In today’s Resurrection Day sermon, Pastor Babij compares the bronze serpent of Numbers 21 to Jesus Christ, explaining that, just as the Israelites had to look to the serpent to be saved, so now all men must look to Jesus. Sinners have no power to save themselves; salvation simply comes from personal belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastor Babij also warns against merely acknowledging sin, trusting in good works to save, and failing to manifest evidence of salvation in one’s life.
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I feel like the choir and the singing already transported me to heaven and I’m just thankful for the hard work they put in uh to practice uh those beautiful songs and uh to present them this morning in in our worship today uh this morning there is in your bulletin a list of scripture that I’m going to use this morning I’d like you to follow that if but if you’re really good with your Bible uh take your Bible and the message or the scripture this morning is found on page 164 if you’re using a Pew Bible and then I’ll look at a passage in the New Testament on page 1060 so I’ll be in numbers chap 21 verse 1-9 numbers 21 verse 1-9 I decided this morning uh that I preached many passages of script scripture in the New Testament on Resurrection morning I said I don’t think I’ve ever preached one from the Old Testament and I wanted to look at this passage because all these passages are a prerequisite to having the resurrection of life and that’s what we want to understand and know we want to know ourselves that we have a resurrection that has been given to us not only a spiritual Resurrection but a physical resurrection that will be given to us by the Lord and we can know that we have it on this side of Eternity God wants us to know these things so let me just have a word of prayer and then we’ll look at the passage let’s pray Lord this morning as we come to celebrate this great day in which Lord historically you Rose from the grave you defeated Satan you defeated death you defeated sin all the the enemies that were against us that kept us from being and going into your presence were removed and we are so thankful for that Lord but we know that not everyone have met the prerequisites for them to claim that they know someday they will be with you and they will have a re Resurrection un life I pray Lord today that you would clear that up from the word of God and help them to to know what it what it means to come to you and why we come to you and even Lord how we approach you because you are a holy God and you deserve our worship and praise so Lord let us bow before you humbly today put aside our pride put aside any preconceived understanding of Salvation and Lord readjust us today by using your your word and I pray this in Christ name amen so let’s look at the passage it says in numbers 21 verse verses 1 through3 says when the Canaanite The King Of ared Who Lived inev heard that Israel was coming by the way of ataram then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive so Israel made a vow to the Lord and says if you will indeed deliver this people into my hand then I will utterly destroy these cities verse three the Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites then they utterly destroyed them and their cities thus the name of the place was called horod horma meaning destruction now that’s just a the beginning there uh that just sets the rest of the passage see Israel’s Journey from SI after they were delivered from Egypt to the uh to The Plains of Moab is a lesson concerning sin and concerning God’s grace it is a story of really repeated sin resulting and resulting failure until Jehovah in his grace causes the serpent to be lifted up which brought blessing and Victory The Plains of Moab the passage we look at we’re looking at this morning is really a signpost that reads this is the way of Salvation if you obey the Lord by looking to his remedy in which he saves you will live if not you will die in your sins so I read this passage passage of scripture in order to show you that the Lord heard the prayers offered up to him by his people and he answered their requests so the Lord is listening to them he listens to our prayers to those who know him to those who are his children he listens to the prayer of repentance and he responds to it so the people are praying and God is answering them but yet the people’s heart hearts in the people’s heart there was a rebellion against the Lord they were there was a rebellion against the Lord’s leaders in other words there was sin in the hearts of the people that was stewing sin that was not acknowledged by the people the people actually acted as as as if their actions and words to God were Justified the people did not see their sinful condition they did not see the Judgment sin brings they did not see they had an inability to deliver themselves from the consequences of their own sins without God intervening and delivering them they didn’t see those things so this Lord’s Day morning in which we celebrate the resurrection I would like you to seriously consider that there are four things all Sinners must see before they can look be saved and live in other words these are the prerequisites to actually have and know you have a resurrection of life now here’s the first thing the first first thing is all Sinners that all Sinners must see before they can look be saved and live and that’s found in verse four and 5 in Numbers chapter 21 here’s the first thing until you see your own condition you will not look be saved and live now notice the condition of the people in verse number four and five and they set out from Mount by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of beat him and the people became impatient because of the journey and the people spoke against God and 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 loath this miserable food now the miserable food that they loathe was the Mana that came down from heaven that God supplied for them in fact it tells us in uh