So now I'm going to turn to your,
the subject before us, that of the Book
of Exodus.
We're going to give two talks today that
are absolutely necessary background subjects in order to
bring you into, shall we say, mentally at
least, into harmony with the intended teaching of
the Spirit of God in bringing up the
subject of the tabernacle.
It's God's answer to the conditions that we
find described here in the earlier chapters of
the book.
That's how God has written the Word of
God.
He gives us, like in the schoolroom, the
dark background of a blackboard and then he
writes upon that his answer to the situation
as contained in that dark background.
Man in his sin and departure and rebellion
needs a remedy and God has the remedy,
only God.
And so that is portrayed for us in
picture form in the subject before us in
this wonderful book of Exodus.
Being the second book of the Bible, by
the very number, and we're going to study
numbers and their value in the Word of
God, for they are very significant, and the
number two indicates rescue.
There has to be a second person to
rescue one who is helpless and would drown,
we'll suggest, or would die if it weren't
for somebody to come along and rescue him,
like the good Samaritan came where the poor
man was and took care of him.
And so the second book in the Bible
indicates the second person of the Trinity, the
Lord Jesus Christ, coming to rescue a man
in the dilemma in which his sin has
placed him or placed us.
And so the whole thing is a marvelous
description of the New Testament therefore, the second
book or second part of the Bible.
So it says in the first verse then,
Exodus chapter one, verse one.
Now these are the names, fifth
verse, and all the souls that came out
of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls.
For Joseph was in Egypt already, and Joseph
died, and all his brethren, and all that
generation.
And the children of Israel were fruitful, and
increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty.
And the land was filled with them.
Now there arose up a new king over
Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
And he said unto his people, Behold, the
people of the children of Israel are more
and mightier than we.
Come on, let us deal wisely with them,
lest they multiply, and it come to pass
that when there falleth out any war, they
join also unto our enemies, and fight against
us, and so get them up out of
the land.
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to
afflict them with their burdens.
And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom
and Ramses.
But the more they afflicted them, the more
they multiplied and grew.
And they were grieved because of the children
of Israel.
And the Egyptians made the children of Israel
to serve with rigor.
And they made their lives bitter with hard
bondage in mortar, and in brick, and in
all manner of service in the field.
All their service wherein they made them serve
was with rigor.
And the king of Egypt made a spake
to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name
of one was Shiphrah, and the name of
the other pure.
And he said, When ye do the office
of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and
seeth them upon the stools, if it be
a son, then ye shall kill him.
But if it be a daughter, then she
shall live.
But the midwives feared God, and did not,
as the king of Egypt commanded them, but
saved the men children alive.
And the king of Egypt called for the
midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye
done this thing, and have saved the men
children alive?
And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the
Hebrew women are not as Egyptian women, for
they are lively, and they are delivered ere
the midwives come in unto them.
Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and
the people multiplied and waxed very mighty.
And it came to pass, because the midwives
feared God, that he made them houses.
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every
son that is born ye shall cast into
the river, and every daughter ye shall save
alive.
Now of course this is literal history.
It actually happened.
But we are treating it, as the Spirit
of God I believe very definitely intends that
we should treat it.
Not merely as a book of information as
to ancient history.
Otherwise I wouldn't waste my time, nor yours
either, in coming all this way to talk
about some historic lesson that you could easily
read if you wished, and be informed just
as equally as I could, wherever I might
have been.
The point we're interested in, is what God
would have us learn today, of the circumstances
that we see described so clearly, here in
this opening chapter of Exodus.
Clearly God is the author of circumstances, not
man.
And in those circumstances, man and his attitude
towards God is tested.
And as to man's reaction under those conditions
of test, so God's attitude and disposition is
rendered to us.
He provides the remedy for our situation, and
if we'll graduate shall we say, from the
class or the lesson, in that class He'll
put us into a higher class and teach
us more lessons.
Well anyway, we find here that hunger is
a driving force in people's lives, and if
you read the earlier chapters, that is chapters
in the book of Genesis, you'll find that
there was a famine in the land up
further north, and Jacob and his children had
to find food.
So they learned through quite a chain of
circumstances, of which they had a great deal
to do, that Joseph, their own brother, talking
about the children of Jacob, their own brothers
had tried to kill him and sold him
instead into the hands of the Midianite merchantmen,
and they had taken him as a captive
and a slave down into this land of
Egypt.
