Good morning, everybody. It's
a beautiful song, wasn't it? Never ceases to amaze me, the
music talent around here. It's awesome. Turn, if you would,
to Isaiah 40. Text we're going to look at this
morning is going to be verses 6 through 9. But I want to start
by just reading verses 1 through 9, kind of put everything in
context. Isaiah 40, verse 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. Voice of him that crieth in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in
the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hills shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry,
and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness, the glory thereof, is as the flower of the Grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. Grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up in the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not
afraid, say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Now down to verse six, The Lord
gives His prophet a command, and that command is to cry. And
Isaiah's response to the Lord is relatively peculiar. The Lord
had given Isaiah a lot of things to say up to this point, but
Isaiah says, Lord, what shall I cry? And I can identify with
Isaiah here. I can empathize with his question
because I can't begin with verse one either. Verse 1 says, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. He can't comfort a
man whom the Lord has not already comforted. It says, Tell him
his warfare is accomplished. You can't tell a man his warfare
is accomplished if he is still at war with God himself. It says,
Tell him his iniquity is pardoned, that he's received the Lord's
hand double for all his sins. You can't tell a man his sin
has been pardoned unless the Lord truly has pardoned that
man's sins. Now, I can empathize with Isaiah
here, and I don't imagine that his reply to the Lord was as
calm and collected as it may appear. I imagine a relatively
frustrated Isaiah. I imagine a man who is crushed
under this sweet burden of crying, of preaching. And I imagine him
thinking, Lord, I'll go anywhere you'll send me. I'll go to the
highest mountain. I'll go into the deepest cave.
I'll go to the depths of the sea if you'll sustain me. I'll
go anywhere. But I have to know what to say. I have to know the
message. What is the gospel message? And
the Lord in mercy, he answers Isaiah. He says, you want to
know? You really want to know? You want to know the gospel message?
All right, I'll tell you. I'll even tell you where to begin.
You begin where men are at. Let's reread verse 6 and 7. Let's
find out where you and I are at. The voice said, cry. And he said,
what? What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. Talks
about the flesh. Flesh, that word really has kind
of a dual meaning, doesn't it? On the surface, the flesh is
the skin. It's the muscle. It's the fat.
It speaks of the physical body, the physical life. And truly,
we are just like grass, aren't we? Grass springs up for a little
while, looks pretty good for a while. It's lush and green.
But what is the end state of all grass? It withers and it
dies. And that is the end state of
everyone in this room. One day, maybe much sooner than
we think, we are all going to die. And we are going to wake
up in the presence of a holy God, and the only thing that's
going to matter is, am I found in Christ? Do I awake in His
likeness? Now, why do we die? Romans 6.23
says the wages of sin is death. We die because we are sinners,
nothing more. And this brings us to the second
definition of flesh, the deeper meaning here. This is the spiritual
flesh. It's the natural man. It's the wicked and evil nature
that you and I are born in this world possessing. And Isaiah
says that the flesh, the natural man, he's as withered as dead
grass. And his goodliness, his glory,
is that of a faded, dead, worthless flower. What does he mean? What does he really mean there?
If we turn back to Isaiah 37, Isaiah actually uses the same,
well, similar comparison, the grass back here in chapter 37. We're going to look at verse
27, but let me give you a quick back story. During chapters 36
and 37, the Assyrian army had conquered the defense cities
of Judah, and now they were knocking at Jerusalem's door. They had
Jerusalem surrounded. The Lord comforts, though, the king of
Judah, Hezekiah. He's behind the walls, and the
Lord comforts him using Isaiah. Isaiah comes to Hezekiah. He
says, Hezekiah, don't worry. Everything's going to be fine.
They're not even going to shoot an arrow behind your walls. The
Lord's going to destroy the Assyrian king. He's going to destroy his
armies. Don't worry about a thing. And he goes on to tell Hezekiah
the reason why the Assyrians had been so victorious up to
this point. It was because the Lord had purposed them on the
victory. And because the Lord had purposed
the Assyrians on the victory, the people of these defense cities
of Judah, they had particular attributes. And he describes
them in a threefold manner. Understand that this description
he gives, it is not just the physical attributes of these
people of Judah. It speaks of the spiritual attributes
of the natural man. Look at verse 27. Therefore,
their inhabitants were of small power. They were dismayed and
confounded. They were as the grass of the
field. Notice that's a similar comparison.
