Come back to Exodus 17. Exodus 17. The title of this message, Then Came Amalek. Then Came Amalek. Israel was redeemed by the blood of the Passover Lamb there in Egypt. They were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, led across the Red Sea on dry ground, and their enemies, they saw their enemies drown, washed up on the shore of that Red Sea. They were given manna from heaven. After they had journeyed to the wilderness of sin, they had no bread, no food, and they were given manna from heaven. And then they had traveled to Rephidim, and there they had no water, and they were given water out of the smitten rock. I had written down they had given water out of the rock. No, no, no. It's a smitten rock. It's always Christ crucified. It's always out of Christ crucified that we have the blessings of God. But they were given water out of the smitten rock, and all this was of God. They didn't lift a finger. In fact, God led them in a different way when they went to the wilderness, so they would not go through the land of the Philistines, lest they had war, and He said the people would lose heart and want to turn back. So God led them away from that in the beginning. But all of this was of God. All of it's of God. Their salvation, their redemption, it was all of God. Going across the Red Sea, all their enemies being conquered there in the Red Sea, that's of God. By His power and the blood of the Lamb were they delivered. But now, NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER BEING SET FREE FROM THE CLUTCHES OF EGYPT, THEY HAVE A BATTLE ON THEIR HANDS WITH THE STRONGEST PEOPLE IN THE LAND, THE MALACHITES. THEY WERE THE STRONGEST PEOPLE OF THE LAND, AND THEY CAME AGAINST ISRAEL. NOW REMEMBER THIS, THE WORD OF GOD IS A SPIRITUAL BOOK. These have spiritual implications. When our Lord spoke parables, He would take an earthly type or a meaning, an earthly example, and convey a heavenly meaning, a heavenly truth. And that's what I want to do this morning. I want us to see the spiritual implication of what's here in these verses because these things were written our learning. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Who was Amalek? He's the grandson of Esau. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, and Esau hated God. He despised his birthright. You know the story. This is the grandson of Esau. He's the son born to the son of Esau by concubine. Amalek here represents the flesh. He represents the flesh. The flesh rises up after the believer experiences salvation, after the new birth, after being born of God, and you realize and understand that your deliverance is all of God. And now, for the first time in your life, you have a battle with the flesh. I never had a battle with the flesh. The only thing that troubled me was how to to fulfill the lust of the flesh but the flesh sins didn't bother me they didn't bother me but for the first time we have trouble with the flesh and for the first time we have a real spiritual warfare and this warfare is within it's within Galatians 4.29 Listen, But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. The battle is now. After God has saved you, the battle begins. The real spiritual battle begins. There's a spiritual battle going on in every believer. Amalek is in every one of us. We still have that old nature. Sin wasn't eradicated when God saved me and God saved you. We still have that sinful nature, don't we? It still raises its ugly head up all the time, all the time. Esau, I thought about this, Esau and Jacob were twins. They didn't look alike, they didn't smell alike. If you go over in Genesis, I believe it's Genesis 25, and it gives the birth. Esau was red, it says, and hairy, very hairy, but he was red. What does that represent? Earth. Earth. He's like the red earth. And it says Jacob, you know what it says Jacob was like? Plain. He just plain. Nothing particular about him. He just plain. But Jacob have I loved. And you'll notice when the battle took place here. Notice this is interesting, this is important. Here's when the battle took place. After they ate the manna and drank water from the smitten rock, then the battle began. The battle begins after God saves you. After He saves you, that's when it began. DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE FLESH THAT'S IN US, IT INTRODUCES WHAT IT DOES, IT INTRODUCES THE WARFARE AGAINST THE FLESH. Now over in Deuteronomy, I want to make note of something here. In Deuteronomy 25, 17 and 18, let me read this to you. God says, 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, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary. And he feared not God. He hit you where you were at your weakest. THE TEMPTATIONS COME WHERE WE ARE MOST WEAK IN THE FLESH. You know the scripture says the spirit is willing but the flesh is what? The flesh is weak. It's weak. And this spiritual warfare is not a one-time conflict but ongoing which symbolizes the believer's daily warfare against the flesh. If you go through and you'll read about Amalek. I looked it up this morning. David fought with them. Saul fought with them and I'm going to show you something about Saul here in a minute. He fought with them. The sons of Simeon fought with them. They were a continual thorn in the flesh of Israel. They hated Israel just like Esau hated Jacob. He wanted to kill Jacob. He said, When my father dies, I'm going to kill