Whenever men read the scriptures
to us, lead us in prayer, listen carefully. Often you will find
tremendous instruction. Brother David, just a moment
ago, as he prayed, gave thanks to God for the gospel he's taught
us, revealed to us. And he made a very clear distinction.
for that gospel that gives dead sinners life, not a gospel that
teaches people how to live. And that is one glaring distinction
between the religious world around us and the gospel of God's grace. The whole world of religion is
devoted to teaching people how to live. The gospel of God's
grace declares the Savior who gives life to dead sinners. What a difference. Thank God
for the gospel. It's not good news, good advice,
rather it is good news. It is the proclamation of salvation
in Jesus Christ the Lord. And it is both revealed and illustrated
numerous ways in the Word of God. Turn with me if you will
tonight to Exodus chapter 17. The title of my message is a war a war to which God has
sworn himself. It is not a war between Muslims
and Christians, or between Muslims and Jews, or between Christians
and Hindus, or between Protestants and Catholics. Rather, it is
a spiritual war. a warfare that began as early
as the sin and fall of our father Adam, and a warfare that God
swears will be maintained throughout the ages of time, generation
after generation. Our text is Exodus 17, verses
8 through 16. The book of Exodus, this second
book of the Bible, gives us wonderful and a wide variety of spiritual
instruction. Always read the book of God with
great care, asking God the Holy Spirit to open your understanding
to the Word and to open the Word to your understanding. Even the
smallest details of those things which seem to be most obscure
are highly significant and spiritually profound. Moses typified Christ
our Savior. Pharaoh represented Satan who
held us in bondage. Egypt portrays the world from
which God by his grace delivers us. Israel groaning in bondage
pictures the center in his native depravity and misery and bondage. Israel's deliverance from their
cruel taskmasters is a portrayal of our redemption by the precious
blood of Christ and by the power of God's omnipotent grace in
his stretched out arm of deliverance. Israel's journey through the
wilderness points to our life of faith in this world with its
many trials and temptations as we go through the world. Now
in Exodus 17, beginning at verse 8, we see Israel assaulted by
and prevailing over Amalek. Exodus 17, verse 8. Then, then. I'll call your attention to this
again, but let me not miss it now. The word is significant. It refers to that which has gone
before. Just after the smiting of the
rock and the flowing of water from the rock to Israel, gushing
out in the desert, then came Amalek and fought with Israel
in Riphidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose
us out men and go out. Fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I
will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine
hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said
to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went
up to the top of the hill. 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 her stayed up his hands, the 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. That means he whipped the daylights
out of him. And his people with the edge of the sword. And the
Lord said to Moses, write this for memorial in a book and rehearse
it in the ears of Joshua. Write it down and remind Joshua
of it. For I will utterly put out of
the remembrance of Amalek. I will utterly put out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven. Now write it down and tell Joshua,
tell him again and again and again. I will utterly put Amalek
out of memory. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nissi. For he said, because the
Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. Now, this portion of scripture
This assault of Amalek upon God's Israel and the triumph of Israel
over Amalek by the prevailing intercession of Moses and by
the sword of Joshua. Moses' arms being steadied and
upheld by Aaron and her. All this is intended to teach
us by vivid picture that as long as we are in this world, we will
be engaged in a war. A war from which there is no
release from generation to generation, but a war we are sure to win. It is a war that takes place
continually in the heart of every heaven-born soul. I repeat myself deliberately.
