All right, so let's go ahead
and get started. If you would, turn with me to numbers 21. Numbers
21. Numbers 21 versus 5 through 9. Numbers 21, 5. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he 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." We have here an account where
the people complained about what God had given them. And if you
remember, there was a time where they complained, it was back
in chapter 20, And at that time, God was compassionate to them.
He gave them water to drink from the rock. Although Moses, in
anger, struck the rock twice, Moses, a picture of the law,
and the rock was Christ, as Joe just mentioned earlier. The law
neither strikes Jesus Christ twice, nor does it strike his
people twice, because they are in him. But here they complain
and tell Moses they loathe this light bread. It's all we have
and we're getting sick of it. We know this manna as well as
the rock was Christ. The scripture specifically tells
us that the rock was Christ. The manna at least pictured Christ,
so it was Christ as well at least in that verse, in that sense. But here, many died when they
were bitten by these serpents sent by God. No way for them
to look at anything, them being dead. But then others came to
Moses and asked for intercession to God on their behalf. So God
instructed Moses to make this fiery serpent of brass. There
was one qualification here, if you will. To look and live, one
must have been bitten. But if you are not bitten by
the serpents, what need do you have of looking for life? You
don't know it at the very least, but you were not instructed to
either. Only those bitten. But some were bitten and they
knew death was soon to follow. They, I'm sure, just witnessed
some of their friends and maybe some of their family die right
before them. God gave this fiery serpent of
brass that was to be lifted up on a pole and all who looked,
all without exception, no, all that were bitten and looked would
live. And I want to throw something
in here at this point. We know very little when God
first reveals himself to us. As Earl or maybe Walter said,
I'm sure maybe Joe said this before too, No one is born with
a full set of teeth. Most of us are born with none,
but there may be a few that come forth from the womb that have
some teeth, but most do not. And I hope to make my point clearer
as I go along with that statement. Now, if you would, turn with
me to John 3. John 3. John 3, and we'll start in verse
10, 10 through 14. John 3, 10. Jesus answered and
said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things
and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The first obvious and most important
thing to note here is that we see that the fiery serpent made
of brass and lifted up on a pole was a picture of Jesus Christ
the Lord. I want to go through the following
today. There must be a lifting up. Then one being bitten and
looking and living. So first, there must be a lifting
up. It's clear from here in John that the serpent being lifted
up in the wilderness is a picture of Jesus Christ and his cross
work. It is his cross work that is to be seen and that because
of who he is. The son of man which came down
and is in heaven. Kind of a strange thing to hear
that, isn't it? He said this when he was here.
But he says, which came down and is in heaven. God came down. Christ came down to save those
who have been bitten by the serpent of sin. Him being the true serpent
of brass. That one where judgment came
down on him being lifted up on that tree, being made a curse.
Because cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The curse
of the law was that one must die for the breaking of the commandments. Which ones? All of them. So Christ was made that curse
for his people. Sin is transgression against
God, the law being the indictment against us. We know we have sinned
because the law of God tells us we have. In other words, the
law is the proof that I have sinned against God. This one
who was lifted up was made the very thing that I am, sin. Transgression against God. I
can hardly fathom that thought. God was made sin. This, my friends,
is what the gospel is all about. We miss this and we miss it all. I don't care how much other doctrine
we know. By his grace, though, there are
some who see this one who has been lifted up. Although they
may not see him right away when God first reveals himself in
them, because these are they who have been bitten. So next,
one being bitten. When God sends that serpent of
sin to bite one of his, to impinge in that one, if you will, the
very act of treason against the holy God, They begin to see they
have sinned against the holy God of Scripture, just like these
Israelites did. Here are those who are like this.
Psalm 102, 19 through 21. For he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold
the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those
that are appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord
in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem. God's people that are appointed
to death, and they know it because they've grown because of it.
Because of the knowing of it, they've grown to God. God at His appointed time calls
us such a one to see their utter finiteness, their utter helplessness,
and their rebellion against this God. They can see that they cannot
do anything to help themselves. As we read from Isaiah last week,
they all do as Isaiah did. They know they are coming undone,
coming apart at the seams, if you will. He causes us to see
our total ruin, and unless he does something to change it,
that poison of sin, that sin against him, will cause certain
death. So what are we to do? The only
thing we can do, all we know is we're going to die. All these
Israelites knew that they were going to die unless God did something
for them. So what is it that they must
do? What is it that they had to do? We must look to Him for
life. So next, looking and living. Now I'm going to get right into
it here, because this is where I wanted to go this morning.
