Saved By a Serpent

We turn to two passages in the word of God. We come to Numbers chapter 21 beginning at verse 4. And we turn to John chapter 3, beginning at verse 14.

First the Old Testament fact and then the New Testament truth. Numbers 21:4, 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 spoke 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.

Now our Lord Jesus explains this in John chapter 3, verse 14. 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. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The Sanhedrin had a meeting and they're discussing this new teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. And the Sanhedrin has asked Nicodemus to go and interview him and find out who he is and what he's doing. Nicodemus is a student of the word. He's no fool. He came to Jesus by night, and he said to him, Teacher, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no man could do these miracles that you are doing, except God be with him.

And our Lord Jesus immediately saw the need in Nicodemus. He realized that though Nicodemus was a leading Rabbi, though he was a profound [?] and a trained teacher, that Nicodemus did not know what it meant to have eternal life. He was a religious man, but his religion lacked reality. He was a righteous man outwardly, but his righteousness had not gotten into his heart.

And so Jesus began to teach Nicodemus what it meant to be saved. What it meant to be a child of God. And though Nicodemus was a trained teacher and a student of the word, Nicodemus had to be dealt with like a little child. And Jesus had to use illustration after illustration to try to penetrate the mind and the heart of this man. He began with birth. He said, Nicodemus, you know what birth is all about. You've got to be born again. And Nicodemus and said, How can a man be born again when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? Nicodemus, said Jesus, This birth is from above. It's a birth of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

Then he tried the illustration of wind. He said, The wind blows where it wants to blow, and you can hear the sound, but you can't see it. And this is the way it is when a person is born from above. Nicodemus, do you remember back in the prophecy of Ezekiel? The prophet saw that vast valley of dry, dead bones? Nicodemus said, Yes. Do you remember that the word said to the prophet, Preach to the wind! And the wind began to blow and life came into those bones. That's a picture of what the Holy Spirit does when you put your faith in Me.

And still Nicodemus couldn't understand. Finally Jesus reached back to a story in the book of Numbers. He said, Nicodemus, do you remember when our people were going through the wilderness, and they sinned against God and the serpents came and bit them? He said, I remember that story. Do you remember what Moses did? Yes. Jehovah told Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole and lift it up. And whoever looked at the serpent was healed. And then Jesus spoke those wonderful words, 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.

Our Lord Jesus reached back many hundreds of years to the story of the serpent in the wilderness. We'd like to do that today. I want to take, on the one hand, the serpent in the wilderness, on the other hand, the Savior on the cross, and put them together. Because Jesus is saying to us, There is a lesson to be learned here. If you want to know what it really means to be saved, to have your sins forgiven, to have eternal life, then look at this comparison of the serpent in the Old Testament and the Savior in the New Testament.

Now there are several comparisons that will teach us what it means to be saved, and the first is this: Both the serpent and the Savior were provided to meet a great need. You see, the people of Israel were dying. And they were dying because of sin. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. In the day that you eat therof, thou shalt surely die. Except you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins.

And Israel was dying. Now, death is not funny. No matter what may be the means of death, death is always tragic, except of course for the believer who goes to be with the Lord. Here were people wandering through the wilderness in disobedience to God. They had sinned against God, and they had sinned against Moses.

Now this is the problem that we have today. We've sinned against God, and we've sinned against one another. When God gave through Moses the two tables of the law, he gave to us two aspects of sin. In the first table of the law, there were the laws that related primarily to God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt worship me, and me only. But in the second table of the law we have sins that, though they are against God, they are also against men. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Honor thy father and thy mother.

And Israel had broken both tables. First they complained against God. Now, people do this today. Complain against God. God had delivered them from Egypt. God had protected them from their enemies. God had directed them through the wilderness. And it wasn't God's fault that they were still there. Had they listened to the Lord they would have been in Canaan land. But no, they would rather be in the wilderness. And they murmured against God.

God was sending down the manna, that sweet angel's food bread coming down from heaven. And the people were saying, We loathe this light bread; we are tired of this manna.

This is what has happened to people in Chicago and other places. People have gotten tired of what God gives them. They're looking for something more exciting. Something that ravishes the heart. Something that satisfies the body. God knows what's best.

