It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for, Lord, that had not been. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. When our Lord had this conversation
with Nicodemus, He spoke to him of the necessity of the new birth. Nicodemus, you can't enter the
Kingdom of God unless God gives you life. Now, during the course
of this very important conversation in John chapter 3, the Lord refers
to an Old Testament event to illustrate the Gospel. In verse
14 of John chapter 3, when our Lord is speaking to this man
at night, He says, 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." I've entitled this message, The Brazen Serpent. Now, I've
got to give something else to set the story of the brazen serpent
up, and it begins in Exodus chapter 16. This is shortly after the
children of Israel had left Egypt. We read, beginning in verse 2
of Exodus chapter 16, and the whole congregation of the children
of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
Now, remember, they had just been brought out of Egypt miraculously. by the power of God and they've
been delivered from bondage, yet how quickly they begin murmuring. And the children of Israel said
unto them, would to God we died by the hand of the Lord in the
land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, when we did eat
bread to the full, for you brought us forth into the wilderness
to kill this whole assembly with hunger. How ungrateful! How evil! Now, let's go on reading. Then said the Lord unto Moses,
the Lord speaks to Moses now, and says, Behold, I will rain. Now, before I read the rest of
this verse, I can see where he would say, Behold, I will rain
fire and brimstone down from heaven and destroy this bunch
of rebels, these ungrateful people. But that's not what he said.
He said, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And
the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that
I may prove them whether they walk in my law." Now, this is
the story of manna coming down from heaven. Now, we also know
from the New Testament that that manna represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. We read in John chapter 6, beginning
in verse 31, the people say, our fathers did eat
manna in the desert. As it's written, He gave them
bread from heaven to eat. Now here's the Lord's reply to
these people that He had fed miraculously. Then Jesus said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven. For the bread of God is He which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the bread of God. Now this bread, this manna,
came down from heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ came down
from heaven. This bread was given in response
to man's sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
come to condemn men. They already were condemned.
He came to save. That was His purpose in coming.
Now, we read regarding this manna that it was small, very small. And we like big things. I think
of what the Scripture says, Who hath despised the day of small
things? And the Lord Jesus Christ appeared very small to this world. The manna was round, spherical. No beginning, no ending place. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He never had a beginning. He never has an end. He's the
eternal Son of God. The man of the Scripture says
was white. And this represents the purity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He never sinned. When He came
down from heaven, He never sinned. He lived a perfect life before
God. And this manna tasted good. The Scripture says it tasted
like wafers and honey. Oh, how sweet is the taste of
the Lord Jesus Christ to those who believe on Him and feed on
Him and find Him as their necessary food. Now, the Scripture points
out that this manna could be cooked in several ways, baked,
broiled, fried, but it was still manna. No matter how they cooked
it, it was still manna. So the children of Israel had
something to eat every single day, manna came down from heaven. Can you imagine that? What a
miracle, what a glorious mercy of the Lord to provide them this
manna. Now in Numbers 21, this is 40
years later, the children of Israel are getting ready to enter
the promised land. They've been marching through
the desert for 40 years, not having come into the land that
God had promised their father Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But now they're getting ready
to enter in and the Edomites, their relatives, the descendants
of Esau, prevent them. They wouldn't let them go through
their country to enter into the promised land. So they were going
to have to backtrack in a way that would probably take somewhat
like six weeks to get around them to go into the promised
land. So look at the people in verse
4. And they journeyed, number 21,
verse 4, and they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red
Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. They were so disappointed,
they were so discouraged, they thought they were getting ready
to enter into the promised land, and now they're going backwards.
And they were much discouraged because of the way. Discouragement. Somebody once said, discouragement
is the occupational hazard of humanity. And I believe it very
well could be. They were so discouraged because
of the way. Disappointment, disillusionment,
even bitterness. We didn't sign up for this. Why
isn't the Lord allowing this to happen? Why are we having
such troubles? Disillusionment. Why are my prayers
not answered? You know, life can be so discouraging.
