DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 19, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And Moses made a serpent of brass, and putit upon a pole, and it came
to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he lived." Numbers 21:9.
THIS discourse, when it shall be printed, will make 1,500 of my sermons
which have been published regularly, week after week. This is certainly
a remarkable fact. I do not know of any instance in modern times in
which 1,500 sermons have thus followed each other from the press from
one person and have continued to command a large circle of readers. I
desire to utter most hearty thanksgivings to God for Divine help in
thinking out and uttering these sermons, sermons which have not merely
been printed, but have been read with eagerness and have also been
translated into foreign tongues. These sermons are publicly being read
on this very Sabbath in hundreds of places where a minister cannot be
found. These sermons God has blessed to the conversion of multitudes of
souls.
I may and I must joy and rejoice in this great blessing which I most
heartily ascribe to the undeserved favor of the Lord! I thought the
best way in which I could express my thankfulness would be to preach
Jesus Christ, again, and set Him forth in a sermon in which the simple
Gospel should be made as clear as a child's alphabet. I hope that in
closing the list of 1,500 discourses, the Lord will give me words which
will be blessed more than any which have preceded them, to the
conversion of those who hear it or read it. May those who sit in
darkness because they do not understand the freeness of salvation and
the easy method by which it may be obtained be brought into the light
by discovering the way of peace through believing in Christ Jesus!
Forgive this prelude. My thankfulness would not permit me to withhold
it.
Concerning our text and the serpent of brass. If you turn to John's
Gospel you will notice that its commencement contains a sort of orderly
list of types taken from Holy Scripture. It begins with the creation.
God said, "Let there be light" and John begins by declaring that Jesus,
the eternal Word, is "the true light, which lights every man that comes
into the world." Before he closes his first chapter, John has
introduced a type supplied by Abel, for when the Baptist saw Jesus
coming to him, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the
sin of the world." Nor is the first chapter finished before we are
reminded of Jacob's ladder, for we find our Lord declaring to
Nathanael, "Hereafter you shall see Heaven open and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
By the time we have reached the third chapter we have come as far as
Israel in the wilderness and we read the joyful words, "As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." We are going to speak of this act of Moses this
morning, that we may, all of us, behold the bronze serpent and find the
promise true, "everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon the bronze
serpent, shall live."
It may be that you who have looked before will derive fresh benefit
from looking again, while some who have never turned their eyes in that
direction may gaze upon the lifted up Savior and, this morning, be
saved from the burning venom of the serpent, that deadly poison of sin
which now lurks in their nature and breeds death to their souls. May
the Holy Spirit make the word effectual to that gracious end!
I. I shall invite you to consider the subject, first, by noticing THE
PERSON IN MORTAL PERIL for whom the bronze serpent was made and lifted
up. Our text says, "It came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any
man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." Let us notice that
the fiery serpents, first of all, came among the people because they
had despised God's way and God's bread. "The soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way." It was God's way–He had chosen
it for them and He had chosen it in wisdom and mercy–but they murmured
at it.
As an old Divine says, "It was lonesome and loathsome," but, still, it
was God's way and, therefore, it ought not to have been loathsome–His
pillar of fire and cloud went before them and His servants, Moses and
Aaron, led them like a flock–and they ought to have followed
cheerfully. Every step of their previous journey had been rightly
ordered and they ought to have been quite sure that this compassing of
the land of Edom was rightly ordered, too. But no, they quarreled with
God's way and wanted to have their own way. This is one of the great
standing follies of men–they cannot be content to wait on the Lord and
keep His way–they prefer a will and way of their own.
The people, also, quarreled with God's food. He gave them the best of
the best, for "men did eat angels' food," but they called the manna by
an opprobrious title, which in the Hebrew has a sound of ridicule about
it and, even in our translation, conveys the idea of contempt. They
said, "Our soul loathes this light bread," as if they thought it
unsubstantial and only fit to puff them up because it was easy of
digestion and did not breed in them that heat of blood and tendency to
disease which a heavier diet would have brought with it. Being
discontented with their God, they quarreled with the bread which He set
upon their table, though it surpassed any that mortal man has ever
eaten before or since.
