Our Condition Is Mortal
and death stalks us all. There's no way of getting around it. Unless the Lord Jesus comes back, even children, you will one day die. I mentioned this in a vacation Bible school, and it was just a bunch of kids, and we were encouraging to them, but we also wanted to tell them the truth that one day you will die, and that there's a need for being reconciled unto God.
But if our nature remains unchanged, if our record in heaven remains unchanged before God, God's wrath and just punishment will fall upon us. Therefore, our illness, our snake bite, if you will, is mortal. It's extremely dangerous. That's the first point.
And you may say, This isn't very good news. Well, you have to tell, as ministers, you have to tell the bad news before you get to the good news. Or, so to speak, you have to get people lost in order for them to get saved. And you may say, well, I'm a Christian.
There's nothing wrong with the gospel, because now I get to bring the second point is, and that is God has planned our rescue. He has planned our rescue.
God Has Planned Our Rescue
God himself planned the solution in Numbers chapter 21. Not Moses, or the people, or the prophets, but God who is rich in mercy. Rich in mercy. Again, I brought out so many illustrations to where God showed such grace to the people in spite of the fact that they had sinned and continue to sin against God.
And so to speak, just raised their fists in the face of God, daring him to judge them. And the way they complained against God, and against his appointed authority. But I want you to notice that in the Numbers 21, God appointed one solution for their sin. The symbol alone could not save, but the people afflicted must look in order to be healed.
Now the power is not in the people, and some would say the power is not in the bronze snake, and it's not, it's in the very God who gave that solution, that one solution for the salvation of their bodies. The gospel application is God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Think about this for a moment. God has given his only.
There's no other sons. You may say, well, I'm a son of God. It's only by adoption through Jesus Christ. But remember that.
God has only sent one representative. It's not Muhammad. It's not Buddha. It's not Joseph Smith.
It's not the Pope. God has sent his only begotten son. His only, none other, begotten, proceeded from the Father of the same nature as God the Father. He sent his only begotten son that whoever believes in him, whoever receives and rests upon him alone, has eternal life and shall not perish.
Only one way. God's only way. But remember, as in the Numbers passage, it took faith for the people to believe that word from Moses to look to the bronze serpent. Same thing with us.
Saving faith is a gift from God. And who is the object of that faith? Well, it's not a bronze serpent, and it's not our free will. It is Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son.
Man did not come up with this remedy. In fact, man has invented many cures for his sin and they don't work. Your good works cannot offset your bad works. I was talking to a fellow, my wife and I walk every night and we go down our main street and we've gotten to know a few people They're along the way, and so they know we're Christians.
And the one fellow was telling me that he's planning on getting to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. And so I said something that shocked me. I said, you know, no one is going to go to heaven because they keep the Ten Commandments. There's only one.
That's the Lord Jesus who kept the law. I said, but we cannot have any hope of making it to heaven just because you think you keep the Ten Commandments. I told him, you probably don't even know the Ten Commandments. I didn't want to get in a fist fight with the guy.
But the bottom line is, when I told him that, he was shocked. He says, the Ten Commandments can't get you to heaven? I said, no. You can't be your own savior.
Only Jesus can save. So therefore, man has come up with a lot of different ideas. It's always the good offsetting the bad. Please tell me the good that you're doing that offsets the bad.
We don't even do that in our own country in America. I'm sure you do it here in Canada. If a man is guilty of murder, the judge doesn't say, well, on the fact that you have done A, B, C, and D, we're going to let you go free. That would be unjust.
You see, the good doesn't outweigh the bad. The bad is bad. Man cannot come up with this cure. If the people in the desert ignored, looking to that God-ordained command to looked at that serpent, they would have died.
They would have died. It's the same thing here with the Lord Jesus Christ. To ignore that would be death. But the good news is God has ordained one way, not a bunch of different confusing ways, one way to be right with Him.
