Thank you very much. Exodus chapter
4. Exodus 4. Actually, go back to
chapter 3 with me. I'll show you something. Exodus,
as you know, means going out. It means departure. And the whole
story is a picture, a type, It's the gospel of God's people going
out, departing, the Lord bringing His people out of this world,
out of sin, out of bondage. What does it take to bring us
out of this world into the Kingdom of God? What does it take to
bring us out of darkness into His marvelous light? Out of death
to life. What does it take? Out of bondage.
What does it take? It takes the power of God. These
children of Israel didn't just decide, we're going out, and
they all armed themselves and fought to get out. No, sir. The
Lord brought them out. Look at it in chapter 3, verse
19, speaking of King of Egypt, that's the God of this world,
it's Satan who holds men captive at the will of God. God said,
I am sure the King of Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty hand, or
it could read only by a mighty hand. He says, I will stretch
out my hand and smite Egypt, which I will do in the midst
of my wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof. He will
let you go. See, there's a great difference
between the God that preachers preach today and people believe
in. This is across the board. All religion believes if you
will, God shall. If you're willing, then God will. The God of the Bible says, I
will and you shall. That's the God of the Bible. That's what it takes to bring
us out. He said, You will not come unto me, Christ said. No
man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me.
Draw them. He said, This is the will of
the Father, that every one seeeth the Son, and believeth on him,
and have everlasting life. And I will raise him up to everlasting
life. Salvation is by the will and
power of God. And I like where it says, verse
21, I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.
Meaning that we're in this world, we live in this world, and God
keeps the world from killing us. Our Lord said that you shall
be hated if I'll mend it. Why? We don't profess to be better
than anybody else. We just profess to believe in
a different God. And that's what the world hates. But God gives us favor. People
that like us and treat us well in spite of what we believe.
I'm grateful, aren't you? Very grateful. And I like the
last verse, it says, every woman shall borrow of her neighbor,
and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver,
jewels of gold. You'll spoil the Egyptians. They
worked in Egypt, and you know, Egypt, they worked hard for the
Egyptians. God's people are hard workers. We work for people of this world,
but as unto the Lord. And we're not staying here, we're
leaving. And it says you'll borrow. Notice that. Borrow? When are they going to return
it? They're leaving. Well, that's us. Everything in
this world, we don't own any of it. We don't own any of it. We borrow. Borrow. And then chapter 4. Chapter 4. Now, over in Chapter 3, the Lord
said to Moses, who represents our Lord, the Deliverer, He said,
When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt. See,
God had purposed to bring His people out long before He told
them. Long before they got in bondage,
He knew it was all in His purpose for them to come in bondage and
cry unto Him and behear them. And 400 years they were in bondage.
And our Lord had purposed before all of that to bring them out
into the Promised Land and have a seed of people. And He said,
when, Moses, when you bring them out, Who brings God's people
out of darkness into light, out of death into light? Jesus Christ.
He's the Deliverer. He's the Deliverer. One. He's
the One. One Savior. And He said, When
you do, you shall serve. There was no doubt, was there?
No doubt about the outcome. No doubt that they're coming
out. Isaiah prophesied of Christ coming, my servant. He said,
He shall not fail or be discouraged. Man, he didn't believe on Him.
He said, You're not my sheep. As I said, My sheep here, my
Lord. That's who He came for. He said, When you do, when you
bring them out, you shall serve God upon this mountain. That's chapter 3, verse 12. We
saw how God spoke to Moses on this mountain. It's the same
mountain where the law was given and everything was given to Moses,
all the precepts and all the types and pictures and symbols
of Christ himself. And that was the burning bush.
