In John's Gospel chapter 3. I want to just read two verses
for you. In verse 14 and verse 15. I just
want to I feel like just coming and rambling on about some things,
and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read these two
verses and ramble on about them. 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, everlasting life. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness. Here we see grace. Grace given
a remedy to a people that never deserved a remedy. A people who
sinned against the goodness of God, against the long-suffering
of God, against the love of God, against the providence of God,
the provision of God. And yet, God provided a remedy. As Moses lifted up the serpent,
there was a remedy to forgive and put away and justify their
sins. And here you and I are, sinners
against God. Sinners against His goodness.
Sinners against His long-suffering. Sinners against His gospel, His
Son, His Spirit. Sinners against God. Sin that
has become like a dark, threatening cloud rising over our heads. Sins that deserve to be punished. Sins that must be punished. And
what has God done? He's provided us a remedy. That's grace. That's grace. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. We see grace here. The Son of
Man must be lifted up. Not because God owes us anything. But because He's full of grace.
Here we see real grace. We see unheard of grace. We see
unsought grace. We see undeserving grace. Grace
to the most wretched and the most defiled and unworthy. Grace from God's heart. That's
where grace comes from. Grace doesn't come from our heart.
Grace comes from a source outside of us. It comes from God's heart,
God's imagination, God's thought, Christ coming. Grace that even
purposed beforehand to bring the dear and blessed Son of God
down were from His happy and holy home down to this sin-cursed
world to hang on a pole. That's grace. You know the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty. It was grace that
brought Jesus down from His holy and happy abode. There is no
man, and there is no woman. There is no boy, there is no
girl, there is no infant, and there is no prophet. deserving
of such grace. What is grace? It is God acting. Grace is God acting. But it is
God acting freely without any debt to pay, without any obligation
to meet, acting out of great love and kindness and goodness
towards unworthy objects. giving them what they do not
deserve, and not giving them what they do deserve. Grace. In these two verses, you and
I see the grace of God. Free, sovereign, earned faith. In our salvation, every step
of the way, it is God's grace that saves us. Never one time,
never any place, Can we claim merit or worth? He chose us,
not out of any obligation, but because of His grace. You have
not chosen me. I have chosen you. God saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us when in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world.
If God suddenly decided to give us grace, it would be grace.
But when you see Him purpose it long before we had a being,
it is to let us know that it is indeed free. It is not earned
or merited. It is God's free grace. And when
you and I were dead in trespasses and sins, The Holy Spirit came
to us when we were in our indifference and unconcerned and even enemies
of God, in love with those things which would most assuredly damn
our poor souls for all eternity. And yet He came to us, and He
humbled us, and He broke us, and He left us laying in the
dust before His feet saying, God be merciful. To me, the sinner. That's grace. That's grace. He saved us. How did He save
us? By His grace. By grace are you
saved. His grace. His grace has saved
us. How often we have to be brought
back there. By grace are you saved. I never will forget one time
I was down so low. I've told you this before, haven't
I? And I looked up and saw the little plaque that my wife had
hung up on the wall. And it said, by grace are you
saved through faith. And as I read those words, my
soul was lifted up within me. Oh, I rejoiced. I was delivered
again. By grace are you saved. Why do we have to keep being
reminded of that? Because it's so alien to us.
Works is so ground in us. Merit is so natural to us. It
always has to be beat down and God's grace has to remind us,
I saved you. Not by anything that was in you
or you did, but freely by my grace. Being justified freely
by His grace. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Being justified freely. Thy His grace. And what is it that has brought us this far
through this dangerous world of toils and snares? And if you
and I are led safely home, what will we attribute it to? Grace.
Grace. It was grace that brought me
safe this far, and grace will lead me home. And when our souls
and our bodies are severed asunder and we die, and if we are blessed
to see His face, we will not claim any merit. We will not
claim any worth. What were we attributed to? Grace. when by His grace I shall look
on His face, that will be glory for me." Every step of the way
towards His grace. God's free, God's unmerited favor
to the most undeserving. And this grace is always in view
of the cross. It's always because of Christ
and by Christ. the crucified Savior, that this
grace comes. Oh, there is no saving grace.
There is no remedy. There is no thick cloud of sins
to be blotted out. There is no life, no hope, no
heaven, but what it comes to us through the cross. As Moses
lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Oh, God may elect us, but He
cannot save us apart from the cross. That's why He never chose
us except in the Christ of the cross. When He seeks to preserve
us from hell fire, what does He do? He puts us in the Christ
of the cross. Graves can never be looked upon,
brothers and sisters, apart from the cross. Don't talk about graves
apart from the cross. When we see the Son of God in
our humanity, struggling against sin and temptation, there we
see the channel of grace. When we see the Son of Man in
the garden, sweating drops of blood, there we see the channel
of grace. When we see Him in the judgment
hall, crowned with thorns, standing before the mocking soldier, When
we see Him hanging red in His blood upon the cross of shame
and spitting and agony. When we see His body hang limp
upon the cross and the strength of His soul is gone. Here is
where we see the only channel of God's grace. Here is where
we trace election and calling. and persevere us in glorifying
grace through the cross, always the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. What a remedy! What a remedy!