They sinned against God, and they sinned against Moses. They blamed Moses for what was happening. And these are the two sins that are being committed today. People are sinning against God and sinning against one another, and as a consequence there is death. God permitted the serpents to come, and people were dying.

If I read this passage in Numbers chapter 21, I shake my head and I say to myself, My, oh my, people today are just like those Jews back in the wilderness. Wandering when they ought to have been in the promised land. In the wilderness when they should have been enjoying God's blessing. Dying when they should have been exalting in God's life.

This is the way people are today. Now, in answer to the death that was going on around them, God provided a brazen serpent. My friends, may I remind you why Jesus came. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

Did you get that? Many people have the idea that Jesus came to be a judge. He didn't have to come to be a judge. Judgment had already been pronounced. Men were sinners and they knew it. God provided his Son to meet a great need. What was that great need? People were dying.

Now, I want to remind you of something that's very important. In the case of the nation of Israel, this was physical death. Here were living people who had been bitten by the serpent and they were dying because of their sin. In our case, we are already dead in sin. When Moses lifted that serpent up on the pole, it was that he might restore life to dying people.

But when Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross, it was not that he might restore life to dying people. It was that he might give life to people who were already dead. And you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. If I speak just now to someone who has never looked to Jesus Christ for salvation, my friend, you are dead. You are spiritually dead.

And the only way you can ever become spiritually alive is by looking by faith to Jesus Christ. Both the serpent and the Savior were provided to meet a great need.

Secondly, both the serpent and the Savior were provided by God alone. Now, my friends, this was God's way of salvation. It wasn't Moses' way. Moses didn't call a committee meeting and say, we've got to figure out some way to keep these people from dying. It was God who came to Moses. You see, Israel was saved because somebody interceded for him. And my friend, the only way you're ever going to be saved is because somebody intercedes for you. The only way God can ever save is through intercession. And Moses came and he pled for his people.

His people broke his heart. His people brought burdens to him. His people discouraged him. But Moses loved his people. And Moses came and said, oh God, you know what they're like. They're just clay. They're just teeth. No sooner have we been delivered from the land of Egypt than my people begin to stay and they're going to be this way. Oh God, can't you do something for them?

On more than one occasion, Moses had to intercede for his people. Just a little picture of what Jesus did. Jesus was hanging there on the cross and he prayed, Father, forgive them. They're so ignorant. They know not what they do. They don't know the meaning of their sin. They don't know the enormity of their sin. They don't realize the consequences of their sin. Oh God, forgive them.

Moses came interceding and God said, I'm going to supply a way of salvation. This is purely by God's grace. Purely by God's love. Now if you and I had been there, we would have had other ways to do it. Let's think about some of the ways we could have tried to help these people because they're being used today. Someone could have said, I think we ought to get a great group of sticks and let's organize an anti-snake society. And if we go up and down in the camp, we can kill these snakes.

And while you're killing the snakes, people are dying. But we still have this philosophy today, reformation. Oh, if only we can reform people. If only we can get rid of this and get rid of that, my friend. You can get rid of all of the so-called kinds of sin that you see in the city of Chicago and people will still die because people are born with the poison of sin. My Bible tells me that the wicked are estranged from the womb. You and I were born sinning. And so reformation is not going to do a great deal of good.

You may have some dead snakes, but you're going to have some dead people too. Someone else comes along and says, well, what we really need is some medicine. We can just get our technicians together and manufacture some kind of medicine. And while you're manufacturing the medicine, people are dying. And a serpent is such a stealthy, sneaky, subtle creature. When you least expect him, he gets you. We still have people today manufacturing medicine trying to conquer the awful poison of sin and sad to say the medicine is not working.

Somebody else comes along and says, let's just pretend they aren't there. Just close your eyes and wish they'll be gone. Now there are people today who deny the existence of sin. They say, now if we just deny that it's there, it's not going to bother us, really. You can die denying the existence of the serpent. You come into your tent in the camp of Israel and here is your son lying there and he's writhing in pain. And you say, what's happened? Oh, he says, the serpent that wasn't there bit me. Oh, it's all in your mind. I'm sorry, but I'm dying. See, we don't call it sin anymore. We call it, oh, we call it accidents. We call it weaknesses. We call it psychological hang-ups.

