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Great is Thy Faithfulness (Hos 2:14:23)
40 Plays2 years ago
Sunday Message recorded 22 October 2023
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction and Praise
00:00:07
Speaker
praise team. Appreciate so much, um, their love for the Lord and just, it just spills out as they praise him together. And I'm so glad that you were here to enjoy them. I was out at the community revival at the fairgrounds and I heard them also lead and worship there. And boy, did they honor the Lord and honor
00:00:28
Speaker
our church with their witness for Christ there as well. But anyway, I'm so glad you're here. If you've lost the music, if you've lost your song, then the Lord can give you a new song. He can restore it. And so I encourage you to go to Him. There's nothing that'll restore your song, your praise, like just contemplating the faithfulness of God.
00:00:52
Speaker
And that's what we're gonna look at today as we consider what God will say to us from the Old Testament book of Hosea, chapter two, verses 14 through 23.
God's Mercy and Faithfulness
00:01:04
Speaker
A commentator named John Phillips wrote regarding the second chapter of Hosea, that man's miseries, even when they are deserved and brought on by divine judgment, awaken God's mercies. God extends his mercy to us not because we deserve it, but because we need it.
00:01:27
Speaker
The northern kingdom of Israel needed God's mercy. They had been unfaithful to the Lord. Even today, current Israel, I'm praying for them every day and for their troops and for their leaders and so forth.
00:01:43
Speaker
But even today, there's still unfaithfulness. They're not asking us to pray for them, but we pray for them because we know that God has a special purpose in mind for them. But you know, God surprises Israel in this passage with six beautiful expressions of his faithfulness.
00:02:04
Speaker
This morning I would like to compare those six expressions of God's faithfulness to like a bouquet. Not a bouquet of flowers, maybe some of you have received a bouquet of flowers or given a bouquet of flowers, but a bouquet of promises.
00:02:21
Speaker
And I believe with each one of these beautiful promises that are in God's bouquet, they all have the same long stem. And that same stem that you'll see repeated over and over in our text today are these two words, I will.
Hymn of Faithfulness by Thomas O. Chisholm
00:02:39
Speaker
I will. God's going to say not what Israel's going to do. God's going to say this is what I'm going to do. I will. I will. He'll say it multiple times as we go through this passage. And I believe that each of these promises demonstrate the greatness of God's faithfulness.
00:02:59
Speaker
There was a man many years ago named Thomas O. Chisholm, and he was convinced that God's faithful. He was convinced of it for a lot of reasons. One thing, just in his life, he was born in a log cabin in Kentucky.
00:03:15
Speaker
Went from being a student to being a school teacher in the same building, I'm told. Also, he became an editor. Then he became a pastor in 1903. Also, in the same year, he married the love of his life, a lady named Catherine.
00:03:33
Speaker
But in 1909, just a few years later, he had to resign because of health problems. And because he had the health problems, maybe you can relate to this, the medical bills kept building up in his life.
00:03:46
Speaker
But this man, Mr. Chisholm, didn't turn to bitterness. Instead, he kept writing. He would express his awe and his worship of God's great faithfulness. And in 1923, he wrote a poem about God's faithfulness after reading Lamentations 3, 22 and 23, where he talks about how God loves us, how every morning we wake up, we wake up to God's faithfulness. Every single morning,
00:04:16
Speaker
So he shared that poem with a friend of his and that friend said, that would be a wonderful hymn, a great song of worship. So then after they turned it into a song, they put it on the radio. It became a favorite at Moody Bible Institute.
00:04:32
Speaker
And over in Wheaton College, there was a young student there, a young guy named Billy Graham. He heard that song and he said, I like that song. That song's got a lot of depth to it right there. And so he knew a man named George Beverly Shea. And so whenever Billy Graham would later be putting on all of these crusades, he would invite his friend, George Beverly Shea, to sing songs alike.
00:04:57
Speaker
great is thy faithfulness, or songs like I'd Rather Have Jesus.
God's Love Language
00:05:01
Speaker
You know, you've probably heard some of those. But there are various ways that I believe God expresses His faithfulness, His plans to Israel. And they're all found, or not all of them, but many of them are found, right here in Hosea chapter 2, verses 14 to 23. What God's gonna do is He's gonna speak His love language.
