Look!
Series: Trust? (On The Hard Road)
Speaker: Debbie Gould
Date: 12th October 2013
Passage: Numbers 21:1-9
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Our Father and our Lord, we thank you for your word.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 We thank you that it is powerful and effective
00:00:06 --> 00:00:07 and it can change lives.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:10 And so we ask now that by your spirit,
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 you'll open our hearts, our ears and our eyes
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 to see the message that you would so desire
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 for us to hear today.
00:00:18 --> 00:00:19 In Jesus' name, amen.
00:00:22 --> 00:00:26 Well, many of you would know that I love ballroom dancing.
00:00:26 --> 00:00:33 It's a sport with a huge amount of skill needed.
00:00:34 --> 00:00:39 It seems to me that once you get to a point
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 of thinking that you've just learned something,
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 then you get told that you sort of got a long way to go
00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 and you need to learn some more.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:51 And I make many, many mistakes in my ballroom dancing.
00:00:51 --> 00:00:54 Some of them are very innocent mistakes.
00:00:54 --> 00:00:59 Most of them are because I didn't listen to my teacher.
00:01:00 --> 00:01:02 And so when he tells me to do something,
00:01:03 --> 00:01:07 I am not listening or I think that just maybe
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 I can do it in a better way.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:16 Well, the Israelites here also seem to be slow
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 at doing what they are told as well.
00:01:19 --> 00:01:23 The difference is that it is almighty God
00:01:23 --> 00:01:27 and not a dancing teacher who is setting their path.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:34 And we have seen constantly the Israelites questioning God.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 Here again in Numbers and once again,
00:01:38 --> 00:01:41 we see the familiar pattern for the people of God
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 and an unexpected punishment
00:01:44 --> 00:01:48 and an unexpected cure or solution.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 The setting in brief is this.
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 It's the time of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness.
00:01:56 --> 00:02:01 The Israelites were originally under the control of Pharaoh in Egypt
00:02:01 --> 00:02:05 and through Moses, God moved Pharaoh's heart to let them go,
00:02:05 --> 00:02:09 but not without many plagues, as we know to convince him.
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 God was leading his people to a new land
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 and all they had to do was to trust him
00:02:16 --> 00:02:18 and to obey his leading.
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 God promised to be with them and to protect them.
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 All these wanderings took many years,
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 not because God got them lost,
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 because God wouldn't do that,
00:02:31 --> 00:02:33 but because of fear and disobedience.
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 It wasn't just the people who were disobedient.
00:02:37 --> 00:02:39 We saw that there were a priest disobedient.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 We saw the priest's family disobedient.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 We've even seen Moses and Aaron disobedient
00:02:45 --> 00:02:50 and the punishment was that they would not enter the promised land.
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 And here in this passage that we've got to today,
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 just beforehand, we see that Aaron has died
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 and he has buried outside of the promised land
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 as God had forewarned.
00:03:02 --> 00:03:08 And still, our reading shows that God continues
00:03:08 --> 00:03:13 to give victory to these wayward people.
00:03:15 --> 00:03:22 King Arad wanted to capture the Israelites along the road
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23 as they passed through the city,
00:03:24 --> 00:03:28 but this king didn't count on the Israelites
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31 calling out to their great God to help them.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 In verse two, we see,
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 then Israel made this vow to the Lord.
00:03:36 --> 00:03:40 If you will deliver these people into our hands,
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 we will totally destroy their cities.
00:03:43 --> 00:03:46 So what is the Lord's response to these people?
00:03:46 --> 00:03:48 Because if I was God,
00:03:48 --> 00:03:50 which I know, you know, sort of long way from it,
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 I think I'd be sick of these people by now.
00:03:54 --> 00:03:55 I would be saying,
00:03:55 --> 00:03:59 listen, I've actually helped you characters long enough,
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 but that is not what God does.
00:04:03 --> 00:04:04 We read in verse three,
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 the Lord listened to Israel's plea
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09 and gave them the Canaanites over to them.
