If I Be Lifted | Pastor KJay | Radiant Church

 Pastor KJay preached “If I Be Lifted Up,” showing how God proves He is the Author of the story through symbolism and prophecy.

KEY POINTS

The serpent doesn’t show up disruptive, he shows up deceptive. You have to shut your ears to the devil and only listen to the voice of God.

Genesis 3:13–15

Anyone can look and believe in Jesus Christ because he said if I be lifted up I'll draw all men unto me. The gospel reaches the highest place and the lowest place. 

Numbers 21:5–9

Jesus was lifted up on the cross so whoever believes in Him would have eternal life.

John 3:14–15

PRAYER 
We would be honored to pray with you. Text the word "Prayer" to 903-201-0606. 
____ 
FIRST TIME
Is this your first time visiting Radiant Church Online? Text the word "First Time" to 903-201-0606.

Connect With Us: 
Website: https://www.radiantchurchtxk.com 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Radianttxk 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radiantchurchtxk/

DOWNLOAD OUR APP 
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/radiant-txk/id6473744016
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.pushpay.radiantchurchtxk&pcampaignid=web_share

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome, podcast family. My name is Kaylee, and thank you for tuning in today. If you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe to our podcast to stay up to date each week. We believe that God has a powerful word for you today. So let's dive in into this amazing message.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

The title of my sermon is If I be lifted up. If I be lifted up. And today we're gonna be kind of tagging on to what we talked about last week. So if you didn't hear the message, go back and hear it because this message won't make a ton of sense without the context of that message. But if you're taking notes, my sermon is called If I Be Lifted Up. And last week we just talked about the curse and how Jesus ultimately came to reverse the curse. The Bible says, any man that's hung on a tree is a curse. And Jesus took the curse for you and me. In Galatians, it says that Jesus became the curse for you and I. So everything he did was to reverse the curse. We learned in Genesis 3 that the whole chapter was when the curse was inaugurated, which means that Jesus in the New Testament had to undo the whole Genesis 3. We learned how he undid the first part. We're gonna learn how he undid the second part of the curse, the part that we didn't, it was all one curse, but we covered one part, and then this is the second part. And then next week we're gonna see what all that means. So that'll be the message that ties everything together. So it's it's kind of like a three-part, then I'll continue in this series. But one of the things that we're gonna be looking at is symbolism, prophecy, and foreshadowing. Symbolism, prophecy, foreshadowing, and forecasting. And these are just literature words, these are words that authors and story writers use. They use the word forecasting or foreshadowing. Have you ever watched the movie and all of a sudden somebody says something and it's like a little clue to what's gonna happen at the end? You know, it's just there, they're little, there's like little little clues to things to come. That's prophecy, that's forecasting. And the reason why that's in the movie is because the author he knows what it's gonna end like. So in real time, he can put things throughout the story that forecast where the story is going because he knows where the story is going, because he has wrote the story. The Bible says Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith, which means he's the beginning and the end of your faith. He's Alpha and Omega, he's the beginning and the end, so he can tell you the end and the beginning, and he can tell you the beginning and the end, he can tell you what's to come, he can give you a foreshadowing of the Bible, and God is so amazing and he's so extraordinary that in real time he can be living and foreshadowing and revealing prophecy and fulfilling prophecy at the same time because this is your God and he's the author of this story. Only an author can do that, and he had prophecy and foreshadowing and forecasting because he was showing you I'm God, he was showing you I'm the author of this story. Only an author knows what happens next. You don't know what your tomorrow looks like. You have no idea you can have a plan, but things don't always go as planned. Sometimes I'll be like, man, I'm gonna sleep through the night. Next thing you know, my wife's alarm clock goes off at four in the morning. I'm not putting on blasts, I'm blasting her right now. And I had a plan that I was gonna sleep all the way through. Then beep, beep, beep, and I'm like, what am I doing up at four? And she was like, oops, I tried to put Orb. Girl, you have your phone here, just hand it here. Like, come on. And this is what happens because as people, we didn't write