00:05:24
Speaker
Did you ever learn about the five love languages? Gary Chapman wrote that there's a love language of acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, physical touch, but there's also words of affirmation. And I believe that God is about to say to Israel some very inspiring words that are motivated by His love
00:05:45
Speaker
Perhaps you've been going with me through Hosea and you say, wow, it's like he speaks words of confrontation of their sin. And then he speaks words of condemnation of what he's going to do to judge their sin. But then it's like he comes back around again.
00:06:01
Speaker
and he presents mercy and he presents love and he shows his faithfulness and
Divine Promises in Hosea
00:06:07
Speaker
so forth. So I'd like for you to stand with me if you would in honor of God's word. I want to read this passage. I've been so excited to share this message with you today. All week long, I've been looking forward to it. So let me read the verse and just listen to what God says. These are his words. Therefore, behold, I will
00:06:29
Speaker
allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards, and make the valley of Akor a door of hope. And there she shall answer, as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt,
00:06:54
Speaker
And in that day declares the Lord, you will call me my husband. And no longer will you call me my bale, for I will remove the names of the bales from her mouth. And they shall be remembered by name no more.
00:07:12
Speaker
And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land. And I will make you lie down in safety.
00:07:31
Speaker
And I will betrothed you to me forever. I will betrothed you to me in righteousness and injustice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betrothed you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
00:07:51
Speaker
And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth. And the earth shall answer the grain, the wine and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel.
00:08:05
Speaker
And I will sow her for myself in the land, and I will have mercy on no mercy. And I will say to not my people, you are my people. And he shall say, you are my God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
00:08:24
Speaker
Lord, there are certain things about your character that just cause us to stand in awe and amazement. One of those is your faithfulness. So Lord, I want to step out of the way and I want you to just use your living and active word and just
00:08:41
Speaker
put the spotlight on who you are. I pray that when we go away from this place, we would go away so incredibly blessed because of who you are. You are a faithful God, faithful to all your promises, faithful to Israel,
00:08:58
Speaker
faithful to every Christian, faithful to every church, faithful to every man and woman, boy and girl, every student. I thank you so much, Lord. So speak to us from these words. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Fragrance of God's Knowledge
00:09:12
Speaker
Thank you, may be seated.
00:09:16
Speaker
You know, I mentioned a bouquet of promises earlier. Do you know that 2 Corinthians 2.14 says that every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, whenever we go somewhere, we go to work, we go to school, we're in the neighborhood, we're at a family gathering, when we gather with family at Thanksgiving,
00:09:35
Speaker
He says, through us, there's something spreading. You know what that something is? A fragrance. It's a fragrance, but it's never dawned on me until this week what the fragrance is.
00:09:49
Speaker
The fragrance, it says in 2 Corinthians 2.14, is the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. So everywhere we go this week, why don't we just let that fragrance flow through our lives of who God is. One thing I hope people will know when you're around them, when I'm around them, I hope people will say, you know what? God is faithful. So let's look at that together.
00:10:15
Speaker
You know, as a matter of fact, speaking of fragrances and smells, do you know that the National Institutes of Health claim that humans can distinguish more than one trillion cents, one trillion. You know, last weekend the WMU baked a lot of delicious cakes
00:10:34
Speaker
for the associational meeting. And man, it was like this incredible bombarding of my senses. I was thinking, that smells good. Now that smells good. Now that looks good and it tasted good, I guarantee ya. But the website Answers in Genesis says that human beings were given
God's Allure and Tenderness
00:10:53
Speaker
five million scent receptors. So one of the five million that I think you're gonna sense today, you're gonna say, you know what? God is incredibly faithful.
00:11:03
Speaker
How is he faithful? Well, let's look at verse 14 and let me introduce you to one thing he's faithful to do. God is faithful to draw us back to himself. He uses these words, I will allure, I will allure her, I will allure her.
00:11:22
Speaker
You know, I believe that word allure there, we say sometimes in Christian circles, woo, woo. Have you ever heard that God wants to woo us to himself? I believe God's gonna be wooing some even this morning. To woo means to attract, to court. It means to persuade. Later in this same verse, how does he describe what he's gonna say to Israel? He says, I'm gonna speak tenderly to her. Wow.
