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A Sermon Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, October 19, 1879
by C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London
Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
John 3:1-18
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Introduction
If you turn to John’s gospel you will notice that it begins with a list of types taken from the Holy Scripture. The Bible begins with the creation. God said, “Let there be light.” John begins by declaring that Jesus, the eternal Word, “the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Before he closes his first chapter John introduces another type. This is pictured by Abel’s sacrifice. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Before the first chapter is finished we are reminded of Jacob’s ladder when we find our Lord declaring to Nathanael, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God, ascending and descending on 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, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” This morning we are going to speak about this act of Moses, so that everyone of us may look at the bronze serpent and find the promise to be true, “everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Perhaps some of you who have looked before will receive a fresh benefit from looking again, while some who have never turned their eyes in that direction may look upon the uplifted Savior this morning and be saved from the burning venom of the serpent, which is that deadly poison of sin that now lurks in their nature and breeds death for their souls. May the Holy Spirit make the word effective to that gracious end.
The Person in Mortal Danger
I invite you to consider the subject first by noticing The Person in Mortal Danger. The bronze serpent was made and lifted up for this person. Our text says, “And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
Let us notice first of all that the fiery serpents came among the people because they had despised God’s way and God’s food. We read, “the people became impatient on the way.” It was God’s way, he had chosen it for them, and he had chosen it in wisdom and mercy, but they grumbled about it. As an old writer says, “It was a lonesome way and a long-some way” but still it was God’s way. Therefore it should not have been hated by them. God’s pillar of fire and cloud went before them, and his servants Moses and Aaron led them like a flock. They should have followed cheerfully. Up until now every step of their journey had been mapped out with wisdom. They should have been quite sure that the order to bypass the land of Edom was also given in wisdom and understanding. But, no! They argued with God’s way and wanted to have their own way. This is one of the long standing follies of men; they cannot be content to follow the will of the Lord and keep his commands. They prefer to follow their own will and control their own future.
The people also argued about God’s food. He gave them the best of the best, for men “ate of the bread of angels,” but they called the manna by an insulting name, which in the Hebrew has a sound of contempt about it. They said, “We loathe this worthless food,” as if they thought it lacked substance. They wanted food that was more solid, believing it would be better for energy and health. They were discontent with their God and angry about the food he provided for them, even though it excelled any that mortal man has ever eaten before or since.
This is another example of mankind’s foolishness. Their hearts refuse to feed on God’s word or believe God’s truth. They crave for the food of worldly wisdom, “the leeks and garlic” of superstitious tradition, and “the cucumbers” of speculation. They cannot lower their minds to believe the Word of God or to accept truth so simple a child can understand it. Many demand something deeper than the divine, greater than the infinite, and more liberal than free grace. They quarrel with God’s way, and with God’s food, and so the fiery serpents of evil lusting, pride, and sin come into their midst. I may be speaking to some who have up to this moment argued with the commands and teachings of the Lord. I would tenderly warn them that their disobedience and attitude will lead to sin and misery. Rebels against God are likely to grow worse and worse. Following the world’s fashions and ways of thinking will lead to following the world’s immorality and crimes. If we wish for the food of Egypt we will soon feel the serpents of Egypt. The natural result of turning against God is to find serpents attacking us along our way. If we forsake the Lord in spirit or in doctrine, then temptation will lurk in our path and sin will sting our feet.
I ask you to carefully notice who the people were for whom the bronze serpent was specifically lifted up. It was for those who had actually been bitten by the serpents. The Lord sent fiery serpents among them, but the reason the bronze serpent was lifted up was not because the serpents were among them. It was because the serpents had actually poisoned them that led to the providing of a remedy. “Everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” The only people who looked and benefited from the wonderful cure lifted up in the midst of the camp were those who had been stung by the vipers.
A common belief is that salvation is for good people, salvation is for those who fight against temptation, salvation is for people who are spiritually healthy. God’s word is in disagreement with this opinion. 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 people who are really and truly guilty. We do not preach an emotional salvation from imagined guilt. We preach a real and true pardon for actual violations of God’s law. Our gospel is not for those who pretend to be sinners, but really think their lives are okay. You who think you have never done anything really wrong, who think you are good deep down and all right, my message is not for you. I am sent to preach Christ to those who are full of sin and worthy of eternal damnation. The serpent of bronze was a cure 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 Edward H. Gurling, one of the keepers of the reptiles in the London Zoological Gardens. It happened in October, 1852, and therefore some of you will remember it. This unhappy man was saying farewell to a friend who was going to Austria and according to the custom of many they had drinks together. He drank a considerable amount of gin, and though he probably would have become angry at anyone who said he was drunk, yet his reason and common sense had evidently become overpowered. He returned to his post at the gardens in an excited condition.
