Reading Hosea While We Wait

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared…” (1 Corinthians 15:1-5).

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”

“He was buried.”

“He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

These days leading up to our Lord’s Day remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, consider reading the prophet Hosea.[1] In the heart of that prophecy is a statement of faith about the third day:

“Come, let us return to the Lord.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
He will revive us after two days;
He will raise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth” (6:1-3).[2]

On the cross Jesus suffered in our place as the sinless substitution. He received the fullness of God’s righteous wrath against our violation of the glorious God’s Law.[3] For followers of Jesus, though, the cross also becomes a pattern of our lives in this world (Matthew 16:24//Mark 8:34//Luke 9:23; Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14). This in no way replaces or eclipses Christ’s atoning work in His death, but displays that atonement in a life humble before God and at war with sin.

With Hosea 6:1-3 as the center, consider a prayerful read-through of the prophet these moments leading up to Resurrection Day.

As you read of the spiritual harlotry of God’s old covenant people (the point of the illustration of Hosea’s own marriage), repent of your own unfaithfulness. What do you place above God in your life? What gets more time, passion, priority, thought, etc., than He does? In what areas of your life are you willfully in rebellion against His Word (to rebel against His Word is to regard Him as less than the supreme authority of your life)? I would add that this doesn’t just mean outward behavior, but inward attitudes and thought-strongholds. What lies are you believing and/or feeling that contradict His Word? Are you ignorant of His Word because of personal neglect and/or isolation from the gathering of the saints in the Word?

Harlotry and unfaithfulness are themes used in the prophets to describe God’s people’s neglect of their covenant Husband and their replacing Him with infinitely lesser things. We still do this today. We worship, obey, love, fear, and exalt countless things (including ourselves) other than the One Who alone is worthy.

When reading of these themes in Hosea, take up your cross and prayerfully repent of the areas of idolatrous harlotry in your life. Crucify these idols. Give thanks to God that Jesus paid the price for your unfaithfulness on the cross by His wrath-absorbing death.

“I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;
For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot,
Israel has defiled itself…

…a spirit of harlotry is within them,
And they do not know the Lord” (Hosea 5:3,4).

When you read of the wrath of God, take it seriously. If you don’t know His wrath, you don’t know Him. If you don’t acknowledge His wrath against violations of His Law, you don’t understand the cross, the Gospel, Jesus, or the Scriptures at all. Some believers love studying the names of God. They enjoy praying, singing, and claiming those names. Hosea gives us names and descriptions of God in His right wrath against our lawlessness.

“On them I will pour out My wrath like water” (5:10).

“I am like a moth to Ephraim
And like rottenness to the house of Judah” (5:12).[4]

“I will be like a lion to Ephraim
And like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away,
I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver” (5:14).

His wrath is just. It is deserved. It is eternal, for He does not cease to be holy, righteous, and pure – all that is does not perfectly reflect those glorious and beautiful attributes is a blasphemous slander of Him. He is wrathful against all that is not Him, for He alone is perfection, beauty, right, good, purity, true love. He is infinitely and eternally passionate for all He is in His absolute perfection.

All He is, we are not in our rebellion, self-centeredness, self-will, lawlessness, and sin. We deserve wrath. We deserve to be drowned in it, eaten away by it, destroyed.

Christ did that in our place. When you read of His wrath against sin, give thanks for Jesus. “…God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:8-11). Unless you live in the texts that drip with His wrath, you cannot adequately worship Him through the texts that describe the rescue from that wrath.

Read of wrath, confessing, “I deserve this.”

The same is true for God’s removal, His hiding, His forsaking:

“They will go with their flocks and herds
To seek the Lord, but they will not find Him;
He has withdrawn from them…

…I will go away and return to My place
Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me” (Hosea 5:6,15).

Jesus took the forsakenness we deserve in our place (Matthew 27:46//Mark 15:34). For believers in Christ, we are filled with the presence of God the Holy Spirit. We are never forsaken or alone.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness,
And Judah his wound,
Then Ephraim went to Assyria
And sent to King Jareb.
But he is unable to heal you,
Or to cure you of your wound” (5:13).[5]

Repent of exalting other help, assistance, or strength from sources other than the Lord. This doesn’t mean that we neglect earthly means. We should see them as instruments of God’s power and grace, though. Our prayerlessness reveals our true beliefs. When I trust earthly means more than I trust the Lord, it is revealed by the fact that I make no appeals to the Lord for help through these means. Repent of seeking help from the “great king” (which takes many forms in our lives) instead of God.

