Nor have I gotten, but what I
received. What could we give to a holy
and righteous God who owns us, who owns everything? A broken
and a contrite heart. That's all we have to offer.
We thank him for his many blessings. And as we look at this message
from Hosea again, chapter two, we'll see what we've received
from the Lord and how grateful we ought to be for it. In the everlasting covenant of
grace, God chose a people and gave them to Christ and conditioned
all their salvation on him. As their surety and representative,
he accomplished everything necessary for the final glory of his elect. God chose them in eternity past.
He's loved us forever. He gave us to Christ. Christ
has always been our substitute and our surety. and therefore
we are blessed, have always been blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
In other words, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God's sight. The elect fell in Adam along
with the rest of the world, and though guilty, defiled, and deserving
of condemnation and wrath, they did not fall from their standing
in Christ Though their state of innocence changed, their state
of justification did not change. On Christ, the eternal and everlasting
surety of His people, God laid the iniquity of all for whom
He represented. As their surety and representative,
God charged Him, Christ, with their sin, of which they were
guilty, and He, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
would come and by the cross satisfy by his death on that tree are
the demands of God's law and justice against us. He would
die the just for the unjust. His death was necessary to establish
that one righteousness by which God would be vindicated in declaring
even the Old Testament saints righteous and justified in their
sight. So appointed in this covenant
office from eternity, Christ came in time to do his work on
the cross which would betroth his church, his bride, to him
forever, Hosea chapter two and verse 15. In Christ, though ignorant
of it, his elect must be included in Christ by way of revelation,
regeneration, reformation, and faith. What we don't know is
ours already by divine grace is communicated to us, God's
elect, in the preaching of the gospel of how holy God can be
just and justify ungodly sinners such as we are. When the Spirit
does this work in us, when he quickens us, he shows us the
love of God for us. And then he gives us an interest
in Christ as an evidence of his love for us. The Spirit takes
the things of God and reveals them unto us, even the deep things
of God. It is then and only then that
we engage with God in covenant that he has always been engaged
with us for. And this revelation and engagement
comes in conjunction with God stripping us of our idolatry. You know, for the last two or
three messages in the first part of Hosea, it talks about how
God If we don't abandon our sin, he'll take it from us for his
elect. In the last message, we saw how
the people of God, first of all, are exercised by the chastening
of the Lord. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and every son he scourgeth. And secondly, we saw how the
people of God are extended the comforts of the Lord. He said,
I will allure her unto me and speak words of comfort to her.
And we talked about that before. So today we're going to continue
in this, this thought and the logical outcome of his chastening
and his comforts is the people of God engaged in covenant with
the Lord in Hosea chapter two, verse 18. So, as I mentioned
earlier, the everlasting covenant of grace between the triune Godhead
included the eternal security of all God's people. As we are
in Christ, that covenant was made with us. Listen to what
David said of himself in 2 Samuel chapter 23 in verse 5. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. It's
mine. He made it with me. We'll talk
about that a little bit in a minute. He says, although my house be
not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered, and all things ensure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he makes it not to grow. David,
already engaged by God in this everlasting covenant of grace,
would be engaged with God in yet another. And that's what
we'll be looking at in Hosea 2.18. So let's read Hosea 2.18. And in that day I will make a
covenant for them with the beast of the field and with the fowl
of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will
break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth and
will make them to lie down safely. God will engage his elect who
will engage with God. He says in that day, what day? I believe he's talking about
the day when God makes a sinner willing to bow to the terms of
the everlasting covenant of grace. I think this is accomplished
by God in time, in each successive generation, when he calls individuals
by his gospel to faith and repentance. This is followed by his exercise
of chastening, as I mentioned before, every son of his. This chastening is followed by is one of the things, one part
of the chastening, and after that chastening is the removing
of that cloud of darkness over the mind of men, men who love
darkness by nature, and shows us the truth of the gospel and
what the everlasting covenant is all about. It enables us to
see our idolatry, this removal of this cloud of darkness over
us, enables us to see our self-righteousness and going about to establish
our own righteousness and shows us the truth of the cross as
Christ has borne our sins in his body on that tree. So this
day of God making us willing to bow
to the terms of the everlasting covenant, it's a day of great
importance and it should be a blessed day when we consider that that
the day of God's power enables us to experience what
God has done for us and it enables us to see another day where Christ
died on that cross to take away our sins, put away the sins of
his people as the sinners only hedge against yet another day
in Acts 17 verse 31. Let's read this. The Lord has appointed a day.