And the grace that provides for us this remedy came to us undeserved,
unsought of, unsought, unheard of. was not in us, but grace
was outside us. It came to us from the heart,
the very heart of God. Are you saved this afternoon?
Then God is for you. God is for you in His very heart,
in His thoughts. He is for you. We beheld the
Son of God full of grace, full of grace. And that grace is for
you. That grace is for you if He saved
your soul. You and I are saved, we're justified,
and how I love this, in a manner altogether outside of ourselves. We're saved in such a manner
so far outside ourselves that the ground of our salvation And
our justification was laid 2,000 years ago when the Lord Jesus
Christ was lifted up upon the cross. The farther we get from
the cross in regard to time, the more we see its power and
its merit. The power of that cross saved
the thief. But listen, he was there when
it happened. He heard the groans with his
ears. He saw the blood flowing with
his eyes. The sacrifice was freshly, freshly
offered. Yet the cross has not lost its
power because the cross has not lost its merit. Jesus Christ
is in heaven today, the Lamb of God, but He is freshly, freshly
slain in the eyes of the Father. In heaven today, He's just as
full of merit before His Father as though His blood was just
being poured out. Dear dying Lamb, Your precious
blood shall never lose its power. till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. You and I are saved in a manner
so outside ourselves that we are saved by an event that took
place in history 2,000 years ago when the Son of God was lifted
up. Now, that's amazing. That's amazing. Our salvation is so outside of
ourselves that the work of it was accomplished in history 2,000
years ago. And history will never change
that. If the world stands 10,000 more
years, it will be that one single event that saves a soul from
its damnation, a work that has already been accomplished in
history 2,000 years ago. The old writer asked the question,
What must I do to be saved? And here was the reply. Nothing. Nothing. Neither great nor small. Nothing, sin or no. Jesus did
it. Did it all. Long, long ago. When He from His lofty throne
stooped to do and die, everything was fully done. It was fully
done. It was fully done. Hearken to
His cry. It is finished. Yes, indeed,
finished. Every jot. Sinner, this is all
you need. Tell me, is it not? Is it not? In ourselves, have we not sent
away any claims upon God? Is our sins not gone over our
head, ready to crush us down into hell? Is this not what we
need? Something that is finished through
the merit and power of another? Oh, is this not what you need? Tell
me, is it not? Weary, working, prodding one? Why, I told you so. Cease your
doing. All was done long, long ago. Till to Jesus' work you cling
by simple faith. Doing is a deadly thing. Doing
ends in death. Cast your deadly doing down,
down at Jesus' feet. Stand in Him, in Him alone, gloriously
complete. Jesus didn't die to make salvation
possible. He died to accomplish salvation. He died as a remedy, God's remedy
for sin. Your sin and my sin. Oh, what
grace! What a mystery! Grace that brought
Him down and He accomplished our salvation outside of us Himself. Oh, what grace and what a mystery
that is! A remedy altogether outside of
ourselves. Everybody is looking within,
aren't they? Worst place in the world to look. Look outside. Look outside. Somebody else has
accomplished a work apart from you that you could not do, and
I could not do. But Jesus, the Son of Man, did
it. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, the serpent back then has already been lifted
up, and Jesus Christ has been lifted up. And he says in verse
15, that whosoever believeth in him, just as we are justified,
just as we are saved in a manner altogether outside of ourselves,
listen now, our faith must be in one altogether outside of
ourselves. Our faith thus must not be in
our experience. Not even what the Holy Spirit
is doing in us. Our salvation and fellowship
with God cannot rest on an internal process and work of grace that
is going on within us. Your faith must not turn within
and say, what's God doing within me? Your faith is not what the
Holy Spirit is doing in you. Our faith must be outside ourselves. It must be attached to one, an
object outside of us. even apart from what is going
on by grace in us. That work in us is a work that
is unperfect. It is a necessary work, but it
is a work that is not yet complete. Perfection is not something that
God requires at the end of the road. Perfection is what God demands
now at the beginning We cannot be accepted of God and be counted
righteous and have a relationship with Him at the end of the road
because we worked and the Holy Spirit has accomplished salvation
in us. No, God demands that of us at
the beginning. And how are we to obtain that? Where can we find such perfection?
