I know in the, oh good, North-South.
I know in that movie they played that on the Titanic. Did that
happen in real life? I thought so. Wouldn't that be
something? Be on a boat that's sinking and
that choir, the stringed instruments there on the Titanic, they played
Near My God as the boat was tilting up, going in the water. They
were his, they're about to be. Be a good thing, wouldn't it?
Exodus chapter seven. We're looking at Exodus chapter
7 verses 1 through 13. We remember that Moses went and
did what the Lord told him. And it didn't work out the way
he thought it would. And so he went back to the Lord and he
got some tongue lashings from hypocrites that was in that physical
nation. And he said, this is all your fault. We had it good
before you got here. Now it's bad because of you. We had a
good thing going until you showed up, Moses. So Moses did what was right,
instead of throwing rocks at their heads, he went and prayed
to God, went and sought the Lord. And I thought, you know, in Moses'
disbelief or unbelief, or a combination of the two, the Lord was not
deterred. It didn't faze him one bit from
what he was pleased to do. Boy, that makes me happy. That
makes me happy. Moses couldn't mess this up.
Now he could make it hard on himself, and he could stub his
toes, and it'd be rough, but you ain't gonna mess this up.
You ain't gonna mess this up. Exodus 7, verse 1. And the Lord
said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god, Pharaoh, and
Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all
that I command thee, and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto
Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land, that
he make some leave." I saw that there next to 7-1, and I thought,
you know, that's a very odd statement, isn't it? The Lord said, I have
made you a God to Pharaoh. What does that mean? This might just be for me, it
might be for those that would preach one day, and I hope it's
for everybody here, but that's a lowercase g, isn't it? That
does not mean, obviously, that Pharaoh was going to worship
Moses. That's not what that means. Or that Moses created Pharaoh
and that he was going to reign over Pharaoh by Moses' will. No, that's not what that means.
Here's what it means. The Lord was telling Moses, he
said, I have given you this office. I've given you this commission
to have the authority and the charge over Pharaoh by you being
the one that's gonna give the words that I give you. That's
it. What a thought. And Aaron's the
ambassador. He said, I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna tell Aaron,
he's gonna tell Pharaoh. You're gonna walk right in there
in his office, in his court to the king. with armed guards all
around, stand on your hind two legs, and tell him everything
I said. But I've done this. I've given you the authority
to do this. What a thought. I used to, when I first started
preaching, I apologized for my inexperience. And I learned hard
lessons of how to word that, because there was some critics
of the gospel and gospel preachers, how I worded that. But a faithful
preacher, a guy who's been preaching a long time, came to me. And
he said, Kevin, everybody knows that you're new. Stop talking
about it and just stand on your hind legs and preach. God gave
you this authority. He's commissioned you. Just say
what he says. You don't matter. I needed to
hear that. How'd he know that? A fella that's
already went home and be with the Lord told him. He said, listen,
when he first started, he said, quit apologizing for everything.
You don't need to go there and preface nothing. It's God's Word. He gave you a message. Send it.
Send it. Give it to them. And don't think
if they're going to like it or not. I mean, I pray often. I
say, this church is going to make these people rejoice. They're
going to, ooh, today's the day. They're going to just laugh out
of joy and cry out of happiness. Hearts are going to leap. But that don't matter. The message
is the message given. Jeremiah's calling was very similar
to Moses. And I thought, you know, Jeremiah's
calling was very similar to one of my brothers that started preaching
about the time I did. And I thought, you know, Jeremiah's
calling was similar to Moses and his, and that's mine. And
I got to think, that's just about every preacher I know, every
faithful preacher that I know. It says in Jeremiah 1.4, the
word of the Lord came unto me saying, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou comest forth
out of the womb, I sanctify thee and I ordain thee a prophet unto
the nations. We read that often. God elected Jeremiah to go preach. He ordained him. But Jeremiah
said something and he said, ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak. Same thing Moses said. The Lord
told Moses, who made the mouth? Tell me you can't speak. I gave
you that mouth. You stop bringing up objections and just do what
I tell you. Jeremiah said, I can't speak, and he said, for I am
a child. I'm young, nobody's gonna listen to me. But the Lord
said unto me, say not I'm a child. Don't you say that you're a child,
that you're too young to do these things, and you can't talk. You do what
I tell you to do. For thou shalt go to all that
I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.
