TD Jakes - Bruised Love - Part 2 (08/16/2024)
God's intense "so" love is displayed between two lifted symbols—the bronze serpent healing bites from fiery snakes and Christ becoming sin on the cross to cure sin's venom. Just as complaining Israel was bitten for unbelief and healed by looking in faith, we are saved not by works but by believing and looking to Jesus who bore our sins, satisfying justice while offering grace to whosoever believes.
Love Makes Us Vulnerable
Loving somebody gives them the power to hurt you. It means I give you my shield. I have no defense against your words. When David and Jonathan meet together in the palace and David gives Jonathan his shield, I mean, Jonathan gives David his shield and he gives him his sword, he is saying, "I am defenseless against you." So on one hand, love seen here is so, so beautiful that the writer has to modify the noun with "so." Not God loved the world, but God so loved the world. The intensity of God, I cannot even talk about.
See, I will not finish today, the intensity of God, whatever God feels He feels to a maximum capacity. God has great feel, like in the Old Testament when it says God was wroth, the word "wroth" in Hebrew means anger with fire, means... means my nostrils are ablaze I am so angry. I am wroth. Whatever He feels, He feels to a strong degree. To the same degree of His anger, is the same degree of His love.
Passion and Pain at the Cross
God so loved that when I look at the cross, I see blood and I see bruising and Isaiah said his entrails were hanging out and there was no beauty about him that we should desire him. And I see a horrific sight and he calls it, in the book of Acts, "after his passion." I do not see passion. I see pain. But then I realize that passion is pain. You will get that tomorrow, okay?
"Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," is such a, "so shall the Son of Man be lifted up," has now handcuffed the snake and the Savior. "Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall," there is the handcuffs, "the Son of Man be lifted up." Now, the serpent is a symbol of evil. He enters in the book of Genesis on the pages of the writ as an ambassador of treachery. He is a venomous character that is infiltrated by the presence of Satan to beguile the woman out of her position and ultimately the man out of his place so that he might have dominion, so that Satan might have dominion, in this present world. And he does it by embodying himself in a serpent.
The Serpent and the Savior
So we are introduced biblically to the serpent as an animal that is possessed by a spirit. And Moses has lifted him up in the wilderness. And the writer of the Gospel of Saint John now compares the lifting up of the snake to the Crucifixion of the Savior. "Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up." And then he goes on to talk about, "For God." For God. So in order to understand why the word "for" is there, we have to look at this dichotomous union between the snake and the serpent. Can we go deeper with this?
Now, now, now, now, now, now the love of God is sandwiched between two moments of intense chastening. One with Moses lifting up the snake and the other with Christ being crucified on the cross, is also God acting in justice because Christ who knew no sin became sin for us. Christ who never committed adultery became adultery for us. Christ who was never a liar became a lie for us. Notice how I am separating the verb from the noun. It is not that he did it. He embodied it so that when he was smitten of God, God sees what he is carrying even though he himself has done no wrong at all. Do you see what I am saying?
Christ Covers Every Sin
So, he was not a cheater, but he became cheating. So that when you come to the altar with your cheating self and lay your sins out on the altar, he can say, "I covered that too. I covered that too. I covered that too." Have you ever had an insurance policy and found out you were insured for everything but what you got, and they say, "You are not covered for that, you gotta pay for that. You gotta pay for that." I think, "Why do I have insurance if you are not gonna pay for nothing?" There is nothing you can bring to the altar that Christ did not cover. They did not hear me. I am gonna try y'all.
There is nothing you can bring to the altar that Christ did not cover. He paid it all. Sin has left a crimson stain and he washed it white as snow. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain and he washed it white as snow. He became everything that embodied, whatever you might want to confess or talk about, he becomes that and hence he becomes compared to the snake who brought us sin. And Christ on the cross becomes sin.
