Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Hosea. Hosea chapter 6, and
reading from our text, verse 3. Hosea chapter 6, verse 3. Then shall we know if we follow
on to know the Lord is going forth, is prepared as the morning,
and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former
rain unto the earth. Hosea 6 and verse 3. We are told in the opening verses
in the prophecy of Hosea that he prophesied in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, which were the kings of Judah,
And in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas, that's Jeroboam
the second king of Israel, some 750 years before Christ. But as in all of the prophecies,
though they dealt with issues at their actual day, and in the
prophecies here pointing to the need of repentance, pointing
to the need of returning unto the Lord, but all of them will
point to the Lord Jesus Christ. They foretold His coming, they
foretold His work, the whole message of the gospel is God
and sinners reconciled, the fall brought in, the separation between
God and man, and it is through the Lord Jesus Christ that That
breach is made up. And on the cross of Christ, our
Lord put away the sin of his people. In his own body, he bore
those sins and shed his blood to blot out their sins. And that
then is made known in the gospel day. Many of these prophecies,
they point to gospel days. They are to furnish, as we have,
hear this evening the message of the gospel that is set before
us. Right from the very beginning
of this chapter, we have come, come and let us return unto the
Lord. And the provision in Christ enables
a poor sinner to return. It makes a way that he can justly
and righteously be brought to return unto God. We know that
in ourselves we cannot approach to God. We have no righteousness,
we have no right, we have no ability, we have no desire whatsoever,
and we cannot stand before God. But that provision in Christ
enables a poor sinner to be brought nigh, brought nigh by the blood
of Christ. And so we have the work that
is Described here really is a work of God's grace and it centers
around what the Lord would do. In verse two, after two days
he will revive us, in the third day he'll raise us up and we
shall live in his sight. Now we read just briefly in John
of our Lord's death, his burial, and then his resurrection again. How vital it is for us to have
a third-day religion, one that doesn't just stop, as it were,
halfway through. The first day, our Lord was crucified. The second, in the grave. The
third, He rose again. And it is vital for us that we
prove both the death and the resurrection of our Lord in our
own experience. The Apostle Paul says, when the
commandment came, sin revived and I died. He proved the death
of Christ, but then he also proved the life of Christ and how he
is able to testify that the way to be delivered from this wretched
body of death is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we
have the case of Abraham, when Abraham saw Christ's day and
rejoiced at it, as our Lord said he did, when he offered up Isaac. It was to offer him up, a ram
was shown and offered up in his stead. But Abraham was told to
go and offer up Isaac on a mountain that I will tell thee of. And
as he set out in his eyes, Isaac was as good as dead. We're told
in Hebrews that Abraham believed because the promises were in
Isaac. Even if he did kill Isaac, Isaac
would rise again. The promise must be in Isaac. And yet that first day as he
traveled, Isaac was to be slain. The second day he was to be slain. The third day, he goes up the
mountain and Isaac says to him, my father, the fire, the wood,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And he says, my son,
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And at
the end of that day, as the knife is raised to slay Isaac, then
the angel says, stay thy hand. And there in the thicket is a
ram caught by his horns. And Isaac is taken off the altar,
his life. And Abraham has such blessings
from the Lord, because thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me. In blessing I will bless thee,
and in thee and in thy seed, that is Christ, shall all nations
be blessed. And it was that third day. Remember that. When we have a
first and a second day and even a third day, that we may have
sorrow, you think of when the Lord was crucified, the sorrow,
you now therefore have sorrow, the perplexity even on the beginning
of the third day of those two on the way to Emmaus. We trusted
it should have been He that should have redeemed Israel. But by
the end of that day, then were the disciples glad when they
saw the Lord. And do remember this. We need
a third day religion is what is set forth in the word of God. He brings down first, then he
raises up. And that is in the text leading
up to the text here. You have in verse one. For he
hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten. and He will
bind us up. After two days, He will revive
us. In the third day, He will raise
us up, and we shall live in His sight." And we have where the
Lord does one thing, He will do the other. Where He convinces
of sin, then He will show the remedy. He will show the Lord
Jesus Christ as the saviour of sinners. The two go together. Nebuchadnezzar said to his wise
men, when he had a dream, he couldn't remember what it was,
he knew he had one, you tell me the dream, and I will know
that ye are able to tell me the interpretation thereof. He knew
that if a man was able to do one, he was able to do the other,
and no natural man can convince himself of sin. It is God that
does that. And it is God that shows to man
his state, his condition, his need of a saviour. And the reason
why he does it is because he will, in his time away, show
him the saviour and bless him with faith and joy in seeing
the Redeemer putting away his sin. Be able to say, my Lord
and my God, like Thomas did. And so we have in this text here,
the first three verses here, especially in the verse of our
text, the need for following on, the need for that expectation
that there will be a continuing in teaching, instruction, And
the F in our text is not a conditional one, it is what actually follows
on. We know that there are some that
it appears that God has begun to work in their hearts, but
it doesn't follow on. We have the parable of the sower,
where in one case the wayside here is the seed was taken away
straight away, But then we have two tides where it did spring
up for a while. One, it had no depth of earth
because it was on stones. So when the heat came up, it
withered and died. The other one was choked with
the thorns. And the Lord said, it's like
some that just hear the word with joy, but they've no root
in themselves. And when persecution arises because
of the word, by and by they're offended and they go away. It wasn't God's work, it was
man's work and it couldn't stand persecution and trials and troubles. It was a fair weather religion.