You're gonna say what I tell you to say. And he said, be not
afraid of their faces. If I get bad looks, I ought not
be afraid. But I'm fearful for people's
faces, those that could care less and are bored by it or look
up the ceiling or go to sleep. Oh, I worry for them. He said,
be not afraid of their faces. Why shouldn't I, Lord? Why shouldn't
I be afraid to tell people plainly what you said? He said, for,
because I'm with thee. to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
He goes, I said that before, I like to have somebody, if I
preach in a place nobody's ever heard the gospel, I'd like to
have one believer there, they can keep a getaway car running. The
Lord said, I'll deliver you. I'll deliver you. That might
be the means he uses, but he said, I'll deliver you, I'm with
you. What assurance that is to Moses, and it is to every one
of God's preachers, to speak with boldness. Remember Wednesday
night? Remember last hour? Boldness
means plainness, plainly, confidently. How can I be confident? Well,
he said, whenever this word changes, I'll change what I have to say.
God's with me until then, I'll say what he said. And because
he said, lo, I'm with you all the way, even to the end of the
world. That's when he said, you go out and preach the gospel to every
creature, anybody that listen, every beast you can find, every
sinner you can find and preach to them. And he said, I'm with
you. And instantly we said, well, how long are you gonna be with
us? He said, till the end of the world, till I wrap this thing
up, I'm with you. That ought to, it did me. And for those others that preach,
it ought to give us plainness and confidence to say what God
says, regardless of the outcome, regardless of their shrinking
numbers, if it's what God's word is, we give it. And that ought
not be questioned, that's a warning from God. The Lord said, touch
not mine anointing, do my prophets no harm. And Peter said, if any
man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If that's what
that word says, it ain't up for debate. Well, you know, I just
think it don't matter what you think. It matters what God says,
period. Lord told Moses, I made you like
a God to Pharaoh. I've given you this authority.
I've given you this commission. Now you go tell what I have to
say. it will accomplish what I want.
He said that in Isaiah 55. So shall my word be that go forth
out of my mouth, it shall not return to me void, but it shall
accomplish that what I please. Exactly the way I want it to
go. I'll give you the word and I'm gonna make it do what I want
and you won't have a clue what's going on until after the fact.
You'll think you're shooting arrows over here and arrows will
start landing over there. And he said, and it shall prosper
in the thing whereto I sent it. What shall it prosper, Lord?
Later, many years later, Paul wrote this. To the one we are
a saver of death unto death. I can't stand listening to that
fella talk. One lady was honest to dawn about
that. She said, I used to sit and listen, make my brother happy.
She goes, you make me so angry, I bite nails in two. I couldn't
stand listening to you. She's honest. She's honest. And
then God saved her one day after like 20 years of hearing the
gospel. One day God saved her. She said, I need to be baptized.
God saved me. To one, we're saver of death
and death, and to the other, saver of life unto life. The
word don't change, and it's one or the other. Though it'll be
a saver of death and death, it'll be a saver of life and life.
