Now for our scripture reading,
if you'd open your Bibles with me to Exodus chapter seven. Exodus chapter seven, we'll begin
our reading in verse eight. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, when Pharaoh shall speak unto you,
saying, show a miracle for you. Then thou shalt say unto Aaron,
Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become
a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto
Pharaoh, and they did so, as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron
cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and
it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the
wise men and the sorcerers. Now the magicians of Egypt, they
also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they
cast down to every man his rod, and they became serpents. Aaron's
rod swallowed up their rods, and he hardened Pharaoh's heart
that he hearken not unto them, as the Lord had said." Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, we carefully, reverently
come into your presence this evening daring only come before
your throne of grace, pleading the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, pleading his obedience as our only righteousness, pleading
his shed blood as the only forgiveness of our sin. And Father, we beg
of you that you would hear us for Christ's sake, that you'd
hear us in him. And Father, that we pray that
tonight you would bless us as we look into your word. Bless
us for Christ's sake. Let everything that is said and
done here this evening be done to the glory and the magnification
of his precious name. Cause him to be lifted up that
your people gathered here together this evening may look unto him
and live. Father, how we pray that you
would not leave us alone as you did Pharaoh of old. How we pray
that you would not harden our hearts as you did Pharaoh of
old, but Father, that you would be pleased to speak to each heart
here. Give us a new heart. Take out
that stony heart of our sinful, dead nature. And Father, give
us a heart of flesh, a heart that would hunger and thirst
after thee, that would pan after thy righteousness, that would
love you, believe you, and cling to you. Father, bless us, we
pray. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for all of your people, wherever it is that they're gathering
together tonight. Father, bless for your great
namesake and for the good of your people. There's so many
things that we need in this life, but Father, chiefly, how we need
to hear a word from thee. How we need you to be gracious
and merciful to us and we cry out to thee. And Father, Pray
a blessing for those that you brought into the time of trouble
and trial, the sick, the heartbroken, in many different various troubles
of this flesh, and Father, I pray you'd be with them. I pray that
you would heal, that you'd comfort, that you'd deliver, Father, that
you'd give them a fulfillment of your promise, that you're
with your people as they go through the fire and the deep waters,
and that you'd comfort their hearts with your presence. Father,
we pray for our country at this time, that you would be with
our leaders, that, Father, you would not give this country what
we so richly deserve, but that you would move the hearts of
our leaders to preserve the freedoms and the liberties that we have
long enjoyed here, that we might continue to meet together in
peace and worship you and sing your praises and preach your
gospel. Father, all these things we ask in that name which is
above every name, the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's for his sake and his glory we pray, amen. I've titled the message this
evening, Death is Swallowed Up in Victory. Our text gives us
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ putting away the curse of the
sin of his people and destroying every enemy. by his death as
a sacrifice for their sin. And I just know that we're gonna
get a real blessing from this text if the Lord will let us
see Christ our Savior, Christ the mighty conqueror in it. I've just thoroughly, thoroughly
enjoyed studying this this week and I pray it'll be a blessing
to your heart too. Now the first thing I wanna point
out is that all of this story happened by the will of God.
Verse eight. of Exodus chapter seven, and
the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, when Pharaoh
shall speak unto you, saying, show a miracle for you, then
thou shalt say unto Aaron, take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh,
and it shall become a serpent. Now, how did the Lord know that
Pharaoh was gonna ask to see a miracle from Moses and Aaron
before he believed? How did the Lord know that? Because God put
it in his heart to do it. God put it in his heart to ask
for that miracle Not so that the Lord could show Pharaoh anything.
Pharaoh once saw it and he didn't believe. He hardened his heart.
But God put it in Pharaoh's heart to ask to see this miracle so
that the Lord could show us tonight. So that he could show his people
a picture of the redemption that we have in Christ Jesus. And
everything in this interaction with Pharaoh happened exactly
like God said it would happen. Because God's will is always
done. God said he's gonna ask for your
sign, look at verse 10. Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh,
and they did so, as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron cast
down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became
a serpent. Now, everything in this interaction
happened just the way God said it would. You can apply that
to everything. I mean, everything that's ever
happened in this creation happens by the will and purpose of God.
