Okay, the book of Numbers. The
book of Numbers, chapter 21. And we see here a glorious, glorious
picture and type of the Lord Jesus and how God saves sinners
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever was written aforetime
was written for our learning that we, through the gospel,
might see, know, and believe and see Christ. In His book revealed,
we see the beauty and glory of Christ in Him crucified. Christ crucified throughout the
Old Testament. We see Him pictured in promise
and type. We see different types, and we
can put them in three categories. Christ in the Old Testament.
Pastor Mahan has a whole series of books on Christ in the Old
Testament. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
pictured in instituted types. Instituted types. You can think
of some. Instituted types. How about the
Passover? That was instituted of God. How
about the Day of Atonement? That was instituted of God. All
those feast days and sacrifices, they were all instituted of God. The peace offering, the burn
offering, the sacrifice offering, the meal offering. All those
offerings were appointed and instituted by God. But they're
all types and pictures of Christ and Him crucified. Not only do
we see Christ pictured in instituted types, but also personal types. Personal types. Can you think
of some of those? How about Aaron? Aaron was a priest. The Lord
Jesus Christ is that great high priest, but Aaron is a personal
type of the Lord Jesus Christ and his priesthood. How about
Moses? He's also God's prophet, and
the Lord Jesus Christ is the prophet that God said he would
raise up to speak God's truth. So even Aaron and Moses are both
personal types of the Lord Jesus Christ as priest and prophet.
How about king? What would be a personal type
in the Old Testament, a person in the Old Testament that's typical
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his kingly office? Well, I can think
of one. David. I like to speak of the
Lord Jesus Christ as the greater David. King David is a very good
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who is called king of kings.
And Lord of Lords. He is King and Lord over all
things. So we see the Lord Jesus pictured
throughout the Old Testament. Instituted types. Personal types. And I said, there's three, right?
What would the third one be? How about providential types? Providential types. That whole
exodus out of Egypt is a providential type of God in His providence,
and what in providence is just the unfolding of God's decree
in time, that's His good providence. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning. This story here is a providential
type of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. God brought this
to pass by His good providence. Now all this whole story happened
that the Lord Jesus one day as he walked among men as the God-man
mediator and as he confronted Nicodemus there in John chapter
3 all this happened for the Lord Jesus Christ could take that
story providential type of himself of the gospel and explain to
Nicodemus as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness
Even so, must the Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up that whoever
looks to Him will be saved." You see, salvation is in a look.
It's looking to Christ. It's not a one-time event. It's
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Looking
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Lord used this very
story to preach the gospel to this very religious man, and
it says that Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus by night. I guess
he was ashamed to come by day and to inquire of the way of
grace, and the Lord told him, Nicodemus, your problem is you
were born wrong, born dead in sin, and you need to be born
again, born from above. Now, in this story, I have four
or five different things to point out. The first thing we see in
Numbers chapter 21, in verse 4 and verse 5, we see sin and
rebellion among the people. Sin and rebellion in the camp,
in the camp of Israel. Now, this is not a small gathering
here. Two or three million people Two
or three million people wandered around in the wilderness, and
God cared for them. Their shoes. You girls won't appreciate this,
but can you imagine having one pair of shoes for 40 years? And
walking around for 40 years with a pair of shoes that never wore
out? That would be something, wouldn't
it? That's the power of God. Their clothes never got ragged. ragged or thinned out, never
wore out. God provided bread and water
and all these things He provided for them, and yet we see rebellion
and sin in the camp. And it says in verse 4, the soul
of the people was much discouraged because of the way. That was
a way that God determined for them to go. But it was also a
way that God gave them, because the way He originally told them,
they rebelled against. When He sent the twelve spies
in, and they came back, and ten of them said, we can't take the
land. And God gave them forty years
of wandering because of their sin and unbelief. And our wanderings
in sin are due to Adam's choosing his own way. own way, rather
than believe in God. The sinner's own way will always
be a way of discouragement because it's the wrong way. There is
a way that seems right unto men, but the end of that way is death. I was bringing a message. Turn
over here to Numbers chapter 23. Numbers chapter 22, rather. I was bringing a message last
week from this Numbers chapter 22. In verse 32, number 2232,
this is the story of Balaam. And Balak paid Balaam, or wanted
to, tried to, a large sum to come and curse Israel, but God
determined to bless Israel, and God told Balaam not to go down
with Balak and to see Balak and to curse Israel, but he went
anyway. You remember the story of his
jackass? How God opened the mouth of that jackass and told him
to stop in your madness. But when the angel of the Lord
came to him, look what it says here in Numbers 22, verse 32,
I went out to withstand thee because thy way is perverse before
me. And I tell you, man by nature,
his way is perverted. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Our own way is a way of perverseness. It's not the way of grace, not
the way of mercy, not the way of Christ. Men loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. They rebelled
against God and His servant. Look at verse 5. Here we see
sin and rebellion in the camp. And what is true of these people
are true of all people by nature. Look at verse 5, "...and the
people spake against God, against Moses, and they said, Why have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die?" Now many times, you
can read their story, at one time they were about to stone
Moses and make captains and say, Let us go back to Egypt, we had
it so good down there. You see how perverse our way
is? God brought them up out of Egypt And they said, you just
brought us out here to die in the wilderness. There's no bread,
neither is there any water. Now, they lied on both counts.
