Alright, let me get you to turn
to Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. I read an article a few weeks
ago that's been on my mind. It was by Pastor Milton Howard,
pastor of Kitchens Creek Baptist Church down in Ball, Louisiana.
And it caused me to start thinking about this study for today. Now
today is the 4th of July. And you're going to see our flag
flying everywhere you go today. And I hope as you see it flying
that this study we're going to do here this morning, you'll
remember this and you'll think of it as you go throughout the
day and you behold the flag flying. Exodus 17 verse 15. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nisi. This name of the Lord means
the Lord our banner. A banner is a flag. A banner
is an ensign. It's held up. It unites the people
under that banner. It's the encouragement and direction
of the soldiers in battle. It's the rallying point. It's
the sign of victory. The flag, the banner. Christ
Jesus is the believer's banner. The Lord Jehovah, our banner. Let me show you that in some
Scripture. Look at Isaiah chapter 11, verse 10. Isaiah 11, verse
10. And in that day, this is talking
about the day when our Lord has come and accomplished the work,
that work He has accomplished when He came. He says, in that
day there shall be a root of Jesse. That is, a root of Jesse. It came from the tribe of Judah,
from Jesse, from David, through His lineage Christ came. And
it says, in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall
stand for an ensign of the people. That word ensign is flag, banner. He's talking about Christ. And
to it, to the banner, to Christ, shall the Gentiles seek. And
His rest, the rest of our banner, Christ our rest shall be glorious
rest. Christ has been given for a banner
for His people, for the purpose that God selects scattered throughout
the world, the four corners of the world, might be gathered
unto Him. Christ is our glorious rest. He is our banner. Look with me
now over at Psalm chapter 60. Psalm chapter 60 and verse 4. Thou hast given a banner to them
that fear Thee, that it may be displayed the cause of the truth. Christ, our banner, was given
by God the Father. He gave this banner. And it says,
Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee. This banner is
given to those who by the Spirit of God's grace are made to fear
God. The fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. And then it says, God has given
Christ to us as a banner to be displayed, it says, because of
the truth. Because of the truth. If he's
the ensign of the people, if it's to Christ that the Gentiles
shall seek, And just as the Lord told Nicodemus, the Son of Man
must be lifted up. He must be exalted. He must be
lifted up in the heart that He's made new. He must be lifted up
in the Gospel that goes forth. He was lifted up on the cross.
He's lifted up to the right hand of the Father. He must be lifted
up in all our glorying before God. Christ must be lifted up. Now let's see in our text why
it is a necessity, absolute necessity for the believer that the Lord
our banner is exalted. Let's see why this is a necessity.
Back in Exodus chapter 17, look at verse 8. Then came Amalek
and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Now this word then is important. The rock had been smitten just
prior to this. We looked at that study not too
long ago. The smitten rock, that rock is
Christ. The rock had been smitten and
the water flowed out of the rock because of what the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished. Through the Spirit, through the
work of the Holy Spirit creating a sinner anew, believers are
drawn to Christ and we take of the water of life freely. And
then, Amalek came. That's when Amalek came, was
then. Now the Amalekites were the descendants
of Esau. That was Jacob's twin brother,
Esau. Jacob was Israel. That's Israel
that's mentioned here. And the Amalekites hated Israel. because Israel was freely given
the firstborn, the rights of the firstborn, and all the blessings
of God were freely given to Israel. Now that's why those who are
the enemies of Christ, those who are at enmity with God, this
is why they hate the believer, because of what God has freely
given us. Nobody hates the doctrine of
election who is brought to behold that Christ truly elected the
people because the person is brought to behold it has been
elected of God and chosen of God and drawn to God and they
rejoice in it because they know if he had to chose me I'd have
never chose him. It's those who hate God's sovereignty. It's those who hate the fact
that God does the choosing and wants man to be exalted that
are the enemies. These blessings are freely given.
