Now tonight I'm going to be preaching
from the book of Hosea chapter 7. If you'll look back to Hosea
chapter 7. And I'm going to deal tonight
mainly with the first seven verses of Hosea 7. And I want to go
back and say a few words that I dealt with in the conclusion
of the last message out of a Hosea 6. I want to deal a little more
with verses 1 through 3 of chapter 6 of Hosea, so you can be anticipating
that. And then I'm going to tie that
in with Romans chapter 10 and 11 that Brother Stan read there. You know, verse 21 of Romans
10, you'll recall in his reading, He read, but to Israel he saith,
all day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gainsaying people. And that's a pretty good commentary
on what's going on back here in Hosea, the whole book of Hosea. But if you'll take some time
sometime when you're, as you study the prophets, And we're
studying Hosea and we'll be studying the rest of the minor prophets
too, but I preached through the book of Isaiah several years
ago. Isaiah, Jeremiah, all of these
prophets. You'll see that Romans chapter
9 and 10 and 11, all three of those chapters are pretty good
commentary on what was going on in Israel and Judah. during
the times of those prophets. You know, even before then, he
mentioned Elijah there. You know, Elijah was before all
this. You know, Elijah was the prophet of God to the northern
kingdom who stood against King Ahab and Jezebel. He even mentioned
Elijah because Elijah thought he was all alone because nobody
was hearing and listening to the word of God. And that's what
we call the Elijah syndrome. You know, people, we think, well,
we're the only ones. Well, we know God has a people. He's not going to leave himself
without a witness and though sometimes we may feel like we're
alone. We're not alone He's got some people and they know the
name of the Lord, so That's what that's what we're talking about
so you can read that The title of this message is when Israel
calls upon the Lord When Israel calls upon the Lord I took that
title as the opposite of a statement that's made in verse 7 of Hosea
7. The last statement of Hosea chapter
7 says, There is none among them that calleth unto me. Did you hear that? Hosea the
prophet, God speaking through Hosea, says of the nation Israel,
There is none among them that calleth unto me. That's a sad,
sad commentary on this people. But you know, as we look through
passages like this, we read other scriptures that say all Israel
shall be saved. It says that in Isaiah chapter
45, Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. And Paul, the apostle, as inspired
by the Holy Spirit, he comments on that in Romans chapter 11.
He says, all Israel is going to be saved. Well, here we know
to be saved is to call upon the name of the Lord. Romans 10,
13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. All you have to do is call upon
the name of the Lord. That's what the Bible says. That's
not freewillism. It's not works salvation. We
know that men by nature will not call upon the name of the
Lord. If you call upon the name of the Lord, I hope you don't
look down in Hosea chapter 7 and say, well, I thank God that I'm
better than Israel. Because by nature you're not,
and I'm not. It's by the grace of God that we are what we are.
It's God's grace that makes us to differ, isn't it? But Israel
shall be saved in the Lord." Now, the question then in the
title of this message is when will Israel call upon the name
of the Lord? When does that happen? Well, that was answered back
in the first three verses of chapter 6, and I want to show
you that. When Israel calls upon the Lord. But let's look at chapter
7 here. You know, these things are written,
Paul wrote, for our admonition. And so I hope as we go through
these passages that we not only look at other people, this nation,
and their problems, their sin problem, but that we see ourselves. That we, by the power of the
Spirit, apply these things to ourselves. and see our need of
salvation by God's grace in Christ. We all have a sin problem, and
that's the issue here starting off in verse 1 of chapter 7. The first thing that you see
in verse 1 is the issue of healing. God says through Hosea, when
I would have healed, He's talking about the need of healing, not
by the power of men, He's not talking about physical healing
there. He's talking about spiritual
healing. And so what happens here is that God sets himself
forth here in Hosea chapter 7 as the great physician. Christ called
himself the great physician. One of the things a great physician,
a good physician, has to do before he can prescribe the cure for
the disease is he has to diagnose the disease. Isn't that right?
