Exodus 4 and verse 1 and Moses
answered and said but behold They will not believe me nor
hearken unto my voice For they will say the Lord hath not appeared
to thee Now God had already told Moses in chapter 3 that the elders
of Israel would hearken to his voice The Lord told him, you
go to the elders of Israel, and you and the elders will go to
Pharaoh, and they'll hearken to your voice. Pharaoh won't.
In fact, he told, God told Moses in chapter three, look at verse
16 of chapter three. In verses 16 through 20, God
told Moses how this whole matter would go with regard to the results,
both good and bad. Look at it with me, verse 16.
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 unto the
land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and
the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites unto a land
flowing with milk and honey. and they shall hearken unto 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. And I am sure that the king of
Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand, and I will
stretch out my hand and smite Egypt." Oh, don't you love the
language of Scripture? Not by a mighty hand. Pharaoh,
in his own mind, he's the king. And it's interesting that the
Lord tells him to speak respectfully unto him, even though he's a
horrible reprobate. He said, tell him, let us go,
we beseech thee, as you would address a king. And then he says,
by a mighty hand he won't let you go, But then God said, I'm
gonna stretch out my hand. Pharaoh's gonna, he's gonna hold
you with his mighty hand. And then I'm gonna stretch out
my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will
do in the midst of thereof. And after that, he will let you
go. So you see how he tells Moses
everything that's gonna happen as far as the results are concerned.
He said, the elders of Israel will listen to you. Pharaoh won't
listen to you. And then I'm going to do something
and then he will listen to you. Isn't that clear? And this is
precisely the way the Lord has dealt with us. We don't know
much about what's going to happen as far as details are concerned,
but we know the results, don't we? I don't know what's going
to happen five minutes from now, much less tomorrow or five years
from now, except this. I know the results. I know that
this ministry, the Lord's ministry here and everywhere in this world,
will succeed. It will accomplish the purpose
for which God sent it. His gospel is being preached
and he always gives the victory where his gospel is preached. We may fall away. I may fall. If we're pretenders, we will
fall eventually. And there are many warnings in
the scriptures about this. Paul wasn't presumptuous about
himself, was he? He said in 1 Corinthians 9 27,
but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest
that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself
should be a castaway. I'm not so sure about me, but
I know about the Lord's ministry. It's going to succeed. It's going
to be victorious. It's going to prosper. I know
that God's word will not return into him void, and that he, God,
will save. Christ has promised us this,
as long as we're preaching his gospel, unless he lets us go
now, we won't stand long without his grace, without his upholding
power. But if when he's with us, we're
preaching his gospel, and he's with us, we won't lack anything.
Isn't that what he said to his preacher? You're not going to
lack anything. And he said that he promised
us that wherever we gather in his name, I'll be there with
you. I know that. Moses knew the Lord
was going with him. Whatever was going to happen
in Egypt, the Lord was going with him because he told him he would.
He told us the same thing. He said that his word wouldn't
return. He said that everybody, when you preach my gospel, everybody
that hears you, I'll save them. And everybody that won't, I'll
damn them. We know that, don't we? Whatever else happens along
the way, we know that. We know this, he said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Tonight, next year, ten
years from now, in his sovereign purpose and time, all that the
Father giveth him will come to him. And him that cometh unto
me, he said, I will in no wise cast out. I can promise you that
based on His promise. If you come to Him right now,
He won't cast you out. We know the results, don't we?
We know what's going to happen. We know the important part, because
He's revealed it to us. All God's sheep are going to
be saved. That's how it's going to go.
And I know how this world is going to end up, too. Don't you? Well, Chris, you know, what's
the great tribulation going to be like? You know, is the world
government, you know, it's going to be a one world government,
right? And they're going to make us wear a 666 on our forehead
or we won't be able to buy anything. So we'll all be, you know, we'll
be refugees because God's people aren't going to put that mark
in their head. So we'll be, we'll be running from the world government
and all this kind. I don't know many details. I seriously doubt if it's going
to be like that. Don't have a lot of details, but I know this.
