So I'll read this morning, please, in the book of Exodus chapter seventeen. I would like to read this morning another lovely title of Jehovah, Jehovah Nisah, the Lord, My Banner. So I'll read the context, please, in Exodus chapter seventeen. And commencing, let's see, with verse one. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and encamped in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did strive with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why strive he with me? Wherefore do you put the Lord to test? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, Why hast thou brought us up out of Egypt to kill us, and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do? unto this people they are almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod. For with thou smite'st the river, and take it in thine hand and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Haru, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come forth water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Mirabah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, because they tested the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose his art men, and go out, and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses and Aaron and her 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 held up his hand. 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 vanquished 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 Nisai. For he said, Because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will at war with Amalek from generation to generation. And we're going on this blessing, again with the reading of this lovely portion of his word. There are quite a number of lovely lessons in the chapter, and one would be tempted to pause and look at all of them. But just to mention at the beginning here, we get a lovely picture of of how God was able to deal with a very difficult situation. By the way, this is before they came to Sinai. They had already crossed the Red Sea, and they were in the wilderness of sin. Now, that is an English word, but it immediately brings to us, to our memory something in our own hearts. It happened in the wilderness of sin. And again, here was a murmuring. And in these chapters, about ten times We read of the people of Israel murmuring against the Lord. On here it was on the count of water. And so the Lord said, Take the rod of God in your hand. It's most interesting to notice how this rod that later became a settler is a beautiful picture in the word of God of dominion. That rod that was placed in Moses' hand. Take the rod of God in your hand. and go to the rock in Haram. And he was told to smite the rock. And as soon as he smoked the rock, the water gushed forth, and the people's thirst was quenched. Just before I came, stand up here, while I was sitting on the other side of the room, I turned over to Numbers chapter twenty. And many years later, when they were ready in the wilderness, That period of forty years, the thing was duplicated again. And again there was murmuring against the Lord on the kind of thirst. It was practically at the same place, this Mirabah. And read that they thirsted against the Lord. They thirsted, and they murmured against the Lord. And Moses again was awfully upset. And you remember the Lord here, he said, Take the rod and smite the rod. And the Lord again told him to go there. And this time he said, Now speak to the rock. Not smite it. Speak to the rock. But Moses, this outstanding man of God, he lost his head. And he lost his temper. And when he went to the rock this time, instead of speaking to the rock, he smote it twice with a rod. Now the water gushed forth. And the people's thirst was quenched. that Moses did something that meant that he never was allowed to enter the land of rocks. He used the term there too when he lost his temper. He said, ye rebels must we bring water out of the rock for you. And he took the treasure to himself. And it shows that while this man was an outstanding man of God, one of the greatest men that ever lived, he was just a man like himself. And instead of speaking to the rock, he smote it. And he mutilated his type. And for that reason, he left his life later. The Lord took Moses home before he was able to go into the land of promise. You know, there's a beautiful type here in connection with our Blessed Lord, the smiling of the rock and the water gushing for it. I believe it's a beautiful type of Pentecost. And it is the fulfillment of that beautiful... beautiful message of the Lord himself in John chapter seven. From the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the scripture has said, out of his inward part shall gush waters of living water. And then John's comment is, this he speaketh the Spirit, for the Spirit was not yet given. Now the swathing of the rock here and the water coming forth, I believe, is a beautiful picture of the coming down of the Holy Spirit of God and Antichrist. We get the fulfillment of it. And that lovely, lovely message of the Lord Himself before He went to the cross. He said Jesus had not yet suffered. He hadn't gone to the cross. But when He went up to the throne, thank God the water came forth and the Holy Ghost came down. and a new dispensation was inaugurated there's some lovely things here at the commencement of the chapter one we'd love to pause and occupy all our time in speaking about it but immediately after this is a battle and then we'll read about a book and then we'll read about a banner and i believe that here too we get some things that could speak to our hearts connected with our own personal life before the lord first of all a battle What do you think about Amalek? As soon as the people of Israel had come across and coming to Sinai, and while they were in the wilderness of sin, when they came