If you would, open your Bibles
again with me to Numbers chapter 21. As you're turning, I know
this is in the bulletin, you read it, but just to be sure
everybody's clear, our Vacation Bible School will begin next
Sunday evening, go through Tuesday evening. And I'm asking of you
to be much in prayer about this very important week. This is
a week I always look forward to. It's an important time of
teaching, being together with our young people. Keep them in
your prayers for that week. Well, it'd be good if I got to
write notes out. Numbers chapter 21. For those
who are visiting, I tell you, we've been going through a series
of questions that I find asking the Bible, trying to look at
those questions and see an answer to them. And the question I want
us to look at this morning is, has God brought us here to die. The children of Israel asked
that question at least five times during the time that they were
in the wilderness. Has God brought us here to kill
us in the wilderness? They ask it in verse five here
of numbers 21, the people spake against God and against Moses.
Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness? For there's no bread, neither
is any water. And our soul loatheth this light bread. That's a question
that is so full of unbelief, so full of sin, and just outright
rebellion. That's all you can say about
it. For those of you who hear me
preach regularly, you have heard often the grace of our God preached. And we love that, don't we? What
a subject we love to hear. The sovereign saving grace of
our God. And our text this morning gives
us a striking example of how rich and how free God's grace
to sinners really is. How would you think God would
answer this question? God, did you bring us out of
Egypt to bring us here to kill us in the wilderness? Is that
why you did this? Might we expect God to say, well, I wasn't going
to, I was gonna bring you to the promised land, but you're
so rebellious, you're so sinful, you're so ungrateful. Now I am
gonna destroy you. I'm gonna start over with a new
people, a new nation that'll be less rebellious and more thankful
than you. Would it have shocked you if
God would have answered their question like that? But instead, God's gracious answer
to their question Have you brought us here to kill us in the wilderness?
Is look and live. Look to the brazen serpent lifted
up on the pole and you'll live. What a gracious answer to such
a simple question. Does that just make you anew
staying amazed at God's presence? in our sin and our rebellion
directed straight at God Almighty. His answer to that question is
look and live. Now you might be here this morning
thinking, must I die? Must I be damned? I mean, I know
God's gonna damn somebody. Must I be damned? And God's answer
to you this morning is look and live. That's God's answer to
you. You know, when I was a little boy, I often thought this. I thought, mentally, I understand
the gospel. I mean, the gospel is easy enough
for any child to understand. I understood the gospel. I was
very well taught. And mentally, I believed it was
true. If there's a God, this gospel
is the only gospel that's true. If there is a God, this gospel
is the only way God can save sinners. I believe that. Mentally,
I knew that was true. But this is what troubled me.
I knew I did not trust Christ in my heart. And I tried and
couldn't make myself trust Him. And I thought, if I don't trust
Christ, it'd be better off for me if I was never born in the
first place. I really did think that. I thought,
well, I can't make myself trust Christ. It must be too late.
God must have allowed me to be born, to be raised in a home
where the sound of the gospel was a constant. God must have
done that just to damn me. And I was so full of fear. I
mean, just fear. Oh, it was just miserable. And maybe you feel that way this
morning. And as miserable as it would be to feel that way,
I hope you do. I hope you do. Because if anybody feels that
way this morning, did God bring me here just to damn me? Did
God bring me to hear the gospel again just to add to my condemnation?
If that's your fear, I want you to listen to me now. Listen.
Listen to God's answer to that fearful question. Now listen. This is God's answer to your
soul. Look and live. And you say, but preacher, I
can't make myself believe Christ. God didn't say make yourself
believe, did he? What did God say? Look and live. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
and live. Don't make the mistake of looking
to your knowledge of the scriptures. Don't look to your, make the
mistake of looking to your knowledge of doctrine Look to Christ. Don't look to what you can understand.
I don't understand how God could save me. I don't understand why...
