Exodus 17. Exodus 17. Let's read
the text. Verses 8 through 16. Exodus 17,
8 through 16. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. 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 my hand."
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went
up to the top of the hill. 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, Aaron and Hur, took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon. And Aaron
and Hur stayed up, or held up his hands, one on one side, the
other on the other side. And his hands were steady. until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited and destroyed
Amalek and his people at the edge of the sword. The Lord said
unto Moses, write this for a memorial and a book and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar
and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi, that is, the Lord our
banner. For he said, because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. The title of this message is
Christ our banner, or the Lord our banner, or the flag we fly. The flag we follow. Once again, this is another Old
Testament story or type, as all of them are, of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the first mention of
Joshua. The very first mention of Joshua.
He just appears out of nowhere. Like her, we're going to see
in a moment. His name means Jehovah Saves, or God our Savior. The
New Testament name, as you know, is Jesus, the exact same name,
the Lord, our Savior. This is the story of a great
battle, fought and won by Joshua. The Lord made it sound like Joshua
fought the battle by himself and won. And that's on purpose,
because he's a type of Christ. And so Joshua fought and won
this battle as long as Moses held up this rod in his hand. And our Lord Jesus Christ, according
to scripture, as it is written, sent by God, fought this fight,
this warfare, this battle against our enemy, Satan, sin, death,
and hell, and discomfited, defeated. And then Moses, in verse 15,
built an altar and called it Jehovah Nisi, that is, the Lord
our banner. Now, you read with me, you don't
see any flag, the actual flag being flown, and that's on purpose
also. The altar, any altar in scripture
was for one reason. It wasn't symbolic. It was to
sacrifice an animal, blood, okay? Now I'm sure that most everyone
in here has witnessed a military funeral with full honors, military
honors. For a fallen soldier, what they
do is, I've seen several. I witnessed my uncle, who was
a colonel in the army, and my brother. And I'll never forget
either one, especially my brother. I was a young boy, 14 or 15 years
old. It left a permanent emotional memory in me. But what
happens is they, They honor the fallen soldier for his sacrifice
to his country. He's died in service to his country
for the freedom of those people. And they play the, I'll never
forget, they play this, that mournful tune, Taps. You've heard
that. It's just, there's nothing more
mournful moving and then they fire those 21 guns. Seven soldiers
fire it three times and it just shakes you when it happens. And
then they cover that coffin with a banner, star spangled banner,
the flag for which that fallen soldier fell and died. It's a tribute, it's a fitting
honor and tribute to all who have laid down their lives and
sacrificed their country. And we enjoy and have the freedom
to do what we're doing right now and live in this country
because many have laid down their lives. So it's a fitting tribute. By the way, my father was a World
War II vet, like some of your fathers. And he refused to have
that flag on his collar. He refused to be given a military
funeral. He said, I'd rather be known
as a soldier in the army of our Lord than the army of this country. And so he was. At any rate, I
want to tell you this morning about a much, much greater sacrifice
made by one man. son of God who gave himself for
his people who laid down he literally laid down his life as a sacrifice
for God's people to free them from their enemy and he did it
by himself every one of his people he did it and he well deserves
all the honor he well deserves every tribute all the glory Christ
crucified is the flag we follow. We don't have a Christian flag.
You know, someone came up with a Christian flag and it's white
and has a little blue square with a red cross in the middle
of it. Well, that's a image. That's a graven image. We don't
do that. We worship a person. We don't pledge allegiance to
a banner but to a person. So here's the story. Amalek,
verse 8, Amalek came and fought with Israel. See, he's the enemy. People make out God in the Old
Testament, God and Joshua to be, to go into places and just
killing innocent people. That is not so. They never fought
with anybody that didn't first fight with them. You hear me? Amalek came out against them. And so Joshua defended God's
people and fought their enemies and destroyed them. If he didn't,
the enemy would destroy them. Joshua is not the enemy. God
is not the enemy of man. Man is the enemy of God. Romans
8, 7. The carnal mind, the natural
man, is enmity against God. Beginning with Adam, he rebelled
against God in the garden. God was not man's enemy, but
man became God's enemy. Amalek is a descendant of Esau. Amalek comes from Esau. Remember? God said, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Why? Esau sold his birthright. When, you know the story, Jacob
came, well Esau was out hunting. Jacob wasn't home and Jacob was
making some soup, bean soup. And Esau came in faint, weary
from going out hunting. That was his life. Hunting was
his life. He didn't worship God, didn't
know God, didn't care about God. He came in and Jacob was cooking,
and Esau said, give me some of that, I'm starving to death.