Christ here in John 3 tells us you must be born again, that
is, born from above. Life must come from God first.
This is true with no contradiction and it is truth. We also know
that when life comes from the Spirit of God that there is fruit
that comes along with it. Part of that fruit, singular
I might add, is faith. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. That new man created by God,
born from above, receives it. So life comes before faith, right? But what did we read in Numbers?
Look and live. Believe, that is faith. You would
only look if you believed and you would live by doing so, correct? I know we have our doctrines,
and those doctrines are true from Scripture. Scripture is
actually given for doctrine and other things, so it's not wrong
to teach doctrine. In fact, there are some who are
not learning and should be learning in Scripture, so we ought to
be learning, and that is learning of Jesus Christ, I might add,
because He is the God of the doctrine. But some, even in Scripture,
do themselves a great disservice, if you will, and they do others
great disservice by not learning of Him. Turn with me to Hebrews
5, just a minute. I'm going to read this whole
chapter. I'm certainly not going to explain the whole chapter.
I'm just going to, but I want to go through it here. Hebrews
chapter 5. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin, who can
have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the
way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for
himself to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest,
but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten
thee. As he saith also in another place,
Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. who
in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and
supplications, with strong crying and tears unto him, that was
able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.
Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. called of God and high priests
after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to
say and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing." And
here's where we get to this. "'For when for the time ye ought
to be teachers, Ye have need that one teach you again, which
be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become
such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every
one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to
them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Now when we read this, my mind
kind of goes towards the direction of doctrine. And this is not
absent from the meaning, but what is the doctrine being spoken
of here in Hebrews? Jesus Christ. All those types
and symbols pointed to Jesus Christ. The importance of them
are they're pointing you to Jesus Christ being the author of salvation
by his high priestly action on his people's behalf. First of
all, it tells us as we've read about sufferings in this life,
it's part and parcel of the believer. But we read here that even our
Lord learned obedience through suffering. But it is his high
priestly work that the writer here mentions that he wants to
talk about, and he says they are hard sayings. But he can't
talk to them about it because they are dull of hearing, and
I have this problem sometimes. Now to be clear, I believe here
that the people were wrapped up in the types and the symbols.
You know, Paul in Hebrews goes through where the blood and bulls
and goats didn't take away sin. And he refers back to Christ
because Christ is that one that he should be looking to. But
I also have this problem. So much so that it has to be
pointed out to me from time to time. That is, I lift up doctrine
higher than it should be instead of Christ. But God uses whatever
means he is pleased to use to show me this because I'm dull
of hearing at times. There are a great many doctrines
in scripture which all have one purpose. No, it's not to show
how much smarter I am than the next believer or to a new believer. It is to teach us about Jesus
Christ and what he has done. To look to Jesus Christ, right?
If my teaching, even right doctrine, gets to pointing someone away
from that and looking at anything else, whatever it might be, especially
if it's looking to that doctrine as if it had some saving power,
then it's useless. Because Christ is my life, and
that's where I need to look. When God first revealed himself
to me, I had others who kept telling me of Jesus Christ. They
did not bombard me with the five points of Calvinism. They did
not bombard me with life before faith. They did not bombard me
with doctrines, all of which they taught and are true and
good to hear. But looking to a doctrine will
not give you life. They tried by God's grace to
teach me of Jesus Christ and that looking to him, that is,
believing Jesus Christ, that I might have life. I knew very
little. Tulip was just a flower to me.
It couldn't give me life. There have been some who I believe
have known Christ, but may have had problems with limited atonement
when God first started revealing himself to them. Because they
did not know this doctrine, does that mean they did not know Christ?
I cannot say. But I know this, we all at that
time of love, when God first reveals himself in us, we know
very little. There's more about Jesus Christ
in scripture than we can ever know. So even now today, I have
not grown to know all there is to know about Jesus Christ. But
from that time when he first revealed himself in me and going
forward and thanks to my God, I think I've learned some doctrines
of the God of scripture. But I thank God He does not tell
me to look to my doing or my knowing so that you can get to
Christ. He just tells me as it does in
our text, to look to Christ. He does not tell me to learn
as much as I can so that maybe if I learn enough, I might then
come to Christ. Those who are bitten, what is
it that they can know immediately? They see
death in their midst. I and they need to know where
life is. They need to know how can I not
die in sin? How can I keep from dying since
I have already been bitten? This never changes, by the way.
