If you'll turn back with me to
Exodus chapter 17. I titled the message tonight,
The Amalek Conflict. The Amalek Conflict. Now, Israel, as I told you last
week, is both a figure of the church, but they're also a figure
of each individual believer. Anytime the Lord describes a
believer, He's describing His church because His church is
one. The church is no more than an
assembly of believers, and all believers are the same. The scripture said, there is
among them a unity of spirit. That's what He talks about over
there in Ephesians. He talks about endeavoring to
keep the unity of the Spirit. When Peter wrote to the churches
at large, he wrote that general epistle, he addressed that epistle
to those of like precious faith. He's talking about a people with
a unity of Spirit. That is, they have the same Spirit. And He is the source of all spiritual
life. That life doesn't vary because
it has the same source. Has the same source. And He is
the source of our spiritual life. And if we have life, we have
it being born of the Spirit of God. He said, except a man be
born of water, that is the water of His Word and the water of
this sanctified washing of regeneration. Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
We are one Spirit, and there is a unity of Spirit. And believers all have the same
Spirit. He abides in them, and the same
Spirit teaches them. And the Spirit makes intercession
for them, and the same Spirit reveals to them the precious
promises of God in Christ. He is the earnest of our inheritance. We're sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise. He doesn't promise you one thing
and you something else. He promises the same, the same
thing. And He's the earnest. And unbelievers
are those, it says, who receive not the things of the Spirit
of God. They are among the natural men
of whom he said, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man. That is mankind. The things prepared
for them who love it. And the church believes one gospel. Their one body, they serve one
Lord, have one faith and one baptism. And the church worships
one God who is the father of them all. who is above them all
and who is in them all. And what is contrary to all is
contrary to the one and what's typical of all is typical of
the one. So sometimes in the scripture
we'll read where God singles out a man like David and talks
about him as a man after God's own heart. But isn't that what
every believer is? A man after God's own heart.
God gives him a heart to believe on him. To love Him? Well, sure
it is. So what describes all describes
the one also. So Israel typifies both the church
and the individual believer. Now, I went in a roundabout way
to say all of that so I could say this. This conflict which
suddenly came upon Israel is not a conflict of only a certain
few. Now, I read a lot of the old
writers, and those old writers tend to want to make this something
optional. They tend to want to say that
this battle could have been prevented, and that somewhere down the road,
if they'd done this, and if they'd done that, and if they minded
their Ps and Qs, Amalek wouldn't have attacked them. And I know
this to be so, that this is not an isolated experience. This was not something that just
happened to a certain few or certain careless individuals
or some isolated experience that they could have avoided. I know
this has a moral story. I understand that. I get that.
And I know it has a practical application, and I know that
it has a form of chastisement attached to it because of their
murmuring and chiding against God. But as I said before, we
are one body. And we all come from one father,
Adam. And we all bear his old nature
and his tendencies, and we're yet in the flesh. And as we are,
we all share these weaknesses. We all murmur and chide against
God. Yes, we do. And God chastises
all his children. Now, what does he say about those
who have no chastisement? He said, they're bastards and
not sons. Isn't that what He said? He wouldn't chastise a child
who was not disobedient, would He? Why not? So all His children
are disobedient. They all murmur. They all chide. And we all, whether we admit
it or not, question God's intent and even at times His presence
and love. And that's because of the evil
that's in us. Now, I'm not trying to excuse
these things by any means, and neither does God. And I do not
condone those things, but I can't ignore them. Listen to how the
Scriptures talk about beliefs. John said, if we say we have
no sin. Now, lots of folks do. Lots of
folks. You may not know any, but I do.
Kathy worked with some. They'll tell you real quick.
We have sinless perfection. We went to the plateau. We're
up here on a high level and we don't have any sin. We don't
sin. Well, if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves. That's what the Scripture says.
We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We don't
know what sin is. If we say we have not sinned,
If we say, now wait a minute, I was a sinner, but I don't sin
anymore. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. So then, here's what John's Here's
the lesson He gives out of all of this. If we walk in the light,
as He is the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. But let's don't take
those first two stands. Let's don't take them. Because
not only are you making God a liar, and not only are you exposing
yourself as deceived, but you can't have fellowship either.
