Out of the book of Exodus, you
would turn there to the 17th chapter of the book of Exodus. I read this 15th chapter of the
book of 1 Samuel to you a few minutes ago, and there's a companion
passage here that I'd like to read kind of open up the subject. So in the book of Exodus chapter
17, I want to begin with verse 8 and read down through verse
16. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. 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 Hur 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 disconfitted
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 called the name of it Jehovah-nissiah. For he said, Because the Lord
hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. Those of you that know our Lord
Jesus Christ and are able to pray, are able to seek the face
of the Lord, I wish that you would do so as we go along this
morning that we may be able to know the mind of the Lord about
those things that we're to say as we try to preach. I feel that
in a little while this morning I may come to a fork in the road,
and I need wisdom from God to know which direction to go when
I come to that fork. So pray for me that I'll be able
to speak those things that are encouraging and edifying to the
Lord's living family. I have selected this topic this
morning because I felt a burden from the Lord to do so. And as
we look here in the 17th chapter of the book of Exodus, there
is a great practical lesson, a very important lesson and study
here in this chapter. First of all, let me establish
verse 8. Then came Amalek, and fought
with Israel in Rephidim. Now the children of Israel had
been delivered out of Egypt. and they were on their wilderness
journey, on their pilgrimage through the wilderness. We take
note that Amalek, now Amalek, the people of Amalek, they were
the descendants of Duke Amalek, who was the son of Esau. And
these were sworn enemies, these people were sworn enemies of
the nation of Israel. And this Amalek, these Amalekites,
they are a type in the scripture of the flesh. a type of the flesh
wherever you find it. And these were a warring people,
and they warred against Israel, and we see where that they came
and fought with Israel. Israel did not pick a fight with
them, but they came and started a fight with Israel, and they
attacked Israel. Take note of the fact that they
did not do this while they were in Egypt. Now, Egypt is a type
of a bondage of all of God's living children, God's family,
or a type of where whirling sinners camp. They're in Egypt. They're
down in Egypt, that place from which they need to be delivered.
And the children of Israel were delivered out of there. And so
they did not come down when they were in a state, as we would
say, in a state of nature. They didn't come down while Israel
was in bondage, lost. They didn't come down. And the
flesh never rises up. and fights against, no need to,
because those that are lost in the bondage of sin they are taken
captive of satan and his will they do his bidding the prince
of the power of the air of the spirit that works in the children
of disobedience are in them already and so there's no need for for
this flesh here or this warring party to attack them while they're
in egypt don't you see but now they're out of egypt and they've
been delivered out of iron bondage. They're now walking in that way
which God has commanded them to walk. They're headed toward
Zion. They're going to the land of
Canaan. And they're on their way, on their journey. And then
here's this enemy of the children of Israel, the type of the flesh
that comes out and attacks, boldly attacks the children of Israel
and fights with them. Now this is a type of the two
natures in a believer. and ignorance of what this sets
forth here and what it illustrates, it has resulted in a tremendous
loss to the people of God. It is our responsibility this
morning to speak clearly and plainly of this truth and help
you to understand what is going on here as well as to suggest
some things from the 15th chapter of 1 Samuel that we read earlier. untold distress in many souls
have occurred because people that have been recently born
of the Spirit of God, people that are in the way of the Lord,
people that are following hard after Jesus Christ, they're in
love with Him, they've been born again, they're the Lord's children,
much distress has come to their souls because many have thought
that when they were saved that God had changed their old flesh
heart, that God had changed their flesh nature, or that the old
man was destroyed in them. or that there has been a complete
eradication of all of the old appetites of the flesh, and all
of that which was unholy and which will war against everything
that is of God, everything that is high, everything that is holy,
everything that is decent. And the idea is, by some, that
all of that was removed when God saved a man. But the truth
of the matter is that that is not the case. Now, we recognize
that in the experience of a child of God, that he discovers very
soon as he's on his pilgrimage toward heaven. And he's been
delivered, he's a child of God, and he rejoices in the Lord,
and he's been clapping his hands for joy, shout hallelujah for
his great deliverance, and here comes down upon him the Amalekites. Here comes the old nature. Here
comes the old man with all of his appetite and all of his enmity
toward God and toward the law of God and toward the truth of
God and toward that work which God has done in that individual
soul. You see, the Bible says if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creation, meaning that there
was a creation that took place. A new man was formed in that
individual, and that new man is Christ, and he's formed in
