Well, you know, we are fast approaching the end of our study on the life of that great man of God, Moses. And today we are in Numbers chapter 21. Here in Numbers 21, I want to remind you that the Israelites have been traveling for 40 years since they left Egypt. And they are about six months away now from actually entering the Promised Land.
And so we are going to pick up in Numbers 21, but just a little bit of background before we do. Remember we said the Israelites have been in the wilderness 40 years. And God now commands them to go up the east side of the Jordan River through the country of Edom, modern day Jordan, all the way up to Mount Nebo where God was going to have them then cross the Jordan right at the city of Jericho. Now, there was a highway we know from archaeology, a major highway that went right up the east side of the Jordan. It was called the King's Highway.
It was a wide road, an easily traveled road. Armies used it. Caravans used it. Private travelers used it.
And in fact, the Bible even refers to it by name in Numbers chapter 20. The Bible says Moses sent messengers to the King of Edom saying, please let us pass through your country. We will travel only watch on the King's Highway and will not turn to the right or to the left. This was kind of like the I-95 of the Middle East.
You understand what I'm saying? Well, the King of Edom said no, that they couldn't use the road. And so as a result, let's show you a map.
The Israelites had to swing out to the east around the country of Edom, a 180-mile detour this was, and it was not an easy detour. This is rugged terrain. The land out here is dry. It is arid.
It is barren. And it's while the Israelites were traveling through this area that a very significant event happened to them. God refers to this area due to Adronomie 8.
He calls it that great and terrible wilderness, that dry and waterless land full of fiery snakes and scorpions. And so we want to look at what happened to the Israelites while they were making this detour. And then we want to bring all that forward and talk about what difference that makes to us, because as we're going to see, the Lord Jesus Christ actually uses this very event in the New Testament to teach us a very important spiritual truth.
So that's the plan. Here we go. Numbers chapter 21, verse 4. So the Israelites traveled to go around the land of Edom, but the people grew impatient on the way and spoke against Moses. He said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to die here in the desert? There is no bread.
There is no water. And we detest this miserable food that is manna. And so the Lord sent venomous snakes. The King James Version translates it fiery serpents among the people. These snakes bit the people and many Israelites died. Now here in this section of the desert, there are a number of poisonous snakes, but the most common of these is called the Palestine Viper. He's a member of the Cobra family, and therefore his venom attacks people's nervous systems. Death usually comes within 20 to 30 minutes without antivenom.
And as we all know, 3500 years ago, there was no antivenom. Generally, the Palestine Viper is a solitary creature, a nocturnal creature that avoids all contact with humans. But here in Numbers 21, God collected an enormous number of these snakes together in the daytime, and he gave them the supernatural desire to bite these Israelites, even though the snakes were unprovoked. Now you know, most snakes will run away from human beings if they're not provoked, but not these snakes. And even if a snake wants to bite you, in most cases as an adult human being, we can usually avoid being bitten, but not these snakes. Friends, these snakes had a divine mandate to bite the Israelites, and they had the divine power to actually carry it out. What we have here, therefore, is a supernatural snake attack.
Understand what I'm saying? Now you know, I get many people sometimes will say to me, Lon, wouldn't you have just loved to be alive back in the Bible times? Not in this chapter.
No, no, no. Not in chapter 21 of the book of Numbers I wouldn't have liked to be around. Friends, I hate natural snakes, but supernatural snakes are out of the question. Amen. You know, I only hate four kinds of snakes, big ones, little ones, live ones, and dead ones. You understand what I'm saying?
No way would I want to have been in this chapter. All right, verse seven, then the people came to Moses and said, We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Please pray that the Lord will take these snakes away from us So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it up on a pole. If anyone who's bitten looks at this snake, they will live. So Moses made a bronze snake and he put it up on a pole. You say, Lon, why did God want it on a pole?
Well, so that Moses could lift it up, hoist it up high so that this snake could be seen all throughout the camp of Israel. Watch the verse continues. And so it happened that if anyone was bitten by a snake and they looked at the bronze snake, that's all just looked. That person lives.