This is another of man's follies–his heart refuses to feed upon God's
Word or believe God's Truth. He craves for the flesh-meat of carnal
reason, the leeks and the garlic of superstitious tradition and the
cucumbers of speculation! He cannot bring his mind down to believe the
Word of God, or to accept a Truth of God so simple, so fitted to the
capacity of a child. Many demand something deeper than the Divine, more
profound than the infinite, more liberal than Free Grace. They quarrel
with God's way and with God's bread and, therefore, there comes among
them the fiery serpents of evil lusts, pride and sin.
I may be speaking to some who have, up to this moment, quarreled with
the precepts and the doctrines of the Lord and I would affectionately
warn them that their disobedience and presumption will lead to sin and
misery. Rebels against God are apt to wax worse and worse. The world's
fashions and modes of thought lead on to the world's vices and crimes.
If we long for the fruits of Egypt, we shall soon feel the serpents of
Egypt! The natural consequence of turning against God like serpents is
to find serpents waylaying our path. If we forsake the Lord in spirit,
or in doctrine, temptation will lurk in our path and sin will sting our
feet.
I beg you carefully to observe, concerning those persons for whom the
bronze serpent was specially lifted up, that they had been actually
bitten by the serpents. The Lord sent fiery serpents among them, but it
was not the serpents being among them that involved the lifting up of a
bronze serpent–it was the serpents having actually poisoned them which
led to the provision of a remedy. "It shall come to pass that everyone
that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live." The only people who
looked and derived benefit from the wonderful cure lifted up in the
midst of the camp were those who had been stung by the vipers.
The common notion is that salvation is for good people; salvation is
for those who fight against temptation and salvation is for the
spiritually healthy. But how different is God's Word! God's medicine is
for the sick and His healing is for the diseased! The Grace of God,
through the Atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, is for men who are
actually and really guilty. We do not preach a sentimental salvation
from fancied guilt, but real and true pardon for actual offenses! I
care nothing for sham sinners–you who never did anything wrong, you
who are so good in yourselves that you are all right, I leave you–for
I am sent to preach Christ to those who are full of sin and worthy of
eternal wrath!
The serpent of brass was a remedy for those who had been bitten. What
an awful thing it is to be bitten by a serpent! I dare say some of you
remember the case of Gurling, one of the keepers of the reptiles in the
Zoological Gardens. It happened in October, 1852, and therefore some of
you will remember it. This unhappy man was about to part with a friend
who was going to Australia and, according to the account of many, he
had a few drinks with him. He drank considerable quantities of gin and
though he would probably have been in a great passion if anyone had
called him drunk, yet reason and common sense had evidently become
overpowered.
He went back to his post at the gardens in an inebriated state. He had,
some months before, seen an exhibition of snake-charming, and this was
on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the Egyptians and play with
serpents! First he took out of its cage a Morocco venom-snake, put it
round his neck, twisted it about and whirled it round about him.
Happily for him it did not arouse it so as to bite. The assistant
keeper cried out, "For God's sake put the snake back," but the foolish
man replied, "I am inspired." Putting back the venom-snake, he
exclaimed, "Now for the cobra."
This deadly serpent was somewhat torpid with the cold of the previous
night and, therefore, the rash man placed it in his bosom till it
revived and glided downward till its head appeared below the back of
his waistcoat. He took it by the body, about a foot from the head, and
then seized it lower down with his other hand, intending to hold it by
the tail and swing it round his head. He held it for an instant
opposite to his face and like a flash of lightning the serpent struck
him between the eyes. The blood streamed down his face and he called
for help, but his companion fled in horror!
And, as he told the jury, he did not know how long he was gone, for he
was "in a maze." When assistance arrived, Gurling was sitting on a
chair, having restored the cobra to its place. He said, "I am a dead
man." They put him in a cab and took him to the hospital. First his
speech went–he could only point to his poor throat and moan. Then his
vision failed him and lastly his hearing. His pulse gradually sank and
in one hour from the time at which he had been struck, he was a corpse.
