Exodus chapter 7. Our subject this morning is the
Accomplishing Word. The Accomplishing Word. Let's read verses 8 and 9. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh
shall speak unto you, saying, Show a miracle for you. Then
thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh,
and it shall become a serpent. Now, we've seen before how that
Aaron's rod is a type of Christ preached in the Gospel. Christ is the substance of the
message we preach. And this is a picture of Christ
preached in the Gospel. Now, the Lord gives us the message
to preach. He says there in verse 8, And
the Lord spake unto Moses. God doesn't allow His preacher
just to preach any message. He gives the Word to preach. God is sovereign. God works effectually. And He is able to give the Word
that He will have preached. And God makes us speak it to
whom He will have us to preach it to. The Lord commanded Moses to cast
this rod before Pharaoh. He told Jeremiah, this is what
Jeremiah said, The Lord said unto me, Thou shalt go to all
that I shall send thee. That's where God, He told Jeremiah,
Thou shalt go to all that I send thee. And whatsoever I command
thee, that shalt thou speak. He told Ezekiel, He said, Go
get thee to them of the captivity. unto the children of thy people,
and speak unto them, and tell them, thus saith the Lord God."
Listen to this, whether they will hear or whether they will
forbear. He didn't say, if they won't
hear, change the message a little and tweak it a little. He said,
preach what I tell you to preach regardless. Our Lord said, all
power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore,
because He has all power in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded thee. And Christ said, And lo,
I am with you always, even until the end of the world. So Aaron's
rod here is a type of Christ as he's preached in the gospel.
And what I want you to see is the gospel that our great God
and Savior sins for, the gospel that we preach, always accomplishes
whatever the Lord's will is. When he sends the gospel into
a place, it always accomplishes whatever the Lord's will is.
It always does. He said, So shall my word be
that goeth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I sin it. That's always the case. Paul said, Thanks be unto God,
which always causes us to triumph. Always. He always makes manifest
the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. He said we
are unto God a sweet savor in them that believe and in them
that perish. We are unto God the savor of
death unto death in one and in the other we are unto God the
savor of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things.
But it always accomplishes, God's gospel always accomplishes that
which He would have it accomplished. Because when He speaks it, it
is coming out of His mouth. Now first of all, our first thing
we see here, before God sends us forth, He is going to tell
us what to teach and what to expect. He is going to tell you
what to preach and what to expect. This applies to all of us here.
We are all witnesses of God, witnesses of our Lord Jesus.
He is going to tell you what to speak and what to expect.
Look at verse 9. He says, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you,
saying, Show a miracle for you. Now this is what unregenerate
men want. Men that have no spiritual sight
want some sort of outward sign that they can see with physical
eyes. Show us a sign. And this happened to our Lord.
Look over at Matthew 12 with me real quick. Matthew 12, verse
38. Matthew 12, 38. Then certain
of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we
would see a sign from thee. But he answered and he said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. And there shall no sign be given
to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonah was three
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
There is no sign but Christ. He is the sign. There is no greater
miracle in this earth than God coming down and taking human
flesh and dwelling among us. Remember what the Lord told Ahaz?
I'll give you a sign, the Lord said. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and be with child and his name shall be called Emmanuel,
God with us. That's the greatest miracle there
is. Who needs a greater sign than that? The miracle that Christ
accomplished on the cross when He redeemed His people. The miracle
He accomplishes in the hearts of His people when He regenerates
us. There is no greater miracle than this. This is the sign. And the way this sign is set
forth is through the preaching of the gospel. Now look, so when
men seek a sign, what does the Lord command us to do? Men want
to see a sign and start talking about signs. What does the Lord
command us to do? Look there, He says in verse 9, Then thou
shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh,
and it shall become a serpent. That is the same as saying, Preach
Christ to them. Preach Christ to them. When they
want a sign from you, preach Christ to them. Christ is our
one sign, and the means by which that sign is given is through
the preaching of the Word. Through the preaching of the
Gospel. Now again, the Lord tells Moses here to say to Aaron, cast
the rod before Pharaoh. You remember why? The Lord told
Moses, say to Aaron, cast the rod before Pharaoh. Aaron is
a picture of Christ. And just like the Lord taught
Moses to say this to Aaron, the Lord teaches us to ask Christ
to bless His gospel and make it effectual. We can't do it.