there, but the old man is still there. The old nature is still
there. There is a dual nature in a believer. He is two people. He is the Spirit
of God, and the new man in Christ is there, and then there is that
old man. There is a dual nature in believers. And there is a dual going on
more or less because of this dual nature that exists in a
believer. And that's why the Apostle Paul
said, in my flesh, he says, there dwells no good thing. No good
thing. He says, I have a desire to do
what, he says, in my mind I serve the law of God. I have a desire
to do what God wants me to do, but I don't find the ability
to do it in and of my own flesh. In my flesh there dwells no good
thing. And Paul was an experienced believer
when he made those statements. He was not a novice. He had been
in the way, and he knew the difference between the old man and the new
man. And he knew there was a duel
going on between the two. The spirit striving against the
flesh, the flesh striving against the spirit, so that a man cannot
do the things that he would. He would like to be holy. He'd
like to walk with God. He'd like his walk to be uninterrupted
by sin and Satan and by the defilements of the flesh. But it's not so.
He experiences this war in his soul. Now, in the new birth,
then, there is neither the removal of anything from a man nor the
changing of anything within the man, but the importance, the
impartation, I should say, of something new. And that is the
new nature. Now, if there's a war going on
in you, that's because you are saved. It doesn't mean you're
not saved. It means you are saved. And because
the two, the Israel and the Amaleks, are there in your very being. They're there in your soul, and
they're warring. They're at war, don't you see?
Okay, now the new birth is the reception of this new nature.
John 3 and 6, it says, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
At the new birth, a spiritual, divine nature is put in. And that's the reason you have
all of this war. Now, but when the new nature
is communicated by God to that one born again, the old sinful
nature, then remains and gets crowded and pushed back and down
until the day comes when it says, I ain't gonna take this no more.
I used to have full reign in this individual. I used to call
the shots. And I will not be pushed down
and pushed out anymore. And so Amalek comes with all
of his fierceness and he assaults the child of God. Now in the
Christian band, and in every Christian, the two natures, one
sinful and the other sinless, one born of the flesh and one
born of God. Now these two natures, they differ
from each other in origin, They differ from each other in character,
in disposition, and in the activities that they produce. They have
nothing in common, and they are opposed to each other. Nothing
in common. Not a thing. Now, can you feature,
here's an individual, and he's living, and he has two natures
in him, and those two natures have absolutely nothing in common. They're at war all the time.
There's always the old flesh trying to get a stronghold, the
old flesh trying to overcome the individuals, trying to rule
in that individual's life, trying to get him to do what the flesh
wants to do, trying to get him to walk after the mind of the
flesh, trying to get him to feed upon the things of flesh, those
things that entertain the old nature. boring, carrying on,
and he throws a fit. These two natures, they just
cannot get along. Okay, so Moses said to Joshua,
we've set the battlefield now, and Moses said to Joshua, you
choose out men and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow. And
I'll stand on top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.
I'll go up on top of the hill. Now, there are just a few things
here that I want to point out to you that I think is typified
here that might be of some help. Now, Moses is a type of an intercessor. He is a type of the great high
priest, Jesus Christ, who is our intercessor, the one who
is pleading with God on our behalf. Moses said, I'm going to go up
on that hill And that's a type of how the Lord, an emblematic
of the fact that Jesus Christ has now gone off to be seated
in heaven at the right hand of the Father. He's our great high
priest. Moses was going up on the hill. He had the rod of God,
which signified his authority as an intercessor, one who could
plead with God and talk with God. And so Moses went up on
the hill. And then it said that Aaron,
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 what that means is that when
the Lord Jesus makes intercession for his people and when God's
people are crying to God and seeking the Lord and asking God
to deliver them from Amalek, they will prevail. And as the
Lord Jesus pleads for us, Our victory is His victory. And He said, I have overcome
the world. Be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. And the Lord Jesus has been victorious. He's the author and the finisher
of the faith. He fought to the shedding of His blood against
sin. And He swept great drops of blood
in the Garden of Eden, here in the Garden of Gethsemane. And
so the Lord Jesus knows what a battle is. He knows what a
fight is. And the Lord Jesus is our high
priest. Now, but Moses' hands were heavy. Now, when he let down his hands,
Amalek prevailed. And so when you cease to pray,
and you cease to look to your high priest, then Amalek will
prevail. The old flesh will get the best
of you. And you'll find yourself thinking
like a man in the flesh. like a lost man. You'll find
yourself acting like a lost man. Somebody says, I can't believe
it. That man over there, he's been
a believer for many years and he acts like somebody that's
never been saved once in a while. Well, it's no mystery to me.