numbers 11 that this Mana was actually very very good tasting and you can make many different things from it all kinds of meals could come out of the Mana and yet they are craving the meat from Egypt the meat from the world they are craving all those things that and not they’re not thanking God for what he has given them how he’s blessed them so what did the people start doing becoming impatient because of the journey it says they were finding themselves so near to the promised land yet they were not entering it also the route they were taking was through the worst parts of the Sandy and harsh desert that presented them with unknown difficulties all this produced in them an impatience so simmering impatience in their hearts they lashed out in Gross in a gross outburst and murmuring questioning God questioning Moses and of course in doing that they’re questioning the wisdom and the care and the kindness and the goodness of God himself now notice what it says in verse 5 it says there’s the question why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness well of course their conclusion was wrong they didn’t God didn’t bring them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness see they were saying we I we would rather have slavery with better food in Egypt than to trust God’s provision and daily care of their life and then notice the statement in verse number five it was a statement not of fact but of disgust what it says for there is no food food and no water and we loathe this miserable food so see they didn’t want the Mana from heaven and it’s not like there was no food it just wasn’t the food that they craved it wasn’t the food that they wanted they wanted the food of Egypt they wanted the food of the world so grumbling and murmuring was their surface sin but their heart sin was outright unbelief they just did not believe God see the Lord God was very displeased with them these accusations against God were not true because God is the great provider he was meeting their needs he had Faithfully provided them every single day water and food food and the Bible tells us that God even made their shoes and clothing that they would not wear out during their journey through the desert see God had shown his love by providing a way to be accepted by him by faith in of course their animal sacrifices where they were they would confess their sin and offer a sacrifice and God would allow them to have their sins forgiven so he had that in their um in the system in which he allowed them to uh worship him but instead of thanking the lord they accused him of neglect they ignored God’s law telling lies about him and dishonoring his name so see to see your sin is the first step to looking and being s saved and living when a sinner truly sees their own condition before God it means that they realize that they’ve broken God’s law see sin’s a terrible terrible thing to God it’s the very thing that keeps us out of his presence it doesn’t mean just breaking society’s codes it doesn’t even mean that person who is a sinner just has a character flaw it is really sin and scripture is open rebellious against your creator against God himself it is taking up arms against the almighty the blindness of sin is that very thing that won’t let anyone think Beyond this life it won’t let anyone think about the hope of Resurrection about eternal life with God and their good Creator it actually blinds people sin blinds people to their the own their own consequences of sin because of breaking God’s law in fact scripture teaches us to break God’s law has consequences just as trying to defy the law of gravity which results in fractured bones and even death violation of God’s law like lying here like grumbling like unbelief brings about certain con consquences see if you notice a second thing all Sinners must see before they can look be saved and live is found in verse 6 now until you see the Judgment your sins against God actually brings you will not love you will not be saved and you will not live notice in verse six the Lord s sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many of the people of Israel died now let me stop right there in the middle of of that sentence or before the next sentence and I want you to notice that who sent these serpents among the people because of their sin the Lord did and it shows the Lord will take actually will go to the extreme measures to bring people to see the consequence of violating God’s law see God sent poisonous snakes among them why in judgment because they have been sinning all along the way and now God is now holding judgment upon them the desert area areas of of the Middle East are well known for several types of poisonous vipers the horn Viper is one of them and then of course the carpet Viper is another one being the most dreaded in the desert if a carpet Viper uh bit someone it was almost automatic death actually the Hebrew word here describes also a reddish color uh that the snake had or it also means a severe burning sense ation when one is bitten because of the Venom so see the the severe burning sensation caused by the Venom really fits best uh here in this context and it’s the most it’s the thing that most directs us to a New Testament connection because in the passage that was read this morning when we opened up in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 it says this oh death with where is your Victory and then it says oh death where is your sting see this is a connection to what’s going on here in the wilderness in other words if you think this message or this passage is just for the people back then you’re wrong it is for us today in fact in the New Testament First Corinthians it tells us that don’t try the Lord as some of then did and were destroyed by serpents nor Grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer now these things happen to them for our example as it is written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the Ages come in other words don’t make the same mistake they made is in the New Testament