I'm glad to see that one of our leading psychologists has written a book entitled Whatever Happened to Sin? And he's bringing back into the focus of man's attention the fact that there is such a thing as sin. And taking away the symptoms does not remove the cause. Let's suppose someone has been bitten by the serpent and it's fiery. It's like burning. And someone comes along and puts some sort of a pulsus or a salve on it and the burning disappears. Ah, but the poison is still in your system. In fact, I would much rather know that I've been bitten. No, we're not going to kill the serpent. We're not going to manufacture medicine. We aren't going to pretend they aren't there.

Somebody who is very legalistically inclined will say, let's pass a law against serpents. Good. How will you get them to obey it? It's impossible to pass a law against sin. Now, God gave the greatest law ever given and yet men still sin. The problem is not with the law. The problem is with men. And Paul points it out so perfectly in Romans chapter 7 that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. You can pass all the laws you want to. It's not going to keep people from dying.

Somebody else comes along and says, well, we have a religion. There's a tabernacle here and there's sacrifices and altar of incense and we have a religion. Did you notice that this whole scheme that God gave Moses had nothing to do with their religion? I hear people saying, well, I'm not worried about dying and being lost forever. I'm not worrying about dying and possibly going to that place the Bible calls hell because I'm religion. Religion without Jesus Christ is just as condemning as irreligion without Jesus Christ and possibly more so. And so religion and reformation and medicine and legislation and education, all of these things could do nothing to solve the problem. And so what did God do? God said, I'm going to give you a simple solution. What was it that bit you? A serpent. All right? Make a serpent. Not a lion. The tribe of Judah would have enjoyed that. A serpent. Get some brass, Moses, and make a serpent and put that serpent on a pole and lift it up high. You see, God provided the only way of salvation.

You'd think that after all these centuries people would know better but you still hear people say, well, just as there are many roads that lead to Chicago, there are many roads that lead to heaven. And you are traveling on one road and I am traveling on another road but somehow all of us are going to get there. I have news for you. There may be all sorts of roads that lead to Chicago but there's only one road that leads to heaven. And in all of the camp of Israel, if you had been bitten and you were dying, there was only one way of salvation and escape and that was by looking to the brazen serpent that had been put upon the pole. there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. God does not say, well, choose your own way. God says, there is one way and that way is Jesus Christ crucified. Now, it was Christ alone that was provided to be our salvation and not Christ plus the law. He didn't say, put a serpent plus the Ten Commandments up there.

I feel so sorry for these people who are trying to get saved by trusting Jesus Christ plus keeping the Ten Commandments. It wasn't Jesus Christ plus anything else. It was just, put the serpent on the pole. Why a serpent? Well, you know why. When Jesus Christ was crucified, he was made the very thing that killed you, sin. I can just see the children watching Moses. Moses, what are you doing? I'm making a serpent. A serpent. But that's what's causing all the trouble. Serpent. I'm making a serpent. And I'm going to put this serpent up in the pole. It's a picture of Jesus Christ who was made sin for us, who was made a curse for us when he died on the cross.

That's the meaning of Romans, chapter 8, verse 3. God sending his own son, watch this now, in the likeness of sinful flesh. He didn't send his son in sinful flesh because my Lord had a perfect body. He sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Moses, what are you doing? I'm making a creature in the likeness of those that have caused the trouble. That's the meaning of 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For God hath made him to be sin for us, he who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Both were provided to meet a great need, death. And both were provided by God alone.

May I drop two thoughts into your heart for your consideration? salvation. Number one, the serpent in the Old Testament didn't suffer, but Jesus did. Number two, the serpent in the Old Testament didn't die, but Jesus did. And so when the word of God says, look and you'll live, we're saying to you, look to one who suffered for you. Now my friend, you and I have never really suffered for sin. Oh, we've had sufferings because of sin. There have been hangovers and headaches and sicknesses and financial problems. We have suffered because of our sins. We have never yet suffered for our sins. Jesus did. And none of us has ever died because of our sins. Jesus did. Both were provided to meet a great need. Both were provided by God alone. It's his way of salvation and if you don't want it, there is none other.

Thirdly, both were provided to be accepted by faith. You see, the easiest thing a person can do is look. I'm glad that the text does not say see. There could have been some blind people in the nation of Israel who couldn't see, but they could look. Where is it? It says, right there, and they could look. You see, God's talking about faith. God's way of salvation is provided to be accepted by faith. You say, why does God do it by faith? For several reasons.

