prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it." We have a very encouraging word from God tonight from the
book of Hosea. For those who were able to sing
that hymn from their experience, O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God. A couple Sundays ago we were in
the seventh chapter of Hosea, where the Lord instructs us to
come again unto him. And we know that when Peter spoke
of coming to Christ, he said, to whom coming? And the believer's
life, whether it be the first time the Lord turns us or the
thousandth time he turns us, we are always returning to him. and such blessed promises that
he gives to us. I've titled this message, Mercy
for the Fatherless. Now, in the economy of the Bible,
a child that was fatherless was destitute. The book of James, the Lord tells
us true religion and undefiled before God and the Father is
this, that we visit the widows and the fatherless and keep oneself
unspotted from this world. To be fatherless and to be a
widow in this economy of the Old Testament in particular would
have left one a beggar, a beggar. And though we obviously If we
have the means and the knowledge of someone who is in need and
we can help them, then surely we ought to do that. But how
many people are going to stand in the day of judgment and say,
but Lord, we've done many wonderful works in thy name, looking to
the things that they did to help the widows and the fatherless
in this world as their righteousness. There's a spiritual application
to this. When the Lord said to feed the
hungry and to clothe the naked and to give water to the thirsty
and to visit those that are in prison and to welcome the stranger
in, the spiritual application of that is that we dress the
naked with the gospel, with the righteousness of Christ. We give
the water of life to those that are thirsty. take those who are
in bondage to sin and we visit them with the gospel. Those are the spiritual applications
of those instructions, those admonitions that the Lord gives
us. And so it is with the fatherless.
The fatherless represents all of those who are unable to help
themselves, all those who are destitute, all those who are
reduced to begging. And in that regard, it's for
every child of God. Now look with me, if you will,
at Hosea chapter 14, verse 3. Asher shall not save us. nor we will not ride upon horses."
Now, Asher is another word for Assyria. And Asher and Assyria translated,
we're in Hosea chapter 14 at verse 3. Hosea 14, verse 3. The word Assyria or Asher means,
it means steps. And though there are times when steps are a good thing, when
it comes to our salvation, we don't take steps. The Lord said when you build
an altar don't make it with steps. I'm thinking about those pyramids
down in Mexico and the steps that went up those pyramids and
they would make sacrifice at the top of the pyramid. The Lord
said if you make steps on your altar that you will only expose
your nakedness. He's talking about things that
men make as the as the requirements for approaching God. Whatever
it might be, certain prayers that have to be prayed, or ceremonies
that have to be participated in, or candles that have to be
lit, aisles that have to be walked or steps. All we do when we make for ourselves
steps to approach God is we expose our own nakedness. We expose
our own sinfulness before God. So here's what every believer
comes to the conclusion of. Asher cannot save us. No steps
that we make can can obligate God or enable us to work ourselves
into a position of favor with God. And we will not ride upon horses.
The battle is not ours, it's the Lord. We're not going to
win the battle against sin by the strength of the arm of flesh. Neither will we say any more
to the work of our hands, you are our God. We can't look to
what we've done as the hope of our salvation. And here's the
message for N.V. For N.V. The fatherless findeth
mercy. All the saving grace of God is
found in who he is and in what he's done. That's where we find
mercy in our time of need. We are, in a spiritual sense,
fatherless, destitute, unable to provide for ourselves. And the Lord's telling us here,
look back at verse one of chapter 14. Israel, oh Israel. Don't you love the tenderness
when the Lord speaks to his children? He doesn't beat his sheep, he
doesn't intimidate them. I love thinking about the harlots
and the publicans. They were never afraid to come
into the presence of Christ. Sinners were never, they were
drawn to him. They were attracted to him. He
never repelled them. Who was it that was repelled
by the Lord Jesus when he was here? in his earthly body. It was the self-righteous. It
was the Pharisees. It was those who were trusting
in themselves for their salvation. They were the ones that were
threatened by him. They were the ones that were
offended by him. The fatherless, the sinner, the
harlots, and the publicans gladly came to him. and were warmly
received by him, and nothing's changed. He hasn't changed. Oh, Israel. Oh, a prince. We've been made princes in the
family of God. Return unto the Lord thy God,
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Isaiah said, your sin
has separated you from your God. What is our sin? It's every time
we look to something else for our hope and for our happiness
and for our comfort and for our joy and then we're not looking
to Christ. We look away, prone to wander, prone
to leave the God I love. how many times a day we hear
the voice of God, return unto me, return unto me. For the fatherless will find
mercy. And the Lord doesn't just tell
us to return, he tells us to come with him, come to him with
words. Take with you words. What words? In another place,
we read that our words are to be few, for he is in the heavens
and we are upon the earth. The Proverbs tell us that with
the multitude of words, there is sin. And a fool adds words
to words, talking in circles and trying to cover up the truth. We, our words need to be few.
