Hosea chapter 4 and verse 1 reads
as follows. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants
of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge
of God in the land. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
children of Israel, For the Lord have a controversy with the inhabitants
of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge
of God in the land. The Lord have a controversy,
a controversy, a dispute, a disagreement. God is angry with these people. God is against them. They do
not have his love. They are not at peace with him.
Despite their religion, despite their sacrificing, despite their
gathering, despite their worship, despite their claims, despite
the fact that they, as it says in verse 15, may say, the Lord
liveth. We are God's, we are his people. Despite all their words, God
says of them that he has a controversy with them. Despite all their
thinking that God will be pleased with them and bless them for
what they have done for him, The reality is that God is angry
with them. And not only angry with what
they haven't done for Him, not only angry with their sins and
their failings and their fallings, but angry with what they think
is that with which God will be pleased with them. Angry with
that which they think are righteousnesses. As God says elsewhere in the
Scriptures, their righteousnesses whereas filthy rags that which
they fought was wonderful, that which they fought was pleasing
unto God, that which they fought was gathering and worshipping
God and standing before the other nations and speaking of His things. They thought they were special,
they thought they were different, they thought they were His and
yet He looked at what they did, all of it, and saw what their
true hearts were like, that their hearts were far from him though
they approached under him with their lips. He saw the adulterous
hearts of this people who mixed the things of God with the things
of the world and the things of other religions, who mixed idolatry
with their worship of God, who really sought their own end and
their own glory though they spake of the glory of God. who built
up their worship and their congregations and their gatherings, not for
the sake of glorifying God and His grace and His mercy, but
for the sake of adding to their numbers and building up and being
seen of others at how wonderfully righteous they were, to gain
glory for themselves. This was an adulterous people,
their hearts were full of evil, though outwardly they claimed
to be gods. Just like the Pharisees, who
followed them later on, and just like so many today, who can put
on an outward appearance of religion and worship, an outward profession
of Jesus Christ. When in the heart they're full
of sin. There's been no true cleansing
of sin by the blood of Christ. There's no true reality and knowledge
of God and His saving grace. Their knowledge is just head
knowledge, but not experimental heart knowledge. And there is
an adulterous attitude within the hearts of so many with whom
God has a controversy. He had a controversy against
Israel here for their adultery against him, for their turning
aside, for their unfaithfulness to him. And he has a controversy
with all throughout all the ages and generations, no matter which
day in which they live, including today, all who take his word,
his name, his things, and claim to be following him. when really
they follow their own thinking, their own wisdom, their own idolatry. They take off his things and
they carve out of those things an idol which they worship. And God is against them as he
was against the children of Israel here. And if that is you, then
he is against you. If your religion is a form, if
your religion is a show before others, if your religion is not
according to the knowledge of God, in Jesus Christ as revealed
in the scriptures and as made known by the Spirit of God. If
your knowledge of God does not lay you in the dust as nothing
before Him, and lift up Christ and His saving grace as all,
if your knowledge of God is not that God is sovereign over all,
and He is all-powerful, and His will is that which is done, not
your will, If your religion has any basis upon anything that
you do or you will or you think should be done for God, if it
has any ground upon that, then it is an adulterous religion,
a religion which mixes the works of man with the grace of God,
which turns aside from Christ and him alone. And if that is
your religion, The Lord have a controversy with you. Oh, what a terrible place to
be. To have God against you. To have God have a controversy,
a dispute with you. It's a terrible place to be in
your sins and in darkness. not having heard the gospel afar
off full of sin with the judgment of God waiting to come down upon
you but it's an even more terrible place to have heard the gospel
to have heard the truth of God and to have turned and followed
and made a profession of loving Him, of loving Jesus Christ,
of loving His salvation. and to follow and to claim when
in reality there's no true salvation in your heart. It's a terrible
place to have made a profession and for God to be furious with
you because you're not His and because you've taken His Gospel
and taken the name of His Son and corrupted the Gospel and
taken the name of His Son in vain. and because you've twisted
and corrupted and made his gospel into another gospel which you
both follow and which you exhort others to follow with you. A
gospel which leads unto damnation. God is more angry, more furious,
has a greater controversy with such as this than he has with
those who just are in complete darkness and unawareness of the
truth of the gospel. He is more angry with, as it
were, the Pharisees, the scribes and the Pharisees than the Samaritans
and those outside. When Jesus walked upon this earth,
his sternest words, his most furious rebukes were for those,
like Israel of old here, who had all the religion and all
the profession and claimed to serve God. whilst in their heart
they looked upon the Son of God and said crucify Him. Now if