in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, and that he raised him from the dead." So these two
days, the day of God's power in regeneration and conversion,
and the day of judgment by the righteousness of God, is inevitable. The first by some, the last by
all. In other words, the elect will
be made to see God's power in the day of his power, and they
will escape the judgment of the second day. Experiencing the
first enabled some, the elect, to stand in the last. So I pray
this morning that we can say as did David, the Lord has made
with me an everlasting covenant. Well, has he? Have you asked
yourself this question? Am I in this covenant? How can
I know? It's a good question. We need to know the answer to
it. Well, look back with me at 2 Samuel 23 five and let's see. Let's answer some questions.
Is that covenant he made? Is it the covenant he made or
did he do part of it and I do the rest? Is his covenant with me personally
or just a blanket amnesty or whosoever will believe? Is it
an everlasting covenant or just a crisis reaction by God? When
Adam failed, did God react? No, we know God doesn't react.
He acts. Have I bowed to the terms of
God's covenant? Is this covenant all my salvation
or might I miss part of it unless I do something? Is mine the salvation
which is ordered in all things and sure that he speaks of here?
Or is there a chance I might be denied something from God? Is all my desire, that of Philippians
3 verse 9, where Paul wrote, to be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of God, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Can I say this? In spite of my
house being in disarray and doubts, and fears and self-righteous
legalism, he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things insure. Is my hope in him alone whose
blood ratified the covenant and not my participation in it? Is he the Lord my righteousness? If this be so, then I can say
I am a covenant son. In that day, I will make a covenant
with him who Spiritual Israel, Jezreel, the ones that are scattered,
that he will call back to himself. God reveals the particulars of
this covenant. And I want us to look at one
this morning. I have covenanted with Israel to break the battle
in Israel. What is it to break the battle?
In this, in this verse of scripture, Hosea speaks of, of war. And
we know that it's a spiritual war. There are literal wars going
on, but he's speaking of a spiritual war here. It's a battle fought
by ungodly sinners who know not their enemy. And we know that
by nature, our enemy is God himself. Although God's force always loved
us, we are at enmity with him. So we're fighting against a God
who has always loved us, and we bring against him swords and
spears, Against a holy and omnipotent omniscient God who has always
loved us. These weapons are no match We
know that for the weapons that he uses against us. What are
these weapons? We know this familiar passage
of scripture from second corinthians 10 verse 5 the weapons of the
spiritual warfare Are not carnal, but they're mighty through God
to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations, and
every high thought, high thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. What he's saying here, bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, the
design of every verse of scripture, in the scripture, is to bring
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. In
other words, what Christ has done, not what we're doing, but
his work of redemption for us. This prophecy speaks expressly
of what Christ has done for us, and we'll see that as the story
develops before us. So, he says, I'm gonna break
the battle in Israel. Notice he calls it a battle and
not the war. war is fought and won by a series
of battles. An army may lose a battle, or
some battles, and still win the war. But if it loses the war,
there are no more battles. The battle is over. And there's
an old saying, and it's a true saying, better lost the battle
than to fight another day. In other words, it's better to
lose a battle and live to fight on than it is to be beaten in
the first battle. And you know, this is the life
of God's people. We battle every day. The war
has been won. Christ has won the war. In our
scripture that we looked at last time, he said, tell Jerusalem
her warfare is ended, but the battle continues. We battle daily
because Christ ended the warfare at Calvary and broke the battle
of his leg in that day. Joshua was a good example. We
sing this old song, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, but he
didn't win the war there. He had many battles to fight.