Now I'm going to have to be as
brief as I can, and yet I do
hunger to tell you the details here.
It's so consistent with the whole story of
man's departure from God, and so we see
here that they had sinned in dealing with
their brother like this, and God was seeking
to bring them to a realization of their
need, and to bring us to a realization
of our need, spiritual hunger in our case,
due to our rejection of the Lord Jesus
Christ as a race of people, the human
race, in spurning God's grace and mercy to
us.
They were in circumstances in the land of
Canaan that were quite sufficient to sustain life,
and in fact a marvellous country, capable of
producing the fruit and of provision as we
know by history, yet nevertheless God brought about
a famine, a land full of everything and
yet had nothing for them.
That's true in connection with man in relation
to God.
The Garden of Eden was filled with every
luxury, every circumstance that could satisfy and make
happy the couple that had been placed there.
But they were placed there not alone in
the image of God, but also to be
in union with God, and to be in
cooperation with God.
But they chose to cut themselves off from
link with God by disobeying his words of
command.
Consequently they were a ruined race at once.
They were the head of the ruined race.
So God, to quote the revised version, Mr
Darby, as it happens to be in the
last verse of Genesis 3, so God drove
out man, the whole race, not just Adam
and Eve.
They were the federal heads of the whole
human race of which you are a part,
and me.
And so God drove out man.
He couldn't have man in a state of
rebellion.
So man had cut himself off from God.
Now God had made man to enjoy God's
presence.
And none but God could satisfy the natural
inclination of the man's heart.
The nature that God had put into that
man, none but God could truly and fully
and completely satisfy.
Though man's conditions and surroundings were limited, nevertheless
if he walked in fellowship with God, then
God's unlimited character and powers and blessings would
completely satisfy and fulfill all of man's possibilities
and potentials.
And so man cutting himself off from union
with God by disobedience constituted his own ruin.
And though he did not lose, the powers
given to him to enjoy God's presence, he
did lose the sphere of their operation.
Consequently man is a dissatisfied creature and couldn't
be anything else but dissatisfied because he was
made for a higher form of enjoyment, higher
level of fellowship, even with deity themselves.
And deity would be the complement of man's
creatorial powers.
That's why the world today has gone crazy
in seeking some pleasure, seeking some fun, seeking
some satisfaction.
And the parting word today is have fun.
But God made us for his pleasure.
And we're not concerned about his pleasure by
nature.
Because of our renegade state, and therefore there
needs to be bringing back.
So Christ once suffered in the flesh the
just for the unjust that he might bring
us back to God.
That's the sphere of our perfect and complete
enjoyment.
We know in married life that a well
chosen companion is the complement of the other,
that each need the other.
Now in religion, in the things of God,
to say the proper word, why Christ, God,
the Holy Spirit, the word of God, is
the complement of the individual.
There's no other source of permanent satisfaction and
lasting joy.
And so we find that the circumstances here
are going to bring about that situation in
the tabernacle and the people gathered around, especially
in connection with the priests, allowed to come
into the presence of God and hold sacrificial
worship before God in bringing to God that
which God can take pleasure in and they
themselves share with God in, shall we say,
the national garden of Eden, the tabernacle, and
its circumstances and furniture and all the sacrifices
and priesthood.
So that's the objective we're going to aim
for in our studies.
We'll commence them in detail tomorrow evening when
we take up the first vessel, the Ark
of the Covenant.
We'll have the model up here where I'm
standing and everything fixed as best we know
how for the cramped conditions.
Now here we find then that Egypt is
a picture of the world in which you
and I now live, under the heel of
a great taskmaster, which is not merely Satan,
but the great law of sin and death.
We are told in the Eighth of Romans
of our deliverance, who are Christians, those of
us who are born again, our deliverance from
that.
He has set me free from the bondage
of sin and death.
For the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
the second verse of Romans 8, the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has set me
free from the law, principle of sin and
death, in which I was born, to which
I was bound, and from which I could
never break the union.
But God has, through Christ, through redemption, made
this possible for every one of us.
Now Egypt, the word in the Egyptian language
is Mizraim, meaning double straightness, two narrow strips
of land, the banks of the river Nile,
surrounded by mountains and sandy deserts by many,
many hundreds of miles.
And the struggle of existence is very, very
obvious in that land, those two narrow strips.