And as the grass, and as the green herb, and as the grass
on housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. Isaiah
gives a three-fold description of the natural man, and the first
term he uses is of small power. And when you read the little
translation, it's actually feeble-handed. Now, just as these people who
defend cities of Judah, they had no power to deliver themselves
from the hand of the Assyrians, you and I, the natural man, the
way we were born in this world, we have no ability to deliver
ourselves from the power of sin and the rightful punishment that
follows it. Now, if a natural man ever does
actually take an interest in salvation, he always goes about
it the same way. He attempts to purchase it. He
may give assent to concepts like the death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his shed blood, but he believes in such a manner as to make it
of no effect. We see this in the teaching of worldly religion
and the doctrine of universal redemption. Men say, God loves
you, Christ died for you, and he wants to save you, but you
must do your part to make his work effectual for you. There's
a couple problems with that teaching. The first problem is it's not
true. Understand, if you believe that, you do not believe the
Bible, because that's not what the Bible teaches. Here's the
greater issue. We are of little power, which
is just as easily translated, no power. We cannot do. We lack the ability to undergo
any work that the Lord could find pleasing, that he could
be appeased with. Now write this down. Your work,
your best work, my best work, whatever we think it may be,
it is sheer iniquity. It was conjured in a wicked heart,
and it was backed by self-serving motives and self-serving intentions. We have no power to deliver ourselves.
We are feeble-handed. The second term he uses there
is dismayed, dismayed. And the literal translation here
is actually broken down, broken down in fear. Now, just as these
people who defend cities of Judah, they looked out and they saw
the vastness of the Assyrian army, how mighty they were, how
powerful they were. They were broken down in a fearful
state. And I'll tell you this, if a
natural man ever catches a glimpse of the true God, the holy God,
he's going to find himself in a broken down and fearful state. Understand, this is not the fear
of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. That's not what we're
talking about. This is a fleshly fear. It's an evil fear. It is
a fear which is intermingled with a hatred for the Lord's
holy person. Now, that can be a tough concept.
Let me give you an example. Turn to Genesis 3. We see this very clearly in Adam. And I'll give you the back story
here. Adam had just eaten the fruit,
he had just disobeyed God, and he had just lost his innocent
nature. And now he has taken on his new sinful, evil nature. Now let's pick up in verse 7,
and let's listen, let's see how Adam reacts to the presence of
the Lord. Genesis 3 verse 7, and the eyes
of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And
they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in
the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from
the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where
art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and
I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said,
who told thee that that was naked? Has thou eaten of the tree wherever
I commanded thee, thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the
woman that thou gavest me, she gave me of the tree, and I did
eat. Now, notice Adam's reaction to
the presence of the Lord. He flees from him. Adam had just
sinned, and instead of running to the Lord and begging his mercy,
he hides. He hides. See, Adam knew that
the Lord was holy. And Adam knew now that he was
a shameful thing, and he could not stand before that holiness. And we see what Adam did here. Adam wanted nothing to do with
the Lord. And when the Lord does come to Adam, and he confronts
him over his disobedience, Adam's not remorseful in any way, is
he? There's no ownership of his sin. There's no repentance over
his sin. No, what does he begin to do?
He begins to blame. He starts with Eve, but he ends
up ultimately blaming the Lord. And I'll tell you what, this
is why the religion in this world won't preach the God of the Bible.
Because the God of the Bible is holy. He's perfect and he
demands perfection. And he is sovereign. He has a
will, and his will is always done. He has the power to make
his will come to pass. And men are not comfortable with
that God. Men hate that God. So they conjure their own God.
They conjure a God that is not holy, that does not demand perfection.
Doesn't demand anything, as a matter of fact. one who is not sovereign,
one who is defeated in his purposes and can't move a muscle unless
a man allows him to move a muscle. No, the natural man is comfortable
with that God, with that defeated God, but the natural man will
always flee from, hide, and blame the God of the Bible. And it's
for one reason. It's because by nature, he hates
Him. See, we are of little power.