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 They completely destroyed them and their towns,
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 so the place was named Hormah,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:16 which means destruction.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:21 Now, God had shown himself to the Israelites again
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 in giving them victory,
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 and yet straight after this encounter,
00:04:25 --> 00:04:30 we see Moses continuing on his chosen route
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 and he's leading the people further east
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 and up around Edom.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 Now, I was trying to follow this on a map
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40 and it's a great exercise
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 if you want to go home and do it,
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 but, you know, it is in the opposite direction
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 to where God is wanting to take the people.
00:04:48 --> 00:04:52 It's down south and then over to the east
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 and then up and around Edom.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:58 It's a long way out of where they should be heading.
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 And I ask myself, why?
00:05:01 --> 00:05:02 Why would they be doing this?
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 Why all this wandering in the desert?
00:05:06 --> 00:05:11 Well, because they refused to trust God's leading.
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 They had been led right to the border
00:05:14 --> 00:05:15 of the promised land,
00:05:16 --> 00:05:17 but they were afraid to enter.
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 They were frightened of the size
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 and the number of those already in the land
00:05:22 --> 00:05:23 and they did not believe
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 that God would help them conquer the land
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 and that he had chosen for them.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 And so they went in another direction.
00:05:33 --> 00:05:36 And worse still, they started to complain.
00:05:38 --> 00:05:43 Now, does this scenario remind you of anyone?
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 Because it does mean
00:05:46 --> 00:05:52 I can easily complain about my lot in life
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 after I have chosen to do things my way
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 and not trust God.
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 And I'm sure that I am not alone.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:05 But here the Israelites picked the wrong person to criticise.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 In verse five, it says,
00:06:08 --> 00:06:12 they spoke against God and against Moses and said,
00:06:12 --> 00:06:16 why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert?
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 There is no bread, there is no water,
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 and we detest this miserable food.
00:06:21 --> 00:06:25 The sin of the Israelites was to criticise God.
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 Their spirits were not faithful to God.
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 They refused to trust God's love and care.
00:06:32 --> 00:06:37 They forgot the miracles that God had done for them.
00:06:37 --> 00:06:41 In short, they were so focused on themselves
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 and what they thought was best
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 that they began to grumble
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 and speak words that weren't,
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 words that were harsh.
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 It's bad enough to do this to another person.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:58 But these desert wanderers directed their words
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 directly to God himself.
00:07:02 --> 00:07:06 And the consequence of speaking to God in that fashion
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08 came upon them immediately.
00:07:09 --> 00:07:10 Verse six says,
00:07:10 --> 00:07:21 Now, isn't this strange?
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 They were just accusing God and Moses
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 of bringing them there to die.
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 And so it shouldn't surprise them
00:07:31 --> 00:07:36 that they were in fact dying from these snake bites.
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 It's exactly what they had actually said would happen.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 So God was only giving them
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 what they claimed would happen anyway.
00:07:44 --> 00:07:48 It sure seems clear that the Lord was trying to send
00:07:48 --> 00:07:51 a pretty big message to these people.
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 He wanted to show them that their rebellion
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 was causing them to suffer.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 Many of them were going to go to their early graves
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 because of their sin.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 But God was also sending a message here
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 that had to do with the snakes.
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 Do you remember the way that sin entered into the world?
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 It entered into the Garden of Eden.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 The first sin was a sin of rebellion.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 A disobedience of God that was ushered in
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 into the world by Satan
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 in the form of a serpent.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 And it brought death.
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 And now the rebellious, God-criticising,
00:08:39 --> 00:08:40 desert-wandering people
00:08:40 --> 00:08:44 were again being sent to early graves
00:08:44 --> 00:08:48 through the work of some more serpents.
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 And third, the message is greater
00:08:52 --> 00:08:55 because it will point them to a cure
00:08:55 --> 00:08:57 which we will look at shortly.
00:08:57 --> 00:09:02 And so the people in the middle of experiencing agony
00:09:02 --> 00:09:06 and near death recognised their sin.
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 They called to God and said,
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 we sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you.
