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[0:00] All right, well, if you have your Bible, please open it up to the book of Exodus, chapter number four this morning.

[0:15] We'll continue pressing forward in Exodus and in chapter four, if you'll find your place there. Just throw this out. I forgot to mention this with the announcements. If anybody's interested, I'm going to go, Lord willing, tonight up the five to Castaic. There's a church up there that's hosting Dr. Bill Grady at five o'clock, and he's going to be speaking on why the King James Bible. And so if that's a topic that's of interest to you, or if you've never heard Dr. Grady speak, he'll definitely be a good hour, at least. I text the pastor when he showed me what his topic was, and I said, that's going to go three to five hours.

[1:04] And he said, well, at least one hour, but yeah. But he's written many books. Some of them, I'm sure, will be up there for sale, and he's a prolific writer. I think he's a tremendous researcher and writer and very informed, gives you very strict and straight points of view on the thing. And so if you're interested, you can let me know, or you can find your way or research and find where it's at up the five. It's called Freedom's Way Baptist Church, and that'll be at five o'clock. I intend to go, and so maybe I'll see you there. So all right, we're in Exodus chapter four this morning, and we are coming off of where we were last week in chapter three with the message was the calling of a man. We saw before that the making of a man, Moses, and then God calling him in his everyday routine, leading the flock into the backside of the desert, and the Lord appears to him. The Lord gets his attention. The Lord speaks to him and informs him of his will for him to use him, the plan and purpose to deliver, to visit his people, deliver them from

[2:12] Egypt, just like he promised to Abraham. And so now in chapter four, it's a continuation of that conversation that we were reading in chapter three. So let's just pick it right up in verse one, and we'll read to verse nine and follow along in your Bible. The Bible says, 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, 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. And the Lord said furthermore unto him, put now thine hand into thy bosom.

[3:13] 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 thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom. And behold, it 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 pour it upon the dry land. And the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

[3:53] Let's pray together, and then we'll come back into this passage. Lord, we ask now that you'd still each heart, each mind. Lord, surely there's distractions, even as I pray. Distractions in the room, distractions in our minds and in our life. Lord, I pray that you'll help us now just to focus on this message and on this passage and what your word and what your spirit would have for us today. Please speak to every heart. Lord, don't let one person, one mind, one soul in here not be affected, not be, not hear your voice. And Lord, as you minister, help us to have ears to hear, help each to pay attention on purpose, to seek your word, to seek truth. There's a long week ahead of us, and Lord, I pray that you'll get us off to a start here of a time with you where we could fellowship and be ministered to and be prepared. Please take this time, we submit it to you, we pray you'll use it, be glorified in it, we ask in Christ's name, for his sake alone, and amen.

[4:57] So in Exodus 4, Moses is, we're not too keen on what God is pitching him. He's throwing up some objections. He did this, look back at chapter 3 and verse 11. As God tells him what I want, Moses said unto God, who am I that I should go in unto Pharaoh? I'm not the guy for this, am I, Lord? And then in verse 13, Moses said, behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and 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? So he's already conceiving in his mind how this is going to go. The Lord says in verse number 18, they shall hearken to thy voice. And Moses in chapter 4, verse 1 says, but behold, they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice. Okay, Moses knows more than God.

[5:53] Moses knows what he's talking about. No, maybe Moses just has cold feet here. Maybe he's just afraid. He's obviously not excited. And so this back and forth that he's having with the Lord God, God, he's having a back and forth with God, objecting to what God tells him. He's making excuses that he's just not the guy, not a good fit. And so his third objection here is in chapter 4, in verse 1. I think Moses just has, he's weak in faith. He's intimidated by the whole thought and probably scared. And all of this considering that he's standing in front of a bush that is burning with fire and a voice is talking to him. And it's identified that it is the voice of God.

[6:41] God, and he's standing on holy ground. He's loosed his shoe. He was afraid to look upon the Lord. All of that being right in front of him. And he's still objecting and rationalizing and making excuses. And who is Moses to doubt God? When God says, I want you to do this, they're going to hearken.

