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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 
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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