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.
00:09:17 --> 00:09:21 Now, my first thought is very suspicious
00:09:21 --> 00:09:22 of their confession.
00:09:22 --> 00:09:26 But that might have something to do with my heart
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 more than the hearts of the people of God.
00:09:31 --> 00:09:36 But we see here that they had at least the presence of mind
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 to know that they had first sinned against God.
00:09:39 --> 00:09:43 Whenever we sin in any way, to whatever degree,
00:09:43 --> 00:09:47 we must understand that whoever else is involved
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 and whatever the hurt we cause anyone else,
00:09:51 --> 00:09:54 we have sinned first against the Lord.
00:09:55 --> 00:10:00 He is really the only one whose offence at sin is pure
00:10:00 --> 00:10:04 because he is perfectly holy.
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 And if you ever find yourself in the position
00:10:08 --> 00:10:13 of having to go and seek another person's forgiveness
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 for a wrong that you have done them,
00:10:16 --> 00:10:21 remember that you have first offended holiness
00:10:21 --> 00:10:25 and own it and confess it to almighty God.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 Now, this is what true repentance is.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 We can criticise them for their ungratefulness
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 and their rejection of God's goodness,
00:10:35 --> 00:10:40 but let's be careful to stop and ask ourselves.
00:10:40 --> 00:10:47 Whether any actions or attitudes of our own,
00:10:47 --> 00:10:51 even in recent days, have come out of unbelief
00:10:51 --> 00:10:56 or in ingratitude and forgetfulness of God
00:10:56 --> 00:10:57 and his goodness to us.
00:10:59 --> 00:11:03 And God, in his mercy, heard the people
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 and provided a way for them to be saved from death.
00:11:06 --> 00:11:11 Now, God's answer to the problem here was rather odd.
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 At least I think it was rather odd.
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16 At least on the surface, it was odd too.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:21 God told Moses to make a snake and put it up on a pole.
00:11:21 --> 00:11:25 Anyone who is bitten can look at it and then he would live.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 And sure enough, verse nine tells us
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 that Moses indeed made a bronze snake,
00:11:31 --> 00:11:33 put it on a pole,
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 and then when anyone who was bitten by a snake
00:11:35 --> 00:11:39 looked at this bronze snake, lived.
00:11:40 --> 00:11:43 I find that totally amazing.
00:11:44 --> 00:11:45 Totally amazing.
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 So, it's important for us to understand
00:11:50 --> 00:11:51 what is happening here
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 because on the surface, I just think it's weird.
00:11:54 --> 00:11:58 But let me give you five short points.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:04 Notice that God did not remove the snakes from the camp
00:12:04 --> 00:12:05 as they had requested.
00:12:06 --> 00:12:11 The consequences of sin remained with the Israelites.
00:12:12 --> 00:12:13 They were still bitten.
00:12:14 --> 00:12:16 They still felt the pain and the poison.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 The snakes are a type of sin
00:12:19 --> 00:12:22 and when we became believers in Christ,
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 sin didn't die completely.
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 Sin is very much alive.
00:12:28 --> 00:12:33 And we too experience the consequences of our own sin.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 Sure, we might seek forgiveness,
00:12:37 --> 00:12:39 but that might not mean
00:12:39 --> 00:12:44 that a particular relationship is restored automatically.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:48 It might not mean that you are treated any better at work.
00:12:48 --> 00:12:53 It might not be that you trust another person
00:12:53 --> 00:12:57 as easily as what you would have done
00:12:57 --> 00:12:58 before the sin was committed.
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 If trust is broken,
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 relationship needs to be built again.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 And so, there's always consequences.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 Even though there may be forgiveness that is given,
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 we still have to work through consequences.
00:13:11 --> 00:13:15 So, sin and consequences are alive and well.
00:13:15 --> 00:13:19 The second thing is that the snake on the pole
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 is not preventative.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 It is for the bitten people.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 Verse 8 tells us it's for anyone who has been bitten.
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 The poison of sin is in them
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 and without divine intervention,
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 they will die.