The word is made. The third word here is confounded.
confounded. And the literal translation on
that is actually dried up. Now, when I think of this term, I
don't know what you think of, but I think of a desert. I've spent a decent
amount of time in various deserts all over the world. But I distinctly
remember seeing a desert in the Middle East for the first time.
I had lived in a desert in the States. At deserts in the States,
it's hot, it's dry, it's sandy, but there's stuff there. You
see a cactus. You see a coyote. a snake, maybe
a buzzard overhead. There's something there. But
when I got to this desert in the Middle East for the first
time, I looked out and all I could see was sand, as far as the eye
could see. And the chief characteristic
of this desert was readily apparent. It was void of any type of life. And that chief characteristic
is also the chief characteristic of the natural man. We are absolutely
void of life, spiritual life. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. And our spiritual death leads
to our complete and utter inability to do that which is spiritual.
So what are you talking about? Hearing. Take a natural man,
sit him in that pew, preach the gospel to him all day long, he
won't hear a thing. Now he'll hear words, he'll hear
audibly, he'll hear concepts, but it'll do nothing for his
heart. Can't hear unless the Lord gives him hearing ears.
Sight. Sit him down. Point him to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Tell him who he is. Tell him
who that man is. He can't see it. He's blind. He has to be given eyes to see.
Repentance. What is repentance? Has something
to do with taking sides, doesn't it? Changing alliances? where you actually take sides
with God against yourself. It has something to do with a
change of mind, changing your mind about who God is and who
you are. No man can change his mind or
change his own alliances. The Lord has to bring that man
to repentance. Faith. The ability to trust solely
the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope
of acceptance before God the Father. No man musters faith
in and of himself. It is the gift of God, and it
leads to belief. The call of the gospel is, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But we temper
it with this. You can't believe. I can't believe,
unless we are given the ability to believe. Now, let me ask you a question.
Did I just describe you by nature? That you were of no power? that
you're dismayed, can't stand before the holiness of God, a
God-hater by nature, that you're confounded, you're dried up,
spiritually dead. Did I describe you? Did I describe
me? Several people here would say
yes. Yes, by nature, that is me. That's the way I'm born in
this world. Others would say, no, that is
not me. I have some power. You put me in the right circumstances,
I can work up a good word. I'm not dismayed. I'm happy with
my God, the one I've created. I'm not dried up. I have some
spiritual life. I'd say, no, no, it's not true. This is true
of every man. That is the teaching of this
book. Every man that's born in this world is born this way.
Why would one man know it and another not? It's very simple. Because for that man that knows
it's because the spirit of the Lord has blown upon him. Henry Mahan had a good saying.
He said, he blows upon him like a blowtorch blows on a spiderweb. The flame consumes him. It tears
down all his false refuges. It whittles him down until he
is absolutely nothing. And he knows he's nothing. Now,
here's a question. Why is that necessary? Why must
we be brought to nothing? I think it's best answered through
the law of the leper. Would you turn to Leviticus 13,
please? And we'll pick up in verse 9.
As you all well know, this plague of leprosy, this is the great
example in the scriptures of sin, and the leper is a great
example of the sinner. Let's look at Leviticus 13, verse
9. The Law of the Leper. Verse 9 says, When the plague
of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the
priest. Now the word that jumped off
the page of me when I read that scripture was that word, shall.
I'll tell you what, if you ever get sinned, that's what Henry
Mahan used to call it, getting sinned. If you ever figure out
who you are and what you are and who I am and what I am by
nature, you're going to get to the priest one way or the other.