[7:02] Who is Moses to doubt God and to counter the word of God and to speak back and to object and to question or to fear what the Lord wants for him? Who is Moses? Matter of fact, that's a real good question to ask you this morning. Who are you to doubt God, to object, to rationalize in your mind the way it's going to go when God said what he said? Who are you to question God? Who are you to doubt God?

[7:30] Now, God, after Moses's third objection, in verse 2, he digresses and decides in the commissioning of this man, this servant in his calling, he decides to turn to showing Moses some signs, some supernatural things that he could not object to, some supernatural signs or proofs to convince Moses that he can trust him and that he can obey him. It's a shame that it ever got to that. But the Lord's willing to do it.

[8:08] And so the Lord does it. And so I want to preach to you this morning. After the making of a man and after the calling of the man, let's look at this passage and see the convincing of a man. And before we do, I'll make the same note and disclaimer that I did last week, that just like with the burning bush, we're not seeking to duplicate some miraculous bush burning voice experience in order for us to obey what God has already said to us. And furthermore, we're not looking for a sign for God to convince us to trust and obey him. He does not need to show us a sign. Paul said that the Jews require a sign.

[8:54] And he furthermore said that we walk by faith. And so we're not going to look for signs. We're going to walk by faith and believe the Lord God and his word. Jesus Christ said, an evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. Let that not be us. Definitely not this morning.

[9:14] So the message today is not that you can take up serpents and drink any deadly drink and heal the sick and raise the dead. But rather, as we read of these signs and these things, God has shown Moses to convince him, we can make some application. So let's begin in verse number two here, where the Lord says this. Look at verse two. The Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he said, a rod.

[9:44] The convincing of a man. The Lord is going to convince Moses with a visual, with an object lesson, something he can see with his eyes. It's more than just the words of God saying, you're going to go to them. You're going to go to Pharaoh. You're going to tell him this. It's going to happen. He already laid that out in chapter three, but now he's going to go beyond that. And something he can see with his eyes, a visual. He's going to convince him with a visual.

[10:09] He says a rod. That's what he has. He doesn't have a sword and God's not going to call him to go conquer Egypt and, and kill and raise up an army and defeat Pharaoh. God doesn't need a sword in Moses's hand. He doesn't have a scepter in his hand because he's not calling a king or a ruler to go deliver his people from Pharaoh. Moses doesn't have a scroll. God's not calling some wise, holy man, a student of the scripture, some great seer, some great prophet. Oh, he'll make Moses into that in time. But today Moses has a rod, a rod, and that'll do just fine. A simple, everyday common tool or instrument of a shepherd and many others for that matter. Aaron had a rod. Pharaoh's magicians had rods as well. And so a very common thing of the day, nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, and that's just fine with God. A rod. But what can God do with a rod? What could Moses do with a rod? And then what could God do with a rod? Actually, as you've read this book, and we'll get to it in time, pretty much everything that God did. The frogs, the water to blood, the hail from heaven, the parting of the

[11:39] Red Sea, all of it was by the man holding out a rod. That's all God needed, just a rod. And so he says, what is that in thine hand? And I wonder this morning, what if God were to ask you the same question? What is that in thine hand? What do you have? That's an interesting thought. If God were to ask you the same question, because I'm convinced God wants to use your life to bring glory to himself.

[12:09] He wants to use you to bring glory to him. And you might say, well, I'm too simple. I don't have qualifications. But he'll just say, okay, fine. But what is that in thine hand? When is God looking for a superstar? When does God need some highly respected or highly cultured individual to glorify himself? When does he need that? He just needs a rod. What do you have in your hand this morning?

[12:39] Because I believe God can use the very person you are and the very abilities you possess right here, seated where you are to glorify himself.

[12:51] What's in your hand? What do you possess right now? I guarantee God can use it if you'll give it to him. But you know what? You probably need convincing, don't you? Because you don't think you've got it.

[13:04] You don't think you're enough. You don't think you have the skills. You look at someone else and say, they have it. And you need convincing. God needs to convince you too, sadly, that he can use you, that you're capable of doing something for him the way you are, that you have enough.

