Will you please turn to Exodus, the book of Exodus, chapter 17? We begin with verse 8 through verse 16.
And Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
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 mine hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, 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; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur 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 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: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it The Lord Our Banner.
And he said, The Lord hath sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
In the same book, Exodus, chapter 32, verse 17:
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.
And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
Exodus, chapter 33, verse 11:
And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent.
The book of Numbers, chapter 14. We begin with verse 6.
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes:
And they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Only rebel not against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from over them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.
But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the Lord appeared in the Tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.
In the past, we have been considering together the eight men in the book of Genesis. We mentioned that God’s interest is in man. He wants a certain kind of man: that man who is conformed to the image of His only beloved Son.
For this reason, we find how He works and works and works in the five persons we find in the book of Genesis. As you put these five persons together, you see the man that God is really after.
Now, after God has gotten His man, we continue to consider that God will use that man to do His work. We find that in the life of Moses: how Moses was raised up by God and used by God to do His work as a servant.
Now, this morning we would like to continue on to see in Joshua the soldier of the Lord.
You know, God not only wants man. He not only wants that man to be His servant. But, on the other hand, you will find that man is also a soldier of the Lord.
Of course, first of all, we must be that man, because that is the most important thing. God’s emphasis is always on the being, not on the doing. If we are not what we ought to be, we cannot do what He wants us to do.
But after we become what He wants us to be, then naturally, out of that being will come forth duty. That is, we will be doing the work that God has appointed us to do—not just any kind of work, but His work.
And yet, you will find, at the same time, there is a conflict going on—a conflict that has been going on throughout the centuries. It is a conflict between God and His enemy, Satan. It is a conflict between the kingdom of God and the power of darkness. It is a conflict between God’s purpose and Satan’s obstruction.
Spiritually, you find there is a battle going on throughout the centuries. And we who are redeemed of the Lord are very deeply involved in that conflict.
But we must remember, first of all, that it is the battle of the Lord. In other words, it is not your battle or my battle. It is not something that you and I will just fight out by ourselves. It is not. The Bible tells us that it is the battle of the Lord.
We are just joined in that battle under the banner of our Commander-in-Chief, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this battle, we are all involved. Because we are involved in this spiritual battle, we need to learn something about soldiery. In other words, we need to know: How can we be good soldiers of Jesus Christ?
You remember, in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, how he said, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
Now, we ought to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. We are not just here to take it easy. In one sense, we do rest in the Lord; and yet, in another sense, we are in a fight. For this reason, we have to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Look at Paul himself. At the end of his life, he could declare that he had fought the good fight.
So, brothers and sisters, do remember this: we are not only children of God, enjoying His life and being conformed to the image of God’s Son. We are also the servants of the Lord. Every one of us is called to serve Him in many different ways, but with the same purpose.
At the same time, we are all being enlisted by the Lord in His army, and there is a fight that we have to fight. For this reason, I think we can learn a great deal from Joshua.
In a sense, I feel Joshua is the first soldier of the Lord in the Bible. Now, that does not mean that nobody fought before him. As a matter of fact, Abraham, you remember, led 318 of the young men whom he had trained in his own home, and he led his small group to fight against the four kings and defeated them.
But, as we read the Word of God, it seems to me that Joshua is presented to us as the soldier of the Lord. He seems to be the first one who specialized, as it were, in battle.
As you open the Bible and find Joshua, you will find that the first mention of Joshua is in Exodus 17.
Here you find the children of Israel. They came out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and while they were traveling in the wilderness, God rained manna upon them to be their food. With the smitten rock, out of that smitten rock, water came forth to be their drink.
After they had eaten the manna and drunk the water out of the smitten rock, they were given strength to go on the journey. Suddenly, you find Amalek came out to fight against them.
When Amalek came to fight against the people of God, Moses chose Joshua to lead the Israelites in fighting against Amalek. This is the first mention of Joshua.
