Thank you, Amy. Let me add my
welcome to Mark. It is good to see you here this
morning. Pray that the Lord will bless us as we look at his word
and listen to his voice. I've titled this message this
morning, Attending the Contenders. It may be a little confusing,
but I hope to be able to unconfuse that before the message is over.
But it's taking care of the contenders, those who contend for the gospel.
And of course, that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. In our
study that we had from Hosea, if you would, you can go ahead
and turn your Bibles to Hosea chapter two. In our last study
three or four weeks ago, I titled that message Contending for the
Faith. And we considered several reasons
why this gospel, this faith of ours warrants contending. The
Apostle Jude warned us, he said that certain men would creep
in unawares and turn grace into lasciviousness. That word lasciviousness
is nothing more than lust. Therefore, the need to contend
for the faith. And we discussed our contending
for the faith of the gospel to be in three parts. And the first
one was the faith, contending for the faith is anchored in
the Lord. That simply means that Christ
as Lord is the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews chapter
12 and verse 2 says that he is the author and finisher of our
faith. As the author, he established
our faith, or our gospel, and he is the sum and substance of
it. He is the subject of it. If we preach the faith of the
gospel, we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, not a counterfeit.
It reveals his person and work as the God man, eternally appointed,
eminently qualified, totally committed and completely successful
in redeeming, in redemption, having accomplished all that
the father sent him to do and all that is required of us and
able to be stand, to stand justly and holy and without blame before
him in love. So he is the author of our faith,
but he also finished it. In Matthew chapter five in verse
18, Jesus said this, Verily, verily, I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Well, we know that
the law was fulfilled in Christ, and it must and does pronounce
every sinner for whom he represented and died for to be justified
before God based on his blood and righteousness alone. When
that last sheep is brought into the fold, and Christ returns
for his sheep, then will Christ have finished the faith. It will
have accomplished its intended goal, and our faith will give
way to sight. We walk by faith now, but we
will see him as he is when he comes again, and we'll be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. So as the author of our
faith and the finisher of our faith, we have none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as author of our faith, he
is also the authority over it. He said, all authority has been
given unto me in heaven and in earth to his disciples. Ephesians chapter four in verse
11 and 12 gives us an insight into the authority that Christ
gives over his church or over this gospel. It says this, he
gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. In Romans
10, Paul asked this question, how shall they preach except
they be sent? So only those authorized and
sent by Christ can preach the truth. Now we have a lot of preachers
who preach, but what are they preaching? It's not the truth.
So only those authorized and sent by Christ will preach the
gospel of peace, which is our gospel. These that come, some
of them can preach so close, the scripture says, that if it
were possible, they could deceive even the very elect. Their motive
is deceptive. Their message is deadly. Their
ministry is diabolical, and their mission is doomed to failure,
which is all the more reason why we must stand and contend
for the faith of the gospel. Only those son of Christ, with
the message of grace, declaring an accomplished redemption, are
authorized by God to speak. So the third consideration that
we didn't get to when I preached before was what we're going to
look at today. The third consideration in contending
for the faith is that as the author and the authority of the
faith, the Lord attends those who earnestly contend for the
faith. So that's the reason I titled my message this morning, Attending
the Contender. The Lord Jesus Christ attends
those he sends to preach the gospel. You remember his last
command to the disciples on the Mount of Olives before he ascended
to the Father was this. All authority has been given
unto me, both in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of Jesus. And lo, I'm
with you always, even unto the end of the world. So I see a
twofold purpose connected with this promise of Christ's presence
with us First of all, he equips the contender of the faith with
the faith. He equips the contender of the
faith with the faith. Now what do I mean by that? Christ
doesn't send us out unprepared. He gives us the wherewithal,
those he calls to preach, to share the gospel. He gives us
the wherewithal, the things necessary. So he equips the contender of
the faith with the faith. And secondly, he enlightens the
chosen unto faith by the faith. In other words, he saves the
laws by the preaching of the faith or the gospel. And that's
what we're going to look at this morning mainly. The commandment
given to those who would contend for the faith is a grave responsibility. We'll see that today. God told
Hosea to go speak to Gomer and tell her, you're not my wife
and I'm not your husband. to stand before a congregation
and say, thus saith the Lord, is no light matter. And it's
the responsibility of those alone whom the Lord sends. And how
do we judge their qualifications? By the message, by the message
they preach. Second Corinthians, Paul wrote
to the church at Carte this warning, for if he that cometh unto you
preaches another Jesus whom you've not heard, or if you receive
another spirit which we have not received or another gospel
which you have not accepted, you might well bear with us,
with me, Paul said. James gave the same warning in
the epistle of James. He says, my brethren, be not
many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. That word masters is teachers,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. And
this follows on the heels of his admonition in James one,
these words, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. For the wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God. What he's saying is the
gospel is an offensive gospel. It divides. It separates families. It separates men from women.
