Exodus chapter 4. Now as Moses was leading his
father-in-law's sheep on the back side of the desert, the
Lord God appeared to Moses. This was a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. And He declared to Moses that
He was sending him into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel.
And He declared to Moses that he would be with Moses. And the
Lord declared everything that He would do for Moses and his
people in delivering them out of Egypt. And the Lord told Moses
that the people would hearken to Him when He came preaching
the Word of the Lord. Now we pick up now in Exodus
chapter 4 and verse 1 Exodus 4 in verse 1, and it says, And
Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe
me, nor hearken unto my voice. For they will say, The Lord has
not appeared unto thee. And that's a reasonable conclusion
if it was left to a man to make God's people hear His voice.
We couldn't do it. And so the Lord gave Moses power
to work three signs, three wonders. And the Lord assured Moses that
by these signs, His people would hear the word Moses preached
and they would believe Him. Now this morning we are just
going to look at the first sign, the rod of God. Now this sign
that we are going to see, this sign typifies the gospel of Christ
and Him crucified. It typifies the gospel of Christ
and Him crucified and it typifies the work God works through those
who hear it. It typifies what we preach. It
typifies what God works through those who hear it. Now Moses
is being sent to declare the name of God. And he knows he
has no power to make the people hear. And we're sent to declare
the name of God. We have no power to make the
people hear. But it's through this gospel, this rod of God
that is the power of God unto salvation. It's the word God
blesses to make His people hearken. So it's a beautiful type. Now
let's read the text. Exodus 4 verse 2. And the Lord
said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And the Lord 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
he caught it, and it became a rod in his hand, that they might
believe, this is what the Lord said now, 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. Now first
of all, the rod in Moses' hand was just his shepherd's staff.
That's all it was, was his shepherd's staff. It says there, the Lord
said, what's that in thy hand? He said, a rod. Remember, he's
on the back side of the desert and this is the staff that he's
using to lead his father-in-law's sheep. That's what it was. Now the staff is a very appropriate
type of the Gospel of Christ because Christ He leads His sheep
through the preaching of the gospel. It is a very appropriate
type we have here. And we find this type many times
in the Scripture. Go to Leviticus 27. Leviticus
27. Here the shepherd's rod was used
to determine which sheep a man was to tithe under the old covenant
law. Watch how it was used. Leviticus
27, 32. This rod is used to separate
the sheep. Watch this. Verse 32, concerning
the tithe of the herd or the flock, talking about a man's
sheep, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, The tenth shall
be holy unto the Lord. You get the picture, man was
to hold the rod out and the tenth that passed under that rod, those
were to be separated out. They were sanctified by them
passing under that rod. They were sanctified to the Lord,
to be holy to the Lord. Well, through the preaching of
Christ, the Spirit of God sanctifies God's elect in our hearts. He
sanctifies us in our hearts. He gives us a new heart and He
makes us believe the gospel. And through this work, through
the gospel, through the rod of God, God separates His sheep
from the rest of people in this earth. And He separates us unto
the Lord that we might be His, His possession, His holy vessels,
His holy sheep. Now go with me to Micah chapter
7. Micah chapter 7. It is right after Jonah, Micah
7, right before Habakkuk. Here we find Christ our Shepherd
doing exactly what He does with His rod, what He does with the
Gospel of Christ. Here is Christ our Shepherd doing
exactly what He does with the Gospel. Watch, Micah 7, verse
14. It says, ìFeed thy people with
thy rod.î The margin says, ìRule thy people.î And thatís what
God does. He feeds us and rules us by the
Gospel. Thatís what Christ does. Micah
7, verse 14, ìFeed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy
heritage.î Heritage means it's His inheritance, it means it's
His people, it's His elect, His remnant. Feed thy people with
the rod, thy flock, the flock of thine heritage which dwells
solitarily in the wood. That's a description of us. We
dwell in this world solitarily, alone, apart from the rest of
this world by God's grace. He says, ìFeed them in the midst
of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.î And thatís what weíre doing right here.