Don't look to what you can understand. Look to Christ. Don't look to
your religious works. I'd say I got a pretty good read
on every single person here. You're around religion a lot,
aren't you? Most of you, I know, you're two,
three times a week. But don't look to your religious
works. Look to Christ. This is the most
fine, most moral people I trust, every last one of you with everything
I got. Don't look to your morality.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ. And don't look
to your sin. Don't look to your sin and say,
oh, that's too great. God won't save me. Or on the
other hand, don't look to your sin and say, now if I'm sinning
less, maybe God will love me. Maybe God will save me if I start
sinning less. Don't look to your sin. Look to Christ. That's God's answer to you and
to me this morning. Look to Christ. Let's look at
this passage this morning. See, maybe the Holy Spirit would
be pleased. Wayne just read to us, the Spirit
bloweth where it listed to him. Maybe he'll be pleased to blow
and give us faith this morning. And give us the joy. I want us to see the joy. Now
this is a commandment. It's not a suggestion. This is
not a request. This is a commandment from God
Almighty. Look and live. Look to Christ. I want us to find the joy in
this commandment this morning. Now the fiery serpent that the
Lord sends. They came and bit the people.
They represent sin. Those serpents were everywhere. I mean in everything. I don't
know if they had sleeping bags or bedrolls or what they had
in there. I mean, but you go in your tent,
you lift up a pot, there's these snakes. You open up your bed,
there's snakes. I mean, these snakes are everywhere. There's
no escaping them. And the Lord sent these fiery
serpents because of the sin of unbelief. It's the sin of unbelief. And the venom of this snake bite
was 100% fatal. Everyone who was bitten died. Now snakes, these snakes in particular,
their venom, that's an awful good picture of seeing. Almost
everybody hates snakes. I know there's a few people that
love them or whatever. But most people hate snakes.
I mean, they're just creepy. They're creepy. That's all you
can say about them. Our son Doug. hate snakes as much as anybody
I know. We were planning a family outing
one time. We thought, well, we're going
to go rent a pontoon boat. We'll find some lake in Kentucky.
We'll rent a pontoon boat. We'll spend the day on the boat
and jump off the boat into the water and just have a whole day
of family fun. And Doug said, well, I'll go. I'll get on the boat. But I will
not jump in that water. unless there's less than a 5%
chance of seeing a water snake. And he immediately began researching
venomous snakes in the state of Kentucky. And he gave us this
whole big lecture of all the venomous snakes in Kentucky and
where you can find them and what the best lake for us to get.
The man hates snakes. And I don't blame him. I'm kind
of with him. I wish we could hate our sin and run from it
as much as me and Doug would run from a snake. Oh, I wish,
but they're good pictures of what sin does to us. Sin does to you and me what that
snake venom did to the people that bit. It kills us from the
inside out. There's no antidote for it. There's
no cure for it. There's no treatment for it.
There's no way to avoid it. You're going to get bitten, and
when you're bitten, you're going to die. You and I have already
been bitten. We were bitten about 6,000 years
ago in the Garden of Eden. We've already been bitten and
sin's killing every one of us in this room. Every one of us.
There's no antidote. I said there's no cure. Well,
there's no man-made cure, is there? But God in his amazing
grace provided a way to live for these rebels. Look to the
brazen serpent lifted up on the pole. When you look, you'll live. Now those fiery serpents, that's
a good picture of sin. The brazen serpent is a good
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the son of God who appeared
in the flesh. The brazen serpent, Moses made
it to look like just an exact replica of those fiery serpents
that were biting the people and their venom was killing the people.
The brazen serpent looked just like those fiery serpents. But
there's one exception. The brazen serpent didn't have
any venom. There's no venom in its body. And that's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you think, Frank, that's
silly. Of course there's no venom in a brass serpent. It's made
out of brass, of course not. Well, that's a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He came in the flesh and there's
no sin in him. People like to argue, well, could
Christ have sinned? No, he couldn't have sinned any more than there
could be venom in that brass. He's the son of God. Of course
he can't sin. There's no venom in him. There's
no nature of sin in him. The apostle John said that the
word, Christ himself, the word was made flesh. The son of God
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory.
