Please stand with me as we read the word of God. We'll be reading from Numbers chapter 21 verses 4 through 9. Numbers chapter 21 verses 4 through 9. Hear now the word of our Lord. 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 everyone 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. All of God's people said, Amen. Please remain standing as we pray to our God. Our Father in heaven, we do ask as we look at this text that you would open our eyes to understand it. And that the Holy Spirit would be at work to enlighten our minds. to help us to see the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ that are contained here, and that we might look and believe and have that redemption. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well, as most of you know, I am at the picture book, or picture Bible age with my daughters. We're going through different picture Bibles, trying to find the best one. And I've noticed that none of them that I have found have this story in it. It's not very common. Perhaps it's too violent. I'm not sure why it didn't make the cut, but it's not very popular. I mean, you get the stories of the flood, you get Abraham, Isaac, you get Joseph, the crossing of the Red Sea, David and Goliath, Solomon, and numerous other Old Testament stories, but not this story about the Israelites in the wilderness, and these serpents, biting them, killing them, and then the Lord providing a way of redemption. Even though it's not so well known as an Old Testament story, interestingly enough, our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was speaking to Nicodemus in John 3, mentioned this story. He connected it to one of the most famous verses in the Bible, which is John 3, 16. John 3.16 says, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Right before those verses, in verses 14 through 15, Jesus uses this story as the illustration, as the explanation of what that looks like for people to believe in Him and to be saved and have everlasting life. Verse 14 of John 3, it says, 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. So that verse, John 3, 16, that has been used for thousands of years to concisely explain the gospel is connected to this story in the Old Testament of the serpents in the wilderness and this bronze serpent that is the way of redemption. So the fact that our Lord mentions this story should make us very interested to see what is the connection here. What is the meaning of this story in relation to the work of our Lord? Why did he mention this story, of all stories that he could have mentioned, when he explained to Nicodemus the way of salvation, regeneration, the new birth? And so we want to see what is the connection between these things as we look at the story in Numbers. This story in Numbers is not the only example of where the children of Israel were complaining. There's numerous examples in the Old Testament. Some of them came with different judgments. Sometimes the Lord was very merciful in particular. But this particular account comes when the children of Israel are heading back to the promised land. They had already tried to enter. Of course, they had chosen not to initially when Joshua and Caleb came back and said, we can conquer them. We have God behind us. We can do this. They were afraid and they were going to make an attempt on their own. And God said, no, you're not going in. You will have to wait a whole generation because you did not believe my word. So they have waited at this point and they are now journeying back towards the promised land, preparing for their eventual entrance into the promised land, and they want to go through the land of Edom. They want this shortcut so that they don't have to go all the way around to get back to the promised land. And so that's when this happens. They're in the years of wandering in the wilderness, and it was a much more direct route to go through Edom than it was to have to go around. You'll notice at the beginning of our text, verse 4, it says, Other translations say they were going to the Red Sea. Well, that's where they came from, right? They don't want to go back to the Red Sea. They're trying to go north. They're trying to get into the Promised Land. And so they're on a detour, a very long detour. And it's on this occasion that the people become angry and frustrated with the Lord and with what He has appointed for them. So in this short story, it's only a couple verses, we have encapsulated for us the gospel as a whole. We have a picture of all the basics. We see the sinfulness of man. the Israelites complaining against the Lord. We see God's judgment, just judgment against these people who have done these things. And then we see the mercy of God providing a way for them to be saved from the judgment. All of that is here in these five verses. So let's look at beginning at verse four. It says, They journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. So if you go back one chapter in Numbers to Numbers 20, they have requested of the Edomites passage. They said, can we please go through your land? We're not going to take anything. We're not going to mess with your food. We won't touch your fields. We just want to pass through, save ourselves a little bit on this trip. But the Lord had instructed them specifically, of course, that they couldn't take the land of Edom. And they didn't plan to. But he said, you cannot conquer the land of Edom. It is the inheritance of Esau and his descendants. It's not for you. But they just want to go through. They just want to pass, save a little bit of the journey. We see