The Son of Man Lifted Up

Now we're going to turn in our
Bibles again to the third chapter of John. Nicodemus was a grown man, well
up in years. Nicodemus was a religious leader. Nicodemus was a teacher of the
scriptures. But Nicodemus was only a child
in regard to the things of God. I wish we could all realize that
we are also but children in understanding in the things of God. And when
our Lord would teach this grown man the truth of redemption,
when our Lord would teach this religious leader, this theologian,
This man who thought he knew something about the scriptures,
when our Lord would teach him about the grace of God, he used
simple language. He used figures and types and
pictures of familiar things. I wish that all of us in this
day, in what we call the grace movement, might come down out
of our theological towers that we might come down and speak
in the language of me that at least people might understand
in their heads what we're saying I read books and I think I've
been looking at the grace of God about as long as most of
us here and in other places and I don't know what they're talking
about I hear preachers preach And I wonder if they know what
they're talking about. We're just children, that's all. And
here our Lord is talking to a grown man. He's talking to a theologian. He's talking to an intellectual.
He's talking to a man who'd been studying the scriptures. And
when he talked to him about salvation, he says, Nicodemus, look at verse
3, except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. Now, when a man is born the first
time, he receives life, he receives natural life, he's born of the
flesh, and he's a natural man, and he has natural understanding.
He can understand the things of the world, the material things,
the natural things. But to have spiritual life, a
man's got to experience a new birth, a second birth, a spiritual
birth, to have spiritual understanding in order to discern, to see,
to understand the things of God, a man must be born again. He
must be born from above. He must be born of the Spirit
of God. He said, Nicodemus, when you were born the first time
of your natural parents, you received flesh and bone and blood
and a human mind and natural understanding, and you could
compete with others in the flesh. In order to understand the things
of heaven and the things of God, you've got to be born of God,
born of the Spirit of God. You've got to have a spiritual
life, a new life. You've got to come back into
you that which went out in Adam. That is the life of God. And
Nicodemus said, well, I don't understand that. And then our
Lord said in verse 5, well, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, the new
birth is from above. The new birth is not of the will
of the flesh. A man doesn't just say, well,
I'll be born again. It's not of the will of the flesh.
It's not of the will of man. I don't just say, well, I'll
decide that my friend will be born again, and I'll get him
born again. It's not of blood. That is, it's not passed down
from father to son. But this new birth is of God. We're born of the water and of
the Spirit, and born of God, and born from above. It's a supernatural
birth. And the Holy Spirit, who quickens
dead sinners, quickens whom he will. And our Lord said in verse
8, the wind bloweth where it listeth, the wind bloweth where
it pleases. You don't have any control over
the wind. You can hear the sound of the wind. You can see the
results of the wind. But you cannot tell whence it
cometh, and you can't tell where it's going. So is everyone that's
born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit quickens whom
He will, just as the wind blows where it will. And you can see
the results of the Spirit's work. But you cannot tell from whence
He cometh, and you cannot tell where He'll go, and in whose
heart He'll move. The Spirit is not controlled
by men. It is not of the will of man,
not of the will of the flesh. It is of God. He quickeneth whom
He will. And then when our Lord would
illustrate faith to this man in verse 14, He said, 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. Nicodemus knew about the
wilderness journey. Nicodemus knew about the murmuring
of the people. Nicodemus knew about the judgment
of God upon them because of this murmuring. Nicodemus knew about
the fiery serpents. Nicodemus knew about the people
dying, Nicodemus knew about the prophet Moses praying, and he
knew about the brazen serpent, and he could hear the voice of
this man Moses as he walked about the camp saying, look, look,
look, look and live. He knew about that. And therefore
our Lord said in the same way, Nicodemus, that Moses lifted
up that serpent in the wilderness that dying people might live,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that dying people might live. I have a message from the Lord,
hallelujah, this message to you I give. It's recorded in His
Word, hallelujah. It's only that you look and live.
Life is offered unto you, hallelujah. Eternal life your soul shall
have. If you'll only look to Christ,
hallelujah, look to Christ who alone can save. I want to deal
with this verse of scripture tonight. Our Lord was teaching
the religious man Nicodemus the meaning of faith. Maybe he'll
be pleased tonight to teach us the meaning of faith. Maybe we
can get down as little children and sit at the feet of our Lord
and have him teach us the meaning of faith. And in dealing with
this verse, I've divided it into four parts. Very simple. What was the problem? That's
the first part. What was the problem? Moses lifted
up a serpent. What was the problem? Secondly,
what was the remedy? Thirdly, what was to be done
with the serpent? And then fourthly, what were
the people to do? That ought to help us. So first
of all, let's go to Numbers 21. Numbers, the 21st chapter. What
was the problem? What was it all about? Well,
in Numbers 21, verse 5, and the people spake against God. That's where all sin begins.
