The God Who Wins the Battle

We continue our studies in the names of God in the Old Testament, and we come to a rather interesting name in Exodus chapter 17 at verse 8 through 16. Exodus chapter 17, verses 8 through 16.

Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our banner. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out and 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.

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 thereon. And Aaron and Hur held 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 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-Nissi, the Lord my banner. For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. There is a militant side to the Christian life that some people don't like to admit.

The founder of this Church, Mr. D.L. Moody, had Quaker background and had very definite pacifistic leanings. We do not criticize him for this. During the Civil War, he ministered more in preaching and helping in medicine than he ever could have carrying a gun.

We have just gone through a whole decade or more of militant strife, and there are many people who say, Now, if you people are Christians, you don't believe in fighting. There are those who tell us that anything militant from the Word of God doesn't apply today. Well, if you read your Bible, you discover in the Old Testament that God is the Lord of hosts.

That word host means armies. He's the Lord of the armies of earth, and he's the Lord of the armies of heaven. This does not mean that God is to blame for what an army does, but God had his armies in the Old Testament.

Unless you are going to say that the Old Testament is not an inspired book, you have a problem with the Lord being a man of war. The Lord Jesus Christ himself said, I did not come to bring peace by the sword. Paul often used military illustrations in his letters.

Paul liked to use architecture and athletics and anatomy and army. He talked about the sword of the Spirit, the armor of God. In 2 Corinthians, he talks about pulling down strongholds and capturing cities, capturing men's minds for God.

One of God's names in the Old Testament is, The Lord is my banner. You must not think of a banner as a flag. Don't get the idea that Moses is carrying a flag and there's a flag flapping up there in the breeze that says, The Lord my banner.

The word banner here means a standard. Each of the Jewish tribes had its own standard. When the tribes were assembled around the tabernacle, you could always tell where they were.

They were in the same place all the time. Each of them had a standard that stuck up, and each on that pole would have a specific object that would call attention to that particular tribe. In fact, when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that was a standard.

He was not only saying, Look and be healed, but this is the very power that helps you fight the battles of life. The Lord is my standard. The Lord is my banner.

Now, if you have a rough time looking upon the Church as an army, then you and the Lord better get together with your Bible and get it straightened out. Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. No soldier that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has enlisted him to be a soldier.

That's what Paul wrote to young Timothy. He's saying, Timothy, you're in Ephesus. There's a battle going on.

And anyone listening to my voice right now who has never experienced this Christian battle, there's something wrong. I had a good friend say to me, I hear you talking about conflict and persecution. I never go through any of that.

I felt like saying, Well, I feel sorry for you. Something wrong. Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall escape persecution.

Oh, no. All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall what? Yes. You're going to face persecution.

You're going to have persecution. Over in Song of Solomon, chapter 6, you have an interesting picture of the church. In verse 10, the greatest sermon I ever heard from the Song of Solomon, I heard from a woman preacher, Ruth Stull.

If you never heard Ruth Stull speak, you missed something. And she preached from this text. Here's the church.

Who is she who looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? That's the church. I wonder if anybody looks upon the church today as bringing terror. The word terrible means the ability to produce terror.

Is anybody terrified by the church today? Is Satan terrified by the church today? I doubt it. Is any city terrified by the church? I doubt it. If you are trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior, there can be no neutrality.

If you're not with Him, you're against Him. If you're not gathering with Him, you're scattering. There can be no neutrality.

And if you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're involved in an army. You're in the army whether you like it or not. He's not asking you to enlist.

When you got saved, you got drafted. He's not looking for people to enlist. He's saying, look, you who are in the army, act like you're in the army.

And He wants us to help Him win the victory. I think it's tragic that in these days people aren't afraid of Christians. Announce that you're going to call a prayer meeting about something.

Very few people tremble, let alone show up. The man who was a great influence on Mr. Moody, Henry Varley, when he showed up in a town to have a revival meeting, he was threatened. He received mail telling him he could get killed.