what happens in Numbers 20, verse 17. The Israelites asked, let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the king's highway. We will not turn to the right hand nor to the left until we have passed thy borders.' And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword." So the answer, it was clear. There's no passage through Edom. They're not going this way. If you go through Edom, they're going to come out with swords, they're going to fight you to the death. You can't go through Edom. And so Moses and the children of Israel have to go around, there's no other way, so they begin that circuitous, long route around Edom. We've all had the difficult and trying experience of a detour. The road gets closed, and you have to spend 30 minutes winding through other roads that you didn't expect. It can be a trying experience, patience building experience. But their detour was much more significant than a 30 minute detour. This was going to take them a very long time to have to go around. And they had already encountered so many setbacks on their journey. Of course, most of those were self-imposed setbacks. They had had the opportunity many years before to go in. but they had not believed the Lord. So these difficulties were self-inflicted, but who do they blame? The Lord and his servant, Moses. It says, the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. Some translations say they became impatient on the way. They were impatient with God and the way that he had appointed for them to go, they did not want to deal with it any longer. They were frustrated, they were tired, and they didn't like the food God was giving them either. They wanted something else. They were discontent. Notice their complaint in verse 5. This is a serious complaint. They speak against God and against Moses, the servant that God has appointed. This is the same God who had mercifully redeemed them from Egypt. He had brought the plagues upon the Egyptians. He had brought them through the Red Sea, as we read about earlier. He had saved them at every point. He had provided for them food for every single day that they needed it. And yet, they speak against God. They blaspheme both the minister of God that was appointed to serve them, Moses, and they blaspheme God himself. They repudiate his authority over them. They don't want anything to do. They are complaining and they want to have their own way now. And they even say, we hate this bread, we hate this manna that you've given us. They despise what God had given them, the gifts that God had given them, the life-giving food that they had in the desert. They didn't want any more of it. Notice the strange contradiction in their complaint. There's no bread, neither is there any water, and yet they say, our soul loatheth this light bread. So which one is it? Do they have food and water or not? Apparently they have something. It's kind of like the discontented teenager that opens the pantry door and looks inside and says, there's nothing to eat. When there is all different kinds of things to eat, it's just not what they want. They're discontent, right? When there's nothing to eat, it's because what I want isn't here right now. And that was the situation of the Israelites. They didn't want the manna anymore. They were tired of it. It was old. They'd had that for years. We want something else. We do not want this anymore. So they're spitting in the face of God, the God who had not let them starve. When we see the judgment of God in these accounts, it surprises us. We think, wow, That is incredible, this immense judgment that comes upon these people. These are the people of God. How could God do this? And yet we forget that over and over the Lord had already been merciful to them. How much more judgment did they deserve that they never received? God had cared for them every step of the way, even when they were unthankful. And they had done this before. This is not their first offense. We see it back in Numbers 11. If you take a look at Numbers 11, the complaint of the people. Numbers 11 verses 1 through 3. When the people complained, it displeased the Lord, and the Lord heard it, and His anger was kindled. And the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses, and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Taborah, because the fire of the Lord burnt among them." So often it was complaining. They were constantly complaining, saying silly and ridiculous things like, why did you bring us out here to die? Which clearly God had not brought them out there to die because he'd kept them alive the whole time. But what is it in complaining that is such a big problem? What makes it such an evil thing when we complain against the Lord? Well, it's a lie about God and what He has done. It's a lie about who He is. When we complain, we are saying, God, you are not good. You're not as good as you should be. Otherwise, you would be doing this for me. To be ungrateful to God, who gives us far more than we deserve, is to lie about God and His character. When the children of Israel complained about their lack, they were ignoring time after time after time after time that God had provided for them and cared for them. The children of Israel had thousands of instances of God's faithfulness that they could recount, and yet, as we sometimes say, familiarity breeds contempt. They had contempt for the things that God had given them. This discontentment and ungratefulness is a picture of all of us, all of humankind really. We have all been ungrateful for what the Lord has done for us. There are millions of people who