our story, so we don't know all the details. We can't perfectly foreshadow or forecast or prophecy our life. Only God can do that because he's the author and he's the finisher, and we can see the providential hand of God through all of creation, all the scripture, and all the Bible. Are we good? All right, go to Genesis. It's the first book in the Bible. Don't do a lot of turning. You got this, you can find it. Don't go too far. Chapter three. You can do this one. Now, if I tell you to obey, you're like, okay, y'all give up. Put it on the screen. You can do this one. Well, you guys are there say ready. You ain't ready yet. But you ready now? Genesis chapter 3. We're gonna start in verse 13. We read most of this last week. Verse, Genesis 3, verse 13, it says, And the Lord said to the woman, What have you done? This is when she ate the forbidden fruit and inaugurated the curse. What have you done? The woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle. Which means you can eat that cow, but don't eat this snake. No, I'm like, and more than every beast of the field, on your belly you should go. And you shall eat thus all the days of your life. And I will put enmity, which simply means beef. You know, have you ever had enmity with somebody, got beef with somebody? I'll put enmity between you and the woman, which means women and snakes got beef. You know what I'm saying? And if you don't believe it, try to put one by my wife, you'll find out. Um and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. To bruise one's head means to break authority. To bruise one's heel represents the Achilles' heel, means to take one's life. So we go to Eve, and Eve said that the devil made her do it. And the thing that's tricky about this is when the serpent shows up, he's never disruptive, but he's always deceptive. He's never disruptive, but he's always deceptive. And he was deceptive. He came and he started talking to her. Do you know most of what the devil would do to you do to you in your life is talk? Most of you guys like, I'm being attacked by the devil, I'm under attack. I tell you what, you don't have is a black eye. Because the devil don't give black eyes. The devil ain't hitting nobody. Now, somebody with the devil in them may have hit you, but he ain't hit you. He just talked to you. And the danger is he talked to you and you believed him. And because you believed him, now he's destroying you through his deception. He's destroying you through deception because you listen to him. And what you gotta always ask yourself when you're going through something, when you're angry, when you're frustrated, when you're bitter, you have to ask, am I listening to the snake? Am I listening to the snake? Because the snake has the story, the tell. The snake has something to say, and the snake has something to show. The snake is always there, he's always talking, he's always showing, he's always deceiving, and you have to make a conscious decision. I will not listen to the snake concern of my life. I will not listen to the snake concern of my marriage, I will not listen to the snake concern of my kids, I will not listen to the snake concern of my faith. I will not listen to the snake concern of my health, I will listen to God, and God only should I listen to. I will follow the instructions of God, and only his instructions I should follow. I will not listen to the snake. And she listened to it, and you hear stuff like, I'm not enough, that's a snake talking. I'll never break out of this, that's a snake talking. I'll always be sick, that's a snake talking. It'll never get better, that's a snake talking. You can't listen to the snake. And Eve did, and it's deception turned into destruction because the words of the snake always does. And here's the dangerous part about him is he done yell, he whispers. And he just while you sleep, and while you eating, and while you living, and while you in church, and you have to close your ear to the snake, and there's something about this subtle, crafty little beast that the devil saw in him and said, He's the one I need to use. There's something about the nature of the snake that would be appealing to the people to be able to deceive them into sinning against God, yeah, and he still moves the same way. Don't listen to the snake. Come on, somebody, if you're not gonna listen to the snake, give God a shout of praise for that. So then God came because the snake deceived the woman, and God came and he cursed the snake above all the cattle, he cursed them. And what was the curse of the snake? Well, when God cursed, when God inaugurated the curse, the Bible says, Cursed is the ground, which means the curse is on the ground. So when the snake got cursed, God said you will slide on your belly all the days of your life. In other words, I'm gonna put you right on the ground and let you eat the dust of the curse that you created, let you eat the dust of the curse that you created. The snake had to slide on his belly and eat the dust, and he had to be