You can't have any fellowship. Our journey through this world
is a constant revelation of both our sin and the God of all grace
who saves us from ourselves and saves us from this evil world
and saves us from the power of Satan, our great enemy. Now,
all through the wilderness, this is what's going on. God exposes
them for what they are. Ten times in the Scripture, He
exposes them for what they are. And ten times he takes them out
of trouble and he blesses them. And ten times they tempt him. Now, the wilderness is not a
refuge from enemies. That's the first thing this tells
me. This is the first battle. They didn't have to lift a hand
against Pharaoh. God took care of Pharaoh himself.
All they had to do was stand still and see the salvation of
the Lord. That's all they had to do. So
I want to begin tonight by just pointing out a few things about
this conflict of Amalek. And the first thing I see here
is that the wilderness is not a refuge from enemies. Just because
we're in a wilderness don't mean we don't have enemies. We've
got enemies. We've got some enemies. Israel
had enemies. They didn't even know they had
an enemy. They didn't know they had an
enemy. They thought their biggest trouble was food and water. And
God took care of the food, and He took care of the water, and
they weren't looking to be attacked. They saw their enemy, they thought
they did. Every enemy they had in the world
drowned in the Red Sea. They weren't looking for enemies.
But there's a conflict. That's what I want you to see.
There's a conflict, a war, a battle, whatever you want to call it,
that must be fought. And it was not a battle that
Israel sought. They didn't seek for it. They
didn't look for it. They didn't start the trouble.
They weren't looking for trouble. It came to them. It came to them. And it was not a battle that
they sought. They didn't breach the kingdom of Amalek. They didn't
trespass on his land. Amalek sought Israel unprovoked. Alright, who is Amalek? We're
going to have to find that out if we're going to find out what
this is all about. Who is Amalek? What's his problem? Why would
this unprovoked king bring an army into the desert and attack
the people who weren't in any kind of military formation, who
carried no weapons, a peaceful people? What's his problem? Why is he out there? Why is he
attacking these people? Well, I'll tell you why. Because
Amalek is Esau's grandchild. That's right. He's Esau's grandchild. And what he's upset about is
that he's been cut out of God's inheritance. That's right. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Esau sold his birthright. But
that ain't what he told his kids. And that ain't what he told his
grandkids. He said Jacob stole them. Jacob stole. I didn't give
it to him. Jacob. Jacob did that. His granddaddy sold out his birthright
for a bowl of soup. It's true that God chose Jacob
over Esau, and it's true that the elder shall serve the younger
because that's the way God purposed it to be. But Esau will give
good reason for God to hate him. Yes, he will. Actually, Jacob
had good reason for God to hate him too, didn't he? And that's
what he said, this election is an election of grace. God had good reason to hate him
and good reason to leave him with no part in the kingdom of
God. Now in Egypt, Satan stood in figure as a powerful dictator. He stood there as Pharaoh of
Egypt. And Pharaoh was drowned in the
sea by the hand of God and all of his army with him. But now
Satan takes on the form of another man called Amalek. And Amalek
figures Satan here in a three-fold work. First of all, he's pictured
here, or figured here, as he influences and has his way in
the flesh. The first spiritual enemy of
the child of God is his flesh. The flesh, he said, warth against
the spirit. and the spirit against the flesh.
These are contrary. I don't seek for this. I don't
look for this. I don't try to bring this about. It comes to you, don't it? It
comes naturally to you, those who are born of God. And he figures
here in these influences as they pertain to the flesh. Israel
had left Egypt and were on their way to Canaan. Egypt was gone. Egypt laid in ruin. Pharaoh was
drowned in the sea. They done plum left Egypt. They were out in the wilderness.
