Marlene turned the light out.
I don't know if that was a hint or what. In my darkness, Jesus found me and liberty. Oh, glorious love
of Christ, my love divine, that made of stoop and safe a soul
like mine. Through all my days singing in
heaven above, My soul shall silently burn,
I'll worship Him forever, And praise Him for His glorious love. I can't stop to go on and on And came to soothe and save a
soul like mine Through all my days in heaven above My soul
shall silence never I'll worship Him forever And praise Him for
His glorious love and praise him for his glorious
love. Well, again, I want to say what
an honor and a privilege to be with you. Thank you for your
hospitality and accommodation. Accommodation's been great. Fellowship's
been wonderful. Have your pastor ask me back
again. I don't care if I get to preach or not. Just invite
me to come back. Turn with me tonight to Exodus
chapter 3, if you would, while I get situated here. At home, we've started a study
in the book of Exodus. So it seems a little uncomfortable
for me to start here in chapter 3 without talking about what
we've seen so far, but I'm going to do that. In Exodus 3, verse
13, Moses asked God, he said, Behold, when I come unto the
children of Israel, and say unto them, The God of your fathers
hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his
name? What shall I say unto them? And
in verse 14, God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. And it's then that God gives
Moses some clear, plain, straightforward instructions as to what to do
next. Look at verse 16. God says, Go
and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them,
The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited
you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said,
I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt into the
land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and
the Perizzites, and the Habites, and the Jebusites, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy
voice. And thou shalt come, thou and
the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt. And he shall say
unto them, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and
now let us go. We beseech thee, three days journey
into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our
God. And I am sure that the king of
Egypt will not let you go. Isn't that a strange statement
for God to make? He said, no, not but by a mighty
hand, which simply means except by a mighty hand or unless by
a mighty hand. In other words, God would have
to make Pharaoh to let them go. Now this is the God of the Bible
and this is how He speaks. Look at verse 20. He said, I
will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt. Those who think
God is nothing but love, how do they justify that statement? I'll smite Egypt with all my
wonders will I do in the midst thereof, and after that He will
let you go. And as you know the rest of the
story, God did so in the nine plagues against Egypt and in
the Passover of blood. Now, we just read all that God
said He would do. So now let's see how Moses responded
to what God said. Look at chapter 4, verse 1. And Moses answered and said,
But behold, they, speaking of Israel, will not believe me,
nor hearken unto my voice. For they will say, The Lord hath
not appeared unto thee, You know, it's pretty much the same today
when you preach the gospel or tell someone the truth about
Christ and how sinners are made righteous. They won't believe
you. They won't hear you. They don't
want to listen. They'll say, the Lord hath not
appeared unto thee. You don't know what you're talking
about. And Satan, along with this unbelieving world, always
questions God's Word. Satan did so in the garden, even
before sin entered into the world. Remember what the serpent said?
He said, Hath God sin? Are you sure that's what God
said? Are you sure that's what God meant? hath God truly said."
Now our adversary, the devil, loves to cast doubt on the Word
of God. Loves to try to disprove God's
Word. And the Lord had favored His
servant Moses, I got to thinking about this, He had favored him
with hearing the voice of Christ audibly out of a burning bush. A bush that burned and wasn't
consumed. That's a picture of Christ. That's a picture of Christ. The Lord had spoken to Moses
personally concerning his tender compassion for the afflicted
Hebrews who cried out a reason of their taskmasters. Now our
bondage in this life is two-fold. We're in bondage to our sin.
Men talk about our will. Our will is in bondage to our
sin. You will not come to me that
you have lied. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Our
will is in bondage to sin. So, the first way we're in bondage
is to and by our sin. And then we're also in bondage
to the law. You know, Israel had been born
into slavery. Slavery was all they knew. For
400 years, for 400 years, generation after generation, slavery was
all they knew. It's time to get up. Time to
go make bricks. You and I are sold and born under
sin. Sin is all we know. Since Adam's
fall, man has been in bondage to sin. And they were under Pharaoh's
law. Trust me, Pharaoh had his way. Pharaoh was never satisfied. Need more, more bricks. There was always more to do.
And friends, before God delivered us, you and I were under the
law of God. The law of God demands perfection. If we fail in one point of the
law, the Scripture says we're guilty of the whole thing. The
law demands perfection. We're guilty of the whole law.