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 What we need to do is acknowledge
00:13:39 --> 00:13:42 that sin is present in us.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:46 Only when we see the problem
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49 for what it is and accept the remedy,
00:13:50 --> 00:13:51 we will be healed.
00:13:53 --> 00:13:56 Thirdly, the snakes in the camp are from the Lord.
00:13:57 --> 00:13:58 It's not by accident.
00:13:58 --> 00:13:59 He sent them there.
00:13:59 --> 00:14:03 The wrath of God is on this people
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 for their sin of ingratitude
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 and grumbling and rebellion.
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 God's wrath is real and it is deadly.
00:14:13 --> 00:14:17 It was real and deadly back then in the Old Testament
00:14:17 --> 00:14:20 and it is real and deadly today.
00:14:20 --> 00:14:26 And the means that God chooses to rescue people
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 from his own curse
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 is a picture of the curse itself.
00:14:32 --> 00:14:33 That is, the snakes,
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 which were the curse to the people,
00:14:36 --> 00:14:39 was what they had to look at on the pole.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 And all they had to do
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 in order to be saved from God's wrath
00:14:46 --> 00:14:51 is to look at his provision hanging on a pole.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:56 Now, fast forward 1 years,
00:14:57 --> 00:14:58 about,
00:14:58 --> 00:15:02 Jesus applied this very well-known event
00:15:02 --> 00:15:05 to his own lifting up on the cross.
00:15:06 --> 00:15:08 He said in the passage that we read in John 3,
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert,
00:15:12 --> 00:15:15 so the Son of Man must be lifted up
00:15:15 --> 00:15:16 that everyone who believes in him
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 may have eternal life.
00:15:19 --> 00:15:24 Now, if Jesus had not told this story to Nicodemus,
00:15:25 --> 00:15:26 I, for one,
00:15:27 --> 00:15:28 would not have thought
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31 Moses having a bronze snake on a pole
00:15:31 --> 00:15:32 was about Jesus.
00:15:34 --> 00:15:35 I might be very slow,
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 but I don't think that was an easy fit.
00:15:39 --> 00:15:43 But we're on the other side of Jesus
00:15:43 --> 00:15:45 and we have the full benefit
00:15:45 --> 00:15:49 of him explaining what this really meant.
00:15:51 --> 00:15:53 So listen and take note
00:15:53 --> 00:15:57 because it should be easier for us.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:01 We know that Jesus read the Old Testament
00:16:01 --> 00:16:05 believing that it was pointing to him all along.
00:16:05 --> 00:16:08 There were pointers and types
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09 and foreshadowings
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 everywhere throughout the Old Testament.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:16 But we might expect him to skip this story
00:16:16 --> 00:16:19 and use another one of those pointers.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 But Jesus goes out of his way
00:16:22 --> 00:16:23 to help Nicodemus
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 by sharing with him
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 the comparison of the Son of Man
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 to a snake.
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 Let me give you another five short things
00:16:34 --> 00:16:35 about Jesus here.
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 Jesus identifies himself
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 with the term Son of Man.
00:16:42 --> 00:16:43 In John chapter 9,
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 verse 35, if you're interested,
00:16:47 --> 00:16:48 Jesus speaks to a man
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 who has been healed from blindness.
00:16:52 --> 00:16:53 And he asks him,
00:16:54 --> 00:16:55 do you believe in the Son of Man?
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 Who is he, sir, the man asks.
00:16:59 --> 00:17:01 Tell me so that I may believe in him.
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 And Jesus said,
00:17:03 --> 00:17:04 you have now seen him.
00:17:04 --> 00:17:08 In fact, he is the one speaking with you.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 So when Jesus speaks of the Son of Man
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 being lifted up,
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 he is talking about himself
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 and his own crucifixion.
00:17:19 --> 00:17:22 Jesus also, in the place of the snake,
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23 is a source of healing.
00:17:24 --> 00:17:27 He is a source of rescue from sin
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 and the wrath of God.