And then Paul says, who's sufficient for these things? That's a frightening
thing, isn't it? People volunteer for that, it's
dumb. Moses didn't volunteer for it,
Jeremiah didn't volunteer for it, Paul didn't volunteer for
it, Eric Lutter didn't volunteer for it, I didn't volunteer for
it, and everybody that come didn't volunteer for it. They were called, they
were commissioned. The Lord said, I've done this, now go. I made
your mail. There in verse two, Exodus seven. Thou shalt speak all that I command
thee. And Aaron thy brother shall speak
unto Pharaoh that he shall send the children of Israel out of
his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and
my wonders in the land of Egypt. The Lord said, you're going to
go tell him and he ain't going to listen to a word you got to
say. Why am I going? Quit asking why and go. Lord
said, I'm doing this. I'm doing this on purpose. I've
ordained all of this. You trust me. Don't trust what
you think. You do what I say. Go preach
to them, even though they ain't going to listen to a word you
say. He said, I'm going to harden Pharaoh's heart. I was gonna spend a lot of time
on that. What's the heart? Well, if I know my heart, we
don't know our heart. God says the heart's deceitful,
desperately wicked. Who can know it? He said, you
don't, you don't know your heart. Even the sons of thunder, those
people wouldn't receive the Lord, they wouldn't lay them out of
town. And they said, Lord, let us call down fire and lightning on these
people, kill them. And he said, you don't know what
spirit you are. You don't know what spirit's in you. You don't
know your heart, boys. It's the wrong thing. Does that mean God hardened Pharaoh's
heart or did Pharaoh harden his own heart? Yes. Yes. The Lord purposed this. I didn't touch on this either,
but the Leviathan says in the scriptures, the Lord made that
crooked snake. And the devil is God's devil. We're reading
Job. He showed up like an officer to the general. He reported for
duty. And he said, you consider my servant Job? He said, well,
you got a hedge about him. I wouldn't go ask it. I wouldn't
go bring it up. I wouldn't ask permission. And
the Lord told him, he said, no, I'll take the hedge down and
go get him. Do what you want. But like I've said before, hearts
are like concrete. This is the Lord purposed this.
He raised Pharaoh up on purpose to do this. and then him leaving
him alone, taking his hand, just like a concrete truck. Concrete
trucks spin, don't they? Well, why are they spinning?
Why are we putting, we keep putting water in it and we keep it moving.
Why? Because that keeps it soft. Well,
the second you stop, second that water of the words lifted, That's
what frightens me about those that believe the gospel. They
start out in the front row, and little by little, they start
missing services, and they start going further to the back of
the church house. It happens all over, don't it? Seen it all
over. And the next thing you know, they're gone. That water
keeps getting less and less and less. And just like that concrete,
the less water you got in it, the less work in the hands in
it moving it, what's its instinct? It gets hard. It gets hard, don't
it? It's left lung. The Lord said,
I've had Pharaoh, I've kept him, I've fed him, I've nurtured him,
I've put him in power, I've put him as that king. We ought not
badmouth our president. Who's president is it? That's
God's president. He put him there. And I've raised Pharaoh up, and
now I'm gonna harden his heart. How? Let him go. Is Pharaoh gonna
keep his own heart watered? He thinks so. He thinks, well,
I'll just go home and read the scriptures by myself. You'll
get hard. You'll get hard. The Lord purposed
this, and willfully Pharaoh did it. Willfully. Pharaoh said,
I ain't gonna listen to that. Don't tell me about that. In
Romans 9, Paul said, For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh,
Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore he will have mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he harden. That's
the Lord's doing and we're all at fault. It's the Lord's will
and man's at fault. That's what I said about that
lame man. He's to be pitied and he's to be blamed. We can't blame it. Well, that's
the whole thing I preached last. I ain't doing my notes. I'll
get to it last week. It ain't Satan's fault. Ain't
the law's fault. And it ain't Adam's fault. It's my fault. And if everything's just a doctrine,
all we got some head knowledge. It's gotta be a heart work. God's
gonna show us that. Well, Pharaoh wanted a sign from
Moses. He got the very sign God had already ordained. Remember,
he gave Moses three things to preach, that rod, hand on a heart,
water into wine, or water to blood. The Lord didn't water
the wine, did he? He said in Matthew 12, he said,
an evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. People
won't just hear what God has to say. They want proof. Proof. I saw the other day, they said,
this book, it proves that Jesus was real. He is, and this book's about
him, not this one. It was a book some fella wrote.