When he preached his way across Canada, now this is not generally known, but Henry Varley in his own right was as great an evangelist as D.L. Moody. When he preached his way across Canada, in town after town, bars were closed down, places of iniquity closed. And when he came back ten years later, they were still closed.

But people today aren't afraid of the Church. We're meek and mild. We get together in our building and have our calisthenics, spiritually speaking, and our marching, and the world's not too worried about it.

They ought to be. You see, I think some of us have been shirking our responsibilities. What are these responsibilities? You and I are in the army, whether we like it or not.

Most of us, if this were the real army, would be court-martialed. You see, when you're in the army, you're loyal. Many years ago, Alfred Lukak wrote a marvelous little book called Like a Mighty Army.

Maybe you've read it. He tells how a boy came out from the service, and when he was back in church, the pastor said, would you like to just share with the people? He said, can I say anything I want to say? He said, yes. He said, all right.

Before I preach, I want you to sing Onward, Christian Soldiers. Like a mighty army moves the Church of God. So they did, and he got up and he said, well, you've just sung Like a Mighty Army.

I just got out of the army, and I want you to know that if this church, if our army was run like this church, we would have lost the war. Can you imagine a roll call like this? Attention. Anderson here.

Johnson here. Jones. Jones begs to be excused today.

He had to play golf. I hope he has a good game, says the sergeant. Oh.

Can you imagine an army being run with that kind of loyalty, that when the soldiers are getting together for drill and to learn how to fight the enemy, half of them aren't there? I want you to know we're in a battle. Someone stopped me this morning, and I appreciated it more than anything that's happened today. Someone stopped me this morning and said, Pastor, have you been going through a lot of pressure lately? I said, yes, I have.

He said, we've been praying for you in a special way. I said, thank you. I appreciate that.

Satan's fighting. Satan is fighting. Some of the soldiers really don't care.

Whether or not the army assembles makes no difference. Whether or not they know how to use the equipment makes no difference. We're having a good time.

And if the servants doesn't last too late, we can go out and have a better time. Like a mighty army moves the Church of God. You know, I've told you that Mr. Moody would not allow Sankey to use that song in their campaigns.

He said the Church doesn't even live up to it. And he was right. What responsibilities do we have as Christians because we're in the army? I think this passage in Exodus chapter 17 spells out a number of responsibilities.

Number one, you better know your enemy. That's your first responsibility. You say, well, that's foolish.

Doesn't every soldier know the enemy? No, no. When Lord Nelson was leading his fleet out to fight, he came up on board ship and discovered two of his officers fighting each other, arguing and fighting. He waited for a little while and then he interrupted them and said, gentlemen, I know not what it is you are discussing, but this I do know.

There is one enemy and he's out there. One of the great tragedies in the Church today is that Christians are fighting each other instead of fighting the enemy. They don't know who the enemy is.

If all of the printer's ink that's been spilled in criticism and bitter invective and vitriolic gossip had been used to get the gospel out, the enemy wouldn't be as strong as he is today. Better know the enemy. The Jews were in Egypt under Pharaoh.

God delivered them. Egypt, as you know, is a picture of the world. Pharaoh is a picture of Satan.

Satan is the god of this world. Pharaoh is proud and defiant. Who is the Lord that I should listen to him? He kept these people in bondage and God delivered them.

You and I, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, once were in the world, in bondage. Some Christians want to go back there. The Jews were always wanting to go back to Egypt.

God delivered us from the world, having delivered us from this present evil world, says Paul, and we're no longer under the bondage and the rule of Satan. Then they got into their wilderness journey and it wasn't Egypt that attacked them. You do have an enemy in the world.

It wasn't Pharaoh that attacked them. The devil's still after you. It was the flesh, Amalek.

Amalek was a grandson of Esau and Esau is the great picture of the flesh. Esau said, give me some of that soup that you've made. Boy, let me have some of that food.