you have a religion that claims to be a love for Jesus Christ
whilst at the same time you have a hatred for those who declare
the Gospel of Christ and His sovereign grace and His free
mercy the election of God. If you despise these things the
reality is is that in your heart you despise the true Christ and
the Christ you have and profess to follow is another and God
has a controversy with you. Israel here was an adulterous
nation It had turned to false gods, it had taken the truth,
heard the gospel and turned to false gods, made an idol which
they bowed down to. They cried out the Lord liveth. They thought they bowed down
to God when really they were bowing down to their idols. We
saw last week how King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and none of the
wise men in the kingdom of Babylon knew the dream or could interpret
it. But Daniel was brought before the king, and Daniel said, give
me time, O king, and I will seek out the dream and the interpretation,
the meaning of it. And so he did. And the king rejoiced
when he heard what Daniel had to say. Daniel both told him
the dream and the meaning, the interpretation. And Nebuchadnezzar's
response was to praise and to speak great things of the God
that gave Daniel this understanding. But straightway following Nebuchadnezzar
then built a great idol and demanded that all in his kingdom bow down
and worship that idol. Now in type and figure what Nebuchadnezzar
did was that he heard the gospel, the dream and the exposition
of the gospel the interpretation of the dream he heard both the
gospel in simplicity and he heard it expounded and explained and
the doctrine unfolded he heard it all but then with that knowledge
and with that wonder at a God that should make known such things
he went away and he made an idol and demanded others to worship
that idol. Well what is this but man hearing
the gospel in the letter and then going forth and building
a false gospel from it of a false Christ which he then demands
others to follow and to bow down to. And when they don't follow
his gospel and his Christ he slays them and condemns them
and has them as it were thrown into a fiery furnace. because
when they won't bow down to his gospel, he's full of condemnation
and rejection for them. And that's what Israel had done
here. They'd heard the gospel, they'd heard the exposition of
it. They had the oracles of God, they had the truth, and they'd
seen God's wondrous hand upon their fathers and their nation.
And yet they go away with such knowledge in their head. and
they build an idol. They corrupt it and defile it.
They take things of God. They don't go off and build an
idol utterly unlike these things, but they take the things of God
and they add to them and they corrupt them and they defile
them. And what they end up with is an idol which bears no true
resemblance, though it may have the same name and though there
may be certain features akin to the truth. They've corrupted
it and then they demand that others bow down and worship what
they have made. And this is what so many have
done, haven't they? And this is what so many continue
to do today, haven't, don't they? And this is perhaps what you
have done and continue to do today, don't you? You've heard
the Gospel. You've heard the exposition of
the Gospel. You've heard the doctrine. but
you've gone away and there's this bit you're not sure about
and that bit you're not sure about and you've read this man
on it and that man on it and you rather favour that view and
that view and you go off with what you think is the gospel
which you've only ever embraced in the head and you bow down
and worship that and preach that to others and what you've got
is another gospel with another Jesus it's an idol you're furious
at those who won't bow down to your idol and you would as it
were throw them into a fiery furnace if they don't. So many have done this, do you? Well who don't bow down to that
idol? There were three men, three young
boys really who wouldn't bow down to the idol that Nebuchadnezzar
made. And because they would not bow
down to it, he threw them in the furnace. Hananiah, whom he
named Shadrach. Mishael, whom he named Meshach. Azariah, who he and the Babylonians
named Abednego. These three Jews These three
men, boys who loved God and his gospel were thrown in the furnace
and they would not worship this adaption, this idol that was
set before them. And there are those who will
not like them bow down and worship these other Gospels and these
other Jesus that so many present to us. They come and they say,
using their force of numbers, that this is the Gospel and this
is the Jesus who loves all men in this world, you must receive
him, you must believe him. and they're furious if you don't
when you stand up and say but that is not the true and the
living God and I cannot bow down to the idol that you have made
and they reject you and cast you out and the effect is as
it were to throw you into a fiery furnace for their hatred is so
great against the true children of God who will not bow down
to these other Gospels which bring in the will and the works
and the glory of man. And who will own and confess
that they are nothing by nature, that they are full of sin, that
they have no strength and no wisdom of their own, that all
that they have is by the grace of God. And that they are only
His, only saved, they only know His truth because He chose them. because He would make it known
unto them, because He purposed to save them, because He sent
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for them. All was because
of what He has done, not they. And when these sort of people
stand up and say these things, it ignites fury in others, because
it says that we are as we are because God made us so. And if you don't know the Gospel,
we know. If you don't know the Saviour,
we know. It's because God has shut your
eyes. God has not opened your eyes. And this makes people furious. Who don't bow down to that idol? To that Jesus? Who don't go off
playing the harlot? unfaithful to their saviour.
