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[0:00] If we could, this morning with the Lord's help, turn back to that portion of scripture that we read in the book of Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17, and if we take as our text the words of verse 14 to the end.

[0:22] 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.

[0:36] And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nissi, the Lord is my banner. For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

[0:52] It's often said that our school years are our best years.

[1:06] The best years of our life. Those years that we went to school trying to gain an education that would prepare us for the big bad world.

[1:18] And I'm sure that for many of us, myself included, our school years were the best years. And for those of you who are still in school, remember they are the best years of your life.

[1:30] That's not to say that we don't enjoy what we do now in our job, or in our home, or in our family. But when we look back, it always highlights to us that when we were young and naive and growing up, we had no worries.

[1:46] We had no real concerns. There was nothing that majorly upset us or caused us any concern. But now having left school, and if I can use the term, that bubble of protection, and the naivety of being so young, we've graduated from one school.

[2:06] And on graduating, we've entered into another school. The School of Life. And in the School of Life, there's no graduation ceremony. We don't progress to a higher class, or in order to be tested on our different abilities and skills.

[2:22] There's just one school. And one classroom. But what makes the School of Life so difficult is that no one knows what the lessons are going to be. There's no set curriculum.

[2:34] The syllabus is... There isn't a syllabus which there is to follow, because everyone's experience is so different. And none of the lessons are the same. And for some pupils in the school, they come up against hard, hard lessons.

[2:49] Not just because they need to be taught them, but because that's just part of the School of Life. But it's these lessons which shape the lives of the pupils, and mould their thinking, and make them into the person that they are today.

[3:05] And this is true for you. And this is true for me. And I know that for some of you in here today, the School of Life has taught you, and it has shaped you through many good experiences.

[3:18] But it's also shaped you and taught you through many difficult experiences. But when speaking about the term, the School of Life, we need to ask the question, who is our teacher?

[3:30] Who is our teacher? Who is teaching us and shaping us and has a plan and a purpose in all that we go through and in all that we experience in our life? Well, the answer, of course, is the Lord.

[3:43] The Lord is our teacher in the School of Life. But as hard as it may be, let's never be tempted to think that the Lord is some heavy-handed schoolmaster who puts bad pupils through things in life in order to teach us a lesson.

[4:00] That's not the way the Lord works. Yes, our circumstances and our experiences are there to teach us. But the Lord's purpose in everything, and He has a purpose in everything and everything that happens in our lives, and it's there to make us see that He is with us.

[4:20] He is still with us. And He is there to help us. And that we are to trust that He knows what He's doing even in the darkest of circumstances. And as I know what we were just singing in Psalm 86, where the psalmist, in his own experience, he prayed and asked the Lord to teach him.

[4:39] Teach me, he says. And he asks the Lord that the Lord will teach him to trust in Him and to live in obedience to Him. He says, teach me Thy way and in Thy truth.

[4:50] O Lord, then walk will I, unite my heart that I Thy name may fear continually. He was asking to be taught. And when we come to this chapter in Exodus 17, that's what we find with the children of Israel.

[5:06] We find them being taught in the school of life. And it's through their experience in the school of life that the Lord is teaching them His way. He's teaching them His truth.

[5:17] And He's teaching them to fear His name. Because on three separate occasions, the children of Israel, they learn valuable lessons. And they are lessons which we all need to learn.

[5:30] Because on three occasions in this chapter, we see the people complaining, we see the people fighting, and we see the people remembering.

[5:41] The people complaining, the people fighting, and the people remembering. So first of all, we'll look this morning at the people complaining. The people complaining.

[5:53] If you look at verse 1 with me. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord and pitched in Rephidim.

[6:05] And there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the Lord did chide with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why are you angry with me? Why do you tempt the Lord?

[6:16] And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst.

[6:31] So in the opening verses of chapter 17, we pick up on the account of the children of Israel on their wilderness journey on towards the promised land. A journey that was going to take them 40 years to get there.

[6:45] But at this point, the children of Israel, they have just left slavery in Egypt. They've just begun their journey towards the promised land. Because in chapter 14, we're told about that momentous occasion when Moses led the children of Israel to the Red Sea, the banks of the Red Sea.

[7:05] And with Pharaoh's army approaching behind and wanting to recapture the people of Israel and take them back into slavery, there was no way back. No way back.

[7:16] Because to go back meant slavery and death. But it also seemed that there was no way forward. Because the Red Sea was in front of them. And you know the story for yourselves.