Joshua, the son of Nun—his former name was Hoshea, which means “deliverer.” But Moses gave him another name. Moses called him Joshua, which means “the Lord is Savior.” In Hebrew, it is Joshua; in Greek, it is Jesus.
We do not know why Moses chose Joshua to lead the battle. Evidently, Joshua must have been a person known to be a soldier. In other words, he was trained in fighting, and for this reason Moses chose this young man to lead the fight.
You know, brothers and sisters, after we are redeemed, after we come out of the world, after we cross the Red Sea and are baptized into Christ Jesus, we are on a journey. But the world is a wilderness. How can we go through the world? We need supplies.
Thank God, we find that we have our manna. Our manna is our Lord Jesus. You remember in John 6, the Lord said how God gave manna to the children of Israel, and the Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”
So we find that as we journey through the world, we do have supplies. God has provided for our needs. Christ is our manna. He is our food.
Not only that, but we find that we need drink too. Out of the smitten rock came forth water. The smitten rock, of course, speaks of our Lord Jesus, as you find in 1 Corinthians 10. Our Lord Jesus was smitten on the cross, that out of Him might come forth the river of life, the Spirit of life.
Today, we do thank the Lord that, as we journey through this world, God has provided for our needs. He has given us Christ to be our food, and we can feed upon Him day after day to receive our strength. He has given us the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in us as a fountain, and even as rivers of living water that flow out from us.
So we are well supplied to journey through this world. Because of this, you find the enemy comes immediately after they were supplied with food and drink.
Thank God, not before that. God does not allow the enemy to attack us before we are fully supplied. Thank God for that. He said, “You will not be tempted above that which you are able to bear.”
In other words, He will supply you first. He knows what is going to happen, and He will supply all you need with Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit. With that, we are well able to meet our enemies.
And sure enough, the enemy comes. Amalek came.
Now, who are the Amalekites? If you read Genesis 36, you will find Amalek is a descendant of Esau. Amalek in Scripture always represents the flesh—our flesh, your flesh, my flesh.
After we know the Lord, after we have experienced Christ as our food and the Holy Spirit as our drink, we will discover immediately that a conflict comes upon us. The conflict that comes upon us at that time is the conflict between the Spirit and the flesh.
You remember in Galatians 5, it is said that the Spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. In other words, we are the Lord’s. We have a spirit in us, and we are supposed to walk according to the Spirit.
It is at that time that we discover there is flesh there—whether it is the flesh in you or the flesh around you in other people. You find there is flesh there, and the flesh always tries to struggle against the Spirit so that you cannot do what God wants you to do.
The flesh is trying to frustrate you, to hinder you from arriving at God’s purpose for you. I do believe that every believer will find that kind of conflict in his life, and it comes very early in your Christian life.
Oftentimes, you will find that your spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. There is the conflict going on. And you know, the flesh actually is used by the enemy as a tool.
Your flesh, my flesh—the flesh that is in me. Paul said, “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” This flesh is actually used by the enemy as a tool to frustrate God’s purpose and hinder you from possessing your possession.
But thank God, here you find Joshua. He led the people to fight against Amalek.
The Bible never tells us where Joshua learned the military art. We know Moses was a great soldier. According to tradition, while he was in Egypt, he was a great general. But we do not know how Joshua learned military art. It is as if he were a natural soldier.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you not know that you and I, all of us, are born soldiers? By born soldiers, I mean born-again soldiers. Why? Because the life that we receive is a life that overcomes.
Remember, we are born into a military family. We have a tradition. As we are born into the family of God, we are born into a military family. The blood that is within us is the blood of soldiery. It is a life that overcomes.
Think of the life that you have received. It is not a common life. The life that we receive from God, the life of Christ Jesus in us—think of that life. That life was upon this earth for thirty-three years.
That life went through many battles. It went through all kinds of battles: temptations, praises, popularity, persecutions, directly from the devil, indirectly from the people, from the family circle, from His own disciples, and from the world.
