The brasen serpent (Quality: Average)

[0:00] As the Lord might help me this morning, I would like to draw your attention to some thoughts found in the book of Numbers, chapter 21 and verse 9.

[0:17] That's in the book of Numbers in chapter 21 and verse 9. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole.

[0:28] And it came to pass when if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. That's Numbers 21 and verse 9.

[0:46] When we come to dealing with the word of God and especially some of these illustrations of which we find in the Old Testament, I feel, friends, there are often more than one particular lesson which we may find in them.

[1:01] At least, friends, I find there was another lesson that kind of more or less appeared to me in my little meditation. First of all, friends, we see that the children of Israel now are coming near to the end of their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

[1:19] And on that occasion, friends, we find them coming very close to the border of Canaan. And they expected, as it were, very soon to enter it in.

[1:30] Then they inquired of the Edom whether they could pass through their land, which we would naturally say, friends, was very much of a shortcut and would have been very easy in their journey.

[1:44] But we find that Edom, or Esau, refused to let the children of Israel come out again, to come through their land. And in fact, they even sent out a great host ready to fight against them.

[2:01] And the Lord commanded the children of Israel not to fight against their brethren, that is, the Edomites, but to that they should withdraw. So, friends, then we see that the children of Israel, instead of taking, as it were, that shortcut, or having some convenient way of coming into the land of Canaan, had to come past the land of Edom.

[2:24] And the going was rough. It appears, friends, it was much rough land, and they were quite weary. And it appears not only that so much, friends, but they became much discouraged.

[2:40] And you know, friends, when we become discouraged in anything, we can quickly find much fault, can't we? Now, let me just more to this bring in a little bit of this murmuring, of which was found here amongst the children of Israel.

[2:56] Friends, you remember the Edomite was one of their own brethren, that is, the brother of Jacob. And it wasn't long when Esau, of course, took his land and his portion by the sword and became a mighty nation.

[3:12] And the children of Israel, all the time that Edom prospered, were found in captivity in Egypt. And then for 40 years, wandered into the wilderness.

[3:24] Ah, can you not imagine there was a bit of envy? A little bit of jealousy. And they thought there's Edom, who never served God, but turned wholly and solely to idolatry.

[3:39] And there they seemed to prosper. I wonder if the children of Israel at that time become, as it were, envious of the ungodly. And then become fretful.

[3:50] I wonder if in the measure they become something even like Esau. I realize the children of Israel are often completely out of place.

[4:02] And they had no right to any murmur at all. After all, friends, if they would only remember, they were going to the land of Canaan. And it was by the way of the wilderness which they had to be taught of God.

[4:17] And it would be the wilderness which would soon make a separation between those who were the true godly and those who were not the godly. In other words, they had to complain against God's providential leading.

[4:30] Ah, friend, I believe sometimes we can find this in our own pathway. I realize we can well expect to the world with their murmurings and their complainings.

[4:43] And sometimes, friends, some of the worlding almost put sometimes God's children to shame. I believe we've often come across some person whom we may believe for their religion we feared is not good.

[4:57] But yet they seem to be so free from murmuring, even in the midst of troubles and sorrows, they're able, as it were, to commit it as they think into the hands of one above. And we're often amazed at sometimes their long patience.

[5:12] Oh, I believe God's people ought to be very, very careful about murmuring of their pathway. Ah, remember, friend, if you have grace, it is in this wilderness we have to be taught to the emptiness of self.

[5:27] And that holy dependence upon the Lord. And so the Edomites do prosper in the things of this world. Ah, may it be that we might have a little sight.

[5:38] That the Lord might grant us that grace to be realized. But we are going to a better country. A city which hath not the foundations of this earth, but whose foundation is God.

[5:52] And that we might realize that all these things lay in the providence of God. The Lord could have turned to the heart of the Edomites and said, Why, you are our brethren. Certainly you may pass through.

[6:04] And you may even drink of our water. We have no objection to this at all. We know that you are going on to that good and that favored land of Canaan. But friends must remember, we're never to expect help from this world.

[6:20] We cannot expect that kind of encouragement from them. Because they don't understand the pathway of a child of God. So we find that because they murmured.