Because when the hands come down, Amalek will prevail. They will prevail. And so, beloved,
what it means is that the victory is in prayer. The victory is
in believing God and crying to God and trusting in the high
priestly prayers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But
then it says, but Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone
and put it under him. This signifies how weary we become
in supplicating God and crying to God and praying about our
situation and praying about our weaknesses and our frailties
and praying about all that's going on in our lives and fighting
the battle. We get tired and we get weary.
Oh, Moses' hands were heavy, and he couldn't hold them up.
And it was necessary for Aaron and Hur to come alongside, and
they took a stone and put it under him so he could sit down. And then it says, 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. Good men held his
hands up so that Israel would prevail against Amalek. I'll
tell you what, brothers and sisters, if there ever was a time when
this body here and the good men and women that are in this church,
the good brothers and sisters in Christ, those that are good
because of what God has done in them and he himself being
in them, he's the only one that's good, and we're good because
of him. But let me tell you if there ever was a time when we
need you and when I need you and when you need me and when
we need each other, it's now. Beloved brother, sister, we need
to come alongside and hold up the hands of one another. We
need to pray for one another and seek God's face on the behalf
of our brethren whose hands are weary and they're about ready
to give up supplicating God and fighting the battles that are
so real in this world. And I talked to them, I've discovered
that there are more people on the edge, more people ready to
give up the fight, than there are saying, I'm encouraged in
the war, and I believe that good is going to come. Now, many,
many people today are about ready to give it up. Give up the struggle,
give up the fight. But I'm telling you, we need
to hold up each other's hands. And we can do that by visiting
with each other. We can do that by talking with
each other. We can do that by confiding in
one another as to our need of prayer and our need of somebody
to help us in this battle against Amalek, against the flesh, and
against the powers that we have to wrestle against in this world
out here. Now then we see that in verse
12 it says that the one on the one side, the other on the other
side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun,
meaning that there was a time when the battle ceased because
it got dark and the enemies couldn't go on. And there will come a
time when the enemy will slack up and he'll back off and the
new man will prevail by the grace of God in a man's life. And Joshua disconfitted Amalek
and his people with the edge of the sword. Now this word disconfitted
here, it does not mean that he destroyed Amalek, it does not
mean that he fixed him so he could never war again. It doesn't
mean that. It means that he overthrew him
in that battle on that day. He overthrew him. And old Amalek
had to fall back and to, as it were, to gather strength, he
had to fall back. He was disconfitted in that day. And those of you that have fought
battles hand-to-hand with the flesh, you know what I'm talking
about. There comes a time, maybe it's
in dark, maybe it's at the evening, maybe it's at midnight, maybe
it's early in the morning, but the old flesh backs off. and
the Spirit of God rules, and the new nature overcomes, and
he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world, and
there is a victory. Well, he did it with the edge
of the sword, and the sword here is emblematic of the Word of
God, a type of the Word of God. You know, the Scripture says
that that the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder
the soul and spirit, and is a discerner or critic of the thoughts and
the intents of the heart. The Bible says we're to hide
the Word of God in our hearts that will not sin against the
Lord. We need to know the Scriptures, brethren. That's what I'm trying
to say. I say you need to memorize the Word of God. You need to
know what the Bible teaches, what the Bible says. You need
to study these Old Testament pictures, as along with the New
Testament statements of doctrine concerning the two natures and
what's going on in a believer, in order that you'll know what's
happening. in your life and that you'll
just not be overcome and throw up your hands and say, I thought
I had this thing won and now I see that I'm in a war. I see
that I can't get past this business of this conflict always going
on. And the Lord said in verse 14
of the Moses, I want you to write this memorial in a book. I want
you to put it in a book, and I want you to rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly, I want you to go tell
Joshua, you affirm, he's disconfited this enemy one time. This enemy's
not going away. This enemy is going to go on,
and is going to war with Israel from generation to generation. And what this means is that these
attacks is not going away. as long as you're in this world.
