Sermon
Look and Live
August 21, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your notes from your bulletin, and if you'd like though to use your own Bible, the passage that we're going to start with this morning or today is that very familiar passage out of John's Gospel where the most favorite verse, I think, of all people is: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

But notice how that verse is introduced in our text. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and he said: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 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. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved."

Now you'll notice that Jesus goes back to an Old Testament incident found in Numbers 21 when He speaks of Moses lifting up that serpent in the wilderness. So let's read from the historical text from Numbers. "And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.

And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 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, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and 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."

Our notes begin with this comment. It has been truly said that the best illustrations of the New Testament doctrines are those which we find in Old Testament stories. The Old and the New Testament of our Bible is one interwoven as a whole. And Augustine said that the New is latent in the Old, and the Old is patent in the New. The New is enfolded in the Old, and the Old is unfolded in the New. And thus, every major doctrine of the New Testament is matched by some illuminating type, some figure, some incident or institution somewhere in the Old Testament.

Pause - I'm making that suggestion because we have great doctrines that make up our Christian faith, which we gather from the New Testament. But our Bible is a whole, and most of these great doctrines were explained or expressed or they were at least introduced to us in some incident or some happening in the Old Testament, and thus, to get a balanced understanding of a Biblical doctrine let's see where it talks about it in the Old Testament or explains it, or at least expresses it, and match that with the teachings of the New.

For instance, if we would find the perfect illustration of "walking in the light" and being "cleansed from all of our sin" by the blood of Jesus Christ, we must turn to Leviticus with its seventeen chapters on cleansing by sacrifice and its remaining ten chapters on practical sanctity or sanctification.

Or, if we want the best illustration of possessing our possessions in the "heavenly places" in Christ as taught in Ephesians by the apostle Paul, let's go back to the Book of Joshua and see how Israel first entered and then subdued and then occupied the earthly promised land of Canaan. And even so, if we would best see for ourselves and best show to others how salvation and eternal life come to the repentant sinner by believing on the Lord, we have this wonderful illustration which we have just read from the Book of Numbers; an illustration that Christ selected. The uplifted serpent of brass which saved all the serpent-bitten Israelites who looked at it is the illustration which our Lord Jesus Himself used to the religiously educated but spiritually unenlightened Nicodemus.

Now as we read the Old Testament story and this illustration that Jesus refers to, according to the Jewish tradition this was the last and the worst of Israel's apostasies in the wilderness. The plague of serpents was a most terrible curse from the Lord.

And what I'd like for us to do is to go back in our Bibles and just pick up the historical setting. If Jesus is going to use this Old Testament illustration, let's find out the history of this illustration. So take your Bibles. We're going back to that place in Numbers, and in Numbers chapter 20 we have this first verse that says, "The children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was buried there."

Now let's get acquainted with this city Kadesh. If we had a map in front of us we would have Egypt to the west, we would have the Sinai Peninsula dropping down to the south, we would have the Red Sea further to the south, we would have the Gulf of Aqaba to the southeast, and Palestine would be north of us.

In the Exodus of the children of Israel, they came out of Egypt, traveled on down the western side of the Sinai Peninsula, and down near the tip of that Peninsula is Mount Sinai. It was there at Mount Sinai that Moses received the Ten Commandments and the law from God. Once that's in their hands, they start straight north headed for Palestine, and they arrive at the borders of Edom, which was south of Palestine, and the city they arrived at was Kadesh-barnea.

Now, Moses has them pause for a while there and what he does is he sends spies in to the Promised Land to bring back a report so they would know the land into which they were going to be traveling. And when the spies came back, only two of them gave a positive report, and the rest of them, it was a negative report. And the congregation there in the wilderness believed the negative report and they whined and complained. They said, God, we want to go back to Egypt. Just let us select a new leader. We're going back. And thus the journey North stops at Kadesh-barnea.

And here we find while they are at Kadesh-barnea Moses has to bury his sister. Notice that Miriam dies there and was buried there. Something else happens there - "Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: "If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! Why have you brought up the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink."

Now Moses has got a heavy heart. He has just buried his sister. Now he's got these complainers and they are complaining against God's provision. So Moses, look at what he does in verse 6, "So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.""

Remember, God said just speak.

"So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, 'Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?'" In anger he is responding. God said just speak to it. But in his anger look at what he does. "Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank."

He violated the instructions from Almighty God. God said just speak to it, and Moses in his anger strikes that rock with a rod twice. God honors, He brings water out, but look at verse 12. "Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.'"

Moses, you've shamed Me, I told you just to speak, but you allowed your anger to rule and you struck that rock and you dishonored Me. Now Moses, and Aaron, because you've done that you're not going into the Promised Land. And thus, at this point, Moses looses that great anticipation of entering the Promised Land to which he was headed.

