We'll look at a few things as
we go over this. It's the Book of Numbers, and
the reason it's called the Book of Numbers is because the children
of Israel were numbered twice. The children of Israel were numbered
twice. And that's what the title comes
for, for the numbering of the children of Israel. Who was able,
everybody over twenty years and old as a male, was polled and
numbered out of every tribe. And out of every tribe, they
were to be men of war. And there was things that God
set up that if there was a war, you didn't have to go. If you
were specially married, you didn't have to go. If you was the only
one that had to take care of your mother, you didn't have
to go. And there was lots that God had rules set up and laws
set up where you didn't have to go if there was a war. But
that's what they had it for. This is the fourth book of Moses. And you really won't get through
with what God does with the children of Israel until you get all the
way through the book of Joshua. But there's two generations in
the book of Numbers. There's the old generation. That's
the ones that came up out of Egypt. And that's why they stayed 40
years in the wilderness until all the old ones died. And there
was a young, a new generation. And that old generation was from
Numbers 1.1 to Chapter 21. And they murmured and complained,
and a lot of things that God had to do to them and deal with
them for their murmuring and complaining. And then there's
the new generation. And they were numbered, that
before they went into Canaan. They were numbered. at twenty
years old and up for men of war. And what happens is, we begin
to describe the order. The Book of Numbers describes
the order. When God set up the tabernacle, the places where
the camp, where Israel was, be three tribes on the east side,
three tribes on the west side, three tribes on the south side,
three tribes on the north side. And they had marching orders
when they'd take that tabernacle down. They had orders how that
they would go by troops. Certain tribe would lead a tribe,
and then another tribe, and then another tribe, and then another
tribe. And that's how they marched. That's how they moved through
the wilderness. And they all... And I'll tell
you, I read this today, and it's even in these notes here. But
this is probably the longest funeral procession in the history
of the world. running around the desert for
40 years for all those people to die for being such God complainers,
such murmurers, such rejecters. And the reason these people had
the results of their unbelief is that God sent some spies. There was 12 spies, one out of
each of the tribes of Israel. And you can find this in Genesis,
I mean, Numbers 13. He said, and they went down to
spy out the country. He said, go up on that mountain,
look down there and see this country, what it's like. So they
went down there and they looked. And you remember, they came out
with a tiger grapes. They found grapes that they had
to bring them out on a pole, they used to think. And they
brought back pomegranates and figs. And when they came back,
Joshua and Caleb at the end, they said, oh, this is the land
full of milk and honey. This is just part of the fruit.
And then the other ten said this, but there's giants down there.
There's giants down there. The sons of Anakim. There's great
big giants down there. And we can't go down there and
fight them giants. And Joshua and Caleb said, yes, we can go.
If the Lord is with us, we can fight and destroy all the Lord's
enemies. Well, those ten, so was adamant and so felt like
they couldn't go down there and couldn't fight those enemies
that they got in such a state of mind they turned up all the
children of Israel that the scripture said that they were ready to
stone Joshua, Caleb, and Moses for even bringing them into the
wilderness, not leaving them in Egypt. And so that's why they
was down there 40 days spying out that country. God said, for
every day that is down there, I'm going to keep you in the
wilderness, battening you a year for a day, and you murmurs, you
complainers, you unbelievers, He said, you're going to die
here. And that's the only reason they walked around in that desert
for 40 years, to kill all them people that complained. And so,
once that old generation was dead, God commended the new generation,
led by Joshua, to take them into the land of promise. And that
was the reason for the second numbering. But that's some things
that we understand here about ourselves. We see ourselves.
And, you know, if you're starting again, start reading the Bible
through and familiarize yourself with it. Unbelief. Unbelief is a horrible thing.
Nothing... Todd Leiber got up one time and
he said, I committed the most awful sin that anybody could
possibly commit. He said, I'm embarrassed to tell
you what I've done. I'm embarrassed to even talk
about it. And everybody started wondering,
what in the world has Todd done? What's he done? He said, I've
got this awful, awful sin. And he said, it's the sin of
unbelief. They thought he was going to come up with some awful
thing in the flesh, but unbelief. And unbelief. That causes all
our troubles in this life. It's the tendency, and we see
when you look through numbers, it's the tendency of our fallen
nature to trust in ourselves. And when we go and read this
book, we understand that we must believe our God. And we must
trust and follow Christ in all things and never lean to our
own understanding or anybody else's understanding. Read the
scriptures and see what thus saith the Lord, and do what God
says. And you know that's what happened.
