Exodus chapter four, before we get into the scripture
here, we need to review a little bit of what happened in Exodus
chapter three, because we skipped a couple of weeks in our series
on Exodus. But if you recall from Exodus
two and three, Israel, the nation, is in bondage in Egypt. They
had been in bondage for 430 years. It was coming to that point in
time when God was going to deliver them. Forty years prior to this
point in which we are in Exodus 4, Moses had gone out to see
the children of Israel and to deliver them. But Israel rejected
Moses. They rejected their own mercies.
And they remained in bondage. They were in such terrible affliction
that their affliction finally came up to the Lord in their
cry and in their moanings and groanings to the Lord. And God
heard their cry. He heard their groaning. He looked
on their affliction. He remembered His covenant and
He sent Moses. Moses had been now in the wilderness
away from Egypt for 40 years. And God appeared to Moses. He
appeared to him in the burning bush. Actually spoke to Moses
out of the bush. Revealed himself to Moses out
of the bush. And gave him the name of himself
in connection with his people out of the bush. He said he was
the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And that he would surely deliver
his people. He identified himself with his people in his very name.
God would do what He promised He would do. And He told Moses,
I'm going to send you to them. I'm going to send you to them.
And He told Moses, I'm going to go with you. And then He also
said this. He said to Moses, And God said in verse 12, certainly
I will be with thee and this shall be a token to thee that
I have sent thee when thou has brought forth the people out
of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain. And so God
is telling Moses what he's going to do. And Moses is just the
messenger. He's just the one. And look,
in verse 18 of chapter 3, and God had told him his name. He said, I am that I am. He says
in verse 15, he says, I'm the Lord God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And He's the
One who has sent you. Tell them that that's My name.
This is My memorial forever to all generations. Who I am is
Jehovah, God of My people. Jesus comes to mind. Jesus, He
shall save His people from their sins. And so He says, go gather
the elders of Israel together and tell them this, that the
Lord surely has visited them and seen what has been done to
them in Egypt, and he's come down to deliver them." And then
in verse 18 he says, "...and they shall hearken to your voice."
So, this was what God had said. There was every evidence that
Moses agreed with God, that he was going to... that he believed
God, that he was confident God was going to do what God had
promised. And then we come to chapter 4. And this is the issue
here at hand now, and I want you to remember all of the things
that God said to Moses, who he was, what he saw, that it was
His initiative. He's the one who brought them
to Egypt, and now He's going to deliver them out of Egypt,
and He's going to do it because that's who He is, the God of
His people, to save them out of their bondage. And then he
says he's going to go with Moses. He's going to be with him. He
sent him. All these things God told Moses. And then in verse
1 of chapter 4 it says, And Moses answered and said, But behold,
they will not believe me, nor hearken to my voice, for they
will say, The Lord hath not appeared to thee. Do you see that? God said in verse 18 of chapter
3, They shall hearken to thy voice. And Moses said, They will
not hearken to my voice. And I think about that, and I
think, after all that God said to Moses, Moses still, at this
point, he didn't believe that what God said they would do,
they would actually do. He didn't believe that the people
would actually listen to him. Even though God said, they're
going to hear you, Moses said, they won't hear me. And that's
a... That's a testimony to Moses'
unbelief, isn't it? Moses was a man. And there's
a couple of reactions I have to that. First of all, I'm kind
of comforted by it, aren't you? I'm nothing like Moses, by any
means. But if Moses struggled to believe
God, then I can identify with that. I heard Bruce Crabtree
say one time, misery loves company. Is that the way it goes? Misery
loves company? The way he said it was, unbelief
loves company. Now, that's not meant to be a
funny or something like that, but it's true, isn't it? As sinners,
we actually feel comforted when we're with sinners who have the
same weaknesses that we have. Because if God has truly saved
us, He teaches us that it didn't depend upon our strength. And
it doesn't still depend upon our strength. Not even in the
little thing, the least things. But unbelief is the big thing.
It's the biggest of things. To not believe God, what does
it mean not to believe God? When you go to court and there's
an issue before the judge, they're always trying to find out the
truth of the matter. And the lawyers will banter back
and forth and argue the case, and they'll bring witnesses up
to the stand and ask them to solemnly tell the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. And you're always wondering,
can I truly believe this witness? We're talking about the Lord
God of heaven and earth who is truth itself. He cannot lie,
it says in Titus. He cannot lie. It's against His
nature to lie. It's not like He's even tempted
to lie. He cannot lie. And He tells Moses, they will
hearken to your voice. And Moses said, no, they won't. I find some affinity here with
Moses and I'm sorrowed by it. I'm ashamed of it. It makes me
mad at myself that I can't believe God. I have no reason not to
believe Him, except this. of what I find in myself. Because
don't we find the greatest struggle to believe what God has said
about who we are in Christ because we're always looking for something
in ourselves that would give us some evidence, some kind of
support for what God has said so that we can take what God
has said and say, yeah, I'm good because I can see that I would
be, you know, it would be reasonable for you to say things like that
about me. But the gospel is never like that. It's never reasonable
on our part for God to say anything good about us or His blessings
would be upon us because the only reason that God would favor
us and have grace upon us is for what He finds in His Son,
for what God finds in Himself. He only thinks of His people
based on what He thinks of His Son. But I find that hard to
believe. I believe it. And I say, Lord,
help my unbelief, and yet I don't believe it. So there's this constant
struggle. On the one hand, I'm totally
convinced that God has received Christ for what He's done. And I'm convinced that God has
saved His people entirely for what Christ has done. But I also
find a doubt that he would actually do that for me, because I have
this sinful unbelief that adds something to what God needs to
save me, that includes me somehow. And that's why I doubt. And so
Moses says, they won't listen to me. And I'm sure that that's
why he said that, is because he thought me? They won't listen
to me. I was there once, I remember.