[6:32] And they're complaining against God and against Moses. That the Lord sent these fiery serpents amongst them. Now these fiery serpents, friends, were always found in the wilderness.

[6:44] It was nothing new. But for almost 40 years they've been held back. I doubt if any one of them ever entered into the camp. And ever bid a child of God.

[6:56] One of the Israelites, I don't believe it ever did. They knew they were there. But the cloudy pillar and the fiery pillar kept them back.

[7:07] It was a marvelous providence of God. But now the Lord let them loose. And it almost appears, friends, they came in with great drows.

[7:18] I looked up some of their interpretation of what these are. But we'll have to leave it all. They were little vipers, no doubt. They quickly sneaked into the camp. And there was no control over it.

[7:31] And as they begin to bite many of the children of Israel, the children of Israel begin to realize that venom which had gone in and through, through their body and also that many died.

[7:43] But when do they see the chastening hand upon them? We see that the children of Israel begin to repent. And do they made their confession of their sin?

[7:58] And do they cry unto Moses that Moses would pray for them? And you remember how Moses prayed for the children of Israel? And how then he went before the Lord and the Lord told him what he was to do.

[8:15] He was to make a serpent of brass, which was very similar to those things which were biting them and killing them, and to put it upon this pole without a doubt into the midst of the camp.

[8:27] And he was bid to tell the children of Israel, to all of those who were bitten, if they looked unto the serpent of brass, that they would live and to be healed.

[8:39] And this is what Moses did. He did make a serpent of brass and set it upon the pole. In other words, we know that to this serpent of brass, as a type and a figure, of course, of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[8:55] Now I first folk upon it, as it were, in the way of murmuring of the children of Israel, and to the true confession of their sins before God, and to that they were to look for pardoning grace, in and through him who had made a gracious atonement there upon the cross of Calvary.

[9:19] Now, having only touched upon that little point, I would like now to make another point, or another illustration from this narrative which lays before us.

[9:31] Because we know that the Lord Jesus also made reference to that when he was speaking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, as all the Jews were at that particular time, were looking for someone as a...

[9:45] to come and to restore, without a doubt, true religion to the children of Israel, but also to rescue them out of the hand of the Roman Empire, and to grant them this liberty.

[10:04] So you remember when Nicodemus came to Jesus. I would believe in some measure there was something already going on in his soul.

[10:16] Little did he realize there was going to be also that work of grace to follow. But as he began to inquire, you remember how that the Lord Jesus in due course said to him, As Moses lifted up the serpent of the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him shall be saved.

[10:39] In other words, the Lord Jesus gave a comparison there to Nicodemus, that salvation was by going to be the lifting up of the Son of Man. Now, without a doubt, Nicodemus knew what the lifting up was.

[10:55] They weren't strangers to the cross. They weren't strangers to what that meant. But I do believe Nicodemus, who in his own mind, he went home and he began to ponder upon these things.

[11:10] And it appears as if slowly the work of grace was in the heart of Nicodemus. And no doubt he might have seen some light upon this beginning of this truth when he and Joseph begged the body of Jesus and decided that it might have an honorable burial.

[11:27] And without a doubt, Pentecost, or the resurrection of Christ and Pentecost, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the heart of Nicodemus.

[11:42] More and more, he was brought to see the glorious word of which the Lord had spoken to him about three years previous. And that as the Son of Man, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

[12:00] Now, friends, I'm going to turn to the subject just a little round and bring it, as it were, an application to what every one of us stand in need of for time and for eternity.

[12:11] And I might just for a few minutes, friends, relate why I've been trying to write, what caused me to speak from this text. On Sunday night, when I began to try to speak to you about that precious blood of Jesus, in my own mind, I thought, oh, that I could know more of it.

[12:34] And on Monday, I was much meditation from time to time about it. And I was tried as to whether, I wonder how many were able, as it were, even to have a little glimpse or a little grasping of what I've been trying to speak about.

[12:52] And in my mind, I thought, oh, it might be well that upon the coming of the next Lord's Day, I might speak in a more simple tone, hoping that even our young friends or any early seeker or anybody who feels himself to be so ignorant of the truth and what is needed for their soul and eternity, that I might bring it in a more simple way.