There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his nose, but the
poison spread over his body and he was a dead man.
I tell you that story that you may use it as a parable and learn never
to play with sin and also, in order to bring vividly before you what it
is to be bitten by a serpent. Suppose that Gurling could have been
cured by looking at a piece of brass–would it not have been good news
for him? There was no remedy for that poor infatuated creature, but
there is a remedy for you! For men who have been bitten by the fiery
serpents of sin, Jesus Christ is lifted up–not only for you who are,
as yet, playing with the serpent; not only for you who have warmed it
in your bosom and felt it creeping over your flesh–but for you who are
actually bitten and are mortally wounded! If any man were bitten so
that he has become diseased with sin and feels the deadly venom in his
blood, it is for him that Jesus is set forth today. Though he may think
himself to be an extreme case, it is for such that Sovereign Grace
provides a remedy!
The bite of the serpent was painful. We are told in the text that these
serpents were "fiery," a word which may, perhaps, refer to their color,
but more probably has reference to the burning effects of their venom.
It heated and inflamed the blood so that every vein became a boiling
river, swollen with anguish. In some men that poison of asps which we
call sin has inflamed their minds. They are restless, discontented and
full of fear and anguish. They write their own damnation–they are sure
that they are lost–they refuse all tidings of hope. You cannot get
them to give a cool and sober hearing to the message of Grace. Sin
works in them such terror that they give themselves over as dead men.
They are in their own apprehension, as David says, "free among the
dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom God remembers no
more."
It was for men bitten by the fiery serpents that the bronze serpent was
lifted up and it is for men actually envenomed by sin that Jesus is
preached. Jesus died for such as are at their wits' end–for such as
cannot think straight, for those who are tumbled up and down in their
minds, for those who are condemned already–for such was the Son of Man
lifted up upon the Cross! What a joyful thing that we are able to tell
you this. The bite of these serpents was, as I have told you, mortal.
The Israelites could have no question about that, because in their own
presence, "much people of Israel died." They saw their own friends die
of the snakebite and they helped to bury them. They knew why they died
and were sure that it was because the venom of the fiery serpents was
in their veins. They were left without an excuse for imagining that
they could be bitten and yet live.
Now, we know that many have perished as the result of sin. We are not
in doubt as to what sin will do, for we are told by the Infallible Word
that, "the wages of sin is death," and, yet again, "Sin, when it is
finished, brings forth death." We know, also, that this death is
endless misery, for the Scripture describes the lost as being cast into
outer darkness, "where their worm dies not and their fire is not
quenched." Our Lord Jesus speaks of the condemned going away into
everlasting punishment where there shall be weeping, wailing and
gnashing of teeth. We ought to have no doubt about this! But most of
those who profess to doubt it are those who fear that it will be their
own portion–they know that they are going down to eternal woe
themselves and, therefore, they try to shut their eyes to their
inevitable doom.
Alas, that they should find flatterers in the pulpit who pander to
their love of sin by piping to the same tune. We are not of their
order! We believe in what the Lord has said in all its solemnity of
dread and, knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men to escape
from them. But it was for men who had endured the mortal bite, for men
upon whose pallid faces death began to set his seal, for men whose
veins were burning with the awful poison of the serpent within
them–for them it was that God said to Moses, "Make you a fiery serpent
and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that everyone that
is bitten, when he looks upon it shall live."
There is no limit set to the stage of poisoning. However far gone, the
remedy still had power! If a person had been bitten a moment before,
though he only saw a few drops of blood oozing forth and only felt a
little smart, he might look and live! And if he had waited, unhappily
waited, even for half an hour and speech failed him and the pulse grew
feeble, yet if he could but look he would live at once! No boundary was
set to the virtue of this Divinely ordained remedy, or to the freedom
of its application to those who needed it. The promise had no
qualifying clause, "It shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten,
when he looks upon it, shall live."