But Joshua was a picture of Christ. And Christ fought many battles
to win the war. But we still fight every day
because that's the life of God's people. We're in struggle every
day. And the obedience of which Paul
speaks here in 2 Corinthians 10, 5 is Christ accomplishing
the work of redemption by winning the war and satisfying law and
justice and establishing the one righteousness which God will
accept and freely impute to his people. The war ended at Calvary,
but the battle for the elect had just begun. So God's elect
will see that the warfare ended when God engaged them in covenant
with him It is here that he breaks our bows and our swords. So what
are the swords and the bows that he's talking about? We know they're
not literal bows and swords. Well, since God is spirit and
no man has seen God at any time, his weapons, the weapons we use
against them must be carnal. Because he says God's weapons
are not carnal. And if we don't know God, then
the weapons of the non-regenerate must be carnal weapons. Look
again at 2 Corinthians 10, 5. Here I identified the weapons.
I want us to see that the weapons are carnal. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal for the justified sinner, but they're mighty through
God. And they pull down these strongholds.
And what are these strongholds? I think the first one is the
mind. The mind of the natural man is a weapon that must be
broken and will be broken for God's elect. He says casting
down imagination. He's talking about the mind here.
A darkened mind is a dangerous master. And we know that by nature,
not one thought, let alone every thought. He says every thought
will be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Well,
we know that by nature, we don't have one thought that's good
or honoring to God. All our thoughts are legal and
carnal. He says in Romans chapter 8 and
verse 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So the first weapon that
God breaks, or one of the weapons, is the mind. The second is the
will, I mean the affections. The second is the affections.
The affections of our heart are the product of our mind. Paul
said, I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. My affections are drawn out to
the evil, the things that are not good. My very nature is carnal. So my mind and my affections
and then my will is in bondage to my mind and my affections.
Paul said, for the good that I would, that I do not. But the evil that I would, not
that I do. Well, we see what a mess we're
in. By nature, our minds, our affections, and our will are
totally opposed to God. And everything that he stands
for, we stand against. The heart, which is the mind,
the affections, and the will, is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. And the writer of Proverbs said
this as a man thinking. in his heart, so is he. So what
I'm saying here is that the will of man is enslaved by the affections
of his heart. The affections of his heart are
the product of a darkened mind. A darkened mind is the evidence
of our oneness with Adam by nature. We thought God was like us. God says, my thoughts are not
your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. Now what is the
evidence of that? He gives us plenty of evidence
in the scripture. Luke chapter 14 is one example
of how the mind of natural man is darkened in thinking opposite
of God in everything and acting in ways contrary to God. Who
would go to war with God but those with a deceitful heart?
who have not counted the cost. Who would with bows and swords
engage the sovereign almighty God? Well, look at Luke chapter
14, verse 31. Or what king, or what man, or
what woman, or what boy or girl, which all of us by nature do
this, what man or what king going to make war against another king
sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he is able with 10,000
to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000, or else, While
the other is a great way off, he sendeth an ambassadge and
desired conditions for peace." What person, only somebody that's
enlightened, someone who's ignorant, someone who doesn't know God. We're like God. He comes at his
enemy with overwhelming odds and we have nothing to offer,
nothing to stand against him but bowls and arrows. And this
is where the bowls and the swords are broken. What will break? Our bowels what will change our
mind? What will change our affections?