This is a war. that takes place continually
in the heart of every heaven-born soul. It is a war between our
two natures, the raging, the relentless conflict between flesh
and spirit. In the first seven verses of
this chapter, we saw the rock smitten by the rod of Moses,
that is Christ smitten by divine justice. A stream of water flowed
out of that smitten rock to the chosen people and they all drank
of the water that flowed out of the rock. Moses smiting the
rock, of course, was a picture of Christ being crucified by
divine justice. The water flowing out of that
rock, portraying the outflowing of God's free grace to chosen
redeemed centers by God, the Holy Spirit, giving us life in
the washing of regeneration by the word. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And as
a result of that, the promise of Abraham, the promise of God
to Abraham, the blessing of Abraham, God the Holy Spirit comes to
chosen sinners in saving grace. But after that, the Holy Spirit
comes in saving grace. After he comes to take up his
abode within us, After a new holy nature of his creating has
been put in us, a conflict begins. A strange warfare is experienced,
something altogether unknown before. 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. That's the picture we have before
us in this paragraph. The teachings of Holy Scripture
in this regard are of tremendous practical importance. Ignorance
here has caused untold distress to many. What great multitudes
there are, who are taught continually that when a sinner is born again,
he receives Christ as his savior and God changes his heart. He gives him a change of heart,
changes his nature, and sin, while it is not eradicated from
him, becomes a defeated foe that he no longer has to really struggle
against. I've told you many times the
most shocking thing I can imagine experiencing. I
experienced shortly after God saved me. I didn't dream that
sin would be eradicated from my being. I wasn't that foolish. I didn't have any idea that sin
was totally, totally put out. But I was foolish enough to believe
the common report of men. that one who is saved by God's
grace, sin ceases to be a real problem for him because God's
changed his heart and changed his nature. But one day I woke
up to the glaring, shocking reality of my sin. Horrible as the conviction
of sin was before God gave me faith in Christ, this was more
difficult to deal with. Now, I saw the plague of my heart
as I had never seen it before. The corruption, the depravity
of that which was at the seat and core of my being. I found
out there was in me something as rebellious, as God-hating,
as God-dishonoring as ever it had been. And I thought, I can't
live with this. I can't live with this. And I
opened the book of God and discovered that this thing that was in me
is flesh. It's the old man. It is that
which the scriptures describe as carnal, fleshly. It is old man Adam still in me. And as I studied this book, I
found out that that old man never changes. In the new birth, God
doesn't change anything about a man. Write it down. I meant to say
it just that way. In the new birth, God doesn't
change anything about a man. He has the same corrupt mind,
the same corrupt imagination, the same corrupt heart, the same
corrupt principles, the same corrupt motives he always had
after he's born again. But brother Don, what happens
in the new birth? God puts something new in you. something altogether, something
that was not there before. He makes you a new creation in
Christ Jesus. He forms Christ in you. He creates in you that which
is holy, that which is called God's seed. He takes the word
which is the seed and creates life in you and it abides in
you and it is called that holy thing. That holy thing. It is that holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. And without this new creation,
Without this new birth, without this new creature, without this
Christ being formed in you, there is no salvation. Hear me, hear me. The basis of
our hope before God is the finished work of Jesus Christ, our crucified
Savior. But the hope of glory which we
have before God is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is
this new birth. In justification, we are reckoned
righteous. We are declared to be righteous.
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. In the new birth,
we are made righteous. We are made holy. God put something
in us that's fit for heaven. Is that what the book says? He
made you fit, meet, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. David Peterson's not fit for
heaven, and never can be. But Christ is. And Christ in
you is. And David Peterson, one with
Christ, and Christ, one with Him, is fit for glory. You understand what I'm saying?
God's people are made new by his grace, made partakers of
the divine nature. The old sinful nature remains
and remains unchanged until we leave this world. But there is
a new, sinless, holy thing born of God in us. And these two natures
differ from one another in origin, in character, in disposition
and in deed, as much as heaven differs from hell. These two
natures are illustrated numerous ways in the scriptures. Abraham
had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. The one was born of a bondwoman,
the other born of a free. The one was born first. And when Isaac, the child of
promise came along, that child who was born by divine miraculous
interposition of himself, God putting himself in Abraham's
life so that this old, old man and this old, old woman have
their very bodies revived miraculously. So Abraham goes into Sarah and
that old, old, old woman conceived a child. Conceived a child and
gave birth. Gave birth to a baby boy. And
a few years went by and Sarah looked out the kitchen window
one day while she was doing dishes and Ishmael, the firstborn, the
child of carnal labor, The child of flesh was persecuting her
darling son Isaac. And she said to Abraham, take
Ishmael and his mama and get rid of them. They cannot dwell
in the house with the child of promise. And God, the Holy Spirit,
tells us in Galatians 4 that all this came to pass to give
us a picture to give us a picture of God's marvelous work of grace. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. That old man shall never possess
God's gracious promise and God's great inheritance for his own
in Christ Jesus the Lord. As it was then, so it is now,
that which is born after the flesh persecuted Him that was
born after the Spirit. These two natures in us, the
flesh and the spirit, are illustrated in the life of Isaac's son, Jacob.