All of God's enemies are going to be destroyed, and all of his
people are going to be safe. Not necessarily from physical
harm. We don't have that promise, do we? We don't have that promise.
Stephen died a horrible death. But I'll tell you this, God gave
him grace in the midst of it. He gave him grace that even though
those people were rushing on him with rocks to break his body
to pieces, What a horrible death. He had grace to call on God.
He prayed that the Lord wouldn't lay that sin to their charge. He had grace to do that. And
I'll tell you this, as they were rushing toward him, as they gnashed
on him with their teeth and they took up stones to stone him,
he wasn't looking at them, though. He was looking at his Savior,
standing on the right hand of the majesty on high. standing,
waiting to receive him into his loving arms. That's not a bad
way to go, is it? Don't we know what's gonna happen? Don't we know enough? Moses knew
enough, didn't he? And so do we. By God's grace,
we know this, our God's on the throne. He's on the throne. And this verse reminds us that
the greatest of men are flesh. Moses was greatly used of God,
but he was greatly used of God in spite of Moses. If he uses
us, it'll be in spite of us. God had told Moses in no uncertain
terms that they would hearken unto him. And Moses here in verse
one basically says, no, they won't. No, they won't. Isn't that what he said? Does this remind you of Peter?
In Matthew 26, 34, Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto you,
that this night before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter said unto him, though
I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. What did the
Lord just say? You're going to do, Peter. He
didn't say you might. He said, you're going to deny
me. And Peter said, I will not deny thee. Well, let me ask you
this, does it remind you of anybody else? I hope it doesn't just
remind you of others because we're all exactly the same way.
We're full of unbelief. But I'll tell you this, this
verse also is a comforting verse because we see that though Moses
knew these elders, He knew these people. You know, the Lord called
them a stiff-necked and rebellious people. And they were, and Moses
knew that. And he had every reason, knowing
them, to think that they would not believe him. And yet God
is sovereign. God said they will. This gives
me great comfort, doesn't it, you concerning my loved ones.
As we mentioned before, Recently, sometimes it seems like it's
futile even to say a word to them. You know, before you say
it, they're not going to listen to you. You know how steeped
and how in tradition and superstition they are and how rebellious they
are against the truth and how caught up in this wicked world
they are. You know what their attitude toward the gospel has
always been, and you just don't expect it. You're just like Moses. You say, they're not going to
believe me. They're not going to say God sent you. They're
going to say, shut up and leave me alone. I've had them say worse
than that. God's on the throne. And God said, Moses, they will hearken to you. My
people shall be willing in the day of my power. My hand is not
shortened that it cannot save, he said in Isaiah 59, one. He said to Abraham in Genesis
18, 14, is anything too hard for the Lord? And notice here that Moses in
verse one, he's talking about the unbelief of the people. He's
saying, they're not going to believe you. And as he's saying
that, it's unbelief on his part. Because God had already said
they're going to believe you. They're going to listen to you.
They're going to hearken unto you. This is compound unbelief. It's impossible to believe God
in it without grace. With men it's impossible. Verse two, look at the next several
verses with me. And the Lord said unto him, what
is that in thy hand? And he said, a rod. And he 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
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, and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. The sovereign
God who chose Abraham and went where he was when Abraham didn't
know there was a God, much less who the real God was, except
for his idols. The merciful God that picked
that worm Jacob out of the dust. The God of miraculous grace that
caused Isaac to be born. of the power of God. I'm that
God. And as you're performing this
miracle, this is what they're gonna believe. They're gonna
believe that I am that God. And the Lord said, furthermore
unto him, put now thine hand into thy bosom. And when he took
it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said,
put thy 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. 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, neither hearken unto
thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river. And
let me comment before we go on about this. If they won't believe
this one, they'll believe that one. He already said they're
gonna believe. This if is not, well, they might
believe or they might not believe. What he's saying here is some
of them are gonna believe right at the beginning. When you do
that first sign, some of them are gonna believe. But the ones
that don't believe then, they'll believe when you do the second
one. And if there's any left, if there's any, they're all going
to believe. You see the God's work of grace here in the gospel.