to it, let them there Amalek attacked them. I took the trouble to find just where Amalek came from, and I was rather surprised to notice that he was a grandson of Esau. Esau's grandson, Amalek, and he attacked the flesh. And every time we read about Amalek in the Bible, God had made up his mind that he was going to wipe him out. And it'd be interesting to trace Amalek right through. We get him in the book of Esther. And that man, Haman, that was an enemy of the people of God, we're told in the book of Esther that he was an a gay guy. He was a son of Amalek, an Amalekite. And every time we read that word, it always speaks of the enemy of God and the enemy of his people. Amalek. But here goes the battle. And the battle with Amalek, we read that while Joshua was fighting down in the valley with Amalek, that Moses and Aaron and her were on the mountain top. Again with a rod. The rod of authority. The rod of delegated authority in his hand. And up on the top of the hill. these three men were interceding and the battle was going on. Now there's a beautiful picture here of the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus. Moses and Aaron and her. Moses was the prophet. Aaron was the priest. And her was a prince of Judah. That is, the prophet of the priest and the king. And here they're on the top of the hill and they're interceding. And Moses... has his hands up on the ear and on the one side and her and the other. They held up his hands. And while his hands were held up, the battle went against Amalek. But if his hands were let down, then Amalek prevailed. But they held up his hands until they're going down to the sun. Now that is a lovely picture, I believe, of the intercessory work of our Blessed Lord. The battle done in the valley... against Amelie and hear the intercession upon the mountain top of the prophet and the priest and the king. And to me that is supremely beautiful. It is a picture. It's a type we know. But it's something I think that we can enjoy ourselves in our life at the present time. Amelie, representative of the flesh. You know there are three enemies that we have. One is the world. and the second is the flesh, and the third is the devil. And we get them typically in the Old Testament scriptures. The world was Egypt, but all that it represented. The flesh, Amalek, and the battle here in the valley, and then the world, the flesh and the devil. Pharaoh, down at Egypt, is the type of the devil itself. But the constant, the enemy here is Amalek. And I thought I would like to speak just for a moment or two of the means that God has provided for you and for me in the battle that we have against the world, the flesh and the devil, and particularly the flesh, family in our life. When we turn over to the New Testament scriptures and we look at the teaching there concerning sin in the life of the believer, God has provided a wonderful, a wonderful provision. You know, when we come to Christ, and accept him as our Savior. Our sins are wiped out. Completely forgiven. Clean every way. Thank God we're put in God's sight in that position of completely sanctified, set apart for him as soon as we put our faith and trust in Christ. But you know immediately afterwards there's a battle starts. And I think that's what we get here typically. I think we find it doctrinally. in the New Testament scriptures. I want to remind you of three great passages in the Word of God concerning how God deals with sin in the life of the believer, and particularly this sin of the flesh, the battle against family. First of all, the teaching of Christ himself in John chapter thirteen, and then the teaching of the Apostle Paul in Romans six and seven and eight. and then the teaching of the Apostle John in the first epistle of John chapter one and chapter two so first of all the teaching of the Lord himself you remember that day in the upper room just before he went to the cross John chapter thirteen with that little company of disciples around him he gave them his final message he had a message for John He had a message for Peter and he had a message for Judas. If you look at John chapter thirteen, the only three names that are common out there are those three men. First of all, John. And secondly, Peter. And thirdly, Judas Iscariot. And the Lord has something to say to each one of them. And they had a lesson to teach them. John was the beloved disciple. Was there anything wrong with him? that they were sitting at the table. He possibly was the youngest member of the apostolic man. And we generally think of John as an old man, about ninety years of age. And he was the apostle of love. He wasn't always that. And my Bible tells me that from the Lord's son, in verse, he and his brother James, he called them the sons of thunder. You know, there was something of thunder and lightning in John's life, in his early life. The Lord had to deal with that. Remember, when they went into a village of the Samaritans, and the Samaritans didn't receive them, he wanted fire to come down from heaven and consume them. The Lord said, You know not what manner of spirit you are of. There was a son of thunder, and the Lord had to deal with him. And I believe that when the Lord rose from the table and laid aside his garments and geared to himself with a towel, That day in the upper room, I believe it was addressed to John. He learned the lesson. But here, Simon Peter, we know that he was on the verge of a fall, and the Lord had something to say to him. And the Lord, after he had laid aside his garments and girded himself with a towel, he must have gotten down upon his knees, and he washed the disciples' feet. And when he came to Peter, Peter said, No, Lord, you will never wash my feet. He was embarrassed. that that one that he called his Lord would actually stood and wash his feet. He said, you'll never