Who don't run off adding and mixing the works of the law. the work of Christ. Who don't
turn away from their husband Christ back to their former husband
the law and in so doing commit adultery? Who won't add to the
finished work of Christ by taking from that law and reintroducing
elements of it and binding them upon the conscience of believers
and saying you must walk according to this or to that? Who won't
go that way? God's little children, his people,
the elect, his chosen generation, those who are cast out and despised
of men, base nothings but chosen of God. The few who find themselves
in this world to be thrown by a religious mass into a fiery
furnace. Cast out. These are those of
whom Hosea, of whom God speaks in Hosea chapter 2 and verse
23. When he says, I will sow her
unto me in the earth and I will have mercy upon her that had
not obtained mercy. And I will say to them which
were not My people, Thou art My people. And they shall say,
Thou art My God. Because there is this people
here, Israel, who've turned against their God. There is this great
mass of religious people who take the name of Christ and say
they're gods. who outwardly appear to be his
people and who have heard his gospel and the exposition of
his gospel and have then turned aside from it and twisted it
and defiled it and reject the faithful testimony of those preachers
in the past who initially preached and they have turned aside under
fables there is a great company who have turned. But there are
those who they consider to be nothing. There are those people
who they rejected as not gods, who God says are mine. When Israel at the time of Christ
crucified him, the gospel went forth. to the Jew first, but
also to the Gentile. It went forth unto those that
the Jews had traditionally called dogs, outside the camp, not even
to be considered people. According to their thinking,
they were the people of God and all others were just dogs. Yet God said to this proud nation,
that I will harden your hearts, and I will choose me a people
out of every tongue, kindred, and tribe. I will have a people
chosen out amongst Israel. There will be a remnant taken
from your generation, but I will choose a people from those who
were once not a people. I will choose the people out
of those whom you call dogs I will choose the people who are nothing
and know they're nothing and they shall obtain mercy from
me and they shall know that salvation is the obtaining of mercy I will
say to them which were not my people thou art my people and
they shall say thou art my God and in so doing God shows his
faithfulness to this company whom he has chosen who are his
and they show their faithfulness to him because they're united
to him and they know they have nothing but him because they
were nothing until he came unto them in the gospel and said unto
them thou art my people Now of which company are you?
Are you of those children of Israel who have turned against
God with your adulterous ways and twisted his gospel to your
liking to exalt your wisdom and your will and your pride and
your works at the expense of Jesus Christ? Or can you say
with these nothings that I am nothing? that I am sin through
and through by nature. But God chose me, He showed me
mercy and He took the blood of Christ and dipped me in it. He cleansed me from head to toe. He washed me. And all that I
have is from Him. All that I have is of Him. All
that I have is by grace. It's nothing to do with me. I
didn't seek Him and He found me. I didn't deserve Him yet
He loved me. I hated Him. And yet despite my hatred, He
set His mercy and His grace and His love upon me. All that I've
done for Him should deserve His wrath and His judgment, and I
know He'd be fair. Yet He hasn't rewarded me according
to my iniquity, but He has said unto me, Thou art my people. Thou art mine. You in particular,
I have given My Son for you, I have laid Him down as a sacrifice,
I have taken your sin and put it upon Him and judged it in
Him, and you are Mine. Thy faith has made thee whole,
thy sins be forgiven thee. He chose Me, I didn't choose
Him. Is that your cry? Because if
you can't cry that truly from the heart, if there's something
you cling on to, something good in you, something that you mix
the gospel with, then God has a controversy with you. He's
angry with it. And nothing kindles his anger
more than for man to take his things, the things of Jesus Christ,
and to defile them. For this is what's going on here. These people had taken God's
things and defiled them, mixed them, added to them, changed
them, brought in idols, brought in the idols and the worship
of the land around them, been influenced by the nations around
them and turned to them. They started to walk according
to sight and not by faith. they saw events come about in
their lives and God didn't seem to respond and yet they saw others
who did this and that and there seemed to be positive effects
from what they did so their wisdom worked to say well if I do this
and that then this good will come of it And they ceased to
