So forget about yourself, magnify
His name, and worship Him. So forget about yourself, magnify
His name, and worship Christ the Lord. One more. We are debtors to his
grace. We are debtors to His grace. The law's been satisfied. The
law's been satisfied. Now worship Him. We are debtors to His grace. The law's been satisfied. Now worship Him. We are debtors to his grace. The law's been satisfied. Now worship Christ the Lord. Worship him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. Thank you, Cheryl. Let's open
our service this morning with hymn number 37 and your hardback
hymnal number 37. Let's all stand together. How
great thou art. Number 37. Oh Lord, my God. And I, in awesome wonder, consider
all the works thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain granure And hear the brook, and
feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God to thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly
bearing, to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my breast. Then I shall bow In humble adoration,
and there proclaim, My God, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! Please be seated. What hope we have in that the
Lord has promised where two or three are gathered together in
his name, there he is in the midst of them. He also said that
if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. Our heart's
desire this morning is that we would know a little bit more
about how great our God is. If that's to happen, he's gonna
have to speak to our hearts. And if he does, it'll be by his
word. So thankful that we have an opportunity
to be here and to open God's word and to ask him to reveal
himself to us. That really is our greatest need.
If our greatest need was to know theology, God would have sent
a theologian. If our greatest need was for
knowledge, God would have sent an educator. If our ignorance
was the biggest problem we had. If our need was that we had a
low self-esteem, God would have sent a psychologist. If our problem
was that we were depressed, God would have sent a therapist. If our problem was that our needs
were all financial, God would have sent an economist. None of those things are our
greatest need. If our greatest need was relationships
between men, God would have sent a counselor. Our greatest need
is a broken relationship with God as a result of our sin, and
that's why God sent a Savior. And my hope this morning is that
the Lord would be pleased to save sinners, this one being
first. Let's go to Him in prayer and
ask Him to do just that for us this morning. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we look at Thy handiwork, the
glory of Thy creation, and surely the firmament does declare Thy
glory. And yet, Lord, in order to know
anything about Your saving grace, we are completely dependent upon
You sending Your Holy Spirit in power enlightening the eyes
of our understanding, opening our hearts, opening thy word,
opening, Lord, what no man can shut, and revealing to us the
glory of thy dear son, our only hope. We ask that for his namesake,
you would be pleased to do that now. For we pray it in Christ's
name. Amen. Would you open your Bibles
with me to Hosea chapter 6? Hosea chapter 6. And my question this morning
is, what does God require? What does God require? What is
he pleased with? What does he honor? And I'll
answer that question before we even look at the text. You already
know the answer to it. God the Father spoke audibly
from heaven and said, this is my beloved son. In him, I am
well pleased. He's not pleased with you, not
pleased with me. He's pleased with his son. The
only way that we can know the pleasure of God is to be found
in Christ. Now that having been said, the
one sin that the believer ceases to commit in one sense, I'm gonna
give you two senses of this truth, but in one sense, the one sin
that the child of God ceases to commit is the sin of idolatry. when the Lord is pleased to reveal
himself to the hearts of his people. They renounce all their
false gods, all their false hopes. Paul, when writing to the Thessalonians
said, it's not necessary for me to tell others about what
God's doing for you, for your witness has gone out throughout
all Achaia, how that you turned to God from your idols to worship
the one and true God. And that's what the Lord does
when he saves his people. They can't go back to where they
were. Once they've seen the truth, they just can't. They've been
broken of that idolatry. In another sense, idolatry is
the sin that we can never get over. In a more spiritual, deeper
sense, For every time that we look anywhere other than the
Lord Jesus Christ, any time, under any circumstances, particularly
to deal with our sin problem, we are committing idolatry. Thus the reason we need to hear
the gospel is in order for the Lord to recover
us How often we think when we're convicted over our sin, oh, if
I could just be more sorry. If I could just be more contrite. If I could feel more of a sense
of my repentance for my sin. And in thinking that, We're no
different than the guy who's beating himself on the back with
a whip. And I've seen pictures of men
who actually crucify themselves in hopes. I was in Ukraine one
time and we went down into a monastery where monks literally buried
themselves alive in order to pay for their sins. The thoughts
that we would have that somehow our sorrow, somehow our repentance
would be pleasing to God and would be sufficient to put away
our sin is no different than that. It's no different than
that. We're looking somewhere other
than Christ. If I could just renew my commitment,
if I could be more committed. And so we step up our religious
activity and we think, well, I'm going to be more sincere.