You will find that that life went through all kinds of conflicts and all kinds of battles. You cannot think of any kind of battle that this life has not gone through.
And yet, you will find He was tempted in all things, yet without sin. That life went through all the battles of life and came out victoriously. It even went through death and came out in resurrection life.
So this is the life that wins. Brothers and sisters, when you think of a life that wins, it means that it is a fighting life. It is a life that has fought the battle and has won the battle. This is the life that we have received.
The life that we have received is not a common life. It is not an old life that is always defeated. The new life that is now in you and me is the life that overcomes. It is a life that wins.
We have that fighting spirit within us. Thank God, with that kind of life, we are able to fight against our enemies and overcome them.
Joshua led the people to fight against Amalek. It was a very real battle. It was a fierce battle.
Yet, the outcome of the battle was not decided by the actual fighting. The outcome of the battle was decided by the lifting of the hands of Moses.
Moses went to the top of the hill. When his hands were lifted, Joshua prevailed. But when his hands became tired and began to come down, then Joshua was defeated.
Because of this, you find Aaron and Hur stood by Moses. One lifted his right hand and one lifted his left hand to support him until the enemy was completely routed.
Now, brothers and sisters, why is it? I believe that this shows us the nature of the battle. The battle in which we are involved is not fighting against flesh and blood.
Sometimes we forget. Sometimes we are so frustrated, so blocked or hindered or squeezed in by flesh and blood, that we forget we are not fighting against flesh and blood. We begin to put blame on this one or that one, but that is not the nature of the battle.
We have to look behind it, and we have to see that the battle is the battle of the Lord. The battle actually is a spiritual battle.
It is true that on the field there is real fighting going on. You are involved there. You are struggling, you are fighting, you are straining, you are stretching. All these are very real. It is not make-believe. You are fighting.
But, on the other hand, there is something even more real than this: it is a battle in the heavenlies.
Here you find Moses. When his hands were lifted up, we know the lifting up of hands is a sign of prayer. Moses was interceding on the top of the hill, and while he was interceding, Joshua prevailed.
Brothers and sisters, what is the nature of the fight? We believe that our Lord Jesus, on Calvary’s cross, fought the battle and won.
There on the cross, our Lord Jesus completely defeated the enemy. He crushed the head of the serpent. The victory is final. The victory is complete. He led His enemies captive and made a public show of them.
In other words, on Calvary’s cross, our Lord Jesus won the battle forever. It is on the basis of the victory of Christ on the cross that we are able to win over our enemies.
Why the lifting of our hands through prayer? Through prayer, we are joined to the victory of Christ.
Remember, when we fight against our flesh, do not think that just by struggling and striving you will be able to overcome your flesh—or by trying to suppress your flesh, trying to ill-treat your body, and thinking that by doing all these things you are able to overcome your flesh. You cannot.
Just like the reformer, Melanchthon—he was the theologian of the Reformation. Melanchthon said one day, “Old Adam is just too much for young Melanchthon.”
In other words, our flesh is just too much for ourselves. You cannot fight against your flesh and win. But thank God, there is a secret, and the secret is that Christ has already won.
You remember in Romans 6, it says, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him.” Our old man was crucified. There on the cross, Christ took us with Him and crucified us on the cross.
For this reason, by the prayer of faith, we are joined to the finished work of Christ. Galatians 5 says, “They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.”
So, the only way to overcome your flesh, brothers and sisters, remember, is not by your own struggling. I think we all have that kind of experience. Even Paul in Romans 7 has shown us what that is.
He said, “What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that I do.” He discovered that in him, that is, in his flesh, there was no good thing. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Fighting against the flesh is the experience of every believer as you go on in this heavenly journey.
If you have never fought against your flesh, it means that you are living and walking according to the flesh. He that lives according to the flesh is dead. But he that walks according to the Spirit is life and peace.
So I do hope that no one here has never had any experience of fighting against the flesh. In other words, he always yields to his own flesh. If that is the case, it means you are a carnal Christian, a baby in Christ. You never grow.