I mean, you know, if you have cancer, you wouldn't have much
confidence in a physician who told you, well, go home and take
an aspirin every day. Because you know better than
that. You're not a doctor, but you
know better. You know that aspirin's not going to cure cancer. So
you need a great physician. You need one who can diagnose
properly the disease that you have. And if there is a cure,
one who can prescribe and properly administer that cure. And that's
what God is setting himself up as here through the prophet Hosea. And that's a great analogy. So
here in the first seven verses of Hosea 7, what we have is simply
the diagnosis of our disease. what we all, what's wrong with
all of us by nature. This is a great description of
Israel in Hosea's day, but I want to tell you something, it's a
great description of me and you without Christ. without grace,
without salvation. That's exactly what it is. Our
circumstances, and our times, and our economy, and our society,
and our ceremonies may be different, but it's the same problem, and
that problem is sin. This word heal, he says, when
I would have healed Israel, verse 1, Then the iniquity of Ephraim
was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria." Now Ephraim, you
remember, is the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, and
sometimes the whole kingdom is called by that name Ephraim.
But they form like the foundation of the kingdom. So what he's
saying is their problem is a foundational problem. And then he says, the
wickedness of Samaria. Samaria was the capital of Israel. That's the heart of the nation.
So their problem is not only a foundational problem, it's
a heart problem. You see, the wickedness of Samaria,
for they commit falsehood, and the thief cometh in, and the
troop of robbers spoileth without. This healing here, as God reveals
it, not only his ability to heal, but his willingness to heal.
And what is the disease? The disease is pretty simple.
It's just one word. It's sin. That's the disease. Men and women by nature, Israel,
all born of Adam are sin-dead, sin-sick sinners, sickened to
death. The Bible says that. The wages
of sin is death. The Scripture says that in Adam
all died. That's spiritual death. That's
a legal death. We're all born dead in trespasses
and sin. That's what the scripture teaches.
And if that sin problem is not healed, if that sin death, that
sin sickness is not healed by one who is willing and able to
heal it, then it's going to land us in eternal death and everything
that goes along with it. So there's the problem. It's
sin sickness, Isaiah. spoke to the southern kingdom,
Judah, in pretty much the same way. Let me read you this. It's
from Isaiah chapter 1, verses 5 and 6. You can mark this down
if you want to study it yourself. But listen to the words of the
prophet Isaiah. Now, Hosea is preaching to the northern kingdom.
Isaiah is preaching to the southern kingdom of Judah. And here's
what Isaiah said of his nation in verse 5 of chapter 1. He said,
Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick," he said, and the whole heart faint. You
see a head problem, a foundation problem, a heart problem. From
the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness,
no health in it. but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. It's like a description of leprosy.
You know, leprosy in the scripture is a great type, an illustration
of sin. It starts from the inside and
works its way out. You see, that's what Christ taught
in his generation, in his earthly ministry. He said, it's not what
goes in the mouth that defiles you, it's what comes out of the
heart. That's the issue. And so he says, Isaiah says,
these wounds and putrefying sores, they've not been closed. They've
not been bound up, neither mollified with ointment. And Isaiah tells
his generation, his nation, the same thing that Hosea tells his,
that all the religion, all of the efforts, all of the works
of man cannot heal this problem of sin unto death. Cannot do
it. God has revealed the one way
of healing. There's only one way of healing,
and that's by the great physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. The only
way that our sins can be washed away, healed up, washed clean,
is by the blood of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins
of the world. The Scripture says in Isaiah
53, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. You know, I hear
so many preachers today quote Isaiah 53 5 there, by his stripes
we are healed and apply it to physical healing of physical
diseases. That does not apply. Now let
me tell you something. I'm not saying that God doesn't
heal physical diseases. I believe God does. I believe
all physical healing ultimately is of God. He may use means of
doctors and medicines and operations or he may not. It may be what
they call a miracle healing. That's okay. God's able to heal
in any way He wants to heal. But when you talk about the redemptive
work of Christ, don't be talking about physical healing. That's
spiritual healing, you see. That's salvation. That's justification
before God. Christ spoke of it in the book
of Mark chapter 2 and verse 17. He spoke of those who have...
