Moses in grad school
Key Passage: Exodus 4:1-9
Date: June 7, 2024
Exodus chapter number four, Exodus chapter number four. We’re going to call tonight Moses: Graduate Class. Moses graduated. He’s graduated college—40 years in college. And now he’s taking the graduate course. He’s already passed the Bible Institute, amen. Any Bible college is a graduate course here. Or he could call it God’s classroom for Moses, but just kind of before he goes out on the mission, God’s teaching some things here. It’s just so much here. We’ll try to get in about nine verses here on this thing.
Let’s just rehearse a bit. Last week, Brother Gregory did a great job. And in the midst of other things going on, he did a good job staying on course. I appreciate that. That’s a good thing. So it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve been on Moses. But remember, we just were finishing up where Moses. God appeared to him in the burning bush. God said, “Hey, take your shoes off. You’re standing on holy ground.” First time “holy” is mentioned in the Bible, and he draws an eye to God. You get close to God, God puts you on a mission. He doesn’t just let you sit around and do nothing. He leads us in paths of righteousness for His namesake, you know. God’s giving him some jobs to do, and He says, “Now Moses, you’re going to be the one. You’re going to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt.”
And when they leave, they’re not just going to leave, but I’m going to give them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they’re going to borrow their jewelry. By the way, sometimes that was their bank account, you know, and they’re going to borrow all that, and they’re going to walk out of Egypt with their back pay. Amen? When I try to take care of things, I mess them all up. I just make a mess of it. And sometimes talking to me this afternoon in my situation, boy, I just want to get in the middle of it and straighten everybody out, and I’d make a mess of it. I’d mess it all up, you know. And God will take care of this time, and He’ll do it a lot better than me. And so in God’s time, God said, “I’m going to get the children of Israel out of there, and they’re going to get the back pay on it.”
And remember Moses, he was, “Well, who am I?” You know, humble and just fearful. And the Lord said, “I’ll be with you.” God’s answer so often when you’re fearful: Get your eyes off yourself. Get your eyes on the Lord. “I’ll be with you, Moses.”
And he said, “Well, Lord, you know, and they say, ‘Who sent you? What should I say?’” Remember God said that He revealed Himself like I never had it up to that point? “I Am That I Am.” What do you need? I Am. And you name it, He is, “I Am.” He always has been, always will be, but He’s the I Am God.
And then chapter four, God gets specific about this thing a little bit. And let’s see how Moses responds to it in chapter number four. Exodus chapter four, we’re in verse number one. And would you please stand as to read God’s word together? Would you do that, please? Exodus four and verse number one.
“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 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. It became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it. By the way, I like that right there. They say, “Well, that’s a good snake.” And I said, “Well, the only good snake is a dead snake.” Somebody say, amen! Is that good preaching or what? Now, you know, come on now, yeah, yeah. I’m going to preach the Bible whether you like it or not now, you know. When God put enmity, you know, between man and that, it worked real good with me. I tell you what, it sure did.
Anyway, Moses ran from the snake, and he fled from before. And the Lord said, “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.”
And the Lord said furthermore unto him, “Put now thine hand in thy bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and he took it out; behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And He said, “Put thine hand in thy bosom again.” And he put his hand in his bosom again and plucked it out, and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
“And it shall come to pass that 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 pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”
It’s interesting. God gave me this command, and watch his response. Let’s just go back. We’re going to kind of go verse by verse. Look back in verse number one: “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 unto thee.’”
Now think back, think back 40 years before. You remember what happened 40 years before? We’ve already studied. At that point, Moses is 40 years old. He knows he’s supposed to deliver the children of Israel. He knows that. So he thinks, “Man, I’ve got to get the job done.” Remember, he’s seen that Egyptian probably beating the Israelites, the Hebrews. So, man, he just takes matters into his own hands, and he smites that Egyptian, protecting the Israelites, and it’s just so strong, and he kills the Egyptian. Can you hold your finger there? Look over in Acts chapter number seven. We’ve read it before, but I want you to see it again. Acts chapter number seven, and look at verse number 25. This is what’s going through Moses’ mind when he’s 40 years old, and he’s doing his best to do what God called him to do.
