We've been looking at this series
of messages on questions that the Lord asked to a sinner. And we have our next question
found here in Exodus 4 verse 2. And the Lord said unto him,
that is to Moses, what is that in thine hand? And he said, a
rod. Now, let's go back and let's
get the context of what's taking place here, back in Exodus 3. Now, this time Moses was on the
back side of the desert. He was tending his father-in-law's
sheep. And Christ, the angel of the
Lord, one of those pre-incarnate manifestations of the Lord, appeared
to him in the burning bush. And we read in verse 7, Exodus
3, 7, And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of
my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. God had a people
called Israel. God chose them. They were His
choice. They were those that He chose
Himself. But in time, His people fell
into slavery. They fell into bondage in Egypt.
But that didn't change God's choice of them. That didn't change
God's interest in them or diminish it in any degree. Well, God has
a people. They're called His spiritual
Israel. They're His elect from every
nation that He calls from every nation. God chose them unto salvation
in Christ. They're His choice. He chose
them. And in time, we fell into slavery. We fell into bondage
by Adam's one transgression and by being born of corrupt seed
and bondage to our sin nature. But God's elect are still His
choice people. They didn't change God's grace
toward His people at all. His interest in His people will
never diminish at all. Alright, now look. Then the Lord's
purpose in choosing and sending Moses to Egypt, the Lord's purpose
in choosing and sending Moses to Egypt was the same as the
Lord's purpose in choosing and sending His preachers with His
gospel. Look in verse 8. and I've come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians." The Lord
said, I am. I've come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that
land into a good land. and a large, unto a land flowing
with milk and honey. Now look down at verse 10. Come
now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou
mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who
am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt? Pharaoh was the most powerful,
ruthless tyrant of the most powerful nation on the face of the planet. And Moses was a weak nobody from
nowhere. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. He's chosen weak things
to confound the mighty, that no flesh shall glory in His presence. God's not going to allow anybody
to glory in His presence. So the Lord assured Moses that
He'd go with him and that He'd bring him again to that place.
He gave him a promise. Look at verse 12. And He said,
Certainly I will be with thee. The Lord Jesus told his disciples
when he sent them forth to preach the gospel, he said, Lo, I am
with you always. That's his assurance to his servants
in our day. I'm with you always. And he said
this, And this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee.
When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, he shall
serve God upon this mountain. He promised him he was coming
back to that mountain. And then the Lord told him who
to preach. The Lord told Moses who to preach
when he got there. Look at verse 14. And God said
unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob has sent me unto you. This is my name
forever, the Lord said, and this is my memorial unto all generations. He told Moses, you go forth and
you preach the eternal covenant keeping Lord God who makes good
on all his promises, who's made good on his promises to Abraham,
to Isaac, and to Jacob, to all your fathers. And he said, and
this is my name and my memorial forever. His name and his memorial
is what he's known for. And he's known for making good
on his promises to his people. That's his name and that's his
memorial forever. And then God assured Moses that
his children would obey his voice. Look at verse 18. And they shall
hearken to thy voice. They shall. And the Lord even
told Moses how he would provide for them. Look down at verse
21. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass that
when you go, you shall not go empty, but every woman shall
borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house,
jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And you shall
put them on your sons and upon your daughters, and you shall
spoil the Egyptians. Now, after all these wills and
shalls from the Lord, there are no ifs, ands, or maybes in anything
the Lord said. The Lord said, I will and I shall. And He told him exactly what
was going to take place. And He even told him, the people
will hearken to your voice. Now here's what Moses said, Exodus
4 verse 1. And Moses answered and said,
But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice,
for they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee." Brethren,
do you see yourself in Moses? Do you see yourself in Moses? Aren't we slow to believe? Thankfully,
our father is slow to anger because we're slow to believe. I mean,
he told him everything. He told him everything that was
going to transpire. But I can see what filled Moses
with unbelief because I know my own heart. I understand the
Lord was sending Moses to men who were slaves in bondage under
the most powerful, ruthless tyrant on earth. You know who the Lord sent us
to? He's sending us to men and women who are slaves under the
power of the prince of the air, the devil. And Moses didn't know
these people and they didn't know Moses. And you and I don't
know who God's elect people are either. And Moses knew he didn't
have any power in himself to make his people believe. And
we don't have any power in ourselves to make his people believe. Only
the power of God can make his people believe. And it's the
same power that made Moses believe. So the Lord gives Moses three
signs to show the people when he spoke to the people. Now here's
what I want you to get. These three signs are a picture
of the gospel and of the power that God works in those who hear. It's a picture of the gospel
and the power that God works effectually in those who hear.