We can't do it. Remember Moses had a speech problem?
So he sent Aaron to do the talking. We got a speech problem. We can't
make it effectual in the heart of God's people. But Christ said,
I'll be with you always. So that we ask Him to make it
effectual. And He makes it effectual. Now
turn over to Isaiah 11. I want you to be sure to get
this. This is so vital. So vital. The Gospel Word. The Gospel Word, the Word we
preach. Now I'm talking about God's preacher.
I'm talking about the one Christ sends forth. The Gospel Word
always accomplishes Christ's will because Christ sends it
from His mouth. It's going out of His mouth.
When it accomplishes the will, the Word of the Gospel is made
effectual by Christ the Word. The small w word is made effectual
by the capital W word because it comes out of his mouth. You
can't separate Christ the word and the gospel word. Now look
here, I'll show you that. Isaiah 11 verse 1. There shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall
grow out of his roots. That rod is Christ. So He is
the rod. Christ is the rod. He is the
Word. Look at verse 4. Look at the
end there. And He shall smite the earth
with the rod of His mouth. He is the rod. And He is going
to smite the earth with the rod of His mouth. He is the Word
out of whose mouth the gospel comes forth into the hearts of
His people. That is why it accomplishes His
will. And here is what it accomplishes. And with the breath of His lips
shall He slay the wicked? That is one thing He always accomplishes
through His Word. Here is another thing, verse
6. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid. What does that mean? He gives
His people a heart to lie down, to be in submission, to not be
hurtful anymore, to bow to Him. These are the two things He always
accomplishes by His Word. He slays the wicked, And He causes
His people to bow, to bow. Now that is Christ the rod. Now
does He still do this? Is He still doing this from heaven
now? We know He did this when He walked the earth. Is He still
doing this from His throne in glory? Go to Revelation 19. Revelation 19. And look here
at verse 11. Revelation 19, 11. I saw heaven open. I saw heaven open, and behold,
a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. That's Christ. This is John seeing
Him in heaven, in glory. Now look at verse 13. And He
was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called
the Word of God. This is Christ. Look at verse
15. And out of His mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations, and
He shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords. Christ is doing the same thing
through His gospel right now from His throne in glory that
He did when He walked this earth. The Word is speaking the Word
and causing His will to be accomplished no matter where it is spoken.
That is what Christ is doing. So Aaron, what did he do? So
Aaron cast the rod to the ground like God commanded. And it turned
into a serpent. It turned into a serpent. Now
here's the picture. This is a picture of how God
delivers a sinner out of Satan's bondage. That's what's going
on here. Moses is going there to declare
God's Word because God's delivering His people out of the bondage
of Pharaoh. Pharaoh's a picture of the serpent. He's a picture of Satan. Even
his image that he had on everything in Egypt was a serpent. That
was their image, was a serpent. He's a picture of the devil.
That's who he pictures here. The serpent, Satan, was the one
who came into the garden in Begaliv, which led to Adam falling, which
infected all Adam's race with the poison of the serpent, with
sin. That is how we all die, because
of that serpent bite and the sin that it inflicted upon us.
Now later, we are going to see in the wilderness, when they
get out of Egypt and they get out into the wilderness, we are
going to see that they reject Moses and they go to cursing
Moses and God sends serpents among the children of Israel.
And the serpents begin to bite the children of Israel. And the
Lord said to Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent. Make a fiery
serpent, make it out of brass, and set it up on a pole. And
it shall come to pass that everyone that's bitten, when he looks
upon it, he shall live." God's cure was to lift up a brass serpent
on a pole, just like the very serpent that was biting them
and killing them. And it pictured our sinless substitute
being made sin for His people, being made the thing that was
killing us. That's what it pictured. Christ
said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. It's a necessity. He had
to be lifted up. Justice had to be satisfied,
God had to be honored, and His people had to be justified. And
that's what Christ accomplished. so that whosoever believeth in
him shall not perish but have eternal life." All they did in
that wilderness was look to that pole. And when they looked to
that pole, that serpent on that pole, they were healed. All we
do is believe on Christ. And believing on Christ, you
are healed. You are cured forever by God,
by the Lord Jesus. So the rod cast to the ground,
which is Christ coming to this earth, made flesh, made under
the law. And it turned into a serpent,
picturing Christ, made sin for us, made a curse for us, made
to bear the wrath of God for us. And by that He justified
His people and declared God just and the justifier. He showed
forth the righteousness of God. Now that is not all that is pictured
with this rod. Later we are going to see this
is that rod, Aaron's rod that budded. This rod was a shepherd's
staff, a wooden shepherd's staff. And it budded. It spread out
branches on it, just like a tree. And it began to bear almonds.