You know, instead of coming to God as we do with men and justify
ourselves and make excuses, let our words be few. Woe is me. That's few words. Or with David,
I have sinned. Or with Isaiah, behold, I am
vile. Or with Daniel, my comeliness
has turned in me into corruption. Lord, save me with Peter. Let your words be few, but come
to him with words. We speak words to him. And then
he tells us what words to say. Say unto him. He doesn't just
tell us to come to him with words, but he gives us the words to
say. And of course, we don't repeat these words in vain repetition. We say these from the heart. Take
away all iniquity. Take it away. I looked up this word takeaway.
It's an interesting word. In the Hebrew, it's the word
N-A-S-A. Yeah, NASA. And the literal meaning
of the word NASA is to lift up. And I did a little study on where
NASA got its name. Of course, it's an acronym. It stands for the National Aeronautic
Space Administration. It's what NASA stands for right
over here at Titusville. And I couldn't find anywhere
in the coming up with the name NASA that they had any understanding
of the Hebrew word NASA. And I just thought that was interesting
because the word NASA in the Hebrew means to take up. like a rocket ship, take up or
take them away. The Lord Jesus ascended back
into heaven and sat at the right hand of God. He put away our
sins. He took them. He took them and
buried them. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord and say unto him, take away all iniquity. Lord,
don't leave. Don't leave anything. You're
gonna have to take it all away. And seeing how everything about
me, the word iniquity, we just think about the word itself,
unequal, unequal. And what else does the scripture
say about us being unequal to God? All have sinned and fallen
short of God's glory. So we're unequal in every way. Lord, you're going to have to
take up, you're going to have to NASA all of my iniquity. If you leave any part of me exposed,
I'm going to be, I'm not going to be able to reason with you.
My sins, though they be as scarlet shall be made white as snow.
Lord, if you leave one thing, in my iniquity, in my falling
short of your glory, of my sin before you, Lord, I'll be judged
guilty and worthy of eternal damnation for that. Take with
you words, and here's the words that we take. Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Everything about
me is sinful. And here's my hope. There's no
steps that I can take. There's no works that I can perform
with my hands. There's no strength of a horse
that I can ride on to fight this battle. So Isaiah said, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people and speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem
and tell her that her warfare is accomplished and that her
iniquity has been Taken away. Taken away. It's been removed. There's our hope. And so the
Lord says, return unto me, O Israel. Return again and again and again. And look at the next phrase in
verse two. And receive us graciously. Graciously. Lord, if you receive
me, you know, men talk about accepting Jesus and receiving
him and as if God's in the heavens waiting for man to let him have
his way. Lord, you're going to have to
receive me. And if you receive me, it's going
to have to be based on grace. The only way that my sin is going
to be taken away is to be covered by the blood of Christ. The atoning
work of the Lord Jesus is the only hope that I have. Lord,
take it away. Receive me. And I have no reason
why you should receive me except for your free grace. That's the
only hope that I have. Then, then we will render the calves of our lips. Then we will offer onto the altar
of God our worship and our praise for who he is and for what he's
done. Then we will rest in Christ. Then we will be satisfied. Then
we will be content. How discontent we can become. How fearful we can be. Well, we just get disquieted
about everything that comes our way, don't we? Why is that? Why is that? We looked at it Sunday. What
does God have that we so desperately want? Is it not control? And what did the Lord say? in
Philippians. He said, Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made of himself no reputation, became
a servant. He became a servant. He bowed
to his heavenly father, and he obeyed him. And There's something so much better than understanding. I was thinking about Philippians
chapter 4. Let's turn there for just a moment.