Number one, it's the one thing people can do. You live by faith all day long. Sometimes I have to pray for patience when unsaved people say to me, but pastor, this business of faith, I can't believe. My friend, you believe all day long. Well, it takes more faith to ride some of the elevators in the city of Chicago than it does to trust Jesus Christ. When you go to the pharmacist and you hand him that impossible-to-read piece of paper your doctor gave you, that's faith. When you take that medicine and you swallow it, that's faith. When you get on I-75 or I-64 or I-95, that's faith. You live by faith all day long. The difference between a Christian and an unsaved person is that a Christian has taken that inborn faith and put it in Jesus Christ.

You see, God didn't say to these Jews, work, climb the pole. He couldn't climb the pole. I'm dying. Run around the pole. I can't do it. Touch the pole. I'm too far away. Look at the serpent. I can do that. That's faith. You see, faith glorifies God. If God had any other way of salvation, we'd brag about it because we're born braggars. When Jesus said, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing, he was being very wise. If our right hand knows what our left hand is doing, we'd just start patting ourselves on the back. We love to boast and to brag.

And Paul writes and says, for by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of work, lest any man should boast. If you have a salvation that you can brag about, it's not God's salvation by grace. It's your own and it won't work. Both were provided to be accepted by faith.

Now, I can just see some of these dear Jewish people arguing with Moses. and here they are dying and Moses gets the word out, look to the serpent, just look and you'll live. Look at the uplifted serpent. And someone says, I don't understand it. My friend, you can die while you're trying to understand it. Now, I'm not saying that our plan of salvation given in Jesus Christ cannot be understood, but I'll say this to you, you could die while you're trying to understand it. All a person has to understand to be saved is that he is a sinner and Jesus is the Savior and if you look to Jesus Christ, you'll be saved. That's the minimum.

Now, when you trust Christ and receive his life, then you'll have all eternity to plumb the depth of understanding of God's grace. But a person could die in one of the tents of Israel saying, I just don't understand it and if I can't understand it, I won't do it. Did you understand the last medicine you took? Did you even understand what happened when you pushed the button in the wall and the light came on? Or you turned the little knob and the TV came on? I don't understand those things. Never will and don't want to.

Somebody else comes along and says, Moses, this is so simple. I mean, you know, we're used to an elaborate religion. We have a priest who wears robes and they have sacrifices and we blow horns and this is so simple. My answer to that is thank God it is simple. Thank God it's so simple that the youngest child can look and be saved. Thank God it's so simple that the most ignorant person can look and be saved. what is there about us that wants to make everything so complicated? God doesn't do that. In fact, Paul warns us about those who want to take us away from the simplicity that is in Christ. That simple hearted openness to God. Moses, it's too simple.

Somebody else says, how humiliating. Moses, don't you know how rich I am? Don't you realize who I am in the camp of Israel? Do you mean I have to be saved the same way as those ordinary people get saved? That's right. I told you I have I not about Robert Murray McShane. Let me repeat it. The great saintly Presbyterian preacher Robert Murray McShane was out passing out tracts one day and he handed a tract to a rather well-dressed lady who immediately pulled herself to her full height, put on her most pompous air and said, Sir, you must not know who I am. And in his own quiet way, Mr. McShane said, Madam, there is coming a day of judgment and on that day it won't make any difference who you are. Are there some of you here today who say, oh, that's such an easy way. Look to Jesus Christ. Believe on him. I don't understand if something is beneath me. I'm too great for a plan of salvation like that. Then you'll have to die.

You see, God makes it easy for people to be saved. Will you lay hold of that? Some of you have the idea that God makes it so difficult. God makes it easy for people to be saved. He says, make a serpent. Everybody can see it. Put it up on a pole. Don't take it outside the camp. Put it in the camp. They can all see it. Everybody can look. Oh, God has made it so easy for you to be saved. You're the one that's making it difficult. You're the one raising the objections. You're the one thinking up the excuses. You're the one finding the obstacles. God didn't do that.

God put Jesus on a cross and he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. But if you just believe on him, look to him by faith, you'll receive eternal life. Which leads us to our fourth comparison. Both were provided to meet a great need. Both were provided by God alone. Both were provided to be accepted by faith. And both worked when men believed. That's the beautiful part. It worked.