They would reject and rebel against the leaders in Numbers chapter
11. And then you've got Korah. He
stood up against the Lord's people. He stood up against Moses. He
stood up against Aaron. And remember what God done? He
opened up the earth and swallowed him and all of his people, Dothan
and Dathan and Korah and all his bunch. And that's why, beloved,
trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Jeremiah said it this
way, it's not in man to direct his own steps. The minute you
start to, and I know this from experience, I hope the rest of
you ain't done it like I have. Make decisions without stopping
and faking, without seeking the Lord, waiting on the Lord. and
really get in a mess. But I tell you, beloved, if we
wait, God will direct our plans. He'll direct them. It's not in
us to direct them. You know, if we went where I
still wanted us to go, before we were converted, we sure wouldn't
have been here. We sure wouldn't have went toward
Christ. We sure wouldn't have went toward our depravity. We
wouldn't have went toward God's sovereignty. We wouldn't have
went toward electing grace. We would not have went anywheres
near any place that told us that we were flesh, grasshoppers,
worms, and that God is the only one that can do something for
us, and we have nothing to give to Him. He must give everything
to us. We don't do anything for Him.
He must do all for us. We wouldn't have went that way.
You know where we would have went? We're in some place, like
we did, where we bang on one another, testify. God might get
around the altar and make a big bunch of noise and have all kinds
of plays and rigmaroles. Oh, God, help us all, please. Oh, my. And that's nothing. Nothing
honors God more than faith. Nothing. Abraham believed God. And God imputed to him for righteousness.
And nothing dishonors God more than unbelief. When we think
that what we want to do and the way we want to do it is right.
That's why I said, acknowledge the Lord in all thy ways. In
all thy ways. And oh my, we got to, you know,
we all want to say, well, we know the Lord knows best. He'll
do what's right. And then we'll get up and start
doing it on our own. We'll get up and start figuring
it out ourselves. But God teach us. God teach us. that He really, really, really,
really does not only know what's best, but He does what's best
for us. And when He speaks, what He says,
we've got to listen to it, and do all that He says and requires
of us. It's always for our good and
His glory. Now, wouldn't you love to learn? To live like somebody
that actually believes that God's always, always right, and that
my always is always wrong. His way's always right. My way's
always wrong. So how do I know I'm going to
do right? Do what He says. That's all you can do. That's
why Solomon said, There's a way which seemeth right unto man,
but the end thereof is the ways of death. And I'll tell you numbers
here. The book of Numbers is also a
picture. That's experience of faith and unbelief in a believer.
Both of them struggling. Here's a people that's come up
out of Egypt. Here's a people that's crossed the Red Sea on
dry land, dry cover. They've seen Pharaoh and his
armies drowned in the sea. They're going to the land of
Canaan that God had promised them in a covenant, promised
to Abraham, that they would have a land that they was going to
inherit. And they were going toward that
place, pressing toward that kingdom, and then pressing toward the
mark, but they yet hadn't attained the prize. And they had faith
to follow God out of Egypt, faith to go through the Red Sea. Faith
to stand there and watch God drown Pharaoh in him, but then
when they get out there in the wilderness, the faith when it
gets tested, when that faith when it gets put to the fire,
that faith when God says, now this is where you're going to
go, this is what you're going to do, and folks start rebelling
about it. And that's where we come into
problem. And that's they had faith to follow God out of slavery
and darkness, but they up yet hadn't come to full liberty and
rest in Christ. And how many of us are like them?
We've seen our sins put under the blood of Christ. We've seen
Satan, the strobe man, arm cast out. We've seen our Savior as
our Redeemer. And yet, we find it so hard sometimes,
because of this flesh, because of unbelief, to trust Him to
provide for us, to protect us, to guide us in our lives every
day, and get us through our daily struggles. And I tell you, you
imagine what some people go through that we know. You remember when
Brad got up and told about his neighbors the other day? An old man went up there, his son
had him, daughter had him come up, and mother and daddy come
up to where they lived, put him in assisted living, take care
of him. Son got up on a roof, fell off
and got brain damage. Now he can't take care of himself.
His sister's had cancer, and his dad's in the nursing home,
and his mother ain't gonna be able to take care of him. Whole
family. Everyone had the best intentions in the world. So you see, beloved, but here's
the blessed thing about it, and I do bless the Lord's name for
this, that God is faithful. Huh? If we believe not, if we
believe not, and how many times do we believe not? If we believe
not, yet He abides faithful. He can't deny Himself. And we
may not, we have times when we don't believe. That's like that
fellow who said, Lord, I believe. Oh, I do believe. When He wanted
His Son healed, I believe, I believe, I believe. But would you please,
please help my unbelief? And that's why he says, nevertheless,
the foundation of God stands sure. God is faithful. His mercy, His grace, and what
He does for us is never altered by our experience. When we're
not faithful, that don't mean He's not going to be faithful.