Jacob had two names. One he got from his daddy, the
other one he got from God. God called him Israel, a prince
with God. You remember when the angel of
the Lord wrestled with Jacob? wrestled him and pinned him to
the ground. And Jacob asked him, said, what's your name? And he
said, why are you asking me my name? He said, I won't let you
go except you bless me. And the Lord told him his name.
And he told him, said, now, your name is Israel from this day
forward. Jacob had confessed, my name's
Jacob. My name's Shifty. My name is
Tricky. My name is Deceiver. My name
is Shyster. And the Lord said, all right,
now that you know who you are, let me tell you what I'm doing
for you. Your name now is Israel, a prince with God. And from that
day on, whenever the Lord refers to Jacob, he's referring to something
devious. perverse, crooked, evil that
Jacob has done. And when he refers to anything,
any deed, any act by which Jacob shows himself a new man, he speaks
of him as Israel. Let me give you a couple of illustrations.
When Joseph and his brethren returned to their father from
Egypt and told Jacob that his favorite son, Joseph, was yet
alive, and made governor over all the land of Egypt. We read
in Genesis 45, Jacob's heart fainted. How come? Because he didn't believe. He
didn't believe. But they told him all the words
of Joseph which he had said to them. And when he saw the wagons
which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their
father revived and Israel said, it is enough. Joseph is alive. Then when Jacob had made an end
of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and
yielded up the spirit and the physicians embalmed Israel. Jacob died and Israel was embalmed. At death, only the new nature,
the new man is preserved in life. The old man's gone forever. Bless
God. Gone forever. Now throughout
the believer's life on this earth, There is this warfare, this conflict
between flesh and spirit, this raging war within. Just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac,
the flesh lust against the spirits and the spirit against the flesh
so that you can't do what you would. Sometimes we act a little
like Israel. Sometimes we act a lot like Jacob,
usually a little like both. This is exactly what Paul said
he experienced in the seventh chapter of Romans. He said, I
know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
The evil which I would not, that's what I do. And when I would do
good, evil is present with me. The Lord God Almighty has so
arranged it, and so we shall live in this world. Painful as
this condition is, it's best. And I can't begin to explain
why, but I know a few reasons. We must never, ever, ever forget who makes you to differ from
another. Don't forget. Oh, Todd Ford,
don't forget. The only difference there is
between you and any reprobate in hell or on death row or anywhere
between here and hell is the difference God's made by His
grace. The only difference is Christ, none at all. I kind of knew that when I was
a young man when God first saved me. And I've been learning it more
and more and more and more for 42 years. And Darwin, the lesson's
more bitter and painful today than it ever was. There's no
difference. Your heart is the same as the
heart of all of the men. Your heart, the same as the heart
of all of the women. Out of the heart proceeds nothing
but adultery and murder and fornication and blasphemy and deceit and
lie and an evil eye, nothing else. nothing else. That's your heart and mine. We must never forget that our
only acceptance with God is Jesus Christ the Lord. He alone is
our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. And I think maybe The Lord has
left us in this state for another real good reason. As you know,
I travel a good bit, and often traveling I run into some military
folks. They're usually headed to Iraq, most of them for another tour,
and I make it a point to let them know my appreciation for
their service, how very, very thankful I am for their service
to this nation. And I try to talk to them a little
bit. And you know what they all expressed to me? What they all
expressed to me, glad to do it, I'm glad to be there, need to
be there, sure will be good to get home. It sure will be good,
finally, to get home. And it sure will be good, finally,
to get home. Where there's no more war in
here. And no more danger. And no more
pain because of sin. Look at verse 8, then came Amalek
and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Read the Old Testament carefully
and you can't help but to notice that water meant everything to
these old folks in desert lands. I mean they fought wars over
whales. Not all whales, water whales.