A few months before he had seen an exhibition of snake charming and this was on his poor confused mind. He must imitate the Egyptians and play with snakes. First he took a Morocco venom snake out of its cage and put it around his neck. He twisted it about and whirled it all around him. Luckily for him this did not excite the snake enough to bite Mr. Gurling. 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 dormant because of the cold of the previous night. In his reckless condition, this man placed the cobra close to his body until it revived. It glided downward until its head appeared below the back of his vest. He took it by the body, about a foot from its head, and then grabbed it lower down with his other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it around his head. He held it for an instant facing his face and like a flash of lighting the serpent struck him between the eyes. The blood streamed down his face and he called for help, but his companion fled in horror. He told the jury he did not know how long he was gone, because he was bewildered and confused.
When help arrived Gurling was sitting on a chair after having replaced the cobra in its cage. 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 when he had been struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark on the bridge of his nose, but the poison spread over the body and he was a dead man.
I tell you that story so that you may use it as a parable and learn to never play with sin and also in order to paint a clear picture for you of what it is to be bitten by a serpent. Suppose that Gurling could have been cured by looking at a piece of bronze. Would that not have been good news for him? There was no treatment for that poor foolish man, but there is a remedy for you. Jesus Christ has been lifted up for those who have been bitten by the fiery serpents of sin! He has been lifted up not only for you who are still playing with the serpent, not only for you who have warmed it close to your body, but for you who are actually bitten and mortally wounded. If any person has been bitten and become diseased with sin and feels the deadly venom in his blood, it is for that person that Jesus is lifted up today. You may think yours is an extreme case, but it is for you that sovereign grace provides a remedy.
The bite of the serpent was painful. We are told in the text that these serpents were “fiery serpents.” This may refer to their color, but more likely it is a 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 people that poison of serpents that we call sin has inflamed their minds. They are restless, unhappy and full of fear and agony. They write their own damnation. They are sure that they are lost and refuse talk of hope. You cannot get them to listen to a calm, straightforward message of grace. Sin works such terror in them that they say with Gurling, “I am a dead man.” They feel trapped and are, as David says, “like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom God remembers no more.”
It was for those bitten by the fiery serpents that the bronze serpent was lifted up and it is for those actually poisoned by sin that Jesus is preached. Jesus died for people who are at their wits’ end; for those who cannot think straight, for those in turmoil, for those who are already condemned. These are the kind of people for whom the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross. What a comforting thing that we are able to tell you this.
The bite of these serpents was, as I have told you, certain death. The Israelites could have no question about that, because they saw “that many people of Israel died” They saw their own friends die from the snakebite and helped bury them. They knew why they died and were sure that it was because the venom of the fiery serpents was in their veins. There was no way they could think they could be bitten and still live.
Now, we know that many have suffered death as the result of sin. There is no doubt about what sin will do. We are told by the infallible word of God that, “the wages of sin is death,” and that, “sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” We also know that this death is endless misery, because the Bible describes the lost as being “thrown into outer darkness,” “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” Our Lord speaks of the condemned going away into everlasting punishment, where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We should have no doubt about this. Most of those who profess to doubt it are those who are afraid it will happen to them. They know that they are going down to eternal misery themselves and so they try to shut their eyes to their inevitable doom. Alas, that they should find preachers in the pulpit who will flatter them and allow them to indulge their love of sin by telling them what they want to hear. We are not of that line of preachers. We believe in what the Lord has said in all serious fear for your soul. We know the terrors of the Lord and therefore we try to persuade you to escape from them.
But it was for those who had suffered the deadly bite, for those on who the pale face of death had begun to make its mark, for those whose veins were burning with the awful poison of the serpent inside their bodies. It was for them that God said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”
The remedy for the poisoning is effective no matter how close to death the victim is. If a person had just been bitten and felt just a little sting, he could look and live. If he had waited for half an hour this would be unfortunate for him. His speech may have failed him and his pulse would be weak, yet if he could only look he would live at once. There was no limit to the effectiveness of the divinely ordained cure or to its availability to all who needed it. The promise had no qualification to it. “Everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Our text tells us that God’s promise came to pass in every case, without exception. We read, “If a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” I have described for you the person who was in mortal danger.
