Sinners, Serpents, and Salvation

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Let's sing. (upbeat music) ♪ Come over the doors and make way ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ Expecting for a strong, most brave reign ♪ ♪ 'Cause we know what you can do ♪ ♪ We know what you can do ♪ ♪ We're gonna see life change ♪ ♪ The soul's saved ♪ ♪ Broken hearts make new ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ Lord, we have thrown you upon our face ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ The speed of advice may be way to pray ♪ ♪ Jesus, we bow ♪ ♪ Oh, it's to you ♪ ♪ We're laying down ♪

♪ All of our crowns ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ Trusting all the chapters run green ♪ ♪ He's staring down the walls ♪ ♪ He's staring down the walls ♪ ♪ And there's great shaking power ♪ ♪ And we sing the name of a ball ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ Lord, we have thrown you upon our face ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ The speed of advice may be way to pray ♪ ♪ Jesus, we bow ♪ ♪ Oh, it's to you ♪ ♪ We're laying down ♪ ♪ All of our crowns ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ Here as the flea ♪ ♪ Shame as to leave ♪ ♪ Be for the king ♪ ♪ Be for the king ♪ ♪ Change time to pray ♪ ♪ Try bones away ♪ ♪ Prepare the way, oh ♪ ♪ Fear as to flee as he does ♪ ♪ Shame as to leave ♪ ♪ Be for the king ♪ ♪ Be for the king ♪ ♪ Change time to pray ♪ ♪ Try bones away ♪

♪ Prepare the way ♪ ♪ He's in the room ♪ ♪ Lord, we have dawned upon our praise ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ The speed of advice may be way to pray ♪ ♪ Jesus, we bow ♪ ♪ Oh, it's to you ♪ ♪ We're laying down ♪ ♪ All of our crowns ♪ ♪ The king is in the room ♪ ♪ Jesus, we bow ♪ ♪ Yes, the king is in the room ♪ ♪ Amen, even pray this is for me ♪ ♪ We can live because he lives ♪ ♪ Church, let's sing it to him together ♪ ♪ God, this is your son ♪ ♪ They called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ He'll land for you ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my part ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to prove ♪ ♪ I save your lives ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ I can face justice ♪ [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] I'll cross that river, I'll find life's high, no more with me. And the last day gives way to reach peace.

I'll see the light of glory and I'll know he lives. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds a future. And life is worth living just because he lives. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds a future. And life is worth living just because he lives. And life is worth living just because he lives. [MUSIC] I guess he lives, we can face tomorrow again. [MUSIC] By we need, I find my rest. Without you, I fall apart. You're the one that guides my heart. Come on church, lift it up to him this morning. Lord, I need you, oh, I need you. Every hour I need you, I want a defense. My righteousness, oh, by how I need you. The altar's open this morning. You come and you call upon his name. Come on. [MUSIC] Yeah. Where you are, Lord, I am free. All the days is Christ in me. Lord, I need you, oh, I need you. Every hour I need you, my one defense. My righteousness, oh, by how I need you. Since each my song derives to you.

When I cannot stand out for all you, come on. Oh, Jesus, you're my hope and stay. Lord, I need You. All I need. Every hour I need You, my one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need You. Lord, I need You. Lord, I need You. All I need. Every hour I need You, my one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need You. Oh, you're my one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need You. 'Cause You're my one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need You. Well, my wife suffers from a condition. She didn't tell me about this condition when we got married. I found out about it later. She had this condition ever since she was in about second grade. She suffers from a physiophobia. Some of you suffer from a physiophobia, but you didn't know you did. A third of Americans or a third of really adults suffer from a physiophobia, it's a fear of snakes. Anybody have a physiophobia fear of snakes? See, look at that. It's like, I thought I was doing pretty good. I came here. Now I find out I have a phobia. Well, I didn't know Debbie had this. She didn't tell me until after we got married.

