Well, good morning, brothers
and sisters. Certainly glad to. See everybody
this morning. Thank the Lord that he's given
us one more day. One more day to. Meet together. And read his word. Want you to take your Bibles
this morning and turn with me to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. I want to begin reading verse
number 8, which says, then came Amalek
and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Israel had camped at Rephidim,
and that was where, if you read the text, the first eight verses,
that the Lord said, the Israelites were complaining about not having
water, and the Lord told Moses, I'll stand on a rock. You smite
the rock with a stick, with your rod, and a water will come out
of it. But it says here, Amalek fought
with Israel in Rephidim. I want to read down through verses,
down through verse 16. Exodus 17, 9, and Moses said
unto Joshua, choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the
top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua
did as Moses had said unto him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses,
Aaron, and Hur 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. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat there
on. And Aaron and Hur stayed up his
hands, the one on the one side and the one 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. And the Lord said
unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in
the ear of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance
of Amalek from under the heaven. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nisi. For he said, because the
Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. Here, the battle between Amalek
and Israel went back and forth according to Moses holding up
his hand. And we think about this, if this
was just a history lesson, and Marvin's pointed this out many
times, if this was just a history lesson, there's really nothing
here. Because it doesn't say that Israel
overcame Amalek. It said he discomforted him,
that means he weakened him. But there was no battle, there
was no winning the battle. So there must be a deeper meaning,
and that's what we want to look at this morning. But in order
to do that, we're gonna have to go back and review some things
we've been reading about in the book of Genesis, Marvin's been
preaching on Genesis. Now Amalek was the grandson of
Esau. Of course, the Israelites were
the descendants of Jacob. Now back in Genesis, We read
that when Esau met Jacob, that they, you can't say they were
totally reconciled. They met, they hugged, but the
scripture doesn't say they were reconciled. There was no complete
reconciliation between the two. And here we read that Israel,
as they come out of Egypt, and they were camped at Rephidim,
that Amalek come and attacked them. So there was a resentment,
there was a resentment that existed in Esau for generations. Now this is quite a few years
later that this happened after Jacob and Esau. It was seemingly,
they had seemingly been reconciled, but obviously it was not so because
here comes Here comes up Amalek to fight with Israel. And by
the way, this is the first battle, the first fight that Israel had
coming out of Egypt. And it was with the descendants
of Jacob's brother. So what is the story here? What
is the spiritual meaning of our text? Well, it's this. It is a picture. a picture both
of the new and the old man in a believer. They are at war one
with another. That's what it's all about. Galatians
5.17 says this, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and
the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one
to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would Like Esau, and this is very important,
like Esau, the old nature's birthright was taken away in God's salvation. When God gives men a new heart,
the birthright of the old nature is taken away, and the old nature
doesn't like that, and it resents it, and it will always resent
it, as we shall see later. When Moses held up his rod, the
scripture says Israel prevailed. When he dropped his arms, Amalek
prevailed. Is this not a picture? Is this
not a picture of us, brothers and sisters, in this world? One
minute we're up on the mountain with the Lord, the next minute
down in the valley. That's true. This Moses' rod
Pointing toward heaven is a picture of the prayers of God's people
to God. God, Moses held that rod up,
and I don't doubt that he switched from hand to hand. When army
get tired, he'd hold it up toward God. Is that not prayer? That's
what it stands for. When we neglect prayer, this
old nature gains the upper hand. That's a fact, it does, you know
that. We go through that daily. We let it down. If we don't think
of the Lord, if we don't seek the Lord's face constantly, this
old nature is gonna prevail. So we're up and down. We're on
a mountain and we're in the valley. Matthew 26, 41 says this, watch
and pray that you enter not into temptation. What's to prevent
temptation? He tells us here, watch, watch,
guard yourself, pray. Listen, brethren, we need strength.
This old flesh has no strength. It's dead. It'll always be dead. There's no good in us. There
never will be a good in us, in ourselves. If there's any strength
to be had, it has to come from the Lord. So he tells us, watch
and pray that you enter not into temptation. How easy that is. We all know that. We all know
that, and here's the problem. A lot of times, we don't fully
see that it is temptation. This old nature, this old heart,
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who could
know it? That's what the scripture says.
In 1 Thessalonians, Paul, the apostle Paul says, pray without
ceasing. That's not just when we think
about it. It's in everything we do. The
Lord says acknowledge him in all thy ways and he'll direct
your paths. Constantly acknowledging the
Lord. Seeking his face. And that takes
grace. I have no power within myself.