Back in the Old Testament, they were saved by a look. By the way, we were lost by a look. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and to be desired to make one wise, she took. We were lost by a look and thank God we're saved by a look. A woman looked at a tree and she ate and gave to her husband and plunged mankind into sin. Ah, Jesus came and died on a tree and now if we but looked at him, we're saved.

You remember the story of the conversion of Charles Spurgeon. Young Spurgeon as a teenager had been wrestling with God under conviction, could not find peace. And one winter Sunday day, he was out roaming the streets and couldn't go to his own church. He went to a little primitive Methodist chapel. It was so snowy, the preacher didn't even show up. A layman got up. He had no sermon but he had a good chat. Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. And because his sermon was so weak, he kept quoting the script which was a good thing to do. And he saw Spurgeon sitting over there and didn't know who he was but he looked miserable. He said, Young man, you look miserable. If you will but look to Jesus Christ, you will be saved. And Spurgeon says, I looked and I was saved. It worked.

People in the camp of Israel could look around and see it happening. They'd say, He used to be sick. He was almost dying. Look, he's well. They could see it happening. You can see it happening. I will introduce you to hundreds of people who have looked to Jesus Christ and they have been healed of their sin sickness. Don't tell me it doesn't work. It works.

There are only three people for whom it doesn't work. It doesn't work for those who don't know they're dying. Those people who think that they're all right, that God's going to accept them who don't realize they've been bitten by the serpent of sin and they're dying, it won't work for them because they don't think they need it. And it won't work for those who have never been told of the remedy. That's sad.

Oh, wouldn't it be an awful thing for someone to be in one of the tents of Israel, dying, and then he aspires and someone comes in and says, Why didn't you go out and look at the serpent? What serpent? There's a serpent out there in a pole and if you look at his face, why didn't you come and tell us? That's a good question.

Hudson Taylor won a Chinese dollar to Christ over in China and the man said to Hudson Taylor, How long have your people known this message? Why, he said, for hundreds of years. Oh, he said, My father died looking for the truth. Why didn't you come sooner and tell us? That's a good question.

Why don't we tell other people that they don't have to die? There's a serpent. There's a savior who's been lifted up and made sin.

And so the person who doesn't know his need can't be helped and the person who has a need but doesn't know the remedy can't be helped is a third person that he can't help. That's the person who knows his need and knows of the remedy but he won't look. I can't make you look. God can't even make you look. All he can do is bring you the message that if you look to Jesus Christ you'll be saved.

Let me tell you a story about T.W. Stilpot. It was under his ministry at this church auditorium was built. A young man back home from the war he'd been overseas in the war the first world war was walking down the street outside with his mother. While he was in the service overseas he contracted the narcotics habit. They'd tried everything. They'd gone broke almost trying to bring this boy back to health and sanity. As they were walking past the auditorium one of the electric lights outside came on. I don't know which one it would have been. And the boy said to his mother they tell me it's a very beautiful auditorium. Let's go in and see it. And so they came in. There were many people around. They were amazed at the congregation. They sat down. They went through the service. Pastor Stilpot preached the gospel about Jesus Christ. And the boy turned to his mother and he said you know we've tried everything else. We've tried doctors. We've tried hospitals. We haven't tried Jesus. Just give Jesus a try.

And right there in this seat the two of them committed themselves to Jesus Christ and were born again. They went out. The boy later told the story to Dr. Stilpot and this is how we know it. He said Pastor Stilpot if I walked out there were a group of people getting on a streetcar. We had streetcars back in those days you'll remember. And so the streetcar stopped and said I was peeling in my pocket and here was my package of dope because I was standing right by a sewer. I took it out of my hand out of my pocket and I said in the power of Jesus Christ I claimed victory over you and I threw the dope down the sewer and said Pastor Stilpot I've never had a problem since. I went home and went to bed and slept like a baby and Jesus Christ has saved me and given me victory.

You see people are still looking to Jesus and finding life. That's what we want you to do today. If you've never looked to Jesus Christ, oh my friend look to him, because when you look you live.

Our Father we're thankful that we have a salvation at work. We can simply put our faith in Jesus Christ who is crucified. I pray that there will be many today who, hearing this message, will trust in Him. For it's in his name that we pray. Amen.