Then something else happens. Look at verse 14: "Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom (that's the little plot of land between Kadesh and Palestine, and they need to pass through Edom). "Thus says your brother Israel: 'You know all the hardship that has befallen us, how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers. When we cried out to the Lord, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King's Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.'"

"Then Edom said to him, 'You shall not pass through my land, lest I come out against you with the sword.'" So they try again. "So the children of Israel said to him, 'We will go by the Highway, and if I or my livestock drink any of your water, then I will pay for it; let me only pass through on foot, nothing more.' Then he said, 'You shall not pass through.' So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand."

Look at what has happened already. He has buried his sister, he has lost the privilege of going into the Promised Land, and now he's not allowed to pass through that little strip of land known as Edom, and he has to divert, God diverts the journey, and now it's going to take years through the desert as he goes down again along the Sinai Peninsula up to the Gulf of Aqaba and finally on the eastern side enters across Jordan to the city of Jericho.

So they've lost the short route. Now they're going to be on the journey for literally years. But something else happens. Look at: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying: 'Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there.'"

Now remember, Aaron is the high priest. The story goes on, "So Moses did just as the Lord commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain."

Now the people have lost the sister of Moses, they know Moses has been denied entrance, they now know they can't pass through Edom, and now they have lost their high priest. Aaron is dead.

Now we come to the passage that we have just read in our text and it says that "Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged." They had a reason to be discouraged, didn't they?

Back to our text. The result of that discouragement and despair, they bitterly complained against Moses, but our text makes it very clear that in so doing they were speaking against God. They complained that there was no daily provision of food and water, and only worthless food, the manna that God had sent to them as a gift from heaven cooked by angels. They said it's worthless - the manna, the gift from God.

And such blatant contempt for God's gift and purpose for them evoked God's great anger. The punishment took the form of deadly "fiery serpents", so-called not from their physical appearance but from the burning sensation of their venom in the body. Most interesting is that word for "serpents," it's SERAPHIM, it's the very word that Isaiah uses in chapter 6 as he talks about the creatures around the Lord's throne. In that passage in Isaiah they are angelic servants of the Lord, yet here they are also His servants; there in Isaiah they praise and glorify Him in adoration, and here they glorify Him by vindicating Him in judgment.

And many theologians suggest perhaps the seraphims here are to be seen as heavenly beings, not as earthly reptiles. But this time they are messengers of death, and the people quickly acknowledge their fault and confess to the Lord and Moses, who intercedes for them. God provides an unexpected antidote to the serpents, not by means of a serum based on their venom, but by means of an artificial serpent set up high on a pole, which need be only to be looked at for recovery and presumably immunity thereafter.

Now I placed that sentence there suggesting that in the text there is no indication that God removes the serpents, and thus, they could have been around for some time. But looking simply at that brazen serpent on that pole gave them healing and immunity from any bites thereafter.

It's not said that Israel kept this serpent and took it with them, but there's an interesting verse in 2 Kings 18:4, and I'll read it for you. It talks about the reign of Hezekiah as he goes about to bring his nation back to God. It says, "He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan."

So it's likely, therefore, that the Israelites did keep that serpent and that later on it degenerate to a pagan symbol under the influence of the various cults that held sway in Israel for so long, many of which themselves have involved the worship of serpent gods.

The serpents brought death and the Lord brought the cure. And the question could be asked, Why didn't God just rid them of the serpents? And I'm suggesting because this way He showed that only He was the Healing God, and was in fact also Lord of the serpents. And as the Lord uses the form of a serpent to counter to the effects of the serpents, so the New Testament teaches that the counter to the effects of sin and death is found in Jesus Christ who was made sin for us.

In this passage then, we see a simple call to look and to live. That's all Moses told them to do. Just look at the serpent and you will live. In other words, a call to look in faith and trust so that the Lord can show Himself to be worthy of that trust and to bring life. And that uplifted serpent is (in type) the Christ of the Cross, and the power which inwardly cured the venom-inoculated Israelites is (in type) the renewing power of the Holy Spirit.

In that uplifted serpent of brass God was showing them how He had passed judgment on their sin. Their "looking" to it was an education in faith, and a type of that simple heart-trust on the Lord Jesus which now brings regeneration.

Move over with me to page 5 in our text. In the middle of the page I suggest...No doubt there was a specific reason why when Christ in telling this story referred to His sacrificial death as a "lifting up." The Jews were looking for a Messiah who should be lifted up, but elevated in a manner altogether different from what which the Lord here mentions. They expected Him to be elevated to the throne of David, but before this He must be lifted up upon a cross of shame, enduring the judgment of God upon His people's sins.