[13:17] I realize, friends, regardless how simple or if I could, as it were, speak deep things, which I don't believe I'm capable of doing it. But nevertheless, I am brought to realize unless the Holy Ghost applies it and brings it with might and some opening to your own heart and to your own soul, I realize, friend, it is nothing.

[13:40] This is why I would exhort at all this, every one of you, ask the Lord to open up your understanding. Ask the Lord to give you light, wisdom upon your pathway.

[13:54] Ask the Lord to give you an understanding heart. Ask that the Lord might, he might send his Holy Spirit upon you and that he might instruct you into the truth and that he might lead you by his blessed Spirit and that you might know what it is to be part and parcel of that divine life.

[14:18] Now, looking at this here, we realize that when these serpents came in and bit, it only bit certain individuals. It appears as if some were not bitten by the serpents.

[14:31] I realize it was a chastening hand without a doubt upon mainly those who murmured. And I believe there were many who died who were never intended to enter into that promised land and had to die in the wilderness.

[14:45] They were not those of the true faith. But, friends, there is something else which I would like to make an application. And that is when Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the garden, we often refer to him as that serpent, that dragon, that evil one.

[15:07] And you remember how he tempted Adam and Eve to fall into sin and to disobey God. And the Lord said to the day that thou eatest of this tree, thou shalt surely die.

[15:20] And as I have said again and again, it was a threefold death. A natural death. A spiritual death. And there was dead for them because of this.

[15:31] There was that eternal death which now laid before them that was in the pit of hell. In other words, by our father Adam and Eve and our parents sinning, sin came into this world.

[15:47] And that bite of that serpent, I'm using it as a type and a figure, have entered into every one of us by nature. And therefore, friend, it isn't only some that are bitten, but we are all bitten by sin.

[16:04] And the venom of sin and evil is that which is going through all of our veins and into our mind. And this is why our heart and our mind is so corrupted by nature.

[16:15] This is why our eyes are filled with sin. This is why our ears are already as it were to hear that of which is folly and foolishness. This is why our feet are quick as it were to shed blood.

[16:29] And this is why we read in the word of God there is none that understand it. We are all blinded. We are all like sheep have gone astray. Everyone have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[16:45] Now I realize, friends, though everyone has come under this condemnation and that every one of us have the evil nature of sin within us going through our veins, our minds, and our beings.

[16:58] Yet, friends, not all are aware of it. We are brought to realize that for the most part and every man by nature is there, that by every man by nature and if not by divine life are still there, but we know for the most part men love the nature of sin.

[17:20] Oh, think of it, how we love to meditate upon folly, how we love to meditate upon foolishness, how we love to walk into the ways of sin, how we love as it were to have me satisfied with a form of religion and not to know nothing of its might nor of its power.

[17:39] But, friend, what a mercy if the Lord, by his love and grace, opens up your eyes to see the nature of sin.

[17:51] Now, those who were bitten, friends, I realize here they felt it. Without a doubt, the feeling wasn't very great in its beginning.

[18:03] I don't know too much about being bitten by a poisonous snake or by a poisonous serpent, but what I understand, friends, sometimes they can be very poisonous.

[18:14] It isn't long and they are quickly taken by death. And if there isn't proper means taken immediately, they will die. And also, we know, as far as I know, sometimes this poison which goes through the system and in through the bloodstreams, it brings extreme hate, sweating, extreme uneasiness, extreme thirst.

[18:38] And I understand it can be a very painful and agonizing death unless immediately means are taken to, as it were to alleviate the person.

[18:50] Ah, friend, what a type and figure when the Lord opens our eyes to the nature of sin. We may have seen sin very lightly in its beginning.

[19:03] Maybe we have tasted something of the bitterness of sin. Maybe we have known something of true repentance. Maybe we've had some conscious guilt.

[19:16] And I realize, as I have often said, if conscience speaks, listen to it. And it may be that the Lord, and I feel the Lord often works as it were in the beginning, possibly in the conscience, but to the nature of the work of grace is going to go deeper.

[19:34] So sin may have its small beginning as to its revelation, not in its actual existence, but to its revelation. sin. Oh, friend, have you ever felt something of sin and of the dreadful nature of it?