wait by faith upon the living God to answer their prayers and
answer their cries. But they would put their hand
to things and they would act and they would try to bring about
solutions by their own will and their own strength and how easily
we fall into such a trap. They turned from God to other
gods. They were unfaithful. They took
God's things and they mixed them, they corrupted them, they added
to them. They ceased to be faithful to
Him and His grace alone. Oh how men hear the truth and
then go away and twist it, distort it, corrupt it. by nature we are adulterous,
unfaithful and adultery and unfaithfulness at its worst is in the things
of God the greatest adultery the greatest unfaithfulness is
when a person takes the gospel and turns aside from it and mixes
it is when a person takes the gospel and mixes it with law
is when a person takes faith and mixes it with works and then
preaches that others should do the same because people had a
knowledge of God but not a true knowledge not a knowledge of
his grace not a knowledge which flowed from faith not a knowledge
which laid them in the dust not a knowledge which exalted Christ
and Christ alone an unfaithful people and here
we have a prophet Hosea sent to such a generation such a people
whom God would make to know their sin and what it is like to endure
their sin in a manner which few could experience. For God told Hosea to take a
woman, an adulteress, a harlot as his wife, that he should know
what it is to be wed to a woman who's unfaithful, that he should
know what it is to love a woman whose love is divided that he
should know what it is to love a woman who loves others and
other things and other ways that he should know the bitterness
of seeing she whom he loves turn that he should know also what
it is to set his love upon one who is already an adulteress.
Because the love of Christ, the love of God for his people, is
not a love set upon one that's lovely. The love of Christ for
his bride is not a love set upon one who is beautiful in and of
herself. Christ didn't love the church
who deserved to be loved. Christ didn't seek a people in
this world who merited his favour. Christ didn't, as it were, come
across the most beautiful of women in this world and make
her to be his. Christ's love was set upon she,
collectively. who had spurned his love, who
had gone off playing the harlot with all men, who had gone off
sinning with an indulgence beyond telling, whose hatred for him
could not be measured. Christ loved a people who were
utterly unlovely, utterly undeserving, utterly unworthy. If Christ ever
set his love upon you believer, he set his love upon you when
you were yet in the filth and wickedness of your sin, yet in
adultery, yet playing the harlot, yet bowing down the the knee
to all the idols in this world. He loved you when you sought
your own glory and your own things, when you despised and rejected
Him. That's the kind of Saviour who
you have. He didn't set His love upon you
when you turned to Him. He didn't begin to love you when
you came to your senses. He didn't start to love you when
you said, Oh Lord, I've sinned and I'm going to return unto
Thee. And when you gave up all your wicked ways and when you
gave up all your former lovers and when you turned from the
wickedness of this world and started to read the Bible and
started to pray and start to seek God. His love didn't commence
when you started to seek out His ways and His glory. His love
for you believer didn't commence when you made a profession of
faith in Him or when you joined the church or when you were baptized
or when you were put into some role of service in the church.
His love for you is not a reward for anything that you have done
or said in His name. He loved you while you were yet
a sinner. Christ died for the ungodly. He justified the ungodly. He loved His church when she
was thick in sin, when she was in adultery, when she was unfaithful,
unloving, uncaring. That's the bride that Christ
took as His. And that's the sort of bride
that God told Hosea to take for his. Go and take Goma. Go and
marry Goma. Go yet love a woman, beloved
of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love
flagons of wine. Despite the sin of Israel, God
loved his people as a figure of that true Israel of God whom
he loves, that true bride of Christ whom he loves. Despite
their love, despite our love of other gods, God loves us if
we are in Christ. and that's what Hosea knew by
experience what it was to love one who did not deserve to be
loved what it was Hosea's name means salvation and salvation as it were was
called to marry such a woman Salvation, go and take this kind
of woman and love her, undeserving. And Christ, Jesus, God's saviour,
God's salvation, he whose name means salvation, salvation set
his love upon a bride who deserved it not. Oh the sorrow that the
crimes of Goma must have brought to Hosea. Just think how easily upset we
are when those whom we love do things that bring us sorrow.