It separates husbands and wives. It separates children and husband.
And our contending should not be motivated by Confrontation
but by the truth in love Because the gospel is offensive. It is
powerful. It's a two-edged sword And uh, it fosters opposition
just the very nature of the gospel. It brings the opposition from
those who hear it So our contending should be motivated by the truth
in love not angry confrontation In other words, we preach the
gospel and let god do his work That's that's our responsibility
And we do this, as Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in 2
Corinthians 4, 7, knowing this, that we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Jesus said, behold, I send you
forth as sheep among wolves. It is not a pleasant thing to
stand against anyone. But it's a necessary thing to
stand against anyone, everyone who opposes the gospel, even
those of our own household, as we'll see in a minute from Hosea. Because Christ warns us that
as they hated him, they'll hate us also. So how does God, first
of all, equip his ministers? The contender of the faith, he
equips him with the faith. Well, first of all, he gives
us his spirit. Listen to what John the Apostle wrote. Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. It's expedient for you that I
go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto
you. But if I depart, I'll send him unto you, and he will guide
you. He will embolden you. He will equip you. Secondly, he gives us the words
to say. Listen to Matthew 10 in verse
19. But when they deliver you up, Jesus said, take no thought
how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that
hour what you shall speak. The mysteries of godliness must
be revealed to the contender of the faith as well as those
contending for. It's got to be revealed to both.
I can't preach the gospel to you if I don't know it. If it
hadn't been revealed to me, I can't preach it. So it has to be revealed
to both. And then he gives us the proper
motive. Isaiah 55 says this, so shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. God's commission to
the church is to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
And we're to go. We're a set people. And Christ
promises this, Lord, I'm with you always. I will attend you
in your commission to earnestly contend for the faith. I will
send my spirit to guide you into all truth. The psalmist said
this of Christ in Psalm 23. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. He does not follow. He does not
sin. He leads. And he said, yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil for thou art with me. And Jesus said that we're two
or three together in his name, whether that be over a doctrinal
issue or in the assembly as we are this morning, there will
he be also in the midst of it. So he goes with us. Why? Because we need to be equipped. And he is the one that equips
us. Romans chapter 10 says this in verse 13, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then? Shall they call on him in whom
they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. The contender for the faith must
be equipped, and God alone does that. In Ephesians chapter 6,
Paul talks about putting on the whole armor of God, and the first
piece of armor is the Word of God, the truth, the Word. Stand there having your loins
girt about with truth. The first is truth. The last
is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So first
he equips the contender of the faith with the faith. Secondly,
he enlightens the children unto faith by the faith. To those outside the grace of
God, the gospel will be a saver of death unto death. To the remnant,
according to the election of grace, it is a saver of life
unto life. This is the work of the Lord.
We can't affect the gospel. All we can do is preach it. We
preach and trust God to enlighten his people, and he does and will.
Every one of his sheep will be brought to the light, to the
faith, to the gospel. They will believe, they will
repent, and they'll rest in Christ and his righteousness alone for
all of salvation. Here in Hosea chapter two that
we're gonna look at in a minute, God instructs his contenders
to plead with Gomer, Israel. Gomer's a type. She's a picture
of Israel, rebellious Israel. The Hebrew word plead here in
Hebrews chapter two in verse one is the word contend. That's
what it means, contend. It carries the same meaning as
in 2 Corinthians 5.11 where Paul said, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. That word persuade means to contend
also. We persuade men or contend with
them concerning their idolatry. Romans 10.1 is our attitude. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. So the Holy
Spirit of God must accomplish the preaching of the gospel because
it The objects of his ministry are dead in trespasses and sin.