[13:23] Moses has a rod. That'll do. That'll do just fine. And so what do you have? Because I'm convinced it'll do just fine. And let's see what God can do with this rod. Look at verses three and four. We'll reread these. He says in verse three, 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, pausing there, let's remember God is speaking from the burning bush. This is all present in front of him still. That didn't go away.

[14:02] The voice of God is still coming forth out of that fire. And Moses is voicing his doubts and the rod in his hand seems like just a simple nothing. And God says, cast it on the ground. I can hear a lot of Christians saying, why? Why would I do that? What kind of sense does that make? I'm done with this right here, right now. This is not for me, but the Lord wants to convince him and he wants to use the very thing he has in his hand to convince him. And so he says, cast it on the ground. It's just a simple step of obedience. And in that simple step of obedience, something happens, something that he'll never forget, something that has his full attention. As a matter of fact, he fled from before it. He got scared. And you know, so would I, I would absolutely be scared if there was a serpent right there at my feet. I'd back off. I'd jump back several feet. And if my wife was there, she'd be pushing me to get away. It's just the way that goes.

[15:13] But God is not limited to what you possess. He's not limited to your skill set or your abilities to do something with it. Moses had a rod. That's enough. But you know, the only thing that would hinder God or limit God would have been Moses's disobedience. And you could say, well, God could turn it into a serpent right there in his hand. And then he'd cast it to the ground. Yeah, I don't admit he probably could do that too. But it was Moses's obedience and just doing what he was told as he cast it to the ground. Then in verse four, the Lord said to Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And again, I can hear the Christians say, I don't think so. I am afraid of a serpent. I flee from a serpent. But the Lord says, take it by the tail. He put forth his hand and caught it.

[16:08] And it became a rod in his hand. Now I want you to understand that the serpent scared Moses. And I'm sure he'd rather not touch the serpent. He backed away. He fled from before it.

[16:22] And understand something. God may ask you to do something that you're afraid of. He may ask you to do something you're not comfortable with. He may ask you to do something that intimidates you.

[16:37] Maybe putting a, walking up somebody's driveway and going to their front door and hanging a door hanger and placing a gospel track intimidates you. You say, they don't want me walking up their driveway.

[16:55] They don't want me messing around, putting stuff on their door. They don't want me to do this. And I feel that too. And I think in my heart and the Lord confirms, he says, but I don't want them to go to hell. I don't want to send them to hell. So why don't you have some compassion on their souls?

[17:11] And at the very least, put a door hanger on their door. Show them where they can find the truth. Put a gospel track in their hand. I don't, I don't like approaching people. Just my nature, I'll be dead honest with you. My nature is just to mind my own business and leave people alone and leave me alone.

[17:35] Especially in a city where everybody's just kind of weird or just has their own way. And that's just my nature. The other night after church, I was putting some gas in my car and I was pumping the gas and there was a, there was this car a little bit too, too stalls over, whatever you call them, just blaring music, like blaring so loud. I don't know if I've ever heard it that loud at a gas station.

[18:04] And I thought, I was like, you know, my initials like, dude, shut that junk off. Like, turn it down. We didn't ask, you know, just the, you know, the way people are, they don't care about anybody but themselves. That's, that was all, that spirit was creeping up in me pretty strong. I was annoyed to say the least. But as I'm pumping the gas and just feeling like, get out of here. The Lord just says to me in my heart, you've got tracks in your car. You've got tracks in your car. And I thought, I do. And I need to use them.

[18:39] And there was a vehicle that just pulled up over here. And there's the pump here. And there was a, another person. I couldn't see them or their car, but I could hear the, the pump kind of clanking. And I knew there was somebody on the other side of me. And so I'm probably about halfway through.

[18:53] And I thought, all right, I'll, I'll get the tracks when I'm done here. And so I finished up and I went around and dug it, opened my door, dug into where my tracks were and got two tracks out. And as I turned around, like, I didn't even think of it. I'm just looking.

