The Brazen Serpent Lifted Up

Q: What does the Bible say about the brazen serpent?

The brazen serpent is a picture of Christ, lifted up to provide healing from sin. The brazen serpent, as described in Numbers 21:4-9, serves as a marvelous type of Christ. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent for the Israelites to look upon and be healed from the deadly serpent bites, Christ was lifted up on the cross to bear the sins of humanity. This connection is underscored in John 3:14-15, where Jesus explains that just as Moses lifted the serpent, so must He be lifted up, providing salvation through faith in Him. This narrative teaches us about God’s mercy and grace in offering Christ as the remedy for our spiritual death due to sin.

Q: Why is the concept of the brazen serpent important for Christians?

The brazen serpent symbolizes Christ's sacrificial death and the necessity of looking to Him for salvation. The brazen serpent is critically important as it foreshadows the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. It illustrates the necessity of faith; just as the Israelites looked at the serpent and were healed, Christians are called to look to Christ for salvation and healing from sin. This typology emphasizes that true healing comes from acknowledging our condition as sinners and trusting in Jesus as the only source of life. As the serpent was a singular remedy for the Israelites, Christ is the exclusive way to salvation, as affirmed by Acts 4:12, emphasizing that there is no other name given for salvation.

Q: How do we know the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is true?

The doctrine is confirmed through Scripture, which depicts Christ as our substitute who takes on sin for us. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is deeply rooted in Scripture, where Christ is portrayed as our perfect substitute. In Isaiah 53:5, it states that He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. This is echoed in 1 Peter 3:18, which teaches that Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. Furthermore, Romans 5:6-8 reveals that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, affirming that His death was in our place, satisfying the wrath of God and providing a means of reconciliation. This substantiates the belief that Christ took upon Himself the punishment deserved by sinners, thus upholding the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.

Q: What does it mean for Christ to be our representative before God?

Christ serves as our representative by taking on our sins and reconciling us to God. Christ's role as our representative is foundational to understanding His work of salvation. He represents us before God, standing in our place to bear the penalty for our sin. Hebrews 2:17 elucidates this role where it states He had to be made like His brethren to become a merciful high priest in relation to God, making atonement for the sins of the people. This concept is further reinforced in Romans 5, where by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, but by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection fulfill the covenant of grace, ensuring that those who believe in Him are seen as righteous before God, not on their own merits, but based on His perfect obedience.

Q: Why do we refer to Jesus as the only way to salvation?

Jesus is the only way to salvation because He is the sole mediator between God and humanity. The assertion that Jesus is the only way to salvation is a central tenet of Christian faith grounded in Scripture. In John 14:6, Jesus proclaims, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' This clear statement underscores His unique role as the sole mediator who reconciles the relationship between sinful humanity and a holy God. Additionally, Acts 4:12 reinforces this by declaring that salvation is found in no other name under heaven given among men except Jesus. This exclusivity of Christ signifies that all attempts at self-justification or alternative paths are futile; true salvation is only through faith in Christ’s redemptive work.