And when you get down to your death, I want you to go and I
want you to tell Joshua. this in the children of Israel's
ears that there's coming a day when I'm going to get the victory
and that Amalek is going to be destroyed. There's coming a time
when I'm going to blot out his name from under heaven. That
day's coming when I'm going to do it. There's no question about
it. Turn to Numbers chapter 24 and
I want you to look with me here at a verse of scripture and Balak
has been testifying and He's been prophesying, that is,
and he comes here to talk about, let's see now, I looked at that
in the other Bible, and anyway what he had to say was about
Amalek and how that Amalek, well let me look here quickly in the
other Bible, I think I marked it in the other Bible maybe,
which verse that is. Anyway, he prophesied about the
end of this individual and how the Lord was going to destroy
him. Is that verse 20 of chapter 24 in it? And when he looked on Amalek,
that is when this prophet Balaam looked on Amalek, he took up
his parable and said, Amalek was the first of the nations.
And what that means is Amalek was the first of the nations
to war in the land of Canaan against the Israelites. He was
the first of the nations. And that means that that's the
first foe you're going to face when you are saved is your old
nature. That's the first enemy you're
gonna have. He's gonna raise his ugly head
and try to hinder you in your walk with the Lord. It's that
old flesh nature. Okay, so it goes on, and Amalek
was the first of the nation, but his latter end shall be that
he perish forever. His latter end, he's gonna perish
forever. Now what that means is, to the
child of God, is that the child of God will get free of his old
nature when he dies. There is coming a time when the
Amalek in you, brother, is going to die, and it will die with
you when your old body dies. And from generation to generation,
if you go back with me now to Exodus chapter 17, and look here
in verse 15 and 16, Moses said, ìThe Lord who is my banner, because
the Lord is sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. In other words, what that means
is that it is not going to end until you die. You're going to
have this war. You're going to have this battle.
And you know we hear so many stories from religious people
about how that the old man gets better as you go along. Oh, as
you go along, you just get better. There ain't a lick of truth to
that. There's not a bit of truth in it. And anybody that's lived
that's got an ounce of spiritual sense knows in their experience
that the old man don't get any better as you go along. He remains
right there as fierce and is trying to overcome the spiritual
in you from the very beginning to the very end, and fact is,
if anything, the battle gets hotter. God in his mercy will
hold back Amalek in a young believer's life. Carl, he'll lay hold of
him and hold him back and not let him get the best of that
young believer. He'll not allow him to do it.
But when that believer gets older, stronger in faith, and has understanding
of the gospel, and has understanding of truth, he's read the word
of God, he's heard it preached, he knows something about the
ways of God, seems to be unrestrained. The old man is there, and you
say, well, when I get 60, the battle is won. Ain't no bitter
truth to it. Not a better truth to it. Look
out, brethren. Don't you ever think you stand? Amalek will get the best of you.
He'll get the best of you, and he'll bring you down. And you
must believe what I'm telling you. It seems like the restraints
are taken off of him when you get older, and he is more active,
and he's trying to dethrone you and trying to discourage you.
so that you will not be able to give a testimony in your dying
days, but that you'll lay down in death, having been overcome
by this whole sinful, rebellious nature. Now then, I want you
to turn back over with me to 1 Samuel chapter 15. And we'll
go ahead here. I want you to look at some things
here with me. Now, these things will mean more
to you now than what they would have meant if we had not discussed
this story in Exodus chapter 17. But here, now, when Samuel
said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over
his people, over Israel. Therefore hearken thou unto the
voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I remember in verse 2 that which Amalek did to Israel. There it
is. He's talking about Exodus 17. when they came out to fight against
Israel, the first nation to face them. And they came out in war
against them. And so, how they laid in wait
for Him in the way. Isn't that a type of the flesh?
