Fighting To Win Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. America didn't fight to win in Vietnam, and we lost.

We did fight to win in the Gulf War, and we won big time. There are many battles along life's road, battles we will lose if we lack the will to win. Today, lessons from the life of Moses on victory and how to obtain it. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today you'll be teaching from Exodus chapter 17, as Moses needs some help in defeating the Amalekites.

Well, Dave, I'm still thinking about your intro because it's absolutely right. If we're going to fight, we should fight to win, not just to maintain the enemy, but defeat the enemy. And in this story in Exodus chapter 17, what we're going to discover is that there was a spiritual battle as well as a physical battle. And when Moses was on the mountain praying, when he held up his hands, Israel prevailed and he became weary.

And there were two men, Aaron and Hur, who held up his hands so that victory could be achieved. And I want to relate that to the ministry of Running to Win. This is a ministry that is really a family ministry. We work together to see the gospel of Jesus Christ go to as many people as possible. And we need your help.

We need you in effect to hold up our hands. Here's what you can do if you'd become interested in becoming an endurance partner. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com.

Click on the endurance partner button, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for helping us for holding up our hands in the midst of the battle. On April the 19th, 1951, General MacArthur was speaking to the United States Congress and said, in war, there is no substitute for victory. When you're in a battle, you need to be in that battle to win, not just to gain territory, but to win over the enemy. And it has been said, and I think correctly, that everyone is fighting some battle. Everyone is fighting some battle.

For many of you, it may be a battle of relationships, perhaps within your family or among your friends, among your colleagues at work. And there are some battles that are very uncomfortable, that are very difficult, and you're involved in that conflict. And then also for others, it may be a battle of circumstances, your health or finances. And it's a battle. It's a discouraging battle. For others, it may be temptations or failures.

Some of you are struggling because you are victimized by other people's faults and sins. But everybody has some battle. One of the things that is important in fighting is to realize that we need to make some small decisions that are right, and sometimes some of those larger ones then become easier, and small victories lead to big victories, and small defeats eventually lead to big, huge defeats. Well, today we're going to talk about a strategy for winning, and it's taken from the 17th chapter of the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 17, many of you will know that we are looking at the life of Moses.

The 17th chapter opens with them receiving some water from a rock, another miracle that God did. But when we pick it up at verse 8, we find out that there is a battle. Well, how do we go about winning battles? Well, first of all, we need to know our enemy. We need to know our enemy. Notice it says in verse 8, then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. We have to know our enemy. Now, here the Israelites are on their way to the promised land, and there is a warring tribe that wants to stop them.

The tribe's name is Amalek. Israel had many enemies. In Egypt, they had enemies because Egypt was a land that was monotonous. It did not have hills and valleys. It was a land of desert, but also it was a land in which they were enslaved. It was a land of broken promises. Pharaoh was there, and God won those battles in a very significant way. But now we come to another battle, and that is with Amalek.

And who in the world were the Amalekites? Genesis chapter 25 tells us the story of Jacob and Esau, who were twins, you remember, and Esau was the older of the two, and eventually Esau was willing to sell his birthright. You see, because God had made some promises to Abraham, and those promises were given to the oldest child all the way down from generation to generation. And Esau came in from hunting one day and said to Jacob, his younger brother, I want something to eat. And Jacob says, I'll give you something to eat if you sell me your birthright. And Esau sold Jacob his birthright for a bowl of porridge with some red stuff that his brother Jacob had made. And Esau, therefore, became symbolic of the man who says, I'm going to live my life without God. All of this is Sunday school stuff.

This business of the particular responsibility of the firstborn, the birthright, is unimportant to me. It's like William Henley who wrote, it matters not how straight the gate, how charged the punishment, the scroll. I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. So after you have Esau in his rebellion against God, his descendants became Amalekites. Now, let us notice carefully that this warring tribe used a very special strategy. And for this, you're going to have to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 25. Deuteronomy 25, where we have a divine commentary on how the Amalekites fought and how they sought to overcome Israel. They did not succeed, but they tried. Deuteronomy 25 verse 17 says, remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary and he did not fear God.

A couple of characteristics now of how the enemy fought Israel. First of all, the Amalekites attacked suddenly. There was no warning. They didn't say we're coming.

They came at the time when they were least expected to come. And isn't that the way in which temptation comes to us? It comes without announcement and that's why we need a ready answer for temptation. Like the young man who struggled with pornography and I suggested that he memorize five verses of scripture and make sure he quote all five, five times each before he touched one of those magazines.

And then one day he had a tremendous temptation when by accident, by mistake, pornographic magazine was delivered to his door and how he had to go through that exercise that I had encouraged him to take. And after going through all those verses, he was able to throw it away without looking at it because he had a ready answer because when temptation comes, it comes suddenly. Notice also they attacked defiantly. We're back now in Exodus chapter 17, but notice that they came just at a time when Israel had been particularly blessed of God. We noticed last time that the Lord gave them manna and then he gave them quail to eat. And in this chapter, he also gave them water from the rock. In the midst of all of this provision, the enemy comes to defy God and to hinder the people of God from going on their way to Canaan.

