Good morning. Ties of grace and ties of love
hold me to my God above. That's what I pray this morning,
the Lord will. bind us with the cords of grace
and the cords of love and hold us to himself. We're going to
be in Exodus chapter 17 considering this morning another name given
to us in the scriptures for the Lord Jesus Christ. And this one
you'll find in verse 15 where Moses calls the Lord Jehovah
Nisi you see that Moses built an altar and called the name
of it in verse 15 of Exodus chapter 17 Jehovah Nisi Let's bow together
ask the Lord to bless his word Our Heavenly Father, we're grateful
that you've provided us a place where we can come, where we can
worship you freely, where we can plead for you to send your
blessed spirit to open the eyes of our understanding, to cause
your word to be sharper than a two-edged sword, to divide
us under the thoughts and the intents of our hearts and cause
us to find in Christ our all in all. We ask, Lord, that you
would send him now. Lord, we are unable to come to
where you are lest you come to where we are. We ask, Father,
that Christ will be lifted up. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner,
and that we would find all our hope, all our satisfaction, and
all our salvation in his accomplished work of redemption. For we ask
it in his blessed name. Amen. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner,
1945, February of that year, the goal
of the Pacific Fleet was to capture the island of Imojima. And they believed at the time
that it would provide a strategic base from which the Allied forces
would be able to attack Japan and win the war. Iwo Jima was
an island that was full of underground tunnels occupied by 200,000 Japanese
soldiers. It was the bloodiest conflict
in the Pacific theater. We lost more men on that island
than any place else. And yet five days into that five-week
battle, Five Marines and one Navy Corpsman scaled a mountain
called Suribachi and raised the American flag. A photographer
took a picture of the raising of that flag and in today's vernacular,
that picture went viral. And it inspired America to commit
themselves with all their hearts to defeat the Japanese. The war ended in September of
that same year. And come to find out, the island
of Iwo Jima was not sufficient for a base. The runways were
too short, the ports were not deep enough, and the island served
no purpose whatsoever as a base for for attack, but it did serve
that one purpose. And from that day until today,
9-11, what happened? We took the American flag, old
glory, stars and stripes, and held it up. And what did that
do? It inspired. It inspired America
to rededicate themselves and commit themselves with pride
and devotion to the freedoms of this nation. When I first started thinking
about Jehovah Nissi, I thought, mistakenly, about the soldier
that carried the flag into battle, and what pride he had in carrying
that banner. If he was killed, which likely
he would have been, being at the front of the battle without
weapons, another soldier would have proudly taken up the banner
and taken the battle. But that's not what this Jehovah-Nissi
is about. It's not about the soldier that's
holding up the flag. Three of those five Marines that
raised that flag on Iwo Jima died in the subsequent weeks
of battle. But the flag stood. the flag, the banner. That's
Jehovah Nissi. It's not the one who carries
the banner, it's the banner itself that inspires God's people to
believe that victory has been accomplished. The battle has
been fought and it's been won. That's the picture here that
God gives us of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 8 of that
same chapter. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. Now Rephidim means double rest
and the Israelites were resting in the wilderness and what happened
was the Amalekites who were the descendants of Esau and represent
in this story all the enemies of the gospel. All the enemies
of the gospel. the enemy of false religion,
the enemy of our flesh, the enemy of sin, the enemy of Satan, everything
that raises itself up. Well, as a matter of fact, look
at verse... I think it's verse 14. The Lord said to Moses, write
this for memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua,
for I will utterly put out of remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven. Amalek is a picture of everything
that stands against Christ. And the picture here is that
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner, held
up in victory against the enemies. Let's go back to verse nine. And Moses said to Joshua, choose
out men and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow and I will
stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said
to him and fought with Amalek and Moses and Aaron and Ur went
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. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon,
and Aaron and Ur stayed up his hands, and one on one side and
the other on the other side. and his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomforted Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword." Now Joshua and
Caleb were down in the valley. They're fighting against the
Amalekites. The Amalekites were the enemies
of Israel that had sought to destroy Israel and keep them
from capturing the promised land. Joshua clearly is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The sword that we just read of
that he used to defeat the Amalekites is a picture of the Word of God,
which is a revelation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in this book is about
