faith of a mustard seed, I don't care how weak it is, if it's
true faith, It'll save you. True faith saves. Just touch
the hem of his garment. The hem of his garment. And here's
the fifth thing, let me hurry on. The serpent was unlikely,
most unlikely thing to human nature or human reason to heal
the wounds. What in the world can a serpent
of brass do for me? What in the world can a serpent
of brass do for me? And that's the way people look
to Christ. I don't need Jesus Christ. I'm all right. I don't
need him. I don't need anything he's ever
done for me. But that's why Christ crucifies
foolishness to so many people. But to those who look to him,
it's not foolishness. It's the very power and wisdom
of God. It's every life from the dead. And last of all, let
me give you this. Man become a lost sinner by a
look. Do you know that? Eve saw that
the tree was good for food. She ate that food. Saw it was
good for food. And a sinner saved by a look.
Our Lord said, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of
the earth. For I'm a just God. I'm a just
God and a Savior. Life starts by a look, and our
salvation continues with a look, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And it will end with a look.
We're looking for the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Huh? And oh my, from start to finish,
The only thing required is looking, looking, looking, looking, looking,
looking, looking. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord, great glorious name, that name that's above every
name, We bow to that name, we worship him, and all is connected
with him. Lord, we look to you for our
salvation. We look to you for our final
salvation when you call us out of this world and we get to go
to be with you. We look to you for the end of
our salvation, even when you appear without sin unto salvation
for us are looking for you. Lord, we're looking. We're looking,
we're watching, we're waiting. And Lord, you'll come, you'll
come, you'll come. You'll come at the right time.
You'll come at the right time for every one of us. And Lord,
we thank you. And God bless these dear saints
and cause the gospel to be effectual in the hearts today. And I pray
it was a blessing. Lord, by the Holy Spirit, make
it fruitful, make it real, make it vital. Forgive us of everything
that's unlike you. Bring glory to yourself through
us, for Christ's sake, amen, amen. ? Turn your eyes upon Jesus
? ? Look full in his wonderful face ? will grow strangely dim by the
light of His glory and grace. See you tonight.