every day they get up, they have breakfast, they drive their cars to work, they go home in peace with all that they need above what they need. Every day they live by the mercies of God and yet they will not acknowledge Him. Not at all. In fact, sometimes if you bring his name up to them, they get angry. They particularly don't want to acknowledge him, do they? But all the food they eat, the house they enjoy, the car they use, the friends they have, all of these things have been given to them by the Lord. They are undeserved gifts from the hand of God when all of us deserve the judgment of God instead. The book of Romans describes this when it describes mankind in Romans 1 verse 21. that the fallenness of our condition, the sinfulness of it, is that we don't give thanks to God. Verse 21, Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Paul tells us that mankind in sin does not thank God, they receive all these things from the hand of God. Everybody's living on borrowed capital. We eat God's food, we breathe God's air, and then we don't give thanks to Him. The fact that your heart is still beating is the mercy of God. Just as God could send fiery serpents among anyone at any time to destroy them, so He could stop that heartbeat in a second. He has that power in His hand. He has the power to sustain us, and He has the power to remove us. The Scriptures tell us that one of the reasons God is so kind to undeserving sinners is to lead them to repentance. Why is it that He's so kind to people that spit in His face day after day? It's to lead them to repentance, Romans 2, verses 4 through 5. Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance? and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. But after thy hardness an impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And so for the Israelites as well, who had already received God's mercies, this should have had an overflow of thanksgiving in their lives. That God was going to sustain us still. Even though we can't go through Edom, He's going to feed us. He's going to get us to that promised land that He promised to us. But instead, they rebel, they blaspheme, and they fight against the Lord. So the result of that is the judgment. Verse 6. It says, that the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died." So over and over again, God's mercy had been displayed, His faithfulness had been displayed, and the people were ungrateful. Sometimes the Lord held back. He didn't judge them for every single infraction. He is merciful like that. He doesn't, for every single sin, give us an equal punishment. But here, He does judge them. He sends this frightening judgment of serpents upon them. The Lord is not to be trifled with. Our God is a consuming fire, the scriptures say, and God judged his own people by sending the fiery serpents to the people. Now, what is so strange about this account is how the Lord sends this judgment, how the Lord judges the people. He sends these snakes amongst them. We have the earlier example of Numbers 11 with the fire, but here we have these snakes. It's obvious to us who are familiar with Scripture how the Bible portrays snakes. We all go back to Genesis 2 and 3 and we see the first snake, the serpent, deceiving Eve and Adam and the fall into sin that resulted from that first serpent. And everywhere snakes are described in scripture that would be abhorred, they are considered to be evil, symbolic of evil. And God sends the judgment using a picture of the curse itself, the snakes, the venom of the snakes to come and to destroy them. God uses a picture of the curse, the symbol, the ultimate symbol of sin and death, the snake, to kill his people. And when the text says fiery serpents, it probably isn't referring to dragon-breathing serpents or something. It's more likely that the venom itself had the effect of feeling like fire as it went through the veins and killed them. And the verse is clear when it says that the Lord sent the snakes. God is the one who did this. God didn't just allow the children of Israel to fall into the snake pit or to run across these snakes. He sent them. as an act of judgment. It was in his sovereign power that the judgment came upon them. We see how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. As Hebrews 10 tells us, the judgment of God is a fearful thing. For we know him that said, Vengeance belongs unto me, and I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And while that is true, we much more want to fall into the hands of the mercy of God, don't we? We don't want the hands of judgment that we fall into. And that is indeed what we see. We see the mercy of God in this story as well. He provides a way of redemption for these people who have sinned against Him. And as with many other accounts where the people of Israel acted sinfully, they go to Moses, they ask for Moses to pray, and to allay this judgment. Verses seven through nine. 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 bit any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. So the children of Israel were humbled. They had been brought low by this judgment. They couldn't do anything to stop it. Many of them had died. We don't know how many, but it was a significant number. And now they confess their sins. They see the judgment and they see the sin. They say, we have sinned for we've spoken against the Lord and against you. And Moses, he intercedes, he prays for them, even though he had been spoken against, he mercifully did so, prayed that God would stop the judgment. Now before we go any further, I want to bring back John 3 here to see the connections as the bronze serpent goes up. What are the connections with the work of Christ? John 3 verse 13, it says, No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. 