Let's go back to that scripture
that he read to us from Exodus chapter 17. The scripture says
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. That statement made in Romans
chapter 10 is actually taken from Joel 2.32. What's in a name? Well, in the
name of the Lord, there's a lot. Peter said, neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is no other name among men under
heaven, whereby we must be saved. Our Lord Jesus is Jehovah who
saves. No other name is sufficient to
save us but the name of the Lord Jesus. When the angel of God
told Joseph what to name the baby who would be born to Mary,
said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. In the Old Testament there are
lots of different names for our God. that are given, and all
of them reveal different things about our Savior and His work
of redemption or His work of reconciliation. And every one
is very significant. In the book of Genesis, the 22nd
chapter, we read one of the names of the Lord is Jehovah Jireh. That is, the Lord will provide. He provided a substitute for
Isaac. A ram was caught in the thicket. Isaac was taken off the altar
and that ram, it was killed in his stead. Our Lord Jesus was
the one who was given as a gift of God. The Lord provided the
Savior for us and we were, as it were, we were taken off the
altar. Our Lord Jesus suffered blood
and He died in our stead. We read another name of the Lord
is Jehovah Rapha. That's in Exodus chapter 15,
the Lord who heals. Israel came to bitter waters. They were very thirsty. There
was nothing for them to drink. And, of course, they came to
this body of water and they were very excited and they thought,
this is going to be wonderful. And then they began to endeavor
to drink the water, but it was bitter. They couldn't drink it.
And then, of course, they provoked the Lord again. God told Moses,
you see that tree over there? Cast that tree in the water. And it sweetened, it sweetened
the waters. And Moses therefore called the
name of that place Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals. And it is
the Lord who heals us of our spiritual diseases. The scripture
says by his stripes we are healed. as the Lord who takes us to the
cross of Calvary in the midst of our sufferings, in the midst
of our disappointments of life, in the midst of all of our bitter,
troublesome trials. And it's the remembrance of our
Lord's death upon the cross of Calvary, of His redemptive work
that indeed sweetens every trial. And we understand then that all
of our troubles and trials are working together for our good
with everything else because of Jehovah Rapha. He's the Lord who heals. And
then another name in the Old Testament for our God is Jehovah
Shalom. Jehovah who is our peace. It's in the book of Judges. Gideon,
he was very upset by the attack of the Midianites and they were
greatly outnumbered and he sat down so depressed, the angel
of the Lord came to Gideon and he said, you'll have victory. and then you'll have peace. And
Gideon built an altar because the angel of the Lord said, you'll
have peace and you're not going to die. He built an altar and
he named it Jehovah Shalom. The Lord is our peace. And then,
fourthly, another name of Jehovah, Jehovah Rah, R-A-H. Jehovah Ra, the Lord our Shepherd,
Psalm 23. David begins that psalm by saying,
the Lord is my shepherd. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep who redeemed us by his blood. The blood of the covenant,
it's called in the scriptures. He's the good shepherd who laid
down his life for his sheep. He's the seeking shepherd who
came after us when we were lost. He's the nourishing shepherd
who feeds us. He caresses us. He nourishes
us. He's the preserving shepherd
for he watches over us lest we perish. And he is himself the
chief shepherd who will receive us unto Himself. And then, another
name for Jehovah in the Old Testament is Jehovah Sidkenu, that is,
the Lord, our righteousness. Jeremiah 23 and verse 6. Our righteousness are as filthy
rags, and we know that's not going to do it. We can't stand
before God and be accepted in our own righteousness, we've
got to have the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. He is the
Lord, our righteousness. In fact, that righteousness is
imputed to us, and so His name is our name. The Lord, our righteousness,
Jehovah Sidkenu. And then another name for our
Lord is Jehovah Shammah. which means the Lord is with
us, He's present with us, and that's Ezekiel chapter 48 and
verse 35. And then this one tonight that
we want to focus upon, here in Exodus chapter 17, if you'll
look at verse 15. And Moses built an altar, he
called the name of Jehovah-Nissi. Jehovah-Nissi, which means the
Lord, our banner. He is our banner. The Amalekites
were attacking Israel and they had a real working strategy. They went after the weak ones
at the back end of the camp of Israel. as Israel made their
way through the wilderness, there were those who were at the rear,
the older ones, the weaker ones, they couldn't move as fast, and