They lied on both counts. And our soul, we hate this light
bread from heaven. At one place, God called it angel
food that fell from heaven. You see, men don't love God by
nature. They don't seek for the bread
of life, the water of life. Our Lord said, Oh, everyone that's
thirsty, come to Me. Men won't come unless they're
drawn by God, His power, His grace. And our generation is
no different. Men today still hate the way
of free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm
not saying that men are not religious. They are. But when you tell them
and shut them up to the sovereign mercy of God in Christ Jesus,
they begin to get angry. Men are still today haters of
the way of grace, the way of truth, the way of Christ. They
still prefer ceremony to Christ, tradition of man and their own
way rather than the truth of God in Christ. They still refuse
to feed upon Christ. Our Lord said, you will not come
to Me that you might have life. He said, you search the Scriptures
and in them you think you have eternal life, but there they
would testify of Me. And He said, you won't come to
Me. Salvation is in Christ. Men still delight in lies, they
still drink iniquity like water, have no need for the water of
life. And that's what they're saying
here. We have no bread, we have no water, and we hate what you've
given to us. And men have no use for the gospel
of God's grace in Christ. They don't now. I know they have
their little refuge and they have their little silly religious
thing, but you tell them the truth of Christ and the way of
grace and the way of blood atonement alone, and they say, wait, what's
that? Brother Mahan, one time, I'll tell you this. It's a true
story. He was preaching. Years ago,
in a congregation there in Ashland, he was invited to preach. And
the pastor was gone, and Pastor Mahan went there and preached
about the successful, effectual redemption of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He represented a people. He died
for his people. And those people for whom he
died, they will be saved. They were saved and justified
by his blood. Well, when the pastor came back
and he heard What Pastor Mahan Prince, he made this statement,
if Christ died only for the sin of God's elect, he's no savior
of mine. You see, men have no use for
the true and living God unless God is pleased to do a work of
grace in their heart. Men like these in this story,
they hated what God provided for him. And men have no need
for the true gospel unless God gives them the thirst and the
hunger and the desire. Like that deer that panteth after
the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, the true and
the living God. So the first point is this. sin
and rebellion in the camp. And that's true of all men by
nature. The second point of this message
is this. Look at verse 6. Verse 6. And the Lord sent fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much
people of Israel died. Not only rebellion and sin in
the camp, but you know what happened? death and judgment in the camp
because of sin. Because of sin, God sent judgment
because of sin in the camp. Because of sin, God sent these
fiery serpents where God's beckoned call to execute His justice at
God's command. God is sovereign over all things. Now, you think about this. How
do you corral thousands of snakes and send them among a people? I tell you, God is God over all
things. And the devil himself is God's
devil who serves God's purpose. That's right. He's sovereign
over all things. Old Satan couldn't touch Job
without God's permission. The serpent of sin, my friend,
and this is a picture here of what happened in the garden when
Adam sinned against God. What happened? Judgment. Judgment
fell. The serpent of sin has left its
deadly venom in every son of Adam. In Adam, death. Death and judgment. By one man,
sin entered in, and death by sin, so death Passed upon all
men in whom all have sinned. And Adam all died. Our sin has
separated us from God. We're born in sin. Shapen in
iniquity. As lovely as your little daughter
is, you know already she has that same fallen nature that
you have. And you have. And we don't need
to teach our children these evil things that flow out of them.