It's just how they were going to be brought to believe. Now
here's the first sign. It was a rod. The rod. Look at
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 Moses 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. Now this
rod pictures Christ crucified which is in the gospel we preach. That's what it typifies here.
The rod in Moses' hand was that shepherd's crook that he was
using while he was out there tending his father-in-law's sheep.
Up to this point, he'd been a shepherd of his father-in-law's sheep.
Now the Lord was calling Moses to be his under-shepherd, to
be a shepherd of his heavenly father's sheep. So that was what
this rod was. It was his crook. It was that
shepherd's rod that he used in the field. Now the gospel of
Christ crucified is as foolish to men to be able to break the
hearts and the chains of men bound in sin and deliver them
as a shepherd's crook was for Moses to go to the most powerful
king on this earth and bring his children out of bondage with
him. But in verse 20, if you look down there at the end of
verse 20, it says this rod was now called the rod of God. Do you see that? It's called
the rod of God. This gospel may appear foolish
to men, but this gospel to those who are called, it's the power
of God unto salvation. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, and Christ is that righteousness, and Christ
is that rod. commanded the rod to be put on
the ground. That's what He commanded. Well,
just like that, at the command of God the Father, Christ Jesus
came down from Heaven's glory to the earth. That's what He
did. Isaiah 11, 1. It says, there shall come forth
a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots. That's talking about Christ.
And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. That's
our gospel. Jeremiah 23, 5 says, Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David
a righteous branch. That word means rod. And a king
shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice
in the earth. You see, this rod pictures Christ.
Now when that rod was cast to the earth, the rod became a serpent. It became a serpent. Whenever
Adam sinned in the garden, the serpent's bite inflicted the
poison of sin. And so Adam died, and we died
in Adam. It was typified in those fiery
serpents that came and were biting the children of Israel in the
desert. And you know what Moses was commanded to do? He was commanded
to take some brass and make a serpent to make something that was just
like that thing that was biting the people and killing the people.
To make it like that thing and then to take it and lift it up
on a pole in the wilderness. And he said, and whoever looks
to this serpent shall live. They'll be saved. Well, our Lord
Jesus Christ, that spotless Lamb of God who was proven spotless
through and through, a fit lamb to go and be made the sin of
His people. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of His people. He laid on Him the sin of His
people. That very thing that was biting
us and killing us and destroying us, He was made to be and He
was lifted up on the cross. And by laying down His life,
He put away our sin. He put away the sin of His people
forever. And He said, the Lord said, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up on the cross. And He said, and that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. And then look what happened.
Then the Lord told him, take that serpent by the tail, and
when he picked it up again, From the earth, it became a rod like
it was before. I know somebody will say, there's
no way that that rod actually turned into a serpent and then
went from being a serpent back into a rod. Yes, it did. Yes,
it did. God is the, God's the law. Mother nature is not the law.
The laws of nature are not the law. God is the law of nature. And what God says happens. Whether
it's something that you can conceive of happening or not, it happens
when God says it. God's the one that instituted
the law of gravity. If God said let it cease, it'll
cease. And so He turned that rod into
a serpent and then He turned that rod back into a rod again.
And by the same token, God who is eternal, God who is Spirit,
was made flesh and dwelt among us, born of the Holy Spirit. Men will say, that can't be.
Yes, it could. It was. It is. And He went to
the cross and He was made sin for His people. And people say,
that couldn't happen. Yes, it can. Yes, it can. It had to for God to be just
and pour out wrath on him instead of his people. And then when
he finished the work, out of that tomb, a dead man rose. He came to life and he rose back
up like he was before. like He was before, but glorified
in our human nature. And there He sits at the right
hand of the Father. Let me read Psalm 110.1 to you.
It says, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And then you know
what He said to Him. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the
womb of the morning, for thou hast the due of thy youth. Revelation
19.15 says, And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with
it he should smite the nations. 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 fester and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord
of lords." Whenever Moses got there and he had that rod, he
got to where the Egyptians were and he went into Pharaoh and
he threw that rod down on the ground and it turned into a serpent.
And he picked it back up again and it turned into a rod again.
And Pharaoh said, call in my magicians. They called all his
magicians in. And Pharaoh said, you do what
he did. See, he had the money. He was
holding the purse strings. And so the magician said, you
want a rod turned into a serpent? We'll give you a rod turned into
a serpent. And they did it. They did just what their money
man told them to do. But you know what happened? God's
rod ate up those rods. It ate them up. There's a lot
of Satan, the Pharaoh of this world, he has a lot of sorcerer
preachers that go about and they'll do whatever their money men bid
them to do. And they try to imitate the gospel
of God. But you know what happens? God's
gospel is able to eat up their gospel. There's proof of it here. There's people here. There's
people here to whom the The preacher said, don't dare go down to that
place. This is what they preach. They
preach total depravity. They preach man's really and
truly depraved. They teach man can't do anything
to save himself. They teach that man is grass.