00:11:51
Speaker
He says he's gonna bring her into the wilderness. Do you remember when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt? Remember where really the first wedding ceremony took place between Israel, between the Jews and the Lord God? He was out in the wilderness whenever there was an exchange of vows. And so whenever you come into this passage, you realize, wow, there may be a vow renewal
00:12:18
Speaker
commitment ceremony that needs to happen once again. And God is stepping up to the plate first as the groom, as the husband, and he's saying, you know what, I'll, here's what I will agree to commit myself to, to you, Israel.
00:12:34
Speaker
You know, I think it refers to the future restoration after the tribulation.
Valley of Acre: Door of Hope
00:12:40
Speaker
I wanna show you something that's interesting that is in the line of future prophecy and biblical prophecy. Would you turn with me, hold your place there, we'll be right back, but I wanna show you something in Isaiah 62. Please look there with me if you would. Isaiah 62, verses one through five.
00:12:59
Speaker
In this passage, God is going to describe his love relationship with the nation Israel, with the Jewish people. He says that this is coming someday, Isaiah 62, verses one through five.
00:13:15
Speaker
For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not be quiet until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations
00:13:33
Speaker
shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory. And you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate. But you,
00:14:00
Speaker
shall be called my delight is in her and your land married." Some translations may say Bula. Have you ever heard of Bula land? For the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
00:14:27
Speaker
So shall your God rejoice over you. That's coming. So God is able to draw back to himself this nation that has wandered away from him so far. And it's not about rules and it's not about rituals and routines.
00:14:44
Speaker
It's about a personal relationship. Did you hear God describing it? Putting it in this whole metaphor of marriage. And he's saying, I'm going to bring you back to myself in the future.
00:14:58
Speaker
He said the same thing to Judah. You know, Israel's the northern kingdom at this time that we're reading here in Hosea, but to the southern kingdom, 150 years later, after Hosea was writing these words, God was saying the same thing to the southern kingdom of Judah. And he was saying these words, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans
Removing Idols and Sin
00:15:21
Speaker
for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
00:15:26
Speaker
And then he says something I think speaks to the whole heart of what God is trying to do when he's trying to draw us back to himself, back to himself. He says to Judah, you will seek me and find me.
00:15:42
Speaker
when you seek me with all your heart." Wow. That's what God's looking for. That's what God was looking for in the Garden of Eden when he was saying, I want to have a personal relationship with you, Adam, and with you, Eve. You know, most times in the parable of the prodigal son, we focus on the younger son.
00:16:06
Speaker
But you know, there was an older brother there that refused to go into the father's house whenever the younger brother came back home. You remember the younger brother? He was prodigal. He got off track. But something wasn't right with the older brother because the older brother said, I'm not going back in that house.
00:16:25
Speaker
Do you remember? Remember what Jesus taught that the father did to the older brother? Let me just read it to you in Luke 15, verse 28. The text says there, his father came out and entreated him. The father came out and entreated him, and the boys giving him all kind of excuses. You never gave me this. You never gave me that.
00:16:50
Speaker
And the father looks at him and he said, listen, son, all that I have, all that I have is yours. Can't you imagine this guy trying to say to the father, you know, it's all your fault. I've never seen this happen before. The father's like, come on, everything I have belongs to you.
00:17:12
Speaker
One son was guilty, the other son was grumpy. Is there anyone in this place that could say, you know what? I've drifted away from God because of my grumpiness. I've drifted away from God because of my guilt. Isn't it time? Isn't God trying to draw you back? He's never left. I love that song that we sing sometimes for invitations. The Savior is waiting. He's never moved. God's at the same place.
00:17:42
Speaker
That's how faithful he is.
00:17:45
Speaker
as we move to the second expression of God's faithfulness that's found in verse 15. I wanna remind you of something that I learned about florists, or learned from the florists anyway. Do you know that florists say there are six primary colors of long-stemmed roses? Of course, the most popular is red, right? But do you know that there's also the yellow rose? Can you sing it for me? No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
00:18:13
Speaker
I'm just a Tennessee boy. I don't know this song or I cut out of it. The Yellow Roses of Texas. There's red roses and yellow roses. There are pink roses and peach roses. White or cream roses and there are lavender.