[7:28] That Moses, the leader of God's people, he put his staff into the Red Sea and it parted. Parted with a wall of sea on either side.

[7:39] And it was that miraculous event which allowed the children of Israel to pass through the Red Sea and on to the other side. And as you know, Pharaoh's army, they tried to pass through the Red Sea themselves.

[7:53] But the Lord closed the sea in on top of them and they all drowned. And the day that the children of Israel were delivered from slavery in Egypt, it was a great victory.

[8:04] A momentous victory to see the Lord's people delivered and the Lord's enemy defeated. It was a climactic moment in the history of the children of Israel.

[8:15] And it was such a key moment that in the following chapter, in chapter 15, we see Moses composing a song and singing the song.

[8:26] The song of Moses. Where Moses, he's praising the Lord for the Lord's salvation. But by the time we reach the end of chapter 15, the mood in the camp has completely changed.

[8:40] There had been singing and rejoicing and praising the Lord for his wonderful act of parting the Red Sea and the deliverance. But as the children of Israel began to make their journey through the wilderness towards the promised land, everything changed.

[8:56] because what we're confronted with in chapter 15, 16 and 17 is that the people of Israel, they were repeatedly complaining to Moses.

[9:08] And the first case in chapter 15 was when they came to the wilderness of Shur. And there was no water that they could drink because the water was bitter. And because they had nothing to drink, they complained to Moses.

[9:21] They complained that the Lord had made the water water bitter. And so Moses went to the Lord and the Lord made the bitter water sweet.

[9:32] And then in the second case in chapter 16, when the Israelites travelled a bit further on in their journey, they came to the wilderness of sin. And again, the Israelites, they complained to Moses because this time they were hungry.

[9:48] They had no food to eat. And by this time they were blaming Moses for all of their circumstances and saying that they would have rather died in Egypt with full stomachs than have to endure the starvation of the wilderness.

[10:02] And the Israelites were complaining so much that they began to accuse Moses of leading them into the wilderness just to kill them. But again, the Lord provided bread from heaven to feed his people.

[10:17] However, the third case of complaining came in this chapter, in chapter 17, when the Israelites once again found themselves without water. They'd journeyed to this place called Rephidim.

[10:30] But there was no water for the people to drink. And the Israelites, they were angry with Moses and they demanded that he provides water for them. But by this point, Moses is now reaching the end of himself as their leader because all they were doing is moaning and complaining in his ears.

[10:50] And Moses says to the Israelites in verse 2, why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the Lord? And again, the Israelites, they accuse Moses for all their circumstances.

[11:03] They blame him. Have you brought us out of Egypt just to kill us and our children and our livestock? And as we see in verse 4, Moses didn't know what to do anymore.

[11:18] God's servant didn't know what to do because the Israelites were constantly moaning and bickering and complaining. And Moses, he comes before the Lord and he says, what am I going to do with this people?

[11:29] They're about to stone me. They've had enough of me. They want rid of me. And Moses, he's at the end of his tether and he doesn't know what to do with them. And he didn't know how to deal with all these people.

[11:43] But again, the Lord teaches them and the Lord provides for them. Because Moses strikes the rock, the rock at Horeb and water comes out from it.

[11:58] But you know, looking at the reaction of the Israelites, with all that they were faced with, I have to be honest and say, I would be the same.

[12:11] I would be the same. Yes, we can have the objective view of them, of their situation and say they should have trusted the Lord. They should have known that the Lord would provide.

[12:22] They should know that the Lord was always going to be faithful to them, which is true. There's no denying that. But the reality is that many of us here would react in the same way that they did.

[12:33] because looking at their circumstances and the continual disappointment and the repeated struggle and difficulty, it's no wonder that they were asking, where is the Lord in all this?

[12:47] Is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord with us or not? Where is the Lord in this? And as many of you know, it's one thing to stand on the shores of the Red Sea and see the Lord's hand in everything that's going on in our lives.

[13:07] It's one thing to experience the Lord's victory and the Lord's blessing and praise the Lord when everything is going well in life. But my friend, it's another thing altogether to continue to trust the Lord in the daily struggles of the wilderness journey.

[13:25] It's another thing to keep looking to the Lord when you're coming up against difficulty after difficulty after difficulty. It's another thing completely to remember that the Lord hasn't changed.

[13:38] He's still the same God. He's still present with us in the darkest of our circumstances. And my dear friend, is it not the case that it's in the most painful and the most trying of experiences that we learn the most important lessons.