If you really want to grow, I believe that the first thing in your experience in following the Lord is that you will discover how strong the flesh is in you.
Sometimes you do not discover how strong the flesh in you is until you discover how strong it is in other people. But when you see how strong it is in other people, remember: it is just as strong in you.
How we need to be delivered from the tyranny, from the bondage, of our flesh. But how are we going to do this? Well, the life in us is a fighting life. The Spirit of God within us will urge us to fight against the flesh.
How are we to overcome it? By claiming that we were dead in Christ and are now alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
As you take that stand, as you reckon yourself dead unto sin and alive unto God, as you by prayer join yourself to the victory of Christ, you find that you prevail.
But when your hands are weary—in other words, when you are not joining yourself with the finished work of Christ by faith and prayer—immediately you find that you will be defeated. This is the nature of the fight.
One thing you need to remember: here you find Joshua defeated Amalek, but that was not the end. It was just one battle.
Throughout the history of Israel, Amalek was a continuous problem to the children of God.
That is the reason why, after the victory over Amalek, God said to Moses:
Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.
In other words, God said, “Now remember, this is just one battle. There will be more battles with Amalek until the name of Amalek is completely blotted out, completely destroyed, from under heaven.”
God’s will is that the flesh will be completely blotted out, completely cast out, so that we may live in the Spirit and no longer live according to the flesh. The struggle will continue on, but always remember how the battle is fought.
Never forget how the battle is fought. On the one hand, you are really fighting; yet, on the other hand, it really does not depend upon your fighting. It depends upon what Christ has done, and you just stand in His victory.
Moses built an altar and called the name of the place The Lord Our Banner—“the Lord, my banner.” Under the banner of the Lord, the Lord will fight against Amalek from generation to generation until He blots them out completely.
Thank God for that. This is the first mention of Joshua: a soldier of the Lord.
The second mention of Joshua is when Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, the law.
We are familiar with the story of Moses, how God called Moses to the mountain. There he waited upon God for forty days and forty nights, without eating and drinking, until God gave him the Ten Commandments.
But do you know, when God called Moses to the mountain, He told Moses to tell the people that nobody else should be in that mountain. Even the beast that came near the mountain would be slain. Because of this, there was fear upon the people.
But let me ask you a question: Was Moses alone on the mountain with God when he received the Ten Commandments?
He was not. Why? Because the Bible says that when Moses went to the mountain, his attendant Joshua went with him. That is in Exodus 24.
Actually, Joshua went up to the mountain with Moses. Joshua did not go to the top of the mountain, but he was somewhere on the mountain. He was not with the people.
He was on the mountain somewhere, not as high up as Moses, because Moses was alone there receiving the Ten Commandments. Yet Joshua was on the mountain.
How do you know? Not only do we find this in Exodus 24, but in Exodus 32 you find that when God told Moses, “The people have sinned; go down from the mountain,” Moses came down and met Joshua there.
As they came down together, Joshua heard the sound. Being a soldier, his first reaction was, “There must be fighting there.” That is a soldier’s instinct. He interprets everything in terms of fighting.
So when he heard the noises, he said, “There must be fighting there.” Moses, who knew much better, said, “No, I do not hear the noise of victory or the noise of defeat. It is the noise of music and singing.”
They came down from the mountain. Brothers and sisters, do you realize that when the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf, Joshua was not involved?
The children of Israel fell into that sin. Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments. The one who did not partake in the worship of the golden calf was Joshua. Why? Because he was there on the mountain with Moses.
In New Testament times, twice our Lord Jesus took three of His disciples with Him. Once He took three of His disciples to the Mount of Transfiguration.
But sadly, because of the greatness of the glory, the three disciples went to sleep. Can you think of that? It was such a tremendous time, and they went to sleep because the glory was too much for them.
Then another time, He took the same three disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. The Lord said, “Wait here with Me for an hour.” But the shame and the pressure were so great that they went to sleep again.