Our text says that Moses lifted up the serpent. Now a serpent was a most appropriate figure of that deadly and destructive power, the origin of which the Scriptures teach us to trace to the Serpent, whose seed sinners are declared to be. And the poison of the serpent's bite, which vitiates the entire system of its victim, and from the fatal effects of which there was no deliverance, save that which God provided, strikingly exhibited the awful nature and the consequences of sin.

Now someone might ask, Why was not one of the actual serpents just spiked to the pole and put up in front of the people? And I've suggested that we have here a type, and in the type chosen there was the likeness of a serpent, not an actual serpent, but a piece of brass made like one. So, the One who is the sinner's Saviour was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh.

The Bible says God "made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Remember, we're studying an Old Testament illustration or a type. One might ask, But how could a serpent fitly typify the Holy One of God? The brazen serpent only foreshadowed Christ as He was "lifted up," and the lifting up manifestly pointed to the Cross. The "serpent" was the reminder and the emblem of the curse. It was through the agency of that old Serpent, the Devil, that our first parents were seduced, and brought under the curse of a Holy God. And on the Cross, the holy One of God, incarnate, was made a curse for us. Our Bible says: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."

So a serpent was the only thing in all nature which could accurately prefigure the crucified Saviour made a curse for us at Calvary.

One other question, Why did God tell Moses to make that serpent out of brass? And I've suggested that brass speaks of two things in the symbolism of Scripture. One, it spoke of Divine judgment. In the book of Revelation, Christ is seen as Judge, inspecting the seven churches, and we are told, "His feet were like fine brass." And thus, the Christ in judgment, His feet described as fine brass. The "serpent" spoke of the curse which sin entailed, and the "brass" told of God's judgment falling on the One made sin for us.

Secondly, brass is harder than iron, or silver, or gold. It told then, of Christ's mighty strength, which was able to endure the awful judgment which fell upon Him. And so from what we have said, it will be evident that when God told Moses to make a serpent of brass, fix it on a pole, and bid the bitten Israelites to look on it and they should live, that He was preaching to them the Gospel of His grace.

Remember we started our lesson and said that some of the great doctrines, many of the great doctrines, of our Christian faith find their introduction in the Old Testament text. And our Christ, in talking to Nicodemus, goes back into the Old Testament, and what He says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up, and whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.

Now just by looking at that serpent they were healed; simply...a mystery. To them no priest could explain it. But one looked and immediately was healed and his body was immunized probably from any further bites. Now what is the New Testament doctrine that Christ is using that Old Testament illustration to explain? I believe it's the doctrine of justification by faith. Now justification is a great big word, but it simply means the act of God, which He takes towards us as sinners, and what He does to us makes us just before God's eyes. He takes our sin, removes it, and makes us just in God's sight.

Justification by faith - all they had to do was look and they received healing. Now we go back in church history and during the Reformation the great problem that the theologians wrestled with is how is a man justified. And there was the teaching that he's justified by infusion. In other words, in the act of baptism, righteousness is infused in his nature, and thus the church having the responsibility of baptism, it was through the act of baptism that a person was made righteous. That's what they taught.

The reformer said, no, that's an act performed by man. The Bible makes it very clear that justification comes by faith, and this was the issue with Martin Luther. The just shall live by faith.

Now Paul introduces this concept from a different point of view. He says that righteousness was granted to Abraham by faith, and thus, righteousness is granted to us by faith. And he uses a word, imputed. He says that that righteousness of God is imputed to us. Now that's and interesting word.

What does imputation mean? It means the transfer from one account to another; the transfer of a matter from one situation, one person, to another. And so, what Paul is telling us in Romans 4:21 that when we come to Christ and we put our trust in Jesus alone as our Savior, we seek to His forgiveness, we acknowledge our sin, we simply in faith turn to Him. Something very wonderful happens. He takes our sin and imputes them to Christ's account. Christ is righteous. He became sin for us who knew no sin when He went to the Cross. And so Paul is saying when we come to Christ just simply by faith and trust in Him, our sins are transferred to Christ's account, and Christ's righteousness is imputed to us.

And thus, one of the big issues of the reformed theologians was, How can God declare a man just when he's still a sinner? Because even after we come to Christ and we are justified by faith, we're still in our weakness...we fail and we sin. And the theologian said, how can God call us just when we still are sinners? He does that because when He imputes, when Christ imputes His righteousness to us, God sees us not as we are, sinners, He sees us perfect in the righteousness of Christ. We're clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Now it's interesting. Jesus said, if you'll just, as Moses lifted up that serpent, I will be lifted up, and if you'll put your trust in Me, you'll be saved and you'll have eternal life. As simple as that Old Testament act was, the children looked, saw the serpent, and were healed. We turn our hearts towards Christ and we say, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. You're the Savior. You died on that cross 2000 years ago. You took my sin. You became sin for me who knew no sin so that I may be made the righteousness of God. And because You did that Lord Jesus, I'm asking you to take and forgive me of my sins, and when He does, He imputes His righteousness to me.