Pray with me, please. O gracious and merciful Father,
we pray, Lord, that you might open our eyes today to see Christ
and our need for a Savior. We pray, Lord, that we might
see Christ so very clearly, see Him take away our sin as He was
lifted up on the cross, as He became sin in our place, making
us righteous in Him. We know, Lord, that You have
enabled Your people, Your people down through the ages, to see
Christ in types and pictures. And so I pray, dear Father, that
You would enable us today to see Christ as well, trusting
Christ as our Savior, we might have life in Christ to serve
You. And in salvation and service of Your people, You might be
glorified, dear Lord. Gracious Father, make Your Word
powerful in our hearts so that we might look to You for all
things – in grace, in mercy, in pardon, in peace, and in every
new covenant blessing – those blessings which You give us in
the fullness of the glory of Christ. here, now, and for all
eternity. And dear Lord, I pray that You
might enable me to preach Your Gospel of Christ to Your people. That You might give me the joy
of seeing the salvation of souls, for it's in Christ's name that
we've come today to worship You and to learn of You. And it's
in Christ's name that we pray for the salvation of Your people.
as you give them the faith of Christ, to believe on Christ,
to trust Christ as their Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen. Open your
Bibles, please, to Numbers chapter 21, verses 4-9. My text this morning actually
comes from two places in God's Word. First, we'll look at Numbers
21, verses 4-9 where we see the marvelous picture of Christ as
a brazen or as a brass serpent, which Moses lifted up before
the people so that they might look and be healed from their
sin, from those serpent bites. And then when we have looked
at this picture of Christ, we'll look in John 3, verses 14 to
18, where we have a second text. And in this text, Christ Himself
tells us just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up? God's Word is filled
with types and pictures. Pictures of Christ. But I think
that there is no better picture of Christ as our Redeemer or
as the way that sinners are saved than that picture which is found
in the Old Testament that we're going to look at today. That
picture of a brazen serpent. And then for our Lord Himself
to choose this Old Testament picture to illustrate the Gospel
to Nicodemus, that makes it an even more important picture of
Christ for us to contemplate. The religious Pharisee seems
to me to confirm the value and the accuracy of this picture
of the brazen serpent as a picture of the Gospel. as a picture of
God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. So it's my earnest
prayer this morning that as sinners we all might look to Christ,
that we all might be healed as by God's grace I endeavor to
uphold this wonderful picture of Christ so that you might see
Christ as your Savior more clearly. If you know the deadly bite of
your sin, and you want to learn of God's mercy in Christ, then
I pray that you might listen closely to God's Word. And as you listen, I pray that
you might see and learn of Christ our Savior who heals from this
bite of sin. Let's look at the first text.
God had marvelously used Moses to bring Israel out of slavery
in the land of Egypt. But in Numbers 21, beginning
in verse 4, it says that as they journeyed from Mount Hor by the
way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom, the soul of
the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people
spoke against God and against Moses, saying, Wherefore, why
have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, where
there is no bread Neither is there any water, and our soul
loathes this light bread." We hate this light bread that God
has provided for us. Could you believe that they would
say such a thing? We hate this bread that God has
provided. It falls out from heaven. All we have to do is pick it
up. They hated it. That's the way with all people
though, isn't it? They have been slaves in Egypt. But now because
the way seems difficult to them, the people rebelled against God.
They were discouraged because of the way. Oh, dear Father,
how often I complain about what You do in my life. That's nothing but sin. Turn,
please, to Hebrews 3 and verse 19. You see, the way that the Israelites
were traveling was leading them away from Canaan. That's where
they wanted to go was to Canaan. And it was leading them away
from Canaan instead of being toward Canaan. But it was the
way that they had chosen. They had chosen this way at Kadesh
Barnea. They could have and they should
have entered the land of milk and honey, but their unbelief
had turned them away from God. So as Hebrews 3.19 says, we see
that they could not enter into the land of Canaan because of
unbelief. Let me say this as clearly as
God would enable me to say it. Our wanderings in this wilderness
of sin, this world of our own chosen. We choose the way that
we're going to go. If you tell me that you have
a free will, I'll agree with that. You do have a free will. Your free will makes you free
to do whatever you want to do. But what your free will is, it's
in bondage to your sin. And what an unsafe person always
chooses to do is always rebellion against God. By nature, rather
than God's way, we always want our own way. Be honest. Be honest. Isn't that true of
you? It's true of me. Which of us
doesn't decide for himself which way he will go in this world?
Our need to exercise our own will started out with our father,
Adam. It was in Adam that we first
chose not to believe God. And we have continued in our
unbelief. We have continued in our failure
to trust God ever since. In Romans 5 verse 12 it tells
us that this is why we are like this. It says, as by one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned." By nature, we always want our
own way. I notice even little Kay is like
that. She wants her own way. And when you get to be old like
me, and I think I'm the oldest one in the room, you still want
your own way. In Adam, we wanted to be our