And our text tells us that God's promise came to pass in every case,
without exception, for we read–"It came to pass, that if a serpent had
bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." Thus I
have described the person who was in mortal peril.
II. Secondly, let us consider THE REMEDY PROVIDED FOR HIM. This was as
singular as it was effectual. It was purely of Divine origin and it is
clear that the invention of it and the putting of power into it was
entirely of God. Men have prescribed several medicines, decoctions and
operations for serpent bites–I do not know how far any of them may be
depended upon, but this I know–I would rather not be bitten in order
to try any of them, even those that are most in vogue! For the bites of
the fiery serpents in the wilderness there was no remedy whatever,
except this which God had provided and, at first sight, that remedy
must have seemed to be a very unlikely one.
A simple look to the figure of a serpent on a pole? How unlikely to be
a cure! How and by what means could a cure be worked through merely
looking at twisted brass? It seemed, indeed, to be almost a mockery to
bid men look at the very thing which had caused their misery. Shall the
bite of a serpent be cured by looking at a serpent? Shall that which
brings death also bring life? But herein lay the excellency of the
remedy, that it was of Divine origin–for when God ordains a cure He
is, by that very fact, bound to put potency into it. He will not devise
a failure, nor prescribe a mockery! It should always be enough for us
to know that God ordains a way of blessing us, for if He ordains, it
must accomplish the promised result.
We need not know how it will work, it is quite sufficient for us that
God's mighty Grace is pledged to make it bring forth good to our souls.
This particular remedy of a serpent lifted on a pole was exceedingly
instructive, though I do not suppose that Israel understood it. We have
been taught by our Lord and know the meaning. It was a serpent impaled
upon a pole. As you would take a sharp pole and drive it through a
serpent's head to kill it, so this bronze serpent was exhibited as
killed and hung up as dead before all eyes. It was the image of a dead
snake. Wonder of wonders that our Lord Jesus should condescend to be
symbolized by a dead serpent!
The instruction to us, after reading John's Gospel, is this–our Lord
Jesus Christ, in infinite humiliation, deigned to come into the world
and to be made a curse for us. The bronze serpent had no venom of
itself, but it took the form of a fiery serpent. Christ is no sinner
and in Him is no sin. But the bronze serpent was in the form of a
serpent and so was Jesus sent forth by God, "in the likeness of sinful
flesh." He came under the Law and sin was imputed to Him and,
therefore, He came under the wrath and curse of God for our sakes. In
Christ Jesus, if you will look at Him upon the Cross, you will see that
sin is slain and hung up as a dead serpent–there, too, is death put to
death, for, "He has abolished death and brought life and immortality to
light"–and there is also the curse forever ended because He has
endured it, being "made a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangs on a tree."
Thus are these serpents hung up upon the cross as a spectacle to all
beholders, all slain by our dying Lord. Sin, death, and the curse are
as dead serpents now. Oh, what a sight! If you can see it, what joy it
will give you! Had the Hebrews understood it, that dead serpent
dangling from a pole would have prophesied to them the glorious sight
which this day our faith gazes upon Jesus slain and sin, death and Hell
slain in Him! The remedy, then, to be looked to, was exceedingly
instructive and we know the instruction it was intended to convey to
us.
Please remember that in all the camp of Israel there was but one remedy
for a serpent bite and that was the bronze serpent–and there was but
one bronze serpent, not two. Israel might not make another. If they had
made a second, it would have had no effect. There was one and only
one–and that was lifted high in the center of the camp, that if any
man was bitten by a serpent he might look to it and live. There is one
Savior and only one! There is no other name given
under Heaven among men whereby we must be saved. All Grace is
concentrated in Jesus, of whom we read, "It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell."