I killed a man and the next day I come out to help somebody else
and they doubted me entirely. They rejected me and I ran away.
And I won't go back. That's kind of the attitude he
had here. But he didn't say I won't go back, but he did say they
won't believe me. And this is the context here.
Can you believe that in the Lord Jesus Christ, God sees you absolutely
perfect, without sin? purified before Him, that He
receives you as He receives His own Son, that He thinks of you
as He thinks in His heart of His own Son. That is hard to
believe, isn't it? And yet, it's sinful not to take
God at His Word. It's sinful. That's why we need
God's Word to come to us. And we have to confess our sin
of unbelief. It's that sin which does so easily
beset us. And that's why he says, looking
unto Jesus, because the only way you can believe God is if
you keep your eyes on Christ and say, there is my answer to
God. There's my hope. He's everything
to God and He's everything to me. He's everything I need before
God and in my conscience and in eternity and before the law
and on the day of judgment. He's everything. And so we read
on in Exodus chapter 4 in verse 2. And the Lord said to him,
What is that in thine hand? Now, God didn't correct Moses
at this time, did he? He didn't say, I told you they
would believe. You said they won't. You're arguing
with me. You need to sit down and shut
up. He didn't say that like we would. God says, What's in your
hand? And he said, A rod. Now, a rod
would be what he used to take care of his father-in-law's sheep,
right? He had a staff in his hand. And
shepherds carried staffs. But it was a rod. He calls it
a rod. And he said to him, God said to Moses, 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 to Moses, put
forth thine hand and take it by the tail." And Moses put forth
his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. I know
you've heard this before, probably, but we have to look at it carefully
today. And verse 5, "...that they may
believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath appeared to thee."
God said, do this, that they might believe that God has appeared
to you. The God of their fathers. The God of the covenant. In the Old Testament, He's called
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
isn't He? How many times do you read it? All the time. This is
His name. In the New Testament, how do
the apostles open their epistles? the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The God of Abraham is the God
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he speaks about himself in
this term because the Lord Jesus Christ is the one to whom the
promises of the covenant were given and the one who would fulfill
the conditions of the covenant that were needed for God to give
those promises to his people. The covenant was made with him
in Abraham and it was repeated to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and
all his people. He's talking about all those
who are the children of promise, chosen by God in eternity, redeemed
by Christ at the cross, saved by the Spirit of God, kept. by
the power of God and brought to glory. That's the God. He's
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And God tells Moses,
I give you this sign that they might believe that this God has
appeared to you and sent you. And then it says in verse 6,
And the Lord said furthermore to him, Put now thine hand into
thy bosom. Right here. Right here. And he
put his hand into his bosom. Undoubtedly, right next to his
heart. And when he took it out, behold,
his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, put your hand into
your bosom again, the same hand that had just turned leprous.
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, whole and perfect. I added those words
whole and perfect, but that's what he means. Verse eight. 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. And then one more, and it shall
come to pass if they will not believe also these two signs,
neither hearken to 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." Now, God says if they don't hear, if they don't believe
the voice of the latter sign, which was the leprous hand sign,
then they would believe Or the the serpent that the rod turning
into a serpent They would believe the second the second one and
he finally gives them three there's three signs given Three signs
and God says take these things because Moses this was in response
to what Moses said they won't harken to my voice They won't
hear me. They won't believe and God says they will believe Give
them these signs three signs So I've entitled this message
The message of the signs. The message of the signs. And
there's three of them. And I don't think we're going
to get past the first one today, unfortunately, for time's sake. We won't be able to do that.
But I believe these three signs go together. And so that you
don't lose the sense of the whole context here, I want you to keep
these things in mind. First of all, who gave the signs? It was the Lord God. It was His
initiative. He designed it. He would perform. These were miracles God is going
to perform. God gave the signs. Why did God
give these signs? He gave these signs that the
people might believe that God sent Moses to deliver them from
Egypt. Now, that's the That's the historical
context. But there's something about these
signs which is important. Every time there's a miracle
done in Scripture, the miracle itself is not the message. The message of the miracle is
always the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter 5. John
chapter five, we're going to be turning to many scriptures
today and looking at these because I want you to experience the
same wonder and amazement as we look at these that we ought
to have when we see God's word and how he gives us these things
for our learning and for our comfort and for our faith. John
5.39, it says, search the Scriptures, or you do search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life. I could tell you
these three signs. I could tell you, God told Moses,
take your rod, cast it on the ground, it became a serpent,
then told Moses ran from it, and then Moses picked it up by
the tail, God told him, pick it up by the tail, it came back
into a rod. I could tell you that, and I would be telling
you accurately what the Scripture said. And Jesus said, you search
the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life.