They were on their way almost to Sinai. But Egypt never left
them. Egypt never left them, and God's
about to acquaint them with that. All of its simple pleasures and
sinful lusts were a constant reminder of their past. Moses
is soon going to leave them for just a few days. He's going to
leave them down there in the hands of his brother Aaron. And
he's going to go up on the mountain, up on Sinai, and God's going
to give him a law. He wasn't gone very long. You
know what they were doing when he come back? Dancing naked around
a fire, worshiping a calf, a golden calf. A few days of burning sun and
all the hardships and servitude of Egypt are blotted out with
the thoughts of Egypt's sweet water. They forgot all about all of
the oppression and all of that stuff that took place and how
they cried and whined to God to deliver them. They done plum
forgot all about that. Two days out in that hot desert
sun and all they could think about was the sweet water back
in Egypt. That's all they talked about.
A few days of hunger and the taskmaster's whip is lost in
the memory of the flesh pots and the leeks and the cucumbers.
That's all they could think about. Done forgot all about that. Forgot
how they had to go gather their own straw. Forgot about how they
didn't have a life. Pharaoh said, you do this and
you do that. And they did that. They did what
he said. If they didn't do it, they felt
the taskmaster's whip. They done forgot all of that.
The only thing they could remember out there when they got hungry
was them flesh pots back in Egypt. And them fresh cucumbers and
leeks that they cut up and put in there. As we journey toward the promised
land, is this not the story of every believer? He soon forgets
the bondage and the cruel oppression of sin. He soon forgets the whip
of the law and the tyrannical rule of Satan. He soon forgets
what he was and where he was and how he got where he is. He forgets. He forgets. And what is it that blinds him
from his past? Is it not the relentless longings
of the flesh? Isn't that what it is? They never
let up. They never let up. Lord, is it ever going to end?
Not in this world. Not in this world. Is it not the relentless longings
of the flesh that do this? Is it not the appetites of the
old man who is no longer able to sit and eat freely at his
own table? You see, Israel sat back there
in Egypt, and Egypt laid out a table, a table of sin. Satan
laid out before them and let them freely eat. They could eat
all of it. I'm talking about feeding the
lust of the flesh now is what I'm talking about. And now they
can't do it. God got them isolated out here
in the wilderness now. Now he's in the wilderness. Listen
to Galatians chapter 5 verse 17. He said, For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit. and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot
do the things that you would. Either direction. You can't do what you want to
do for the Lord, can you? You can't do it. Not the way
you want to do it. You can't do it. But neither
can you go the other direction. You can't do that either. And
that's what he says here. Paul examined his experience.
And he found an undeniable truth that when he would do good, evil
was present with him, always, at all times. It's sitting right
there, right there with him. And this flesh is an enemy that
will leave your carcass to fall in the wilderness. That's why
I want you to see here, what it is I want you to see here
in this story. This is just one of those times,
one of those times. But this is no game. This is
no show. People lost their lives in this
battle. And this flesh is an enemy and
it will leave your carcass to fall in the wilderness if they
are not warred against. The believer is engaged in warfare
and it is a fact of his experience which he has no control over.
It comes to him. It seeks him out. And you will
fight or die. That's right. You'll fight or
die. You'll war, you'll take a weapon and go to war, or you'll
die under the enemy sword. Amalek comes up from behind Israel. Listen to this, Deuteronomy chapter
25, verse 17. The Lord says, Remember what
Amalek did unto thee along the way when you were come forth
out of Egypt. How he met thee by the way and
smote the hinder part of thee. He come up from behind. He blindsided
you. That's what he did. He come up
from behind even all that were feeble behind thee. When thou
was faint and weary and he feared not God. Amalek. That's the flesh. That's the
flesh. The flesh waits for you along
the way to ambush you. to take from God what God's denied
it, to rob God of His glory and destroy the children of God.
Satan knows your weaknesses, even if you don't. He knows your
weaknesses. He knows the perfect time. I've
often said, on one of these days, Lord willing, I'd like to write
a book and title it Wednesday. Everything in the world happens
on Wednesday. When I'm trying to prepare to
come down here to teach you, everything under the sun goes
on on Wednesday. My wife is laughing. She knows
exactly what I'm talking about. Satan knows your weaknesses,
and he knows where you're vulnerable, and he knows where he wants to
strike. He goes on to say about this
battle of Amalek that he was the first of the nations to do
battle. He was the first of the nations
to do battle. And so it is with the man born
of God. The first battle he has is with
the flesh. And then secondly, this Amalek
conflict is about worldly religion. Amalek is a child of Esau. He's
a child of him that sold out his birthright. He followed the
deceit of his own heart and religion, worldly religions made up of
assemblies who are deceived. That's what the scriptures say.