Christ's bearing the curse and ending the curse; Christ's being slain
by sin and destroying sin; Christ bruised as to His heel by the old
serpent, but breaking the serpent's head–it is Christ alone that we
must look to if we would live. O Sinner, look to Jesus on the Cross,
for He is the one remedy for all forms of sin's poisoned wounds! There
was but one healing serpent and that one was bright and lustrous. It
was a serpent of brass and brass is a shining metal. This was
newly-made brass and, therefore, not dull, and whenever the sun shone
on it, there flashed forth a brightness from this bronze serpent. It
might have been a serpent of wood or of any other metal if God had so
ordained, but He commanded that it must be of brass, that it might have
brightness about it.
What brightness there is about our Lord Jesus Christ! If we do but
exhibit Him in His own true metal He is lustrous in the eyes of men. If
we will but preach the Gospel simply and never think to adorn it with
our philosophical thoughts, there is enough brightness in Christ to
catch a sinner's eye–yes, and it does catch the eyes of thousands!
From afar the everlasting Gospel gleams in the Person of Christ. As the
bronze standard reflected the beams of the sun, so Jesus reflects the
love of God to sinners and, seeing it, they look by faith and live!
Once more, this remedy was an enduring one. It was a serpent of brass
and I suppose it remained in the midst of the camp from that day
forward. There was no use for it after Israel entered Canaan, but, as
long as they were in the wilderness, it was probably exhibited in the
center of the camp, hard by the tabernacle door, upon a lofty standard.
Aloft and open to the gaze of all hung this image of a dead snake–the
perpetual cure for serpent venom! Had it been made of other materials
it might have been broken, or have decayed–but a serpent of brass
would last as long as fiery serpents pestered the desert camp. As long
as there was a man bitten, there was the serpent of brass to heal him.
What a comfort is this, that Jesus is still able to save to the
uttermost all that come to God by Him, seeing He always lives to make
intercession for them. The dying thief beheld the brightness of that
serpent of brass as he saw Jesus hanging at his side and it saved him!
And so may you and I look and live, for He is "Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever."–
"Faint my head, and sick my heart,
Wounded, bruised, in every part. Satan's fiery sting I feel Poisoned
with the pride of Hell But if at the point to die,
Upward I direct my eye,
Jesus lifted up I see,
I live by Him who died for me."
I hope I do not overlay my subject by these figures. I wish not to do
so, but to make it very plain to you. All you that are really guilty,
all you who are bitten by the serpent, the sure remedy for you is to
look to Jesus Christ who took our sin upon Himself and died in the
sinner's stead, "being made sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him." Your only remedy lies in Christ and
nowhere else. Look unto Him and be you saved!
III. This brings us, in the third place, to consider THE APPLICATION OF
THE REMEDY, or the link between the serpent-bitten man and the brass
serpent which was to heal him. What was the link? It was of the most
simple kind imaginable. The bronze serpent might have been, if God had
so ordered it, carried into the house where the sick man was, but it
was not so. It might have been applied to him by rubbing–he might have
been expected to repeat a certain form of prayer, or to have a priest
present to perform a ceremony. But there was nothing of the kind. He
had only to look!
It was well that the cure was so simple for the danger was so frequent.
Bites of the serpent came in many ways. A man might be gathering
sticks, or merely walking along and be bitten. Even now in the desert
serpents are a danger. Mr. Sibree says that on one occasion he saw what
he thought to be a round stone, beautifully marked. He put forth his
hand to take it up, when, to his horror, he discovered that it was a
coiled living serpent! All day long, when fiery serpents were sent
among them, the Israelites must have been in danger. In their beds and
at their meals; in their houses and when they went abroad they were in
danger.
These serpents are called by Isaiah, "flying serpents," not because
they fly, but because they contract themselves and then suddenly spring
up so as to reach to a considerable height. A man might be well off his
tent floor and yet not be
beyond the reach of one of these malignant reptiles. What was a man to
do? He had nothing to do but to stand outside his tent door and look to
the place where gleamed afar the brightness of the serpent of brass!
And the moment he looked, he was healed! He had nothing to do but to
look! No priest was needed, no holy water, no hocus-pocus, no
mass-book– nothing but a look!