And then there are others that the prosperity, the world itself,
with all its allurements, that put an end to that person's religion. But there were those that brought
forth fruit to the honor and glory of God. Those that received
the word and they'd been through all of the temptations and allurements
of the world, and they were allurements. They were trials, they were fights,
they were wrestlings to overcome them. And then there was the persecution and the trials
that were there as well that overcame them. and they brought
forth fruit to God's glory, His grace, what He had done, not
only in giving the seed in the first place, but bringing it
forth to fruitfulness. Our text speaks of following
on. The farmer doesn't just plant
seed and then says, that's it, that's all I'm doing. He watches
over that seed. He'll tend it, he'll spray it,
he'll weed, he'll bring it, his whole aim is to bring it to harvest. And the Lord in his dealings
with his people as well, he has that same aim. There is a following on, and
there is a following on to know the Lord. Well, I want to look this evening
with three points. Firstly, God's dealings with
his people lead to knowing the Lord. And then secondly, some
encouragement and exhortation that is in the text. And then
thirdly, what we shall know if we follow on to know the Lord,
what we shall expect will happen or how the Lord will deal with
us. But firstly, God's dealings with
his people, they lead on to know the Lord. Now, another reason
why we read our second reading was because of the two characters
that were mentioned. We have Nicodemus and we have
Joseph of Arimathea. They're told with Joseph of Arimathea
that he was a secret disciple because of fear of the Jews.
And we have Nicodemus, who also came to the Lord at first by
night. In John 3, we read of him. And it seems the Lord began with
him there. He insisted he must be born again. He didn't know what that was. He didn't know what it was. He
said, how can a man that he's old, can he enter into a womb
again and be born? How can that be? And our Lord
said, our master in Israel, and knowest not these things? He
didn't know. But now we find when all the
other disciples have fled and they've gone away, here's this
secret disciple and here's the one that came to him by night,
openly coming, defiling themselves in the process with the bloodied
body of our Lord, lovingly taking it down, anointing it and laying
it in the tomb. I think what had gone on in Nicodemus'
life, what had gone on in Joseph's life that had brought them from
obscurity, brought them from not knowing and from fear of
Jews to such a public declaration of their love of the Lord. Truly that was not their work,
that was not their doing, that's the Lord's doing. May that be
an encouragement to those of you who feel maybe you're like
Nicodemus, so ignorant, so not understanding the things of God
at all as yet. But as the Lord continues, there
will be that teaching and instruction or like with Joseph of Arimathea,
fearful, fearful of people, fear what they think, what they say.
And you keep your religion, your thoughts and your feelings, your
fears and what's going on in you, keep it close to your chest
and let people know much about it. The Lord knows about it.
