Alright, let's continue to look
at that passage that Brother Aaron just read. Hosea chapter
4. Hosea chapter 4. Now the title of this message
is Salvation in the Knowledge of the Lord. Salvation in the
Knowledge of the Lord. As an introduction, I want to
stress the fact and the truth from God's word that it is impossible
in the preaching of the gospel, in the preaching and teaching
of the word of God, and in studying the word of God, to overstate
or overvalue the necessity and the need of knowledge of God. It's impossible. And I know many
preachers today, and it's been that way all along because we're
gonna see that in Hosea chapter four. They put down knowledge. They cast off on it as if it
is no more than intellectualism or doctrinalism, or as one preacher
constantly hammers today, gnosticism. But you see, this knowledge that
we're talking about is eternal life. First of all, it's a revealed
knowledge. A knowledge revealed by the Holy
Spirit to God's people. Revelation of God, uncovering
of truth. And in that it's revealed knowledge,
we need to understand that it's not mysticism or gnosticism,
but it's knowledge revealed through the Word as it leads us to Christ,
as the Spirit leads us to Christ. It's to know Him. We read this
morning in Philippians chapter three and verse 10 where Paul
stated the great desire of his heart. When he said this he said,
oh that I may know him. Now Paul already knew him, but
he wanted to know more. Peter said, told his hearers,
his readers and us that we're to be diligent to grow in the
grace and in the knowledge. the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowledge
is something we are to pursue and here in John 17 that I read
in the opening where the Lord in his high priestly prayer listen
to it again in verse 2 he said as thou hast given him power
over all flesh this is the covenant relationship father and the son
that he the son should give eternal life eternal life is a gift through
Christ, who died for the sins of his sheep, and brought about
life and immortality by his work. And it says, to give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him, all that the Father
gave him in divine electing grace. And then he says in verse three,
he defines that eternal life this way. He says, and this is
life eternal, that they might know thee. the only true God
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. You can't know the only
true God without knowing Christ. When the Lord was teaching his
disciples and telling them about the future after he would go
away and they would go out and preach the gospel and they would
be persecuted, he said in John chapter 16, he said, they will
throw you out of their synagogues. They'll throw you out of their
worship services. They won't tolerate you. And
he said, there's coming a time when they will kill you. They
will kill you thinking they're doing the Lord's work. And he
said in John chapter 16, I believe it's verse three, you look it
up. Three or four, somewhere around there. He said, the reason
they'll do this is because they neither know me nor my father. That's ignorance. They neither
know me nor my father. The Lord said that it's his purpose
and his work and his goal for his people that all without exception
under his spiritual kingdom and spiritual reign will know him
from the least of them to the greatest. Now if you look back
in Hosea chapter 4 what you're going to see is that nothing
good, nothing profitable, and nothing in the way of humility,
and that's why a lot of people, they promote ignorance in the
name of humility. But nothing in the name of humility
can come out of ignorance, out of ignorance. By nature, we don't
know God. By intellectual pursuits and
philosophical pursuits, we cannot know God. That knowledge must
be revealed by the spirit through the word. Now, in the first three
chapters of this prophecy of Hosea, we read the story of this
great, amazing, unconditional love and grace that Hosea the
prophet had for his wife, Gomer. This prophet of God commanded
to marry a wife of Hortums, a fallen woman, one who did not deserve
his love and could not earn his love. And that was a great picture. It is a great picture. of the
salvation of God's people through Christ, who is the husband of
the church, the church being his bride. A fallen woman was
betrothed to Christ before the foundation of the world, fallen
in Adam. And yet he loved us with an everlasting
love, and not only did he love us, but he proved it by finishing
the work. He loved us to the end. He came
and he died for our sins. satisfied the justice of God.
He settled the matter of law, it has to be settled. Just like
Hosea had to go down to the slave block and buy Gomer, his wife,
back from slavery. Had to pay the redemption price.
Christ had to come and pay the redemption price for us, his
people. And the redemption price was
his blood, his precious, incorruptible blood. And he took, Hosea took
Gomer unto himself to be his wife. And he said to her, he
said, you'll be for me only. You won't prostitute yourself
out to other lovers as you have done in the past. But you'll
be for me only. And he said, I'll be for you.
You're mine and I'm yours. That's what he said. That's an
amazing thing, isn't it? And he took her unto himself and
she became his wife the rest of their days. Another great
picture of how Christ comes and gets his people and takes us
unto himself, takes his bride unto himself because he redeemed
us. We belong to him. Our fallen
Adam, though it ruined us, we were born dead in trespasses
and sins, it did not break the marriage covenant of grace made
before the foundation of the world. And that's why Christ
said, you belong to me. Now, against the background of
Hosea's experience with Gomer, his wife, the rest of this book
contains God's message of judgment to the nation Israel. The nation
Israel whom God had brought to himself under another covenant,
the old covenant, the covenant of Sinai, and the nation Israel
who had forsaken God. who had forsaken the truth, who
had prostituted itself spiritually out to idols. And the language
that you see here concerning the sin of Israel is the language
of spiritual adultery, idolatry. There probably was, as in any
fallen mass of humanity, immoral sins. There's probably literal
drunkenness, literal prostitution in that land. But the main problem
of the whole land of Israel as a whole was spiritual adultery,
spiritual drunkenness, idolatry. That was their issue. And he
even indicts the priest over this. So let's just jump right
into this chapter and we'll go through it. Some of this language
is a little difficult. But see if we can follow along
if the Lord will teach us something. The first thing you see in the
first three verses of this chapter is God's case against the nation
Israel. God brings his case. He indicts
them. Somebody said this is like the
state of the nation address. This is God's state of the nation
address through Hosea. And just as there was a charge
against Gomer, you remember back in chapter 2, verse 2, where
Hosea brought a charge, a legal charge against Gomer, against
his wife. She had broken the law. She had
sinned against Hosea. She had sinned against the law
of marriage. Well, the nation Israel They too broke the law. They broke the covenant. They
forsook God's truth. And in Homer, and in the nation
Israel, we see a picture of ourselves as we fell in Adam. Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin passed
through upon all men, for that all have sinned. That's us. God had a charge against us. And somebody said, well, then
how is that charge removed? Well, thank God that before Adam
ever fell, our sins were charged to Christ, our surety, the everlasting
covenant of grace. That's our hope. And that's the
same hope of any sinner, any individual sinner. That's why
David wrote in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. We're sinners and deserve death.
Our only hope is to have sins taken off of us and charged to
a suitable, God-appointed, willing, able substitute. And that's what
Hosea pictures as he went down and got Gomer and brought her
back. Well, God's telling Israel, your only hope is in the Lord. And you must know that. This
is revealed knowledge. Look at what he says here. He
says in verse one, hear the word of the Lord, you children of
Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy. with the inhabitants of the land.
That controversy is a contention. It's an indictment. God's got
a matter against you. And here's the problem, three
problems. He says, first of all, because there's no truth. There's
no truth. You see, they were religious,
but they had no truth. Sounds like our day, doesn't
it? People are religious, they call themselves Christian, but
they deny the truth of Christ and all his glory. And also that
would mean this too, there's no honesty. There's no honesty
about who God is, in his holiness, in his justice, or even in his
mercy and grace. You see, you cannot be honest
about the reality of God without understanding the knowledge of
the holy, which is this, that God must be both a just God as
well as a savior. God must be both a righteous
judge as well as a merciful father. We can talk about God's love
and mercy and grace and we do every time we preach the gospel.
But my friend, any preacher or any witness who stands before
people and speaks of the God of love and mercy and grace without
his justice, without his holiness, without his righteousness is
not being honest about God. God must be just when he saves. And the only way he can do that
is through Christ. So there's no honesty. There's no honesty
about ourselves, who we are and what we are by nature and by
practice, that we're sinners, that we deserve nothing but condemnation
based upon our best works. We cannot earn God's favor and
we don't deserve it. If God were to mark iniquities,
the psalmist wrote in Psalm 130 in verse three, who among us
would stand? That's what we are. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Let's just be honest
about it. I was telling somebody this morning,
we were talking about, you know, when we talk, express our sinfulness,
you know. We don't have to be dishonest.
You know, false religion promote dishonesty because people have
to appear better than what they really are. I mean, I certainly
wouldn't want you all to see any chink in my armor. Well,
let me tell you something. There's a lot of chinks in this
armor. And it goes heart deep. Now it
does. And we don't have to be dishonest
in that area. We don't have to try to be something
we're not. We need to be kind, we need to
fight sin, we need to be compassionate to one another. But we don't
have to be dishonest. We can be honest about our sins
because we have a savior. We can be honest about our depravity
because we have one who stands before God in our place. He's
Jesus Christ the righteous. And he pleads not our merits
and our worthiness, he pleads the merits of his blood and righteousness
alone. So we don't have to lie to each
other. And that's another thing. There was no honesty about salvation,
how God saved sinners. They were seeking salvation in
some way and some degree at some stage by their works. And we'll
see that in just a moment. Now, he says also there's no
mercy. There's no compassion. There's
no kindness in the land. False religion, self-righteous
religion. I'm gonna tell you something.
A lot of times it makes people mean. And that's what it did
here. He said there's no mercy, no
kindness or compassion. And then he lays the foundation
of all their problem, right here in this one phrase, nor knowledge
of God in the land. Literally, in the original language,
it would read this way, because there is no knowledge of God
in the land. Where there's ignorance of God,
there's no truth, no honesty, and no real compassion, no real
mercy. Now that's so. There may be the
outward croppings of what looks like charity, but there's no
real heart, compassion, and kindness, loving kindness, covenant kindness,
without knowledge of God. So there's the problem right
there. Here's God's controversy. You don't know God. That's why
the Lord, when he speaks of a future restoration of Israel through
the salvation of spiritual Israel, under another covenant, not like
this covenant. He makes this statement. He said,
they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.
The prophets or the preachers will not have to come and say,
now you need to know the Lord to the people of God, because
they'll all know him. That's a revealed knot. They'll
know Christ. Look at verse 2. He says, by swearing, that's
swearing oaths, lying, killing and stealing, committing adultery,
they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Ignorance and idolatry
lead to all kinds of sin. You can look at this in a physical
way, but you can also look at it in a spiritual way. And it's
just bloodshedding after bloodshedding. You know, in Romans chapter 3,
when the Apostle Paul, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, makes a statement
of the inherent total depravity of man, from Romans 3.10 to 3.19. One of the things he says is
their feet are swift to shed blood. And he's not saying that
everybody by nature there is actually committing the act of
murder. I believe that we're all by nature murderers. The
scripture says that in Matthew chapter five. Especially when
you consider that it's murder even to get angry. And murder
when we murder somebody's character or reputation. You ever had anybody
do that to you? Murder your reputation? Tell
a lie on you? Gossip? That's murder in scripture.
That's according to the law. That's God's high standard. And
then he says it's murdered to say thou fool, that's pronouncing
a curse upon a person. As if to say that person deserves
to go to hell. As if to say, I don't. I don't. My friend, if it weren't for
Christ, the only place I would ever deserve to go is hell. Did
you know that? If it weren't for Christ. If
it weren't for the grace of God. And so, When he says their feet
are swift to shed blood, he's talking about the blood of sacrifice.
They'll sacrifice, but there's no truth, there's no grace, there's
no Christ in their religion. And that's what he's talking
about here. Verse three, he says, therefore shall the land mourn,
and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beast
of the field and the fowls of heaven. Yea, the fishes of the
sea also shall be taken away. You see, their prosperity in
the land of Canaan. Their prosperity in the promised
land was conditioned on their national obedience. And whenever
they didn't, the land began to fail. God cursed the land. And that's what's happening.
That's God's punishment. Now, in the next verses, we see God's
charge against Israel's priest. You know what happens here. And
he's also, he mentions the prophets too. This land is full of priests
who do not lead the people right. Most of these in the northern
kingdom were not even from the tribe of Levi, because when Jeroboam
I, after the split of the kingdom after Solomon, he let just about
hardly anybody be a priest. It's kind of like in the days
when our Lord arrived in this earth. You remember the Sadducees
are the ones who had the control of the priesthood. Nobody knew
what tribe anybody was from. The priesthood was strictly,
under the old covenant, was strictly given to the tribe of Levi, the
Levitical priesthood, Aaron and his descendants. But Jeroboam
let anybody be a priest. It doesn't matter. And that's
what happened. You see that digression all the
way down through Israel's history. Nobody knew. They couldn't know
today. There's no way today that over there in that land of Palestine
they could go find somebody and say, now I know you're from the
tribe of Levi, you can be a priest. Now let me tell you, there's
only one person, I mentioned this last time, there's only
one person that we can know for sure scripturally who has the
right to be a priest. And his name is Jesus Christ
the righteous, after the order of Melchizedek. That's right,
he's the only one, he's the high priest. But the priest had forsaken
their calling and their responsibility. Look at verse four. First of
all, he says, yet let no man strive nor reprove another, for
thy people are as they that strive with the priest. What's he saying
there? He's saying here that God will
not allow anybody to deny the charges. Let no man contend or
strive or reprove another. Nobody can stand for you. You're
even in contention with the priest. Even the priests could not defend
the people because the priests were guilty too. It reminds me
of what the Lord wrote by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3.19,
that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God. That's what he's saying here.
Now, you know, it was the duty of the priest to represent the
people before God. The high priest of Israel was
a type of Christ. And he was to go into the holiest
of all on the day of atonement and sprinkle the blood on the
mercy seat. But now they don't have that
here. Especially in the northern kingdom, their capital and their
temple was in Samaria, not in Jerusalem. Jeroboam wouldn't
let them go to Jerusalem to worship because he felt politically that
if he kept doing that, they would finally go away from him and
want to go back down to the south. So he set up his own. It was
a false priesthood. They didn't represent Christ.
The other priests, the attending priests, were types of the people
of God who had access through the high priest. But you see,
all that was out, it was just gone. There was no truth. You see, in order for me, a sinner,
to approach God, I must have a proper high priest. Look over
at Hebrews chapter 10. And we could go to so many scriptures
on this. You know this is so. You've studied
this in the Old Testament, but look here in the New Testament.
Here's the only way that we can approach God and be assured of
acceptance. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, look
at verse 19. He says, having therefore brethren
boldness, you may have in your concordance the term liberty,
Freedom it also would mean confidence to enter the holiest We have
we can have confidence assurance and freedom unhindered freedom
to enter the holiest Now he's not talking about an earthly
tabernacle here is he? Not talking about an earthly
temple. He's talking about the very presence of God. Now how,
upon what ground, upon what basis do I as a sinner have to come
into the holiest at all, let alone come with boldness? Unhindered
liberty. You say, well wait a minute,
you're a sinner. That's right, but he's talking about a way
in which my sins do not hinder me from coming into the presence
of God to commune with a holy, a holy God, to be accepted, to
pray to Him, to worship Him and serve Him. Here's a way that
our sins does not hinder us. And what is that way, underscore
it, by the blood of Jesus, by the blood of Jehovah, our salvation. And he says by a new and living
way, not a old way like that old covenant, not a dead way
like the way of animals, animal blood, the blood of bulls and
goats could never take away sin. But a new way. New in the sense
that Christ newly worked it out on the cross in time. And it's
a living way. He died, but he didn't stay dead. He arose from the dead. And he
died that we may live. This is a living way. And it
says it's a new and living way which he hath consecrated. That
word consecrated means he set it apart, he worked it out, he
newly made it. It's a way that Christ made.
He said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Incidentally, when he talks that
way in John 14 and verse 6, he includes knowledge there, doesn't
he? I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. He's the truth
also. Truth is revealed knowledge. And no man cometh unto the Father
but by me, he said. And so he says, it's a new and
living way which he hath consecrated for us. He did it as our substitute
and surety and representative. He was made sin, Christ was made
sin. He became responsible for the
charges of all our sin. He was condemned, he was guilty,
not for sins he committed, not for sins that were infused into
him, but for sins charged to him. And he died the death that
we earned and deserved. He did it for us through the
veil, what veil? Not that literal veil that was
in the temple, but that is to say his flesh, God in human flesh. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. That's the new and living way.
Now back here in Hebrews, or Hosea 4, they don't have that
way. Even in type and picture here,
see? They had it down in southern
kingdom of Judah because they had the right temple. You remember
Christ taught the woman at the well that. When she said, we
worship in this mountain, talking about the temple that they had
built in Samaria that was built back then. And He said, you don't
know what you worship. He said, we worship the right
way. for salvation is of the Jews.
He's talking about the temple in Jerusalem, which was a valid,
God-ordained tabernacle or temple with the priesthood. But you
see, they didn't have that. They didn't have the right priest
and the right mediator. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So he says, don't strive, don't
reprove one another, For thy people are as they that strive
with the priest." You've got a problem. That's all he's saying.
And your problem is with the priest. And he says in verse
5, look here, Hosea 4, he says, Therefore shalt thou fall in
the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night.
Those are false prophets leading the people wrong. And he said,
I will destroy thy mother. The mother meaning the whole
nation Israel. Mother Israel. God's gonna bring
judgment down upon the whole nation. Now look at verse six,
here he gets to the root of the problem again. My people are
destroyed, or literally cut off, for lack of knowledge. Their
problem is ignorance. And then not only that, their
problem is rebellion. He says, because thou hast rejected
knowledge. Not only they're ignorant, but
they reject knowledge. He said, I will also reject thee,
that thou shalt be no priest to me. This is the priest too.
The spiritual leaders, the religious leaders. And he says, seeing
thou hast forgotten the law of thy God. What is that law given
for? To expose their sinfulness, to
show their need of grace, to show their need of Christ who
was promised in the covenant to come. And he said, you've
forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. You see, ignorance is not bliss. Somebody said what you don't
know can't hurt you. You better not listen to them.
Better not listen to them. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance
is deadly. Turn to Romans 10. Look at Romans 10. Back up in
Romans 9, he talked about Israel who followed after the law for
righteousness. They were trying to be righteous.
And they followed after the law, but they didn't make it. They
did not achieve righteousness. Why? Because they sought it by
their works and not by faith. What is it to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek it and find it in
Christ and Him crucified. and risen again. If you're looking
for righteousness, now let me tell you something, you ought
to be. Because you've got to have righteousness to be saved.
You've got to have righteousness to be accepted. You've got to
have righteousness to enter heaven. And so if you're seeking righteousness,
let me tell you where you can find righteousness. And he's
the only place you can find righteousness in Christ and him crucified.
Now if you find it anywhere else, I'm going to tell you something.
That's lack of knowledge. And if you don't listen to what
I'm telling you right now from God's word, I'm gonna show it
to you from God's word. If you say, well, no, I think
I can find righteousness somewhere else, or at least partly somewhere
else, you can't do it. God says you can't do it. But
if you think you can and you walk out of here tonight rejecting
what I'm telling you, you've rejected knowledge. That's what
this book says. Now let me show you what I mean.
He says in verse 1 of Romans chapter 10, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record. They have a zeal of God. They're
religious, but not according to knowledge. They're missing
some knowledge. What's the title of this message?
Salvation in the knowledge of the Lord. They don't have it.
And he says in verse 3, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. You could say it this way, they're
ignorant of God's justice. They're ignorant of God's high
standard. Now Christ taught God's high
standard in the Sermon on the Mount. When he taught them about
murder, when he said it's not only a sin to commit the act
of murder, but the thought of murder, anger. When he taught him, he said,
it's not only a sin to commit the act of adultery, but it's
a sin to look upon a woman and lust after her. That's the high
standard of righteousness. Remember what he told him right
before he got into that? He said, you've got to have a
righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, else you can in no case enter the kingdom
of heaven. What righteousness do I need? It's right here. For
they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Now what is the righteousness
of God? Verse 4 tells you. For Christ is the end, the finishing,
the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believe. Christ. Believe in Him. Rest in Him. Back here in Hosea
4, that's what they were missing. You say, well how did they know
anything about Christ? They didn't. He said they were ignorant. And
when prophets like Hosea and Amos and others came along in
the south, Isaiah and Micah, when they told them about Christ,
the suffering Savior, the Lord, who was promised to come, and
the types and the pictures that were all part and parcel of that
old covenant, what'd they do? They rejected that knowledge
and said, oh no, oh no, I'll work out my own. I'll work out
my own. And then they became tolerant.
Look at verse seven. Now this knowledge, you see,
that we must have is knowledge that's revealed by God. And there's
no salvation without it. And I tell you, we could spend
a good three hours going through the scripture on that subject.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and instruction. We could go on and on. And Jeremiah's
day later on, right before the southern kingdom got thrown into
captivity in Babylon, The Lord promised to send pastors according
to mine heart, Jeremiah 3.15, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. Knowledge of what? Knowledge
of Christ. And I know there's a vain knowledge.
Job spoke of that. We studied about it in Ecclesiastes. There is a knowledge people can
have that's vain. It means it's worthless. It's
like trivial pursuit. You can have a head full of knowledge
and not really know anything. Trivial knowledge. But that vain
knowledge is not knowledge of Christ. That's eternal life. There's a knowledge without love.
Paul wrote of that in 1 Corinthians 13. He said a person can have
all knowledge, but if you don't have love, What is it? It's worthless. There's a knowledge that puffs
up, but my friend, that's not a saving knowledge of Christ.
You see? But look at verse seven. He says,
as they were increased, so they sinned against me, therefore
will I change their glory into shame. As they increased, as
they prospered, as they grew in population and power, Rather
than turning and giving thanks to God and worshiping and serving
him in faith and in truth, they became puffed up and self-righteous
and even tolerant of idolatry. Because you see, there was money
in that. There was prosperity in that. That's the prosperity
way of living. That's what I learned down south
from an old preacher on TV. He'd come on TV and he would
have, man, I tell you, he'd have shiny shirts on and gold chains
all over him. Looked like Mr. T. And he'd talk
about the prosperity way of living. That's what this is. That was
their glory. It's got to be right because
look at how much, look how many people we have. It's got to be
right because look how much money we're taking in. God's blessed,
oh no, oh no. That's not the way it is, is
it? And so God says, I'll turn their glory into shame. What
is your glory? What is my glory? We read it
this morning in Galatians chapter six and Philippians chapter three. We glory in Christ Jesus. Now that glory will never be
turned into shame. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. That glory will never turn into shame. Let he that
glorieth glory in the Lord, and let no flesh glory in his presence. That glory will never be turned
to shame, but any other glory will. Any other confidence, any
other assurance, any other peace, without Christ, without the grace
of God, without knowledge, saving knowledge will be turned to shame.
Think about those false preachers we read about this morning in
Matthew chapter 7. When they said, haven't we prophesied in
your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many
wonderful works? That was their glory. And just to hear the Lord
say to them, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. That's
what I mean. That's the glory that will turn
to shame. But you think about the one who
stands before God as the Apostle Paul and says, oh, that I may
be found in him, Christ, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ, pleading the merits and the worthiness of his son,
there'll be no shame there. He that believeth shall not be
ashamed. He that rests in Christ. Think
about it. Verse eight, he says, they eat
up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity.
Talking about the priest here, they allow all this idolatry
and all of this ignorance to go on. In fact, they promote
it. It's kind of like the people who, what happened was is the
more the people sin, the more sacrifices they bring and the
more we benefit from that. So it's okay to sin. Go ahead.
We feed upon that. I think about preachers today
who take people for everything they have in the name of the
Lord, feeding upon their sin. You see, these priests, they
were supported by the people. The more guilt you can lay on
a person, the more you can get out of them. Now you think about
that. That's the psychology of false
religion. And it works. Oh, it'll work,
and it'll get them in, and it'll usually keep them in for the
most part. But it's nothing but iniquity. He said they set their
heart on iniquity. Verse nine, he says, and there
shall be like people, like priests. You can't separate the two now.
It's like the guy who says, well, I know he don't preach the gospel,
but I worship in my heart. No, you can't separate the spiritual
leaders from the people. They're all, it's the blind leading
the blind. And what happens to the blind
that lead the blind? They all fall into the ditch together.
And he says, and I will punish them for their ways and reward
them for their doings. That's the reward of their sin,
which is punishment. It's God's judgment. Verse 10,
for they shall eat and not have enough. They shall commit whoredom
and shall not increase. because they have left off to
take heed to the Lord. What he's talking about there
is fruitless religion. A dry desert. A lot of activity,
a lot of religion, but no fruit. No fruit unto God. There's fruit
unto death. You know, Paul dealt with that
in Romans chapter 7. He said before he knew Christ,
all he was doing in his religion was bringing forth fruit unto
death, and it looks good to men. Think about it, all those things
Paul listed in Philippians chapter 3, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
a Pharisee of Pharisees, circumcised the eighth day. You see, all
of that was fruit unto death. He had confidence in that, and
not Christ. He didn't know Christ. And that's
what's happening here. They'll eat, but they won't be
satisfied. It'll never be enough. How much
is enough? What does God require? Absolute
perfection. Where am I going to find that? In my baptism, in walking in
an aisle, in my church membership or attendance, is that where
I'm gonna find perfection? No, I can only find perfection
in the perfect one, who is Christ, the Lord, my righteousness. He
is enough. He is enough. I have people all
the time talking about it and say, well, I haven't done enough.
I know you haven't, neither have I, but he did, Christ did. And
he's my salvation. I thank God that my salvation
is not conditioned on my doing enough. Because I want to tell
you something. I don't care what denomination
you're affiliated with, whatever they say is enough, you will
really never get there completely in your mind. Beat down. And so he says in
verse 11, look here, here's God's charges against Israel's idolatrous
citizens. He says, hoard them in wine and
new wine take away the heart. He's talking about sins associated
with idolatry. And he says in verse 12, my people
ask counsel at their stocks, that's a wooden idol, a wooden
statue, think about it. And their staff declareth unto
them, that's like a divining rod. Like the tarot cards or
whatever, superstition. Isaiah dealt with that. Turn
over there just a moment. And I'll close here in a moment
and we'll pick up with this next time. But listen to what Isaiah
said here. And this is important now. If
we're going to know Christ, turn to Isaiah 8. If we're going to
know Christ, if we're going to have that knowledge, that knowledge
that is salvation, knowledge of the Lord, we're going to have
to know Christ. We're going to have to know Christ. And if we
know Christ, He's going to have to be revealed to us in the Word
of God. Not through wooden idols, not
through ceremonies, not through divining rods, not through anything
else, feelings, dreams, visions, whatever. We're going to have
to know Him according to the Word. All right? This word from
Genesis to Revelation is the word of Christ and it's the word
that leads us to Christ. He said in John chapter 5 and
verse 39, you do search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. Remember what he said in John 17 3 this is life
eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus
Christ to him they'll sin John 5 39 he says he says you think
you have you search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life well here's the reality they are they which testify
of me they'll lead you to Christ for life for righteousness for
forgiveness for acceptance for justification for eternal glory
And so we must know him according to the scriptures. What does
this book say of him? What does he say to us from this
book in the written word? Well, look at Isaiah chapter
eight and look at verse 16. He says, bind up the testimony,
seal the law among my disciples. Now he's talking about the word
of God. And what he's saying when he says bind it up, he says don't
put anything into it and don't let anything get out of it. In
other words, don't take away and don't add to, just like in
Revelation 22. Bind it up. This is God's word. And he says in verse 17, and
I will wait upon the Lord and hideth his face from the house
of Jacob, and I will look for him." I'm gonna seek the Lord
in his word. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given
me are for signs and for wonders in Israel, for the Lord of hosts
which dwelleth in Mount Zion. And he says, and when they shall
say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits. Now,
a familiar spirit in the Old Testament is a lying spirit. It's a false spirit. And so he
says, when they say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar
spirits, and unto wizards that peep, what he's talking about
is that they gaze, the stargazers, and they gaze into things and
they're looking for things beyond the scripture. And he said, and
that mutter, mutter, it's kind of like speaking in gibberish.
You've heard of that, haven't you? What they call speaking
in tongues, which isn't really speaking in tongues, it's scripturally.
They mutter, should not a people seek unto their God? You shouldn't
seek unto these things. Should not a people seek unto
their God for the living to the dead? Look at verse 20. To the
law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. Where are you gonna find knowledge
Knowledge of the Lord salvation is not in his Bible in his word
by the power of the Spirit. All right