of course Moses, according to God's command, we would stop
the progression of Israel's journey and wait for these folks to catch
up and then they would, in camp, always around the tabernacle,
of course, but the Amalekites, they went after these weak ones. And Moses, he held up the rod
of God. And as long as he was holding
up the rod of God, which indicated the authority of God, the power
of God, the omnipotence of God. As long as he held his arms up,
as Bill read to us a little bit ago, Israel was victorious. But the arms of Moses became
weary, and so the banner came down, the rod came down, the
ensign, it was lowered because Moses, his arms got tired. And
so, When that happened, Israel began to lose the battle. And
so Aaron and Ahura They put Moses on a rock, then
one on one side, one on the other. They both held up his arms so
that the banner was once again lifted up. Now, there are many
people who believe that Moses is interceding for the people,
and that's the reason the banner was lifted up. not only all for interceding
for the people, I mean all for us praying and seeking God's
face, but I really don't see that here. That's what most commentators,
that's what they say, that Moses' arms, he was interceding for
the people, he was praying for the people. When his arms came
down, he was just weary and he became faint and he didn't no
longer interceded for the people. But I really don't see that here.
You see, this rod is called the rod of God. Look back in verse
9. Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out, men, and go out and fight with Amalek. And tomorrow I'll
stand on top of the hill with the rod of God. Now this rod
of God, what is that? Well, this is the rod that Moses
has had throughout his ministry as God raised him up, and he's
the leader of Israel. This is the rod that God said,
what's that in your hand? Right to begin with, back in
the early chapters of Exodus, and Moses said, it's a rod, it's
a staff, it's a banner, it's an incense. He said, throw it
on the ground. Threw it on the ground and it
turned into a serpent. Pick it up by the tail. He picked
it up by the tail and it became a rock again. And of course when
Moses went before Pharaoh, And he still had this rod, and he
threw that rod down, and it became a serpent. And the magicians
of Egypt, they threw their rods down, and they all became serpents.
But the rod of Moses, that is the rod of God, it ate up all
the serpents of Egypt. Because you see, that rod of
God in the hands of Moses, it represented the authority and
the omnipotence of God. It was the power of God. And
as he lifted that rod up, the soldiers of Israel beheld that,
and they knew the power of God is behind us. Listen, our Lord
Jesus is Himself Jehovah-Nissi. He is the Lord, our banner. He's not a weak banner. He's
a mighty banner. He's mighty to save, the scripture
says. He said himself, all power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. This is the Lord, our
banner. Now the banner back in those
days, and we might say it was similar to our flag in that it
had a designation of representing a certain people. Like we have a flag that stands
for one nation, that every state has a different flag. Well, Moses,
he had a rod, but it wasn't the kind of flag, though it's kind
of typical of the flags that we have, but it wasn't made out
of, any kind of material. It was a rod. It was rigid. And at the end of it, at the
end of every banner, it didn't matter who the banner belonged
to, what family they belonged to, what tribe they belonged
to, they had a distinguishing, very lovely, ornamental, something
or other, real, shiny, that would catch the light. And so they'd
hold up that banner, they'd hold up that rod, they'd hold up that
incense, and the people of that family or that particular tribe
would see it and they'd rally around that. Well Moses, he has
this rod. And this rod indicated his position
of authority. And this rod, the banner that
he used so often in Egypt, you remember, this is the banner
that he used. He struck the rivers with it
and they turned to blood. This is the rod that when he
got to the Red Sea, God said, stretch out the rod. Because
that rod represented the authority of God, the dominion of God,
the power of God. It wasn't that the rod itself
had any kind of authority in and of itself, but it's what
it represented. It represented our Lord Jesus,
who is Jehovah Nissan. He is the Lord, our banner, who
has all power. And that's the reason we lift
Him up. We don't lift up a man. We don't lift up a church. We
don't lift up a denomination. We lift up the person Christ
Jesus. Because He's the one that has
all power, and when we cease to lift Him up, then all is vain. It's just like with Israel, when
Moses, as long as he had that rod up, every how he held it,
maybe one hand, or it seems like two hands, because both Aaron
and Hur were on one side or the other, holding his arms up, and
he had that up, and the militia of Israel, they saw the rod,
and they were greatly encouraged, the power of God is with us.