And the Lord Jesus looked just like any other man. He didn't
go around with a halo on his head. You know, everybody at
that time was kind of short. He wasn't six foot four and stood
head and shoulders above everybody. He looked just like everybody
else. Everybody. And here's the way
I know, I mean, I know that, but here's another way I know
that. The people who heard him preach, you know why they wanted
to kill him? He said, I am. They knew what
he meant. Before Abraham was, I am, that's
the name of God Almighty. And they said, it's not right
for the man to take that name to himself. That's blasphemy,
we're gonna kill him. He looked just like every other man. They
thought he was just a man. But here's the thing. Jesus of
Nazareth is God. He can say I am, because he is.
That's his name, he is God. He looked like a man, in every
way. He was bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh. He was a real man. But just as
truly, he's God Almighty. Isaiah said his name is the eternal
father. So he looks like every other
man, except there's no sin in him. There's no venom of sin
in him that demands death. And that's what the brazen serpent
pictures. Brass is an alloy. It's a combination
of two metals combined. I didn't look this up. There's
a recipe for it. You combine it in just the right amount of
these two metals, tin and copper, and you combine those in just
the right percentages and you got brass. Well, that's a picture
of the two natures of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is both
God and man. He's the God-man. And he's not
50% God and 50% man. The ratio is he's 100% God and
100% man. Don't try to figure it out. Don't
try to figure the math of that out. Just look, just look. Scott Richardson gave the best
definition of the God man I've ever heard. He's as much God
as if he were not man. And he's as much man as if he
were not God. 100% God and 100% man. And this is so important because
those two natures of Christ, that's what enables him to save
sinners like you and me. He's God. So he's holy. He's righteous. He'll obey God's
law perfectly in every jot and every tittle. He'll please the
father in every way. His every action, his every movement,
his every thought, his every motive pleased his father. He's
got the nature of God so he can establish righteousness. And
he's man. He's got the nature of man so
he can be our representative. So when he obeyed the law, he
could be our representative. We could be in him obeying the
law. He was made a real man so he
could take the sin of his people and be sacrificed for them. Oh,
they offered many sacrifices of lambs and bulls and goats,
didn't they? But the blood of animals could
never put away sin. If man's sin is going to be put
away, man's blood must be shed. God doesn't have blood. So God
became a man. So he'd have perfect blood to
shed, to put away the sin of his people. Those two natures
of Christ are vitally important. That's what enables him to save
sinners like us. Now, Moses must make a brazen
serpent. But then the Lord said it has
to be lifted up on a pole. Moses couldn't make that brazen
serpent and go around and bend down and everybody's sick and
dying and laying there and say, now look at this brazen serpent
down there. He couldn't take it and show it just right up
to everybody's eyes and take it around and show everybody.
If he did that, it wouldn't do anybody any good. If a dying
person was gonna live, that brazen serpent had to be lifted up on
a pole. And they had to look at that serpent on a pole. That's
exactly what the Savior told Nicodemus. Wayne just read it
for us. As Moses lifted up in the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must. It's not optional. He must be
lifted up. Christ must be lifted up on a
cross. as the sacrifice for the sin
of his people. Because the sacrifice of the
God man is the only way sinners could be saved. So God's answer
to our sin problem, God's answer to our fears of sin, everything
that's caused by our sin, God's answer to it is look to Christ. Look to Christ crucified and
live and live. Now let me give you three points
on the joy of looking to Christ. This is a joy of looking to him.
Number one, looking to Christ takes away all sin, all of it. Look at verse five in our text
again. The people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore
have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there's no bread, neither is any water, and our soul loatheth
this light bread. Now they said, if you brought
us here to die in the wilderness, there's no bread and water out
here. We're gonna die of starvation if we don't die of thirst first. Now that's such a sinful attitude
and sinful question. I know for a fact they had manna
that very morning. God gave them manna every single
morning except the Sabbath. It's a lie for them to say they
didn't have any bread. Scripture tells us that smitten rock we
looked at last week, I think it was last week, that smitten
rock that gave them water followed them in the wilderness. That
makes me think they had water from the rock that very morning,
yet they say we don't have any water. See, they had bread and
water. You know why they're complaining?
