Good evening. We're going to
open tonight's service with number 18 in your spiral hymn book.
The Bible is a book of Christ. We're going to sing straight
through, so we'll sing the refrain as if it was just verse two.
Let's all stand. God gave his holy inspired word
for only one great end. The prophets and apostles, too,
revealed the sinner's fair friend. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds. Those deeds of power and of grace
set forth the woman's seed. The prophets all reveal our Lord
as prophet, priest, and king. The types the great redemption
show, Christ's blood and grace now bring. Behold the Lamb, the
Baptist said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long
before, God's Son as man has come. Our substitute obeyed the
law, then died and rose again. And in his word, our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again. Please be seated. That's our hope, isn't it? Our
Savior said, I come again. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 56. And I hope I'm not a distraction
tonight, but I want to give you an explanation as why I may be
talking funny. I have a swollen jaw, and I'm
trying not to bite my cheek. Psalm 56. Be merciful unto me,
O God, for man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. Mine enemies would daily swallow
me up, for they be many that fight against me, O Thou Most
High. If your sin and your unbelief,
and the weakness and wretchedness of your flesh is your greatest
enemy, I've got good news for you tonight. I hope the Lord will defeat our
enemies tonight. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee. In God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust.
I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Every day, they rest
my words. All their thoughts are against
me for evil. They gather themselves together.
They hide themselves. They mark my steps when they
wait for my soul. Shall they escape by iniquity?
In thine anger, cast down the people, O God. Thou tellest my
wanderings. Put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book? When
I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back. This I know,
for God is for me. In God will I praise his word.
In the Lord will I praise his word. God I put my trust. I will not be afraid what man
can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me, O God. I will render praise unto thee,
for thou hast delivered my soul from death. Wilt not thou deliver
my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light
of the living?" Robert called just a a little bit ago and said
Deanna was not feeling well tonight. And he said he would take her
to the doctor in the morning if she didn't do better tonight.
So I want to pray for her, pray for Deanna. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father, we come before thy throne of
grace thanking you for the accomplished work of God, your son, for the
conquering of our enemy, our sin, and our flesh, and for the
establishment and the surety of eternal life. Lord, we pray
that you would open the eyes of understanding. We pray that
you would open the windows of heaven. We pray that you would
open your word. Open our hearts. Lord, we know that what you open,
no man can shut. And so we ask, Lord, that you
would open these glorious things to us tonight as we look to your
word and that you would give us hope in Christ and forgive
us of our sin. We pray for our sister Deanna.
Thank you for her and Robert. And we ask, Lord, your blessings
and your comfort and strength to be upon them. We ask it in
Christ's name. Amen. number eight in the Spiral Hymn
Book. Let's stand together once again. ? O Lord, our hearts and souls
aspire ? ? To lift up from this earthly mire ? ? O may we think
of heavenly things ? ? And know the joy thy presence brings ?
? Lord, let us see the Savior's face ? ? And let us taste of
thy sweet grace ? ? May open ears thy glories hear ? ? And
may we smell thy fragrance near ? ? Be pleased to open heaven's
door ? And on our heads thy blessings pour ? All wretched, poor, and
needy we ? Where can we go if not to thee Oh, may this day
be blessed the most that Jesus Christ becomes the host to feed
our souls with living bread and with our souls in joy to wed. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Exodus chapter 17? Exodus 17. Believers truly are grieved most
by their own sin, their own unbelief, the weakness and wretchedness
of their own flesh. And therein is the hope of the
gospel. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Exodus chapter 17 is a glorious
picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for his people.