A Romish bishop said to one of the early Reformers, when he preached
salvation by simple faith, "O Mr. Doctor, open that gap to the people
and we are undone!" And so, indeed, they are, for the business and
trade of priestcraft are ended forever if men may simply trust Jesus
and live. Yet it is even so! Believe in Him, you sinners–for this is
the spiritual meaning of looking–and at once your sin is forgiven! And
what, perhaps, is more, its deadly power ceases to operate within your
spirit. There is life in a look at Jesus! Is not this simple enough?
But please notice how very personal it was. A man could not be cured by
anything anybody else could do for him. If he had been bitten by the
serpent and had refused to look to the serpent of brass and had gone to
his bed, no physician could help him. A pious mother might kneel down
and pray for him, but it would be of no use. Sisters might come in and
plead; ministers might be called in to pray that the man might live;
but he must die in spite of their prayers if he did not look. There was
only one hope for his life–he must look to that serpent of brass!
It is just so with you. Some of you have written to me begging me to
pray for you. And so I have, but it means nothing unless you,
yourselves, believe in Jesus Christ. There is not beneath Heaven, nor
in Heaven, any hope for any one of you unless you will believe in Jesus
Christ! Whoever you may be, however much bitten of the serpent and
however near to die, if you will look to the Savior you shall live! But
if you will not do this, you must be damned, as surely as you live. At
the Last Great Day I must bear witness against you that I have told you
this straight out and plainly–"He that believes and is baptized shall
be saved: he that believes not shall be damned."
There is no help for it. You may do what you will, join what Church you
please, take the Lord's Supper, be baptized, go through severe penance,
or give all your goods to feed the poor–but you are a lost man unless
you look to Jesus, for this is the only remedy! And even Jesus Christ
Himself cannot, will not, save you unless you look to Him. There is
nothing in His death to save you. There is nothing in His life to save
you unless you will trust Him. It has come to this– you must look–and
look for yourself.
And then, again, it is very instructive. This looking, what did it
mean? It meant this–self-help must be abandoned and God must be
trusted. The wounded man would say, "I must not sit here and look at my
wound, for that will not save me. See there where the serpent struck
me? The blood is oozing forth, black with the venom! How it burns and
swells! My very heart is failing. But all these reflections will not
ease me. I must look away from this to the lifted up serpent of brass."
It is idle to look anywhere except to God's one ordained remedy. The
Israelites must have understood as much as this, that God required us
to trust Him and to use His means of salvation. We must do as He bids
us and trust in Him to work our cure–if we will not do this, we shall
die eternally.
This way of curing was intended that they might magnify the love of God
and attribute their healing entirely to Divine Grace. The bronze
serpent was not merely a picture, as I have shown you, of God's putting
away sin by spending His wrath upon His Son, but it was a display of
Divine Love. And this I know because Jesus Himself said, "As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten
Son." He was plainly saying that the death of Christ upon the Cross was
an exhibition of God's love to men and whoever looks to that grand
display of God's love to man, namely, His giving His only-begotten Son
to become a curse for us, shall surely live.
Now, when a man was healed by looking at the serpent, he could not say
that he healed himself, for he only looked and there is no virtue in a
look. A Believer never claims merit or honor on account of his faith.
Faith is a self-denying Grace and never dares to boast. Where is the
great credit of simply believing the Truth of God and humbly trusting
Christ to save you? Faith glorifies God and so our Lord has chosen it
as the means of our salvation. If a priest had come and touched the
bitten man, he might have ascribed some honor to the priest. But when
there was no priest in the case; when there was nothing except looking
to that bronze serpent, the man was driven to the conclusion that God's
love and power had healed him.
I am not saved by anything that I have done, but by what the Lord has
done. To that conclusion God will have us all come–we must all confess
that if saved, it is by His free, rich, sovereign, undeserved Grace
displayed in the Person of His dear Son.