They're deceived. Amalek was deceived. He believed
what his daddy and granddaddy told him. He was deceived. And worldly religions made up
of assemblies who are deceived. And their deceit leaves them
believing the true Israel of God has or is trying to steal
their inheritance. They're the imposters. They isolated
Christ, who walked a perfect life, who had a perfect testimony.
whom God ratified and testified that this is my son by miracles
and wonders and signs, undeniable. He did right in the midst. And
yet they believed him not. They stood by and watched him
call a dead man out of the tomb and dead for three days. His own sister said, don't roll
the stone back. By now, Lord, he stinketh. He's
already corrupted. There's no use. And they saw
him did it and still took counsel how to get rid of him. They're children of Amalek. They
see God's chosen as impostors and enemies of God. And they're
children that have been lied to. Children who by their traditions
and fleshly ties to Abraham believe themselves to be heirs, cheated
out of their inheritance. And worldly religion despises
the true Israel of God, and it'll attack them anywhere the opportunity
presents itself. And they feel justified in what
they do. I guarantee you, if you could talk to Amalek, he
justified his attack on them. And as Esau was the sworn enemy
of Jacob, so he is of Jacob's son. And Satan is the influence
in worldly religion. He's the influence in our fallen
flesh. He can influence men and women. He can take them captive at his
will. There's no way that I can convince a natural man. We had
a visitor here Sunday and I talked to him and talked to him. He
asked me all kinds of questions. But you can't convince a natural
man of that. You can't do that. He'll side
up with the world no matter what you tell him. He'll side up with
them. Because Satan is the influence
in both of them. And he's the influence in worldly
religion. Our Lord calls it the synagogue
of Satan and his ministers. There are ministers in his synagogues
and they go about to do his bidding. It says in the book of Revelations,
the old dragon was cast out of heaven. Michael and his angels
fought and Satan and his angels fought. And Michael and his angels
prevailed and he was cast out into the earth. And the whole
world followed after him in wonder. The whole world. He was cast
out in the earth and left there to deceive men. And the whole
world followed after him in wonder. In wonder of the beast. And it
goes on in his visions and John tells us that he's the beast.
upon whose back the great whore of religion writhes in her attacks
and in her deceit. And Amalek is here represented
as an organized army, an assembly whose sole purpose was to destroy
the children of God and take away their inheritance, to rob
God of His glory and to rob God of His grace. And then thirdly,
this conflict of Amalek stands in figure this world. It pictures
this world. This world is no more than a
pawn of Satan's purpose. That's all it is. These men and
women out here live for nothing else except to serve him. There's
no restraint there. There's no religion there. They
live to serve Him, whatever He sets before Him. It reminds me
of the Little Rascals I used to watch. Some of you in here
are old enough to remember the Little Rascals. And they had
this little wagon that they rode on. It had a pole and had a carrot
on it. When they wanted to go away, they'd drop that pole down,
and that goat would chase after that carrot and pull that wagon.
And that's what Satan does. He drops that carrot down before
men, or whatever it is. He drops it down, and they pull
the wagon of Satan's purpose, chasing after that carrot. chasing
all the days of their life. They're just a pawn of Satan's
purpose. Israel done nothing to provoke
Amalek or his people, but Amalek convinced them otherwise. They
found pleasure in an alliance with Amalek. Whoever these people
were, whether they were his sons or just people that he gathered
together and united together with him, they were called Just
a little bit later on, we're going to get to know them by
this name. The Amalekites. You remember them? God's enemies. Enemies of Israel. Followers
of Amalek. The Amalekites. And this world's
sympathetic with Amalek. This world believes election
to be unfair. Unfair. See Esau, he didn't think
election was fair, did he? That's not fair. They believed
God's love for Jacob to be an unrighteous love. They believed
his blessing to be illegal and underhanded. I've talked to,
I don't know how many people, said, oh boy, he pulled the wool
over the old man's eyes. And so on. And I've already read
to you how when he got ready to bless his grandchildren, he
crossed his arms. And all these things. They talk
about universal love. This whole world has bought into
that. You don't have to be religious
to believe that. This world's in alliance with
religion. Now, they can tell them anything.
