chapter 4 tonight, but first
look at the last part of chapter 3 with me, if you would, please. Verse 13, Moses asked God. He said, Behold, when I come
unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The
God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say
to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And
God said unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel, I am, hath sent me unto you. And it's then that God gives
Moses clear, plain, and straightforward instructions as to what to do
next and what will happen next. Look at verse 16. God says, go
and gather the elders of Israel together and say unto them, the
Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and
of Jacob appeared unto me saying, I have surely visited you and
seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I
will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt into the
land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and
the Perizzites and the Habites and the Jebusites unto a land
flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy
voice. And thou shalt come, thou and
the elders of Israel, and to the king of Egypt, unto Pharaoh. And ye shall say unto him, the
Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let us go. We beseech thee, three days'
journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the
Lord our God. And then notice what God says
in verse 19. And he said, and I am sure that
the King of Egypt will not let you go. No, not but by a mighty
hand. And I think that could be very
well translated, except by a mighty hand or unless a mighty hand
is used against him. In other words, God was gonna
have to make Pharaoh to let his people go. Now this is the God
of the Bible. This is how he speaks. A lot
of people's God didn't speak this way. But in verse 20, he
says, I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders,
which I shall do in the midst thereof. And after that, he will
let you go. God did just that in the nine
plagues and the first Passover. When God got through with Egypt,
Pharaoh just said, go, please go. Verse 21, and I will, this
is the way God speaks. 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 upon your sons and upon your daughters, and you shall
spoil. And that word there means snatch. You shall snatch or pluck these
things from the Egyptians. And in Exodus chapter 12, verse
36, you don't have to turn there, but that's exactly what God did. Now before God saved us, we didn't
believe a word God said. Sin has made us faithless by
nature. I hear preachers say all the
time, exercise your faith. How can I exercise anything when
I'm dead? How can I have faith? How can
I believe if I'm dead? And I am in trespasses and sin.
Or let me re-clarify, I was. Faith is God's gift. We say that
all the time and we know that to some extent in our minds,
I think, but faith is truly a gift. To even be able to believe God
is a token of God's grace to us. It's a gift of God, the same
as God's grace is a gift to us. God didn't have to give us grace.
He didn't have to show us grace. That's what makes it grace, it's
unmerited. And if God doesn't give you grace,
the gift of grace, you'll never believe him. I've never been
more conscious of that in my life. Some of you've learned
that. Now, we just read all these things
that God told Moses he would do. And God's not a man that
he should lie or son of a man that he should repent, and God
is able to do what he says he'll do. Now look at verse one of
chapter four. You see, Moses had yet to learn
anything about the sovereign will and purpose of God. After
all God had declared that would come to pass, Moses said this,
look at it, verse one. He said, but behold, they, speaking
of Israel, will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for
they will say the Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Moses basically
said, they're not going to believe me. God said they'll believe
you. And he said, no, they're not going to believe me. They're
not even going to hear me. They're not even going to listen.
And they're going to call me an exaggerating fool. And you
know, it's pretty much the same today when you preach the gospel
of Christ and His sovereign substitution. Folks won't believe you. They
won't hear or listen. and they'll call you an exaggerating
fool. Satan is always questioning God's
word. He loves to ask, hath God said? He loves to cast doubt on God's
word. But the children of God being
acquainted with our own deceitful hearts. It's what Jeremiah said
about our hearts, and God's people agree. They're deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked. I know some pretty deceitful
things, but my heart, God says, is deceitful above the most deceitful
thing I can think of. It's desperately wicked. And
no man can know it, only God. Being acquainted with our own
deceitful hearts, we can't and shouldn't be too hard on Moses
or the unbelieving world. Remember, all of us were fashioned
out of the same lump. And it's God and God alone that
fashions one lump unto honor and another to dishonor. But
the remembrance of our own failure should keep us from pointing
fingers to any other lumps The Lord had favored His servant
Moses with hearing the voice of Christ audibly in the burning
bush. Can you imagine what that must
have been like? Moses comes upon that bush that
burned but wasn't consumed. We've seen that's Christ. And
out of that bush, God, the Lord, L-O-R-D, Christ, the angel of
the Lord in a pre-incarnated state, spoke to Moses. And he heard the voice of God.
And he had spoken of his tender compassion for the afflicted
Hebrews, who cried out by reason of their taskmasters of sin and
the law. And he had promised to be with
Moses, expressing that he would deliver them from Egypt and bring
them into Canaan, the land of promise. There was no ifs, ands,
and buts about what God said. Nothing but divine power working
within us can ever bring our human hearts to believe and trust
in God. That's just a fact. How sad are
the words of Moses. What awful presumption this was. The Lord had emphatically declared,
they shall hearken to thy voice. And Moses said, no, they won't.
