Exodus, and tonight let's look
in chapter four. Exodus chapter four. I said last time, which has been
quite some time now, but we especially see God's patience God's patience
in calling Moses to the work that he had for him. When the
Lord told Moses that he was sending him to Pharaoh, Moses first asked,
who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? That was his first objection. Who am I? Of all the men, of
all the Israelites, who am I? that I should go unto Pharaoh. And the Lord responded, I will
be with you. That answered his question. Who
am I? I will be with you. But then
he followed that objection up with another one. The elders of Israel, they're
going to ask me your name. They're not going to believe
that you appeared unto me and they're going to ask me your
name. And the Lord responded, I am that I am. And then the Lord told Moses
that yes, the elders would hearken unto him. They would hearken
unto him and as a token that God had called him, they would
worship God on that mountain there, Mount Horeb. where the
Lord spoke to Moses in the burning bush. Well, tonight in chapter
four, we see that Moses has two more objections to this work
that God is calling him to. Let's read the first nine verses.
And Moses answered and said, but behold, they will not believe
me. Now hearken unto my voice, for
they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the
Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he said, a
rod. And he said, cast it on the ground.
And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And
Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses,
put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth
his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand,
that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath appeared
unto thee. And the Lord said furthermore
unto him, put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his
hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand
was leprous as snow. And he said, put thine hand into
thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his
bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom. And behold, it
was turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass,
if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice
of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the
latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if
they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto
thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river and
pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out
of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. So we see this is Moses' third
objection. This chapter begins with, they
will not believe me, even though the Lord had told him that they
would believe him. But he says, they will not believe
me, nor hearken to my voice. When we see this and we read
this, the first thing that comes to my mind is Moses was not any
different from us. He was not any different from
any of us. He too struggled with unbelief. Do you ever struggle with unbelief?
Maybe just out of the blue, a thought will come to you. How do you
know? What makes you believe this is
true? I mean, unbelief comes to God's
people in many different ways, doesn't it? We're attacked by
Satan, by the flesh, by the world. And many times we struggle with
unbelief. We might be tempted as we read
this, how could Moses do this? How could he say this in the
light of what he had just witnessed, that is, the Lord speaking to
him in that bush that burned but was not consumed, and the
Lord telling him, they shall. They shall believe thee. As I said, we might be tempted
to ask, but then we look in the mirror, don't we? Then we look
in the mirror and we understand how it was possible. I often
think of the hymn we sing, how firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. And especially that stanza, what
more can he say? What more can he say than to
you he has said? You who unto Jesus for refuge
have fled. What more could God say? And
yet too, many times we're guilty of unbelief. We know something
about unbelief. We know something about temptations. The flesh and Satan, his temptations. Well God, as I said before, we
see God's patience. God's patience. And I would just
say this, in the Old Testament we have more than one who did
not, when God called a man to do a work, they didn't want to
do it. You know, if a man is so apt
to preach, that may not always be a good sign. It really might
not be. I mean, it might be a better
sign if the congregation, this is always a good sign, if the
congregation recognizes in that man a gift to preach or to teach
and encourages him to step forward. But when he puts himself forward
and he has all the ability it seems like, but many times it's
human ability and not necessarily a man called of God. Jonah did
not want to go to Nineveh. And you know, we've all read
why he didn't. Some say he was convinced that
the Lord being a merciful God, he wouldn't destroy that whole
city anyway. But he did go. That's the point
I want to make. He didn't necessarily want to
in the beginning, just like Moses. But Moses is going to go because
this is God's purpose and God has the patience and manifest
his patience, his tender mercies in dealing with this servant
of his. And he gives him three signs.
Three signs that if the elders don't believe you, then you show
them this sign, and then if they don't believe that, show them
this sign, and if they don't believe either one of those two
signs, here's you another sign. First of all, because that was Moses' objection,
you see that in verse one? And Moses answered and said,
but behold, they will not believe me. Well, you give them this
sign. The sign of the rod is the first
sign. Do you know this is the first
miracle? This is the first sign that's
recorded in the Bible. So it must be important, the
first sign, first miracle out of all the many miracles that
we read as we go through the word of God. But this is the
first one, the sign of the rod. What is the significance of this
miracle? And let me just say this, in
studying and preparing and reading other men, there are so many
different suggestions to these miracles, what they could mean
or what they might mean, but I'm going to give us tonight
what for sure they meant, not discounting that they may have
other meanings also. but the sign of the rod. What's
the significance of this miracle? Now, this miracle would serve
as a lesson, first of all, to Moses, second to the elders of
Israel, and third to God's people in every age. In other words,
even until tonight, this miracle will serve as a lesson to teach
us. What is in your hand? What is
in your hand, Moses? Now, you know this. God never asked a question for
information, right? God knew what was in his hand.
