Turn back to Exodus chapter 4,
title of the message, Three Signs. These signs mean something. God is not giving these signs
to impress Israel. God does not do anything to impress
us. He's God. He doesn't need to
impress anyone. Not at all. So he gives these three signs,
and they have a real meaning in them. Now, salvation comes
by revelation. When God saves a sinner, that
sinner will see Christ That sinner will see its need
of Christ and he will see Christ's ability to save from sin. Salvation is not you or me deciding to do something
and God reacting to it. Salvation is believing God. It
is evidenced by believing the gospel. which is the work of
God in the soul. It's the work of God in us. If
a man or woman truly believes the gospel, that is a work of
God. Now, back in chapter 3, in verse
18, and they shall hearken, God speaking
to Moses, and they shall hearken to thy voice. And thou shalt
come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt,
and you shall say unto him, 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." Now you go and tell him to let my people go. And he says, Moses, the children
of Israel, will hearken to your voice. They will listen to you.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking audibly to Moses out
of this bush. This is the Lord speaking to
him. Chapter 4. Look how it starts. And Moses answered and said,
But behold, they will not believe me. This is Moses. The Lord just told him. He just
told him, they will believe you. They will believe you. When I
read this, I thought, God uses sinners to preach the gospel. Moses said, they will not believe
me. And he had just told Moses, they will believe. They will
hearken to your voice. And Moses didn't believe him.
Moses did not believe him. But God uses sinners like Moses
and like myself to preach the gospel. But also thought of this, this message sounds too good
to be true. They've been in this place under
bondage for 400 years. And Moses is probably thinking
this is going to sound too good to be true. And they're not going
to believe me. And I can tell you for a fact,
If God does not do a work in me, in you, we will not believe
this message. No way. First of all, it does
sound too good to be true. If you really hear it, it sounds
too good to be true. My sins are all gone. I stand
righteous before God without having to do anything, having
done anything. I'm going to inherit all that
belongs to Him. I'm going to walk and live on
a new earth wherein dwells righteousness? And I'm going to believe that
a man did this for me that I've never seen? And I've never heard
him speak. Not audibly. Through his memory
we have. We know that. But I've not heard
the Lord speak from heaven audibly. That's just too good to be true.
But it's so. And it takes God It takes God
to reveal the gospel to the soul, to reveal Christ before a man
will ever believe it. But when He reveals it, and He
creates within you a new heart, you'll believe it. You will believe
it. And that's why He gives them
these three signs. These three signs here. And in verse 2, here's the first
sign. And the Lord said unto him, What
is that? in thine hand," and he said,
a rod. It's just a rod in the hand of
a mediator. You know, Moses is the mediator. But he says, it's a rod. And
God said, cast that rod, cast it on the ground, throw 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 caught it, and it became a rod in his hand,
that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of
the covenant, hath appeared to thee." Now this rod represents
someone. This rod represents the Lord
Jesus Christ. See, he's not given these signs
to impress Israel. These signs are given as a type
and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Isaiah 11.
In Isaiah 11, look in verse one,
this rod is Christ. And there shall come. of Isaiah
11, verse 1, 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 rest 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 a 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, 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. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." This
rod represents the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Psalm 2, verse
9, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. That rod of iron
is Christ. Look over at Psalm 110. In Psalm 110, look in verse 2. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Who is that? Who is the rod of
Zion's strength? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who it is. He's Aaron's rod that budded.
In Hebrews 9.4, let me just read it to you. It says, Which had
the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round
about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna,
and Aaron's rod that budded. It had life in it. There was no root in the ground.
It was not planted in the ground. It was laying in that ark. But
it budded. It had life in it. It represents
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is represented here as
a rod for His power, for His rule, for His strength and for
His comfort. What's it say in Psalm 23? thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me." The rod that comforts me, the staff that comforts me is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the rod of God. Look over
in verse 20 back in Exodus chapter 4. And Moses took his wife and his
sons and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of
Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. The rod of God is the Lord Jesus
Christ. I can go through. There was a
lot of scripture to write and go through here, but that's enough.
