Amalek, a picture of the flesh

I'm going to ask you to turn to the book of Exodus, please, in chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. What I have will follow just exactly what you've been hearing already, and has been alluded to by several of our brethren already today.

Exodus chapter 17 and verse number 8. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Now that's important to notice where this battle was taking place in Rephidim. 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 and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill, and it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed.

When he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereon, and Aaron and Hur stayed up the hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side.

And his hands were steady until, until they were going down to the sun. Joshua discomfited Amalek. He didn't destroy him.

He discomfited 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 of the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

Moses built an altar and called the name of it, and it is significant the name, of course, which he called it, Jehovah Nisai. And he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek. That's the only time that expression is really used in your Bible, war with Amalek.

The Lord has sworn that he will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Now over to the 105th Psalm, please, to pick up a reading. Psalm 105, Psalm 105, and verse number 37.

Psalm 105, verse 37. And he brought them forth also with silver and gold. Now this is referring to the Passover, bringing them, if you like, out of Egypt.

He brought them forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Interesting. Go back for a final reading to Deuteronomy chapter 25.

I'm going to read something different. And right on the outset of it, you might think there's something conflicting here and that someone's wrong, but it's not. Just go back to Deuteronomy, please, chapter 25 and verse number 17.

And Moses writes, Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way when you were come forth out of Egypt. Not how they started, but when they were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by the way and smote behind most of thee, even all that were, notice three classes, feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary. So three kinds of people, feeble, faint, and weary.

And he feared not God. I would like just at the close of the afternoon, and I'm going to have to flip this into high gear, high speed if you like, and you'll have to bear with me, but I would like to get through it if I can. The truth of the flesh as seen as in Amalek.

I think that most of you this afternoon have been Bible readers long enough to know that when you're reading about Amalek in the Bible, you're reading about the flesh. And of course, invariably young believers say, The flesh, what is that? Is that really what's on your bones? There's times when that word, by the way, is used interchangeably. Now, I know that some may just differ with me a little, and I accept that.

But I do not find in the Bible that the flesh is evil. I don't even find that it is wicked. What I do find is what the Lord Jesus taught us, that it is weak.

Now, the flesh is not the old man. You may, I don't, have trouble with the old man. I believe from Romans chapter 6 that he was crucified.

And I do not have trouble with the old man, but I have trouble with the flesh, and so do you. Come on, we can look as innocent and comfortable as we like this afternoon and almost want to put up our hands and say, I don't think I do. You'd like to think you're normal.

Can I help you a little this afternoon? No such a person. There's not one of us here today that's normal, including the speaker. It may surprise you, I've told my wife that something happens to me, and if I go at the age of my mother, I've got six years left, so I don't have much time left.

I want to pack them as much as I can. But I said, if I do go, you'll be able to marry that normal man. And she said, what kind of a man would that be? I said, you'll never find him.

Do you know what is normal? I'll tell you what it is. You can go home and you'll find it in your house. It happens to be a word that's on your clothes dryer, and that's the only thing that's normal.

Outside of that, there is no such thing as normal. But do you know what there is? There is natural. There is carnal.

There is the spiritual, 1 Corinthians 3. But I want to speak today on an inveterate enemy that Israel had, and you and I constantly have. God has sworn that he will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. However, before that statement is given to us by Moses, notice what we read there earlier.

Moses builds an altar, and he calls the name of Jehovah Nissi, the Lord, our banner. So just as sure, just as certain, as you and I have the flesh to contend with, there can be a victory over. We can become victorious.

You know, it is far better for us to learn from the mistakes of others than painfully living with the consequences of our own mistakes. Now, why I've read these passages together is this. When Israel was brought forth out of the land, they had an equal start.

Now, I do know that I am speaking to people here today that spiritually Scripture, I can support it from Scripture, those that were saved having heard the gospel and the truth of God, we had almost a, if you like, a head start. I'm somebody that came off the street and knew nothing. Knew absolutely nothing.

Wouldn't know a verse to turn to in the Bible and so on. There was that, but at the same time, none of us came into that kingdom without a birth. So we had the same start.