Our experience never alters what God's going to do for us. Now
you think about that for a minute. Our experience, faith, unbelief. Things we do, things we don't
do. Places we go, places we don't
go. Our experience and what we are
never ever offers God's faithfulness to us. When you're sitting here full
of unbelief, Is your experience of unbelief, is that going to
change the way God deals with you, and keeps you, and protects
you? He's faithful. If He wasn't faithful, what would
happen to us? Oh, it would be awful. I don't even want to think
about it. Huh? And oh, remember that when
David said, Oh, Lord, as a father pitieth these children. Oh, even
so, the Lord pitieth them that knoweth Him. Why does He do that?
He remembers. We forget that we're dust, but
He don't. We sometimes feel like, boy,
we got the world on a downhill drag. But God said He remembers
us. We're just dust. We may think
we're full of strength. We may think we're full of vigor.
And yet, Lord knows that we're full of dust. And look with me
over here in Isaiah 43. Look at this with me just a moment.
Isaiah 43. This is what Ed found such great
comfort and assurance in and such blessing from. These verses
speak to you right here. Isaiah 43, verse 1. Now, thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear
not, for I have redeemed thee, and have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. And when thou passest through
the waters, I'll be with thee. Through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou
shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for your ransom. I destroyed Egypt to bring you
up out there. And why did I do it? You're as
precious in my sight. And you've been honorable and
I've loved you. And I'll give men for you. For you and your
people and your life. Fear not, for I am with thee. I'll bring thy seed from the
east, gather you from the west. I'll say to the north, give up!
To the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far. Bring
my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone that
is called, what? By My name. By My name. God looks at us and says, Be
Mine. Call Him by His name. For I have
created Him for My glory. Yea, I formed Him. Yea, I have
made Him. So if God made us, He's going
to be faithful to us. We may have unbelief, but He's
going to be faithful. He created us for His own glory.
And may we be able to sing that old hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness.
And then when you get through chapters 21 through 35, we see
again that though this Israel is so disobedient and rebellious
and full of unbelief and sin, and here we are, we live in this
wilderness, and that's what it's called. Just like they went through
the wilderness, that's what this world's called. It's called wilderness.
Christ went into the wilderness to find His lost sheep. That's
what this world is. We're in a wilderness here. We're
strangers and pilgrims passing through. And, beloved, though
we live in an utter barren place, and sometimes we have emptiness
of soul and darkness in this wilderness, our great and blessed
God will never leave us or never forsake us. In the midst of our
weakness, He's our strength. When we fall, He picks us up,
and He holds us in the omnipotent hand of His power, His grace,
and His mercy. Now, there are several pictures
of Christ in the book of Numbers, and these are great. And I want
you to look at them with me. Look first of all in 17, chapter
17, Numbers chapter 17. Chapter 17. These are wonderful. I've preached on them before.
And here's what happens. Here's the first thing that pictured
our Lord Jesus Christ typical of them. And the Lord spake unto
Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take
every one of them a rod, according to the house of their fathers.
Of all their princes, according to the house of their fathers,
twelve rods write thou every man's name upon his rod." That
means he stabbed. He stabbed. Walking stick. He said, and you write Aaron's
name upon the rod of Levi. So there's going to be twelve
rods. Lay him up in the tabernacle
of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet
you. And it shall come to pass that the man's rod, whom I shall
choose, shall blossom, and I will make to cease from me the murmings
of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you." I'm
going to set my approval on somebody, and they won't say anything else
against you, because if they do, I'll deal with them. But look
what happens now, down in verse 8. And it came to pass that on
the morrow they left him there all night, day and night. Moses
went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron.