And I say “best” in quotes, all right? He’s doing his best, quote unquote, to do what God called him to do. The best to do it God’s way in God’s time, but he wasn’t doing that. He was doing it the best he could do it, you know. And let’s look and see what was going through his mind when he killed that Egyptian. Acts 7 and verse number 25: “For he,” that’s Moses, “supposed his brother does or other Israelites would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them.” Finish that verse out with me, would you please? Here we go: “But they didn’t understand it.”
So 40 years later, after he’s kind of been in the school of hard knocks in the desert, watching a bunch of sheep, and God says, “You’re ready, go over there, you’re going to deliver them.” And Moses said, “Lord, I’ve kind of been down this road already, and it didn’t work out good.” By the way, you know, when we’ve tried things the wrong way, we’ve failed, and we have sin in our life. You know that sin, even once we get forgiveness from God, guilt’s on your back. And Satan will try to use your past to destroy your faith that God can use you today. I believe a lot of that was going on right now. Moses said, “Lord, I’ve been there.” Well, you were there, but you weren’t in My will when you were there. You were trying to do it in your own self-reliance, your own flesh. Moses, this is a little different this time. I just told you, “I’ll be with you.” But Satan will use all those past things just to destroy your faith. Maybe you’ve tried to do something for God. Maybe you’re trying to win a soul for the Lord. Maybe you’ve tried to make a difference for God, and it just flopped. Well, that was in the past, but if God’s leading you today, friend, don’t you let that past drag you down from doing what God wants to do today. I believe so much of that was going on right now with Moses. Back then, he was trying to do it in his own time and his own power. By the way, self-reliance and doing things our way always, always leads to defeat.
Here’s a good verse. You’re already turning around a little bit, but would you look over in 2 Corinthians chapter 3? It’s just a great verse right here. And by the way, all of us, man, both of my hands are up. I had two hands. I put them both up, you know. We’re all guilty of this self-reliance a lot of times. It reveals itself in so many different ways. Usually, we never know we have it until God reveals it to us. It’s really the truth. But it’s a great verse along that line of our sin, of self-reliance. A great verse about that. It’s 2 Corinthians chapter number 3. Look in verse number 5. 2 Corinthians chapter number 3, verse number 5. He says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” Man, that’s a good verse. And, boy, that’d be a good verse to memorize. Our sufficiency, it’s of God. And by the way, that’ll take away a lot of worry. You know, a lot of times why we’re worrying is because we’re depending on us. Yeah, yeah. But self-reliance, it just gets us all from time to time. Reliance on God is so key. Just because you failed at something in the past doesn’t mean it is not God’s will this time when God’s in it.
All right. So with that fault, let’s go on to verse number two. Would you please? Let’s try to just go to verse number two. And look at a couple of things here in verse number two tonight. Y’all with me tonight? Stick with me, if you would, please. Verse number two there: “And the Lord said unto him, ‘What is that in thine hand?’” And he said, “A rod.”
Now let’s just for a moment or two talk about this: a rod. Biblically, it often shows power and authority. Let me read for you a couple of verses. Let me just read them for you. Psalm 2, verse number 9: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.” Psalm 110, verse number 2: “The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” Notice that: rule, power, and authority. Revelation 12, verse number 5: “And she brought forth a manchild who shall rule all nations with the rod of iron.” Revelation 2:27, “And he shall rule them with a rod of iron.” Notice the power and authority, the rulership so often. Shepherds would use a rod at some time. You remember over there in Psalm 23, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” A little difference between the rod and the staff. The rod is a little bit more for protection, they typically say, what is talking about over there in Psalm 23. But it shows a shepherd often, but a rod.
Now, let me just kind of take a little twist on that. Brother Tim, could we pull up those Pharaoh pictures? We’ve got four different pictures of Pharaoh here, and I want you to just see the thing that is in common. This is, of course, a statue, if you will, of a Pharaoh. And we’ll turn it off for a second. Now, I want you to notice, what’s similar in all these? Let’s go to the second Pharaoh, would you please, here. It’s just a drawing; some of these they found in caves, whatnot, but this Pharaoh here. And then would you go to the—I think this is one as a costume, if I remember right? Would you go to the next one there, please? That’s a costume. You can buy it on Amazon or somewhere, I think it is. I worry a little bit about the eyebrows and everything. I’m not sure who that is. I’m trying to figure out which man in our church that is. I’m not sure. Brother Ted says not him. But it’s even interesting this here: it’s the snake. Well, that’s interesting. Let’s go to the fourth one, would you please? The fourth one there is just some pictures also. This is a little bit—it’s supposed to be a lineage of Pharaohs, some drawings, whatnot, they’ve found. Now, help me out. What’s common in all of these? What’s common? What’s common? Right, they got a rod.