And the key is God has ordained the way. He has ordained it as found in His word. Man may make his inventions, may make his schemes, but they're not God approved, but dangerous. Very dangerous.
They're deadly. I was raised in the Roman Catholic system. They told me that if I didn't commit any mortal sins, and I went to confession and confessed my sins to a bachelor priest, who I didn't sin against, that I would have some of my sins forgiven. And then when I die, I can burn in purgatory for a period of time and make it to heaven.
Wow, that is a great gospel, isn't it? No, it's not. That's no gospel at all. There's no good hope, good news, nothing whatsoever.
It's why we're miserable as Catholics. It's miserable. It's a miserable religion as well as any religion that will now put the weight of your sin on you until you perform and maybe you can get part of that sin off of your back. It's very dangerous, it's mortal, it is deadly, and there's no good news to man's inventions of being saved from their sins.
An Unlikely Rescue
Which brings us to a third point, which is a very unlikely rescue. Just as it appears unlikely that a bronze snake on a pole could heal the rebels, that's what they were, rebels, one man dying about 2,100 years ago would appear equally unlikely to do anything. I'm going to speak as a fool for a while here. Forgiveness of our sin in Adam and the cartload of our abominations, and one man just dying 2,100 years ago is going to take care of that?
I mean, consider our sins, our lies, our sexual impurity, our murderers, our ignoring the worship of God, profanity, taking God's name in vain, disobeying our parents, drugs, drunkenness, homosexuality, and one man is going to atone for that particular sin, it would appear to be very unlikely that this could happen. And consider that all of these sins that we have committed, we delight in. How can it be that one man can cover those sins before a good God? And consider this as well when we talk about our sin.
The sin is against a good God. God is good. He is good to His creation. Even if you're an unbeliever, you still experience God's goodness.
Man and woman, they fall in love, they get married. That's a gift from God. They have children. They enjoy their children.
It's a gift from God. You enjoy food and drink. That's a gift from God. They have a job.
They enjoy friends. Just the simple pleasures of life. We live in Garden Grove. It's a concrete jungle there.
So we come to these beautiful areas, and we see these trees. I'm blown away at the fact that there's green trees all over the place. Here, we went on a trip to Washington and Oregon. Again, we're blown away.
I couldn't help but praise the Lord his goodness by his beauty, and the skies are amazing, and this is all of God's goodness, and yet we sin against this God and don't even stop for a moment to lift our eyes to heaven and thank him for all of his goodness, all of his goodness. We as brethren, we should be quick to thank the Lord for those small mercies, but I'm saying that it appears unlikely that a Jew dying for people would atone for their sin. Remember, to Jews, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a stumbling block. How absurd that one cursed on a tree could bring me forgiveness of sins.
Cursed is every man who hangs on a tree. And to the Greek, to the Gentile, it's foolishness. What does a Jew have to do with me? Well, now I'm going to stop talking as a fool. because God's ways are not our ways.
In fact, God's way is beyond our thinking. When you consider John 14 and 15, Moses lifted the serpent up in the wilderness, whoever believed in him shall not perish, Jesus Christ's claim is that the Father sent him, the only begotten son, as savior of the world, Jews and Gentiles. Let me pose something to you as well. And I'm just being suggestive here.
In the Numbers passage, can it be that there was a, you've heard of the term mixed multitude? The mixed multitude was mentioned earlier in the book of Numbers, that there was a mixed multitude with the people. Chances are there might've been people with the Israelites that were not Jews. Again, I'm just being suggestive because we're gonna open this up to the fact that if they were bitten by snakes, let's say you had a mixed multitude, and some of the people that they had conquered joined them, and they were bitten by the snake, if they looked to the pole, they would be healed, regardless if they're Jews or Gentiles, okay?
We can apply that same principle that whoever looks to the Lord Jesus Christ, whether it is a Jew, whether it's a Gentile, they will be saved. Remember who our Lord is speaking to. He's speaking to a Jew. He's speaking to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, as well as all the Jews, considered that God's favor was only to the Jewish people, not to the Gentiles. They didn't have any dealings with the Gentiles. They'd get done interacting with the Gentile. They'd come in and have this ceremonial washing, get the Gentile filth off of them.