[13:59] But in this school of life, it's not what we learn about ourselves that shapes us. It's what we learn about the Lord. It's what we learn about the Lord.

[14:13] And I believe that that's what shines through so beautifully here. Because the children of Israel didn't know what was happening at the time. They didn't know what was going to come next.

[14:23] They didn't know why they were going through what they were going through. And they were repeatedly complaining. Yes, they were complaining, but their anguish brought them to that point where they were asking, why?

[14:38] Why? Why is this happening to me? And with every complaint and every moan and every heartache and every tear and every sorrow, what's so wonderful is that in each case and with each difficulty, the Lord graciously reminded his people that he's still there to provide for them.

[15:03] And that's true for us too. That in the darkest of circumstances and in the most difficult experiences, the Lord is still there to provide for us.

[15:15] And whenever we question everything, the Lord reassures us that he's still with us. He hasn't abandoned us. He's still on our side.

[15:25] He's still leading us and guiding us. My friend, it's not an easy lesson. No one ever said it would be. But what ought to make the lesson in some sense bearable is that the Lord promises to be with us every step of the journey.

[15:49] Pillar of cloud by day. Pillar of fire by night. And my friend, I want you to be assured of that today. That the Lord is teaching you in your trials and in your sorrows not that you'll turn away from him, but that you'll turn to him.

[16:09] that you'll turn to him and in your turning to him you'll pour out your heart before him. Because that's the greatest encouragement in scripture.

[16:21] Cast all your cares upon the Lord. Why? Because he cares for you. He cares for you. My friend, that's what the Lord says.

[16:33] He cares for you. So that's the first lesson we see here. a people complaining. They learned, but they learned that the Lord is gracious.

[16:45] But secondly, we see the people fighting. The people fighting. If you look at verse 8, it says, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

[16:57] And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out 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.

[17:09] And what we see in this next section is that it's as if journeying through the wilderness and arriving in the not so familiar place of Rephidim where the Israelites were tired and worn out.

[17:22] As if that wasn't enough for the Israelites. But to add insult to injury, the Amalekites, they then show up and they show their faces in Rephidim.

[17:34] And they come on the scene with the sole purpose of fighting these weary Israelites. And they come to steal whatever they can get, whatever's of worth that belongs to the Israelites.

[17:46] And looking at the Israelites who had not only just left Egypt, but they hadn't been in the wilderness for that long. And yet, this is another trial that was coming their way.

[17:58] It's another trial. They had barely left Egypt. And they're coming against difficulty after difficulty after difficulty. And I find it's a reminder to us that the Christian life, it's full of trials.

[18:14] Full of trials and full of challenges. And that it's not that all the trials come when we're near the end of our journey. And the end of our wilderness journey in this world.

[18:27] Sometimes the trials come at the very beginning. Sometimes they come just as we leave Egypt and we begin our pilgrimage towards the promised land. Sometimes the opposition arrives when we step onto new territory and follow the Lord by faith.

[18:43] But every one of these trials, as it was with Israel, it's part of the Lord's curriculum in order to teach us to trust the Lord. It's to teach us that his ways are not our ways.

[18:56] It's to teach us that his thoughts are not our thoughts. And so as the Israelites reached Rephidim, they're confronted by this formidable group, the Amalekites.

[19:10] Now the Amalekites, they were descendants of a man called Amalek. And Amalek was the grandson of Esau. And Esau was the brother of Jacob, who fathered the twelve tribes of Israel.

[19:25] There's a history lesson. But as we saw in the book of Obadiah, the brothers Jacob and Esau, they were enemies. And all of their descendants were enemies.

[19:39] And so from the outset, when the Amalekites come face to face with their distant cousins, the Israelites, there's already this long-standing feud between them.

[19:51] They already hate each other. But what's interesting about the Amalekites is that they were this nomadic group and they lived in the wilderness all the time and they travelled from place to place and they made their livelihood on raiding other tribes and invading other settlements.

[20:09] The Amalekites were this ruthless and fearless group which preyed on the possessions of others and they killed for pleasure. And that's what the Amalekites sought to do with the Israelites when they saw them journeying through Rephidim thirsty and getting tired.

[20:29] But Moses comes to the fore in this passage and he comes to the fore as the leader of God's people and he puts a plan into action in order to protect the people of Israel and defeat the Amalekites.

[20:44] Because Moses says to his young apprentice Joshua, he says to Joshua in verse 9, 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 my hand.

