Okay. Open your Bibles, if you
would, to John 3 and Numbers 21. John chapter 3 and Numbers chapter 21. Again. John chapter 3 in Numbers 21.
Now here in John chapter 3, our Lord is talking to Nicodemus.
He's a master of Israel. He's supposed to be a master
of the scriptures. We find out that men can know
about the scriptures and not know he who the scriptures declare. So man can be religious, and
have zeal, but they can have it without knowledge. Nicodemus had searched the scriptures,
but the Holy Spirit hadn't yet revealed to him. I believe the
Lord saved Nicodemus later on, because he was one of the men
who went and asked for Christ's body and then prepared it for
burial. But at this point, he didn't
know Christ. And so our Lord is talking to
him, and he brings up some scriptures from the Old
Testament. He had just told Nicodemus, you
must be born again. And Nicodemus said, how can I
be born again? Do I enter into my mother's womb
again? So that's a natural man's response. He didn't know what
the Lord was talking about. The Lord said, no, like where
the wind blows, the Holy Spirit's the same. He saves whom he wills,
right? All that the Father gave to Christ, he regenerates. And
so, our Lord's gonna place before him a picture from the Old Testament
that pictures Christ's death. And he says in verse 13, that
no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. So he's telling Nicodemus
here that no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that come
down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Now
remember, the only reason we ascend up into heaven is because
of Christ, and in Christ. Even the Old Testament saints,
they look to Christ. They look to Christ. But here he's saying,
there's only been one who's come down from heaven. We know he's
speaking of himself, isn't he? He's speaking of himself here.
And he says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so now he's gonna give an Old Testament picture of his death. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That's one of his titles, isn't it? He's the Son of Man. So he's telling them, just like
Moses lifted up the serpent, and all who look to the brazen
serpent live, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and all
who look to Him will be saved. That's being Christ and Him crucified,
right? Being lifted up. And then he says here, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. So there's
the gospel right there. There's the gospel right there.
And he says, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Now, again, there's a clause
in verse 16, whosoever believeth. It's not for unbelievers, right? But all who believe. Whosoever
believeth, right? Should not perish, but have everlasting
life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the
world. See, the world's already condemned. Right? Man being dead and trespasses
sins is already condemned. So he didn't send his son into
the world to condemn the world. They're already condemned. God's law
finds us guilty, doesn't it? But remember, there's some who
are not appointed to wrath. That's God's people, right? Okay. Okay, for God sent not a son
of the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but
he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this
is the condemnation. What is it? That man, that light
has come into the world, and man loved darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. That's us in our natural
state. Okay, now let's go over to Numbers,
chapter 25. Let's read the portion of scripture
that our Lord just referenced there. Now he said, even as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up, right? So let's look at this here. And
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life, John 3, 14 and 15. Now let's read here in Numbers,
chapter 21. Numbers 21. And we'll read verses 5 to 9. Now, the people started murmuring
against God here. Against Moses, too. Look at verse 5. And the
people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore hath
he 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." They're getting sick of the manna. Now
think of what these folks have seen. They saw the Red Sea part right
in front of them. Right? Like, I mean, like, literally
part. So they walked on dry ground. What's going on? Dry ground,
right? And this was no like some of
these new modern movies say, just this low part of the ocean. No, this was a Red Sea. And that sea parted, and they
walked on dry ground. And you know why we know it was
a sea? And it was deep? Because here comes those Egyptians
right after him, right? We're going to get them. And
it will start falling off the chariots. I wonder how that happened.
All of a sudden, the wheels start spinning off. These chariots,
I'll tell you what, these chariots, they took great pride in these
chariots. These were war chariots. They were tested to make sure
everything was fine. And all of a sudden, all the
wheels start falling off. Huh. Well, we know why that happened,
don't we? A cop just has to speak a word and stuff will just start
disintegrating, won't it? Well, here goes the wheels start
to fall off. All these warriors of Egypt,
fine warriors, probably elite soldiers, are looking and seeing
these huge waves. And then they just crash down
upon them. And the Israelites saw that.
