THE SERPENT OF BRONZE  BY STEVE FINNELL

The Israelites spoke against God and Moses, so God sent fiery serpents among them because they sinned and many people of Israel died. (Numbers 21:4-7)

God gave them a plan to escape death.

Numbers 21:8-9 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. (NKJV)

TAKE NOTICE.

1. Not one Israelite said "Looking at the bronze serpent did not save me from death, because I was saved the minute I believed in the message of Moses."

2. Not one Israelite said "I was saved from death by faith alone, and looking at the bronze serpent was just an act of obedience."

3. Not one Israelite said, "Looking at the serpent of bronze was a testimony of my faith, however, it had no bearing on my sins being forgiven by the Lord and I was saved from death before I looked at the bronze serpent."

4. Not one Israelite said, " Looking at a serpent of bronze is a work and works cannot saved anyone from death."

5. Not one Israelite said, "Moses meant that we were to look at the serpent of bronze because we were already saved from death."

6. Not one Israelite said, " You must look at the serpent of bronze in order to join the local synagogue, however, it has nothing to do with being saved from death."

7. Not one Israelite said, There are three modes of looking at the serpent of bronze. 1. Looking at the serpent of bronze. 2. Talking about looking at the serpent of bronze. 3. Reading a book about looking at the serpent of bronze.

8. Not one Israelite said, "Looking at the serpent is an outward sign that we have already been saved from death." 

You notice, that unlike the denominational churches of today, the Israelites did not write down some man-creeds in order to be saved from death from snake bites. They believed the words of Moses, as spoken by the Lord.

If only men today would simply believe what God says about the terms of pardon under the New Covenant.

THE TERMS: 1. Faith-John 3:16   2. Repentance-Acts 2:38, Acts 19:3    3. Confession-Romans 10:9    4. Water baptism-Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21