We are all by nature ignorant of our state before God, of the
God whom we have to do. We don't know God by nature. We know of a God, but he's not
the true and living God. And we don't know the Christ
that has redeemed us. You see, God's people are all
already redeemed, even those that are not born yet. They're
already redeemed. Christ redeemed them. And it's left up to the
contenders of the faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit
to go and awaken them to the fact that Christ has died for
them and redeemed them. And it's this faith, this gospel,
that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
It is only in this gospel that is the power of God unto salvation.
John the Apostle said this in John 6, 44, no man can come to
me except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day." No, man, that's pretty strong language. Nobody can come to God on his
own. He has to be drawn by the Father. Yet it's our responsibility
to come, and God will hold us accountable if we don't. This
drawing is the work of the Holy Spirit of God in the preaching
of the gospel. It is the spirit that quickens,
John said, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are the Spirit, and they are life. So in the
regeneration and conversion of a sinner, the revelation of who
that sinner is in Christ is revealed to his mind and his heart. Gomer,
for instance, though estranged from God, was no less loved by
God. It remained for him to reveal
to her that love, and he did, and we'll see that in further
studies in Hosea. But we know that God doesn't
dispense his love at the expense of his justice and his holiness.
He must be holy and just when he dispenses that love. And that
love is what provided what his justice and holiness demanded. And we'll see this love demonstrated
in God's long suffering with Israel, typified by Gomer. And he begins with the gospel,
the faith. And look at Hosea chapter two.
In verse one, God says, say ye unto your brethren, Amy, and
to your sister, Ruhamah, plead with your mother, that's Israel,
plead, contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband.
Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and
her adulterers from between her breasts. You know, a holy and
righteous God can require no less than perfection in all of
us. especially his people. Jesus
said in Matthew chapter five and verse 48 in the Sermon on
the Mount, be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven
is perfect. Peter said this in chapter one and verse 16, because
it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. In Hosea chapter one
and verse two, God reveals Israel and Gomer's problem and even
the elect's problem by nature. The scripture says there in the
latter part of verse two, they have departed from the Lord.
In other words, they've abandoned, they've forsaken the Lord Jesus
Christ just like all his, even his elect do. Though chosen,
think about this now, the nation Israel, though chosen of God
and given special favors, Israel forsook the Lord and took to
their idols. They forsook the temple in Jerusalem,
you remember? where God says, I'll meet with
you here and nowhere else. They forsook the temple in Jerusalem
for the pagan shrines in Bethel and Dan. Now that doesn't sound
like a whole lot, but when you think about what they were really
saying, it is a great thing. Israel forsook the Lord for their
own sake. pleasures. They forsook the temple
in Jerusalem where God promised to meet with them for the pagan
shrines in Bethel and Dan. In other words, they rejected
the temple, which was a type of Christ, for the convenience
and comforts of false religion. They fell to the lie and under
the spell of those men that Jude warned us about that will come
in and turn grace into lasciviousness and deny the only true God and
the Lord Jesus Christ whom he had sent So as a result of this
sin, and what it basically is, is a rivaling of Christ with
the idols of Bethel in then, they deny the only Lord God and
our Lord Jesus Christ. Gomer is blinded to the truth.