But when the rod came down, They were discouraged. Rods up. Let's go to war. And they fought. They won. They won. As Joshua led Israel into the
battle. Joshua's name means Jehovah who
saves. His is the Old Testament name
for the New Testament name of Jesus. And Israel was victorious
through the bravery of Joshua. And it says in verse 13, and
Joshua discomfited, or he weakened, he weakened Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword. As a result of that which happened
here, Moses built an altar. And you find in the Old Testament,
up until the time of the giving of the tabernacle and the instructions
of the tabernacle and the brazen altar, up until that time, men
were always building an altar. And they understood this, the
only way God could be worshipped was by a sacrifice at the altar. And here is Moses in verse 15,
he's building an altar to worship God, to thank God for the victory. And he called the name of it
Jehovah-Nissi. You see, Moses understood and
Joshua understood that which all of us ought to understand,
there is no worship of God without a sacrifice. There must be the
shedding of blood. The Scripture says without the
shedding of blood is no remission of sins. And so Moses builds
this altar, And undoubtedly, he offered sacrifices upon this
altar. And he said, here's the name
of this, Jehovah-Nissi. And if you go in the margin,
it says, that is the Lord, my banner. Of course, this reminds us as
we get, look at verse 16, for he said, Because of the Lord,
it's sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. This reminds us we're always
in a warfare as the people of God. You're in a warfare with
your flesh. You're in a warfare with the
world. You're in a warfare with Satan. As we go through our wilderness
journey, make sure you understand this. There's always an Amalek
out there. And he's always ready to get
you when you're weak. That is, when you seem to be
vulnerable. I'll tell you when this great
trial of Amalek happened, it was right after really a spiritual
victory. Because Moses had smitten the
rock and the water came out. There's a gospel blessing, and
it speaks of the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus. He was
smitten with the rod of God's justice. God told Moses to take
the rod, that indicates the power of God, and you hit the rock. And he did, and water came out,
and all of Israel drank. And that water followed them.
The rock followed them, the scripture says in 1 Corinthians, throughout
their wilderness journey. And then as they're rejoicing
over the gift of water and the water provided for them so abundantly,
and they're all caught up in how wonderful it is to have this
water, then the enemy attacked. When you least expect it, that's
when the enemy comes. And so Amalek, They saw an opportunity
to go after Israel. But the one that Moses appointed
to direct the fight was Joshua. And he's the one who weakened
That's our Lord Jesus, Joshua, Jehovah who saves, Jesus who
saves. He's the one who went after our
great enemy when he died upon the cross of Calvary. And there
he crushed his head in fulfillment of Genesis chapter three and
verse 15. Our Savior said, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw all men unto me. And before that, he said, now
is the prince of this world cast out. What do you mean by now? Now in my death, now in my sufferings,
now in my offering of myself to God. Now this is the ultimate
defeat of Satan. And he was mortally wounded,
but he hasn't been fully put out of existence, and that won't
happen until the final judgment. He has, however, become discomfited. He's become weakened. And the
one who weakened Him, the one who bludgeoned Him, the one who
crutched His head was our Lord Jesus, the Lord Jehovah Nissi,
our banner. So our Lord Jesus, He is the
one who, by His authority and by His power, He's the one who
won the victory. Go back to Isaiah 11, you know,
this past Sunday night, we talked about, I spoke to you
from Isaiah chapters 10 and 11, excuse me. And we got into this just a little
bit in verse 10. Isaiah 11, verse 10. And in that
day, there shall be a root of Jesse, which will stand for an
ensign, for a banner. The word ensign is identical
to banner. Rod. By the way, before I go
any further on this, it's also identical to another word that
we've studied before, and that's found in the book of Numbers,
when Moses was told by God, after fiery serpents had bitten the