That's their nature. Their nature to lie. I used to
tell my wife, our children learn how to lie before they could
even talk. That's right. They cry a lie. They're sinners. Born in sin. Shapen in iniquity. Our sin has separated us from
God. Sin and death and judgment in
the camp. We have a vile nature received
by birth. which is impossible for us to
do anything with or to change our condition. Our whole head
is sick. Our whole heart is faint. You
know, we call it total depravity because it affects our whole
total makeup. Our will, our affections, our
minds, our thoughts are evil. Continuate. There is none righteous,
no, not one. There is spiritual death in us.
Spiritual death separated from God. The wages of sin is death. There's physical death upon us.
When sin is finished with this body, it brings death. Death. And eternal judgment,
eternal death, and the judgment awaits us. It's appointed on
the man who wants to die, and after that, the judgment. That
is for those who are not in Christ. Now, in Christ, there's no condemnation. Sin and rebellion in the camp.
Secondly, death and judgment in the camp. Thirdly, look at
verse 7, "...therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have
sinned." Here we see conviction and confession. It's a good place
to be. The people came to Moses and
said, We have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord
and against thee. Pray to the Lord that He take
away the serpent from us. And Moses prayed for the people
now. They were helpless. They couldn't
do anything about taking those serpents and taking them away.
They couldn't get close to them. There were so many. They were
infested with this beast. It had a deadly stain. They confessed
their sin. They said, we've spoken against
the Lord. They realize their sin under
the judgment of God, and only when God is pleased to convict
us and to convict our soul with guilt will we confess that we
are sinful. And it's not what I do. That's
not what I confess. I confess what I am. I am a sinner,
born in sin, shapen in sin, shapen in iniquity, loving darkness
rather than the light. But I won't know anything about
that until God is pleased to convict me of my sin and show
me that He is holy. And in the light of that holiness,
I see my sin. And you know what happened? They
became mercy beggars. They became mercy beggars, praying
to the Lord. No longer speaking against Moses. They say, Moses, would you pray
for us? Help us! Mercy beggars. Mercy beggars unto the Lord.
And pray this, that He might take away our sin. Take away
the serpents from us. Oh, that's a good place to be.
Mercy beggars. Mercy beggars. Pray for us. They
were shut up to the sovereign mercy of God. alone, God have
mercy on me, thee, sinner." And then they cried to Moses, and
Moses prayed for them. It says there in verse 7, the
last part, that Moses prayed for the people. Prayed for the
people. Now you think about this. This
man had been hated on several occasions. They were going to
kill him. They constantly complained that these are unworthy people.
These are God-haters. They hated Moses. They hated
Aaron. They hated the way of God. And yet, he prayed for them. Oh, I tell you, I want that kind
of attitude to pray for those. Our Lord said, pray for your
enemies. If you have any, pray for them. And Moses intercedes
for the people. I'll tell you what this is a
picture of. The Lord Jesus Christ. He came and He interceded and
He made intercession for whom? When we were yet without strength,
without hope, and without God, Christ died for the ungodly.
God commends His love toward us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Oh, the love
and compassion we have from our Lord Jesus Christ. Here in His
love, He said not that we loved God, but that He loved us. And
He sent His Son to be the sacrifice, the propitiation, the satisfaction
for my sin. I prayed for them. Moses prayed
for those who had cursed him. What compassion! I want that
kind of compassion. And here we see the Lord Jesus.
This is a picture of His intercession for us. Paul said this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save. Whom did He come to save? sinners. I take my place right there as
a sinner. He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. That is lost. Well, in verses
8 and 9 we see the remedy. I like this point. The remedy. Remedy in the camp. And the Lord
said to Moses, now this is God's remedy. You see, salvation is
of the Lord. This is exactly what God told
Moses to do. The Lord said to Moses, You make
thee a fiery serpent, make it out of brass, make it like unto
that one, and set it up on a pole, and it shall come to pass that
everyone that's bitten, when he looks upon it, will live,
will live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
put it up on a pole, and it did come to pass. Just as God said
that it would, God said, you luck and you live. You luck and
you're healed. And just as God said, and it
came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, when he beheld the Savior lifted up,
he lived. He lived. Now, remedy in the
camp. Our Lord, Use this story, and
he said to Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. How could this brazen serpent
picture the Lord Jesus Christ? How could it picture the Lord
Jesus? This brazen serpent. Well, why didn't he put an actual
serpent upon a pole? Well, that wasn't God's way.
That wasn't God's instruction. Plus, that would have marred
the type and misrepresented our sinless substitute. How does
this brazen serpent picture the Lord Jesus Christ? Three things.