These blessings are freely given by God. Now Moses was told here
by the Lord to write this for remembrance to remind the children
of Israel of it. You see there in verse 14? 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. Now let me read you something
out of Deuteronomy 25, 17. The Lord said, Remember what
Amalek did unto thee, by the way? He gave this to Moses to
write. This was the first thing Moses
was told to write, to record. And he wrote this. And later
Moses said, Remember what Amalek did unto thee? By the way, when
you were come forth out of Egypt, how He met thee by the way, and
smote the hindmost of thee, He came up from the rear of the
camp of Israel, even all that were feeble behind thee. And
when thou wast faint and weary, and He feared not God, Now, the
children of Israel had been quarreling with Moses. Remember that? They
were chatting with Moses and they were saying, can God provide
for us in this wilderness? They were murmuring against God,
murmuring against Moses. And when all this turmoil, this
quarreling amongst them was going on, they were distracted. And Amalek came up and took advantage.
They were faint and feeble and weary, and Amalek took advantage. Look here with us. Look here
in verse 9. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. The believers call
unto a warfare. When we're called, then the warfare
starts. You don't have a warfare now
if you haven't been called of God. You don't know what it is
to war against sin. You don't know what it is to
war against the flesh. You don't know what it is to war against
this world. The warfare begins when God calls His people into
His light. The true Israel of God that's
represented here is a type here of God's chosen people called
out of darkness from the four corners of the earth into His
marvelous light. And when they're called, they're
called to fight this enemy. And look here with me now at
this what he says here. He says, verse 9, 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 with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua
did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses
and 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. Now the rod of God represents
our banner. This is a representation of our
banner. Christ is the rod of God. He's
our banner. That rod was the power and wisdom
of God. Christ is the power and wisdom
of God. Jehovah our banner. And He's
all the believer's strength. Now as long as the believer is
walking in the Spirit, beholding Christ the Lord. It has our affection
and our attention set on Christ the Lord. Just as when Moses
held up this banner, just like the flag is flying and the soldiers
on the battlefield can look back and see that flag. As long as
we behold Christ the banner, there's fresh courage, there's
fresh encouragement to fight the battle. But when we're distracted
by the world, by our entangling ourselves with the affairs of
this world by being overly concerned with pleasing men and pleasing
in our business and our honors and all the things that we chase
after in this world. It's just like when Moses let
down that banner and they couldn't see the rod of the Lord and Amalek
prevailed. Amalek prevailed. When Christ
is not exalted, the enemy prevails. Now, as believers, we must keep
our full attention on our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's so easily to be turned
from Him. So easy to be turned from Him.
Let me get you to turn to 1 Peter 5.8. I told you there how they
were quarreling and not submitting to God, not submitting to the
One that He gave to have the rule over them, and not trusting
the Lord. That's what was going on. They
weren't trusting the Lord. Look at what Peter says here
in 1 Peter 5.8. He says, He says he's speaking of being
subject one to another, being clothed with humility, for God
resisted the proud and gives grace to the humble. He says
in verse 6, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand
of God that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your
care upon him, for he careth for you." Now look at this. Be
sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary
the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Amalek was just looking for an
opportunity to pounce. And they saw it. And he says,
whom resist steadfast in the faith. believing on Christ, knowing
that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. But the God of all grace, this God who's
called us into His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've
suffered a while, make you perfect, establish you, strengthen you,
settle you. That's what we're about to see
here. This is what Paul told the Galatians. This I say then,
walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
If you be risen with Christ, he told the Colossians, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sits at God's right
hand. Because he said, set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth. You get the picture
here in our text of that banner being above, that banner being
on top of the mountain. Paul told the Colossians, set
your affection on things above, where Christ is, where Christ
sits. And he says to the believer, for you're dead. You're dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. If you knew you were dead, or
just, let's just say you knew you were just about to die. And
you knew where life was. Somebody, some doctor told you,
now this is life. I guarantee you nothing would
keep you from getting to that cure, that antidote. Well, the
Spirit of God tells us the believer's dead and his life's not here,
his life's not in this world, his life's hidden in Christ,
in God, in Christ at God's right hand. So set your affections
there, look there. What's our strength as we behold
this banner? the person of our Lord. This
is God with us. Did you notice in our text that
Joshua was called upon to be the commander? Joshua is a type
of Christ, the Savior. And where did he go? He chose
out some men. God chose some men and gave them
to Christ. Christ is our Joshua. He's our
Savior, the commander, the captain of our warfare. Where was Joshua
with them? He was right there in the valley
fighting with the men. Fighting with them. The Lord
said, Lo, I'll be with you always. Always. We rejoice in the efficacy
of Christ's atonement. That means He really accomplished
what He came to accomplish. He really accomplished the satisfaction
for God's people. The satisfaction with God for
His people. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high. He entered in the holiest of
holies with His own blood and obtained eternal redemption. This is what we rejoice in, that
He accomplished the salvation of His people. Our banner, the
strength we get is from the sufficiency of His righteousness. Listen,
to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made
us accepted in Christ the Beloved. That's the believer's hope. That's
our strength. I'm accepted with God. I really don't care if men
accept me or not. I'm accepted with God. God's
accepted me in Christ. He said you're complete in Him.
