Oh, how ever more shall we be
loved, loved, loved. To thy death, Lord, come the
day, when our grateful hearts in heaven sing. Our rising day
shall look like day, I always want to get up on that last verse,
too. Snap to it. Snap to it, Charles. Snap to it. Alright, Exodus 17. This is our third study in the
names, seven names of Jehovah. Now, there are more than seven names.
I looked at the concordance, and there are several others,
but seven that we have clearly revealed in the scriptures. Now,
this was a name given by Moses After a great battle and after
a deliverance, great salvation for God's people. Right there
it tells you that this has something to do with Christ and the gospel.
A name attributed to God for this great salvation. Now, let's read verses 1 through
7 again. Now, these are, well, if we're not careful, we'll stay
right here. This is not our text. But how
do you skip over this? And it goes together because,
well. All right. Now, verse 1. And all the congregation of the
children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin, After
their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord,
pitched in Rephidim, a valley, and there was no water for the
people to drink. And therefore the people did
chide with Moses. The people were ungrateful people. They
were forgetful, weren't they? How long it was after the previous story. I don't know the manner, but
it probably wasn't long. But they were ungrateful and
very forgetful of God's mercies, and they thirsted for water,
it said. No water. The people thirsted
for water. Now, here's just a thought. If
we thirst, if our The greatest desire is for things, the things
of this world. Do you remember when Christ said,
the water of this world, this will leave you thirsty? And so
if we thirst after these things, thirst means crave, means have
to have it. If that's all we thirst after,
then we'll end up murmuring against God. And that's what happened. They chided with Moses, it said,
give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why
chide you with me? I said, why are you talking to
me? He said, you're tempting the
Lord is who you're dealing with. Now again, Moses becomes the
intercessor in a way, in a way. But verse 4, it says, Moses cried
unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They'd
be almost ready to stone me. Right there, he's a picture of
Christ who was indeed stoned or crucified. They took up stones
to stone him on several occasions. They chided with Christ. for
three and a half years, didn't they? Chided with him. And took
up stones and stoned him until finally they did. They crucified
him. But he cried unto the Lord, didn't
he, on behalf of his people, on Calvary's tree. Father, forgive
me. So as the intercessor, Moses represents Christ. Verses 5 and
6. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people. You
see, this is all a picture of Christ, isn't it? Go on before
the people. Go out before the people. Christ,
it says, when He was going toward Jerusalem, went before His apostles. He went out in front. That's
what good shepherds do. They lead. All right, He went
before the people. And take with thee of the elders
of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river. Take
this rod in your hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee
there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so. Moses smoked
the rock, and the people drank from the rock. Moses did so in
the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the
place Massah, that is, temptation, and Meribah, that is, chiding
or strife. All right, now who is this rock? What is this rock? This is what
Paul wrote of. This is the story that Paul wrote
of in 1 Corinthians 10. He said that rock that followed
them, that was smitten, was Christ. That rock is Christ. The smitten
rock from whom flows the water of life. Christ was smitten on
our behalf by the law The word, rod of God, the wrath of God,
the justice of God, smoked Christ in our sin. That rod of His justice
was meant for us. See, the people chided, but Moses,
the rock, took fair witness. And he smoked that rock, and
out came the water, and so did Christ. He was smitten. And Christ
is this rock from whom all the blessings of God flow. All mercy,
all grace, forgiveness, all the blessings of God are in Christ
Jesus, Paul said in Ephesians. All right, now, I'd love to stay
right there, but the next part is our text tonight, our study. All right, now, right after this,
right after this smiting of the rock and the outflow of water,
right after that, verse 8, then came Amalek. a mighty foe and
fought with Israel in that very valley, right up on the back
of it, right? This is significant. Right after
that rock was smitten, the huge foe came against the
people of God. You see what that represents,
don't you? Right after Christ was crucified
was the greatest persecution that the Church has ever done.