Within us is that same unbelieving, rebellious heart. No difference
in any of us. Now I want you to notice how
gracious, how forgiving, and long-suffering God is with Moses. And he's the same with us. The
Lord ignores Moses' unbelief here. It doesn't even faze him. He doesn't rebuke him. He doesn't
call him out. And he immediately begins to
teach him the gospel. That's just how gracious God
is. That's what we have in these verses before us this evening.
We have the gospel. The Lord gives Moses three things
here, three signs, three proofs, if you will, to show the people
of Israel and Egypt. Now, it's important to understand
that these signs were not to be given to Egypt. There were
signs and proofs to be given. These were signs and proofs to
be given to God's people. That's who the gospel's for,
God's people. Well, we preach it to everybody,
but it's for God's people. That's who the gospel is effectual
to, to the elect of God. And that's who Christ came into
the world to save, believing sinners. So let's look at the
first sign here that God gave to Moses and Israel to believe.
the rod and the serpent. Look at verse two. And the Lord
said unto him, Moses, what is that in thine hand? And he, Moses,
said, a rod. He had a shepherd's staff. So
I'm sure that's what it was. And God 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. Now, why is God showing these
signs to Moses? Well, the answer is found right
here in verse five, that they, Israel, may believe. Believe
what? That the Lord God of their fathers,
the God of Abraham, excuse me, the God of Isaac and the God
of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. God saying, show them this sign
that they believe. Now, what does this sign of the
rod of Moses picture or represent? Well, it becomes pretty obvious
when you start looking at the scripture that this rod pictures
Christ. It was a shepherd's rod. In Psalm
10 verse two, let me read it to you. It says, the Lord shall
send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies. That's Christ. Christ is the
rod of strength. You remember what David said
in Psalm 23. He said, yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for thou art with me,
thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You see, Christ is the believer's
rod of comfort. The Hebrew word for rod means
support. Christ being the good shepherd
of the sheep. Now we're not found, I hope we
understand that support is not like we think of it, worldly
speaking. We're not found leaning on Christ. We're found on His shoulders
being brought back to the fold. That's the kind of support God
gives. It's not just a little assistance. And God told Moses
here to cast that rod to the ground. Why did Christ come down
to this earth? We know that, don't we? We talk
about it every service. Christ came down to save His
people from their sin. He came down into the world to
save sinners. He came down to seek and to save
that which was lost. And when Moses cast the rod to
the ground, it became a snake. Why a snake? Why not an elephant? Why not a tiger or a lion or
some other creature? because a snake represents sin. It was the serpent in the garden
that deceived Eve, and it's sin that deceived you and I at every
turn. It's sin, the deception of sin. It was fiery serpents that bit
Israel in the wilderness, and it's sin that bites and permeates
us with the poison of unbelief. And what did Moses lift up in
the wilderness? You know. It was a brass serpent
on a pole. And he said, look and live. You
see, Christ was made to be what you and I were. And sin's not
what we do, sin's what we are. I've heard that for many years.
I think I finally, truly understand that. Sin is what I am. Everything
I do is mixed with sin. Those serpents pictured the deceitfulness
of sin and Satan. And that rod being made a serpent,
a snake, pictures Christ being made sin for his people. Our
Lord Jesus said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. And God said, what's that in
your hand? And Moses said, a rod. You see, sin cannot be dealt
with when it's in our hands. We don't have the authority to
deal with sin. We don't have the power to deal with sin. We
don't have the righteousness to deal with sin. We've got to
cast it down. We've got to cast it down. Just
like we've got to cast down every imagination that exalted itself
against the knowledge of God. We've got to cast down every
imagination that we, by a work of our hands, can do any work
of righteousness that would make us acceptable to God. Cast it
down. Cast it down. And flee from it.
That's what Moses did. That's a very good picture there.
We better flee from any and every thought of dealing with our sin
when it's in our own hand. We better cast it down and trust
in Christ alone to put away our sin. Now look at verse four again.
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, that being that serpent, that snake, and that's
what the word serpent here means in Hebrew, a snake. And it became
a rod in his hand. But what a picture we have here.