“What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
For your loyalty is like a morning cloud
And like the dew which goes away early” (6:4).

I am not as faithful as God deserves. In a world of distractions and idols, I wander and bow down on an hourly basis. No doubt, many more times than I’m even aware. There is One Whose name is Faithful (Revelation 19:11), and it’s not me. Repent of the wavering nature of your loyalty. Give thanks for Him Who is Faithful, and that, by faith, you are inseparably united to Him.

“Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of My mouth” (6:5).

The word of God is meant to take us apart, undo us, dismantle us, strip away our pretensions, hypocrisies, masks, self-righteousness. Submit to that. It is ultimately the most ideal healing for our souls because it humbles us, and prepares us to receive more grace upon grace in Christ (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

“For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (6:6).

Jesus wanted the religious to know this passage well (Matthew 9:13; 12:7). It’s far easier to do religious acts than to be inconvenienced by people needing help. It’s easier to revel in my self-righteousness than extend grace to those in need. It’s easy to negate the truth of the Gospel in my life by thinking I can do good things to outbalance the bad things I’ve done.

“But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant;
There they have dealt treacherously against Me” (6:7).

This is not just a behavior problem with us, but a sick root. We are born in Adam, and need to be reborn in the second, or last Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:22,45).[6]

“Gilead is a city of wrongdoers,
Tracked with bloody footprints.
And as raiders wait for a man,
So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they have committed crime” (6:8,9)

You are violent. Jesus says you are a murderer (Matthew 5:21-26); James says the same thing (James 4:1-10). Confess your part in the brokenness of your relationships.

I hope you see what I’m trying to do. Read through all of Hosea, following the above examples and finding new areas in your life where repentance is needed.

Go back again and again to the promise of the third day (Hosea 6:1-3). That promise, like all the promises of the Bible, are yours in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). He satisfied the demands of divine justice in your place. You don’t do that. He, being innocent, defeated death (the penalty for sin) and rose victoriously over it. His life as a real human being was unique since it was lived in perfect obedience to God’s Law. He was the only perfectly holy, righteous, and obedient human being, and so alone merits all the promised blessings of God. They are ours only by faith-union with Him.

Read Hosea, confessing your sin and humbling yourself before God.

Read Hosea, seeing its pronouncements of just punishment not poured out on you, but on Christ in your place.

Read Hosea, and rejoice in the third day resurrection. It is yours because it was first Christ’s.

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[1] This is not in place of careful grammatical-historical-theological reading. We must do this to rightly understand the Scriptures. We must remember, though, that the Prophets spoke and wrote the way they did (inspired by God the Holy Spirit) to move the hearts of the covenant people. We must make room for liturgical, prayerful, worshipful reading that impacts our hearts. Study that improves the mind but doesn’t touch the pride of our hearts is incomplete. We need both.

[2] The use of the increasing numbers “two…third” is called a graded numerical sequence (sometimes referred to with the formula n, n+1). This pattern occurs several times in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 17:6; Judges 5:30; 2 Kings 9:32; Job 5:19-22; 33:14-22,29; 40:5; Proverbs 6:16-19; 30:15-31; Ecclesiastes 11:2; Jeremiah 36:23; Amos 1:3,6,9,11,13; 2:1,4,6). It does not mean something different happens on the second and third days. It is a Hebrew poetic device for building or progressing the author’s thought. The focus is on the last number; the previous number is given to build into it.

[3] We usually associate the wrath Jesus bore with the Father, but the Triune God is undivided in His wrath against sin and lawlessness. In fact, the Son, being fully God, can be said to suffer His own righteous wrath against lawlessness, since He hates it (Hebrews 1:8,9) and cannot abide the lawless in His presence (Matthew 7:23).

[4] I took a class on Hosea in seminary under George Klein about 17 years ago. He observed how scandalous Hosea’s prophecy would have been to devout Jews; for God to call Himself “rottenness” is pretty edgy in light of the commandment to honor His name.

[5] “King Jareb” (מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב) matches no known historical figure. The translation “great king” is preferable (CSB, ESV, NLT).

[6] “In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation” (Baptist Faith & Message [2000], III).

The Mediator's Grace in Our Darkness

“‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan [a Hebrew title meaning, “adversary”] has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.’ But he said to Him, ‘Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!’ And He said, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me’” (Luke 22:31-34).