so see this sting has come upon them God using vipers to give them the sense of his judgment his displeasure from the sin but also that the consequences of people sinning was death to see that there are consequences to all our sin is the second step to looking being saved and living there’s a third thing though all Sinners must see before they can look be saved and live notice in verse number six the second part of the verse see until you see your inability to save yourself from your Dreadful condition and God’s judgment you will not look be saved and live in verse six it says the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and notice and they bit the people so that many of many people of Israel died so the people died because of their sin now from the very first book of the Bible the Book of Genesis God has said that sin would always lead to death in fact the reason why we die is because of sin see the Bible talks about physical death that’s the separation of man’s Spirit from his body we all are well well aware of that death but there is also spiritual or relational death and that’s the separation of man’s spirit from God man is doesn’t know who God is they make up their own uh views about who God is they they actually organize their own religious system based on what they think God should be and usually all the time if it’s not measured by scripture they’re wrong and then there’s also Eternal death and eternal death is SE separation of man’s spirit from God forever Revelation calls this death the second death it’s a death in which you’re resurrected to life you’re resurrected to damnation you have a new body that can never die but it will experience all the pain and sorrow this world has and multiplied because of sin this is condition we we are all in for the Bible tells us in Romans 5 and verse 12 on your uh also in your bulletin it says therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin so death spread to all men because all have sin now this is the Bible’s verdict on us everyone sin see we have transmitted sin that comes from Adam because we’re all children of Adam he was the first man right and so therefore we are born from the first man so his sin was transmitted unto us but we also have so that means we have a bad heart but we also have a bad record we commit our own sins we have sins of thought sins of words sins of deed God cannot Overlook these things because he’s so just and righteous these are the very things that keeps you and I from his presence God wants to make sure that these things are cleared out of the way so you can come into His presence and have a relationship with him so if you notice it says in scripture for the wages of sin is death see that’s God’s verdict and understanding of what happened to us and if you notice the scripture tells us in numbers chap 21 in verse number 6 that not all the people died the ones who did not die soberly took into immediate consideration God’s only remedy to be delivered from the consequen of their personal sin see the Lord in other words made a way for them not to die so to see that you cannot save yourself from the consequences of all your sin is the third step to looking being saved and living but here’s the fourth thing that all Sinners must consider before they can look be saved and live until you look to God’s remedy that brings deliverance and restoration and this is where God displays his love towards his people that he does for us what we cannot do for ourselves he provides a remedy in a way to be made right with him to have our sins forgiven and to have a relationship with him he does that he does all of of it in fact where to do something though and there’s three ingredients to looking to actually understanding this and if you notice here’s the first ingredients found in verse number 7 it said this so the people came to Moses and said notice we have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord in you so what was the first thing simply this looking to God right for the re remedy this is called repentance repentance starts out with turning from your sin to God’s remedy and acknowledging that you sin Lord I’m a sinner I’ve sinned against you I may have sinned against other people too but I sinned first against you and because that I understand that there’s a judgment that comes against me and that of course judgment if if it’s not removed then I am going to die spiritually and eternally forever what we see here is an acknowledgment of sin and a calling it what it is and that sin is an offense to God and to his work and to in this case to his leaders so see repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin it’s a renouncing of it and it’s a s a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to God so we must genuinely renounce our sin and forsake it so we can follow Christ see this does not mean that you have to first clean up your life before coming and receiving God’s remedy these people who were bitten by these snakes had had no time for that they had no time for any of that we cannot clean up ourselves you understand that right we cannot clean our dirty heart one sin that we’ve all committed has to be taken care of and cleansed and we cannot cleanse it on our own somebody else has to cleanse it so it doesn’t mean that you have to first clean up your life before coming to receive God’s remedy when we turn to God for salvation from sins one is simultaneously turning away from their sins and they are asking God to save them specifically from the Sun the sin of unbelief there’s a second ingredients to looking and it’s this I need a mediator I need an intercessor I need someone to go between me and God and help me because I can’t do that myself you can’t do that yourself notice in verse number seven of numbers 21 it says this about Moses of course it’s talking about Moses here and it says very clearly in the middle it says intercede Moses intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us and Moses interceded for the people see so the Israelites recognized that