For the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed
blossoms, and yielded almonds." Do you know what God said? He said, this is my priest, this
is my anointed, this is the one that I'm using to give life to,
to represent me. And just as Aaron's robbed Bunnett
and God publicly owned him as being mine, the one that's got
life, the one that's got power, the one that brings forth fruit,
that tells us our Lord Jesus Christ was the one chosen, anointed
of God in the only way. And He's the only one that can
bring forth any fruit in me, you, or anybody else. Now, death
didn't bring life, but it does when God chooses to, instead
of letting them know who's His is. And that's why Paul says
that God declared Jesus Christ to be the Son of God through
the resurrection and the spirit of wholeness from the resurrection
of the dead. Now, look over in chapter 20. I'll show you another
type of Christ. Oh, they're murmuring, murmuring,
complaining. ain't got nothing to drink. And
then the Lord spake unto Moses down in verse 7, Take the rod,
gather thou thy assembly together, and Aaron thy brother, and speak
unto the rod with further eyes. And he shall give forth his water,
and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. So
shalt thou give the congregation in their beast strength. And
Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded, and
Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before
the rock. Now, I tell you, this must have been some kind of a
rock. And he said of them, Here now, you rebels, must we fetch
you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand,
and with his rod he smoked the rock twice. And the water came
out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beast drank. Now, beloved, This is a picture
of salvation. In fact, Paul says, you know,
they did drink of that same spiritual drink, for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
And it wrought, as that rock was smitten, as that rock was
smitten, Christ Jesus was smitten, and He was smitten by the justice
of God, smitten by the law of God, and satisfied justice, and
water, life, comes out of it, because it was smitten. And then
let me show you, now this is a good one, I love this, chapter
21. Down in verse 5, talking about
the brazen serpent, there's Aaron, Rhonda, and Buddy. That tells
us our Lord Jesus Christ, the one anointed and appointed of
God, Declared to be the Son of God by the power of His resurrection.
Owned as His prophet. Owned as His priest. Owned as
His representative. Owned as the Word of God manifested
in the flesh. The water that came out of the
rock. Christ was that rock. And then here's the brazen serpent.
Look in verse 5. And the people spake against
Moses, and against God, and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought
us up out of Egypt to die in their diswillingness? There is
no bread. Neither is there any water. Our
soul loathes this light bread. And the Lord sent Irish serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Now the Lord did that. Therefore
the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned! For we
have spoken against the Lord, and against thee pray unto the
Lord, that he may take away the serpents 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." I just read it to you Sunday
morning. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have eternal life." And here
the children of Israel murmured against God, murmured against
Moses, and God in judgment sent these serpents among them, fiery
serpents, and when they bit them, it killed them. It was a poisonous
snake, a very poisonous snake, and it killed a lot of them.
And they come and said, we've sinned, and Moses prayed for
them, and God told them, said, make you a serpent of brass.
And you hang that serpent of brass up on a pole where everybody
can get it up, where everybody can see it. Get it up. And he
said, and everyone that's bitten when he looks upon it, he shall
live. And it came to pass that if that serpent bit any man,
he'd be all serpent of brass, he'd live. And that's what gospel
preachers are. A preacher ain't got no business
other than to set forth, we're just a pole, to set forth Christ. That's all we are. They said,
John, what are you doing? I'm just a boy. Paul, what's your message? Christ
and Him crucified. Peter, what are you going to
talk about? I'm going to talk about the obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. And God's elect, and according
to His foreknowledge, I'm going to talk about Him. And that's
the only thing a preacher's fit for, is to lift up the Lord Jesus
Christ, crucified before sinners. Now, there's seven things, seven
things, that disquiet our Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, the
judgment fell on these people, for they murmured against Moses
and murmured against God. The remedy, the remedy, For these
people, being bitten by the serpent, wasn't Moses doing it, it was
God. God said, you make a serpent.
God said, you do this. It was God. Salvation from sin
is not produced by men, but only by God. And secondly, the remedy
for being bitten by those serpents was naked. You had to make another
serpent. And that serpent was in the form
of the poisonous serpent. just in the form of it. And our
Lord Jesus Christ was made in the likeness of sinful men, took
upon Himself the form of a serpent. And you know, being found in
fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient even
to the death of the cross. Now let me tell you this, that
serpent of brass had no venom in it. And our Lord Jesus Christ
had no sin in Him. He was in the form of a man and
the likeness of sinful flesh, but he had no sin, and he's the
only remedy for us. God made him to be sin who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And fourthly, that circle of brass was lifted up on a pole. Lifted way up there. Folks, you
see it. Christ was lifted up on a cross. God set forth His
Son. Send him there before the world.
Send him on a cross. And the same thing, beloved,
I'm telling you, man, in the judgment of God's own man, the
serpent has done bit him. You hear, you can't say sin without
hearing the hiss of the serpent. Sin is exceedingly sinful. And
beloved, blood, and that's poison, it's in the blood. And if God
provided a remedy for that poison that's in our blood, that depraved
nature, that sinful nature, and that remedy was Christ crucified. Christ lifted up on that cross. And oh, beloved, and everything
that was necessary for the people to be healed was to look at that
brass serpent. That's the most ridiculous thing.
