I want us to look this afternoon
here in this chapter, chapter 21 of Numbers, beginning in verse
1 and down through verse 9. I want us to mainly see some
practical things in this, and I want us just to read it verse
by verse and take it in that order. Here in verse 1, let's
look at this. Have some practical lessons in
this. Here in verse 1 of Numbers 21.
It said, And when King Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the
south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies,
then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. Now, this was a king. We don't know hardly anything
about him, but he was the king of probably a warlord, as we
know him now, in one of the tribes, or several tribes, of Canaan. And he came out against Israel
and fought against them. Now, I think I know one reason
that he was emboldened to do that. Because in the 20th chapter,
there in verse 18, beginning there, Israel was coming through
the land of Edom. That was the descendants of Esau. And they requested the Edomites
to let them come through their land. Moses sent some men and
said, Let us pass through your land. We won't drink your water
unless we pay for it. We won't eat your food. And look
at what he said in verse 18, And Edom said unto him, Thou
shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with a sword.
And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the highway,
and if I or my cattle drink of your water, then we'll pay for
it. I will only, without doing anything else, go through on
my feet. And he said, Thou shalt not go
through. And Edom came out against him
with much people and with a strong hand. Then Edom refused to give
Israel passage through his border. Wherefore, Israel returned away
from him. And then there seems little doubt
that Arid, this king, heard of how Edom persecuted Israel, came
out with a strong arm against him, wouldn't even give him any
water, no passage through the land or any food. And that emboldened
him. It let him give away to otherwise
probably a fear that he had of these people. And he came out
against them. That's what happens a lot of times, ain't it? With
bullies. That's what happens with bullies
when they pick on people. If they see that someone else
has picked on you, if they see someone else has got the advantage
of you, that emboldens them to do the same, doesn't it? To persecute
you. That's the way the world is towards
the church. You and I haven't seen this very
much in our day. But it would surprise me that
if some of us weren't living today to see our own government
become so emboldened to see other people picking on the church.
You know, really, it's not popular to be a true Christian in our
day, is it? It's pretty popular. Some of the cults are pretty
popular. But I tell you, if you've got anything to say about God
and sin and Christ and the gospel, the world just assumed you'd
shut up. And there are some people in
high places today, if they saw the church being persecuted,
And they saw some people getting advantage of the church, and
there was nothing the church could do about it. You know something?
Boy, they'd be enboldened to take more steps than they're
taking now. They're just not doing it now because they're
afraid to. But let them see the church at a disadvantage. And
you know if it starts happening, it'll probably spread quickly. It'll probably spread quickly.
If our government ever sees... You remember when Harry killed
killed James, and he saw that it pleased the Jews. And boy,
when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he said, Get me Peter.
I'm going to kill him too. And I'm going to persecute the
church. He got emboldened because he saw people didn't care. The
church was at a great disadvantage. A good practical lesson, and
you may keep that in the back of your mind. Look here in verse
2 and verse 3. Here's another practical lesson
I think we can learn. And Israel vowed a vow unto the
Lord, and said, If thou will indeed deliver this people into
my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the
Lord hearkened unto the voice of Israel, and delivered up the
Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities.
And he called the name of the place Hormath." How do you and I interpret passages
like this? And we run into these passages,
don't we? The children of Israel are fighting with their enemies,
and the Lord says, kill them. Destroy every man, woman, and
infant. I mean, they killed everybody.
And sometimes when they spared somebody, they got in trouble
with the Lord. How are we to interpret scriptures
like this? Well, first of all, we interpret
them literally. I mean, this really happens.
You know, some people look at Islam and say how violent it
is, and it is a violent religion. But you know, when you look in
the Old Testament, it's a fact that cannot be denied that the
Old Testament has some violence in it associated with God's people. He told them to destroy people,
and they did that. Here, I think, is the key to
that. These nations were wicked people, and God was the judge
of these people. They were His. They were living
on God's earth, His land. So if He's pleased to send another
nation against them, that's His business, isn't it? That's His
business. Nobody can find fault with that.