00:17:29 --> 00:17:32 He is a source of eternal life.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:34 We are being told
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 he was the source back then
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 and it is still the same today.
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 Jesus is the only one
00:17:42 --> 00:17:45 who can rescue any of us.
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 And Jesus is portrayed as a curse
00:17:50 --> 00:17:53 as he takes the place of the snake.
00:17:54 --> 00:17:55 This is what is so shocking.
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58 The snakes were evil.
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 They were killing people.
00:18:01 --> 00:18:02 The snake on the pole
00:18:02 --> 00:18:05 is a picture of God's curse on the people.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:10 Why the need to be portrayed as a curse?
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14 Well, 2 Corinthians 5.21 says,
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 God made him who had no sin
00:18:18 --> 00:18:19 to be sin for us
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 so that in him
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 we might become the righteousness of God.
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 Galatians 3.13 says,
00:18:27 --> 00:18:31 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
00:18:31 --> 00:18:34 by becoming a curse for us.
00:18:35 --> 00:18:36 For it is written,
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 cursed is everyone
00:18:38 --> 00:18:40 who is hung on a tree.
00:18:42 --> 00:18:44 In becoming a sin
00:18:44 --> 00:18:46 and a curse for us,
00:18:47 --> 00:18:49 he took ours away.
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 And Jesus gives eternal life
00:18:53 --> 00:18:54 from the cross.
00:18:54 --> 00:18:58 In our John passage with Nicodemus,
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 we see that whoever believes in him
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 may have eternal life.
00:19:03 --> 00:19:04 When our sin
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 and God's wrath are taken away,
00:19:08 --> 00:19:11 God is totally for us.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:14 And if God is for us,
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 we will never die
00:19:16 --> 00:19:19 but live with him forever in joy.
00:19:19 --> 00:19:24 Jesus is the one we look to.
00:19:25 --> 00:19:28 We look and we believe.
00:19:29 --> 00:19:30 Verse 15 again,
00:19:30 --> 00:19:32 everyone who believes in him
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 may have eternal life.
00:19:35 --> 00:19:36 Everyone.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:37 Not some.
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 Not a few.
00:19:41 --> 00:19:42 But everyone.
00:19:42 --> 00:19:46 So, what is it that we must do?
00:19:47 --> 00:19:48 We must look
00:19:48 --> 00:19:49 to the one
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 who has been lifted up.
00:19:52 --> 00:19:54 This is so exciting
00:19:54 --> 00:19:57 and you cannot pretend to look.
00:19:58 --> 00:19:59 Many try to pretend.
00:20:00 --> 00:20:02 They go through the motions.
00:20:03 --> 00:20:03 And yet,
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 we will see it in each other
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 if we truly have eternal life.
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 Our lives will not be static.
00:20:12 --> 00:20:13 There is joy
00:20:13 --> 00:20:14 when we live for Jesus.
00:20:15 --> 00:20:16 There is joy
00:20:16 --> 00:20:17 when we see others
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 turn to Jesus.
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 Life is not static
00:20:22 --> 00:20:23 and if you are feeling
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 that your life is static
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27 in a spiritual sense,
00:20:28 --> 00:20:30 then you need to look afresh
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32 at Jesus today.
00:20:32 --> 00:20:36 The passage in Numbers
00:20:36 --> 00:20:38 reminds the wandering Israelites
00:20:38 --> 00:20:40 of the profound depth
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 of their depravity
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 and of God's mercy and love.
00:20:45 --> 00:20:46 The cross is there
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 to do the same for us.
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 We need to have the cross
00:20:51 --> 00:20:52 in our midst.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54 It reminds us
00:20:54 --> 00:20:55 that through the cross,
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 an instrument of execution,
00:20:59 --> 00:21:00 our saviour
00:21:00 --> 00:21:03 lived out his dying love for us
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 by dying on it
00:21:05 --> 00:21:08 for our salvation.
00:21:09 --> 00:21:10 Our sins were carried
00:21:10 --> 00:21:12 to the cross by Jesus,
00:21:12 --> 00:21:14 buried with him in the grave.