00:18:26
Speaker
But I want you to enjoy this second expression of God's faithfulness. Just soak it in as it comes at you. I think God is faithful to get us back on track. I think that's what He's talking about. Don't you find those amazing words, wherever you see them in Scripture, aren't they amazing when you hear the God of the universe say,
00:18:49
Speaker
I will give. I will give. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God's love always leads to God giving. Is it man? Was it a laboratory that we came up with oxygen? Was it in a laboratory that we created water?
00:19:11
Speaker
Or was that something God gave to us because He loves us, because He wants to have a personal relationship with us? Listen, that's why I've said over and over the theme of Hosea is found in Romans 5.8, but God demonstrates.
00:19:27
Speaker
He shows us what it's like. That's why He says to Hosea, I want you to marry this woman. And in the future, this woman is going to turn her back on you and be unfaithful to you. And she's going to be with other
Future Promises and Covenant
00:19:41
Speaker
men. And so Hosea is like, what's going on here? But it was going to be a visual sign. God was saying, I'm going to demonstrate something. And that while we were yet sinners, Romans 5, 8 says,
00:19:55
Speaker
Christ died for us. Do you know that when you were walking away from God, He was walking toward you saying, come on, come on, I've got the best plan for you.
00:20:09
Speaker
You know, only the Lord can repair and reverse the condemnation of sin. The Bible says all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so all of us deserve judgment. That's just the truth. That's the biblical truth, coming at me, coming at you. And so only one person can take away that condemnation, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:20:33
Speaker
No wonder in verse 12, God had already said your sin, look at what he says in verse 12. Your sin, this is what's gonna happen. God says, I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, these are my wages, which my lovers have given me. I will make them a forest and the beast of the field shall devour them. But now drop down to verse 15.
00:20:59
Speaker
He was saying he's gonna ruin the vines, right? But now look at verse 15, and there I will give her her vineyards. I will give her vineyards. Isn't that amazing? If we only realize sin is what takes away from us, sin robs us, Satan robs from us, the world robs from us, it steals from us. Only God is the great giver who wants to give to us.
00:21:28
Speaker
All that is good and wholesome and best. He says, give me the ruined vineyards. I'll give you new vineyards. Verse 15 is also interesting because it brings up a name of a place that all the Jews back then in Hosea's day, they would have said, uh-oh, I remember that one. Whenever he mentioned what he could do with the Valley of Eker,
00:21:52
Speaker
See, that was back in Joshua's day. There was a man named Aiken who messed up his life. He stole. He shouldn't have done it, but he did. He stole things. And because he stole things, God said, there's sin in the camp and you're going to start losing battles until you deal with the sin. And so sure enough, there were men who lost their lives because of sin in the camp.
00:22:15
Speaker
But then Joshua says, we're not going to fight anybody else until we deal with what's underneath our tent. Underneath our tents, somebody stole some of the things that belonged to the city of Ai. And so they dealt with it. And so that place where they discovered it, they had to punish the evil that was done. So Aiken and his family were all killed right there at the Valley of Acre. And that word, if you were to look it up, means the Valley of Trouble.
00:22:46
Speaker
I think all of us, we all have sinned, see? We've all got a valley of acher. We're all got a valley of trouble. But look what God can do. Look at what he can do to get us back on track. It's like he says, and there I will give her vineyards and make the valley of acher. Well, I'll make it a door of hope, a door of hope. Man, I'm just thanking the Lord so much of what he can do.
Bridal Gifts of Faithfulness
00:23:15
Speaker
You know the significance in verse 15 of this whole idea of, he says, and there, and there I will give her vineyards and make the valley of Acre ador- Where's there? Well, you have to go back to verse 14, right? Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. And there, in the wilderness, in the wilderness,
00:23:44
Speaker
Wow, it's like the Lord is reminiscing to their dependence upon Him. You know how much they could provide for themselves in the wilderness? Zero. They had to absolutely cry out to God and depend upon God. That's the way it is for us getting back on track.