Then they saw the pillar of fire by night. lighting their way. Then they saw a cloud, a cloud
following them. What? A cloud that wherever they
moved, the cloud was. Right? So that they wouldn't
scorch to death in the desert heat. That they'd have shade
as they walked. They saw all this, and then,
and here they are, then, Master, fall from heaven, beloved. And
they were told, go and gather the manna. Gather it up, sufficient
for the day, because today's won't last you for tomorrow,
so you have to go back out and gather some more. And then the day before
the Sabbath, you gather extra. They saw all that. And here they
are. Why'd you bring us up out of
Egypt to die in this wilderness? Hadn't God demonstrated his power?
Hadn't he demonstrated his sovereignty to them already? And I'm not
looking at these folks going, look at them, because I would
have done the same thing in my natural state. I know I would. But they were loathing the burden.
And then, now here comes, I'll tell you what. When the judgment
of the Lord falls, it's not a pretty sight. Look at this. They failed to remember who they're
talking against. They're talking against the sovereign
Lord of the universe. I was thinking about this this
morning as I was getting ready, getting my suit on, and I was
thinking, God has no beginning or end. He's God. He doesn't even need us. He has
no beginning. We have a beginning and an end.
He doesn't have that. He's always been from eternity.
The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then to think that
the Son became a man in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without
sin? That's incredible. So here they are, they're murmuring.
Well, look, it says, Jehovah and the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. When I see that, I think of those Those snakes that our soldiers
had to deal with in Vietnam called two steps. They said if they
bit you, you're dead in two steps. So they were always keeping their
eyes open for those things. And I think of this, they got
bit and they just died. They died. Now they've got to change their
mind, don't they? Look at verse 7. Therefore the people came
to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Now notice, I love how they acknowledge
their sin and they acknowledge who they sinned against first. We've sinned against the Lord
first. And Moses, we've sinned against you too. So remember,
our sin is always first against the Lord. And that's what they're
bringing forth here. because they said because we
spoke against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
So here we see Moses is a mediator, right? Well, who was a mediator
for our sins? Christ. And he's still mediating
for us right now. Look what the Lord tells him
to do. And the Lord said unto him, make thee a fiery serpent
and set it upon a pole. And it shall come to pass that
everyone that is bitten When he looketh upon it, she'll live.
Okay, so he's to make a fiery serpent, right, that resembles
the serpents, but he made it out of brass. And put it upon a pole, and it
came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he had
beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. So we see here in numbers a typical
picture of the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, being lifted
up. This is what our Lord spoke to Nicodemus about when we first
looked at that portion in John chapter 3. It's a picture. This here is
a picture of Christ being lifted up. And then what do the people
have to do? Look to Him. Whoever looks, just look, right? Doesn't say do, does it? It doesn't say run up and touch
the pole, or cling to the pole, or touch Moses' feet. Moses represents
the law. It doesn't say any of that. It just
says, look. It says here, it came to pass that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. If he looked to those serpents
that were biting him, Right? He didn't live, did he? But if he looked to the brazen
serpent, he lived. He lived if he looked to that
brazen serpent. Let's look at a few points of
this. Israel's sin resulted in death through the serpents. Now,
what kills us? Sin. The wages of sin is death,
right? We die because we're sinners. That's the truth. We die because
we're sinners. Everyone in this room is gonna
die. Now some are saved sinners and some are lost sinners, right? But we're all sinners. We're
all sinners. Look at this. And they acknowledged
their sin. Look again, it says, and the
people spake against God, and the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. My. And this bite was fatal,
wasn't it? It was fatal. Sin is fatal, isn't
it? There's been a pandemic. You
see, people are all worried about the pandemics, right? But there's
been a pandemic of sin that there's only one cure. In this sin, no
vaccination's gonna, or this pandemic, no vaccination is gonna
inoculate anybody against it. And we all have it. We're born
with it. It's a pandemic of sin. And there's
only one cure for it. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yeah. And so when you're saved now,
death is just a gateway, a doorway to Christ, to be in his presence,
beloved. My. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. My,
oh my. And the serpent's deadly venom
flowed through the veins of the sinful Israelites. It's typical
of the deadly venom of sin flowing through our veins, beloved. Through the veins of the entire
human race. See, when Adam fell, every one
of us fell with him. Every one of us. Now second again,
Israel acknowledged their sin. And we as God's people, we acknowledge
our sin, don't we? There was a time when someone
said I was a sinner. Okay, let's put our fists up.