And this is how it played out in her life. Now, when she was a little girl, probably second grade, they went to a petting zoo. I think it was a petting zoo. And her teacher made her pet the snake. She didn't want to pet the snake, but the teacher made her pet the snake. She didn't know to tell her I have a phobia. And so she didn't know that word back then, but the made her pet the snake. And from that time, Debbie began to have snake nightmares. She didn't tell me that when we got married. So here I am. We've been married for, I don't know, three, four, five weeks, something like that. And all of a sudden, it's about two o'clock in the morning. She jumps out of bed, she turns on the light, she pulls down the blankets and the sheet, and she begins to search in the bed. And I just like, hey, what's going on? And she said, oh, nothing, I'm just going to the bathroom. I said, well, we don't have to have quite that fanfare every time in the middle of the night. You go to the bathroom, right? And then it happened again a few weeks later. And what are you doing? I'm just going to the bathroom, okay? And then after about the third or fourth time, I was like, something's up here. And she said, ever since I was a little girl, I have this nightmare that a snake is in the bed. And I have to get up immediately, turn on the light, and throw back the covers to make sure the snake is not there. I said, okay. So the next time she did that, it has happened about every five or six weeks. The next time she did it, I just groggily said to her, Debbie, there's no snake in the

bed, go back to sleep. And that helped her. And you haven't had one of those in days. I said, she just doesn't like snakes. She told me, Debbie is the picture of discipline. So she said, I'm going to walk 30 days in September, and she's been faithful. She walked 30 days in September, and she's carried it over, well, August. And then she's carried it over in September. And she goes out before the sun is up. And so she has to be careful on our street because it's dark, not a lot of street lights. And she carries her phone and shines it whenever her car comes by. But she was going out one morning, and she said to me, she goes, I can't go. I said, why not? She said, because in the walkway, there's a snake. So I said, "Okay." And so I put on my shoes. I get out there to kill the snake. And lo and behold, it was just a stick. And so I killed that stick and said, "Hey, I'm here to help you." And I don't know what a physiophobia is for your snakes, I don't know the fear of sticks. But she has that. Well, we want to talk today as we've been going with the children of Israel, with Moses, and Aaron, and the children of Israel through the wilderness, unbelieving believers, faith failure and the faithfulness of God, today we hit the account of the fiery serpents. The fiery serpents that ended up biting the people and killing many, many people. God has lessons to teach us today through this account, true account of the children of Israel and in their wilderness, wanderings. Numbers chapter 21 says in verse 4, "Then they set out from Mount Hore," that's where Aaron died, was Mount Hore. They set out from Mount Hore, by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom,

and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no food and no water and we loathe this miserable food?" The Lord, Yahweh, sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. Three key lessons from this true account of the children of Israel, and they give you context, almost the whole 40 years of wilderness wanderings, they're coming to an end. Miriam died in chapter 20 in the first month of the year, and then Aaron dies at the end of chapter 20 about four months later, in the fifth month of the year, and then in the twelfth month of the year, Moses is going to die, and once Moses dies, then Joshua takes the reigns and is going to lead the people into the Promised Land. So the wilderness wanderings are coming to an end. When Aaron died, they mourned for him at Mount Hore for 30 days, and then they moved on from there. And so as we pick up in Numbers 21, verse 4, they're wanting to get to Moab, the land of Moab, Moses is going to be buried on Mount Nebo, the Lord buries Moses on Mount Nebo. It's just to the east of the land of Israel, the land of Promised, we have a map that kind of shows where all this stuff is. And so if you look on there, on the left you have Mount Hore, that's where they were. They were originally in Kedish Barnea, that's, Kedish Barnea was the place they were 40 years previous when they were going to go into about 38 years previous, when they were going to go into the land originally, but they didn't because they said, "We can't go. The giants in the land. We're going to get killed. Let's go back to Egypt." So God made them wander in the wilderness for those a year for every day that they spied out the land. So Mount Hore, to go to Moab, it's a straight shot. You go across.