close to the ground, he had to be brought down low so it can be right near the curse. And I want you to know that at one point the snake had legs, he had legs, he could stand. Imagine a standing snake. I can't even deal with you on the floor. Now you standing up. Snake just walk up on you. You like, ah, you know what? I'm gonna stay in the city. Um, he had legs, and if you look at a modern snake, there's remnants of a hind, there's remnants of hind legs in the snake. That it has remnants that you can see that a snake used to have legs. And why don't the snake have legs? Because it's great, great, great grand snakey was listening to the devil and used by the devil, and because great grandsnakey listened to the devil, he lost his legs and the curse fell on him, and it went down all those generations of snakes, and now they're all eating dust sliding because great grandsnake was playing with the devil. Grand Snake, crazy. That's crazy. But he was cursed. He once had legs, he once could walk, but he was cursed because as he slides, it's a symbol of you are a curse. Cursed is the ground, and your face will be in the ground because you brought the curse. You brought it, and all of a sudden, now we begin to see this relationship between the savior and the serpent. The savior and the serpent, the savior and the serpent. And now God introduces this parallel between the two because he said, Hey, serpent, I want you to know that the seed of the woman, which is Jesus Christ, he's gonna crush your head, he's gonna break your authority, he's gonna break your power, he's gonna break your might, he's gonna take the keys to death, hell in the grave. You won't have authority no more, but you will crush his heel, which means you would be the instrument that's used to take the life of Jesus. Jesus would have to die because of what the snake did. Jesus would have to die at the hands of the snake, and he would die because of what the snake did, and there's this relationship between the savior and the snake. But then I want to note to you that also there's enmity between the woman and the snake, and this is why most women, not all, but most women don't like snakes. And I wish the Bible would have said there's enmity not between the woman and the snake, but the woman and the man and the snake, because I got enmity with the snake. And here's how I know it's because one day I was at a park with a friend and he found a snake, and it was cute. I was like, Oh, that's awesome over there. You stay over there, be over here. Well, my friend was like, you know, I'm gonna pick the snake up. I'm like, bro, praise be to God. Stay over there, y'all. He happened to make his way towards me with this snake, and he said, I'm gonna put the snake on you. So I kind of started jogging, like, man, don't put the snake on me. And as I started jogging, I got mad, turned around. I and I I thought that I was saved, sanctified, bought with the blood. I thought I was redeemed and delivered in the Holy Ghost, and I found out I was ready to backslide. And I was it was I was hurt how fast I was ready to backslide. I turned around, I said, You better don't take another step with that snake. I said, put that snake on me, see what happened. I went running, I'm mad now. I will lay you and that snake out. Both of y'all are gonna be sliding on this floor. You take another step, do it. He he began to walk backwards with that snake. Him and that snake was like, he ain't playing. Why? Because I don't play with snakes. We can use anything but a snake, I don't play with no snakes, all right? I used to catch lizards, but I don't play with snakes. And almost backslid. But the snake, there's a relationship between the savior and the snake. Now, check this out. Not only is there a relationship between the savior and the snake, that there was a point in the Bible where the snake was a symbol of the savior. And this is insane. This is insane that the snake would be a symbol of the savior because we have plenty of symbols of Jesus, and I don't like this one. He's called the light of the earth, praise God, living water, praise God, uh, the lion of the tribe of Judah, praise God, the Lamb of God who takes the sin of the earth away, praise God, but to compare him to a snake, I don't like that. And the reason why I don't like it is because the snake has another symbol, and the other symbol of the snake is sin and evil in the devil. So he has he symbolizes sin, evil in the devil. So why would anybody let him symbolize Jesus? And I didn't like this, and it didn't sit right with me. And some of y'all like this ain't sitting right with me, preacher. Hurry up and explain yourself. Give me a second, I will. This didn't sit right with me, and no, did it not sit right with me? I never heard this before. And why do we never hear this in church? It's because most preachers, when something is hard and uncomfortable, they just run from it and go to John 3.16. God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. Yeah, that's a part of the gospel. We gotta preach the whole counsel of God, the parts that make us comfortable and uncomfortable. And Jesus being compared to the snake makes me uncomfortable. And who in their right mind will compare Jesus to the serpent? I don't know. Let's go find out. Go to John chapter 3, John 3, verse 14. And this is Jesus talking, red letters. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Wait, why is this serpent in my eternal life and me being saved? Let's your rind and read again. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Wait, wait, wait. The Bible is saying that for us to have everlasting life and to not perish and to be saved, and this goes into John 3 16, that God so loves the world, he gives his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This starts with the snake. And this makes me uncomfortable because if it started with the lamb, I'll be okay. If it started with the dove, I'll be okay. But why does my salvation start with the snake? That the Bible says that if Jesus isn't done like the snake, we can't be saved. Let's just read it again because y'all look like you don't believe me. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, this serpent is a foreshadowing and a prototype of Christ in the wilderness. Even so, the Son of Man must be lifted up, which means that the way the snake was lifted, Jesus has to be lifted in the same way. And it's making the parallel because it's paralleling Jesus to the snake. And this is really uncomfortable because we got this John 3.16 that God so loved the world we can be saved. But in order for us to be saved, Jesus got to be lifted up as the snake or like a snake. Why in the world would Jesus have to be lifted up like a snake? Because he would have to be lifted up like everything that brought the curse. Because a man brought the curse. And if he's gonna reverse the curse and undo the curse, that means he would have to be lifted up as everything that brought the curse and pay the penalty as everything that brought the curse. He would have to pay the penalty for what man did, but he would also have to pay the penalty for what the snake did. Because mankind didn't bring the curse by themselves. The snake helped inaugurate the curse, and to reverse the curse, he has to be lifted up as a man and as a serpent. Because what you forgot about the snake is this you forgot that the snake was made by God, and though he's a symbol of Satan and a symbol of sin, he's still a serpent. And the problem with the serpent is the serpent, like many of us, was used by the devil. He got cursed, he slid on his belly, now he has to eat dirt, and then the devil jumps out of him and goes to his next victim. And the devil has done the same thing from the beginning of time. He will come, use you, get you cursed, and then leave you where he found you. And this is the tactics of the devil, which means that not only would he have to reverse everything that Adam did and become the first fruits, like we talked about, he would now have to be the reversal of the thing that brought the curse, which is the snake, which means he has to be lifted up like the snake was lifted up, and then he can now give you eternal life. Can we give him a shout of praise? Now, if somebody's gonna make claims this ridiculous, you better have a lot of Bible to validate it. And I do go to Numbers chapter 21. Numbers 21. Let's find out about the snake in the wilderness if Jesus is a prototype of it. Numbers 21, verse 5. And it reads, and the people spoke against God and against Moses. The people of God always know this. When they get mad at God, they get mad at you. When they get mad at God, they're gonna get mad at you. Why have you brought us out to Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our souls loath this worthless bread. This worthless bread, and this bread was symbolic of Jesus. He was our manna from heaven, and it was symbolic of God's word, and they just called it worthless. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. And see, this is why we don't preach this stuff because all of a sudden it looks like God has a temper tantrum and he's having a mood swing, and we don't know how to explain this, so we just skip over these verses because we can't explain them. It says the Lord sent fiery serpents, and then you get a preacher like, well, he didn't really send them, like he like allowed them to like come, but he don't like send them, they like sent themselves, but the Lord sent fiery serpents. Well, it wasn't like God, it was like the like he did, the devil did, but God like kind of the Lord sent fiery serpents. Who sent fiery serpents? The Lord, and this is kind of embarrassing. It's like you knew the church, it's like, well, he's not like really like that, like he's really a nice guy. Let's just just just sit tight, you know. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. Okay, he just sent them, like nothing happened yet, and then they bit the people. Ah wait, wait, they bit people, and many of the people of Israel died. Wait, and he just sent serpents. The serpents actually bit people, and people died. And God sent them. And you guys are looking like, why would God? Everybody, eyes is like, huh? Where are you going with this? This is mean. This is this God shouldn't be doing this. We wouldn't do it. God shouldn't do it. Okay, God's gonna God's gonna give you his reasons. Give him a second. Therefore, 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. Then God said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, or lift it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. And so it was if the serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Wow, wow, wow, wow. So why would a good loving God do something like this? Well, first of all, you can't define good or loving because you ain't either. Um, that's number one. And if you are, compare yourself to a holy standard of God and you're not no more. I don't care how good or loving you think you is, and it's crazy how we can read stuff like this and think we can judge God and we have sin and iniquity in us, and he has none in him. That's number one. But if you would actually go and read your Bible, you would see that these were a stiff-necked people because these are the people that God brought the templates on Pharaoh to deliver. These are the people that when you put blood on the doorpost, the death angel would pass over your house. These are the people that was delivered out of Egypt. These were the people that God split the Red Sea and walked into the wilderness on dry land. These were the people that when they was hungry, God said, manna from heaven. Bread from heaven, which is a symbol of Jesus. These are the people that when they was thirsty, God hit Moses hit a rock, and water came out the rock. Why? Because Jesus is a cornerstone, he's a rock, and when we come towards him, we get eternal and living water. This was the God that did the impossible for them. This was the God that rode out the red carpet. This was the God that didn't let their shoes roll in the desert. This was the job that kept them, protected them, saved them, started them on their way, kept them in their right mind, and yet they would still talk against God and sin against God and turn the whole nation against God. And Moses, after all God and Moses had done, and God was frustrated. And these were the same people that was gossiping so hard, they were turning all the people of Israel against Yahweh. All of them, and you don't know what could happen. That they were gossiping and so mad at God, all the people of Israel could have turned from God forever. And how would the Messiah be born to save all of us? And what's happening is you see in God cast judgment and you feel uncomfortable. But you feel uncomfortable because you're not God. And if you did this, this would be mean because you would have no rights. But what happens when you're the creator of the universe and the owner of the universe? The earth is not yours, it's God, and he's lended it to you to have dominion. The Bible says, heavens is the Lord's and the fullness of the earth, they're us. This planet don't belong to man, this planet belongs to God. And he is the good judge, and he is the righteous, just judge, and he can bring judgment when he pleases. And if he decides to speed up judgment, he can do that. Because guess what? There were gonna be judged anyway. He can judge them now, he can judge them when they die. And God is so good, and he's so God, and he's so all-knowing and omniscient that he knew that their decision in this wilder wilderness would be the same as it would be as his throne. So why would he speed up the judgment? Maybe because their life was going to be a stumbling block to the little ones, and now the little ones who looked up to them would probably never know God because of what their ancestors had sown inside of them. So God could accelerate judgment to save a nation so the savior can be born to save all. Once I was at Roadhouse, I saw a man eating a steak, he was across the table from me. All of a sudden, the officers came in and they said, Sir, get up. And they arrested this man. His steak was barely beaten. And I'm looking like, can you let the brother finish his steak? Like, you know, if you're gonna go to jail, let the brother at least go to jail full. I'm going to jail, but I'm full, you know. But guess what? He committed a crime, they had a judicial right to arrest him. And if they decide to let him finish his stake, cool. If they decide to get him now cool, why? It don't matter. You wouldn't think they're evil because they can cast judgment when they won't, because he broke the law. And just because God decides to bring judgment in the wilderness don't make God a mean God. They had already broke the law. He didn't not, he didn't bring a judgment they didn't deserve. They deserve judgment. And if you look at it closely, he actually brought grace. Because the Bible said, many repented and said, We sinned against you. And they looked to