And they said, oh, well, now we got proof. We've always had
it. Go outside and look up. He said, the evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given
to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And that was the very
one talking to him. The sign that Jonah was picturing
was a one speaking to him. He said, and ye, this is personal,
ye, ye, will not come unto me that ye might have life. We looked
at election last hour, and I didn't mention it then, but I've heard
people say, well, God predestinated people to hell. No, he did not. Is there a hell? Yes, there is.
and man will willfully go there spitting in God's face. Willfully. They will not have that man reign
over them. Verse four. But Pharaoh shall
not hearken unto you. Why, Lord? That, here's the reason. I may lay my hand upon Egypt
and bring forth my armies, and my people, the children of Israel,
out of the land of Egypt by great judgments." Pharaoh's heart's
going to be hardened, and he ain't going to listen to you,
and that's just what I wanted to happen. Now, you're going
to be a saver of death unto death to him, but you go say exactly
what I told you to say. The mission don't change. The
job don't change. Well, if we're preaching to a
room full of believers or we're preaching to a room full of heretics,
it don't make a difference. The word's the same. The gospel's
the same. Like Peter going through there
in Acts, he had one outline. He kept preaching the same message
as close to verbatim as he could get over and over and over again. Lord said, I told you Moses,
now go tell him. He ain't gonna listen to you. Verse five, and
the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch
forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children from among
them. Egypt was in, or Israel was in Egypt. It's like we're
in this world, and the Lord's gonna bring us out. They ain't gonna stay in that.
He's gonna bring them out. These are real simple words God
has to teach us. He'll bring them out and up, isn't he? They
don't leave them there where they was. He didn't go check
on that one sheep and say, oh, hey little buddy, well, good
luck to you. See you later. He blew it over his shoulders
and took it with the other sheep. And Egypt saw this and they knew,
that's what God said, right Tim? They knew that this was the Lord's
doing, that this was the Lord's hand and that he brought the
children out. They knew that. They said, there's a God that
did this. And they said, good, get out
of here. We don't want nothing to do with
it. Frightening, isn't it? True Israel.
I wondered, as I wrote, I looked over my notes, I wonder if I
get canceled for that in this culture. I preached last Sunday
and I got a call from Sermon Audio. Uh-oh, here we go. It was about something else,
but I was real nervous from that hello to they started talking.
True Israel. rejoices that the Lord revealed
himself. True Israel rejoices that he
stretched forth his hand and that he brought us out from among
what we was just as happy and all we ever knew. True Israel
rejoices in that. David said, when you said seek
my face, my heart, not my head, not my carnal understanding,
the thing that just drives me, my heart. said unto you lord i'll seek
your face thy face will i see that's what that's a work of
god to be brought out now that we're not physically going to
be well maybe we're not physically going to be taken out of california
moved to some other place for god teach us this sometimes that
happens sometimes it don't but that happens in the heart when
he says seek my face nebuchadnezzar strong king he said look at all
the good things i did i got statue for me I built this kingdom up. The prophet came and told him,
and he didn't heed him. And then it didn't happen for
a year. And he said, well, I must be doing right, because God ain't punished
me yet. That's what he thought. Just because the Lord hasn't
condemned sin and struck somebody down dead doesn't mean that it's
OK. What we're doing is right. But he said, look at all the
stuff I did. And instantly, he became a beast in the field,
didn't he? And for seven months, seven years, for long enough
to hit the work. How long was Nebuchadnezzar on
all fours? Long enough for it to work. That's how long. He said, at the end of his days,
I love reading this. I don't get tired of it. Do you?
He said, I've heard Unconditional Election. Yeah, I got it. Senator
Doar, back in the 1600s, tracking. I don't. I put this in my notes. I got excited. I got to read
this to you again for the 46th time or however many times it's
been. And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up
mine eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned to me.
And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And
his kingdom, that's from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of earth, that's A-double-L. God has to teach us to say that. All. All, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his
will in all things in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth and none can stay his hand or saying to him what
doest thou." When I read that, some people get mad or they get
sad or they get whatever. I laugh with joy. I grin ear
to ear and I start chuckling. I can't keep from it. It makes
me so happy I can't stand it. God's on his throne. There ain't
an electron in orbit around a nucleus ever throughout time that wasn't
exactly the way he wanted it. And he's holy. He's not some
mean manager. That's a holy God. And he's looked
upon a people that he chose and put in his son and said, I'm
gonna love them. I'm gonna do what's good for
you. And I'll get all the glory for them. I say, amen. I do. If I could remember that on a
Thursday at 1.42 p.m., that'd make me awful happy. Wouldn't
it? Wouldn't it be good for you to
remember these things? Instead, we don't just go to church twice
a week, or once a week, twice on Sundays, or whatever. Wednesdays
and twice on Sundays. The Lord walks in His people.