Now, imagine this: Moses was raised, if you will, he was trained in Pharaoh’s court for 40 years. He’s used to seeing a ruler with a rod. That’s not uncommon to him. Pharaohs had that. It showed them their power. It showed their… Would you go back to that first one, Brother Tim, please? That first one. And he’s got really what they call the crook and flail. The shepherd’s crook stood for kingship, the flail for the fertility of the land. And there’s more to it, but that’s what we’ll get into. But Moses is used to that. He grew up with that.
Many think that—thank you, Brother Tim, you can just turn that thing off—some think that Moses, and I’m sure this is true, when he was younger, he had his rod from Pharaoh, from Egypt. I mean, he was mighty in words and deeds, you know. He had done some mighty deeds, and so there’s a real good chance they were preparing him for some kind of leadership if Pharaoh didn’t have any sons and whatnot, you know, and he was the only one. Maybe he was prepared to be the next Pharaoh. We don’t know that. There’s talk about that. We don’t know that. But there’s a real good chance he had a rod from Egypt. Just about every diagram or picture you see of Pharaohs, it’s realistic there’s going to be a rod there. And so Moses just got a rod here. And we’ll just kind of plant that seed in there for just a moment. And it just symbolizes power and authority. Now, yes, Moses has been a shepherd, and that has connected him with that also. We’ve talked about how God had made him learn to be a shepherd for 40 years. But let’s keep going. Let’s keep going. We’re just trying to plant some thoughts in there, first of all.
Then look at verse number three, would you please? Verse number three: “And he,” that’s the Lord, “said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’” Let’s just stop there and talk about that for a minute. Think of Moses’ mindset: 40 years. He had said, in Pharaoh’s court, “I have authority!” And God said, “Take that old thing and throw it to the ground.” I don’t know, and I don’t know that I believe this—I’ll leave it open to you, of course—but some even say that Moses had the rod that he had gotten way back in Egypt. No, I don’t know that. I will say this: Remember when he first came over there in Midian, and he helped out Jethro’s daughters, the priest’s daughters, feeding the sheep? And they came back and he said, “How did you get back so quick today?” And they said, “Well, an Egyptian helped us out.” Well, he actually wasn’t Egyptian, but they thought he was. Remember that? The Bible never records Moses saying he was an Egyptian. It really wasn’t. Maybe he did have that rod from Egypt. I don’t know.
But I think there’s a lot of symbolism here that the Lord is saying a little bit here: Look, all this power and authority of the world and all that, that rod that Pharaoh’s carrying—that was your past life. And throw that to the ground. When it comes to the work of God, it’s useless. Without Me, you can do nothing. And just our self-reliance said, “Me, me, me.” I say, “Pharaoh’s rod.” Look at that thing on the ground. Cast it to the ground.
Here’s interesting: what happens? Notice what happens. Let’s keep reading there, verse number three. Verse number three, if you would, please: “And he said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’” And he cast it on the ground. And it became a serpent, and Moses fled from a serpent.