The Remedy Provided
Next, let us consider The Remedy Provided for the person who had been bitten. It was as unusual as it was effective.
It was completely of divine origin. It is clear that the invention of this cure and the power it carried was entirely from God. Men have prescribed various treatments and medications, for snake bites. I do not know how reliable any of them may be, but I know this: I would rather not be bitten in order to try any of them, even the ones that are the most popular at the moment.
There was no remedy in the wilderness for the bites of the fiery serpents, except what God had provided. At first glance, that remedy must have seemed to be a very doubtful one. A simple look at a figure of a serpent on a pole? How unlikely to be successful! How could a cure be accomplished by merely looking at twisted bronze? Indeed, it almost seemed like cruel teasing to tell people to look at the very thing that had caused their misery. Will the bite of a serpent be cured by looking at a serpent? Will what brings death also bring life? But this is how we know that the remedy came from God.
When God appoints a cure he obligates himself to make it effective. He will not create a plan that fails. He will not ask us to do something to mock us. It should always be enough for us to know God has appointed a way of blessing us. If he ordains it, it must accomplish the promised result. We do not need to know how it will work. It is quite enough for us to know that God’s mighty grace has promised to make it work for the good of our souls.
This method of curing someone with a serpent lifted on a pole was extremely instructive, even though I suppose that Israel did not understand it. We have the advantage of our Lord’s teaching and know the meaning. This bronze serpent was represented as a serpent that had been run through with a sharp pole and then hung up as dead for everyone to see.
It was the image of a dead snake. It is amazing that our Lord Jesus would lower himself to be represented by a dead serpent. The lesson for us to learn after reading John’s gospel is this: Our Lord Jesus Christ, in infinite humiliation, lowered himself to come into the world and to be made a curse for us. There was no venom in the bronze serpent, but it was made in the form of a poisonous fiery serpent. Christ is not a sinner and there is no sin in him. But as the bronze serpent was in the form of a serpent, so Jesus was lifted up to God “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” He came under the law and “for our sake God made him to be sin.” Therefore he came under the wrath and curse of God for us. If you will look upon the cross, you will see Christ Jesus. You will see that sin has been put to death and hung up as a dead serpent. Death has been put to death. Our Savior Christ Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” This is where the curse ended forever, because he endured it. Christ became “a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”
The serpents of sin are hung up upon the cross for everyone to see. They have all been slain by our dying Lord. Sin, death, and the curse are like dead serpents now. Oh, what a sight! If you can see it what joy it will give you. If the Israelites had understood what that dead serpent dangling from a pole meant, they would have seen it as a prophecy to them of the glorious sight which we can see today through faith. Jesus was slain; and sin, death, and hell were slain in him. To be healed from the venom by simply looking at the bronze serpent is extremely instructive. Today we understand what it represents.
Only One Remedy Provided
Please remember that in all the camp of Israel there was Only One Remedy for the snakebite. It was the bronze serpent and there was only one bronze serpent, not two. Israel was not allowed to make another one. If they had made a second one it would have had no effect. There was one, and only one, and it was lifted high in the center of the camp, so that if any person was bitten by a serpent they could look at it and live. There is one Savior, and only one. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
The essence of all grace is in Jesus. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Christ became cursed for us and ended the curse. Christ was slain by sin and destroyed sin. Christ was bruised on his heel by the old serpent, but broke the serpent’s head. It is Christ alone who we must look to if we would live. Oh sinner, look at Jesus on the cross. He is the only remedy for all of the ways sin poisons us.
There was only one healing serpent and it was brilliant and shiny. It was a serpent of bronze and bronze is a shiny metal. It was newly made bronze and therefore not dull. Whenever the sun shone, this bronze serpent flashed in brightness. If God had so ordained, it could have been a serpent of wood or of any other metal. But he commanded that it must be made of bronze so that there would be a brilliance about it.
What brightness there is about our Lord Jesus Christ! If we simply display him in his own true metal he is radiant in the eyes of anyone. If we will only preach the gospel plainly and never try to adorn it with our philosophical opinions, there is enough brightness in Christ to catch a sinner’s eye. Indeed, it does catch the eyes of thousands. All the world over, the everlasting gospel gleams in the person of Christ. Just as the bronze serpent reflected the beams of the sun, so Jesus reflects the love of God for sinners, and seeing it they look by faith and live.