Christ and about what he's accomplished as our Jehovah Nissi. He's that banner that represents
victory over all of his enemies. Moses, what does Moses represent
all throughout the scripture? The law. The law. The law came
by Moses. Grace and truth came by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Moses was the one who took the
rod, the same rod that he holds up now, and smote the rock from
which flowed the life-giving water, representing the fact
that the law is the one that smote Christ. When the Lord Jesus
Christ bore in his body upon Calvary's cross the guilt of
the sins of his people, God had no choice. but to slay him. And so Isaiah chapter 53 says
that it pleased the Lord, it pleased the father to bruise
the son, to kill him. Why? Because the law had to be
upheld. The law had to be upheld. God
can't compromise his holy law. And so Moses here is a picture
of God's law. Moses was not allowed to enter
into the promised land, was he? Why? Because the law can't inherit
grace. Joshua is the one. The law can't
lead the people of Israel across the Jordan into the promised
land. The only one that can do that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so Moses had to die in the wilderness. Moses had to be put
to death in order for victory to be enjoyed and realized by
the Israelites. That's the picture here. Some
have looked at this and they thought, well, you know, as long
as the hands of prayer are held up, then God gets the victory. Joshua prevailed when the hands
of Moses were lifted up, and when his hands became heavy,
and they did, then the Amalekites prevailed. And so Aaron and Hurr
came and held up his hands. And many have looked at this
passage of scripture and thought, well, we need to be You know,
we need to be inspired to pray and to lift up holy hands unto
God, that He would prevail in the battles, the spiritual battles
that we engage in every day. And certainly that's true, but
I don't think that's the main idea here. The law, Moses, the
law, had to be upheld. It had to be upheld in order
for Joshua to get the victory. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
do? He made the law of God honorable, is what Isaiah said. He is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. You're
not under the law, you're under grace. Sin shall not have dominion
over you. Why? Because you're not under
the law. You're under grace. And what
is Aaron a picture of? Aaron's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ in his priestly role. Aaron was the priest. He
was the one who made sacrifices and offerings to God in order
that that God would be pleased. And so Aaron is on one side holding
up the arm of the law, and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did
in his priestly function. He satisfied the demands of the
law and made sacrifices that were acceptable to God. Why? Because he himself was without
sin. And the sacrifice that he made
was not for his own sin, but for the sins of his people. It's
the only reason that his sacrifice was acceptable before God. Because
he was that great high priest who was able, as we saw last
week, where Isaac, where Abraham offered up Isaac, and Abraham
said, the Lord shall provide himself a sacrifice. And so that's exactly what Aaron
represents in this picture. He upholds the hand of the law. Now Ur was the father of Caleb. Caleb was that faithful dog that
stood by Joshua in the battle. Caleb and Joshua were the only
two individuals over 20 years old that were able to survive
the wilderness wandering and enter into the promised land.
Why? Because they were those two of the spies that believed
God and brought back the report that we can take those giants
that are in the land. And Joshua and Caleb picture
Christ and his church. Caleb's name means faithful dog. And so we have here now one side
of the law. Aaron as a representative of
Christ in his priestly role offering up sacrifices for sin and we
have on the other side the father of Caleb representing the church
and the spirit and the bride now say come. So what do we do? We uphold the law of God not
through our keeping of it not through our keeping of it. We've
never been able to keep any of God's law ever. We uphold the
law of God by declaring the Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah Nissi,
the Lord our banner. He's the one who fought the battle
against the enemies of God. He's the one who made the law
of God honorable. He's the one who established
it. And so as the law is honored
and lifted up, so the Lord Jesus Christ is seen as that victor. And just like the flag that was
planted on Suribachi in Iwo Jima, so believers look to that banner
and they're convinced that victory is accomplished. Victory is accomplished. What is the victory? It's the
victory of having satisfied the demands of God's holy law. And Christ is the only one that
ever did that. You can't keep the law. Oh, we
tried to keep the law, didn't we? We tried to keep the law. But that law, turn with me to
Romans chapter 7. nothing worse than being married
to an abusive man. I mean to wake up first thing
in the morning and find your husband already awake sitting
on the edge of the bed looking at you with absolute disgust
and telling you that you are unable to satisfy Him in any
way. Convinced that somehow you can,
you work all the harder, and the harder you work, the worse
it gets. And every day, He does nothing
but criticize you. And at the end of every day,
He threatens to put you to death. He says to you, one of these
days I'm going to kill you. And what do you say to that husband?