You just go east. But we read in chapter 20 that the Edomites, the Edomites were descendants of Esau. Jacob is the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob had a brother, a twin brother Esau. Esau fathered the Edomites. Moses tried to get the Edomites to let them go through the land. It would have been a straight shot to get to the other side, to get to Moab. But the Edomites said, "You can't come in here." Esau said, "No, the descendants of Esau." No. And if you come this way, we will attack you. So they had to go down south to that place called Elaph and go around Edom. So instead of going the king's highway, which is a place that has a good passage, it's not a difficult terrain. There are towns there. There are places for your flocks to graze. They can get food and water. They couldn't go that way. They had to go down south. And down south is called the Way of the Red Sea or as you go up on the east side of Edom, it's called the Way of the Wilderness. Well, you can imagine, the Way of the Wilderness versus the king's highway. The kings don't travel the Way of the Wilderness because they're going to go on the king's highway because it's a lot better. So this is a difficult journey. And the Bible says because of the difficulty of the journey, because they had to travel so far out of the way, it's kind of like if I tell you, okay, here's my thumb, and I want to go from my thumb to my pinky. Well, the straightest distance to get from my thumb

to my pinky is straight across. The index finger, the middle finger, the ring finger, boom, you're there. They traveled from the thumb to the pinky by way of the elbow. You come down and you go back up. Well, there's a lot more distance. There's more miles to travel when you go that way, and it's hot, and there's no water, and there's nothing around there. It's a difficult journey. The first lesson is this. Difficult journeys always expose the heart. God bless you. Difficult journeys always expose the heart, because we see what they say. We hear what they say. It's recorded what they say, and the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. And so what was their response? They get impatient. They get discouraged. They get frustrated. This is so long. This is so hot. This is so awful. It's kind of like moving. Everybody in this room probably can relate to moving. There are no shortcuts to moving. Moving is just hard.

It is hot. It is trying. The last time we moved, some people helped us, and they were moving one of Debbie's antique chairs, and didn't get secured very well, and the guy told me he brought it, and he said, yeah, we had a little accident. I thought he was kissing. I said, really? What happened? I was kind of laughing. He goes, no, I'm not kidding. The chair went flying out. I was like, oh, he goes, but I recovered it for you. It's all broken and torn. So, well, thanks. That's really, it's an antique. So, thank you for that. I appreciated the help, but I just told Debbie, we brought the chair. I said, I don't want to move again. Let's just die here. You know, that kind of attitude. Moving is hard. Well, they were moving, and it was hard, and so it revealed the hearts. And what did they say? The people spoke against God and Moses. The first time it's ever written this way, that they spoke against God and Moses.

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness, in this desert? But there's no food, there's no water. And we loathe this miserable food, this miserable bread. All we have is manna, we're so sick to death of manna. And they just vomited out the agitation of their heart. Now, what does that say to you and me? See, they were upset with God. And it says, before they would just be upset with Moses and Aaron, now they're upset with God and Moses. And God would tell him, listen, you're grumbling against me. They didn't want to hear it like that. They said, no, no, we're grumbling against Moses. Moses said, well, who am I? Who is Aaron that you grumble against us? God is the leader. You've seen the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. We didn't put that up there, that is God leading us. So your problem is with God, they didn't want to see that. But now here we are in the 40th year and they see. I'm mad at God, I'm angry with God, I'm frustrated with God. They spoke against God. Now the question to you and to me, are you angry with God's direction? Are you angry with how God is working in your life? Are you angry that the Lord has taken you when you wanted to go from the thumb to the pinky that you had to go down through the elbow? And you say, hey, I signed up for the will of God,