He talked to the Pharisees who thought they were righteous.
They were righteous in their own sight. They thought they
were righteous by their works, and he said, the whole have no
need of the physician, but only those who are sick have need
of a physician. And so he said, I came, and how
did he apply it? He wasn't applying it to physical
healing. He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. Sinners to repentance. You see,
this is the issue. And this is what he's talking
about up here in Hosea chapter 6, actually in chapter 5 verse
15. Look back up there again. When
he says, I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge
their offense. You know, it's one thing to be
sick, but it's another thing to be sick and not know it. And
what he's talking about is Israel acknowledging their sin sickness. their deservedness of death.
I'm a sinner and I cannot heal myself. I'm like that. Spiritually
speaking, I'm like that woman with the issue of blood. She
had put up with that illness for, I don't know how many years
it said, I don't remember, but she'd been to many physicians
and it just made her worse off than what she was before. But
she said, if I can just touch the hem of the savior's garment,
I'll be healed. He's the only healer. And so
till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face, in other words,
call upon the name of the Lord, and in their affliction they
will seek me early. You see what he's teaching there
to begin with, there's several things that you can apply that
to. He's talking about the future healing of spiritual Israel,
and I'm going to show you that in Romans 10 and 11. He's not
talking about the spiritual healing even of this physical nation,
because this physical nation never did, as a nation now, they
never did come to acknowledge their sin and their guilt. The
Southern Kingdom did for a short period of time, but it didn't
last, and eventually they were destroyed too, just like the
Northern Kingdom. But what he's talking about there
is the abolishment of the Old Covenant because there is no
healing for sin in that Old Covenant, in the law. Let me show you that.
I want you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. Look at
Hebrews chapter 10. There was no spiritual healing
for sin-sick sinners, eternal healing. In other words, no salvation
eternally, spiritually, for sinners according to the terms and the
elements of that Old Covenant. Now, that Old Covenant pictured
and typified the one in whom there is healing, the Lord Jesus
Christ, but there was no healing in the law. Let me show you that
in Hebrews 10 and verse 1. Listen to this. It says, for
the law, that's the Old Covenant, Having a shadow of good things
to come, and not the very image of the things, not the substance,
can never with those sacrifices, those blood animal sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually, make the comers
thereunto perfect, complete, well, or righteous. They couldn't
do it. He says, for then would they
not have ceased to be offered? In other words, if they could
have done that, they wouldn't have had to keep doing them year
by year. because that the worshipers, once purged, once cleansed, once
healed, you might say, once justified, should have no more conscience,
that's no more guilt of sins. You know what guilt is? It's
not just feeling guilty. Guilt is a sentence in a court
of law, which means that you deserve condemnation, or I deserve
condemnation. Well, in myself, I do. But now
let me tell you something. In Christ, I don't. There is
therefore now no condemnation in Christ. So as long as I'm
looking to Christ, I have no more conscience of sins in the
sense that there's no more guilt. No more condemnation. Well, those
sacrifices under the law couldn't do that. And he says in verse
three, but in those sacrifices, there's a remembrance again made
of sins every year. You know, when I read that, you
know, you apply these things to yourself. I thought about
getting heart, coronary artery stents. You know, I have to remember
that every year because it seems like every year I have to go
in and get one. You know, it's not a cure, it's not a healing,
you see, it's not, it's not, but, and that's the way it is
with those animal sacrifices. It was a reminder every year,
you're sick, you're sick, you're sick, you deserve death. But
he says in verse four, for it is not possible that the blood
of bulls and of goats should take away sins, no cure. You
see that? No healing. And he says in verse
5, wherefore, or for this reason, when he cometh into the world,
when Christ comes into the world, he saith sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book. It's written
of me to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest
not, neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that's the law, the old covenant, that he may establish
the second, that's the new covenant, the coming of Christ, by the
which will we are sanctified, set apart through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. There's where the healing
is in Jesus Christ. He said in verse 14 of chapter
9 of Hebrews, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? Look back at Hosea 7 now. You
see, Christ is the only cure for sin. His blood and his righteousness
is the only healing that will heal spiritually, completely,
inwardly outwardly and eternally the only way and Hosea's message
Hosea was a type of Christ himself his name is the same name Jesus
Yeshua Hosea same name Savior Savior and his whole life was
an illustration and a picture of that in a that he went and
married that wife of Hortum's, Gomer, who had a heart problem,
a sin problem, and he went and he fetched her and bought her
off the slave block of sin and redeemed her by the silver that
he paid, just like Christ came and bought His bride, His church,
which was also a wife of Hortum's, sin-sick sinners, and bought
us with the price of His precious blood. Back over in Hosea 7 and
verse 1, he speaks of the iniquity of Ephraim. That word iniquity
is a word for sin that's measured by God's standard of judgment.