the serpent, and then they were saved. God didn't just release a serpent, he also released a solution to the serpent. In other words, God brought judgment, and then the bite of the snake brought them to the foot of the cross. And I want you to know that sin is a symbol of a snake, and sin bites. And some of you guys have been bit by sin, and it's the reason you're in this city right now. Some of you guys have been bit by your sin and it's brought you to the foot of Christ. Some of you guys have been bit by your evil ways, and your sin has brought you back to God. It has brought you back to church and given you an opportunity to repent. Is that judgment or is it grace? Those snakes being released, if they got bit and they repented and looked to the bronze serpent and they got healed, was that really even judgment? Or was it the grace of God causing the people to repent so that they might be saved? Wasn't judgment? It was grace. And I want you to know that there's no difference between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God. He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. He's been gracious in the New Testament, in the Old Testament. And a lot of you guys think the New Testament God is nicer than the Old Testament God. But I want to tell you this. He's the same God, but the only time God allowed something unjust to ever happen, it was actually in the New Testament. Because he allowed the perfect Lamb of God to be pent to the cross and tortured and beat for sins he did not commit. That's the only thing in the whole Bible that's unjust. Everything else is justice rendered. It's justice. What is justice? Justice is getting what you do deserve. But many times God don't bring justice, He brings mercy, which is not getting what you do deserve. Justice is getting what you do deserve. Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Mercy is a reversal of judgment. And many times he brought mercy, and even when he brought judgment for a moment, mercy sat right on top of judgment and triumph over judgment. And if they just looked to the bronze serpent, they could be saved. He didn't say you had to walk to it, he didn't say you had to touch it, he didn't say you had to run to it. Why? Because there was probably some people that couldn't run, there's probably some people that couldn't reach, but all can look. And it was a symbol of faith that if you look to the bronze serpent, you can be saved. And the reason why, because it was a foreshadowing of Christ, because God's people, humanity, will be getting bit by the serpent called sin, and they will be dying off. And God said, You know what? I'm gonna bring my son, I'm gonna lift him up on the pole. And if you will look to him and believe in him, you shall be saved. You won't die from the venom of sin, you won't die from the bite of sin, you will be saved. In other words, he gave them the same opportunity you would have before Jesus was born. It was the gospel, and if you look at it, it was the gospel. They got bit because of their sins, but God sent healing, and he sent healing through a stick with a snake lifted up on it, and all throughout humanity, even now, the logo of healing, our medical logo across the world is a picture of a stick and a snake. A stick and a snake. This is the picture of healing. This is the medical logo. It's a picture of a stick and a snake. A stick and a snake, because when you see these two together, it takes you back to the wilderness of when God healed his people. And God would have to have a stick and a snake to heal his people. It would take a stick and a snake. It would take a stick and a snake. Why would it take a stick and a snake? It's because the snake brought the curse, and God says everyone that hangs on a tree is a curse. So if the snake brought the curse, guess what the snake gotta hang on? It gotta hang on a tree. Guess what a stick is? It's a remnant of a tree. So when this snake hung on that stick, that tree, it was a picture of the curse. Now I want you to put the picture of Jesus up. And if you look at Jesus at his crucifixion and you look at the picture of the snake on the pole, there is a polarity between the two. Because this was what was concealed in the Old Testament, but revealed in the New Testament. Now the question is, why would Jesus be compared to a snake? Let me show you. He was compared to a man because man has sinned, and then guess what? The ground was cursed because the snake sinned. Then God cursed the snake. So we talked about how God reversed man's curse last week, how he reversed the curse of the ground, but now he has to reverse the curse of the snake because he has to eradicate the whole curse. He has to obliterate the cold curse. So you may ask the question why did Jesus have to be lifted up? Why did he have to be lifted up? Because Jesus said this, keep my picture up. I'm gonna read the scripture. Keep my picture up. Or unless you want to go to the scripture and come back to my picture, if you that code, you can do it that