00:24:03
Speaker
God draws us to Himself, and not only does He draw us to Himself, He's also faithful to say, I can help you do life and do it right. So I can take all of those failures, all of those sins, all of that brokenness, I can turn it into a door of hope. Man.
00:24:25
Speaker
That's why I like what it says. What can we do? Well, it says here, and there she shall answer as in the days of her youth. You know what the only answer is when God draws you? The only answer is when God says, let me help you get back on track. The only answer is save me. The only answer is help me. The only answer is deliver me. I need you, Lord. There's got to be people today who want to cry out that way.
00:24:51
Speaker
You know, Romans 828 is pretty famous, right? Most of the people in this room, if not everybody in this room, could almost quote Romans 828, for God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. We could quote that verse, but you know what some of the Old Testament scholars say?
00:25:15
Speaker
Hosea 2.15, they say this is the Romans 8.28 of the Old Testament. We've all got those broken areas, the troubled valleys. We've got the ruined vineyards. And God says, you know what I can do? I can get you in a totally new place in all of this if you'll just trust me. He can cause everything to work together for good.
00:25:41
Speaker
There's a third expression of his faithfulness. I believe he can also help us with those idols. You see, sometimes whenever God's wooing us and saying, let me help you get back on track, we were saying, okay, well let me bring these things with me.
00:25:57
Speaker
All the idols, everything that we've had before, I was trying to share with two Vietnamese in a Dallas gas station one time. And they were saying, hey, we'll pray to receive Christ. We'll follow Christ just like we follow Buddha. And I said, no, you can't do that. In order to follow Christ, you have to give up Buddha. And they were like, no, I'm sorry. We're not going to follow Christ then.
00:26:19
Speaker
Isn't that exclusive, right? That's how Jesus is. It's either Him, all Him, or it's none of Him. Some here have idols in your life, and you need to say, okay, I've got to let go of those idols.
00:26:34
Speaker
But it's really hard to let go of idols. But when you read verses 16 and 17, and you see in verse 17 where the Lord says, for I will remove the names of the bales from her mouth and they shall be remembered by name no more.
00:26:53
Speaker
See, the Lord says, you know what I can do? I can take those idols out of your mouth. I can take those idols out of your memory. I can give you something brand new to focus on. Only God can help us in that way.
00:27:07
Speaker
I thought it's interesting too that this is the first of three times in this passage that God signals, I'm talking about a future day. I'm talking about a future day. I'm talking about a future day. And how do we know? Because look at verse 16. It says, and in that day, he says that three different times. He says it again in verse 21, and in that day.
00:27:34
Speaker
But over and over again, God's trying to tell us, this is what I'm going to do, but it's prophecy. And what he's describing here is an intimacy with the Lord. He said, you know, you've been calling me my bail.
00:27:48
Speaker
And of course, Baal was really a Canaanite God, and they were into all kind of stuff. I don't even want to describe here, but they were calling him my Baal. I mean, God the Father, they were calling him my Baal. And he said, you know what? I don't like that.
00:28:05
Speaker
He said, I want you to call me my husband. And someday, he said, that's what you're going to call me. The Lord is wanting that kind of a relationship with us. It's so close. And in that day, he declares the Lord, you will call me my husband, and no longer will you call me my bail wine, for I will remove the names of the bails from her mouth.
00:28:28
Speaker
Oh, they're going to be able to do that. You could do repentance on your own, right? I think if you'll ask the Lord, you'll find that He can really do it way more thoroughly and more effectively than we could by ourselves. Let Him help you with repentance. Ask Him, Lord, I can't let this down. I can't let it go.
God's Omniscience and Omnipotence
00:28:47
Speaker
But God can help you with that. You know what the best way
00:28:51
Speaker
Listen to me closely. It's a word game, okay? I like words. I like words that start with the same letter. I know you don't know these things. But anyway, I didn't do it today. You can't blame me today. I didn't do that today. But anyway, the best way to replace something is to displace something.
00:29:10
Speaker
to displace it. You know, if you want to replace something, then displace it with something that's stronger, something that's going to fill up your life, fill up your heart, fill up your mind, and it just pushes it out. I'll tell you why I say that.