They are utterly dependent upon the overflow of
the river Nile, which brings down a very
fertile amount of silt, that overflowing the land
around, otherwise pure sand, it leaves a very
fertile topsoil, and according to the overflow of
the river, so they would either have much
to eat, and feast or famine, one or
the other.
And so if they have a good overflow,
they have a feast generally, and if they
don't, it's a poor situation.
Well, all right, now we'll suppose, for instance,
that the crops are coming very promisingly, they've
had a good overflow of the river, lots
of good fertile silt have been left on
the top of the sand, and the crops
are coming along beautifully.
All right, then one night, this is always
quite, quite possible, and very frequently the case,
a huge windstorm is set up, and there's
tons and tons and tons of sand from
all the surrounding Sahara deserts, the desert of
Zim, the desert of Tabor, and all, no
matter what way the wind comes, can lift
up the sand, and dump it over the
mountains on the crops, and now they're ruined
again.
It's to indicate the struggle in this world
for, to live.
The struggle for living, an honest living, is
harder still to earn today.
And so the world in which you and
I live, can never truly produce satisfaction for
the heart, and our hearts crave it, do
we not?
And so God, in his infinite grace, allows
this picture to come to our attention, to
show these people as slaves, under conditions over
which they have no control, and this great
arch enemy of the people of God, Pharaoh,
and his taskmasters, are representatives of the conditions
that are against the progress of God's word,
and God's work, through Christ, in the hearts
of the population of the world in which
we live today.
Along with that, with the rigor and the
bondage and the demand for more brick, I
know many sides of business life, I've had
many years of business in my own life,
and the efficiency expert comes along and says,
now we've got the record of your sales,
for instance, for 1959, now 1960 we want
those, that record doubled, more bricks, more bricks,
we want more bricks.
And then they put you in a place
of responsibility, and you can't do what you
used to do anymore, and you've got to
do more work though, nevertheless, and show more
results, and that's the demand.
And people are crowded, and they're crowded, what
Satan is after, and the spirit of the
age is after, is to crush out Christ,
and that's what we see in the death
of the man-child here.
The order was given out by Pharaoh and
his men, that the male child shall be
killed.
Why?
Well my friend, I don't know if you're
familiar enough with the word of God, and
with God's ways of doing, but here is
the beginning of the whole Bible-wide subject
of the sinister attack of Satan, to try
and prevent the birth of the man-child
promised in Genesis 3 15, to the woman
after she had sinned, and God said, thy
seed shall crush his head.
Thy seed, the woman's seed would crush his
head, not the man's seed, but the woman's
seed.
And so, this great objective that God introduced
in that 15th verse of Genesis 3, is
an objective that Satan is going to prevent,
if he can.
And down through the history, Satan always works
through a front, never does he come out
into the limelight, and to be seen, and
heard, and known, and recognized.
But he works through a serpent, or he
works through a Pharaoh, or he works through
an Athaliah, or he works through a Herod,
or he works through some other person, or
thing, or group.
And working through them to crush God's man
-child, Christ Jesus, from being born in your
life and mine.
Now that's the way this chapter presents itself.
Now, there are two persons introduced, and whenever
God gives the names of people and places,
but these, in this two cases, it's verse
15, it's the name of the two midwives.
And we all know what the midwife is,
what her job is.
Well, all right, now in order to bring
life, real life, into your heart and mine,
a midwife is usually used.
I'm not talking about the literal midwife now,
I'm talking about God's midwife.
And that is the evangelist, the preacher of
the gospel.
He's one who brings the good news.
And strikingly enough, the word in verse 15
means beauty, and the word, the name pure,
means utterance.
The beautiful utterance.
And isn't that a picture of the gospel?
And if you'll turn in your Bibles at
your leisure, or write it down for the
future reference to Isaiah 52.7, you'll get
the beauty, beautiful utterance, spoken by the prophecy
concerning the coming Messiah.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him who bringeth good tidings of good,
of joy.
And so we see it's a foreview of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great
midwife, shall we say, who comes bringing the
good news of deliverance, of bringing us into
life, bringing life to us, and salvation to
those who are dead in trespasses and in
sin.
Of course I've got to be brief, so
I can't repeat too much.
But here we find that in the second
chapter of our Bibles, of the book of
Exodus rather, one great man child is born.
Whether they liked it or not, Moses was
born.
And what does it mean, name mean?