And I hope that we'll leave here tonight relying on, resting in,
having hope in the glorious person and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ for all our salvation. and that that would
be all our desire. I've titled this message Jehovah
Nisi because Moses calls the Lord that. In verse 15 of this
chapter, Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah
Nisi. The Lord is my banner. Last week, we looked at the Lord's
name that he gave us, Jehovah Shalom. The Lord is our peace. Perfect peace belongs to them
whose mind is stayed on thee. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is our peace with God. The Wednesday night before that,
we looked at Jehovah Sabbah, the Lord of hosts, the sovereign
God that works all things together for the good of his people and
for his own glory. And he controls the armies of
heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth and no man can stay
his hand. All that we see happening in
the world and all that we see in our own lives are under the
sovereign control of Jehovah Saba, the Lord of hosts. Here
we find the children of Israel in a battle against the Amalekites. And we're gonna see that Amalek
is a picture of our sin. And this story that's given to
us in Exodus chapter 17 is every believer's experience. I started
to title this message, From Sin to Rest. I want you to look with
me, if you will, at the very first verse of this chapter,
and all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed
from the wilderness of sin. The word in the Hebrew translated
means thorn or clay. We are men of clay and we do
suffer thorns in our flesh. I think that, you know, we often
think of the Apostle Paul's prayer for the thorn in his flesh as
being a physical malady, but It's a good chance that he was
just talking about his sin nature. That's our thorn in the flesh,
isn't it? And so all the children of Israel, every single one of
them are being led from the wilderness of their own clay and their own
sinful flesh. And look after their journeys
according to the commandment of the Lord. It's the Lord that
has to do this. We can't just wake up one day
and decide we're gonna take care of our sin problem. And we don't
even know we have a sin problem if the Lord doesn't reveal it
to us. And so it's the Lord that led
all the children of Israel from the wilderness of sin. And look
where he led them. And they pitched in Rephidim.
Now the word raffidim means rest. Actually, it means double rest.
And I'm thinking about that passage in Isaiah chapter 40 where the
Lord said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them that
they received of the Lord a double blessing. This is our double
rest. What is our double rest? That
all of our sin was placed on Christ. and sacrifice that Christ
made of himself satisfied the justice of God and put our sin
away once and for all. And the second blessing is that
he imputes to us his righteousness so that we have a holy righteousness
enabling us to stand in the presence of God. God made him who knew
no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's the double rest. That's
the double blessing. And so the Lord is leading his
people from the wilderness of sin to Raphidim, that place where
they find their hope and their comfort and all their salvation
in Christ. And like us, they murmured, In
spite of the fact that the Lord would be so merciful to them,
in spite of the fact that he's so merciful to us, we find something
to complain about and accuse God of. And so here they are. There was no water for the people
to drink. Wherefore, the people did chide with Moses and said,
give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why
chide you with me? Wherefore, do you tempt the Lord?
You need water, go to the Lord. What do they say? You can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make him drink. That's so true. That's true.
I mean, I can open the spigots and pour out the water, but God's
the one that has to give us a thirst, doesn't he? He's the one that
has to make us want to drink from the fountain of the river
of life, really. And one thing you can do for
a horse to make him want to drink is give him a salt block. And the scriptures have that
effect, don't they? They make us thirsty. And so pray the Lord will do
that for us. Look at verse three, and the
people thirsted there for water and the people murmured against
Moses and said, wherefore is this that thou hast brought us
up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with
thirst? Earlier, they said, we want to
go back to where the garlics and the leeks and the melons
were. We want to feed from the things that come from the earth.
We loathe this light bread, this bread of life, which is Christ. He's that bread. And the natural
man just wants to satisfy the desires of his flesh with the
things that come from the earth. God opens the windows of heaven
and gives us the bread of life and the person of Christ. But
the natural man says, we loathe this light bread. Give us something
more. Moses cried unto the Lord. This
is what believers do when they're in need. They cry unto the Lord
every time. This is a work of grace in the
believer's heart. makes him cry out to God to help
him, Lord help me. This is what faith is. You know,
faith is not some sort of stalwart character trait to be proud of. Faith is a complete confession
of our total dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an
expression of our weakness You know, when a little child is
afraid and hides behind its mother's skirt, is that something for
that child to be proud of? Or if a little child jumps into
the arms of its father and buries its face in the neck of its father,
is that something for the child to be proud of? No, it's the
parent that has reason to be proud for caring for and providing
for that child's every need. And yet we would consider it
to be shameful if a teenager did that or an adult did that,
would we not? We would say something like this