Heís feeding us with His rod. And by feeding us, He will rule
in our hearts. He will rule over us by this
Gospel. Now the most familiar in Psalm 23. Turn there with
me. Psalm 23. Weíre most familiar
with this type right here. Psalm 23 verse 4. You know, this is that great
psalm that speaks of the Lord being our shepherd. The Lord
is my shepherd. Now watch what He does here in
verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
That's where we're walking right now, every day of our lives.
We're in the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil,
for thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me. It is through this gospel that
Christ, our Head, promises to be with us. And it is through
this gospel that He makes His presence known that He is with
us. And it is this rod, this staff,
this gospel of His person and His work by which He makes His
presence known, He makes His power known, and He makes His
protection known to us. And it's through this Word, this
Rod, that He comforts us. That's why the disciples are
set forth with the message, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Because
it's through this Rod, this Gospel, that He comforts His people. Alright, now secondly, let's
go back to Exodus 4. Exodus 4. Now we see why God's elect must
hear the gospel of Christ. We see why we must hear the gospel
continually. Exodus 4.3, it says, and the
Lord said, cast it on the ground. And He cast it on the ground
and it became a serpent and Moses fled from before it. Now you
know the serpent in Scripture represents the devil and it represents
sin. That's what the serpent represents. You remember how he came into
the garden? The serpent came into the garden and beguiled
our mother Eve. And through that beguiling, Adam
sinned. And the serpent, his bite represents
the poison of sin which causes our death within us. Well, the Gospel of Christ is
our one weapon. That's the one weapon we have,
the Gospel of Christ. And by this one weapon, Christ
overcomes the devil in the hearts of His people. He overcomes sin
in His people through this Gospel. It's the Gospel whereby Christ
enters in and takes dominion. And by doing that, He makes His
people believe the Gospel. He makes us hearken to His Word.
Moses is being sent with this rod because this is the means
God is going to use to make the people hearken. And this is the
means, the preaching of the Word is the means whereby God is going
to make His people hearken unto Him. But now if we cast this
weapon from us, if we cast this rod from us, we have no power
against the devil. We have no power against sin.
We can't make anyone believe at all. This is the problem in
the world right now amongst so-called churches. They have cast this
rod to the ground. They are trying to use other
means Less offensive, something that will appeal to people to
get them into the church. And it doesn't work. If we don't
have the gospel, we don't have this rod, all there is is the
serpent and sin. And what we'll do is the serpent
will send us fleeing. He'll make us flee just like
Moses fled from the serpent. So we have to hear the gospel.
We need the gospel. We need it constantly. Now thirdly,
we'll spend a little more time here. This is where we see the
power of the Gospel. This is the power of the Gospel
that we preach. This is the substance of it.
This is the message of it. This is the power, right here,
verse 3. The Lord said, cast it on the
ground, and He cast it on the ground. Now turn with me to Isaiah
11. Isaiah 11. The Lord commanded, cast it on
the ground and God's servant cast it on the ground. He obeyed.
At God's command, at God's command, when the time came, Christ came
down to this cursed ground where we live to dwell on this earth. The Son of God came down because
it was prophesied He would. Look at Isaiah 11 verse 1. There
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse. There is coming
forth a rod out of this. You get the picture of a family
tree, a tree. That tree is going to be cut
down, God said. But out of it is going to come
a rod. And that one is going to be Christ. Out of the stem
of Jesse, a branch, that is a rod, shall grow out of his roots.
Look down at verse 4. With righteousness shall he judge
the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. That
is His people. And He shall smite the earth
with the rod of His mouth. The gospel of Christ. And with
the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. Look down
at verse 8. And when He does this, this is
going to be the result of this work in His people. The sucking
child shall play on the hole of the asp. That is a snake. That is a serpent. He is saying
when He does this work in His people, the serpent is not going
harm His people anymore. Sin is not going to harm His
people anymore. The sucking child shall play on the hole of the
asp and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice
den. The old devil, the serpent is not going to harm His people
anymore. Sin is not going to harm His people anymore. Let
me just read Jeremiah 23 to you if you want to turn over there.
Jeremiah 23, 5. Listen to this. Talking about Christ coming down
to the earth and doing His work as God commanded. God commanded
Moses, throw that rod on the ground. Moses threw it on the
ground. God commanded Christ to come
down to this cursed ground. He came down to this cursed ground.