Every person in this room, would give mental agreement, that's
true. And I thought about that a lot this week as I began making
my notes. Everything that happens, I mean
everything, is by the eternal will and purpose of God. And
you know, if we'd really start believing that, instead of making
that a point of doctrine that we stand on that makes us different
from false religion, but we'd really start believing it, you
know, we'd get a whole lot more rest and peace for our hearts,
we really would. Our God is sovereign over everything
that happens. And by that, I mean this, that
God sovereignly willed everything to happen just the way it was.
God did that without being the author of evil. It's not like
God's sovereign over it. Oh, man does something evil and
God kind of corrects it to keep it in his plan and purpose. No,
everything that happens is exactly what God willed to happen before
time began. Everything, everything, everything
big, everything small, everything. I love to think about and I love
to talk about God sovereignly arranging everything that happens
just the way it happens because that's his will. I love to think
about that. I mean, you just start trying
to think about that and it don't take you very long to realize
God is so much higher than us. He sovereignly arranges everything. Doesn't that comfort your soul?
Our wise, loving, heavenly Father has ordained everything that
happened in your life today to happen just the way it did. And
that's true tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and
the next day, and the next day, till Christ returns. You know,
that's such a help for us to know, especially when we don't
know what is going on which is most of the time, right? We don't
know what's going on. I don't understand what's going
on, but I do know this, God's doing it. God's doing it. And
that should just calm us down a little bit. And in everything
that he does, God has one purpose. His purpose is to save his people
from their sin and to bring them to be with him together in glory.
That's God's purpose. and God has willed everything
that's ever happened in human time to work together to accomplish
that one purpose. Now, if something happens to
me that's uncomfortable and I don't like it and it's painful for
me, but I can truly believe that this had to happen to me just
the way it did to accomplish God's purpose of redeeming His
people from their sin and glorifying them together with Christ, I'm
going to quit complaining about it and start being thankful for
it. If I believe that, that's really true. Everything has to
happen exactly the way that it happens so that God's will of
the redemption and glorification of his people will come to pass.
Everything. Now that's just comforting to
think about. Whatever it is that happens has happened for the
good of God's elect to bring them to Christ. And if it didn't
happen just that way, God's purpose wouldn't be carried out. And
that's true of everything that's ever, ever happened in creation. Now from our vantage point, with
our nearsighted eyes, we can't possibly see how every event
in the world is working together to accomplish God's eternal purpose. Now we can't see that, but we
can believe it. We can believe it. And I tell
you the place that this is seen more clearly than anywhere else
in history. God carrying out his eternal
will and purpose is seen more clearly at the cross than it's
seen anywhere else. You think about all the events
that took place leading up to the cross, leading up to Christ's
death on the tree. Why did all those events happen?
Why did they happen? Because God said that they would
happen just that way. Why did Christ Cry from the cross,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why did he cry that? Because just like Pharaoh, God
said he'd say it. Let me show you that, Psalm 22.
See, he said that because the father said he'd say it. This
is God's will being carried out. Psalm 22, verse one. My God, my God, Why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? God told us in Psalm 22 that
Christ would say that from the cross, and sure enough, he did,
because the Father said he would. Now, why did all those people
gather together, working together to try to get Christ put to death,
and all the people around the cross, why did they despise the
Lord Jesus so much? He'd never done anything but
good for them. He healed the sick, he'd been merciful, he'd
been gracious, he fed folks. Why do they despise him so much?
And there he's suffering more than any man has ever suffered.
Why didn't they take pity on him? Instead of taking pity on
him, why did they mock him? Why did they say, you know, he
said God delights in him, let's see if God will have him now.
Why did they tell him, you come down from the cross and we'll
believe you? Yeah, you're a king. Come down
from the cross and show us and we'll believe you. Why did they
say that? Because God said they would.