Drawn out or taken out.
Isn't that striking for the new birth?
Isn't that a picture of new birth?
Taken out.
Out of what?
Out of the world.
For God.
Separated by our being born again.
By the midwife's action in fearing God and
not fearing the king.
See of the women, their husbands are not
named.
There's no name of a man in connection
with these two women.
Now don't think modern thoughts about independence of
men here.
In the Bible, it is God's thought for
women to be subjected and independent upon the
male.
That's God's order.
Whether man has done any item, whether today
we have any popular ideas differently, doesn't change
the fact of the teaching of Scripture.
Now, here we find that these women have
no men.
Meaning that they are utterly dependent upon God
himself.
And so the evangelist is.
He is not dependent upon men.
He shouldn't be looking to men for guidance
as to what he shall say or where
he shall go.
He is dependent upon God utterly for the
blessing upon his word.
For the bringing of life, bringing Christ into
the life.
And so preaching Christ is preaching the good
news.
And Moses is brought into being now.
There are three forties in Moses life.
He lived 120 years.
Three forties in Moses life.
Now here's a picture of the human life
divided into three parts.
The first forty of Moses life, he was
being prepared to be somebody.
To be a big person.
To be very prominent.
Very much, great power.
Great authority.
It's important.
That's what the world thinks.
Then the second forty, when Moses was driven
out to the back side of the desert
to be a shepherd.
A thing that the Egyptian royalty hated.
He had to learn in those forty years,
the second forty, that he was nobody.
And then the third forty, after God took
him up and sent him out with the
rod in his hand and gave him directions
to lead and direct the slaves of Egypt
out of bondage into liberty.
He learned the third and most important lesson.
That's the trouble.
We learn it so late in life.
After he was 80 years of age, he
found out that God was everything.
And he was sufficient.
But he was necessary.
Two things.
God is necessary and God is sufficient.
And when you and I get that clearly
in our minds, we won't mind meeting in
a little humble place like this.
Without a spire.
Without a paid preacher.
Without the incense and the service and the
beautiful choir.
All the appurtenances of the world religion today
absent.
But like the tabernacle covered with a black
covering.
Out of sight.
Ugly.
Unattractive to the eye of the natural observer.
But inside pure gold.
Pure silver.
Gems and jewels and sacrifices of praise to
God.
And these are the things that should attract
and hold our hearts today.
It's a new set of values.
An altogether new set of values.
Not as the world makes them.
But as we learn them from the word
of God and find them to be so
true.
Third chapter.
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and
he led the flock to the backside of
the desert and came to the mountain of
God.
Now if you looked in your maps you
wouldn't find any mountain called the mountain of
God.
But God called it there because that because
it's at these various mountains.
There are three or four of them in
the Bible called the mountain of God.
At these mountains we're at an elevation where
we can see the mind of God.
The purposes of God.
We can look at great distances physically of
course but illustrative of the fact that we
can get into the mind of God in
these great mountains.
And this is a mountain of God.
He'll go down into the valley later on
but he will never forget what he learned
in the mountain of God.
Even to Horeb.
Second verse.
And the angel of the Lord and wherever
that occurs is always in the singular and
it refers to deity.
It's the Lord himself.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a flame of fire out of
the midst of a bush and it's a
thorn bush.
And he looked and behold the thorn bush
burned with fire and the thorn bush was
not consumed.
Now here's a lovely lovely picture shall I
say or shall we say a very accurate
picture.
Maybe my term lovely isn't very very suitable
but at any rate it's a very accurate
picture of the world.
You see since sin came in the thorn
which is the sign of the curse of
sin has been here.
And man every one of us by nature
are a thorn in God's side.
We're thorns and thistles.
We're an aggravation.
We've offended God.
We are an insult to him.
We have no right to exist.
We haven't we haven't justified our creation by
nature.
And this is a picture in shall we
say composite form of what the world was
in God's sight.
And yet his presence in the midst of
this thorn bush in a desert.
No no beauty no green thing nothing to
nourish or strengthen its inhabitants.
A barren desert.
A moral picture of the world today.
Nothing in it for God.
Nothing in it for the satisfaction of the
heart of those who live in it.
And we find that God can dwell in
a bush like that in a world like
that without burning it up.
It's of the Lord's mercies that we are
not consumed.
But his mercies pay or not.