They might not go to their churches or support their cause, but they're
quick to join up with them. And he proved that at the crucifixion
of Christ. They'll build an alliance there
with false religion in a hurry. They'll side with religion on
this issue of universal love and universal redemption and
universal opportunity and free will and all these issues. These
are the philosophical principles of this world. And the claims,
any claims, any arguments, any promises or hopes that are not
built on this foundation makes you a candidate for their attack.
They'll attack you in a heartbeat. They'll let that old man down
there talk about tongues. They'll let that old man handle
snakes or whatever he wants to do. Anything he wants to do,
they'll let him do it and they'll commend him for it. Except if
you stand up and preach free grace. Then they'll condemn you.
They'll condemn you. And I don't care how clean your
life is. I don't care how well you pay your bills. I don't care
how well you live. They'll condemn you. They justify their enmity with
open slander against the children of God or the church at large.
And this is the amulet conflict. It's the flesh and worldly religion
and the world at large. And there is a warfare, a real
conflict. Men and women died in this conflict. The weak and the feeble died.
That's what the Lord said over in Deuteronomy 25. Blood was
spilt and lives were lost and people died as a result of this
attack. Now let me tell you something
here. Just because you walk in the
assembly of God, doesn't mean that you're the true Israel of
God. Now if you don't learn anything else, you'll learn that. watching
Israel cross this wilderness. Because thousands of them are
going to die in the wilderness. Not everybody that comes out
of Egypt is going to enter into Canaan. And just because you
walk in the assembly of Israel doesn't mean that you're a true
heir of God. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
3. I had a fellow ask me the other
day, up in Kentucky while I was up there, he said, If God has an elect people and
His salvation can't fail, why did so many in Israel die in
the wilderness? Because not all that say they're
of Israel are of Israel. That's why. That's why. God's elect, His elect, those
for whom Christ died, those who were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, every one of them all survived
the wilderness journey. And one of them did. And they
all went in and took their promised inheritance exactly as God intended
that they should. Now listen to this here in Hebrews
3, verse 6. But Christ as a Son over His
own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence
and rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. Wherefore, now
he's going to give you an example. As the Holy Ghost saith, today,
if you'll hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation
He talked about where Israel provoked God in the wilderness,
in the day of temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers
tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years, wherefore
I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err
in their hearts, and they have not known my ways. So I swear
in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren,
lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God. But exhort one another daily
while it is called today, lest any of you should be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. Now the warfare of this flesh,
of this world, and world of religion is a real warfare. And men and
women die in the battle. You see men and women leave out
of here, and they don't come back, and somebody said, well,
they'll be all right. No, they're not all right. It's
not all right. Men and women die spiritually. They die spiritually. That battle
is a real battle. Old Amulek, he knew where to
attack. He attacked at the rear at the
hinder part, and he attacked the weak and the feeble and the
unsuspecting. He attacked at the rear where
they had no guard and no defense. And he attacks. He knows where
to attack, don't he? He knows where to go. Paul tells
us over and over and over. Peter, all of them. They all
want it. When they come in, they're going to creep in unawares. Where
are they going to go? They're going to go where they
can get an ear. Wherever that is. If that be with the widows,
if that be wherever it is. They'll find it. They'll find
it. They'll go from person to person to person until they find
an ear. And they'll get that ear. And they'll talk and they'll
talk and they'll talk. Pretty soon they got two ears.
They know how to attack. Now, how then, once attacked, did
Israel defend themselves? What are you going to do? What
are you going to do to know when they attack? Everybody going
to grab a stick? They wasn't set up for battle.