[19:13] That car was gone. I didn't even see them. I didn't even hear them. I'm telling you, music was loud. And they were already gone. And this person over here was gone. And I could see them like their brake lights going around the corner. And I stood there with two tracks in my hand. I just thought, I was going to give these two people tracks. And now they're gone. And inside, I was like, well, you know, you did the right thing. You were going to do it. So you can leave now. And the Lord said, no, that guy with the music, that guy. And I just thought, yep, that sounds about right.

[19:45] That guy. And so I went over and I just, I don't even know if he could hear me. And he's sitting there with his leg hanging out of his car. And I reached in at the track to him and he took it.

[19:55] And I said a few words and he just nodded his head, tattoos all over his face, looked like straight out of the cartel or something. And I just walked away thinking, well, maybe the Lord can use that. I think he can. I think he cares about that man's soul because I feel like in the moment I was supposed to give him a track and the Lord put it on my heart. And you know, the only thing that could have stopped that from happening would have been my disobedience. I had a choice right there to disobey and make an excuse. I could have thrown three excuses and left and justified it in my heart. The only thing that stops God from doing what he wants most of the time, a good one, it's our disobedience. He's just looking for our obedience. It's what he's looking for with Moses. Throw the rod down, watch something, just reach out and grab it. And Moses learned something.

[20:48] He fled from before it. He was afraid to touch it, but it was his obedience that convinced him. God may ask you to witness to somebody. He may ask you to hand a track to somebody. He may ask you to invite your neighbor, your co-worker, somebody to come to church, to receive a gospel track, to hear a witness about what Jesus Christ has done for you. He may ask you and put on your heart to do that.

[21:19] The flesh gives you why you shouldn't do that really quickly. The flesh tells you you're not a snake handler, Moses. Don't you touch that thing. You run from snakes. You don't touch them. But when the Lord tells you to reach out, you reach out and obey.

[21:39] And it says in verse four that he caught it. He caught it and it became a rod in his hand. It turns out that Moses didn't have to be a snake handler. It turns out that Moses, in his mind, that thing's going to bite me. That thing's going to turn around and strike me. That thing's like, I'm sure he was kind of reaching as far as he could reach. It turns out Moses didn't have to worry about any of that at all. He just needed to obey. And when your flesh tells you don't do it, you can't do it, you don't have the Bible memorized, you've never been to seminary, you've gives you all these reasons why you can't do it. Your obedience will make all the difference and you'll be convinced God could use you. God can use you. This convincing of the Lord is dependent upon Moses's obedience, but God's convincing this man to trust him. And I want to show you again now in this passage that the convincing came in multiple forms. He did it through this object lesson here with the rod, but he's going to do it again in another way, another sign, and this one with an incurable disease. And God could have did anything, right?

[22:56] I mean, he could have had an earthquake. He could have made the sun stand still. He could have, he said to the shepherds, this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. That's really odd. That's really abnormal. There's so many abnormalities and oddities in the world God could have chosen, but he went this direction.

[23:18] And I think there's a good reason for it. And notice in verses six and seven now again, that 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, leprous as snow. You've got to imagine how wild that would be to pull your hand out and see it covered with leprosy, something that's incurable. You can't shake it off. I mean, full-blown matured leprosy on his hand as white as snow.

[23:54] I imagine there was shock. I imagine there was fear. But I think in all of this, God is revealing to Moses in just a tiny way, his ability over everything, including you, Moses, including you.

[24:13] And this is going to be a really strong, convincing tool of the Lord. I cannot help but wonder if there isn't a hint of threat involved with the leprosy. I don't think God's merely just saying, look what I can do. I can, I can give you leprosy and I can take it. I can heal all diseases, Moses. You don't have to fear me. Now, I think he's shown him before he healed it, he afflicted him with it. Before he took it away, he inflicted his flesh with a deadly disease. And Moses, in that moment, would have lost his hand. Moses would have lost his hand that he just cast the serpent to the, or the rod to the ground and picked it up. That, that thing was, uh, he, he couldn't fix it. He was helpless. He would have been dying had the God allowed that to carry on. I imagine this shock and scare was more than just that. I think God's convincing Moses here with a threat. Now, if you think I'm overselling this, look at Deuteronomy chapter 26. I want to cross-reference this passage with something much stronger and very direct. Deuteronomy chapter 26.