The Remedy Is Enduring
Once more, This Remedy Was an Enduring One. It was a serpent of bronze and I suppose it remained in the middle of the camp from that day on. There was no use for it after Israel entered the promised land, but, as long as they were in the wilderness, it was probably displayed in the center of the camp, close to the entrance of the tabernacle, on a tall pole. This image of a dead snake was lifted high and available for all to look on. It continued as the cure for serpent venom. If it had been made of other materials it might have been broken or have decayed. But a serpent of bronze would last as long as fiery serpents pestered the wilderness camp.
As long as there was a person bitten there was the serpent of bronze to heal them. What a comfort this is, that Jesus is still “able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.” The dying thief saw the brightness of that serpent of bronze as he saw Jesus hanging at his side, and it saved him! You too may look and live because he is Jesus Christ “the same yesterday and 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 mine eye,
Jesus lifted up I see,
Alive by him who died for me.
I hope I do not cloud my subject with these comparisons. I do not wish to do so. I want to make it very plain to you. All of you who are truly guilty, all of you who are bitten by the serpent, the certain cure for you is to look at Jesus Christ. He took our sin upon him and died in the sinner’s place. “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Your only remedy is in Christ and nowhere else. Look at him and be saved.
The Application of the Remedy
This brings us to consider The Application of the Remedy or the relationship between the person bitten by the snake and the bronze serpent that was to heal them.
What was the connection? It was of the simplest kind imaginable. If God had ordained it, the bronze serpent might have been carried into the sick person’s house, but that was not the way. It might have been required that a person touch the serpent, or repeat a certain form of prayer, or have a priest present who would perform a ceremony, but there was nothing of the kind. They only needed to look. It was good that the cure was so simple, because the danger was everywhere. Bites of the serpent came in many ways. Someone might be gathering wood for cooking or just be walking along and be bitten. Even today snakes in the desert present a danger. Mr. James Sibree, the well-known missionary to Madagascar, says that on one occasion he saw what he thought was a round stone with beautiful markings. He stretched out his hand to pick it up, when to his horror he discovered that it was a coiled-up snake.
When the fiery serpents were sent among the Israelites, the danger was constant. There was danger in their beds and at their meals, danger in their houses and when they went outside. Isaiah does not call them “flying fiery serpents” because they actually fly, but because they tense themselves and then suddenly spring up, reaching a considerable height. A man might be wearing knee-high leather boots and still not be safe from these dangerous reptiles. What could someone do if he was bitten? He had nothing to do except stand outside his tent door and look to the place where the brightness of the bronze serpent gleamed. 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 Roman Catholic bishop said to one of the early Reformers who preached salvation by simple faith, “Oh Mr. Doctor, if you offer free salvation to the people we will be out of business.” And indeed they are, because the business and trade of priest craft are ended forever if people may simply trust Jesus and live. And yet, this is the case. Believe in him, you sinners, for this is the spiritual meaning of looking. Look and your sin is immediately forgiven. And perhaps more importantly, the deadly power of sin ceases to operate within your spirit. There is life in a look at Jesus. What could be easier than that?
The Remedy Is Personal
But please notice how Very Personal it was. Nothing anyone else could do for them would cure them. If they had been bitten by the serpent and refused to look at the serpent of bronze, and just went to his bed, no doctor could help them. A godly mother might kneel down and pray for a child, but it would be of no use. Sisters might come in and plead for it, ministers might be called in to pray for the one to be healed, but if they did not look, they were doomed to die despite their prayers.
There was only one hope for their life. They must look at that serpent of bronze. The situation is the same with you. Some of you have written to me begging me to pray for you and I have. But it is no advantage to you unless you yourselves believe in Jesus Christ. There is no hope on earth or in heaven for any of you unless you will believe in Jesus Christ. Whoever you may be, however severely you have been bitten by the serpent, however close to death you are, if you will look at the Savior, you will live. But if you will not do this you must be damned, as surely as you are alive.
At the last great day I must be a witness against you that I have told you this directly and clearly. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” There is no other help for you. You may do what you wish, join whatever church you please, take the Lord’s Supper, be baptized, go through severe penances, or give everything you have to feed the poor, but you are a lost person unless you look at Jesus. This is the only remedy. Even Jesus Christ himself cannot, will not, save you unless you look at him. There is nothing in his death to save you, there is nothing in his life to save you, unless you will trust him. The most important thing, the only thing is this, you must look and you must look for yourself.
