The Three Signs Of Moses

• We turn to Chapter 7 and we find where Moses obeyed God and cast his rod upon the floor as the first sign to Egypt of God's deliverance.

Exodus 7:7-12  And Moses [was] fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh. And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,  When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast [it] before Pharaoh, [and] it shall become a serpent.  And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.  Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.  For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

God told Moses to throw his rod down before Pharaoh when Pharaoh should seek proof of this miraculous God.

God gave these instructions to Moses a while before this as we read in Exodus 4:1-5

We find that when Moses did throw down the rod, and it became a serpent, that Pharaoh called his magicians and they repeated the same wonder.

The first mention of the serpent in the Bible was the serpent that Satan possessed when he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.

• Through the lies of the serpent, Eve was deceived and made to think that eating the forbidden fruit would improve upon herself.
• So the serpent speaks of the inception of sin into the world.

• Recall that Jesus made this statement.

John 3:14-15  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

John 12:32-33  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.

• By having the people look on the serpent, they were healed of their dying.
• They had to look at what was killing them, on a pole, and be healed.
• Jesus became what was killing us, when He hung on the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21  For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

• He knew no sin, neither had he committed any sin.
• But He took our sins and became the embodiment of sin.
• That is the reason He cried, "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me."
• The Holy Spirit of God departed from Him due to the rank sin into which He became.

• Hence, we also read in 2 Cor. that we became the righteousness of God in Him.

• Our sin had to be removed from us, and He took it upon Himself.

• Its not a problem for the world to produce a sinful person.
• Pharaoh's magicians produced an entire roomful of serpents.

• Pharaoh's serpents could not accomplish this feat.
• Moses' rod that became a serpent chased the other serpents and swallowed them all up.
• And then Moses reached down and took the serpent by the tail and picked it back up again.
• It then turned back into a rod.
• The message is clear!
• Any person can become sinful.
• Rods falling on the ground represent people that are turned into expressions of the devil in the way they live in sin.
• Man was created by God to be an expression of himself, and look what mankind has done to himself.
• Man is the expression of the serpent!
• The things that people do to one another.
• Even some so-called Christians are more expressive of the serpent than they are of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ!
• But when Christ became the embodiment of sin He was on the cross, and He became sin so that He might swallow up all other sins and do away with them in his death on the cross!

• That is the reason that people need to go to the cross.
• Even after we are saved, we need to cast our cares upon Him, for He cares for us.
• When we slip and fall and make a mistake, the death of Christ as the lowering of Christ down to our levels so that He could take those sins and crucify them in Himself.
• Go to the work of the cross and claim your deliverance from sin if you ever slip and make a mistake.

• It speaks of defeating the devil and sin.
• Afterwards, God told him to produce a second sign.
• Place his hand in his bosom and remove it again.
• Moses did so and the hand became leprous.
• And Moses placed his hand in his bosom again and removed it.
• It was once again clean.
• This is victory over the flesh.

The life of the Egyptians was represented by the Nile River.

• Their source of life was to be made death.
• If they do not accept the former two signs of change and deliverance, then all that is left is death to the people.

• They cannot be recovered.

• So many only know that God took us away from the devil when He saved us.
• Yet these same people do not realize that God washed them and made them clean, also.
• Salvation removes all of your sins and makes you an entirely new person.
• Your hands commit what is in your hearts.
• And when Moses put his hand in his cloak, and pulled it out again, it was leprous.
• Leprosy always represents sin.
• This portrayed the sin within mankind’s heart that causes him to commit actions of sins.
• Sin produces sins.

• We seem to learn that well after we realize that God defeated Satan’s dominion over our lives on the cross when we were first saved.
• But it takes longer to realize that WE, OURSELVES, are cleansed, too.

• If you think you have to sin, then you are probably going to find a way to sin.
• We have no problem with understanding that Jesus broke the devil’s back on the cross.
• But we do have to learn after we are saved that sin shall not have dominion over us either.

Romans 6:6-7  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Romans 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

He told them, in Romans 5:20-21, that where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.

• And then in 6:1 he puts forth the hypothetical question, “Does that mean we should sin so that grace may abound?”
• The only people who would hear how that grace abound more whenever there is sin abounding, and then conclude that they must sin so that grace may abound, are people who simply do not conceive the thought of getting to a place in God where we conquer sin and are above it, and cease from sinning.
• These people only look at their own abilities, and conclude that it is impossible to stop sinning.
• And if all we had was our own abilities to look to that we might conquer sin, then they would be correct.
• But Romans 6 teaches us that we have more than our own abilities.
• And Paul throws a zinger out to the Romans before he explains why it is true.