But knowing the facts of Scripture isn't eternal life. I can tell
you the next sign, I could tell you, perhaps I could even memorize
the entire book of Exodus. It still wouldn't be eternal
life. Knowing the Scriptures isn't eternal life. He says,
they, the Scriptures, are they which testify of me. And you
will not come to me that you might have life. And look at
verse 46. John 5, 46. Had you believed Moses, you would
have believed me. For he wrote of me. The message of the signs is the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message of these signs.
Look at Romans chapter 15. I take you to these verses. You've
probably heard them quoted. Sometimes I've even quoted them,
or pieces of them, and we haven't read them together. But I think
if you go to these things in Scripture, it's comforting. It's
comforting to me to see the actual words in front of my face and
reading them and say, this is what God has said. He says in
Romans 15, verse 4, Whatsoever things were written aforetime,
were written for our learning that we, through patience and
comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. You see? So God has
told us these things. That's just a sample. God has
told us these signs, just like Moses took these signs to the
children of Israel and showed them these signs in order that
they might believe. Another verse comes to mind.
I think it's in John 20.31, where John the Apostle says, speaking
of the book of The Gospel of John, he says, but these things
were written. Many things Jesus did. Many miracles. And if they could be written
down, I suppose the world itself could not hold the books. But
he says, but of all the things that He did, these things were
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God. And that believing, you might have life through His
name. It's the message of the signs. that we must believe. It's the message. It's what God
means by it. What is the spirit of these signs? What is behind them? What is
God trying to say to us? What is He trying to convince
us of? What is the doctrine of them? It's about the Lord Jesus
Christ. According to John 5.39 and 46,
and many others that we could read too, it says, In Hebrews
1, God at sundry times in various ways spoke in time past to the
fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken
to us by His Son, in His Son. All these, Jesus says in Psalm
40, in Hebrews chapter 10, in the volume of the book, it is
written of me to do thy will, O God. From the beginning, the
top of the book, the scroll, all the way to the bottom, it's
written of me to do thy will, O God. The Scripture is about
him. I think I heard it for the first
time from Henry Mahan. It's a him book. It's about him. H-I-M. The Old Testament, according
to Henry Mahan, I remember hearing this for the first time from
him. He says, the Old Testament is
this. The message of the Old Testament
is someone's coming. The New Testament message is
he's here. And then the epistles are, he's
coming again. So it's a hymn book. It's about him. I like
those little simplifications. But look at these signs. And I want to be careful as we
tread through this, because the signs here are not explained
specifically in the New Testament. We have to use the New Testament
to understand the Old. Never take the Old Testament
and try to interpret The New Testament from the Old Testament,
you will always end in error. I've seen it happen. I've seen
men's lives spent. And men, people believing them
and following them for years and years, their entire lives
spent on a wrong course of trying to interpret God's truth from
the Old Testament, looking into the new rather than looking at
the Old Testament from the new. and it's always going to lead
in disaster. But we have to look at these
as I just did in John chapter 5 and 39 and 46 and many other
places. Luke 24, we could recite them. The Scriptures speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's look at this first sign
together. In verse 2, when the Lord said to Moses, what is that
in thine hand? And he said, a rod. A rod. And he said, cast it on the ground. He cast it on the ground. It
became a serpent. And Moses fled from before it.
And then the Lord said to Moses, put forth thine hand and take
it by the tail. He put forth his hand and he
caught it and it became a rod in his hand. There's the sign.
If you were there, you might have wondered, wow, look at this.
He throws down his shepherd's staff And the staff becomes a
serpent. And the serpent, it's a thing
to be feared, isn't it? Moses fled from before the serpent. And then God says, take it by
the tail. Not a good advice if you're going to pick up a serpent,
to take it by the tail, is it? It's better to first chop off
its head and then take it by the tail. But God said to him,
take it by the tail. He picked it up. It became his
rod again. What does this mean? First of
all, we have to understand each piece of it. Moses was told by
God to do something. Moses. Who is Moses? Moses, Jesus
said, wrote of me. Moses is synonymous with the
first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers
and Deuteronomy. God gave the Old Testament from
Moses in those five books. The law. Moses is synonymous
with the law and those first five books of the Old Testament.
So when the name Moses is used in scripture, sometimes it's
a synonym. It's another word for just saying
the law. Or you could say the scripture,
the Old Testament scriptures. God, Jesus quoted Moses about
when the Pharisees asked him about divorce and remarriage. And Jesus says from the beginning,
it was not so. Haven't you read what God said?
And he quotes Moses. Moses said it in Genesis. So all the time through Scripture,
frequently in the New Testament, God speaks of the Scripture and
Moses or Moses in the law as synonyms. God told Moses to do
something. Understand it this way. This
is a message. In the Scripture, God said something,
and it cannot be changed. God said something in His Word,
by His servant Moses. And this is what God said. It's
God's Word that He did this, and He says, He says to Moses,
Moses, cast it on the ground. Take your rod and cast it on
the ground. The next question we have to
answer is, what is his rod? We know who did it. It was Moses.