The Remedy Is Instructive
This Cure Is Very Instructive. This looking, what did it mean? It meant this: Self-help must be abandoned and God must be trusted. The wounded person would say, “I must not sit here and look at my wound. That will not save me. See where the serpent struck me. The blood is oozing out and it is black with the venom! It burns and swells! My very heart is failing. But sitting here thinking about it will not cure me. I must look away from my bite mark and look to the uplifted serpent of bronze.”
It is pointless to look anywhere except to God’s one appointed remedy. The Israelites must have understood what was required of them. God requires us to trust him and to use his appointed way of salvation. We must do as he tells us and trust in him to work his cure. If we will not do this we will die eternally.
This method of curing was intended to increase their understanding of the love of God and give God’s grace the complete credit for the healing. The bronze serpent was not merely a picture, as I have shown you, of God’s putting away sin by expending his wrath on his Son; it was a display of divine love. And I know this because Jesus himself said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This clearly says that the death of Christ on the cross was a display of God’s love for people. Whoever looks at that greatest display of God’s love, namely, his giving his only Son to become a curse for us, will definitely live. When a man was healed by looking at the serpent he could not say that he healed himself. All he did was look and there is no healing power in a look. Believers never claim merit or honor because of their faith. They know their faith did not come from themselves and they never brag about it. What is the great accomplishment in simply believing the truth and humbly trusting Christ to save you? Faith glorifies God and for that reason our Lord has chosen it as the means of our salvation.
If a priest had come and touched the bitten person, then some of the honor for the cure might have gone to him. But when there was no priest involved, when there was nothing except looking at that bronze serpent, the person was driven to the conclusion that God’s love and power had healed them. I am not saved by anything that I have done, but by what the Lord has done. God will have us all come to that conclusion. We must confess that if we are saved, it is by his free, rich, sovereign, undeserved grace that he has displayed in the person of his dear Son.
The Cure Accomplished
Allow me one moment on this point, The Cure Accomplished.
We are told in the text that “if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” That is to say, they were healed immediately. They did not have to wait five minutes, or five seconds. Dear hearer, did you ever hear this before? If you have not, it may surprise 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 will be saved before the clock ticks again. 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 in Christ, your sins are gone. You are a saved person the instant you believe. “Oh,” one says, “that is a wonder.” It is a wonder and will remain a wonder for 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 way. There is a weakness that lingers after the heat of the fever has come to an end. Jesus’ cures are perfect. Whoever believes in him, though he has only believed for one minute, is justified from all his sins. Oh the matchless grace of God!
The Remedy Is Continual
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. There were dens of them all around. What was he to do if he was bitten again? Why, to look again. If he was wounded a thousand times he must look a thousand times. Dear child of God, if you have sin on your conscience, look at Jesus. The healthiest way to live where serpents swarm is to never take your eye off the bronze serpent at all. Ah, you vipers, you may bite if you wish. As long as my eye is on the bronze serpent, I defy your fangs and your poison, because I have a constant remedy at work within me. Temptation is overcome by the blood of Jesus. “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”
The Remedy Cures Everyone Who Uses It
The Remedy Worked Every Time it was tried. There was not one case in all the camp of a person who looked at the serpent of bronze and died. And there will never be a case of a person who looks at Jesus and remains condemned by God. The believer must be saved. Some of the people had to look from a long distance. The pole could not be equally close to everyone, but as long as they could see the serpent it healed those who were a long way off as well as those who were close by. It did not matter if their eyesight was weak. Not everyone’s eyesight was strong. Some may have had to squint, or their vision was dim, or they had only one eye, but if they only looked they lived.
Perhaps someone could hardly make out the shape of the serpent as he looked. “Ah,” he said to himself, “I cannot make out the coils of the bronze snake, but I can see the shining of the bronze,” and he lived. Oh, poor soul, if you cannot see all of Christ, not all his beauty, nor all the riches of his grace, yet if you can only see him who was made sin for us you will live. If you say, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief,” your faith will save you. A little faith will give you a great Christ and you will find eternal life in him.
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 at that bronze serpent in any kind of light they lived. Many saw it in the glare of noon. They saw its shining coils and lived. But I assume that some were bitten at night. By the moonlight they could come close and look up and live. Perhaps it was a dark and stormy night and not a star was visible. The storm crashed overhead and from the dark cloud out flashed the lightning, splitting the rocks apart. By the glare of that sudden flash the dying person could make out the bronze serpent. Though they saw it for only a moment, yet they lived.