own God. We wanted to have our own way,
which is another way of saying that we wanted to be our own
God. And the consequence was death for the whole human race
because we haven't inherited Adam's nature, his sin nature.
There in the wilderness, the Israelite people spoke against
God. But Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 9 said that they actually
were speaking against Christ, which is really the same thing
because Jesus Christ is God. He is the Son of God. And they
also murmured against Moses. They murmured against God's prophet
who was the leader that God had provided for them to follow.
But they wanted their own way. As God says in Proverbs 16, 25,
there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end
thereof are the ways of death. And as Paul, by the inspiration
of God, said in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 9, neither let us tempt
Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.
Nothing that either the Lord or Moses his servant had done
since they had left Egypt had pleased them. And so they spoke
against the way of God They spoke against the Word of God. Do you
think that our generation is any different? Well, it isn't. Instead of recognizing that our
condition and our troubles in the Spirit and the flesh are
of our own making, and instead of justifying God and His judgments,
we murmur against the Lord. We murmur against His way. against
His Word and against His servants because we want our own way.
I must confess, I've even done that this morning. There is something
about a natural man which makes him want his own way. Even believers want their own
way. The lust for our own way got
us into the mess that we're in. And yet, we still reject God's
way, wanting our own way. As Isaiah 53, verse 6 says, all
we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to His
own way. And the Lord has laid on Him,
on Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all. And as God looks at
us trying foolishly to go our own way, He says to us in Isaiah
55 and verse 8, my thoughts are not your thoughts, God says.
Neither are your ways my ways. The problem is unbelief. Unbelievers
always think that they know better than God knows which way they
ought to go. And so the Israelites found fault
with the bread that God had provided for them from heaven. They called
it manna. Manna means, what is it? And I have this picture of the
first time it rained that manna down onto the earth. Some man,
one of those Israelites walked over and he picked it up and
he looked at it and he said, ooh, what's this? They didn't
like that bread. They said, our soul loathes this
bread. They even found fault with the
water from the rock. What a horrible, condemning statement
that is, especially in the light of the fact that the rock was
Christ. And the manor was a picture of Christ. Christ who is the
bread of life. Jesus Christ is God's gift of
life and His Word is the water of life. But they murmured against
both of them. Turn please to John 5, verses
39 and 40. How many people in this religious
world today do you know who are content with Christ? How many
people are content with this bread of life and water of life? In John 5, verses 39 and 40,
Jesus said to some very religious people who said that they believed
the Word of God, Jesus said, search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of Me. And you'll not come to Me that
you might have life. Now turn to John 6, verses 51
and 52, if you will, please. You might make an excuse for
the Jews wandering there in the wilderness. Those Jews who rejected
the pictures of Christ as the bread of life and the water of
life. But what excuse do we have today for rejecting Christ? We
have God's Word that tells us about Christ. They didn't have
God's Word. They only had these pictures.
In John 6, verses 51 and 52, Jesus said, I am the living bread,
which came down from heaven. And if any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
him is my flesh, which I will give of the life of the world.
And the Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us his flesh to eat? And then continuing on
in John 6, in verses 55 to 60, Jesus said, For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. And he that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father hath sent me, I live by the Father, and so he that eateth
me Even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread, he that eateth of me,
Jesus is saying, shall live forever. These saints said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples
when they had heard this, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? like Israel
of old and the Jews in the days of the apostles, we will not
have this man reign over us. We will not rejoice in his way
of life. We all want our own way, and
so we keep on going our own way, even though our own way is hard,
our own way is difficult. And going our own way is only
going to lead us to hell. It's only going to cause us grief.
But turn back to our text in Numbers 21, please. This time
look at verses 6 and 7. And let's see what God did to
these self-willed people, these unbelievers who insisted on going
their own way in opposition and in rebellion against God. And
as you look at what God did for these sinners, I pray you can
also see God's love and mercy in what God did. The Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people. Can you see love in that? In
Numbers 21, verses 6 and 7, we're told, 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 they 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 so Moses prayed for the people.
You know, God used their sin. God used their unbelief to point
them to Christ. Because of their sin of unbelief,
because of their murmuring and rebellion against God and against
Moses, Moses who was the serpent of God, God judged the people. He sent deadly poisonous serpents
among them, and the people were bitten by the serpents, and many
of them died. Hear me carefully, please. When
I say that our sin has separated us from God, the serpent of sin
has left its poison in every son of Adam, and so death, the