But notice here, God told Moses to cast the rod on the ground,
and when he did, it became a serpent. It became a real serpent, not
a play like. This serpent, and I believe it
was a fiery serpent, a poisonous serpent, because Moses fled from
it. He was afraid of, you know, you're not afraid of a green
snake. You're afraid of a poisonous snake. And Moses fled from it,
showing, first of all, our inability to deal with Satan and sin and
the effects of it. We can't deal with it. We cannot
deal with it. But now, listen. Watch this. That rod that was in the hand
of Moses was made to be what it was not. It was a rod. And it was made,
it became a serpent, which represents, it represents Satan as a serpent. Read that over in Revelations,
Revelation chapter 12. Satan introduced sin, and it
represents sin. Sin is what we are. And Christ
came into this world in the likeness, it says, of sinful flesh. And
it was a serpent, listen, it was a serpent that God told Moses
to make a fiery serpent, a brazen serpent, and put it upon a pole. And when the people looked, the
people who were bitten by the serpent, when they looked to
it, They were healed. They were healed. Now listen. Christ was made what
he was not. He was made to be what he was
not. He was made to be sin. He was
actually made to be sin. Not just play like. He was actually
made to be sin. He became a real substitute for
God's people. And in doing that, He had me
made what I am. That rod became a serpent. It was made to be a serpent.
It says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, He was made sin for us. It's hard. We can't even imagine
that. Really, you want to feel yourself wanting to draw back
from it. But so, I can't explain this, but God, God did it. God
did it. He made his son to be sin for
us. He was not looked upon just as though he were sin. He was
not looked upon as guilty. He became guilty. When the law
dealt with him at Calvary, it dealt with a guilty person. There's
the only way I can put away sin. The only way it can be put away
is for the guilty to die. Has to be. Has to be. He was
made guiltiness. Turn over to Isaiah 53. Isaiah
53. In Isaiah 53, listen, in verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. But remember this phrase, thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. His soul was made an offering
for sin. Now, turn over to Genesis chapter
26. Look in verse 10. And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? One of the people might likely
have lying with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness
upon us." If you take Strong's Hebrews concordance, you will
see that the word guiltiness here in Genesis 26.10 means exactly
the same as his soul made an offering for sin. He was made
guiltiness. That's what it's saying. He was
made guiltiness. There is no justice done in an
innocent man dying in the place of a guilty man. Would we allow
that? Would we allow that? We would
throw the judge out that would do such a thing. We would throw
him out. There's no justice done. Justice
is served when the guilty one dies. That's when justice is
served. Now listen, only God can make
this transaction. Only God can take a staff, a
rod, and make it become a serpent. And it became a serpent. Only
God can make Christ to be sin for us. And He did so there in
the Garden of Gethsemane. When Christ was in such agony,
it was not over the punishment, it was in being made sin. You and I cannot grasp or see
the vileness of that. He did. He saw it. He felt it. He knew it. He knew it. Did Christ sin? No. Not at all. Was he actually made
sin? Absolutely. That's substitution. That's substitution. This is
the mystery of the gospel, and we need to leave it a mystery.
We need to leave it a mystery, not water it down so people won't
be offended. This is the truth. This is it.
This is the first sign that God gave to Moses to give to the
children of Israel Here's the first sign we see, the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot understand sin until
this happens, until you see it in the light of Him being made
sin. You can't do it. We can use all the adjectives
in the world to describe sin, but when you see Christ being
made sin and what God the Father did to Him because of it, Then
you get some understanding of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. But not till then. Not till then.
If I say that sin is evil. If I say that it's wicked. That
really has no effect on you. But I say Christ has made sin. You start to feel uncomfortable.
I was telling somebody this past week, I said, I realize, when
I hear that, I feel myself starting to draw back. I said, because
I realize, I start to realize what sin is. And to think that
he was made sin. It's not until we see Christ
being made sin, and what happened to him at Calvary, that we begin
to have some understanding of the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
You know, saying it's evil, saying it's wicked, that really has
no, anybody says, well, yeah, you're right. I mean, you can
get a drunk to agree with you on that. But when you say that
he was made to be sin, oh, then you, you feel, and you see what
happened to him. You see what God the Father did
to him. Then you begin to see something of what sin is and
God's hatred of sin. Now the second sign, And the
Lord said furthermore unto him, But now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his
bosom. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous
as snow. It was real leprous, rotted. I was reading in one place, they
said when leprosy gets to be at its worst stage, it glistens.
It glistens like snow. So white. And behold, it 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
turned again as his other flesh. Before Adam fell, he was whole. Adam didn't know any sin. He
was perfect. God made him upright. God made
him upright. But when he sinned, he died and
he was ruined and he ruined his posterity. All of us, all of
us. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And he uses leprosy here because
leprosy in the scripture is used as a type of sin because it destroys
the whole person. And in the Scriptures, it's declared
to be unclean. You know, a leper had to go through
the street crying, unclean, unclean, covering his mouth, unclean.
You can only imagine that leper that came to the Lord Jesus Christ
and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. You can
turn me back to just like what happens to Moses
here. He sticks his hand back in his bosom. Lord, you can make
me whole. You can make me whole, but leprosy
destroyed the whole person. It declared one to be unclean.