to them, grow up. You know, suffer, that word means
do not forbid the little children to come unto me for such is the
kingdom of heaven. Yes, we are shameful. We're like
a teenager or an adult hiding behind our mother's skirt or
burying our face in the neck of our father. And it's a shameful
thing, but that's what faith is. Faith puts us where we belong,
ashamed. And he gives all the glory to
our heavenly father who never says to us, grow up. he never
says that he takes us into his arms and again and again and
again he forgives us of our sin and puts away our murmuring that's
what this is a picture of look look In verse five, and the Lord said
unto Moses, go on before the people and take with thee of
the elders of Israel and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the
river, take in thine hand and go. This is the staff of authority. This is the scepter that shall
not be taken away from Judah until Shiloh come, which is Christ. And so this is Moses' symbol
of authority. And this is the rod that he touched
the Red Sea with that caused it to divide and they crossed
over on dry land. And now the Lord is telling him,
take that rod and smite that rock over there at Mount Horeb. Now Mount Horeb is the same as
Mount Sinai. only if the authority of God's
word smites. This is that, well, the scriptures
tells us in the Corinthians that the Lord Jesus Christ is that
rock that followed the children of Israel for 40 years through
the wilderness. And this is a picture of God's
rod of justice smiting the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross, out
from which flows rivers of living water. Oh, he told that woman
at the well, if you knew who it is that saith unto thee, give
me to drink, you would ask of him and he would give to you
living water. So what's what we cry for? And
the Lord told Moses, you take your rod, take the elders, go
over there, smite that rock. You remember later he smites
the rock twice. And the Lord forbids him to go
into the promised land after that. Christ could not be smitten
twice. God's justice was satisfied. The very first time the rod of
his wrath fell on him on Calvary's cross and the Lord Jesus cried,
it is finished. God was satisfied. Don't smite
him again and again and again. We don't offer more sacrifices
for sin. One sacrifice was made for sin.
And it put away all the sins of God's elect all at one time. Moses did so in the side of the
elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place Massah. Which translated means temptation.
That's our problem, isn't it? constantly being tempted to look
away from Christ, find our comfort and our happiness and our salvation
in something else. We're not. We're just like these
people. And Meribah, which means to chide, means to murmur and
to complain, In spite of the fact that we're
this way, the rock has been smitten, the water flows freely, and the
Lord says, come, come. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. If we don't come, that's all
on us, all on us. And if we do come, it's all on
Him. He's the one that has to enable
us to come. He holds us fully responsible for not coming. And
we give him all the glory when we're able to come. Because the chiding of the children
of Israel, because they tempted the Lord saying, is the Lord
among us or not? You ever had that thought? Not
what we're saying every time we complain about our circumstances,
or we look somewhere else for our happiness outside of Christ,
or we ask the question, why, God? Why has this happened? One reason for it, the Lord purposed
it. The Lord willed it. Jehovah Sabbah,
the glorious sovereign God that we serve, does all things for
his glory and for our good. But our lack of faith causes
us to doubt God, doesn't it? Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. You see, the only way that we
can enjoy this double rest is to understand the battle of
sin. I asked this question, Is the
walk of faith a battle to be fought or a war that's already
won? You're right, Brian. The answer
is yes. The answer is yes. It is a battle
to be fought and it is a war already won. We wrestle with
this flesh every day, don't we? And it's the wrestling of our
unbelief and our flesh. It's that old Esau. Matter of
fact, Amalek is the grandson of Esau. The old man. The man of flesh. The man of
the earth. That's Esau. And Amalek's his
grandson. And so he pictures that. That's sin nature that we have. And it's the battle with that
old man that drives us to Christ. The elder shall serve the younger.
And so Esau serves Jacob in that, in that it's this sin problem
that we live with every day that causes us to look to Christ.
to look in faith to Him and to find our forgiveness and our
hope in His accomplished work of redemption. And so yes, it
is a battle already won, a war that's been accomplished. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and tell them their warfare is accomplished. There it is, it's
accomplished. And yet it's a battle to be fought,
isn't it? And so Joshua goes down into
the valley and leads the children of Israel against Amalek. And
Moses stays up on the hill. And as long as Moses' hands are
up, then the battle prevails. And for Joshua and the children
of Israel, and when his hands drop, the battle turns towards
Amalek. And in the end, the Lord got
the victory. And that's why Moses called him
Jehovah. Oh, the glorious, self-existent,
sovereign I am is my banner. You'd see Joshua down there in
the valley fighting against Amalek and having a banner. It's a flag. The date was 1812. The place
was Baltimore Harbor, Fort McHenry, McHenry, McHenry. And the enemy was the British
who refused to allow the colonists to have their freedom. They're
still fighting for their independence. And Francis Scott Key, sees the bombardment of that
fort all night long. And in the morning, when the
sun begins to come up, he pins that, our national anthem. It's our national anthem, the
Star Spangled Banner. And we're proud of that flag.