What will change our will? Is it not the revelation of an
accomplished work? By christ on the cross who made
an end of sin by his obedience suffering and death and established
for us The one righteousness of which god is approved Is it
not to see a holy and righteous god satisfied with the work of
the god man to establish that righteousness? and freely imputed
to his people? Is it not to all ye who labor
and are heavy laden? In the day of God's power, sinners
are engaged in covenant with God. They see their warfare ended
with Christ, death on the cross. When we hear, with the ear of
faith, tell Jerusalem that her warfare is ended, then those
Then those weapons, those carnal weapons are broken and we lay
them down. And then we take up those weapons,
mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. Well, the
question is, has God broken the battle in my life, in your life? Has he brought into captivity
to my mind every thought to the obedience of Christ? He is the end of the law. Is
he the end of the law for righteousness to you? Well, how do I know if
this battle is broken in me? I submit to you three ways this
morning that the Prophet Hosea gives for us. Three ways in this
covenant, which is ordered in all things. Sure. God will make
a covenant for them, spiritual Israel, with the beast of the
field, with the fowls of the air and the creeping things of
the ground. And there are three components here that I'd like
for us to look at. In that day, first of all, God will drive
out our idols. Secondly, he will draw out our
affections. And thirdly, he will deliver
us from evil. So let's look for these remaining
few minutes in these three things right here. First of all, he
will drive out our idols. You know, even the mention of
idolatry to the lost religion is fighting words. They ask who in the world would
be foolish enough to worship an idol? And they answer the
question, only a fool would be foolish enough. Only the ignorant
would bow down and worship a creature. Well, anybody that refuses or
rejects the imputed righteousness of Christ for all of salvation
They're worshiping an idol. They're in idolatry. Romans chapter
10 verse 1 and 4 tells us that Israel being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own are in
idolatry. They're worshiping a god of their
imagination. You know, we either worship a
creature or we worship the creator, one or the other. And we're all
doing one or the other daily. Idolatry, even after justification
and life, is a problem for God's people. It plagues even the just. God warns us in 1 John 5, verse
21, with these words, little children, keep yourselves from
idols. Now, why would God command his
elect, saved, justified, redeemed sinners to keep yourselves from
idols? Because we're prone to wonder.
We're prone to fall into all kinds of sin. The day of God's
power marks the beginning of the end of our idolatrous worship,
but we still, God must daily drive out our idols. Look with
me at Romans chapter one, beginning in verse 18. These verses speak
of what we all are by nature. Idolatrous, look at verse 18.
18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in other words
the ignorance of truth and unrighteousness because that which may be known
of God is manifest to them in them for God has showed it unto
them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen being understood by the things that
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
without excuse. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. You
know, this is God's charge against all of us. We bow down and worship
the creature more than the creator. That's what he says in Romans
chapter 125. Man takes by nature, takes what
the creator has given him for his pleasure and use and makes
an image out of it. Look at Romans 125. He said,
we changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served
the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever, amen.
This is the state and practice of even God's elect before the
day of his power. And even after, idolatry continues
to plague us. God's covenant with spiritual
Israel, I will daily drive out their idols. Until according
to Ephesians chapter 4, 13, until we all come in the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect
man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So, in the day of his power,
God covenants with spiritual Israel to drive out their idols. And I believe the first bow that
is broken is when that's centered by a radical change of mind is
convinced of idolatry. You know, we're all by nature,
as I've said, idolaters. And we will not accept serving
a sovereign God We'll not have him rule over us, but we'll instead
bow down to an idol made by something that he created. Ancient Israel
molded a golden calf. India today worships the cow,
the cattle. Their people die of hunger while
the cattle live. Idolatry is just as prevalent
today as it was in Palestine. So what is idolatry? that replaces
Christ and his work of accomplishment in our salvation becomes to us
our God, our idol. Fashioned by some darkened mind
by those who know not God, ignorance truly is the mother of idolatry. Look with me at John 16. This
is what the spirit of God does when he sends it in the day of
our conversion and salvation. When he has come, John 16 8 when
the holy spirit has come He will reprove the world of sin of righteousness
and of judgment Of sin, and here's the definition. Here's the sin.
He's talking about because they believe not on me Well, if we
believe not on god The one true and living god our belief must
be in an idol See, he's he's telling us. We are idolaters
by nature He when he has come He will reprove the world of
sin He will reprove the world of righteousness because I go
to my father. Where is that righteousness?
Christ is seated at the right hand of the father. His righteousness
is there with him. We don't have a righteousness
here. We plead the righteousness of Christ. And of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judge. That righteousness will be God's
standard of judgment. And we don't know that by nature.