Right after Christ was crucified, the Church was horribly persecuted
by this world, and pursued, and scattered. You remember how the
early Church was scattered? Well, that was the providence
of God. We are as a result of that early
persecution. Well, war was waged against Christ
and his people, and really it's still being fought. It's still
being fought against Christ. This amulet now in this story
is going to represent the world, sin, Satan, unholy Trinity. All those three are always in
league together. Satan, sin is his weapon. The world is his sphere of operation. Understand? Satan is the captain. Sin is his weapon. The world is his host, his army. All right? That's who Amalek
represents. You know where Amalek came from?
Amalek is from Esau. Esau. Jacob have I loved. Esau have I hated. Well, I never thought about this,
but you know Esau hated Jacob. You know that? In spite of, now
let's just think just a minute, in spite of what Jacob did, now
he was a good, unworthy wretch, wasn't he? Yet now when God changed
his heart, Stan, when God converted Jacob, changed his heart, you
remember, God appeared to him, then he made overtures to Esau,
remember that? Remember that? He appealed, he was for peace,
but not Esau. Remember that? Esau would chase
him. Esau hated him. And from Esau and all of Esau's
descendants hated Jacob, or Israel, that is. Hated him. And right
here we have a son of Esau in Malachi. Amalek was the first,
Amalek and his followers. And Jacob, so is always God's
people. It's called Israel, Jacob. You
sons of Jacob, and though unworthy and though sinful, but yet God
has dealt with us and revealed himself to us, and we're for
peace, not for war, but not the world. Not the world. I'm the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not Esau. They have, Esau has
a God, a God of this world, and he's different from the God of
Jacob. Okay? All right, now, and I thought
about this. Contrary to God loving the world, as most wrongly abused,
John 3, 16. Contrary to God loving everyone
in the world, as a matter of fact, God hates the world which
hates Christ and His people. We're going to see He's utterly
going to make an end of it, going to wipe out the remembrance of
it. Yeah, that's what Isaiah 65 said. All right, Amalek represents
the Word. All right, now verse 9. Amalek came and fought with Israel,
and Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out and fight
with Amalek. Choose us men. Moses said to
Joshua, You choose us, you're going to fight for me. and my
people, and you choose that man, and you, Joshua, you go and you
fight Amalek for me and for the people." Moses represents God
the Father. God the Father who sent Joshua. That's his very name. Jesus,
Joshua, the Savior. Moses' chosen one was Joshua. Christ was exalted, chosen from
among the people. to go out and fight with Amalek. Amalek. The Lord Jesus Christ
said this. He said, I've not come to give
peace on earth with a sword. I've come to bring fire. I've
come to bring division. I've come to bring sword. And
while Christ said I did not come to destroy the world, yet save
the people out of the world. Yet he did come to wage war on
the God of this world, the sin of this world, and the enemies
of God in this world. Verse 9, Moses said unto Joshua,
I'll stand on the top of the hill. I'm going to be overlooking
this whole thing. My eyes will run to and fro.
I'll oversee the battle. And I'll have the rod of God
in my hand. What's this rod of God? Huh? What do you think it is? The rod of God, by which He rules
and reigns and casts down and judges and all that. It's the
Word of God. The Word of God. He upholds all
things by the Word of His power. The rod of God always represents
God's Word, in God's Word. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me." The rod of God. By this rod, the people were
set free. Remember? Remember when Moses
came into Egypt? He had the rod in his hand. Thus
saith the Lord, set my people free. In the word of God, the
truth will set you free. By the rod, the judgments were
set upon Egypt. That is God's judgment, His Word.
He'll judge all flesh by His Word. By the rod the Red Sea
parted, and the way to cross over was made plain, a reveal. And by God's Word, this Word
is rightly divided to us, rightly divided. The truth is rightly
divided, and the way is made plain. By the rod the rock was
smitten, and saved God's people, saved them from dying of thirst.