Romans 5:20-6:2  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

He probably would reply, “I am glad you asked that!”

Do you realize what Paul said?

• I don’t care what the Right Reverend Doctor Celcius thinks, with all his degrees.
• I am smart enough to know that I might be stupid.
• That may sound humourous, but I mean that just because I am a Christian, does not mean I know everything that God wants me to know.
• I read where Paul stated in plain language that we do not have to live in sin any longer.
• Did he mean it or not?
• If I am still sinning upon occasion, then there is something I have not yet learned.
• I might be doing all that I know to do.
• But that does not mean there is nothing left for me to learn.
• I may be doing all that I know to do, but what if I do not know everything?
• Something that I do not know will be my key to stop sinning.
• Paul states that it is a fact that we are dead to sin.

• And to anyone who cannot see that as being true, let me repeat what Paul said next. – you must not know some things.
• If you, yourself, calculate a mathematical equation using mathematics, and can thereby achieve the answer, and see how you arrived at that certain conclusion, then you have a sense of surety about your answer.
• But if you were merely told the answer, not having worked it out using mathematics for yourself, you would only be able to take someone’s word for it.
• And perhaps, you might doubt it.

• They have only heard the statement saying we are “dead to sin,” and that “sin shall not have dominion over us.”
• But they have never taken the time nor have put forth the effort to study what Paul said in Romans 6 and calculate it out in their own minds.

• They were called “times tables” in our day.
• We need to take time to get the facts into our heads.

• We were buried with Him in baptism.
• Paul said that this act of faith causes us to rise with Christ from the dead.
• The key is realizing that we did it “with Him.”
• We were crucified with Him.
• And it is a fact that he that is dead is freed from sin.

• And if we were crucified with Christ, then we can say that we died.
• So we are therefore freed from sin.

• Nobody can tell us differently once we have calculated it out and proven it using the facts for ourselves!
• Facts are facts!

Romans 6:10-11  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

• You realize that you actually ALLOWED sin to conquer you, now that you know that you are free from sin.
• You did not realize it when sin whipped you, but since you worked this out for yourself and calculated it, or reckoned it, you are now sure of something you perhaps questioned before, even thought it was told to you.
• But now you know it is a matter of merely LETTING sin run your life, once you know you are freed from it.

• You’re above that obstacle.
• You know its actually a matter of ALLOWING it rule or not.
• What is it threatening you for?
• What does it think it is?
• You get boldness when you realize these things.

This is rather humourous, and its an awful thing to think that I did this, but it brings out a point to help you understand how our minds can work sometimes.

• Years ago in elementary school a boy named Luigi and I got into a fight.
• He was twice my size in weight, although I was a little older than him.
• I chased him after he made some bad remarks to me, and he ran.
• He ran frantically.
• I caught him and had him down on the ground crying.
• We had another confrontation at the schoolyard a week or so later.
• Something happened since the first time we fought.
• Luigi realized that he was bigger than me.
• He realized that he was about twice my weight.
• So when I took after him again, he threw me down on the ground and sat on top of me.
• The school kids gathered around in a big crowed and the teacher broke it up.
• The only victory that I had was breaking his extra-large chocolate bar that he brought to school with him.

• But he did not realize that when we fought.
• He was defeated before I even grabbed him.
• That is the reason that I defeated him.
• But when he thought about it and realized who he was, the next time that I attacked him, he took control and defeated me.
• I could not move out from beneath him once he sat upon me!

• We think it will defeat us before it ever attacks us with its temptation, so we yield and are whipped.
• We are defeated in our minds.
• But if we can be told who we are and what position we hold, and realize who we are, when we deal with sin the next time it comes, we will find that we will conquer it in Jesus’ name!
• So after we realize the first sign, we need to realize the second.
• Jesus not only grabbed Satan and sin, and defeated them, but he took our flesh and did away with the sinful person we once were, and made us brand new in His sight.

• The devil’s claws are off you now, but yet you fall for his temptations that he hollers out to you.
• After you are saved the devil can only lie to you.
• He is bound, but he is not gagged.
• He could only lie to Eve in the Garden.
• He could not grab her and throw her into slavery since she was above him and had power against him.
• God told Adam and Eve both to have dominion.
• She was his helpmeet in subduing the world and dominating all living things.

• But he can deceive us by lying to us.
• He can only holler at you.
• So you need to be aware of what the truth is so that when you are confronted with a lie, you will immediately recognize it.

• We need to see victory over Satan, Self and the World.

• Its dead.
• The world’s source of so-called life and living it up is nothing more than dead man’s blood.
• Once you take the cup of blessing of Christ’s blood, and are set free, you have a land of milk and honey to be concerned about rather than an old slavery pit called Egypt.