wages of sin, is upon us. The wages of sin is upon us unless
we can find a Savior to heal us from the bite of sin. We see
the love of God in that when God shows us a Savior who can
save us from our sin. As Romans 5, verses 17-19 says,
For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, by Adam, Much
more, they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, by Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by
the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, So by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous." You can fight it. You can murmur
if you want to. You can complain about it. But
the truth is that in Adam all die. There was no human cure
for the fiery serpent's bite, just as there is no human cure
for the guilt and condemnation of sin. Spiritual death is in
us. Physical death is upon us. And
an eternal death awaits us. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. But God takes our sin and He
causes us to be blessed. As He points us to Jesus Christ,
showing us our need for a Savior, showing us our sin, He blesses
us. Blessed are they who mourn, who
mourn over their sin, because they shall be comforted. So the
people went to Moses and they begged him. They begged him to
intercede for them with God. Only the love and the great mercy
of God could deliver them. This is what Henry Mann said,
that God's grace and mercy is, and oh, how much sinners need
them both. God's grace, Henry Mahan said,
is God giving us what we don't deserve. And God's mercy is God
not giving us what we do deserve. If you are at all concerned about
being a sinner, there's only one thing then for you to do.
Look to Christ. Look to Christ because God's
grace and God's mercy are only found in Christ. And when you
have found Christ, you have found God's love for you. Now look
back at Numbers 21, and this time to verses 8 and 9. God provided
a remedy in Jesus Christ. God provided these Israelites
wandering in the wilderness a picture. And it was a picture of Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer. In Numbers 21, verses 8 and 9,
we read, And the Lord said unto Moses, after he had gone to God,
on their behalf. The Lord said unto Moses, Make
thee a fiery serpent, and set it up on a pole, and it shall
come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looks on it,
they'll live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and he put it up on a pole. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. A brazen serpent was made in
the likeness of the fiery serpents. And so also Jesus Christ our
Lord was made in the likeness of human flesh. As Paul said
in Romans 8.3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. And in Philippians
2, verses 6 and 7, Paul said about Christ, who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men. Jesus Christ was made
of a woman, bone of bone and flesh of flesh. As he said in
Luke 24 verse 39, Behold my hands and feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. As Isaiah 53 verse
12 says about Christ, He was numbered with the transgressors.
Did you notice this about the brass serpent? The serpent of
brass had no venom. the serpent of brass had no poison,
just as Christ had no sin. Christ was tempted, just as we
are, and yet without sin. The serpent of brass was lifted
up on a pole, and in that, the serpent pictures Jesus Christ
lifted up on a cross. In John 3, verses 14 and 15,
it says, And as Moses lifted up the servant 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 so,
bearing our sin, Christ Jesus was nailed to a cross. If you
can't see the love of God in that, then you're just spiritually
blind. Maybe more than spiritually blind.
Maybe you're totally blind. Because I see the love of Christ
so clearly in Jesus Christ dying on the cross for my sin. I hope
you can see it as well. As Isaiah 53, verses 4-6 says
about Christ, Surely He hath borne our griefs. Surely He has
carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned every one to His own way. And the Lord has laid
on Him the iniquity of us all." Oh, I pray that you can hear
and believe that. And in 1 Peter 3.18 it says,
For Christ also has once suffered for our sin, the just for the
unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in
the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. For those Israelites
who were bitten by the serpents, there was only one remedy for
them, and that was to look to the serpent on the pole. And
in a similar way, for those who know their sin, there is only
one Savior. There is only one place to look. One Redeemer. One Deliverer to look to. He
is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Substitute. who loved us enough
to die so that we might have life in Him. In John 14, verse
6, Jesus said to Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man come unto the Father but
by Me. And in Acts 4.12, the apostles
said about Christ, neither is there salvation in any other
For there is none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. Then in John 3, verses 35 and
36, it says that the Father loveth the Son and has given all things
into His hand. And he that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not, the
Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. All that the people were required
to do All that those Israelites were required to do was to look
to the serpent. And when they looked at the serpent,
they would be healed. You see, God provided a remedy. It was a remedy which was full
and it was complete. Nothing needed to be added to
it. And so God commanded them to look. And our command from
God is exactly the same. God says, look, and live. In 1 John 5, verses 11-13, the
Apostle of God says, And this is the record that God hath given
to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has
a Son has life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God. This is why
I have written them to you. that you might know that you
have eternal life and that you might believe on the name of
the Son of God. Eternal life is in Jesus Christ. And you find life in no other