We still know our need. I do remember back that day when
Christ revealed himself to me. I was driving in my car. The
passage and the words so clearly and graciously came to my mind
were simply this, it is finished. You know what that doctrine pointed
me to? Jesus Christ doing his priestly duty to save this poor
sinner's soul. Jesus Christ being the author
of salvation. Salvation is not by experience,
it is by Christ. But God's people will experience
salvation. But there's nothing wrong with
recalling that experience of Christ saving us. Paul did it
several times in scripture. He recounted when God met him
on that road to Damascus. I may not have it exactly right,
but I think he recounted it at least two times after that first
time. The first time was the actual
account given us. But it's not the experience that
his focus was on. His focus was on the one who
he had experienced and still experiences. Folks, I know I'm losing teeth
now because I'm getting older, but I continue to gain spiritual
teeth slowly. I learn by the grace of God given
to me and that through suffering. He teaches me to obey him. Most of that suffering comes
from this old sinful wicked flesh. I most of the time cause my own
sufferings. Christ suffered for what he was
doing, but he was doing something for others. But he was not deterred
and he accomplished what he came to do. It is there that we should
point men and women to that is Jesus Christ and his cross work.
I can sometimes get to the point where I think I know something.
The scripture is full of doctrine and the doctrine is true and
helpful to God's people. But if what I'm telling men and
women causes them to look to the doctrine rather than to Jesus
Christ, then my doctrine needs to change. He is the Christ of
the doctrine. It is from him that all life
flows. If I be rebuked for trying to
put my doctrine in front of Christ, then thank God above that he
sends that one to rebuke. What did Paul tell the Galatians?
Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
He was trying to point them to Jesus Christ and there must have
been some that didn't like it. If someone is trying to tell
you that it's not about what we know, but who we know, and
who we know is who we should be looking to, they are not your
enemy. Hear Proverbs, Proverbs 27, five
and six. Open rebuke is better than secret
love. Faithful are the wounds of a
friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Someone
can speak great swelling words that make you feel good. But
those are deceiving words because there's nothing about me that
I should feel good about. I'm dead without Jesus Christ. But if one is rebuking me to
look to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone for salvation, or
they are appointing men and women to look to Jesus Christ and Jesus
Christ alone for life, then those are faithful words. Is it true that Jesus Christ
said you must be born again to see? It most certainly is. Is it true that Christ said you
must be born from water and spirit to enter? It most certainly is. But just as Nicodemus is, so
are we, so am I. Even to this day, it would seem.
I'm dull sometimes, I don't know much. I get to the point where
I think I know something and then start to lift up what I
know above the one who for all to know and look to is life itself. We know nothing yet as we ought
to know it. And I want to be clear, should
we stop teaching doctrine? Is it wrong for us to teach doctrine? Absolutely not. But doctrine
itself cannot save. There are a great many people
who know more doctrine than others, but some of them have never looked
to Christ who is life. There are a great many people
who know very little doctrine, but by God's grace have been
forced to look to Christ because they have been bitten and they
live by Jesus Christ. We've been here for a long time
here at Sovereign Grace Chapel, I mean, and we teach doctrine
here. I believe we try by God's grace
to teach the doctrines of Christ. We should all endeavor to learn
of him. But let us be careful of trying
to teach doctrine for doctrine's sake and forget about telling
men and women to look to Christ and live. That goes for us even
here today. I mean, we still need to look
to Christ and live. We all know here because scripture
teaches it that we can do nothing without Jesus Christ. He told
us this himself. We are told that Jesus Christ
is our life. It says Jesus Christ who is our
life. So what is it that we want men
and women to seek? Nothing. It is a who that we
want them to seek. Walter said it last week, there's
none that seeketh after God, but yet he is found of them who
sought him not. Where do they find grace? It's
the same place Noah found grace, and the only place where grace
is to be found, in the face of Jesus Christ. Those who were
bitten, were they told, now there are only certain ones that this
serpent is being lifted up for, and if you know that and look,
then you'll live. I'm sure these people weren't
real concerned about others, as it was themselves that had
been bitten, and were it not for this command, they would
have just died like many who had already died before them.
All they could see was this, that they themselves were going
to die unless something saved them. They were not told to look
to the needs of others first and then look. They were told,
if you are bitten, look to that serpent and live. Guess what? Those who looked, lived. So what are we to tell men and
women who may hear us? Believe like us and live? All
too many times I'm afraid I have to say of myself even today,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Don't look to my believing
or my doctrine. Don't look to your believing
or your doctrine, but what? Look to Jesus Christ and live. Amen. Dear Lord God, thank you
for teaching us, dear Lord. Without
you, we will know nothing. We can do nothing, dear Lord.
All these things we ask in your name, dear Lord. Amen.