Oh, but I want the birthright. Who cares about that? He sold the spiritual for the physical. He's the flesh.

You know why we have enemies? Because we've been redeemed. Satan wants us back in bondage. You know why we have enemies? Because we've been set free.

The world wants to get a hold of us. The world wants to use your talents and your money. The world wants to use your brains and your abilities.

The world wants it. But you're saved and therefore, when you drive that truck, you do it for the glory of God. And you're saved and therefore, when you pound on that typewriter, you do it for the glory of God.

And there's the old flesh, wants to drag us down. Better know your enemy. You see, you and I belong to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

And for each member of the Trinity, there's an enemy. The enemy of the Father is the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Either I love the Father or I love the world. The enemy of the Son is Satan.

And the enemy of the Holy Spirit is the flesh. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And so there we are.

You've got to make your choice. You better know who your enemy is. Second responsibility, we had better know his strategy.

Now, it's important in a war to have soldiers. It's important to have equipment. But it's also important to have intelligence.

The finest soldiers in the world and the greatest equipment in the world, without strategy, will lose the war. Over in Deuteronomy, chapter 25, we're told how they pulled this dirty deal of theirs. Deuteronomy 25, 17, Moses says, Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by the way, and smote those behind thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou was faint and weary, and he feared not God.

In other words, they came suddenly. Satan's a master strategist. He knows just when to use the flesh or the world to attack.

He attacked them suddenly. That's why Jesus said, Watch and pray. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And Amalek attacked at the weakest point. He didn't come and attack Joshua personally. He didn't come where the great army was.

Out there in the fringes of the camp where the feeble and the weak people were, Satan likes to attack us. The flesh likes to attack us in the weakest place. You know, God tests us in the strongest place.

He tested Abraham's faith. He tested Moses' patience. He tested Peter's courage.

Those were their strongest places. But Satan comes along and tempts us in our weakest places. And my friend, you know where your weakest places are.

If you don't, you better find out. Know his strategy. He attacks suddenly.

He attacks after great blessing. What had happened? The manna came down from heaven. The water came out of the rock.

Oh, they were eating the bread of angels. They were drinking the very water that God provided. And they were saying, Ah, we've arrived.

He attacks when you're self-confident. Rephidim means resting places. It was when David took off his armor and came home from the battle and rested that the flesh got a hold of him and he became a liar, an adulterer, and a murderer.

If you had told him when he was in his chariot riding home from the battle that this was going to happen, he would have said, Oh, no, you don't know me. I wrote the 23rd Psalm. You must not know who I am.

And God said, David, you're a man like anybody else. And you've taken off your armor and you're resting. Beware, my friend, when you are self-confident and resting.

You've eaten the manna from heaven. You've drunk of the water from God. It was after Elijah had his greatest victory that he had his greatest defeat.

It was after our Lord Jesus was baptized and the Spirit came down and heaven opened and God the Father spoke that he was driven into the wilderness for temptation. Oh, it's great to have those mountaintop experiences. It's great to be in Rephidim.

I've always enjoyed being in Rephidim, having a chance to rest, but then watch out. He attacks suddenly. He attacks at the weakest point.

He attacks when we are self-confident. He attacks after a great blessing. Better understand his strategy.

We have a third responsibility. It's not enough to know the enemy, the world, the flesh, the devil. It's not enough to understand his strategy.

Thirdly, we must determine to fight. I was in seminary when Mr. Truman called General MacArthur home. I appreciate the fact that the president of our seminary, Dr. Kohler, arranged for all of us to meet in the chapel to watch the televised presentation of MacArthur's speech to Congress, April 19, 1951.

About the only thing most people remember from that speech was his quotation of that old British military song, Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just Fade Away. I heard part of that speech on the radio the other day, and it was interesting when General MacArthur began to speak that section. He said, Old Soldiers Never Die.

Somebody began to applaud. They didn't wait for the full quotation. Then he went on to say, They Just Fade Away.