And we have been, and whether it be Iwo Jima, or whether it
be Afghanistan, the American flag, you know, I was thinking
today, there's a whole lot of flags I see, and I don't know
what country they belong to. You had that experience? I don't
think there's anybody in the world that's ever looked at an
American flag that didn't know where it belonged, what flag
that was. I mean, it's got that much power
and honor, And the flag represents our freedom. And that's what our Lord's calling.
He said, I am your banner. I don't just represent your freedom.
I am your freedom. As long as that banner's flying,
as long as the flag is being carried into battle, then we
know that the war is being won. That's the picture here. Then came Amalek. Amalek was
the grandson of Esau. He's a picture of our sin. You remember in 1 Samuel chapter
15, when the Lord told Samuel to tell Saul to wipe the Amalekites
off the face of the earth, kill everyone, a man, woman, child,
animal, kill them all. And when Samuel came back, Saul
had kept alive Agag, the king of the Amalekites. You could
look it up. Agag's name means I will. That's what his name means. Isn't
that the root cause of our sin when we choose our will over
God's will? And we keep that alive. We'll keep that alive. I'm going
to have it my way. I will. And the Lord said to
Samuel, said to Saul, he said, oh, it's better to obey than
to sacrifice. You should have killed Agag. Over and over we see the children
of Amalek attacking the children of Israel as they are going through
the wilderness Every time they came to a place, Amalek was there
and was picking off the weak and the stragglers at the back
of the camp. But I remind you that it was
the Lord that was leading the children of Israel through the
wilderness. They weren't just wandering through the wilderness,
they were following that pillar of fire by day or by night and
the pillar of smoke by day. God was directing their steps
and God knew where Amalek was. And God gave them these battles
with Amalek, just like he has given to you
and me, this battle that we will fight until we shed this sinful
body. But it is this war that causes
us to look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah Nissi. The flag has not fallen. And
the illustration of the American flag is weak compared to the
honor and the glory that the Lord Jesus Christ gets as the
banner of his people. You know, they're fighting in
a battle. Oh, Amalek's name translated means valley dweller. Valley
dweller. You know, we, in the natural
world, we, you know, the valleys are the rich land and a place
of comfort and, but in the Bible, valleys are a place of conflict. And you have the valley of dry
bones in the book of Ezekiel, where there's a picture of God's
people warring against God, raising their fist against God. These
bones, Ezekiel is the whole house of Israel. And the Lord preaches
the gospel to them and raises them from there, from the dead
and gives them life, bone to bone and sinew to sinew. And
then he calls upon the spirit of God to breathe life into them.
We had the Kidron Valley with that polluted brook that the
Lord Jesus Christ wept as he went through. coming off of Mount
of Olives before his trial and mock trial and crucifixion. In Hosea chapter one, verse five,
the Lord said, I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of
Jezreel. And the last valley we read of
in the Bible is the Valley of Armageddon. You know, that place
where the, I don't know what that means, but the Bible describes
it as 180 mile long river of blood that goes up to the, to
the horse's bridle. So valleys in the Bible are conflicts. They're, they're wars. This is
the valley that you and I live in. And mountains, on the other
hand, are those places of hope and vista into heaven, aren't
they? There's so many mountains in
the Bible. Mount Sinai, the mountain of
the law, where God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and revealed
his holiness to him and said, my goodness will pass before
you. Mount Calvary, where the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his
life for his sheep. And Mount of Transfiguration,
where the veil of our Lord's humanity was taken away so that
the radiance of his deity could shine forth, blinding those disciples. So many. Mount Carmel. You know, where the prophet Elijah
defeated those false prophets of Baal, the fire of God fell
and consumed the sacrifice and quenched the fire. So many. Now, not all of that. where our
Lord prayed to his Father and said, Father, if there be any
way this cup can pass from me, let it be nevertheless not my
will, but thy will be done. Here's the message, brethren.
Are you fighting sin in the valley of despair? Flee to the mountains. Flee to the mountains. Flee to
Christ. He promised to be our banner.