We could say the law or scripture testified to the fact that this
was going to take place because it's a sign. It's pointing to
a message. The message is Christ. And he
says, take your rod and cast it on the ground. What is a rod?
What is a rod? Proverbs, it says this, I probably won't be able to find
the text. Let me read it to you. I think
it's in Proverbs 26. And you kind of chuckle at this, but
this is this is the way this is important. He says a whip
for the horse, a bridle for the ass and a rod for the fool's
back. A rod. You know what you use
a rod for. If it's a fool, obviously you hit him with it because he
needs some correction. It's to correct. And in the case
of a fool, you can't correct him. He's always going to be
a fool. The Proverbs tells you that. You can do this. It's like grinding wheat in a
mortar with a pestle. It's what you can do to a fool
and it still won't change him from his foolishness. A whip
for a horse, a bridle for an ass, and a rod for the fool's
back. And God said, don't spare the
rod, because if you spare the rod, you hate your child. The
rod is rod of correction, and it's a rod of punishment in Scripture,
often the case. But then, remember, this was
Moses' rod. God told Moses, He says, take
your rod and do these signs, not only before Israel, but later
over all of Egypt. Every time God had Moses do a
bring a plague on Egypt. He brought the plague with Moses
doing something with his rod. He says, smite the river and
it turns the water to blood. He did several things with his
rod, not the least of which is when they left Egypt, he took
the rod and he smote the Red Sea and it divided, didn't it?
Later, God told him, smite the rock. He smote the rock and the
rock brought forth water and fed that huge nation. And so the rod was used by God
as a symbol of God's power and authority that he would wield
through Moses. So it's a symbol of rule, isn't
it? of God ruling over his enemies,
and this correction, we saw that. But there's other cases in Scripture.
Look at, well, I'll tell you about this one because you'll
remember it, but in the book of Numbers, I think it's around chapter 17,
there was a dispute about who should be the high priest. The
people were grumbling about everything. They found everything to complain
about. And one of the things they did
is they challenged that Aaron should be high priest. And so
God said to Moses, have everyone from the tribe, their twelve
tribes, every man, the head of the tribe, bring their rods in
here, their staffs, and lay them here before the Lord. And take
Aaron's rod and lay it there too. And you remember what happened.
The next day they got up and all these rods were laying there,
and Aaron's rod had actually begun to bud like a live tree,
a living tree, and bring forth blossoms and actually bore fruit,
almonds. And this rod indicated that God
had chosen Aaron and not chosen all the other heads of the tribes
to be priests. So it was a rod which indicated
God's choice of Aaron. And look at Psalm in chapter
74, because we're trying to understand what does this rod mean? He says
this in verse 2, Psalm 74, 2, Remember thy congregation, which
thou has purchased of old. God purchased his people of old. The rod of thine inheritance,
the rod of thine inheritance, which thou has redeemed this
Mount Zion, wherein thou has dwelt. What did God purchase? He purchased His people. What
was the price of the purchase? What was the purchase price?
It was the ransom. Jesus gave His life a ransom
for His people. The ransom price that God purchased
His people with was the redemption price of Christ's blood. He gave
His blood to purchase His people. How precious are His people?
They're as precious to Him as the precious blood of Christ.
I mean, 1 Peter chapter 1. He says, knowing this, you were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation, but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And it was with
the precious blood of Christ that God purchased His people,
His possession. But look what it says here. He
calls them the rod of thine inheritance. What does that mean? Well, it
obviously means the special people God chose. He has set His love
upon them, His favor. And He had made a choice of them.
And He distinguished them from all the other people of the earth.
And because He set His choice upon them, He purchased them.
The two go hand in hand. God's choice of them. and his
purchase of them, and the fact that they were his. They were
his because he chose them, they were his, he indicated it by
this choice, and also because he purchased them with the price
of their redemption, the precious blood of Christ. But the rod
here, therefore, indicates the choice of God of his people. The choice of God of his people.
Or something that God has chosen, something special. And now, look
at Psalm 23. Psalm 23, I know you know this
one. Psalm 23, he says this in verse 4. Remember Psalm 23? The Lord is my shepherd, my shepherd
I shall not want. My shepherd is the Lord. My shepherd
is the Lord. Remember what Jesus told Peter?
Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love you."
Three times he told him. The first time he says, Peter,
do you love me? He says, yes, Lord. He says,
then feed my lambs. My lambs. Why would he call them
lambs? Because he's the shepherd. And
here he says, the Lord is my shepherd. I'm one of his lambs.
I'm one of his sheep. He has a rod. The shepherd has
a rod. What does he do with it? Well,
it says here, he says, In chapter 23, he says, I'll
just read verse 2 through 4. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leads me beside the still
waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness
for his namesake. 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 that? The rod of God comforts His sheep. We saw that the fool was beaten
with the rod. But here, God says to His people,
His rod is a comfort. In fact, even though they walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, God comforts them with
His rod. How? Because the sheep know that
if the shepherd is standing there with his rod, right beside them,
no harm can come to them. No matter what the shadow, the
valley they're going through with. It might be a valley of
the shadow of death, it may look like they're at the point of
death. Feeling death itself, breathing
down upon them as little sheep might feel the fear of that.