Jeremiah 23, verse 5. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, I will raise unto David a righteous rod, a branch. And a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice where? In earth. He is coming down. He comes to
this earth, comes to this cursed ground. And in his days Judah
shall be saved. That is his people. And Israel
shall dwell safely. He is elect among Jew and Gentile. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called. And it is the church's name too.
The Lord our righteousness. A few verses over, he says, this
is the name wherewith she shall be called. Right here he said,
this is the name wherewith he shall be called. And he speaks
of the church and says, this is the name wherewith she shall
be called, the Lord our righteousness. So Christ came down to the ground.
He came down to this cursed earth just like that rod was cast on
the ground. Well, when that rod was put on
the ground, God made the rod a serpent. God made that rod
into a serpent. That's how it became a serpent.
God made it a serpent. Scripture says on the ground
it became a serpent. Turn to John 3. Do you remember? Now, I remind you the serpent
is a picture of sin. Picture sin. Now, do you remember
in the wilderness whenever the children of Israel rebelled against
God? Picture of our rebellion in Adam.
When they rebelled against God, God sent serpents among them.
And the serpents bit them and they died. Many of them died. Well, we sinned in Adam. We rebelled
against God in Adam and the serpent bit us. Sin entered in and we
died. Death passed upon all men because
we were all in Adam. And do you remember in the wilderness
the remedy, the cure that God provided for the children of
Israel? God has provided a cure for His
elect, for His people. In the wilderness, God provided
a cure. He told Moses, take a piece of
brass. A beautiful, spotless, pure piece
of brass. Picture Christ our Lord. And
he said, take that piece of brass and make it a serpent. Make it a serpent. Make it to
be the very thing that's biting my people and killing my people.
And lift it up on a pole. And when the people look to that
serpent lifted up on that pole, they'll be saved. And that's
what happened. Now look, what does all that
mean? Look here in John chapter 3 verse 14. Christ said, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but
have eternal life. Sinner, I'm telling you, you've
been bitten by the serpent and sin's in you and if you want
to be saved, it's got to be by God alone. It's got to be by
Christ's work alone. Look to Christ. Believe on Christ. It's the only way we can be saved.
Now Christ came down to this earth made of a woman, made under
the law. And He made him sin for us who
do no sin. God, just like He told Moses,
you make that serpent. Take that brass and make a serpent.
Make that brass to be the thing that's killing My people. Well,
in order for God to justify His people and remain just, Christ
had to be made the thing that was killing His people. In order
for God to pour out justice on Him, He had to be made the thing
that was biting His people. And He made Him sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Now this is the heart of our Gospel. The just God who
will not clear the guilty, remaining just, and Him being the justifier,
in Christ our substitute. This is the substance of our
Gospel. Well, that happened for God and when He did that, when
He made him sin, He made him a curse. That means He poured
out all the wrath of God on Christ. Remember, Adam sinned and he
was made sin and then God pronounced the curse on him and all that
curse came upon Adam. Christ was made sin and God imputed
that sin to him and made him a curse because he deserved it
when he was made sin. I know that is strong language,
but when he was made sin, God was righteous because at that
point Christ was made sin and he deserved to be punished by
the wrath of God. That was the purpose of which
He came down. Now He knew no sin, He did no sin, and He would
never sin. Even when He was made sin in
His heart, He remained holy to God, trusting God on that cross.
You find it all in the psalm. But He had to be made sin and
made a curse for us. And so He did that, He completely
suffered to the full, thorough satisfaction of divine justice. And when Christ satisfied the
justice of God in the place of His people, He destroyed the
devil and his power. He destroyed the devil and his
power. Our text says, the Lord said to Moses, when that rod
became a serpent now, look at it now, that serpent as a picture
of the devil. And the Lord told Moses, now
you reach forth your hand and you take hold of that serpent.