00:29:26
Speaker
Because whenever we go to restaurants these days, I'm 63 years of age, when I finish my entree, and the little waitress comes by and she says, okay, what will we be having for dessert? I'll say, I'm sorry, but I won't be having anything for dessert. I'm so full, you know. You can put anything out there, and when you're full, you're full. You can't put anything else. It's been displaced.
00:29:51
Speaker
That's why I say sometimes, man, if you see me go for the dessert table, first, that's the whole deal, because I've only got so much I'm going to deal with here. But we need to say, God, I want to be filled up with you, filled with your Holy Spirit, filled with the Lordship of Christ, filled with the fruit of the Spirit of God. When you're filled up with God, you don't go to the world looking for its trashy temptations and so forth.
00:30:17
Speaker
You know, there's a permanency of this discard too. They shall be remembered by name. And what does he say? No more. No more. That's something only the Lord can do. I'll never forget what it felt like in Japan when Jody and I would be sitting there and we would be hearing the Japanese people who grew up
00:30:39
Speaker
Buddhist, who grew up Shintoists, who grew up praying to so many different idols. And here's the song we would hear them sing in our group. They would sing a song called, I Will Worship. And the chorus of that song says, I will give you all my worship. I will give you all my praise. You alone.
00:31:03
Speaker
I long to worship. You alone are worthy of my praise. That's what I'm talking about. When you say, I don't have another love, I don't have another God, I don't need idols, I don't need anything else to be full in my life. God fills my life to overflowing.
00:31:23
Speaker
I think we see here also a faithfulness that is found in the Lord only to graciously bless us. Move on down to verses 18 and 19 and 20. The fourth promise in this promise bouquet, it's like the rose that can have multiple petals. You know, I looked this up and a rose can have 13 to 25 petals.
00:31:45
Speaker
And so it's no wonder that in these verses, you'll actually find several times that he says, I will, I will, I will. There's about five different ones in this one section that I want to give this one thing to. I think it all says one thing to us. He's faithful to graciously bless us. He's faithful to graciously bless us.
00:32:10
Speaker
You know, once again, I'm telling you not what Israel, not what the Northern Kingdom is gonna do. This is what God says I'm gonna do. This is what he says he's gonna do, and he's gonna do it on that day. It's gonna be a future day, but there's something God's gonna do to this earth, and you won't believe it. When you start out in verse,
00:32:30
Speaker
What is it, 18? And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground. You should go sometime to Isaiah 11. Whenever you see all of these animals that normally would be aggressors,
00:32:48
Speaker
You know, I heard the other day that there's bears that are starting to come into Texas. And I saw bears, when my daughter was down in Pensacola, Florida, I saw a bear on the beach. And I thought, I never saw a bear on the beach when I was at Gulf Shores, Alabama, or when we went over to Florida. But anyway,
00:33:07
Speaker
that the wild kingdom is going to have the wild removed. And it's amazing what God is going to do when Christ returns. And I'm thinking, well, you're going to restore this creation to its original purpose. I encourage you to read Romans 8, verses 18 through 25, because it says that the whole creation is groaning. The whole creation is waiting on something.
00:33:35
Speaker
It's the revelation of the sons of God. It's whenever Christ comes back and He begins to be Lord over this earth. And when He comes back, you know another thing's gonna, we won't be wondering, wow, what's gonna be the end result of Israel and Hamas and all the people that are surrounding them. You won't wonder that anymore because the Lord says, I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land and I will make you lie down in safety.
00:34:05
Speaker
You know what? That's something only Christ can do. So don't abolish your gun just yet. You better hang on because I'm talking about when Christ comes back. But he says, you know what? Nobody's gonna need guns. Nobody's gonna need bows. Nobody's gonna need swords. Because when I return, peace is gonna be on this world. That's something to look forward to. But you know, the Jews had like this custom.
00:34:31
Speaker
And whenever a groom began to propose to his bride, and she says yes and so forth, well, the groom was supposed to give a bridal gift at the betrothal. And that bride price was his gift to the bride's family.
00:34:51
Speaker
And so look what the Lord is saying. If he's going to betrothed himself to Israel, what is he going to offer to the nation of Israel? Well, here's what he says. He says, I will betrothed you to me. Here's the first gift in righteousness and injustice, in steadfast love and in mercy. And I will betrothed you to me in faithfulness.