They fought wars over them. killed people over them, set
up camps to guard their wells. Water meant everything to nomadic
people living in the desert. Amalek saw Israel out here in
Riphidim. They're out in the middle of
the desert. And there's a rock behind them
gushing out a river. And Amalek says, we'll take the
rock and the water. And so they came and fought against
Israel. They did so after Israel was
given possession of water from the smitten rock. The name Amalek
means warlike. Our Amalek is the flesh. that
lust against the spirit. Amalek was the great grandson
of Esau, who for one morsel of bread sold his birthright. Amalek was Israel's first enemy. And all these things are true
concerning our flesh. But the flesh gives us no trouble
until we're born of God. flesh, there's no warfare, there's
no conflict, there's no struggle within, there's no warring of
the two natures against one another until a new nature has been put
in us. It was that which typified the Holy Spirit, this water gushing
out of the rock that caused the Amalekites to attack Israel,
and thus the type given to us as a wonderfully accurate type.
When chosen, redeemed sinners are born of God, made partakers
of the divine nature, the conflict begins. But blessed be God. Amalek was conquered by Joshua. And just as Christ prevailed
over sin, Satan, death and hell, our flesh shall at last perish
forever. Turn to Numbers chapter 24. Let
me show you. Here's the parable that Balaam
gave concerning Israel. He heard the words of God and
he said in verse 17, I shall see him, but not now. I shall
behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of
Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. I believe that's
the same thing was prophesied in Genesis 42, 49, 10. And this
scepter, this star, shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy
all the children of Seth, and Edom shall be a possession. Seir also shall be a possession
for his enemies, And Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall
come he that shall have dominion and shall destroy him that remaineth
of the city. And when he looked on Amalek,
he took up this parable and said, Amalek was the first of the nations,
but his latter end shall be that he perish forever. Now look how Joshua defeats Amalek. Verse 9, Moses said to Joshua,
choose us out men and go out, fight with Amalek tomorrow and
I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my
hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to
him and fought with Amalek and Moses, 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. And one on the one side and the
other on the other side. And his hands were steady to
the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. Now, as I studied
this, I found a lot of differing opinions from the commentators
on what this parable means. And one said it means this, another
says it means that. But I see no reason to limit
the typical meaning of the story. Certainly, we see here a picture
of the believer prevailing over his enemy, Satan, and indwelling
sin by prayer. Israel prevailed over Amalek
by the uplifted hand of Moses and the uplifting of the hand
certainly speaks of supplicating God's throne. Then Moses' hands
grew heavy. Oh, how soon we grow weary in
prayer. Our Lord said men ought always
to pray and not to faint. But we fail miserably and our
hearts get heavy. But blessed be God, Moses was
not left to himself. Moses represents to us throughout
the scriptures the demands of God's holy law, his righteousness,
his justice, and his truth. Aaron portrays for us Christ,
our great high priest, God's sacrifice, he who makes satisfaction
to the law. Her means light. And so he seems to be an emblem
of God the Holy Spirit, pointing us to all the work of God for
us in Christ Jesus the Lord. Both that which Christ has done
for us by his obedience unto death and that which God the
Holy Spirit does for us by his gracious work within. We prevail
by the Spirit of God who works in us both to will and to do
of His good pleasure, who makes, who helps our infirmities. For
He knows we know not what to pray for as we ought, so the
Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. As Christ our great Joshua, the
angel of the Lord's host, fights for us, this messenger of the
covenant, and defends and protects us all. The Lord Jesus is described
as that angel who stands at the altar having a golden censer
and to whom is given much incense that he should offer it with
the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which
is before the throne. The Lord Jesus by his grace and
the Holy Spirit by his reviving influences, like Aaron and her
uphold and sustain our drooping hands as we go through this world. So let us pray. By all means,
the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much. But if you and I. Prevail over
seeing. And I'm not talking about seeing
that, John, I'm disturbed by what I see out
yonder. I'm disturbed by what I see being
produced for entertainment for our children on television and
mamas and daddies entertaining themselves with the trash as
well. I'm disturbed with the filth all around us. But all the filth around us is
spewed out of our own hearts. Not me, preacher. Well, we'll
see. We'll see. I'm not that bad. You're going to find out just
how bad you are. Either by God revealing himself
to you in grace, or revealing himself to you in judgment. But
you will find out. You will find out. The evil in
us is the problem. and if we prevail over it, it
won't be because we're mighty in prayer. It won't be because we have wrestled
with God and gotten God to do what he wasn't willing to do,
but rather it will be by Christ alone, our prophet, priest, and
king. Put Moses the prophet and Aaron
the priest and her the prince Miriam's brother the prince put
them together and you have the picture of redemption accomplished by our mighty mediator our prophet
our priest and our king here in verses 9 through 13 you have
the first mention of Joshua He's called Jesus in Acts chapter
7, and he's called Jesus again in Hebrews chapter 4. And I know
Jesus is merely the Greek pronunciation, the Greek spelling for Joshua.