when those whom we love don't return our love as strongly as
we might like, when those whom we love don't seem thankful as
we would like them to be, when those whom we love do something
which upsets us, when they turn aside from us. Even in small
things, even in the everyday path of life, we can be so easily
cast down when our love is not rewarded as we would like. And
when someone we love truly falls or truly goes astray or truly
does something awful, how crushed we are by this. How painful these
things are to us. Well here, Hosea loved one who
was full of sin. Who could bring him nothing but
sorrow, outwardly speaking. as a figure of the one Christ
who loved the bride who could bring him by her own efforts
by her own merits nothing but sorrow oh can you feel something
of the pain that Hosea must have felt and can you feel something
of the sorrow the pain that Christ must have felt because of our
hatred for him because of what his bride did to him what she
did to him what her crimes meant to him and what her crimes meant
for him because for Christ to love such a bride, such a woman
he would have to take her crimes, take her sin, take her unfaithfulness,
her adultery, her rebellion, and take those things upon himself. He would have to own them as
the husband to be his, all that she has done. I as her husband
am responsible for as a husband he would take all the crimes
of his wife and say don't judge her but judge me she's my bride they're my crimes
they may be hers but now they're mine because she's mine don't
judge her but judge me. And that is exactly what his
God did in order that he should be wed to such a one. He could not marry her except
her crimes were laid upon him, except her sins were laid upon
him, except he was made to be her sin, except the justice,
the sword of God's justice should come down and slay him. as if
he had done the deeds that she had done they became his and
they had to be if he were to take them away and to cleanse
her and perfect her and make her to be whiter than snow which
is what he has done by grace for his own he was smitten that
she should be healed he was struck down that she should live In
Hosea chapter 6 verse 1 we read, Come and let us return unto the
Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten
and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive
us. In the third day he will raise
us up and we shall live in his sight. After two days he will
revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and we shall
live in his sight. Well in that figure we see the
death and the resurrection of Christ because his people won't
be smitten and then risen up except they are smitten in him
and except they rise up in him and have life in him. If God
judged the people on their own, then eternity is not long enough
to pay the price. And if you remain with such sin
outside of Christ, then there will come a day of smiting where
you will be smitten for your crimes. But there'll be no raising
up. But here in prophecy of the Gospel
and of Christ to come, we read that after two days will he revive
us, he'll smite us the first day, lay us in the grave, and
then he will rise us up again, because he will smite us as we
are united to Christ. When that bride was joined to
her husband, God struck him. And her sins were struck in him. and on the third day having laid
in the grave with him she as it were rose from the grave with
him risen up without sin justified perfect glorious to live in his
sight having been delivered from sin having been delivered from
the power of the grave and from death as it says in chapter 13
and verse 14 of Hosea with this wonderful promise of this salvation. Which is quoted of course in
1 Corinthians. 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. God will deliver such a people
in his Son. He will deliver them from the
power of the grave and from death which their sins have bought
them with a certainty. O sinner, your sins will lay
you in the grave. and will bring you into everlasting
death except God delivers you, except God ransoms you, except
God pays the price and judges your sins in another. But if
you're in Christ, then you will know that Christ has indeed ransomed
you from the power of the grave and redeemed you, set you free
from death. He paid the price to set you
free. Did he? Did he because that's
the price he had to pay, that's the sorrows the crimes of his
bride brought him unto. That he had to die and he suffered
the wrath of God for those sins in his own body on the tree.
He sorrowed, he perished, he suffered for hours in the darkness. because of her sins. Oh what
it took for Christ to deliver his people, that people with
whom God had a controversy, because God's controversy will be answered,
his dispute will be brought to a head. It won't go unnoticed,
it won't be forgotten. His anger will be met and it
will either be met in you for eternity in darkness and wrath
to come or it was met in Christ upon the cross. Hear the words
of the Lord ye children of Israel for the Lord have a controversy
with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth nor
mercy nor knowledge of God in the land. Oh there's a great
deal of the mixing of the truth of God in our land today and
there's a great deal of speaking of the love of God and of Jesus
in our land today. and a great deal of the knowledge
of things of God but not a knowledge of God. In the churches do they
know God himself? Do they know him in Jesus Christ? Do you know the true Jesus Christ
in the gospel and his truth and his mercy? If you don't, God has a controversy
with you. And what do you do with one who
has a controversy with you? Do you continue to bury your
head in the sand and hope that one day all will be well? Like
a fool, where nothing changes and your sin and your heart hasn't
changed, but you hope for the best at the end. Or do you continue
to run away? or close your ears? Or do you
continue to wallow along in an apathetic state, trying not to
deal with it, trying not to think about it? Or do you continue
to twist the Word of God to convince yourself and others that all
is well and that what you believe is the truth? Do you look within
your soul, within your heart, and know that God isn't there,
and know that things are not well with God, but do you continue
to look outward to the letter of that message in which you've
trusted and say, yes, but I accepted Jesus who died for sinners, all
is well? and you know that his blood hasn't
cleansed you within but you look outwardly to the message that
says that his blood was shed to cleanse sinners and you hope
and rest in that alone when the reality within is a bankruptness,
an emptiness, that all you see within your heart is sin, you
know it's not been applied yet you kid yourself Well you can go on like that
but the controversy rages. Unless God finds blood upon the
door of your heart as he found it upon the doors of the houses
of the children of Israel when the angel of death, the destroyer
came into that land on Passover night. Unless he finds that blood
there, then that controversy will end in your destruction.