Friend, can I just say our self—if it pictures a little bit of his former life over there in Egypt and all the power and authority, you know, all that—when it gets involved in this world down here, there’s a snake in there. Because self-reliance and what we’re so opinionated, and we’ve got our method and our way of doing everything, and “I got it all together, and watch me and look at me,” and all the rest of that—that always leads to a…
You know, boy, look it, we’ve talked about it: the middle letter of pride is “I.” We can be so self-reliant and so “me” and so “my opinion.” And let me tell you how to know it: it just always leads to sin. And the snake’s there, and it’s just so sinful. You know what the Bible says when it comes to building temples? So, Zechariah, chapter 4, verse 6. And he’s talking about temples as the subject there, and then building the temple. Zechariah’s very involved in that. And these prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, and he’s talking about that, and he says, “Hey, not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” It’s not going to be all my figuring it all out, having just the right thing to say to them; it’s going to be the Spirit of God that truly builds temples, that does the work in the heart. That’s the Spirit of God. And I get where it’s just me and mine, I’ve got my hand. Maybe it did have a little bit to do, or a lot to do—I don’t know whether it was a shepherd. You know, those shepherds—I was reading a little bit today—a shepherd, and he said how good they get with the rod. He said he was in, oh, some African country, I think it was. And he said there was a herd of elephants we were trying to photograph. And he said, so we were trying to get him to move. We wanted to get some pictures of that, you know. And he said, me and the shepherd guide I had, he had his rod with him (that’s usually the shorter ones, whatnot, and the staff). And he said he was taking his rod, and we were trying to pry up this rock, and we were going to roll it down, and I was pushing on—he had his rod there—and he said when we got that big old rock flipped over, he said there was a cobra right there, and he said, “Man, just that quick!” Boom! That cobra’s up and ready to strike. And he said that shepherd guy, just as quick as he—man, just—he said he had that rod right on that cobra’s head. He said he killed the cobra.
And shepherds can get real good at their rod. Like I said, cast that to the ground. Because if you get relying on what you have and what you are and what you think and all the rest of that, that’s going to turn to a snake one day. It’s going to bite you. It’s not going to be all that; it’s going to be the Lord. “Except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that build it.” That always scares me when I get that mindset or I hear somebody get that way and say, “Boy, don’t do that.” Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. It’s God’s grace. There never has been a perfect parent out there besides my wife. I’m teasing with her. Hey, man, it’s God’s grace.
And so it says, throw it to the ground, and it actually becomes a serpent. Now, this is—I think Moses did a good thing. I think there’s so much symbolism going on right here, that last part of verse number three: “And Moses fled from before it.” And that old snake represents the devil or sin. Don’t flirt with sin. No, don’t say, “Well, I’m strong enough.” Look, if you walk on the edge of the cliff long enough, friend, you’re going to fall off. Flee fornication, He says. Joseph was a wise man; he took off out of there. “Let me get out of here!” Potiphar’s wife said after me. Don’t hang around there.
I think of a man years ago; he had gotten saved, and he had drank for years and years and years, and he got saved. And he told me—it was only like two weeks, if I remember right—he said, “I haven’t touched, I haven’t had a drop, haven’t had a desire for a drop.” Man, it was just exciting to see when he got saved how God changed his life. And then a little bit after that, a little bit after that—well, I’ll tell you what happened here, church, and I’ll tell you what he told me later on had happened in between what he told me what happened at church. At church, we had a guest preacher, John Bishop. Some of you probably hear him. And we had a special singer, a young lady singing, a good young lady. And this man, he was sitting in the back, and he came all the way down front, sat right over there—not where Brother Gregory is, not where Brother Teddy is—sat in between there, you know. And he started making noises a little bit, and even when the young lady got done singing, he stayed up front here. One of our men came and sat by and made sure everything was good. But a little bit—you know how a preacher sometimes we’ll ask questions, but we’re not expecting anybody to answer—well, he started answering, you know. And sure enough, a little bit later on, I found that he was drunk. I said, “Man, you can’t come to church like that.” And he told me this story. He said, “You know, I hadn’t touched a drop. I was so happy.” And he said, “I just rode by a liquor store. I hadn’t even thought about it.” And I took a second look, if you will. And I went in, and one drink is all over. I haven’t seen him in years. I don’t know how he’s doing. I hope he’s overcome it. We’d love to have you back. You can’t come if you’re drunk, though, you know. And, man, don’t play with sin. Just run from it.
Am I right? Oh, Moses, man, he fled from this snake. I like what John Wesley said. John Wesley said, “Give me a hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God. I care not a straw whether they be a clergyman or a layman. Such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth.” Wow. Fear only sin, desire nothing but God—it’s a pretty good deal. Oh, Moses, man, he took off. There’s a lot of significance here.