And Jacob said, sell me your birthright, sell me your right
to be the spiritual leader of the home, your rights, everything
that has to do with the things of God, and teaching your children,
and leading the family in worship. Sell me your birthright. He said,
I don't need that, give me a bowl of beans. Sure, take it, I don't
care about that. I don't care about God. That's
what he said. He didn't care anything about
God. Turn with me to Romans 1. Esau
hated God. See, that's strong language.
Brothers and sisters, I didn't say it. God did. Okay, Romans
1. Let's look at what God's Word
says about mankind. Esau represents all men and women
by nature. Romans 1. Look at this, Romans
1 verse 21. It says, when man knew God, that
is, he saw his power and Godhead and creation, he glorified him
not as God. Man took credit for things. He
made up something called evolution so that he wouldn't have to give
God any credit, wouldn't have to answer to the creator, answer
to the judge. No, no, no. Don't need God. No
God for man. And they became vain in their
imagination. Their foolish heart was darkened.
Verse 23, change the glory of the incorruptible God into images.
Bow down to images rather than the living God. Verse 25, change
the truth of God into a lie. Worship man more than the Creator. Worship the woman, Mary. Worship
the woman and not Christ. God gave them up to vile affection.
This explains why man is as low as he is. Verse 28, they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge. They liked to think
about a lot of things, but God wasn't one of them. Right? Verse 29, filled with all unrighteousness. Verse 30, back biters, haters
of God. That's what it said there. And I was going to go on and
have you read Romans 3. It talks about the mouth that's
full of cursing. Men curse God. Well, God... They don't praise God. We don't
come out of the womb blessing God and thanking God. And if anybody ever starts thanking
God, you know why they do? Because God is so merciful. And
He reveals Himself to them. And you're going to know me.
And you're going to thank me. And you're going to give me all
the honor and glory for everything. Amalek represents man. He's the enemy of God, the sworn
enemy of God. Esau represents, Amalek represents
the old man within us. He's our sworn enemy. We fight with him. And now Israel's
going to fight with Amalek all their days. They didn't completely
wipe him out. God said in the last verse here,
He said, I'm going to have war with Amalek from generation to
generation. And all of God's people have
war with this old man inside. He's a rebel against God. But
God put this new man in them that loves God, that worships
God. And these two are constantly
at battle. Go worship God. The new man said,
I want to go worship God. The old man said, you don't need
that. You don't need that. The new man says, God gets all
the glory. The old man said, well, you did
something. You get some credit. Look how
hard you've worked. All in all, it's matter. And you know, Paul said this
in Philippians 3. He said, I say now even weeping, I weep that
some are enemies of the cross of gravity. So mankind is no
innocent creature, but he's a sworn enemy of God. That's what it
said. All right, verse 9. Moses said
unto Joshua, choose us out men and go out and fight with Amalek.
Moses is God's prophet. Moses is God's preacher. Moses
is the word of God, isn't it? Moses was the word of God from
God to the people, was he not? What does the word of God say?
It says all this concerning who? Joshua. This story is about one
man doing a work for all those people, fighting a battle for
all those people. And this whole book is written
about one man from start to finish. Our Lord is the one that said
it. Genesis 3. There's someone coming. The woman's
seed. And from there to Revelation,
it's all about this man who would come and put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Joshua. Jesus Christ. The Lord. So, Moses set forth. He sent. He set forth Joshua. He anointed. He revealed Joshua
before all the people. Here he is. Here's your Savior. This is the one chosen from among
the people. Joshua. And that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he said to Joshua, go out
and buy. Now he had some men with him,
didn't he? Paul even said that. He said, we're laborers together.