He said to Moses, you put forth your hand and you take the serpent
by the tail. And he put forth his hand and
he caught it. And here's Moses now. Get the picture. He's the
mediator between God and the children of Israel. And God commands
him, reach forth your hand, take hold of that serpent. He obeyed
God. And hanging there on that cross
between heaven and earth, between God and His people, is Christ
the one mediator between God and men. And what He's doing
on that cross is obeying the Word of the Lord even until the
death of the cross. He's obeying God. He's our righteousness. He's obeying God. And He's doing
it, putting away our sin. And when He did that, when He
laid hold of that serpent, He took all the devil's destroying,
accusing, condemning power away from the devil on the cross.
when He laid down His life for His people. That's why He came.
Hebrews 2.14 says, For as much as the children were flesh and
blood, He took part of the same, that through death He might destroy
him that had the power of death. That is the devil. The devil
had the power of death. And He came to destroy him that
had the power of death, the devil, and deliver them. That's what
Moses is going to do, to deliver Israel. And He came to deliver
His people who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. Now, what was the devil's power
of death? What was his power of death?
It was our sin and it was the law wherewith he accused us to
God. He accused us to God using our
sin and the law. But Christ fulfilled the law
for all God's elect so that Satan cannot use the law to terrify
us and condemn us anymore. He can't come and use that law
now to terrify you in the court of your conscience and he can't
use that law to accuse you before God. And Christ so thoroughly
put away our sin that there is no sin before God for Satan to
accuse us of. So the power he had over us is
gone because Christ put it away. You remember when Joshua the
high priest stood? Scripture says he stood before
Michael the archangel, that's Christ Jesus the Lord. And he
stood before with Satan at his right hand. And Satan was resisting
him. Jude is quoting about that passage
in Zechariah when he says he was disputing about the body
of Moses. It wasn't Moses' literal body
that was buried back there in the wilderness. He was disputing
about the law of God. He was accusing Joshua the high
priest before God. And Christ didn't even rebuke
him. He said, the Lord will rebuke
you. He said, because of what I've done for my people in putting
away their sin and satisfying the law, Jehovah God will rebuke
you, O devil. And Zechariah says, the Lord
Jehovah said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even
the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Why? He looked at
Joshua, that high priest, and he said, is not this a brand
plucked out of the fire? You know what a brand is when
it plucks out, when you take it right out of the fire? It's
dirty and sooty and it's smoking. Well, when Joshua the high priest
was first pulled out, just like me and you, when he's first called
out by God, he's all sooty and smoking and got a lot of those
old grave clothes on him. And Satan was trying to use that
to accuse him to God. But he couldn't accuse him. because
Christ put away his sin and satisfied the law. And so the Lord told
Satan, get out of here. He's just been pulled out of
the fire. And then the Lord came forth and took his garments off
of him and clothed him. Listen to this. In Revelation
12 verse 9, the great dragon was cast out. That old serpent
called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world. He
was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with
him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come
salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power
of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down. Which accused them before our
God day and night. That's what Christ accomplished
for us at Calvary. And He ever lives to intercede
for us now so that Satan can't accuse us to God anymore. And
one of these days, the God of peace shall bruise Satan under
your feet. It will happen very shortly.
He's going to completely, thoroughly do away with the devil altogether.
Now that's the gospel we preach. And then, after our Lord accomplished
His work on the cross, our victorious Redeemer returned back to the
right hand of the Father where He was before. The God-man mediator. And it was just like that rod,
when it all was said and done, that rod was right back in Moses'
hand, right like it was before. Our text says, He put forth His
hand and He caught it, and it became a rod in His hand. It
was just like it was before it ever went down to the ground. And Christ right now is in the
heaven with God our Father like He was before He ever came down
here and redeemed His people. And now Christ is ruling. Turn
with me to Psalm 2. Now Christ is ruling and He is
reigning and He is doing it through the preaching of the Gospel.
This is how He is ruling our enemies and this is how He is
making His people willing to believe on Him. Psalm 2. Psalm 2. Listen to this. Let
me get there. Psalm 2. This is that verse talking
about why did the heathen rage? Why did they think they could
actually defeat God on the cross? Well, look here now. Psalm 2
verse 6. Yet have I set my King upon my
holy hill of Zion. Christ is risen, the King. I will declare the decree. Christ
said, The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod, with a rod, with a rod of iron. That's the gospel we preach.