00:21:15 --> 00:21:17 And his resurrection victory
00:21:17 --> 00:21:18 assures us
00:21:18 --> 00:21:20 of our eternal destiny
00:21:20 --> 00:21:22 as God's children.
00:21:23 --> 00:21:24 We just need to look,
00:21:26 --> 00:21:28 not glance when it suits us,
00:21:28 --> 00:21:31 but have our eyes fixed
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 on Jesus
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 at all times,
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 in all situations,
00:21:38 --> 00:21:38 individually
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40 and as a church.
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43 We need to look.
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 A great way to finish
00:21:46 --> 00:21:48 and illustrate this
00:21:48 --> 00:21:51 is for me to read a story
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 of Charles Spurgeon's conversion
00:21:54 --> 00:21:57 and it's in his own words.
00:21:57 --> 00:22:01 The day is January 6, 1850.
00:22:02 --> 00:22:03 Spurgeon is not quite
00:22:03 --> 00:22:05 16 years of age.
00:22:07 --> 00:22:08 I sometimes think
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 I might have been
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 in darkness and despair
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 until now,
00:22:13 --> 00:22:14 had it not been
00:22:14 --> 00:22:15 for the goodness of God
00:22:15 --> 00:22:17 in sending a snowstorm
00:22:17 --> 00:22:18 one Sunday morning
00:22:18 --> 00:22:19 while I was going
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 to a certain place of worship.
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 When I could go no further,
00:22:24 --> 00:22:26 I turned down a side street
00:22:26 --> 00:22:27 and came to a primitive
00:22:27 --> 00:22:28 Methodist chapel.
00:22:30 --> 00:22:31 In that chapel,
00:22:31 --> 00:22:32 there may have been
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 a dozen or 15 people.
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 The minister did not come
00:22:36 --> 00:22:36 that morning.
00:22:37 --> 00:22:38 He was snowed up,
00:22:38 --> 00:22:39 I suppose.
00:22:40 --> 00:22:41 At last,
00:22:41 --> 00:22:45 a very thin-looking man,
00:22:45 --> 00:22:46 a shoemaker
00:22:46 --> 00:22:47 or a tailor
00:22:47 --> 00:22:48 or something of that sort,
00:22:49 --> 00:22:50 went up to the pulpit
00:22:50 --> 00:22:51 to preach.
00:22:51 --> 00:22:52 He was obliged
00:22:52 --> 00:22:54 to stick to his text
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56 for the simple reason
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 that he had little else
00:22:58 --> 00:22:58 to say.
00:23:00 --> 00:23:01 The text was,
00:23:02 --> 00:23:03 Look unto me
00:23:03 --> 00:23:05 and be ye saved
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06 all the ends of the earth
00:23:06 --> 00:23:09 from Isaiah 45, 22.
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11 He did not even pronounce
00:23:11 --> 00:23:12 the words rightly,
00:23:13 --> 00:23:14 but that did not matter.
00:23:14 --> 00:23:15 There was, I thought,
00:23:16 --> 00:23:17 a glimpse of hope
00:23:17 --> 00:23:18 for me in that text.
00:23:18 --> 00:23:20 The preacher began thus,
00:23:21 --> 00:23:22 My dear friends,
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 this is a very simple text indeed.
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 It is just look.
00:23:28 --> 00:23:29 Now looking,
00:23:29 --> 00:23:30 don't,
00:23:30 --> 00:23:30 I can't do this.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:31 Now looking,
00:23:32 --> 00:23:33 don't take a great deal
00:23:33 --> 00:23:34 of pain.
00:23:35 --> 00:23:36 It ain't lifting your foot
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38 or your finger.
00:23:38 --> 00:23:40 It is just look.
00:23:40 --> 00:23:43 Well, a man needn't go to college
00:23:43 --> 00:23:44 to look.
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47 You may be the biggest fool
00:23:47 --> 00:23:49 and yet you can look.