[25:27] I'm wrong. 28, 28. And sprinkled through this entire chapter is threat after threat after threat. Watch this specifically. Verse 15 is where it begins. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe, to do all his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. Is that a threat?

[26:08] A promise? Absolutely. Look at verse 21. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until he have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. Verse 27 and 28.

[26:24] The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with the emeralds and with the scab and with the itch whereof thou canst not be healed. The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart. Look down to verse 35.

[26:44] The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. Now finally, verses 58 through 61.

[26:59] 58 through 61. And if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in the book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy God, then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed and of even great plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance.

[27:24] Moreover, he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee. Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed.

[27:40] I think God absolutely threatens his people and pledges and promises a curse upon them if they refuse to obey him. God is not mocked.

[27:53] And I see God not just convincing him with some object lesson and showing him that you can obey me and this will work out fine, but he's also showing him if you don't obey me, Moses, this is what could happen to you.

[28:06] And when you deal with your children, you tell them what you want them to do. If they don't obey, what's your next course of action? You generally, I'll use the word threaten them, you may say warn them, but you let them know consequences, something's coming if you don't want to listen to me, and then what follows that is punishment.

[28:30] Now come back into the passage of Exodus chapter 4. I believe God is convincing Moses. What do you think he felt when he opened his eyes upon his own hand being leprous, as white as snow?

[28:44] You think he thought like, oh God, that's pretty neat. Can you do it to my other hand? I've never had this before. You think he wasn't scared? You didn't think that didn't strike him inside of his heart, even more so than the serpent?

[28:57] He could run from the serpent. You can't run from leprosy. Exodus chapter 4. And look at verse, notice verse 5.

[29:08] This is where after the serpent became a rod, he says, that they may believe, that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, etc., hath appeared unto thee.

[29:19] That sign was to get them to believe. So look at verse number 8. 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.

[29:35] So the first sign was supposed to be sufficient for belief. The latter sign will absolutely seal the deal. You shouldn't have to go any further than that to convince them.

[29:48] Just like parents with children, they should obey the voice. But if that doesn't do it, the threat of punishment and consequences ought to stop it right in its tracks.

[29:59] But if that doesn't happen, there's one more thing God says in verse number 9. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that's three things, that thou shalt take of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land.

[30:21] And the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. There's one more thing. This thing was not performed in Moses' sight in Midian here in the backside of the desert.

[30:36] He said, you'll do this in front of them, the water of the river. So this never took place. Moses never saw this happen. There's no evidence when he went to meet them later in this chapter that he ever had to do this last sign.

[30:51] In verse 30, it says, Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken. Or Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.

[31:02] And the people believed. So there's no evidence that he ever finished with that last thing. There was the speaking to them and there was the voice of the first sign and of the latter sign and he never calls the next one a sign per se.

[31:18] So there's no evidence that this ever took place. It may have. I can't prove it either way. But there's one more thing that God is, one last word from God. They will believe your voice.

[31:30] If they don't believe, they'll hearken to this first sign that they'll believe. If they don't believe that, they'll believe the voice of the latter sign. They will believe it. But if they won't listen to your voice and they won't believe those two signs that I gave you, then this is the last step.

[31:48] This is what you're going to do to them. You're going to dip some water out of the river. You're going to pour it out in their sight. And on that ground, it's going to become blood. What do you think that's all about?

[32:03] You think that's just another little neat little hocus pocus? They're going to be like, the serpent, that was kind of neat. The leprosy, eh, but the blood thing, whoa.

[32:15] You turned water. You think they're going to be blown away with the third one? If they wouldn't believe the first two? If they wouldn't believe Moses showing up and saying God showed up to me?

[32:26] You think that last one is just, I'll just keep going down the line of my tricks until they finally, I don't think so. The blood, the water would turn into blood upon the dry land.

[32:41] They would see with their eyes blood. I don't think this is some random sorcery and random show of power. When you see blood, you don't think happy thoughts.