Some will believe in the morning. Some will believe at noonday.
Some it'll be, it'll be evening. The thief on the cross. It was almost midnight, wasn't
it? It was almost midnight. But he said, my people shall
believe. They will believe. And then he
said, here's what you do. This is the final thing. Thou
shalt take of the water of the river, verse nine, the middle
of verse nine, and pour it upon the dry land. And the water which
thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. I've been hearing the gospel
since before I could understand a complete sentence. Literally. I've been preaching the gospel for almost 30 years, probably
right at 30 years. I've never seen this, and it's
one of the most beautiful pictures of Christ. that I've ever seen
in my life. God has always been a God of
miracles. When the apostles were sent forth,
Christ gave them the ability to perform miracles. Why? The
very same reason he gave Moses that ability here. Exactly the
same reason. Listen to what Paul said in Hebrews
2, 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and
diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to
his own will. Now look back at our text in
Exodus four and look at verse five. He said, you're gonna take this
rod And you're going to cast it on the ground, and it's going
to become a serpent. And then you're going to take
it up again by the tail, and it's going to become a rod again.
That, for this purpose, that they may believe that the Lord
God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob have appeared unto you." They're going to know
that I sent you because of the miracles. And that's exactly
why miracles accompanied the gospel preaching in the Apostles'
Day. So that they would know that
God sent them. Not that they would believe on
the miracles. Not that the miracles are the gospel. That's not it.
Christ said in John 5, 36, I have greater witness than that of
John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish.
The same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father
hath sent me. That's what the miracles bear
witness of, that you're a man of God, that God sent you, the
one who is sovereign and he can do anything, that the natural
order of things is in his hand to control. that sovereign God
who created all things and by whom and for whom they all are
created. That's who sent me. That's what
the faith in the miracles is not saving faith. There were
those that believe because of the miracles. In John chapter
two, we're told that many believe because of the miracles, but
Christ didn't commit himself to them because he knew what
was in them. Saving faith is in the person
of Christ. It always has been. It always
will be. It's in the, there's one object
of saving faith, the person of Christ and his work. Can't separate
him and what he did. Not, faith has nothing to do
with what can be seen with these eyes. We walk by faith, not by
sight. So it's not faith in the miracles,
but the miracles are given to show who sent you. And that's
what he said there, that they know that the God of their father
sent you. That's why you're gonna do these
miracles. And understand this also, the miracles they performed
in the New Testament, the apostles performed, they were all pictures
of that gospel they preached. They weren't just magic acts.
The miracles themselves showed how that by God's power and by
God's power alone sinners are brought to life from the dead.
It showed how that God and by his power can make you able to
walk before God that are by nature lame on both of your feet. It's
by God's power and grace that a leper, a spiritual leper can
be made clean. It's by God's power that all
of our soul's diseases are healed. And these are shown in the miracles. And here in Exodus, these signs
that Moses performed, as I said, are most beautiful pictures of
God's saving grace in Christ. This rod turning into a serpent
and then him taking it up by the tail and it turning back
into a rod again. This is not just a magic trick.
The rod in the scripture is the symbol of strength. It's the
symbol of power. Our Lord Jesus Christ is called
the rod of God's strength. In Psalm 110.2, listen to this. The Lord shall send the rod of
his strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. Who do you think that's talking
about? Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. and
the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. Thou
hast the due of thy youth. Why are they gonna be willing?
Because of God's power. Where's his power gonna come
from? He's gonna send the rod of his strength out of Zion.