But in the Son of God, whose work is finished. Faith must not be in one who
is yet working. Faith must be in one who has
finished the work, that whosoever believeth in him. Faith must
be affixed to what is in heaven, to what we have in Christ at
God's right hand. Our faith must be in Christ,
our representative who was punished for our sins. When Jesus lived His holy life,
it was as though you and I lived it. When Jesus died upon the
cross and was punished for sin, it was as though you and I died
and were punished. When Jesus arose and was accepted
with joy in the presence of the Father, honored and exalted to
God's right hand, all of that was for us. It was our humanity that God
embraced in the person of His Son. As certain as God came to
this earth in the person of Christ, just so certain. Have you and
I risen to heaven in the person of His Son? The gospel is not
first and foremost what God is doing or going to do. Thank God
that is part of it. But the gospel is first and foremost
what God has already done in Jesus Christ. And our faith must
be in Him. That whosoever believeth in Him, And just as the work was done
outside of us, so our faith must be in one who is now in heaven.
Faith does not make, faith takes. Faith does not add anything,
but faith receives everything. Whosoever believeth in him. I'm talking about the beginning
of the way. I'm not talking about the end,
the beginning, where we start. whosoever believeth in him."
It's a marvelous thing, and only the gospel reveals it, that all
the poison of our sin and guilt and the corruption upon our conscience
can be healed by faith in a remedy outside ourselves. Isn't that marvelous? Human reason
says this cannot be. Something internally has to take
place. The children of Israel were told
to look, merely to look to the serpent on the pole and live. It was not anything internally
that healed their deadly poison, but their faith in something
altogether outside of themselves. When they looked away from themselves,
there is where they found the remedy, and then, and then only,
is when they lived. Preaching today has us looking
within. You need to accept Jesus. You need to walk an aisle for
Jesus. You need something to go on within. You need to do
something. Always looking within. But faith
looks without. Not anything that must take place
in. What's already taken place out.
What's taken place out? Somebody has accomplished. Somebody's
been punished. And a remedy is not within. It's not eternal. This is amazing
things, brothers and sisters, but it's so. And only the Gospel
reveals this. The remedy for what's within
us, the poison within us, is not in us. The remedy is outside
of us. And it's only faith that lays
hold of that remedy. I used to have a friend of mine
that pastored a church. I went to see him. He had a rather
large congregation. Next to the last time I was up
there, he had a bunch of confused people. And the last time I was
up there, they were still confused. And he was taking them in the
back room to try to talk to them and unconfuse them. But he got
them more confused. And what he was teaching them
was this, his experience. You've got to experience this.
He had been a preacher for a number of years, and he was lost. Then
he said the Lord convicted him of sin, and he went through this,
he went through that, and he went through this, and he taught
them his experience. And he got them so confused.
The remedy is not in experiencing. Quit looking within. Quit looking
at our experiences. We'll never have this remedy
applied until we find out the remedy is not in here. If you've got a stomach ache,
I know what you do. You take some Pepto Bismol. You've
got to get it inside. If you've got a headache, you
take a Tylenol or a lead. But I'd say it's not so with
the remedy for sin. The remedy for sin is outside
of us. And only faith lays hold of that
remedy. The remedy for what ails us is
not found in us. It's not anything that's going
on eternally within us. Oh, I feel good. I feel bad.
What about it? What about it? What does that
make any difference? What went on outside of you 2,000
years ago? That's where your faith must
be. In Him that came and lived and suffered and died and rose
again and is at God's right hand. Look! Look! Look! And that's when your conscience
will quit screaming. That's when the darkness of your
despair will have to flee. That's the light of the gospel
will come in. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've
done. I don't care the depth of your
misery. I don't care if you've lived
a good moral life or if you're the sorriest cuss in this world.
It's the same remedy that must apply in every case. You must
look outside of yourself. You must get your eyes off of
your self-pity or your accomplishment or whatever, your frames of mind
or whatever. Get it away from yourself. You
say, is God pleased with me? No, He's not. But I tell you
what He is pleased with. I'm not so concerned about whether
God is pleased with me or not. This evening, brothers and sisters,
I say this with a fear somewhat of being misunderstood. But it's
not whether God is pleased with me. It's whether or not He's
pleased with Christ. And when I look out of myself
and my misery to Him, then I'm accepted in Him. And there's
where I see God smile. And there's where the guilt and
the despair and the misery will have to flee from my conscience.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him
shall not perish. Look and be saved. Look and be
justified. Look and be accepted. Look and
then and there you'll see the smile of God and keep on looking
and you know what you'll do? You'll walk through this world
with a degree of confidence and peace and joy and be able to
face this world without being fearful of what's going on around
you. Because you know Him in whom you look, in whom you're
accepted, rules it all. He's not only your Savior, He's
the Sovereign over this universe. And you're accepted in Him. And
someday by His grace with undimmed eyes and an unsinning heart,
we shall see His face. God bless this gospel.