Here two people use the instruments
that they have gifts for to bless the name of God. And Marty, such
a blessing to hear her on the organ to begin the service. We're
so thankful for these musicians. Let's go to the book of Exodus
once again this evening, chapter 17. We'll go to Exodus chapter 17. Let me begin reading with verse
8. Exodus chapter 17, verse 8, Then
came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose
us out men and go out and fight with Amalek. And he said, Moses
said, 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 he 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. 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, one on the one side and 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. And the Lord said
unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and
he called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi. For he said, because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. Let's ask God's blessings once
again on the service. Lord, we ask that you'd give
us understanding of this portion of Scripture. We need the leadership
and the guidance and the instruction of the Spirit of Grace who inspired
Moses to write these words many hundreds of years ago. We thank
you for our great Joshua, Jesus, our Savior, who is the captain
of our salvation. We're thankful that he has already
won the victory. And in this blessed Savior, we
are more than conquerors. Thank you for the blood of atonement. Thank you for the sacrifice of
our dear Savior. And we ask now that you would
lead us in the study of the scriptures for Jesus' sake. Amen. I want to speak to you this evening
on the subject, War with Amalek. War with Amalek. And I'll re-read the last verse
of Exodus chapter 17, which is, For he said, because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation, here we're told two specific things. Number one,
the Lord has said he will have war with Amalek. He says here,
because the Lord has sworn, because God can swear by no greater,
says in Hebrews, he swears by himself. God takes an oath here. It's an oath that he puts himself
under obligation to keep, though that isn't necessary because
any time God gives a promise, we know he will keep it, but
this would indicate to us the great seriousness of this portion
of scripture that God has, he swore, he swore that he would
have war with Amalek from generation to generation. So number one,
I want you to see that the Lord has sworn he'll have war with
Amalek And the second thing is this war that God has sworn that
he will have with Amalek will go on from generation to generation. In other words, this warfare
will keep on going as long as God has a people in this world. This war with Amalek will continue. Now, whatever this pictures,
We talked about pictures or typology this morning. Old Testament situations,
stories, people, events, whatever this does picture, it is very
important because number one, God put it in His Word. And here's
the second thing, God told Moses to write it down in a book. He
put this in a book. In fact, he says in verse 14,
the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book. You won't find that written anywhere
else in the Bible. God specifically told Moses,
you take your quill, you take your pen, you take your paper,
you take your parchment, and you write this for a memorial
in a book. And you've got the book. You've
got the book in your hands right now, that God said, write it
in a book, rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, who is going
to, of course, succeed Moses in leading the children of Israel.
And then this will be passed down from generation to generation,
as long as the true Israel of God is in this world. And write
this, God will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek, and
he'll do it from under heaven. Now, we need to understand what
the setting is or what the context is. God has given to Israel water. He has given them water from
the rock. Per God's instructions, Moses
goes up, he stands on the rock that God shows him. He has witnesses
with him, he has the elders with him. He takes the rod, the rod
of justice, and with that rod of justice he hits the rock. God says, smite the rock. We
know from 1 Corinthians 10 in verse four that rock was Christ
Jesus, and he was smitten. The rock of God's salvation was
smitten, and there, of course, flows out to us the water of
life. This happened immediately after
the rock was smitten. Our Lord Jesus was wounded and
bruised and afflicted, in order to satisfy God's justice and
in order to save his people from their sins. Now, water, the water
that flowed from the rock, pictures at least two things. Number one,
it speaks of salvation in Christ Jesus. I asked Bill to read that
portion of scripture from John chapter four. because our Lord
Jesus, in speaking to the woman of Samaria, and of course, as
Bill read, you notice that the scriptures say that he must needs
go through Samaria. And the reason was because one
of his elect people was there. There's a woman who needed be
ministered to. God picked her out from old eternity. God said His love on her. She's
one of the chosen people of the Lord, but she's got to hear the
gospel. She's got to be confronted with
Christ Jesus. She's got to know who He is.
She's got to be acquainted with Him. She's got to have a revelation
of the glory of Christ Jesus to her own soul. So he must needs
go through Samaria, and the scripture says he was weary and has sat
down on this well. And then the woman comes. She
comes about noon, which is the time of day that nobody else
would come to draw water. She didn't want to be seen of
anybody, but our Lord drew her there, and he was already there,
and so the two of them, they have a meeting. This is a meeting
of grace. This is a meeting of mercy. This
is a meeting between the Savior and the sinner. Just the two
of them. It's a blessed, blessed thing
when God singles out a sinner and he ministers to them of the
grace of God and that salvation which is in him. And he began
to talk about water. She began to talk about water.