Israelites, that the Lord said, put a brazen serpent up on a
pole. It's the same word, put it up
on a banner, put it up on a rod. And that was lifted up. And once
again, you see the power of God. Because Moses was specifically
instructed by God concerning that rod, concerning that brazen
serpent attached to that rod, lift it up, lift it up so that
those who are bitten may see it. and may, in looking, they
may be healed. of their diseases. And we know
that's a picture of our Lord Jesus because in John chapter
three and verse 14, our Savior likened that. He was speaking
to Nicodemus and he likened his own death to what happened back
then. He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have eternal life. Our Lord Jesus
was lifted up Lifted up. Well, what's the significance
of Him being lifted up? Well, He's the power of God and
the wisdom of God. When He talked about, when the
Scripture speaks about Him being lifted up to die, He's the power
of God. That one who died at Calvary's
cross, lifted up upon a tree. He wasn't dying in weakness.
There isn't a picture of weakness there, there's a picture of power
there. There's a picture of authority
there. Because all the while our Lord
Jesus is nailed to that cross, He is battling the Amaleks of
all of His people, and He's defeating all of our enemies. He's busy
putting sin away. He's busy dealing with our transgressions
and on our behalf, dealing with the justice of God on account
of those transgressions. Who is He? Who is He that He
could deal with God on our behalf concerning the sin problem? Well,
He's the power of God. That's who He is. He's Jehovah
Nissi. He's the banner of God. He's
the ensign of the people. Continue reading here in Isaiah
11 verse 10. And in that day there shall be
a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people.
To it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious. Look at verse number 12. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather
together to disperse of Judah from the four corners of the
earth." Our Lord Jesus, He is the banner to whom we gather. You know, when in battles, as
you've read, battles in history and so forth, there's always
a flag bearer There's an ensign carrier, and he's the one who
goes out in front. He's the one who's got the flag
or the rod or the banner hoisted up. He's the one leading the
way. That's our Lord Jesus. That's
our Savior. And being out there in the lead,
he's the one who's the object of attack. The strategy. I don't know a lot about wars.
I've read about wars just like you have. But as I read about
the strategies of opposing armies, they're going after the standard
bearer. If they can get him out of the
picture, then the standard comes down, the rod comes down, the
banner comes down, the flag comes down, and people lose heart.
And of course, if it's a good army, you got a good leader,
you got somebody there who'll say, you pick up the banner and
then you start carrying it. But the object is to go after
the standard bearer. And the object of Satan was to
go after our savior. If he could defeat him, there
would be no hope for any of us. But our Lord could not be defeated
because He's the power of God. And when He was lifted up upon
the cross of Calvary, as Moses lifted up the rod of God, when
our Lord Jesus was lifted up, He died not in weakness, but
in power. Well, how powerful was He? Powerful
enough to save a thief. Moreover, powerful enough to
save all of the elect of God of all of the ages. That's how
much power he had. Our Lord Jesus, He's the banner. It's like Moses, as long as he
held the banner up, Israel was victorious. Our Lord Jesus, He's victorious. The scripture says, thanks be
unto God, which always gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Was the cross of Calvary the
defeat of our savior? Well, of course not. It was his
victory. It was his victory. And in his
victory, we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. Lord Jesus is our banner, He's
our ensign. He's the one who leads. Moses
going through the wilderness, He's out there in the front.
He's leading the way. Our Lord Jesus, He leads us.
He leads us beside the still waters. He leads us in the paths of righteousness
for His namesake. He leads us into the tomb and
out of the tomb. And He leads us into heaven.
He's always leading the way. He's always out front, as well
as He should be. And He's our banner who must
be lifted up. He had to be lifted up to die.