They wasn't trained in war. What are you going to do? Everybody
going to get a rock? How are you going to defend yourself?
What did he do when they were attacked of Amalek? Moses told Joshua. He turned. He knew exactly who to get because
God put it on his heart. He turned and he got Joshua.
That's an Old Testament name for Jesus. And he sent him out. That's his general. That's the
general of the army of the Lord. He got him and he put him out
in the battle. You lead the battle. You're the
power. You're the wisdom. You lead the
battle. Moses said, I'm going up on this hill. And Moses and
Aaron, the high priest, they went up on the hill along with
Ur. Now, as near as I can tell in
Scripture, Ur was Aaron's brother-in-law. That was the husband of Miriam. And Joshua takes his place at
the head of Israel's army. My friend, the local church supports
God's messenger. And its elders assist him to
keep the gospel preeminent in the church. That's the only way
you're going to fight this battle. What Moses did is he went up
and took the rod that God gave him. And he lifted that rod up. That rod is a symbol of the gospel. That's God's power. It's the
power of God unto salvation. He lifted that rod up. But he
alone couldn't hold it up. And as it come down, Amalek would
prevail. And he'd get that rod back up,
and Esther would prevail. And that rod would come back
down, and Amalek would prevail. And pretty soon his arms got
heavy and he couldn't hold that rod up anymore. And Aaron and
Hur got a rock and put a big stone and put it under him where
he could sit down. And one got one arm, one got
the other. And they held that rod up. And that's what we're doing.
It's not so much that you support me and the church as it is you
support the gospel I preach. That's the important thing. It
wasn't Moses lifted up. It was the rock. It was the rod
that he held in his hand that God had given to him. And Joshua
takes his place at the head of Israel's army. I'm about out
of time, so let me give you this and then I'll quit. God allowed, yea, He ordained
this attack by Amalek. And He did it to prove His work
in His people and to glorify His name. And this, unlike the
battle and the defeat of Pharaoh where God Himself fought for
them, is not God fighting for them so much as it is God fighting
in them. That's what this battle is all
about. It's not Israel didn't stand still and watch this battle.
Israel went to war. This was God in them fighting,
not God fighting for them. Or as Paul tells us over in Philippians
2, verses 12 and 13, he said, therefore let every man work
out his own salvation in fear and trembling. Well, that's human
works. That's what that young fellow
told me here Sunday. He was giving that to me as an
example. I said, no, that's not what it says over here. It said,
for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of
His good pleasure. That's the work of God's grace
in you. In you. And salvation is altogether
the work of God and the work of grace, but it's not all a
work done for us. There's also a work that is accomplished
in us. And this work is exercised in
these battles and through these temptations. And through that,
God proves this work. He proves it through trial. And
once you understand what's going on in trials and things, then
you look forward to them. You look forward to them. That's
what Paul said. There is a real resisting of sin, a real warfare
of the flesh, a real conflict with this world, and a real danger
in the world of religion. And there's real efforts, real
struggles involved. to those who have faith and repentance.
These things are real. They're not just things you talk
about. You don't just come in here and argue about them and
talk about them and write them down on a piece of paper and
go home. These are things we experience every day. You'll either resist sin or sin
will swallow you up, one or the other. You'll either go to war
during these battles or you'll be slain, one or the other. And all you've got to do is read
the history of this. Knowing what they're set there
as an example for, over and over he tells us these things happen
unto them for an example for you, that you be not carried
away with the same things. There's a real effort, real struggles
involved in these things, and all those who enter into Canaan's
rest will know and experience the battle. And Amalek was the first of them. We're going to find several of
them before we get there. And not just battles, but other
battles. Battles of temptation and battles
of this and battles of that. Battles of the law and what this
law means and what religion means and all these things. And all
these things that happened to Israel, they all have a spiritual
significance to us. And once you see that and begin
to experience that, then you understand what these battles
are all about. You're going to have a warfare. I tell you that.
If you follow God, you're going to have a warfare. And the first
step is going to be right here in this flesh. And the second
is going to be out there in this world. And the third is going
to be with worldly religion. There's never going to be any
peace between you and them. Never going to happen.