Right? In the natural state, you called
me a sinner? That's how it was. Right? It was an insult. You
know what it was? See, again, as I mentioned in
Sunday School, it's an insult against our self-righteousness,
against our pride. Because we think we're good.
We don't think we're half bad in our natural state. When the
Lord reveals Himself to us, we go, Lord, I've sinned against
Thee! Have mercy upon me! See the difference,
see the change that regeneration makes when you're born again
in the Holy Spirit of God? First, we don't think we're sinners.
Then we acknowledge our sinnership after the Holy Spirit regenerates
us. But they pronounce here that they say we've sinned against
the Lord. And we've all sinned and come short of the glory of
God, Scripture says. And we also know that if anyone
denies their sin, that they're calling God a liar. Turn, if
you would, to 1 John 1. This is a serious thing when
someone says, well, I'm not a sinner. So they're saying, I don't sin. Yeah, you do. Even if you don't
acknowledge it, you sure do. And every believer just says,
hey, I'm a sinner saved by the grace of God. I don't deserve
this, as Brother Travis prayed. I don't deserve this. I don't
deserve this mercy. I don't deserve this grace. I'm
the last person who deserves this. And yet God bestows his
mercy upon us, in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at
this in John chapter 1, verses 8 to 10. If we say we have, or
1 John, 1 John, yeah, 1 John 1, 8 to 10. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So look at
that. So if someone says that I'm not a sinner, the truth's
not in them, beloved. They don't know Christ. They
don't even know who they are in the sense of being a sinner.
See, our heart is despitefully wicked. It's wicked. It's wicked. Our natural heart. If we confess our sins, I love
this, look at this. If we confess our sins, which
we do as God's people, right? We do, we confess our sin to
Him. He is what? Faithful and just. He's the just
one. He's the justifier. He's the
justifier. What? To do what? To forgive
us our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know why? Because now we're
clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Cleansed, how? By His blood, beloved. By His
blood, cleansed. My And then the people said,
pray unto the Lord that he take these serpents from us. So they're
there sitting there murmuring away. So God just sends the serpents. They sure changed their tune
in a hurry, didn't they? They're looking around, people are dropping
dead. From one bite. My oh my. And they say, pray
unto the Lord that he take away serpents from us. You know, scripture declares
many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivered
them out of them all. Every believer is going to go
through things. Our dear sister Kathy is going through some stuff
right now with the cancer. It's not easy. But the Lord's
our strength. He's our guide. But it's still
hard. Hebrews says this, partly while
you were made a gazing stock, vote by reproach and afflictions,
and partly whilst you became companions of them, so you. So we're going to go through
afflictions. But let us go to the Lord. and
pray that he gives us grace, strength, and mercy to get through
those various trials and afflictions in our lives. And you know, something else
too, fourthly, there's no record that Israel prayed that the Lord
would deliver them from their afflictions. He just said, take
these servants away. Did we pray for deliverance before
the Lord saved us? Nope. I like this too. Norm Wells,
I'll be talking about this. You know the time when a person
cries out, Lord have mercy upon me, savingly? You're already
born again. You're praying for deliverance. Save me from my sin, Lord, please. Because we don't say that. when we're unregenerated. Oh my. They prayed to be delivered from
the afflictors, that's causing their afflictions, but we do
not read that they prayed to be delivered from the afflictions
caused by their afflictors. Maybe they thought they could
come up with a means of healing themselves. See, men does that
naturally, right? They come up with a way of thinking,
well, I can heal myself from my sins if I just do this. Well, what's usually the this?
Well, something somebody tells them they have to do. Live by
the law. The Church of Christ says, well,
you can be saved and born again if you are baptized. You know
what that's called? That's called baptismal regeneration.