IV. Allow me one moment upon the fourth head, which is THE CURE
EFFECTED. We are told in the text that, "if a serpent had bitten any
man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." That is to say, he
was healed at once. He had not to wait five minutes, or five seconds.
Dear Hearer, did you ever hear this before? If you have not, it may
startle you, but it is true. If you have lived in the blackest sin that
is possible up to this very moment, yet if you will now believe in
Jesus Christ, you shall be saved before the clock ticks another time!
It is done like a flash of lightning! Pardon is not a work of time.
Sanctification needs a lifetime, but justification needs no more than a
moment. You believe, you live! You trust Christ, your sins are gone!
You are a saved man the instant you believe! "Oh," says one, "that is a
wonder." It is a wonder and will remain a wonder to all eternity. Our
Lord's miracles, when He was on earth, were mostly instantaneous. He
touched them and the fevered ones were able to sit up and minister to
Him. No doctor can cure a fever in that fashion, for there is a
resultant weakness left after the heat of the fever is abated. Jesus
works perfect cures and whoever believes in Him, though he has only
believed one minute, is justified from all his sins. Oh the matchless
Grace of God!
This remedy healed again and again. Very possibly, after a man had been
healed, he might go back to his work and be attacked by a second
serpent, for there were broods of them about. What had he to do? Why,
to look again! And if he was wounded a thousand times, he must look a
thousand times! You, dear child of God, if you have sin on your
conscience, look to Jesus! The healthiest way of living where serpents
swarm is never to take your eyes off the bronze serpent at all. Ah, you
vipers, you may bite if you will, but as long as my eyes are upon the
bronze serpent, I defy your fangs and poison, for I have a continual
remedy at work within me! Temptation is overcome by the blood of Jesus!
"This is the victory which overcomes the world, even our faith."
This cure was of universal efficacy to all who used it. There was not
one case, in all the camp, of a man that looked to the serpent of brass
and yet died. And there never will be a case of a man that looks to
Jesus who remains under condemnation! The Believer must be saved. Some
of the people had to look from a long distance. The pole could not be
equally near to everybody, but so long as they could see the serpent it
healed those that were afar off as well as those who were near. Nor did
it matter if their eyes were feeble. All eyes were not alike keen. Some
may have had to squint, or had dimness of vision, or only one eye–but
if they did but look, they lived!
Perhaps the man could hardly make out the shape of the serpent as he
looked. "Ah," he said to himself, "I cannot discern the coils of the
bronze snake, but I can see the shining of the brass." And he lived!
Oh, poor Soul, if you cannot see the whole of Christ nor all His
beauties, nor all the riches of His Grace, yet if you can but see Him
who was made sin for us, you shall live! If you say, "Lord, I believe;
help You my unbelief," your faith will save you! A little faith will
give you a great Christ and you shall find eternal life in Him.
Thus I have tried to describe the cure. Oh that the Lord would work
that cure in every sinner here at this moment. I do pray He may! It is
a pleasant thought that if they looked to that bronze serpent by any
kind of light they lived. Many beheld it in the glare of noon and saw
its shining coils and lived. But I should not wonder that some were
bitten at night and by the moonlight they drew near and looked up and
lived. Perhaps it was a dark and stormy night and not a star was
visible. The tempest crashed overhead and from the murky cloud out
flashed the lightning, cleaving the rocks asunder. By the glare of that
sudden flame the dying man made out the bronze serpent and though he
saw but for a moment yet he lived.
So, Sinner, if your soul is wrapped in tempest and if from out the
clouds there comes but one single flash of light, look to Jesus Christ
by it and you shall live!
V. I close with this last matter of consideration–here is A LESSON FOR
THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR LORD. What ought we to do? We should imitate
Moses, whose business it was to set the bronze serpent upon a pole. It
is your business and mine to lift up the Gospel of Christ Jesus so that
all may see it! All Moses had to do was to hang up the bronze serpent
in the sight of all. He did not say, "Aaron, bring your censer and
bring with you a score of priests and make a perfumed cloud." Nor did
he say, "I myself will go forth in my robes as Law-Giver and stand
there."