And then the Savior said something to this nature. He said, if you
knew who it is that asked you to give water, you would ask
of him. In other words, you would ask
of me and I would give you, he said this, living water. I'd
give you living water. What is that living water? It's
the salvation of the sinner. It's the salvation by the grace
of God. It's our Lord Jesus and all the
grace that He brings with Him. He's full of grace and He's full
of truth. And when He, the water of life,
comes to you and He creates a thirst for Himself within your own heart
and you drink of Him, you drink in all of the benefits of our
Lord, And you drink in the grace and the mercy of God. It's salvation. It's salvation. The water of
life is salvation. And the Savior said, I'll give
it to you. You can't barter it. You can't
buy it. You can't work for it. It's a
gift. So we read in 2 Corinthians that
Paul says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. And of course, having read there
in John chapter four, as Bill read to us, the previous chapter
says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. We drink of him. He's the living
water. He's the rock who was smitten.
He was smitten and wounded and bruised for our transgressions.
That's what God's law demanded. Satisfaction. Infinite satisfaction
to the infinite standard of God, which is perfection. And since
we have sinned against God, we've broken God's law, that law therefore
rises up against us and said, I must be satisfied. I must have
death. And the Savior steps in as the
substitute for all of his people and says, take me, but these
must be delivered free. Just like he said there in the
garden. If you seek me, let these go their way. And the Savior
himself upon the cross of Calvary was smitten for transgressions. The rod of justice, Moses' rod
represented the rod of justice and wrath and judgment. And God
smote him with the rod of justice. And therefore there comes forth
from this smitten, wounded Savior the everlasting water of life,
living water. You see, there's no life without
water, not physically, and not spiritually, certainly. Water
is a universal need, and there's no substitute for water. Makes no difference who you are,
male or female, Jew or Gentile, richer or poorer, you gotta have
water. And if you're to live forever, if you're to spend all of eternity
in the presence of a holy God, you must have this water and
you must drink of this water. And what a blessing of God that,
number one, there is living water, and number two, he creates within
us a thirst, a thirst for God. As the heart panteth after the
water broke, the psalmist said, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God. We pant for the living water
of Christ Jesus. We must have him. Oh, how blessed
it is when the Spirit of grace comes to us and He so convinces
us of the beauties and the glories and the wonders of the Lord Jesus
Christ that He creates within us a thirst that cannot be satisfied
with any of the waters of this earth, but only with the water
of life, Christ Jesus. You see, there are some people
today who they talk about we preach the full gospel. I'll tell you what, Christ Jesus,
he is the full gospel. He's all of the good news. And
oh, how blessed it is to drink in of this good news. This is water that cost you nothing. There's nothing you can add to
it. You must not even attempt to add anything to this living
water. Only God's salvation in, through,
and by Christ Jesus meets the need of the heart. And this salvation
like water must come from above. Only God could give it because
salvation is of the Lord. Therefore with joy shall we draw
water from the wells of salvation, the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit. No wonder top lady said, let
the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed
be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. The blood saves from wrath. The water of salvation makes
us pure. But secondly, this water not
only speaks of salvation in, through, and by Christ Jesus,
this water speaks of the Holy Spirit. Look over with me in
John chapter 7. Look in John chapter 7. This is our Lord in Jerusalem
at the Feast of Tabernacles. It's the last day. It says in
John chapter seven in verse 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Don't forbid
him to come, but you let him come. Get out of his way. Get
out of his way. Let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, now
watch this. As the scripture hath said, out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Verse 39. this spake he of the Spirit. The Spirit is the living water
in this case, which they that believe on him should receive.