I got to handle on this. And we think that somehow through
flexing the muscle of our arm of flesh that we can recover
ourselves from the problem of sin. Do you have those thoughts?
Do you have those thoughts? idolatry. It's in that sense
a sin that we never get over. We never recover from it. Look
what the Lord says in Hosea chapter 6 at verse 6, for I desired mercy
and not sacrifice the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Oh, my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly, wholly, completely lean on Jesus' name, on Christ,
the solid rock I stand. All other ground, all other ground
is sinking sand. That's all it is. The Lord said,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice. What does that mean? Look what
he goes on to say in verse 7. But they, like men, have transgressed
the covenant There have they dealt treacherously against me. Any and every attempt that we
make to deal with our sin problem apart from faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ is to transgress God's covenant and to frustrate
the grace of God. It's what it is. How many times we act like David?
David was guilty. He knew what he had done. And
for a year, for a year, he hid out. He justified himself. I'm sure David went to church
every day for that year. He made sacrifices. And then
when Nathan the prophet came to David and exposed his sin
and told him about his hope in the forgiveness of God, David
said, if it were sacrifices that thou would desire, I would have
given them. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a
contrite heart. Oh God, thou will not despise.
Why? Because he's the one that gives
it. He's the one that causes us to realize there's nothing
that we can do. There's nothing that we can bring
to God. He is satisfied with the Lord
Jesus Christ and with Christ alone. And the quicker that we
can flee to Christ, the quicker we will know about the grace
of God and the forgiveness of God. Look at verse 4 of Hosea chapter
6. Oh, Ephraim. God's speaking to
you and me. This is God's people. Oh, Ephraim,
what shall I do unto thee? Oh, Judah, what shall I do unto
thee for your goodness How many of us are still foolish
enough to make New Year's resolutions? You don't do it, do you? Maybe
you did it a time or two or a few times and now you've got to...
You can't keep them, can you? You just can't keep them. Isn't
that what we do with God? I'm gonna make a new resolution.
I'm gonna commit myself. I'm gonna pull myself up and
I'm gonna be more dedicated. Idolatry. Idolatry. Here's what God says, oh Judah,
Judah, what am I gonna do with you? Your goodness is like the
morning cloud that promises rain, it promises refreshment, but
as soon as the sun rises, it melts away, it's not there anymore. What am I gonna do with you?
It's mercy that I delight in, not sacrifice. Not sacrifice. It's the knowledge of God, not
your burnt offerings. Now let me show you a couple
examples of that. Turn to me to 1 Samuel chapter
13. 1 Samuel chapter 13. What did the Lord say? Come unto
me. Come unto me, all ye that labor. Are you laboring under the burden
of sin? A lot of folks labor. A lot of folks labor. Oh, they increase their religious
activity, they increase their attempts to be more committed
and to do good, and they're laboring. But they're not heavy burdened
yet. They haven't experienced a burden
that they can no longer carry. That's by the grace of God. For
God to make our sin such that, Lord, I can't fix this problem.
I can't correct it. I can't solve it. I need a Savior. My problem is nothing short of
my broken relationship with thee over my sin. I need an advocate. I need an intercessor. I need
a sin bearer. I need a righteous one that can
stand on my behalf before thee and plead my cause in his name
for me. That's the only solution I have. The Lord said, come unto me.
All you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. My
yoke is easy, my burden is light. Learn of me and get rest for
your souls. That's the only hope we have.
An example of that is found in 1 Samuel chapter 13, or I guess
I should say an opposite example of that. Saul, the king of Israel, was
attempting to secure the blessings of God in his fight against the
Philistines without Samuel, without the proper priest making the
proper sacrifice. That's the story here. Samuel
was God's anointed priest. Samuel was God's anointed prophet. Samuel pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. Samuel told Saul, wait for me,
wait for me. And Saul's men began to disperse
and the armies of the Philistines got stronger and stronger and
Saul couldn't wait any longer. And so he attempted to garnish
the blessings of God in this battle without the proper priest
and without the proper sacrifice. He brought his own sacrifice.