She cannot behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Why? Look at chapter two of Hosea
in verse two. Whoredoms fill her sight. She
can't see anything but that which is evil. Everything she touches
is evil. Why? Because her person is condemned. She's in a state of uncleanness. So everything in her eye is dark
because her eye is dark. And the scripture says that if
an eye be dark, the whole body is dark. You can't see. Her eye
is dark because the truth that sets men free is absent from
her assembly, where she goes to church. They don't preach
a finished redemption. They preach a works redemption,
something left for the sinner to do. And she thinks, she pleases
God by what she does and does not do. And instead of pleasing
God, she impugns his holiness and his justice. There is no
spiritual discernment in Gomer's eye, and neither in ours by nature. Our eye is dark. John chapter
3 and verse 19 says this, and this is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Because Hortums filled
her sight, Hosea 2.2, her heart is full of adulteries. She is
perfectly happy to live her life in spiritual adultery with false
religion. And that's the case of all of
us by nature. God's just showing us a picture
here in Hosea of our own sinful nature. So God's command is to
put away your whoredoms and your adulteries or else look at verse
3 of chapter 2. Lest I stripped her naked and
set her as in the day that she was born and make her as a wilderness
and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst. Here begins
a lifelong teaching process with God's people. When he brings
a person to this place where he strips him of all this that
we're going to look at here in just a minute. It begins a lifelong
process with God's elect of him correcting and chastising and
bringing us on and bringing us out of that idolatry that we're
all in here by nature. The question is, will we put
away our whoredoms and adulteries or will God have to take them
from us? Will we put away any and all things that rival Christ
and His righteousness and beauty as our whole salvation, or will
God have to take them from us? Will we have no other gods, or
will God have to take our idols from us? Will we have no confidence
in the flesh for any part of our acceptance before a holy
God, or will God have to take those things from us? Well, we
know all too well the difficulty of living a holy and righteous
life in our character and conduct. Yet our command is from God to
do just that. Listen to what Paul wrote to
the church at Colossae. Do not lie one to another, having
put off the old man. You mean Christians lie? We tell
lies on one another? Little children, John wrote,
keep yourself from idols. He's talking to Christians here
now. Christians are idolaters. Yeah, we're still into that stuff. We have to trust the Lord to
bring us out of that every day, because we're guilty of it all.
A victory today is a failure tomorrow. We might be able to
do it today, but tomorrow's a failure. What we would, that do we not.
As Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death, I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. But you know what? We don't even
account one victory in our character and conduct as forming any part
of the reason why God favors us. Christ got our victory and
God's favor by his death on Calvary. That's the only thing we can
plead. That's the only boast we can make. God forbid that
I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
warfare between the spirit and the flesh is a battle for the
hearts and souls of men fought under the message of these contenders
of the faith. Here we begin to see the love
of God for Israel, his elect. He has so shut up his church,
his people, his Israel, spiritual Israel, that nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Every victory
we gain is attained and attributed to his power. Even the warfare
that we engage in though painful, is a blessing from God, for he
only chastens those he loves. This warfare is our calling until
we are united with Christ in glory. It is his work to strip
us of our whoredoms and adulterers for which he died on the cross
and for which we are guilty. So what does it mean to be stripped? In verse three, he says, lest
I strip her. It's to be uncovered before God. It is, as the writer of Hebrews
in chapter four said, neither is there any creature that is
not manifest in the sight of God, but all things are naked
and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. It is
to stand before a holy God without excuse and without a covering
for our sins. It is to see that if God should
judge me based on my best effort, he would have to condemn me.
It is to see our deservingness of condemnation by a holy God.
It is to be totally helpless to defend ourselves or provide
for ourselves a righteous covering acceptable to God. It is to be
barren as a wilderness, producing nothing but briars and thorn,
because that's all the unregenerate man can bear, is fruit unto death,
dead works and fruit unto death. It is to be like a dry ground
where death by thirst is imminent. We see all this as God begins
to deal with us and take these things away from us and send
us someone contending for the faith. It's only then that we
are able to get some kind of view of who we are by nature
and what God has to do in order to bring us to a place where
he can accept us, that in Christ. And that's the way it was with
Gomer. You see, that's all Gomer knew, because she was taught
in the temples where perfect righteousness wasn't taught,
but works was taught. And you know what? Scripture says that the law of
God pronounces a curse upon all who seek justification by the
deeds of the law. And that's all Gomer knows. having
given herself to the idols of Bethel and Dan, rejecting the
Christ of God, which is typified by the temple in Jerusalem. She
is ignorant of a just God and a savior. Without the contenders
of the faith, she would remain ignorant of God's design for
her life. But we know that can't be, because
as one of the elect, she must be brought under the sound of
the gospel, the faith that we're talking about here, and brought
to faith and repentance. Look at verse four. And I will
not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children of whoredoms.