Everything God said to Moses, he said here out of the burning
bush, that's Jesus Christ crucified. He endured the fiery wrath of
God on Mount Calvary. And he said, when you bring the
people there, you're going to bring them back, right back to
this mountain, and that's where they're going to return all the
time to worship me. You see? We never leave Mount
Calvary. Never leave. Chapter 4. Now, God, the Lord appeared to
Moses and spoke to Moses. And he sent Moses. Now look at
verse 1. Moses answered and said, Behold,
they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice. They will
say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And now notice who he's going
to speak to primarily. Who is it that Moses is going
to go to and speak the name of God? I Am. He said, tell them
I Am has sent you. Who is it that Moses was sent
to speak to, to deliver the truth to, and deliver them out? Israel. Right? Israel. That's who the
message was for. That's who the promises were
for. That's who the Lamb was slain for. And on and on it goes.
But Egypt heard it too. Now, Egypt didn't believe any
of it, right? Israel believed all of it. Israel
believed every word Moses said in the beginning. You know, they're
not a perfect type. But it is a type of all of God's
people believe Christ and look to Christ. They know who their
Deliverer is, and they believe Him and trust Him. And that's
who He came for, His people. And thus, that's who he shows
one side. We're going to see three sides,
but these three are one. These three agree in one. They all agree in Christ. He himself is the sign. All right? The Lord said unto
him, first of all, here's the first sign, verse 2, what is
that in thine hand? And he said, a rod. He said,
cast it on the ground. Moses cast it on the ground and
it became a serpent. Moses fled from before it. The
Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the
tail. And he did. He put forth his
hand and caught that rod and it became a rod in his hand.
And God said that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers,
see who he's talking to. The God of who? particular God,
specific, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob, that they may know that I have appeared unto you
and sent you, and you're the man, you're the one, amen. All right, he said, what is that
in thine hand? He said, a rod, a rod. Let's just listen to, you turn
to Psalm 110, okay, Psalm 110, and I'll read to you from, Isaiah
11. This rod is spoken of throughout
the Scriptures, isn't it? Isaiah 11 says, there shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, a branch shall grow out
of his root. And he'll be sent, in verse 11,
11-11, to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be
left from Assyria and from Egypt. They've been delivered from Egypt
a long time ago. What's Isaiah talking about?
Well, what am I talking about? Christ delivering us out of this
world. He's called the rod, and he's
in the hand of God. Psalm 110, verses 1 through 3,
the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool. Who's speaking here? Our Lord
brought this up, didn't He? He said, what say think ye of
Christ, whose son is he? They said, the son of David.
He said, then why did David call him Lord? And he quoted this
then. Read on. This is speaking of
Christ. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. To do what? What is this rod? It's the scepter of God. It's
Christ. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. Our Lord came down in the midst
of His enemies, and yet some of His enemies were brought to
His feet. Reconciled, weren't they? Thy
people shall be willing. That's it. Thy people shall be
willing. When? day of thy power and the
beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou hast
the dew of thy youth. And we can just keep reading,
couldn't we? A priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek, the Lord shall strike through kings, judge the
heathen, and on and on again. This whole book is of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now go back to our text. Exodus
4, verse 3, he said, take this rod and cast it on the ground. And he did, and became a serpent. Now, I told you, and you know,
that this whole book speaks of Christ crucified, doesn't it? We're only brought out by Christ
crucified, all right? This rod, this scepter by which
Moses ruled and led his people and made all of his, this rod
was what Moses used to part the Red Sea and to smite the rock
and on and on it goes. And that's all Christ. Christ
is everything. Christ is all in on him, okay. Christ is that
rod. Well, he said, cast this rod
to the ground. God sent his son to this earth. God sent, cast as it were, his
son to the ground. This ground was cursed because
of sin. Are you with me? You know what
I'm going to say? He became a serpent. This ground
was cursed because of sin. How are we going to be delivered
from the curse? Somebody tell me. Christ was
made a curse for us. Scripture says, Cursed is everyone
that hath it on the tree. God sent his Son to this earth.
He cast him, as it were, to the ground that was cursed for Adam's
sake. And Christ came, was made a curse
for us. He was made sin. He knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. I may quote that ten times before
we leave. That's what this is all about.
