God's Battle Plan - Exodus 17:8-16

Good morning everyone and welcome to Faith Bible Church. It's wonderful to see you here this morning and good evening for those that are tuning in online. I pray that this morning's service would be a blessing to you and encouragement.

I just want to share a few things. Yesterday men's Bible study breakfast was a wonderful, great gathering. The fellowship was just amazing. Just how the men were conversing with each other and sharing lives and iron sharpening iron.

Indeed it was. Thank you Hezekiah for giving us the devotional there. Good job. We're blessed as he went through some of the attributes of God. Just a good study there. Thank you today for Lauren. Appreciate you Lauren and thank you for that.

Announcements wise, we're following the service. We're going to have a communion service today which is always wonderful. This evening at 6 o 'clock we have our prayer meeting. Men's Bible study is next Saturday at 3 .30.

Pastor Started Began, this is going to be once a month for the study of the canonicity of the scriptures. Going back and looking at what this is what we base our faith on. Is it credible? Can we stand on this word?

Just going back and seeing the history of that. It's really an enjoyable study and good to know that it is special and there's a reason we hold to this in everything. Maybe consider coming out to that.

It's a great study. Thank you pastor for that. Next in two weeks is resurrection Sunday. There's going to be a fellowship in the morning at 10 o 'clock. It's going to take the place of our 9 .30 Bible study.

So at 10 o 'clock, we'll announce it again next week. But please plan on coming out a little early for service at 10 and have some great fellowship and some food and enjoy each other's company. I was reading a little bit on what corporate worship is and this one devotional said, Corporate worship, it's a regular gracious reminder that it's not about you.

We've been born into a life that is a celebration of another. We are a very self-centered group of people. We're always thinking about how is that going to affect me? Is that going to make it easy for me?

We're always planning our day out, our lives out, somewhat egocentrically. But we have to check that and remember that we need to be God-centered. That's what our corporate worship is. We're acknowledging Him in our worship, in our praise of Him, not ourselves.

So we kind of take the step back and we put Him forward and put Him where He belongs to be. Because we don't deserve to be in His presence, but He allows us to be there with Him, to fellowship with Him, because of our trust and faith in Jesus.

So we praise Him for that. And I'd like to read Romans 11, just a few verses here, and you can listen along. This is Romans 11, 33 through 36.

Amen.

And that's what life is all about, is to give Him honor, to give Him glory. And that's what we ought to do every time we gather corporately. And may that be what we do today. So would you please join with me in prayer?

Lord God, we thank You that You have gathered us together, Father, to worship You, to bring You glory, Father. That You would be the center of our affections and our thoughts and our minds and our voices.

That, God, You would help each one of us to set aside those things that encumber us, the things that distract us, the troubles of this world. And there are misery and challenges and struggles, Father, we acknowledge that.

But You give us Your grace to live through those periods, those issues, those challenges. So, God, may we honor You this morning. We thank You for those that help in the service and executing with the music.

Father, may our voices be a sweet aroma to You, Father, and that You would guide and lead us in this service. That we would offer You a sacrifice of praise, Father, for You are worthy of all that we have.

And so, Lord, go before us in this service, and we look forward to communing with You around the table. God bless our time, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

And let's stand and sing.

The Final Judgment and the Worship of God

Our schedule for this morning is Revelation chapter 20, verses 7 -10. Revelation chapter 20, verses 7 -10. When a thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth.

God commanded God to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they ran up on the breadth of the earth, and came past the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city.

And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are. And shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

May the Lord bless you to hear His word.

Let's stand and sing, Come, Thou Fount, and O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer.

God as Israel's Banner in the Battle Against Amalek

Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 17, verses 8 -16. Exodus chapter 17, verses 8 -16. Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us some men, and go out. 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 said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed.

And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands became heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side.

And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

And Moses built an altar and called its name, The Lord is My Banner. And he said, Because the Lord has sworn, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. This is the word of the Lord.

Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that you are faithful and protective. And you fight for us. That the war does not depend on our strength, but yours only. And that we get to take part in it. Father, we pray that you would use us well.

And that we would be obedient all the days of our lives. And Father, we pray that we would be forever loyal to the Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name. So after a series of internal trials in the wilderness, lacking drinkable water, lacking food, and lacking water, Israel now faces an external force.

And this is an important reminder for the church today, because as God's people, we will have enemies in this lifetime. It's not just the internal struggles. It's not just the hardship of the world living in a fallen world.

But that there is an active force that is going against God's people. There are real enemies that want Christians to fail. And I'm not talking about your atheist neighbor or pagan co-workers. I'm talking about the powers and principalities.

Satan and his angels. After all, Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that the battle is not against flesh and blood. Your atheist neighbor and your pagan co-workers are not your enemies. They're captives. They're enslaved to sin.

They need to be freed. Our true enemy is Satan and all the demonic ideologies that he throws at the church, hoping that one or two would stick. And those ideologies come sneaking in. At first, it seems harmless.

And when it captivates the church, it makes us turn away from God. And it divides the body of Christ. I give you a couple of examples. One being the critical race theory, which divides the body of Christ into skin colors and how oppressed different skin colors are.

But for Christians, we must not hold on to these demonic ideologies because we're united in Christ. Whatever privilege I had growing up is nothing compared to the privilege we have in Christ. And another thing, another satanic ideology is communism.

And that one seeks to divide the church based upon socioeconomic levels. And it drives the ideology through a sin called envy. If someone has more, that person has to give it up for the sake of, quote, unquote, equity.

And they deify the government as God, as the actor in which who will divide up the resources equally. And that's a satanic ideology that must not be crept into the church. And that's how the enemy attacks us in the Western church, through these ideologies from the world.

And we need to not get comfortable with this. We need to not be comfortable looking at Christian life as something that we enjoy, and then on Sunday we worship together, and then you're free. But we have to be aware there's an active battle going on.

Battle for your minds, to fill your minds with lies so that we would focus on something else and that we would divide ourselves from the Christ's body. And this passage reminds us there is an active battle for God's people.

The main point of this passage is that we each do our part, remembering God will win the war for us. We each do our part, remembering that God will win the war for us. First, when God's people are attacked, they must focus on God as they do their part.

When God's people are attacked, they must focus on God as they do their part. Unlike the previous trials in the wilderness, here Israel faces an external force, external human threat. Now, Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

Who are these Amalekites? According to Genesis 36 .12, Amalek was a grandson of Esau, who was Israel's twin brother. And they were a nation of people who lived around Negev, which is the southern region of the land of Israel, and around the Sinai Peninsula.

They were kind of nomadic. And what kind of enemy force were they? Deuteronomy 25 .17 -18 tell us that they were more experienced than the Israelites. This is what it says. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt.

How he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary. And he did not fear God. Moses tells us that Israel was not prepared at all for this attack.

It was a surprise attack. After all, they were tired and weary. From the whole journey, they were walking in the wilderness for days, if not weeks. And of course, they were not militarily prepared at all.

After all, they were former slaves. Egypt did not train them for battle. They would have been scared to train them for battle in case there's an uprising. Now, when we consider the Amalekites, they are a strong force, yet they did not fear God.

So they were a people who worshipped false gods. They were pagans. And by default, they had no regard for God's people. After all, those who do not fear the Lord do not really care for God's people. Hence, the Amalekites targeted the weak and the vulnerable of God's people.

Here, this battle is done as a self-defense. Israel was not picking a fight on their way to the Promised Land. But they were attacked as they were passing through. And in order to defend God's people, Moses commands Joshua to rally up the troops.

Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. As Israel had no time to prepare for this unexpected battle, Moses' commands are concise and urgent.

And now the question is, who is Joshua? This is the first time Joshua is mentioned in the Old Testament. And we will find out later that he will be the next leader of Israel after Moses' death. However, Moses does not tell us much about Joshua here.