So that's one way we can interpret that, literally. But the second
way we can interpret that, I think, there are spiritual lessons in
this for us to learn. We apply this spiritually. You
and I have enemies, too. We should utterly, when God gives
us grace, when God gives us knowledge, we should utterly destroy our
enemies. And what's our chief enemy? Right
here in you. Self. And what does the scripture
teach us about self? Don't yield your members to let
sin reign over you. They who are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with its affections and its lust. That's pretty violent,
ain't it? When you stick a fellow on a tree, when you crucify somebody,
that's pretty violent. That's what we have to do to
this old man. We crucify him. We have Satan. We have fallen angels. We have
false doctrine. We have false religion. What
do we do with these things? We make war on them. Do we not?
The weapons of our warfare, though, aren't carnal. We don't go out
and cut people's heads off. We don't knuckle up our fists
to fight somebody. That's not the weapons of our
warfare. But it's mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We have enemies, too. And I think
this is the way that you and I have to interpret these Scriptures
now. We have enemies. Lord, I've got
to sin. Lord, I've got to wait. I've
got some sins, Lord, I've got rage, and if you'll give me grace,
if you'll give me knowledge, if you'll give me strength, Lord,
there's this one I love to receive. If you'll give him to my hands,
I'll cut his head off. I'll cast him into the fire.
I'll lay it aside. I'll crucify this old man if
you'll give me grace, if you'll give me strength. That's one
of the ways, I think, that you and I are to interpret this place.
And they call this place Hormuth. That means devoted. They named
it devoted. And the reason they named it
devoted, they said, Lord, if you'll give these people into
our hands, we'll destroy them. And buddy, they did. They were
devoted to the Lord and to his service and his worship. But
look here now in verse 4. Boy, how quickly, how quickly
our spiritual condition can change. And they journeyed from Mount
Horeb 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." How quickly! Can you imagine how they shouted
when they killed these people? When they took their cities?
Why? You know, boy, they were up in the clouds, soaring on
the wings of joy and happiness. But just a few more days, and
the Bible says they were discouraged because of the way. Isn't it
easy to get down? I mean, how often have you left
the service and you think, man, I'll never get down again. And
then before you get home, something has happened and you're discouraged.
It's because sometimes of the way... You know the condition
that I'd love to reach. And I have, in a sense, so much
more than when the Lord first converted me when I was a young
convert. I would rather myself just stay on an even keel. I'd
rather get on this level and stay there. You know, I've seen
young converts, man, and they get so happy, and they get up,
and there I sit on this same level. It ain't long to go down
and discouraged, and here you are on this same level. It's
better to stay there, isn't it? Don't let anything get you too
high. Don't let anything get you too low. Don't let your circumstances
get you too high in the air. The higher you get sometimes,
the further you've got to fall. But don't let your circumstances
get you down in the gutter. to stay on this even keel, walk
by faith, live by faith. Every day stay on the same claim. Verse 5, Because they were discouraged,
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
loathes This light bread, that's what they call the manna from
heaven. Well, this is very important,
because we've seen this now, ever since we've been in the
book of, well, we started in the book of Exodus, didn't we?
As soon as they got across the Red Sea. Would to God with thy
nature. You brought us out here to kill
us. Our children and our cattle are going to die. And it got
to be a habit, didn't it? Did you ever get in the habit
of doing something? It got so ingrained in you that
you just quit. You couldn't quit doing it. Have
you ever wondered, how do I get rid of what I've been doing?
How do I quit? I've got this problem and I know
it's a problem. How do I get rid of this? This
was going on for, starting on the second generation. What to
God? What to God? Why'd you bring
us out here? Over 40 years! Boy, that's a
long time to get ingrained. How do you get out of that? How
do you get out of ruts that way? I'll give you two ways to get
out of it. One, we can get out of it with
God's help ourselves. If we don't get it out of it
that way, then He's out to take steps to get us out of it. One is this. If you've got something
that's become a habit, you're murmuring, you're temper, And
it's become a habit over and over and over again. Deal with
it this way. Deal with it as an attitude problem. It wasn't just them saying, what
to God would die down in Egypt. It went deeper than that, didn't
it? They were saying that because
they were in a bad attitude. But you know that sometimes when
you've got a habit of doing something and you're doing something, you
know that you shouldn't. You know that, boy, this is awful.