And by God's Word, we see Christ the smitten rock from whom flows
the water of life. Everything God did, He did through
this rock, everything. There was nothing done apart
from this rock. It's a rod of judgment. It's
a rod of comfort. What was judgment to the world
was comfort to God's people, right? When Pharaoh and the Egyptians
saw this rod, they, huh, we don't like that rod. Or when God's
people saw the rod, oh, hold it up high. That's our salvation. So what is the Word of God? The
rod of death, the rod of life. the rod that would withhold rain
or something, or give or provide. That's the word of the living
God. Verse 11, verse 10, Joseph Joshua
did as Moses said to him. Our Lord was faithful in all
that Our Lord, our God sent him to do faithful in all things.
He learned obedience. Joshua was a willing and obedient
servant. What? Will you go, Joshua? I'll
go. Will you fight? I'll fight. To the end? To the end. And he represents Christ there.
He 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. Verse
11, And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that
Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed. When he held up his hand, Israel,
God's people, prevailed. When he let down his hand, the
enemies prevail. What's this talking about? Well,
this is such a glorious picture of God's purpose, God's power,
God's providence, God's Word, as long as our God upholds us. Right? As long as He upholds
us in His hand. If he holds us in his hand, now
we will be upheld. We won't fall. But if he lets
us go for a minute, the world will prevail over us, won't it? The world of sin. He lets us go for a minute. And
this is God's sustaining, restraining, constraining grace. sustaining,
restraining, and constraining grace. Our only hope, our only
help, our only salvation is in the sustaining, restraining,
constraining grace of God. Right? Our only hope. And this
represents Christ. Christ is the right hand of God.
Is He not? That's what we heard our assistant
pastor say. Christ is the right hand of God.
Throughout the Scriptures, when you see the hand of God's not
shortened, that it cannot save, that's Christ. With His right arm, His right
hand, He hath gotten the victory. Well, that's Christ, the right
hand of God. And as long as Christ is uplifted,
we'll prevail. Right? We'll have courage, as
long as Christ is brought down. And isn't this what's happening
to death? My, my. Well, it says in verse 12, Moses'
hands were heavy. And they took a stone and put
it under him. I think this was Aaron and her
that did. Took a stone and put it under him. And he sat on that
stone. Rocks, stones, everything speaks
of Christ, doesn't it? Everything. That stone, that
rock is Christ, smitten rock, sustained the life of Israel.
From Christ crucified we receive life. This stone upon which Moses
sat, upon which he rested, from which he gave all commands, that
stone which undergirded Moses and all that he did, it all depended
upon that stone. That stone is Christ. That stone
is Christ. Christ is the one whom God rests
in. He finished his work in Christ,
right? Christ is that stone from which
he gives all command. Christ said, all judgment is
given unto me. Christ is that stone which undergirds
all that God says and does. God is Spirit. We're flesh. Everything that must be done
for us must be done in the flesh. God was manifested in the flesh.
Christ became a man. God has no hands, but Christ's hands. You knew what I was going to
say. Why'd you worry? Really, God's
a spirit. He doesn't have hands. Or does
he? Yeah. Christ is his hand, by
which he upholds all things. The finger of God. Any mention
of the hand of God, the finger of God, is Christ. It's Christ. The Word made flesh. Christ is
the Word of God. All right. This whole book, It says here that his hands were
heavy. God's hands, heavy in judgment. If Christ did not stay
up in God's hand of judgment, it would have fell on earth. The world would have prevailed. Well, the whole book, God's Word,
has Christ as its foundation. That's what this stone represents
more than anything else. Christ, the foundation of God's
Word. Here, Moses had this rod in his
hand, you see, and upheld it with his other hand. And this
represents the Word of God. And the whole book has Christ
as its foundation. It stands or falls according
to Christ. The whole book, Henry, stands
or falls with Christ. Christ either fulfilled it or
throw away this book. Right? He's the fulfillment of
every jot and tittle or throw it away. It's just an
old Jewish faith. Well, he is. And Aaron and her
here, let's look at Aaron and her. Aaron and her stayed up
his hands. These two men, Aaron and her,
men, not H-E-R. Her was a son of a fellow. We won't dwell here much, because
this is just some conjecture here. But Aaron is of the tribe
of the Levites. Aaron was a Levitical priest,
right? He was God's chosen priest. The
first one, the hypocrite, Aaron, of the tribe of the Levites.