00:35:17
Speaker
Wow, what incredible gifts that Christ brings whenever He comes to us. You know, you would think that God would say, I'm so done with you. I'm so done with the world and with the human race. But 2 Timothy 2 13 tells us, why is God still faithful? Why is He still faithful when Israel had been so unfaithful? Why is He still faithful to me when I stay so unfaithful?
Unfulfilled Prophecies and Restoration
00:35:44
Speaker
Well, I think the answer is found in 2 Timothy 2 13. It says, if we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, get this, for he cannot deny who he is. That's so deep. He cannot deny who he is. Wow.
00:36:05
Speaker
Do you have any questions that you would say, yeah, if he's faithful, I don't understand why this happened in my life. Why did this not happen in my life? If you have questions that you wish were answered, I just want you to look as we go to the next expression of God's faithfulness in the future, verses 21 and 22. And in that day, he says, I will answer declares the Lord.
00:36:30
Speaker
I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the wall, and they shall answer Jezreel." Yep.
00:36:41
Speaker
Write this verse down if you're a note taker, Isaiah 65, 24. You won't believe it, Isaiah 65, 24. Here's what it says when Jesus comes back, this is what it will be like when we have a question, when we have a prayer. He says in Isaiah 65, verse 24, before they call, I will answer. While they are speaking, I will hear. Isn't that incredible?
00:37:11
Speaker
You see, God already knows. That's why Jesus said, don't worry, don't get stressed. In Matthew 6.32, he said, your heavenly Father knows, your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Psalm 139 assures us of God's omniscience. Don't you know that more than anybody else knows what's going on in your life. God knows what's going on in your life.
00:37:35
Speaker
And so whenever we are going into the future, we're gonna say that he is so faithful to answer prayers from us. And maybe he's not answering all the prayers right now, but just wait because all of the prayers, everything you've ever wished, let me tell you, it goes beyond, it says he can do exceedingly, abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.
00:37:59
Speaker
There's a man named Mark Batterson who wrote these words. I thought it was pretty amazing the way he put this together. It's just three sentences. He said, we pray, let me start again. We pray out of our ignorance, but God answers out of his omniscience. We pray out of our impotence.
00:38:24
Speaker
But God answers out of his omnipotence. God has the ability to answer the prayers we should have prayed, but lack the knowledge or ability to even ask. Boy, that's incredible. That's staggering. But you look at these words and you're thinking, God's saying, I'm promising to answer.
00:38:48
Speaker
The sixth promise of God's faithfulness is a breathtaking. It's a breathtaking bouquet all the way around, but here's the final one. And I think this would mean a lot to Israel right now, but I'm going to tell you it means a lot to me as a Christian, not because of their land, but because of Beulah land, because of heaven.
00:39:10
Speaker
You know, Jezreel means God scatters, so God's saying, I will sow her for myself in the land. John Walvard, he's a Bible scholar, has done a lot of study on the Old Testament and New Testament, but he said, that land is not figurative. That land is a piece of real estate in the Middle East. And he said, that land, God says, I'm gonna plant you in that land. You know, there are two prophecies concerning Israel that are not yet fulfilled.
Christian Hope and Eternal Life
00:39:40
Speaker
They have not yet occupied all the promised land that God promised them, but also secondly, there's another one. They have not yet turned to Christ like he says they will. Do you know that Israel is surrounded by 300 million enemies, 300 million enemies all around them. They're just, they got 9 million.
00:40:03
Speaker
But Genesis 15, 18 to 21, Ezekiel 48, they promised that all the land that God would give them, if they occupied all of it right now, here's what they would have. They would have Israel, Lebanon, the West Bank of Jordan, portions of Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Do you know there are 170 references to the land that God promised, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
00:40:27
Speaker
Do you know that it's an unconditional promise? Twelve times God makes it clear that when He promised them that land, it was unconditional. Fifty-five times God says, I promise it is my oath. I'm going to give them that land. Jeremiah 32, 37 and 38 says someday I'm going to gather them. I'm going to gather them and they're going to dwell in safety and they're going to be my people and I'm going to be their God.