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, that have eternal life. So what's even more astonishing here is the fact that our Lord likens Himself to a serpent of all things. Elsewhere, He's described as the Lamb of God, describing His place as a sacrifice for the people. Elsewhere, He's described as the lion, you know, speaks of His kingly office. But here, He's likened to a snake. Elsewhere, snakes are evil. How can he be likened unto a snake? That seems to set everything upside down that we know of. Why didn't God tell Moses to put a sheep on a pole? And they would look at the sheep and be saved. Instead, he gives this serpent. Put the serpent on the pole. They're dying from serpents. Look at the serpent. You'll be saved. Doesn't seem to be the normal medicine you would use. But Jesus does compare himself to the serpent, and there are good reasons for that. And I wanna give you five points of connection between the bronze serpent and Christ, or the story as a whole. So the first connection is that in this story, and in general, people are sinners. The people of Israel had sinned against God, so also all mankind has sinned against the Lord. Jesus came to save sinners. The children of Israel here in this story were under the just judgment of God, and so we also, we are born sinners, we are under the just judgment of God, we deserve nothing but judgment, and we have the venom of sin in us. It is killing us, unless we have that venom overcome by the right medicine. And so that's the first connection. The people sinned. Second connection, God judged the people. Just as God judged the people of Israel here, so he judges all mankind by the standard of his law. The scriptures say in Romans 6 verse 23 that the wages of sin is death. That is the just judgment for each and every one of us. And for us, if we reach the judgment seat of Christ on that great day, and we have not been justified by faith clothed in the righteousness of Christ, then we will go into everlasting judgment, and it will be just." So that's the second connection, God judged the people. The third connection is God provided the way of redemption. In Numbers 21, it is the Lord who tells Moses to put this bronze serpent up and to have the people to look to it. And in the gospel, he gives us his most precious gift. As John 3, 16 says, he gave his only son that we might have eternal life. God is the judge, but God provides the way of redemption through his son. God gave out of his love his most precious gift. And in Numbers 21, it was through this strange bronze serpent. But in John 3 and in the Gospel, it is the Son of God Himself who gives His own life, lays it down willingly that we might have that venom of sin removed. The fourth connection, God brought salvation by using a picture of the curse itself. God brought salvation by using a picture of the curse itself. So in the story in Numbers, God tells Moses to make the serpent, which is a picture, a replica if you will, of what is killing them. Serpents are killing them, look to a serpent to be saved. And as I asked, why didn't God put something else? Why a cow or a lamb or some other innocent animal, a sacrifice for sin and atonement? Why this ugly bronze serpent of all things? The same might be asked in terms of the cross. Why did it take the cross, this ugly picture of suffering and sin and death, to save us? As the scriptures say that God sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh, he's like us, but that he also placed him upon a tree. Galatians 3.13, it says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth. on a tree. Jesus Christ was the innocent Lamb of God. He was sinless, perfect, undefiled, and yet He willingly took upon Himself our sins and took upon Himself the picture of that curse itself, which we now look to. We look to that cross, that ugly thing that is a picture of sin and death to be saved. God used a picture of the curse in both examples. And then the fifth one, the final point of connection, the means of redemption is to look, or to put it another way, faith. John 3.16 says, whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. And so in This example, in Numbers, the people were to look. It was simple. All they had to do was to turn their eyes to where that bronze serpent was, and the curse would be removed from them. They didn't have to do anything else. The only command was to look. And so to be saved from the wrath of God, so we also, we must look unto Christ. We look in His direction, and we are saved when we believe in Him. And so we, having the venom of sin in ourselves, we know that we cannot overcome this. We will die of sin. We can't look to ourselves. We need a Savior. We have to look away from ourselves unto the redemption that God has provided. And we see the mercy of God that He provides a way in which all we have to do is to look. We don't have to work our way to heaven. You can't do it. Sin is killing you and will kill you. All of us have transgressed the laws of God. We can't keep them perfectly. We cannot make this the way to heaven. And so Romans 10 verse nine tells us, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It was God's mercy that in his grace he saved the children of Israel from this judgment, and it is his mercy that he saves us by his free grace alone. All they had to do was to look. And in Isaiah chapter 45, all the nations are commanded to look. They are called to look unto God for salvation. Isaiah 45 verse 22. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. All the saints of the past can testify that at some point in their lives, they had to come to that realization. that they just needed to look to Christ. They couldn't save themselves. They had to stop their self-salvation projects and look to the Savior, the only way of salvation for all of us. And I want to share with you one such story from the life of Charles Spurgeon, who actually references this account from Numbers. And in this story, you're going to hear the simple words of a Methodist lay preacher that I think exactly get the point of this text across for us. It was January 6, 1850, and Spurgeon was 15 years old, only a couple of years away from the time he became a preacher, and preached to thousands. He says, I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God and sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street and came to a little primitive Methodist chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. The minister did not come that morning. He was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker or tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope in that text for me. The preacher began thus. My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says look. Now looking, don't take a deal of pain. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger, it is just look. Well, a man needn't need to go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look, even a child can look. But then the text says, look unto me. Many of you are looking to yourselves, but it's no use looking there. You will never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father, no look to him. through Jesus Christ. Look unto me, it says. Then the good man followed up his text in this way. Look unto me, I am sweating in great drops of blood. Look unto me, I am hanging on a cross. Look unto me, I am dead and buried. Look unto me, I rise again. Look unto me, I ascend to heaven. Look unto me, I sit at the right hand of God. O poor sinner, look unto me, look unto me. When he had gone to about that length and managed to spin out 10 minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery and said, and with so few many, he knew me to be a stranger, and just fixing his eyes on me as if he knew all my heart, he said, young man, you look very miserable. Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow struck right home. He continued, and you always will be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved. Then lifting up his hands, he shouted as only a primitive Methodist could do, young man, look to Jesus. Look, look, look. You have nothing to do but to look and live. I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said. I did not take much notice. I was so possessed with one thought, like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed. So it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, look, what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could have almost looked my eyes away. Then and there the cloud was gone. The darkness had rolled away and that moment I saw the sun and could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them. Of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith which looks alone to him and now I can say, ere since by faith I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. The story of Spurgeon's conversion is the story of many others. It is all for each of us to look by faith unto the Son of God. None of us are any different from the Israelites. They were beneficiaries of God's mercies day after day. And all of us have seen mercy because we are still here. We are still breathing God's air, enjoying God's creation. And like Spurgeon, you are here today and the gospel of Jesus Christ has been set before you once again. So the question is, will you now look? Will you believe in the Son of God who died and rose again that you may be saved? Will you repent of your ungratefulness to God who has given you all things from your very birth without deserving any of it? No matter how long we've been members of the church, we all need to be reminded of these things. We all need to be reminded to keep looking to Jesus. Whether you have never looked to Jesus or you've been looking for 50 years, you are to keep looking to Jesus. Hebrews 12 tells us what we are to be looking unto. Verse 2 of chapter 12 of Hebrews, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The difference between the bronze serpent and Christ is that all they had to do was to look once and the venom was gone. We continue that looking by faith, day by day, looking unto our Lord Jesus Christ. So this morning, brothers and sisters, we are reminded to keep looking, look unto Christ. And it reminds us of who we are. It's a reminder of who God is, a reminder of who Christ is and what He has done for sinners like you and me. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the abundant mercy and grace that we hear once again in this text from your Word. We thank you for the glorious gospel of your Son by which we are saved. And we also in this text, we see ourselves, we see our ingratitude, our unthankfulness, we see our rebellion, and we see that we are totally undeserving of your grace. But we also see our Savior lifted up on the pole as the way of salvation for all who believe. And I pray, Lord, that you would give us that faith to look and to continue to look all the days of our life. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.