Let’s keep going. Verse number four, verse number four: “And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Put forth thine hand and take it by the…’” Wait a second, “by the tail.” Now, some of you that are braver than I—Brother Ted. Brother Ted, we won’t say where it happened because people might not come here, but we had an incident with a snake around here. We’ll just say it that way. And Brother Ted, actually, I was going to say he picked it up with his hand. Actually, he didn’t. He got a cup. He could have, though. He didn’t want to scare me half to death, amen, you know. But Brother Ted will know. Well, no. Man, you don’t pick a snake up by the tail. They’re going to turn around and bite you. You pick him right behind their neck. Brother can’t get you. Actually, I pick them up with a shovel after I hit him over it. Cut them up a couple times, amen, you know. Pick them up in pieces after the shotgun took care of it. Amen, you know, that’s the way I pick them up.
But anyway, here’s the thing: It is very much a step. He’s already run from the snake. By the way, Moses had been out in the desert for 40 years. I’m sure he knew what were the good and the bad snakes, you know. And he ran from him, so it probably wasn’t the nicest guy in the world, you know, maybe a cobra, who knows. But God said, “Moses, you’ve already been running from that thing. Now I want you to reach down and take it, take it by the tail.” Two things it took for Moses to do it: It took faith and obedience. He just obeyed. I don’t think he was the bravest man in the world; he’d already run from the thing, but he just obeyed out of… Help me out. What’s the song? You know the song: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.” That’s what Moses was doing. He was trusting God. He wasn’t picking that snake up. He was something great. Watch this guy, the guy that used to go down there and get all the animals, and the one guy ended up getting him in the heart with the stingray. What? Say it again? Steve Irwin, yeah, yeah. Moses wasn’t Steve Irwin, but he knew how to trust Him. That’s what he was doing. He just trusted and obeyed.
Now what happens? What happens? Verse number four. Let’s keep going on this verse. “And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail.’” And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. Now this is interesting. Notice how God worded it. I don’t know some of these things; I’m just putting them out there. You can debate about it, go out back and fight about it after church, amen. It was interesting: “And it became”—it doesn’t say it became the rod; it just became a rod. Now, I don’t know; it could be, it could not be. I’m not saying. But it could be that that rod was maybe a rod from Egypt. He threw it down, it became a snake. And this snake, you know, he reached out—“Lord, are you sure?” But out of faith, he trusted and obeyed it, and it became a rod. Maybe it was a totally different rod. I don’t know; the Bible doesn’t tell us, really. It just says it became a rod. Maybe it’s the same old rod. I don’t know. But maybe it’s a totally different rod. Maybe he did have a rod from Egypt that he kept all the years, and God said, “No, no, no, we’re changing gears now. We’re in graduate school.”
By the way, he does a little bit later on. Look down in that chapter there. Look down, if you will, to verse number 20, verse number 20 of chapter number four: “And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them upon the ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt.” And Moses took the rod of what? The rod of God. The rod of God in his hands. It’s called the rod of God one other place over there in Numbers 17 when Israel had that war with the Amalekites. Remember that? And Moses came up on the hill, and as he was lifting his hands, he had that rod in his hand. And over there, Numbers 17, again it calls it the rod of God. But this time he’s picking it up, and I believe whether it’s the same rod or not, I don’t know, but this time God’s in this thing. This thing is not all your power and your authority, what you can do, and how good you are with a shepherd rod, or you had your own rod in Egypt, and you know all about that. No, no, this is a rod of God. God’s in this thing now, Moses. And you’re not doing it by your own power and your own mind. You’re doing it out of faith. In fact, as the world says—the world would say—that’s dumb to pick that snake up by the tail. I mean, people that handle snakes say, “No, don’t do it.” A lot of times the way God leads, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to the world.
March around Jericho seven times. What will you do that for? Just obey. Just obey. And Moses is not doing it the way the world says to do it, but he’s obeying out of faith. Pick it up. God said, “Now I’ll let it turn into a rod.” We’re going to use this rod now. It’s going to be a rod of God. It’s a special rod. It’s God working through that rod, and we’ll read so many times about that.
Let’s keep going. Let’s keep going where we’re at. We’re in verse number five, verse number five: “That they,” the children of Israel, “may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.” I remember that when he’s naming all these men that God had renewed, made the covenant with them, renewed. It’s a covenant God. So he’s kind of reminded. And he said, “Look, when they see you, Moses, or Aaron, when they see you with this rod, it’s going to remind them that your power and your authority isn’t from Egypt. They’ve seen Pharaoh carry a rod a lot. But now, Moses, they’re going to see you carry the rod of God, and your power and your authority isn’t from man. It’s from God. It’s from Jehovah—the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.”