You don't ignore such a controversy. But you fall down upon your knees
before God and say, God, I'm nothing, and I have nothing,
and I know I'm nothing, and I know that my religion is in the letter
and in word only, and I can't do anything about it. Open my
ears. Open my eyes. Open my heart. Take thy blood and sprinkle it
within. cause me to see you go to God
and fall down upon your knees and you cry out to him to have
mercy you don't shut him out you don't put it off for another
day you don't hope that all will be well in a year's time when
nothing's changed but you fall down before him and ask him As
it says in chapter 14-2, take with you words and turn to the
Lord. Say unto him, take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. O Lord, take away my sin, I cannot
cleanse myself. Go to him, pray to him, seek
him while he may be found. you can't change his mind, you
can't change his will, you can't change your filthy heart but
you can fall upon him and cry out under him that he would receive
you and should he bring you to the point of doing that there's
none who truly call whom he rejects take with you words and turn
to the Lord, repent, turn from the way in which you're walking,
turn and walk another way, turn from going away from God to go
towards God, change your mind, change your thoughts, bow before
him and say Lord cleanse me, turn me and we shall be turned
turn us and we shall be turned we can't turn but lord turn me
you as it were you sue for repentance you can't make repentance god
grants it but if you know the state you're in you'll cry out
for it you'll cry out for it you'll only turn if you repent
You'll only repent as you turn. And God will do the turning,
but he'll do it as he works in you, both to will and to do of
his good pleasure. Fighting against it, burying
your head in the sand, putting it off for another day will achieve
nothing, but the controversy will rage from heaven against
you. But when that begins to happen,
Because God, in grace, has said of you, one of His little ones,
that this one shall be born again. When His Spirit has come unto
you, an unknown to yourself, He's caused life to enter in,
and the workings of that life is to begin to turn and to cry
out to Him for mercy. Because you have been born again
by His Spirit, then He leads you. and all those whom he leads
under him discover that all their religion which they grasp in
the intellect by the wisdom of man is nothing They find themselves
having previously turned from God and turned from His truth
unto a lie. They find that all that they
had which was His truth mixed with error was a lie. They find that as He reveals
Christ unto them that it's all nothing, it's tatters. But as
He reveals Christ unto them, they're led to know a religion,
a gospel, a salvation, a truth in which there is life, in which
there is peace, in which there is salvation. True life, true peace, true salvation
is from those lives that we turn and we turn to this, to a sight
of Jesus Christ slain upon a cross for sinners. And we see in Him
that on the third day His people rise up with Him and they live
in His sight. We find in him that God's anger
and wrath with his people is appeased by his blood. And that in him there is no controversy. There's no controversy. All the
controversy that God had with them has been answered. All has
been taken away because their sins were blotted out by Christ. In Him there's no controversy,
only the love, the mercy and the grace of God. Those who believe
will be saved. Those who believe, believe what? Believe this. Believe this, as 1 Timothy says
in chapter 3 and verse 16, that without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Yes, God was manifest in the
flesh. Christ came into this world to save sinners. He came
to save his own. He died. He rose again. He took away sin, He brought
in everlasting life, He was justified in the Spirit, seen of angels
and He declares His Gospel unto this world, preached unto the
Gentiles, preached unto those who were not His people and yet
who now are. Those who have obtained mercy,
believed on in the world and received up into glory. Are you
amongst that people who have seen him by faith, who have heard
of him in the gospel, and who have heard the truth of the gospel,
as your lies and your false gospel falls down like shreds, and as
you come to see that God is all in Christ? He is a mighty Saviour
and He has done everything, everything to save His people. There is
nothing for you to do, past, present or future, but to believe
on Him and as a consequence with Him to be received up into glory. Amen.