The absolute sovereignty of God the Son, especially in the day of His suffering, is something we should not take for granted or overlook in the great drama of the narrative. Though Jesus tells “the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders” that “hour and the power of darkness” (22:53) belongs to them, He is still in total mastery of the moment. He has not laid that lordship down. In fact, as He is at the right hand of the Father, He has been given “all authority...in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). I need this reality as both my foundation and covering every day. So do you.

It’s not this sovereignty, though, that has astounded me afresh this week. I’ve been blessed and – yes – amazed at the grace that comes through the mediation of the great High Priest Jesus Christ.

The adversary, as he did with Job and does with innumerable saints, has demanded the right to test Peter’s faith. This is what he exists to do to the glory of God. “...the Satan’s job, as God’s submissive opposition, is to search men and women to see if there is anyone who is genuinely godly and pious...Satan has a ministry; it is the ministry of opposition, the ministry of insisting that the genuineness of the believer be tested and proved genuine. It is a hostile and malicious ministry, but a necessary ministry for the glory of God...the apostles are to be sifted by Satan, to see if their faith is genuine. And their faith will prove genuine, not least because God the Son prays to God the Father for Peter, and then Peter becomes the instrument to strengthen the faith of the others.”[1]

Peter’s betrayal, the arrest, and the adversary’s sifting of the Lord’s disciples, are all serving the Triune God to His ultimate glory. In every moment.

I taught from this “sifting” passage last month during a memorial service for a death I knew would be a trial to many believers, "so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes" (2 Corinthians 2:11). We need to be aware of what is happening to us and through us in the darkness. Scripture alone reveals this to us.

The adversary must still ask for permission from the Lord to test believers. Just as we see with Job, the Lord defines the exact parameters for the sifting operation of the adversary. Jesus doesn’t tell Peter that the adversary’s request has been denied. The “one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5) has prayed that Peter’s “faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” He doesn’t pray for Peter’s comfort, ease, health, wealth, or anything Peter himself might request. He prays for that which is eternally and salvifically important – Peter’s persistent faith. Peter benefits from this, of course (and still is, and always will), but the goal is the Church: “...strengthen your brothers.” It’s about Jesus loving His Church. He intercedes for the saints to the benefit of the saints not for the individual but for the Body.

Peter betrays Jesus three times, just as Jesus foretold (22:54-60). What happens at the end of this narrative is what I want us to see.

There are only two times in Luke-Acts where “the word of the Lord” is “remembered.” At both times Peter is the one remembering, and the difference between the two circumstances is the beautiful testimony to the glory of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

After Peter denies the Lord three times, “the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly” (22:61,62). The Lord’s word is verified, and Peter is utterly broken. It is “the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10). It is not comfortable, fun, or exalting (by prideful or worldly standards). But this is the “will of God” achieved through the mediation of the Son. Remembering the Word of Christ in the midst of sin results here in brokenness and repentance which leads to (because of the mediatiorial prayer of the Son) salvation by unwavering faith. This is the first time “the word of the Lord” is “remembered” by Peter in Luke-Acts. It’s a great statement of grace. After all, Jesus taught the disciples, “he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God” (12:9). The only thing that can save Peter is grace, and that is abundant through Jesus Christ. Soli gratia.

As marvelous as that event of “remembering...the word of the Lord” is, the second is even greater. Peter has returned to Jerusalem after seeing God bring salvation to Cornelius’ house through the preaching of Christ. This is a new thing; the new covenant Church began out of Jerusalem among the Jewish people. Though Jesus hinted and clearly proclaimed numerous times that it would overflow these ethnic boundaries unto the ends of the earth, it’s still a shock to the Jewish Christians. So Peter addresses the Church in Jerusalem: “...Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying, ‘...I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”’” (Acts 11:4,16,17).

The second time Peter “remembered the word of the Lord” it resulted in this: “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’” (11:18).

God is glorified, and the Kingdom of God begins its unstoppable spread through the world and all generations.[2]

Behold the grace of God: the first time Peter remembers the word of the Lord, it brings him to bitter tears; the second time Peter remembers the word of the Lord, it is as he is being used to bring salvation to the nations.

Jesus is still praying for His people:

• “Christ Jesus is He Who died, yes, rather Who was raised, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:34).[3]
• “...Jesus...because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 8:24-26).