place. And in Romans 3, verse 28, Paul
says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. The remedy that God provided
was sufficient. It was effectual for dying sinners. No matter how severe the case
was when the snake sedated them, it was look and live. I wonder how many people refused
to look at that brass serpent. All they had to do was to look
and live. But many died. It says, much
people of Israel died, which tells me that they refused to
look to that brass serpent. Kind of seems too simple, doesn't
it? Just look and live. The common notion that most people
have, even very religious people, is that salvation is for good
people. Salvation is for church workers.
Those who are examples and good moral specimens. But how different
the Word of God is. How different this example from
God is. God's grace is for the guilty.
God's people don't need a Savior. Good people don't need a Savior.
They trust in their own righteousness. Christ the Savior is a Savior
of sinners, not good people. In Romans 5, verses 6 to 8, Paul
said, by the inspiration of God, that, for when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure, yet perhaps,
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended
that He had loved towards us, and that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. And in Matthew 9, verses 10-13
it says, And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house,
behold, many publicans and sinners came, and they sat down with
Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said to His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He
said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick, those are the ones that need the physician.
So go ye and learn what that means, and I'll have mercy, not
sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. Turn please now to 2 Kings 18
verses 1 to 4. I want to show you something
that I think is kind of interesting, and I pray you can hear it. God's
mercy is for the miserable man. It's for the miserable woman.
For the miserable child. Made miserable because they know
that they can't help themselves. We don't have a Gospel for self-righteous
sinners or for those who only pretend to need a Savior. Our
Gospel is for the lost sinner. Just as Moses' brazen serpent
was for the hopelessly bitten Israelites. who are about to
die from the bite of the serpent. There is an interesting commentary
on human nature which is found in 2 Kings 18 verses 1-4. There God says, Now it came to
pass in the third year of Hosea son of Elah king of Israel that
Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. He was
25 years old when he began to reign. And he
reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Abbey,
the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father
did. He removed the high places. And he broke the images. And
he cut down the groves. And then this is what I want
you to see. He broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses
had made. Now why in the world would he
do that? Why would he break up this brazen
serpent? It was a marvelous souvenir,
wasn't it? Why would he break it up? He broke in pieces the brazen
serpent that Moses had made. Under those days, the children
of Israel did burn incense to it. and he called it Nehushtan. That word Nehushtan means nothing
but brass. It was Moses who had raised this
brass serpent up on a pole. It was done at God's direction
and it clearly was a picture of Christ. But in time, the children
of Israel, forgetting that it was only a picture, they made
an idol out of it and they began to worship it. They offered incense
to it. And so God raised up a king and
I think it was for the primary purpose of destroying this brass
serpent. It is God that worketh in His
people, both the will and the do, His good pleasure. Turn now
please to John 14 verses 22 to 26. By nature, men will always turn
away from God And that's the evil of our graven images. We
begin to worship the image rather than the substance. And that's
clear evidence of our sinful natures. That shiny brass serpent
was only a picture. It was nay Houston. It was only
a piece of brass. Don't people today tend to worship
the land where Christ lived, calling it the Holy Land? I don't
know how to refer to that land except by calling it a holy land.
That's what everybody calls it. Don't they worship the place
where Christ died and was buried? I've seen pictures of the place
where they think He was crucified and the place where He died. And they've built churches on
both of those places. Isn't the cross itself, isn't
this cross behind me an object of worship? What idolatry! And how easily we fall into that
idolatry. It isn't the cross that saves,
but it's the Christ of the cross that saves. It isn't the eating
of the bread and the wine that saves, but it's Christ's broken
body and shed blood. And by faith, understanding that
by His death is our substitute. That's how we're saved. We're
saved by Jesus Christ. We need to constantly remember
that it is only by God's love and mercy that we are saved.
And so we need to constantly be looking to Christ. Only Christ
can keep us from falling. And so we as sinners, we praise
God for the good news of Christ our Savior and for the leading
and guiding of His Holy Spirit. Because as Christ said in John
14, verses 22-26, and He was speaking to a disciple, He said,
where he asked actually, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest
Thyself unto us and not unto the world? And Jesus answered
and said unto him, If a man loveth Me, he will keep My words. And
My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and will
make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth
not My sayings, and the word which he hears not Mine, but
the Father's which sent Me. These things have I spoken you,
being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you." As we look at this second text of our
sermon today, in John 3, verses 14 to 18, it may help us to understand
these words of Christ our Savior. If we can see that they relate
to the Son of Man, as Christ Jesus who is the God-man. No