And he says, but the rod of my shepherd comforts me. I know
that he's with me. He's with me. He leads me this
way and that way. He's going to do me good. Nothing
can hurt me because the rod of my shepherd. So what we see here
is that the rod is an indication of God's choice of his people,
his love for them. but also his protection and defense
of them. and His blessings upon them. But for the fool, it's a rod
of correction and punishment, isn't it? And we saw that, just
in thinking about it, that God used the rod to bring plagues
on Egypt. Moses' rod. So there's a two-fold
use of this rod. On the one hand, for the wicked,
it was a punishment. But on the other hand, for the
people of God, it was a comfort and a defense and an indication
of God's choice of them. Look at Psalm chapter 2. Psalm
chapter 2. And he says here in Psalm 2,
this is a Psalm about the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 1, Why do
the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? What is
this speaking of? when the people took Christ and
hung Him on the cross. They were angry. They wanted
to destroy Him. It says in verse 2, the kings
of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed, that's His Christ,
saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their courts
from us. In other words, we don't need
them ruling us. We don't want God and His Son,
His Christ, ruling us. We will not have this man to
rule over us. That's what they say. And they
killed Him. They hung Him on the cross. But
he that sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them
in derision. Then shall He speak unto them
in His wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." He's speaking here
in prophecy of Christ being taken by the hands of wicked men and
kings and hung on the cross, and yet, he says, I have set
my king upon my holy hill of Zion, over the church, the highest
place of God's rule. In glory is where Christ rules,
and He rules over His people, and He rules over His people
to bring into subjection all things according to the will
of God for them. And that's what He speaks about
here. I've set my King, the Lord Jesus
Christ, on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree, the
Lord has said to me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee." This happened in Acts 13.33, he says, when the Lord
Jesus Christ was raised, it was clear, it was made manifest,
that God endorsed everything he said and did, and he set him
on the throne of glory. No one had ever seen the Son
of God, no one. until he came, and was born,
and lived, and grew up, and spoke, and taught, and lived, and suffered,
and died, and then was risen again. And then they said, O
man, the Son of God is the Christ, and He sits on the throne of
glory. They saw now the One who is the
King of glory, and He was sitting on the throne. And He says, I
will declare the decree, I'll make it known that My Son is
Christ and rules over all things. Ask of Me, the Lord says through
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who had conquered death and put
away sin and destroyed the works of the devil and all these things,
ask of Me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou
shalt break them with a rod of iron." Have you ever seen pottery? It's made of clay. Take an iron
rod. An iron rod is very, very hard. You take it and you hit a pile
of pottery with it, like that, and the pottery just shatters.
You cannot put it back together. It's obliterated, isn't it? The
rod of Christ's rule over those who oppose His rule is so strong
that they cannot withstand it. He will absolutely destroy those
who refuse His rule, His authority. And this is what the rod indicates.
It indicates the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ over His people
and over the enemies of His people because of what he did in order
to save his people according to the will of God. That's what
the rod means. It indicates the rule of the
Lord Jesus Christ in majesty, as the King of glory, having
received from God all power and authority, and he exercises that
rule with his rod, with his own person, the word of his power,
in order to save His people and to destroy His enemies. That's
His rod. It's a blessing to His people,
but it's damnation to those who oppose the Lord Jesus Christ.
The message at this point is, you must bow to the One God has
set on the throne. And for His people, this is a
great comfort. I love to bow to the Lord. I
used to think, Oh my, I've got to bow to Him. And I'm not even
sure what that means. But if I don't, I'm going to be destroyed.
And there's a bowing, but it's not really bowing. It's a cringing,
isn't it? But no, God is saying His people
bow down to Him willingly, happily, and they're comforted by His
rod. This is what this rod means. Look at Isaiah chapter 11. I'm
taking time to show you these because this is a sign. And and
I'm not sure we're going to get we actually may do it have to
do this in two parts because I see we're running out of time
here But in Isaiah chapter 11 he says in verse 1 and there
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch
shall grow out of his roots and The Spirit of the Lord shall
be rest upon him. Who is this rod? What is this rod? It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see that and The Spirit of
the Lord shall rest upon him. Who is him? The one who springs
out of Jesse's roots. And who is that? Jesse was David's
father. Who sprang out of David's... Who is David's son? The Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the rod. It's speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of
counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear
of the Lord. and shall make him of quick understanding in the
fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after the sight of
his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. Listen,
but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips
shall he slay the wicked. So he reproves, he judges the
poor, And what does it mean to judge the poor? Well, again,
because the rod, when the Lord Jesus Christ and God is judging
His poor, it's like the widow who came to the judge in Luke
chapter 18 and pleaded, deliver me from my adversary over and
over until The judge who didn't fear God and didn't honor men
at all, didn't fear man either, he finally came to her aid and
God said, and shall not God avenge his own elect? The judgment of
God for the poor means that God stands up for them. He defends
them. And he doesn't just defend them
like a bully, I mean, someone who's defending a bully, you
know, beating up the bully. He defends them in the court
of heaven. All the evidence is brought forth, all the accusations
of the enemies, and God silences them. He says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. And who is He that condemneth?