He abides in them. Is He in all our thoughts? I
want Him to be. I want to think of Him and look on Him. Verse six, Exodus seven, verse
six. And Moses and Aaron did as the
Lord commanded him, so did they. God commanded it and they did
it. He said, I shall and they will. Or I will and they shall,
however we want to look at it. And Moses was four score years
old and Aaron four score and three years old when they spoke
to Moses. Aaron was the older brother.
He was 83 and Moses was 80. These men had some wisdom. It
took a long life of trials and everything, the God working all
these things, they had some wisdom. And I thought, here's a good
quote, I thought this would be good. It doesn't take too long
to get old, but it takes a long time to get wise. It doesn't
take too long, I blinked, and I'm gonna start getting my hair
cut shorter, I'm getting white-headed. It happened to a twinkling of
an eye. Takes a long time to get wisdom,
don't it? Takes a long time. These aged men, they had some
wisdom. Now in verses 8 through 13, I want to speak as plainly
as I can about snakes. I want you to hear this. We got
something learned about this. I've already learned this lesson.
We all need to learn the rest of it. Verse 8. Then thou shalt say unto Aaron,
Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become
a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they
did so as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before
Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. They
went to Pharaoh, they told him, and Pharaoh said, I ain't gonna
believe what you say. Prove it. I wanna see a sign. The Lord
already ordained this. He said, you throw that rod down.
That was the first thing he told Moses way back then, wasn't it?
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, now
the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with
their enchantments. Some say these were wizards or
I don't know, magicians, that's what the Lord calls them. But
they went here and these sorcerers and they had their enchantments
and they reproduced this. They reproduced this act. Some
say it's real, some say it don't matter either way. But Pharaoh
saw that, he heard the word, he didn't hear it. He saw the
miracle, he didn't care. He went and had his men recreate
it. Recreate it. Paul warned Timothy
about a time coming. And it was the same in Moses'
day as it was in Paul and Timothy's day, and it is in our day. He
warned, he said, this time's coming, Timothy, for you. Timothy
hadn't experienced this yet, but it was coming. But this is
the same thing as what happens to Pharaoh. He said, preach the
word. Timothy, be instant in season and out of season, whether
you wanna do it or not, whether it's convenient or not, you get
up and preach the word. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine. People get it wrong, you preach
it. Rebuke them, say, stop that. Reprove them, train them up,
and be longsuffering with it, because it's gonna take a long
time of suffering. For the time will come when they will not
do a sound doctrine. You're gonna preach and they
ain't gonna hear it. But after their own lust, they shall heap
to themselves teachers. I'm gonna get as many people
I can listen to as I can. Timothy warned about this. They
have itching ears. What God sent ain't good enough
for them. And so they go looking around everywhere else to find
another word. And Paul's warning Timothy, and we were warning
our day too, ain't we? And they shall turn away their
ears from the truth. They're gonna go looking for
a yes and they're gonna find it. because he didn't listen to the one that
God sent. And they should be turned into
fables, to just nonsense. Pharaoh was given the very sign
he asked for. God sent a messenger to him.
He gave him God's word. He asked for a sign. He was given
the very thing he asked for, but he did not fall down and
beg for mercy from God. And he didn't plead with those
men who were obviously sin of God with a word for him. What
must I do to be saved? You know God. Tell me about him.
Teach me about God. Tell me more of his word. Tell
me about his ways. Tell me about his son. Pharaoh
didn't do that. He didn't heed the word of God
or God's ambassadors. And he went looking for something
similar. You get that? Well, this sounds the same. This looks the same. The same
thing. Why don't you take what God gave
you? They had itching ears. Pharaoh did. And he was heaping
up teachers everywhere he could except for the teacher that God
sent. Somewhere else. Verse 12. For they cast down
every man his rod and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed
up their rods. Whatever happened, Aaron threw
down that rod. It became a serpent. And then
Pharaoh said, well, we'll drum up some business somewhere else
with his itching ears. And he said, look, it's the same
thing over here. But this one was different. This one ate up
all them other snakes. You get that? It looks the same,
but the ending's different. It sounds just the same. This
one's different. This one's sin of God. There's
Aaron's rod. This is the one that's going
to bud. This is the rod that budded. What's that mean? There's
life in it. There's life in it. That's Christ. This rod's Christ.