[19:53] And because of that sin, death is sure and certain upon you. Have you felt the pangs of death that is by sin and its wages?

[20:05] Have you ever come in a guilty sinner before the Lord? Now we realize when these individuals felt something of that venom and of that poison going in through their system, they begin to realize what they had done.

[20:24] Prior to the biting, friend, what did they do? They spoke against God and against Moses. Now I realize there can be degrees in the speaking against God, but yet I believe every man by nature does speak against God.

[20:45] Ah, you may say in your own mind, I don't think I did. But did we not, as it were, rebel against those things which were right? Did we not rebel against any reproofs that might have came to our conscience or against from man or from the ministry?

[21:04] So they did rebel and so does every man by nature. we want an easy way of salvation. We want to have a compromise with the world as well as a religion.

[21:19] We don't feel it's quite necessary as to make a complete separation of self. There really doesn't have to be the constant overturnings of all of our religion and all of self and come as an empty beggar before the Lord.

[21:35] Oh, I used to think sometimes I think they go just a little bit too far with it. And now I begin to realize I haven't gone far enough as it were into the depths of depravity and the want of Christ.

[21:48] And now you look back, what a fool you were. You played with your own soul and so does man by nature. And so they spake against God and they spake against Moses.

[22:03] And then we find that to the Lord then came. with this bite. Oh, what a mercy when we are brought, excuse me for repeating again, to know something of the venom of sin within us.

[22:18] Now where there is the true knowledge of ourself as a sinner, we find that then they came to Moses and said, we have sinned. I realize they came to Moses as he was their leader.

[22:35] But to the very nature of life and the soul is you will go to the Lord. You'll know what it is to say, Lord, I have sinned. It might be some particular sin.

[22:48] And it might be in the beginning some particular sins. But finally it's going to come a little deeper. And you're going to be brought to realize the fountain and the source of sin is far deeper in the committing of sin.

[23:03] It comes from an evil fountain. It comes from an evil heart. It comes from a base character that is within. Vile and full of sin I am, says the hymn writer.

[23:19] And so we say, we see here, we have sinned. And what does he say? We have spoken against God. It is God, friends, to whom we have sinned against.

[23:32] But we find that where there is a consciousness of sin and the confession of sin before the Lord, there is also going to be something of the nature of living faith. Now I realize in that hymn, I think it says it so beautifully, I believe it is in our first hymn, that it speaks about faith.

[23:53] As much as to say it could sometimes be so faint that hardly even the soul is brought to realize the true nature of it. I couldn't quite lay my eye upon that particular statement, but you can look at it again in hymn number 30 at the close of the service.

[24:12] But sometimes we can hardly see our faith. We can hardly believe we are in possession of faith. But what is some of the early markings of faith?

[24:24] Truly, friends, if there is no faith, there is no true acknowledgement of ourselves as a sinner. Now you have heard me say this again and again. Faith without repentance leads to presumption.

[24:41] Repentance without faith leads to despair. But in other words, the very acknowledgement of our sins before God, also there will be that prayer unto the Lord that he might show mercy, that he might have yet favor upon you.

[25:02] I hate to sometimes say the very words of which you're going to say because each one of us might have some different phrase of which the Lord might teach us. I like to look upon some of those blessed phrases of which are in the word of God.

[25:18] Now when I look upon these here phrases and I quote a few as they might come to my mind as I see their prayer wasn't answered yet, but they had some good phrases.

[25:31] Jabez says, remember me with the favor thou bearest unto thy people. He didn't quite have the answer, but he wanted to be remembered of God. Oh, does a sense of your sin and of what you are make you come to the Lord and say, Lord, remember me.

[25:52] that's what the thief on the cross did. I know he made his confession there to the other thief and said, we are justly desert of our reward. Here we are because of our own condemnation and because of our own sin.

[26:08] He made his confession not only before man, but he made it as it were truly before God. But then he turned to the Lord Jesus and says, remember me.

[26:20] And I know he said a few more other things, but that's the main part. In other words, he did not want to be forgotten of God. Now, friend, that is faith.