Look at verse six, Psalm 22. But I am a worm and no man. The
reproach of men and despise of the people. All they that see
me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They
shake the head saying, he trusted on the Lord that he'd deliver
him. Let him deliver him. seeing he delighted in him. God
said that they'd say that, and sure enough, gathered around
a cross. That's exactly what they said, wasn't it? That soldier,
or first, when they got Pilate to agree to put the Lord to death,
why didn't they chop his head off? Why didn't Pilate just give
him back to the Jews and let him stone him? That's Jews' form
of capital punishment, was stoning. The Lord Jesus is a Jew, why
didn't they stone him? Why did they decide instead to
crucify Christ on the cross and nail his hands and his feet to
that hunk of wood till he died? Why did they decide to do it
that way? Because God said they would. Look at verse 16. For dogs have compassed me. The
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and
my feet. God said they'd do it. And a
couple thousand years later, that's exactly what they did.
After the Lord died, Why didn't that Roman soldier break the
Lord's legs? I mean, just for meanness sake. I mean, this is
a hardened, hardened man. He's a hardened soldier. He's
been in battle and seen lots of death. He's just mean and
violent. He's seen lots of men suffer
and die on the cross. Why didn't he just act on his
mean, vile nature and break the Lord's legs? I mean, yeah, he's
already dead, but just, you know, be mean to him some more and
break his legs. Why didn't he do that? Because
the Lord said he wouldn't do it. Look at Psalm 34, just over
a few pages, Psalm 34. Verse 20. Well, that's not, oh
yeah, yeah it is, verse 20. He keepeth all his bones, not
one of them is broken. The Lord said he wouldn't have
any bones broken, and sure enough, they weren't, Psalm 69. Why did
they give the Lord vinegar mixed with gall to drink when he cried,
I thirst? Why didn't they give him something
else? Why did they give him that? Psalm 69 verse 21, it tells us
because God said that's what they do. Verse 21, they gave
me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar
to drink. God said that they'd do it, and
that's exactly what they did. Now look at Zechariah chapter
11. You know, the thing that set all this in motion was Judah,
Judas, deciding that he was gonna betray the Lord. Now, why did
he betray the Lord for 30 pieces of silver? Exactly, exactly 30
pieces of silver. You know, if Judas would have
negotiated at all, he could have got more money. I mean, these
men would have given him anything if he would have turned Christ
over to them, if he'd betray him. Judas was a man that understood
money. He's a treasurer. Why didn't
he negotiate a little bit? Get that price up. Why is it
that he settled for exactly 30 pieces of silver? And then, why
did Judas try to give all 30 pieces of those silver back?
But the chief priest wouldn't take them. Now, why wouldn't
they take them? I mean, these are the most dishonest
men that you'll ever meet. Why didn't they just pocket the
money? I mean, at least put it back in the treasury, but why
didn't they just say, you know, it's already been on the ledger,
taken out of the treasury, let's just put it in our pockets, you
know? Why didn't they do that? Why did they instead do something
that seems generous and kind and buy a field to bury the poor?
Why did they do that? Because God said that's what
they do. Zechariah 11, verse 12. And I said unto them, if ye think
good, give me my price, and if not, forbear. So they weighed
out for my price 30 pieces of silver. This is exactly what
they gave Judas. And the Lord said unto me, cast
it unto the potter, a goodly price that I was prized of at
the end. And I took the 30 pieces of silver
and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. And that's
exactly what happened because God said that. And you don't
have to wonder why these wicked men did everything that they
did. Why is it they did all of that? I mean, they even cast lots for
his vesture. Why did they do that? It's because
God said they would. Now, I haven't misinterpreted
any scriptures here. This is just not my opinion.
This is just not some sort of, you know, religious stance that
some people take. Peter told us plain. Look at
Acts chapter four. Everything these men did, they
did because God said that's what they do. Because it was God's
will. Acts four. Verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child, Jesus, whom thou has anointed. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do what? Whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done. When those men got done doing
everything their wicked hearts wanted to do, all they did is
accomplish God's eternal will and purpose. They did it exactly
like God said that they would do it. God determined that Every
action that took place at the cross would happen just the way
it did. So that his people would have a sacrifice for sin. So
their sin would be put away. So the Lord could bring his people
to be with him where he is. And the Lord spent time telling
us about it in the Old Testament. So that when it happened, we
would know. This is no accident. This is
not the wicked suddenly getting the upper hand. This is not Satan
winning the battle. This is God's will being carried
out. Everything that happened at the
cross had to happen exactly the way that it did, or else we would
have no hope of redemption. Now, I know it's easy for us
today to sit and look at the cross, because we're looking
back at it, something that's already happened. The scriptures
have explained to us what happened at the cross, what was going
at the cross. But can you imagine those disciples in those days,
in the day that the Lord was taken, and he went through that
mock trial, and he suffered and died. And they buried a dead
body and rolled a stone in front of that tomb. And their master's
gone. I know they were full of fear.