Now, when the theologians wrestled again with this issue of justification, being just before God by faith, what kind of faith saves a person? And thus, they declared that there were at least three aspects to saving faith. Number one was that we had to know its content or at least a portion of its content. When we say the content of the Gospel, we say that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that Christ comes to this world, lives a sinless life, dies a vicarious death on the cross, rises from the dead, and ascends back to the Father and will come again. That's the content of the Gospel.

Secondly, after understanding somewhat maybe in a very limited nature, limited degree, the content, then I must give mental assent to the content of the Gospel. I say not only was Christ historical in the sense that He died on that cross, but He died for me, He died for all those who will come to Him in faith and simply trust in Him is Lord and Savior, and I give mental assent to the content of the Gospel. It was on that cross that He died, and it was on that cross that He paid the penalty for my sin.

Then they went one step further, and they said, I must take those truths which now I have acknowledged and I must rely upon them and trust that Jesus Christ, when I ask Him to forgive me, He does just exactly what He says. That's the moment when that marvelous transfer of His righteousness becomes my righteousness, and He takes my sin which He paid for 2000 years ago. And I am relieved, my charge, my debt charge is totally clear, and I stand before God justified.

Now in our notes I'm suggesting in the Old Testament all they had to do was look at that serpent and they were healed. When we look to Christ in faith, many wonderful benefits flow from that look. Turn with me to page 7, down on the third portion of our notes I say: In closing, consider with me some of the wonderful benefits and the blessings that are ours when we look with faith to Christ as our Saviour and Lord.

Number one, in Christ, we have acquittal and acceptance. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." And thus all our guilt was charged to Christ's account, and by His crucifixion He has discharged all our liabilities. So now, being in Christ, we have no account of discharge. In God's sight, we are righteousness as He, and in Him we are accepted. "To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved."

Also, in Christ we are chosen and we're complete. "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Clothed in the righteousness of Christ I stand before Him without blame.

Number three, in Christ we have been delivered. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, put after the Spirit."

In Christ we enjoy all the fullness of God. "And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." Now that one has always caused my mind to really think. How can I, as a human being, be filled with all the fullness of God? One of the great theologians in his commentary says maybe it is this, that as I empty myself of myself and my desires, and my ambitions, and my goals, and I say, dear God, I want You to be the very center of my life; I want to do that which pleases You. The more I empty myself of myself, the more God has of me. And to that degree that I make the surrender of myself to Him, He fills me with His fullness. And the emptier I am, the more He can fill. He fills us with His fullness - the benefits of looking to Christ.

Look at the next benefit. In Christ we have an inheritance. It says, "...an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you."

Ladies and gentlemen, we sit here today as children of God and rest in the righteousness of Christ, blameless before Him with an inheritance in heaven.

We have in our seven o'clock service a lady who worships with us. Many months ago she came to our church, she was a Muslim lady. She walked into the office many months ago and she said, Pastor, I want to become a Christian. She said I was raised in a Muslim nation, but she said, near my home was a Christian church and she said I would sneak away. And she said I learn to love the Christian God, and I want to turn my faith to Christ. And so we prayed with that lovely lady, and we baptized her, and we brought her children into the church, but it has been very, very difficult for that lady.

Once in awhile as she sits there, I see grief on her face. You see, since she has become a Christian, her parents and her family have totally rejected her. In fact, they have told her that if she comes back to their native land, she will be killed at the airport. That is already prearranged, so she can never go home. And this morning I noticed her face and I said to her, how are things?

And she said, Pastor, I am looking for a job. And I said, well I think I can help you. She said, I have been cut off from all my inheritance and I am no longer considered as a part of my family. So what I did is I brought her to our congregation and I said, she doesn't have a family, but we will become her family.

And I have a lovely mother that's 86-years-old and is in church every morning at seven o'clock. And I said, ma'am, this will be your new mother, and I appointed myself as her father. And all of us as a congregation, we're her family. And through her tears she said, Pastor, I don't care if I've lost my inheritance, I will never give up my Jesus. And I thought to myself, she has an inheritance just like all of us in God's eternal heaven.

Lastly, in Christ we are promised victory and triumph. Jesus made justification by faith very clear and very simple. As people looked at that serpent on a rod, they were healed, and if we will come to Christ in simple trust, put our faith in Him as our Savior, confess our sins, and claim Him as our Lord, we have the gift of life eternal just by placing our trust in Christ. He couldn't make it more simpler than that, could He? Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for using that Old Testament illustration, because all You required was for people to look, and in so looking, they were healed. And You said as Moses lifted up the serpent, so You would be lifted up, and whoever believes in You will have eternal life. We thank you for the gift of salvation, and we thank you, Lord Jesus, for making it so simple and so clear. Many none of us miss it. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you folks.