Her, who was Her? Well, Her was a great, great
grandson of Judah. Judah. He didn't come from the
tribe of the Levites. What's he doing up here? Why
did God choose him? The Levites were to help Moses. The Levites were to assist Aaron. The Levites, that was the Old
Testament priesthood. The Levites, we hear the spell
from Judah. What does he... Everything represents
Christ, people. Aaron represents Christ, and
Hur does too. Hur was a mysterious man. You
know, we don't know much about Hur. He was a mysterious, relatively
unknown fellow. It's kind of vague where he came
from or where he went and what he did. There's not much said
about him. Well, he was chosen by God. God specifically named
this fellow her from Judah. This is, you know, the whole
book of Hebrews, Paul goes and tells us about what he mentioned,
the mysterious fellow named Melchizedek. of whom Christ, who represents
Christ, priest forever. Now Kisdedek was a mysterious
man, but chosen by God to bless Abraham. And Christ came from
what tribe? Judah. Not Levi. Judah. What does the tribe of
Judah represent anyone. Judah was the tribe from which
what? Right, Deborah. The king, David,
came from Judah. That's the kingly tribe. And
that represents Christ. So Aaron and Hur were together
in helping Moses. And Aaron represents the Old
Testament. Hur, the new. The old Levite,
Judah, the new. And Moses the prophet, Aaron
the priest, and her from the king. Well, they were together
in helping Moses. Look very briefly over to chapter
24, very quickly. Chapter 24, this is interesting. It says in verse Twelve, the
Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be
there. I will give thee tables of stone, and law, and commandments,
which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. Moses rose
up, and his minister Joshua. And Moses went up into the mount
of God. So Moses and Joshua went up into the mount to receive
the law. It represents God the Father and God the Son together
in making this covenant. All right? And it says in verse
14, he said to the elders, tarry ye here for us. You stay here
until we come again unto you. We come again unto you. And behold, Aaron and her are
with you. If any man have any matter to
do, let him come unto them. So these two represent the prophets. They represent the apostles. Old and New Testament. They represent
the ministers of God. It said Moses, God, Joshua, Christ
went to make the covenant. They did it. Christ fulfilled
that covenant. Went back to glory and He said,
we're going to come again. But if you have anything, you
need anything now, appeal to the prophets and the apostles
of the Word of God. Go to the Word. They'll tell
you what to do. See that? All right. And so the Old Testament priesthood
and the unknown man chosen from the tribe of Judah were together
in upholding Moses' hand that Joshua might prevail. Now, this is very significant because
This represents, the rod represents God's Word. Moses being God,
the rod being God's Word. As long as God's Word is upheld, God's people, and Joshua is successful. You see that? Listen very carefully
to the significance of this. As long as God's Word is upheld
and looked to, and high and lofty, Joshua is victorious and the
people are saved. You understand what we're saying
here? Huh? As long as God's Word is upheld. Preach the Word, Timothy! in season or out of season. The
time will come when they won't want it. They'll bring it down. Put it aside in favor of their
whatever. And so hasn't Christ failed? Doesn't the world prevail? Opinions,
thoughts, precepts. Ways of the world, don't they
prevail? Huh? What? Because the Word is
not being upheld. You see that? They've got a failure,
a Christ who's a failure, and a world that they follow, the
whimsy. But we don't. We're holding something
up, a banner. We've got a banner, and I'm getting
ahead of myself. But the Word, you see that? As
long as God's Word is upheld. Old Brother John Fleming passed
away a few years ago in his 80s, and he used to always talk about
the veracity of God's Word. He was a man from the old school.
He cut his teeth on those fellows we were hearing about the other
night, Luther, and Knox, and Owen, and Bunyan, and all these
fellows, and could quote them and like to. He spoke German.