And why is it that God can deal
with us and have anything to do with
a corrupt world like ours and people in
it.
It's the people we refer to when we
speak of the world.
The world hasn't done anything to bring dishonor
upon God.
Nor he the brute beast but only man.
But why is it that God can dwell
in our midst.
Well it tells Moses take your shoes off
your feet for the ground whereon you stand
is holy.
What does this suggest.
It suggests the work of deity the work
of the Father Son and Holy Spirit at
Calvary.
It's the work of Christ and God's entire
and complete.
Listen to me God's entire and complete satisfaction
with that work with that person his dear
son.
That he can allow Moses and all the
rest of us to stand in his presence
and he'll not burn us up as we
richly deserve.
And listen to me folks this talk we
heard this morning about souls having to be
to live up to certain conditions before they
can be saved and they can't know it
until the end of their days.
That is deliberately contradicting and twisting the scripture
out of its place over the radio we
heard it this morning.
That's the trouble people just are simply swamped
with bad teaching and they'll never refer to
the word of God all over the world
just a portion of scripture taken out of
its context to prove their point and misapply
the statement they do read.
But what a pity Moses stands upon holy
ground but Moses what's he he's nothing but
a sinner.
He's a man who's done murder.
He's a man who's had no standing in
the presence of God.
If God takes Moses up he does it
by sovereign grace just as he did Abraham.
Abraham and his parents and all the rest
of them in that Ur of Chaldees were
idolaters and Moses was a man who was
a criminal.
He had murdered an Egyptian and buried him
in the sand and God didn't tell him
to do it.
He did it in anger.
What right did he come to stand in
the presence of God?
No more right than you or I and
we know right more right than he.
But God has found a way thank God
whereby we can stand in his presence and
come with repentance and be blessed.
Well anyway down in verse 13 Moses said
unto God after he'd been told to come
and deliver the people of Israel out of
Egypt.
You can read the previous verses please at
your leisure and 13th verse of the third
chapter of Exodus and Moses said unto God
Behold when I come unto the children of
Israel and shall say unto them the God
of your fathers has sent me unto you
and they shall say to me what is
his name what shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses I am that
I am and he said thou shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel I am
have sent me unto you.
What does that mean?
Well my friend it's a it may not
appeal to you at first but it's a
most marvelous picture of God's method of how
he is able to deal with us and
bring blessing to us contrary to the appearance
of things what we deserve and how we
want it and our likes and dislikes etc.
You see this electric light up here and
probably you know enough about electricity and the
ladies to know that there are two wires
going to that light up there.
There are two wires going to the clock
two wires going to your electric equipment one
is called a live wire with the electricity
because it's connected with the generating station somewhere
the other is called a dead wire because
it's connected with the ground.
All right now let's change the terms we'll
change the word live wire to the I
am wire and the dead wire to the
I am not wire.
Now if God is the I am wire
the source of power what is the dead
wire a picture of?
Will you take your place that's your place
my place I am not I'm not able
to please God I'm not able to do
anything right I'm not good I'm not righteous
I'm not clean I'm not pure I'm ignorant
of the mind of God I don't know
his mind I'm not I am not I
am not that's why Adam fell that's why
you and I are where we are today
by nature when I say by nature I'm
talking about us before we are born again
and if you're not born again it's your
state right now.
You are not able to work out your
own salvation you're not able to do a
thing to please God so don't join church
to please God because that'll make him more
displeased with you it'll only hurt rather than
help stranger that may sound.