But except the Lord build the house, we labor in faith. Right?
We're fighting a battle, you know, use the gospel, the sword
of his spirit. But if the Lord doesn't do what
we want, we won't slay anybody. We don't slay anybody. This slays
people. The spirit of God slays people.
No man, preacher doesn't save anybody. Nobody's saved by man
except the God man, Jesus Christ. So he said to Joshua, he sent
him forth, he sent him forth before the people, go out and
fight. And he said in verse, 10, or verse 9, I will stand
on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. Now you remember
how this all began. It began with the rod. God was
going to deliver his people from captivity. They called, they
cried unto God, and Moses was a shepherd. Our Lord was a shepherd
from the beginning. before the world, he was keeping
the sheep. And every shepherd has a shepherd's staff in his
hand. Well, Moses did too, a rod and a staff. And the Lord said
to Moses when he called him, what is that in your hand? He
said, it's a rod. He said, that from here on is
the rod of God. This is what I'm going to use
to deliver my people. You're going to make all the
decrees. You're going to do all these things that I tell you
to do with this rod. You're going to divide the Red
Sea. You're going to smite the rock. You're going to hold it
up so that Joshua will prevail. And that represents the Word
of God. Thy rod and thy staff, they come
from me, the Word of God. It's in God's hand. He upholds
everything by the Word of His power. Everything is in His hand. Everything does as He says, according
to His Word. He wrote it. He said here in
this story, write it down. Write it down. And so it is written. Said, I love this, I told you
before, you only need to know two words in Greek. You don't
need to be a Greek scholar to know the truth. Two words will
suffice to sum up this book. Dictum, factum. Dictum, said, factum. Done. Our Lord said, I've spoken
it. I will do it. Not up to anybody. He said it. He said, I've purposed
it. I will bring it to pass. Dictum, remember that. Factum.
So when a Greek scholar came to my house one time years ago,
when we first moved in, he came in the house and he was going
door to door, as many of them did. And he wanted to argue with
me about certain things in the New Testament, and he kept quoting
the Greek. I said, there are five-year-olds
in our church that know more than you do. Besides, I said,
everybody in Greece knows Greece, but that doesn't mean they know
the Lord. You can know Greek, you can know Hebrew, and not
know the Lord. The Pharisees knew Greek. The
Pharisees knew the Hebrew. They could quote whole books
of the Bible. They didn't know Christ when He came. It's hidden
from the wise and the prudent. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. What's the sum and substance
of the Hebrew Bible? Jesus Christ. What's the sum
and substance of the Greek Bible? Jesus Christ. What's the sum
and substance of all knowledge in the heaven and the earth?
Jesus Christ. He's made under wisdom. Under
the Greek, foolishness. Under the Jew, stumbling block. But under those which are saved,
the power of God and the wisdom of God. So, Joshua did and Moses
held up that that rod on top of the hill. What hill is this?
What hill is it that the rod of God is held forth according
to the word of God about this battle that Joshua fought? Where was the battle fought?
The warfare that was accomplished by Christ, where was that fought?
A hill called Golgotha, Calvary's That's Armageddon. People are
waiting on a battle to be fought over in the Middle East. What
for? By whom? Who are we fighting? On the contrary, the scriptures
prophesy Isaiah 40. Scripture says the warfare is
accomplished. Speak ye comfort of my people.
Tell them the warfare is accomplished. Done. Settle before it's done. All right, then our Lord and
Moses and Joshua discussed this on the Mount of Transfiguration.
What? The decease he should accomplish, the death by which he should
accomplish the salvation of God's people, the warfare that he alone
would fight with the enemies of God and free God's people
from captivity. And then our Lord said in prayer
to the Father, I've finished the work you've given me to do.