But thank God, there's a cure. There's a cure. God told Moses
to put his hand back into his bosom, and he did. And when he
pulled it out, it was as whole as the other hand. First, we
had Christ be made sin for us. Now we see What's the rest of
that verse in 2 Corinthians 5.21? He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Pull that hand back out. And
it was whole. It's a new birth. Regeneration. He stuck his hand in there where
the problem was, right there in his breast, right there in
the heart where sin is. And he pulls it out and he's
got this leprous hand. He says, put it back in. Then he pulls
it out. And it's whole. It's whole. In Christ, we've been made whole.
In Christ, we have no sin. I am as holy as I will ever be
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm that way now. I'm not
just looked upon that way. You're not just looked upon that
way. You are that way now. We are, as God sees us. That's
right. And this is the work of the Spirit
of God in us. This is the new birth. This is
regeneration. This is that new man created
in Christ Jesus, that new man. And then we come to the third
sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee.
And God knew this. He knew this. But there's three
things that's got to be revealed. Christ in his substitutionary
work. There's got to be the work of the Spirit in regeneration.
Or you'll never see that. You'll never see Christ in his
substitutionary work. But it shall come to pass, if
they will not believe thee, neither hearken unto 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, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take
the water of the river, pour it upon the dry land, and the
water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood."
Blood. Judgment. Blood upon the dry land. This
represents judgment against sin. Water turning into blood. First
we had the rod turning into a serpent, then back into a rod. You know, that rod was a rod, then God turned it
into a serpent. And then what happened after
that? It turned back into a rod again.
It turned right back into a rod again. Christ became what He
was, what He always was. Let me find the Scripture. Let's
see if I can find the Scripture here. I don't know if I wrote
it down or not. Let me see if I can find it. It's over in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter
9, I want you to see this before I finish up here. Look in Hebrews
chapter 9, that rod became a serpent. Christ was made to be sin. And
then it turned back into a rod again, without sin. In Hebrews chapter 9, look in
verse, let me get there, look in verse 28. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. And unto them that looked for
him shall he appear the second time without sin. Without sin. Moses took hold
of that serpent and it turned back into a rod. Christ was made
to be what he was not, dealt with sin, put it away, and became
what he always was, holy, righteous, sovereign. And those who look
for him the second time shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. Turn back into
a rod. And then we had Moses becoming
leprous and then turning back whole again. And now we have
blood. Blood. We do not have a gospel
to preach without blood. There is no remission of sins
without blood. There can be no deliverance out
of Egypt without blood. There can be no true faith without
blood. Any preaching that does not have
the blood of Christ in it You will have no conversions. You
will have no regenerations. You'll have religion. You'll
always have that. But you'll never have true conversion,
true regeneration. You'll never have it. The Holy
Spirit does not save without the blood. It doesn't do it. It doesn't do it. And in closing, Look what happened when the Israelites
heard and saw these three signs. Let's go back to Exodus chapter
4. In Exodus chapter 4, look in verse 30. Let's go back to verse 27. And the Lord said to Aaron, Go
into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went and met him in the
mount of God, and he 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. And
Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses,
and did the signs He gave them all three signs in the sight
of the people. And after he did this, and the
people believed. And they believed. You can't
believe without God giving you a revelation, an understanding
of Christ, his substitutionary work, the gospel. The gospel. And the people believed.
And when they heard that the Lord had visited The children
of Israel. Oh, that's when they heard that
he had what? Past tense. Visited the children
of Israel. That he had looked upon their
afflictions. He had dealt with their afflictions. He looked
upon them and taken care of the situation. Then they bowed their
heads and worshipped. And worshipped. They heard that
the Lord had visited the children of Israel. Listen, it's when
we hear of the good news of the gospel, how that God visited us in eternity
past in the covenant of grace, and how that he came into this
world and was made flesh and dwelt among us. and how he bore
our sins in his body on the tree at Calvary. And now he's seated
at God's right hand, ruling and reigning until that last one
is brought in, that last one is visited. When we hear that, when we really
hear it, how He loved us, chose us, gave Christ for us. When we hear that, that's when
we will truly bow our heads, bow our hearts and worship. When they saw these signs and
they heard how God had visited past tense, And how he had seen their affliction,
he looked upon their afflictions, oh, they bowed their heads and
they worshiped. That's when we worship God, when
we hear the gospel. When God sends the gospel to
us in power, we hear of His goodness, His mercy, and what He's done
for us in Christ. Thy thoughts to us cannot, the
psalmist said, be reckoned up in order. And that's when we
worship. That's when we really, truly
worship God. Well, I hope that was helpful.