And he said, “Look, when they see you, Moses, they’re going to know, ‘Hey, that man there, he’s got a connection. He knew God face-to-face.’” It’s a different thing, see. By the world, the world, you’ve heard it said: They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. When they know you’ve got a connection with God, that’s when things are to perk up now. As we’re saying, Moses, they’re going to know.
By the way, isn’t it interesting, later on, later on when Moses and Aaron both would use the rod? But remember they had the rebellion? Remember Korah and the 250 leaders going against Moses? “Moses, you take too much. You’re trying to do everything around here.” Hey, they got mad at Moses and began to lead a rebellion against Moses. Oh, Moses said, “Whoa, fellas.” Something about to happen—an earthquake happened, split the ground. They went on down, you know, don’t pass go. They just went down, you know, remember all that? And then God said, “All right, all right, go get what? 12—what was it? 12 rods?” There’s something to this thing of rods. And put all those rods over there, and remember one of those rods, because one per tribe, the leader—remember they’re used to this rod, the leader, the power, the authority had a rod. Pharaoh had a rod, Moses got a rod, Aaron had the rod. And later on, what? The rod that budded shows God’s in that thing, man. I mean, He’s bringing life. I mean, you can’t bring life out of something dead. God can, though. And Aaron’s rod budded, remember that? They said, “That’s when you follow. That’s the true leader I’ve appointed there because their power and authority isn’t from man; it’s from God.” They actually ended up putting that rod in the Ark of the Covenant—this rod. And he said, “Now you take this rod now, and when the children of Israel will see you carrying that rod, they’re going to know that rod right there is into Pharaoh’s rod. That’s God’s rod. This is God’s business He’s doing right now.” That’s what it’s all about.
Let’s keep going, if you would, please. Verse number six, verse number six. Chapter four, verse number six: “And the Lord said furthermore unto him, ‘Put now thine hand into thy bosom.’” And he put his hand in his bosom, and he took it out, and behold, his hand was leprous as snow. Now the hand represents what we can do, what our hands, what we’re putting our hand, what we can do with our hands. And the bosom has to do with the center of you, the core of you, if you will, the heart of you. And he said, “Look, because you have a sinful heart, a sinful bosom from Adam, that’s why your hands are leprous; they’re sinful hands.” You’ve got sinful hands because you’ve got a sinful heart. And you put your hand in your bosom, the center of you, the core of you, you pull it out, and that’s—it’s just sinful because we all have prideful, sinful, selfish hearts. But watch what God says. Look at the next verse, if you would, please. Verse number seven, verse number seven: “And He said, ‘Put thine hand into thy bosom again.’” And he put his hand in his bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.
Now notice this time he knew how sinful he was. Man, his hands were lepers. You know the first step of anybody getting saved is admitting how sinful they are. And when we, even as born-again Christians, we just admit, “Man, I’m sinful. I got problems just like everybody else.” And you start off sinful, and then God—He’s the one that can change your heart. And He’s a heart doctor. He gives a new heart at salvation. He regenerates your heart. And then daily He gives you a new heart. And out of that, you put—you say, “I’m sinful,” and God gives you a new heart, and you put your hands back in there, and boy, you’ve got a hand that comes out clean because God changed your heart.
By the way, somebody said, “Whoa! It doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, just what’s on the inside.” No, no, friend. If the inside’s bad, the outside’s going to be bad. If the inside’s good, the outside’s going to be good. Don’t fall for that. By the way, a hypocrite is when one of the two doesn’t match up. You’ve got a good heart and a bad outside? You’re a hypocrite; something ain’t right. Now, if you got a good heart, it’ll show up on the outside, friend.
And that’s what Jesus tells us about. Let me read it for you. Matthew 12:35: “A good man out of the good treasures of the heart bringeth forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
That’s why it’s so important. In this old world, they’re trying to regenerate everybody, and you must regulate some things. I mean, praise the Lord, they’ve got laws against murder, amen. By the way, I heard a good statement here recently from a preacher on the radio, Jack Treber. And he said, “Well, they talk about hate crimes. Somebody murdered somebody, it was a hate crime.” Anytime somebody murders somebody, that’s a hate crime. I said, “Well, that’s good. That’s true. I’m going to use that sometime.” I didn’t wait for the right time, but we used it anyway, amen, you know. That’s the truth. Now, where was that? Oh, they’re trying to reform everybody out there, and I understand some of that you’ve got to do. But, friend, when they get saved, God changes their heart.