And that's what we read in the 105th Psalm. That's what we're being reminded of. He brought them forth also.

We missed something in that verse. With silver and gold. He brought them forth also with silver and gold.

Who did that belong to? The people they were escaping from. They were glad to see them go. I don't believe that Israel stole it, but they took it.

And we'll find out later that that may have become a snare that snagged them in the journey. That gives opportunity, if you like, to the flesh. Because he says in the 105th Psalm that he brought them forth also with silver and gold and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.

Now you might have heard men that want to take the silver to redemption and apply it to all kinds of things and just say at the end of wonderful things in the Bible I see things that are put there by you and by me because they're not there. Okay? How come? When I go back to Deuteronomy where we read in Deuteronomy 25, verse 17, he says, remember what Amalek did. How he smoked the hindermost.

Notice he says, the faint. The feeble and the weary. What was making them faint? He had given them all the strength they needed for the journey.

Do you know what weakens us today? Their murmuring. Their murmuring. What did they become and take up with? Well, I don't know how much silver and gold there was, but they were carrying something.

And if silver and gold becomes the object of my journey through life, it's going to weaken me. And it'll weaken them. And Amalek knew, that's where I'll get them.

I will smite them. Things were going so well, they come to a place by the name of Rephidim. Rephidim means reclining places.

Places where you want to just kick back and take it easy. You know that cruise you've been dreaming of and that faraway land that nobody's gone to. You're going to go to it and come back.

I'm not condemning you for going there. I'm not quite as bad as our oldest boy. He said that he gets homesick as soon as he hits the New Brunswick border.

In other words, he's a homeboy. He's like his mother. I would be a little bit, not quite that bad, but I'm not a global traveler, okay? I have been invited.

God bless them. Nothing against brother going to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, all these places. God bless them.

I've been invited there too. I just don't have an exercise to go, even though there was a brother from Australia that was convinced. He had me convinced to go to Australia.

I want to go home to Sussex. I want to go where I feel that I'm needed, appreciated, and loved, and where I can be a help. That's why I'm here.

What about the flesh? Well, we have to understand, first of all, who was Amalek? Amalek never bothered them while they were in Egypt. And if you're content to live a life in the world, in Egypt, you'll have no trouble with Amalek because you'll simply dance to his tune for the sake of a better expression. Amalek was a descendant of Esau.

That should tell you a lot. That's who the Amalekites came from. That became such a, if you like, such a bother to them and just kind of a guerrilla warfare against the nation all the time.

He smites them. But we'll come to that in a few minutes. More than that, Rephidim.

A reclining place. Now, there's nothing wrong, brethren. After, you know, a brother in the work texted me a while ago or emailed me, whatever, and he was kind of apologetically asking for a pass to go on a vacation with his wife and family.

I said, absolutely, brother. Take your family. Take the break.

I have nothing against that. You know that. Some of us would spend our time at what we think is a break or just taking a change of life for a little while differently than others.

What might interest you may not necessarily interest me. Okay? I did go on a cruise once. I don't ever plan to go again.

I loved it. Family bought it. It was a Disney cruise.

Well organized. It was great. But when my wife and I came home, we stood in the kitchen, looked at each other, and said, well, it was very nice of the family to take us along with them.

It was enjoyable. But you know, we said we're not cruise people. Okay? So I'm not here condemning people going on cruises or these places.

But Rephidim can be a snare. Reclining places. Let me give you something.

I think already mentioned by one of our brethren, David found a Rephidim one day. It was a dangerous place. When he should have been out leading his people that he loved and serving the God he loved in war, he was in Rephidim.

He's upon his bed. And the rest of it is not history. It's a sad story.

Remember when the Lord Jesus comes, and those are the words really I have quoted to you. When he comes to the disciples and he finds them asleep, he enjoined them to watch and praise him, lest ye fall into temptation. What does he say? The flesh is wicked? No, no.

He says the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing. In other words, things could happen in that moment, and they did. We've already been hearing in ministry this afternoon about Peter, things that happened in Rephidim.