they had sinned so they asked God through Moses to deliver them this meant that they needed to trust the way God would deliver see God was going to give the children of Israel a chance to express their faith in the Lord and take him at his word and follow his Direction and guidance they’re giving up everything they thought any all any pre preconceived notions and they’re following the Lord now today who’s our mediator today it’s not Moses the Bible says our mediator today it says in first Timothy 2:5 there is one God and one mediator between God and man and you know who that is the man Christ Jesus Jesus is the one we go to he stands be between us and God the father if we don’t believe in him if we don’t go through that door because he is the door right he is the way the truth the life if we don’t go to our intercessor who can has made a way for us to be go into the presence of the father then we cannot we can’t bypass Christ we can’t say well I have this religious system over here it’s a great thing and somehow bypass Christ by our own method of trying to save ourselves but there’s a third ingredient to looking and notice in verse number8 and n looking to God’s remedy with faith in other words looking is Faith notice what it says in verse number 8 and N then the Lord said to Moses make a fiery Serpent and set it on a standard and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten notice when he looks at it he will live and Moses made us a bronze Serpent and set it on the standard and it came about that if a serpent bit any man when he looked to the bronze serpent he lived now this is an incredible passage of scripture that is directly connected to the new testament which we’ll look at in a minute so Moses was directed to make a figure of a serpent in bronze to elev ate the pole on a standard and so it can be seen to the furthest extremities of the camp of Israel that means anyone who was bitten and wherever they were bitten lying on the ground by now in pain all that they had to do is look at that serpent on the standard that was lifted up all they had to do was look to live did they have to work to do it did they have to go back and clean up their life turn over a new Leaf to do all no they they could not do those things see this shows us emphatically the helplessness that we all have because of our sin we cannot do anything to remove the sting of sin and the power of sin is the law not only do we have the sting of sin but the power of the law condemns us in our sin Forever Without Christ see because God is just and God’s justice must be met by someone either will be met by the people who well at least they’ll be paying for it in Hell or they will trust Christ so to see that the only way to be saved is to look unto Christ God’s only remedy to save lost Sinners with which is the fourth step to being saved and living now let me just give you a little scenario here this is how it usually goes the scenario of unbelief I call it goes something like this you know this Moses I think that he’s several several bricks short of a load you know his elevator really doesn’t go to the top floor he’s one of those holy prophets always speaking in behalf of God and we’re tired of it in other words this Oldtimer Moses is crazy if he thinks that looking at a bizarre snake on a pole is going to heal a venomous bite I don’t believe it I don’t believe it could be that simple it goes against all conventional wisdom of medicine and Science and just sheer logic see such a person they think would have died not only because of the snake bite but also because they did not believe God they say ultimately I don’t believe such a fair see I don’t believe that God would send his son into the world to die on the cross in my place and to pay for my sins so the justice of God can be satisfied and so that anyone who comes to him and believes in Him by faith who looks to him can be saved that’s that’s just too simple I can’t I can’t believe that well I want you to notice in verse number eight and N again notice look again at verse number8 and n and notice the tense of the verbs switch from the future tense to the present tense notice in verse number eight it says then the Lord said to Moses make a fiery serpent set it on the standard and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten when he looks notice he will live that’s future right then look at verse number nine and Moses made a bronze serpent said it on the standard and it came about if a serpent bid any man when he looked present tense to the bronze serpent he lived present tense that means there was an immediate switch from I could look at it in the future and be saved and but if I looked at it immediately I will be I will live I will be saved from the results of my own sin so when an Israelite Was Bitten all he had to do was to turn and look at the bronze Serpent and he would be healed and he would live now why is it why is it that people hate and despise and reject the gospel why is it you know I just got a letter uh from voice of the martyrs they they usually do all the evaluation of what’s going on in the world and they said that in the tribes The Villages of Northern Iraq where Isis came in and just sacked the houses the people had to leave the refugee camps and they just destroyed everything their Farms their houses they even tore down the telephone calls because they looked like crosses see there’s a definite hatred in the world towards Christianity but specifically towards Christ talk about God generically all you want talk about Christ who is God you got a problem see that’s where the hatred is because the hatred comes from Satan himself he energizes these groups to come against people with a great amount of hatred so why is it that people hate Des spies and reject the gospel well here it is because it’s so different it’s it’s different in every respect from what people would expect see God apparently does the exact opposite opposite of what we think should be done so people could be saved they do not like God’s way of working