how it lays in wait. Oh, so you got happy yesterday
at church. Oh, so you got a little something
in your soul and you feel like you're a little bit on top today. You feel encouraged today, do
you? You feel like you got a little
victory, do you? Well, we'll see how much victory
you got. And so here it comes. Here it
comes. And then he laid in wait, you
see. and when he came up from Egypt,
and he struck at Israel when he came up. Now, the Lord said,
you go smite Amalek, and you utterly destroy him. God said,
I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going
to destroy him. Okay, now here's Saul, and he's
an instrument in God's hands. The army of Israel, an instrument
in God's hands. And so, old Saul, and there's
been a lot of debate as to whether or not he was a believer or whether
he was not. I'm not here to decide that this morning. I'm here to
tell you that he was an instrument in God's hands, but he was a
disobedient instrument. He was in rebellion against God,
and he was careless, and he wasn't concerned about the minute details
of what God wanted him to do. And so here's this fierce enemy.
And now go, Samuel says, smite Amalek. Utterly destroy all that
they have and spare them not. Slay both the man and the woman,
infant, suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. You go fight with
them and you destroy them. And that's God's word to you
and I. You know the Bible says, mortify
the deeds of the body. The Bible says you put up a fight.
The Bible says that if your eye offends you, pluck it out! And
if your right hand offends you, cut it off! I don't see too many
one-eyed, one-armed Christians going around in my day and time,
but spiritually speaking, it's going on, isn't it? Isn't it
going on in the lives of the Lord's people? I mean, isn't
there some plucking out of the eye and some cutting off of the
hand? If you're a child of God, there
is. And if you're in war with Amalek, then you're attempting
to slay him, and you wish you could kill him off. You wish
you could destroy him. Now listen to me. And you listen
to me carefully. I want you, the next few moments
here, if you can, just to give yourself over to hearing what
the Word of God says. Now here's this man and Saul,
he's king of Israel, and he goes out and he's heard what God said
through the mouth of Samuel, but then he goes out, he's got
him 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah, and they come out
against Amalek, they wait for him in the valley, and they're
going to slay him. Okay, and Saul says in verse
7, he smoked the Amalekites until thou comest to Shur, that's over
against Egypt. He took Agag. Agag is the king
of the Amalekites. And he took him alive. He wanted
to go back and show him off. What a victory he'd got over
Agag. And you know, this is a type
of how that we, when we get so up, I mean, we've got so much
victory. Have you ever felt? Have you
ever felt? Oh, listen, wouldn't make any
difference what happened today. I got the victory. Bless God,
I got the victory. Anything that happens, I can
handle it today. I mean, it don't make any difference.
I got the victory. I got this whole thing. This
body's under subjection, and I just rule in this situation. Have you ever felt that way?
I got it made. Boy, I got it made. gonna show off a way gag
we're not going to kill him we're gonna show him off he's our trophy
we got the victory in my flesh I gotta overcome in my flesh
I got a little victory here and I want to talk to you about it
brother or sister have you got any to have you got any trophies
to show off let me talk to you about how I got the victory over
this and how I got the victory over that how I got the victory
over something else baloney all you're doing is setting yourself
up Friend, you better keep your mouth shut. Oh, Agag is not dead. And you better be careful what
you're saying. All right, now look here. And
Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and
of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was
good. Listen to it now, and all that was good, and would not
utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile, everything, and
refuge, that they destroyed utterly. Now what this is a picture of
is this. Here is a believer, and he, you know, he's particular
about what he allows in his old nature. There are some things
that he just, that are abhorrent to him. And he thinks that's
holiness and godliness. Ugly stuff! vile stuff to him,
to him. May not be to his brother, may
not be to somebody else, but there's something as vile and
ugly. And he said, I put that to death.
Why I put smoking to death? I never did smoke. I got the
victory over that. I never even started that ugly
habit. And you know, getting drunk never
did appeal to me. I got the victory over getting
drunk. I got the victory over that.