him. But notice here also, after a limeleck attacks him from the rear, from the weakest points, he come at him from the backside where all the feeble folks, the elderly folks and all of them were, that's where he came at him, in her weakest point. But now in verse 9, And Moses said to Joshua, this is the first time Joshua is mentioned in the Word of God. in this battle. This battle we have with the flesh, we're not in it by ourselves. Joshua, the Lord Jesus, is in this battle with us. Now, our Lord defeated Satan at the cross. He put away sin. He said, sin shall not have dominion over you. He put away the curse of the law, but He did not put away this flesh yet. It's crucified, but it's not dead. And our Lord fights with us. He enables us. It is Him who enables us to war against this flesh. I'll show you this here in a minute. But this is the first time Joshua is mentioned and he's introduced as the leader of the Lord's army, the captain. He's the captain of the Lord's army. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And Moses, look here, and Moses said to 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. There's so much typology in this, it just flows with it. But I had to narrow it down, or we would just be up here all day. But Moses commands Joshua to the battle. And Moses says, I'm going to go stand on top of the hill while this battle is going on. And I'm going to stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. That rod means something. It always means something. It's a representation of power. It's a representation of Christ, who's the gospel. And he said, I'm going to stand up there on that hill with the rod and I'm going to hold it up. He holds up both hands, but he's got that rod in his hand and he's holding up toward heaven. And he says, Joshua, you choose whom you will for this battle. Every soldier is a chosen soldier in the church. Every one of them. Every one of them. It's not just wait and see who joins up. He says, you go out and you choose those men of war. Every soldier that's in the church, which is everyone who believes, is chosen of God, chosen of Him. And Moses is going to stand on the hill and he's going to hold up the rod as Joshua fights the battle. Now that rod is the Word of God, it's the Gospel. It's the gospel, and Jesus Christ is the gospel. He is the gospel. The gospel is a person. That rod is Christ, the power of God. It says in Isaiah 11, verse 1, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. But there's going to be a rod, and that rod is Christ. That rod is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we see here in this portion of Scripture. Now look, when they left Egypt, they were not involved in the battle. God sent all these plagues and then they went out of Egypt rich. They were loaded down with treasures. They didn't go by the way of the Philistines and get into a fight. But in this battle with Amalek, in this battle with the flesh, we are participants. We are participants. Romans 8 13 for if you live after the flesh you shall die if that's your life if that defines who you are and you live after this flesh you're satisfying this flesh you're going after the world he said you're going to die and now we know everybody's going to physically die but he's the table he's talking about spiritual death here he'll die BUT IF YOU THROUGH THE SPIRIT, I told you I said Christ fights with us in this battle, but we are participants in this battle with the flesh because we still have that old nature, we still have it. YOU SHALL DIE, BUT IF YOU THROUGH THE SPIRIT DO MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU SHALL LIVE. Colossians 3 verse 5, MORTIFY, put to death, put to death. therefore your members which are upon the earth you still have these these sinful members fornication and uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry he says mortified there's a warfare going on there's a warfare going on inside of us it's a very real one now if you've not been born of god you don't know what i'm talking about you don't know what i'm talking about But boy, if you've been born of God, you know what I'm talking about. You know it. You mortify this. Do you know why? Do you know why God dethroned King Saul? Do you know why he dethroned him? When you take time, go home and read 1 Samuel 15. God told Saul to destroy the Amalekites. He told King Saul, YOU DESTROYED THEM COMPLETELY! WIPE THEM OFF! DON'T SAVE ANYBODY! DON'T SAVE ANYTHING IN THAT CITY! WIPE IT OUT! You know what Saul did? He saved the king, King Agai, alive it says. The very head power, the one who makes decisions, the one who was the head of that army, that people, He saved him alive. He saved the flesh. And then here's something else He did. God said, DESTROY IT ALL. You know what He did? He took the best of the sheep, the cattle, He took the best of everything, the money, ALL OF IT! And Samuel came to Him and just And he was angry. He said, what's the bleeding of the sheep out here? You're supposed to have destroyed them. And he said, well, we did destroy all the bad stuff. We destroyed the sick ones and the refugees, all that stuff you wouldn't want, we destroyed it. But we kept the good stuff and we're gonna sacrifice to the Lord. That's like stealing $1,000, you put $100 on the plate and it cleaned it all up, really. This is where Samuel said, OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE! And he said, God's going to take the kingdom from you. He lost his throne because he would not deal and kill the flesh. He couldn't do it. He kept Boegi alive. The head of the flesh. He kept it alive. That's why God dethroned him. His disobedience. And He kept the flesh. He kept everything that appealed to the flesh. 