[32:56] You don't get excited and say, glory to God. He turned water into blood. Praise his holy name. Now we believe. When you see blood, that's not a pretty sight.

[33:08] That's a repulsive sight and a fearful sight. You don't think about the goodness of God. You get immediately eerie, fearful, scary.

[33:24] The first time blood is mentioned in your Bible, it's in Genesis chapter 4 when Cain slew his brother Abel. And the Lord said that the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

[33:42] A man was murdered and his blood's on the ground. In Zephaniah chapter 1, God says, they have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as the dust.

[33:54] Let me take you to a place here. Turn to Revelation 16. This is just too much of a coincidence. Revelation 16 and the tribulation, there's some horrors coming forth and these vials of the wrath of God are being poured out upon the earth.

[34:12] And there's no coincidence of what these first two are. Blood speaks of death if you haven't figured it out.

[34:29] It declares death. When that first plague, he put his rod up over the streams of Egypt and the rivers of Egypt and the water was turned to blood and everything died.

[34:43] And it stank. In Revelation 16, let's begin in verse 1, I heard a great voice out of the temple saying unto the seven angels, Go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

[34:54] And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth. And there fell a noisome and grievous sore. Isn't that interesting? Upon the men, upon the men which had the mark of the beast and upon them which worshipped his image.

[35:07] A sore. In verse 3, And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea and it became as blood, the blood of a dead man. And every living soul died in the sea.

[35:21] The third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and the fountains of waters and they became blood. And I heard the angels of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art and was and shalt be because thou hast judged thus.

[35:33] For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

[35:44] Amen, amen, amen. That blood's not just a pretty little picture. It's not a little tantalizing trick. It's a threat. And they ought to be afraid of the blood.

[35:59] Now, I don't know that it ever came to that. But to me, that's what that's going on there. God's showing them blood. When they see the blood, that's what's going to happen to them. If they will refuse to hear Moses' voice, if they'll refuse the voice of the first sign and the voice of the latter sign, then you pour that water out and show them blood.

[36:19] You know, those guys, those disciples left those villages that wouldn't receive their preaching. They dusted their shoes off and left. And it was just like a shutting off of them. You're done.

[36:30] You're done. This is it. I think that's what God's saying. If they're not going to, if they're going to refuse my deliverer and my offer, then I'm done.

[36:41] They're going to get blood. Now, they believed. And the blood turned out to be for the Egyptians as it was intended. And so let's get back to the theme of the message here.

[36:53] When God seeks to use you, as he did Moses, and he gets his attention, as he did last chapter, and he speaks to him, Christian, don't let it get to this.

[37:07] Don't let it get to where God has to do something more. Know something more to convince you that you belong to him. That he is calling you to obey and to trust and to love and to serve him.

[37:25] Don't let it get to this. Don't push back on God that he has to take in a direction that's just completely unnecessary. Moses never even had to throw the rod on the ground.

[37:37] He didn't have to come up with all these remarks back about they're not going to listen. They're not going to do this. He never even had to get to that. He could have just obeyed the word of God and gone.

[37:50] But, he threw a fit and the Lord took it a different direction. He showed him some things. He convinced him with some things. But his word alone is sufficient to convince us to obey him.

[38:06] His word alone. Those plagues, those threats, that's for Egypt. Those plagues are for the disobedient. They are not for the children of God. And if God saved your soul, Christian, you belong to him.

[38:18] You've been bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He owns you. You're his child. Don't force him to convince you to serve him that obeying his word is right for your life.

[38:32] Don't push his hand. Don't make him threaten you. He will. He's a father. The Bible says that he will chasten the son. He'll chasten you.

[38:43] I've tasted it. I didn't have to, but I did. I chose it for myself. You don't need to go that direction. The Lord has something to say to you. He wants to convince you that he's right.

[38:57] Don't push against that. The Lord speaks to your heart. Don't put up a front. Don't back him down and say, show me, prove it to me. You might like, you may not like at all what he decides to prove, what he shows.