He knows all what is going on. He reads the heart. He understands
those sighs, those cries and those groans. because he has
put them there. And so we have those two characters
I wanted to bring before you there. Then we have in Isaiah
those beautiful words of the way that the Lord works and works
in a gradual way, line upon line and precept upon precept. In
Isaiah 28, We have in verse 10, for precept, or if we go back
to verse 9, Whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make
to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the
milk. and drawn from the breast. You
have a picture of a child, a picture of one that is just born or just
growing. And Paul says in Hebrews that
strong meat belongeth unto those that are of age, but milk belongeth
unto those children. He's speaking of that in a spiritual
way. There is a progression naturally
from a child and what they can eat and to what an adult can
eat. And so in a spiritual way, we
have it here, in verse 10, for precept must be upon precept,
precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a
little and there a little. And with stammering lips and
another tongue, will ye speak to this people? And the word
again was, Unto them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept. That's practical teaching, instruction. Line upon line, line upon lines,
building upon what they have taught before. All thy children
shall be taught of the Lord. Great shall be the peace of thy
children. Our Lord saying, I have many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. But later
on they were to bear them. And what shall they go? They
might go and fall backward, be broken, snared and taken. And the Lord knows how to instruct
and teach His children and bring them to a knowledge of Himself,
He which hath begun a good work in you. will perform it unto
the day of Jesus Christ. Philippines 1 and verse 6. The Apostle Peter in his epistles
he says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. There is a giving of grace for
grace. There is an expectation that
when the Lord begins, he'll carry on. And when he begins, he will
finish a work. And the aim in view of the Lord
is to bring his people to himself, to draw them to himself. Our
Lord says, no man can come unto me except the Father which sent
me. Draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. It won't be just draw him Draw
him to a chapel, or draw him to a public profession. Our Lord
aims right at the end, I'll raise him up at the last day. He will
die, he'll be buried, his spirit shall return to God that gave
it, and last day I'll raise him up again. The Lord doesn't do
things by halves. He does finish. He does continue
a work. Following on, there is an expectation
of following on. He doesn't bring a person in
one day from being dead in sin to a full assurance of faith.
The Lord deals with all His people
in very different ways. But in all of what they come
to know of the Lord, it is gradual in one sense. Some may come very
quickly to believe and acknowledge that the Lord is their God, but
be very shallow as to their doctrine or to why they believe or what
the doctrines of the gospel are. Others will be very slow coming
to full assurance of faith, and by the time they do, they've
already got a very good grounding in the things of God. Each one
is in a different way, but the expectation is here that the
Lord does continue. He hath torn, and he will heal
us. He hath smitten, and he will
bind us up. After two days He will revive
us. In the third day He will raise
us up. We shall live in His sight. If
we follow on to know the Lord, we shall know His going forth
is prepared as the morning, and He shall come unto us as the
rain, as the latter, and form a rain unto the earth. And so
in our first point, May we understand and realise the Lord's dealings
with his people in teaching them, faith coming by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Thinking of how long the disciples
were with the Lord, the many parables they heard, the lessons
they heard, the instructions they heard. It's a blessed thing
to have an ear to hear the Word of God. And where the Lord has
given that, and it may at first be to hear condemnation, to hear
the law, but where the law is heard, God's time and way, the
gospel will be heard as well. Well, I want to look then secondly
at encouragement and exhortation here in the text. Firstly, encouragement. Something
to follow on from. Our text says, then shall we
know if we follow on to know the Lord. It implies that there's
been something already happening. Some conviction, some blessing,
some encouragement, some help, something to follow on from,
and his encouragement that we don't go back, we don't cast
away. The word says, cast not away
your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Joseph,
he made sure that his brethren always had something to bring
them back to him, so that they didn't go away He couldn't continue
to have dealings with them. He made sure Simeon was locked
up. He made sure there was a cup
in their sacks and they chased after them to bring them back.
And God will make sure with his people as well, that where he
begins with them, there'll be trials, troubles, afflictions,
or his word. an aching void the world cannot
fill, those things that they are drawn to seek from the Lord. And there's encouragement here
to follow on from. Have you had the Lord's word? Has there been encouragement
to you? Have you tasted that the Lord
is gracious? Peter says in his first epistle,
Chapter 2 verse 3, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious. If the Lord has given a taste,
that's something to follow on from. You know those that give
you a taste of something in the supermarket, that's their whole
aim, isn't it? They don't want you to have a
little taste of a bit of cheese and then just walk out the door
of the supermarket. They're hoping that you like
the taste of that cheese and you'll go down that aisle and
you'll buy a whole packet of it. Don't hope you'll follow
on from that taste. And where the Lord gives a taste
as well might be in providence. And it softened your heart, you've
tasted the Lord's been so gracious, you've felt, you've known what
you've deserved, you've known what if the Lord had really dealt
with according to your sins, And he hasn't done that. And
it softened your heart of the goodness and mercy of the Lord. And having tasted that, there's
encouragement here to follow on, to know the Lord, to be lifted
up, to be encouraged to seek more and to expect more, to go
again and go again seven times. And the Lord said to those disciples
that believed on him, in John 8 and verse 31, He said to them,
if ye continue in my word, then shall ye be my disciples. Indeed,
ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And
again, he spoke of continuing, they believed. But he said, don't
stop there, don't stop there. You continue in my word. You
continue reading. You continue hearing it preached.