What's in your hand? Well, Moses was a shepherd. We
know that. He was tending the sheep of his
father-in-law, Jethro, when God appeared to him in the burning
bush. So the rod, the shepherd's rod, or the rod that he would
have in his hand, and a rod would serve for many, many purposes,
no doubt, but mainly to lean upon, to give security and to keep a person steady on his
feet. This rod would serve in that
capacity. In Psalm 23, David, you know,
he mentions God's rod. He said, thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me. This rod pictured Christ. There's no question about that.
This rod pictured Christ and his supporting grace. Now for Moses and for Israel
and for all of God's people, it will always be well. It will
always be well as long as we keep looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ as our all in all, our support and strength in every
situation. But let Moses or any other of
God's children cast the rod to the ground, that is, cast away
our confidence in the Lord. Well, we're going to find ourselves
helpless against the devil. But let us just keep leaning
upon the rod, keep leaning upon Christ. There's a verse in the
Song of Solomon that asks this question, who is this that comes
out of the wilderness leaning upon him? And of course, it's
a picture, isn't it, of the church, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ
leaning upon the husband, the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jacob, when Jacob came to
the end of his life, remember he got, he was able to sit up
in his bed and the scripture tells us he leaned upon his rod. Before that time, Jacob had always
been a man who could manage things, twist things, work things out
in his own mind and for himself. But when it came to the end of
his life, he leaned, he worshiped. And that's where life really
begins, the Christian life really begins, is when we come to lean
upon Christ. When a Levite, not a Levite,
a Jew would bring a sacrifice, according to the book of Leviticus,
to be sacrificed at the tabernacle, he would present that animal
and then he would place his hands, and that word actually means
he would lean, lean, showing a transference, right? And showing
his dependence upon that sacrifice that he was offering, that he
was bringing. The writer of the New Testament
says, Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and
he will flee from you. As I said, as long as we keep
our eyes upon Christ, upon this rod, all will be well. But if we cast our confidence
away to the ground, then we're not going to be a match in any
way for Satan and for his his machinations, the way he is able
to deceive. The rod cast to the ground became
a serpent. And you notice Moses fled from
it. This was a real serpent. It didn't
just look like a serpent. When he cast his rod down to
the ground, this rod God miraculously turned it into a serpent. And this clearly shows us the
helplessness of men to cope with Satan. I know in the New Testament,
we see so many cases of the Lord casting out demons. And most
of these cases, they're so so great that somehow we've come
to believe that today men are born into this world and they're
not under the power of Satan. But that's not true. By nature,
every person, until God, until the Lord Jesus Christ delivers
a person, is under the power of the evil one. We're in his
kingdom. It's a kingdom of darkness. The
apostle Paul in 2nd Timothy makes this statement that men are taken
captive, that men are taken captive by him, that is Satan, at his
will, at his will. Can Satan take a believer captive? Of course not. Greater is he
that is in you than he that is in the world. And by faith, the
scripture says, John tells us, by faith we have overcome the
wicked one. But a person who has no faith
in Christ needs the strong man. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
to deliver him from the power, the control of Satan. This was the condition of Israel
at this particular time. They were subject to bondage.
Yes, they were in bondage rather to the nation of Egypt, but they
were in a much greater bondage than that. They were in a spiritual
bondage, and they had no more power They had no more power
to deliver themselves from Pharaoh and his armies, nor did they have the power to
deliver themselves from the evil one. It's nothing but divine
power, nothing. Nothing but divine power could
emancipate them, and this is just what this sign was fitted
to teach them. And we don't miss the point that
this power was placed in the hands of a mediator, that is
Moses. Remember, he becomes a mediator
between God and Israel. This power was in his hands. He was the only one qualified. to deliver them from Egyptian
bondage. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ
is the one mediator between God and man, the only one qualified
has the ability to deliver a sinner from the captivity of Satan. His power over the serpent was
manifested when God told him, take it by the tail. Didn't take
it by the head. No, Christ is going to deal with
the serpent's head, right? The seed of the woman shall bruise
the head of the serpent. No, you take it, Moses, by the
tail. But when he took the serpent
by the tail, it just disappeared into nothing. It became a rod
again. And this, of course, speaks to
us of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one mediator between God
and man. Moses was a type. In Christ,
in this rod, this rod representing Christ, in Christ, he alone could
deliver them from the power of the serpent. And then the sign of the leper's
hand, verses six through eight. This miracle was intended to
teach Moses and the Israelites and us tonight several lessons. Surely, again, it teaches us
the truth of God's power. How that nothing is too hard
for God. Nothing is impossible with him. You know, we work with our hands,
don't we? God, this sign was given in his
hand. A hand is what a man works with. And to deliver Israel, remember
they are a nation of slaves. They've been in captivity now
for several hundred years. And that's all they knew was
the master giving them orders to deliver Israel. from what,
that had to be the most powerful nation on the face of the earth
at that time. You know, we believe, and we
hear this quite often, that our country is the most powerful
country in the world. I assume that it is. But think
about that. If our country, if we had a colony,
just say the state of Texas, and we were all slaves in this
state. And we've got the power, the
armed forces of the United States. How in the world, we don't have
any weapons at all. And we've been slaves now for
some time. How could we deliver ourselves? We couldn't, we couldn't. It's
gonna take God. And that's the same thing that
the Lord is teaching us and teaching the Israelites at that time. to deliver this nation of slaves,
it's going to take the power of God. It's going to take the
hand of God. You know, that word is used in
several places, like in Isaiah 50, in verse two, God asked,
is my hand shortened at all that it cannot save? His hand. Another verse in Isaiah, behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened. that it cannot save. Another
lesson, of course, would be to humble Moses. Now, turning that
rod into a serpent and then turning the serpent back to a rod might
build Moses up in pride. But God gives him now a sign
that would surely humble him. Humble him. Teaching him and teaching all
of us, we are what we are by the grace of God. We should never
get away from that. None of us. Whatever good, if
there's any good in any of us here tonight, what we are, I
am what I am by the grace of God. Apart from God's grace,
his sovereign grace, his free grace, There's no telling what
we might be doing tonight rather than sitting here wanting to
worship God. We also see that this sign here
may be a picture of Christ in this sense. Here's the hand.