What we have is a sign, what we have is proof of Christ being
made sin by his divine substitution. When Moses grabbed that serpent
by the tail, it became a rod again. I got to thinking about
that. I thought about that for two
or three days. The snake became the rod that
it originally was. He cast down the rod, the shepherd's
staff, and it became a snake and he grabbed it by the tail
and it became a rod again, what it originally was. And I think
that pictures how Christ dealt with our sin so well. He who
knew no sin was made to be sin for us. We know that. We quote
that verse about every message. And we know that He who knew
no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And we know that comes about
by Christ keeping the law perfectly in our place. Christ satisfying
God's holy justice in our stead. And when He did, He put away
sin. Sin no longer on the believer. And that sin is no longer on
Christ. Sin on Christ has been dealt
with. It's been put away. It's gone
forever. That serpent became a rod again. That rod pictures the strength
and the authority of God. You know, the magicians in Egypt,
later with deceit and their smoking mirrors, duplicated this sign. And if you remember, the serpent
of Moses devoured the serpents of Pharaoh's magicians. The truth
of Christ and Him crucified will, in the end, devour all false
doctrines, all false gospels, and all other Jesuses. And this
was the same rod that brought forth locusts, as we'll see later
on. This is the same rod that parted
the Red Sea. This is the same rod that smote
the rock once for water. And it represents the authority
of Christ as the God-man. It pictures the substitution
of Christ and Him being made sin for us. It pictures His right
to redeem as the God-man. Christ was made sin, but He didn't
stay that way. And I don't know that I ever
thought about that much until I looked at this verse. Now remember,
this was not assigned to or for Egypt. This was a sign to Moses. This would be a sign to Israel.
This is a sign to the believing sinner. Christ was made to be
sin for His elect. And Christ put away the sin of
His elect. Because of the believer's union
with Christ, neither Christ nor the sinner has any sin. We talk
a lot about God's holy justice. God would not be just to punish
someone who's innocent. And God would not be just to
pardon someone who's guilty. He would cease to be just and
He would cease to be God. If God punished Christ for doing
something wrong when He didn't, He wouldn't be just. And He wouldn't
be God. God must be just. Religion today
gets so wrapped up in God being love that they don't give any
thought to God being holy, to God being just, and to God's
holy law and holy justice having to be satisfied before a sinner
can receive the perfect righteousness of Christ. God has to deal with
sin on the basis of true justice. Now I'm going to say something
very deliberately here, and I don't know if you've ever given it
much thought or not. But Christ Jesus deserved to
be put to death. It doesn't even feel right saying
it. But I'm telling you, it's true. Christ deserved to be put
to death. Why? Because God had to be just. And He had to justify the ungodly.
Why did Christ deserve to be put to death? Because He had
His people sin upon Him. Do you see that? He really had
His people's sin put on Him. As Scott Richardson once said,
this wasn't just pasted on Him and His righteousness pasted
on us. He really became sin for His people. He knew no sin. He practiced no sin. Our sin
was put upon Him. And because God has to be just
and justify the ungodly, when God found sin even on His Son,
according to holy justice, He had to punish it. Had to punish
it. Now listen, if Christ wasn't
truly made to be sin, God couldn't have accepted His sacrifice and
still have remained just. God can't punish one who has
not offended the law. God cannot spare or pardon one
who has. Christ was made to be sin when
our sin was put on Him. And at that point in time, He
deserved it just like we did. If it's really gonna be His sin
and not mine anymore, and if it's really gonna be put away,
and in order for God to be just, that has to be so. That has to
be so. And God is just in punishing
him. And God is just in pardoning
me. And that's the most amazing thing
a sinner could ever hear. And Christ is the rod of strength
and authority for His people. And as the God-man, He was the
only one who had a right to save His people from their sin. He's
the only one that could save His people from their sin. Well,
I need to move on. The second thing is the hand
of leprosy. Look at verse six. And the Lord
said, furthermore unto him, put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he, Moses, 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 Moses put his hand into his
bosom again, and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it
was turned again as his other flesh. You know, leprosy in the
scripture is a picture of sin. Moses had a clean hand. I think
of Adam, who was clean before the fall, made out of the dust
of the ground, made in the very image of God. Moses puts his
hand into his bosom, close to his heart. There's some symbolism
definitely there. And when he took it out, it was
as leprous as snow. In other words, it was no life
in it at all, just turned white. Just turned white. That's what
we became after the fall. That's a picture of the fall
of man into sin. And when Moses put his hand next
to his bosom the second time, it turned again as his other
flesh. Now this is a clear picture,
I believe, of the new birth. God's people have been made a
new creation. If you ever get a good whiff
of your old nature, you'll be thankful for that. God's people
have been made new creatures in Christ. Not a reformed creature. Not an improved creature. But
a new creature. A new creature. Created in Christ
Jesus. That should be great proof to
us of the kind of creature that we're made in Him. No doubt in
my mind that this transformation of Moses' leprous hand pictures
our transformation from life unto death. Man was clean and
he fell into sin. And man fell a great fall and
he died spiritually. By the disobedience of one man,
all were made sinners. And by the obedience of the God-man,
many were made righteous." This is a picture of the leper, the
sinner being born again by regeneration in Christ's blood. There is a
fountain filled with blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
And sinners plunge beneath that flood. What happens to them?