You continue in the precepts of it, in the practice of it. That will make you a real disciple,
a real disciple, a follower of the Lord in the word of God.
Then you know the truth. The truth shall make you free
from error, free from sin, free from Satan's snares, Free from
the law, free from every guile of the adversary, the truth shall
make you free. What an encouragement to press
on, what an encouragement to still pray, for God will all
explain, or shalt thou seek his face in vain. You've got something to follow
on from, some help, some answer to prayer, some softening, warmth
of grace, some drawing to the Lord Jesus Christ, something
that you can take to the Lord and say, Lord, you can't deny. Thou didst give me that. I didn't
imagine it. Thou gavest that me. Give me
more. You know, when we bring what
the Lord has already given, bring His gifts and lay them before
Him, acknowledge them, thank Him for them, and desire more,
desire more. And the aim, the aim that we
might truly know the Lord, if we follow on to know the Lord,
I hope that is so with us, so we don't want just loaves and
fishes, We don't just want those temporal things and providential
things. We want to know the Lord. We
want to know Thee. For whom to know is life eternal. So there's encouragement here. There's also those exhortations. We think of how Paul, the Apostle
Paul, felt when he'd spoken to King Agrippa. And King Agrippa,
he says, thou almost persuadest me to be a Christian. And you know what? Paul so desired
that, he said, I would that thou would not almost, but altogether
a Christian, a follower of Christ, like me, accept these bonds. It's a good thing when the people
of God, who have assurance of salvation and blessing themselves,
want others to have the blessings they have, but they don't want
to wish on them their bonds, their afflictions, their thorn
in the flesh. They don't want others to have
that, but what they know of the Lord and what they see of the
Lord, and their comfort beyond the grave, they want others to
have. But how sad for Paul to see one,
as it were, come almost, but then drawback, as if to say,
I don't want to know anymore, I'm not interested in going any
deeper, I don't want you to press me anymore.
There are many like that, they show a little interest in the
Word of God, might receive a Bible, they read it a bit, But if you
were to press them for their soul, or press them to tend the
means of grace, or to read it regularly, no, no, no, that's
not for me. You almost convinced me, but
I don't want it. And Paul knew that that was not
God's work. God's work will lead on, it will
follow on. And so there's that exhortation
like we mentioned of our Lord to those that believed, He exhorted
them to continue in His Word. And so in our text, then shall
we know if we follow on to know the Lord. We do want to be encouraged,
we do want to be exhorted, that's The Lord so clearly says, ask
and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. And those that have already been
given those encouragements or visits are to be really encouraged
to take them to the Lord, lay hold upon them and to press the
Lord Give him no rest until he really blesses your song. Then we have thirdly, what we
shall know if we follow on to know the Lord. What shall one
expect if the Lord continues His work and proves that work
to be real, that soul seeking Him? Now we said, those that
ask, shall be given. Those that seek, they shall find.
Those that knock, the Lord shall open. But in the words of our
text, we read this. If we follow on to know the Lord,
His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He shall come
unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. And we get the Picture the teaching
here of the timing in the Lord's hand. We know, like with the
morning, that the morning follows night. However dark that night
might have been, there is an appointed and a set time the
sun will rise and the light will be there. We know from the rains
in Palestine They looked for a rain when they'd first sown
the seed to get those former rains to swell that grain and
to start it growing. And then they looked at the other
end of that fruitful season, the growing season, that they'd
get the rains so that they'd have a good harvest. The latter
rains, those two so important. You might think, well, in the
meantime, not much rain, perhaps, but it was right when it was
needed. And the Lord blesses and visits
his people when they need it, right when they need it. You've
only got to look at dear Jacob's life, and often it is in times
of great trial. There he is leaving his home
and where he won't see his mother
again, but he thinks it's just for a few days. And he lies down
with his head on stones for a pillow and the Lord draws near and he
blesses him. And then it is years later when
he's coming back from Laban, the Lord blesses him again. When
he is going to see Joseph, you know, we had 20 years, you don't
read of any blessings and any helps that dear Jacob had and
thinking his son was dead and all of those dealings when he
thought he had to part with Benjamin as well. He said, all these things
are against me. But then when He sees the wagons,
he hears what his sons say. He said, Joseph, my son is yet
alive, I'll go and see him before I die. And he makes that move
to go out of Canaan into Egypt, a major move, a big move. And the Lord immediately blesses
him that same night, visits him. The Lord knows when his people
need, we might think we need them many different times, but
he knows when We needn't look in Jacob's light and might say,