I'm fully aware of that. And so, folks, we ought not make
too much of that. Well, let's make a little more
of it than that. How come the Greek pronunciation
of Joshua? And the Greek spelling of Joshua
is Jesus, because God so ordained it and arranged it. And Joshua
portrays Jesus Christ, our mighty Savior. So he does throughout
the scriptures, and so he does here. He's presented here as
a man of war. the captain of the Lord's host.
Christ is the captain of our salvation. He's presented here
as a mighty comforter, a conqueror, and thus the mighty comforter
is given to Israel. He's presented here as Israel's
great savior. Moses was weak. Moses, what could he do? Hold up the rod of God. But he couldn't hold it up. His
hands began to sag. He'd hold it up, and he couldn't
hold it up. His hand began to sag. Finally,
they propped him up on a rock, and Aaron and Hur held up his
hands. Aaron and Hur sustained him because
Moses failed in that he was weak. And the law could never bring
redemption. could never bring righteousness,
could never bring salvation because the law was weak. But Christ
came in our flesh and did what the law couldn't do. He brought
in salvation and he brought in righteousness. And he makes us
more than conquerors by his grace. Turn to Isaiah 40, Isaiah 40,
verse 28. We're told in Revelation 12,
they overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word
of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.
Isaiah 40, verse 28, we see how it is that they overcome by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. Hast
thou not known? Hast thou not heard? that the
everlasting God, the Lord, Jehovah, the creator of the ends of the
earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. Oh, my fainting soul,
hear God's word and rejoice. There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Even
the ewes shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Now, it's important to note this
fact as well. Amalek was defeated by Joshua
here, but he wasn't destroyed. Amalek was discomforted by Joshua,
but not destroyed. How come? Because there is no
destroying, no eradicating our evil nature, that corruption
that's within us while we live in this world. Though discomforted
and though conquered by grace, It's very much alive and always
at war. Turn to Deuteronomy 25. We ought to be mindful of these
things and give praise to our Savior just as the Lord commanded
Moses to tell Israel. Verse 17. Remember what Amalek
did unto thee by the way. when you were come forth out
of Egypt, how he met thee by the way and smote the hindmost
of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou was faint
and weary, and he feared not God. Now we're sure this whole
thing was written in the book of God to teach us the things
I've been trying to preach to you, because in verses 14 and
15, We read the explanation given. The Lord said to 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
under heaven. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nissim. The Lord is our banner. This
is our rallying point. This is he to whom we gather. And so it comes to pass that
our Lord declares he will utterly destroy Amalek and utterly destroy
his memory altogether out of the earth. Because this is a
war. To which the triune God has sworn
himself to give her 60. For he said, because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek as long
as time shall stand from generation to generation. Now I wondered
what's the best way to wrap this up until Brother Rex read in
our hearing back in the office Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah chapter 59 verse 20 I'm sorry verse 19 So shall they
fear the name of the Lord from what the West and his glory from
the rising of the Sun When the enemy shall come in like a flood
The Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him
Jehovah Nissi, Christ our banner and the Redeemer shall come to
Zion and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob,
saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant
with them, saith the Lord. My spirit that is upon thee and
my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out
of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of
the mouth of thy seed, seed, saith the Lord from henceforth
and forever. Amen.