You can be mistreated by others. You can be slandered. You can
be misrepresented. You can be misunderstood. You
can feel hurt, deceived, betrayed, and you feel discouraged. I'm
not happy. Now, whenever that is my thinking,
I'm not happy. Watch out. You know, the people
who seek to be happy are the people who are always miserable.
You seek to do right, and you'll be happy. But if what you're
seeking is your own happiness, I'm not happy, that's a guarantee
that you will be miserable. But the people were much discouraged
because of the way, and my marginal reading says that much discouraged
means shortened. shortened. They couldn't see
past the nose on their face. They were short-sighted. They
couldn't see beyond the discouragement of the God who controls all things. Listen to this line from this
hymn, God Moves in Mysterious Ways. The hymn writer said, Ye
fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much
dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your
head. Trust not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face." Now, these people forgot God. They
forgot what they'd been delivered from. and they began to murmur
and to complain, and they were much discouraged because of the
way." Now, verse 5, "...and the people..." Here they do this
again. Remember, they spake against
God and Moses back in Exodus 16 when He first brought the
manna. Here they go murmuring again. Somebody's got to be blamed
for this. "...and the people spake against
God and against Moses." Why did they speak against Moses? Actually,
their anger was with God, not Moses. It was with God. Moses
just happened to be the representative of God that they saw, so they
were mad at him too. 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. Now hold on. Man had fallen from
heaven that very day. They had drank water from that
rock that was smitten. Another beautiful picture of
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the rock was smitten,
water flowed out. When Christ Jesus was smitten
by the Father, salvation came out of that. They drank that
water that very day. But here they say there's no
bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth. detests, is disgusted with this
light bread. Now, these people, as I said,
were angry with the Lord. You know, any time I'm angry,
ultimately, any time I'm discouraged, any time I'm resentful, the one
I'm angry with or the one I'm discouraged with actually is
the Lord, because He is the first cause behind all things. He's
the cause of causes. Whatever takes place, He's in
control of. And so when I get mad, I might
blame things here on earth, but ultimately my anger is with the
Lord. He's not doing things the way I think He should do them.
And I'm resenting Him. People get mad at the Lord. And that's where these people
were. They spake against Moses and they spake against the Lord.
And they said, our souls loathe this light bread. They called
manna, that heavenly food that came down from heaven, they call
it light bread. We're tired of it. We want something
else. It's not satisfying us anymore. Now, I've got a question. Had
the manna changed or had they changed? You know the answer
to that question. The manna was still the same.
It hadn't changed, but their perception of the manna had changed. Their appetite for the manna
had changed. It was now tasteless, dry, dull,
and disinteresting. They said regarding that bread
that came down from heaven that typified the Lord Jesus Christ,
our souls loathe this light bread. We're sick of it. We want something
else. So what did the Lord do? Verse
6, And the Lord sent Fiery serpents among the people. And much people
of Israel died. Now, picture this horrible thing. What if in your neighborhood
there were snakes crawling all over the place, biting people
and killing them? Maybe you'd be in bed wondering
if there was a snake in your room, wondering if it was going
to get you. They were scared to death. All these fiery serpents
that were coming in and biting them with this fiery venom and
many people of Israel died. Now, that's the Lord's judgment
against that wicked attitude of theirs for his son, the man
that came down from heaven. So, verse 7, Therefore, the people
came to Moses after many people had already died. Therefore,
the people came to Moses and said, We sinned. We sinned. Now, here is confession of sin.
When you take full responsibility for your sin, we've sinned. You take sides with God against
yourself when you confess your sin, we've sinned. We're guilty. What we did was
as wrong as it could be. We've sinned against the Lord
and against thee. Now, they have a understanding
of what they were doing now. We sinned against the Lord and
against thee. And they say, pray unto the Lord
that he take away the serpents from us. What I need is my sin
taken away. I need the fiery serpent of sin
taken away. I can't do anything about it,
only the Lord can. Oh, that He'd take my sin away. That's my problem, is my sin.