It's whole. It's perfect. But then he puts
it in his bosom and he pulls it out and it's leprous. It's
all covered with leprosy. And then he puts it back in his
bosom and pulls it out and it's whole again. The Lord Jesus Christ
was as the hand at first, without sin, did no sin, knew no sin. And yet, he was made sin for
us, and we know leprosy is a type of sin. And one of the effects
of leprosy, remember, was to be put out of the camp. And so
the Lord Jesus Christ, like the hen when it became leprous, he
too had to cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because why? Because he was covered,
he was loaded down with the sins of his people. But then his hand
is whole again. And I just mentioned the fact
that the Lord Jesus Christ, those six hours on the cross, yes,
there was a period when he was cut off from the presence of
the, at least the known presence of his father. But then before
his body's taken off that cross, he's whole again, isn't he? And
I commend my spirit unto thee. It's over, the storm's over,
right? He had borne the wrath of God
for the sins of his people and satisfied God. And now, once
again, in his father's favor. Father, into thy hands I command
my spirit. Now there's a third sign, but
he didn't work this sign. This was a sign just in case. I say he didn't work it. He didn't
work it at this particular time. We know that eventually when
Moses gets into Egypt, this sign will be wrought. And it's a sign showing God's
judgment, isn't it? Take water out of the Nile River. That's where Pharaoh had commanded
those babies to be cast in, to be sacrificed to the river. Now
they take water out of the river and pour it on the ground, it
turns to blood. a picture of God's judgment,
God's eternal judgment. Well, let me hurry. Let me just
give you this second or this fourth objection. This is his
last one in verse 10. And Moses said unto the Lord,
oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent. That's his last objection. I'm
not eloquent. In fact, I'm kind of slow at
speaking. Neither hitherto nor since thou
hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of
a slow tongue. I'm not eloquent. I'm slow of
speech and slow of tongue. You know, the Lord's response
to this last objection was to remind him Moses, who made your
mouth? Who made your mouth? The Lord,
he's the one who created man with the ability to speak. The animals have tongues, don't
they? But they can't speak. Who created your hearing, Moses? And when you read about how your
hearing works, isn't it just such a marvel? A marvel. Only God could do that. People
can talk about evolution all they want to, but my friends,
you know it ain't so. Only God could create this human
body as he has with all of the marvelous things, the hearing
and the eye. Every member of your body, I'm
sure if you could study it, would study it, you would see marvel
after marvel after marvel. Only God could do this, his wisdom,
his power. Moses, who created your mouth? Obviously, Moses, if I thought,
now let me just paraphrase, if I thought eloquence was what
is needed, I could have called someone else. I could have asked
someone else. No. Moses, I've chosen you. You're going. You're going to
lead my people out of Egypt. It's kind of amazing that this
man, who was so used of God, said, I'm not eloquent. And I
assume he's telling the truth, aren't you? I know he was. He was slow of speech. You know
what they said about the Apostle Paul? His speech is contemptible. And yet, what man in the New
Testament was used in any greater way than the Apostle Paul? It's not eloquence that a man
needs to be a preacher. It's the power of God. Amen? It's the power of God. It's not
eloquence. There's a lot of men who are
eloquent in speech, but God chooses to use something that the world
thinks could not be used. Because God's ways and man's
ways are not the same. They're not the same. Well, I
pray the Lord would bless these thoughts and words. I'm so, really so humbled to think that
you would come and listen to me. And I just pray, I pray every day that God but use me for your good and
for his glory. I know, you know, without his
blessing, without his help, it's all in vain. Amen. I appreciate each one of you
and your faithfulness. We'll sing a hymn before we're
dismissed.