but the will of God is not very good. I don't like it, it is hot, it is hard. And this is not what I want for my life. We get mad, if we're not careful, we can get mad at God's leading in our life. Because his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. He leads us in ways that we say, wait a minute, I wouldn't go that way, I don't want to do it that way. I had a friend of mine when I was at Champion Forest and he was telling me about his story. He had been to seminary and so I was talking to him about that and he said, this was before I had gotten called in the ministry, before I had gone to seminary and I said, well, tell me about that. And he said, well, I felt called in the ministry, I went to seminary, he said, I started to work at a church and then some bad things happened at the church, I got accused of things that I didn't do. And so he said, it was just a mess. He said, "I basically said, 'Well, God, if this is how you lead me, then I think I'll just take it from here.'" And I was like, "Whoa, wouldn't say that to God." And he said, "Then I went on a hiatus for a while. I wasn't following the Lord because basically He was mad at God the way God allowed things to come into His life. Are you angry with God's direction in your life?" You know, I have a soft place in my heart for girls who want to get married and nothing is on the horizon and no one's coming up because we dealt with that with my middle daughter, especially Amy, as she walked with the Lord and waited on God to bring her a husband and

there was no husband and year after year after year, no husband. And since that time, God's blessed her with a wonderful husband and three little boys, and God has answered all those prayers. But when you're in it, it just seems like, "It's how long, O Lord, will I cry out to you and you not answer me?" It was one of those things. And you know, some girls that are in that situation, some young ladies, they get mad at God and then they say, "Well, I'll take it from here." And then they don't have the same standards. They're waiting for Mr. Right, Mr. God's gift to me and then it's Mr. Okay and then it's just Mr. And you know, I just looking for a guy and it's like, "Don't do that. There are worse things than being unmarried." And one of the biggest ones is being married to the wrong person. And so you don't want to say, "God, I don't like the way you're leading, so I'm going to do it my own way." Are you angry with God's direction? Ezekiel 18, 25, yet you say the way of the Lord is not right. Here now, O house of Israel, is my way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right? Of course. God's ways, they're not our ways, but his ways are always right. So that's the first question, difficult journeys expose the heart. Are you angry with God's direction in your life? Secondly, are you ungrateful with God's provision for your life? They were very ungrateful. Now we had talked before about the manna. The manna was a miracle of God, a daily miracle of God. Men did eat the bread of angels. And when in the morning, when the dew would be there, there was the manna. And the manna was a white flaky thing.

It looks kind of like frosted flakes. My friend Skip Heitzig says it was like, "Tasted like a crispy cream donut." I don't know if it tasted like that, but the Bible does say it tasted like wafers with honey. It was sweet, and it was white, and they could take it and cook it and do all sorts of stuff with it. But it was their meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 40 years. And they're so sick of eating manna. And so instead of being grateful to God, they lash out at God. And they say, "Hey, there's no food. There's no water on this wilderness highway." And we loathe this miserable bread, this miserable food. It is worthless. It is contemptible. It is making us sick. Don't show me any more manna. Are you ungrateful with God's provision? Difficult journeys always expose the heart. Unless it, testing the Lord's leadership is a serious sin, a serious sin. So 1 Corinthians chapter 10 tells us about this experience. It refers back to this experience, and it says this, "We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents." Don't put him to the test. Don't try the Lord. Don't test him or try him to the utmost. And this is what they were saying in their complaints, in their grumbling to the Lord, in their speaking against the Lord. Are you really good? Can you really do anything here? Is this all you've got?

He tested his character, and his goodness, and his wisdom, and his provision, and his leadership. And I tell you what, you do that to God, them's fighting words. It doesn't go well when you test God, when you call him out. It was a brazen sin. Now the brazenness of their sin brought instant judgment, instant judgment. This is not God normally warned that He was going to do something. people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died." The brazenness of their sin brought about the serpents, fiery serpents, instant death without warning. We need to remember this. Our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12, 29, Hebrews 10, 31, "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." We like to think of God like that Christmas song, "Sweet Little Jesus, Boy, they made you be born in the manger." And we forget that Jesus is not a sweet little boy in the manger anymore. We see him in Revelation 1, and John sees him in all of his glory, and John falls at his feet as a dead man. It's the same John who put his head on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper. But now, whoa, his eyes are as a flame of fire. He is a great God of the universe, and they speak against God like that, and God brought instant judgment. It's the same thing he did in Leviticus chapter 10 with Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, soon after they were ordained into the priesthood. They burned strange fire before the Lord, that they were not commanded to burn. You took fire from the altar outside of the tabernacle. You didn't take it from anywhere else. They took strange fire, they burned it before the Lord, and fire came out from the presence of the Lord and killed them dead just like that.