None. No strength to do it. Matter
of fact, this praying is but I'll talk about that here in
a minute. James 5.16 says this, confess your faults one to another
and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The effectual
prayer, I'm sorry, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. And that's what Moses was doing,
holding up that rod was prayer to God, he was looking to God
for Israel's deliverance. But the scripture says here that
Moses' arm got tired. Here's a picture of our flesh's
weakness, even in prayer, even in prayer. And that's sad to
say that we are that weak. I think about that scripture
says we have this treasure in earthen vessels, weak vessels,
earthen vessels, vessels that are easy to break, vessels that
are easy to go astray. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the power might be of God himself. He is our strength. Romans 8
26 says this, likewise the spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, and that's true. But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And so, and here's a fact, we
often get disheartened by our lack of ability to pray. Are
you not that way? I am. You wonder, what do I say? What do I ask for? Am I asking
for the right thing? That's important. Is it spiritual
or is my prayer spiritual? Does the Lord hear me? Sometimes
he withdraws himself spiritually for a while. It's like, I think
you pointed out many times, he'll put you out on a limb and make
you think you're gonna stay there. Maybe even cut the limb off behind
you sometimes you feel. But we say this, we say, as John
Newton said, if I'm a believer, why am I thus? Why am I this
way? It's because of the weakness
of the flesh. There's no good in us, brothers and sisters,
none, absolutely none. And the older you get, the more
you see that. The more you struggle, the more
you see how weak you are, If there's ever any spirituality,
it must come from the Lord himself. God must impart within us the
Holy Spirit. And then the scripture says that
Aaron and Hur held up Moses' arms, one on each side. Now this,
Aaron himself was the high priest. Picture of Christ, our Lord.
It is our Lord through his dying, his living and dying, a righteous
life and dying for the sins of his people. But what about her? Well, this one's a little tougher.
And I tried to search it out, but her means H-U-R. This was a man that was apparently
a leader in Israel. because it says Aaron and her
went with Moses up on the mountain. So he was a man of much importance. But the word itself means whiteness,
whiteness. Well, what's whiteness mean?
It means purity, righteousness. I never did get, in reading the
commentaries, I never did get a real good definition on what
that represented, but I think between Between the two, between
Aaron, the Lord Jesus Christ, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ,
and her on the other side, what we see is the grace of God, that's
it. It comes down, it's the grace
of God upholding the sinner, upholding his people in our weakness. And how weak he must have been
all day long, it says he stood there. He sat down on a rock
and he held his arms up one of them with the rod in his hand. In verse 12, it says, his hands
were steady until the going down of the sun. All day long. It doesn't say that they overcame
Amalek, but the going down of the sun simply means we're gonna
fight this battle until we die on this earth. We're gonna fight
this battle. It's not gonna go away. And the
harder and the more closer God draws us to himself, the more
this old flesh is gonna resist. It's gonna push and it's gonna
fight, just like Esau did. Esau still had, in my opinion,
and I think scripture bears this out, because when you go over
to the book of 1 Samuel, King Saul was the first king appointed
to Israel, and one of the first things the Lord done when Saul
became king is he says, you go and destroy all the Amalekites. You destroy them all. You kill
man, woman, what's this? You kill man, woman, infant,
suckling cattle, sheep, everything. You totally wipe them off the
map. Now in this death that we're
coming up on, and some of us are closer than others, certainly
I am, it's coming. In this death that we're about
to face, Let us remember this, the Lord says he will never leave
us or forsake us. He's got our support. He's holding us up before the
Father. Psalms 23, 4 says this, yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. That is Christ himself. We look
to Christ above everything else, brethren, there's comfort, there's
help, there's hope. And that's what Moses was doing.
But again, I go back to the fact that the flesh is weak. And we
have to be on our guard, we have to watch. It's so easy to fall
into temptation and sin. We read it in the scriptures,
Moses did, Moses smoked a rock when the Lord told him to speak
to it. Look at David's great sin. Believers are susceptible
to temptation and sin. John 14, 16 says this, and I
will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that
he may abide with you forever. Some say that her, on the other
side of Moses' arm, was the Holy Spirit, and I don't doubt that
a bit. It is the Holy Spirit that operates in the believer's
heart, that gives him the desire, the will to follow the Lord. Verse 13, it says, and Joshua
discomfited, that means weakened. It didn't mean he defeated him,
it means he weakened Amalek and his people with the edge of the
sword. The old man within us, this old
nature has been made servant. It's been weakened. To the new
man. It's been weakened, but it's
not done away with and it won't be until we die. Remember what
the Lord says about Jacob and he saw. The elder shall serve
the younger. We were born with this old nature.