The old-timers used to call it baptismal regeneration. The Catholics
have been practicing it for thousands of years. When they baptize a
child, they say, now he's part of the church, or she's part
of the church. That's not true. You must be born again. You must
be. It's a spiritual rebirth. Right? And then, when we're spiritually
born again, then we want to be baptized, don't we? We desire
to profess Christ. But baptism doesn't save it all. It's an outward profession of
an inward conversion. So men try to heal their own
afflictions of sin. Thinking, well, I'm a good person. God doesn't send good people
to hell. There's a lot of people in hell that are supposedly good. You know how we know that? Because
there's none good, no not one. Right? Oh my. Hell's full of good Baptists,
good Catholics, good Pentecostals, supposedly. Good this, you can
put any label on it. Good, good, people think they're
good. Full. You know what heaven's full of? People
who cry, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Save my soul, Lord,
I'm such a sinner. I desperately need you. And heaven's
full of people who don't know they don't deserve to be there. but by the grace of God. So what a picture of natural
man who believes they can be relieved by the affliction of
sin by their own works. It's just a lie. And men in their
natural state are like Israel. They're convinced that they may
heal themselves or merit life through their free will or man-made
remedies or moral efforts and these things will just lead to
their doom. A lot of Jews believed just because they were born Jews
they were going to heaven. That's not true. The Lord said
you must be born again. You must be born again. My oh my. Fifth, Jehovah provided the means. Notice who provided the means
for the afflicted ones. That the afflicted ones might
live. Look at verses 8 and 9. It's Jehovah. He provided the
way. He provided the means, beloved.
that they might live. And the Lord, Jehovah, 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 look
upon it, shall live. Now, I was thinking about that.
How long did it take him to make the serpent? We don't know, do
we? We know that these serpents were
going through and raging through the camp of Israel, and people
were dropping like flies, right? Doesn't tell us the timeline,
though, but they had to make it. They had to make it. And Moses made a serpent of brass
and put it upon a pole, just like the Lord commanded. It came
to pass that if the serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived. Look at that. God in his sovereign
mercy and grace did more than the people requested. They just
requested that the serpents be taken away. He did even more. He provided deliverance. He provided that they would live. And it was all by his doing.
He told Moses what to do. And that serpent lifted up, it
typified Christ's beloved. Remember in John 3.14 it said,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. He must be lifted up. He referred
not to his exaltation to heaven, nor to his exaltation through
the preaching of the gospel, but rather to his death on the
cross. That's what he was speaking of. I must be lifted up. I must
die. I must be crucified. in order that my people might
live. And we have his own fact in John 12, if you wanna turn
there you can, John chapter 12, we have from his own words this fact. Christ must be lifted
up. And now his death was typified
in many ways in the Old Testament, but he must be, he must be lifted
up, he must be. He must be lifted up as the servant
was lifted up. Look at John 12 verses 32 and
33. And I, now again he's speaking
of himself, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all
men unto me. Look at that. This, he said, signifying what
death he should die. So he's telling them right there,
I'm going to be lifted up. And we know that the all men
there are all All that the Father gave Him shall come to Him, right? Look at that. He's proclaiming His own death.
He's proclaiming how He's going to die. He's God. And think of this. He's in His
ministry saying this, but He already knows what He's going
to do. He knows the end from the beginning,
right? He already knows he has to die. So he's saying to them
here, this is what's going to happen. This is our Savior, beloved. What peace we can gather from
this, because he's absolutely sovereign. He is God in the flesh. And Moses lifted up what? A divinely
ordained serpent, right? Because God is the one who told
Moses, you lift up that serpent. So that was ordained by God,
wasn't it? that Moses would lift up that serpent. That was ordained
by our great sovereign God, beloved. And he would lift up that serpent,
and that all who looked up to him would be saved. And it happened
because it was determined by God, it was in the purpose of
God, and it happened according to the foreknowledge of God.
Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter 4. We see that so plainly brought
forth here. Acts chapter 4 verses 26 to 28.