They didn't like what God provided. That was their problem. God provided
for them. They just didn't like what God provided. They wanted
something more than the sweet manna from heaven. They wanted
something more than that pure water from the rock. And that's
the natural man. When the natural man hears the
gospel of salvation in Christ alone, Salvation by grace alone
without your works. Salvation by faith without your
works. Man, that is such a sweet message. It's free. Salvation in Christ
is free. Just like the man that was free.
Just open your tent door and pick it up. It's free. And man
says, I want something more than that. I want something more complicated
than that. I want something more challenging
than that. I want something more than Christ alone. Now friend, there is nothing
more sinful than rejecting the only savior of sinners. The only sin that will damn anyone
is the sin of unbelief. It's the only sin that will damn
anybody. God sees, he sees. You know, we see our sin, but
we don't see it all. We don't see it in its totality.
God sees all of the sin of all of His people, and it's all directly
against Him. Directly against Him. Every time
we sin, it's like shaking our fist in the face of God Almighty.
He said, how do you like that? Those people, God sees them.
They can never pay for their sin. They can never atone for
their rebellion against God. And God is so gracious. All this
sin is directly against Him. He sent the Savior to pay for
that sin and put it away. This just never ceases to amaze
me. God's the one who's the wrong party, yet God is the one who
paid the debt. And he paid the debt by sacrificing
his beloved son. Now, can you think of anything
more gracious than that? We have a picture of this. The
people asked Moses, ask the Lord to take the snakes away, verse
seven. Therefore, the people came to
Moses and said, we've sinned. For we've 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.
This is what we need. We need somebody to come and
take away our sin. We need somebody to come and
take it away from us. And the only person able to do it is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He took the sin of his people. He took it away from me. He was
made sin for us. He made that sin to be his very
own. He took the sin of his people
and his own body on the tree and he suffered and died and
he put it away. His blood washed it away so that
the father who sees everything says there's sins and iniquities
why I remember no more. He doesn't remember it because
there's nothing to remember. Oh my, what a sacrifice, what
a savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is one
that God tells us to look to. Look to him. He is so wonderful
in his person. One sacrifice forever sanctified,
a number no man can number. I'm telling you, here's joy in
looking to Christ. If Christ died for you, there
is no sin left that will ever continue. because He took it
away. Now look to Him. Why wouldn't
you? This is such a wonderful Savior. Look to Him. Here's the
second thing on the joy of looking to Christ. Looking to Christ
is 100% successful. Now remember, our sin is so vile
because it's directed straight against, it's rebellion that's
directly against God Almighty and His crown rights to rule
over us and do with us what He will. God's the one who's been
wronged. He's the one that's been sinned
against. Yet the message that God has given us to preach says,
look to Christ. Look to the Savior who I sent
to put away that sin that's against me. Don't look for something
more appealing to the flesh. You know, if you think, I really
don't like that. I think there could be a better
way. No, you'd be mighty careful. Because everything the flesh
thinks spiritually is wrong. Everything the flesh desires
spiritually is wrong. The way the flesh desires salvation
is wrong. God says, if you would live,
look to Christ crucified. Look and live. It's that simple. You know, the sin of Israel was
so great. God's long suffering and patience with sinners is
seen so clearly in this 40 years in the wilderness. How patiently
he dealt with those people. Their sin against him was so
great, they just kept refusing to trust him, even though time
and time and time again, how he provided for them. They sinned
against him yet again. And God's the one who provided
the remedy. He said, look to the brazen serpent, lift up on
a pole. The people came to Moses and
said, pray that the Lord take the serpents away from us. Now
the Lord could have just made the serpents leave, couldn't
he? Just like he made them come, he could have made them leave.