No sinner can be justified by the law of God, for none can
keep its perfect demands. Now God had promised to be with
Moses. Did you know that God has promised
to be with you? He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. God had promised to be with Moses,
expressly declaring that He would deliver Israel from Egypt and
bring them into Canaan, the land of promise. Do you know that
God's promised to bring you into the land of promise? But I'll tell you something,
and it's something that you already know. The promise of God who
cannot lie was not sufficient to silence unbelief and subdue
man's wicked rebellion even in the chosen servant Moses. The divine power of God, nothing
but the divine power of God working within us can ever bring our
desperately wicked hearts to believe and trust in God. It
takes a divine work of grace, as we said this morning. And
how sad are the words of Moses, the Lord had firmly declared,
they shall hearken to thy voice. In chapter 3 verse 18, we just
read it. And now Moses replies, they will
not hearken to my voice. There is in us that same evil,
unbelieving, rebellious heart. But notice at how gracious and
how forgiving and how long-suffering God is. The Lord ignores Moses'
unbelief and He immediately begins to teach him the gospel. Now
that's what we have in these verses before us tonight. We
have the Gospel. There's a lot of Gospel in the
Old Testament Scriptures. The Lord gives Moses a gospel
message with three points. I hope to declare the gospel
tonight to you through these three things, these three proofs
that God gave to Moses to convince the people of Israel that God
had sent him to them. Now understand that these Signs
were not to be given to Egypt. These were signs to be given
to Israel, the people of God. You know, that's who the Gospel
is for. God's people. That's who the Gospel is effectual
to. Isn't it? God's people. That's who Christ came into the
world to save. Believing sinners. It pleased
and it still pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save
those that believe. It's not effectual. The Gospel
is not effectual to everybody. Only those whom God gave to Christ
before the foundation of the world. So, let's look at the
first sign and see that God might be pleased to show us the gospel
in it. The first sign that God gave
to Moses in order that God's people would believe. The rod
and the serpent. Look at verse 2. And the Lord
said unto him, that being Moses, what is that in thine hand? And
he, Moses, said, a rod. And God said, cast it on the
ground. And he cast it on the ground,
and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from before it.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take
it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and
he caught it, and it became a rod. It became a rod in his hand. Now why is God showing these
signs to Moses? The answer is found in verse
5, that they, Israel, may believe. Believe what? That the Lord God
of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. Show them this sign. that they believe. Now what does
this sign of the rod and the serpent represent? Well, this
rod represents and pictures Christ. It was a shepherd's rod of the
good shepherd. The psalmist speaks and says,
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule
thou in the midst of thine enemies. Christ is the rod of God's strength. He rules in the midst of his
enemies. What did David say in Psalm 22? We all know that passage. He said, 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. Christ is the believer's rod
of comfort. And the Hebrew word for rod here
means support. But under the shepherd's care,
protected by the power and authority of His shepherd's staff, we're
not just found. You know, this world portrays
these things as... Well, let me see if I can give
you an example. I had a fellow say to me not
long ago, he said, I know that I can't be saved without God's
assistance. And I said, well, what do you
call assistance? Is assistance to you just leaning
on the Lord here and there when you need a little help? Or is it Him putting you on His
back and carrying you all the way? Kind of the same thing with
comfort. The Hebrew word, as I said, for
rod means support. But we're found on the shoulders
as the sheep that had gone astray, lost and far from the fold. We're found being carried all
the way back to the fold. It's much more than just a little
support, isn't it? God told Moses to cast that rod
to the ground. Have you ever thought about that?