On the way they're going out. On the way we're going out. And
then look at verse four. So he put forth his hand and
took it by the tail and raised it up and became a rod again. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
raised up. He that believeth upon him may
have everlasting life. And he said, verse 5, that you
may believe, that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers
hath appeared unto thee. This is what our Lord said in
John chapter 8. Listen very carefully. I've looked
it up for you. Christ said, When you have lifted
up the Son of Man, then shall you know, I am. That's how we
know. How do we know this is Christ?
He's revealed this unto us. Christ, who was made sin. Christ,
who is the rod and scepter of God's rule and righteousness. Christ, who came to this earth
to save His people from their sin. Christ, who was lifted up
on the cross and made a curse for us. Christ, who was made
sin for us. Christ, who bruised the serpent's
head, whose heel was bruised, Him said. How do we know He sent
one? How do we know that God appeared
to Him? How do we know that He's appeared
to us? How do we know Christ was crucified? That's it. Why in the world talking
about this and this only? Why isn't religion talking about
Christ and Christ crucified only? Why don't people get together
and talk about Christ crucified only? He hadn't appeared unto
them. He hadn't revealed Himself unto them. We know the Son of
God has come and revealed Himself to us, given us an understanding. We're so blessed. We're so blessed. This is more than an interesting
type, people. This is more than something that, wow, you know,
isn't this amazing? Here's the amazing thing. Amazing
grace that God would send His Son to this hell hole, to this
cesspool of iniquity, to save who? Righteous, good people?
Sinners. How? One way. God made Him to
be sin. So there you have it. There you
have it. Now, there are three signs we're
going to see. If you remember, our Lord said,
an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, but no
sign shall be given but what? One. What was that? Somebody,
one word. Jonas. Who's Jonas represented? Christ crucified. That's it. That's all Christ said. Whatever
sign my people are given, you see, signs, tongues, and all
that are not for believers but for unbelievers. For the preaching
of the gospel, tongues, and so forth. He said my people need
one sign. Jonas. Christ crucified. That's how we know. That's how
we know. All right? Now we're going to
look at a hand, a whole hand made leprous. You could preach it, but you're
not allowed to for Saturday, but you could. What could this
possibly represent? This hand in the bosom brought
out, made leprous. Christ crucified. I've already
told you. Verse 6, the Lord said furthermore
unto him, put now thy hand into thy bosom. He put his hand into
his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous
as snow. Put thy hand into thy bosom.
Turn to Psalm 74 with me. Psalm 74. While you turn there,
I'll turn to Psalm 80. Psalm 74. But, you know, We just read how the Lord said
unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine
foes thy footstool. Our Lord Jesus Christ is at the
right hand of God, isn't He? He sits at the right hand of
God, the seat of power and rule, authority. God rules with His
right hand. He sits at the right hand of God. He is the hand of
God. The Son of Man, listen to Psalm
80, it says, Psalm 80 verse 17, let thine hand be upon the man
of thy right hand, the Son of Man whom thou madest strong for
thyself. Moses, his hand was strong, wasn't
it? Moses was the deliverer. Moses
reigned and ruled over the people with that rod in his hand. It
all represents Christ. Look at Psalm 74, and I put it
into his bosom. Psalm 74, David prayed and begged
the Lord. Verse 10, how long shall the
adversary reproach? How long shall the enemy blaspheme
thy name forever? Help us, Lord. We're under the
bondage of Our adversary, verse 11, why withdrawest thou thy
hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of your bosom. Lord, send your right hand. Christ said he was in the bosom
of the father, didn't he? He said no man had seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the I want you to answer this. In the bosom of the Father,
he that was in the bosom of the Father, the right hand of God,
how are we going to get out of this sinful world? He sent in
his right hand. How is he going to get us out?