For the Holy Ghost was not yet given in the fullness of his
power. That won't happen until about,
what, seven and a half months later. For the Holy Ghost was
not yet given. because Jesus was not yet glorified. Well, how was Jesus glorified? On what basis was he glorified? Because of his substitutionary
death. Because he honored all of God's
demands. Because he was faithful to his
covenant oath to lay down his life for the sheep. and then
having done the work, finished the work that God gave him to
do, then he rose again, he's gone back to heaven, and then
the Spirit of God came. The Spirit of God came in his
fullness. The water of the Spirit is absolutely
necessary, and that is also indicated by this water that poured forth
from the rock that Moses smote. This Holy Spirit, He creates
an interest within us. The Spirit of God makes us thirst
for mercy, for grace. The Spirit of God causes us to
be upset within about our sins. The Spirit of God creates, as
it were, a spiritual fever And we're all of a sudden concerned
about our alienation from God? Our own corruption? Our own ungodliness? And it's like a fire that burns
within us? And maybe we try to do better,
but that doesn't quench the flames. And we promise to do good works,
but that won't take care of the problem. It's the Spirit of God
who comes as the living water that puts out the flames. He
calms the heart. He cools us, as it were, with
the grace of God. He brings in the refreshing grace
of the Lord. It is the water of the Spirit
that makes us fruitful. But the fruit of the Spirit,
you know this passage in Galatians, but the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. So go back to our text here in
Exodus chapter 17. So the rock has been smitten. and the water flows, the water
of life, which typified everlasting life in Christ Jesus, which we
drink of, and it indicates the spirit of grace, who abides with
us as living water within us. Now notice here in chapter 17
and verse eight, the first word is then, then. came Amalek, that is, as soon
as the water began to flow. Now, this is in the wilderness. This is in the desert. Water
is a very precious commodity. People wanted water. They fought
wars over water, and that's what this is about. Here, the people
of Amalek, the Amalekites, they see water rushing out of a rock
and they see all of these hundreds of thousands of people taking
water from this river that flow. And so they want it and they
come after it. Actually, the word Amalekite,
or Amalek, I should say. Amalek means valley dwellers. Valley dwellers. They lived in
the wilderness. This was a way of life for them.
They lived in a terrible, under these terrible conditions. And
now here, they're not having to dig for water. They see these
Israelites, they don't dig in wells. They're not digging down
in the sand like these heathens had to do. And now all they've
got to do is go out there and get water with a bucket. That's
all they've got to do. So they're going after the water. Now, here we see several things,
and I hope I can show you the typology. As I said this morning,
the Old Testament was given to illustrate all these stories,
to illustrate spiritual truths. Types and figures, or in Galatians,
we read of the word allegory. And that holds true in this passage.
What is Amalek? Amalek is the old nature. That's
what we are. That's what's native to us. We're wilderness dwellers by
nature. An amulet is not a problem for
us when we're unconverted. It's certainly there among the
unconverted, but it doesn't trouble those who are unregenerate. because
we're very much at home with the flesh. That's all we know
is wilderness living. That's all we know. In a dry
and desert area, and we think this is great. We're just fine,
thank you very much. Somebody comes along preaching
life in Christ Jesus in the living fountain of water, and so that's
okay, I'm fine. You can have that, but I don't
need it. I'm a valley dweller. I'm of Amalek. And as the Amalekites were quite
comfortable in the desert, in the wilderness, so our flesh
is very comfortable without the water of life, without the Lord
Jesus, without his righteousness, without his bloody death, and
very satisfied without the spirit of life. However, go back to that word, then. What
has happened before this? Well, even before the water,
they had bread. And that picture's feasting on
Christ Jesus. They had the bread of life. And
then they drank of the water of life. This is a picture of
a sinner brought to Christ Jesus. And we feast on Him who said,
I am the living bread who's come down from heaven. And we eat
of Him. We feed on Him. We're hungry for the Savior.
We're always hungry for the gospel, aren't we? We continue to feed
on Him. And then we have the water from
the rock and we drink and we drink and we drink again. And
our souls are satisfied. And when this bread has been
eaten, and this water, we've drank of this water, and that
water is life to us. New life. Some we didn't have
before. That's when, that's when Amalek
rises up and a war goes on within. You know what's very interesting?
Israel, they had not been in a war before. They hadn't even
fought. In fact, go back to chapter 14. Prior to chapter 17 and what
we're reading, Israel has not been engaged in warfare. Look
at chapter 14 verses, Oh, we'll go to verse 10. And of course,
this is when the Israelites have gone out of Egypt and Pharaoh
and his armies are in mad pursuit. Look at chapter 14, verse 10.
And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up
their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. And they
were sore afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.
And they said to Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt,
hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore
hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Is not this the word which we did tell thee in Egypt, saying,
let us alone? Leave us be, that we may serve
the Egyptians, for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians
than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said unto
the people, fear ye not, stand still and seek the salvation
of the Lord, which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom
you've seen today, you shall see them again no more forever.