We have a large national park near us called the Fundy National Park. It's massive. It's not run by the province of New Brunswick.

It's federal. People from this country all over come to Fundy National Park. Now, if they want entertainment, if they want nightly going on, they will go to Prince Edward Island, and they'll go to Cavendish Beach.

But if you want to go to Fundy National Park, you're going to go to a place that's kind of solitude, just up there along the Bay of Fundy. It's quiet. It's very serene.

Nobody's going to bother you. I don't even think you can get cell phone reception in there, to the dismay of some that arrive. It's just Fundy National Park.

It's Rephidim. I'll tell you, it's a place where you can go if you want any Christians to find you. Is that how you take your vacation? Some do, you know.

Oh, sure. Oh, yes. Look for some place that, you know, without saying it, you know, maybe we make the week, too, without going to prayer meetings.

Shame on them. Let me tell you what happened at Fundy National Park just this summer. I wasn't home.

While we were in gospel meetings, Brother David Hurley and I, across the Bay, at Ashmore, Nova Scotia, it was weeknight prayer meeting. This is July. Lovely evening.

Two brethren showed up. Of course, they were camping, you see. They were in the park, and they were in their shorts and T-shirts.

You wouldn't mind that, did you? You see, they show up like that. Are you kidding? Not in Sussex. They came dressed like they were going to their own meeting.

Now, nobody would have bothered them at all had they said, you know, Listen, we go study at it. One of them would say, hey, I go down to Haiti. I seek to serve the Lord there.

I serve Him when I'm back here in New Brunswick and that. Just give us a break. Those two brethren went on that vacation prepared to go to the Bible reading and the prayer meeting in Sussex.

I wrote them both. Do you know why? I just relayed to them what was relayed to me by other Christians. They were a blessing to the assembly.

It was such an encouragement to our young believers to see brethren that actually went on a vacation like that. And it wasn't a last-minute thought. Oh, well, we're not too far from Sussex.

It's not our home meeting. They weren't prepared to go. I'm sorry that I have to tell you.

I wish I could only tell you that it was only on one occasion when a leader in the assembly, an overseer, was going on a vacation. His son-in-law came down to join him and had his suit. He said, what are you bringing that for? Well, he says, Lord's Day.

He said, I don't think we can do it. Well, he said, we're going to be near such and such an assembly. Can't we go there? And he says, no, wait a minute.

This isn't the young fellow talking. This is a man older than I am that should know better. Okay? Should know better.

He said, I don't think we can do it. And that suit never came off its hanger. Now, listen.

If you've gone somewhere and you didn't make it to prayer meeting, I am not here condemning you. But I want to tell you this. What those two brethren did, getting up from their camp there, I don't know if they had a trailer or a tent or a cot, I don't know what they had, and left their wife and children there and went to that Bible reading is honorable.

Do you know what they were doing? They were preserving things that can happen in Rephidim. Some very sad things have happened in vacation land. You know it as well as I do.

Some very sad things. People were never the same again in the assembly as a result of a Rephidim. You know why? Amalek attacked.

The flesh would get the best of them, as it would do with the nation. And so here they are. They're making their way out of Egypt.

They've got their silver. They've got their gold. Off to a good start.

But then they start to murmur. You start to murmur, you start to lose your footing. You start to lose the quickness of your step.

There's somebody that sees this. They're not aware of it. And do you understand that within us today, we have the flesh to contend with.

That is a principle within, and we will have war with it forever, dear child of God. The Apostle says in Romans chapter 7, and I realize that the whole of the chapter, he is not necessarily taking up that conflict, but he is alluding to it. Things that he would do, and things that he doesn't do.

He says there's a battle, there's a conflict going on. Listen, if the flesh won today, you wouldn't be sitting in this audience. Which one here doesn't have a hundred things to do this afternoon? Come on, young fellows.

I know it better than that. You got more things you could do this afternoon than I did when I was your age. Sure you did.

You didn't have all these... I didn't have a lot of the... Who writes about 19, whatever age? That's history to me. People being busy. I read those books too where men would say, you know, they just didn't know what to do.