That's the way they looked at Gentiles. When our Lord said, for God so loved the world, We're talking about every tribe and tongue and nation of people that God had regard for, God was good to, it just blew Nicodemus away. But that is the good news of the gospel. Consider the gospel was all the way over in Israel.
It comes all the way over to us here in America, 2,100 or 2,000 years later, it comes to us. We believe this holy gospel. It is so unlikely that we would all congregate together on a Sunday evening to praise the Lord because he has saved us and we desire our children to be saved. They're here.
Visitors come in here. They want to be saved. It is so unlikely. It really is.
But God's ways is far above our own ways. I also want you to consider something else. When you consider the gospel of Jesus Christ, Him dying for sinners. Him claiming to have died for sinners.
The one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. Consider this as well. Do not make this mistake and think that because you do not perfectly understand the entirety of Christ's work on the cross, accomplishing salvation for his elect, and until I understand it perfectly, I will not submit to this gospel. That would be a very dangerous mistake.
Just as it would have been a very dangerous mistake for those Israelites to say, wait a minute, Moses, none of them did this, but bear with me. Just imagine them going to Moses and saying, you know, it doesn't make any sense that a bronze snake is going to heal me if I get bit by a snake. You have to explain it to me perfectly so I might know that this is going to work. None of them did that, thankfully, but if they did, they would have died.
And even though we know as much as we can about the gospel, and we should know as much as we can about the gospel, if you know that you are a wicked person, I'm not trying to get in a fistfight with you, but if you realize that you are a sinner, you have broken God's law, and you see that Jesus Christ is the only remedy for your sin sick soul, you believe that, you submit to that, ask God to help you to grow in that grace and knowledge. But it's wonderful to consider what Christ has done. By His shed blood, He has forgiven us of so much sin, saving us from the wrath to come. That's amazing.
And to show God's love and goodness, he brings to our memory the sins that we committed before we came to Christ, and it would not appear that we were savable at all. And yet, he had mercy, satisfying that divine justice, the forgiveness of sins. While those Hebrews looked, we look, not at a literal cross with a man stapled to it, but we look at his word that is proclaimed before us We look to the Savior. When we look, it's another word to believe, to receive, and rest upon Him alone for the salvation of our souls.
Here's another gospel application. Just as the cure was in the shape of a snake, the serpents that bit them, that's what it was in, serpents that bit them. It was a reminder to the people of their sin. Remember that snake lifted up?
It reminds them of their sin. It really does. Our gospel application is the one who knew no sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
Christ became sin for us. When we view our Lord Jesus' death, we view it as we partake of the Lord's Supper. We view it even as the Word of God is being preached. We view it as we read God's Word.
When we see that, We see the ugliness of our sin. How grotesque it really is. And this should make us hate our sin more and more. That's a good thing to hate our sin more and more because then we will love our Savior more and more.
Grace abounds. Grace abounds. But should we sin all the more so that grace abounds? Well, God forbid, no.
This should help us in our sanctification to consider that our sins were placed in Christ. He died for those sins. He suffered horribly for those sins. Remember, there's only one thing that caused our Lord to be afraid.
Only one thing. He was not afraid of Herod. He wasn't afraid of the Sadducees and the Herodians or the Pharisees. He was fearful that he had to suffer the wrath of God, great drops of blood fell from him.
He was fearful, trembling, even, Father, if it's your will for this cup to pass from me, nevertheless, my will, but your will be done. But he was fearful of that, fearful of that. And yet he still went to the cross and died for us. The ugliness of our sin is taken away.
Remember this, brethren, those of you that are in Christ, that grotesque, ugly sin does not cling to you anymore. Before God, your record is the righteousness of Christ, if I could use an accounting term. Initially, before we came to Christ, it was a minus. Think of the biggest number you can think of, gazillion.