He come to this earth. He was brought down to this earth,
made of womb, made under the law, willingly laying down his
life for his sheep. And not only that, being made
sin for us. That knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. What a thought. Over John 3, you can turn if
you like. I've got a few different scriptures
we'll be going to, but if you want to just listen, that's okay.
And if you want to turn John 3 verse 9, this one, Nicodemus
came to the Lord and John 3, 9, Nicodemus answered and said
to him, how can these things be? And Jesus answered and said
to him, art thou a master of Israel? And no, it's not these
things. Throughout my life, I've heard
of some armchair theologians that instruct other people and
correct them and tell them, you ought not be doing this, and
you ought to think this, and they correct them. And they don't understand basic Bible
doctrine. Somebody's got to teach them. The Lord's going to teach
Nicodemus. He said, you call yourself a
master in Israel, you've got 75 years experience, and you
don't know what this is talking about? Maybe you ought to be
quiet and open your ears up. Verily, verily, of a truth, of
a truth, I say unto you, we speak that we do know. I don't think
things. Well, I think that this means
that. He speaks with authority. Remember, Moses was given authority.
Christ has all authority, and his people speak with authority.
It ain't what I think, that's what I know. We speak that we
do know and testify that we've seen, we've experienced it, and
ye receive not our witness. You didn't listen, Nicodemus.
If I told you earthly things, And you believe not. If I told
you something, don't put your finger in a light socket. I ain't
listening to Kevin. Why are you going to believe
me on spiritual things? I said that before. If y'all
trust me, we're going to keep two-ply in these bathrooms. This is the Lord's house. We
ain't watering down that window spray. Ain't nothing watered
down in this place. You should go buy windex and fill them up.
That's good. You can buy it by the bulk, that's
okay. But that's what we're going to do. If I've told you earthly
things, I ain't going to listen about how to clean this building.
Why are you going to listen to me about spiritual things? Lord,
same thing for the Lord, wasn't it? If I've told you earthly
things, you believe not. How shall you believe if I tell
you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, the son of man, which is in heaven,
and he's in heaven, he's talking to him right now. And Moses,
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 eternal life. He's that brazen serpent. He's that serpent that's going
to be lifted up at Calvary. That's Aaron's rod, isn't it?
But there's other, there's other serpents there. There was a dawn
priest on that years ago. A serpent, the serpent, and the
serpents. There's a bunch of them there.
And scorchers came through it down. Looked just like it. Sounded
just like it. Didn't it? Smelled just like it. But it
was different. I've heard people my whole life say, but that's
a good snake. I hate snakes. I told you that before. I can't
stand them. I heard people, they hear me. I'm gonna tell you what
God says, I ain't tell you about my opinions. I've heard people
say, that's a good snake. Before we say that again, let's
know what God says. Do you know the serpent's the
only beast in creation that God says is cursed? Is it a good snake? Genesis three. Genesis three, verse 14. And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed. Above
all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life, colon. He's gonna say something else.
What's he say? Verse 15. And I will put enmity, that's
hatred, between thee and the woman, between you and my bride.
Between you and my bride. You gonna hate them, they're
gonna hate you. You're cursed. They're cursed
too, and I saved them from it. But there's enmity there. And
between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel. This snake is Satan, isn't it?
I think it's the most obvious one. Christ came and he crushed
his head. He's against us, and God's people
are against him. You know another snake? That
rod of Aaron, another snake that Christ made sin for us, Him being
lifted up high as the serpent, brazen serpent, He swallowed
up for us, death. Satan's something that's dangerous
for us, isn't it? And death's dangerous to the unbeliever.