Well, that brass serpent can't do nothing for me. It's the only
thing that can do something for you. Oh, the only remedy for
those people was to look at the brass serpent. I mean, if a man
had been bitten and he was just about on the point of death,
and his eyes was dim, if he looked, He didn't say how strong it had
to look. He didn't have to say how clear-eyed
it had to look. He didn't have to say you had
to stand up, walk, and stand under it. He didn't say you had
to get down in front of it and pray. He didn't say you had to
touch it. He said, look, everyone that
is bent when he looks, he shall be healed. Just like that. And
that's why we're trying to set forth in the preaching of the
gospel, if you look to Christ, and, beloved, when you're looking
at that serpent, you know that there's something desperately
wrong with you, and the only way in the world that you're
ever going to be made whole is to look at that bright serpent. And the
only way, when you know how desperately wicked you are and how sinful
you are, the only hope for you is to look to that Lord Jesus
Christ and Him, and when you do that, You're not looking at
yourself, you're looking at Him. You're not looking at your sickness,
you're looking at the remedy. You've got to look at the remedy, don't
you, James? And, oh, beloved, and I tell you what, there was
only one remedy for the people of Israel. There wasn't a half
a dozen. They didn't say run over yonder
and say something to the priest. They didn't say run over there
and talk to Aaron. They didn't say run over there and talk to
Moses. Moses would give you some counsel. He'll teach us how to
say the Pentecostal prayer. They'll set us up an altar somewhere
and get us an image. Nope. God said this, only one
remedy for the people of Israel, and that was to look at that
brass serpent. And I wonder, and I've often wondered about
this, how many people perished because they were too proud,
they were too good, or mama or daddy, when they were sick and
in their tent, they said, honey, God is too merciful to let you
die. God loves you too much to let you die. And Moses is too
tough, Moses is too strict, and God's too mean. He said, you
just lay right here. He said, we'll pray for you,
and we'll pray you through, and we'll get you over this sickness.
We'll have one of them fellows come over here and lay some hands
on you. And I can't help but wonder how many people died because
they wouldn't look at that serpent. Huh? I wonder how many did. There's
probably no telling how many people perished because they
would not look at that serpent. But there was only one remedy
for the people of Israel, and that was that serpent on the
pole. Only one place, one place, only one remedy for all of Israel.
That's that serpent on that pole. And there's only one way. One
way of salvation. There ain't no one way. And I've
told you all this before, if God ever let me preach to a great
big Jewish and let me preach to the world one time, what I
would say, whether I was in a Muslim place, Catholic place, Presbyterian
place, Methodist place, it don't make no difference. There ain't
but one way. One person. One salvation. One truth. One life. One. You
can't be confused about that. They could not be confused. That
was only one serpent. One brass serpent on that pole. And Christ is the one only way
that God will look at a man and let a man look at Him. That's
the only way that God will speak to a man and let God speak to
him. And that's Jesus Christ. And there ain't no other Savior,
no other place, no other person, no other means that God will
let a person even approach Him on. And I thank God that I know
that. And this generation's perishing
because they think it's Jesus Christ plus! Jesus Christ minus! It's just that! God didn't say, now, He just
said, look at that. There ain't no place else. Who
you gonna go look? If you're gonna be healed, you're
gonna look at that serpent of brass. And if you're going to be saved,
you're going to look to Christ. You're not going to look to yourself,
your confidence, your goodness, your morality, your worth, because
you ain't got none. And that's why he says, look
and live. Now, let me tell you this. And there's only one way,
Jesus Christ. And let me tell you, all who
looked upon the brazen serpent were immediately healed. Immediately,
just like that. And look at that preacher, sir.
What? Boy! Woo! I'm almost dead! And look at that, sir. I can't
lie. Oh! Oh, my heart! That sting's
gone! That pill of death is gone! That
fear's gone! That anxiety's gone! And all
their plague of every sinner who looks to Christ by faith. And I'll tell you, I've got the
city of refuges, but I won't do them tonight. I was afraid
I wouldn't get through this whole thing. We'll deal with the cities
of refuges when I get back and go on through numbers and deal
with it some more. But that's enough, isn't it? Oh, my, that brazen circuit. That's enough. That's enough. Here's what God does. He lets us know that we're sinners. He made them folks to understand,
you're a sinner. You ain't going to stand up against me. You're
not going to stand up against me. You're not going to stand
up against the gospel. You're not going to stand up against the people
that God appointed to preach. And you're not going to do that.
And if you do that, I'm going to slice you. And then not only that, but then
He turns around and provides a way for you to get out from
under the judgment He Himself brought on you. He brings judgment on you
and then shows you the way to get out from under it. Provides
a way to get out from under it. Oh, what a Savior. What a Savior.