Number one, the brazen serpent, the serpent was made in the likeness
of the fiery serpent. In the likeness of. And the Lord
Jesus Christ in the fullness of time, He came in God's own
time, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem us. He came
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was a real man, bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh, identified with us in our humanity,
but He had no sin. He was like this brazen serpent.
It had no venom in it, and the Lord Jesus Christ had no sin. Knew no sin. Did no sin. He's the spotless Lamb of God
who died for us. Secondly, the brazen serpent
had no venom. Our Lord, as I said, He was the
perfect God, man, mediator. He was tempted and tested in
all points like as we are. Yet, no sin. No sin. No sin. Even His enemies said,
Pilate said three times, I find no fault in him. Even Judas later
came back when he threw the money back, those 30 pieces of silver,
and said, I betrayed innocent blood. Even that Roman soldier
that day at Calvary said, surely this was a just man. Even his
enemies testified that he had no sin. Such a high priest became
us who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin. He couldn't
find one sin on him. He had no venom. Tested and tested,
yet without sin. Satan himself even came and tempted
him and tested him forty days in the wilderness. Forty days!
And he said, the prince of this world came and he found nothing
in me. Nothing. Thirdly, the serpent of brass
was to be lifted up on a pole. Even the Lord Jesus Christ was
lifted up to die for the ungodly. Lifted up. Put it up on a pole. Now, Christ was lifted up to
die by the decree of God. I want you to turn to John chapter
12. John chapter 12. Look at verse 30. John chapter 12. John 12 verse 31, verse 30, Jesus
answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for
your sake. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out, and I, If I be lifted up from the earth,
now he's talking here about his crucifixion. He's talking here
about dying as a sinner's substitute. And if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all, and see that word M-E-N right there?
Look at it again. Verse 32, M-E-N. You see it's
in what we call italicized. Italicized, that means it's added. It's not in the original. If
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me." Now,
who's he going to draw? Turn to John chapter 6. If I
be lifted up, who's he going to draw? Now, you good country
folk know a little bit about well water, don't you? Did any
of you ever drop a bucket down a well to draw the water? Did any of you ever do that?
I've never done that. Now, when you go to the well
and you get the bucket, you don't stand up there and look down
in the well and say, Water! No, you take the bucket, put
it in the well, fill the bucket, and then you draw it to yourself. That's what the Lord says right
here in John chapter 6. John 6, verse 44, No man can
come to Me except the Father which sent Me. Draw him. If I
be lifted up, I'll draw men to Me. He's talking about all that
the Father... Look at verse 37, John 6, verse
37, All that the Father hath given Me shall come to Me, and
him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. No man can
come to Me except the Father which sent Me. Draw him. And
I'll raise him up at the last day. The Lord Jesus Christ was
lifted up by the decree of God. No one could touch Him. He said
on several occasions, My hour has not yet come. My hour has
not yet come. And then one day He said, It's
here! The hour has come! When He must be lifted up as
our substitute. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was no accident. He died on purpose. God's purpose.
God's Lamb. God sacrificed for sin. Him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and with wicked hands have crucified and
slain the Lord of glory." Lifted up to die. I thought about this. How high was he lifted? I've not lost my mind here. How
high was he lifted? Well, when he was crucified,
he was lifted up a little bit, wasn't he? And he died God's
sacrifice for sin. God made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He was lifted up then, and then they buried Him
and put Him in a tomb, and on the third day, He was lifted
up again from the dead. being delivered for our transgression
and raised again to justify us, because He justified us. And
then 40 days later, He was lifted again. How high was He lifted? When He by Himself purged our
sin, He sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. That's pretty high. God has highly
exalted him. God has given him a name above
every name, that at that name every knee will bow, every tongue
will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You see, he's lifted up. You know, even Simeon in the
temple, when the Lord Jesus was eight days old, and they brought
him in to do, according to the custom of the law, on the day
of circumcision, Simeon took him by the hand and lifted him
up and said, Now my eyes have seen thy salvation. He was lifted
up then even as a babe. And then John came along and
said, Behold the Lamb of God. He lifted him up in his preaching. Behold the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of God's people. And then he was lifted up to
die in our room and in our stead. And then he was lifted up from
the grave. the third glorious day. Now,
I hope, I tell you, they've got this thing going on TV right
now. Maybe some of you are not aware of it, about how they said
they found the tomb of the Lord Jesus and they found some of
His bones in there. Well, I don't intend to watch
that thing tonight. I think it's going to be on the
Discovery Channel tonight. But if there be no resurrection
from the dead, we're in big trouble. If his bones are in that tomb,
he's an imposter. His soul's in hell. Furthermore,
there is no God. Oh, I tell you, my friend, he
is risen from the dead. He is exalted and seated at God's
right hand, victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave. Lifted
up to die. Oh, he was lifted up to die.