Why did I say that? Why did I say that? You know
what it is? If you'll examine close enough,
you'll see something going on inside. It's going on on the
inside. There's things that I've said,
you know, to the kids or to my wifey, and it didn't have anything
to do with them. They weren't doing anything different
than what they've always done. It was me. It was my attitude.
So what we need to do is recognize, here's the problem. I said that
because of what's going on in me. It's my attitude that's not
right. And then take it to the throne
of grace and deal with it there. Tell the Lord, Lord, here's my
problem. I've got a heart problem. I've
got a bad attitude. It's my attitude. They were discouraged. Why were they discouraged? Because
of the way. Because of the way. Why should
the way, why should our way have any negative effect upon us? I never will forget what Donnie
Bell told me one time. He said, I'm not responsible
for how people treat me. I'm responsible for how I react. I'm not responsible for my circumstances
so many of the times. We're not. We get into these
circumstances. But listen, we're responsible
to how it affects our attitude. A child of God's attitude should
never be made negative because of his circumstances. Because
greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. My grace
is sufficient for you so you don't have to let anything put
you in such a bad attitude that you murmur in it. and complaining
especially against God. And when we complain, who's it
really against? Now, let's be honest about it.
Oh, it ain't my wife. If I'm complaining, it's against
Him, isn't it? So deal with it in that way.
Don't just say, man, I need to quit saying that. I need to quit
so much of my murmuring. Recognize it as deeper than that,
and then go to the Lord and deal with it. The second way is the
way He dealt with them here in verses 6 through verse 9. We'll
look at that in just a minute. I've got something else I want
to say in the last part of verse 5 first. But the Lord dealt with
this attitude. And what did He do? He brought
some judgment, didn't He? He brought a sense of His displeasure. And He brought a sense of His
goodness in delivering Him from judgment. Sometimes, when we
let these things fester, and our attitude is bad, and we're
murmuring and complaining, and nobody can hardly be around us.
Have you ever seen Christians that you couldn't hardly be around?
You didn't want to be around them. It's because of an awful
attitude. Sometimes, if that's not corrected,
I'll tell you what the Lord does, if there is. Well, He'll bring
a sense of His judgment. He can get our attention. He'll
shake our world. He'll shake us up. And between
the judgment that He brings and then the mercy He shows us, that
will pull us out of this bad attitude. Just like it did them.
I was amazed, and you can check me on this to make sure I'm right.
If I'm not mistaken, this is the last time that you ever heard
this, would to God. Would to God. The last time this
generation ever says it, would to God. He corrected that. Never said it again as far as
I know. But I want to look here in the last portion of verse
5 before we go on into verses 6 through verse 9. They said
here in the last portion of verse 5, There is no bread, neither
is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. Now remember, this is the second
generation. This is not the generation that
came out of Egypt. All those fellows are gone, but
just a handful of them. This is the second generation.
And this is a good way. to look at this. There's a negative
way to look at this, but here's a good way to look at it, too.
These people were tired of this desert. They were tired of this
light bread. They were tired of the manna
that was falling upon the dew. If their fathers and their mothers
would have been as sick of this desert as they would have, as
they'd grown, I tell you, they wouldn't have turned back when
the Lord said it's time to enter Canaan. It was time for God to
bring them out of this desert, and they got tired of the desert.
It was the time for them to eat the corn of Canaan, and they
got tired of eating the manna out in the wilderness. See what
I'm saying? Sometimes when the Lord wants His people to move,
when He's got a new direction to send them in, when He's got
a new place for you to relocate, I tell you what He often does.
He'll almost make you sick of where you're at. You'll just lose any desire to
be there. You'll get tired. I just loathe
this job anymore. I just, this house, it don't
appeal to me anymore. This or that. And boy, something
else will come onto your heart. The Lord directs us that way
so many times. I remember when I got a job driving
a truck, man, I needed a job with it. And I loved the job
driving a truck. I was out by myself finding places.