[20:59] The leader of God's people called Joshua to choose suitable men who had the aptitude for fighting. And so Joshua chose from the congregation of Israel those who had the skills, those who had the ability, those who had the gifts to enter into battle with the formidable enemy, the Amalekites.

[21:20] But Moses, the leader of God's people, he wasn't going to go to the battlefield. He wasn't going to go and stand beside Joshua. He was going to go to the top of a hill with the rod of God in his hand.

[21:36] A rod which symbolised the presence of God and the power of God. Now when Moses says that he's going to stand on the top of the hill, he didn't imply that he was just going to stand still and be a spectator from this great vantage point where he could see everything and just watch Joshua and his army fighting.

[21:58] When Moses says he's going to stand, it's a military term. And it's a military term which indicates that Moses will be part of the battle.

[22:10] He'll be part of the battle as much as Joshua is part of the battle on the battlefield. Because when Moses stands on the top of the mountain with the rod of God in his hand, he'll be taking up this military duty.

[22:25] Moses will be assembling for battle. And so on the following day, the tomorrow, as Joshua and his army, as they assemble the battlefield to confront the Amalekites, they're all standing there, Moses and his brother and this man called Har, who were all the leaders of the people of Israel, they went to the top of the hill which was above the battlefield.

[22:49] And then we're told in verse 11, it came to pass when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed. When he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

[23:01] But Moses' hands were heavy and they took a stone and put it under him and he sat upon it and Aaron and Har 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.

[23:16] And so what we see is that what went on on the battlefield was determined by what took place on the top of the hill. As Moses held up his hands with the rod of God in his hands, Israel were winning the battle.

[23:33] But as Moses became weak and tired and weary, the Amalekites, they began to win the battle. And the way this is expressed in the original language, it suggests that this happened a number of times where the control of the battle had passed between the Israelites and the Amalekites.

[23:53] And it was all related, related to what Moses was doing with his hands. And realizing that there was this connection between the two of them, Aaron and Har, they stepped forward and they support Moses.

[24:09] by holding up his hands and the battle is won. The battle was won. And you know, looking at this occasion, if it wasn't for Aaron and Har holding up the hands of Moses, the battle would have been lost.

[24:32] If it wasn't for the two men on either side of God's servant Moses, they wouldn't have prevailed. And Joshua and his army would have been killed by the Amalekites.

[24:43] If it wasn't for those standing alongside God's servant, there would have been no victory. Because it was too much for Moses to do it on his own.

[24:54] And my friend, if the Israelites learned anything in their battle at Rephidim, it was the lesson that they can't do everything on their own. It didn't matter how good and how faithful and how energetic God's servants were, they still needed those beside them and alongside them in the battle.

[25:16] And that's what we need as a church and as a congregation. Because we not only need people like Moses and Joshua who will stand in the forefront of the battle, whether that's in the pulpit or working with the people of the congregation or even on the mission field.

[25:35] But we also need people like Aaron and her. We need people who will stand by those in the forefront and uphold them in the heat of the battle.

[25:47] And what the battle at Rephidim ought to show us is that as a congregation and as a church, we have a responsibility to stand.

[25:58] We have a responsibility to stand. We have a responsibility to be part of the spiritual warfare. Is that not what the apostle Paul says? Our fight is not with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and the spiritual wickedness in high places.

[26:18] And for that very reason, the church of Jesus Christ, it's not a club. It's not a club where we pay our membership fees and we're part of it, this group for a year.

[26:35] My friend, this is an army. This is an army. It's the Lord's army. And as those who are part of the Lord's army, we have a great responsibility.

[26:47] Because like Aaron and Har, we ought to gather on the hill and stand side by side with God's servants and uphold them in the battle.

[27:00] And we ought to uphold them as Aaron and Har did in prayer. My friend, we have a responsibility to stand side by side in prayer as the gospel is proclaimed.

[27:15] Week by week in this place and in this community, we have a responsibility to stand side by side in prayer as those in our community who are still in darkness come under the preaching of God's word.

[27:31] We have a responsibility to stand side by side in prayer that homes and families in our community will be transformed by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[27:44] And I want to make no bones about it. If you're a member in this congregation or in any congregation and you are fit and able to go, your place is to stand with the Lord's people in the house of prayer.

[28:02] And that if there is too much going on in your life that keeps you from the means of grace, then you are doing too much. Yes, I know people have families, people have work, they have circumstances, but if you're in the Lord's army, if you've been called to the Lord's army, then you ought to be in the prayer meeting.