And where he is, the battle cannot be lost. I'll say that again. Where he is, the battle cannot
be lost. That banner has never been trampled
underfoot. It's never been set on fire. It's never lost its glory. Not in any way. Then we have the hope of knowing
that the battle's not ours, it's the Lord's. It's the Lord's battle. That's what he's... Go back with
me to our text. So they've gone from the wilderness of sin, and
that's what sin is, it's a wilderness. There's no life, there's no hope,
there's no comfort, there's no peace, there's no salvation in
sin. and they've been taken to Raphidim,
the place of double rest. And they've seen the water come
forth out of the rock, smitten by the rod of God's justice.
And now Moses says to Joshua in verse nine, and we know who
Moses is a picture of. Moses is a picture of the law.
Joshua is a picture of Christ. Moses couldn't carry the children
of Israel into the promised land because the law can't save. Joshua had to save us. Moses said unto Joshua, choose
us out men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will
stand on the top of the hill, the rod of God in my hand. You remember in the book of Esther,
Haman, who was the enemy of a jealous of Mordecai and made false accusations
against Mordecai and built a gallows in hopes of having Mordecai put
to death and was hung on the very gallows that he made. You
know, Haman was an Amalekite. He was a child of Agag. And so,
You know, here again, we see that Satan thought he was getting
the victory by billing the gallows for the crucifixion of Christ,
and yet the Lord was getting the victory. Sin was being crucified. The enemy was being defeated
and destroyed. What a glorious, glorious picture
of our salvation. He said, Joshua, you go down
and take some men with you and you fight against Amalek. Tomorrow
I will stand at the top of the hill with the rod of God in my
hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek
and Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Here
again, we find the top of the hill to be the place of hope
and life and Moses is there Now his hands are going to get heavy.
Oh, the law of God's heavy. Moses is the law. You and I can't
keep the law of God. Sin is the transgression of the
law. You and I have never been able
to keep any part of God's law. That's why we say that we are
nothing but sin before God. We're not approving of sin or
excusing sin. We're just admitting what the
truth is. We've never been able to keep
God's law, and sin is the transgression of the law. So here's the law
of God, but it has to be held up. The hands have to be held
up. Aaron's name means light, L-I-G-H-T, which is truth in
the Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the light of the world. Light is coming to the world,
but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil and the light manifests them as being sinful and evil. Men won't have Christ for that
reason. Her's name on the other hand means, light and excuse me just a second
white I know it was close hers name translated means white which
is a picture of perfection and so only when the truth of who
the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he did in his perfect life
and his perfect sacrifice is held up is the law of God held
up. And Christ becomes the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
the only one that can keep God's law for us. So Joshua did as Moses said to
him in verse 10 and fought with Amalek and Moses and Aaron and
Ur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass when
Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down
his hand, Amalek prevailed. Here's the problem. The law is holy and just and
good. The law can't make us holy. The
law can't justify us, and the law can't add any goodness to
us. The next verse in Romans chapter 7, when Paul said, I
know the law is spiritual, it's holy, it's just and good, but
I am carnal, sold under sin. He said, I can't keep God's law.
What am I going to do? Well, we have to have Aaron,
light, and her, white, holding up the hands of the law, picturing
the perfect truth of the gospel in the Lord Jesus Christ, satisfying
all the demands of God's holy law on behalf of his people.
And when that happens, Israel prevails. And when we start listening
to the temptations and the accusations of the accuser of the brethren,
what does the accuser of the brethren say to you? What does
he say to you? Well, if you were a Christian,
you wouldn't be thinking that. You wouldn't have said that.
You wouldn't be acting that way. What's he doing? He's putting
us under the law. The strength of sin is the law. So as soon as we start looking
to our lives and our obedience and our law keeping for the hope
of our salvation, the hands of Moses are coming down and Amalek
is prevailing. And when the truth of who Christ
is on one side and the white light of who he is, the perfection
of who he is on the other side, He's upholding the law of God.
The law of God has been kept. Brethren, this is the only weapon
we have against sin. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal. They're not fleshly. You wanna
see some carnal weapons? Let me show it to you real quick.
Turn with me to Exodus. Just back a page, Exodus chapter
15. We'll show you some carnal weapons. You remember Agag's
name, who was an Amalekite? Means I will. Look at Exodus
chapter 15 at verse nine. The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword and my hand
shall destroy them. There's the arm of the flesh.