it does not conform to their neat little plans and their neat little religious systems they don’t like that but there’s something else going on in this passage of scripture and it’s this that there’s a particular method or mode for a cure for sin In this passage of scripture that goes beyond the Old Testament right into the New Testament all right for instance it’s here to show that it was the efficacy of God’s power and Grace not the effect of nature or art or man that brought about this cure of and this deliverance and secondly that it might be a type of the power of faith in God in Christ to heal all who look to him because of their sin so here in numbers we have what the theologians called a type A type is that which is foreshadowed or forecast that represents something before something else happens later which is called an antitype types take many different forms but the object was always to give the picture to the people of what was going to happen over here so God Was preparing these people as well as us the children of Israel and us for the tremendous Deliverance that was going to be provided by those who looked when God sent his son Jesus Christ into the world so as the people looked at the serpent lifted up on the pole you get the for view of what the Lord Jesus would do when he was lifted up on the cross and so the people were bitten because of their sin they were complaining and rebellious towards God and this type the Brazen serpent had no power to heal but when a person fixed Their Eyes On The Serpent of brass he was restored and delivered in the same way the anti-type Christ who does have the power to give spiritual life to the one who looks and trusts in the one who is lifted up so then you come across a passage of scripture in the New Testament which points to the Fulfillment of the type that’s what we want to want to look for if there’s a type in the Old Testament is there an anti-type in the New Testament well turn your seets over and I want you to notice in John 3 verse 14-1 17 what it says there now in this passage of scripture Jesus was talking to Nicodemus who was a religious leader he should have known these things and so they’re talking back and forth but when Jesus said this to him he got it something clicked clicked in his mind he got it what was it notice what it says in verse 14 John chapter 3 verse 14 as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the S son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes or whoever looks to him will in him have eternal life you see that in that passage of scripture we get the sense here that Christ is the king of the kingdom and because he is then he is telling the people there listen unless you are born again in that same passage of scripture you cannot see or enter the kingdom of God so can you honestly say this morning on this in this Easter season that you have looked to Jesus Christ alone for eternal life have you looked to God for the re remedy and repented have you looked to the intercessor Jesus Christ for deliverance have you looked to God’s only remedy for salvation as Christ was lifted up on the cross dying in the place of Sinners paying for your sins and defeating it satisfying the justice of God and defeating our greatest enemy against us which is death itself and Satan that’s what Christ did on the cross and I would say to you this morning if you are still Unholy and have not have not been born again you cannot enter the kingdom of God yet if you turn and look to God in Christ he will have mercy upon you and don’t wait till the end of your life and say to yourself I’ll become born again right before I die don’t be foolish to think that you can outmaneuver the fox death you cannot it may be too late to hope for tomorrow tomorrow may be a place where you slip into eternity and God’s not going to come the Lord doesn’t usually come to you and say to you listen you’re going to die die tomorrow so get ready death comes like this it comes at times we don’t expect it it comes at any age in any place where whatever you’re doing it it matters nothing there’s a million and one ways a person could die but see that’s not the matter the matter is not how you die or when you die the matter is this that either I die in the Lord or I die in myself that’s the important matter do you know that and so this is the point of this passage of scripture the Lord wants us to know that we can die in the Lord because the Lord takes care of everything see you see death freezes you to be as you were on Earth for all eternity you today are like really The Burning metal running forth from the cauldron into a mold death cools you in its mold and you are cast in that shape throughout all eternity that’s how death is life there’s no second chance after a person dies so the grand question to ask and honestly answer is am I Born Again right now do I know that my friends the thought of being Shut Out of Heaven is an awful thought but I know one who can help you I know one who can give you his spirit so we have to fly to Christ we have to trust in him and in his Spirit his Spirit must renew us so see today in other words look to Christ I can’t help you I can only tell you I wish I could save you but I can’t but I can point you to the one who can SA so how do I apply all those prerequisites in order to have Resurrection Life well the first thing is this admit you are a sinner under God’s just penalty and turn from your sin to God now there’s many sins that we commit in our life there’s many sins we commit in our thoughts there’s many sins that we have we have forgot about forgotten about in our life God has not forgotten see God keeps accurate records so see when we come to the Lord sometimes we’re coming and we’re admitting we are a sinner we know we have rebelled against him but we also come understanding that we are unable to save ourselves there’s nothing I can do to earn salvation or to Merit salvation nothing you or I can do to to do that and then of course the third thing would be to just believe and what’s