It will be an absolute necessity. You're not going to try a home
remedy. There's nothing you can do for yourself. You're not going
to go to a doctor. There's nothing that a mere man
can do for you. If we ever see our total depravity before the
Lord, we're going to get to that one who can help, the great high
priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pick up in verse 12, and if a
leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover,
all the skin that hath the plague, from his head even to his foot,
whoever soever the priest looketh. Look at the extent of the disease,
the head, an evil mind. It trails down to the heart,
which is exceedingly wicked, all the way down to the soles
of the feet, our walk, our works, which are nothing but sin. A
sinner from the top of your head to the sole of your foot. Look
at verse 13. Then the priest shall consider,
now understand this consideration is going to be done in the light
of day. No stone is going to be left unturned. The eyes of
the priest can pierce the deepest cavity of our souls. Then the
priest shall consider and behold, if the leprosy have covered all
his flesh, all his flesh, not one spot of clean, unpolluted
flesh on him, not one speck of personal righteousness to be
found, just a center from the very top of your head to the
sole of your foot. Then he shall, pronounce him
clean, that hath that plague." What confidence that word inspires. He is faithful to do this every
time. Any man who comes to Him as a
sinner from the very top of his head to the sole of his foot,
if he comes to the Great High Priest begging mercy, he is faithful
to do this every time, he is clean. It's all turned white. Now, so why must the Spirit bring
us to nothing? Because it is only when we see
that we are completely and utterly consumed by sin that we flee
to the great high priest. And the great high priest is
always faithful to make the same determination, he is clean. Let me ask this, what are the
implications of this? The fact that no man will be saved apart
from believing on or coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And no
man will come unless he has a need. and no man will know his need
unless the Spirit of the Lord blows upon him." What's the implications
of that? Let's look at a scripture. Turn
to John 3. John 3 and look down at verse
8. It says, the wind, which is actually
translated the spirit, that's what this verse of scripture
is talking about, the spirit bloweth where it listeth, or
where it chooses, not where you and I choose for it to blow,
but where the Lord chooses for it to blow. The spirit bloweth
where it chooses, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the spirit. So what is the first implication
of the withering work of the Spirit? Well, it's this, it's
that God is sovereign in salvation. You and I are placed in His hand,
and He can do with us as He sees fit. He can save us, or He can
damn us. He can give us our rightful punishment.
And either way, His name is just and holy. That's just true. How does that sit with you? As far as I can tell, there's
really only three major reactions you can have to this. It might
make you angry. You might sit there and say,
that's not true. I can believe anytime I want.
I can be saved anytime I want, anytime I choose. Please note that your understanding
is contrary to that of the scriptures. the one I just read. Maybe you're
angry. Maybe you become apathetic. Well,
salvation is the Lord. Nothing I can do. I'm supposed
to just wait around for Judgment Day, see how things shake out.
I can tell you if that's your reaction, the Spirit of the Lord
has never blown upon you. It never produces apathy in a
believer. But there is a third category. Perhaps this day Perhaps for
the first time, you're confronted with God's sovereignty in salvation,
and it causes you to cry out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, save me. Send your spirit
to blow upon me. Breathe spiritual life into this
dead sinner. Now, my friends, that is the
reaction of a man whom the Lord has already blown upon. It's
a reaction of a man whom the Lord has saved. So the first implication is that
God is sovereign in salvation. What's another implication of
the withering work of the Spirit? Turn to Romans 9. Look at verse 11 of Romans 9.
For the children, speaking of Jacob and Esau, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth." What is the second implication of the
withering work of the Spirit? It's this. It's that the doctrine
of election for the believer is not only true, but for us,
it is absolutely necessary for our salvation. We love it. What is election? God, the Father,
in His sovereignty, out of love, choosing, electing a people unto
salvation in Christ before the world began. The world hates
that, don't they? They hate election. And they
make it out to be as if the Lord is holding men off, as if there's
this large community of men who are crying out for mercy, and
the Lord presses out His hands and says, no, no, I just didn't
choose you, no. That's their thought process,
isn't it? How does that line up with the scripture? Turn to
John 5. John 5, look at verse 36. But
I have a greater witness than that of John. For the works which
the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear
witness of me that the Father has sent me. And the Father himself,
which has sent me, hath borne witness of me. You have neither
heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape, and you have
not his word abiding in you. For whom he has sent, him you
believe not. Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. Now listen to this, this is very
important. And you will not, you will not come to me, that
you might have life. See, my friends, the chief problem
with man is his natural will. He is unwilling to be saved by
Christ alone. Now, I'm not talking about a
free will. I don't want anyone to misunderstand me on that.