The Holy Spirit reveals first our idolatry. If we believe not
in Christ, Our God is an idol. The mind, which is that weapon,
is broken by the light of truth. It is by truth alone that God
drives out idolatry from us, his people. The more we see Christ
work for us, the less the beast of the field, those things that
we offered in sacrifice to God, the birds of the air, will hold
no benefit or value to us. We look to Jesus. So God, first
of all, drives the idols out of our lives. Secondly, God will
draw out our affections. In the day of God's power, the
affections of his people will be turned from creature worship
to creator worship, evidenced by repentance and true faith. In that day, God will make a
covenant for spiritual Israel to turn their affections from
the shedding of rivers of blood, which the scripture says could
never take away sin, from the shedding of rivers of
animal blood, to a better sacrifice, which Christ shed when he offered
the one sacrifice for sin. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. God's people will
see that old covenant abolished by way of fulfillment and in
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They will see all
the types fulfilled in the antitype whose blood, Christ's blood,
is that of the everlasting covenant. In the day of God's power, spiritual
Israel will have a new affection, their creator and not the creature. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10
describes this again for us, so let's look at these for just
a moment. Paul writes to the church at Rome in verse 10, as
it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There
is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together,
become together unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they have used to see. The poison of asbestos
in their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. And then the last one, their
feet is swift to shed blood. Lost religionists love to shed
blood. In other words, they love to
give something to God. They love to do something for
God because it obligates God to them. This shedding of animal
blood is our insistence on offering something to God. And the only thing we have to
offer is something that he's created. And we do this to make
ourselves acceptable unto God. And by nature, we don't know
any better. But in the day of his power, he causes us to look
to the one offering, the one sacrifice that Christ made, and
through his blood and righteousness as the whole of our salvation.
The enlightened mind has shown Christ to be the end of the law
for righteousness. to everyone that believes. They rest totally
in the one sacrifice Christ made for sin. Why? Because by that
one offering, Christ perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Therefore, we don't look to what we can give. He draws out our
affections to what Christ has done for us and what he'd give.
So our motto becomes the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, not
a bloody sacrifice. a broken and contrite heart,
God will not despise. Well, has the blood of Christ,
which put away the sins of his people, cleansed your heart?
If so, he will make you to lie down in safety. He will draw
out your affections to the Lord, our righteousness. God drives
out our idols, and he draws out our affections, and he will deliver
us from evil. Jesus taught his disciples in
Matthew chapter 3 and verse 6 and verse 13 to pray, lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Well, there's much
evil in the world today to be delivered from. There's wars,
crimes, discrimination, loose morals, and we can just name
many more. But I believe the intent here
is to a specific evil. That sin of thinking and acting
upon the presumption that our abstinence from or our adherence
to some law could recommend us to God. That's the evil that
we need daily to be delivered from, because even for God's
elect, after redemption and salvation, we're prone to this sin. we need to be delivered from
it. In the day of God's power, God makes a covenant with spiritual
Israel, the elect, that he will cause them to see all their salvation
based on, conditioned on Christ and fully accomplished by him
alone. They will experience to their account his righteousness
imputed as that alone which enables God to justify them and accept
them into the love. Forever removed is any room for
boasting in anything that we do or might do that would give
us favor with God. When we experience their count
of imputation to our persons and that God alone saves, that's
when the the weapon of our swords and our spears are broken. And
it stops us from thinking our absence or our absence from could
recommend us to God. And here again, God uses another
example of the animals and how man insists on offering something
to God as a means of acceptance. Look with me at Acts 10. God gives us this illustration
in this truth with Peter's meeting with Cornelius. If you remember,
Cornelius was a centurion, a Roman centurion, Gentile, and God appeared
to him in a vision and he said, go down to Joppa and get Peter
and tell him to come and interpret the dream for us. So he sent
two of his men down to Joppa to get Peter. And let's pick
up the story here in Acts 10 in verse 9. It says, on the morrow,
as they went on their journey, the men that Cornelius sent down
to Joppa and drew nigh unto the city of Joppa, Peter went up