00:40:57
Speaker
That's incredible when you think about it. But then what about for the Christian? What about for us? Is there any land? Well, it's not going to be Israel, but John 14 verse 2 says, Jesus said, in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not
00:41:16
Speaker
If it were not, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, will take you to myself that where I am, there you will be also." Isn't that amazing? Amen. It's so amazing to think about going to be with the Lord in that place that He has prepared for us. You know what? How can any of us get there though?
00:41:45
Speaker
I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like I don't measure up to where the Lord would want me to be. But you know what?
00:41:54
Speaker
I'm covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ because I've turned from sin and I've put my faith and trust in Christ. And so those that are covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you know what he says? He said the one that's nicknamed, oh, there's no mercy over there. I'm gonna have mercy on that one. And the one that's described as not my people, he said, I'm gonna say that one is part of my people. That one belongs to me.
00:42:24
Speaker
Wow, you know, God is so faithful. I wanted you to go away today saying, he's so great, he's so faithful. If he can keep his promises and his covenants to Israel, he'll keep his promises and his covenants to us. But what are we doing? Are we living out our commitment to him? There are no shortcuts to faithfulness. It was a hard lesson for a 26-year-old runner who won the women's division in the 1980
00:42:53
Speaker
Boston Marathon. But they began to look at her and they thought, you know, for somebody running 26 miles, she doesn't even seem to be breaking a sweat. And so some of the competitors and some of the spectators, when they crowned her as the champion, when she ran across the finish line, they said, you know, it's funny, we don't remember seeing her the last 25 months. Rosie Ruse, what she had done, she had cheated.
00:43:19
Speaker
Just like she had cheated in order to qualify to be in the 1980 Boston Marathon, she won in the New York City Marathon. And you know what they found out? She took the subway. She gets on the subway, goes up there, gets up, and then she's just running along, you know? She's saying, I'm the winner. I don't know what she did in 1980, but there's only one way to finish the race and cross the finish line into heaven.
00:43:47
Speaker
The only way is for us to realize we're all just like that lady, really. We've been taking shortcuts all our life. There's only one person that didn't take a shortcut, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's so faithful. He completely obeyed the Father. That's why His sacrifice on the cross atones for my mistakes and my rebellion and my sin and everywhere I fall short.
00:44:13
Speaker
That's why He can make such a difference in a life if we'll just trust Him. God's faithfulness ought to motivate us to trust Him, to yield to Him, to love Him, to obey Him, to remain loyal to Him.
00:44:27
Speaker
You know, our song of invitation we're going to sing in a few moments is, come to the altar, come to the altar. Before
Invitation to the Altar
00:44:35
Speaker
we sing that song, I want you to know the chorus says, oh, come to the altar. The father's arms are open wide. There he is standing there in faithfulness. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He's the only faithful one.
00:44:53
Speaker
And so that's why we have to say, I'm going to go through Christ to the Father. Let's all stand together. I want to invite the praise team if they would come again. Let's bow for prayer. Lord, I thank You so much for what Your Word can say to us, whether we're reading in the Gospels, whether we're reading in the Epistles, whether we're reading in the Old Testament.
00:45:18
Speaker
The major prophets, the minor prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, it doesn't matter. Jesus, you're the theme of it all. You are the whole thing. You are what the Bible is pointing toward.
00:45:31
Speaker
You're the only way that we can be reconciled with the Father because your sacrifice on the cross was perfect. You never disobeyed the Father. You did what He wanted. All of us in this room at some point in our lives, we disobeyed the Father. We have sinned.
00:45:52
Speaker
But Lord, thank you that Jesus, you said, I'll pay the price in order for you to be able to come to this faithful Father who is waiting on you. So today, Lord, we just pray your Holy Spirit would woo the people. Draw people to yourself. Help us remember that it's only you that can help us get back on track. We can't do it. We can't even get rid of our own idols.
00:46:18
Speaker
You're gonna show us that someday you've answered all of our prayers, Lord. All this time we thought that you didn't answer a prayer, and we're gonna find out someday you have answered our prayers. Thank you so much for being there for us. So Lord, you speak as we go into this invitation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
00:46:44
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.