But that's not what he did. Because he's giving us a picture
of redemption from our sin. We can't say, Lord, just make
it so I don't sin anymore. Make my sin just go away. Now
if sin's gonna be put away, there must be a blood sacrifice. That's
what the brazen serpent represents. So Moses made that brazen serpent,
lifted it up on a pole as a picture of Christ being crucified, lift
up on a pole. And everyone, everyone, I don't
care how sick they were, I don't care how close to death they
were, I don't care if they were leading this rebellion against
God and against Moses in the first place, everyone, No matter
who they are, no matter where they were, no matter what their
past was, everyone who looked at that brazen serpent was healed. 100% healed the moment they looked. And the same thing is true of
you and me. Everyone, I don't care their
background, I don't care how great they think their sin is,
everyone will be healed of every spiritual disease. will be given
eternal life the moment you look to Christ crucified. Everyone, 100% of sinners who
look to Christ live. 100%. Now this looking, I've
told you this before too, about growing up hearing Brother Henry
preach all the time. He told me to look to Christ.
I said this before, if I had a nickel, For every time he said,
look to Christ, I mean, it's hard telling how much money I'd
have. And every single time he'd say, I'd be so frustrated. I
said, where is he? Where is he? Well, it's not turning and looking
with these eyes. Looking is believing. Tell you, if you ask the same
question, where is he? Just tell me where he is. And
I look, let me tell you where he is. He's in his word. Don't read God's Word to find
out how to live. You already know how to live. Look to God's
Word to find Christ, because this is where He is. Where is Christ? He's where the
gospel is preached. He's where the gospel is preached.
If you would meet Him, don't you reckon be a good idea to
be where He is? He's there where two or three are gathered together,
or my name, there I am in the midst of Him. You know, we open
the doors here every Sunday, Wednesday, to preach the gospel.
If you'd meet Him, I'd be here. In truth, that's what I'd do.
I'd be here. Looking is, look where he is.
Well, look where he is to be found, in his word, in the preaching
of his gospel. Looking means believing. Looking
to Christ simply means this, trust him to do what he said
he would. You know, someone could be bitten
by that fire serpent, and there they lay, they're dying, and
they think now, what does this matter? Who cares about what
is it? How is it? How can the Lord ever
heal me by looking at this brazen serpent Moses may lift on a pole?
That doesn't make any sense to me Look because God said look Now
you can trust God to do what he said he did Can we agree on
that? Can you trust God to do what
he said he did? He said look to Christ and live Trust that
all it takes to save you is Christ's crucifixion It just takes his
blood to wash away your... Look to him. Trust him to do
what he said he'd do. Trusting Christ is 100% successful
in giving life to everybody who looks to him. Look to Christ. Now, don't try God out. Don't
test him. Say, okay, I'm gonna look and see if he's... Look
to Christ as the only way it's possible you could be saved.
Look to Christ as the only hope that you have and the hope that
you want. Now look to Christ now. Look to Christ. Don't look to your wounds and
your bruises and your putrefying sores. Don't look to those snakes
when they bit the people. Their mouths must have dried
up, their tongues swelled, their eyes maybe swelled shut. Don't
look to the effects of your sin. Look to Christ. Don't look at
other dead and dying people. Well, how fast are they dying?
How bad are they? How slow are they dying? How good are they?
Maybe I should do what they're doing. Don't look to other sinners.
Look to Christ. Don't try to figure out how and
why you're dying. God told us in his words because
you're a sinner. That's why. Don't look and try to figure
out and see if you can get some clues and figure out if you're
one of God's elect. He didn't tell the elect to look to Christ.
He said, if you're bitten, look to Christ. Are you a sinner? Look to Christ. Look and live. I promise you, right soon, you'll
figure out I looked because he drew me. You'll find that out
soon enough. The question for you is, are
you a sinner? Huh? Are you guilty? Look and live. That's God's message. Look to Christ crucified. Trust
him. Trust him. Now the Lord didn't
say see, did he? He didn't say understand. He
said look. Look. You don't have to understand
everything God does, all the whys and wherefores of what God's
doing. You don't have to understand.