00:23:50 --> 00:23:51 A man needn't be worth
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 a thousand a year
00:23:53 --> 00:23:54 to be able to look.
00:23:55 --> 00:23:56 Anyone can look,
00:23:56 --> 00:23:57 even a child can look.
00:23:57 --> 00:24:01 But then the text says,
00:24:01 --> 00:24:03 look unto me.
00:24:04 --> 00:24:06 Many of ye are looking
00:24:06 --> 00:24:07 to yourselves,
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 but it's no use looking there.
00:24:11 --> 00:24:12 Ye will never find
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 any comfort in yourselves.
00:24:16 --> 00:24:17 Some look to God the Father.
00:24:18 --> 00:24:20 No, look to him by and by.
00:24:21 --> 00:24:22 Jesus Christ says,
00:24:23 --> 00:24:24 look unto me.
00:24:25 --> 00:24:26 Some of ye say,
00:24:26 --> 00:24:27 we must wait
00:24:27 --> 00:24:29 for the Spirit's working.
00:24:29 --> 00:24:31 You have no business
00:24:31 --> 00:24:32 with that just now.
00:24:33 --> 00:24:34 Look to Christ.
00:24:34 --> 00:24:36 The text says,
00:24:36 --> 00:24:37 look unto me.
00:24:38 --> 00:24:39 Then the good man
00:24:39 --> 00:24:40 followed up his text
00:24:40 --> 00:24:40 in this way.
00:24:41 --> 00:24:42 Look unto me.
00:24:43 --> 00:24:43 I'm sweating
00:24:43 --> 00:24:45 and great drops of blood.
00:24:46 --> 00:24:46 Look unto me.
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49 I am hanging on the cross.
00:24:51 --> 00:24:52 Look unto me.
00:24:52 --> 00:24:54 I am dead and buried.
00:24:54 --> 00:24:56 Look unto me.
00:24:56 --> 00:24:58 I rise again.
00:24:58 --> 00:24:59 Look unto me.
00:24:59 --> 00:25:01 I ascend to heaven.
00:25:02 --> 00:25:03 Look unto me.
00:25:03 --> 00:25:04 I am sitting
00:25:04 --> 00:25:06 at the Father's right hand.
00:25:07 --> 00:25:08 Oh, poor sinner.
00:25:09 --> 00:25:10 Look unto me.
00:25:10 --> 00:25:11 Look unto me.
00:25:13 --> 00:25:14 When he had gone
00:25:14 --> 00:25:15 to about that length
00:25:15 --> 00:25:18 and managed to spin out
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 ten minutes or so,
00:25:20 --> 00:25:22 he was at the end
00:25:22 --> 00:25:22 of his tether.
00:25:23 --> 00:25:24 Then he looked at me
00:25:24 --> 00:25:25 under the gallery
00:25:25 --> 00:25:27 and I dare say
00:25:27 --> 00:25:28 with so few present
00:25:28 --> 00:25:29 he knew me
00:25:29 --> 00:25:30 to be a stranger.
00:25:31 --> 00:25:32 Just fixing his eyes
00:25:32 --> 00:25:33 on me
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 as if he knew
00:25:35 --> 00:25:36 all my heart,
00:25:37 --> 00:25:37 he said,
00:25:38 --> 00:25:39 young man,
00:25:40 --> 00:25:40 you look
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 very miserable.
00:25:44 --> 00:25:44 Well,
00:25:44 --> 00:25:45 I did,
00:25:46 --> 00:25:47 but I had not been
00:25:47 --> 00:25:47 accustomed
00:25:47 --> 00:25:49 to have remarks
00:25:49 --> 00:25:50 made from a pulpit
00:25:50 --> 00:25:52 on my personal appearance
00:25:52 --> 00:25:52 before.
00:25:54 --> 00:25:54 However,
00:25:54 --> 00:25:56 it was a good blow.
00:25:57 --> 00:25:58 Struck right home.
00:25:58 --> 00:25:59 He continued,
00:26:00 --> 00:26:01 and you will always
00:26:01 --> 00:26:02 be miserable,
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05 miserable in life
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 and miserable in death
00:26:08 --> 00:26:11 if you don't obey my text.