Do you do that? Do you do that? Solomon, I've always been disturbed
about Solomon's last days of life. How is it that a man of God,
the wisest man that ever lived, could die an idolater? He did. It's a testimony of God's
grace that the Lord, that there's nothing you and I can do to lose
favor with God if we are found in Christ. He's all our righteousness
before God. But Solomon did. Solomon's wives
took him away, and then I realized, I'm gonna die an idolater. I'm
gonna die an idolater. I can't get over it. Every time, every time I have
a problem, I'm so prone to look for solutions to that problem
somewhere other than the Lord Jesus Christ until God allows
me to get all tangled up in the web of deceit that I weave and
then reveals to me the glory of His dear Son. So in verse 8 of chapter 13 of
1 Samuel, And he tarried seven days, Saul's
waiting, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed.
But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered
from him. And Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me,
and a peace offering, and he offered the burnt offering. So
Saul makes the offering, because Samuel didn't show up. And it
came to pass, as soon as he had made an end of the offering,
the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came, and Saul went out to meet
him, that he might bless him. That's what that word salute
is, it's the word bless. So Saul goes out to meet Samuel
in hopes that Samuel's gonna bless Saul. And Samuel said, what hast thou
done? What hast thou done? And Saul
said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me,
and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that
the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash, therefore
said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal,
and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. I've got to make,
I've got to do something in order to win God's favor and garnish
his blessings. No, you don't. No, you don't. God's pleased with Christ. All blessings from God are in
the heavenlies in Christ. All our acceptance before God
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Saul, what have you done? And what does Saul say? I forced
myself, therefore, and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel
said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly, thou hast not kept
the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee,
for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever,
but now thy kingdom shall not continue. For the Lord hath sought
him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him
to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that
which the Lord commanded thee. What does God command you? What
does he command me? What is he pleased with? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Trust Christ,
come to Christ, know that all the promises of God are yay and
amen in Christ. You're not going to do anything.
God's not gonna let you do it. He's not going to let you rob
Christ of His glory. He's not going to let me do it,
as much as we try. He's going to stop us in our
tracks. And thank God for that. Thank God for that. Look at chapter 15 in 1 Samuel. So Samuel told Saul, because
of what you've done, your kingdom will not continue. God has chosen
another man, a man after his own heart, and that man's kingdom
will last forever. And who was that man? They say
it was David. Was it? Was it David? The Lord Jesus Christ asked the
Pharisees, he said, who is the Christ? Whose son is he? And
what did they say? He's the son of David. And so
the Lord said, if he be the son of David, then why did David
say, the Lord has said unto my Lord, he shall make thine enemies
thy footstool. We're not talking about David.
We're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the man after
God's own heart. David is but a figure of him. David and his descendants reigned
on the throne of Judah forever. His scepter did not separate,
was not taken away from Judah until Shiloh came. And the Lord
Jesus Christ reigns on the throne of God's kingdom. God's pleased
with Christ. Are you pleased with what God's
pleased with? That's the question. Or do you
think that somehow God's gonna be pleased with something you
do outside of Christ? Something you bring to God. Some
sorrow that you experience, some offering that you make. God desires
mercy. Mercy. Not sacrifice. Who does he give mercy to? Mercy
beggars. Undeserving, unworthy sinners. That's who he gives mercy to.
God delights in mercy. Why? Because it glorifies Christ. It glorifies Christ. So Saul
thought, I'll bring a sacrifice since I can't wait any longer.
I've waited as long as I can. And as soon as he made the sacrifice,
Samuel showed up. Oh, I forced myself to do it.
Yes, you did. You didn't get it from God, you
forced yourself. Isn't that what we do? Chapter 15, God commands Saul to go against
the Amalekites. Now Amalek was the grandson of
Esau and the Amalekites were that tribe of enemies against
Israel that attacked Israel the whole time they were in the wilderness.