Everything that's ugly, everything that's refuge, oh, we can easily
handle that. We put that to death. Mortify
it. But oh, brother, sister, let
me tell you something now. These oxen that are top-notch
oxen, and these fatlings, and the lambs, and all is good. You know, this old flesh has
an appetite. It has an appetite. and there are some things that
are good. Now, brother and sister, you listen to me. We can fall
into sin. We can fall into sin. We can fall into a thousand sins,
but you cannot love one sin and be a child of God. You can't
do it. You gotta be at war with sin. And you say, oh, but I like
preaching. I mean, that's so beautiful.
That's just so wonderful. That's just the best. Oh, I mean,
you mean to tell me I gotta put that to death? Gotta put her
to death. If it's of the Amalekites. If it's of the flesh, you gotta
be an enemy of it. Now I want you to hear what I'm
saying. The new nature in you demands that you not love one
thing of the flesh. It demands it. You cannot be
at peace with God, and serve God, and walk with God, and love
the flesh and the things of the world. You can't do it. You can't
do it. You've got to be at war with it. And the day comes when
you say, well, I'm going to keep them oxen. I'm going to keep
them. Oh, I've got a purpose involved. Oh, yeah, I'm going
to serve the Lord with it. It's a it's a God don't you know
preacher? I mean the Lord's got something
I'm gonna do something with this down the road I got a plan here
and God's gonna bless me in this thing and I Be careful be careful. All right, let me get on with
this and so here's Samuel he the Lord speaks to him and he
goes and he looks up old Saul and Old Saul greets him And says,
blessed be thou of the Lord, in verse 13. Oh Samuel, you know
he's walking with God. He's been doing and serving.
And so he says, I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
I've done what the Lord told me to do. And Samuel said, then
what means then the bleeding of the sheep in mine ears? I
mean, if you did what the Lord told you to do, then what's all
this racket and this noise around here? What's all these animals
you're keeping in the backyard? What's all this going on here,
if you're following the Lord? And the lowing of the oxen, which
I hear. And Saul said, well, they brought
them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best
of the sheep and the oxen, sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the
rest we have utterly destroyed." We kept them to sacrifice. That's
what we're going to do with it. We're going to serve God with
it. God said, now listen, Samuel said to Saul, I'll tell thee
what the Lord said to me this night. And he said unto him,
say on, and Samuel told him what the Lord said. And the Lord sent
you on a journey. He said, when you were little
in your own sight, you were anointed to be the head over Israel. When
God saved you, you wasn't anything. Put His Spirit in you, put the
new man in you. And said, now you go on out there
and you battle with the Amalekites. Battle with the flesh just like
I would battle with it. You get to war with this thing. wherefore then didst thou not
obey the voice of the Lord and then Sam you know how that Saul
he made an excuse he wouldn't admit that he was only said to
people I was afraid of the people people said we want that so he's
afraid of the people therefore I read the rest of the story
to you and how that Samuel the kingdom was rent from Saul and
the Lord dealt with him now I wanna just make a couple statements
here and this message I really just felt the burden of the Lord
early this morning and I like to be a little bit better prepared
than what I am but I have to do what the Lord leads me to
do and I know this is of God so you bear with me. Those of
you that have made a profession of faith, those of you that have
believed on the Lord, Samuel made a statement that in verse
22, or in verse, yes, in verse 22, he said, behold, in the last
part of the verse, to obey is better than sacrifice. To obey
is better than sacrifice. You obey the Lord, that's the
first thing, that's the thing you need to do, obey the Lord.
Better than you giving an offering. And to hearken to God, to his
word, to obey him. Do what He tells you to do. Follow
Him. It's better than the fat of rams. Getting the best animal you can,
bring it and sacrificing it. God said, you just hearken to
Me. You just obey Me. And in verse 23 He said, for
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Rebellion. Rebellion against
God. Rebelling against what God tells
you to do. saying I'm not going to do it.
I won't do it. I'll not fight anymore. I'll
just give it up. I'll just give up to this thing.
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry. That's what it is, being stubborn.