That is what we owe God because of our sin. Christ comes, but when he comes and gives us his righteousness, it's imputed to us, put to our account, It's not like we get a zero, oh wait, we're at zero now, no. We have the righteousness of Christ, which, okay, think of the biggest number you can. It's a poor illustration, but I hope you see that there has been much forgiven and much given.
Much forgiven, yet much has been given unto us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So therefore, in the preaching of God's word, we should have a sanctifying effect upon us. Looking to Jesus Christ and seeing our sins in him, should have a sanctifying effect upon us. And as you partake of the Lord's Supper, that should have a sanctifying effect upon you.
No One Is Too Bad to Come
Now, as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness for all to see, and Christ obviously is lifted up for all the world to see, consider that no one is too bad to be a Christian. Okay? You don't get yourself cleaned up and then come to Christ. Those people that were bitten, by the snakes, they just didn't look for, okay, let's get some type of anti-venom in us, let's get a little bit better and then we'll look.
No, they looked, they looked. And the same thing with us that are in Christ is that we flee to him. Now, an important thing for us to feel, and I'm going to use the word feel, is to feel your need for Christ. Now, you may say, well, I've been a Christian for 30, 40 years, which I've been a Christian for 30, 40 years.
Does that mean that I don't see my need for Christ on a daily basis? That would be wrong. I see my need for Christ every day because I sin, and I sin against great light. I should know better. when I sin, and so it is to help us in our walk with him.
Grace Comes When Least Expected
Next, we see grace here. The serpent on the pole was least expected. If you ask the Jews what you think you're gonna get from God, okay, the snakes would have been removed, but they would never have imagined a snake on a pole, them looking on that snake on the pole would have delivered them from some great salvation of being saved from being bitten by these snakes. So remember that when we're least expected, when we heard the gospel come to us, it gave us relief.
But before the gospel came to us, the law came to us and condemned us. And therefore, we were under a great load of sin and condemnation. For me, I'll just speak for me personally, I had no hope of being saved. My ideas of being right with God was I got to do better.
There must be something I can do. Maybe I can be a missionary and die on the mission field, and then God will let me into heaven. That was not going to get me to heaven. But what God was doing was just showing me that I had no hope in myself whatsoever.
None. My only hope. in God, and then in the time I just didn't expect it, the gospel came to me, and the lights went on. My eyes were open, my ears, and all of a sudden I could see that my righteousness was only in Jesus Christ, in what He had done for sinners, and that He proved it by being raised from the dead. Grip on to the Savior when that comes.
You hold on to Him like death. And I wasn't expecting it. And I'm just submitting to you. Some of us, oh yes, we kind of expected it.
Or many of us may have thought, I'm too lost to be saved. And when you least expect it, the good news comes to you. What a relief. I've been rescued from my sin.
I've been rescued from that day of wrath. And you look around you, and remember unbelief does indeed have an effect on us. and all the unbelief around us, as well as within us, has an effect on us. We least expect it, God comes and saves us from a hopeless future, a present ill of remaining sin, and God calls us children, sons of the living God. Wait a minute, God, my past wasn't very good.
Forgiven. forgiven. Look at the thief on the cross. All he knew was that Jesus didn't deserve to die. He deserved to die.
He probably heard of Jesus and that's why he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And I love what our Lord said, because it says it to us, this day you will be with me in paradise. When you get ready to close your eyes, I would submit to you that it would be appropriate prayer from the heart. Lord Jesus, receive me.
Remember me in your kingdom as you close your eyes in death. And I have a sneaky suspicion what happened to Stephen will probably happen to us. Stephen was a Christian and he died. He saw the Lord Jesus as the Lord was taking his soul out of his body.
Comfort for the Christian. We have something that the world knows nothing of, my brethren, that is with peace with God. forsaking of the sin, embracing the Savior. And I would submit to you that there is going to be a temptation, especially young people here, please hear me on this. I've been a pastor and a Christian long enough that I've seen young people who made a profession of faith in Christ and they fell away.
