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and death stalks is 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 plan 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 continued to sin against God and and so to speak just raise 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 and 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 a 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 son so 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 talking to a fellow my wife and I walk every night and we go down our Main Street and we've got 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 you probably don't even know the Ten Commandments I didn't want getting a fist fight with the guy but the the bottom line is when I told him that he was shocked he says you the Ten Commandments can 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 what 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 look 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 is ordained the way he is ordained it as founded in his word man they 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 well 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 in a bronze snake on a pole could heal the rebels that's what they were Rebels one man dying about 21 here 2100 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 and Adam and the cart load of our Abominations and one man just dying 2100 years ago is going to take care of that I mean consider our sins our lies our sexual impurity our murderers are ignoring the worship of God profanity taking God's name in vain disobeying our parents drugged 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 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 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 for 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 it as 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 claim is that the father sent him the only begotten son as Savior of the world Jews and Gentiles let me post 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 the term mixed multitude the mixed multitude was mentioned earlier in the Book of Numbers if there was a mixed multitude with the people chances are there might have been people with the Israelites that were not Jews again I'm just being suggestive because we're going to 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 consider that God's favor was only to the Jewish people not to the Gentiles they didn't have any dealings with the Gentiles they get done interacting with the Gentile they 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 just blew Nicodemus away but that is the good news of the Gospel consider the gospel with all the way over in Israel it comes all the way over to us here in America 2100 or 2000 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 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 if you know that you are a wicked person I'm not trying to get in a fist fight with you but if you realize that you are a sinner you've 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 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 of the man's staple 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 him 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 review 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 Morse that Grace abounds will 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 scrape drops of blood fell from him he was fearful trembling even father if it's your will for this cup to pass for 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 he 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 righteous 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 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 that would be wrong I see my need for Christ every day because I 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 no one if you ask the Jews what you think you're going to get from God they 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 a Salvation of being saved from being bitten by these snakes so remember that um 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 and 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 is doing is just showing me that I had no hope in myself whatsoever none my only hope is 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 at 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 expected 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 I 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 and death and I have a sneaky suspicion what happened to Stephen will probably happen to us Stephen was a Christian and he died if he saw the Lord Jesus as the Lord has taken 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 to 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 look for one recipe one remedy for theirs 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 is 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's 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 ask for the body of Our Lord I would say that took Grace that took faith and I'm just being suggestive here but I'm strongly suggesting to you the 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 you 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 um they looked were they healed yes okay I have your attention now God sent a 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 two thousand years ago to be frozen on paper and we have it right here and 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 change of 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 let me 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 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 foreign