It is Christ that died. He stands up for them. And He
defends them in the court. And then those people who brought
and thought to bring accusation against His people and to have
God in His justice destroy them, He takes that same justice and
brings it against them that they thought to bring against His
people. This is the story of the book of Esther. Haman wanted
to destroy all the Jews. And he brought accusation against
them and against Mordecai especially. And then Mordecai was found out
to be the one who defended the king and saved his honor and
glory. And then Haman was found out
to be the enemy of the king because he was trying to destroy Mordecai,
who actually was a defender of the king. And so, the king then
takes Haman and hangs him on the very gallows he intended
for Mordecai. That's exactly what happened. And that's exactly what God will
do where He says here in chapter 11, verse 4, that He will, with
the rot of His mouth and the breath of His lips, He will smite
the earth. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
bringing justice on those who persecute and prosecute His people. If they touch you, God says in
Proverbs, they touch the apple of My eye. If you've done it
to the least of these, you've done it to Me, Jesus said. If
someone receives you, then he receives him that sent you. He
receives me. If he receives me, he receives my Father. But if
he doesn't, then he's going to be dealing with the rod of his
mouth. Now look at Psalm 110, and look
at this. The Lord said to my Lord, that would be Jehovah God,
the Father, speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ, The son of David, who is writing
this psalm in prophecy, he says, the Lord said to my Lord, to
the Lord Jesus Christ, sit here, sit thou at my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. And the Lord shall send the rod
of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. You see that? It's clear here,
isn't it? The rod is the rule of the Lord
Jesus Christ as Christ, as our mediator, who God sat at His
own right hand when He had finished the work of our redemption. That's
the rod. The rule of Christ in majesty,
in authority, in power, to save His people and to subdue His
enemies. without any resistance. They
have no power in this rod. To his enemies is like a rod
of iron, smashing and destroying them. To his people, it's the
rod of a shepherd, saving and defending and comforting them.
This is the rod. Now, it's taken a lot of time
to develop this. But when you look back here at
Exodus now, chapter 4, because it's important that we see this.
Chapter 4, he says this. And this is the great mystery. He says to Moses, cast it on
the ground. The rod that we've just seen,
which is the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ, prophesied in Scripture,
Moses being a picture of the law and Scripture, telling about
who the Lord Jesus Christ was, that God had promised and given
to him in covenant everything for his people. And to reign
as their king, undisputed, absolute, undisputed, sovereign authority
over all things and all people and angels and devils and everything.
Because he is the mediator who fulfilled God's will. He says,
take that rod and cast it on the ground. Cast it on the ground. Why would he say that? And then
what's amazing here is he says, and when he cast it on the ground,
it became a serpent. And what happened to Moses as
soon as he saw the serpent? He ran. He fled from before it. Isn't that surprising to us?
If the rod truly is speaking about the rule of Christ, why
would God say to Moses, cast it on the ground? And why? Are
you sure that it has to do with him? It became a serpent? What
a repugnant, a repulsive, a disgusting thing to consider that the Lord
Jesus Christ would be like a serpent. I want you to turn with me to
Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. He says here, at the very beginning,
this is the time when everything started. And God had told Adam
and Eve, I don't want you to eat. You can eat of everything
in the garden, every tree, every tree, absolutely every tree.
The tree of life, eat freely. But this one tree, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of that. For
in the day you eat of that, you'll surely die. And so you know the
story. Eve is there, the tree is there.
A serpent comes. In chapter 3 you see this. The
serpent in verse 1 was more subtle than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, yea,
hath God said? See that shadow of doubt? Let's
question what God said. That's what unbelief is, questioning
God. You shall not eat of every tree
of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
has said, you shall not eat of it. Neither shall you touch it,
lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die. Direct contradiction of what
God said. No, no, you shall not surely
die. But God knows that in the day
you eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened, and you shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. God's withholding good
from you. He's not really good. He has an ulterior motive, not
your good. And the woman, when she saw that
the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the
fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with
her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked, exposed before God. And they sewed fig leaves together,
and made themselves aprons, trying to hide their shame by their
own works. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, That's
the voice, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the Word of God.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden, hiding because they were
guilty. And the Lord God called Adam,
He said to him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid
myself. And God said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast
thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst
not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. It's really her
fault. Actually, it's your fault. You
gave her to me. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What? It's interesting. God doesn't
argue with him, does he? He pronounces things. What is
this that thou has done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me. That's true. And I did eat. And
the Lord God said unto the serpent, Now listen to these words. God
doesn't even ask the serpent questions. He pronounces. He declares to him. The Lord
God said to 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." You see that? What is this? The rod is cast
down by Moses. Where was the rod cast down to?