Man trusting in what he can do and what he has done and what
he can say with the sword of his tongue and what he can conquer
in his own strength. That's the arm of flesh. The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly.
They're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
the Amalekites bringing every thought in captivity.
into the obedience of Christ. There's Moses, the obedience
of Christ, Aaron and Ur, holding up the hands of Moses. And as soon as we lose sight
of that and think that somehow our salvation is dependent upon
our law keeping, the hands begin to drop and Amalek gets the victory. Yeah, Amalek starts prevailing.
Isn't this our battle? But Moses' hands were heavy and
they took a stone and put it under him. Oh, we know who that
stone is. That's Christ, he's that rock.
It all sits comfortably on him. The law had no charge to make
against the Lord Jesus Christ, not a single charge. And he sat there on, and Aaron
and Hur stayed up his hands, one on the one side and the other
on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down
of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. Now we know what
the sword is. The sword of the spirit, which
is the word of God. That's what we're doing right
now. We're wielding the sword of the spirit. This is the weapon
that we have. You look at Ephesians chapter
six and all of those spiritual weapons, the helmet of salvation
and the shield of faith and the breastplate of righteousness
and the girdle of truth and the feet shove of the preparation
of the gospel. Those are all defensive weapons. Armor, the only offensive weapon
we have is the word of God. What does God say? And faith
is just believing God. It's just believing God. It's
denying I will and saying, Lord, thy will be done. Wish we could just do that one
time and be done with it. That's what they teach you in
religion. You know, you just, you just make your commitment
and you make your decision and you get saved and you know, it's
all settled now. No. Is the walk of faith a war
that's already won or is a battle that's fought every day? Yes.
Yes, it is both. It is a, it is a war that's already
won. Listen to Hebrews chapter nine, verse 12. By his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. One time he went into the holies
of holies. He put his blood on that mercy
seat and he obtained, he got the victory. He won the war. He put away sin. Listen to Hebrews
9 26. Now once in the end of the world,
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So he put it away completely
by the sacrifice of himself. Isaiah chapter 40, tell them
that their warfare is accomplished. It's accomplished. Their iniquity
has been purged. They've been put away. First
John chapter three, verse five, he was manifested to take away
our sin and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth
not. As he is, so are we in this world. Hebrews chapter 10, turn with
me there. We have to look at this passage. Hebrews chapter
10. Look with me at verse 14. For by one offering, he hath,
past tense, perfected forever them that are, past tense, sanctified,
made holy. When were God's elect made holy?
When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head and said, it's
finished. They were, they were made holy. They were made holy
before that in the covenant of grace, but that work had to be
accomplished in order to satisfy the justice of God. Look at,
uh, look at the next verse. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us that after he had said before, this is the
covenant that I will make with them after these days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws in their heart and write them
upon their minds. I will write them upon their
minds. I'll write them and their sins and iniquity will I remember
no more. Now that's very important. The Lord Jesus Christ. successfully
put away all the sins of all of his people, covered them by
his blood, so that God Almighty in heaven said, I remember them
no more. God looks at his children, he
sees Christ. We look at ourselves, we see
our sin. So it's a war that's already won. Reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin. Consider it to be so, because
when Christ died, we died, and our sin was put away. That's why in Hebrews chapter
11, all those men and women of faith, there's no negatives in
Hebrews chapter 11. You go back and read their life
experiences in the Old Testament, and you find out that they're
just like you and me. Weak, frail, sinful men and women. You read
about them in Hebrews chapter 11, they're perfect. Hebrews
chapter 11 is showing us who they are in Christ. Now, go back to our text, this
is very important. I want you to make the connection
between what we just said and what's being said here. Look
at verse 14. And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a
memorial in a book. and rehearse it in the ears of
Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek
from under heaven." From under heaven, don't miss that. This
is God's promise. And he said, you rehearse this
and you remember this and you write it in a book and it's been
written in a book. God says, I will utterly put out from remembrance
under heaven, your sin. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi. The Lord is my banner. Now look
at verse 10, verse 16. For he said, because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. Now, which is it? Did God put
out the memory of our sin from heaven utterly? Or do we war
with Amalek from generation to generation? Yes. Yes. Our heavenly father, we thank
you for your word and we pray you would bless it to our hearts
for Christ's sake. Amen. number 10 in the hardback tenor.
Let's all stand.