[26:33] It isn't much of an embracing faith. It may be faith in its small beginnings, but can you see that's what you want? Oh, to be forgotten of God, to be left to self.

[26:47] remember me. When Peter was sinking there into the waters, he wasn't yet remedied. He wasn't taken out.

[26:59] He says, help, Lord, or save me. And so we find that this was as well as the public, and then he went to the temple.

[27:10] He didn't come yet. He didn't feel justified. He didn't feel any much hope or peace in his conscience, but he smote upon his breast and he says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

[27:23] There's faith. Ah, friend, does the nature of your sin and something in your soul, as it were, give you a point to above? You ask that the Lord might show you a way of salvation?

[27:38] Oh, the psalmist said, remember me, O Lord, with the favor that thou show us unto thy people. Oh, visit me with thy salvation. So, friends, we see that there is then the repentance and the raisings up of living faith before the Lord.

[27:57] It is now brought to realize that salvation must be outside of self. It has to come from above. It has to come from God himself and it has to come upon the ground of his mercy.

[28:11] That's faith. So, we see the children of Israel, they acknowledge their sin and they beg to Moses that he might pray unto the Lord that these serpents might be taken away.

[28:25] Oh, do you want your sin to be taken away? Do you want the power of sin to be subdued? Do you want that monstrous nature of evil within your heart brought into a subjection?

[28:39] You want it away from you? Because you're brought to realize that if you continue on into this broad pathway, it shall lead you to the pit of hell. And you realize it is your just desert.

[28:52] But I don't want to spend it there to be separated from God. But the power of sin, the penalty of sin, and the pollution of sin is something I cannot control, I cannot put as it were by my might and by my power put it away.

[29:11] So there they asked that they would pray that these serpents might be taken away. And so we see that Moses prayed for the people.

[29:23] I realize he served as the mediator. But isn't it a mercy, friends, we have, there is a mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus.

[29:38] I love that expression as we read it there in the book of Timothy, when Paul, writing to Timothy, speaks about that mediator, the man, Christ Jesus, the man which was appointed of God, anointed of God, and yet was God himself.

[30:00] In other words, we find that when Moses prayed for the people. Oh, have you ever known what it is of value to see the beauty of prayer? Have you ever asked the Lord that you might pray, and that he might teach you to pray?

[30:16] Has it ever been that you have even gone a little further, realizing there is a great high priest at the right hand of God? I know he's there by the written of the word of God and by something of a testimony within my soul.

[30:33] I may not have seen him by faith, but I know that if he prays on my behalf, the Father will hear him. And you know what it is sometimes when the failure of your prayers and you feel so short in your prayers, you have said, Lord Jesus, pray for me, intercede, present my name before the Father.

[30:57] You can't see your name upon the breastplate, but you just want it to be there. You want such a miracle that the Lord would take that stone out of the quarry of sin with your name and place it upon his breastplate and to say, pray for me, intercede for me on my behalf.

[31:18] And so he prayed for them. Now where there is prayer, friends, the answer will come. Ah, you remembered in our prayer meeting, I touched a little bit upon Psalm 37, and I says, where the psalmist says, delight thyself in the Lord.

[31:38] I never seen it in that respect as I did when I quoted it, not even in my meditation, I've never seen it. Goes to show how ignorant I am of God's word, but delight thyself in the Lord.

[31:53] And then I tried to put that other little couplet which is found in the prophecy of Micah, where we read, and the Lord delighteth in mercy. Ah, friend, can we then delight in the Lord because he's a merciful God?

[32:10] There's the answer to it all, friend. Because he's a merciful God, we can delight in him because he delights in granting mercy to sinners. So we find then they came to the Lord, and the Lord gave them an answer.

[32:27] fire. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent. I know when it comes to these types and figures, friends, they always come short.

[32:41] I know that the serpent had to be made, and it was made of brass, or we may believe of bronze, but nevertheless we'll use the word brass. Now we know that when it comes to the work of salvation, the plan is already contrived in the mind of God in the conscience of eternity.