1 Samuel 15, 18, And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. And you didn't do it. Oh, but I love this. I love this. God said, Destroy those things that are of the flesh. And Joshua did as Moses had said. He said to him, and fought with Amalek, he went and fought with him. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill, Mount Zion, or maybe Mount Calvary, either one. Moses the prophet, Aaron and Hur the church. Now we can compare this also to Christ because Moses said the Lord will raise up a prophet like unto me, him shall you hear. But I'm going to go at it with what I see when I was in the study, what I think the Lord gave me. Now Joshua did as he was commanded. He's an obedient servant as our Lord was an obedient servant. God said Isaiah 42, Behold my servant. Christ was a servant. Moses here is the prophet, a preacher, the rod is Christ, the Word of God, the Gospel, and is being held up as the battle rages, as the flesh rages against the Spirit. And it came to pass in verse 11, when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. This is not just written so we know when they won and when they lost. No, there's a spiritual application here, a real one. When the gospel is preached, the church prevails. But when it's not held up, when preachers begin to get weak, the church suffers loss. It suffers loss. But we can also see this, Moses held that rod up. As long as we look to Christ, we prevail. But when we take our eyes off of him, we fail. We fail. 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 other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. I can say this from forty-some years of preaching. Preaching is heavy business. I was told, when my youngest son was talking to me the other day and I said, being a machinist was a lot easier than being a preacher. I don't mean, the responsibility of it is what I was talking about. The responsibility of it. I can go home, I can go to work as a machine shop, I can go home and forget about it. I could. I don't forget about this. Spurgeon said this, he said this to his preacher school, I believe it was. You know, in the Scriptures, the Scriptures often say, like, and the burden of the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. It's called the burden of the Word of the Lord. Spurgeon said, if you don't find it to be a burden here, you will when you stand before God. Preaching is heavy, heavy business. I realized that some years ago, back after I got out of the preacher school, after we did that for two years, and there was a point in there I didn't want Henry to ask me to preach. I didn't want him to ask me to pray. I thought, why do I think I am? I can't do this. I can't do this! And then I began to be asked to do it, when I realized I can't do this. They're in a person in this room on this earth that can preach if God doesn't enable you to do it. God's our power. Paul said, no man is sufficient for these things. God's our sufficiency. I stand here this morning holding up the rod depending on God as my sufficiency. I do depend on God to help me to rightly divide, to enable me to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Preaching is heavy business. And I need the prayers of Aaron and her, you. Now listen, I'm going to try to make sense of this. Moses stood on a hill and he sat on a rock. He held up the rod, helped by Aaron and her. What does all that mean? That's more than just an actual event that happened. Here's what I think it means. I stand on the hill of Zion this morning, or I stand on Mount Calvary. I sit on the rock Christ Jesus, holding forth the word of life while you pray for me. While you pray for me. You pray for me. Do you really go pray for me during the week? Lord, give him a word for us. Enable him to lift up Christ one more time. One more time. Verse 13 and Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword There's anything about that statement there in that verse that verse right there anything in it about it stands out to you And Joshua Not Israel Joshua discomfited them all the glory and the victory went to Joshua All the glory, though we wore in this flesh, all the victory goes to Jesus Christ. We can't beat any, we can't whip ourselves. We couldn't beat our way up a wet paper bag if it wasn't for Him. We couldn't. All the victory goes to Him. at Calvary when He delivered us from the power of Satan, the curse of the law, and the bondage of sin, the power of sin, and our everyday conflicts with His FLESH, the VICTORY GOES TO HIM! Even though we battle the flesh, if He doesn't enable us to do it, it ain't going to happen. It ain't going to happen. The victory is attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ, ALL GLORY! belongs to Him. And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial and a book. Well, we've got it, don't we? It's written. We're reading it this morning. He did it. And rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amlek from under heaven. We have this written in God's book Again this morning we are rehearsing in the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ His glorious victory He's listening, oh he's listening And every time I stand here to preach and we all sing and pray, we are rehearsing His victory over the flesh, sin, Satan, curse, that's what we're doing. And God says this, God said, I'm going to utterly destroy the flesh. Now we come to the name, Jehovah Nisi. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah. The altar he called Jehovah Nisi. Banner. The Lord's our banner. He's our flag. Well, I thought of Bill this morning. Well, yesterday when I was working on this, when I preached the funeral, his funeral. Well, it was a military type funeral. I'm glad. And they had that flag draped over his coffin. And that flag draped over his coffin says, this man fought for this country. This man gave his life to fight for this country. That's what it said. That's what it says. And I saw those two soldiers, and I paid attention. I looked at them. I watched them. I mean, they were dressed, I mean, Respectfully to the, I mean, they look so honorable. Honorable, they dress. They walk over, one on one end of the casket, one on the other. They pick up the corners of that flag and they fold it. And one starts folding it to the other. I mean, these, they're not a crack of a smile. They're not, you know, I mean, these are very serious, very honorable, very honorable conduct. They fold it up, and that one takes it and puts it up against his chest. And you know what he did with it next? He gave it to his wife. He gave it to Bill's wife, Elizabeth. I am this morning flying the flag. that we unite under, that we fight under. Christ is that flag. Christ is our banner. And every time I preach, I'm giving that flag to His wife. Isn't that beautiful? Every time Christ crucified His priest, the banner is given to His bride. What is that banner? It's the flag a nation unites and fights under. I think it's appalling. It's absolutely appalling to watch somebody burn the American flag. I think it ought to be treason. I think they ought to charge them with treason, put them in jail, and whatever the penalty of treason is, I think it's death. give it to them. Thousands and thousands and thousands have died for that flag. We sit here because God has given us a free nation under that flag. That's my feelings about it. But a flag is what a nation unites under and fights under. And you know what? When a nation takes over another nation, what is the first thing they do? Take down their flag and put theirs up. That's right. That's right. Christ is our flag. He's the banner over us. He's our banner. He took down that flag of Satan and sin and He put His up, God put His up and His is His Son. I'll tell you something else, we are united under Christ, we fight the good fight of faith under Christ and the banner signifies God's covering presence in the battle. The flag unites us It encourages us and it's the rallying point. Christ is our rallying point. We rally around the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if I be lifted up. The flag the church flies is Christ. Listen to these scriptures. Isaiah 11, chapter 11, verse 10 and 12. And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign, you know what that is? Flag. Stand for a flag of the people. And to it shall the Gentiles seek. We come under that flag. To it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious. We rest under that flag. We find rest under that flag. in verse 12, and he shall set up an ensign for the nations, a flag, and shall assemble the outcast of Israel. Where is he going to assemble them at under the flag, under that banner? And his banner over me is what? Love. But he is going to assemble the outcast of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." That's right, all the four corners of the earth, we're going to all these different nations, they all fly their different flags, don't they? But everyone whom God saves out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven have one flag, one banner, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our flag is red, white, and blue. The United States. Our flag is white and red. White for His holiness and righteousness and red for His blood. That's His. And I'm going to close. For He said, because the Lord has sworn THAT THE LORD WILL HAVE WAR WITH AMALEK FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION, THE SPIRIT WILL WAR AGAINST THE FLESH, TILL TIME SHALL BE NO MORE, BUT GOD IS GOING TO PUT IT OUT. And you know what? It says, and I believe it's over in Isaiah, it says, THE FORMER THINGS WILL NOT COME INTO MIND. When this is all over, all this struggle we've had in the flesh will be gone, and it won't even be remembered. You know how we sit around now and say, well, I remember when I was young. I remember when I did this. I remember when I did something I shouldn't have done. We won't do that. We won't do that. We'll talk about Jesus Christ and what He's done for us. And I can't even begin, I'm not even going to try to begin to tell you what it's going to be like and what we're going to talk about. I mean, we have eternity to do it. How can I put that in a few words? Then came Amalek, that battle with the flesh. After the Lord saved you, then came that battle with the flesh. But Jehovah, Jesus, Joshua, discomfited Amalek the flesh. He defeated it. That's what it says. He defeated it. All right.