Gets you in your blood, don't it, Glenn? And I loved the job
until I got to the place where, man, I need to be a pastor. Then I got to thinking, I am
wasting my time. Then I got just sick. I got sick. Getting in the truck made me
sick. Working around those truckers made me sick. I began to loathe
that. And buddy, when it come time,
I was ready to quit. I was ready to pass. The Lord
deals with us that way. Sometimes, I know it, I know
you have to be careful about things like this. Sometimes we
just get discontent with things. I'm not talking about discontent.
I'm talking about sometimes the Lord is ready to move us. And
when He does. There's a story told about eagles.
I don't know if this is so or not, When the young have been
in the nest too long, the old mother eagle will start pulling
out the feathers. And pull out so many feathers, those sharp
thorns will start appearing. And that little fellow will get
uncomfortable. And he either learns to sit on those thorns,
or he learns to fly. That's the way the Lord does
with His people sometimes. I think probably those apostles
and all of those Christians would have stayed in Jerusalem in persecution
at the time. Then they went everywhere. preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look here in verse 6 now. Verse 6 through verse 9. Look
in verse 6. Here's what happened. When they
began to complain and murmur wood to God, the Lord sent fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much
people of Israel died. You know what the Bible says
about God? You know the way the Bible says He's known sometimes?
He's known by the judgments that He executed. You know God by
the judgments that He executed. And He revealed Himself here,
didn't He? And how did He reveal Himself? A just God and Savior. In that order, a just God, a
holy God, and a Savior. He sent fiery serpents among
the people, and much people of Israel died. Now, let people
plead that these people weren't that bad, these people weren't
that deserving, what they done weren't that bad, or that God's
too merciful, God's too loving, God's too good to do this. But
you and I know the facts, don't we? Let men make any argument they
want to make about the judgment of God. You and I know the facts. And what's the facts? Verse 10
tells us, doesn't it? God sent fiery serpents among
the people and much people of Israel. God. Now you get this
picture in your mind. You let this enter your imagination
for just a minute. You walk through this camp. And
you look at what's taking place in this camp. There lays a woman,
and she's been bit by a serpent. And she's on her last breath,
and her body is full of fever. She's gasping. And there lays
a two-year-old infant cleaving to his mother and screaming.
And just about the time she heals up her last breath, a big viper
latches hold of that infant and bites him and almost instantly
he's gone. You walk through this camp, you
hear men groaning, you hear some screaming, you see some vomiting,
you see people's bodies racked with fever. What has happened? What is happening? The judgment
of God has come, the cause of sin. Now you let somebody come
out of the wilderness or some other country, and you come into
this camp and let them see what's happening, and they may give
all kinds of reasons or excuses for it. Oh, those snakes are
bad this time of year. They've always got a habit of
attacking this time of year. Let them say what they will.
But you and I know the truth, don't we? You ask these people,
What has happened? You know what they'll tell you?
God's judgment upon our sin. Now, that's the fact, ain't it?
That's the fact. We look around us in the world
today, and the older I get, the more I see this. And I've mentioned
it to you before, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall
surely die. And I used to think I understood
that. But I see very little of that now. I comprehend very little
of that. Because in the day that you eat
thereof, you shall die as you get older. Boy, you see the devastation. You become more aware of what's
going on around you. People fill with disease, with
torments. There's wars, there's crime all
around us. Devastation everywhere we look.
The rage going on within us. What is the problem? I tell you, it can't be denied,
can it? Let men deny it. Let men make all excuses they
want to. Let them say, oh, a good God, a merciful God. Why are these bad things happening? But we know, don't we? I know
there's things that we can't explain. But we can explain this. As by one man, as by one man's
sin, Judgment came upon all men to condemnation. And that's what's
the matter with the world today. We can deny that. We can pretty
it up. But I tell you one thing, when
we come to the Scriptures, there's our answer, isn't it? That's
our answer. Here's the problem, brothers
and sisters, of this world today. Our fallen society is under the
judgment of a holy God. There's no denying that. There's
no denying that. Oh, man, if he just exercised
his free will, what difference would that make? Would that remove
the judgment of God from this world? Oh, sad, ain't it? The judgment
of God. In verse 7, what did they do?