Sorry I'm coughing so much today. This change of seasons wreaking
havoc with my asthma. Acts chapter 4 verses 26 to 28.
The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a
truth against the Holy Child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
and both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people
of Israel, were gathered together. Look at verse 28 of chapter 4.
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Look at that. So God had Moses
lifted up that serpent in the wilderness as a picture. We know from our Master's own
words, right, as a picture that Christ would be lifted up. And that sinners would look to
Him. Isn't that amazing? And it all happened, we see here,
it all happened determined before to be done. When is that? When was it determined before
to be done? In eternity, brother, amen. Way, way, way before the
foundation of the world. My! If our Savior has saved us, and each person can attest to
that if the Lord saved us, right? We can only really know if we're
saved, really. Right? The Lord saved my soul. And to
think that we're being told here that they crucified Him according
to the foreknowledge of God. There's a picture here in the
Old Testament. It happened exactly that way. And it all happened
according, look at this, to the counsel of God. God's counsel
determined what He determined to be done. And He did that in
eternity. And if He's my Savior, what a Savior I am. What a redeemer I have. Same
for you too, right? If he's our savior. Oh my. Can anyone come against us? People can say whatever they
want about us, right? But can anyone come against us if this
is the one who holds us in his hands? If this is the one who
saved us, can we ever be lost then? No. Never. Now, we may doubt, right? We
may go through seasons and stuff and doubt things because we're
looking at ourselves, right? That's when we just need to turn
around and look to Christ again. He's the one who saved me according
to God's determinate counsel. Because God—think of that. Bring
it right down home. God determined to save me before the foundation of the
world in Christ. Oh, my. That's amazing. That's amazing. This is undeserved
mercy, isn't it? This is undeserved grace. But
this is sovereign grace, beloved. This is ordained mercy, ordained
grace. And God ordained the lifting
up of the serpent by Moses. And even in him doing that, that
was undeserved mercy, wasn't it? They were just murmuring,
complaining about him. He could have destroyed the whole
bunch of them. Couldn't he? He wouldn't even
need them to use serpents. But what mercy, he tells Moses,
you make a serpent and you hold it up. And even if they've been
bitten, they're gonna live. See, we've been bitten by sin,
haven't we? Oh yes, we have. Oh my, undeserved
mercy. And this picture's a lifting
up of Christ as a substitute of God's people. And notice that Moses lifted
up a representative serpent. His serpent was not an actual
serpent. But it was a shadow of that which
pointed to Christ as our substitute. It was in the likeness of those
that had been bitten. It was in the likeness of that
which has bitten the people. It was brazen. It stood apart
from all the other serpents. My oh my. Think of this. David
Pledger brought this out again in a message I was listening
to yesterday. This was fantastic. He said the serpents were biting,
were biting the people and they were dying. So a brazen serpent
is lifted up in the likeness of those serpents, but different. Brazen. Ordained by God. Christ is like us, right? He's in the likeness of sinful
flesh, yet without sin, but He's just like us. He's just like us. He's the God-man,
but He's different because He's God. Notice the brazen serpent? It's in the likeness of the serpent,
but it's single. single one to look to. Moses
didn't make up multiple serpents, did he? One serpent. One Savior. One Redeemer. One God-man. One sinless Lamb of God. And
His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only Savior of sinners. The only savior of sinners. Isaiah wrote this. He wrote this. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. There was only one serpent. If
you looked at the other serpents, you're dead. If we look to ourselves to save
ourselves or save anyone else, we're dead. Aren't we? Look at the lifted up one. And they were told. And Isaiah
said, look unto me. There's God in the flesh, hanging
on the cross. Look unto Him and live. Look unto yourself and die. Perish
in your sins. But look unto Christ and live. There's life in the look, isn't
there? There's life in the look, beloved. For what the law could
not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sent in
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8, verses 3 and 4. In the likeness of sinful flesh,
yet without sin, That brazen serpent was in the likeness of
the serpents, and yet it stood out. It was brazen. And notice this too. It was the
only one lifted up. The other serpents were going
on the ground, biting everybody. This serpent was lifted up. Lifted
up so all could look. And that's what gospel preachers
do in the preaching of the gospel. We lift up Christ and Him crucified
and say, look and live. He's the only Savior of sinners.