The ground. What's on the ground? Dust. What
does it become? A serpent. And now the rod has
become as the serpent. Cursed. Like the serpent. In the dust, cursed, the serpent
would eat the dust all the days of his life. And now God's rod
is cast down to the ground and has become cursed like the serpent
in the form of a serpent. And then in verse 15 of Genesis
3, God says furthermore to the serpent and to the woman, I will
put enmity between thee, the serpent, and the woman, and between
thy seed and Her seed. And it, the seed of the woman,
shall bruise thy head. That's a deadly bruise. And thou
shall bruise his heel. That's not a deadly bruise. The
one bruise is going to end the life of the serpent. The other
bruise is just going to be a heel bruise. So what does this have
to do with? If the rod that Moses had, if
Moses is the Scripture, and the Scripture foretells about how
the Lord Jesus Christ, who rules undisputed, absolutely in power
because God awarded him that ruler, that kingship because
of what he had accomplished as Christ over his people and over
his enemies, to their comfort, to his people's comfort, and
to his enemies' destruction, then how is it that he became
cast down, and now a serpent. Well, this is the mystery of
the gospel. Turn to 1 Peter 1. And this is not something we
would have expected at all. It's not at all expected, is
it? God says, I'm going to deliver Egypt. We don't have any idea
how He's going to do it. We imagine He's going to ride
through on some kind of a powerful, like an irresistible force and just obliterate
the Egyptians and the Israelites are going to walk out. That's
not at all the way he does it. How does he do it? It's through
the blood of the Lamb, isn't it? And he says here in 1 Peter
1, verse 10. Actually, let's look up at verse
8. Whom having not seen, you love. And that's amazing, isn't it?
We love the Lord Jesus Christ whom we haven't seen more than
anyone whom we have seen because of faith. Whom having not seen
you love, in whom though now you see him not, yet believing,
you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. searching,
verse 11, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of
Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
Do you see that? That's a summary of the entire
Gospel. The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
Moses, take your rod, cast it on the ground. As soon as it's
cast on the ground, it becomes a serpent. The sufferings of
Christ and the glory that shall follow. Here we have what God
is speaking about. The sufferings of Christ. Look
at Ephesians chapter 4. I'm trying to establish at this
point that in the New Testament and throughout the scripture,
It speaks about the one who was promised and God made a covenant
with that he would rule over his people as king. That one
was first cast down. Look at this in Ephesians chapter
4, verse 8. Wherefore he saith when he ascended
up on high, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, when he ascended up on
high, you can see him now, he's lifted up from earth to heaven
and he's going up to heaven. And he sits on the right hand
of God, and when he ascends upon high, he led captivity captive,
and he gave gifts to men. Now, that he ascended, what is
it? But that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth, he that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things." Who is he speaking about? Christ our Savior, the
Lord, who came down from heaven and then ascended, and when he
ascended, he was ascending as a triumphing king, one who had
destroyed his enemies, and now he's giving gifts to his people
like the spoils of war. And He gives gifts to them. And
He leads all those who were held captive by their enemies, He
leads them out into liberty as His own captives. He led captivity
captive. And now look at John chapter
3. John chapter 3. This is what
the Lord Jesus Christ did. Before His incarnation, He was
the Son of God in glory in the covenant grace he was promised
to be the Christ to reign over his people forever and now here
we see in chapter 3 and we just saw in 1st Peter 1 11 and in
Ephesians 4 8 through 10 that he that ascended first descended
and look at this in John chapter 3 verse 13 and Jesus tells Nicodemus
he says to Nicodemus no man shall No man has ascended up to heaven,
but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is
in heaven. In God's covenant, He was always
in heaven. The Son of God promised to be
the Christ. God made a covenant with Him that could
not be broken. Based on His own holiness, God is going to fulfill
it. He's going to reign over His
people. And yet, this one who would reign first must descend. And he says here in verse 14
of John 3, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. What did Moses do? He took the serpents that were
biting the people, and he made a serpent of brass, and he put
it on a pole. The serpents were biting the
people because of their sin. And now he takes a serpent, the
symbol of the animal that was cursed in Genesis 3.14. He takes
that serpent and he fashions it with his hammer. You can see
Moses over there beating this serpent out with his hammer,
and heating it, and firing it, and making it shaped like a serpent,
and hangs it on a pole. Because the one who was hanging
on the tree is cursed of God. Just like the serpent, cursed
of God. And Jesus tells Nicodemus, just like Moses hung the serpent
on the pole, the son of man. God has commanded, lift up my
son upon the cross. Because as Galatians 3.13 says,
Christ was made a curse for us that he might redeem us from
the curse of the law. That's what the serpent on the
pole represented. Christ made a curse for his people. What
did the serpent in the dust represent? Christ made a... I mean, the
serpent, the devil, cursed. And now, when Moses takes the
rod and throws it on the ground, he who rules in the promise and
in the covenant and would rule again over his people and destroy
his enemies, is now cast down, because before he reigns over
his people, he must first be cast down. And so, as Moses lifted
up that serpent, the Son of Man must be lifted up. And look at
Psalm 89. Psalm 89. I know that we've gone over.
I think we got started late. I don't know how long we've been
going, but it's probably too long. I'll somehow compensate
you. Psalm 89. Look at this. I don't
know how. Boy. Psalm 89. He says this. In verse 39, a lament goes up
after God had committed to raise up from the seed of David his
son and set him on the throne over his people in his covenant.