The right hand of God came and here we are again. He's made sin. A leper. A leper. It's a true story that missionaries
years ago used to go to preach in the leper colonies. And the
only way they could preach to them was to go down right in
the midst of them. So, you're going to get leprosy. In order to preach to these lepers,
dying lepers, they had to become lepers. That's exactly what our
Lord did. Would you do that? Would you
go to a leper colony and get leprosy and die? Just preach
to a bunch of people that didn't call for you, didn't ask for
you. Would you? Would you? No, you wouldn't. Christ did. There's a greater
love of no man than this. Somebody, what about they spit
in your face? Go back. Get out of here. We
don't want you. Would you? This is His glory. Behold what
manner of love. So Moses was told to take his
whole hand, his pure hand, his strong hand, his holy hand as
it were, and put it into his bosom and he brought it out and
it was made leprous. Then he said, put it back. Put that hand back in the abysm.
You know what? Christ came to this earth. He
made sin on Calvary's tree. And He died and He was crucified. He was buried. What did He do
those three days? Where did He go? Nobody knows
where He went. I know where He went. You know where He went,
don't you? He went back to the Father. To
do what? To pour out that blood on the
mercy seat. And then He came back. Without sin. It says unto you,
you who look for him, shall he appear the second time without
sin. Took that hand out. No more leprosy. I've got chills running up my
spine. Amazing. I say this all the time. Is this God's Word or what? There's just no doubt in our
minds that God wrote this book and that this book is about his
son. No doubt. Every line, every jot, every
tip. Amazing. So, Christ is this hand. These three are one. Now, our
Lord said in Exodus 4, look at that. Go back there. He said, If they won't believe
these two signs, verse 8, if they'll not believe thee, neither
hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe
the voice of the latter sign. It come to pass, if they will
not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice,
that thou shalt take of the water of the river and pour it upon
the dry land. And the water which thou takest
out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land." Water
turned to blood. The dry land. Christ is the water. You know
that, don't you? Christ is the river. Revelation
22, there's a river that flows out of the throne of God and
out of the land. The river of God's love, God's mercy, God's
grace. He is from whom all blessings
flow. There is a fountain. What's it
filled with? Blood drawn from Emmanuel's vein. Sinners plunge beneath that flood
and lose all their guilty stain. Our Lord said, He that believeth
on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. What's that mean? Christ in you
is the hope of glory. Faith in Christ, need for Christ,
an understanding of Christ. You open up the heart of all
of God's people, you know what you'll find there? Christ. Ask
them a question about anything, you know how they'll answer it?
Christ. Every time. That's how you know. These people,
how are they going to know? These three signs. Well, these
three are one. They all agree in one. John 19. Go over there. John chapter 19.
This is what John, who was there at the cross and saw this, John
said, this is He that came by water and what? Blood. Jesus Christ. Not by water only,
but by water and blood. The Spirit that beareth witness.
The Spirit is truth. There are three that bear record
in heaven. He said there are three that bear witness on earth.
The Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three agree
in one. Now where else do we see this
water and blood together? John 19. Our Lord is on the cross,
and John 19, verse 34, one of the soldiers with a spear pierced
his side. Why? Because that's what Scripture
said, they shall look upon him whom they pierced. And forthwith
came thereout blood and water. Christ is the water, Christ is
the word, Christ is the water of life, the word, but he had
to shed his precious blood, didn't he? He had to. That's how we know that Christ
is the sent one. These three, and these three
agree in one, the rod, his hand, His blood, the water of the Word
turned to blood. Now, all right, now listen to
this, just a few more minutes. Moses was just a man, wasn't he? He
was just a man. A sinful man. But he was God's
man. The people are going to listen
to this man. The people are going to hear from God through this
man. Same today at Jain. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching. How do you know that God sent the man whom you're
going to follow. How do you know God has appeared
unto him and spoken to him and sent him to speak to you, to
bring you in? How do you know? These three. These three. These three are
one. The rod. The rod, the word. Rod, the word. Scepter. Christ is the... He's
a rod, but God's people use this rod. Scripture says He'll smite
the earth with the rod of His mouth. The rod which we use is the Word
of God. This is what every true preacher
uses. Preach the Word, Timothy. Preach
the Word. It's the Word of His power. It's
how He rules. It's how He breaks hearts. It's
how He leads His people. It's how He smites the hard heart,
the rocky heart. Rod, it's how he parts the Red
Sea. It's how he parts his people
from their sin, from this world. Preach the Word, Timothy. How
do you know a man sent by God? Well, if they speak not according
to my Word, no light in them. What does that mean? Well, he
preaches the Bible. Everybody says that. What do you mean,
preaches the Bible? What is the Word? I preach the
Word. What is the Word? Christ. If you don't preach the Word
from the Word, you don't know the Word. Right? Lots of people preach, you know,
can quote, the Pharisees could quote whole books of the Bible.