Why did Christ come down to this earth? Christ came down to save
His people from their sin. He came down to save sinners.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. And when Moses
cast that rod to the ground, it became a snake. Have you ever
thought about why a snake? Why not a whale or a gorilla? Because God is going to teach
us something about sin. God's going to teach His elect
something about themselves. It was the serpent in the garden
that deceived Eve. The same one we talked about
a minute ago that constantly says, hath God said? Why, thou
shalt not surely die. It's sin that deceives every
son and daughter of Adam It was fiery serpents. You remember
that bit Israel in the wilderness? It was the fiery bite of sin
that permeates us with poison. When Israel was bit by the fiery
serpents, what did Moses lift up on the pole? He lifted up
a brass serpent. Christ was made, now listen to
me, Christ was made to be what you and I were. So that you and
I might be made what He is. For He was made to be sin for
us, who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God and Him. Those serpents picture the deceitfulness
of sin and Satan, and also pictures Christ, our Redeemer. Now this
rod being made or turned into a serpent, a snake, pictures,
I think, so beautifully, Christ being made sin for us. Our Lord
Jesus said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, have eternal
life. Now I believe redemption is clearly
seen in this. All who looked upon that serpent
of brass lived. That's why we preach, look and
live. But it's who you look to that saves you. Look to Christ
and live, dear sinner. He who was made what we were
has now made us what He was. Perfectly righteous. God said,
what is that in your hand? Moses said, a rod. He said, cast
it down to the ground. And what does this picture teach
us? It teaches us that sin cannot be dealt with in our own hands. It can't be. We don't have the
authority to deal with sin. We don't have the power to deal
with sin. We cast down every imagination
that exalts itself against the gospel of God. And we cannot,
by our own hand, do any work of righteousness that would make
us acceptable to God. Isn't that what we talked about
this morning? Isn't that so true? The rod and the serpent picture
the work of Christ in substitution. When Moses cast that rod down,
it became a serpent. And Moses fled from it. We better
flee from every thought of dealing with our own sin in our own hand. We better cast it down. We better
trust in Christ alone to put away our sin. Now, look at verse
4 again. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth
his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand."
Now, I want to make something perfectly clear to you. I don't like snakes. You don't either, do you? And
if I can help it, I'm not going to handle one. just not going
to do it. We had a little old snake in
the house not long ago, a little tiny thing, looked more like
a worm than a snake. But it was a snake. And the cat
was playing with it. And I looked at Teresa, and Teresa
looked at me, and we both went, kind of looked at each other
like, what you going to do about it? So being the man that I am,
I grabbed some tongs, like salad tongs, and picked that snake
up and carried it out, threw it in the neighbor's yard. But one thing I know, though
I don't want to handle a snake, and that is you don't pick a
snake up by the tail. If you do, you're going to get
bit. If you want to pick a snake up, you better get it behind
the head. You got to pick it up from behind
the head or you're going to get bit. But what a picture of Christ
being made sin we have here. When Moses grabbed that serpent
by the tail, it became a rod again. It became a rod. That snake became the rod that
it originally was. And oh, how that pictures how
Christ dealt with our sin. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Now when Christ kept the law of God perfectly for us, and
He did, and when Christ satisfied the holy justice of God in our
place, and He did, He put away sin. I think sometimes that's
very difficult for us to fathom in our little finite minds. Sin
put away. We kind of can perceive what
it means to have our sin covered, our sin forgiven, our sin redeemed,
paid for. But put away? That's a difficult
thing for us to understand. Why? Because we're dealing with
it constantly. It's ever before us, our sin. But when Moses grabbed that serpent
by the tail, and it became a rod again, I think we see very clearly
that Christ, who was made sin, put it away. And now He's back
to being the spotless Lamb of God again. The sin is no longer on the believer,
and the sin is no longer on our Savior. When our sin was put
on Christ, it had to be dealt with, put away, and put away
forever. The serpent has become a rod
again. And the rod pictures the strength and the authority of
God. And Christ, with omnipotent power, became sin for His people. You know, the magicians in Egypt
with deceit and their smoking mirrors duplicated the sign,
if you remember. But if you remember the serpent
of Moses devoured the serpents of Pharaoh's magicians. And friends,
the truth of Christ and Him crucified will, in the end, devour all
false doctrines, all false Gospels, and all the other Jesuses, which
is not another. And this was the same rod that
brought forth locusts. And this was the same rod that
parted the Red Sea. And this was the same rod that
smoked the rock and water came out. And it represents the authority
of Christ as the God-man. It pictures the substitution
of Christ and Him being made sin. Christ was made sin, but
He didn't stay that way. Now remember, this was not a
sign to or for Egypt. This was a sign to Moses, and
this was a sign to Israel. This is a sign to the believing
sinner. Christ was made to be sinned
for His elect, and because of the believer's union with Christ,
neither Christ nor the sinner have any sin upon them. When
you learn some things about the holy justice of God, you see
that God would not be just to punish someone who was innocent. If you punish someone who's innocent,
that's not just. That's not justice. But you also
see that God would not be just to pardon someone who's guilty.