So let's try to get the scene here. Show we here we've got an Israelite man fighting off snakes all around him when suddenly from behind the snake bites him. He soon begins to feel weak and faint. His thoughts begin to spin. He struggles to remain conscious. His blood, his heart begins to race inside of his chest. He falls to the ground, glazed over with the look of death when suddenly he hears the voice of Moses crying out and saying, if anyone who's bitten looks at this snake on the pole, he will live. And so with his last ounce of strength, this man rolls over and simply looks up at the bronze serpent on the pole. And suddenly, miraculously, supernaturally, he's healed. He's able to stand up and he's able to walk away like a new man.
And this just doesn't happen to him. This happens to hundreds and thousands of people throughout the camp of Israel. People who were given up for dead suddenly are back up and alive again. Children are hugging their parents and friends are hugging their loved ones as the whole camp breaks out in rejoicing at the mercy of Almighty God.
Pretty cool event. Well, that's as far as we're going to go in the story because now we're going to stop and ask our most important question. So we're ready, yes? We're ready. All right, here we go. Nice and loud.
One, two, three. Yeah, you say, Lon, so what? Say, I mean, this is wonderful. I'm glad they all got healed. I don't understand what differences makes to me.
There are no Palestine vipers on the metro. Why do I care about this story? Well, we care about this story, friends, because the Lord Jesus Christ took this specific story and used it in the New Testament to illustrate how the plan of salvation that God gave the human race works. And if we want to understand the plan of salvation for the human race, we can understand the whole thing just by this story here in Numbers chapter 21. Jesus uses this in John chapter three in the New Testament.
And just let me give you a little bit of background before we look at that. In John chapter three, you'll remember Nicodemus, a very prominent Jewish rabbi, came to Jesus at night secretly to ask Jesus, how do you get into heaven? How do you get into the kingdom of God? How do you get eternal life?
And here, verse three, Jesus replies. He says to him, Nicodemus, I tell you the truth, unless a person is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God. So Nicodemus asked, how can a person be born again when he's old?
I mean, can he enter into his mother's womb for a second time? I don't understand Nicodemus' sin. So the Lord Jesus spends the next 10 verses trying to explain God's plan of salvation to Nicodemus. And friends, Nicodemus just ain't getting it. You understand?
He just doesn't understand. So finally, the Lord Jesus says to him, OK, Nicodemus, I'm going to make it real simple for you. And here's what Jesus says. John three, verse 14. He says, just as Moses, Nicodemus, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Now, what's Jesus talking about? Well, he's talking about Numbers 21 that we just studied, right? He said, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, watch now, in the same way, the Son of Man, that is the Lord Jesus, must be lifted up, that is on the cross, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. To put it another way, what he's trying to make Nicodemus understand is that the very same way in which those Israelites received physical healing in Numbers 21, in that very same way, people today who are sinners can receive eternal life operating on the same principles. Are you with me? Do you understand what he's saying?
Yes? OK. Now, what are those principles? I mean, what were the principles in Numbers chapter 21 that led to the Israelites receiving physical healing? Because if we can figure out those principles, all we've got to do is take them and extrapolate them to today, and we've got the very same principles that will bring eternal life to us.
We're together on this, right? All right, so what are those principles? There are four.
Let me show them to you. Number one, principle number one is that in Numbers chapter 21, the Israelites, first of all, realized that they had a fatal problem. They realized that if they got bit, they weren't just going to feel bad for a few days. They weren't just going to have a headache and need to take Tylenol for a few days. They were going to die.
They were going to die. And you know, folks, this is the first step in the plan of salvation as well. We as sinners must realize that we have a fatal problem too. Romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death, eternal death.
2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9 says that sinners, watch now, will be punished with everlasting destruction and will be separated from the presence of the Lord and the majesty of his power. What's the last word? Forever. Sounds like a fatal problem to me. Doesn't it sound like a fatal problem to you? You say, Lon, wait a minute, wait a minute. Stop, stop, stop.