Of course, that statement spawned a whole group of jokes. Old college presidents never die. They just lose their faculties.

Old bankers never die. They just lose interest. But the greatest statement that General MacArthur made in that speech was this.

In war, there is no substitute for victory. As a nation, we used to believe that. In war, there is no substitute for victory.

What he was saying is if you have to fight, fight to win. Many Christians have the idea that the way to solve this problem is compromise. I'll keep a number of little sins in my life, and that will keep me from doing the big sins.

Or I can run away, or I can pamper the enemy. Responsibility number three, determine to fight. We have some good militant songs in our hymn books.

Fight the good fight with all your might. Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the King? Rise up, O men of God. Have done with lesser things.

People don't like these militant songs. They want songs that soothe their conscience and songs that put a pillow under their head. That's why we're losing.

Determine to fight and to win. You say, well, nobody in his right mind would compromise with the enemy. King Saul did it a few years later.

God said to Saul, 1 Samuel 15, go out and fight Amalek and wipe him out. Wipe him out. I don't want one more left.

But he didn't do it. He didn't do it. And you know who killed King Saul? An Amalekite.

When Saul came to his final hour, he was killed by an Amalekite. If he'd have wiped out the Amalekites, that never would have happened. God says in verse 16, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

There's no discharge in this war. You'll never come to a place in your life, nor will I, where we can say, boy, I finally have defeated the devil. No, he's too smart for that.

I have finally got victory over the flesh. Praise God, I'll never sin again. It's a constant war.

And you've got to determine to fight. There's a fourth responsibility. We've got to trust God for victory.

Now, the Lord gave to the Jewish people all the provision they needed for victory. I'm convinced that many Christians don't want victory. They are content with traveling third class.

Well, other Christians do it. Fine. Don't measure yourself by other Christians.

I'm afraid too many times we don't really want to lay hold of the provisions God makes for us. Now, what are they? Well, number one, he gave them the manna. Can you imagine these soldiers going out to fight without nourishment? Got to eat.

God gave them manna to eat. Now, God's given you manna to eat. The Word of God.

The Word of God. Unless you and I feed on this book, we cannot defeat the enemy. Every morning early, God sent the manna down on the dew.

It's a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ and a picture of His Word. And early in the morning, you wait too long, it's gone. Early in the morning, the Jews got their little kettles and their little vases and their little buckets and they went out and gathered the manna.

But if you kept it over until the next day, you go in the worm business. It began to smell and to decay. This morning, before you came to God's house, did you gather some manna? Did you go off somewhere in your house and open your Bible and say, Oh, Lord, feed my soul.

I'm glad I can go to church today. I'm glad for the ministry there. But I want you to feed me right now.

Will you do that tomorrow morning? It sounds so trite to say this. But so often in personal counseling with people who are in spiritual defeat, when I ask the question, Tell me about your devotional life? They say, I don't have one. How much of a battle could a soldier fight if he didn't eat? And this book is our bread, and this book is our milk, and this book is our meat, and this book is our honey.

Boy, if you want quick energy, eat honey. When I was in Youth for Christ centuries ago, we used to have quiz teams. Remember those old Youth for Christ quiz teams? And one of my jobs was to sit halfway back in Billy Sunday Tabernacle with a pair of binoculars and see who jumped up first.

That was before we invented the electric chairs that we had that automatically told us who jumped up first. And before the big quiz play, we used to have thousands of people and I'd go watch these playoffs, quiz teams. I'd see the kids behind the tabernacle eating one of two things or both, raisins and honey.

Now, if I ate those two together, I'd never be able to jump up off of a chair. I said to my friend Bruce Love one day, he was a quiz captain, I said, Bruce, what do they do? Oh, he says, instant energy. Oh, he said, you eat that honey.

Do you find yourself during the day having a little bit of a slump? You say, boy, I got to have something spiritually. Get into the Word of God. Honey, instant energy.