What he's saying here is I will not strip her children, for they're
not mine. I don't love them. That's hard saying, but that's
what the word says. The word says this in Romans
9, 21, hath not the potter power over the clay to make of the
same lump one vessel into honor and another to dishonor? It is
God's right alone to choose and to call. Look at verse five. For their mother hath played
the harlot. She that conceived them hath done shamefully, for
she said, I will go after my lovers. They give me my bread
and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. Who are Gomer's lovers? They
are the enemies of grace. They are those who preach salvation
by words. They are those who oppose the
Lord in his gospel. They reject the righteousness
of Christ for their own self-righteousness. They deny the person and reject
the accomplished work of Christ for all of salvation for his
people. And though a trophy of God's grace, Gomer is ignorant
and rebellious herself, and she gave herself over to all manner
of uncleanness. She attributed the blessings
that God bestowed upon her to her lovers, those who preach
salvation by works. And in this state of ignorance,
Gomer continues to go after her lovers until God intervenes. Look at verse six. God has to intervene. What will
cause a sinner to abandon his idolatry? God must strip him
of it. He does this by cutting off our
former lovers. He cuts off our affection for
the enemies of the gospel. and you and I are no different
than Gomer. He had to cut ours off too. Unregenerate, we love
salvation by works. All the while, saying it's of
grace. That's what I did. I said, I
would argue with you and many, oh, it's all of grace, yet I
was preaching a work salvation. So here in Gomer, and what God
did with her, we see grace in action. Though she persisted
in her idolatry, she said, I'll go after my lovers, they give
me these things. my wool and my flax, my oil and
my drink. But God had other plans for her.
Look at verse seven. He says, I cut off her lovers,
and she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake
them. And she shall seek after them, but she shall not find
them. Why? Verse six tells us why. Therefore, God says, behold,
I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a way, and she
shall not find her paths. How does God strip his people
of their whoredoms? He shuts them up to Christ, to
the faith. He makes us to see and to rest
in the finished work of Christ to redeem his people by his satisfaction
in the law and justice. And we won't rest until we see
this rest already accomplished for us. And this is typified
by the hedge and the wall. The hedge represents the law
here. strict and unbending, unforgiving in its demands for perfection
and certain death on all who come against it. The law of God
pronounces a curse upon all who continue not in all things that
are written in the book of the law to do them. Galatians 3.10.
The wall represents the gospel where the law would exclude sinners
from salvation based on our disobedience The gospel declares a satisfaction
to the Lord's demands upon the sinner by another's obedience.
Let me read you a verse of scripture here from Isaiah chapter five
that talks about this. And the writer is talking about
the nation Israel as the vineyard of the Lord here. It says in
Isaiah five verse one, now will I sing to my well beloved a song
of my beloved touching his vineyard. my well-beloved being Christ,
and his vineyard being Israel. My well-beloved hath a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it, and gathered out
the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress
therein. And he looked that it should
bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O
inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you,
betwixt me and my vineyard, What could have been done more to
my vineyard than I have not done to it? Wherefore, when I looked
that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes.
And now, go to, I will tell you what I will do with my vineyard.
I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and
break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down,
and I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor dig,
but there shall come up briars and thorns, I will also command
the cloud that they rain no more rain upon it, for the vineyard
of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah
his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment or
justice, but behold, oppression, legalism, bondage to the law.
And he looked for righteousness or mercy, but behold, a crime.
Well, what God did here in judgment against the nation Israel, for
their unbelief and disbelief is overshadowed by what he does
for his elect. Where he took down the hedge
and the wall around Israel, he builds and maintains that hedge
and wall around his elect. Israel rejected the law and the
gospel. They trusted the hedge to protect
them from the wrath of God. God took away their hope, that
law, into which they boasted became their enemy, rejecting
the law they rejected the gospel, and their end is that of the
nation Israel. But for the Gomers of this world,
those of us whom God loves, and built a hedge around, and built
a wall around, it's impossible for them to be lost, because
they're justified, not by their law keeping, or by their doing,
but by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been shown the impossibility
of being justified by the law, by the keeping of the law. And
look to the wall, Christ. Zechariah chapter two in verse
five said this, for I, saith the Lord, will be a wall of fire
around about her, and I will be the glory in the midst of
her. So God shut Gomorrah off to her lovers. He showed her
something better. He showed her Christ. The Hedge
of Thorns represents the law and the impossibility of entering
into his fellowship based on our obedience unto it. Romans
chapter 8 verse 3 says, what the law could not do, in that
it was weak to the flesh. What is it the law can't do?