But there was one came into this world
who has made a change for some of
us and it's his name is Jesus Christ
the son of God and what did he
say his name was I am the bread
of life one I am the light of
the world two I am the door by
me if any man into any should be
saved three I am the good shepherd four
I am the resurrection and the life five
I am the way the truth and the
life no man cometh under the father but
by me six I am the true vine
and when those who arrested him in the
garden of Gethsemane he said to them whom
seek ye and he said I am and
they fell back they couldn't have touched him
had he not permitted them and said this
is your hour and the power of darkness
and he put himself into man's hand and
it was a circumstance that God had ordered
in order to show what man is what
man's heart is in our true state and
if we'll only open our eyes my friend
you'll see your picture in that awful situation
the Lord Jesus is the great I am
now hurriedly please turn to the fourth chapter
and this is where we'll have to stop
but we'll finish this evening Lord willing fourth
chapter and Moses answered and said he's still
at the burning bush but behold they will
not believe me nor hearken unto my voice
for they will say the Lord has not
appeared unto thee and the Lord said unto
him what is that in thine 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 now stop
just a minute here we see the modus
operandi of God's great delivering work the work
of Christ in redemption is in view here
what how is he going to do it
well he's going to do it that is
in your heart and mind by taking us
back to the garden of Eden a man
there was given power authority to have dominion
over the fish of the sea over the
fowl of the air over every living creature
on the earth and the fish and the
fish and the fowl and everywhere else he
was to be the king of the world
God had delegated to man certain authority certain
powers and he was to exercise them for
God what is the insignia of power what's
the symbol of power and authority among men
men in office well there's the office there's
the staff the mace there's the back of
the speaker's desk in the house of representatives
and behind on one of your dimes I
don't know if you've got a dime but
you might as well pull one out if
you have I've got one I think no
never mind I haven't got one but you
have anyway you look at your dime if
you can and at your leisure on the
back you'll see a bundle of rods tied
around with a leather band and then in
the middle of the rod projecting above the
rest is an axe an axe head now
that's the symbol of delegated power that's what
they've got in the emblazoned on the wall
behind the speaker's desk in the house of
representatives that's what's used by the Bank of
Italy as their uh trademark the old automobile
called the Huffmobile had it as their trademark
it's the mace or the Macy's and the
fatties also is another name for it it
speaks of man's authority when the queen was
coronated in London in Westminster Abbey she received
three scepters three scepters and one was a
globe with a cross on it showing Christ
as the king over the world through his
death on Calvary's cross these are emblems of
authority delegated to her the scepters of legal
lawful secular government the book the ball or
globe with picture of the world and the
earth and the cross on top signature insignia
of her being the the uh part of
the head of the Church of England her
religious authority all right now the scepter as
we spoke at speak of the Lord Jesus
in the first of Hebrews that a scepter
of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom
it's a rod may be decorated may be
emblazoned with jewels but it's a rod nevertheless
a stick what is it what did Moses
have in his hand a rod God was
going to delegate authority and power to Moses
to deliver them the slaves of Israel out
of Egypt all right the Lord Jesus came
into this world and he says all power
has been given unto me in heaven and
in earth all authority now Moses then is
the picture of Adam the first in the
garden of Eden and God gave him power
authority and what did he do with it
he threw it away just did exactly that
and by throwing it away he brought about
a situation that he couldn't control so he
ran away from it in other words my
friend the sin question is something you can't
face you cannot face your sin question don't
try i can't face it i can't meet
it i can't remedy it if only only
i had power words of power to impress
that upon my hearers especially if you're here
unsaved only one person can control and to
and can change the situation you are utterly
helplessly lost under the awful indictment of your
sin and you can't remedy it Moses ran
away from it now let's read verse 4
and the Lord said unto Moses put up
thine hand and take it by the tail
now that's a silly thing to do for
a snake who's going to take it for
the tail i have some pets snakes around
my place down in florida and though i
know they're helpless and i mean they're dangerous
at all they're harmless i did take hold
of one by the tail he crawled up
my arm and i didn't like it so
i shook it off there's something about a
snake anyway i don't know why kids put
in their pockets and in this anyway we
find that this is a venomous snake and
he's to take it for the tail and
what did what happened it became a rod
in his hand a rod of power a
rod of authority and this is the rod
from now on who's which is called the
rod of God the rod of Aaron the
rod of Moses he that rod he stretched
over the red the red sea and with
a wind that night the waters parted and
gave them a dry path through it and
it was a picture of death death is
that unknown quantity and God can give the
child of God a path a dry path
through it because death has lost its sting
for the christian but now there's there's the
rod the stick that went into this bitter
water there's the rod that was held out
over their malachites and the war was won
for Israel there's the rod that went over
the the red sea the um the Jordan
and there was the rod that smoked the