who is the head of all principality and power. You've been circumcised. That you were dead in your sins,
you were dead in trespasses and in sins, and you've been circumcised
by the circumcision made without hands. That is Christ being crucified. He put away our sin. And through
the Spirit, He comes and creates us anew, circumcises us in the
heart. We've been raised with Christ and seated at the right
hand of God through the faith of the operation of God, and
we reign with Him. That's our hope. And in the power
of Christ's saving grace, He said there, after you suffer
a while, He'll strengthen, He'll settle you, He'll establish you.
This is what Paul told the Philippians. He said, we're confident of this. He that hath begun a good work
in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. These
men out there on that battlefield were fighting. And they could
see, they could be wounded or injured or weary and they could
look to that banner and they were strengthened. I was reading
a story about the revolution. you know this lawyer was called
on to go negotiate the release of a friend of his that had been
captured by the British and so he went and he had to go meet
the British fleet on the Chesapeake and he had to negotiate this
release and he did they agreed to release his friend but the
only way the condition was he had to stay with them the British,
this American did, stay with the British till they got down
to Baltimore and attacked the fort at Baltimore. And so they
got there and they began to attack the fort there. And when they
got there, this man could see a flag, he could see a banner
on top of that fort flying because the major, this is Armistead,
how do you pronounce that? Anyway, he had said, I want a
flag so big that the British can see it from way off. And this flag was about 30 by
25, something like that. And this lawyer, this American
lawyer on board that ship could see that flag. He could see it.
And these bombs were going off, and they were fighting. And it
went all through the night. It went all through the night.
And it looked bad. It looked bad because they had
a lot of ships and a lot of bombs and a lot of cannons, and they
were fighting. But when just the first light
began to come, he could still see that red and white and blue
flag on top of the fort. And he just happened to be a
part-time poet. And so he started scribbling
down some lines. And one of the lines he wrote
was, the bombs bursting in air. gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there. It was Francis Scott Key, and
that's the Star-Spangled Banner as we know it today. Sometimes
it takes bombs bursting in air for the believer, for God to
manifest in our hearts, turn us to Christ to behold that the
Lord, our banner, Jehovah Nissi, is still there. He's still there. And the consolation, the encouragement
is just like it put a... He was so excited and he wrote
that poem and it caused him to take such fresh courage. That's
what this banner does. That's what the Lord Our Banner
does. Well, let's look now at verse 12. Verse 12. But Moses' hands were heavy,
and they took a stone, and put it under him. And he sat thereon. And Aaron and her stayed up his
hands, the one on the one side, 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 see our need of Christ
in this. We see our desperate need of
Christ in this. The battle is long. And we get
weary in this battle, and our hands get weary. Just as Moses
is a man, and his hands got weary from holding up his hand. We
just try to hold up our hands for any length of time. It gets
to where they feel like lead weights, especially if you're
holding up a banner. And he's holding it up, and you
get weary. I get weary holding up this banner. The believers, the witnesses
of Christ get weary holding up this banner. How are we going
to hold up this banner? How are we going to be strengthened
and hold up this banner? Look there again. Aaron and Hur
found a stone and they put it under him. And he sat on it. He sat there on that stone. And
Aaron and her stayed up his hands, the one on one side and the other
on the other side, and his hands were steady. His hands were steady
until the going down of the sun. And while his hands were steady,
Joshua went out and defeated Amalek and his people. You see
the picture in this? We get tired and we get weary,
but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Aaron was the
high priest. And her means liberty. You've got a picture here of
Christ, our High Priest, working through the Holy Spirit. And
He comes and He sets us. He plants us firmly on the foundation
stone of Christ Jesus the Lord. And Christ, our High Priest,
who knows the feeling of our infirmities, who's been touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, He strengthens us. He lifts up
our hands steady. And Joshua, Christ our Lord,
wins the battle. He wins the victory. He wins
the battle. And as we're like those soldiers
down there fighting and we look up and we behold that Christ
our banner. And we're steady. We're on the
foundation. Our hands are steady. He does
this work by His grace, through the Spirit, through this gospel.