They never got rid of the Amalekites. The Amalekites are the people
that Israel was fighting when Joshua was sent by Moses down
into the battle, and when Moses' hands were raised, Joshua got
victory, and when Moses' hands came down, the Amalekites got
the advantage. The Amalekites are a picture
of your old man, my old man, my fleshly nature. That's the
Amalekites. and we're plagued by them. Look
what the Lord says in 1 Samuel chapter 15 at verse 2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait
for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Oh, the Amalekites
were so expert in this guerrilla warfare against Israel that they
would sneak in at night and pick off the weak ones that were straggling
behind. Isn't that the way your flesh
does you? Takes advantage of you in your
weakest moments? Now, verse three, go and smite
Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them
not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep,
camel and ass, put them all to death. Every single one of them. And Saul went against the Amalekites.
And he did pretty much all of that. But he saved Agag the king. And he saved the best of the
sheep and the oxen. And Samuel, look at verse nine. But Saul and the people spared
Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and the fatlings
of the lamb, and all that was good, he would not utterly destroy
them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed
utterly. God said, kill them all. Every
man, woman, and child, every animal, don't leave anything
alive. Saul disobeyed God. He kept part
of the best of the Amalekites for himself. Samuel showed up
and Samuel pronounces in verse 22 his judgment from God against
Saul. And Samuel said, half the Lord
as great delight in burnt..." Now, Samuel asked Saul, what
is this that you've done? And Saul said, oh, I've kept
the best of the sheep to make sacrifice to God. You know, I'm going to honor
God with this. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord
as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the
voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of lambs. What was it that he was to do?
What was it that God required Saul to do to the Amalekites? What was it that he was disobedient
on? God's not saying, you know, your
obedience in your walk, your commitment, your dedication is
better to me than you coming to church. I've heard people
take this verse and say that out of it. You did not do what
I told you to do. I told you to kill every one
of them. You didn't do it. For rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the
word of the Lord, he also has rejected thee from being king. Don't depend on the strength
of your flesh. Don't save any part of it to
make an offering to God. Oh, I'll just pray harder. I'll
just do more. I'll be more dedicated. You do
that in the strength of your flesh, and you are reserving
the remnants of Amalek to make a sacrifice to God. God says,
kill it all. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God by the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's no life in Amalek. There's no sacrifice that I can
bring before God that's gonna please him. And when we do, it's
just idolatry. It's idolatry. Go back with me to Hosea. The best part of your flesh. What does God say? Your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before God. We have all gone out of the way. All we like sheep have gone astray. From the top of our heads to
the bottom of our feet, it's just oozing sores. It's our flesh,
it's our flesh. God's pleased with Christ. Oh
Judah, what I'm gonna do with you. Your goodness is like the
morning cloud. It's there for just a little
while, and then it goes away. We have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And he ever lives to make
intercession for us. God's pleased with him. Come
to Christ. Flee to Christ. Trust Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only one God's pleased with. He's pleased with what
he accomplished in satisfying all the demands of God's holy
law. He's the only one, the only one that ever did that. He's
pleased with what he accomplished in satisfying God's divine justice
by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sin, and once and for
all, he put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. Oh, why
would we go anywhere else? But we do. We do. We just, in one sense, we never
go back to that idolatrous view of God that we once had because
the Lord's taught us the truth. And in our flesh, we never get
over it, do we? Go back with me to Hosea. You see, the problem is, the
more you and I try to solve our sin problem with the arm of flesh, the worse our sin gets before
God. All we're doing is adding self-righteousness. All we're
doing is adding iniquity to what we've already... Look at, so what's the means
by which God's going to reveal to us the glory of his son? Look
at verse five. Therefore, since you cannot keep
your commitments, in verse four, since you're like the morning
cloud, you wake up thinking, I'm gonna, and then the sun of
righteousness rises and melts that cloud away, and you're never
able to do what you thought you were gonna be able to do. Therefore,
have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words
of my mouth. Thy judgments are as the light
that goeth forth. Is not my word like fire? Is it not like a hammer that
breaketh a rock to pieces, Jeremiah said? Preaching Christ. Or by the foolishness of preaching,
God is pleased to save them which, what? Believe. Believe Christ. Believe God. Rest everything
on Him. Believe that He is all and that
He is in all. Trust Him for the salvation of
your immortal soul. He's the only hope we have. Turn to me to Hebrews chapter
four. Well, let's start at the end
of Hebrews chapter three, verse 15. While it is said, today, if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation,
for some, when they heard, did provoke, how be it not all that
came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them that had
sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? To whom and
to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but
to them that believe not? So we see that they could not
enter into his rest. Why? Because of unbelief. Because of unbelief. Now skip
down with me to verse nine in chapter four. Therefore, there
remaineth a rest to the people of God. Here's what you need. Here's what I need. I need a
place of rest. I need a place that the labors
have been done. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his. God rested. Christ is our Sabbath. God rested on the seventh day.