rock all this is the product of the
victory gained for us by the Lord Jesus
Christ what did he do well my friend
Moses in the fourth verse here is a
picture of the last Adam in the first
third verse is a picture of the first
Adam in the back in the fourth verse
is a picture of the last Adam and
what did the Lord Jesus do he came
and took up the sin question and he
gave Satan and sin the full length of
the rope he took it for the tail
gave it every opportunity to prove that he
was not son of God that he was
a sinner that he was unable to do
anything for us he gave satan the complete
length of rope he went and faced satan
face to face the first and only time
that satan was ever out in the open
he demanded no front now in that temptation
in the in the wilderness of Jesus and
Jesus stripped him of all his weapons and
satan went away helpless defenseless conquered a victim
of success by the Lord Jesus and Christ
came out of conqueror a victor you see
first Adam was tempted by satan he fell
the last Adam was tempted by satan and
satan fell now our sinful state is the
result of man's test in the garden of
Eden by the temptation number one but our
salvation state our state of salvation depends upon
the victory of the man who was tested
in the temptation number two the conquest of
Christ over satan and now we find the
next thing uh he says in verse five
that they may believe that the Lord God
of their fathers the God of Abraham Isaac
and Jacob hath appeared unto thee and the
furthermore unto him put now thine hand into
thy bosom and he put his hand into
his bosom and when he took out took
it out the whole his hand was leprosy
snow oh now what well let's go and
see the picture that's given to us in
mark's gospel chapter seven leprosy is always a
picture of sin mark chapter seven verse 21
speaking the Lord Jesus speaking for with from
within out of the heart of man things
that we promise we blame the devil for
we find it out of the heart of
men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders theft
covetousness wickedness deceit lasciviousness and evil eye blasphemy
pride foolishness all these evil things come from
the devil oh no from within now don't
blame the devil he's got enough burden to
bear for all eternity but don't blame the
devil for what we're we're guilty of and
so this man moses was told to put
his hand in his bosom he's dealing with
the sin question again even after we're saved
we've still got that evil nature how can
it be cured well now he says put
now thine hand into thy put thine hand
into thy bosom again verse seven and he
put his hand into his bosom again and
plucked it out of his bosom and behold
it was turned again as what as his
other flesh what's this mean it means that
the purifying work of the spirit of god
after we're saved entering the believer his work
is to clean things up that's why he
came down on the apostles and disciples and
from the church in the early acts of
the apostles in cloven tongues of fire instead
of the form of a dove as it
came on the lord jesus because there was
nothing to clean out for him he was
sinless but for the unsaved man woman and
child and we need the cleansing fires of
the word of god in the power and
energy of the spirit of god if we'll
bow to them that's the question because we're
so stubborn but that's why we've got to
come to as little children and some of
us are so old we get stuck up
proud rebellious against being considered to be necessary
to be a child again but my friend
to be newborn you've got to be a
child to be born again you've got to
return to babyhood spiritually speaking and you've got
to start learning from the ground up and
so we find this wonderful story of this
uh corrective uh power by the lord jesus
first by the lord jesus in taking up
the sin question but the tale so to
speak and dealing with it successfully and conquering
satan and all sin providing a remedy and
the proof of that is that he can
raise dead people romans 1 tells us how
does that prove that he has a power
over sin my friend death is the consequence
of sin and if he can undo death
and produce a live person out of the
grave after being there four days well then
you know very well that he has power
over the consequences of sin therefore you can
conquer sin conquer disease conquer everything he is
absolutely supreme christ and he alone religion isn't
christ is you see we're not preaching religion
we're continually referring you to christ a person
that is christianity not religion and so last
it says in the eighth verse 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
first the voice of the second sign the
latter sign and it shall come to pass
if they will not believe also these two
signs the work of the lord jesus and
the work of the holy spirit they won't
believe either one all right that thou shalt
take of the water of the river a
picture of the word of god and pour
it upon the dry land the dry land
picture of the hardened hard heart of man
rejecting the word of god and the water
which thou takest out of the river shall
become blood upon dry land there's blood guiltiness
having to bear the consequences of one's own
sin for all eternity even a picture like
that found in the book of exodus early
chapter tonight we'll take up the 11th the
10th plague and introduction to the tabernacle and
its answer to all man's sad story and
history may god bless these thoughts to everyone's
heart and go over these scriptures for yourself
don't accept just what i've said but recognize
what has been said and try and see
if that doesn't fit not merely in the
passage itself but the whole word of god
now if the whole bible is is portrayed
and there's no uh break on the truth
of god in the doctrines of the new
testament well then i'm may sound wrong but
you've got to believe it that's you you
can't help yourself if you don't believe it
then you reject the whole word of god
as a complete revelation of the mind of
god portrayed for us pictorially in the old
testament our father we come to thee in
the name of our blessing