Christ is gonna come. And by the will and power of
Christ, God's people are made willing. My sheep hear my voice. They always have. Old Testament,
New Testament. It's by the voice of Christ that
sinners are saved. The rod of God's strength. You
remember what all was inside the Ark of the Covenant? There
were three things in there. The broken law, showing how the
mercy seat covers the broken law. The pot of manna, which
is Christ. Christ said, I am that bread
that came down from heaven. That manna. Moses didn't give
you that bread. God gave you that bread. And
I am the bread that came down from heaven. And there was one
other thing in there. Aaron's rod that budded. The
rod. And it's Christ. So clearly and
so beautifully. It was the budding of that rod
of Aaron whereby God showed in Numbers chapter 16 and 17 who
his true high priest was. So that that rod signified Christ
as God's anointed high priest of his people. And everybody
else is an imposter. And no man can come before God
apart from the high priest. Into that holy of holies came
the high priest alone, only once a year, not without blood. And
Paul said, our great high priest also had somewhat to offer, not
the blood of bulls and of goats, but his own precious blood. And
it was that bunning rod that identified Aaron as God's high
priest. That's Christ, the high priest
of God's people. In Exodus 4.20, look what it
says. Look at verse 20 of our text.
It's a little further down than what we'll look at tonight, but
it's significant to what we're talking about. In the context
right here, what is this rod? It was probably just Moses' shepherd's
staff. Don't you imagine? He was a shepherd,
and he had a staff in his hand, a rod. Same word. Could be rod
or staff, but oh, it was so much more. in the purpose of God and
by the power of God. It says in verse 20, and Moses
took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass and he returned
to the land of Egypt. Here he goes back to Egypt, probably
with fear, probably trembling, probably his teeth were clacking
together a little bit, but look at the rest. He returned to the
land of Egypt and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And the Lord said unto Moses,
when thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those
wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand. That's the power of God he's
holding in his hand. Who's the power of God? Unto
the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto
them which are called. Christ, the wisdom. and power
of God. The Lord Jesus said to Moses
from that bush, I'll go with you. And that rod is the symbol
of his presence. That's Christ. I've put the power in your hand.
I've put the ability to do these wonders in your hand. I've put
the very deliverance of my people in your hand. That's what that
was. But I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people
go. The rod signified Christ's presence, Christ's power, Christ's
favor, and God put it in Moses' hand. Why was Moses able to do
these great wonders? He had the rod of God in his
hand, that's why. How are we able to do anything
at all besides sin? Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ. which strengthens me. The rod
is Christ. Turn to Exodus chapter 17. I
want to be thorough here because this is so important to our text. Exodus 17, 8. Look at Exodus 17, eight. And
then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses
said unto Joshua, choose us out men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the
top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua
did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses,
Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill and it came to
pass when Moses held up his hand. with that rod in it, that Israel
prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon,
and Aaron and her stayed up his hands, the one on the one side
and the other on the other side. In other words, Moses ain't doing
anything anymore. He's just sitting there like
a rock. But Christ is held up. That's
all that matters. Christ is the victory. And his hands were steady until
the going down. Of the sun, may God give us grace
to hold up Christ as we do battle in this wicked world. Whatever
else we do to hold up the Lord Jesus Christ so that our enemies
can see in whose strength we fight. He said, you make sure
and do these things before Pharaoh. Do it right in his throne room.
Do it right before his face. And so that the armies of Israel
can be encouraged in the Lord. May we, by his grace, hold up
Christ. But here in verse three, what
did God tell Moses to do with that rock? Cast it down to the
earth. The rod's coming down to the
earth, and what happens to it there? It turns into a serpent. What's the serpent a symbol of? You remember what happened in
Numbers chapter 21? Turn there with me, Numbers 21,
4. Numbers chapter 21 in verse 4. We don't have time to look much
into this, but just on the very surface of this, I believe it's
clear what happened in our text. And they journeyed, Numbers 21
for they journeyed that the people of Israel from Mount Hor by the
way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom, and the soul
of the people was much discouraged because of the way, and the people
spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought
us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is
no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth
this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore, the people came to
Moses and said, We have sinned. For we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee, praying to the Lord that he take away
the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent and
set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that
is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses made
a serpent of brass and put it up on a pole. No, don't make
a serpent. Make an angel. The serpent is
the problem. The serpents bit us. The poison
is in our veins. And we're as sure, we're as good
as dead. We're goners. Don't make a serpent. Oh, it's got to be a serpent.