It sure is. We're nervous for it. Hebrews
2 said, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had power over the death, that's
the devil, that's what it just said, he crushed his head, and
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. People's afraid to die, everybody
is, why? Because it's put in our hearts that we know. We know
we're about to meet judgment, we know we're about to meet a
holy God we willfully sinned against. And that's why we try
to help others, and we do everything we can to stay alive. Because way down inside, we can
snuff it out if we want to, we know. All mankind does, don't
they? And we were under that bondage
too. But Isaiah 25. Look here what this snake swallows
up. Isaiah 25 verse eight. Here's what the Lord of Hosts
is going to send His man. Isaiah 25, verse 8, "...He will
swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people shall
He take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken
it." That's what it tells us in Revelation, wasn't it? All
tears are going to be wiped away. We're going to be quiet for about
30 minutes. And that's going to be over,
all tears are going to be wiped away, no more pain, no more sin is put
away. Be brand new. And what's that to be worried
about? Why should we be scared? I'm nervous about dying because
I ain't never did it. Well, the Lord swallowed that up. That
was one of them snakes down on the ground. He slithered over
and he took it. He took it. It's gone for his
people. Another thing that's bitten us and will prove to kill
us eventually in that second death is the law. The law, that's
something we couldn't deal with. In Galatians 3 it says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it's written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith. Through faith. That law, we're
cursed by it. it might as well be a 20 foot
python or something. I can't do nothing with it. I'm
completely unable. He was made under that law, his
law, and he consumed it, just swallowed it up, just took care
of it. He fulfilled it, never bit. But
his seed after him, and speaking of Christ there, seed as in one,
but it said there's enmity, there's hatred, you're cursed between
you and a woman. all of her offspring and all
your offspring. And ain't nothing changed. There
are those that are still at war with the Lord. They're still
at war with his people and they're still at war fighting tooth and
toenail with his preachers. Just like Pharaoh here, just
kicking as hard as he could against Moses and Aaron. And John 8 says,
you do the deeds of your father. And they said to him, we're not
born of fornication. Are you telling us we're totally
depraved? You saying us we're sinners? Is that what you're
saying? You're saying I'm a bad guy? We have one father, God. And Jesus said, if God were your
father, if he were, you would love me. For I proceeded forth
and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he that sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? He asked
him. Because you cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father,
the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he's a liar and the father of it. And those were
enemies. They got mad at that. They said,
we're gonna kill him, throw him off a cliff, stone him. And he
said, why are you wanting to kill me? I said, we don't want
to, who made you think that? We don't want to kill you. Yes,
they did. He wasn't lying, was he? Lord has enemies. His people have enemies. David
had enemies. He said in Psalm 27, when the
wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. They came to eat me. That's
what them snakes were doing. But Aaron's rod, that one, it
swallowed up all the other ones. All of our enemies and Satan
and the law, anything that's against us, anything that's bad
for the Lord's people, Christ took care of it. Every bit of
it. What happened to that serpent?
Well, Aaron picked up his rod again, or dropped back on his
throne. That's where he is. He's risen. What about all this
work? It's finished. He said so. Who
gets a glory for that? Isaiah 11. He's still in Isaiah. Verse one. In my study bible, it's got some
headings over different sections of scriptures and paragraphs.
Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not. But this one I like.
The Righteous Reign of the Branch. That's what it was titled. That's
a good one. Here's that branch. Here's that
rod of Jesse. Aaron's rod. That's what it's talking about.
Verse 1. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its roots. Look down at
verse 8. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the
asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's
den, and they shall not hearten or destroy in all my holy mountain.
Lord said, these things can't touch my children. And their
defense was their babes, their sucking child, still breastfed. And those that are weaned, too.
Not that we ought to go handling snakes, that's not what we're
saying. He's talking about glory here. But those things that we
worry about, and if we're worried about it, it's because we think
we can do something about it. We're not looking to Christ that swallowed
it up. That's where fear and anxiety, because it's unbelief
is what that is. God make us believe, help our
unbelief. That's so. That's going to happen. Back in our text in Exodus 7,
verse 11. Then Pharaoh also called the
wise men and the sorcerers, now the magicians of Egypt. They
did also in like manner with their enchantments, for they
cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents. But
Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. They came with the word
of God. They came with this miracle of just the rod becoming a serpent
back to a rod. And then in the face of all this,
they got all these other teachers and these other sorcerers, these
witch doctors to come in with their medicines and their remedies.