The weakness of the flesh could not stand either glory or sorrow. But here was Joshua: forty days and forty nights, when Moses was waiting upon the Lord, he was waiting with Moses upon the Lord.
Do you know? Moses was waiting upon the Lord without eating and drinking. The same thing might have happened to Joshua. Here he was in the presence of the Lord, and he was kept from worshiping the golden calf.
After this thing happened, in Exodus 33, because the camp of God was defiled, Moses removed his tent out of the camp and pitched it outside the camp. This tent was called the Tent of Meeting.
The children of Israel, the congregation of God, were called the camp of God. But the camp of God was defiled—defiled by sin.
Even though Moses disciplined them, in the sense that they must drink their own sin—he ground the golden calf into powder, put it upon the water, and asked the children of Israel to drink the water—there was still discipline.
The tribe of Levi stood at the door of the camp. They went into the camp and slew whoever they met in order to purify the camp. But even so, Moses removed his tent out of the camp and pitched it outside the camp, because God is holy.
When Moses went out to meet God, he went to the Tent of Meeting. But the wonderful thing was that the young man Joshua, his attendant, never departed from within the tent.
Brothers and sisters, do you want to know the secret of spiritual strength? Why was Joshua such a good soldier? Why was there such strength in him to fight against the enemy?
Do you want to know how we can have spiritual strength in us, that we may be able to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ? You know the secret. The secret is abiding—abiding.
Now, you may think that abiding and fighting are two opposites, because fighting is full of noise and excitement, while abiding has quietness and tranquility.
Yet, in spiritual terms, fighting and abiding must go together. In other words, you cannot fight the enemy if you do not abide in Christ.
Fighting is exhausting, but waiting upon the Lord will renew your strength. The problem today is that we want to go to fight, and yet we do not abide in the presence of the Almighty.
If we do that, we are fighting in our own strength, and you will find that very soon the enemy will overcome us.
Usually, it is not easy for a young man to stay alone on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, not even seeing Moses because Moses was way up in the cloud.
Usually, it is not easy for a young man to stay alone in the tent outside the camp, because in the camp there was all excitement. But here you find a secret in the fight.
We are exhorted to fight the good fight. But how? Do you sometimes wonder why there is no strength in you, no spiritual strength in you? Do you wonder sometimes why, after a fight, you get so exhausted and there is no renewing?
You know why? It is because you lack a life of abiding. Oh, we need to abide in Christ.
If we learn to abide in Christ, that is, to make our home in Christ—Joshua never departed from within the tent. He made that tent home. That tent was the Tent of Meeting, the tent where God appeared.
Brothers and sisters, how we need that kind of life. In our daily life, we need to learn to abide in Christ. We need to learn to make a home in Him.
God has put us in Him, and now we need to live in Him. If we have constant communion and fellowship with Him, if we are alone with Him, away from all the hustle and bustle of life, all the noises of battle, and just before the Lord, this is the time when our strength is renewed.
This is when you receive the spiritual strength for you to fight against all the enemies. Joshua lived an abiding life, and I believe that is the secret.
Now, the third mention of Joshua is found in Numbers 13 and 14. There you find the children of Israel came to the southern border of the promised land, Kadesh-barnea.
Moses sent twelve spies to spy out the land. Of the twelve spies, Joshua was one of them—Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim, and Caleb of the tribe of Judah.
The twelve spies went into the promised land to spy out the land. When they came back, they gave a report. They said, “The land that we investigated is certainly a very, very good land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. Look at the fruit that we brought back.”
But the ten spies said, “There we found cities whose walls reach up to heaven. We saw the Anakim, giants. They look upon us as grasshoppers, and we look upon ourselves as grasshoppers. If we go in, we will be completely swallowed by them. It is a land that will swallow us up.”
When they brought that bad news to the people, of course the people wept. They began to rebel.