God is a holy God. And when they speak against the goodness and holiness and wisdom of God, there was judgment that came swiftly. And the brazenness of their sin also brought about painful deaths, not just any old kind of death, but painful death through fiery serpents. Now a fiery serpent doesn't mean a serpent on fire. A fiery serpent is a serpent that would bite the people, and when you were bitten, it felt like fire going through your veins. There was much, much pain before you died. And everyone who was bitten felt the pain and then experienced the death. I don't know if you've ever been bitten by a snake. I haven't been bitten by a snake. Debbie's dreamed about being bitten by a snake, but it hadn't happened. So I called or texted this morning to the chairman of our deacons, Dr. Sudhir Jayaprabhu. Some of you know Dr. Jayaprabhu, there'll be a test later to spell his name. But Dr. Sudhir Jayaprabhu, he was recently bitten by a snake at his house. He lives in the Riverlands, and he went out to the garage to get something and to get in a golf cart or something like that. And all of a sudden, he said, "I felt the most severe pain I've ever felt in my life." He didn't know what it was. He never saw the snake. And then he looked down and he saw a snake. A snake had bitten him on the foot. It was a copperhead, not just any ol' snake, a poisonous snake. And he said, "The pain was severe." I said, "Okay, Sudhir, you are a OB-GIN. You deliver babies." I said, "How was the pain? What would you rate it on a scale of 1 to 10?" And he said, "Well, childbirth is a 10."

And so he said, "I would never say my pain was childbirth." So he said, "I'd give it a 9.9." Anyway, no, he didn't. He said it wasn't that. But he said it was the worst pain I'd ever felt. And bam, it hit just like that. Just a fiery pain. God sent fiery serpents. We don't know what the serpents were. I don't think the Lord created a different kind of snake just for that instance. But he put a plethora of snakes upon Israel. He sent them there. And what was their job? Bite the people. And they did. And the pain was severe. And death was certain. So testing the Lord's leadership is a serious sin. And lesson number three, true repentance always triggers the grace and mercy of God. So the people were upset. So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned." Good that they recognized that. We have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you interceded with the Lord that He may remove the serpents from us and Moses interceded for the people. Now... with repentance, with an acknowledgment of our sin, with a turning from sin, that triggers the grace and mercy of God. James 4/8 says, "Drawn ear to God, and he will draw near to you."

Malachi, the Lord says, "Return to me, and I will return to you." So God is waiting for us to respond to his love, to respond to his mercy. And when we do, and we draw near to God, he draws near to us. What happened with the prodigal son? He came to his senses, and he said, "Listen, why am I here longing to eat pig slop? My father's hired men. They don't eat pig slop. This is what I do. I will get up and go to my father and say, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your side. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men." And he got up and left the pig's eye and went to his father. And when he was a long way off, his father ran to him and embraced him, "Return to me, and I will return to you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." And so repentance always triggers the grace and mercy of God. And the Lord provided a strange but important remedy for the people, very strange. See, they ask Moses, "Innerseed for us," we have sinned, spoken against the Lord. So, "Innerseed for us that he may remove the serpents from us." And so Moses did that, and he prayed, and it says in verse 8, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent,' and set it on a standard, set it on a pole. And it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live."

And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole on a standard, and it came about that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. Strange remedy. They said, "Take away the serpents, and God added a serpent, a special serpent, a bronze serpent on a pole." Now, the serpent is a symbol of sin. We know about the serpent in Genesis chapter 3. He's connected to Satan and to the fall of man to sin. So, a serpent is a picture of sin. A bronze serpent, bronze was a metal associated with judgment. You say, "Why do you say that?" Because the altar of sacrifice that was there at the temple, before you went into the temple or before you went into the tabernacle, where they had all their sacrifices, that altar was made of bronze. When Jesus revealed himself to John in Revelation chapter 1, he is coming to bring judgment on a Christ-rejecting world. His feet are as burnished bronze, glowing bronze from a furnace. He is coming to judge the world in righteousness. Bronze is a picture of judgment. So, this serpent is a picture of sin. Bronze is a picture of judgment, and it's on a pole. It's on a wooden pole. And that's a picture of the curse, because the Bible says, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." And that serpent was going to hang on that pole, and whoever looked to it would be healed. So, it's very strange the remedy God gives, but it's very important, because the Lord provided for us in this instance in the wilderness,