God did that. He made it bear branches and
it began to bear almonds. It had life came from it. Well,
through this rod, through this gospel that's preached, the Holy
Spirit enters the heart and He causes us to bud. He causes life to come forth.
And He causes fruit to come forth. Faith in Christ and repentance
from dead works. He causes that to happen through
the rod of this Gospel. That's what our Lord is accomplishing. The Lord who filleth all in all
through the Holy Spirit is doing that work in the hearts of His
people. And everybody who's experienced this, when you've experienced
this great power of God through the Gospel, you say with Paul,
Therefore, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." I'm not
ashamed of it. What's going to make you not
be ashamed of Christ and His gospel? He said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for therein, therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. He said, it's the power of God
unto salvation for everyone that believes. It takes the power
of God to reveal the righteousness of God. And that is what is happening
through the Gospel. From faith to faith, whereby
the just shall live by faith. This is why we are not ashamed
of. We beheld Christ, the righteousness of God, what He accomplished
on the cross, and He did it through this means so that we come back
for more. We come back for more. And this
is how He makes you fruitful. God says of all His redeemed,
In Ezekiel 20, verse 36, He said, Like as I pleaded with your fathers
in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with
you, saith the Lord God. He is saying, just like I pleaded
with them doing this miracle, causing that rod to become a
serpent, just like I used that rod in Egypt and pleaded with
your fathers in Egypt. He said, I will cause you to
pass under the rod. I will cause you to pass under
my gospel. and I'll bring you into the bond
of the covenant. Isn't that how we brought into
the bond of the covenant? I'll bring you under the rod,
I'll bring you under the gospel, and I'll speak life into your
heart, and I'll cause you to behold Christ my righteousness,
and I'll cause you to submit to Him in faith, and I'll bring
you into the bond of this everlasting covenant of grace. That's how
he does it. And he said, and I'll purge out
from among you the rebels through this rod. and them that transgress
against Me, I will bring you forth, and you shall know that
I am the Lord." Now that's what he does through the Gospel. This
is why when he raised Christ, remember what the Lord told Christ?
When He raised Him and set Him at His own right hand. In Psalm
110.2, the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thy
enemies. Through that rod, slay your enemies.
And you know what the very next word is? What's the next thing
he does through the gospel? He slays the enemies and he saves
his people. The next line is, and thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. The two things he
does. Now that's what's pictured here
with this rod cast on the ground turned into a serpent, the preaching
of Christ crucified. Now secondly, I want you to see
this, this is very important. The devil and his ministers imitate
Christ and His ministers. The devil and his ministers imitate
Christ and His ministers. Look at verse 11. Then Pharaoh
also called the wise men and the sorcerers. Now the magicians
of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents. Satan does his most deceptive
work in religion. He does his most deceptive work
in religion. Listen to 2 Corinthians 11, 13. For such are false prophets,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it's no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. That's why Paul feared so greatly. Remember he told the Corinthians,
he said, I've espoused you to one husband, so I'm jealous over
you with a godly jealousy for Christ's sake. I have espoused
you to one husband that I may present you to Christ as a chaste
virgin. But a fear," he said, this is
my great fear, that just as Satan beguiled Eve in the garden, so
by any means he might beguile you. And he said, He said, I'm
fearful that your minds will be corrupted from the simplicity
that's in Christ. I'm fearful your minds will be
corrupted from looking to Christ only. Christ only. Not to the enemy. Don't look
to the enemy. Don't look to conflict. He said,
she said, look to Christ. Look to Christ. Don't take your
eyes off Christ. Look to Christ. And he says,
For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not
preached, or if you receive another spirit which you have not received,
or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well
bear with him. Don't you know that hurt Paul?