And then on Calvary's tree, with one final cry before he expired,
he said, it is finished. What? The battle is over. Satan defeated. Sin put away
by one man, the captain of our salvation, our Joshua. you're
going to be waiting on a battle to be fought, and it's not going
to be fought. It's already been fought. And
Christ won. So, verse 10. He said, I'll stand on top of
the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as
Moses had said unto him. And so did the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that was spoken, all that was written, all that our God
wrote in a book. And he said that. Ought not Christ
to have suffered and entered into his glory? Everything is
written and fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Fulfilled,
he fulfilled every jot and tittle of God's word. In obedience to
God's word, God's law, Christ fulfilled it all for the salvation
of God's people. Joshua did what Moses told him
to do. And the Lord Jesus Christ did
too. He did it all. So, look at these three men together. So, Joshua fought with Amalek
and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Hur,
now this is the first mention of this man named Hur. We don't
know much about him. He's another mysterious figure
that appeared when Joshua was going to do this work. As I get these three persons
concerned with the work that Joshua, the battle that Joshua
was to fight, who could her possibly represent? The Spirit of God. Her. He's not the son of Caleb
like you might think. I looked and looked and there's
a Her, the son of Caleb, the grandfather of Bezalel, who made
all the tabernacle furniture and all of that, which is a good
time. But that's not him. This man is mysterious. He just
appears out of nowhere. And that's fitting, isn't it?
When our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized by John at the River
Jordan, someone appeared to bear witness, to anoint him. That
was the spirit of the Most High God. And so, Moses represents
God the Father. Aaron, the priest, God the Son. Her is the Holy Spirit. And these
three are one. The Father bears witness of who?
The Son. The Holy Spirit bears witness
of who? The Son. Who does Christ bear witness
in? Himself. He kept saying, I am the way,
I am the truth, the Father. No man knoweth the Son of the
Father, neither whom the Father will reveal Him, and vice versa.
So, these three set forth, hold up the work that our Lord Jesus
Christ was sent to do, like Moses, Aaron, and Her. set forth the
work of Joshua. All right, verse 11. It came
to pass, when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. When he let down his hand, Amalek,
the enemy, prevailed. Now, brothers and sisters, if
Christ prevails, we prevail. You know that? If Christ fails,
we fail. If it is as modern religion says,
he's done all he can do and now it's up to you, we're going to die. We're going
to perish. But if Christ accomplished our
salvation, we won't die. Our Lord said that. He that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Why? Because Christ died. Christ accomplished salvation
for God's people by himself. If he did not, if Christ did
not put away all sin, all the sins of all of God's people forever,
we will bear them. But I'm here with the good news
of the gospel. He did. He did. Scripture says so. He
obtained eternal redemption for us. Passed it. Put away. Passed it, our sins. So verse
12, so Moses held up his hand, but his hands were heavy. He held up that rod. And if you've
ever done that, if you've ever held up something for a long
period of time, your arms get heavy. And Moses' hands were
heavy. So they took a stone, a rock. Where'd this stone come from?
Was it the same rock which you just smoked that the water came
out of? I believe it was. Christ is everything
in it, all in all. The water, our foundation stone
on whom we rest. And these two men, Aaron and
Herb, took this stone. Here, brother Moses, sit on this
stone. Sit on this rock. Rest on this
stone. And while you do, we'll hold
your hands up. We'll support your hand so that that rod may
be held high so that all Israel will see that Joshua prevails
by the word of God. They all need to see. You know,
Moses represents the preacher, God's preacher. Much studying
is a weariness of the flesh, preaching. You get tired of preaching,
you really do. And you bear this burden. You
have this heavy burden of the word. You really want God to use the
word and work on people, not just trying to bring a good sermon. You really are concerned for
the salvation of people. It really is an urgent life or
death message. And who is sufficient in that?
And you lose sleep over it. And you pray about it constantly.
And you agonize over it. And you beg God to use his word. If he doesn't, the enemy will
prevail. If God doesn't do something for
us and our children, this world's going to overcome us. And this
is the power of God. Although the world calls it foolishness.
Now you look at me, just a preacher, that's right, that's all I am.