That very time. You've probably noticed that great battles often come after great blessings. This was true in the life of Abraham because he had gone into the land in obedience to God and there in obedience to the Lord, a famine came and he went down into Egypt and ended up being disobedient to the Almighty and telling a lie in Egypt. And then we think of Jesus Christ. He had that experience in the Jordan River where the voice from heaven came and said, thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

It was a dramatic moment of Jesus Christ's initiation into ministry and it says immediately afterwards the Holy Spirit drove Christ into the wilderness and there Satan came and brought him the most difficult temptation he had ever faced. You say, well today, Pastor Lutzer, I am not fighting any battles. The money is flowing. My friends are glowing. My influence is growing. I've got everything going for me.

Well, I want you to know one of two things is true. Either A, Satan doesn't consider you to be worthy of either even bothering with or else B, expect a great trial tomorrow. Expect that battle to come because Satan likes to attack defiantly at the very moment of blessing when we have self-confidence. He moves in and wants to destroy us. Notice also that the enemy attacked strategically. Strategically. We read it a moment ago in Deuteronomy chapter 25.

You remember what it says? Amalek came to the rear and attacked your weak ones. He didn't immediately come and attack the strong men of Israel. What he tried to do is to wreak havoc through the weakness of the people and if that were to take place he would exploit it and after exploiting it then of course he would try to drive a wedge among the Israelites and gain as much territory as he possibly could. You know, that's the way the enemy is. You see, God comes and tests us in our strengths that we might be encouraged and that our strength might increase. Satan attacks our weaknesses with the intention of making us even weaker and eventually bringing us down.

And so he attacks strategically. Jesus, you remember, in the Garden of Gethsemane said to the disciples, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The idea there is make sure you know the enemy and watch for the enemy and then pray that you would not enter into temptation because the flesh is weak. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We must know our enemy.

Let me ask you a question today. Do you know where you are most vulnerable? Do you know your weakness? You know, I've often thought to myself that if you lived in a city and there was one place in that wall that had a hole and the enemy constantly kept coming through the same place in the hole, wouldn't the city council eventually say to itself, it is time for us to make sure that that hole is repaired because that's the vulnerable place where the enemy comes?

Yet there are so many people who have exactly such a place like that in their lives. The wall of their soul has been broken down. The enemy moves in in the same place day after day after day and they do not have a strategy by which he may be combated. Scripture would teach us, know your enemy. But secondly, use your weapons. Use your weapons.

For this we continue now on the text. It says in verse 9, so Moses said to Joshua, choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand. And Joshua did as Moses told him and fought against Amalek and Moses and Aaron and her went up to the top of the hill. So it came about when Moses held his hand up that Israel prevailed and when he held his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses hands were heavy and so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on that. And Aaron and her supported his hands on one side one and on the other the other.

Thus his hands were steady until the sunset. And what difference did that make? Verse 13, so Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Notice that carefully. What was the strategy that Moses used? First of all, he said, Joshua, I want to use you. Now why did he use Joshua?

Here, interestingly, is the first time that Joshua appears on the pages of scripture. Here Joshua is a soldier. Later Joshua will become a spy and eventually Joshua will become the leader that succeeds Moses. Moses chose Joshua because he knew he was a man of integrity and a man who could be trusted. And so Joshua was chosen to lead the people in the valley. And Moses says, choose young men, make sure that you have swords, and be prepared to fight in the valley. Now might Moses have avoided conflict with the Amalekites?

Could he have simply said, well, we don't want to get into a conflict. If we ignore them, they'll go away? That's the way some people are when it comes to Satan. They think to themselves, if I leave Satan alone, he will leave me alone. What they don't realize is that they are already engaged in a battle, and with an attitude like that, Satan has you where he wants you to be. Because one of the things that the enemy wants to do is to intimidate us and to pretend that he is so strong that there is no use that we should even begin to fight him. Well, I want you to know today that Satan is strong and mighty, but he is not as strong as God. And one of the things that we must guard against in society is not only that we might know much about the devil, but we must be concerned, lest we paint such a picture of Satan's strength and power that we think he is too strong even for God.

There's no way that they could avoid Amalek. Here's an oasis, here's a certain geographical territory, and there are two tribes who want to occupy the same space. The battle is inevitable. Don't you ever think that you will be able to get by in life by somehow avoiding conflict with the devil.

You cannot do it. So the Lord says, Joshua, I want you to take a sword and I want you to fight. The Apostle Paul says that we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. But notice also, and this is very intriguing, Moses says, while you are fighting there, he says, tomorrow I will station my self on top of the hill with the rod of God. Now remember, this was the same staff that he had picked up while he was doing time in the desert because of his killing of an Egyptian. And it was when he was there that he got this staff and the Lord says, I'm going to bless this staff, you can throw it upon the ground and it will become a serpent. Later on it is that staff that he used to point it over the Red Sea and the sea parted.