[33:05] And yet we refer to that as a new covenant. Why? Because it is new in revelation. Oh, isn't it a mercy that when we are brought, I'm coming a little ahead in my meditation now, what a mercy when we are brought to have a hope in his mercy, and the Lord in his infinite love has given us some revelation of himself to our soul, and we begin to know what it is to partake of the streams of blessing, and then the time comes when we look upon the blessings to the soul, those sweet times, those confirmations of what the Lord has applied to your heart and given you a hope for eternity.

[33:51] Oh, they're precious, aren't they? and then the Lord brings your eyes to see the stream, and he lets you follow the stream to its source, and you found that all these blessings of which you've had were covenant blessings.

[34:11] They were already found in the councils of eternity before the world began, and you were found in that covenant of grace.

[34:24] Oh, if you have a glimpse of that, friend, it'll melt you to think it was all formed in the councils of God there in eternity. But I'm coming a little ahead.

[34:38] But, friends, we find the Lord did have a plan, and he says to Moses, he says, make the fiery serpent and set it upon the pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live.

[34:56] And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon the pole. Now, friends, what was this type of a serpent?

[35:07] It wasn't one of the serpents itself. If the Lord had said, now you get about a hundred of those serpents together and nail them upon the pole, they could have rejoiced in the fact they did it.

[35:21] But here was something of which was outside of their own making. It was a resemblance of the serpent, but it wasn't the serpent itself. And so when the Lord Jesus come in the place, as the first man fell in through his fettled Adam through the sin, the second Adam came in his likeness of the fallen man.

[35:46] in the likeness of him, only without sin. Now this serpent, friends, had no venom in it. It wasn't poisonous, but it had a resemblance of those who were smitten with it.

[36:04] So, friends, we find that when the Lord Jesus came, he came in the likeness of sinful men, yet without sin. he was born of a woman. He humbled himself and made himself of no reputation.

[36:20] So we find that it was by him that was like that to that serpent of brass. Now, why was it a serpent of brass?

[36:34] If you notice in the word of God, then, every time you look up the word brass, it has something to do with a curse. brass, look it up in your concordance sometime, and follow it through.

[36:44] It's a good study. You remember the altar where the sacrifices were made were made of brass. Brass is something, friends, or bronze, actually what it was supposed to be, but we'll use brass.

[36:59] Brass is something that would withstand a great amount of heat. In fact, I am told that brass can withstand much heat above many other metals.

[37:10] That's why the altar had to because of the great flame, the terrible heat that was aired upon the altar to consume the sacrifices. Any other metal might have quickly melted away.

[37:24] Brass withstands heat. Ah, what a type and figure to the Lord Jesus Christ, for on him almighty vengeance fell that would have sunk a world to hell.

[37:38] It's no light thing when we think of the Son of God. There upon Calvary crying out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because the wrath of God was poured out upon an innocent person, and brass was the only thing that would stand it.

[37:56] In other words, a type and a figure of what the Lord Jesus was. We read of brass, as it were, that sometimes in the word of God, not only the altar made of brass, but when the Lord would bring judgment upon to the children of Israel, he says, you're going to find the heavens to be as brass.

[38:19] Have you known what the heavens are as brass? You prayed, but no answer. And your prayers seem to bounce right back to you.

[38:30] And even your prayers become sin. And you knew what it was to cry unto the Lord. But when the brass was, as it were, taken away, you found sweet access.

[38:41] When the Lord told the children of Israel if they would sin, he would make their land to be and the earth to be as brass. In other words, to plow upon brass, friends, you would have no fruit.

[38:54] So you'll notice that brass again, and in the gates of brass, they were shut. So we see that all these things sent forth something of judgment. And so we find it was to be something which could withstand the holy indignation, the fiery wrath of a holy God.

[39:16] In other words, to stand in the substitute friend, he had to withstand it. Otherwise, friends, we would come under the wrath of an almighty God. so we see that he made this serpent of brass.

[39:32] But also we find that there was to be set upon the pole. Oh, isn't it a mercy, friends, that the gospel is to present it to all in sundry?

[39:44] Oh, the word of God is not hid. The way of salvation is not something which is far off. You'll remember Paul there speaking in the epistles speak it as something which is very nigh.

[39:57] It is something which can be found. We don't have to dig into the great balls of the earth to find the way of salvation or climb as it were. Some stairs is upon our knees or some great endeavor upon self.