He gave them the manna. Secondly, he gave them the water. That's what caused the trouble to begin with.

Water was a very scarce item. And when the Amalekites saw this river of water coming out of the rock, they said, we want that water. Now, this water for drinking is a picture of the Holy Spirit.

Water for washing is a picture of the Word of God. But water for drinking is a picture of the Holy Spirit. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit. And so God gave them the Spirit.

The flesh doesn't begin to fight you until the Spirit's there. Before I was saved and had the Holy Spirit, my flesh didn't fight me. It controlled me.

But when the Holy Spirit moved in, the battle began. It's like Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael didn't give anybody any trouble until Isaac was born.

When Isaac came into the family, there was a battle. God gave them the water, oh, to draw upon the Holy Spirit. Not our own flesh.

The flesh is weak. Oh, to draw upon the Holy Spirit, filled with the Spirit. He gave them the sword.

Moses said to Joshua, take your sword and get some men and go down there and fight. You know, there's a division of labor in God's army. Everybody's not out in the front lines fighting with the sword, just like in a regular army.

Some are the quartermasters and some are in transportation and some are in communications. Some are gold-bricking. Just that's the way the church is.

God said to Moses, Moses, get up there on that hill. It's one of the greatest pictures in the Bible. If you and I had been watching this on television, we would have been amazed.

Here's the camera focuses on the Amalekites and they're winning. And all of a sudden, boom, they're losing. Then, boom, they're winning.

And the commentator would say it's an amazing thing going on there. One minute the Jews are winning, the next minute the Amalekites. Wait a minute, wait a minute.

One of our anchormen has found there's a man over there on a hill. And we're feeding this into our computer, but something's going on. Every time he lifts his arms, the Jews win.

Every time his arms go down, the Jews are losing. There's a connection between that man on the hill and that army in the valley. You see, Joshua, this is the first mention of Joshua.

And God says, you tell Joshua, because one day he's going to be your successor. Joshua took the sword. Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Oh, but we don't know our Bibles. If we handled a modern weapon the way most Christians handle their Bibles, we'd never win a war.

I was not in the service. I was too young to be drafted in World War II. I wasn't around for World War I. I was in seminary during the Korean conflict, and they were not drafting seminary students.

Both of my brothers were in the Marines. My oldest brother, whose birthday is today, had to sleep with his rifle for a week because he called it a gun. In the Marine Corps, you don't call your rifle a gun.

And they had to take the thing apart, put it back together, take it apart, put it back together. There were men there who could do this blindfolded. They knew their equipment.

The average Christian doesn't even know where his Bible is, let alone what's in it. Sunday morning, Rosemary, where's my Bible? If you'd been using it all week, you'd know where it is. I think I saw it under the bed.

What's it doing under the bed? I don't know. When Jesus faced Satan in the wilderness, he faced him with the sword of the Spirit. It is written.

And so Satan tried something else. It is written. And so he tried a third time.

It is written again. Our Lord could quote Scripture. The average Christian says, hold it, Satan.

I got to get my concordance out. There's a verse about that someplace. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

And God gave them a sword. And Joshua got down there with the sword. And the word of God says he wiped them out.

He vanquished them. So God gave them the manna to eat. And God gave them the water to drink.

And God gave them the sword to fight with. And God gave them the power of prayer. I wish that somebody would write and publish a book entitled The History of Prayer.

And just start with Genesis. And go straight through to the last prayer in the Bible. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.

And then keep on going. The Church has won her battles through prayer. You see, it was fine to have Joshua with the sword.

But Joshua with the sword on the front line wouldn't have accomplished anything apart from Moses up on the mountain praying. Now Moses hears a picture of our Lord Jesus. Although the Lord Jesus is much greater, Jesus never gets tired.

And here's Moses with his hands up, lifted in prayer. The rod of God. The resurrection power of God.

Laying hold of the throne of God. And Moses is praying. It says that Moses got weary.