God is sparing with his blessings. Well, truly with the children
of Israel, he gave them the manna every day. They despised the
manna, but you know, you and I, and if we are real Christians,
we'll need that manna. Just a little bit of the word
here today and a little bit tomorrow to feed upon day by day. And he withheld it not from their
mouths, that they had big deliverances at the Red Sea, then at Jordan,
wonderful deliverances from the fiery serpents, the brazen serpent
lifted up. They had those great times of
deliverance. But in the meantime, those little
helps, don't despise the little helps. Word here, word there,
softening time, hearing time, A little light shone upon the
world that you hadn't seen before. Something more known of the Lord
and His ways. Some balancing of the clouds
of adversity or trouble or sorrow. Those times are appointed. Notice
them, notice those appointed times. His going forth, you have
that picture of the Lord going forth to bless His people, to
visit His people, to appear for them, there is a set time to
favour Zion. There was a set time for Christ
to come forth, a set time for Him to be born, a set time for
Him to be crucified. Your time is already, my time
is not yet come. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that are under the law. His coming was all set,
His dealings with His people are set as well. He will have
them, will be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it
for them. His people are brought to pray,
brought to cry, beginning that work, He draws them on, He draws
them on in their desires and prayers and longings to know
the Lord. I believe I can say in this,
those are sweet times when you realize that when the Lord comes,
and I've proved it many times, how suddenly and quickly the
Lord can come. You know, I've had it in my study,
just reading the Word of God, and suddenly feel my spirit soften
and drawn out after the Lord. and sometimes it's gone on and
it's led to real repentance and godly sorrow and the tears have
flowed and the sins have come before me over all the years
and I've felt to just lay them before the Lord and the sense
of repentance and forgiveness and the Lord's given it in a
moment. Sometimes I've had it, even when preaching the Word,
just suddenly to be softened under it or hearing the Word
preached and It has been sometimes a little reviving, a little help
that has grown into a large reviving and a large blessing. But the
Lord has come, and he's come sovereignly and freely. And he's
come, and it has had a real effect. The picture here is not a going
forth into dark, but prepared as the morning. When light is
come, when joy is come, joy cometh in the morning. Sorrow,
through the night it may be, but then joy cometh in the morning. And as a matter of thing, over
the years, you get to know the Lord. You get to recognize His
chastening. You get to recognize His voice
through the Word. You get to recognize the effect
on your spirit, how that he can soften hearts of stone in a moment,
how that he can give you prayer when you felt so prayerless,
how that he answers prayers that you've despised and thought they're
such poor prayers, and yet the Lord has answered them. And gradually,
the Lord reveals himself as to how he deals with you, my sheep,
They know my voice, they follow me. They recognise the handiwork
of the Lord. They realise who it is. With Samuel, when the Lord first
spoke to him, we read Samuel did not yet know the Lord, he
didn't recognise his voice. But later on in his life he knew
the Lord very well and spoke the word of the Lord to all of
the people. All of God's people are like
that. A time when they didn't know Him. A time when He teaches
them and leads them on so that they get to truly know Him. And you know they'll know that
He is a merciful God, long-suffering God. He has not dealt with us
as our sins have deserved. He is so full of compassion and
mercy and grace. will never say, like the one
in the parable, I knew thee that thou wast a hard man. No, God's
dear children won't say that. They'll say the opposite. Thou
art a tender, mercies. My goodness and mercy, said David,
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. All of God's children that truly
know him know him in the Lord Jesus Christ as being so merciful
and gracious. The Lord says, come unto me,
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart,
ye shall find rest unto your souls. May we truly be brought to be
led on to know the Lord, be able to then recognise him when he
comes, be able to say with Thomas, my Lord and my God, to be encouraged
when he visits us with the rod and chastening or correction
or times of darkness and trial, that as sure as day follows night,
the Lord that has given us something to follow on from, will follow
on with his blessing in his time and way. May we be encouraged
by every blessing he gives. We read, he shall give graceful
grace, no good thing with he withhold from them that walk
uprightly. And a soul that's walking uprightly
is a soul that is desiring Christ on his terms. not desiring salvation
by his own works, but by the grace of God and the mercy of
God and building upon what the Lord has already done. May we
come in that way, pleading his name, his work, his precious
blood, what he has done for us and following on from what he
has done for us. The Lord then add his blessing,
then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord, he's going
forth, he's prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as
the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Amen.