Here is Paul standing in the gap between the Corinthian believers
and enemies who were firing arrows at Paul because of the gospel
he preached. And Paul was absorbing those
arrows shot from the enemy on a daily basis and continuing
faithful preaching the gospel everywhere it went and to the
Corinthians. And yet, some of those Corinthians
were beginning to receive the very men who were shooting those
arrows at Paul. Don't you know that hurt, Paul? But our assurance is this, it's
not us. How are we going to know if Satan
is so beguiling and he is such a deceiver, how are we going
to know the difference? Well, it's not going to be by
me and it's not going to be by your power. Our assurance is
that God shall not allow false prophets to be successful against
His elect. That's our assurance. He told
Timothy, he said, now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses. That was two of the leaders amongst
these magicians that were doing that work in front of Pharaoh
and Aaron and Moses was Jannes and Jambres. And he said, and
just like they withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. These false prophets, men of
corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith, but, he said, they
shall proceed no further. for their folly shall be manifest
unto all." And he means unto all God's elect. Just as theirs
also was. Just as Jenny's and Jambree's
folly was manifest to God's elect. Now, here's the third thing I
want you to see. When was the folly of these false
magicians, when was their folly made manifest to God's elect
Moses and God's elect Aaron? When was their folly made manifest?
Look back at Exodus 7 and verse 12. Look at the end. After they made their rods to
look like serpents, it says, but Aaron's rod swallowed up
their rods. Aaron's rod swallowed up their
rods. The deception can be so deceitful,
brethren, that if it was possible, it would deceive the very elect
But God will not allow it to be possible. God won't allow
it to be possible. Christ always prevails through
the preaching of the Gospel. Now what are we seeing here?
He always accomplishes His will through the Word. It never goes
forth out of His mouth and returns void. Because by Christ's sin
atoning sacrifice, what He did on the cross was crush the serpent's
head. So the serpent can't prevail.
He's put away the sin of His people. So the serpent's got
nothing to accuse us with, and Christ is coming into the hearts
of all His people through this gospel, and He's binding the
strong man and spoiling his house. That's what Christ is doing through
the gospel. He's binding Satan, and He's spoiling his house,
calling out His people. Christ is doing this. And because
of that sin-stoning sacrifice, The prince of this world is cast
out. His head is crushed. And so therefore you and I as
the church of God have this assurance. Christ and the gospel and His
church shall always prevail against the gates of hell. Always. Always. Always. Think about how Christ has prevailed
through His gospel in the lives of you who believe. Think about
how He has prevailed through the gospel in your lives. When
we were dead in sins, the devil appealed to our sin nature to
try to keep us blinded. And if we would have been left
in that state, we would have remained blinded. But Christ sent forth
the gospel and His rod ate up that rod. His rod ate up the
serpent's rod. Many of us, some of us were in
false religion. that was so deceptive that if
it was possible it would have deceived the very elect. I'm
not talking about just blatant free will works religion. I'm
talking about deceptive, claiming to preach sovereign grace, but
mingling works with it. But God sent forth his gospel
and he made certain we heard it. And through that gospel this
rod ate up the serpent's rod. You think about How many different
kind of means the Lord has used throughout your walk in the faith
to try to get you to compromise the gospel or walk away from
the gospel. He has used every kind of means
in the world to try to make that happen. But what does Christ
do? He keeps sending the gospel into
your heart and renewing that inward man and so thereby His
rod keeps eating up the devil's rod. Sometimes we get our affections,
plural, set on the things of this world. And the devil would
use that, use the things of this world to draw your affections
after the world. But you know what Christ does?
He sends the Gospel forth and He eats up that rod. He sets
your affection. You ever notice that in Colossians
3? Not affections, plural. He says,
He commands in the heart, set your affection. He brings your
affection from being all scattered, your affections on all these
different things, to having your affection set on one thing, Christ
at God's right hand. And so He, by His rod, swallows
up the serpent's rod. Brethren, this is why Christ
sends us forth to bear witness and He tells us this, Be not
afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver thee, saith
the Lord. We don't have to worry if the
gospel is going to be successful. He just says, go forth and preach
it. He told Aaron and Moses, go forth. When He asked you for
a sign, don't be turned aside, just preach the gospel. He said
to Jeremiah, He said, I've made thee a defense city, an iron
pillar, brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings
of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests
thereof, and against the people thereof. That includes everybody.