They didn't know Christ. Did you read the quotes on preaching
this morning? One of the fellows said, Bonar,
he said, there's a big difference in preaching doctrine and preaching
Christ. Big difference than just preaching the Bible, I'm preaching
Christ. And this is how you know. This is how you know the Lord's
appeared unto a man. What did disciples preach? Well, they went out preaching
everywhere. What did they preach? What? Who? Simon Peter said, We can't help
but speak the things we've seen and heard. What's that? Him. We didn't go out preaching what
they believed, what other men believed. No, we were preaching
what Christ said. Preaching Him, holding Him forth, setting forth
Him. Christ said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to Me. And all of God's preachers know
they're just like that pole, that rod. Their only use is to
hold up Christ crucified. It's the only use of that stick
of wood. Secondly, how do you know a man's
been sent by God? A leper's hand. A person one time heard me preaching
after a long time. They said, it's so refreshing
to hear a preacher call himself a sinner. You see, God didn't send angels
to preach this gospel. They don't know anything about
mercy. They don't know anything about grace. Christ didn't die
for them. They had no sin. Right? Who's going to tell a fellow
sinner, a leprous sinner, about Christ, about the gospel? Another
leper. You know what, when I put my
hand in my bustle, you know what I find when I bring it out? Sand. John Newton said, when I look
within all this vain and wild, how can I esteem myself as a
child? Is that you? You know what? If I flee to the
bosom of the Father, where Christ is, and say, Hide me, O my Savior,
hide, till the storms of life be past. Cover me, cover my defenseless
head. Hide me in the cleft of the rock.
Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in it. Cover me
under thy wing, cover me. You know what He's going to bring
me? You know what's going to happen? He's going to bring his
soul center out. No leprosy. And then the water and the blood. A man sent by God. A man you
can follow. A man you can hear. How you know
God's appeared unto him. Preaches the word, the water
of the word. This is a dry and thirsty land.
I get dry and thirsty, you get dry and thirsty. What do you
need? The water of life. Nothing else will quench your
thirst but the water of life. You know, there's lots of drinks
out there. I love milk. Milk's a type of crossword. Why
is it talking of God's Word? There's so many things that are
talking of God's Word, aren't there? Water. You can't live
without water. It's the water of life. You can't
go three days without water. Is that the way you feel about
the Word of God? Is it? God, bless the day that hunger
and thirst. Do you have a thirst for God's
Word? Do you have a need for Christ, for the Gospel, for the
Word? You need to hear the Word. It's evident to me. You keep
coming. You keep coming back and I'm saying the same thing.
I'm saying the same thing for nearly 40 years. Yeah, 40 years. Same thing. And you keep coming
back. He must be thirsty. What do you
need? The Word. Well, what is the Word? The man whom God has appeared
unto, the man whom God has sent, the man that you can follow is
the man, every time he preaches the Word, he's going to get blood
out of it. Blood's going to come out of it. Again, it's not just
preaching the Bible, preaching the Bible, it's preaching Christ
and Him crucified. It is the blood that maketh the
tomb for the soul. God said, when I see the blood. Isn't that what He said? Anything else? No! I rest my case. When I see the
blood, what's your hope of eternal life? What's your hope of heaven?
What's your hope of getting into God's heaven someday? What's
your hope of getting out of this world? How are you going to get
out of here? How did the children of Israel
get out? What was the difference between them and the Egyptians?
How do you know there was blood on their mantle? And the doorposts
on all the houses were in all the children of God were. It's
the blood, and God saw the blood, and He said, I bring it to you
now. Exodus. Amen.