[28:22] You ought to be standing side by side upholding those in the battlefield in prayer. And there ought to be no excuse. For as the motto goes, the Islamic Gospel Association have it, much prayer, much power, little prayer, little power.

[28:43] If you want to see this congregation grow and see people coming to Christ, people turning from their sin and turning to the Lord.

[28:54] If you want to see this place being fruitful, to see the Lord's blessing upon it, yes, we can do as many activities as we want until we're completely burnt out, but we need to stand by the side of our fellow soldiers and bring this battle before the Lord in prayer.

[29:14] Much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. prayer. But not only that, not only that, we're also taught here that in all our battles the Lord is with us.

[29:35] The Lord is with us. It doesn't matter who the enemy is. It doesn't matter what they have to say. It doesn't matter how strong they may look or what the battle may entail.

[29:46] The psalmist in Psalm 46, that great song of victory. He says twice, the Lord of hosts upon our side doth constantly remain.

[30:00] And in all our battles, we need to be praying for one another, bearing one another's burdens, to trust the Lord that he is on our side.

[30:12] He's for us, he's with us, he's in the midst of us in every battle. So that's the second thing we see here. The people fighting.

[30:25] We've seen the people complaining and they learned that the Lord is gracious. We've seen the people fighting and they learned to trust the Lord. But lastly, we see the people remembering.

[30:38] We see the people remembering. Look at verse 14 with me. The Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and we hush it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

[30:54] And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nisi, for he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

[31:07] When the Israelites defeated the Amalekites at Rephidim, Moses, gathered stones together and he built an altar as a memorial, a monument of a great victory.

[31:21] And what's clear is that Moses didn't build the altar to himself, he didn't build it to Joshua and his army, instead Moses he was very careful to give all the glory to God, all the glory to God for Israel's triumph in battle.

[31:38] And so when Moses builds this memorial to the Lord, he names it Jehovah Nisi. There are many times in the Bible when the Lord's servants build altars to the Lord as memorial stones and monuments and they name them and maybe over the coming months we'll look at these different names of the Lord and the different places that all these altars were erected.

[32:03] But what we see here is that after the victory at Rephidim, Moses names this monument. he calls it Jehovah Nisi. The Lord is my banner.

[32:16] The Lord is my banner. And this name which Moses gives here, it referred to the military custom of a returning army in which the flag or the crest of the army, it would be placed on the top of a pole and lifted into the air like a banner.

[32:38] And as the victorious army would return from battle, they would return waving their banner so that all the people who weren't part of the battle, those who were looking on, waiting and wondering how they got on in the battle, they would know from the banner that they had been victorious.

[32:59] And by naming the altar Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner, Joshua's army, they were proclaiming to the people. The Lord had won the victory.

[33:10] It wasn't them. It was the Lord who had done it. And the banner was displaying that it was the Lord who was victorious. And all the glory and all the honour and all the praise was to be the Lord's.

[33:24] But what we see here in this passage is that the Lord has not only taught the people of Israel about himself, but he also caused them to remember this victory, remember this victory.

[33:37] The Lord commanded Moses to write down this momentous occasion so that it will be stored in the annals of history and so that the Lord's people in the generations to come, in our generation, they will not only remember, but they will know what took place in the battle of Rephidim.

[33:59] And you know, I can't help but apply this to ourselves and our situation today because as you know, today is yet another Remembrance Sunday where many people they've gathered at monuments and memorials the length and breadth of Britain to remember the fallen in wars past and in wars present.

[34:21] And with every monument and every memorial, their sole purpose is a banner. Their purpose is to remind us not only of what happened in the past, but also that the effects of that past event, that these effects, they roll on to the future, to our generation.

[34:43] And like what Moses did, there have been many banners of victory set up to remind the future generations of what those in the past did for us, as we say, lest we forget.

[34:56] And that's what the Lord was doing here with the Israelites, where he commanded Moses to write the victory in Rephidimus, write it as a memorial, so that it will be told to the future generations.

[35:11] And that the Lord's people will remember that even though the Amalekites will continue to war with the Israelites from generation to generation, the Lord has blotted them out.

[35:23] That's what the Lord says. they'll continue to try and defeat the Israelites in the future. But the victory in Rephidim was the promise and the banner that they would not prevail.