He was finished. The work was complete. The Lord
Jesus Christ, when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross,
said, it is finished. It's done. Let us labor, therefore. Oh,
what are we going to do? Labor some more? Labor to do
what? To enter into his rest. That's
the lifelong struggle, isn't it? We're just doers. We want to fix it. We want to
solve the problem. We want to find something that's
going to idolaters all our lives, labor to enter into his rest,
lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the
word of God, here's what Hosea said, I'm going to preach to,
I'm going to send them preachers and they're going to preach the
gospel. And my people are going to find that their only hope
is in the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're going to flee to
him. For the word of God is quick. It's alive. It's the living word. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's powerful. The gospel's powerful. The gospel's
able to turn the idolater to Christ. And sharper than any two-edged
sword, in Hosea, The people in Hosea chapter 6
says, says, come let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn
and he will heal us. He hath smitten and he will bind
us. He has torn us down and he will
build us up. There's the double-edged sword.
The double-edged sword kills you first and then it heals you
and makes you alive. piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and the marrow and
is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart."
Has the Word of God ever said to you effectually that every
imagination of your heart is only evil and that continually? Has He done that to you? Has
He revealed that to you? If that's true, then how are
we gonna bring anything before God that's pleasing to Him? He's
pleased with Christ. The gospel is a discerner of
our hearts. It reveals to us how that we've
got nothing to bring to God but our sin. Neither is there any
creature that is not manifest in his sight. Have you been made
manifest before God? Has he stripped you naked? Has
he shown you that from the top of your head to the bottom of
your feet there's not a clean square inch of flesh on you anywhere? That you are leprous all over. How is a leper going to bring
anything clean before God? But all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. You don't have to prove anything
to me. I was talking to a man yesterday,
and he was telling me where he went to church, and I knew the
man that he was listening to. And I asked him, I said, do you
get any comfort for your sin-sick soul from what that man's preaching?
And he said, well, yeah, I guess. He said, but I'm proud to say
that I've already read through the Bible once this year and
I'm working on my second time around. He told me that yesterday. Seeing then that we have nothing
to bring. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus Christ, the
son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? Christ is our profession. We're
trusting Christ. Our hope is in him. He's our
righteousness. He's the only one that was able
to go before God and present himself perfect before God. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmities. What is your infirmity? If God's revealed anything to
you about yourself, your infirmity is that you're an idolater. That's
your infirmity. It's that old man. It's that
old flesh. You just can't get rid of him.
And you know what Paul meant in Romans chapter seven, oh wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Who's gonna do it? And right
on the heels of that cry for mercy is thanks be to God. Through Christ Jesus I am free
so that now there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. We have a high priest before
God. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Let us therefore come boldly. Now don't think that word boldly
means cocky. It doesn't. It means with confidence. I have no confidence in my flesh. We are the true circumcision,
which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. We come to the throne of grace. It's not a throne of law. If
it was a throne of law, then God would require something from
you. The law's been met, it's been satisfied. It's a throne
of grace. It's a loving Father that embraces
His sin-sick children and receives them for Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. Come boldly to the throne of
grace that you might obtain mercy. Mercy, that's what you need?
That's what I need? We need mercy. What did God say
in Hosea? I delight in mercy, not sacrifice,
in the knowledge of God, not your works. Herein is life eternal,
that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. Oh, that I might know him, the
power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering,
He is my life, and he's the only one that God's pleased with.
Oh Judah, what am I gonna do with you? I'll tell you what
I'm gonna do. I'm gonna send a prophet, and
I'm gonna preach to you the gospel. And at least in that moment,
you're gonna forsake your idols, and you're gonna flee to Christ.
The next time you commit idolatry, I'm going to do it again, and
again, and again, and again. I'm going to keep bringing you
back to me. All right, let's take a break. And then we're going to do the
fish and see if that's okay.