I know they were heartbroken. I know this was the worst possible
thing that could have happened to them concerning their master. But this is what we know, it's
the best thing that ever happened in God's creation. Because that
sacrifice put away the sin of God's elect and enables you and
me to come before the Father crying, Father, please, we beg
you, forgive my sin for Christ's sake. I couldn't cry, Father,
wash me in the blood, unless his blood had been shed at Calvary
Street. What looked like the worst thing that could possibly
happen was actually the best thing. That's God working out
His eternal will and purpose. Now that's the best example you'll
ever find. This is God's eternal will and
purpose being carried out to cross. Those men did what they
did because God determined before for it to be done. But you can
apply that very same truth to everything that happens in our
lives. Whatever it is that happens in our life, it's God working
out His eternal will and purpose And even though we may never
see it, I can promise you this, it's for good. And if we wait
long enough, we might find out that was the best thing that
ever happened to me. Because God did it just the way
that he ordained for it to happen. And we rest a whole lot easier
and we find it a whole lot easier to be patient and wait on the
Lord to accomplish his purpose of redemption for us if we would
remember this, everything about our story is God's eternal will
being carried out. All right, here's the second
thing. Now God's will's being carried out, but there's still
an enemy. Satan's our enemy, he's a crafty,
crafty enemy. It says in verse 11, back in
our text, Exodus 7, Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers.
Now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with
their enchantments. Now there's a lot of debate,
I read about this this week, about whether or not these magicians
actually turned their rods into serpents. or not, but here's
what I know for sure. Pharaoh and Moses and Aaron sure
thought they did. I mean, these fellas looked down
on the ground and there's not rods there, there's serpents
there. They sure thought they turned their rods into serpents.
But I tell you, I feel confident that this was a magic trick.
Aaron, when he threw his rod down on the ground, God turned
it into a serpent. I think this was a magic trick. the magicians
and sorcerers performed and here's why I say that. It says there
at the end of verse 11 that they did this with their enchantments. I looked that word enchantments
up because it seems to me like well they're casting a spell
you know abracadabra but that's not what it means. The word means
a flame, a flame something that burns something up engulfs it
with fire. Now that makes it sound to me
like these magicians use the same sleight of hand that magicians
use today. They made this fireball blow
up, you know, and there's a big distraction over here where you're
looking at it. And while you're looking at the fireball, they
used the sleight of hands and get these serpents, you know,
wherever they had them hid, you know, and put them on the ground.
And it just looks like it's sleight of hand. It's just like today.
You know, magician has a pan, he puts a big fire in it, and
he pulls a live dove out of it. You know, the dove's not burned.
Now, you know good and well that dove was not in that fireball,
but you don't know how it got out of there either. It's slight
of hand by the magician, wasn't it? All of that is a picture,
and I'll show you this more clearly in a minute, of how Satan operates. Satan is crafty. He uses slight of hand. to deceive
people. And he's not doing it in the
bars and the brothels and the dens of iniquity, whatever it
is you think the worst places in the world are, that's not
where Satan's operating. He's not operating there. He
doesn't have to. Nobody there is looking for Christ. Nobody
there is looking to Christ. Nobody there is looking for a
savior. Satan's single goal is to get just one, just one of
God's elect, Just get one sinner for whom Christ died to be lost
because they did not look to Christ, but they looked to something
else. That's Satan's entire goal. Because if Satan can do that
to just one of God's elect, he'll take Christ off the throne. God
will cease to be God because God could not accomplish his
purpose of the salvation of his people. Now Satan, he's just
like us. He didn't know who God's elect
are. So Satan's goal is just get as many people as possible
to trust something other than Christ alone, and hopefully,
to him, one of those people trusting something else will be one of
God's elect. Now that's Satan's only goal.