If God punished Christ for doing something wrong when He didn't,
He wouldn't be just and He wouldn't be God. God must be just. God has to deal with sin on the
basis of divine and holy justice. And that's the gospel. Substitution. Christ doing for me what I cannot
do for myself. Now, I'm going to say something
very deliberately, and I've given it a lot of thought, and it's
a very difficult thing to say, but it's true nonetheless. Christ
deserved to be put to death. That doesn't sound right saying
it, does it? It's hard to even say that our Lord deserved anything
negatively. But now hear me on this. Such
is our union with Christ that when He took our sin upon Himself,
God made him sin. I mean, he was really sin, made
sin. As Scott Richardson used to say,
it wasn't just pasted on like a post-it note. No! He became sin. Now, he wasn't
a sinner. He knew no sin. He never committed
a sin. But God put all the elect throughout
all time's sin upon him. And the justice of God had to,
it had to extract payment, judgment, and even death for the satisfaction
of sin. Since death is sin's wages, that's
why Christ died. And in the eyes of God, He deserved
to die. Christ so fully took our sin
that God killed Him over it. He wouldn't have been just if
He didn't. God had to be just to justify the ungodly. Christ
had His people sin upon Him, and when God finds sin, even
if it's on His Son, oh my, According to His holy justice, God must
punish it. And if Christ wasn't truly made
to be sinned, God couldn't have accepted His sacrifice and still
have remained just. God cannot punish one who has
not offended the law and God cannot spare or pardon one who
has. God put all our sin on our substitute,
and with our sin found on Him, God was just in punishing. And God is just in pardoning
me. That's the best news I ever heard. Then we have the second
sign, the hand of leprosy. Look at verse 6. And the Lord
said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he, Moses, put his hand into
his bosom. And when he took it out, behold,
his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into
thy bosom again. And 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. Now I think most of you
know that leprosy in the scripture is a very vivid picture of sin. Moses had a clean hand. I think
about Adam before he fell into sin. He was clean before the
fall. He was created in the image of
God. He walked with God in the cool of the day. And Moses put
his hand into his bosom. You think about that, close to
his heart. And when he took it out, it was
as leprous as snow. It had no life in it at all.
Nothing but sand is what that picture is. It was white. No life in it. It was about to
turn to dust again. That's what we became after the
fall. Leprous. Full of sand. Full of
sand. And in our heart that is desperately
wicked and deceitful above all things, this is a picture of
the fall of man into sin. And when Moses put his hand next
to his bosom the second time, it turned again as his other
flesh. I think that's a beautiful picture
of the new birth. Being born again. God's people
have been made a new creation. A new creature in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. God's people have been made new
creatures in Christ. Not a reformed creature. Not
an improved creature. But a new creature created in
Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5.17. And no doubt in my mind this
transformation of Moses' leprous hand pictures our transformation
from life unto death. Man was clean and he fell into
sin. Man fell a great fall. He became
sin. Sin is what man is. You know,
I heard it a long time ago. I don't know that I truly understood
it at the time. But someone told me when I first
heard the Gospel, they said, you know, sin is not what we
do. Sin is what we are. We sin because we're sinners. We're not sinners because we
sin. Well, I understand that better now. Sins what I am. My sin is a product of who I
am. But by the obedience of the God-man,
many are made righteous. This is a picture of the leprous
sinner being born again by regeneration in Christ's blood. There is a
fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners
plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. In Christ,
I've got a new nature. Yet, unfortunately, I still have
an old one. That's our problem. I have two
natures. There are two men spoken of frequently
in the Scriptures. They're referred to the old man
and the new man. Remember what Paul said? He said, put off the old man,
which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. And then he
also said, put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness. I have a new holy nature. And that's the part of me that
loves God. That's the nature within me that
loves holiness. That's the nature within me that
loves righteousness. That's the nature that hates
anything and everything contrary to Christ, especially my sin. The flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary,
the one to the other. So then you cannot do the things
that you would. Galatians 5.17. And you know,
I not only see something of the dual nature in the Scriptures,
but I see a whole lot of the dual nature in my heart. I see it not only through revelation
of the Scriptures, but I see it from experience. One that believes, loves, and
worships the Christ of the Cross, born again, not by corruptible
seed, but by incorruptible. We must be born again. Christ
told Nicodemus, in order to see the kingdom of God, and you've
got to be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Only God
would be pleased to save us by His grace. So I think that's
a good picture of the new nature, the new birth. Now the third
thing, the blood poured on the ground. Look at verse 8. God
says to Moses, and it shall come to pass, if they will not believe
thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that
they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall
come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs,
that, speaking of the rod and the serpent and the leprous hand,
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." Now this sign, this miracle, will convince and satisfy every
believer that God has sent a mediator to. To Israel, it was Moses. To us, it's Christ. He's that
one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He's the one mediator between
me, you, and God. That blood that was poured out
on the ground pictures the blood of God that was shed. Now, it
won't satisfy Egypt. It'll mean very little to them.