All sin is against God. I can do you wrong. I cannot
sin against you. I can offend you. I cannot sin
against you. That's right. Every sin is against
God. That's where it all begins. That's
the big problem. The people spake against God.
That's where true repentance is found, when we realize that
we have not done wrong to men, we have sinned against God. That's
what we've got to understand, to understand the meaning of
sin and the depth of sin and the infinite evil of sin. It's against God. It's against
God. Godly sorrow worketh repentance. This is the problem. We've sinned
against God. That's what David said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. The people speak 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 hateth this light bread,
this manna. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. That was the problem. Because
of the murmuring of the people against him, the Lord sent fiery
serpents among them. And these poisonous, fiery serpents
had bitten the people. Many of them were dead. The rest
of them were dying. Now just imagine the horror of
this situation for a moment. We went down to Mexico back some
time ago, two or three years ago, and we had only been there
a day, and one of the missionaries told us that one of our native
pastors, His name was Franklin, pastor out at Yobain, had been
bitten by a rattlesnake. He was out in a hinnikin field,
walking through the field, and one of these large rattlesnakes
bit him on the leg. He told us, we went to see him
in the hospital, but he told us it was such a powerful dose
of venom, and such a powerful bite, when the snake hit him,
he just hit the ground. and his leg was rendered almost
useless immediately. But he crawled his motorcycle,
he had a motorcycle out there in the edge of the field, and
he crawled to that motorcycle and rode it several miles into
Conchicob, where there's a clinic. And he got there in time and
they're treating him. But just imagine if he had not had the
motorcycle. Imagine the horror of being out
there in nowhere. Out there in the middle of a
desert country, far out in the wilderness, no hospital, no medicine,
no help, no hope. Bitten by a deadly poisonous
snake, the venom is there in the vein and you know it. You're
sitting there between the rows, you're sitting there in the sand,
in the dirt, and you know the venom's already gone into your
veins. And every beat of your heart
is just spreading that poison. spreading that poison spreading
that poison deeper and deeper and deeper into your system and
You know death is as sure as the sunset It's just a matter
of time and you're sitting there without help and without hope
Well, that's the way Israel walks They were out there in the middle
of the wilderness. There were no hospitals, no medicine, no
help, no hope. They had been bitten by these
poisonous fiery serpents and the venom was in the vein and
the heart was taking it from here and putting it out yonder
and taking it from there and putting it somewhere else. And
they were dying and many of them were already dead. Now listen.
You say, how does that, how does that apply to us? This is the
condition of every son of Adam and every daughter of Adam. This
is the problem. The poison of sin is put into
our system just as soon as our bodies have a beginning. That's right. Turn to Psalm 51.
Now this is a doctrine. This is the doctrine we call
original sin. This is what happened in the
garden. As soon as a father begets a child, as soon as the seed
meets the egg, and as soon as a woman conceives, that little
mass of nothing that will someday be a human being is already contaminated. The poison is already there.
That's what the Scripture teaches. A child does not become a sinner
when he reaches the age of accountability. A child is born a sinner. He's
not only born a sinner, he's shapen a sinner. He's not only
shapen a sinner, he's conceived a sinner. You go back as far
as you can go back to the beginning of our existence. And there we
got our starting scene. That's right. The poison was
there. Psalm 51, verse 5. Listen to David. Behold, I was
shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Now, some fools have gotten the
idea that sex is sin. Some fools have gotten the idea
that the act of conceiving children is a sin. Well, if they want
to follow that line, they're welcome to it, but that's not
what the Bible teaches. God brought men and women together
in love and relationship and union before man ever fell. When
God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden
and joined them together, he said multiply and replenish the
earth. Now the sorrow that a woman endures
in bearing her children is because of sin. The problems and heartaches
that we have in life are because of sin. But what David is saying
here is mother didn't sin in conceiving him. His father did
not sin in begetting him. But when he was born, you cannot
get clean water out of a salty fountain. And you cannot get
figs from an olive tree, and you cannot get bananas from an
orange tree, and you cannot get a holy son from an unholy father.
And the only seed that an unholy father can plant is an unholy
seed. It's like the worm in the bloom.
They tell me that some apples have worms in them, and they've
had worms in them ever since they bloomed. That's the reason
the farmer sprays the blooms. And that's how we became sinners.