His blood is the only thing that can cleanse us from all our sins.
Oh, there's power in the blood, beloved. There is power in the
blood of Christ. My. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing. I'll tell you, there's nothing
but the blood that can cleanse us from all our sins. Scripture
says in Galatians chapter three, verses 13 and 14, Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Being made a curse
for us as is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree, that the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. My, oh my. My oh my. Moses lifted up that
serpent, my. That serpent. And it's so much pictured Christ
being lifted up. Who ordained that those two would
be lifted up? God ordained that the serpent
would be lifted up, right? And we saw earlier, God, by his
determinate counsel, he purposed that Christ would be lifted up. And he sent the way of salvation
on both points, right? He told Moses, you lift up a
serpent, and all who look to that serpent will be lived. And
then he sends his son and says, look unto me, all ye ends of
the earth. All ye ends of the earth. Well,
that doesn't exclude anyone in the sense of looking to Christ,
does it? Whosoever. There it is. Lift it up. Oh my. My oh my. It's beautiful, beloved. And
Moses lifted up a bronze serpent. Now, bronze is a non-precious
metal, and Moses was to lift up this lowly instrument of salvation,
not as an idol of gold or silver, to be worshipped. Scripture says their idols are
of silver and gold, the work of man's hands. No, it was a
bronze serpent, non-precious metal. Christ was just like us. They say you couldn't have picked
him out from among all the other men. Nope. And he condescended and became
a man. The king of glory became flesh. My oh my. And he didn't say use
gold or silver to make that. That serpent just used bronze. My oh my. In contrast, this is
the Romanists who make gold and precious metal crucifixes and
wear them around their necks or hang them in their homes.
I grew up in a Catholic home, there was crucifixes everywhere. Dead Christ. My Lord is victorious! My Lord
is risen! And because He rose, we're going
to rise, beloved! He's not dead. He's alive! He's
alive, beloved. And then Moses lifted up a single
serpent. I touched on this earlier, but
God told Moses to make one serpent. One serpent. There's not multiple
ways to heaven. There's only one way. It doesn't matter what people
say. There is only one way to heaven. And that's Christ Jesus,
our Lord. And think of this, wouldn't it
make sense that the only way to heaven would be through he
who is God? Because we can't save ourselves.
We could have the whole world, but that don't profit our souls.
For what shall profit a man if he gain the whole world, everything,
all the gold and silver in this world, and lose his own soul? Or what will man give in exchange
for his soul? There's absolutely nothing we
can give to God in exchange for our soul. Nothing. Nothing. Salvation is so precious that
it was purchased by the precious blood of Christ. It was purchased by the God-man.
And there's only one way to heaven. And it was that serpent, He said,
make a serpent, just one. And all who looked to that serpent
would live, right? Just one. He didn't have multiple serpents,
right? Didn't have five or 10 of them,
no. Just one, because there's only one Savior. And that one
Savior must be raised up on the cross. He must shed His precious
blood to redeem His people from their sins. He must. He must
die. He knew. He came here to die. He was born king and he was born
to die, beloved. We're born to live and then we
die. He was born to die. And God had appointed that exact
day when he would perish for our sins, when he would give
up the ghost, beloved, for our sins. The sinless one. The one mediator. Now think of
this, there's only one mediator too, isn't there? That's the
man Christ Jesus. And everyone who looked to that
serpent lived. Likewise, everyone who looks
to Christ, believes on Christ, and looks to Christ shall be
saved. They live. And in both instances, there's looking and
there's believing. Think of that. The one who didn't
want to look is now looking. And the one who had no faith
now has faith. That's a miracle of grace. That's a miracle of
God, beloved. That's a miracle of God, and
only by God. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. There is no other God. There's
no other God. There's only one Savior for sinners. Moses lifted up one serpent.
There's only one way to heaven. And he spoke these words. He
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father, but by me, John 14, 6. And his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Glory to God.