You say, well I don't think anybody around here is infected by stubbornness
or rebellion. Well, I'll tell you what, there's
a whole lot more of it than you know about, more of it than I
know about, but there isn't any of it here God don't know about,
and He knows about it. Now listen to me, you my brothers
and sisters in Christ, those of you that have made a profession
of faith, be it forever fixed in your mind and heart, that
to obey, to keep strictly in the path of your Savior's command
is better than any outward form of religion. To hearken to his
precept is better than to bring anything else which you may wish
to lay upon the altar. I'm not going to listen to what
God tells me to do, but I'll bring a 20. I'll bring a 50,
preacher. I'll bring something to lay on
the altar. You want, we need to do something? Let's get busy.
I'll help you. We'll do it. God said to hearken. God said to obey his voice. There
may be someone here this morning who may be living in the neglect
of some known duty. It would be no new thing for
a believer to know his or her duty, to have their conscience
enlightened about what they ought to be doing, and yet to turn
from it and neglect it. I know, for instance, that there
are some professing believers, see it to be their duty, they
know it to be their duty, they have a conscience that is spoken
to them, they know it clearly to be their duty to be baptized,
follow the example of their Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ was baptized,
and He gave us that example, and yet, let me say that whatever
else you may do, Now there are some people that see it clearly.
You may not see it clearly, and if you don't, then I don't want
to press this on you. But if you do know it to be your
duty, then do not neglect it. Let me say that whatever else
you may do, if you feel this is your duty, it says nothing
compared with the neglect of this. What does all that mean? It means this, that if God crosses
your path, and shows you what you ought to do, and you don't
do it, that's as far as you're going until you obey the Lord. Don't expect that you're going
to go ahead on spiritually, that you're going to be able to go
on and grow up in the Lord and have the blessings of God and
feel peace in your soul and heart. No, because baptism is the answer
of a good conscience toward God, and it gives you peace when you
obey the Lord and do what he tells you to do. Okay, to obey
even the slightest and the smallest thing is better than sacrifice. The right way for a Christian
to walk is to do what his master bids him do, leaving all the
consequences to the Almighty God. You have nothing to do with
your own usefulness further than to keep your master's command
at all hazards and under all risk. Wherever it leads, you
follow the Lord, you obey Him. Let this be our prayer. Help
me to run in thy commands. Tis a delightful road, nor let
my head, nor heart, nor hands offend. against my God. If there is anything that you're
neglecting, if there is any sin in which you're indulging, if
there's any voice of conscience to which you have turned to death
here, if there is one verse of scripture in all of the Word
of God that you cannot face and look at in all honesty because
it bothers you so much and disturbs your soul, you're living in the
neglect of the Word of God and neglecting your own life, and
I want you to hear the prophet this morning, because these words
should be printed in gold. These words ought to be put in
neon lights. These words to obey is better
than sacrifice. It's all to obey! is better than you bringing all
these things back over here to sacrifice to God. God don't want
it. He wants you to obey Him. That's what He wants. And to
hearken is better than the fat of rams. This generation needs
to see those words. And this church needs to see
it. And we need to obey the Lord. And I hope this morning that
the Lord has stirred up our hearts that we'll go on and we'll fight
with the Amalekites, because the children of Israel had to
fight with him from generation to generation. Oh, Duke Amalek,
and whenever you see that ugly character, and he is ugly, he
is ugly, when you see him and he wants to fight, seek the elder
brother on him. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ on
him. and beg God that he will intervene on your behalf and
enable you to overcome him. We've got to wage war, brother
and sister, and I believe the Spirit of God in you will testify
that what I'm telling you this morning is the gospel truth.
I'm telling you the truth. I'm not just here just filling
up space with words. I'm telling you the truth. I
know something about this. I've been in a war with Amalek ever
since 1950. I've been in a war with him. And I know what it's all about.
And the older I get, the more intense, the more vicious he
is. The more that he's contrary. He's against everything I'm for.