It cannot pronounce a sinner just and holy and righteous in
the sight of God based on his character and conduct. The law
can't do that. The Hedge of Thorns makes it
impossible for Goomer to get to her lovers. When we see the
extent of the law, we see the utter impossibility of salvation
by deeds of the law. The wall represents the gospel
and the safety and security of all in him to whom the wall shuts
up even the Lord. God reminded Gomer of her Christ,
whom she abandoned for her lovers. Look at verse seven of Hosea
chapter two, verse seven. Then shall she say, I will go
and return to my first husband For then was it better for me
than now. And in Jeremiah chapter 31, God
says this. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant
they break, although I was an husband to them. Gilmer says, I'll go back to
my first husband because it was better for me then than now.
When God reveals the true Christ and his righteousness to our
mind and heart, he shows us the utter sinfulness of those lovers
to whom we had prostituted ourselves. Those who see will gladly return
to the Lord because he has granted them faith and repentance and
has made them willing in the day of his power. The idol to
which we prostituted ourselves is revealed to be such that no
sinner will knowingly worship an idol, but all do in ignorance. Look at verse eight. God says,
the reason she did this, she didn't know. But she did know,
she would know, because Jeremiah 31, 33 says this. But this shall
be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After
those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts.
and write them on their hearts, and we'll be their God, and they
shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know
the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them
to the greatest. No sinner by nature knows God
before he knows God, until he knows God. This shows us the
need for those who will contend for the faith, the gospel. Though
Gomer did what she did in ignorance, and though we did what we did
in ignorance, God will not leave his people in ignorance and idolatry. He said they shall all know me
from the least to the greatest. Now look at verse nine of Hosea
chapter two. Therefore will I return and take
away my corn in the time thereof and my vine in the season thereof
and I will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. God says I will take away from
her those things attributed to her lovers but provided by me.
In the seasons thereof, in other words, God says at a time of
my choosing, I will show her to be, I will show myself to
be the benefactor of those gifts to her. This is a lifelong process. It doesn't happen overnight,
little by little. God removes these things from
his people that hinder our fellowship with him. And even though gifts
from God, none of these things contribute one iota to our salvation. And look at verse 10. And now
will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and
none shall deliver her out of my hand." What God is saying
is, I'll show her what her sin is, and nothing her lovers have
to offer will sway her. She has the pearl of great price,
and she won't go away from that. And in verse 11, he says, I will
also cause all her myrrh, or her joy, her peace, her contentment
to cease. And those things that she once
enjoyed now will be an abomination to her. Christ is now her peace. And in verse 12 he says, and
I will store her vines and her fig trees wherever she has said,
these are my rewards that my lover has given me. And I will
make them a forest and the beast of the field shall eat them.
In other words, I'll take away every word to which she has had
to boast and replace it with Christ and His righteousness
alone. And verse 13 says, And I will visit upon her the days
of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked
herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after
her lovers, and forget me, saith the Lord. God does visit the
days of Balaam upon us. The purpose is to be an ever
reminder of our sinfulness and our unworthiness, and a constant
reminder of the greatness of God's love and his redemption
and salvation for those of us who didn't deserve it. It is
to be reminded that if he didn't keep us from falling, we'd fall
headlong into sin. Well, let me close with this
verse talking about the contenders of the faith, how we must be
prepared and equipped and how God uses that to save his elect. Psalm 130. And verse three says
this. If thy Lord shouldest mark iniquity,
O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. What the writer is saying here
is that there is a people against whom God will not mark iniquities. And think about that. We're sinners.
Yet God will not mark, he will not charge his elect with their
sin. There is a people against whom
God will not mark iniquities, therefore they stand. Their iniquities
are not marked because they stand. They stand because Christ is
seated at the right hand of glory with the Father, having borne
their iniquities away. They are not marked, that means
exposed to the wrath of God, because their sin has been charged
to and satisfied by the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone resides
forgiveness. It is by him, with him, and in
him, even in Christ. And they can approach unto a
holy God and find acceptance with him because someone attended
by the Lord contended for the faith with them. What a blessing
of grace to have experienced the hearing of the faith and
be made to believe and receive it. What a gracious avenue of
service. to engage with Christ in contending
for the faith that the elect might see their iniquities already
forgiven. What a gracious God we have who
has justified the ungodly based on the satisfaction already accomplished. It is under the preaching of
this faith they are regenerated. So let us earnestly contend for
the faith attended by the Lord, for the cry goes out, Come over
and help us, they cried. And our God is mighty to save,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. Mark, come
and lead us in a closing hymn.