It comes from the word equity, which means justice, inequity,
iniquity. Man's way will not balance the
scales of justice. Therefore, there's no cure for
sin there. You see, the punishment must fit the crime. And the wages
of sin is death. So don't go around here talking
about how much you're paying for your sins. People say, well,
he's paying for his sins. You can't pay for your sins.
I can't pay for my sins. Even eternity in hell will not
pay for our sins. Did you know that? There's only
one thing that can pay for our sins. That's the blood of Jesus
Christ. His precious blood. That's the
only payment. And he paid it all. It says their
iniquity was discovered or uncovered, exposed. Because they committed
falsehood. That's what he said. Their wickedness,
that's their deeds. Their evil deeds. That's their
religion. Listen, somebody says, well,
that's talking about their immorality. Well, that's included. But it's
also talking about their religious efforts. That's how sick we are. We all hide under a false refuge
of lies. And he talks about the thief
coming in or the band. The thief enters in. and the
bandits raid outside, the robbers spoil the without. From within
and from out, there's the problem. Look at verse two, he says, and
they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their own doings have beset them about. They are before my
face. You know how sad it is that people
sin as though there is no God who takes notice of what they're
doing. But a time is coming when all that has been done will be
brought to light. The scripture teaches that. For
God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing,
whether it be good or whether it be evil. Ecclesiastes 12,
14 says that. There's coming a day, Romans
chapter 2 and verse 16, when God shall judge the secrets of
men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. And God says here,
He says, I remember all their wickedness. You know what that
means? That means God documents it.
That means He charges it to their account. That's what it means.
It's imputed to them. That's why David prayed in Psalm
32, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's our only hope, that sins
will not be charged to us, that God will not remember our sins. To forgive sin is to forget.
That means not hold them against us. And he says there before
my face, well, you know, if we have Christ as our hope, as our
savior, as our substitute, as our high priest, as our advocate
and intercessor, as the Lord our righteousness, as our lamb,
The Bible says God doesn't remember our sins. Now, does that mean
God changed? He forgot them? No. That means
He does not hold them against us. It means He does not impute
them to us. He imputed them to Christ. For
God made Him, Christ, to be sinned. Christ who knew no sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He says He's cast
all our sins behind His back. That's what He says. He said,
I will not remember thy sins. He said, I blotted them out as
a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. And
listen to me. He said, to remember shows that
God's people has not repented here. He says, they don't consider
in their hearts. They don't consider it in their
hearts. Their heart's not broken over sin. Their heart, they don't
confess their sins. Their heart's not contrite over
their sins. That's why we have, in salvation,
the Holy Spirit has to give us a new heart. That's why he says
in the new covenant, a new heart will I give you and a new spirit
will I put within you and take away the stony heart out of your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh, Ezekiel 36, 26. He says they are their doings
have beset them about their deeds are all around them Their deeds
the best efforts that man can put forth to save himself and
make himself righteous Surround him like an enemy Surrounding
someone and there's no way of escape Because they're charged
to his account What does that mean that means our only hope
is to be found? in Christ, surrounded by the grace of God, surrounded
by the mercy of God, surrounded by the goodness of God. Look
at verse 3. He said, They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the princes with their lies. You know, back over in chapter
6 and verse 5, we have the opposite of that. Where God says through
Hosea, he says, therefore I have hewed them by the prophets. I've
skinned them alive. I didn't tell them what they
wanted to hear. I told them what they needed to hear. Well, here
he says in verse three of chapter seven, they, whoever they is,
that's the leaders, the priests, the prophets, the false prophets.