It is the same prayer. We are sifted in this world to show our faith to be true. Peter, who learned this lesson recorded for this long age in the pages of holy Writ, teaches this principle to us in his first letter: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6,7).

We are sifted and refined through the constant saving prayer of the heavenly High Priest, Who uses even the wicked adversary for our salvation and God’s ultimate glory. Also through His Word, we do not stand alone or for ourselves. As our faith is hardened into the unwavering might of the triumphant saint, we strengthen others, as well. By the Father’s grace through the mediation of the Son, the Church grows not just in spite of the adversary’s work, but instrumentally through it.

God is great, and His grace is amazing.

Rembrandt (1606-1669), The Denial of Saint Peter (1660)

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[1] Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 42,45,55.

[2] When we read the Kingdom parables of Jesus (and their roots in passages like Ezekiel 31:6; Daniel 4:21), this is the message: it starts small but spreads throughout the world.

[3] I was concerned with the “where” of the Holy Spirit in my last post. We should give attention, as well, to the “where” of the Son in our thinking, praying, singing, and theology. Without Him at the right hand of the Father, His continuing work as High Priest and Mediator is ignored. This is a serious problem, for it is from there that we “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Inside=Life/Outside=Death

“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1).

It may not have existed among the Gentiles, but it was an ancient sin warned against in the Law of Moses under the old covenant. Take careful note of the punishment.

• “You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness...for whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people” (Leviticus 18:8,29).
• “If there is a man who lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death, their bloodguiltiness is upon them” (Leviticus 20:11). The sentence, “surely be put to death” (מות־יומתו), is an echo of the curse of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (תמות מות, Genesis 2:17).
• “A man shall not take his father’s wife so that he will not uncover his father’s skirt” (Deuteronomy 22:30).
• “‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s skirt.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen’” (Deuteronomy 27:20).

The punishment is to “be cut off from among [the] people,” “cursed,” which is to “be put to death.”

Now compare this punishment to the new covenant discipline mandated by the apostle Paul:

• “You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst” (1 Corinthians 5:2).
• “In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (5:4,5).
• “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler - not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves” (5:11-13; compare this last sentence with Deuteronomy 13:5; 17:7; 21:21; 22:21,22,24).

Being “cut off from among [the] people” in the old covenant meant death. In the new covenant it means excommunication. What does this say about membership in the congregation as the place of life? To be outside the gathering of the Church is a living death. Is your view of the local Church (for this is undoubtedly who Paul is addressing – it stretches believability to think he is speaking to the universal Church) this lofty? Inside, life. Outside, death.*

There is, of course, a profound difference between the old/new covenant with regards to capital punishment/excommunication. There is grace and mercy extended to those excommunicated in the new covenant:

• “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree - in order not to say too much - to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:4-11).
• “For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it - for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while - I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (7:8-10).

In the new covenant, the “living death” of excommunication is used by God to produce “the sorrow” which “produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.” This is exactly what Jesus teaches. “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17). How did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors? Read Matthew 9:9-13. They are objects of evangelism. They are urged to follow Jesus.

Inside, life. Outside, death.

Hear the call. Come in from among the walking dead. Come into the community of life, the gathering of those who follow Jesus, the local Church.

* We’ve developed a sort of cultural allergy to speaking of boundaries with regards to the Church. It is an allergy the New Testament doesn’t share with us in our sensitivity. The New Testament has no problem speaking of those inside the Church and those outside the Church (Mark 4:11; 1 Corinthians 5:11-13; Colossians 4:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:12; 1 Timothy 3:7; Revelation 22:5).

The Common and Consistent Gift

On the day of Pentecost the apostle Peter preaches the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. He issues the command (not invitation) of the Gospel to repent and be baptized. The promise that is attached to this command is forgiveness in Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit: “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38). Note this progression: repentant baptism and then the gifting of the Holy Spirit.

Now look at what happens a few verses later: “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:41,42). Repentant baptism is followed by the ordinary and regular observances/practices of the Church that are held down to this day two millennia later.

There is a very telling parallelism in these two passages:

2:38     “Repent and be baptized...” → “...receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

2:41     “...those...were baptized” → the practices described in 2:42

What I want you to see in this parallelism is that the Person of the Trinity Who is the Gift, the Holy Spirit, manifests His presence and works continually/regularly through the ordinary practices from that Day to Today. We have been so conditioned to seek the new from our worship, the latest program, the most in-demand speakers of the moment, the book du jour, etc. We hunger for communion with the Father through Christ by His Spirit (as we absolutely should!), but have been distracted from the regular means by which He has always blessed His people with His working, comforting, nurturing, guarding, guiding, loving Presence manifested.