[39:13] One more thought I want to point out back in chapter four. Back in chapter four, in verse number two, the Lord said, what is that in thine hand?

[39:28] In thine hand, Moses' hand. In verse number four, put forth thine hand and take it by the tail and he put forth his hand and caught it.

[39:40] And again in verse six, put thine hand into thy bosom. He put his hand, do you see it's, it's everything's going on. It's verse seven. He said, put thine hand into thy bosom again. It's his hand, his hand, his hand, Moses' hand.

[39:53] God is convincing this man to trust, to obey him. And he's doing it with his own hands. He's doing it with his own hands.

[40:04] His own hand picked up the serpent. His own hand was leprous, a sight that he would never forget for the remainder of his life. It was his own flesh, his own body. And God's dealing with the man in a personal, intimate way.

[40:19] He's not an observer. He's not reading some other Christian's biography and saying, oh, that sounds like I should, you know, that's a good, good choice for him. But no, it was Moses' own hand, God's own voice that he dealt with him on.

[40:35] And he'll never forget that for the entirety of his life. He'll never forget what his own hand did, what he saw with his eyes in his own hand, his own body.

[40:47] And my question to you this morning is how far will God have to go to convince you to place your hand in his and trust him and obey him and walk with him?

[41:06] How far will God have to take you till you surrender to him and just obey? the convincing of a man.

[41:19] You know, me and you and Moses aren't so different at all, are we? We're full of fear. We're afraid of what God might ask us to do, how it might turn out.

[41:36] And he's showing us, he's convincing us, just trust me, just obey me. If I tell you to do it, do it. It'll work out.

[41:47] I'll take care of you. I'll go with you. So Christian, the lesson out of all of this is don't kick against the pricks. Don't argue with God. Don't throw up your excuses.

[41:58] They won't hold up and they're wrong. It's your flesh. You're scared. Get on your face. Surrender it to the Lord. Ask him to make you willing. Ask him to give you strength and courage if that's what you need.

[42:13] But don't make him convince you. Don't make him take it another level. It doesn't have to go because God is faithful. He's been faithful to me. He'll be faithful to you.

[42:23] If he needs to punish, if he needs to correct in chastening, he'll do it because he's a good God and a good father. He's not going to just let you fall off and destroy everything when he has a goal and a calling and a desire to use you and glorify himself and he deserves that.

[42:40] So don't withhold from him. Let's bow our heads together in a moment. I want you to consider this morning with your heads bowed, please, nobody looking around.

[42:55] With all the different lives represented here, with all the different situations in this crowd, who is it here that God is speaking to, that God is giving some instruction to and you're afraid to obey it.

[43:13] You're afraid to follow through. You're afraid to trust. Are you going to make him convince you? Are you going to make him do something in your life to get your attention?

[43:27] Are you going to keep running? Are you going to keep fighting? Are you going to keep arguing? Or will you surrender? Do you not know that God is good?

[43:42] Do you not believe that he loves you? Do you not believe that he wants to use you and glorify his son at your hand and that all he needs is for you to obey?

[44:00] That's all he needs. Will you obey this morning? Will you submit this morning? Will you stop fighting? Will you stop arguing? If the Lord's dealing with your heart, I encourage you this morning to just deal with it today while he's speaking.

[44:19] Answer the call. Has he convinced you from this message? I invite you to pray in your seat here at the altar.

[44:31] Let's take some time and do business with our God because he's right and he wants the best for us and he deserves the best out of us. So let's obey.

[44:43] Lord, please now take this time and bury within each heart our need to simply trust and obey.

[44:56] Oh God, help us not to fight. Give us courage in the new man. Strengthen us by your spirit in the inner man that our own hands could be put to work for you without fear, without intimidation, but just trust.

[45:19] We know that you love us. We believe that from your word. You've been nothing but good in our lives. You are right and you are righteous. Those in heaven declare true and just and true and righteous are your judgments and we say amen to that in our lives.

[45:39] So Lord, now help us to submit and obey to you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[45:50]  Let's stand together and we'll sing a hymn. I think you know the hymn Trust and Obey quite fitting.