Not right there. You know, I've got to tell you something. And that is I'm getting a little irritated sitting here and listening to you referring to me over and over as a sinner. You know, Lon, I mean, I don't rob banks and I don't distribute heroin and I don't murder people.
I mean, you know, I mean, I'm not that bad a person. Why are you calling me a sinner? Well, friends, when we say that, it indicates we don't understand why the Bible calls us sinners. It's not because of what we do or what we don't do.
It's for a completely different reason. Look, Romans chapter 5 verse 18. It says the result of the one trespass.
What's that? Well, that was Adam's trespass in the Garden of Eden in context here. As the result of that one trespass, look, damnation came upon all men.
Verse 19, Romans 5. For by the disobedience of one man, Adam, all were made sinners. You see, the Bible says, my friends, that when Adam disobeyed God and sinned in the garden, he brought a defective gene upon the entire human race, a sin nature that we all inherit. And it's because of that that God considers us to be sinners, not because of what we do or what we don't do, but because of what we are.
We have a sinful nature from birth. You say, well, I don't agree with that either, Lon. I think that man's basically good. I don't agree with this idea that man's basically sinful. Really?
Really? Okay. Well, if that's true, man's basically good, then please explain to me why you and me and everybody else in the world have to try so hard to do what's right and why doing wrong comes so easy to every single one of us, huh? And explain to me if man's basically good, why your children came out of the womb knowing intrinsically, knowing just out of their own basic character how to do wrong, why you're going to have to spend the next 18 years of your life trying to frantically teach them how to do right before you launch them into adulthood and have some success, some success.
No, friends, I'm sorry. If man were basically good, the world would be different, your children would be different, you would be different, I would be different. No, no, God's telling us the truth that we have a sinful nature we are born with and it's because of that that he considers you and me to be a sinner, not because we rob banks or we don't rob banks and because we are sinners in the sight of a holy God, we stand condemned forever by his justice and his holiness. We have a fatal problem. Number two, principle number two is that the Israelites, second of all in Numbers 21, realized they were powerless to fix their problem themselves. I mean, we said there was no anti-venom, there was no antidote, there was no cure of any kind for these snake bites.
These Israelites were utterly helpless and powerless against the bites of these snakes. And as sinners today, the same is true. Folks, we can do all the good works we want in the world. We can give money to the poor, we can volunteer in the hospital, we can support 50 orphans in Africa. We can do all kinds of religious good work and it won't get us one step closer to fixing our problem before God.
You know why? Because none of those things will change what we are. I don't care how many days you work in the hospital or I don't care how many orphans you support, it won't change the fact that you have a sin nature and I have a sin nature before Almighty God. That's why the Bible says, Romans chapter 3 verse 20, Therefore, by human works, no one shall be declared righteous in God's sight. Friends, step number two in God's plan of salvation is not only realizing we have a fatal problem, but also realizing that there is not one cotton-picking thing we can do to fix that problem ourselves.
Number three. Principle number three is that in Numbers 21, the Israelites turned to God in humble repentance. Look what they said to Moses. They said, Numbers 21, 7, We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you.
Please pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. These people came and repented. What did they do? What does repentance mean? Well, number one, they confessed to God that they had been wrong. Number two, they acknowledged that God's judgment on them was just. Number three, they declared their willingness to turn away from the way they had behaved, to turn away from their sin. And finally, number four, they came to God in humility and they begged for undeserved mercy. That is repentance.
And what did God do in response to their repentance? Well, friends, He forgave them. What did He do? He lifted His judgment.
What did He do? He showed them the mercy that they had asked for. This is what God always does when people come to Him in repentance. When we come in repentance, the response of God will always be the same for us as it was for the Israelites.
And so today, as sinners in our modern world, friends, the third step in the plan of salvation is that we must come to God in repentance just like the Israelites did. This is what John the Baptist said. Matthew chapter 3, he said, repent.