He provided for us a beautiful picture of salvation. And Jesus, when he was talking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, telling him he must be born again, guess what? He goes back to Numbers 21. He refers back to this very familiar story in Israel's history. And Jesus tells Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life." Well, Nicodemus knew that. He knew this story. Everybody in Israel knew about this story. Very, very famous story. It doesn't take up a lot of space, but it's very, very famous. God sent fiery serpents because they spoke against the Lord, and they said, "Remove the serpents Moses." But God didn't remove the serpents. He added a serpent, and it's a very vivid picture for us today of the cross. And Jesus said, "You see that fiery serpent? Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. Now there are five aspects of this object lesson, this picture of salvation that I want you to see. So critical, number one, we have all been bitten by the serpent of sin, all of us. Now with the children of Israel, not everybody there got bitten by the fiery serpents.

Many of them did because many of them died. But all of us, it's just a picture, it's a visual for us to see. We've all been bitten by sin. Romans chapter five verse 12 says, "For by one man sin entered the world and death through sin, "so death spread to all men because all sin." We've all been bitten by the serpent of sin. Every single one of us, all of sin, and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3, 23. Romans 3, 10, there's none righteous, not even one. Isaiah 64, your righteous deeds are as a filthy rag before the Lord because we're all sinners. And so we've all been bitten. And secondly, we're all facing a fiery and fatal death. Everyone there who got bitten by the serpents, they would feel the pain, the fiery pain. However long it lasted before they boom just died. And all of us who had been bitten by the serpent of sin, we're facing a fiery fatal death. You know, the Bible calls hell the second death, the lake of fire. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 25, "Depart from me into the lake of eternal fire. "Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. "Where do you go into the lake that burns with fire? "Depart from me to the fire prepared for the devil "and his angels, it is fatal and it is fiery "and you don't ever get out of there "and we're in a bad way because all of sin

"and fall short of the glory of God "and guess what, the wages of sin is death, "physical death, spiritual death, death forever, "the second death in the lake of fire." Third aspect, Jesus is the bronze serpent lifted up on the cross. Jesus compared himself to that. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. And so you can put those two things side by side. We have a little graphic of that. So there was the bronze serpent on the pole. There's Jesus on the cross, lifted up. So the son of man must be lifted up so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. You say, "Well, wait a minute, "this is where the illustration breaks down "because no way is Jesus depicted by a snake." No, but you are and I am 'cause we've been bitten by sin. That snake represents us. And second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21, says that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He took your place on the cross. He took my place on the cross. We have a vivid picture at his trial where the pilot says, "Who should I release for you?" Barabbas who was a notorious criminal

who deserved to be crucified, or Jesus who's called the Christ. And they said, "Not this man, but Barabbas." And so Jesus took the place of Barabbas. Barabbas who deserved to die for his crimes. And the thing that makes that even more intriguing is the name Barabbas, Bar Abba, son of the father. And here is the son of the father who took the place of a sinner so he could become you and I could become a son of the father. Jesus is that serpent on a cross depicted as a serpent on the pole. Fourthly, Jesus is the only remedy for your dire situation, for my dire situation. These people had a dire situation out in the wilderness on the wilderness highway where it's hot, where it's hard, where it's difficult, and they're complaining, grumbling, griping, speaking against the Lord. And boom, here come the snakes and they're biting them and it's super painful. You put a bronze serpent, you make a bronze serpent, you have to melt some bronze and fashioned it into a snake and put it on this pole and lift it high. And if a person gets bitten, they need to look to the bronze serpent on a pole. And if they look, they'll live. That was the only remedy. There was no, well, no, I don't wanna do that. That seems ridiculous.