So Satan, where does he operate? In religion. He operates in religion. He operates in a place where
people are seeking salvation. That's where he operates. And
Satan operates chiefly in the pulpits. I typed that out in my notes
yesterday. I'm telling you, it scared me
half to death. I mean, it scared me to death. God, keep me from
this. Because Satan operates in the
pulpits. He operates in the message that
men preach. Because if Satan can get a man
to preach salvation by men's works, or he can get the man
to preach salvation as in religious ceremonies, and people just distrust
that they've been saved because they've gone through these religious
ceremonies. Or if Satan can get a man to just compromise, just
a half a turn. If he can get him to mix grace
and works just a little bit, if he can do that, nobody listening
to that message will be saved by Christ because they won't
be looking to Christ, they're gonna be looking to something
else. If Satan can get people so involved in their religion
that they feel just good and righteous and they feel holy,
they feel holy and righteous in something other than Christ
alone, if he can accomplish that, Satan wins. I'm telling you,
that's true, because think about it. If we feel holy and we feel
righteous, what are we gonna do? Lots of things probably,
but I tell you what we won't be doing is seeking Christ. The
only person that seeks Christ is a person that knows they're
a sinner, that knows they can't produce any righteousness of
their own. So be warned, Satan's not coming after you with a red
suit and a pitchfork. He came after Peter and that's
not how he came after Peter, was it? He's not coming after
you dressed like that because you wouldn't fall for that. Satan's
not coming after you with open sin and just a flat out open
denial of salvation by God's grace. He's not doing that because
you wouldn't fall for that. Satan comes after us by dazzling
us with a mixture of grace and worse. He comes after us by dazzling
us with something that he makes it sound like we can do to make
ourselves righteous. He dazzles us by saying, oh,
I can get some credit in this thing. I can be better than somebody
else in this thing. I can be closer to God, you know,
in this thing. Well, if I do this, I'll have
a better mansion in glory. I'll be closer to, you know,
to Christ than all these other people. He just dazzles us with
something that appeals to this flesh. And it won't be something
evil, because you wouldn't fall for that. More than likely, he'll
use something good and twist it to get you looking at that
instead of looking at Christ. You know, one of the real common
things I see in false religion today, it's all about somebody's
behavior, how you conduct yourself in this world. You know, if you
just live a holy life, your kids won't get on drugs and you'll
be happier and you'll make more money at work and, you know,
you'll have more friends and all these things. And it's focused,
seems like to me, so much on somebody's conduct. It's the
same thing as what the Apostle Paul dealt with. Touch not, taste
not, hang not. Now, a believer ought to have
good conduct in this world. I mean, you don't find anybody
that believes that more strongly than me. Our walk ought to be
godly. It ought to be. That's a good
thing. But if Satan can dazzle us, with
our good conduct so that we feel better than somebody else, we
won't look to Christ. See, he takes a good thing and
gets it out of its place. He gets it put in a place it
don't belong so we don't look to Christ alone anymore. That's
how subtly he can take our eyes off Christ. He's not doing it
just out in the open. It's a subtle thing. It's a thing
that deceives people. And I tell you how serious this
is. Any message Any form of faith other than Christ alone, it's
satanic. It's not just somebody doesn't
understand. It's not just that they need
to come to a fuller realization. It's satanic. That's Satan's
method to get our eyes off Christ alone, and he's doing it in the
pulpits. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
11. He's doing it in the pulpits
with these enchantments, just like Satan's sorcerers and magicians
did. 2 Corinthians 11, verse three. But I fear, lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. See, Satan's
in the deceiving business, just like Pharaoh's magicians were. He'll deceive you into thinking
you're seeing something righteous. You're seeing salvation by something
that you do. He's deceiving you and he lying
to you. It's an optical illusion. The
word simplicity that Paul uses there means singleness. Satan
tries to deceive people and get them away from the singleness
of Christ. Christ is the single source of
righteousness. He's the single source of life.
He's the single source of forgiveness. He's the single source of redemption.
He's the single source of mercy and grace and peace with God.