They were just so busy. And they were back in... This is in the early 1900s. I'm thinking, wow, what would they do today? If you lived to the dictates of the flesh, you'd have headed anywhere except the La Crosse Conference.

Right? Sure it is. Everybody's got a trailer to winterize. Everybody's got the cottage to board up.

What would the natural thing be to do? I got livestock. I've got things to do. But at the same time, this is the La Crosse Conference weekend, and we're going to the La Crosse Conference.

That is a spiritual decision. I'm not here to judge or dictate your spiritual situation right now, but brethren, let me make it very plain. Sisters, good for you, because quite often it's the sisters that come out and give the little nudge, you know, and say, I think that's where we should go.

Good for you. Keep at it. God will bless you for it.

Refer them. There's a place where Israel is just relaxed and just kind of taking it easy. There's a battle going on down here, and I'm not really going to spend too much time on Exodus chapter 17.

And here's a man down there that's wielding the sword. He's becoming tired. Did you read that? It's not my Bible.

It doesn't matter what version you read. It's not there. The man that's becoming tired is the man that's holding up before God.

It's Moses as he's interceding for the one that's down there doing the conflict. Isn't that true? I'm sure that we agree today. One of the places where we are beat the most is on our knees.

And you actually have to shut that, I was going to say stupid cell phone off, but how could I say that with one hanging on my hip right now? Okay? No, it doesn't give me notices when things come in. Sometimes it doesn't have to if I get bored to go and have a look. At least it won't be an obstacle thing.

When we get down to pray, I can think of a hundred things I need to do or even read or get at, get the conference going. Listen, that is where we will gain power to defeat Amalek. The flesh is on our knees.

But there's never a moment when he is more active in his pursuit of you than when you are in that position. However, four things about Amalek. Let me just give them very quickly to you.

I don't have time to cover them all. I'm going to give them to you. First of all, Amalek is accused.

And rightly so. Amalek is attacking. That's what we read.

Exodus chapter 17. Unfortunately, I did take time to read it. With a man like Saul, Amalek is accommodated.

Saul says, I think we can work things out here. I don't think we have to be all this bad. It's not really that bad, and I'm going to spare the best of them.

We'll come to that in a minute. Last of all, and I didn't take time to read it, when Paul speaks and writes in Timothy that he would that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. You know what has happened there? Amalek has abated.

He's abated. Four things then. He's accused.

He's attacking. He's accommodated. And he is abated.

However, when we come to Deuteronomy chapter 25, and we read there what Amalek did unto thee by the way when you were come forth out of Egypt. In other words, the Lord reminds him of a tremendous victory, a tremendous deliverance. But wait a minute.

The hymn writer has it right. They didn't know the deliverance that you and I know. The bondage that you and I have been brought out of.

Theirs was from the Passover. Not denying it, not denying the purpose of God and all that, but our redemption. What we have been brought into as his people.

The power that has been given us as a result of an altar built Jehovah-ness-I, the Lord, our banner. Here comes a man and it's going to change. You see, your choices, your choices and my choices are really more powerful than our circumstances.

You know, Saul is really blaming it on circumstances. In other words, what did you expect me to do? Doesn't Aaron do the same thing? Moses is up in the mountain getting the mind of God. He comes down.

What does he see these people doing? And what does Aaron do? Well, he's saying to Moses, what did you expect me to do? Do you know what those people knew? There's lots of things they didn't know. No, but you know what they knew? They knew who they had. Pardon me.

Maybe I'm overstepping what the Bible says, but I believe that if they were dealing with Moses, it wouldn't have happened. But with Aaron, they could push it. They could push it.

Don't you think at times that sometimes there aren't those that know what they can get away, preachers included. There's other times they know they can't get away with it. Unfortunately, they thought we can get away with it.

Aaron will bend, and he did. He did. Oh, to be able to stand.

A brother wrote me the other day and was responding just a little to what I told you. So he said, in what's left of life, what are your plans? I said, that would take you sometime maybe for me to tell you. I may not have the length of six years.

I'll tell you what I'd like to do, brother, and I'll go on record to say it. I would long and love to be able to deliver testimony to a coming generation as I have received it, losing no weight on the way through. Who is Amalek when we go close? They're their relatives.