And they threw down their rods and they became serpents. And
then this serpent ate all of them. Imagine if that was me. If Lord
didn't, if he took his hand off of me, I wouldn't have anything
to do with it. So verse 13, and he hardened Pharaoh's heart that
he hearkened not unto them as the Lord had said. Lord said,
I'm going to do this. And then you knew what he did. He did
it. That's something we can't do. I can say, I'll be there
on Tuesday at 9 a.m. We ought to be on time. We ought
to keep our word best we can. But I might, I might not. Lord
might strike me down in 30 seconds. I don't know. Lord says he's
going to do something. He's going to do it. Now, to believe him,
God has to give a new creation in us to have faith to say, well,
he said that, and that's true. Next. Next. He said it. It's so, isn't it?
Pharaoh, I thought, first thing I thought of, he got to, God
sent him a preacher, two of them. God sent his word through those
preachers. He sent signs, like Thomas. The Lord said that even
adulterous generations look for a sign, they get nothing but
Jonah. And then Thomas said, unless I touch his side and then
touch his hands, I ain't believing. And he said, come here, Thomas,
put your hand right here, buddy. Pharaoh got the sign he was looking
for. He still didn't listen. And then he came up with his
own signs, through his own sorcerers. The Lord's sign consumed that
one right in front of his eyes, and he still didn't believe. Pharaoh is a type of hearer.
God told us, take heed how we hear. Is that right? He's telling
truth on that too, wasn't he? He said, when anyone heareth
the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, they know what he said,
just like Egypt's going to know the Lord did this, but they don't
understand it. There's no understanding with them. Then cometh the wicked
one and snatches the way that which was sown on his heart.
This is he which received the seed by the wayside. This is
that walking path. When that word goes out, it just
bounces off the forehead. What y'all want for lunch? Nothing
happens. That's what happened to Pharaoh.
He was the top of here. I pray often. Lord, reveal your arm. Reveal
this rod of Jesse, this Aaron's rod to us. Christ, the captain
of our salvation, that he swallowed up the accuser, All of our accusers,
the law, sin, the grave, judgment. Everything's been took care of.
It ain't gonna touch us. And that he's returned to his
throne. And he's interceding for his people right now. And
we ain't got nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about. If we're his. Or, it'll bounce
off if we're his, but I pray not. I pray not. Lord does the
plowing. It's his garden. I've had a bunch
of gardens. It's good to go out and get your
hands in the dirt. People talk about grounding or something.
I don't know about all that, but go out and get dirty. Look at a
tree. Watch a bee pollinate some stuff.
But the Lord's one, it's his garden. And all I do is I throw
the seed and then another one comes and waters. He's the one
that plows. And he puts his paths where he
wants them. He lets the weeds grow up where he wants them.
He has the gravel piles where he wants them. And he says, that's
going to be my plot of land. I'm going to plow that. I'll
take everything else away. He does that. But boy, I pray
that he'd break our stony hearts, break them up, bust them up.
He'd plow us through, rip us open, put his seed in there and
water it and make it grow. Growth. It might be little, but
take it. I'm thankful for that. That's
a blessing. God's blessed us greatly. In
fact, don't bounce off your forehead, and it's just another, well,
I don't know about all that. I heard so-and-so say something
different about it. If the Lord takes us and makes us see what he's
done, and we're happy about it, that's a blessing. That's a blessing,
isn't it? Father, thank you for this time,
and thank you for your word. Lord, we can't enter into it,
but thank you for the nations that you've given for us. these things throughout our history,
what we call histories, to show us what our Lord Jesus Christ
has done for us. Plow the hearts of your people,
Lord, as you promised you will. Put that seed in them, incorruptible
seed, and make it grow as you promised you will. Make us remember
your word and bow to it, and not have our opinions, and not
to have our own rebellion in our own way. Lord, not our will
be done, but thy will be done. Forgive us. Forgive us our sin,
our unbelief, and be with us as you promised you will be.
It's because of that Great rod of Aaron, that rod of Jesse,
that we ask these things. Amen.