The Bitter Cup
When he goes to the garden of Gethsemane and say, "Father, O Father, if it be thy will, pass this bitter cup away from me." I do not think it was the nails that bothered him. I do not think the nails bothered the carpenter's son. It was to become sin, the very thing that God hated, to become that for us. "Pass this bitter cup from me." Why would he be worried about a death he knew he would get up from? He had said, "If you destroy the temple, in 3 days I will raise it back up again. So I am not worried about it. I am gonna go get stuck in the grave, but to take on sin is to be out of rhythm with my Father. And I always please him. Father, if it be thy will, I do not want to be the bad son. Pass this bitter cup from me."
He became sin for us. He became sin for us. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, drives us back to Numbers 21:4 through 9, because we have to figure out how Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Because if he is the metaphor through which we understand the cross, then we need to look at the metaphor.
Complaining and Consequences
Are you with me? Let us go. "And they journeyed from the 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," how tough it was. "And the people spake against God, and they spake against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" Look at your neighbor, say, "Watch your mouth." Yeah, watch your mouth. Watch your mouth, watch your mouth, watch your mouth. Your mouth can get you in more trouble. Your mouth can get you in debt. Your mouth can get you in relationships you do not want. Your mouth can cause you to buy stuff you cannot afford. Your mouth can cause you to offend people that you are gonna need. Watch your mouth.
Most of the trouble comes in your life is gonna come through your mouth. It is what comes out of a man that defiles him. Watch your mouth, watch your... out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Watch your mouth. The power of life and death is in your tongue. Watch your mouth. They spoke against, they spake against, "they spake against God and against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us?" They questioned God's integrity, they questioned his impulse. They questioned his love. "Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die?" You are accusing God of being diabolical, antagonistic, that he has some evil plot against you?
Fiery Serpents and Repentance
You did not question Pharaoh. Is not it funny that the same people that did not have enough nerve to rebel against Pharaoh have complete nerve to rebel against God? "And the people who spake against God and against Moses, Wherefore have you 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." We do not like what you cooked for dinner. Petty praise. "Lord, my husband only 5 foot four, and I told you plainly, I want 6'1." Petty praise, pray, "If I had a raise I would stay, but Lord, forget purpose, if I do not get a raise, I am out of here." Petty praise, petty praise.
I am not saying if you can do better for yourself, you ought not do better for yourself, but do not be for hire. Oh, got quiet. I am gonna get away now. "And the Lord sent," and the Lord sent. Not Moses, "And the Lord sent," and the Lord sent. These are his children, these are his people. They are out in the wilderness, "And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died." That is not real soft. That is not, "I am gonna take your cell phone away for 3 days." That is not "Time out. Go to your room."
Moses Intercedes
I am not saying you should go home and kill your kids either. Now, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I do not wanna be responsible for that. But I want you to understand the severity that God executes on them. "Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord." I guess they did come. Now that you bit. Now that these serpents have come out in the wilderness and bit you and half of you are dead. Now you wanna come to Moses, "And we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you." You did not say nothing before.
Is not it funny how people repent after the fact? Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And this is where I fall in love with Moses all over again. "And Moses prayed for the people." Sometimes you are asking to be Moses, but you do not have the heart of a Moses. Moses prayed for the people who resisted his leadership and fought everything he was trying to do and then he saw them in need and prayed for them. I have noticed that God has a tendency to use people with big hearts.
The Bronze Serpent
People like Joseph who could forgive his brothers that threw him naked into a pit and sold him like a slave and disrupted the bigger part of his youth. And Joseph could forgive them. People like Jesus who could be nailed to a tree and be praying for the people who nailed him. A big heart. There are some big-hearted people in the room. Are there any big-hearted people in the room?
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." Wait a minute, Lord. "Make a serpent?" I can make a lot of stuff. I can make bread. I can make a tent. You know, I can make a lot of, I can make furniture. Make a serpent? I am not you. I do not do that. You make serpents. I cannot make serpents. It is not on my job description. You should put that down when you in... I do not make serpents. He says, "No, make it out of brass," and Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole.
Beaten Brass and Bruised Love
Now here is where you must read into the text. You must read into the text. In order to exegete the text, you must read into the text that the brass has to be beaten. The brass cannot be formed into a serpent if it is not beaten and shaped and fire applied to it and heat applied to it, and fire represents judgment. And you have got to recognize that with the very, before he ever even lifted it up, that the brass had gone through agony before it was lifted up. And when you see that, then you can see that they plucked the beard from Jesus's face. They beat him with the cat-o-nine-tails. They abused him and ostracized him and spat on him before he ever was lifted up.