He used it to smite the rock. That very rod of Moses has become the rod of God. And God says, Moses, what I would like you to do is to stand on the hill and notice it says, verse 11, it came about when Moses held his hand up that Israel prevailed and when he let his hand down Amalek prevailed.

What's going on here in the text? Well, there are many explanations for Moses' raised hand. Some people say that it was a sign of advancement and he was giving Joshua in effect orders to advance.

But we know that that can't be the case because Joshua knew that the order was always to advance. Some folks think that when Moses put his hand up he was making some kind of an oath before the Lord. But the best explanation is that Moses' raised hand was a symbol of prayer. The scripture says in Psalm 63, verse 4, I will raise my hands in praise unto thy name.

And in 1 Timothy the apostle Paul says, I request that prayer be made for men everywhere with raised hands without wrath and doubting. Now you just think this through. The Bible says that when Moses held his hand up that Amalek was defeated and Joshua prevailed and when he put his hand down because he became weary, the Israelites began to lose the battle. You know, I can imagine if there were television cameras there trying to photograph the battle that there would be an analysis going on. The photographers would notice that sometimes it seemed as if Amalek prevailed and then Joshua would suddenly score a tremendous victory in this battle. And as the analysts were looking at it they wouldn't know what was the cause of this strange phenomenon. And then off in the distance they saw an old man, actually three men, and they noticed that when the man held his hand up then the Israelites prevailed and when his hand was down it was then that Amalek prevailed.

And so the discussion that night was this. What possible connection could there be between a raised hand on a mountaintop and victory or defeat in the valley? It simply does not make sense scientifically.

It does not make sense militarily. What connection can there be between these two events? But of course God made a connection because God says Moses, as long as you are in intercessory prayer, as long as symbolically you are raising your hand, it is then that I will be winning the victory in the valley. So what was Moses' strategy? First of all, the sword in the valley. And secondly, you have the rod on the hilltop. And both of those worked together. And then thirdly, another part of his strategy was the banner.

It was the banner that really encompassed all of those strategies. It says in verse 14, then the Lord said to Moses, write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua. Moses was into journaling. The Lord told him write it down and actually what he wrote down is the book of Exodus.

He is the author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And so the Lord says, Moses, write this down and recite it to Joshua that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and named it the Lord is my banner. The Lord is my banner. What does this banner represent?

It represents the fact that Moses and Joshua were actually fighting under the direction, the leadership, and the strength, and the name of the Lord God. They were under the flag of the Lord of hosts. This past fall when we were in Europe, we were in a little country called Liechtenstein. Most people don't even know that it exists.

I didn't even know it. In fact, there are this little country is so small. It is only four miles wide and 16 miles long, but incredibly beautiful right next to Switzerland. And when we stopped in Liechtenstein, they showed us a huge castle on a hill that goes back to the 12th century. And the prince of Liechtenstein, the king and the prince live there in that castle.

And you can't find a way up to the castle, at least very easily, and certainly if you got up there, you wouldn't be let into it. But they said to us that whenever the flag is flying, the flag of Liechtenstein, you know that the prince is at home. Well, isn't that interesting? You see, the flag represents identification. And it should be that when the world looks at us and when they see us and when they see our lives and they see Christ in our lives, that they should say that these people belong to the king of kings, the prince's home. There is evidence within our lives that God is among us. Years ago, the older people used to say that one of the true marks of the church is, quote, the manifest presence of the living God. You read the Book of Acts and you find that that was on every single page.

God dwelt with his people, and it was the presence of God that either attracted or repelled the world. Their flag was clear, was a mark of identification. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer, and I want to assure you that as long as I live, I am committed to keeping that flag flying. And we want to thank the many of you who help us here at the Ministry of Running to Win.

Running to Win is now in Nigeria. We thank God for this opportunity to continue to expand the number of stations, the number of people who are listening and who are coming to faith in Christ. I also have in my hands a letter from someone who says that they listen regularly, but here's something interesting. This person says, I not only listen for myself, I listen for others so that when I meet them, I know how to respond to their needs. So it's not only for you, but it's for other people. And I hope that you get on the phone once in a while and call your friends and tell them to listen to the Ministry of Running to Win. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner?

That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Of course, you need more info. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. And as you have probably heard me say numerous times, RTWOffer is all one word. RTWOffer.com.

Click on the endurance partner button, and there's the information that you're looking for. I trust that you'll consider joining us. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again, but remember why we exist.

It's to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to thousands upon thousands of people and to encourage believers as we run the race of life. Go to RTWOffer.com. Click on the endurance partner button, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Know your enemy and use your weapons. First steps in developing a strategy to win. Today, Dr. Erwin Lutzer brought part one of Fighting to Win, the eighth in a series of 12 messages about the life and times of Moses, a man getting closer to God. Next time, why Israel had to learn what Douglas MacArthur knew. There is no substitute for victory. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.