He had to be lifted up as our sacrifice. And you know what
our job is? Our job is to lift Him up as
well. Because nothing of any value
will ever be accomplished if we don't lift Him up. Moses,
your arms are getting heavy. Yes. I'm getting tired. And Aaron
Hurst said, let's lift up your arms, lift up that banner. And as they lifted up the banner,
victory was there for the claiming. We've got to lift Him up. If we don't lift Him up, I promise
you this, might be a lot of things accomplished by the flesh, but
they won't be worth anything. And this is religion today. They're
holding up entertainment, they're lifting up excitement, they're
lifting up speaking in tongues, they're lifting up healing services,
they're lifting up anything and everything except the one who
needs to be lifted up, and he's plumb on sight. Jehovah Nesai. The Lord, our banner, must be
lifted up. And he's the banner to which
his people gather. There's a verse in Genesis chapter
49. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people He gathers
us. And you know when sinners will
be gathered to Jesus Christ? When He's lifted up. He's got
to be lifted up. If He's not lifted up, there
will be no drawing to Him. He gathers us by His effectual,
irresistible grace. And I'll tell you, when He calls,
we rally around the banner. We come to Him. We gather to
Him as sheep gather to the shepherd. We gather to Him as doves to
the window. We gather to Him as Noah was
gathered to the ark. We gather to Him as chicks to
the hen. We gather to him as the man slayer
to the city of refuge. He's our banner and he's our
banner that unites. Remember Sunday night when we
were going a little bit through chapter 11 here? And I spoke to you there in verse
six, how the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall
lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion, and the fatling
together, and a little child shall lead them, the cow and
the bear shall feed, their young one shall lie down together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the sucking child
shall play upon the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the conchotrice's den, You know, the Lord Jesus,
who is our banner, He draws unto Himself all kinds of people. And He brings us to the end of
ourselves to rest in Him and trust in Him. And we're united. We're united in Him. And then
He's a covering banner. It's a verse of scripture in
Song of Solomon, chapter two and verse four. His banner over
me was love. Love is the banner. And he covers
us with his banner. And remember this, the banner
is constantly under attack. What is it even today that is
under attack. Is it not the Lord Jesus and
His work of redemption? Isn't there not a, it's almost
a united effort by all the enemies of the gospel to discredit what
our Lord Jesus did? And to say that He made an effort,
but they won't say it was successful. They'll say, he tried to do this,
he made this possible for you, but ultimately it's up to you.
He is constantly under attack. Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our banner. But he shall stand fast. And I say to you and me, let's
be bold for the truth. He's been spitting for us. And then lastly, He is a conquering
ensign. He's always conquering. Listen,
the fact that you love the gospel tonight shows that He conquered
you. The rod of God. The banner of
God. It has so arrested you and got
your heart's attention that you believe the gospel of God's saving
grace, He's conquered your heart, and you won't listen to any other
message except the message of grace, the grace of God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an honor to be in His army,
isn't it? To be under the banner of our
Lord Jesus. He's the captain of our salvation. He is our commander. He's the
one who's in charge. And we follow him. Moses holds up the banner and
he motions to Israel. We begin our march again. They
follow the banner. They follow the ensign. They
follow that man who's out front, who has in his hand that which
is symbolic of the very power of God. And there he goes, and
the rest of the Israelites said, I'm following him. I'm following
him. Because he has the power of God
with him. He's the one who smoked the Red
Sea and it split wide open. He's the one who took that same
rod and hit a rock and water came out. He's the one who's leading us
to the land of promise. And I'll tell you, our Lord Jesus,
He's leading us to paradise. He is the Lord, our banner. And we have been brought by sovereign
grace to follow Him and we shall follow Him all the way into the
land of promise. He's the ensign of the people
and He gathers us unto Himself and one of these days this ensign
is coming back and by His omnipotence He's going to draw all of His
people unto Himself. and we'll be with Him forever
and forever. Well, let's close in prayer.