The Lord shall fight for you. You see that? They're not involved
in the warfare. They're not gonna pick up a battle
ax or a spear or a sword or bow and arrow. No. No. Moses said, the Lord will
fight for you and he shall hold your peace. But you get over
here to chapter 17, and all of a sudden, they're gonna go to
war. And you see, here's my understanding
of the passage. Life has come to a center. He's got the old nature just
like he had before. Didn't have any problem. He didn't
have any warfare. Nothing bothered me. Oh, but
then the grace of God comes in sovereign saving power. And life
is created within you. You see, we are a new creation.
We are God's workmanship, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10. For we
are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. We're newly created. Something is newly created within
us. It's the life of God. It's the
life of God in us. We live to the glory of His grace. Where once there was death, now
there's life. Where once there was flesh, now
there's flesh and Spirit, or as the scripture says, the old
man and the new man. When we didn't have the new man,
there wasn't any war. The new man comes along by the
grace of God, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And all of a sudden, we have
war with Amalek. We're engaged in a warfare. And I know some preachers don't
like to use the word new nature. I don't have a problem with it
at all. And the reason some are hesitant to use the word nature
regarding this new man is because nature seems to indicate this
has always been natural to us. We know that's not right. But
for lack of better terminology, I'm a man with two natures. I
have an old nature, I was born with it. That's my native nature,
maybe I put it that way. My native nature. But now there's
a new nature. Now there's the life of God in
me. And before I didn't have any
trouble with Amalek, I didn't have any trouble with the flesh
because that's all I was. But once I was born again of
the Spirit of God, now there's a spiritual man and there's also
a carnal man, a fleshly man. And now I'm engaged in warfare. I didn't know that before. I
didn't have any problems before. You see, here's another typology. Abraham and his son Ishmael and
his son Isaac. As long as it was just Ishmael,
there was no problem in Abraham's house. Wasn't anybody there,
but the only son was Ishmael. And he is the product of the
flesh. but then comes along one who
is a miracle child, a miracle birth, Isaac. And all of a sudden,
now we got problems. Now we got warfare in the family. And Sarah goes to Abraham and
she says, listen, honey, this can't work out. You've got to
send Ishmael away. They can't dwell together. But
with you and I, we've got Ishmael and Isaac within us and they
are dwelling together. And you're not going to get rid
of Ishmael until the Lord comes back or until you die. Amalek
is going to be with you all the days of your life. Strife. warfare. And you know what it's
like. Turn to Romans chapter seven. Here's the way Paul wrote it. And every believer can identify
with this. Every believer. Romans chapter
seven. He says this in verse 15. For
that which I do, Romans 7.15, I allow not. I don't go along with it. But
what I do, or what I would, that I do not. But what I hate, that's
what I do. Boy, he's really a struggling
fellow, isn't he? And so are you, aren't you? And
so am I. If then I do that, what I would
not, I consent unto the law that it's good. Now then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Watch this, for
I know that in me, and he specifies something, that is in my flesh. Amalek. You got me? Amalek. been with me ever since
I was conceived. And ever since I was regenerated
by the grace of God and the Lord took up His residence in me,
then Amalek has been a thorn in the flesh. He troubles me. So he says, that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do. Now, if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law of fact. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, the spiritual man, the new nature, call it
what you will. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind. and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my memories. I see that here's
another law. Here's this sinful nature. Here's
Amalek. You know what he does? He's all
time ambushing me. That's what the people of Amalek
did to the children of Israel. They picked on the ones at the
back of the great caravan of the Israelites going through
the wilderness. They picked on the weak. They
ambushed him. Let me ask you this, how many
times have you been reading the Word of God and all of a sudden,
it's like Amalek rises up and before you know it, you've been
ambushed. He just comes right out of the blue. That's the way
he operates. That's your flesh. And he says in verse 24, oh,
wretched man that I am. You ever said that? I have. Oh,
wretched man that I am. Not oh, wretched man that I used
to be, but oh, wretched man that I am right now. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, with the flesh, the law of sin. It's very
clear. There's two entities there, two
people there, two natures there, as it were. Here's another illustration.
We're like Jacob and Israel. One man, two names. I'm Jacob and I'm Israel, all
at the same time. Jacob. Well, his name means trickster,
hupster, crooked, one who's supplanted. But Israel was the name given
to him at conversion. You're a prince with God. And Jacob and Israel, one man
with two names. and you follow his history, he
did some awful things and the scripture will say, Jacob did
this and Jacob did that. They don't talk about Israel.