And anything other than Christ alone is an optical illusion
that will damn the soul. And that's the message that Satan
tries to get his false prophets, or does get his false prophets
to preach in the pulpits. Look down at verse 13, the same
chapter, 2 Corinthians 11. For such are false prophets,
they're deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing
that if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
These false prophets use sleight of hand to make it appear that
they are transformed into something that they're not. That they're
transformed into a minister of righteousness, that they're transformed
into a minister of Christ. They're making it appear like
they're preaching Christ alone when they're not. They make it
appear like they're preaching a way for you to be righteous
when they're not. And I tell you, the worst thing
is, is they make you think you're righteous when you're not, by
telling you, well, you've done this, this, and this, so you're
righteous, and it got nothing to do with Christ. And they're
taking it straight from Satan's playbook, aren't they? It takes
something that is good, you ought to be doing it, but it makes
it appear that that's righteousness instead of Christ alone. It's
Satan who makes that message of self-righteousness like that's
a message that'll save your soul. It's Satan who takes and mixes
Christ plus something else and makes it appear like that'll
save your soul, but it won't do it. And he does it by using
a fireball over here so you don't see the wickedness that's going
on over here. That's what he's doing. It's just a magician with
a sleight of hand. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3.
2 Timothy 3 verse 5. Having a form of godliness, their
message has a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.
From such turn away, for of this sort are they which creep into
houses and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led away
with divers lust, ever learning, and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood
Moses, so do these also resist the truth. They're men of corrupt
minds, reprobate concerning the faith. This is Satan operating
in the pulpits, where he gets preachers to preach a message
that sounds like salvation, that sounds like godliness, but it's
not. They preach about a man named
Jesus. but they deny the power thereof. They deny the power
of Christ to save sinners all by himself. He needs your help.
They deny the power of the blood of Christ to cleanse you from
all of your sin. The blood alone is not enough.
You gotta help. You gotta quit sinning. You gotta
do something. They deny the power of Christ's righteousness, that
Christ's obedience is not enough to make you righteous. You gotta
add some obedience of your own. So they talk about Jesus, but
they deny the power thereof. They talk about grace, but they
deny the power thereof. Yes, God's gracious, but you
better work to keep it, you know. All that is is using sleight
of hand, just like Pharaoh's magicians, Jannes and Jambres. Somehow Paul knew their name.
I don't know how this happened, but he knew their name. Those
are the men that threw down their rods in front of Moses and Aaron
and Pharaoh. And with their enchantments made
him turn into a serpent. And false prophets today are
no better than Jannes and Jambres were 4,000 years ago. They still
resist the gospel. They still resist Christ. And
they still use their enchantments to do anything that they can
do to make you look away from Christ alone. It's a subtle,
powerful enemy that we have. Satan. But now look back in our
text. I said all that to get here.
No matter what our enemies do, no matter how deceitful they
are, no matter how powerful that they are, no matter how many
of them that they are, Christ will always be victorious over
them. Verse 12, for they cast down
to every man his rod and they became serpents, but Aaron's
rod swallowed up their rods. Now, when we read of a serpent
in scripture, We automatically think of Satan, don't we? And
that's true. Satan, he took the form of a
serpent to come to Eve and to beguile Eve and deceive Eve. And all throughout scripture,
Satan is referred to as the old serpent, the deceiver. Now, Satan
was at the very heart of Pharaoh's religion. Whether Pharaoh knew
it or not, Satan was at the very heart of his religion. Pharaoh
wore a mitre. Just like the high priest, I
mean, later on, you know, God's gonna say, you make this mitre
and put the gold plate on holiness to the Lord. Pharaoh had a mitre. And you know what was on his
mitre? A cobra, raised up like he was getting ready to strike.
That was on this man's mitre, a serpent. Now, no question these
serpents have some reference to Satan and to the curse that
God put upon the serpent. But arrow casting down his rod
and becoming a serpent is not a picture of Satan. Believe it
or not, it's a picture of Christ and our salvation that's in him.
Let me see if I can't show you that. The Lord Jesus Christ is
referred to as the rod of Jesse, the branch, the rod of Jesse.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the God man. He's God born in human
flesh. He's God. but he's also a man
who descended from Jesse. He's the rod of Jesse. And this
man is perfect and righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only righteous man that ever lived. He's the only righteous
man who earned his own righteousness by his own obedience to the law.
The only one. This man was perfect. He did
no sin. He knew no sin. There was never
any guile found in his mouth. He never even thought about sin.