In order for the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from the fiery serpents,
he got to become a serpent. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin and condemned sin in the flesh. The
Lord Jesus Christ became what we are. He was made sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, the serpent. And it came to pass that everyone When he beheld the serpent, if
a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived, look and live. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus,
like that serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. Made sin, lifted up, look and
live. You see the picture. And so the
rod of God, the very power of God, The miraculous, gracious,
people-delivering power of God is cast down to the earth and
becomes a serpent, but he didn't stay that way. He didn't stay
that way. He was made a curse for us, Galatians
3.13, but he's not a curse now. God said to Moses, take that
serpent up again, and it became a rod again, the power of God. And at the name of Jesus Christ,
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess what? That
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the
rod. Now Moses was told to throw this
rod down at Pharaoh's feet and to show this wonder to him. You show Pharaoh my power. What
is it that God did? in order to defeat all of his
enemies and our enemies. In the very Garden of Eden, way
back yonder, the Lord said to Adam and Eve, Satan, the serpent,
shall bruise the seed of woman's heel. With that very act of that
bruising, by that very act, Satan's head will be crushed. God said,
you make sure you do this before Pharaoh, you show Pharaoh my
power. Now verses six and seven, look
at verses six and seven, Exodus chapter four. And the Lord said, furthermore
unto him, put 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. And he said, put thy hand into
thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his
bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom as a whole. It was
turned again as his other flesh. Now what does leprosy represent?
The same thing the serpent represents. Sin, the corruption, the disease
of sin. The hand is clean to begin with.
just as you and I in the garden were upright and holy and perfect
before God. But God said, put your hand in
your bosom. Why there? That's where our problem
is right there. And you remember the publican
who wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, and
he cried out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. What was he
doing when he said that? He was beating on his breast.
You know why he was doing that? Because he knew what his problem
was. That's why. Put your hand in
your bosom, Moses, and when it comes out, it's leprous. The
leprosy of sin. Incurable, horrible, stinking
and vile before God. That's the source of our problem. Our black, evil, wicked heart. Christ said, it's not what goes
into the man that defiles the man. Eat what you want to eat.
Drink what you want to drink. But it's what comes out of the
heart. That's your problem. That's your problem. And then
what did he do? He put it back in his bosom again
and brought it out and it was clean. It was pure again. Why? How does God solve your
sin problem? He does a work in the same place
that the problem originated from. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Salvation is heart work. Your
problem is your sinful, evil heart before God. And if God
ever saves you, here's how he'll do it. He said, I'll give you
a new heart. I'll give you a new heart. God's
got to do a work right there in your bosom for you to be clean. Now, verse nine, and this is
the, the simplest and most beautiful. You might think, you know, that
Moses should have started with this one. This seems so, so simple. And then work his way up to the
serpent. That's the most impressive. But I'll tell you this, if you
ever see the blood, nothing will ever impress you again. But the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What better and more plain and clear picture could
God give of His power exerted for the deliverance of His people?
There's power in the blood. How is His people going to be
delivered? Pour out some blood on the ground before Pharaoh
and show him what I'm fixing to do. You see that? It was blood
that covered Adam and Eve's nakedness before God. It was blood that
made Abel's offering a more excellent one than Cain's. And when God
would show Pharaoh all of his enemies and all of the Hebrews,
his people, what he would do in his powerful deliverance of
his people from oppression and misery, God said to Moses simply,
I want you to pour blood out on the ground. Moses said, well, they won't
believe me. And God said, in effect, with all of these signs,
these beautiful pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ, he said, Moses,
you set forth. And this is what he says to us. Set forth Christ in him crucified. And my people shall believe.
They shall. Let's bow in prayer.