That's from the bottom to the top. He said, I've made you a
brazen wall to all of them, a defense city to all of them. And they
shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against
thee, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. And
that means He is going to make the word effectual. Remember
what He told Paul? Paul was in Corinth and all that
host of deceivers were there and they were just, it was just
nothing but a den of idolatry. About like being in New York
City. was what Corinth was like. It
was a major city and full of nothing but corruption. And yet
the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Paul and He said, you stay
right here and you preach. Don't you be fearful. I'm with
you. I've got much people in this city. And Paul kept preaching
and Christ called them out. That's what He was telling Jeremiah.
Now here's the last thing. Not only does God accomplish
His will in calling out His people, But He always accomplishes His
will even toward our enemies. Look here in verse 13. And He
hardened Pharaoh's heart that He hearkened not unto them as
the Lord had said. Just like God is sovereign to
send His preacher with His Word and make His preacher preach
His Word, God is also sovereign over the hearts of all men. He
is sovereign over the hearts of all men. His enemies. Listen to this, Revelation 17,
17 says, God, God hath put in their hearts to fulfill His will
and to agree and give their kingdom unto the beast until the words
of God shall be fulfilled. You mean God puts it in the hearts
of men to agree with the devil and give their kingdom to the
devil? He does so until the words of
God be fulfilled. Yes. The scripture said to Pharaoh,
for this same purpose I have raised you up, that I might show
my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom
he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth. And you will
say, well, why does he yet find fault then? For who has resisted
his will? If it is God that does this,
then we have not resisted His will. Nay, but, O man, who art
thou to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why have you made me thus? Does not the
potter have power over the clay to make one vessel unto honor
and another unto dishonor? And what if God, willing, willing
to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath which are fit for destruction,
that He might make known. the glory of His mercy under
those vessels of mercy that have been aforeprepared under glory.
Even us who He's called, not of the Jews only, but also the
Gentiles. Brethren, what if God, that's why He's doing it, that's
why He passes by some men, is so that He can show those He
saves what mercy is and what grace is. He doesn't give it
to everybody. It's a particular saving grace
that He uses, and it's just for God to do it. Think about this. We're all God-hating rebels by
nature. God would be just to harden all
our hearts, because we're all God-hating rebels by nature.
When you read about the reprobate who would not hear the gospel
and refuse to bow to the gospel, that's a description of me and
you by nature. What made the difference? God
of His own will, determined by grace alone, I'm going to save
some of these people. That's the only difference. God
made the difference by His grace. Christ made the difference by
His blood. The Spirit of God made the difference in our hearts,
brethren. That's the difference. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? I'll tell you who won't say that.
Those that have experienced His mercy. You won't say there's
unrighteousness with God. Because He's made you see what
you are. The rebel doesn't see what he is. The rebel says, that's
not fair. God saved me because I'm so good. But the sinner sees, no, I'm
very bad. I'm not going to call him unrighteous.
He told Moses, I'll have compassion upon whom I will have compassion.
And I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. So we know
it is not of him that willeth, it is not of him that runneth,
it is of God that shows mercy. And I pray when I preach, every
time I preach. The reason I am preaching is
because I know this, God is going to show that mercy to His people.
And I know this, before I knew Him, I hated Him just as much
as the biggest rebel hates Him. So I don't blame the rebel, I
know what it is like to be there. I know what it is like to have
nothing but a natural understanding and have to go and sit and hear
the gospel preached and have no rejoicing in it whatsoever.
I know what that's like. But you see, the reason those
that love you want you here is because this is the cure. The
only cure. And if you're one God's going
to show mercy to, He's going to do it through this Word. He's
going to do it through this Word. And I pray that's what's happening
this morning. I pray that every time I preach. Lord, have mercy.
Please show mercy today. And I pray that's what He's doing.
Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We thank You for the Gospel that You've given us. Lord, make
us look neither to the left or to the right. Make us not to
compromise. Make us to just do what You've
told us to do and to set forth Your Name. When we're in the
workplace, and we're in the store, and we're with our family, Lord,
make us bold enough to just tell people the truth. If anybody
asks us to hope this in us, make us, Lord, speak as we ought to
speak. And make us trust that this is how you, that one that
we think in our minds may not believe, may just be one of yours
that you're going to call out. Lord, make us speak the truth
to them. We ask you now to show mercy
through this gospel. Cause your will to be accomplished
in the hearts of your people. We know you will. We know you've
said you will. And we know you've said that
we must ask you. And we ask you, Lord, have thine
own way. Work thy will. We ask this for
Christ's honor and glory and the glory of your great name
in him. It's in his precious name we pray. Amen.