onto the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. And he became
very hungry and would have eaten. But while they made ready, he
fell into a trance and saw heaven open and a certain vessel descending
unto him as it had been a great sheep. Knit at the four corners
and let down to the earth. Wherein were all manner of four-footed
beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and
fowls of the air. And there came a voice from to
him, Rise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord,
for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. And
the voice spoke again the second time, What God hath cleansed,
let not thou call common. Under the Mosaic economy, some
animals were designated unclean and unfit for meat or for offerings
by Israel. And immediately, when God gives
a command, sinners by nature pick up on this, well, if I obey
this, this is my, this is how I merit favor from him. And so
they engage in taste not, touch not, handle not philosophy, and
the fear of Punishment of the promise of reward from God and
they missed the purpose of the law which is to it's a schoolmaster
to lead us to Christ to show us our need of Christ and this
lesson to Peter that God taught Peter that day is a lesson that
All spiritual Israel has learned or will learn and it's stated
for us in Matthew chapter 15 Let's look at this verse verse
2 here just a minute Jesus said, are you yet without understanding? Do you not understand that whatsoever
enterth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out
into the drop? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceeds
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses,
blasphemies. Verse 20. These are the things
which defileth a man, but to eat with unwashing hand or unclean
meat, it doesn't defile the man. The law of religion does not
always equate salvation with his obedience to the law. We
know God that looks on the inward part, the heart. We want to look
on the outward part, but we know that God looks on the heart.
And it is in this need that God has covenanted to deliver us
from in the day of his power. This day of deliver us from the
evil of thinking that something we do or are unable to do could
recommend us to God. So in the everlasting covenant
of grace, God put us in Christ. In the day of his power, he makes
a covenant for us with the beast of the field and the fowls of
the air and the creeping things of the earth. And notice this
covenant is with us. It's for us. It's for us. God gave man dominion over all
his creation. This includes the animal kingdom,
which was given him for food, for service, for pleasure, and
for sacrifice. And the fear of man was put in
the animal world. God put the fear of man in. What
God created for man's good was soon employed by man for his
own detriment. First, he fashioned an idol from
the animal that God had given him. Then, although God ordained
and commanded the sacrificial system to show the sinfulness
of sin and the answer to our sin, man failed to see it. Their
delight was to sacrifice the blood of bulls and goats, and
they failed to see in these types the pictures of him who would
come to make the one sacrifice for sin. In other words, they
miss Christ. And 1 Samuel said this of God's
view of this. And Samuel said, hath the Lord
as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying
the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice and to hearken than the fathom of Ram. So man fashioned
an idol out of God's creation, then he delighted in offering
the sacrifices of blood, and then they made their adherence,
thirdly, to an abstinence from certain laws as their acceptance
before God. And in the day of his power,
every justified sinner is made to abandon creature worship.
His mouth is stopped. In other words, he quits justifying
himself, and he's brought in guilty by the law. But his guilt
gives way to gratitude when he beholds the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sins of the world. In that day of God's power, we
see the antitype of all the types, not a beast or a fowl, but a
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. who shed blood
and righteousness imputed, taketh away the sins of the world. He
taketh away our doing. Our mantra now becomes, according
to Romans 14, 7, the kingdom of God is not meat or drink.
In other words, it's not doing. It's not abstinence from doing,
but it's righteousness, his righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. Spiritual Israel's security is
in Christ and not some bloody animal sacrifice that can ever
take away our sins. So God covenanted on behalf of
his elect that in the day of his power he would break the
battle. This he does when he drives out our idols, draws out
our affections, and delivers us from the evil of self-righteous
legalism. Has God engaged you with him
in covenant? Has he broken the battle in your
life? Have you sent an ambassador to him asking his conditions
for peace? Has he made you accept his terms
for this peace? Or are you lying safely in Christ
pleading only his righteousness imputed? Has he broken your bow
of legalism and your sword of self-righteousness? If he has,
then this prophecy is fulfilled in you. Lord, drive out our idols,
throw out our affections, and deliver us. Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.