The Rock

Greetings in the Lord's name. Turn please to Exodus chapter 17. Reading please in Exodus chapter 17.

Thank you. Exodus chapter 17, there's a twofold division. The first part of the chapter has to do with water from the rock, but we're going to read the second section from verse 8 down to verse 16.

It has to do with war with Amalek. Exodus 17 please and verse number 8. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose this out man 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 had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses Aaron and Ur went up to the top of the hill and it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed.

When he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy and they took a stone and put it under him and sat. He sat there on and Aaron and Ur 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 discomforted 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-nisha for he said because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Now the Lord blessed the reading of his precious word and I would like to gather up maybe some thoughts already that have been given expression to in this morning session. When you read and study the Old Testament you can see types and the Lord Jesus Christ how precious is the great antitype. Now we believe that a type is really some person or event or thing that is clearly set forth in the New Testament.

I made mention already about the rock and that's a lovely type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the rock and we put our trust in that rock. Like the Psalmist said, Psalm 18 and 1, the Lord is my rock and my fortress.

The Lord Jesus Christ is that great rock. In 1st Corinthians chapter 10, the apostle there he says, that rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. And the smiting of the rock that you have here in the first part of the chapter is a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ being smitten at Calvary.

And the result of course is that there was water. It flowed and there is blessing that came out of that and that reminds us truly of John chapter 7 when the Lord Jesus Christ that last great day of the feast he stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, come on to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The Lord Jesus Christ was the smitten rock. Just reminds me of another occasion when Moses smote the rock and you have that recorded over in the book of Numbers chapter number 20. And Moses there was told to speak to the rock.

Interestingly the word rock there is the elevated rock. Just speak to the rock. And Moses in somewhat anger, he smote the rock.

Oh yes the waters flowed. But you know he spoiled the picture didn't he? And there was consequence for Moses' disobedience, the governmental dealings of God with Moses and not allowing him to enter into the land. Speak to the rock.

You know our Lord Jesus Christ and we're reminded of that today already isn't he? He's risen. He's glorified and he is our intercessor at God's right hand. He is our great high priest and he will never again be smitten at Calvary.

No he lives now and all we have to do is come into his presence and just make a request to no one and speak to the rock. And so it's a beautiful tight picture. We had a dear sister recently in Saskatoon coming into the local assembly there.

First of all she was on the search, on the search. She was going from one place to another trying to find some scriptural gathering and center. And we had an evening gospel service and many of the churches locally, denominations and so on, they closed their doors in the evening and that was her free time.

And so she came to hear the gospel and she said you know those are the messages that I heard in my youth. And then she came and she observed simply the Lord's Supper. She looked in on that and she thought how precious that is.

Anyway this dear sister, well she did tell me recently, she said you know this is the best-kept secret in Saskatoon. Well would to God, I don't know whether to be ashamed about that or not, but would to God others would see the same as this dear sister saw. Well what I was going to say about it, she recently said to me how precious are those types.

You know she had never, she had never had the scriptures opened up as we are privileged to do and have been from our youth. The scriptures opened up and types are shown of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so those were precious, precious things to her soul to come into the good of.

And I trust that you enjoy something of the types in the scripture. Let me just quickly, because we already mentioned something about feeding and I think it was in Song of Praise about the manna. And so my mind just went along this way as well.

There's a beautiful type in the Lamb you're acquainted with in Exodus chapter 12, the Passover and the Passover Lamb. And of course the direct correspondence is 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. And the children of Israel there in the land of Egypt they were to feed upon the roast lamb.

That was their enjoyment. But then as they went out of Egypt into the wilderness in the previous chapter of Exodus chapter 16, God in his goodness gave them something to feed on as well. He gave them the manna from heaven.

And again beloved what a what a what a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ in its description of the manna which was small, round, white and sweet to taste. Consider our Lord Jesus Christ in his humility already been mentioned. He humbled himself, lived in chapter 2, obedient unto death, the death of the cross.

The humility of the Lord Jesus Christ, small, white, a spotless purity, no sin in him, no sin on him, wholly harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, our Lord Jesus Christ. The manna, a beautiful picture of Christ. It was round.

We could think of his eternity and of his eternal sonship, eternal father, eternal son, Lord Jesus Christ. So small, white and round and sweet to taste. You feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ? You find enjoyment in that? In contrast to the things of this world that we once pursued, now to feed on Christ? Oh but I want to take you just a moment because there's another type and it involved food.