believing as I it says in the passage to look can you look to Christ see that there is no remedy but in Jesus Christ see God has made provision for lost sinners like you and me and Jesus said as Moses was lifted up has lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so even the son of man Jesus Christ must be lifted up and whoever believes will in him have eternal life that is a promise given to us in fact if we read the rest of the passage and you know it well verse 15 says verse 16 says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life for God did not send his son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through him so you see we’re to receive Jesus as our own Lord and Savior nobody can receive Jesus for you parents you can’t receive Jesus for your kids kids you can’t receive Jesus but on your own and believe just because your parents believe that automatically you believe no that’s not the way it works you have to believe personally yourself and come to Christ and look to him to save you where the Bible says in John 1:12 and 13 but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but the will of God and then what you’re to do afterwards once you believe in Christ and and many people here have believed in Christ you to follow him follow Jesus in loving obedience in other words a Biblical Christian is not merely one who says oh yes I know that I’m a sinner I know that I have a bad record and a bad heart I know that God’s provision for Sinners is in Christ and in his cross I know it comes to all who repent and look to Christ I know that but that’s not enough at least for believers when I’m saying can you make a claim to be a Christian can you make your claim to be a Christian stick from the scripture does your life manifest the fruits of repentance and Faith do you possess a life of attachment to Christ obedience to Christ confession of Christ is your behavior is your manner of living are your words are your thoughts marked by adherence to the ways of Christ no not perfectly no but the direction the evidence points that it is surely the direction of your life that you have trusted Christ and your you’re changed you’re different so I ask you again on this Lord’s Day on which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection is no celebration if you do not look to God’s only remedy Jesus Christ it’s not a celebration celebration a resurrection damnation is not a celebration a c celebration for life is a celebration that only comes by looking to Christ I would urge you to humble yourself acknowledge your sin look at Jesus the Savior and invite him to come and be born again in you and cleanse you and forgive you and transform you so that’s what invitation is now just by closing this morning there was a story I ran across several years ago in my reading it was about A Primitive Methodist chapel and one Sunday morning in this little primitive Methodist Chapel an unlearned man meaning that he had no formal education went up up to the pulpit to preach it was January 6th 1850 a young man Charles Spurgeon was in attendance now Spurgeon was a Son of a Preacher he had read most of the theological books in his father’s library but that doesn’t make him a believer that didn’t make him Christian so one day it was a snowy morning the church that he was tending on going to he couldn’t make it there and so he wandered into this chapel and he was in attendance in attendance that day the man preached the simple text the text was this very similar to the one we found here in this passage and and the text was this in Isaiah 45:22 from the King James Bible he says look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else that was the text then the man followed up his text in this way he looked at the people that were there that day and he says look to Christ look to me I’m sweating great drops of blood look unto me I am hanging on a cross look unto me I am dead and buried look unto me I Rise Again look unto me I ascend to Heaven look unto me I am sitting at the father’s right hand oh poor sinner he said look unto me look unto Christ and live well that day Charles spon looked to Christ and was saved and he thought this that’s something simple I can do that all I have to do is look to be saved because the Lord did all the rest and he became one of the most influential Ministers of the Gospel in the 18th century and his influence is still felt today to those who are the minister and read his stuff it’s amazing Jesus said this to Martha was the sister of Lazareth who Jesus raised from the dead was going to raise from the dead very soon after he talked to her and he said this to her I’m the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and Believes In Me shall never die and here’s the question that Jesus asked Martha do you believe that that’s the question do you believe it because if you don’t believe it and set it aside and never look to Christ I cannot say this morning that we can go to heaven or we can have Resurrection Life we can’t so the only solution that you have is to please get your head out of the clouds don’t look to yourself don’t look to a religious system don’t look to your Works don’t look to your sacraments that you participated in don’t look to anything but look to Christ and you will be saved that’s how it happens and all God’s people said amen let’s pray Lord this morning I thank you I thank you Lord for the clarity of the word of God and I pray Lord that you would not allow us to forget these words these passages I pray Lord you would not let us alone until we have looked to Christ until we by faith believed in his death burial and resurrection and I pray Lord that you would give us the Assurance from the word of God in your spirit that the Bible says these things I’ve written un you who have believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God that you may know you have eternal life I pray Lord that’s what we know and then once we receive you that we would Lord Jesus the one who live for you and I pray this in Christ name amen