Philippians chapter 4. We're talking about this propensity,
let me say that, this constant propensity that we have to try
to be in control of our circumstances, to try to understand what's happening,
to not be satisfied with just having Christ and resting in
Him and trusting Him and believing that He has everything under
control, but wanting to manage things ourselves, wanting to
be God. And so the Lord tells us in Philippians
chapter 4 at verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always, always. And again, I say rejoice. Say, well, wait a minute, Lord.
Yes, I do. I know exactly what you're in
the middle of, because I put you there. And I'm telling you. to rejoice in me. This is not
a don't worry, be happy philosophy of life. This is the rest in
Christ. Look to him, rejoice in him,
in who he is and in what he's done and where he is and what
he's doing. That's where I rejoice in him.
Then I will offer the calves of my lips. If I bring to God
words and I hear his voice saying, oh, Israel, return again unto
me, And I bring to him words, and I say, Lord, you're going
to have to take away all my iniquity. And you're going to have to have
mercy upon me, and you're going to have to do it graciously,
because I have no merit. I have nothing to offer you to
obligate you to that. You're going to have to give
it to me freely. Then I'll bring. And now this
is what we bring. We rejoice in the Lord, and we
let Let your moderation be known unto all men, for the Lord is
at hand. Don't be given to extremes. We have so many unexpected and
difficult things that the Lord sends our way, but he's telling
us, brethren, to not be given to extreme emotional responses
to our circumstances. Don't be overly excited when
things are going your way and don't be, let your moderation
be known unto all men. Why? Because the Lord is at hand.
He's near. He's doing this. Verse six, be careful for nothing.
Don't live in fear and worry. How am I gonna do that? How's
that gonna be? In everything, by prayer and
supplication, let your requests be known unto God. That's how
we do it. This is what the Lord's telling
us in Hosea 14. Oh Israel, return unto me again,
bring with you words. Prayer and supplication, how
oftentimes we We fail to just seek the Lord. And we find ourselves
so wrapped up in things because we don't understand what's happening.
We're not controlling what's happening. Let your requests be known unto
God. Come to the throne of grace boldly. Why? Because the way has been paved.
It's a throne of grace. It's a throne of mercy. It's
not a throne of judgment. There's no law there. The law
has been fulfilled. Someone said, are you saying
that we're lawless, we're antinomian? The gospel is the only message
that upholds God's law. It's the only message that upholds,
we love God's law. We delight in God's law. We hold
the law of God up so high that we agree that it judges us guilty. To think that you can somehow
satisfy any demand of God's law is to bring God's law down. The
gospel's the only thing that holds the law up to where it
belongs. The Lord Jesus said, I'm going
to make the law honorable. And the gospel is the only thing
that honors the law of God. We honor it as it is, perfect. And the Lord Jesus said, I did
not come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it. Yes, we
love God's law. We honor a lot God's law. When
we look to Christ as the one who fulfilled God's law, and
we acknowledge and confess that the law of God is so pure and
so holy and so good and so just that if we had to be judged by
it, it would condemn us, it would kill us. No, there's not. The gospel of God's grace in
Christ is the only message that honors the law of God. No other message honors God's
law. With Thanksgiving, let your requests
be known unto God. Oh, brethren, how often we need
to be reminded that every prayer that we pray for supplication
needs to be seasoned with Thanksgiving. Lord, thank you. You've been
so merciful. You've been so good. We acknowledge
what the Lord has done in saving us and providing for us. Lord,
I'm fatherless. Lord, I'm destitute. I'm just
a beggar. I don't have any way of providing
for myself. And you've done so much. And
if you never did anything else for me, I could never thank you
enough or worship you enough or be grateful enough for what
you've already done. But Lord, as one of your fatherless
children in this world, I've got this need. Let your requests
be known unto God. And I love verse seven, and the
peace of God, the peace of God, which passeth. We've looked at
this verse several times over the years, and that word passeth,
means exceleth or better than. It doesn't mean that the peace
of God cannot be understood. I thought that's what that verse
meant for a long time. The peace of God passeth understanding. The peace of God is so esoteric
and so spiritual and so cloudy that it can't be understood.