I think about a lady—now I’ve got to hurry along—but I think about a lady that we used to debate with a little bit, whatnot, in Michigan. She’s a good lady; she’s a distant relative through marriage and whatnot. And anyway, she’s just liberal. She had worked for the three, you know, the big car companies and unions, and, boy, a lot of times, they just pump them full of all that, you know. And she is liberal to the core. We’d argue with her. But, boy, you know, she either got—I think she got assurance—but she’s away from God and got in church living for God. Nobody argued with her. Man, she just got sold out, dedicated to the Lord. She’s a good, godly lady today. She’s down in Alabama now. But you know, her views changed. Nobody made her change. God changed her heart. Yeah, her heart made her going to do the right thing.
That’s why it’s so important for you and I that we daily—man, when you go to read your Bible every day—just go and say, “Lord, would you let this thing, would you wash my heart with this as I read it? Wash my heart.” Because my heart, it gets so cattywampus. You look that up in the dictionary; I want to know what you find out. But your heart, my heart, everybody’s heart does. You know, I wake up, my heart’s all messed up. And go to the Bible. Start reading that Bible, and it’ll wash your heart. I mean, then in your prayer time, “Lord, Lord, take your heart, take it out.” Say, “Hey, Lord, here’s my heart. Please, would you wash it? It’s so dirty.” And when you have sins—you have sins of the heart like all of us have sins of the heart—confess those sins. “Lord, I have worry, I have lack of faith, I have jealousy, I have—I’m just critical in my mind and my heart.” Just confess all that junk to the Lord. Keep your heart right. Then guard your heart. Keep that heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. I mean, you guard your heart. Your heart’s so important; we’ve been talking about it.
Real quick, look over in Second Chronicles—not Corinthians this time, Chronicles. Second Chronicles. It’s a great verse about the heart. It just shows the importance of the heart. God is looking. He’s looking for a young person with a right kind of a heart. He’s looking for a man or a lady with a right kind of heart. In fact, He’s searching for that. It’s an amazing verse right here, friend. My goodness. This is a wonderful promise. Second Chronicles 16:9: Would you look at it? The Bible says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.” Wow. And the eyes of God are running all over the place looking for something. That’s amazing. Watch this: “to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose…” What? What’s the next word? “…whose heart is perfect toward Him.” Now, it doesn’t say a perfect heart; you never get there, but perfect toward Him. He was talking about King Asa. He had previously had big, huge enemies—just, I think a million men, if I remember right, and I may be wrong about that, the Lubims. But there’s a huge army, and yet he relied on God. God brought victory this time. He just had Baasha, king of Israel, the northern kingdom, coming out against him, and he went and he hired the fleshly, the heathen countries around him to help him. And God said, “Your heart’s not right.” Watch the last part of the verse. It’s amazing. He said, “Herein thou hast done foolishly; you didn’t trust in Me with your heart. You trusted in these fleshly measures.” “Herein thou hast done foolishly; therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” What a sad thing. He could have had complete victory, but his heart wasn’t right. He was relying on fleshly measures. And God said, “I’ve been looking. My eyes have been going all over the whole world looking for somebody whose heart is perfect toward Him, just relying on God.” It’s such a wonderful heart.