His power, His wisdom, Through the Word of God, thou shalt dash
them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Go to Psalm 110 now.
He is going to destroy all his enemies with this rod of iron.
Now watch this. Psalm 110 verse 1. Thee, Lord, said unto my Lord,
sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. You
know where this Gospel is coming to us from? It's coming out of
heavenly Mount Zion from Christ our Redeemer, our Head. He sends
the rod of His Gospel, the rod of His strength from Heaven's
glory into His churches, into the hearts of His people. And
what happens when He does that? Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. That's what He does. And who are those enemies? Well, we are all the enemies
of God in our mind by wicked works. But He rules in us and
what does He do when He does that? Verse 3, Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness
from the womb of the morning thou hast to do of thy youth.
Now let me show you one more thing very quickly. The reason
God gave Moses this rod was to show it to God's people and God
promised to work exactly what we just read in the hearts of
His people. Look now, it's Exodus 4-5. After He gave him this rod, everything
we saw, it would be like this. It would be like God revealing
the Gospel to me, the Gospel of Christ to me. and showing
me I have no power without it, I'm going to flee from Satan
and the sin without this Gospel. Showing me everything Christ
did in coming down and accomplishing my redemption on the cross and
destroying the works of the devil and going back to the writing
of the Father, ruling in the hearts of His people now. And
then God said to me, I've shown you all this to send you forth
with this rod for this reason, verse 5, 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. He said,
I'm sending you forth to make them believe. And they're going
to believe through this rod. It's through the gospel of Christ
that Christ rules from His throne in glory, reveals Himself in
our hearts, and makes His people willing to believe on Him. Now
there may be somebody sitting here and they say, I think that
I don't see any power in the Gospel you're preaching. I think
that's foolishness. Well, at first, Moses is just
holding a staff in his hand out there tending the sheep. And
if God would have said to Moses, without showing him any of this,
Moses, take that staff right there and go forth and show this
to my people and they're going to believe on you. Moses would
have looked at that staff and said, that's utter foolishness.
I am not going to leave just from the shepherd's staff. But
then after God revealed all this power in that rod, just like
after God reveals the gospel in our hearts, Moses went forth
with confidence, not with a shepherd's staff. Look down at Exodus 4.20. He didn't go forth with just
a shepherd's staff. Look at this, verse 20. Moses
took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass, and he
returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses took the rod of God
in his hand. Now, you remember Moses wrote
that. Moses doesn't say, I took my
staff. He says, Moses took the rod of
God. My point is this, brethren. We
preach Christ's crucifixion. Unto the Jew, it's a stumbling
block. Unto the Greek, it's foolishness. But unto us who are called, unto
us in whom God's power has been revealed in this Gospel, through
this Gospel, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and
He is the wisdom of God. It's the rod of God to us. This
Gospel is the rod of God to us. To some, it's just Moses' staff.
To us, it's the rod of God. Paul hated it. When he was Saul
of Tarsus, he hated the Gospel. But when Christ met him on the
road to Damascus, revealed Himself in him, and sent him forth to
preach Christ, to preach His Word, Paul wrote this, I am not
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek, because therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. That's why Moses was shown this
rod. It pictured the Gospel. And Moses went forth, not ashamed.
to take the Gospel of God and declare it, knowing through it
God is going to reveal to them what He revealed to him through
that rock. And that's why we preach. That's
why, you know, if you've never heard the Gospel and had the
righteousness of Christ, the righteousness of God revealed
to you through that Gospel, to make you behold the power of
God is in this Gospel, in what Christ accomplished And the revelation
of Christ, if you never experienced that, you won't use the Word
of God because you don't think the preaching of the Gospel is
power. But if you experienced it, that's all you'll use because
you know this is where the power is at. And that's so. Alright, brethren, let's stand
together. We thank you, Lord, for the message.
Thank you, Lord, for giving us the Gospel. We pray now You truly
make us see Christ in it, all that He's done, and save us by
Your grace. Make us rejoice in You and work
that power in Your people. We thank You, Lord, for this
word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.