That's not what this verse is saying at all. What the Lord
is telling us is that the peace of God is better than understanding. What has got us into the consternation
that we're in? We don't understand what's happening
and we want to understand it, we want to control it. And what's
the Lord saying? There's something better than
understanding. There's something better than understanding. You
don't need to understand. What you need to do is believe. What
you need to do is trust me. What you need to do is rest in
Christ. Look to me and the peace of God
will keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. That's
where we need to be. It's where we need to be found
in Christ. Now go back with me to Hosea. In Christ, verse 3, is where
the fatherless findeth mercy. Look at verse 4. I will heal
their backsliding. I will love them freely. Freely. You know, all the love
that we know anything about in this world between people is
reciprocal to some degree. It's reciprocal. You know, maybe it's weighted
more on one side than the other. And certain with a parent, a
child for instance, I know that's true. A child can't understand
the parent's love for them. And yep, the child loves the
parent. But it's always reciprocal at some point. What's the Lord
saying here? I'm gonna love you freely. I'm
not gonna wait for you to love me before I love you. Oh, we
do love him because he first loved us. In that regard, it
is, I guess we could say, reciprocal. But what the Lord's telling us
here is I'm not gonna wait. We get into a relationship with
someone and we don't commit ourselves to that relationship until we're
sure that that person's committed to us. And what the Lord's saying
here is I'm committing myself to you. And you will, you will love me. But I'm gonna love you freely.
Mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto
Israel. He shall grow as the lily and
cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and
his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return and they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. This is what I'm going to do.
This is the mercy and grace that you're going to receive. Ephraim. Now all throughout the book of
Hosea, Ephraim is used interchangeably for the Southern kingdom of Judah.
Israel falls, the northern kingdom of 10 tribes falls long before
Judah. Ephraim pictures the church,
the elect of God. Had the Lord not left us a remnant,
we would all be as Sodom and Gomorrah. But Ephraim shall say,
what have I to do anymore with idols? The whole book of Isaiah
The Lord is, He's correcting, He's warning,
He's judging, guilty, idolatry. And so Ephraim, when she's brought
back again and again and again, what does she say? Why did I
go to an idol? Why did I try to find my hope and salvation in something
that I had done in the works of my hands or in my intentions
or in my, in Asher, my steps? Why did I do that? Why did I
think that God could be obligated or manipulated? Why didn't I
just bow to him? Why didn't I just trust him and
rest in him and believe him? He said he would love me freely.
He's not waiting for me to do something in order for him to
love me. And Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with
idols? I have heard him and observed
him, and I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. I've heard him. I've heard his
voice. I've heard his word. I rejoice
in what I've heard. I believe what I've heard. And
I've observed him. The Lord Jesus does not admonish
us or instruct us to do anything that he himself had not done.
I quoted a moment ago from Philippians chapter three, let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So not only heard
his word, but we've observed him perfectly obeying his own
word. Lord, why do I keep going to
idols? Why do I keep looking away from you? Why am I so prone
to wander? Lord, I've heard what you said,
and I've observed what you did, and I know that believing you
is the only way. Verse nine, who is wise? And he shall understand these things. All the wisdom of God. And again,
that's one of the things we make petition for. James said, if
any man lack wisdom, Let him ask it of God, and he will give
it to all men liberally, but let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. Not being like the waves of the
sea tossed to and fro, let not that man think that he should
receive anything from the Lord. For a double-minded man is unstable
in all of his ways. Now, I don't know about you, but most of the time I feel double-minded. I feel like I believe these things,
and yet there's another part of me. And in the sense that
we have two natures, in the sense that we have a new man in Christ
that believes God perfectly, and an old man that's never believed
God and is still tied to this world, we are always double-minded. But I don't believe that's what
James was talking about. He was talking about what we've
been talking about tonight. A double-minded man is unstable.