man, no man but the God-man has ever both ascended and descended
from heaven as Jehovah's servant with the purpose of making known
the being and the perfections and the love of God to His church
which we see in God's threefold persons of Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Only Christ Jesus the God-man
has ever done that. And we need to look to Him for
all things, because all things, everything that we need, we find
in Christ. It is Jesus Christ and Christ
only which lay in the bosom of the Father. And it's this same
Christ Jesus who has come to declare Him. Because although
Enoch and Elijah as men have special indications of having
a divine favor from God, in that they were translated to heaven
and were different from the spirits of just men made perfect, Yet
no one but Jesus Christ could act in the capacity of the God-man
in one person, making known Jehovah to his people. Who Christ was and the job that
he had been given by God to accomplish was unique to Christ and it was
unique to him only. As Jesus Christ said of himself
in Matthew 11, 27, all things are delivered unto me of my Father,
And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any
man the Father, save the Son. And He to whom the Son shall
reveal Him." And so this question becomes very significant that
Christ asked in John 6, verse 62. Jesus asked His disciples,
What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He
was before? Turn please to Proverbs 8. verses
22-31. Jesus asked His disciples, what
if you were to see me sent up to heaven where I came from?
And in consideration of what the everlasting presence of the
Son of Man in heaven means to us, I think nothing can be clearer. But it means that our Mediator,
our Jesus Christ, is our everlasting representative before God in
matters concerning God's covenant of grace. Christ Jesus has been
our representative from the beginning in the eternal counsel of God. Do you hear what I said? It's
important. Christ Jesus has been our representative
from eternity in the everlasting, eternal counsel of God. As Christ said in Proverbs 8,
verses 22-31, The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way,
before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were
no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was, I was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the earth, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass
his commandment, and when he appointed the foundations of
the earth, then was I by him as one brought up with him. and
I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." But then
listen to this, "...rejoicing in the habitable parts of the
earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." That's Christ
talking. He says, "...my delights were
with the sons of men, even before the creation of the world." Christ
here in Proverbs 8 is speaking in His capacity as wisdom. And
this was said not only at a time before Christ took on the robe
of man's flesh, but it was said before the foundations of the
earth were laid. So in what way was Christ possessed
then? How was Christ set up and how
were his delights in the sons of men then? It could only have
been that Christ, our mediator, was even then the representative
of the people which his father gave to him to be saved. as the
great events of God's salvation were planned and brought forward
in the eternal counsel of God, which would be accomplished in
the fullness of time, Christ Jesus was then our representative
before God in that counsel of God. So then it must have been
that these things were done in Jehovah's mind, already determined
and accomplished. So in this sense, Christ's presence
as the Son of Man was everlasting in heaven, as our mediator and
our representative before God. That's where the resurrected
Son of Glory is today. He sits at the right hand of
God. As Colossians 1.15 says about
Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature, and as John 1, verses 2 and 3 says about
Christ, the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made
by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
And so John 3 verses 14 to 18 must be considered in this light.
Jesus Christ, our Mediator, has been our representative and He
continues to be our representative before God for all eternity. He is God who became a man to
save His people from their sin and who is now sat down at the
right hand of God. But, and I think this is important,
the Lord God fills all space and He is no more present in
heaven than He is present on earth. And since He never stopped
being God when He took on the form of a man, then as God, He
continued to fill all space. So when Jesus Christ, as the
Son of Man, was having His conversation with Nicodemus here on the earth,
He was at the same time fully God and fully the Son of God. He is Jesus Christ, the God-Man,
our Mediator. I don't know about you, but that
whole thought sort of staggers my mind. But it helps me to understand
it when I think of Jesus Christ as the head of His body, the
church. In Ephesians 1, verses 22 and 23, Paul said, and he's
talking about Christ, he said that God has put all things under
His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all."
Do you have your Bibles open to John 3, verses 14 to 18? Turn
there, please. So as we read this text in John
3, I ask you to think of Christ in this way when He talks about
lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. That brazen serpent
is a beautiful picture of Christ. Christ who is the Son of Man.
The God-Man who was to come. who was sent by God to save his
people from their sin. Sent by God actually from before
the foundations of the world. In John 3 verses 14 to 18, Jesus,
the God-man, said to Nicodemus, And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. And then he says that same idea
again in verse 16. 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. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn our sin, 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 the name of the only begotten Son of God.