It doesn't say Joshua got weary. Do you notice that? I would have expected it to say, and Joshua and his soldiers got weary. It doesn't say they got weary.

It's harder to pray than it is to fight. Real prayer is hard work. I was telling our midweek service congregation this last week about the article that appeared, I think in his magazine some years back, about a man who determined to spend one hour in prayer.

So he set his clock and put it there. And he knelt and began to pray. And he prayed and prayed and prayed through his whole list and thought, well, I must be through the hour.

Ten minutes had gone by. So he said, I started all over again, prayed some more, looked at the clock. Twenty minutes had gone by.

The interesting statement was he said, I even prayed for the Democrats. He discovered how hard it is to pray for one hour. One hour.

Jesus prayed all night. Moses was up on the mount talking to God for 40 days and 40 nights. Prayer.

Moses got tired. And so Aaron and Hur came and held up his hands in prayer. This reminds me of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians over in 2 Corinthians 1.11. You also helping together by prayer.

Do you help anybody by prayer? Oftentimes I hear people say, well, the least I can do is pray for you. Bless your heart. The greatest thing you can do is pray.

Because when you begin to pray, God begins to work. But alas, we don't have prayer meetings much anymore. Announce a movie, you'll have a full congregation.

Announce a prayer meeting, a partial rapture takes place. Tragic. We're out to fight a battle.

And the only way to fight it is with prayer. Helping each other in prayer. But we don't have time to pray.

We don't have interest in prayer. We have other things to do. Like what? We have here a beautiful picture of Jesus, both up on the mountain and down in the valley.

Joshua is the Old Testament version of Jesus. Jehoshua, Jehovah is salvation. Jehovah saves.

The Lord Jesus Christ is my Joshua. He goes in and fights the battle. He's also my intercessor to help me go fight the battle.

And he never gets tired. There's no reason why we should be defeated. We have the manna from heaven to eat.

And we have the water of the Spirit of God to drink. And we have the sword of the Spirit with which we can fight. And we have the power of prayer.

The trouble is we aren't using them. A friend of mine invited me to go behind the Iron Curtain to minister. And I said to him, I think they ought to minister to me more than I to them.

Because they have gone through much more. No, he said, you go be an encouragement to them. But he said, be prepared to speak a long time.

These people are so hungry for the Word of God. That you can't get by with a 20-minute message or a 30-minute sermon. Or a little devotional talk.

They want the solid meat. You know why? They're fighting a battle. And they know it.

We're fighting a battle and don't know it. Because we've already been defeated. And you'd think every time the doors were open, people would come and say, I want to know more of the Word of God.

I've got a battle to fight. But they don't. You'd think every time there was a prayer meeting announced, folks would come streaming in.

We've got to pray. But they don't. We're defeated and don't know it.

We're soldiers. One of these days, the captain of our salvation is going to blow the trumpet and call us in for inspection. And then we'll wish we had prayed.

And then we'll wish we had studied the Word of God. Then we'll wish we had fought the devil instead of other Christians. Then we'll wish we had done everything possible for the unity of the church instead of splitting it up.

Then we'll wish we had done everything we could to build ourselves up to fight the battle. But it'll be too late. And there'll be no excuses.

I say it again. If the average church were run on the same basis as the army, most of us would be court-martialed. Gracious Father, you have called us to be soldiers.

There's a battle going on. And it cannot be won by the few. We have to work together and fight together and pray together and study together.

Oh, God, forgive us for being unfaithful to our calling. Lord, the devil is winning by default. He doesn't begin to have the power that we have, and yet he wins.

He has lies. We have truth. Oh, Lord, forgive us.

I pray that each one of us might find that place in the army where he can best serve. Oh, Lord, may we be faithful. May we not be caught entangled with the things of this world.

May we not, like Achan, be coveting material things. May we not, like David, be putting off our armor. May we not, like Saul, be pampering the enemy.

Oh, God, help us to be faithful. For Jesus' sake. Amen.