Oh, that He'd take my sin away. And at this time, Moses is the
type of Christ, because they come to Moses, and they say,
pray to the Lord for us, that He'll take these serpents away. And that's the way we come to
the father. We come to the father through the son pleading only
his name. Moses, as I said, is a type of
Christ. Verse eight, and the Lord said unto Moses, here's
his answer. Here's his Moses did pray for
the people that the Lord would take those serpents away. 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's bitten, when he looks
upon it, he shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass
and put it on the pole. Now, here's what the Lord says
to do. The serpents were the problem. You make a serpent made
of brass. Brass is an alloy made of two
different substances, tin and copper. The Lord Jesus Christ
has two natures. His divine nature as God, God
manifest in the flesh, and His human nature. He's fully God.
All that God is, He is. He's fully man. All that man
is, He is. He's the God-man. And He said,
you take that serpent of brass and you put it on a pole. Lift
it up so everyone can see it. Our Lord Jesus was crucified
on a pole. I know people talk about a cross,
but he wasn't crucified on a cross. The cross came around in the
3rd or 4th century. He was nailed to a pole, hands
over his head, nailed down. And that serpent was put on a
pole. Look what took place. Verse 9,
Moses made a serpent of grass and put it upon a pole. And it
came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, When he beheld
the serpent, he lived. All you had to do was look and
you would live. Now, this was the divine remedy. This is God's work. Man couldn't
come up with this. This remedy was singular. It
was the only way of deliverance. If you were bitten by one of
those snakes, the only way you could be healed is by looking
at that serpent on a pole. And it had a 100% success rate. Everyone that was bitten When
he looked or when she looked upon that brazen serpent on a
pole, all they did was look, they would be healed completely. Now, who was this brazen serpent
for? Everyone who was bitten. If you
hadn't been bitten, you weren't interested in looking at that
serpent on a pole. It wasn't even important to you. You hadn't
been bitten. Oh, but everyone who was bitten, who felt the
venom of sin going through them and saw that they were going
to die because of their sin. And there's nothing they could
do to save themselves. They see themselves altogether helpless. That's the person who looked
to that brazen serpent. What were they to do? Look to
the serpent. Not look at Moses. Not look at
your wounds. Not look at somebody else's wounds.
But look to that brazen serpent. Just look. And in looking, They
lived. Moses made that serpent of brass
and held it up on the pole so all could see. And any man, regardless
of the stage of his sickness, regardless of the sinfulness
of his person, when he beheld, when he simply looked away from
all else and looked at that serpent on that pole, he lived. He was healed of those snakebites. Now, our Lord, And John chapter
3 reminds Nicodemus of this story. He says in verse 14, And as Moses
lifted up the serpents in the wilderness, I love to think of
Moses doing that. I'm sure he lifted up as high
as he could and said to everybody, Behold the serpents of the Pope.
Behold! Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so, in the same manner, must the Son of
Man be lifted up. Now, what does lifted up mean?
Well, look in John chapter 12, in verse 31, we read, or verse 32, and I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men to Me." This He said
signifying what death He should die. For Him to be lifted up
is for Him to be lifted up on a pole on the cross between heaven
and earth. Lifted up. Crucified. Even so must, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
crucified. Now why must the Son of Man be
crucified? He says it's necessary for me
to be nailed to a cross and lifted up and placed on a pole between
heaven and earth. Why was it necessary for the
Son of God to be crucified? Well, first, because He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And this was God's
decree. This was God's purpose. He was
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. God purposed for Him to do this. Therefore, it must come to pass,
because the Lord's will is always done. His will cannot be thwarted. It was necessary. for him to
be nailed to a cross because he was guilty. He was guilty. You look at the way our Lord
remained silent before the high priests. I remember when someone
struck him, and I think about when Paul was brought before
the high priest, the Apostle Paul, and when someone struck
him, he called him a whited wall, a hypocrite. The Lord didn't
do that. He kept His mouth closed. He didn't say anything. When
He's brought before Pilate, He doesn't answer Him. When He's
brought before Herod, He doesn't answer Him. He's led as a sheep
to the slaughter, and as a lamb before shears, He's dumb. He
opened not His mouth. Why didn't he open his mouth?