But when the fullness of time was come, the rod of Jesse was
cast down. The father cast him down. When
the father made Christ's sin for his people, the Lord Jesus
was cast down. Now the serpent is the only animal
God ever cursed. And when Christ was made sin
and cast down, he was made a curse for his people. Cursed is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. And the Father justly put him
to death for it. But when Christ was put to death,
when he died for the sin of his people, do you know he wasn't
defeated? If you and I died in battle,
that would be defeat for us, wouldn't it? But when Christ
died for the sin of his people, he wasn't defeated. In fact,
the death of Christ gave him the victory. It gave him the
victory over every enemy. Gave him the victory over Satan. Crushed Satan's head. It gave
him the victory over sin. He put away the sin of his people.
It gave him the victory over death. His people will never
die. It gave him the victory over hell. Not one of his people
will ever be sent to hell because Christ suffered it for him. That's
what was pictured. When Moses, sometime later, would
be out there in the wilderness and all the people were dying,
And what did the Lord tell him to do? Lift up a brazen serpent
on a pole. And everybody that looks will
live. Everybody that looks and trusts him will live because
he died the death that you deserve. Everybody that looks to him and
believes on him will live because he took your sin away. So you
cannot die. You must live. I tell you one
more time, look and live. If you look to Christ lifted
up on a tree, you must be given eternal life. You must be. Now
I show you that. Look at Isaiah chapter 25. This
is what Christ accomplished. And when after he died, three
days later, he rose from the dead. Psalm 25, verse six. And in this mountain shall the
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast
of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wines
on the leaves well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain
the face of the covenant cast over all people, and the veil
that is spread over all nations, he will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall
he take away from off all the earth. How do you know that's
gonna happen? For the Lord has spoken it. I
know that's gonna happen because God said so. The Lord Jesus Christ
has swallowed up every enemy. Gary, they're gone. He swallowed
them up, they're gone. Just like Aaron's rod that became
a serpent swallowed up all those magician serpents and they're
gone. If Christ died for you, your
enemy's gone. Your sin is gone so that it can
never hurt you. It can never condemn you ever
again. He swallowed it up. One more
scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2, beginning in verse eight. And then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders, all that deceiving, all that
enchanting, all that the twisting of the gospel, Lord's gonna put
them all away. With all deceivableness of unrighteousness
and then the parish, because they received not the love of
the truth that they might be saved, And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness. All those enemies God's gonna
destroy. But what about his people? But
we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. How do I know God's people are
gonna be saved? How do I know none of them are
gonna perish? Because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the
truth. For unto he called you by our gospel. God has sent his
gospel to his people. You don't have to worry about
that. He called them by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you've been taught, whether by
word or our epistle. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, hath given us
everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts, establish you in every word and work. Every enemy will
be destroyed. Now, I know we don't see that
yet, but one day we will. This creation's gonna be rid
of Satan, of his deceivers, All self-righteousness is all gonna
be destroyed once and for all, and there'll be no more curse.
Because Christ has made a curse for us and took that curse away.
You know, Pharaoh asked for a sign, didn't he? A miracle. God gave
it to him. Pharaoh still would not believe
what he saw. He would not. God hardened his
heart. My prayer for you and me is,
that the Lord give us faith to believe what we've heard. Faith
doesn't come by seeing. Faith cometh by hearing. Oh,
if God give us the faith to believe what we've heard of Christ tonight,
our hearts will be settled and they'll be calmed a little bit,
won't they? A little bit. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, how we thank you for your word. How can we even
begin to thank you for salvation completely accomplished by our
Lord Jesus Christ for his people. That every enemy is destroyed
and that all he's doing right now is gathering up his people,
calling them to Christ, to the preaching of the gospel, waiting
till it's time to return to bring his people home. Father, we're
so thankful. And Father, I pray that you'd
comfort our hearts with the belief, with the understanding that all
things that are happening are your eternal will and purpose
being carried out in creation for good, for the salvation and
glorification of your people. And Father, until such time,
as you're pleased to call us home or you're pleased to return,
Father, let us be found faithful, preaching your word, preaching
your gospel, preaching and trusting and believing in Christ and Christ
alone. Father, it's for Christ's sake, For His glory we pray,
Amen.