This is what Peter said. Acts 3, 19, repent and turn to God. This is what Paul said. Acts chapter 17, but now God commands all people everywhere to repent. And more importantly, this is what the Lord Jesus Himself said in Matthew chapter 9 when He said, I have come to call sinners to repentance. And He said in Luke 13, 3, unless you repent, you shall also perish. You know, one of our problems in the modern church today is that we try to call people to faith in Jesus Christ without calling them to repentance first. Folks, I'm sorry, you can't do business with God except on the basis of repentance. God has never done business with any human being alive except on this basis, and He's not going to change now.
In Numbers 21, He did business with the Israelites because they repented, and the plan of salvation is based upon us realizing we have a fatal problem, realizing we can't solve it, and then third, coming to God in humble repentance. Coming to God and saying, Lord, I'm tired of the way I'm living. I'm tired of running my own life.
I need a change, a radical surgery in my life. And so here I am, Lord, I'm coming to You, telling You I'm willing to turn away from the way I've been living if You'll help me. I'm willing to abdicate the throne of my life to You. And in humble repentance, I throw myself on You, God, and I ask for mercy.
I know I don't deserve, but I ask for it anyway. You know what, folks, when you get there, when I get there, now you're ready to do business with God. And may I add, if you and I as followers of Christ think that repentance is only for non-believers, well, we're wrong.
What did I say? God only deals with human beings. I don't care if you're a born-again human being or you're not a born-again human being. God only deals with human beings on the basis of repentance. As followers of Christ, we need to repent every single day of our wrongdoing if we want to keep the channels open between us and God. If we wanted to keep the Holy Spirit flowing at maximum in our life, please don't think that you're through repenting the day you come to Christ. Friends, you're just starting on the day you come to Christ.
Number four, and that is principle number four. The Israelites finally did exactly what God told them to do in order to activate His mercy and His forgiveness. What did God tell them to do? He said, look at the snake on the pole.
I don't want you to do anything. Just look at the snake on the pole, show simple faith in my promise that if you look at that snake, I will heal you. Now, at first glance, I'm sure to many of the Israelites, this looked like utter nonsense. I'm sure they thought, what a stupid solution this is.
I can even hear the Back to Egypt Club warming up in the background, can't you? Saying, hey, Moses, how is looking at some stupid bronze snake on a pole going to heal anybody of anything? Dathan would have been saying that, except the ground had swallowed him up a couple chapters ago. But I'm sure there were still some others of those guys around. Point is, friends, it didn't matter whether God's promise looked logical to these Israelites. It didn't matter whether it made sense to them. It didn't matter whether in their puny human logic they could figure it out. The point is, God made them a promise. You look at that snake and I'll heal you, which means they only had two choices, friends. They could disobey God and die or they could obey God and live.
That was it. Now, today, God has made us a promise also. It's a simple promise, just like it was to the Israelites.
What he says, Acts 16, 31, is this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I will forgive you and I will lift the death penalty off of you and I will grant you eternal life and I will give you entrance into heaven. Now, it doesn't really matter whether you and I can figure out how God's going to do this.
And it doesn't really matter whether it makes sense or whether it seems logical to us. This is the promise of God, which means you and I have two options also. We can disobey God and die or we can obey God and live. That's it.
And I'm here to challenge you if you've never done it. Friends, we need to obey God and live. Whenever a sinner is willing to look to the risen Lord Jesus just the way those Israelites look to that serpent on the pole as their one and only hope of healing, when we're willing to look to the Lord Jesus as our one and only hope of salvation, God has promised that He will lift the death penalty off of us and He will give us eternal life.
And you know what? It worked for those Israelites. Everybody who looked at that snake got healed. God kept His promise. Friends, God will keep His promise to you and me as well. Every one of us who will look to the Lord Jesus, God will do exactly what He's promised He'll do. For God so loved the world that He gave His one-of-a-kind Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. There's the promise of God.