Look. Look to Christ and trust him. Trust that all it takes to save
you is Christ alone. Looking means believing. The
word beheld in verse nine, 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. That word
beheld means to regard with respect. That doesn't mean just glance
at. Regard with respect. Look to
Christ with such regard, with such respect that you trust he's
all it takes to save you. Now look to Him. Here's a third
thing, and this is a joy. You have to look for yourself.
You have to look to Christ for yourself. Your mom and dad can't
look for you. Your loved ones, your friends,
your pastor can't look for you. You must look to Christ yourself. You must believe on Christ. Now again, let me tell you, I'm
not, I haven't preached grace up to this point. Now I'm starting
to give you work to do in order to be saved. I know you can't
make yourself trusted, but you can ask God to save you.
You can beg him for mercy. You can look, you can look. Now you must look to Christ yourself. Now that's a gracious commandment.
And make no mistake about it. It's a commandment from God Almighty. You look to Christ. But isn't
it a gracious commandment? So gracious. Look and live. Think of the joy of this now.
This is God's message to you here this morning. It's to you. Look and live. Almighty God and
his mercy and his grace. From eternity ordained, you would
be here this morning, June the 4th, 2023. And God's message
to you, this is such a, oh, what joy this gives to my heart. God
says to me, God says to you, look and live. Look to Christ
crucified and live. We have a message of hope for
sinners. What Moses messaged to everybody
he was meeting? They're in trouble. His message
is look and live. Our message of salvation in Christ
for sinners is look and live. What a joy to be able to tell
a sinner, look and live. I'm telling you, the question
is, are you a sinner? If you are, look to Christ crucified
and you shall be saved. That's not my doctrine. That's
not Calvinistic doctrine. That's not Baptist doctrine.
That's a promise of God Almighty. Look and live. And I tell you, keep looking.
Keep looking. In every circumstance of life,
look to Christ. Are you under the conviction
of sin? Huh? Look to Christ. He is able to
save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Are you
on the mountaintop of blessing and rest? Has God just blessed
you so much? It seems like it couldn't get
any better right now. Well, I tell you what, look to
Christ. He's the one who brought you there. Look to Him. Are you in the valley of trouble?
Trial? Pain? Uncertainty? Tell you what,
look to Christ. He's able to deliver you. Just
as surely as he was able to deliver Daniel from that night in the
lion's den, he's able to deliver you. Look. You who believe that you begin
your spiritual life with a look. It began in your experience when
you look to Christ in. But tell you what, keep going
the exact same way that you started. Looking to Christ. Turn over
to Hebrews chapter 12 and we'll quit. Keep looking to Christ. Hebrews 12 verse one. We're foreseeing
we're also encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin, and the sin which
just so easily beset us, it's the sin of unbelief. And let
us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God, looking, unto Jesus, looking unto Christ crucified. That's when we receive spiritual
life. Look to Him. And if you're going to continue
running this race with patience, I'm telling you, you can't look
at the rocks and in the road. You can't look at the hills and
the valleys. You can't look at the clouds. You can't look at
the difficulties. You can't look at the people running faster
than you. I got a lot of experience running long distance races,
people running faster than me. You can't be looking at them.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ crucified. Oh,
I pray God make it so. Let's bow together in prayer.
Our Father, how we thank you for this sweet, sweet message
that brings such joy to the hearts of sinners that you've given
to us to preach, look to Christ and live. And Father, I beg of
you that you take your word as it's been preached this morning,
that you would apply it to each and every heart here that you'd
cause us to see the glory of Christ our Savior and trust Him
and believe Him. God, I beg of you that this would
be the day that you'd be pleased to reach down in mercy, your
mighty right arm of salvation, and reveal yourself to some lost
soul here this morning and to call us to Christ. Father, it's
in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for His sake and
His glory we pray, All right, Sean, come leave us in the closing
here.