Look at this. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee, praying to the Lord that he take away
the serpents from us. And Moses prayed unto the people."
I tell you, they recognized it, didn't they? And that's the wisest
that you and I will ever be. When we recognize it's God's
judgment upon sin, and that's the problem. It's only then that
we'll seek God's remedy. Think of this just a minute.
Think of this with me, and you can interpret this for yourself,
but let me give you about four or five things here. This is
the things they didn't do. Here's what they didn't do. They didn't farm a serpent-killing
committee. Wouldn't that have been logical?
To me, it would have been irresponsible not to do that. That would have
been the logical thing to do. Get other men. Recruit. Let's get an army together. Get
your sticks. Get your shovels. Get your hoes. And let's kill these serpents.
Our problem is the serpents. Rid ourselves of the serpents.
Our problem's gone. They didn't do that, did they?
They didn't do that. Secondly, they didn't do this.
They didn't call together the medical community and say, let's
come up with a remedy for this poison. You men are smart. Surely, surely you can concoct
some kind of a remedy that when someone is bitten, that you can
give them and relieve them of this deadly bite. But they didn't
do that. That also was logical, but they
didn't do it. They didn't say this. Let's do
something for God. We've obviously brought His judgment. He's aggravated at us. He's mad
at us. Let's do something for Him. Let's do good now. We've done
bad. Let's do good. And we want to
get some preachers together and send them out through the community
and get them to decide to do good too. And if we can all get
together and do good to God, maybe, maybe that'll do it. They
didn't say that, did they? They're saying today, you need
to decide to do better. And they didn't do this. Moses
and Aaron never went about to convince the people that this
was just a fact of life. This was just a natural occurrence. They needed to come to terms
with it and be at peace with it. This is just something that
happens. A lot of people are getting bit. A lot of people
are dying. We need to settle this in your
heart that it's going to happen, and when it does happen, you
can be at peace with it. That's what they told my poor
dad when he was on his deathbed. They sent nurses in to cure for
him, and one of the first things they begin to do is try to get
him to come to terms with death. It's just a natural thing. Death
is no more natural than these serpents were. You stand over
a dying dad, with his body wrapped with fever and tell him, buddy,
this is just something natural. You're not to be concerned about
it. Come to peace with it. Come to grips with it. They didn't
do any of that, did they? What did they do? They sought
the only one who had a remedy for their poison bite. And that
was the Lord. Pray to the Lord for me. I've
been bitten. I've been bitten. And here in
verse 8 and verse 9, we have God's remedy. Look at it. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set
it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one
that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, he shall live. We know
this was a serpent of brass. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and he put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, He lived. I think probably, at least in
my own mind, this is the greatest miracle, apart from creation,
in all the Old Testament Scripture. The greatest miracle. Because
it had to do with life and death. And God providing a remedy for
them. And mainly because it's such
a beautiful picture of the gospel. the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look over here in John. I want you to hold numbers there
just for a minute. Numbers chapter 20. Look in the book of John
chapter 3. The Lord Jesus made mention of this
account when He was preaching to Nicodemus in John chapter
3. Look here what He says about
it. John chapter 3. Look in verse 14. John 3.14, And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, as Moses, even so, must
the Son of Man be lifted up on a cross outside the city Jerusalem,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. And notice what this is linked
to 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." You remember in the garden
what the serpent did to Eve, especially Eve, and probably
to a degree to Adam too, but he convinced her that God didn't
really love them. That was his whole point. God
don't love you, really. He don't really care for you.
And the serpent said, let me tell you what God really is doing
to you. He's withholding something good from you. He don't want
you to eat of that fruit. Didn't He tell you not to eat
of that fruit? That's what He said. Don't even touch it, unless
you die. He don't care anything about you. He don't love you.
And here's what He knows. If you eat of that tree, something
wonderful is going to happen. You're going to be just like
Him. You're going to be as God. And if He loved you, He'd let
you eat of that tree. And what did they do? They filled
their hearts with doubt. God's love and God's care. And what happened? They failed.