00:26:11 --> 00:26:14 But if you obey now,
00:26:14 --> 00:26:15 this moment,
00:26:16 --> 00:26:17 you will be saved.
00:26:18 --> 00:26:20 Then lifting up his hands,
00:26:20 --> 00:26:21 he shouted,
00:26:21 --> 00:26:23 as only a primitive Methodist
00:26:23 --> 00:26:23 could do,
00:26:24 --> 00:26:25 young man,
00:26:25 --> 00:26:27 look to Jesus Christ.
00:26:27 --> 00:26:27 Look,
00:26:27 --> 00:26:28 look,
00:26:28 --> 00:26:28 look.
00:26:29 --> 00:26:30 You have nothing to do
00:26:30 --> 00:26:31 but to look
00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 and to live.
00:26:34 --> 00:26:35 I saw at once
00:26:35 --> 00:26:37 the way of salvation.
00:26:38 --> 00:26:40 I know not
00:26:40 --> 00:26:41 what else he said.
00:26:41 --> 00:26:42 I did not take
00:26:42 --> 00:26:43 much notice of it.
00:26:44 --> 00:26:45 I was possessed
00:26:45 --> 00:26:47 with that one thought.
00:26:48 --> 00:26:49 Like as when
00:26:49 --> 00:26:51 the brazen serpent
00:26:51 --> 00:26:52 was lifted up,
00:26:52 --> 00:26:54 the people only looked
00:26:54 --> 00:26:56 and they were healed.
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58 So it was with me.
00:26:59 --> 00:27:00 I had been waiting
00:27:00 --> 00:27:01 to do 50 things,
00:27:01 --> 00:27:02 but when I heard
00:27:02 --> 00:27:03 that word look,
00:27:04 --> 00:27:06 what a charming word
00:27:06 --> 00:27:06 it was to me.
00:27:07 --> 00:27:07 Oh,
00:27:07 --> 00:27:08 I looked
00:27:08 --> 00:27:10 until I could have
00:27:10 --> 00:27:12 almost looked
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 my eyes away.
00:27:15 --> 00:27:16 There and then
00:27:16 --> 00:27:17 the cloud
00:27:17 --> 00:27:18 was gone.
00:27:18 --> 00:27:19 The darkness
00:27:19 --> 00:27:20 had rolled away
00:27:20 --> 00:27:21 and at that moment
00:27:21 --> 00:27:22 I saw the sun
00:27:22 --> 00:27:25 and I could have
00:27:25 --> 00:27:26 risen that instant
00:27:26 --> 00:27:27 and sung
00:27:27 --> 00:27:28 with the most
00:27:28 --> 00:27:28 enthusiastic
00:27:28 --> 00:27:29 of them
00:27:29 --> 00:27:31 of the precious
00:27:31 --> 00:27:32 blood of Christ
00:27:32 --> 00:27:34 and the simple faith
00:27:34 --> 00:27:36 which looks alone
00:27:36 --> 00:27:36 to him.
00:27:36 --> 00:27:38 and now
00:27:38 --> 00:27:39 I can say,
00:27:39 --> 00:27:40 e'er
00:27:40 --> 00:27:41 since my faith
00:27:41 --> 00:27:43 I saw the stream,
00:27:43 --> 00:27:44 thy flowing
00:27:44 --> 00:27:45 wounds supply,
00:27:46 --> 00:27:47 redeeming love
00:27:47 --> 00:27:48 has been my theme
00:27:48 --> 00:27:50 and shall be
00:27:50 --> 00:27:51 till I die.
00:27:52 --> 00:27:52 Amen.
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 Amen.
00:27:54 --> 00:27:55 Amen.
00:27:55 --> 00:27:56 Amen.
00:27:56 --> 00:27:56 Amen.
00:27:56 --> 00:27:56 Amen.
00:28:04 --> 00:28:05 Amen.
00:28:09 --> 00:28:09 weapon