When you ask for wisdom, ask in faith, nothing wavering. Be not like the waves of the
sea, being tossed to and fro. In other words, thinking that
God will bless me with wisdom, he will bless me with Christ,
if I add to my faith something else. That's what it is to be
double-minded. It's to mix works with grace.
It's to say that, yes, I've got to have Christ in order to approach
God, but I've got to add to what he did. I've got to ride on horses. I've got to make some steps.
I've got to go to Asher. All through the book of Hosea,
the Lord rebukes the children of Israel for going back to Egypt. Egypt and Assyria were the two
powerhouses of the day of Hosea. And Israel was always in conflict
with one or the other. And whenever they were in conflict
with Assyria, they would side with Egypt to help them, and
vice versa. And the Lord's admonishing them,
rebuking them for that. Trust me, don't go back to Egypt. Don't go back to the land. Egypt translated means the land
of the crypts. And I suspect that has reference
to the pyramids that are still there in Egypt and how detailed
the Egyptians were to build burial sites. And of course, we know
that it represents the bondage of the law. But the end of the
law is death. All the law can do is kill. Don't
go back to there. There's no life there in Egypt. It's the land of the crypts.
It's the land of the law. And don't go to Assyria. It's
the land of steps and works and progress. Come to me. Come to me. Who is wise? And who shall understand
these things, verse nine? Prudent, and he shall know them. Had someone who was a professing
believer tell me one time, they asked me for advice on something
that they should do. And what they wanted to do was
forbidden by God's word. It was wrong. And I just showed
them in God's word. And they did it anyway. And the
excuse, of course, I wasn't surprised. People ask a preacher for advice,
really what they're wanting is approval of what decision they've
already made. But their response back to me
in justifying why they did what they did was it just didn't seem
prudent at the time to do it God's way. Just didn't seem prudent
at the time. Oh, the only thing that is prudent,
brethren, is to do it God's way all the time. Whatever it might,
it might not seem like it's gonna be profitable, it might not seem
easy, but it's always prudent to do it God's way, God's way. Just do it God's way and trust
Him. He always blesses with His presence. He always blesses with His power.
He always blesses with His peace when we do it His way. And we
get ourselves in trouble when we think we have a more prudent
way to do something. For the ways of the Lord are
right. You see that? Let's read this verse. Who is
wise, and he shall understand these things. Prudent, and he
shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are
right, and the just shall walk in them. But the transgressors
shall fall therein. When the Bible speaks of walking,
it's speaking of a pattern of life. Not just talking about
what we believe, it's talking about what we do. And it's the
walk of faith whereby we are brought to trust the Lord. And
we trust him because, you know, the warrant that we have, go
back with me to verse one. in Hosea 14. Our ability to perform his command
is found in the command. It is our warrant for coming. It's what John tells us in Revelation. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So what God commands, God provides. Lord, we've heard your voice.
We've observed your ways. O Israel, return. unto the Lord thy God. For thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity. So many things that trip us up. We're not talking about in that
believer. But for the restraining grace
of God, I know can do anything. We're talking about the daily
walk of the child of God who loses sight of Christ and their
rest and peace and joy in him because of their looking away,
looking away. And how oftentimes the Lord says,
return, return, O Israel. Our heavenly Father, we thank
you for your word. Thank you for the loving way in which you call
us to yourself. We thank you for the words that
you've given us. Lord, enable us to speak back
to you the same words that you've given to us. Might we come willingly and lovingly before
your throne of grace and find help in our time of need. Lord, apart from you, we are
fatherless. We are poor and needy. We are
destitute. And how prone we are to look
some other place for that spiritual need that only you can meet. Thank you, Lord, for the blood
of Christ. Thank you for the forgiveness
of sin. Thank you for enabling us to keep coming. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 287? 37. Number 37 in the Sparrow Hymnal.