They make the king glad with their wickedness and the princes
with their lies. You see, words of judgment are
meant to expose our sinfulness and call us to repentance in
Christ. Not politically correct words
that soothe the ears of those who are rebelling against God.
You know, read this sometime when you get an opportunity,
1 Kings 22. Remember the story of Ahab and Micaiah? And Ahab,
he was talking, Ahab was one of the one of the many wicked
kings of the northern kingdom, and he was talking to the king
of, I can't remember whose name it was, the king of Judah, and
they kind of got together, and they were going to be attacked,
I think, by Syria back then. But they were going to consult
a prophet, and Ahab couldn't find one, and he asked the king
of Judah, he said, he said, is there any prophet that you would
recommend? And he said, well, there's one, his name's Micaiah,
and Ahab knew the man, he said, no, he said, that fella doesn't
ever have anything good to say about me. And the king of Judah talked
him into calling Micaiah, and Micaiah called him, or Ahab called
Micaiah in, and you know, Ahab consulted his own prophets, and
you know what they said? They said, go on into battle,
Ahab. You're going to be fine. You're
going to be victorious. Everything's going to be fine.
They made the king glad with their wickedness, their lies,
and the princes with their lies. But here comes old Micaiah, and
he said, you're a goner, Ahab. And Ahab turned to the king of
Judea, and he said, see there, I told you he never had anything
good to say about me. Well, see, Ahab didn't want to
hear what he needed to hear, and that's what's happening here
to the king of Israel. He's got prophets and princes
and priests who tell him what he wants to hear, but not what
he needs to hear. He's like those that Paul wrote
of in 2 Timothy 4, verse 3, when he said, The time will come when
they will not endure sound doctrine, right teaching, but after their
own lusts shall heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears,
They have itching ears, and they'll find them a preacher who'll scratch
it. Tell them what they want to hear and not what they need
to hear. Look at verse 4. He says, They are all adulterers,
as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after
he hath kneaded the dough. He doesn't... The baker, he's
got the dough there, and he raises up and goes to the oven, he stokes
the oven, he makes sure it's hot enough, and this one ceases
from raising after he hath kneaded the dough until it be leavened.
And verse 5, it says, in the day of our king, the princes
have made him sick with bottles of wine, he stretched out his
hand with scorners. Verse 5, and then verse 6, for
they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie
and wait, their baker sleepeth all night, in the morning it
burneth as a flaming fire. What he's saying, here's the
picture. He said they've stoked the fire. They're zealous in
their adultery. I mean, these fellows are serious
now, they're not just halfway here. Paul said of Israel in
Romans chapter 10, they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. Well, these fellows have a zeal,
and it's a zeal in their idolatry, it's in their Baal worship, it's
in their religion. And they're all idolaters. And
they're so passionate in their spiritual adultery, it's like
a consuming oven, so hot that the baker, he could stop going
back and forth, raising up, going and stoking the fire all night,
and still have enough heat to bake in the morning. He wouldn't
have to keep it going. But later on, when he comes back
to it, he's going to find that that fire has gotten so hot that
it becomes a consuming fire, and that's the judgment of God.
In other words, he's like a moth drawn to the flame. and it's
going to kill him. And it says in verse 5, in the
day of our king, in the day that they would honor the king, what
do they do? They make him sick with bottles
of wine. He stretched out his hand with
scorners. You know, they make the king drunk on pride, on self-righteousness,
on religion. The honor of the king of Israel
was to be the honor of God. Did you know that? In other words,
the king was only to be honored as the king himself honored God
and led the people to honor God. But they turned it into a ego
fest here. They followed the king and they
made him drunk on his own pride and on his own self-righteousness.
And then they plotted against him. And that's real appropriate
northern kingdom here. You know, of the last six kings
of the northern kingdom before the Assyrian army came down and
destroyed them completely, of the last six, four of them were
assassinated and taken over. The kingdom was taken over by
the one who assassinated them. So there's always a plot here.
It's always dog eat dog. It's always, how can I get ahead? Well, he says it, look at verse
7. He says, "...they are all hot as an oven, and have devoured
their judges, and all their kings are fallen." That's their fate.
And then he says, "...there's none among them that calleth
unto me." Look back up at chapter 6 and verse 1. He says, "...there's
none among them that calleth unto me." And yet, as I said
at the beginning of the message, the Scripture teaches that Israel
shall be saved. Israel shall call upon the name
of the Lord. When will Israel call upon the
name of the Lord? When will that take place? When
did it take place? Has it taken place? Is there
any future application to it? Who is the Israel that will call
upon the name of the Lord? Well, he tells us here in chapter
6, He's already said in verse one, he says, come and let us
return unto the Lord. Now that's the work of the spirit
to bring sinners to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works, return unto the Lord. And he says, for he hath torn
and he will heal us. There's that healing again. Now
who did the tearing? God did. Who does the healing? God does. That's conviction of
sin. When God sends His Spirit to
convict sinners of sin, why does He do it? Just to leave them
in their despondency and in their depravity and in their guilt?
No, He does it to drive them to Christ for salvation. He heals us. He drives us to
the great position. And it says, it says, He hath
smitten and He will bind us up. He smites us with the law. Paul
described that as I said in the last message in Romans chapter
9. I was slain by the law, slain by the Spirit. That is, I come
to see that the law could do nothing but condemn me and damn
me based upon my best efforts to keep it. But to do what? To bind us up, to bind us up
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, imputed to us,
charged to us. That's the only binding that'll
do. And how do you know that all this is an application to
that kind of faith and repentance? Well, look at verse two. He says,
after two days, will he revive us? And I believe that's mainly
a revival of the word of God. You remember after the southern
kingdom later on was destroyed, there were about 500 years of
famine in the land until John the Baptist. But then there came
John the Baptist, and then here came our Savior, and then came
the apostles, and then came the churches in Galatia and Thessalonica
and all the churches. And what happened, there was
a revival of the Word, and he says, and after two days, will
he revive us? In the third day, he will raise
us up. What happened in the third day? That's the resurrection
of Christ. That's a prophecy of his resurrection. What he's
teaching us, and he says, we shall live in his sight. We live
in Christ, in the sight of God. When he died, we died. When he
was buried, we were buried. When he arose again, we arose
again. Now that's when this returning unto the Lord, This conviction
is going to happen. It's not that none of it happened
before, because there was conviction of sin. There was the new birth
and regeneration and conversion even in the Old Testament, but
it was very few. It was a remnant, a small remnant. And then he
says in verse 3, Then shall we know if we follow as we follow
on, or because we follow on, to know the Lord. His going forth
is prepared, that is, ordained. ordained of God before the foundation
as the morning as the as the Sun breaks through the eastern
sky in the morning that's Christ coming for his people and he
shall come unto us as the rain the latter and former rain unto
the earth the former rain meaning the seeds been sown and watered
and it's going to grow it's not going to stay stagnant that's
the latter rain that's the harvest when everything's going to come
in full. It's kind of like over here if you look at verse 8 of
chapter 7. We'll start here next time. But he says, Ephraim, he
hath mixed himself among people. Ephraim is a cake not turned. It's like a half-baked cake.
Well, this former rain and this latter rain is not going to be
half-baked. It's going to be fully baked. It's not going to
be halfway. It's not going to be burnt on
one side and raw on the other. This is going to be a full harvest. Let me make two applications
of that. Let's turn to Romans chapter 10. We'll conclude with
this. Look at Romans chapter 10. I'll give you several ways to look
at that. First of all, you can look at
it as individual. When God saves a sinner, that sinner is saved
fully and completely. He's not half-baked. The seed
is sown of the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And that sinner
grows from the life of Christ unto the full stalk of corn,
as Job said. And he's harvested, he's harvested. You could either say at his death
or at the second coming of Christ. That's the full harvest, the
second coming of Christ, when we're united with our new bodies,
spiritual bodies. And so that's not half-baked.
That's not half-baked repentance and half-baked faith. You remember,
he talked to them, he said, your repentance is like a morning
cloud. No, it's all formed, no substance,
and it's temporary, like the dew in the morning. It's there
in the morning, but it's gone. No, this is the former rain and
the latter rain, and it's harvested. It's full. It's a center saved
by the grace of God eternally, completely, fully. But you can make the application,
too, of God's people, Israel. Now Israel is going to be saved,
but he wasn't talking about that nation that Hosea was preaching
to, or he wasn't talking about that nation that Isaiah was preaching
to, Judah. Because they never, they never
came to seek the Lord, to call upon the name of the Lord. They
never did. Not as a nation now. Now some individuals did, by
the grace of God. But who were they? They were
God's elect out of that nation. Who is the Israel that's going
to be saved? It's spiritual Israel. And who is spiritual Israel?
Well, I'm not going to go into all these scriptures, but we
could go into a bunch of them here. But Romans chapter 9, for
example, says, They are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither
are they the children of God which are the seed of Abraham.
Who are the seed of Abraham spiritually? Who are the children of God?
Those who come to faith in Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile. And that Israel, that spiritual
Israel, is not going to be a half-baked cake. It's going to be a full...
Listen, there's not going to be any vacancies in heaven. The whole nation of spiritual
Israel, Jew and Gentile, shall be saved. And you could look
at the former reign and the latter reign this way, make this application.
Brother Danny Thomas brought this to my attention last time
and it makes a lot of sense. The former reign, that's the
seed sown, that's the salvation first of the Jews. The gospel
is the power of God and the salvation. To everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first. The first ones that were saved
in this new covenant were the Jews. And then the latter aim
being the bringing in of the Gentiles. But let's just look
at this. Now, verse 1 of chapter 11 of
Romans. I said chapter 10, but look at
verse 1 of chapter 11. He says, I say then, have God
cast away his people. God said all Israel is going
to be saved. Well, all Israel wasn't saved. Look at Hosea.
None of them called upon the name of the Lord. What has God
cast away his people? He says, God forbid, for I also
am an Israelite. Paul says, I'm an Israelite and
God hasn't cast away me. Of the seed of Abraham of the
tribe of Benjamin, God hath not cast away his people which he
foreknew, that means which he foreordained, which he chose
before the foundation of the world in Christ. Watch ye not,
that means know ye not that the scripture saith of Elias, that's
Elijah, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars,
and I am left alone, they seek my life. But what saith the answer
of God unto Elijah? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
I have got seven thousand people here who know the Lord, out of
that whole nation now. And so he says in verse 5, Even
so, then, at this present time also there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if it's by grace, then it's
no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
Then it's no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What then?
Israel hath not attained that which he seeketh for. Now what
did Israel seek for? Well Romans chapter 9 and verse
31 through the rest of that chapter tells us. They sought for righteousness
by works of the law. That's what Romans 9 31 and on
and on tells us. They had a zeal of religion,
but not according to knowledge. They were ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, and
they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Romans 10, 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. And he says, Israel hath not
obtained what she sought for, but the election hath obtained
it. You see that? Who obtained it?
The election. God's elect. Jew and Gentile.
And the rest were blinded. When Israel calls upon the Lord. That's spiritual Israel. Jew
and Gentile. And what you have there is a
union of Jew and Gentile, not politically, not even religiously. But a union
of Jew and Gentile under Christ, under grace. All of them without
fail calling by the power and grace of God in the Holy Spirit,
calling upon the name of the Lord and being saved. When Israel
calls upon the name of the Lord. All right. Let's sing as our
closing hymn, Oh God our help in ages past. Hymn number 10.
Hymn number 10.