They teach that man can't even sanctify himself. They teach
that man can't even do one thing. He can't even put his hand to
the work or he'll be defiled the whole work. Don't go down
there to them. They preach Christ as the end
of the law for righteousness. They say by that, that Christ
truly is the righteousness of His people, so that the law has
nothing else to say to them. They say that Christ truly is
the sanctification of His people, so that when He enters into somebody
and sanctifies them in the heart by His presence in them and making
them anew, they're holy and fit to enter into the presence of
God. And so they take the law out of our hands, they take that
yoke out of our hands, and they take the whip out of our hands,
and they would make it so we can't be taskmasters anymore.
And as they were saying that to you, you know what happened?
God's rod swallowed you up. Swallowed those words up, swallowed
them up, and brought you out from their midst. And you came
and heard the gospel and been here ever since. That happened
to you. That's right. By the rod of God,
the Red Sea was parted. That's what he just held it up,
the sea parted. They went across on dry land and by that same
rod, he held it up and the sea came in and destroyed all their
enemies. That's what this rod's doing.
It's saving his people and destroying our enemies all at the same time.
the rod of God, by it Israel prevailed when Amalek attacked
them. You remember? As long as Moses held up that
rod, they prevailed. If his hands got tired and he
let it down, Amalek prevailed. So they held up his hands, one
on one side, one on the other, and he sat there and held up
that rod, and Israel prevailed over their enemies. And you know
what the Lord called that rod, that place? Jehovah Nissi, the
Lord our Banner. That's who we hold up, Christ
the rod, and He does the work of saving His people. So like
Moses depended upon the grace of God, like he depended upon
Christ Jesus, like he depended upon that rod, the Word of God,
and he went forth into that that black land, and that dark land,
and that evil land, and that evil tyrant, trying to just spread
that good news, and praying the Lord would bless His people by
it, as He went into that dark place. That's how we go into
this world. Ever depending on the grace of
God. Ever trusting on Him. And this is our comfort, brethren.
Psalm 23, verse 4. Yea, though I walk through 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." You see? So now, here's the next two signs. These next two signs picture
the power the Lord works through the gospel. One of these two
things happens every time the gospel is preached. First of
all, the hand. Look at verse 6. Next is verse
6. And the Lord said furthermore
unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom, to thy heart. 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. It was whole again. Leprosy is a picture of sin.
When Moses put his hand to his heart, it became leprous. By
nature, our hearts are corrupt. Our hearts are defiled in sin. Paul said to Titus, unto the
pure, all things are pure. Unto them that have been purified
by God's grace. But unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience
is defiled. their very being, their very
heart. But at God's command, Moses put his hand to his bosom
again. And when he did, he returned
again like his other flesh. And this picture is the washing
of regeneration that comes through this gospel by God the Holy Spirit,
by which we believe the gospel, by which we're brought to believe.
Look, Titus 3, 5, let me just read this to you. It says, Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
The Lord said, now you're clean through the word which I've spoken
to you. And under that old covenant,
if a man touched something dead, that's what we are. We're dead
by nature. Just dead. If a man touched something
dead, even if he didn't know he touched something dead, if
he just walked over a a grave that he didn't even know was
there. That man was defiled. That's a picture of you and me,
how that everything we touch, everything we are, what we breathe,
what we eat, what we drink, we're defiled, brethren. That's what
we are by nature. So God gave a ceremony. The ceremony
showed this, that you took blood and the ashes of a heifer that
had been burned, and you mingled it, and you went and you sprinkled
it on this man. It was a water of separation.
It was water for cleansing. And the defiled man went to that
water and he was cleansed by it. Well, in Hebrews, Paul tells
us what all that meant. He said, if the blood of bulls
and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, if it
sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, if it ceremonially
sanctified the flesh, not really, he didn't really cleanse it,
he just ceremonially made it clean. How much more, truly,
expressly, in reality, shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Now people
will say, I might as well say this while I'm here on this,
He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit without spot to
God, and I hear people say, you know, well that tells you that
Christ wasn't really made sin on the cross. It wasn't on the
cross that he offered himself without spot to God. On the cross
he was the scapegoat and he was the sin offering. It was when
he had accomplished everything that was written and put our
sin away that he entered into the presence of God, sin having
been completely put away as our high priest, separate, holy,
undefiled, without spot. That high priest didn't go into
the holiest of holies with the lamb. He went in there with the
blood after the lamb, after it was shed. And he went in there
in holy linen garment, showing he was holy, and God received
him because of the blood. That's when Christ entered in,
after he put the sin away. So how much more shall that good
news purge our conscience from dead works to serve God, wash
us and cleanse us, just like that hand went back in there
and it came back clean and whole. But here's the third thing that
happens, or the second thing. This is the third point. This
is the other thing that happens when the gospel is preached.