You can take that or leave it. That's what God's Word teaches.
From the time we are conceived, we have the poison of sin in
us. Now look at Psalm 58. You look
at that newborn baby. Nobody loves children more than
we do. We love children. But you look
at that newborn baby, fair and tender and beautiful, just came
forth from its mother's womb, they're bringing in to the daddy
and to the granddaddy and granddaddy. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it
lovely? It is. Isn't it sweet? That's another
story. It may be beautiful, it may be
precious, but it's a sinner. It's contaminated with sin, with
the poison of sin. That baby's already dead in sin. That baby is already spiritually
contaminated, and that baby, from the time its heart beat
the first time and it breathed the first breath of air, is on
its way to the grave. Now, if babies weren't sinners,
they'd never die. Now, if children didn't become
sinners until they reached the age of accountability, then they'd
never die until they reached the age of accountability. Death
is a result of sin. And where there's no sin, there's
no death. And if that baby's innocent, then you don't have
to worry about it. They'd never die. You don't have to worry
about them if they're not sinners, if they're not contaminated with
sin. That's what he says. Death reigned
from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam. But they were born sinners. Look
at Psalm 58, verse 3. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they're
born. speaking lies. Now look at Israel,
over there in the wilderness, the fiery serpents came among
them. Some of them, some of them had just been bitten, just been
bitten. We walk into the camp and there's
a man that's just been bitten. He looks strong and healthy.
Wow, he just got bitten. The snake just bit him. Doesn't
look much different. The serpent's bite hasn't had
very much effect, very little effect. He looks as well and
healthy as anybody else. But some have been bitten for
a little while, and they begin to reveal their effects. They
begin to get trembly, and they begin to break out in sweat,
and their face begins to be flushed, and they begin to show their
effects. It's been some time now. I got
bit two hours ago, and I'm showing some effects of it. There's a
man swollen, almost dead. His body is just swollen, out
of shape, disfigured. And he's at death's door. And
he's panting for breath, and he's gasping for breath. Well,
boy, he's in bad shape. There's a man over there that's
dead. They've already put him in the ground. And so children, they have the
venom in them. They have the poison in them.
But they reveal very little of the power and penalty of sin. It's there. The poison is there. It's in their little one-month-old
bodies. It's in their little five-months-old
bodies. It's in their little two-year-old
bodies. It's in their little ten-year-old bodies. The poison
is there, and it'll show effects one of these days. Right now,
it doesn't look like it. Then young people begin to demonstrate
some of the effects of this poison. They begin to get rebellious.
They begin to be filled with hatred and malice and selfishness. They begin to show the effects
of the fall. And then older people, disfigured,
swollen with sin, contaminated with iniquity, filled with evil.
Boy, you can see, there, that fella, he's been in it, the poison
has got all over his body. You can just look at him, he
looks terrible, he acts terrible, he talks terrible, yeah? Well,
he was one of those little fellas that just had the poison in him
one day. He was mama's angel one day.
Huh? And then some are already in
the dust. Some are already out there in the cemetery. Some are
already wrinkled and old and defiled, disfigured and buried.
But it doesn't matter who the son of Adam is, whether he's
in the ground or whether he's just on the edge, or whether
he's a young man or whether he's a baby, the poison is there. He said from the sole of your
feet to the top of your head, no matter how tall you are, there's
no soundness in you. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. The poison of snakes is under
their lips, Paul said. He gives no age limit, without
hope, without help, without God. That's the problem. All right,
turn back to Numbers 21. What was the remedy? Now this
is amazing, and you'll learn the gospel here if you listen.
That's the problem. That's the problem. All right,
what's the remedy? Look at verse 8. And the Lord
said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole. We know that it was made out
of brass. And it come to pass that every one that is bitten,
when he looks upon it, shall live. A serpent of brass was
to be made was to be melted, molded, and made in the form
of the serpent that bit the people. Now, I know when Moses came back
from praying, he came back from the presence of God, and he went
over there to the blacksmith shop, and he called the elders
of Israel together, and he ordered them to make a serpent just like
the ones that bit the people. And I know someone was bound
to say, What? A serpent caused the problem.
How can a serpent also be the remedy? A serpent caused the problem.
How can a serpent be the remedy? Moses says that's what God said.