And these are all brethren, one of another. Moses and Aaron and
Her and Joshua, they were men, too. They were brethren. And
God used His brethren to encourage one another, to to speak this
gospel of Christ. You notice He went out and He
smoked them with the sword. The sword is the gospel. The
sword is the word of His grace. And this is the word wherewith
we comfort one another and encourage one another. And it's Christ
the Lord through the Spirit, our great high priest, who strengthens
us and causes us to look away from this world, from ourselves,
from our flesh, from Satan and the devil. He steadies us, He
settles us, He establishes us on the rock. And that's how we
win the victory. Now look here in verse 14. And the Lord said unto Moses,
write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the
ears of Joshua. We need to hear this all the
time. He says, they're going to need
to be reminded of this. All through this journey, they're
going to need to be reminded of this thing. I will utterly
put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses
built an altar. And he called the name of it
Jehovah Nisi. the Lord our banner. For he said,
the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek
from generation to generation. Moses didn't give, he didn't
build a memorial and say now this is the memorial to the fighting
men and women of Riffidom Valley, Joshua and his men. He made this
banner and gave glory to where glory was due. He made this altar
and gave glory to where glory was due. He said, he called it
Jehovah Nissi. He knew where the victory came
from. The Lord our banner. That's where the victory, that's
how the victory was won. And our great God assures us,
He speaks into the heart of His people. And Christ the Lord speaks
into the heart through the Spirit, and He says this, He says, Be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He says to His messengers, He
says to you, His witnesses, He says to us, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Tell her that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that the Lord has
rewarded her double for all her sins. When did you ever get a
reward for sin? Men are looking to be righteous
and get some kind of reward for it. God says He rewarded His
people for their sin. In the place of their sin, He
rewarded them double. That means all me and you've
got to glory in is the fact that we're sinners. We did the sinning. That's all we can say we took
part in. He did the rewarding. He accomplished
the warfare. He did the work. Jehovah Nisi,
the Lord our banner. Now you're going to watch tonight
as you go watch the fireworks or wherever, and you're probably
going to hear the Star-Spangled Banner, and you're probably going
to stand and look at the flag. And as you're doing that, you
notice all around you. Notice all around you that there'll
be folks from all different backgrounds, folks from all different classes,
folks from different races, different kindreds of people, but they're
all united under that one banner. All united under that one banner. Well, Christ is the banner of
the believer. And the Scripture says, there's
neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then are
ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Christ is our
banner. He's the banner of the church.
He's the banner under which we fight. He's the banner by which
we prevail. and he's the banner to which
we rally. And in the end, when the battle's
all over and the war's all done and we enter into victory with
our Lord, you know what happens when the battle's won? You know
what happens when the war's over? The victorious army plants their
flag and it symbolizes this is the victory. We won the victory.
And Christ is that banner. We're going to praise him. For
all eternity, saying this is our banner. This is how the victory
has been won for us. Amen.