[35:39] And that's what happened. The Amalekites were a recurring problem for the people of Israel in the generations to come. But when we look at the history of the people of Israel in the following generations from Moses to Joshua to Gideon to Saul to King David, they were all coming up against this formidable enemy.

[36:02] But as the Lord promised way back in Rephidim, I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And what's interesting here with the Lord's statement about the Amalekites is that the only other time in the Bible that speaks about the Lord blotting out something.

[36:25] This one, it speaks about the Lord blotting out our sin. Because to blot out something is the image of wiping it away.

[36:36] It's the image of complete cleansing. It's an image of renewal and restoration. And what I hope you can see coming across so beautifully in the Lord's command to Moses to remember this wonderful victory at Rephidim, is that through this victory, the enemy was blotted out.

[36:55] Through this victory, the enemy was blotted out and the generations to come, although they had to encounter this enemy for themselves, it was still a defeated enemy.

[37:08] And the Lord was saying, remember this moment. Remember this moment. You are to recount it to the following generations. You are to remember this victory. You are to remember why we have peace from our enemy.

[37:23] And my friend, many people remember the fallen. We remember them once a year. One Sunday of a year that's referred to as Remembrance Sunday.

[37:34] But for the Christian, every Sunday is a Remembrance Sunday. Every Lord's Day is to remember the greatest victory.

[37:48] Every Lord's Day is an opportunity to remember why our greatest enemy has been defeated. Sin has been blotted out. It may affect the generations to come, but it's a defeated enemy.

[38:04] It may affect us in our day and generation, but it's a defeated enemy. And every Lord's Day is a reminder that it's a defeated enemy. And that we have peace.

[38:16] And we have peace through a cross. Peace through a cross. We have peace through the cross and the Lord has done the same victory at Calvary as he did with the victory at Rephidim.

[38:31] He's commanded us to remember such an occasion. He has commanded us to recount the Lord's victory at Calvary for the generations to come.

[38:41] do this in remembrance of me. And every time we sit at the Lord's table and remember the greatest victory and the greatest sacrifice, we lift our banner to those looking on and we confess, Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner.

[39:08] banner. The Lord is my banner. The Lord is the reason for my victory. He has blotted out my enemy. He has cleansed me from my sin.

[39:21] He has made me as white as snow. Can you say that today? That the Lord is my banner.

[39:37] Can you say that? The people of Israel learned a lot in Rephidim. And they're complaining. They learned that the Lord is gracious.

[39:50] And they're fighting. They learned to trust the Lord. In their remembering, they learned the importance of a past victory. Israel learned a lot.

[40:04] But I hope, my friend, that we are learning a lot too. Not only what the Lord is like, but also what the Lord has done for us in providing the greatest victory through the cross of Jesus Christ.

[40:23] I hope we're all learning. that without his victory, we are lost. We're lost. Without looking to that victory, you are lost.

[40:40] But I hope that you'll be able to remember the name and confess the name. Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner.

[40:55] May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. We thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast a name which is above every other name.

[41:12] And help us to confess the name Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner, that we would proclaim to this world and to those around us that there are the God who has won for us a great victory, that death has been defeated, sin has been cleansed through the blood of a lamb.

[41:35] And, O Lord, that we might be able to say with the Apostle, Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to look to Him.

[41:46] Help us to confess His name. Help us, O Lord, to see that He is one who is with us and who is for us, who is beside us, and who will never leave us nor forsake us.

[41:59] Cleanse us then, we pray Thee, and do us good for Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen. Shall conclude by singing in Psalm 106.

[42:16] Psalm 106, it's in the Scottish Psalter, page 378. Singing from the beginning down to the verse marked 5. Psalm 106, from the beginning.

[42:31] Give praise and thanks unto the Lord, for bountiful is He, His tender mercy doth endure unto eternity. God's mighty works who can express or show forth all His praise.

[42:43] Blessed are they that judgment keep and justly do always. Down to the verse marked 5 of Psalm 106, to God's praise. Psalm 106, from the beginning.

[43:21] To the beginning. To the beginning. To the beginning. God's mighty works who can express or show forth all His praise.

[43:44] Blessed are they that judgment keep and justly do always.

[44:01] Remember me, Lord, with the love which Thou to thine dost pay.

[44:18] With Thy salvation, O my God, To visit me from here.

[44:36] By Thy, Thy, Thy, Joseph, do they see, And in their joy rejoice, And be with Thine in reditums, Triumph with cheerful voice.

[45:13]  the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forevermore Amen