Now here's your answer. Turn to first Corinthians 15
and this is a verse of scripture. Y'all look at real hard first
Corinthians 15 21 First Corinthians 15 21 look at it real good now
Here's what we're saying Moses went in there and ordered them
to make a serpent just like the one that bit the people and one
fella said that doesn't make sense to me a serpent caused
the problem and now serpents gonna furnish the healing and
In 1 Corinthians 15, 21, since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. In Adam we died, the first Adam. In Adam we live, the second Adam. Then return to Romans 8, 3. Now
watch this, Romans 8, verse 3. It says here what the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, in the likeness of the problem,
in the likeness of the serpent, in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Turn to Hebrews 2,
16. Here's another verse we need to look at. Hebrews 2, verse
16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore
in all things," now watch this, man sinned, a man had to obey. A man broke the law, a man had
to keep the law. A man rebelled against God, a
man had to submit to God. A man refused the will of God,
a man had to submit to the will of God. A man broke the law and
offended justice, a man had to die under the sentence of justice.
In Adam we died, in Christ we're made alive. By man came death,
by man came forgiveness. Watch this, verse 17. In all
things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted." You see that? You see the picture? Our Lord said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent, the likeness of the fall, the likeness of
the need, the likeness of the problem, even so the Son of Man
Christ, the Son of God, had to become a man. He had to be made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had to come down here and
do what Adam failed to do, keep the law of God. He had to come
down here and do for us what we couldn't do, satisfy the justice
of God. Thirdly, well, somebody says,
well, Moses, make that serpent out of gold. Make it out of silver
and gold and precious stone. No, sir. It's got to be worthless
brass, for that's what we are, worthless. You see that? He was despised and rejected
of men, a man of solace, acquainted with grief, a root out of dry
ground, despised and rejected. When we saw him there was no
beauty about him, no gold and silver and precious stone, just
worthless brass. Thirdly, what was to be done
with the serpent? Make a serpent of brass, verse 8, numbers 21,
and set it on a pole. And our Lord said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent. What's to be done with a serpent?
It's not the serpent in the mold that's saved. It's not the serpent
in the hand of Moses that's saved. Moses didn't go around and bless
the people. Sprinkle a little water on you
and hold the serpent out to you. It's not the serpent in the hand
of Moses. It's not the serpent in the temple.
He didn't say take it down to the temple and put it in the
Holy of Holies or put it in with the rest of the furniture. It's
the serpent lifted up out yonder between heaven and earth on a
pole. And I'll tell you it's not Christ in the manger that
saves. If all he had done was come to Bethlehem's manger, he
would have saved no one. It's not Christ in the hand of
the preacher. It's not Christ in the ceremonies
of the temple. It's not Christ in the ordinances
of the churches. It's Christ on the cross. I must
needs go home by the way of the cross. There's no other way but
this. I'll never get sight of the gates
of life if the way of the cross Moses, make a serpent in the
likeness of that which has bitten the people and raise it up on
a pole. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall look upon that serpent lifted up shall live. And our God sent his only begotten
well-beloved Son down here to solve our problem. What was our
problem? Sinful flesh. And his son was
made of a woman, made under the law, made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. In all things he was made like
unto his brethren. He was hungry, he thirsted, he
was weary, he wept, he sweated, he toiled, he labored. He was
despised, he was rejected, he was hated. He endured every temptation,
yet without sin, as a man in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And then one day the Father lifted him up. And the Father said,
there's your Savior. There's your substitute. Lift
it up. Mike sang about it a while ago. On a cross lifted high when
a man forced to die. I saw one hanging on a tree in
agony and blood. He fixed his languid eyes on
me as near his cross I stood, and my conscience felt and owned
my guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins his blood had shed
and helped to nail him there. Alas, I knew not what I did,
but now my tears are vain. Where shall my trembling soul
be hid? I, the Lord, have slain. The
second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive, this blood
is for thy ransom paid, I died that you might live. Oh, can
it be? Upon a tree the Savior died for
me. My soul is thrilled and my heart
is filled to think he died for me. He was to be lifted up. Preacher, don't wrap him up in
your fine words, just lift him up. Just lift him up. Theologian don't explain his
qualifications you lift him up Religionists don't decorate him
with your possessions and your piety and your rituals and your
ceremony just lift him up That's all It ought to be just that
simple Moses went out there in the sand, in the dirt, and he
took that pole and that serpent that had been made by the men
in the blacksmith's shop, and he put it on a pole, and he stood
out there in the sunshine, and he just raised it up in the air,
and he said, look! And Leah, look in there. We get
our candles and put them around. We put all these fancy crosses
around. We stained-glass the windows.