They sinned and they failed. Well, lo and behold, here on
a pole by another The knowledge of God's love is restored. On a cross outside the city of
Jerusalem hangs the Son of God, and that in and of itself is
proof that God loves His people. You can't never doubt it now,
can you? For God so loved the world, here in verse 16, that
He gave His only begotten Son. You know where the love of God
is vitally linked to? The cross. The cross. The world talks about the love
of God all the time, don't they? And they just assume. They just
assume. Oh, God loves everybody. So just be merry and go on your
merry way because God loves you and He wants you to know how
much He loves you and we love you. But brothers and sisters,
this is so critical. This is so important. for you
and I to know the love of God in our hearts. First and foremost,
we must see it at the cross. We must see it through a crucified
Savior. And when we see the love of God
in Him, then we can see the love of God everywhere else we look.
In creation, we see God loves us. In providence, we see God
loves us. Because when the cross We see
that God loves us. Here in His love, not that we
loved Him, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation
for our sins. In this is manifest the love
of God for us, for He sent His Son into the world that we might
live through Him. Where is the love of God seen?
In the cross. In the cross. And when you see
it there, you never have to doubt it anywhere else. When God's
rod comes and He chastens you sore, He loves me. He loves me. He showed me He
loved me. He manifested His love to me.
He revealed His love to me. He hung His Son on a cross in
my stead. Therefore, we see the love of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's remedy. God's remedy. God commendeth His love toward
us while we were yet sinners. for us. Notice in our text, look
back in our text and look at something else about the remedy.
Look at the remedy applied. There in verse 8 and verse 9,
look what he says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a
forest serpent, and put it on a pole. It will come to pass
that every one that is bitten, every one that is bitten, When
he looks, he shall live. Who is the remedy applied to?
The ones bitten. It makes no sense for someone
that was not bitten to look. He doesn't need to look, does
he? It's for those who are bitten. You've heard people say that
they're afraid to come to Christ because they're sinners. Oh,
you don't know me. I'm just an awful sinner. That's
either false humility, or you either don't understand the gospel
one, because the gospel is for sinners. They that are whole
don't need a position, but they that are sick. I've not come
to call the righteous. I've come to call those who are
bitten. I've come to call the sinners, the dying, the ungodly. I've come to call them sinners. And you know that's the only
ones that's going to look anyway. That's all it's going to look.
I imagine, I imagine there's, well we know, we know that a
lot of them weren't bitten. Not everybody was bitten. And
don't you imagine that, that those that weren't bitten stood
looking up at that grazing circuit, what in the world? See somebody,
what in the world? What's going on here? What's
that? What's that all about? If you're not a sinner, you don't
know what the cross is about. You think it's strange that one should
leave his home on high and come for sinful man to die? You count
that strange? So once did I before I knew the
Savior. It's strange if you're not bitten. But, boy, if you're bitten, oh,
if you're bitten, look. Look and live. The remedy, those who are bitten,
And it's God's exclusive remedy. Notice what He says here. When
he looketh upon it. When he looketh upon it. God never gave him but to one
place to look. And that was upon that serpent.
He had no other remedy for him. He was looked to that and live
or die. He didn't say, look to Moses.
He's a great prophet. He didn't say, look to Aaron.
He's a great priest. He loves you and cares for you.
He didn't say, look around you. He didn't say, look to your friends,
your mom or your dad. I tell you, God's got one remedy,
brothers and sisters, and it's exclusive. Everything else is
shut away and shut out. And that's Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He's God's only remedy. No other. No other. God could have saved
us, one fellow said, in so many ways. As far as we know, there's
only one way God could have saved us. And that's by His dear and
blessed Son. Exclusive. Look! Look! When He looketh upon it,
it says that in both verses. When He looketh upon it, He shall
live. When He look. Is it necessary
to look? Boy, everything God does is necessary. We talk about election. Without
election, there's no need for a cross. And when we have a cross, it's
necessary for us to look. Look! Look! You don't look to
Christ, you'll die in your sins. That's just the fact of it. And
looking is what? It's believing. Looking is believing. Looking is coming to Him. Here
you look. Isn't it an easy thing to look?