He's still a prince with God. It's a struggle, isn't it? We
all know that. It's a struggle. And let me give
you three or four or five things here very briefly as you go back
to our text in Exodus chapter 17. First of all, look at the
intercession of Moses. And here is Moses, the intercessor. I said this morning, he was a
priest. He was a prophet, a priest, and a king. Here he is as a priest
making intercession for the people. He goes up on top of the hill
and Moses holds up his hand as the intercessor. to bless Israel,
and as long as his hands were up, Israel prevailed. Here's Moses, the intercessor. Now, the warfare is down in the
valley. There's Amalek, by the way, the
grandson of Esau. Make note of that, he's the grandson
of Esau. Moses is up on top of the hill.
The war is going on down in the valley. And Moses stands above
and watches the conflict. And he prays for Israel. Even
so, our Lord Jesus, remember Moses is in many ways a picture
of our Savior. Our Lord Jesus has ascended the
hill. Who shall ascend into the hill
of God? He's got clean hands and a pure
heart. Hadn't lifted up his heart against
God. That's our Savior. He's gone
back to glory and you know what he does? He makes intercession
for us. I want you to pray for me. I
appreciate that and I think that's indicated by Aaron and her staying
up the hands of Moses. We need to make intercession
for one another to the Lord, but there is one whom God always
hears, and he always answers his prayer, and that's our Lord
Jesus. He's the one who prays for us.
Now, unlike Moses, our Lord Jesus, he never grows weary. Sometimes
we grow weary in praying. I grow weary. I'd like to have, and I believe
I do have, a few Aaron's and Hur's and Miriam's and so forth
to hold me up in prayer. That's what Paul said in Ephesians
chapter 6. He talked about praying for him,
that utterance would be given to him as he set forth the mystery
of the gospel. He said, Jim, what can I do for
you? I sure would appreciate if you'd pray for me. And those are not just empty
words. We want people to remember us
in prayer. We need the ministry of Moses,
and we need the Aaron's and the Hur's to hold up the arms of
the preacher of the gospel. Moses is the intercessor. Secondly,
here's the warfare of Joshua. Moses, he sends him forth. It's the first time Joshua's
mentioned. Jehovah who saves is what his name means. His name
in the New Testament is Jesus. In fact, he's called Jesus in
Hebrews chapter four in one other passage, which I can't remember
right now, but he is called Jesus, which literally means Joshua,
Jehovah who saves. He's the captain of the Lord's
hosts. And here's what Joshua did. He goes forth and he fights
against Amalek. And you'll notice in verse 13,
and Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people at the edge of
the sword with his word. Our Lord Jesus fights against
his enemies. What does he use for a weapon?
His word. It's the sword that our Lord
has given to us his own word, and he'll destroy his enemies
with his sword. And he discomfited Amalek, but
he didn't destroy him. He's wounded, but he didn't destroy
him. You know, if I could kind of
make this application here, when it says Joshua discomfited Amalek,
but he didn't destroy him, there are a lot of people who teach
that once you're saved by the grace of God, you won't sin anymore. Hey, you're free of Amalek. Well,
we will be free of Amalek someday. But he just got discomfited at
the cross. Now, his days are numbered. His
days are numbered in us. But he's still there. No one
lives above sin or without sin except our Lord Jesus. Now in
the eyes of God, we have no sin. Understand that. We're made the
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. But in ourselves, in ourselves,
we're still sinful people. And I don't want to shock you,
but if you don't have an understanding of this, you need to be shocked. In conversion, the Lord changes
nothing within us. Did you know that? He changes
nothing. He uses nothing that we bring
to the table. He uses nothing within us. The
work that He does is His work and it's a new work. He provides the life, He provides
the grace. He provides the strength. He
gives us that which we did not have before. We're his workmanship. The new
man. The Bible talks about the old
man and the new man. You who are the people of God,
and most of you are, perhaps all of you are, I hope and pray, You are just in Amalek, in your
flesh. You're just as rotten now as
you were when you were converted. That's a big pill for some people
to swallow. Have to flush it down with a
lot of water. But you're no better. You see,
the Lord doesn't improve or make better what's there. Amalek is
Amalek. That which is born of the flesh,
the Savior said, is just flesh. Not gonna be any better. The Lord changed me. No, he didn't change you. He
made something new in you. He created life within you. That's
what he did. He didn't change anything that
was there. You see, that's the reason you
are as capable, even as a believer, you are as capable of doing anything
wicked and ungodly than any other man or woman, son or daughter
of Adam has ever done, even though you're a child of God. So I don't
see how David could commit adultery with Bathsheba? I don't see how
he could have Uriah murdered. Well, I'm sorry you don't understand
that. But you see, Amalek is still
Amalek. Now, here's what we want. We
want to look to our Savior. You know, Israel, they did good
in warfare. as long as they kept checking
on the intercessor. And Moses is up there. In this fight, in this struggle,
you've got to keep your eyes on Christ Jesus. He's your intercessor. He's your
strength. He's got grace. He's the one who prays for you. Remember these words? Simon,
Simon, Satan hath desired to have you and sift you like wheat,
but I prayed for you. What'd you pray about? That I'd
never get sick again? No. Did you pray He wouldn't have any
more aches and pains, no. I pray for you that your faith
fail not. He prays for us, and you need
to look to your intercessor. Look to your intercessor. And take the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God, You see, in this warfare, here are
three things you can do, and you must do. Keep your eye on
the intercessor. Use the sword of the Spirit,
and then pray. That's what you have to do. But know this, you will only
prevail because of the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the promise of God
quickly in verse 14. The Lord said to Moses, write
this for memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.