He's from Germany. He used to really like to quote
Luther, but he used to talk about the veracity of God's Word. The
veracity, the truth of it. God's Word, people, is absolutely,
today, being cast aside. Totally disregarded. I mean,
it's being totally disregarded. It doesn't matter what God's
Word says now. It doesn't matter. Does it? Don't you see that? It just doesn't. It's calling, it's running a
show. You see that? God would help us, as long as
these doors are open, to have this, to uphold the Word of Truth. This is how we're going to be
upheld. Our salvation stands assured according to this Word. All right. I'll be in there,
and will you be a hurry, Rick? Or I'll be a hurry, you be there.
All right. It can all be, you know, you
can attribute everything in this country to the diminishing of
God's Word. Yes, you can. Everything, every malady, every
sin, everything that's going wrong with this, that's wrong
with this country, you can attribute it to this book here. This is
the whole problem. These hirelings have sold the
Word of God. Sold it out. Sold out. All right, back to the text here, chapter
17. It says, well, as long as Moses'
hands, with that rod in it, were upheld, that the children of
Israel prevailed. All right, so what does it say
here? I like this, verse 12. It says, Aaron and Hersh stayed
up his hand, one on one side, the other on the other side,
and his hands were steady. They were steady. That means they stood sure. The
promises of God are sure, until the going down of the sun. until the day is over. And Joshua
discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Joshua,
that's the Old Testament name for Jesus, discomfited Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. Would you turn
real quickly to Revelation 19? Revelation 19, with the edge
of the sword, Joshua discomfited. Discomfit means prostrate. Then maybe you'd make uncomfortable.
It means to bring down into the dirt under your foot. That's what it means. This company
means to overthrow by the sword. Joshua did. Sounds like there
were some men with Joshua. He wasn't alone in this thing.
Well, God's word makes it sound like he was. That on purpose,
because Christ did do the work by himself. We didn't help him. He's our helper. We didn't help
him, but look at Revelation 19, verse 15. Out of his mouth goeth
a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations and
rule them with a rod of iron. That's what Christ used when
he came here. Huh? Joshua with the sword, brought
him prostrate at his feet. Joshua went out there before
the people, one man, and with a sword brought God's enemy down
into the dirt. And Christ with one last display
of the Word of His power in the garden that day. My favorite.
Christ went in there. Who do you seek? Jesus. One little word will fail him.
He just has to utter one little word and it will fail all his
foes. I am. And boy, they went backward
and prostrated, discomfited in the dirt by our Joshua, the word
of his mouth, the sword. Well, and now look at this. Joshua
did this with the edge of the sword, and the Lord said, verse
14, the Lord said, Write this for 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. Write a book to remember
these things. This do in remembrance. Write
a book and rehearse it, or that is, repeat it, keep telling it
over and over and over in Joshua's ear. Joshua needs to commit this
book to memory so that he in turn can commit it to others. Because I'm going to utterly
put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. A book to
remember told to Joshua of God's vanquishing his foe. Well, God
wrote a book of remembrance. It's the word of God which speaks
of Christ, the word of God which speaks of Christ, and Christ
committed it to memory. God's law, by his knowledge,
Isaiah said, shall my righteous servant By his knowledge of God's Word,
every jot and tittle must be kept, must be remembered. Everything
concerning us was in God's Christ, committed to his memory, the
whole covenant which he fulfilled. And Christ, it says here, that
God would utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven. Christ utterly put out the remembrance. of our sins
forever. He utterly destroyed all our
foes. He led captivity captive. Christ
fought all our battles for us, just as Joshua did. And look
at verse 15. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of the altar Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah-Nissi,
which means, the Lord my banner. The Lord my banner. A banner, what we think of as
a banner is a flag. Right? This altar. It's all Christ. He's the altar.
He's the rod. He's the sword. He's Moses. He's Joshua. He's the altar. He's the banner. The Lord, Jehovah,
Messiah, is Christ. None other than Christ, our banner.