I'm a nobody from nowhere. But this is the means God has
chosen. This is the power of God. This
is what God used to save this prodigal son. This is the means
that God uses, is going to use to save your prodigal son, your
daughter, and you and your lost spouse or husband or wife. This
is it. There is no other means. And
it's a heavy burden. If it's not a burden for that
man, he's not sent of God. Don't listen to him. I remember as a young preacher,
just really, merely, mostly wanted to do well. Not fall on my face. Not misquote Scripture and so
forth. Now, Lord, please do something. The time is so short. My time
is short. Your time is short. Our children
are going out into the world. Please, Lord God, take this rod,
take this sword, and pierce their hard heart like you did me. Please. Please. This is a weighty burden. And Aaron and her saw this burden
that he was under and said, Brother, let us hold your hands up. Let us hold your hands up. We
want the rod of God to prevail. We have some loved ones out there.
We don't want them destroyed. Please, here, let me hold your
hands up. Brethren, pray for us that the
Word of God may be preached in power. Have free course downstairs. Our children, they don't want
to be here. They don't want to hear this.
I know from experience. Maybe some adults in here. Oh God, please have mercy on
us. Let the word of God prevail.
So they held him up. And you know, Moses is a flag
bearer. Our Lord said this, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw all men unto me. The gospel, if the gospel is
proclaimed, this is how he draws people to himself. And preachers
are nothing but flag bearers. As Moses lifted up the serpent
on the pole, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. A preacher
is just, he's no good for anything but holding forth the gospel.
Like that pole that held up that serpent. If any man looked, not
to the preacher, not to the pole, but the one that was hanging
on it. That's all I'm trying to do,
is hold forth Christ. These flag bearers back in war
times, you know, remember the flag bearer, it was a man that
held, he didn't have a gun in his hand, he had this flag. And
it was what everyone rallied around. Oh, say can you see by
this dawn's early light what so proudly we wave? Oh, say can you see the Lord
Jesus Christ in whom we boast? And if that man falls, you know
what? God has another one to pick it up. All these prophets. They've killed them, like Jeremiah,
they've killed them, put them in a dungeon. But God never left
himself without a witness, a flag bearer, the banner of the gospel
of Christ. They all have this one thing
that they do. That's how you know them. They're
not, you know, all about fun time
and family and this and that. No, they're all about preaching
the gospel. That's what they do. One thing,
those one things is to hold forth Christ. It's a fact. And the Lord sent the word and
great was the company that was there. Prophets, preachers, pastors,
apostles. We all need to hear the gospel. Paul said, woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. So, what happened? Verse 13,
Joshua discomfited, that means he destroyed Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword. Christ crucified is our salvation,
the sword of God's word. He, the gospel of Christ, slays
the enemy and the enmity in us. So this is what we do. And the
Lord said, write this down now, verse 14, write it down. And
thus it is written, that Christ must suffer, that Christ must
prevail. And he has, and he doth, and
he will, and he shall. He put away sin. And it says
in verse 15, he built this altar and called it Jehovah Nisi. And
some Jehovah witnesses came by the house one time, and I asked
them if they knew who Jehovah Nissi was. They said, no, never
heard that name. I said, well, what about Jehovah
Sid Kennedy? They said, no, never heard of
that. You know who that is? Jehovah Sid Kennedy? Somebody
say what Jehovah Sid Kennedy meant. Say it, John. Louder. Who is your righteousness? Jesus
Christ. Romans 10.4 is the end of the
law for righteousness. Surely shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness. That's Jesus Christ. So He's
Jehovah. And I told those people, I'm
more a Jehovah Witness than you are. You don't even know Him. Jehovah Nissi. Who's our banner?
What flag do we fly? What Gospel do we preach? Of
the Lord Jesus Joshua Christ. He's the one we proclaim. And it says in verse 16 that
The Lord swore because the Lord had sworn that He'll have war
with the Amalek from generation to generation. God has sworn
His oath, His covenant, His blood. He could swear by no greater,
Hebrews 6 says, He swore by Himself. What? That if His Son would come
down here and do this work, for God's people. And he would accept
every single one of them on his behalf. That if Christ would
be made a curse for sin for their sake under the curse, that God
would remove the curse from them and lay it on him. That if Christ
would die for their sin, God would remember their sins no
more forever. Gone with just a word. Dictum
facto. his oath, his covenant, that
Christ will fulfill. Amen.