Because the focus is not on the person, but the job that needs to get done to protect God's people. Joshua will gather the troops, go out and fight. And now, what will Moses do? While Joshua is fighting the battle physically, Moses will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in his hand.

Now, the rod of God is the staff that Moses had. And he's been using this to perform miracles and signs. The rod of God was precisely the rod in which Moses struck the rock that provided drinkable water for the whole nation of Israel in the middle of the wilderness.

The rod of God here represents God's presence. God's power to deliver. After all, all these signs were used to deliver Israel out of various troubles. And although the 80-year-old Moses, remember, he's an 80-year-old man here.

He could not fight physically in the battle. Yet, he still had a role in this battle. And it was to hold up the rod for God's people to see. And they would remember God's presence among them during the battle.

And verse 10 shows us that each person did their part. While Joshua and the other men were fighting, Aaron, Moses, and Hur, the leaders of Israel, went up the hill. And again, Hur is mentioned for the first time here.

And later, we will find out he was one of the leaders of Israel. But again, the focus is not on the person involved. It's not how great that person was, how skilled this person was. But rather, they have to do their part.

They each had their own roles, despite the age, despite the physical inability. Moses would not have been able to fight in the physical war as an 80-year-old. Neither would Aaron. Now, verses 11 to 12 focus on the battle and the placement of Moses' hand.

And of course, the soldiers knew and readers know that the focus is not on Moses' hands. But what is in his hand? The rod of God. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

Now, this is mysterious as to why the state of the battle is decided by the placement of Moses' hand, which is holding the rod. And I can't explain the mechanism here, but there was a correlation that Israel noticed.

Whenever the rod of God was lifted up for all to see, God's people were winning. Whenever the rod of God was down, the battle favored the Amalekites. And the pattern was that whenever God's people focused on God's presence, that God is with them, they were winning.

And whenever they lost sight of God's presence, the rod, which symbolized it, they started losing. In fact, verse 12 shows us a dilemma. But Moses' hands became weary. Oftentimes, we look back at the Old Testament saints, especially Moses.

Moses is a top figure of the Old Testament. Even the New Testament people refer to the Old Testament as the book of Moses. Moses, the law, the law and the prophets. And we tend to think that people like Moses and Joshua were unlike us.

They're supernatural. After all, God did so many miracles through them. However, verse 12 reminds us that Moses was just like any human being. He was frail and weak. The battle depended on Moses holding up the staff.

But Moses could not do so by his strength alone. That was the reality. And the rest of the verse tells us what had to be done in order for God's people to win the battle. So they, as in Aaron and her, took a stone and put it under him, like a chair, and Moses sat on it.

And Aaron and her supported his hands, one on each side, and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. In order for God's people to win, everyone had to do their part.

Aaron and her had to support Moses because he alone was not sufficient. Aaron and her had to hold up Moses' hands because Moses was weak. And in order for God's people to win, everyone had a part to play.

And this is really important because some churches and denominations over-read this. And then they read their context into this. And what they do is, okay, Moses represents the senior pastor. And then Aaron and her, they represent the other pastors or elders.

And man, it's all up to Moses to hold up the rod. The battle depends on Moses' rod. And the other pastors, they're just the supporting role. They have to just hold it up. That's all they do. But that's what we call eisegesis.

We're reading our own context into it. Nowhere in the Bible can we connect Moses to the role of a pastor, even senior pastor. The point of this passage is that Moses was not strong enough to do this all by himself.

And other people had a role to play in order for the battle to be victorious. It was not done by one single hero. But everyone was doing their part. That's the importance of what's happening here. It has nothing to do about the role of the senior pastor or any other pastor for that matter.

Now, what was the result of God's people working together as they focused on God's presence, which is the rod? So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. The army of Amalek suffered a heavy loss because God's people worked together, relying on God's presence.

In the church age, we do not fight against flesh and blood. As in other human beings. But spiritual enemies, Satan and his demons. Our battle is against the evil spiritual forces and their ideologies, false teachings.