And you know what? Fourthly, something else about
this brazen serpent. There was one maid. God didn't
instruct all them Israelites, now each one of you go in each
house, you go and make you a brazen serpent. There wasn't many brazen
serpents in that day. There's one. There's one. He told Moses to make one. And
my friend, I'm saying as clear as I can, there's salvation in
one. There's salvation in no other
but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. There's one gospel. It's the
gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the gospel
that magnifies His grace, His holiness, His mercy, His love. There's only one gospel. There's
only one way. There's only one salvation. Just
as this day there was one brazen serpent, There's just one remedy
for sin. There's just one gospel, one
righteousness provided. There's one foundation upon which
we can rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's just one Christ
and Him crucified. My last point is this. Turn back
to Numbers 21. My last point is this. Verse
9, mercy and grace in the camp. Mercy and grace in the camp.
You see, verse 9, And Moses made a serpent of brass, put it upon
a pole, and it came to pass that the serpent had bitten any person,
young, old, male, female, doesn't matter. Anyone who was bitten,
when he beheld the serpent, he was healed. He was healed. Here we see revival in the camp.
Revival. When they beheld the serpent
of brass. And that's Christ. The instructions were very simple.
They weren't complicated. Look. That's it. Look. Look. Look. Look and live. You know, the
commandment of the gospel is the same. Look unto Christ. Isaiah 45 said, Look unto Me,
and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, I
am God, and there is no else. What a Savior! The spiritual
meaning of looking is believing, trusting, resting in Christ for
everything in salvation. It's a look of faith. We begin
by looking. We continue by looking. And I'm
still looking for Him. Two things about this look. It
was a personal look. Mom couldn't look for Dad. Dad
couldn't look for the child. The child couldn't look for Dad.
You see, it was a personal look. You must look yourself to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Him and trust Him yourself.
Pastor Mahan, on the radio broadcast this morning, our Lord said,
come unto Me. And I'll give you all you who
labor and are heavy laden, come to Me, and I will give you rest."
Rest. You must look to Christ yourself.
Come to Christ and trust Him yourself. Look to Him. Look to Him. You
know, it's the result of life. We look to Him because God has
given us life in Christ Jesus. This looking to Christ for salvation
is all of grace. God has given us His picture
as a means to demonstrate it wasn't do, it was look. And the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not do this, do that, do that. It's believe. Salvation
received by believing. Not doing. Believing Him. We receive Christ by God, given
God, wrought faith. Faith is a gift of God. Not of
work, lest any man should boast. Now, consider this in closing. Man became lost by a look. Adam looked and lusted and sinned
and fell, didn't he? Man became lost by a look. The
woman saw that the tree was good for food and she gave to Adam.
In like manner, we're saved by a look. Looking to Him. Looking
to Christ. Life begins by looking. We continue
through life looking unto the author and finisher of our faith.
And our life ends by looking unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. One day, faith will end in sight. And I'll see Him as He is. And
I'll be just like Him. Now, I want to show you something
very interesting here. I want you to find 2 Kings. Now,
I want you to turn and see this. 2 Kings 18. 2 Kings 18. You know, whatever happened to
that serpent of brass, you know what they did? You know they
saved that thing? They made an idol out of it. 2 Kings 18, verse 1 down through
verse 4, when old Hezekiah began to reign in Jerusalem, in Judah,
And 2 Kings 18 verse 3 said, "...he did that which was right
in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father
did. And he removed the high places,"
that is, the places of idolatry, "...break the images, and cut
down the groves," and watch it, "...and break in pieces the brazen
serpent that Moses had made. For unto those days the children
of Israel did burn incense unto it, and he called it Nehushtan."
And I worked this piece of brass. You see what he did here? He
told them that it was nothing. It pictured Christ. Now, he told them to destroy
it. It's a piece of brass. It's a
piece of brass. Now, let me ask you a question.
If you could find the very piece of wood that the Lord Jesus Christ
was crucified upon, what would you do with it? I know what religious
men would do with it. They'd save it, enshrine it,
and make an idol out of it, and worship it. Wouldn't they? If
you could find the very piece of wood on which the Lord Jesus
Christ was crucified, burn it! It's idolatry. I'm telling you
to look to Christ right now and be saved. Salvation's in Christ.