Here you find Joshua and Caleb. They quieted the people and said, “No, no. The land is very, very good. Do not think of the enemies. If God is pleased with us, He will give the land to us.”
“We will be able to take the land, and our enemies shall be our food. Instead of their swallowing us, we will swallow them and digest them, and they will become our strength. Just trust in the Lord. Do not rebel against the Lord.”
But because of this, the people wanted to stone them to death, and the Lord appeared.
Now, what is it that we learn here concerning Joshua as a good soldier of the Lord? In spiritual battle, it is not a matter of how strong the enemy is, nor is it a matter of how weak we are.
In spiritual battle, that which matters is only one thing: if God is pleased with us.
Oftentimes, when we are engaged in spiritual conflict, what we notice is the strength of the enemy. We find the enemy is so strong. They are so tall, like giants.
Or sometimes we notice how weak we are. We are so small, like grasshoppers. We will be crushed. When we look at ourselves, or when we look at the enemies, or when we look at the circumstances—the walls reaching up to heaven—we are already defeated.
But remember, in spiritual conflict, there is only one thing that really matters. The one thing is: Is God pleased with us?
If God is pleased with us because we are in His will, then the land will be taken and the enemy will be our food.
But if we displease God, if we go out of His will, what will happen? We will lose the strength of God. We will be defeated.
That is the only thing with which we need to be concerned. Oh, brothers and sisters, we are involved in a spiritual battle, but do not be frightened.
Even though our enemy is strong, that is true. You remember Martin Luther. When he went to the Diet of Worms, he went there to be judged. There were the emperor, all the lords, and all the great men there. Here was Martin Luther, a poor monk.
But he said, even though the enemies were all like the tiles on the roof, he was not afraid because God was with him.
The secret is here: as long as God is with you, as long as you are in His will, as long as He is pleased with you, no one can stand against you. If God is for us, who can be against us?
This is our confidence. God has not given us the spirit of fear. If you are afraid, you are defeated before the battle is waged.
God has not given us the spirit of fear. He has given us the spirit of courage, of love, and of wise discretion—a sound mind.
You cannot fight a fight if you do not have confidence in your Commander-in-Chief. Keep your eyes away from looking anywhere but at Him.
If we keep our eyes on Him, brothers and sisters, no one can stand against us. This is the spirit of Joshua. This is the spirit of soldiery.
If we want to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, do not be afraid. Look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
We have the confidence that if we are in the will of God and God is pleased with us, no enemy can stand in our way. The only thing we really need to do is search our hearts before the Lord, lest we have displeased Him.
Later on, in the fight against Ai, you see what it is when they displeased the Lord. Even though the enemy was little and few, they were defeated.
Do not put confidence in yourselves, nor overestimate your enemy. Just trust in the Lord.
Oh, brothers and sisters, we are living at this time when we find conflict going on around the world—worldwide. Actually, you find conflict going on within and without, everywhere: in the heavenlies, in the spiritual realm, and in the physical realm.
We are here in the midst of all conflicts. But, brothers and sisters, one thing we need to remember: do not be afraid. Fear not. The Lord said, “Fear not; I am with you.”
Some people count “fear not” in the New Testament, and they say it is there 365 times: “Fear not, fear not,” because He is with us.
But are we with Him? There is no doubt that He is with us, but are we with Him? If we are with Him, have confidence that we will overcome. It is that kind of spirit that gives us the victory.
So, brothers and sisters, thank God, we have a life that wins.
We have a home in which we may dwell. We have a spirit—a spirit of courage, of love, and of a sound mind. With that kind of provision, how can we be defeated?
May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast enlisted us in Thy army. We praise and thank Thee because Thy army is a victorious army. It fights from victory to victory.
Thou hast already overcome, and Thou art overcoming in and through us. Oh, do show us the life that Thou hast given to us. Enable us to take Thy Word and believe in Thee.
Enable us to look off unto Thyself. Draw us that we may dwell in the secret place of the Most High. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.