So, sinner, if your soul is a raging storm within you, and if from out of the dark cloud there comes only one single flash of light, look to Jesus Christ by it and you will live.
A Lesson for Believers
I close with this last thought. There is A Lesson here for those who love their Lord.
What should we be doing? We should imitate Moses. His job was to set the bronze serpent on a pole. Your job and mine is to lift up the gospel of Christ Jesus, so that everyone may see it. All Moses had to do was to hang up the bronze serpent so everyone could see it. He did not say, “Aaron, bring your censer, and bring other priests, and make a perfumed cloud.” Nor did he say, “I myself will go out in my robes as a judge and giver of the law and stand there.” No, he had nothing to do that was official or ceremonial. His only job was to display the bronze serpent where everyone could gaze upon it.
He did not say, “Aaron, bring a blanket of gold,” or, “wrap up the serpent in blue and scarlet and fine linen.” He was to keep the serpent exposed for all to see. Its power lay in itself—not in the way it was decorated. The Lord did not tell him to paint the pole with the colors of the rainbow. Oh, no. Any pole would do. Those who were dying did not need to see the pole. They only needed to see the serpent. I would think Moses made a nice looking pole, because God’s work “should be done decently and in order.” But still, the serpent was the only thing to look at.
This is what we are to do with our Lord. We must preach him, teach him, and make him visible to everyone. We must not hide him by our attempts at eloquence and learning. We must not use the polished beautiful grain pole of fine speech or the colorful art of grand sentences and poetic passages. Everything must be done so that Christ can be seen. Nothing that hides him must be allowed. Moses could go home and go to bed once the serpent was lifted up. All that was needed was for the bronze serpent to be visible both by day and night. The preacher may hide himself, so that no one will know who he is. If he has presented Christ, he is better off out of the way.
Now you Sunday School teachers, teach your children Jesus. Show them Christ crucified. Keep Christ before them. You young men who try to preach, do not attempt to do it in a grand style. The true greatness of preaching is for Christ to be greatly displayed in it. No other greatness is needed. Keep self in the background, but present Jesus Christ to the people, preach Christ crucified. Only Jesus, only Jesus. Let him be the heart and most important part of all of your teaching.
I know some of you have looked at the bronze serpent and been healed. But what have you done with the bronze serpent since then? You have not come forward to confess your faith and join the church. You have not spoken to anyone about their soul. You have put the bronze serpent into a chest and hidden it away. Is this right? Bring it out and set it on a pole. Proclaim Christ and his salvation. He was never meant to be treated like a curiosity in a museum. He is to be displayed where anyone who has been bitten by sin may look at him.
“But, I do not have a good pole,” someone says. The best kind of pole to show Christ on is a high one, so that he may be seen from great distances. Exalt Jesus. Speak well of his name. I do not know what other good there can be in the pole except its height. The more you can speak to your Lord’s praise, the higher you can lift him up, the better. Talking about religion does not help. Lift Christ up. “Oh,” says another, “but I do not have a long pole.” Then lift him up on the pole that you do have. There are short people around who will be able to see Christ as you lift him up.
I think I told you once about a picture that I saw of the bronze serpent. I want the Sunday School teachers to listen to this. The artist represented all kinds of people crowded around the pole, and as they looked the horrible snakes dropped off their arms, and they lived. There were so many people around the pole that a mother could not get close to it. She carried a little baby, who a serpent had bitten. You could see the blue marks of the venom. Since she could not get close enough for the baby to see, the mother held her child high into the air, and turned his little head so that he could gaze with his infant eye on the bronze serpent and live. Sunday School teachers, do this with your little children. Even while they are still little, pray that they will look at Jesus Christ and live. There is no limit at what age they may be saved.
Old men bitten by snakes came hobbling on their crutches. “I am eighty years old,” one says, “but I have looked at the bronze serpent and I am healed.” Little boys were brought out by their mothers, and even though they were not old enough to speak plainly, they cried in their childish language, “I look at the great snake and it bless me.” All classes, and genders, and characters, and temperaments looked and lived.
Who will look at Jesus at this hour? Oh dear souls, will you have life or not? Will you despise Christ and perish? If so, your blood is on your own conscience. I have told you God’s way of salvation. Seize it. Look at Jesus right now. May his Spirit gently lead you to do so. Amen.
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