I have one of you folks looking at me. You children looking at
me. You can see me, can't you? It's just simple to look. A baby
can look. I can look at you. I can describe
you. I can see the color of your eyes. Jim, you got green eyes?
I can see your eyes, your countenance. It's easy for me to set you and
look at you. It's the easiest thing in the
world to look to Christ if God will give you grace. You know what? It takes no effort.
Really and honestly, really and honestly, I'm saying this and
God knows my heart. It's not a hard thing to do to
look to Jesus Christ. When you make it difficult, That's
when it's hard. When you add all these other
things, that's what makes it hard. But when you can look to
Christ and Him crucified, taking away your sins, oh, that's easy.
That's easy. Easy to look. I imagine some
of them had some difficulty. I can just almost see some of
them have some difficulty. Because some have said these
are fiery, flying serpents. Isaiah mentioned flying fiery
serpents. that flew out of the trees. And
they came out of the rocks and flew down and bit these people
in the face. May have been fired flying circle.
May have been getting in the bed with them, but the night
when they were sleeping, biting them around the eyes. Can you imagine
getting bit around the eyes? And you wake up when he grabs
you here inside the face, you wake up screaming. The next morning
your eyes are swollen, almost shut. And Moses says, look, and
you lift. And there you are, oh my soul,
and you have to bow your eyes open. You know, you just see
this fella come out of his tent and his eyes are swollen shut.
And he's asking somebody, point me to the serpent. Point me to
the serpent. There he is, right above you.
You're standing right there among you. Look, I can see. And he
takes it and just enough to see the serpent. You think he lives? Some looked, no doubt, with wide-open
eyes upon that serpent, and they lived. But I imagine some squinted,
and probably through tear-filled eyes. But I tell you what, if
you see Him, you'll live. You'll live. Look. Look. And notice this. It was personal. He said you're
in two places, verse 89, and when He, when He looketh, He
shall live. It's an individual look, isn't
it? When He looketh. I can't look for you. You can't look for me. You've
got to look for yourself. I'm telling you, that's how personal
this is. That's how personal this is.
There's a personal connection between you and the Lord Jesus
Christ. You've got to believe in Him
yourself. You've got to know Him. You've got to see Him yourself.
Nobody else can know Him for you. Nobody else can believe
on Him yourself. I'll try to help somebody. I'll
try to advise somebody. But I'm telling you, if you come
to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, you've got to know Him
for yourself. When He looks, any man that's
bitten, when He looks, Shall we? And notice this about it. Boy, it was inclusive. It was
inclusive. Some people accuse us of having
a message that excludes people. I've never excluded anybody in
my life. Have you? I don't intend to start now.
The gospel is not exclusive. It's inclusive. Look here what
he said again in verse 8 and verse 9. And it shall come to
pass that everyone everyone that is bitten, when he looked, he
shall live. Moses made the serpent of brass,
put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had
bitten any man, any man, any woman, old, young, male or female,
it didn't matter who he was, any man, anybody, now that's
inclusive, isn't it? When he looked, when he looked. I don't care who you are. I don't
care what your position in life is. I don't care what you've
done. I don't care what you are. I just don't care. Because the
Bible don't distinguish. We're sinners. Some are openly
immoral more than others are. But the Bible does not put them
in little groups. We're all bitten. We're all sinners. I don't care who you are. Whosoever
will. Let Him come and take the water
of life freely. And if you don't, you'll die
in your sin. You'll die in your sin. That brings us to the last thing.
Well, there was a time, there was a time when, when He looks,
He shall live. When He looks, He shall live. Now, I'm not altogether in agreement
with those who say you don't know the time and the place.
Maybe you don't. But I did. When I first saw Christ,
He dawned upon me like the rising of the bright sun. And I remember. If you don't remember, that's
between you and Him. But I remember where I first saw Him. I remember
where I saw His blood take my sins away. And I bless Him for
that. If you're here tonight and you
never looked, then let this be the night. Ride where you're
seated. Look. Look and live. What a miracle. What a miracle. Dead sinners. Dead sinners looking
and living. Filthy sinners looking and being
clean. Alienated sinners looking and becoming free. Look and live. Been a good study.