How's that gonna help me? I have a serpent bite here. I'm gonna go down a few tents to this guy. He's kind of studied. He's not a full fledged doctor, but he's a nurse practitioner. And I'm gonna go to him, and he's gonna help me out here, 'cause there's nurse practitioners are good. I go to a nurse practitioner, she's good. And so that'll help me out there. She's got some salve, they put on that. And you could have had all kind of, I mean, look to this, serpent on a pole. How, that's crazy. That's God's way. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts not our thoughts. And what he does requires faith. Jesus on the cross is the only remedy for man's sin. The only remedy. Acts 4, 12, and there is salvation in no one else, for there's no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." No one comes to the Father, but through me. Jesus is not a good way to get to heaven. He is not even the best way to get to heaven. He's the only way to get to heaven. You'll never get there apart from Jesus Christ. He is God's son on the cross. There is no other way.

So he was the only remedy. He was a sufficient remedy. Hey, maybe you got bitten more than once. Maybe you had two or three bites. And another guy next to you only had one bite. He said, "Well, I can look to the serpent on a pole and be healed because I don't have two or three. I don't think it covers that." You know, it's like insurance. You're not covered. And no, he's sufficient. And that remedy was sufficient and it was effective. If you looked, you lived. It says in verse nine, "And Moses made a serpent, bronze serpent, and set it on the standard, and it came about that if a serpent bit any man when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived." The fifth aspect. Salvation comes when you simply look to him in faith. You know, Rochelle just read Matthew chapter 11, where Jesus has come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. What does God require? Look to him. Look to Jesus. Quit trying to do it yourself. Look to him.

Put your faith and trust in him and him alone. Put your faith where God put your sins on the cross of Jesus Christ. It is easy. It is simple. You don't have to have a seminary degree to figure this out. I remember sharing the gospel with a guy one time and he looked at me and he said, "That's too easy. That's too easy. That's too simple. It has to be more complicated than that. It's not. It's not. Jesus paid it all all to him. I owe. Sin had left to crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. All you have to do is look to him. It's easy. It is simple. It is necessary if you don't do it. Guess what? Just like they would die in the wilderness from the bite of the serpent, the fiery serpent, you're gonna die in your sin if you don't look to him. It's necessary for salvation and here's the thing. Everybody listen real close because here is the kicker. It is personal.

I can't do it for you. You can't do it for somebody else. Sin is personal and so is salvation. You, the bitten one, had to look. No one could look for you. You had to do it and if you didn't do it, you died and you had no one to blame but yourself. The Bible talks about people who perish. Second Thessalonians chapter two. Why do they perish? Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. They said no, they said I'm not gonna look. I'm not gonna listen to what you have to say. Pastor Jeff, you're just out to lunch and you preach from an old book and I'm gonna go my own way. You can do that if you want. Guess what? Let me tell you what's gonna happen. You're gonna die and it's gonna be a fiery death and it's gonna be hell forever for you and that's just the truth and so do you want to, have I become your enemy? Paul says in Galatians chapter four, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? I don't want that for anyone. And so we warn people, hey, listen, you are in sin, you've been bitten by the serpent of sin and you are going to die forever

and here is the only remedy. You look to Jesus who died on the cross for you and if you do, guess what? You will live. If you come to him, you will live and if you don't, you won't. Now I can't help but think as I was preparing this sermon, the salvation of the Prince of Preachers surely comes to mind because as the scripture says in Isaiah chapter 45, look to me, says the Lord and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other. Just look to him, it fits in perfectly with this passage of scripture in Numbers chapter 21. What did they have to do? They just had to look to the serpent and what do we have to do? We have to turn away from sin and self. We look to the Lord and we are saved. We put our faith where God put our sins on the cross of Jesus Christ. So Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, he preached at the same church for years and years and years. He started at that church when he was 19, he preached there till he died at the age of 57. The church Metropolitan Tabernacle had had another name when he first started, but they built this Metropolitan Tabernacle when he was 27 years old, it held 5600 people