There are two things I think that we need to remember about
Jesus, the Son of Man. The first is that he knew no
sin. He knew no sin, so he was made sin for his people as their
representative. And so they knew no righteousness
should be made the righteousness of God in him. And the second
thing that we need to remember about the Son of Man was that
just as the church, by the fall of Adam, came justly under the
sentence of God's curse, So also Jesus Christ, as the husband
in surety of His people, as the head of His church, was made
a curse for them so that they might be redeemed from the curse.
Again, we see Christ acting as the representative of His people.
Although we might see God's love for us in Christ acting as the
representative of His people. In Galatians 3 verse 13, Paul
said it this way, he said, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed
is everyone that hangs on a tree. And again, in Hebrews 2 verse
17, Paul said, Wherefore, or that's why, in all things it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and a faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. in
both of these things. In Christ being made sin for
us and in Christ being made a curse for us, the Son of God who had
assumed our likeness in what is called the fullness of time,
effectually accomplished, fully accomplished what He had been
sent by God to accomplish. Jesus Christ the God-man saved
His people from their sin and He removed the curse of the law
from them. But God's people were on this
earth many years before Christ died on the cross. You remember,
I'm sure, that in God's mind, that which He determined was
accomplished even before it came to pass in time. All that God
wills comes to pass because He is God. He is the sovereign ruler
over all things. So before the accomplishment
of salvation in time, when the Son of Man died on that cross,
God sent numerous pictures of Christ's death so that those
who were living in the Old Testament times might see and believe. Believe what? Well, that they
might believe that Jesus Christ died to save them from their
sin. And the Holy Spirit used these pictures to teach God's
people of Christ, giving them the faith to believe and to trust
that Christ died as their substitute for their salvation. So the scapegoat
was appointed on the Day of Atonement to show that sin was removed
from God's people and placed on another, and the brazen serpent
was raised up on a pole to set forth a picture of Christ's atonement
on the cross that would be made and that was already made in
the mind of God. Both the scapegoat and the brazen
serpent directly pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they pointed
to Him alone, to nobody else. These pictures of Christ didn't
save God's people. Christ saved His people. But
they allowed God's people to look to Christ and to believe
that there was a Christ who would come and die as their substitute
to save them from their sin. But while the scapegoat pointed
clearly to Christ, still no Israelite was able to see Christ by it
until their spiritual eyes were opened by God. And no Israelite
whose eyes were opened by God could possibly couldn't possibly
overlook Christ as bearing the sins of his people. The brazen
serpent, which so clearly reveals Christ, who bore both the weight
and the displeasure of God due to the sins of God's people,
also only became visible when it was viewed by the eyes of
the faith of Christ. And this is what Jesus is explaining
to his disciples. He says, as the brazen serpent
This wonderful picture of Christ's substitutionary and sacrificial
death was lifted up on a pole. Jesus says to his disciples,
the dying Israelite, bitten by sin, was made by God able to
look with an eye of hope to what the serpent pictured as God's
own appointed way of salvation. And the sinner, any sinner, any
sinner whatsoever who looked would be healed. not healed by
the brazen serpent, but healed by Christ who was pictured by
the serpent. Now turn please to Isaiah 45
and verse 22 please. And so now the thing that was
pictured by the brazen serpent was Jesus Christ himself who
is the only way by which any sinner is ever redeemed and he's
the only way that Jehovah has appointed for the salvation of
his people. The brazen serpent is lifted up so that the dying
sinner might look to Christ, not the brazen serpent, but to
Christ, which the serpent pictured. And they might look with an eye
of faith and be saved. As Isaiah 45 verse 22 says, look
unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I
am God and there is none else. That command of God, spoken by
God through a prophet, through the prophet Isaiah, That statement
is just as true today as it was in the Old Testament. And so
I say to you, if you're a sinner, then look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. As Peter said in Acts 4.12, neither
is there salvation in any other, for it is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Oh, my prayer
is that our hearts might be made open, that our ears might be
made to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that we might be given
eyes to see and a heart to believe and faith to trust Christ only
as our Lord and Savior to the salvation of our souls. In Jesus'
name I pray, Amen.

The Brazen Serpent Lifted Up

What does the Bible say about the brazen serpent?

Why is the concept of the brazen serpent important for Christians?

How do we know the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is true?

What does it mean for Christ to be our representative before God?

Why do we refer to Jesus as the only way to salvation?

Sermon Transcript

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The Brazen Serpent Lifted Up

What does the Bible say about the brazen serpent?

Why is the concept of the brazen serpent important for Christians?

How do we know the doctrine of substitutionary atonement is true?

What does it mean for Christ to be our representative before God?

Why do we refer to Jesus as the only way to salvation?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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