And I love what Matthew Henry said, the great commentator, and I quote. He said, The uplifted serpent would not cure if it were not looked upon. If any Israelite tried to clean their own wound or if for any other reason they refused to look at the bronze serpent, they died. But whoever looked up at the serpent on the pole, though with a weak and failing eye, that person was utterly healed. In the same way, Matthew Henry says, any sinner who despises God's method of salvation in Jesus Christ, his wound without a doubt will be fatal. But whoever believes in Christ, even though his faith be weak and failing at times, that person shall not perish, for this is the promise of him who cannot lie.
End of quote. And so let's summarize. What have we learned today? Well, we've learned that the plan of salvation God offers the human race operates on four principles. The very same four principles that the healing God offered the Israelites operated on back in Numbers 21. The plan of salvation works like this. Number one, we come to God and we say, Lord, I stand fatally condemned as a sinner before you and I understand that. We come to God, number two, and we say, Lord, I understand there's not one earthly thing I can do to fix this problem and I'm not even going to try. The plan of salvation third means we come to God and we say to God, God, I have decided that I am willing to turn away from the way I've been living, my sinful behavior. I'm willing to turn away from running my own life. And in humble repentance, I'm willing with your help to turn my life over to you and start living a different way.
And number four, the plan of salvation is when we come to God in simple faith and we say, Lord, I'm willing to look at, to rely on the work of Jesus on the cross for me as my only remedy for sin and I'm willing to believe your promise even though I don't understand it, but I believe it that if I will do that, you will forgive my sin and you will grant me eternal life. You say, Lon, that sounds so simple. Well, friends, why would God want to make it hard?
Huh? God wants to make it simple enough that a little child can do it. Why would God try to make it difficult?
Listen, don't be educated beyond your intelligence. Don't make something hard that God made simple. It is simple. And the reason it's simple, friends, is because God loves you and God loves me and God wants every person alive to activate his mercy in Christ. He wants it to be easy.
Don't make it hard. Now, some of us here have done this and praise God for those of us who have. But some of us here haven't and I'm here on behalf of God today to tell you if you've never done this, that God does love you and that he wants you to look to him in simple faith like the Israelites did, believe his promise in Christ like the Israelites did so that you can live forever. Friends, you've got two choices. Israelites, you can disobey God and you can die or you can obey God and you can live.
That's it. I sure hope you'll choose the latter. Let's bow our heads together. And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, if you're here and you've never accessed God's mercy in Jesus Christ with these simple four steps, then I'm going to give you a chance to do that right where you sit. I'm going to lead us in a short little prayer. One phrase at a time. I'm going to say it out loud.
I want you to say it silently, one phrase at a time. And we're going to tell God these four things that we've just talked about. And we're going to ask God to keep his promise of mercy and eternal life and forgiveness to you.
So here we go. You pray silently. I'm going to pray out loud. Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I want eternal life.
I want to know for certain that when I die, I am guaranteed entry into heaven. And so today, I come to you and I acknowledge that I'm a sinner and that I am justly condemned by the holiness of God. Second of all, I acknowledge to you today that there's nothing I can do to fix this problem myself. And so third, in humble repentance, I tell you today that I'm willing to abdicate the throne of my life to you.
And with your help, I'm willing to turn from my unrighteous behavior. Finally today, in simple faith, I look to the Lord Jesus and what he did on the cross as my only remedy for sin. Lord, please come into my life. Forgive my sin. Grant me eternal life.
I trust you to keep your promise to me. In Jesus' name I pray. And Father, I want to pray for the folks that prayed that prayer that you would assure them right now that they have passed from eternal death, as the Bible says, into eternal life, John 5-24. And that you will keep your promise to everyone who sincerely comes to you according to this formula that you've laid out in the Word of God. Father, for those of us who've already trusted Christ, thank you for your incredible mercy to people who don't deserve it like us. Lord, we hold on to that promise through all of this life, through the grave and into eternity, knowing that you will keep your Word to us. Thank you, Father, for reminding us today how the plan of salvation works. Lord, grant that every one of us here has appropriated it for our lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.