way. John 12, 32 says, and if and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. This he says, signifying or symboling by what his by what death he would die. Let's read again. And if I am lifted up from the earth, will I draw all people to myself? Back to my picture. He said, if I'm lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. Question is, why does he have to be lifted up from the earth? Or why did the serpent have to be lifted up on a stick? Because if you go look at the curse of the serpent in Genesis 3, he was cursed, his legs was removed, and he was cursed to slide on the ground and eat the dust. What is the dust of the ground that symbolizes earth? So the curse pins the snake to the earth to the lowest point. If we're gonna reverse the curse, what do you have to do? You have to now lift the snake up and you gotta hang it on a tree so it can take on the curse. So the ground is a symbol of the curse. The snake being lifted off the ground is symbolizing the reversal of the curse. So Jesus said, like that snake that has to be lifted off the ground because of the curse. When I am lifted up, I will draw a man unto me. When I'm lifted up on the cross, when I'm lifting up in the air, when I'm lifting up as the serpent, I will draw a man unto me. And this is all men, not some man, a man. He said, I can go as low as the black house, and I can go as high as the white house, I can go to the hood or the suburbs, because I'm a drawman unto me. I'm the glory of God. He said, if I be lifted, and we used to think that was a song. We thought it was a song, and we thought it was about praise and worship. And they would come, if I be lifted up, Julian, oh draw, oh and we just came and worshiped and we're like, we're gonna lift God up, praise God. We're gonna lift him up, and he's gonna draw people, and we can't lift him up. The father lifted him up on that cross, and he said, If I'll be lifted up, I'll draw men unto me. He was lifted up on the cross, and why did he have to be lifted? It's because it was a symbol of the curse being lifted up. And he had to be just like that serpent. Because what you have to know is he was the lamb for the payment of sin. But he was the serpent for the penalty of sin. And I don't care how many crosses we buy, and it's okay to worm because I get the sentiment, but this wasn't glorifying the snake. This was a picture of the snake exposed publicly, the curse exposed and rendered defeated. And this was a picture of our sin exposed publicly and rendered defeated. This is not a picture of Jesus' victory. This is a picture of the punishment of your sin. It's not a picture of victory, all the way to the point where he says, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabactani, God forsake this because when he looked down from heaven, he didn't see his son, he saw the snake. And when he saw that, he turned his back, and the son said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the father would have said, son, I'm not forsaking you, I'm forsaking it. Because you represented it when you was hanging and lifted up on a tree. I'm not forsaking you. I'm forsaking it. And what does it represent? It represents sin. That's what it represents. It represents sin. And if the serpent represents sin, that means when Jesus was lifted up on the cross. This was a picture of sin. And my question is this why would the Father have them looking to be healed if it was the same fiery circuit that cursed it? Why would you look to something to be healed if this is the same thing that made you sick? Why would you look into something to be healed if it's the same thing that made you curse? Why would you look to something to be healed if this is the same thing that gave you venom? Why would you look to that? And I'm gonna tell you there's a couple things in there because God didn't want you to run from the curse, he wanted you to stare the curse in the eyes and say, I am bigger than the curse, and I'm not afraid of the curse because my king breaks the curse, he has power over the curse. God made them look at what they were scared of because he didn't want them to fear the snake no more. He was actually exposing the snake, he was showing them that what bit you, I'm biting it now. I am pouring out my wrath on what poured wrath out on you. He was showing the people you actually deserve to be bit by the snake, but if you would trust in me, I'm gonna bite the snake for you. And that's what he did to Jesus. He was biting the snake a sin for us. The Bible says in Isaiah, not only did the father allow Jesus to be killed, this is your Bible. I'm preaching nothing but scripture, straight scripture. It said that when God looked at Jesus on the cross, it said it pleased God to crush him. Which means when God saw that, he was pleased because he was loaded with your sins and my sins, and God saw the sin and the snake being crushed and punished, and it pleased heaven because justice had been rendered. And this is why Moses used the bronze snake, because in