He's against it. Fight. War. Today, go to battle. Go to battle. Obey the Lord. What is it in your life you need
to respond to? Need to yield to? I know it's
getting late. And next Sunday, there's some
things I wanted to say, but I'll wait till next week. And God
willing, I want to talk a little bit next week about the importance
of baptism and what it has to do with this church and what
it has to do with the way this church here receives members
and the kind of government that this church here exercises. And
I'd like to ask a question before we leave this morning. How many
of the members of this church here, if somebody was to ask
you what form of government does the New Covenant Baptist Church
ascribe to, how many of the members in this church, just being honest,
could tell that individual what form of government we exercise
here? How many of you could do it? Is that it? Well, we definitely need to talk
about it. We definitely need to talk about it. This church
here exercises the congregational form of government. Every member
of this church has a vote when it comes to issues that affect
this church. And the only way you can get
into this church is by a public act. And that public act is that
you submit yourself to this church for membership. Every member
of this body was voted into this body. Every member, including
this preacher. We were all voted into this assembly
by the other members. Now, when somebody presents themselves
for membership in this church, they can come one of three ways. Number one, they say, I believe
the Lord saved me. I've never been baptized, and
I want to be baptized. And immediately when this church
baptizes you, you're automatically a member of this church. When
this church, the members of this body, votes for your baptism,
then you're automatically a member of this church. Secondly, if
you were baptized somewhere else and you have scriptural baptism,
you present yourself to this church. If you believe what this
church believes and what it stands for and what you're hearing from
this pulpit, then you submit yourself to this church and ask
for a home in this body. And the brethren here, they will,
if they're not comfortable, if they don't know you, if they
don't know what you believe, then they may come and talk with
you and visit with you. But then we will take a vote
and you'll be voted into the membership. We've never had anybody,
well, I'll take that back. We have had people that have
presented themselves for membership and the church turned them down.
Very seldom and rarely does such a thing ever happen. Now the
other way that one could come into this church is if they are
members somewhere else and they want to be a member of this church
and they are a member of good standing in another Baptist church somewhere.
and they want to come into this church, they can come and we'll
write for their letter and that church can grant a letter to
this church and we'll receive you on the receipt of that letter. But still, it'll be by a vote
of the church that you're received. Now there are some right now
that I'll say that there's at least one individual who's been
attending this church that does not believe in the congregational
form of government. There are two other kinds of
government. One is where a body of elders
rule, and they examine the people that wants to become members,
and then they present the evidence, or they will vote and make the
decision on their own. And then there is the dictator
style, which I want nothing to do with. where the preacher himself
makes all the decisions and he's the one that decides everything
that the congregation does and the congregation has to submit
to the rule of the preacher. These preachers, they want to
be the dictators and they'll tell you, and of course there's
nothing wrong with what they say about how you select a preacher,
They say that you select a preacher as a church just like a woman
would select a husband to marry. They say don't you get a preacher
that you don't trust and that you won't submit to. Still, as
far as I'm concerned, the example in the Word of God, I don't have
time to go into it this morning, is the congregational form of
government. Cite one example, that's the
man in the fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians that the church excluded, and
the scripture says the exclusion was inflicted by the many, by
the many. wasn't inflicted by the preacher
who's a dictator it was inflicted by the many and so remember this
write it down in your bibles if you need to that this church
believes in a congregational form of government and that no
one individual makes a decision here as to what is being done
including the receiving of members or the excluding of members it'll
be the majority of the congregation that will do that. Now, I didn't
mean to get into that, but it didn't take long, and I think
that you maybe will be able to think on that a little bit and
study a little bit about that, but you should write that term
down. Congregational form of government. And those that are
members of the body, they're called upon to vote to whether
to receive members. And we need to be in prayer for
Paul. Paul believed that the day he
walked in this building that he was automatically a member
of this church. And he believed that he had as much authority
in this church as anybody has. And that if he wanted to speak,
he could speak. He could preach if he wanted
to. And that it wasn't anybody's business to say, hey, wait a
minute. Wait a minute. he believed he had the authority.
Now he's honest. I believe he's honest. He just
don't believe that anybody has any authority. And as I explained
to him, a train has got to have a track. Somebody's got to be
responsible. Somebody's got to be in charge.
The Bible says you do all things decently and you do it in order. And the parliamentary order is
that