But the power was not in the suffering alone. It was in the lifting up, for he said, "And if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me." So the serpent was made while it was down low, down low. But it did not heal anybody down low. It came to pass that if any man looked on the serpent once it was lifted up, it should be healed. Where they made the mistake was not just with plucking his beard or beating his stomach until his entrails were hanging out. Where they made the mistake was not just in spitting on him or casting lots for his garment. Where they made the big mistake was when they lifted him up because he said, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me."
Look Up for Healing
Do you hear what I am saying? They lifted him high so that no matter how low I am on the ground, that if I could just look up, I do not even have to be able to get up. If I can look up. I wanna talk to somebody that is down so low that you cannot get up. You might not be able to get up, but if you can look up, God is so high that if you can look up right now, he could change your situation. He could change your finances. He could change your life.
And so what God does with Moses, he says, "I am gonna make practice out of this because what you are doing is only a shadow of what I am going to do. So beat the brass, because he gonna be wounded for their transgressions and he gonna be bruised for their iniquities. This is bruised love, this is bruised love. A price has got to be paid. Justice has got to be satisfied. I cannot let them get away. I got to beat something. If I cannot beat them, I gotta beat the substitute. Because they opened their mouths, now somebody has got to be beaten."
The Venom as the Cure
And Christ was saying, "I did not do anything but I was wounded. I was bruised, I was beaten." Why? Because you were bitten. And then they lifted him up. When you lift something up high enough, like, if you stand right now, people cannot see around you. But that is why we have a pulpit. Because if I am lifted high enough, no matter how short somebody is, so Christ was lifted high enough so that the person laying on the ground could still look up and see him. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
Now, if you remember when I was preaching on bruised love last time, I talked about rib cages. So the ribs are the bones that protect the heart. And there are two ribs in the text. You are right with me, are not you? Moses has lifted up the serpent and Christ has been crucified on the cross and in between it is God so loved. Y'all did not get it. God so loved the world. So the guard rails are the love of God is in between two sticks. One stick is holding a serpent and the other one is holding the Savior, and the love of God is between the two.
Change Your Belief System
Watch this. Are you hearing what I am saying to you? "So God so loved the world." Oh, wait a minute. Not the church. See, you great at loving the church, but "God so loved the world." Here come the church: "that whosoever believeth." Now we are getting into a special class of people. "Whosoever believeth" is the called-out ones that become the church. But he had enough love to include you. These parallels cover the heart of God.
One final thing. Why did God have him to make a serpent when they were bitten by a serpent? Because the vaccine is made from the venom. So he took the very thing that was killing me. He took the very thing that had bit me. This is why Christ had to become sin because the cure is made from the venom. So he could not deliver me as righteousness. He had to become sin to cure sin. So he became what I was bitten with so that if I looked on him, I could be healed from the infection of sin that was in my life.
So when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he has done, when I think of the goodness of Jesus. Oh see, y'all have not done no mess. That is why y'all have not got no praise. But to all the people who have done some filthy, dirty, low-down speaking stuff that you still do not want nobody to know about. When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he has done for me, my soul cries out. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for sparing me. Thank you for raising me. Thank you for lifting me. Thank you for a second chance. Thank you for a new beginning. Thank you for a fresh start.
So, final point, final close, I think. What started the problem in the Old Testament is that they did not believe that God could take care of them in the wilderness. What cures in the New Testament is he that believes. You trying to do all this other stuff to earn your way in, and if you change your belief system, you would change. Do you hear me? If you change your belief system, if you change your belief system, it will change your finances. If you change your belief system, it will change your future. If you change your belief system, it will change your friendships. If you change your belief system, it will change your association. If you change your belief system, it will change how you carry yourself. If you change your belief system, it will change how you interact with people. If you change your belief system, it will change what you pay attention to and what you ignore. The power to change everything is down inside of you. He did the lifting. Now you gotta do the looking.