Random Quotes & Articles to Provide Food for Thought
I want to speak to you tonight from a verse in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It reads like this: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”
This is God speaking—Jehovah, the One True God, the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Living God. And He is saying, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” Or another way we could put it is, “Look and live!”
What does God mean when He tells us to Look and be saved, or Look and Live?
I think it would help us to understand what God means if we look at an illustration from further back in the Old Testament, so I’m going to read you a short portion from the book of Numbers, chapter 21. This story occurred during the time that God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, were wandering through the wilderness. They had left Egypt, you remember, and were on their way to Canaan—the promised land. I’ll begin reading at Numbers 21:4 through verse 9.
4* ¶ And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
5* And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
6* And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
8* And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
9* And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
Here we see that the children of Israel sinned, and so God sent serpents to bite them as a punishment. Many people died as a result of being bitten by these serpents. There was something in the bite of these serpents that would kill a person. Then the people cried out to Moses, and God gave Moses a remedy: he was to make a brass serpent and put it on a pole and set it in a conspicuous place where everyone could see it. Then, when anyone was bitten by one of these serpents, all he had to do was to LOOK at the brass serpent on the pole, and he would be saved from death. It was a very simple cure: Look and Live. Look and be Saved.
I believe this is a perfect picture of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, and that it perfectly illustrates the Scripture I read to you from Isaiah 45. The serpent of sin has bitten the whole human race. There is not a one of us that is not affected by the terrible venom of sin. And we were all dying because of that serpent bite—all dying in the spiritual sense of being cut off from God. That’s what sin does—it cuts us off from God, both in this life, and also eternally. The curse of sin is deadly. But God has provided a perfect remedy. His Son, Jesus Christ, was lifted up on the cross of Calvary, a very conspicuous place, and now everyone who looks to Him will be saved.
The moment those Israelites looked at that snake on that pole, they were healed, they were given life—instantly. The same is true when we look to Jesus—spiritual life floods into our souls and we are instantly healed of the plague of sin.
Jesus compares Himself and His own work on the cross to this brass serpent in the wilderness. Let me read to you from John chapter 3 and verse 14: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
So there we have Jesus Himself confirming that this brass serpent on the pole was a perfect picture of His atoning work on Calvary, and of the fact that anyone who looks on Him, or believes on Him, shall receive eternal life. Looking is believing. Believing is trusting—trusting that Christ died to pay the penalty for my sin, and that there is nothing to do but receive what Christ has done.
Why did Moses put an image of a serpent on the pole? Why didn’t he put an image of, say, a dove; or a lamb; or some other friendly, harmless creature? I believe the answer is found in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ was made to be sin for us on the cross. Christ was made sin, or a sin offering. That is why God forsook Him—you remember that Jesus cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It was because He was made sin for us, so that we no longer face death and destruction if we will but look to Christ on the cross. “Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Look and live!
Now I want to close with the story of someone who looked and lived!
Young Charles Spurgeon was a sinner and he knew it. He was under deep conviction for sin. He was miserable. He knew that he was under condemnation, but he didn’t know the way of salvation. This is what he says:
I attended all the places of worship in the town where I lived, but I honestly believe that I did not hear the Gospel fully preached. I do not blame the men, however. One man preached the divine sovereignty. I could hear him with pleasure; but what was that to a poor sinner who wished to know what he should do to be saved? There was another admirable man who always preached about the law; but what was the use of plowing up ground that needed to be sown? Another was a great, practical preacher. I heard him, but it was very much like a commanding officer teaching the manuevers of war to a set of men without feet. What could I do? All his exhortations were lost on me. I knew it was said. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” but I did not know what it was to believe in Christ.
I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache.
The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was really uneducated. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was, —
“LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.”
He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus: — “My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Ay!” said he, “many of you are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him later. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some of you say, ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin’.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’
Then the good man followed up his text in this way: — “Look unto Me; I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the 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. O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!”
When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, “Young man, you look very miserable.”
Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, “and you always will be miserable — miserable in life, and miserable in death, — if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.”
Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, “Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.”
I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said, — I did not take much notice of it, — I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, “Trust Christ, and you shall be saved.”
That’s the story of C. H. Spurgeon’s conversion; and as you probably know, he went on to be one of the greatest preachers England—or the world for that matter—has ever known!
“Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”
Amen.
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