And he swore by his holiness, in verse 35, and said his seed
would endure forever and that he would establish his throne
as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. And in verse
38, but thou hast cast off And abhorred thou has been wroth
with thine anointed. Thou has made void the covenant
of thy servant. Thou has profaned his crown by
casting it to the ground. Isn't that amazing? The crown
cast to the ground. Look at Matthew, chapter 26.
Matthew, chapter 26. And this is repeated in Mark
14 and in Luke 22. But we'll just read it here in
Matthew 26. He says this in verse 37. In verse 36 he says, Then
cometh Jesus with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said
to his disciples, Sit you here while I go and pray yonder. And
he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. That would
be James and John. And he began to listen to the
words very carefully. Jesus, in the garden, no man
had touched Him. He began to be sorrowful and
very heavy. Then saith He unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry you here and
watch with Me. And He went a little further
and fell on His face. And prayed, saying, O my father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh to his disciples
and finds them sleeping. And he said to Peter, What? Could
you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. And he went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, Oh my father, if this cup may not pass
from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And so on. He said this three times. The
same words. His soul was sorrowful and very
heavy. And he throws himself on the
ground. He says here that He was exceeding sorrowful in his
soul, even unto death. What is death? I was thinking
about this. Have you ever seen those trucks go by with the sirens
on top and they say life support on the outside? Life support.
What happens when God, when someone dies? What happens? God takes away his life support. He just unplugs and they die.
Because death is nothing less, nothing more than God just taking
away support from a man. When you die, God has unplugged
you. You don't live because you somehow have the vigor of your
youth. It's because God is giving every breath and heartbeat to
you. He's got you plugged in to His life support. But when
He takes that away, you die. And Jesus said, My soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. What was he saying? He was experiencing
the unsupported fall of his soul under the wrath of God, even
in the garden. And his soul was heavy and very
sorrowful. And God says in Isaiah 53.10,
Thou hast made his soul an offering for sin. Why was the Lord Jesus
Christ cursed? Not because He was righteous. Because He was righteous and
He had no sin of His own. But because God made Him to be
sin for His people, for us. He who knew no sin was made sin. And when He was made sin, He
was made under the law. The law sees Him and He says,
The punishment, the curse must come upon him. And God afflicted
his soul. And God made him in his soul
feel what it's like to fall in the bottomless pit of the unsupported
grace and mercy of God in his soul. He lost all communion with
his Father. He cries out on the cross and
in Psalm 22.1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why
art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my
roaring? I cry in the daytime, but you hear not, and in the
night season, and am not silent. And he says in answer, But thou
art holy, because under the justice of God, when sin, when Christ
was made sin, the sins of his people, God found him guilty. It says in Isaiah 53.10, Thou
hast made his soul an offering for sin. But in Genesis 26.10,
the same word is translated guiltiness. Guiltiness. Thou hast made his
soul the very thing that his people have transgressed. It's also translated in Leviticus
5.6 and 15 and other places as a trespass. His soul was made of trespass
before God. What his people did, he had become
guilty of. And when God in justice saw that,
he had to punish him. He had to bring the curse of
the law upon him. And God looked upon him and brought
upon him and gave him, like in a cup, the full measure of his
wrath and poured it into him. You know what happens when you
drink? It goes into your body. It fills your whole being, doesn't
it? And the wrath of God came into
him in his very soul. In his very soul, he knew what
it was like to be under the curse of God in his soul. Men didn't
touch him here, but God did. God laid on him the iniquity
of his soul. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Why did God find satisfaction
in bruising Christ? Because God cannot look upon
sin. God will punish sin. And so the Lord did that. He
punished the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to have to close
it here. We'll pick this up next time.
But you can see here, at least at this point, that even though
the Lord Jesus Christ was promised to be exalted and reign and rule
over His people, saving them and delivering them. Yet, in
order for that to happen, He had to first suffer in Himself.
He had to be cast down. And He willingly did this. He
didn't do it as one who was coerced into it. He said, Thy will be
done, Father, even over My own will. because he didn't save
himself. He tells the soldiers who are
coming to take him, he says, if you seek me, then let these
go their way. He was the one that was cast
down in order that he might rise again without sin unto salvation
and save his people from it. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ rules undisputed,
absolutely sovereign, in heaven and on earth, over all things.
And He will, without fail, bring His people to glory, perfect,
faultless, without blame, holy, accepted before you. According
to your great love, according to that great choice you made
in eternity, according to the commission you gave Him in that
covenant of grace, according to His desire which was with
the sons of men even before eternity. We thank You, Lord, that He did
so, gave Himself for our sins, offered Himself to God for us,
the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. And
we pray, Lord, cause us to believe as You cause Your people there
who saw these signs. Help us to know the message of
these signs and help us to believe You. Believe that you sent your
Son, actually redeemed them from the hand of the enemy, our sin,
and all that sin brings with it, death, subjugation to the
devil, and the flesh, and the world, and our utter destruction. You've saved us. Lord, we pray
that we would be thankful and grateful in our heart and sing
with glad and rejoicing hymns to you for saving us. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.