order to create a bronze snake, you would have to put bronze through fire. Once bronze went through fire, you would then get the bronze and put it in the stencil of a snake, and you would beat it with a hammer, and you would beat that bronze in the stencil with a hammer, and it would form a snake. Then you would lift it up on the cross. Well, guess what? The fire of God's wrath came out on Jesus on the cross. And when Jesus was getting ready to go to the cross, what they do? They beat him. They beat him with a cattle nine tails, they beat him with a crown of thorns on his head. Why? Because Jesus was our bronze. He was our bronze because he was our judgment. Bronze is a symbol of judgment. Bronze goes through fire, then bronze is beaten. Jesus went through the fire of God's wrath and he was beaten, and then like the bronze serpent lifted up on the on the stick, Jesus was lifted up on the stick. And it was a symbol that judgment of the curse has been rendered. And because the snake was cursed to be low, I'm gonna lift it up because I'm lifting the curse. Can we give God a shout of praise? I got five minutes, so if you're drinking from a water, a fire hose, I'm sorry. Are you guys with me? Are you guys following this? Let me give you more scripture to validate my point. Now the scripture is gonna come to life. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. 4. He made him who knew no sin. What does that mean? That means he's never committed a sin. He knew no sin, he did no sin. Him who do who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God in him. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He made him who knew no sin to be sinned for us. You put my picture back up. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. So the question is, why the snake? Why the snake? It's because God said that, or he was saying this, I'm gonna use the call to be the cure. I'm gonna use the cause to be the cure. And I'm gonna use the same curse to be the cure. Which means that if the serpent was the curse, then guess what has to be the cure? The serpent. Or if we get more literal, if sin was the curse, then guess what would be the cure? Sin. And you're like, that don't make sense. And yes, it does, because our whole medical institution is built off of this. It's called a pharmacon. And a pharmacon is a medical term, and it basically means that you may get a cure out of venom. So if you get bit by a snake, I want you to know the anti-venom they're gonna use to save you if you go to the hospital and get bit by the snake, it's actually venom from a snake. So what they did was as a as a pharmacon, they would take the snake's venom, they would put it inside of a horse or a sheep. What is a sheep? It's just a grown lamb, that's all. You know, nothing crazy. And they would inject venom inside of that sheep or the horse, and then the sheep or the horse would create antibodies. And it would create antibodies against the virus. They would take those antibodies out, and they would make an anti-venom out of the antibody. So when you got bit by a snake, then the antibodies from the sheep or the horse will be injected into you and it would neutralize the snake's bite. And it's called a pharmacon. And the father who created everything, science and all, he did that because you got bit by a snake called sin. He injected the venom inside of the Lamb of God, and then by the blood of Jesus that's pulled out of the Lamb of God, you can have an anti-venom towards sin, and now your sins are cleansed, and your sins are washed away, and you are saved and made whole. So all of a sudden it gave him power and authority over sin. So now he was the cure to sin. So when you have sin and you go to him, your sins are saved and forgiven now because he housed your sins in his body. He was a pharmacon, he was literally the cure to the thing he was carrying. He was the cure to the thing he was carrying. He who knew no sin became sin that I may become the righteousness of Christ Jesus. And all throughout medical, it works this way. You want to get a flu shot? Guess what they're gonna shoot you with? A little bit of the flu. And now all of a sudden your body's gonna create antibodies against that flu. So Jesus, if he was gonna be the cure of sin, guess what he would have to do? Become sin. And when he became sin, he became the antidote to sin. So when you come to him with your sins and you come and ask for forgiveness, your sins will be cleansed. I'm out of time, but if I wasn't, I could show you deeper. I'll do it next week. Come back to part three. Stand to your feet. Let me pray for you.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Wow. What a powerful message. We hope it blessed you. Make sure to share it with your friends, family, and co workers so they can be blessed as well. Also, if you'd like to partner with us and invest in what God is doing here at Radiant Church, the giving link is provided below. Thank you so much for tuning in and feel free to check out our other sermons.