It won't satisfy the world. Won't mean much to them. But
it'll satisfy the elect of God. And it'll satisfy the God of
the elect. You know, the Nile River was
a symbol of life. The Egyptians worshipped the
river. Water represents life. Without
water, there can be no sustenance of life. And the very first plague
that God brought upon Egypt, He turned the Nile River into
blood. Everything would soon die. There could be no sustenance
of life without water, without fresh water. To Egypt, that plague
was no doubt a sign of judgment. But this sign and miracle here
that Moses does by taking the water from the Nile River in
Egypt and pouring it on the ground was a sign of sacrifice to Israel. It was a sacrifice of blood that
was made for them by Christ. And it pictures substitution. And it pictures redemption. It
pictures deliverance. It was a picture of the remission
of sin. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Why was blood shed? Because Christ
was made to be seen. The judgment and justice of God
fell upon Him as we've already spoken about. Holy justice extracted
full payment from Him. What a picture of the Gospel.
Do you see the Gospel in these three signs? I see Christ becoming
sin, being made sin for His people in the rod and the serpent. I
see God in Christ giving me a new nature. He didn't have to, but it pleased Him to do so.
Making me a new creature so I can stand holy and righteous before
God. My leprosy is gone. It's gone. I have perfect righteousness. And I see Christ shedding His
own blood. The water of life is poured out
on the ground and it turns into blood. When God sees the blood,
not your sacrifice, not your righteousness, not your work,
but when God sees the blood, what's He going to do? He's going
to pass over you. Do you have the blood of Christ
covering you? Well, we better have. We better
have. Let me close by reading a few
verses here at the end of the chapter. Look at verse 27. And the Lord said to Aaron, going
to the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went and he met him in
the mount of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the
words of the Lord who had sent him and all the signs which he
had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and
gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel, just
like God said they would. And Aaron spoke all the words
which the Lord had spoken unto Moses. Did you notice that Aaron
was doing the talking? He was the high priest. And Aaron
spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses and
did the signs. What signs? Those three we just
talked about. And the sight of the people. Now look at verse 31. And the
people believed. And you know what? All God's
elect will. They surely will. These three
things are the heart of the Gospel. They contain the Gospel in and
of themselves, and they give proof to God's redemption and
deliverance when considered together. Christ being made sin for us,
and us being made righteous by the putting away of our sin.
Our sin is not just covered. It's gone. It's gone. It's called substitution. Then
the new birth, the sinner being made a new creature, a new creation
in Christ, not reformed, not reproved, not improved, not made
better, not rebuilt, not overhauled. I need a little overhauling,
but that won't get it done. Made holy. Unreprovable, as we
said this morning. Unblameable. where it matters, in God's sight. Unreprovable, unblameable, in
His sight. And then the blood of Christ
that cleanses us from all sin. Christ, the pure water of life.
Listen to me, I'm finished. Christ, the pure water of life,
was poured out unto death. And it's His blood that fell
upon the ground that cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
I see the gospel so clearly in these three things. God told
Moses, He said, go show these things unto Israel. And that's
what we do. We're showing these things unto
the folks and trust that they're one of God's elect. And they will know that the great
I Am has sent you to deliver them. That's God's promise. Let these things be a sign to
you, friends. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. And He certainly
shall. No ifs, buts, or doubts. May God enable us to believe
that He sent Christ our mediator to deliver us from our sin. Amen. I appreciate your attention.
And thank you again for all the things that I've mentioned. Brother
Gary, Let's stand together. Psalm number
222. Let's sing together and be dismissed
after that. We'll have Wednesday night service
7 o'clock coming up. 222 There is a fountain filled with
blood from Emmanuel's vein. Have sinners such meaning? that blood, lose all their guilty
stains. Stanza three. Dear dying Lamb,
thy precious blood shall never lose its power. And some church of God be saved
to sing Some Church of God, be saved,
there's sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, my flowing wounds supplied. And shall we till I die? And shall we till I die? And shall we till I die? When this sore listening stem
rings down thy side, Good night.