and he filled it up Sunday after Sunday after Sunday for over 30 years. I mean, he is some kind of guy. Well, he shares his story, his salvation. How did he come to know Christ? He was 15 years old. And he said, I grew up in a Christian home. My dad and my grandfather, they were pastors. He said, I read the Bible, I prayed, I lived morally. And yet he said, I was under deep conviction of sin. I had no peace. And he said, for months I went from church to church to church looking for relief and never really felt that he clearly understood and heard how a sinner could be saved. So he said it was a particular Sunday and there was a snowstorm that hit his town. He was planning to go to this church, but it was just too hard to get there. So he slipped into a primitive Methodist chapel. He said, there were a dozen people there, only about a dozen. And the pastor, a regular pastor, couldn't get there because he got snowed in. So as the people gathered, they realized the pastor is not coming, so somebody stood up. Spurgeon said later, I think he was kind of a tailor or a cobbler or something like that. He definitely wasn't a pastor and he didn't really know a lot of scripture, but he just started to preach one verse.

Isaiah 45 verse 22, look to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Spurgeon said the guy was untrained. He didn't even pronounce all the words right. He said, but that didn't matter. He kept repeating the text, look to me, look to me, look to me and be saved all the ends of the earth. And then in that little congregation, he points to Spurgeon, 15 year old kid. He said, you, young man, you look rather miserable. Oh, okay. This isn't a secret friendly church, I guess. You look rather miserable. He said the text says, look to the Lord, look to him and you will be saved. He said, young man, look to Jesus, look, look, look, you have nothing to do but look and live. And Spurgeon, that's so simple. Spurgeon said, all of a sudden, the light came on. He said, I've been trying so hard to earn my way and now I realized all I have to do is look to Jesus. And he said, it was that day I looked to Jesus and I was saved at 15. The prince of preachers was saved by a man who wasn't called to preach but who stepped up to the call that day and preached one verse of scripture that changed Charles Spurgeon's life forever. Spurgeon said, I saw it once the way of salvation. I know not what else that man said.

I didn't take much notice of it. the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do 50 things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" What a charming word it seemed to me. "Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away." There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun, and I could have risen that instant and then sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith, which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, trust Christ, and you will be saved. Listen, it's not an accident that you're here today that you've heard this sermon. God is speaking to people today, and you know and God knows where you are spiritually. I love the fact that David Price, personal friend, wonderful guy, they got baptized today. He had been in church his whole life, but it dawned on him. It clicked in his mind just a short time ago, some months, a year or so ago, that he had never been saved. He had never really looked with the eyes of faith. He was going through the motions of religion, but when he looked everything changed. Maybe that's what you need to do today. You need to quit trying and start trusting. No doubt in a crowd this size, there are people and you've never put your faith in trust in Jesus Christ, and you know how you can know that you've never put your faith in trust in Jesus Christ, because nothing's going on on the inside. Everything is effort, and there's no love for this Savior, and there's no joy, and there's no desire to walk with him. And if that describes you, I want to tell you, look to me all the ends of the earth, the Lord says, and you will be saved. Look to me and live. Now we come to the most important question of all. Have you turned from sin and selfishness, and given your heart and life to Jesus? Listen, if not, today is the day for you. Just pray this simple prayer from your heart. Lord Jesus, I need you. I know that I'm a sinner, and I can't save myself, but I believe Jesus that you are God in the flesh. I believe you died on the cross from my sins and rose again from the dead, and right now I ask you to forgive me and save me, come into my life, change me, make me the person you want me to be. I surrender my life to you, and I promise to follow you all the days I have left. Now if you pray that kind of prayer and mean it, the Lord will come in, and your life will never be the same. Listen, I would love to hear from you, so please contact me and share with me what's going on so we can pray for you, and if you are ever in the Texarkana area, we would love for you to visit us live and in person

at FBC Texarkana. Listen, you really are important to God, and you're important to us, and we're here for you. you [BLANK_AUDIO]