Now, I'll tell you this, if I'm accused of something that I'm
not guilty of, I'm going to open my mouth. I'm going to say, don't
make those accusations against me. I didn't do that, but he
didn't open his mouth. Why? Because he was guilty and
he deserved to go to the cross. Now, how can you say that if
you talk about his sinlessness? He never sinned, yet He's nailed
to a cross. Why is that? Because the sins
of God's elect became His sins. God took the sins of His people
and placed them upon the Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner's
substitute, and He's forsaken The wrath of God came upon Him.
That's what was going on on the cross. It wasn't men killing
Him. It was His Father. He was being punished for sin. God's holy. God's just. Sin must
be punished. And He was nailed to that cross
because He was guilty. The sins of His people became
His. And it was necessary because His people would not be saved
without this. Matthew 1.21 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And that's what was going on
on the cross. He was saving His people from
their sins. He was paying their sin debt.
And just as truly as the sins of His people became His sins,
His righteousness becomes theirs. That's the healing. The healing
comes from the cross, by whose stripes ye were healed, Peter
said. Oh, the healing that comes from
the cross. 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." Now, remember what Moses said to do? Look. Look. Look in your mind's eye to that
one hanging on a tree. What do you see? First, I see
sin. I see the end of sin. When I
see that one forsaken by God, I see the end of sin. The soul
that sinned shall surely die, God said. My sin became His sin,
and God is just. And I see the end of sin when
I see that man hanging on a tree. But I see the end of sin in another
way. I see the end of sin. He put it away. I see God's salvation
when I see that one hanging on that tree. That's God's salvation. This is how God can accept me
because of what He did for me. We're called upon to look to
Him. I look to His person. He's God. He's all-powerful. He's able to save me. I look
to His life, His perfect life. He never sinned. That's my life
before God. You can take my life and put
it up on screen for everybody to see, everything, and there'd
be nothing there but that which is holy, pure, and perfect because
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is my life before God. I look
at His death. I look to His death, and there
I see my sin payment. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I see my complete effectual sin
payment. God can't ask any more out of
me. The sin payment has been paid. I look to His resurrection,
and there I see my justification. When He was raised from the dead,
everybody He represented was justified before God, all together
without guilt. I look to His resurrection as
my justification before God. You see, we're looking to Him.
We're looking to Him. I look to His intercession as
the reason I'll be preserved. He's praying for me. He's keeping
me. As many as looked, lived, whosoever,
I love that word, whosoever, whosoever believeth in Him. And this is what it is to look
to Him. It's to believe. It's to really believe that who
He is and what He did is all that's needed to give you eternal
life, full and complete salvation. It's to believe on Him. Whosoever
believeth on Him should not perish. but have eternal life." Now,
what are we called upon to do? We're called upon to look. Now,
that's not hard to understand. If I say, look at me, you don't
strike your head and say, well, what do you mean by that? Well,
somebody may think, well, I don't see. Well, if you don't see,
it's because you haven't looked. If you look, you will see. Now,
if you're just trying to see, you'll never see. If you're,
oh, I'm trying to see. No, but you look to the Lord
Jesus Christ right now. God gives you the grace to do
it, and you will see. You'll see how God can love you
and accept you for Christ's sake. And if you don't see, if you
don't see how He is everything in salvation, it's because you
haven't looked. All who look see. Everyone, when
he was bitten, that beheld that serpent of brass lived. They were completely healed. May the Lord enable you and I
to look to His Son even now. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper praying God
will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. It is not that I did choose thee, Lord, for, Lord, that could
not be. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
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