The flag we fly around here. You don't see a... Have you ever
seen one of these so-called Christian flags? Huh? The Crusaders, you
know, it goes back to the time of the Crusaders. We don't fly
beggarly elements. We don't resort to the beggarly
elements. The Christian flag, we got a banner. But this one's flying in heaven.
It's not a material flag. We have an altar. Right? But it's not down here. It's
in heaven. It's a spiritual law. It's person-suited. Christ is our King. We don't
resort back to the weak and beggarly elements. We don't pledge allegiance
to the Christian flag, but we do pledge allegiance to the Jehovah
Messiah. Huh? We don't put our hand over
our heart and pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth. But boy, we do pledge our allegiance
to The Lord our Righteousness, that robe, Christ our Righteousness,
Jehovah's Seekin, the Lord our banner. He's the flag we fly,
the battle cry. Soldiers of old used to rally
around the flag, boys. Rally around the flag, you know,
the battle cry was, you know, every company back in the Civil
War and other, other wars, every different companies had a flag.
They'd fly the 106th Infantry or something like that, you know.
And they'd all rally around that. To the fray, boys, you know.
Well, our battle cry is Christ. We were rallying around him.
Well, there's so much we could say about this, but we thought
about this in the study, that in this country, if you're a
veteran, you're buried in that flag, aren't you? Charles, when
they put your body in a box, they're going to drape it. It's
going to be covered with a banner. And so, I was never in the army. What's my hope? I got a banner. I'll be covered. Jehovah-Nissi. That's what they're going to
write on my dead body. The Lord is better. The Lord
is captain. Jehovah-Nissi. Verse 16, it says,
Because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek
from generation to generation. In this world, Christ said, I shall come to
bring peace. This is why he said there are
going to be wars and rumors as long as sons of Esau and sons
of Jacob cohabit. And we're going to run into it
on the way to the promised land. This is not our... These children
of Israel were in the wilderness of sin, you see. They were headed
to the promised land. And all of these enemies were
in the way. But God is going to destroy all
the enemies of God and His people. And that's what Christ is. As
hard as that may seem, yet someday we're going to say amen to the
death of the wicked. And we're going to say, oh, bless
the Lord that I wasn't one of them. And He chose me because
I was just a sinner. But thanks be unto Jehovah-Nissi. Jehovah-Nissi. Well, we're going
to see that. in our studies that God's people
were ungrateful, sinful people, and yet they found mercy. They didn't deserve salvation,
and neither do we. All right. 287. 287. Like a river of glory. Stayed upon Jehovah. 287. Let's stay. Like a river, Gloria, is God's perfect
being. Over all, victoria, in its pride
is free. Perfect yet it's growing, bolder
every day. Perfect yet it's growing, deeper
all the way. Stayed upon the holy path, hearts
are fully bled. I indeed, as He promised, perfect
peace and rest. that one of these names, if God
imprints these on our hearts, that He's going to bring His
name, He's going to recall this name to our minds. Like Abraham
and Isaac, you know, going through the whole book of Genesis 22. You need to remember where it's
found, too. You can go back and read it again.
I'm going to get sick or trouble and trial and need help by Jehovah
Rapha. Exodus 15. So let's try to remember
this thing. This is for our health. And Jehovah
Nisai. All right, verse 3. Every joy
or trial, calleth from above. Traced upon our dial, by the
Son of God. We may trust Him wholly, all
for us to do. They who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly true. State of contemplation, hearts
are fully fled. I need as He promised, perfect
peace and rest. Our Lord, we ask You that You
would truly plant Your Word, that You magnified Your Word
above all Your name, and that You would magnify it in us, that
You would write it on the tables of our heart. These names, this
name is who You are and what You do. Jehovah and Messiah,
the Lord, our founder. When we do as Peter did and deny you
when we are cowards, Lord, raise this banner and therefore strengthen
us to face this world, we pray.
So it is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah,
we pray. Amen. I don't know.