So hear me on this, hear me kids, please hear me. And hear me all, hear me all.
Persevere in Christ Alone
Do not seek other remedies for your soul. Do not seek any recipes for your soul. Do not seek any savior for your soul but Jesus Christ and Him alone. Please hear me on this.
Do not go back to Rome. I've had too many people that profess faith in Christ and they went back to Roman Catholicism or they just went to be an atheist or an agnostic. and they can't even be found in a church anywhere. More than I can number, so much so I'm holding back the tears. It's horrible how many have fallen away.
My dear brethren, don't look for other saviors. Don't look to your goodness. Don't look for another gospel. Remember those Hebrews, they just looked for one recipe, one remedy for their survival, the snake.
Us, we look to Jesus Christ and Him alone. Do not, do not be tempted to go after other remedies. Whatever God has not commanded, don't even give it a glance. What God has commanded, listen, listen to these words, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, the world is already condemned, but that the world through him might be saved. That gives hope for every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every person. No one is too bad to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when we take a look at John chapter 3, as I want to conclude now, we see our Lord stressing to Nicodemus, who was a teacher of Israel, the necessity of the new birth, and yet the poor man never got it. But you know what? I think he did later on. He did ask.
He and Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of our Lord. I would say that took grace. That took faith. Just being suggestive here, but I'm strongly suggesting to you that Nicodemus look to that one.
In spite of the fact that here Nicodemus was confused, we don't hear anything at all about him until later on. I find that interesting. But I just want you to see here that our Lord dealt graciously with this teacher of Israel. He could have just stopped teaching, saying, you should know better.
I'll see you later. Bye. Or he could have treated him like he maybe treated some of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and just gave them law and turned and walked away. But he didn't.
He told them, remember Numbers 21? He didn't say Numbers 21, but remember the serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness? Do you remember that one, Nicodemus? Yeah, I think I do.
And what did the people do? They looked. Were they healed? Yes.
Okay, I have your attention now. God sent a remedy. He has sent a remedy in me. Look to me, and you will be saved from your sins.
Nicodemus had to come under conviction of sin, but look at how our Lord dealt with him in such a gracious way, how he's dealt with us in a very gracious way. He has caused those words 2,000 years ago to be frozen on paper, and we have it right here. We get to read it. We get to read it.
Before the 1500s, before the printing press, we didn't have Bibles. It was usually chained to some church building, And people, all they had was the preaching of the word of God on Sunday. They were not able to read their Bibles daily like we can now. It's a wonderful blessing and a wonderful mercy that the Lord has given unto us.
So, he who believes in him is not condemned. So we take comfort in knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is a savior of his people. He's also the head of this church. That's a comfort to us as well.
Not a man, it's not Pastor Butler, it's not me, not anyone that fills a pulpit, regardless of what that man in Rome says, these men are not heads of the church. Jesus Christ alone is the head of the church. Jesus Christ alone is the savior of the church. Jesus Christ alone was raised from the dead.
And you know what his command is to us? Even as believers of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, he says to us, look, Believe upon me. Believe upon me. And we will have joy unspeakable.
Amen. Let's pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your Son, your only begotten Son. We give you thanks that you've given us eyes to see, ears to hear. And we give you thanks that you've granted unto us mercy. You've not given unto us what we deserve.
You've shown great grace and mercy unto us. Be gracious to this assembly. Save the children. Sanctify your people.
Be gracious to Pastor Butler and his family as they head on their vacation. Be gracious unto them and give them a good time and preservation and bring them back safely and guard this pulpit while he is away. Have mercy upon us. Grant unto us a blessed rest of this Lord's day as we remember our Lord Jesus' resurrection from the dead.
We give you thanks. We bow before you. We love you because you have first loved us and sent your son to be the propitiation for our sins. And we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. you