[40:11] But it's something which is there set upon the pole. Oh, when Paul went to preach amongst the heathen, he says, I would know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

[40:22] That's setting the gospel upon the pole. And I love the expression of the Lord Jesus Christ on one occasion when he says, And if I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.

[40:37] Truly he was lifted upon the cross of Calvary, and Calvary stood between a heaven and an earth, a way where sinners can come unto God. But in the lifting up of the Lord Jesus, oh, is there a drawing of your heart to him, friend.

[40:53] If I say to you the simple things that I have said again and again, Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save the lost. Is there a drawing in your heart?

[41:05] Do you feel a drawing to that truth? Do you feel a drawing to him? Because there upon the pole of the gospel, it is said that he draws sinners, he came for sinners, he came to seek and to save the lost.

[41:19] That's the pole of the gospel. And so we could go on and speak much about the pole of the gospel of which it sets forth and exalts a precious Jesus.

[41:32] So we see then he fed upon the pole, and then if the serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he was made whole, he lived.

[41:46] Ah, friend, I realize there was so much here in this subject, I can hardly, as it were, come to the whole of the completion of it, but let me hurry. As we look upon this serpent, friend, and the blessed invitation to those who were bitten to look, we find then there's a negative and a positive, isn't there?

[42:12] Now, friend, if they looked upon their wound, and says, my wounds are too great, in other words, if I look upon my sin and say, my sins are too great, I'll perish in my sin.

[42:29] Unbelief. Think it through. Now, there were those who said, well, listen, I'm too far gone. There's a man over there who just died, and he had all the symptoms that I had.

[42:43] He finally gasped to the end and he died. And here I am too. I'm at my end. It isn't for me. Oh, for you who haven't been bitten very deep, you look.

[42:58] But if they looked upon their wounds, and looked upon any condition of self, they would have never been healed. If they looked upon Moses, Moses was a good man.

[43:13] He's a type and a figure to the law, but the law would only condemn. You remember the man that was fell amongst the thieves, which came from Jerusalem there to Jericho.

[43:26] The priest and the Levite could do him no good, but a poor Samaritan could. One who was despised and rejected of man, he did.

[43:39] A type and a figure to the Lord Jesus. So, friends, if they looked upon their prayers, looked upon their wisdom, looked upon their carnal reasoning, how can this be?

[43:50] What is that serpent of brass? What good is that? They would have perished. But, ah, friends, what a mercy. And here is that of which is the nature of living faith.

[44:04] It is that nature of which we find in the case of Esther. It is the nature of which we find in that good Jonah. It is the nature of which we find in the woman with the issue of blood.

[44:17] It is the nature of that one whom we find in blind Bartimaeus. Oh, I will look. I know there is death, and the death which I have is sure, and it is the wages of my sin.

[44:33] But I will look unto him who did save, who can save, and who is my only hope for time and for eternity. Oh, I realize it is a looking by living faith.

[44:48] But as I have said in the beginning, friend, faith can be so feeble in its beginning, you can hardly recognize it as faith. So, friend, we see there was a looking.

[45:00] And in that looking, friend, there is going to be a believing. I want you to come to the place where you can say, now I believe. Now I have embraced him as my own, and now I can believe.

[45:16] But do you believe that he is? And that he is a rewarder to them that diligently seek him? Do you believe that he can answer prayers?

[45:27] Do you believe that he can save sinners? Do you believe that he did come into this world to seek and to save the lost? That's all part of the believing.

[45:40] I want you to go further, and I'm not letting any soul set at ease because God will never allow it. You'll know what it is to believe there in this beginning, but you'll never stop believing because there's a growth in that blessed believing.

[45:56] So, friend, there is a believing, a believing in the word which he has said. Ah, it is a mercy, friend, when you can plead to the promises before God and make them prayers.

[46:10] Lord, thou hast said upon the authority of thy word that if I call upon thee, thou wilt answer. Lord, make me one to call upon thy name. I know it is a mercy when we can feel and say to the Lord, Lord, I have called upon thee.

[46:26] I have committed my case, the want of my never-dying soul, into thy care, into thy keeping. And it is a mercy when we can come to this conclusion when the Lord comes and visits the soul and you can say, now I believe.