No, he had nothing to do that was pompous or ceremonial! He had but to
exhibit the brass serpent and leave it naked and open to the gaze of
all. He did not say, "Aaron, bring here a cloth of gold, wrap up the
serpent in blue and scarlet and fine linen." Such an act would have
been clean contrary to his orders. He was to keep the serpent unveiled.
Its power lay in itself–not in its surroundings. The Lord did not tell
him to paint the pole, or to deck it with the colors of the rainbow.
Oh, no! Any pole would do!
The dying ones did not need to see the pole–they only needed to behold
the serpent. I dare say he would make a neat pole, for God's work
should be done decently, but still the serpent was the only thing to
look at. This is what we have to do with our Lord. We must preach Him,
teach Him and make Him visible to all! We must not conceal Him by our
attempts at eloquence and learning. We must have done with the polished
lancewood pole of fine speech and those bits of scarlet and blue in the
form of grand sentences and poetic periods. Everything must be done
that Christ may be seen and nothing must be allowed which hides Him.
Moses may go home and go to bed when the serpent is once lifted up. All
that is needed is that the bronze serpent should be within view both
day and night. The preacher may hide himself so that nobody may know
who he is, for if he has set forth Christ, he is best out of the way.
Now, you teachers, teach your children Jesus. Show them Christ
Crucified! Keep Christ before them. You young men that try to preach,
do not attempt to do it grandly. The true grandeur of preaching is for
Christ to be grandly displayed in it. No other grandeur is needed! Keep
self in the background and set forth Jesus Christ among the people,
evidently crucified among them. None but Jesus, none but Jesus! Let Him
be the sum and substance of all your teaching. Some of you have looked
to the bronze serpent, I know, and you have been healed. But what have
you done with the bronze serpent since? You have not come forward to
confess your faith and join the Church. You have not spoken to any one
about his soul. You put the bronze serpent into a chest and hide it
away. Is this right?
Bring it out and set it on a pole! Publish Christ and His salvation! He
was never meant to be treated as a curiosity in a museum. He is
intended to be exhibited in the highways that those who are sin-bitten
may look at Him. "But I have no proper pole," says one. The best sort
of pole to exhibit Christ upon is a high one so that He may be seen the
further. Exalt Jesus! Speak well of His name. I do not know any other
virtue that there can be in the pole but its height. The more you can
speak in your Lord's praise, the higher you can lift Him up, the
better! But for all other styles of speech there is nothing to be said.
Lift Christ UP!
"Oh," says one, "but I have not a long standard." Then lift Him up on
such as you have, for there are short people about who will be able to
see by your means. I think I told you once of a picture which I saw of
the bronze serpent. I want the Sunday school teachers to listen to
this. The artist represented all sorts of people clustering round the
pole and as they looked, the horrible snakes dropped off their arms and
they lived! There was such a crowd around the pole that a mother could
not get near it. She carried a little babe, which a serpent had bitten.
You could see the blue marks of the venom. As she could get no nearer,
the mother held her child aloft and turned its little head that it
might gaze with its infant eyes upon the bronze serpent and live.
Do this with your little children, you Sunday school teachers! Even
while they are yet little, pray that they may look to Jesus Christ and
live, for there is no boundary set to their age. Old men, snake-bitten,
came hobbling on their crutches. "Eighty years old am I," says one,
"but I have looked to the bronze serpent and I am healed." Little boys
were brought out by their mothers, though as yet they could hardly
speak plainly, and they cried in child language, "I look at the great
snake and it blesses me." All ranks, sexes, characters and dispositions
looked and lived! Who will look to Jesus at this good hour? O dear
Souls, will you have life or not? Will you despise Christ and perish?
If so, your blood be on your own head! I have told you God's way of
salvation! Lay hold on it. Look to Jesus at once! May His Spirit gently
lead you to do so. Amen.
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Refuges of Lies and What Will Become of Them