And they're powerful. And in fact, they're injected into really many parts of society we live today. Education, politics, entertainment, even corporations. The enemy attacks the church from all facets.

And how do we respond to the incoming attacks? Similar to how Israel fought their battle, we must focus on God and do our part. Now, how do we rely on God? It means we do not use the same method as the world uses.

The church's goal is not political influence. The church's method is not pushing any social agenda. If it were pushing social agenda, we wouldn't be here. We'd be meeting by the Capitol, protesting every Sunday.

No, we put on the full armor of God, right? The armor of God from Ephesians 6. And we proclaim the gospel. The only way the church survives the onslaught of lies and slanders, and, you know, for some churches, physical persecution, is through the proclamation of the gospel, which has the power to save souls.

The church's job is not to gain political power or social influence. It's to save souls by sharing the gospel. The grace and mercy of Christ on the cross who paid for our sin. And on the third day, He rose from the dead.

It is precisely through the gospel that people against Christianity are saved. And when they're saved, they will not be persecuting the church anymore. And when they're saved, they will not be pushing demonic ideologies in their schools or in the political realm or in their sphere of influence because they're actually living according to God's will, not for Satan's will.

It's the gospel. It's the proclamation of the gospel that has the power to save. It's when people who are dead in their sins become alive in Christ that their worldview changes. Their minds are filled with God's truth rather than Satan's lies.

And then they vote in a godly manner. They teach in a godly manner. And they write laws that are godly. And they enforce laws that are godly. It's not the way that the world says it ought to be, which is to gain as much power as possible and enforce it.

That's not the church's job. Now, whose job is it to proclaim the gospel? Is it just the pastor? Do you need a seminary degree? This passage shows us that it's not just dependent on one person. But everyone plays a role in this battle.

It was not just Moses against the Amalekites, right? It was not just Moses on top of a hill and then the fire came down. It was also not Joshua against the Amalekites. It wasn't just Joshua and the might of his force.

God's people each had a different role. And each one was crucial. The text doesn't say one was more important than the other. The text doesn't favor Moses' role over Aaron's role. In fact, Aaron was very necessary as Moses' strength was failing.

And in the same way, brothers and sisters, you each have a role to play. It is not just one person's job to share the gospel. It is not just one person's job to disciple the next generation. Everyone has a part to play.

And it will look different. It doesn't have to be the same. We're not all Moses holding up the rod, right? We're not all Joshua fighting in the battlefield. Whether you help with music so that the church may sing and our minds be filled with God's truth and our hearts rejoice in who God is, or you disciple the next generation, right, the children, and even new believers, however old they are.

And whether you teach or preach, you go evangelizing, everyone has a role to play. And whether you pray privately and corporately, everyone has a role to play. And your part in the battle is important.

And that's how the church survives the onslaught of attacks from the enemy. And not only survives when we all play our part, when we all do our part faithfully. Churches often thrive. Now, what is the appropriate response to a victory over our enemies?

God's people must remember His first victory, which promises the ultimate victory. God's people must remember His first victory, which promises the ultimate victory. After Israel won their first battle, God speaks to Moses.

Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. This is the first time in the Bible that God commands His prophet to record His deliverance in a book.

Now, what is the content? That the Lord will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Now, here after the first victory, Amalek, they weren't blotted out. They fled. But after the first victory, the Lord assures them that the ultimate victory is coming because He is on their side.

The Lord guarantees them that the ultimate victory is coming because He fights for them. The Lord knows that this will not be the last time the Amalekites attack, but He guarantees His ultimate victory over them.

And in order to commemorate God's promise, Moses built an altar. Verse 15, And Moses built an altar and called its name, The Lord is my banner. For he said, Because the Lord has sworn, The Lord will have war with Amalek for generation to generation.

The altar's name is significant because it gives credit to the Lord for their victory. The Lord is my banner would remind Israel that it was precisely through the Lord's presence lifted up for all to see that Israel won against a mighty force.