It's the elder nature. It's the one we were born with,
but then the Lord has given a new heart to his people. He's given
salvation. Now, that old nature has no power
over you. It is the new man. And we thank
the Lord for that. Verse 14, it says, 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, he says, utterly
put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. It was centuries
later he did that, like I said, under King Saul, when he told
him, you destroy them all. And bless God, this old nature
is gonna be destroyed. One day it's gone. One of these
days we're gonna die and that old nature is going to the grave.
And it's gonna be there, it's gonna be destroyed. Isaiah 65, 17. I like this verse. It says, for behold, I create
new heavens and a new earth. Brother Barron read about that.
And this one says, and the former shall not be remembered nor come
to mind. That old nature, that old earth,
this old earth, that old nature shall not be remembered, it says,
nor come to mind. Oh, what a glorious time that'll
be. I think often in my prayers, my prayers I feel sometimes don't
go very high. But I do ask this, Lord, I want
to live. I want to live where you live. I want to live where righteousness
dwells. I want free of this flesh. I'm
tired of it, and you are too, brother. You know you are. You're
tired of it. You're tired of everything that
goes wrong in this life. At every hand, there's trouble. If it hasn't happened today,
just wait for it. It'll come. Oh yeah, it'll come. in the form of grief, loss of
loved ones, loss of this, loss of that. The problem with the old nature
is it's looking. It's looking for peace. It's looking for happiness. And
we're dead, spiritually we're dead. There is no connection
to God in the old nature. And the old nature is looking
for peace and happiness and worship on go to. The only thing it knows,
and that's this earth. King David says, my soul cleaves
to the dust, and that's true. How we are about taking up things
of this world that seem to interfere, oh no, not seem, it does interfere
with our worship, Well, I don't feel like going to church tonight.
I think I got something else I have to do. Yeah, I'll pray. I'll pray in
the morning. I didn't pray. I mean, you know,
there's a weakness in us. There's a weakness, and the problem
is we don't see how deep that weakness is. We really don't.
We don't see the full effects of sin. We tend to rationalize
in our mind what's sin and what's not sin, but when we read God's
law, it says, the scripture says, it's sharper than a two-edged
sword. Imagine that. It'll cut, it splits hairs between
righteousness and sin. Then in verse 15, he says this, and Moses built
an altar and called the name of it Jehovah, Nisi, Jehovah,
my Jehovah, our victory. He is our victory, that's it.
Outside of Christ, our Lord, there is no victory. There's
nothing but the grave. I think about every once in a
while, Judgment Day, and we ought to. Yes, sir, we ought to. We ought to think about Judgment
Day. We tend to, humanly, we don't wanna think about it. Let's
put that out of our mind, but we ought to think about Judgment
Day, because it's gonna be a most severe day for many people when
the Lord says, depart from me. You talk about fear, there's
no fear on this earth as the fear that's gonna come when the
Lord says that. That ought to scare us. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's what the scripture
says. Fear him who is able to kill, like I said last Sunday,
both body and soul, and cast into hell. Jehovah nisi, our victory, it
also means Jehovah is my banner. Jehovah is my banner. He is our
all and all. In verse 16, for he said, because
the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. And that's what we experience. Believers in every generation
have gone through the same thing that you, his people, are going
through right now. They're living with an old man
that was born hating God, and it literally means hating God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It is not subject to the law
of God. Neither, it says, indeed can
be. It can't be, it's an impossibility. And this old nature, this old
nature is gonna be here till we die, and we're gonna fight
with it right down to the last breath. But bless God, he is
the one that has the victory, not us. Psalms 121 says this, I will
lift up mine eyes into the hills from whence cometh my help. I
need help this morning. I really do. I really do. I can't climb up on that mountain
myself. I can't be up there worshiping
God as I ought without a right heart from the Lord. And that's
something we need to pray for. Lord, give me a right heart.
A heart that loves you. A heart that depends on you.
a heart that wants to live for you. God has to give a desire.
He has to give us that desire. He has to give us that new man. In verse two of that same text,
he says, my help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and
earth. If he made heaven and earth,
can he not do all things? We look about us and we look
at creation. And I think when I see creation
and all that he's done, I think about these fools that believe
in this nonsense called evolution, that somehow it just happened. If God created this heaven and
this new earth, then he's created a new heart to put into believers.
He is our strength. He is our all in all. And in
closing, I would leave you with this, the battle that we face
in this life, this daily struggle, the battle is not mine, it's
the Lord's, it's the Lord's battle. And we need to seek strength
from him and him alone, not depend on our own righteousness. I pray
the Lord would help us, the Lord would encourage us, I pray that
he would give us a heart to worship him in truth, because that's important. Nothing
else matters but the truth. God is a spirit and those that
worship him, the scripture says, must, not try, must worship him
in spirit and in truth. I pray the Lord to bless that
to our hearts Help us to think about it and give him all the
honor and glory for his salvation. Amen.