There is no such thing as a free will. Every entity's will is
tied to his nature, and the natural man's will is obstinate to the
idea of grace. You tell the natural man if he's
to be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ will have all the glory in his
salvation. And he will simply be a trophy
of the Lord's power in his grace, and that natural man will war
against it. He'll say, no, I will not have
it that way. I'd rather go to hell on my own
merits than be saved on the merits of Christ. But for us, for the believer.
We love God's sovereignty and God's election, don't we? Because
we know we had no power to change our own will. We know that he
came to us where we were at in our state of no power, dismayed
and confounded. He came to us where we were at,
God-haters by nature, and he spent the spirit to blow upon
us, and it withered us, and it changed our will, so much so
We love Christ getting all the glory and salvation. We wouldn't
have it any other way. Why? Because he's worthy of it. We look at what he has done for
us and we say, exalt him and embrace me. Why? Because we know that if
he first wouldn't have chosen us, we never would have chose
him. We've talked about who you and
I are by nature. We've talked a little bit about
the withering work of the Spirit, God's sovereignty and salvation, His
absolute election. Let's ask this question now.
It's very simple. How can a sinner like me or you
be right with God? How is that even possible? Turn
back to Isaiah 40. Pick up in verse 8. It says, the grass withereth, the
flower fadeth. Is there any hope? But the word
of our God shall stand forever. Now, what does Isaiah mean there? It says the word of our God shall
stand forever. Well, on the surface, the word
is the Bible, is it not? It's the scriptures, which truly does stand forever
in its absolute truth. But there is a deeper meaning.
John 1.1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. Isaiah is speaking of the incarnate
Word. He is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ who stands. How
has He stood? How has He always stood? Well,
Don touched on it this morning. It says, a surety for His people. Now, what does that mean? What
does it mean to be a surety? Turn, if you would, to Genesis
43. I learned best through examples,
so I'm going to give you guys a bunch of them today. And you all know this story very
well. Joseph was now Pharaoh's right-hand man in Egypt. If you
wanted corn from Egypt, you were going to have to go through Joseph
to get it. And so Joseph's brothers, these same brothers who had sold
him into bondage years before, they show up in Egypt. And they
ask for corn. Joseph gives them to him. But
he says, if you come back wanting more corn, I'm not going to give
it to you unless you bring your youngest brother, Benjamin, with you.
And so his brothers go back, back to their father, Jacob.
They eat the corn, but after a while the corn runs out. They
have to go back to Egypt. But they tell Jacob, the man who gave
us the corn, he said, if we don't bring Benjamin with us, he's
not going to give us any more corn. And Jacob, he's reluctant
to send Benjamin. He thinks he's lost his first
favorite son, Joseph. He's reluctant to send Benjamin
because he's afraid some harm will befall him. But listen to
the appeal that his son Judah makes to him. Pick up in verse
8, Genesis 43, verse 8. And Judah said unto Israel his
father, send the lad with me, and we will arise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shall that require
him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee,
then let me bear the blame forever." By offering himself as a surety,
Judah accepted the full responsibility of returning Benjamin back to
his father, safe and sound, with no harm having befallen him.
Likewise, for every believer, every chosen child of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ has assumed the role of surety. He's accepted
the responsibility of delivering every one of God's elect back
to Him safe and sound, not a scratch on us. But for Him to do that,
He first has to satisfy the Father's demands against us. What does
He demand? Well, first, He demands a perfect
justice. God is just, and he will not
let sin go unpunished. But who am I? I'm the sinner. Where does that leave us? What
happened? For the Lord to be my surety, he came to this earth,
and for all his chosen people, he bore their sins in his body
on that pole. Claire was talking earlier about
things we believe and we just don't understand. I don't understand
what went on there. I know that that punishment,
the shame, the guilt, all that my sin was, He became, except
the commission. And the punishment that was reserved
for me was dealt out to Him. And that punishment was an eternity
in hell. But it was for every believer
as well. It was times ten thousands and ten thousands and thousands
and thousands. He suffered that on that pole.
He bled, and He died, and He put away those sins. And this
is our confidence. God is just. And if my sins have been punished
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bear those sins no
more. God is just. He will not let
sin go unpunished. What else does He require? He
requires holiness, or I'm sorry, righteousness. A perfect righteousness,
a perfect law-keeping. I have not kept the law perfectly.
In fact, I haven't kept it at all, not one time, not in my
heart, and that's the same for you. What had to happen? Christ came to this earth, and
he lived a perfect life, and I can't imagine what that must
look like growing up, his parents watching him, never sinning,
being perfect and holy the entire time, altogether God, but altogether
man. It must have been amazing. But from the ground up, he kept
the law every jot and tittle. He accomplished his father's
will in everything. And that righteousness that he
works out, that's my righteousness. That's your righteousness. Not
later on, right now, through our union with Christ. And we
see it only by faith. not through experience, but right
now, as we stand before God the Father in Christ, we are absolutely
righteous, as with his righteousness. Justice, righteousness, he demands
holiness. Now, I went round and round trying
to explain this. I'm just going to tell you what,
I don't know much about holiness. I just don't. I know something
about it by faith, but I know nothing about it by experience.
I know it has something to do with perfection and inability
to be anything but perfect. I just don't know much about
that. But I know that through union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
every believer in Christ right now is holy. If the Lord Jesus
Christ is holy, which he is, then every believer truly is
holy. Does that not give you confidence? It doesn't give you confidence.
It has nothing to do with what you've done. It's what Christ
has done. Now, we've seen what we are by
nature, who we are by nature. We've seen how a sinner like
you or me can be right with God, and that is through the personal
work of Christ. It's a very simple message, isn't it? Nothing you
haven't heard before. But let's turn back to Isaiah
40 and look at verse 9. Let's ask this question, now
what am I to do? Isaiah 40, and look at verse
9. It says, O Zion, that's the church. This is the responsibility
of the church and every individual believer, not just to believe
this, but to preach it. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto who? I said he's a Jew. those people
who have no power, who are dismayed and are confounded. You cry unto
them, behold your God. That word behold is just look
to. You look to the Lord Jesus Christ with an eye of faith. That's what we are commanded
to do, to trust him completely as our only hope of salvation.
Now, like I said before, I learned best through examples, so let
me give you one more. Turn, if you would, to Numbers 21. In this story, the children of
Israel had just been led out of Egypt by Moses, and now they're
in the wilderness. Look at verse 5, and the people
spake against God, and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought
us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is
no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth
this light bread." Notice who they blame for their circumstances.
They blame the Lord. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
We see it in the children of Israel. We see it in Adam. If
we look close enough, we'll see it in ourselves. Verse six, and the Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and
much people of Israel died. Notice the serpents bit the people,
all the people. No man escapes the ravages of
sin. We are born in this world dead in trespasses and sins,
and it's our fault. Look at verse seven. Therefore
the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we
have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the
Lord. that he take away the serpents from us, and Moses prayed for
the people." Notice what the bite of the serpent did. It caused
the people to come to Moses, the picture of Christ. And they
begged Moses that he would make intercession to God on their
behalf. Look down at verse 8. And the
Lord said unto Moses, 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, shall live. Now this serpent on the
pole, you all well know this is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ hanging on the cross. The serpent is made of brass,
a mixture of copper and tin. It speaks of the Lord's 100%
deity and 100% humanity. They're hanging on that pole.
And notice what was promised. Everyone that is bitten, the
first prerequisite for salvation is to be a sinner. is to be in
need. Everyone that was bitten when
he looked upon it, when he beheld it, he shall live. That word is so powerful, shall,
we see it all over the scripture. It's not maybe he will live.
He is faithful to render this judgment. He shall live. In verse 9, and Moses made a
serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that
if a serpent had bitten any man, When he beheld the serpent of
brass, he left. Now, I'm going to ask a question. Has anyone here been bitten? You've been bitten with the venom
of sin that was brought on by your own disobedience, just like
the children of Israel. Has anyone here been bitten?
And you have this precious promise. You look to that wand hanging
on a pole, not a baby in a manger, You look at the crucified Christ,
the one hanging on a pole and raised again. That's where you
look for all your hope of acceptance before God the Father. Not Christ
and trusting some sort of feeling, some sort of experience you previously
had. You look to Him alone and you have this promise, you shall
live. And if you're doing it right
now, you're alive in Christ. This is the message of the gospel.
Behold your God. I'm going to get down there.