[46:43] To the joy in the satisfaction of my soul, it is to be held, it is to look, it is to believe.

[46:55] And when you come to these very things, there is a trusting as well. I know it is a great mercy when we can trust in the finished work of Christ. But can you trust in his word?

[47:07] Can you trust in him that he is able to say? Do you trust in what he has said? Ah, friend, what a mercy when the Lord brings you a little further in your own experience.

[47:21] And you can say, now I have trusted in him and he has proven to be a faithful God. He has fulfilled all that he has said.

[47:32] Then there was a coming to him. Oh, what a mercy when the Lord says, come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give thee rest. And oh, what a rest that is when we come to Jesus.

[47:49] So what do we see here in this beautiful type and figure? here, we see something there of a murmuring people of whom the Lord must chasten and who are brought to repentance.

[48:03] Or we might look upon then the children of God, envious of the Edomites, in their carnal security, without any troubles, and I can't pass through their land.

[48:19] What a mercy. But I have to go through this wilderness, though rough and tried as it is. Oh, may the Lord ever keep us from murmuring against God, complaining against his providential leadings.

[48:34] But then we also may look upon to this type and figure as one who has been brought and bitten by sin, and has felt the venom of sin and evil within their own heart, and has truthfully come to the Lord and says, Lord, I have sinned.

[48:52] Not only have I sinned, but I'm full of it. Full of it. Full of it. And to know what it is to ask for mercy. And the Lord, by his infinite love and mercy, brings you there into this wilderness.

[49:07] And he shows you there's a pole, and upon the pole is that serpent of brass, a resemblance of what sin hath done, and yet without sin.

[49:19] And upon him was that judgment of God poured out in a way of substitute. And all what a mercy when we can cast our sins, and the whole of our being upon the crucified Jesus, and can see that he hath taken my sin and my sorrow, and hath made it his very own.

[49:43] He hath made a complete salvation, he finished the work of salvation, and there he's highly exalted. And if I am lifted up, I will draw all kinds of men.

[49:56] I put it that way to emphasize them. All kinds, the vilest, the most wretched, those from the outside and those from the end, the Gentiles, the Jews, everyone who looks unto him shall be saved.

[50:13] O beg of the Lord to draw you by his irresistible grace, that you might behold this glorious serpent of brass, a type and a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him shall be saved.

[50:38] And we read, as I said already, they lived. and you'll know what it is to have a continual life within you, which will end up in eternal glory.

[50:50] Amen. Shall we then conclude our service by the singing of hymn number 1055, hymn number 1055.

[51:18] Come, Esau's, by sin afflicted, bowed with fruitless sorrows down, by the broken law convicted, through the cross behold the crown.

[51:32] Look to Jesus, mercy flows through him alone. We'll sing all verses, but verse three, blessed are the eyes that see him, blessed the ears that hear his voice, blessed are the souls that trust him, and in him alone rejoice, and so forth.

[51:54] Hymn number 1055, all verses. pool ofичего bulunan eternal readings to your enjoying ogre and out espero them your Fourth hring under horses, photo stairs, whiling her Кстати roote, Twin trees, high saturated inhale Amen.

[52:54] Love to Jesus, love to Jesus, mercy come in the Lord.

[53:09] Love to Jesus, love to Jesus, mercy come in the Lord.

[53:25] Sweet love and happy,ienect with glorious peace.

[53:41] Though his breath and his breathing Is the record of the night For his death and his death Shelter death in the Lord of Christ Of his death and his death And rest his heart on Let's get our hearts singing Let's be here to hear the song Let's get our hearts the world's love

[54:46] Staying in the world's love For his life This is the record of the night This is the record of the night And we'll see you next time He'll be here to hear the night And we'll see you next time And we'll see you next time And we'll see you next time And we'll see you next time And we'll see you next time

[55:54] And we'll see you next time And we'll see you next time O Lord again we would seek of thee That thou wilt forgive all that thou hast heard And seen amiss And that thou wilt follow with thine own blessing Upon thy word And may the grace of the Savior And the love of the Father And the communion of the Holy Ghost Rest upon all Now and forevermore Amen Amen