I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek. I'll tell you what
jumped out to me. As I read over this and read
over this and read over this, here's what jumped out to me
and was a blessing to me. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek, of guilt, of sin, from under heaven. That's significant, I believe. From under heaven. You see, in
heaven, the Lord doesn't see an Amalek in me. The Lord doesn't
see any sins in me. He doesn't see any iniquities
in me. This is a promise of the covenant of grace. There's sins
and iniquities, well, I remember no more. In heaven, they're not
remembered, but on earth, boy, I still remember. I remember
all of them because I don't know all my sins, but it still grieves
me, still wounds me. I still weep over them. But one of these days, he's gonna
take me into heaven. And then Amalek will be done
away with, as far as I'm concerned. Well then, here's the worship
of God, verse 15. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi. Moses, confident of victory,
builds an altar, worships God, because you can't worship God
without sacrifice. He worshiped the Lord whose banner
over us is love. Jehovah Nisi, that is the Lord,
my banner. Christ Jesus is the Lord, our
banner. And we look to Him. for strength
and grace. And then here finally is the
oath of God, verse 16. For he said, because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. And from generation to generation,
all of the people of God have had war with Amalek. So you're
not by yourself. You know that passage where Paul
says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I'm chief? Oh, he knew something about Amalek. Jesus said, I'm the chief of
sinners. I'm the chief of Malachite. That's what it was saying. And
you know, every child of God, I do believe, feels like that. And you're so glad, you're so
thankful that people can't read your mind and don't know anything
about your motive. We put on a very good front and
dress up and try to behave ourselves. But we know there is Amalek still
in here. And he's going to be with me till the day I die. And he's
not going to get weaker. No. He's not going to get better. And if I live to be 90 years
old or 100 years old, or if I live just till tomorrow, I don't know
how long I'm going to live, but I know this. It's not going to
get any better. Because it's just flesh. And
so, well, what's God got to do with it? Well, He's got to kill
it. That's what He's got to do. He's got to kill it. He's got
to kill me. I've got to die. Then I'll be
all right. There won't be any more struggles
then. I'll be with the Lord in glory where everything is spiritual. Everything is Christ-like. And
when I get to glory, I will enjoy that for which I was predestinated
to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Won't
that be a good day? Say goodbye to Amalek. Goodbye. You've bothered me all my life.
See you later. You're gone. Well, I hope that'll
help you, son. Let's pray. Father, bless the
word of truth. We all, all of us know this struggle
of the old man and the new man. As it says in Galatians, the
old man lusteth at wars against the new. And it's a struggle, Lord. We're
thankful Christ, our intercessor, prays for us. And he remembers
us. He remembers that there's nothing
to this flesh, we're just dust. without strength, no hope in
the flesh, but oh, we're so thankful for the work of the Spirit, for
that new man that has been created within us, the new nature. And
we know there's a war going on. One of these days, because our
Lord Jesus has already won the war, this battle that I fight,
well, The decision has already been made. The victory is already
assured in Christ Jesus our Lord. Bless these other struggling
pilgrims, and keep us looking to our mighty intercessor, the
Lord Jesus Christ, by whose blood we've been washed and cleansed,
and in the garments of righteousness, the garments of salvation, we
stand before you in the beauties of Christ our Savior. In the
name of the Lord Jesus, I pray.