What do you say to a woman that's in a situation like that? What
do you say to her? Get out. Get out. Get away from that man. He's
not good for you. He's going to hurt you. But what
does she do? What do we see a pattern of oftentimes
with women in that situation? They remain. Why do they remain? Well, she grew up with a father
that was that way. It's the only life she's ever
known. And the fact that it's familiar
to her gives her a sense of security in that at least she knows what
to anticipate every day. As awful and abusive as that
relationship is, she knows what to expect. And so out of that
false sense of security, she remains in that relationship. You know, that's exactly I've
been in that relationship. I've been in that relationship.
I woke up in the morning to find my spouse looking at me with
disgust and trying every day to satisfy him. And the harder
I tried, the worse it got. And every day he threatened to
kill me. And I thought, well, one day, one day I'll be able
to satisfy him. He said, why did you stay? Well,
it's all I knew. It's all I knew. It was the only relationship
that I'd ever had from the time I could ever remember. Until
one day, Jehovah Nissi came and convinced me that he had satisfied
the demands of that law for me. and gave me a divorce, made me
to be dead to the law and alive to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at Romans chapter 7. So many read these verses and
they try to draw conclusions about marriage and divorce and
all these sorts of things. This is a gospel message. Listen
to this. For the woman, verse 2, which
hath a husband, is bound by the law to her husband so long as
he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she
is loosed from the law of her husband. So then while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from the law, so that she is no more an adulteress,
though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ." You
have a new husband. He's not like that old husband.
You don't wake up to find him looking at you with disgust.
He doesn't say to you, you can't satisfy me. Oh no, he looks at
you with love and affection, compassion and pity. And he imputes
to you his beauty and his righteousness so that he is completely pleased
with you. You're dead. You're dead to the
law. That old husband's been put to
death. Why? Because Jehovah Nissi, the Lord
our banner, has gotten the victory over the law. Aaron and Ur have
held up the hands of Moses. The law has been honored. The
law's been satisfied. The Amalekites, sin, the flesh,
The consequences of the law, Satan, death, the grave, false
religion, everything that's in opposition to Christ has been
defeated. The law's been upheld. We've
been married to another. And as long as that law is upheld
by Christ, As long as we're looking to Him as our banner and realize
that He's gotten the victory, then we're free. We're free from
the law. We have a new husband. Look what
he says, Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring
forth fruit unto God. Why did God Almighty raise the
Lord Jesus Christ from the dead? Why did He raise Him from the
dead? He raised Him from the dead because He was satisfied. with what the Lord Jesus Christ
did in holding up the law. In holding up the law. The law
was fulfilled. That's what the Lord said, I
came in order to establish righteousness. He's the only one that can do
it. Why do you go back to the law? We have a You know, the
Japanese are still in the tunnels. They were using guerrilla warfare
tactics on Iwo Jima is what they were doing. But the flag stood. The flag stood. That battle was
the beginning of the end. And so it is here. The Lord Jesus
Christ, when he hung on Calvary's cross, became the banner, the
flag. He became the victory over death,
over Satan, over all the Amalekites. They've been put away. Go back
with me to our text. Verse 15, and Moses built an
altar and called the name of it Jehovanise, for he said, because
the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek
from generation to generation. Now in my Bible, in the margin,
it says, because the hand of Amalek is against the throne
of the Lord. So everything that is against
the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ in satisfying
the demands of the law, everything that's against it, everything
in the world, everything in our flesh, everything in religion,
everything inspired by Satan is pictured by the Amalekites. You know how the Amalekites were
attacking the Israelites? The scripture tells us that they
were using the same tactics that the Japanese used. They were
using the same tactics that the terrorists used today. They were
coming around behind and picking off the weak ones on the backside. Isn't that what they do now?