We get an organ playing softly. We robe our choirs. We get all
this religiosity, piety, and sentimentalism, and emotionalism,
and a preacher talks in a sweet voice, and everybody does all
these entertaining things, you know. We go through our ceremonies,
and we recite things nobody hears or understands or anything else,
and we're all going to hell. What we need to do is face the
problem and look at the remedy. A man, a God-man, a man in human
flesh, went out yonder bearing his cross and died on a hill. He was lifted up between heaven
and earth and the Heavenly Father said, look! Not work, look! Not labor, look! Not act religious,
look! Not claim what you don't have?
Look! Don't swear on a stack of Bibles
you don't need to look? Look! I am the Lord, look unto
me and be ye saved. What were the people to do? Here's
the closing part. What were the people to do? In
Numbers 21, I want you to look first of all at verse 7. Therefore
the people said to Moses, this is important right here, The
people said to Moses, they came to Moses and they said three
words. We have sinned. Those are the hardest three words
a mortal being ever had to say. They don't come easy. I'm talking
about insincerity. I'm not talking about theological
catechisms. I'm talking about being able
with the grief of your heart and the tears of your soul and
the conviction of the Holy Spirit before a living God to say we
have sinned. It's not easy. But I'll tell
you what God will do if you can say that. Turn to Job chapter
33. If you can find those words in
your vocabulary, From a sincere heart, Job 33 verse 27, listen
to what it says. It says in Job 33, 27, He looketh
upon men, and if any say, I have sinned. If we say we have not
sinned, don't leave that passage, I'm going to read the rest of
it, we make him a liar. If we say we have not sinned,
we deceive ourselves. But if any man say, I have sinned,
And I have perverted that which was right, it profiteth me not,
and it won't. He'll deliver his soul from going
into the pit, and his life shall see the light." That's pretty
good incentive, isn't it? If a fellow can come to the...
I know it's difficult to say, but the publicans said it, God
be merciful to me, the sinner! The thief on the cross said it.
He turned to that other thief and said, don't you fear God
seeing we're in the same condemnation and we're getting just what we
deserve. Our Lord saved him. The publican, our Lord saved
him. Paul said it. Jesus Christ came to save sinners
of whom I'm chief. David said it, my sins are ever
before me. And John wrote, if we confess
our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. That's where it started. The
people came to Moses. That's how they got the remedy.
They said, we have sinned. They didn't say John has sinned,
George has sinned, Steve has sinned, and Bill has sinned.
They said, we've sinned. Then in verse 9 and Moses made
a serpent of brass and put it on a pole it came to pass that
if a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of
brass he lay on and John wrote he that seeth the sun They looked that day that man
bitten by the serpent lifted up his eyes and he saw that serpent
of brass He didn't have anyone else to which he could turn he
had no other choice And like the disciples said, well, Lord,
to whom shall we go? He had no help and no hope, and he turned
to that one and only remedy, and he looked, and he believed.
He got up and walked off, for it said, everyone that was bitten,
when they looked, they lived. Now, you can, if you want to,
make salvation in the pool, you can make it in the bread, you
can make it It works, whatever you will, but our Lord, when
he was instructing this man Nicodemus in faith, he already used metaphors,
figures, pictures. He took him back to the wilderness
and he said, Nicodemus, that Moses lifted up that serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man in the likeness
of sinful flesh be lifted up, that whosoever Believing should
not perish but have eternal life. God didn't send his son into
the world to condemn the world. The world was already condemned.
Moses didn't lift that serpent up to make the people sick. They
were already sick. They were already sick. And Christ's
death doesn't damn anybody. They're already damned. But he
sent his son into the world that the world through him might be
saved. Our Lord's death is not the object of damnation or the
reason for damnation, it's salvation. And you look and live. If you
want to pull on through your deep, dusty, dark theological
books and hope to find help there, you're welcome to it. If you
want to subscribe to your friends and loved ones, certain distances
to walk and herbs to take and medicines to drink, go ahead.
But there on the cross, that's God's remedy. Look and live. Our Father in heaven, May the
Son of God be lifted up. He has been lifted up on a cross.
But may he be lifted up in our understanding and in our sight,
our spiritual sight. May we with eyes of faith behold
him, the substitute, the Savior, and believe. For in him there's
life. Reveal the way of life, the simplicity,
the beauty, the grace, the greatness, the certainty, the efficacy,
of his death to every one of us. By Christ we live. In his name we pray. Amen. Ronnie
Leda sent a closing hymn. Let's sing number 222. 222. Stand, please. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that
blood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains

The Son of Man Lifted Up

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