Now let’s go back over here to Exodus. Exodus chapter 4. Let’s go back there, go quickly, please. I appreciate you all staying this bit tonight. We’re just kind of wandering all over here back and forth, and I hope the Lord may be applying some truth to your heart and your life. Look in verse number 8, verse number 9. We’re going to wind it down tonight. Verse number 8, verse number 9, if you would, please: “And it shall come to pass that if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first”—that’s the rod—“that they will believe the voice of the latter”—that’s the hand and the bosom and all that. “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.” What river do you think that is? Help me out there. The Nile River. Boy, that was a big deal to those Egyptians. That’s where their life came from. They fall. “I shall take water out of the river and pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”
Now, let’s think about this for just a moment. Egypt, really, its source of just energy and vegetation and agriculture, all of it was the Nile River. They had gods of the Nile River. Several of them. Let me just read a brief little thing about two of them. There’s more than this: K-H-N-U-M. How would you say that? K-H-K-H-N-U-M. Whatever they said right there, that’s it. All right, you get that. Canum and Hapi (that’s H-A-P-I). These are some of their gods of the Nile River. Canum, the ram-headed god of the Nile, was considered to be the Lord of the Water, the one who brought life and fertility to the river banks where plants and animals thrived. And since the water could bring forth clay after flooding, Canum was also thought to be the creator of humans—well, taking God’s spot. The God Hapi was the one controlling the flooding of the Nile. They worshiped these false gods. And boy, Moses had been raised in all that junk, and the Israelites had been seeing that for altogether 430 years. And so Moses, they don’t listen to the rod. They don’t listen to the hand and the bosom. They don’t listen to that. All right, go take some water where the Egyptians thought, “Man, that’s their gods, the power of their gods.” And let’s take the best of the world, if you will: the Nile River. And you take that old water out of the Nile River and you pour it on the ground, and it will become blood. If that blood gets spilled very much, you’re going to die—death. The life of the flesh is in the blood. Remember the life of the flesh? You pull what the flesh can do and all that out on the ground; it’s just… Moses, the best they can offer is just kind of—it ends up being death. By the way, it did become death for the Egyptians—remember the death of the firstborn? Friend, God says, “Moses, you’ve got nothing to fear.” I can take their most powerful gods and turn it into death: spilt blood, dry ground. Hey, children of Israel, don’t worry about all that. God’s got this thing. By the way, by the way, the best this world has to offer—sin is fun for a season. What happens with sin when it’s conceived? What? Death. Spilt blood, if you will.
Praise the Lord, we have the Lamb that shed His blood. He’s the only sinless one. Hey, praise the Lord, born of a virgin, amen. Sinless, perfect blood. His spilled or shed blood brings life forevermore—Jesus Christ.
Would you bow your head just a moment tonight? I’m going to ask tonight—maybe all of us have to work at it; I know I sure have to work at it—but maybe tonight would be a good night to say, “You know, I want to die to self-reliance and my worldly, fleshly measures, my old life, my life in Egypt. I just want to put off the rest. I want a new rod, if you will. I just want to turn my back all the way, all the way on Egypt and the world, and I want to look into the eyes of my Savior tonight.” I want to let Him know that old world is behind me, the world behind me, the cross before me. It would be a good night to do that—just surrender again, wholly and new, to Him. “Lord, I give it all. I don’t want to rely on myself; I want to rely on You, Your power, Your might, Your rod.”
Maybe you hear tonight, you say, “You know, I know some people in sin; they’re living in sin, and it breaks my heart. I know the end of sin: it brings death.” Maybe you just want to spend some time praying for them, not in a prideful, “better than them” kind of way, but in love: “God, it breaks my heart. Would You work in their life? Would You be merciful to lead them back to You? Give them victory over that?” Maybe tonight you spend some time praying for someone. We are priests through Christ, and a priest is supposed to go to God for the people. Hey, let’s be priests tonight and pray for one another. Pray for someone in love tonight who is living in sin. I don’t want to see that you end up in death.
Maybe those two things: I want to just turn my back all the way on Egypt and self-reliance and the flesh and all that, and I want to turn to You tonight, Lord. And let’s pray for someone tonight. Would you do that? Let’s stand. We’re going to have a word of prayer. We won’t be long. Would you spend some time with the Lord? Thank You, Lord, for Your word. Help us to learn. Father, help us to glean. Lord, please, would You apply some of these truths to our heart? Lord, those that are just going the wrong direction, Lord, tonight in Your mercy and Your love, would You put some roadblocks up? Would You remind them of how much You love them, Lord, tonight? Father, redeem them, call them back to You, Lord, I pray, please. Bless our people tonight. Help us to give ourselves fully to You, and help us to pray for those going in the wrong direction. We thank You for what You do, Lord Jesus, and we pray, amen. Would you spend some time with the Lord? Would you do so? Your faithfulness in the Lord’s house, and just be in God’s house right where you ought to be. That’s awesome. And amen.
Original File: Moses in Grad school - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 12142022