They entered into the promised land and what had they in the promised land? They had the grain to feed upon, you know, and we have Christ. I'm thinking of a little verse in Leviticus chapter 2. It's speaking about the meal offering, the green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. Now in the promised land we can feed upon Christ in glorious resurrection.

John 12 and verse 24, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it is alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And so in the promised land now, in the land, we can feed upon Christ in that new way, the risen one.

Easter weekend, risen, the Lord Jesus Christ. First Corinthians chapter 15, right? Stamped with resurrection. Christ the firstfruits.

Every man in his own rank in resurrection. Christ the firstfruits. They that are Christ's that is coming.

And so there's beautiful types of our Lord Jesus Christ and we'll see more just now in the verses that we have read. What we have quickly, you have warfare that we have read about. You have war with Amalek and that suggests, beloved, that suggests conflict in the life of the believer.

You say, do you have conflict in life? I do. And every believer, in fact, I can think of some young believers that have come to me recently, said, you know, look, I'm saved by the grace of God and I never, never, ever thought that I would be up against this. You know, I think conflict in the life of the believer is possibly a good sign.

Showing that really something's come in, eh? And there's a new nature. What Peter speaks of, they possess the divine nature and there's conflict in the life of a believer. I think that that's the lesson in a lot of what we have read here.

The enemy and warfare. Paul would say in Romans chapter 7 verse 18, he says, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Now we know that he goes on to say, too, in Romans 8, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

So I take it that the believer is not in the flesh as such. Nevertheless, the flesh comes in, the believer, and there is warfare. And you just need to go to the book of Galatians and you can clearly see it said for, especially chapter 5, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh.

There's a conflict. Warfare, not the literal thing that we've read about, but there's this conflict in the life of the believer. And if you were to trace, if you were to go back and trace Amalek, well, I would send you back to Genesis chapter 36, and you would see that he's in the line of Esau, this genealogy.

Amalek is there, and actually he's a blood relative of Jacob. And so there's conflict, literally here that we've read about conflict in the life of the believer and warfare. Anyway, the flesh is that corrupt human nature that continues with us and will continue to dog us right to the end.

The spirit, the flesh. Galatians chapter 5 gives those lists, doesn't it? It gives the list of the works of the flesh. Terrible.

Terrible. Things that stem out of the natural heart of man, over against the fruit of the spirit. And that would be very precious to think about.

We won't just go into that right now. But the enemy makes the attack. You can see it here clearly.

In verse number 8, the enemy attacks, and Amalek is out to stop the progress of the children of Israel. And that's our enemy. He doesn't want us to make spiritual progress.

He doesn't want us to go ahead to things of God. He can't keep us out of heaven, but he can sure hinder us in our journey there and put obstacles in the way, and he's out for our downfall, the enemy, conflict in the life of the believer. Verse number 9, we are introduced here to Joshua.

What a great man he was, Joshua. His name means, Jehovah, the Lord is salvation. The Lord is salvation.

Now if I could quickly say, I can see warfare here, shall I say, on two fronts. There's warfare Joshua has down, shall we say, in the valley. But there's another warfare going on up in the mount.

And we ended on that note, didn't we, our last speaker, about prayer. And I can see the significance of this now in Moses. He's up in the mount.

Now as long as Moses' hands are up in intercession, up in the mount, they're successful. Joshua in the battle against the enemy. See, I want to bring a few things together.

I want to think of our spiritual warfare, yes, but I want to think of victory, victory. And dear fellow believer, we shouldn't be defeated. We should know what victory is.

And as long as Moses' hands were up in intercessory prayer, there was victory. But his hands grew tired and weary. Nothing like our Lord Jesus Christ.

All the types, all the pictures, they fail, don't they, in many ways. And Moses' hands grew heavy. Oh, but there was prayer partners.

There was Aaron and Hur, and each side they took and they held up the hands of Moses, and there was success in the battle against the enemy. Oh beloved, we give thanks for a high priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will know no failure, will he. Isaiah chapter 42, he shall not fail, our Lord Jesus.

And he is engaged in the intercessory work he ever lives on our behalf. Okay, hurdly. Victory, verse number 13, the enemies defeated, really not destroyed totally, because we read here at the end that they were to have war, they're going to have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

And beloved, this mightn't sound comforting to you, but you're gonna, there's going to be ongoing conflict right to the end of the journey. You know, sometimes you look at elderly ones and older ones and you think, well, they've been successful, it's all over. No, the battle is not over until, until these bodies are changed.