Not only that, this first victory will serve as a sign and seal for the ultimate victory to come in the future. And in that time, the Lord will fight alongside God's people again. He will not abandon them.

He'll be on their side. And no one's going to remember the enemy anymore. And up to this point, the Old Testament saints built altars to commemorate God's gracious blessing. The first altar was built by Noah after God delivered his family from the flood.

Abraham built an altar to commemorate God's promise of the land. Isaac built an altar when God reminded of the blessing of many offspring to Abraham. And Jacob also built an altar as a reminder that God graciously delivered him from his brother Esau.

And here the altar is built up for God's people to remember God's promise that he will fight for them in the future. And it will be victorious. Through their first win against their enemy, God reassures their future victory.

If God has defeated our enemy this time, would he not victoriously war against them in the future? That was the point of the altar as a reminder that who's actually fighting the battle? Who's ultimately in control?

For Christians, this is especially true when we consider what Jesus Christ has done. How do we know that God will fight for the church, preserve the church, provide for the church despite such a powerful enemy as Satan?

The answer is not that, oh, we can all fight Satan by ourselves, right? Some denominations believe that it depends on your faith. It depends how holy you are. And you rebuke Satan and demons. That's not what we see here.

We don't rebuke any Satan or demons. We look to God. For Christians, we look to Jesus Christ's victory on the cross. Just as the Lord defeated the Amalekites for Israel, Jesus defeated a greater enemy, sin and Satan, on the cross for his people.

We see Christ's decisive victory on the cross in Colossians 2, 13 through 15. And you being dead in your trespasses, sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made a life together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.

And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. It's the cross that's the guarantee of victory. Verse 15, having disarmed principalities and powers, Satan and his dominion, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

When Jesus died on the cross, what seemed like a loss was actually the greatest victory. Satan was humiliated.

In his loss.

When Jesus won on the cross, and he died for our sin and freed us once and for all. On the cross, Jesus dealt a deadly blow to sin and Satan altogether. On the cross, Jesus freed his people from the deadly grip of sin and death and triumphed over Satan and his demons publicly.

For Christians, no matter how great the enemy seems, we can remember that the final victory belongs to the Lord when we look back at the cross. A good illustration I heard, I think, from Pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones was that consider the cross as the D-Day.

For any World War II historians here, the D-Day marked the day in which Hitler lost. Now, this does not mean Hitler stopped trying after the D-Day, but the D-Day loss was so strategically victorious that Hitler could not have won possibly.

He could not possibly have won after that day. The cross is the D-Day. And for us who live on this side of the cross, the war has basically been won. There's no other way Satan can win. Now, Satan, just like his follower Hitler,.

Will linger on.

Until the V-Day, the final day of the war. And that's the passage in which Jim read, Revelation 20. He will try to fight against the Lord, but there's no chance. And that's how we ought to live as Christians.

The war has been won already. The enemies are just being stubborn. And they'll see the final war, the final victory is of the Lord's. And Christians, as we live in this time when it seems like the enemy's winning, where you might lose your job for speaking God's truth about sexuality, gender, and political matters, sanctity of life, and the world is extremely hostile against the Bible and the claim that Christ is the only way.

When we look at what Christ has done, we have no reason to fear when our King has defeated our enemies on the cross 2 ,000 years ago. And He will vanquish them once and for all one day. And we wouldn't remember our enemies anymore.

Temptations to sin will be just a history. Persecution, mockery, and any threats because of your faith will be all gone. And until that day, Christians, we are reassured of that by looking at the victory on the cross.

Let us pray. Father, thank You that Your Scripture speaks to us and is so relevant to us today. Father, we pray that You would remind us that the victory is Yours and we have nothing to fear in Christ.

And Father, help us to speak boldly the truth in love. No matter what we might face temporarily, Father, we pray that You would use us, help us to do our part faithfully wherever You place us. In Jesus' name.