wash my feet. And the Lord said, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Not no part in me, but no part with me. You know, the one is relationship, but the other is fellowship. No part with me. Peter said, well, if that's the way you feel, Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my heads. And the Lord in reply, he said, Peter, he that is bathed, washed completely, he that is bathed, need is not safe to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere. Now, I believe that the Lord was saying something most important to Simon Peter, the bath of regeneration, that all the washing of the feet from day to day, And the Lord, I believe, gave that lesson that while at conversion, clean every wet, yet from day to day our feet are soiled by the dust of the wilderness, and we need daily cleansing. I don't know about you, but I know that every day I have to get into the presence of the Lord and confess things that we have done, things that we have said, things that have gone through our minds. As long as we live down here, We do have the responsibility to get into the Lord's presence and make it perfectly sure that we're in communion with him and that there's nothing in our life that would hinder that communion between our souls and Christ. Now that is the initial and the foundational teaching concerning sin in the life of the believer. But that on the one hand, but the basin on the other, and the cleansing water. We thank God for that. For the Apostle Paul, he goes into a doctrine, the leg, in that with Epistle, the Epistle of the Roman. I don't need to tell you that the first five chapters is occupied with our salvation. And the doctrine concerning the work of Christ upon Calvary's cross has gone into in detail doctrinally. But when we come to chapter six, the question is, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Paul says, God forbid. And then he goes into that great discussion concerning sin in the life of the believer. There are three words that are used. First of all, he uses the term the old man. And the second term is the flesh. And the third is the body of sin. Now, these three terms are not sin enough. What is the old man? The old man is the life that I lived before I became a Christian. The old habits, the old desires that I had before I became a believer, that is the old man. Now, we're told to put off the old man. It's just like an old cook or an old dress. When it's soiled, we put it off. And again and again we're told, and we're exhorted in various passages in the New Testament, put it off, put it off, put it off. That's the old man. But the flesh, we're not told to put it off. The flesh is that old nature that we have and that will last as long as we live down here. We're not told to put it up. We're told to crucify it. Put it in the flesh of death. And Paul goes into it doctrinally there in Romans chapter six and seven. But then in chapter seven he speaks about a battle. And we read that the old nature and the new nature, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus in the heart of the believer that there's that continual battle from day to day. You know, there's some people teach that they can have a crisis in their life and there's no longer a battle. And that is something that's very, very often taught among the people of God. You know, anybody that's realistic, you know, that that is not true. I don't know about you. But many, many times that old nature, the flesh that I have here It'll be there as long as I live. And the Apostle, he goes into it in chapter seven, the battle between the flesh and the Spirit. Thank God the Spirit of God, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It is there. But it's that twofold nature that we have today. The old nature, the flesh, and also the Spirit of life. And there is that continual battle of one with the other. And when we come to Romans chapter eight, we find there how it can be, how there can be victory in our life over sin in the life. So here is the teaching of the Apostle Paul. And then when we turn over to the first epistle of John, John, he goes into it there very, very bluntly. You know, with John, it's either right or wrong. There's either black or white. There's none of that gray part in between. He said, if we say, if we say, if we say, if we say, we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie. I'm doing that the truth. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in it. If we say we have not sin, we make him a liar. again his word is not in us. Now here are three professions that people make. If we say we have fellowship with him, and by the way that lovely, lovely word fellowship is used four or five times in the passage. It's one of the most beautiful words in the language. I love that word fellowship. Fellowship with God. Fellowship with the Father and the Son and fellowship with one another. So this is a fellowship. is that fellowship with the Father and the Son, that all fellowship with one another. I don't know what you feel, but to be among the people of God and the fellowship and that love and affection existing among them is one of the most precious things in life. But John here is speaking some very, very direct theme and simple words concerning that fellowship. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, We lie and do not produce. What does that mean? Is there anything dark and covered up in my life that nobody knows but myself and God? Well, if there is, and that goes on and on and on in my life, there's something seriously wrong. If we say we have fellowship with them and walk in darkness, John says we're a liar. He uses very plain language in connection with it. I knew a man many years ago. I'd known him for thirty years. Without going into detail about it, I knew that man intimately. He held a Bible. He preached. He ministered. And went about among the people of God for thirty years. And at the end of that time, it was found that he was a homosexual. You know, when that happened, and when I heard it, I was absolutely shattered. It was just like a blow when I heard about it. I couldn't believe it. But it was brought out that for thirty years he was living a double life. Do you think a man like that's a Christian? I doubt it. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, something dark, or covered up in the light, there's something seriously wrong. A Christian should be a holy person and have a conscience about sin. Sin in my life. And that is the first profession. If we say we have fellowship with them and walk in darkness, we're just a liar. We do not the truth. And then if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. You ever find somebody like that? Oh, I was once at a victorious life conference and there was something happened and I had the second blessing and now it no longer bothers me. And I've no longer sinned in my life. It has been completely eradicated. You know, people who talk like that don't see themselves. I don't think they realize what sin is or what the holiness of God is. That is the second profession that people make. And then the third one is, if we say we have not sinned, we may have a life. That is God himself. You know, some people don't realize the awful, awful thing that sin is. There's a man called Joseph Fletcher. He was a minister. He wrote a book. It's called Situation Ethics. And the theme in that book is this. All the Bible says about sin, you know, forget it. Anything that you do, if it's motivated by love, that's what makes it right or wrong. And God's love and the moral principles we find in the word of God, just forget it. And if I do anything, I can do anything if it's motivated by love. And that is what makes it right or wrong. Situation ends. That's making God a liar. And that is the most serious thing of all. But then John says, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. And in this lovely, lovely passage here we read about the intercessor, intercessory work of these three men upon the mountain top of the rod of God and Moses with his hands up on intercession. On the one hand the priest and the other hand the prince. And Moses, the prophet in the center, with his hands up in intercession while the battle is going on down on the valley. So there's something supremely beautiful about that. What provision has God made for us in our life down here? This great work of sanctification that's going on in our life. By the way, sanctification is first of all positional. It happens when we're saying, sanctify, set apart for God. That is positional, but then it's practical. And day after day, as we read the Word of God and see things in our life, that's not according to the Word. Then the Holy Spirit convicts us, and we're finished with it. That's practical. And then it's progressive, day after day, progressive. And finally it will be perfected. That day when we see our Lord face to face, and we're taken up into his presence, then God will leave all these things behind. And sanctification will be perfected in that day. But in the meantime, we have an intercessor. And that intercessor is our blessed Lord Himself. And there are three terms that are used in connection with this intercessory word. First of all, he is an intercessor. We get a beautiful illustration of that, of his intercessory word in John chapter seventeen. That great intercessory prayer. And then, not only is he our intercessor, that God's right hand, but he is our bouquet, our intercessor, inner sorrow. And then secondly... He is our advocate. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Apparently, with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is our advocate. And thirdly, he is our great high priest, able to sympathize and help in all our difficulties and problems and our weaknesses down here. But just in closing, let me say that a Christian should... be a holy person and have a very tender conscience about sin and day after day coming into God's presence on anything that we don't interrupt can mean thank God there is a lovely a lovely provision and so at the end of this lovely chapter there is a banner first of all a battle and then read about a book we'll just leave that for the moment we read that what is what we find here is Moses is told to write it in the book, the inspired word of God. And thank God we have the book and the writing of it. But then the banner of the end, the banner of victory in this battle against Hanley. May God help us from day to day to have a tender conscience and to walk carefully and to see that day after day that we confess our sins. and keep in touch with God and have a communion with Him as long as life shall last. And looking forward to that day when we see Him face to face and the battle then will be over. In the meantime, Jehovah Nisah, the Lord my Father. I shall be back. Our blessed God and Father, we do thank you again for these lovely pictures and illustrations in thy word concerning our life down here. We have to confess, our Father, as we speak to thee, that there are many, many things in our life that bother us. Many, many times we fall into the trap and we sin against. But, our Father, we do pray that from day to day that we would have that tender conscience and keeping in touch with myself and in fellowship with thee and also in fellowship with our beloved people. We thank thee for the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. indwells our hearts. Our Father, we thank you that He can give that power to overcome temptation when it comes along. These are our desires. We commend them to you with thanksgiving for these times we can have together for your own thy word.