Philippians chapter 3, who shall change these bodies of our humiliation and fasten them like onto his own glorious body. Oh, what a day that will be. Meanwhile, we're down here and, and, and we're up against an enemy.

But beloved, can I, just hurdly, minutes, can I leave these with you? There can be success and victory, hurdly. Three or four pointers about success. What about the indwelling Spirit of God? I think that you have that here indicated.

Even, you know, as I suggested earlier in the smitten rock and the water coming out, the Spirit of God. And for the believer today, it's indwelling. Mention already made, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and our bodies being the temple, the dwelling place of the, of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians chapter 1, you are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. The believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God and we can know victory and help through the Spirit of God indwelling. Okay? Number two, the important thing of our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Be conscious of that and look up constantly to Him. Depend upon Him. Without Him, we can do nothing.

No success on our own. So that is important. The indwelling Spirit of God and the intercessory work of our Lord Jesus Christ at God's right hand.

And what about the sword? Take up the sword. I'm thinking of Ephesians chapter 6 a minute, in relation to the armor. It says there about the sword of the Spirit, and I'll just give it this application.

Let it be the Word of God. And I think that that is a great preservative today, to get into the Word of God, to lay it to heart, to memorize it, to know what the Word of God says. You're up against the enemy, just as our blessed Savior was.

It is written, it is written, the Word of God, and the enemy will flee. So there is help then to overcome as we take the sword, take the Word of God, the intercessory work, and that of prayer, constant, continual prayer. You know, you can offer up prayer even as you drive along the highway.

You can lift your heart to God in prayer and be a worshiper as well. Maybe I can see that here. Let me look.

Just to go down the verse number 14, a brief comment. Verse number 14, they were to put this in a book because they were to remember, they were to remember. This was a highlight occasion written in a book.

And then in verse number 15, they were to build, at this place, they were to build an altar, build an altar. And when I thought of the altar, well, I thought, that's worship, worship at the altar. Abraham built altars.

He was a pilgrim, yes, but he was a worshiper, tended an altar. And so, do we have an altar? Do we have high-marked places in our Christian life? And I'm going to mark it out here because there was something important in verse number 15. There was the Jehovah-Nisha, the Lord, my banner, the Lord, my banner.

So they raised a big banner and had the altar, and it was a high, watermarked place in the experience of the children of Israel. Have we got that in Christian lives? Would we raise the banner? You know, I think of that literally being done. Stories come to my mind.

It was a little gospel campaign in an outpost just in a country meeting roads, and they had a schoolhouse, my father along with another. And I remember a huge banner, a huge banner out in front advertising the gospel meetings. Well, they would go around, invite the people to come, and there wasn't a lot coming, but there was a woman driving down the road in her car, a widow woman from a neighboring town, and she saw the banner.

She saw the banner. And so she stopped in to the gospel meeting, and she said, can you come, will you come over to my community, neighboring community, and have and preach the word? She says, I attend a denominational church there, she said, and I'm a believer. But she said, it's rather a dad thing.

Would you come? She says, I'm sure there are those who would come and hear the gospel. And so the brothers went over there, neighboring town, and they pitched their portable tent hall and had meetings there, and there was great blessing in that little community. And I can remember baptisms being held, and then a little formation of a little assembly testimony.

And I often think I connected with the banner, and that zealous soul seeing the banner and having the gospel preached in her particular community. Now I must conclude, time is gone. Let me just say something about the closing verse.

I kind of, I kind of in my reading and studying stumbled a little bit here at the end in verse number 16. Because I read the margin, maybe your Bible, my margin here in Newberry, Newberry gives a little indication of what's going on. And the little warning in verse number 16, for he said, because of the hand of the Lord upon thee, a hand of the Lord against thee, against the throne, the hand of the Lord against, there seemed to be a little difficulty as to the, as to the most, the best translation of this verse.

But you know, it seemed that the enemy, the enemy still at work, the enemy still at work. And the hand of the enemy, the hand of the enemy was reaching out to the very throne of God. Anarchy.

Who's that? That's the enemy. Whether Satan, the world, the flesh, the flesh as you have here, that's the enemy. And it's out to destroy.

And it would reach right to the throne, the throne of God. And he would usurp a place in the throne of our hearts as well, if we didn't dedicate ourselves to the Lord. If we didn't address him and and want him to come in and take control.

The flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. Oh, that we might yield to the flesh, but that we might serve the spirit and the things of the Lord and be blessed in turn. So be encouraged now.

We have an enemy. We can know victory. And the enemy will flee and raise the banner and appreciate what the Lord has done.