Isn't that what the enemies of the cross do? He identifies our
weak points and attacks us at those places. What is the call
to victory? What is the hope of our salvation?
Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner, who's been raised up on that
hill, having upheld the demands of God's law, God is satisfied
with Christ. That's why he raised him from
the dead. God raised him from the dead because he was satisfied
with the work that he had accomplished. He was offered up, Peter said,
for our offenses and raised again because of our justification. Those for whom Christ died, those
for whom he lived, and upheld the law on behalf of. God's pleased
with them. He's pleased with them. He was raised because of our
justification. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
12. Men love the law. They love the law. Why? Because they pride themselves
in believing that they're keeping it better than they used to,
or they're keeping it better than someone else is keeping
it, and they are hopeful that God's going to reward them for
that good work. And they don't realize that that
law is never satisfied with them, and that only when the hands
of Moses are held up does Joshua get the victory in destroying
the enemies of the gospel. Revelation chapter 12 at verse 11, And they overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony and
they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice ye heavens
and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the
earth and the sea for the devil has come down unto you having
great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." All that Satan inspires against
the gospel Everything that would deny Christ His glory in upholding
the law and satisfying the demands of God's righteousness and justice
on behalf of His people, inspired by Satan, will be destroyed. But what about those who overcome? How do they overcome? They overcome
by the blood of the Lamb. They realized that it was the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that satisfied fully all the
demands of God's law. God's pleased. God's pleased. I love that verse over there
in Jude chapter one, verse eight, where the scripture, well, turn
with me there. We're almost there. It's just
the book right before Revelation. Jude verse eight. No? Verse 9, Jude verse 9, Yet Michael,
and Michael's name means like God. That's what his name means.
And here Michael, the archangel, is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yet Michael, the archangel, which
contended, when contending with the devil, He disputed about
the body of Moses. Now what's the body of Moses?
He's not talking about Michael the archangel disputing with
Satan over the dead flesh of Moses and deciding whether to
bury it. No, this is a picture of Christ disputing with the
accuser of the brethren, Satan, over the law. Over the law. So Satan is trying to bring accusations
against the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he brings those
accusations to Michael the archangel, who's a picture of Christ, and
he points out the law having not been satisfied. The body
of the law is all the things that God requires in his law.
And what does Michael say? Michael won't dispute with him.
What does Michael say? Michael says, the Lord rebuke
thee. In other words, the Lord Jesus
Christ points to the father. And he says, the father's satisfied
with what I've done in upholding the hands of Moses. The body
of the law has been fulfilled. You got a problem with that?
You've got a problem with my people? You talk to the father
and ask him if I haven't already fulfilled the body of Moses.
If the hands of Moses have not been successfully held up, and
the battle has been fought, and the Amalekites have been destroyed,
and Israel has been set free. Talk to the Father about that.
What a glorious picture. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner. The banner flies. It flies on
Mount Calvary. and it's proof that the law has
been fulfilled and Joshua has gotten the victory over the Amalekites. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're so very thankful that we are not under the law,
that you've delivered us from that man that had nothing for
us but judgment and wrath. We thank you that the judgment
of God has been satisfied, that the wrath of God's been put away,
that the law of God has been satisfied and fulfilled. We thank you for the work of
Joshua, defeating once and for all the enemies of the cross. We
pray, Father, that you would enable us now to believe him,
to rest in him, to rely upon him for our all in all. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen.