Take your Bibles and turn with
me, if you'd like to, to the book of Hosea, chapter 13. The book of Hosea, chapter 13. If you go to Danjel, and just
turn to your right, you'll find it. Now let me say, while you're
turning there, that it's such an honor. What an honor it is
to be asked to come here and worship with you folks, first
of all. One thing I appreciate more than
trying to preach, and that's the worship with the Lord Saints. And I counted a great joy to
be here with you and see you this morning. Appreciate your
faithfulness to attend the public worship. So important, isn't
it? I want you to read with me. I want to read, this passage
has 16 verses in it, and let's read it together this morning.
Hosea chapter 13. When Ephraim spake trembling,
he exalted himself in Israel. But when he offended in Baal,
he died. And now they sin more and more,
and have made them molten images of their silver and idols according
to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, let the men
that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore, they shall be as the
morning cloud and as the early dew that passes the way, as the
chaff that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the
smoke out of the chimney. Yet I am the Lord thy God from
the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me. For there is no Savior beside
me. I did know thee in the wilderness,
in the land of great drought. According to their pastor, so
were they filled. They were filled, and their heart
was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten
me. Therefore I will be unto them
as a lion, and as a leopard by the way, I will observe them.
I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps. and
will rend the gall of their heart. There will I devour them as a
lion. The wild beasts shall tear them.
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. I will be thy king, where is
any other that may save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges,
of whom thou saith, give me a king and a prince. I gave thee a king
in my anger, and tuck him away in my wrath. The iniquity of
Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hid. The sorrows of a traveling
woman shall come upon him. He is as an unwise son, for he
should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them
from death, O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will
be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes. Though he be fruitful among his
brethren, then east wind shall come. The wind of the Lord shall
come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry,
and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil the treasure
of all pleasant vessels. Samaria shall become desolate,
for she hath rebelled against her God. She shall fall by the
sword. Their infants shall be dashed
in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." My
text this morning is found here in verse 9. Old Israel, Thou
hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help found. I want you to think with me this
morning upon this subject, self-destruction and divine help. Self-destruction
and divine help. I think it's very clear what
our text teaches you this morning. Man has ruined himself by his
sinning. And his ruin is altogether of
himself. Thou hast destroyed thyself. I think our text teaches that
very plainly as we'll see in a minute. If a man is lost, if
a man perishes at last, he has nobody to blame but himself.
But if a man is saved, if God is pleased to intervene and save
that man from his self-destruction, then God gets all the glory from
it. He receives all the praise for it. Verse 2 tells us that
Israel had sinned against the Lord. They have sinned more and
more, many ways. Sin, making their idols, idolatry,
their covetousness. They have sinned against God.
And they had destroyed themselves. And somebody will say, Bruce,
all of us have sinned. There's not a just man upon this
earth and doeth good and sinneth not. And I think that's why our
text this morning is appropriate, not just for Israel of old, but
for every man of our day and our time, because all men have
sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. And what's the result of their
sinning? The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. Sin, when it's finished, there's
a finishing to sin. There's an end to sin. And when
that end comes, it brings forth death. And when a man sins, and
he sins, and he sins against God, and the consequence is death,
he has nobody to blame but himself. Death is the just payment for
our sinning against God. Sin will not only bring death,
it will bring a deserved death, but which nobody is to blame
but those who have sinned against God. O Israel, you have destroyed
yourself. Self-destruction. But on the
contrary, when the Lord intervenes, if He's pleased to, and saves
us, it must be holy by grace. A man may ruin himself, but he
can't save himself. A man may murder his soul, but
he can't give life to it. That's where God must intervene
and save us. It seems that God has set these
two things together to teach us some valuable lessons. Oh
man, you have ruined yourself. Oh man, you've destroyed yourself. There's a good lesson in that.
But in me is thy help found. These two things must be brought
together in the preaching of the gospel. What can we learn
from these two things? First of all is this. It causes
us to take an honest look at ourselves. And when we've looked
at ourselves, it causes us to be horrified. and are truly being
sinners. What horrible creatures, brothers
and sisters, we must be to destroy ourselves. To murder somebody
else would be bad, but to murder ourselves is worse. To murder
our bodies would be bad, but to murder our souls would be
devastated. How horrible creatures we must
be then to commit such destruction upon our own soul. Over 50 years
since the Lord opened my heart and began to teach me something
about Himself and something about the preciousness of the soul
and the length of eternity and the only way of salvation, I
have tried to talk to men about these things. God in His justice,
and man in his depravity, and Christ in His effectual redemption. And for over 50 years, for the
most part, I'm getting the same response. And it's this. Men do not want to accept the
responsibility for their sin. They will deny their sin altogether,
We have not sinned like the Pharisees said of themselves. Or they will
deny their responsibility for their actions. Or they will shift
the blame to someone else. But they won't say, I've destroyed
myself. You can't come to that conclusion.
It's too fearful. It's too devastating. Apart from
the grace of God working in your heart. Somebody gave me a track, Grace
Baptist Church, not far from where I pastor. It had several
points that the sinner needed to know, and the first point
was this, that you're not perfect, and you're gonna have to acknowledge
that. Man, it goes deeper than that. Everybody you talk to will
acknowledge, I'm not perfect. But what man do you run into
that says, I have destroyed myself? I have murdered my own soul by
my sinning against God. Men don't want to acknowledge
that they've sinned. If they do, they don't want to
take responsibility, the consequences of that sin, and they want to
shift it to somebody else. That goes all the way back to
our first father, doesn't it? I had a man to tell me not long
ago, he said he believed the reason Adam sinned is because
God had created a weakness within him that would ensure his sinning
and falling. What is that but to blame God?
The Bible says that God created man upright. He made him good. He made him holy. And man has sought out many schemes,
many inventions to blame God for our fall. And that's what
man's still doing, isn't it? The Lord, when He made Adam and
Eve, He told them the only way that
they would fall was to eat of this tree. He told them where
the tree was. He told them the name of the
tree. And he told them the consequences of Eden. And what did they do? Adam went into this with his
eyes wide open. He sinned against God. And he
tried to cover it up, didn't he? Tried to cover it up with
fig leaves. And when God pressed the issue
and found him out, who did he blame? The woman. She's to blame and you're to
blame because you gave me the woman. Has that been your experience
in talking to people? They will not come to this conclusion
that I am responsible for my sinning against God. I've got
nobody to blame but myself. And when we come to that conclusion,
we'll be horrified at our sin, and we'll be horrified at ourselves
because of it. I had another man to tell me
one time, he said, God has predestinated some people to heaven, and He
predestinated everybody else to hell. And I thought, boy,
that's a good way to blame God. God has ordained a great host
of men to be saved. He's chosen them to that end
in Jesus Christ. But the same God that ordained
them to salvation chose the means by which He would save those
people. And that's sharing the gospel and believing the gospel
through repentance and faith. But as far as I know, God never
ordained anybody to hell apart from sin. Sin is the reason men
perish. Sin is what brings destruction
to a man's soul. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Well, Satan tempts men here to
shift the blame, doesn't he? And ultimately, they shift the
blame to God. It's His fault. But you know,
in hell, Satan will change his tune He'll change His tune when He
talks to people in hell. He won't say then, it's God's
fault. He'll say, you're here because
you sinned against God. It's your fault. You've destroyed
yourself. He'll be honest with men in that
day. And men won't spend eternity
so much cursing God as they'll spend eternity cursing themselves
because they know why they're there. Old Israel, You have destroyed
yourself. Boy, that's difficult to come
to that conclusion, isn't it? It is. You cut your own throat. We dug
our own graves. We're bound with the cords of
our own iniquity. Oh, Israel, you have destroyed
yourself. God sets these two things together
to bring us to this conclusion. Man, I'm in a devastating circumstances,
and I've got nobody to blame but myself. He does these two
things, he puts them together for this reason, that when men
are brought to despair of self-deliverance and self-salvation, and we must
be brought there, The Spirit of God must bring us to despair
of self-salvation, self-deliverance. We've destroyed ourselves, but
we can't deliver ourselves. And when he's brought us there,
that though we despair of self-salvation, we would not despair of divine
help and divine salvation. Despairing of self, but not despairing
of help from the Lord. O Israel, you have destroyed
yourself, but in me, in me is thy help. We're apt to despair
when we realize our case is hopeless. And it is hopeless as far as
self is concerned. But then we turn to the scriptures
where the Lord says, behold me, behold me. There's our help,
isn't it? Looking outside ourselves all
together to find salvation and help in someone completely outside
of ourselves. Old Israel, you've destroyed
yourself, but in me is thy help found. I don't know of any two
things that will better secure us, turning from sin and self,
and self-righteousness to the Lord Jesus Christ, than these
two things working effectually in our hearts. I have destroyed
myself. I'm hopelessly and helplessly
undone, but in Him is my help. Who is this me? But in me is
thy help. How can this me help us? In me,
look to me, behold me, in me is thy help. Well, here in verse
4, he calls himself the Savior. I am the Lord thy God from the
land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me, for there
is no Savior besides me. This me is a Savior. He's the Savior. Not God the
Father. That's the first person of the
Sacred Trinity. But this is God the Son. The
second person of the Sacred Trinity. He is the Savior. Matthew chapter
1. The angel spoke to Joseph and
said, Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which
is conceived of her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring
forth a son. Who is the Savior? He's one that
Mary conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit. It was her Son. She nourished Him in her belly. She birthed Him. She brought
Him forth and He was called her firstborn Son. Jesus Christ is
the eternal Son of God and He's the Son of Mary. He's God in
our humanity. He's given these two names there
in Matthew chapter 1. His name shall be called Jesus. That's His human name. I think
it's very telling that we never read that name anywhere as applied
to Him before Matthew chapter 1 in the New Testament. And why
is that? Why don't we read what his name
is going to be? He's called all of these other
names before he was born. The Lord, Our Righteousness,
Shallow, and all of these other names, but never Jesus. Why?
That was his human name. And we never knew that until
he was actually born of Mary. His name shall be called Jesus. And what does that mean? Savior. Who is this Savior that can help
us? In me is thy help. It's Jesus
Christ. It's God in our humanity. Those angels appeared to those
shepherds that wonderful night and said, Fear not, I bring you
good tidings of great joy for unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior. A Savior. Where is our help? Who can help us? This Savior,
the Son of God, the Son of Mary, Jesus in our humanity. He increased
in wisdom and stature. He was a man. He grew weary and
slept. He grew hungry and ate, thirsty
and He drank. He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin. He was touched and can be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. He could fear. He could cry. He could suffer. He could bleed.
And He could die. He could be buried and raised
again and seated at the right hand of God. All in our humanity. Isn't that so important? Who
is this Savior? He's the Son of Mary. As much
human as you and I are. Sin accepted. With a real human
body and a real human soul. He's one of us. Our Savior is as much man as
you and I are. Sin accepted. He's the Son of God. He had another
name there in Matthew chapter one, not only is his name shall
be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin,
but he went on in the next verse and said his name shall be called
Emmanuel, God with us. Who is this savior? Who is this
one that can help us? He's God with us in our humanity. And he'll never be separated
from our humanity again. I love the way Wesley put it. Laid in time, behold he came.
Offspring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead
see. Hail the incarnate deity. Pleased as man with men to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel. We've heard it so often, haven't
we? Man, as a real man, he could suffer. And as God, he could atone. As
man, he was crucified in weakness, but as mighty God, he put away
our sins. Who is this me? Must be a mighty
one to save us, and he is. Jesus, the Son of God in our
humanity. Look down in verse 14 in Hosea
chapter 13. It tells us something else about
this me. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. I will redeem them from death. This word ransom, it means to
pay a price for a prisoner's release. It's mentioned three
times in the New Testament. And every time it's mentioned,
it has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ and His humanity. The
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give
His life a ransom. That's mentioned twice in the
Gospel. To give His life a payment for a release of captives. Paul mentions it like this, there's
one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who
gave Himself a ransom. He gave His life a ransom, and
gave Himself a ransom. Gave all of His life. Gave His
body, gave His soul, gave His time, gave His blood, gave everything
he had on the cross of Calvary to pay the price for the release
of all God's elect. This word redeem, I will redeem
them from death and redeem has to do with delivering the captive,
deliverance of the captive as the result of the ransom pay. How many times have we heard
that somebody's been kidnapped and the kidnapper demands a ransom
and the ransom is paid, but the captive's never released. That'll
never happen here. When Jesus Christ gave himself
to ransom sinners, every sinner that he paid ransom for shall
be redeemed without exception. To redeem from death, Christ
must redeem from the cause of death. And what is that? Sin. And to redeem from sin, He must
take our sins, make them His own, and suffer all the consequences
of those sins. Guilt, the curse of the law,
the wrath of God, and death itself. Now, is that a help to you? In me is thy help found. Is that a help just to think
about this? What He's done for poor sinners? Look here at verse
14 one more time. Look what He says, the Lord Jesus
says, right in the middle of this verse, He says, O death,
I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Who ever talked to death this
way? You and I can't talk to death
this way. We may, when we're feeling good and we're healthy
and young, or in our middle age, we may get very presumptuous
and say, I ain't scared of dying. The boy let death creep in our
door. Let death come suddenly and break down our door uninvited. Comes irresistible without any
regard to our humanity and our dignity. And comes and takes
us away. I'm telling you what, death is
a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing to die,
isn't it? But here is somebody looking
the eyes, the cold dark eyes of death and said, I'm gonna
plague you. I'll be your plague. Sometime
I walk through the cemetery. Been doing that for years. And
if I catch an open grave, I'll go look down in it. And try my
best to realize just a few days and there's where I'll be. Down
in that cold, dark grave. And I've never said one time
what's said here, I'll be your destruction. I know what death's
gonna do to me. Death's gonna eat me up. Worms
gonna eat this body and leave nothing of it. But here was somebody
who said, oh death, oh grave, I'm gonna destroy you. Who said
that? Our Savior said that. But he died, and when he died,
he destroyed death, didn't he? He annihilated death. There is
no death for the saint now. He merely falls to sleep. And
you don't have to fear the grave. He's been there. Our Savior's
been there. And he says here, I have destroyed
the grave. Didn't hold Him. If it didn't
hold Him, it won't hold you. And if it didn't hurt Him, it
won't hurt you, dear child of God. Who is this One that says,
in me is thy hope found? It's our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a mighty Me He must be then. I tell you what the Father says
about Him in Psalms 89. The Father says this about Him.
I have laid help upon one that is mighty." The Father knows
our dilemma. He knows right where we're at.
And when He sent the Lord Jesus Christ, He knows Him too. He
knows His power and He knows His merit. He knows His faithfulness. And He says, I've laid help upon
one who is able to redeem you, to ransom you, and deliver you. You think you and I should take
the Father's Word for that? In me is your help found. Who
is that? Our Savior, Jesus Christ. And
the Father sent Him and said, I put help upon Him. And He's
mighty. He's mighty. Turn back to the
left just a little bit in the book of Isaiah. Chapter 63. We go to the Gospels and all
through the Old Testament, the Father bears witness to the Son
and His greatness and His might. In some places, we find the Lord
Jesus bearing witness of Himself. And look here what He says in
Isaiah chapter 63, in verse 1. This is Jesus Christ himself
speaking, our Savior speaking. Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Basra? This that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine-fat? Why is your garments red as blood? I have trodden the wine-press
alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will
tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood
shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my arraignment.
For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my
redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none
to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore,
my own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury, it helped
me up." It's strange language here in verse 1. The Edomites, you remember the
Edomites? They were the chief enemies of
the Jewish people. And Basra was their capital. And Isaiah gets this vision,
like of this man coming from Edom, and his garments are bloody.
He said, what have you done? Where have you been? He said,
I've been over there trampling them Edomites to death. I had a crow
to pick with them, and I did. You know they tell us, the historians
tell us that when it comes to New Testament times, you could
not find any man of the tribe of Edom. All of them have been
killed. God had a crow to pick with him
and he killed every one of them. Obediah chapter 1 verse 18 tells
us that. Not a one of them left. But this
has a deeper meaning than the Edomites, doesn't it? Who was
our chief enemies? Our sins were our enemies. And the consequences that our
sinning against God brought upon us, guilt, and the judgment of
God, and the wrath of God, and death itself. And that's who
these enemies were that Jesus Christ dealt with. Our Edomites,
our sins, our iniquities. Boy, when you see them hanging
on the cross, And he said, it's finished. And the Bible tells
us that he by himself purged our sins away. In the end of
the world, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And he dresses himself here,
I am the one that's mighty to save. He dealt with our sins
2,000 years ago. And he put them away. and all the consequences of them,
He put them away. And now let them be sought for.
Let one of your sins, dear child of God, be sought for. And I'm
telling you, they're not found. They are no more. There's none
left. Because they've been put away. And He put them away by
His blood poured out. Rex read about it this morning
to us, didn't he? Does that help you this morning?
Is that a help to you? If you could live in the faith
of this, what bothers you most is your sin. That's what gets
us down. That's what discourages us. Dealing
with this awful sin and sometimes the guilt of it. How it weakens
our soul. What if you could get up every
morning and say to yourself, my sins are gone. My enemies
are gone. Yes, I've destroyed myself by
my sinning, but my help is in this mighty Savior. How would
that affect you? I think it would affect us in
a good way, don't you? In me is your help found, and
I'm the mighty one. I put your sins away. Let me say this in closing. We
found this in a woman's experience in the
15th chapter of Matthew. This is not just some doctrines
we fill our head for, this is reality to us. In me is your
help found. There was a woman, a Gentile
woman, our Lord was in the northern part of Israel, the extreme part,
all the way up in the Gentile area, in Tyre and Sidon. up there trying to rest. And
this woman, this Gentile woman, had a daughter that was grievously
vexed with the devil. And she heard that Jesus Christ
was there, so she come and fell at his feet and said, Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously
vexed. And boy, everything was against
this poor woman. It started out, he wouldn't even
look at her. He turned his head away from her and his ear away.
While she said, Lord have mercy upon me, he didn't hear a word
she said as far as she was concerned. He answered her not a word. Boy,
ain't that discouraging? You ever pray and can't get an
answer? That's discouraging, isn't it? And then his apostles
came to him and said, would you send her away? She's grieving
us to death. Just tell her to go leave us
all alone. And she heard him say that. Man,
how discouraging that must have been. And then he told her, Woman,
I'm not sent to you. You're a Gentile and I'm sent
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I'm not even sent
to you. Boy, wouldn't that cut off any hope? Then he said one
more thing. It's not right for me to take
the children's bread and give it to you dogs. Everything seemingly
was against her. He was against her. His word
was against her. The apostle was against her.
What plea did she have left? Just one plea. One plea is what
she had left. Remember what she said? Help, Lord. I wonder if she read
our text. I wonder if she had read Hosea
chapter 13 and verse 9. In me is thy help found. I wonder if she read Psalms 89
where the Father said, I've laid help upon one that is mighty.
And that's all she had left to plead. I'll say this. I don't know if
I should say it like this or not. He could not hear her. He
could not hear her. He could not not hear her. He
could not not speak to her anymore. He had to answer her. He had
to help her. You say, Bruce, why? Because
He had already said, In me is thy help found. And now when
one comes to Him and says, Lord, help me, is He going to turn
them away? He's never done that. Lord, help me. Oh woman, great
is your faith. Great is your faith. Brothers
and sisters, when everything seems to be against us, we can't
even find any comfort in God's Word. We can't even pray. It seems like heaven is shut
up against us. There's only one plea that we
have left, and that's in the person of Jesus Christ Himself. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. If we're reduced to that, that's
enough. John Bunyan had a nervous breakdown. And he couldn't read his Bible.
Every time he opened it up and looked at a passage, it was about
judgment. That's all he saw in the Word. He couldn't pray. He
said, I was reduced to this one thing. I committed my soul to the very
person of Jesus Christ. When I could not find Him in
the Word, when I could not feel at Him in prayer and lay hold
upon Him, I committed my soul to His person. He will help me
in His time. And He did. I have laid help
upon one that is mighty. And what a mighty Savior we have.
And there's not a circumstances in your life, dear child of God,
There's not a dilemma that you face. I don't care what it is
that he cannot help you. And he will help you. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest. They never did call Aaron that.
They call him a high priest, but never a great high priest.
That is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the son of God. Let us
hold fast our profession, for He's faithful, that promise.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest that's passed into
the heavens, what are we to do? Let us come boldly to the throne
of grace, that we may obtain mercy and what? Grace to help! Grace to help us! In the time
of need, we have a mighty Savior. And He lives for no other reason,
as far as I know, but to help us. And we need it, don't we? And praise His blessed name for
being willing and able to be our help. Oh, Father in heaven,
thank you for sending us a Savior, a great one, to deliver us. Thank
you, Lord Jesus, for coming To burn our load in our humanity. Taking all the consequences for
our sinning against God. And burying all of it in your
own body and your precious soul and satisfying. Rendering to
heaven to justice all that it required as a consequences for
our sinning. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for coming.
Holy Spirit of promise and revealing these things unto us, revealing
our Savior to us. Oh, Lord, we would despair if
you left us to ourselves. We'd live and die without any
hope. Thank you, Spirit of God, for revealing our Savior. Would
you be pleased this morning to reveal him to others? That they
may know you, Lord. And they may put their trust
in you and seek you as this woman did. Thank you for this, dear
people. Thank you for keeping their hearts
united together. Loving one another and forgiving
one another. Holding up your name. Declaring
your glory in this community. Thank you for them. Bless them
more and more, Lord. Pour out your goodness upon them.
Let them see your smiling face. For your glory, we ask these
things. Amen. Thank you, Rex. Good to see you. The Lord bless you.