It's pictured here in this water of the river. Look at verse 8.
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. If they don't believe the voice
of the first one, they'll believe the voice of the second one.
When you hear Christ preach, the rod of God preach, a man
doesn't believe it. But he believes because of that
second sign. The Lord comes in the power of
the Spirit and gives him life and makes him to believe. 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." The river was the source of life for Egypt. That's what it was. And though
Pharaoh saw the rod of God eat up his magician's rods, he hardened
his heart. He wouldn't believe God. So this
was the first plague that God brought upon him. Moses went
and he took water out of that river, or he held the rod of
God over that river. That's what he did. And God turned
that river into blood. He turned all the ponds into
blood. He turned all the streams into blood. He even turned the
water that was in vessels of stone and vessels of wood into
blood. So they didn't have any water. They went from having
water to no water. You don't have water, you don't
have life. Well, that's a picture of judgment upon those who will
not hearken to the gospel and believe on Christ. God said He
did that to show His power. In Romans 9 He said, I did that
to show my power, that His name might be declared throughout
all the earth. And He said, and I did it to make known, to show
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had
aforeprepared unto glory. Do you behold the power and the
mercy of God in all this? He said, I heard the cry of my
people. He said, I know their affliction.
He said, I've come down and visited them. He sent his son for his
people. He's come forth into this earth
and he sent his gospel to his people. And he turned away the
stout, hard-hearted, wise, worldly wise Pharaoh. He turned him aside. Pharaoh hardened his heart and
God hardened his heart. So he couldn't believe. I think
it says something like two or three times that Pharaoh hardened
his heart and it says about eight times that God hardened his heart.
That's right. So he couldn't believe. That
was judicial blindness put upon him for the stoutness of his
heart. But for his people, you know what he did for them? Those
bound, those heavy laden, those in bondage, those who needed
true deliverance and couldn't help themselves, you know what
he did for them? He showed them mercy. Now which one are you? Which one are you? Are you the
stout, proud-hearted Pharaoh? Are you in bondage and affliction
and bound in slavery and you need to be delivered by His mercy? He said, Come unto Me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Hearken to
the Gospel. Believe on Christ. He said, Say
unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. but that the wicked turn from
his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? Let me show you now one more
thing. Now we know God speaks through Christ our mediator.
That's how he speaks to you and I. Now God gave his word to Christ
in eternity. And Christ's been in charge of
everything since. And Christ, our mediator, he
gives the word to his messenger, to his ambassador. He delivers
him to speak to his people, just like he delivered Moses here.
And the messenger speaks the word to his people. You got that? God gives the word to Christ,
the mediator, and Christ gives it to those he's chosen to be
his messengers, to send forth the gospel. And then that messenger
goes and preaches it to the people. And then by the power of the
Lord that we saw typified in these signs right here, the Lord's
people believe and they bow and they worship the Lord. It's called
grace. This is how God saves His people.
That's exactly what happened when He was delivered to the
children in Egypt. Look down at verse 30. I want
you to see. This ought to show us that what
I've been telling you so. All this was pictured in these
signs. Look at this now. He got Aaron to do the preaching.
Aaron was the preacher. And Aaron spake all the words
which the Lord had spoken unto Moses. See the picture here? The Lord spoke the word to the
mediator, Moses, who gave it to the preacher, Aaron, who preached
it to the people. You see that? And then what happened? And they did the signs in the
sight of the people. That picture of his power, the
picture of Christ, the picture of the gospel we just talked
about. And here's the effectual result. Here's what happened.
Verse 31, and the people believed. And when they heard, here was
the message they heard, that the Lord had visited the children
of Israel and that He had looked upon their affliction. And this
is what they did. They bowed their heads and they
worshipped. Now if God gives the Word to
Christ to give to me, to give to you, and He blesses it by
His power and His Spirit in your heart, I can tell you what you're
going to do. You're going to rejoice in this
good news that the Lord Jesus Christ has visited His people.
He's heard our affliction, and He's redeemed us from all iniquity.
And you're going to believe, and you're going to bow to Him,
and you're going to worship Him. I pray He does that for you today.
Amen.