Well, they lose all their guilty stains. In Christ, I have a new
nature. Unfortunately, I still have the
old one. And that's where the war is,
within, within. I have two natures. There are
two men spoken of frequently in the scriptures, the old man
And the new man, Peter or Paul I, I can't remember, said, put
off the old man, which is corrupt. It was Peter, I believe. Put
off the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts,
and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. I love to think about that. I
now have a new holy nature. In God's eyes, I'm just as holy
as Christ. I'm just as righteous as Christ. I have no sin. That nature within
me loves holiness. That nature within me loves righteousness. That is the nature that hates
anything and everything that's contrary to Christ, especially
sin. I hate my sin in the new me. Oh, the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary,
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would do. Oh, we don't have to read very
much in Romans 7 to know something about two natures. And I not
only know something of the dual nature in the Scriptures, but
I also see my dual nature in my life and in my heart. I know
by revelation that I have an evil nature, but also not by
experience that I do. But God's given me a new nature
and a new birth, one that believes, one that loves, and one that
worships the Christ of the cross. Isn't that a beautiful thought?
What a picture that leprous hand is of our new birth, that regeneration
of the Holy Spirit. And then the third thing, the
blood poured on the ground. Look at verse eight. God says
to Moses, and it shall come to pass. If they will not believe
thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign." I found
that very interesting, the voice of the first sign. That's the
gospel. That's the preaching of the gospel
in these things. If they don't hear the gospel
in the first thing, the voice of the gospel. and neither hearken
to thy voice. If they don't 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
hearken also to these two signs, the rod and the serpent and the
leprous hand, neither hearken unto thy voice. Thou shall 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. Now, this is the sign, this is
the miracle that will in the end satisfy every true believer. The blood poured out on the ground. The blood that God spilt. It won't satisfy Egypt. It won't
satisfy the world, but it'll satisfy the people, the children
of God. It'll comfort the church of God.
You know, the Nile River was a symbol of life to the Egyptians
and to the Hebrews. The Hebrews lived there in Goshen.
They depended on the support of that river. Water, all through
the scriptures, represents life. Christ is the river of life. Without water, there can be no
life. God turned Egypt's life to death when he, during one
of the plagues, turned the river Nile into blood. God showed his
authority and his power and his judgment in turning the Nile
into blood. As I said, it's one of the plagues
against Egypt, and rightly so. Pharaoh had drowned all the male
Hebrew children in that very river. to Egypt, that plague
was no doubt a sign of judgment. But this sign and miracle of
pure life-giving water poured out on the ground was a sign,
a picture of sacrifice. Sacrifice to Israel. It was a
sacrifice of blood that was made for them by Christ. It's a picture of substitution. It's a picture of redemption.
It's a picture of deliverance. It's a picture of the remission
of sin. Why was Christ bloodshed? Have
you ever thought about that answer? Because Christ was made sin.
He must die of the just or the unjust. When sin was found on
Christ, holy justice extracted full payment from Him. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. God
killed the just one in order to justify the unjust ones. That's the gospel. Do you see
the gospel in these three signs, these three miracles? I see Christ
becoming sin, being made sin for His people, and working out
and giving to them His perfect righteousness. I see that in
the rod and the snake. I see Christ in giving me a new
nature, making me a new creature in Christ, so that I can stand
holy and righteous before God. My leprosy is gone. There's been
a transformation from death into life. My leprosy is gone. I've got perfect righteousness.
And I see Christ shedding His own blood. The water of life
is poured out on the ground and it turns into blood. Christ turned water into wine
and God turned water into blood. Both are a picture of Christ's
redemption. And when God sees the blood, When God sees the blood, not
your works, not your righteousness, no. But when He sees the blood,
He's going to pass over you. When God sees the blood of Christ,
He'll pass over you. So do you have the blood of Christ
covering you? Do you have the blood of Christ
above the door and the lentils of the door of your heart? that
we better have. We better have. Let me close
by just reading a few verses at the end of this chapter. I
don't think you even need to comment on them. Look at verse
27. And the Lord said to Aaron, Aaron
was Moses' brother. He became the priest, the spokesman
for Moses. He said, go into the wilderness
to meet Moses. And he went and met him in the
mount of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the
words of the Lord who had sent him and all, now look at this,
and all the signs which he had commanded him. The three that we just talked
about. In verse 29, and Moses and Aaron went and gathered together
all the elders of the children of Israel And Aaron spake all
the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the
signs in the sight of the people." Those three things that we just
looked at. Look at verse 31, just the first
few words. And the people believed. The people believed. You know,
all gods elect will. They sure will. These three things
are the heart of the Gospel. Christ being made sin, us being
made righteous. We see that in the rod and the
snake. The new birth, being born again,
not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible. Being made
a new creature in Christ. My! And thirdly, the blood of Christ
that cleanses us from all sin. You know, I believe all three. I believe all three. How about
you? Well, that's the Gospel. So, I don't think I'll ever read
that passage again and not think of those things and how they
picture the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.