I have lived long enough to know that your relatives will not always support you. Now, they may stand up here and say the same thing about me. That's fine.

They'll not always support you. I would love it. Pardon a personal reference.

If my boys were to speak at my funeral and say what I could say at my father's a month ago, I knew who was in the audience. Scott McCloud was there. He could testify what I'm going to tell you, and I told them.

I'd bury a man that had the... I'd take the funeral of a father that was the same man I knew 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago. And I said, and there's a large funeral, and there's all kinds of overseers here could attest to somebody they know no change in, what he stood for in that local assembly and representing other companies. Now, let me ask you today, are you the same kind of a man? Or are you simply going to give in to Amalek? I met with an overseer on my way out here, dropped my wife off and fell... Didn't drop her off.

Landed in... I hope that's not on record. That's kind of rough. Let her go see her sister in Philadelphia, her sister, and came on, and an overseer wanted to meet me, and we had coffee together for two hours, what was to be likely just minutes turned into two hours.

I just shared some of the things that concern us. You know what we've come to a conclusion of? To be so thankful for those amongst us today that haven't changed, that are quite happy with the established order of testimony as we have known it in Wisconsin, and may it continue until he comes. That's what I would want to do.

He was telling me, he was speaking to one of his relatives, questioning about a young brother that had come among them and had given a certain kind of a ministry. Well, he said, calling him by name, my friend by name, he said, the young people love him. He said, say that again.

The young people love him. No, he said, that's not what it's about. We're talking about people that love the Lord.

Love the Lord. You see, these people have gone astray in their affections. They're faint, feeble, and weary.

Let me give you three things. The feeble. What have they lost? Their convictions.

They had literally lost their convictions. You see, when it comes to life, think of the first generation. Come on, some of you are first generation Christians.

Right? If you weren't, your parents were. What was it with the first generation? Conviction. Conviction.

What does it become to the second generation? A belief. What does it become to a third generation? An opinion. You think that too? It's absolutely true.

You see, it isn't a case of the convictions that I hold. It's the convictions that hold me. And it's convictions that will hold you.

These people that Moses is speaking about were feeble because they had lost their convictions. Secondly, it says they were faint. Why were they faint? Isaiah tells us they'd lost their courage.

Wouldn't this be a wonderful conference here at La Crosse today if the saints went away from this conference, not because they had been so intelligently informed or there was such tremendous ministry, but they just went away with fresh courage. Fresh courage. You lose your courage, you lose the battle.

You lose courage. And let me tell you this. In the shadows, waiting to pounce is Amalek, the flesh.

And I know I could name some today that have been very close friends of mine. I'm not pointing fingers at them, brethren. God knows in my heart I'm not.

But I have watched. It didn't happen overnight, and it didn't happen overnight with these people. The flesh has taken over.

I don't know if they even cracked the covers of their Bible today. Once led a Bible study. Once taught young Christians.

I'm talking about men my age. Do we not say like the psalmist, Preserve me, O Lord, for in Thee do I trust. Feeble, they'd lost their convictions.

Faint, they'd lost their courage. Weary. You know what had happened when they were weary? They'd lost their course.

Lost their course. How about you today? Come on, young brethren. What's your course? Are you today where you thought you would be a year ago? Two years ago? If the Lord be not come to your sister, where would you like to be? Spiritually speaking, if the Lord be not come, a year from now.

Looking back over the past year, some are here that were here a year ago at La Crosse. What about the past year? There's either been progress, or you have rescinded. You're lagging.

Other things have taken your interest. Other things have taken your attention. And do you know what really the flesh finds the best to feed on? And the best to feed? Self.

Self. As long as self is victorious, you'll become very, very wearied. My time is up.

Be that as it may, lots more can be said, like it doesn't even need to be said. Let me just conclude by saying this. Do not become discouraged.

Do not become faint by the way. Do not become weary in well-doing. These are weapons that Amalek will use on you, as he used on Israel in that day, to hinder them in a path, a course that God had for them.

God bless his word.