Gather. Read the Word and hear it taught and applied to our lives. Observe the ordinance of the Table and baptism. Pray (I mean by this both the reading of “the prayers” – the Psalms – and our prayers). This is the manifestation of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. It does not require “the Latest Thing” or an innovation or a “Fresh Encounter.” It is ordinary in that the mature and infant believer can both equally and simultaneously partake in it. It does not require a magnificent building, state-of-the-art technology, or celebrity worship leader or preacher. It requires the obedience of those united with Christ by the sealing work of the Holy Spirit. It requires a faith that rests in the simple promise in the Word that this is how He’ll work in our midst.

Not only does the revelation of Scripture record this means on the day of Pentecost, but our forefathers in the faith confessed this to be true: “The grace of faith by which the elect are enabled to believe, so that their souls are saved, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily brought into being by the ministry of the Word. It is also increased and strengthened by the work of the Spirit through the ministry of the Word, and also by the administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, prayer, and other means appointed by God” (1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, 14.1).

Our spiritual ancestors also warn against the rejection of the ordinary means and the sad, heart-breaking results: “The saints may, through the temptation of Satan and the world, and because their remaining sinful tendencies prevail over them, and through their neglect of the means which God has provided to keep them, fall into grievous sins” (1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, 17.3).

Further, they tell us that we will find great assurance in the regular, consistent use of the means of the Presence of the Gift of the Holy Spirit in the Church: “...being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given to him by God, he may, without any extraordinary revelation attain this assurance by using the means of grace in the right way. Therefore it is the duty of every one to give the utmost diligence to make his calling and election sure [through the use of the means of grace], so that his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness for carrying out the duties of obedience. These duties are the natural fruits of assurance” (1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, 18.3).

I am not advocating reformation or revolution; I am urging from the bottom of my heart a humble, gentle, weekly, life-long restoration of these things as central to the Spirit-indwelt life of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this is rest for you, beloved Church. Cease the desperate groping and reaching for some new avenue of fellowship with the Divine; rest in the biblical means through which He has promised to work in every place and in every age with the gathering of His covenant people.

P.S. Just to make sure I'm not misread as necessarily endorsing older or culturally unique expressions of these means (styles of music or particular Bible translations), let me link up with these dear brothers who speak of the means of the Spirit's work so well.

Jeremiah's Turning #11: Hard As Stone

Following the word “turn” (שוב) through Jeremiah’s prophecy.

“O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You have smitten them, but they did not weaken; You have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent [שוב]” (Jeremiah 5:3).

They became like what they worshiped: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them” (Psalm 115:4-8).

The Lord responded to this hardness in two ways:

• The prophet preached a message that went unheard by the decree of God: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.” Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed’” (Isaiah 6:8-10). By this way, this passage is one of the most-quoted in the New Testament (Matthew 13:14,15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:40; Acts 28:26,27; Romans 11:8). The principle does not change between the Testaments because God’s plan to save a small group of the elect from the mass of idol-worshiping humanity does not change (neither does their idolatry change). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).
• The prophet was made just as hard as they were: “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you; yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.’ Moreover, He said to me, ‘Son of man, take into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and listen closely. Go to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or not, “Thus says the Lord GOD”’” (Ezekiel 3:4-11). John the Baptist was raised up to be this kind of preacher. His message was not vanilla, easy-listening, and it certainly didn’t tickle the ears (2 Timothy 4:3).

Repentance is the gift of God (Acts 5:31; 11:18), enabling His elect to respond to the preaching of His Good News of salvation through Jesus’ death on the cross alone (Acts 2:36-38). The gift of repentance is the blessing of God given through His Son (Acts 3:26).

Though salvation is impossible to achieve by human beings (Matthew 19:25,26; Mark 10:26,27; Luke 18:26,27), God is able to bring anyone to repentance. So we prayerfully and lovingly – but immovably in the truth of the Word – appeal to the human rocks with the Gospel, hoping God will use the Word to bring them to repentance and faith: “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

Jeremiah's Turning #9: Supernatural Evangelism

Following the word “turn” (שוב) through Jeremiah’s prophecy.

“‘If you will return [שוב], O Israel,’ declares the LORD, ‘Then you should return [שוב] to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, and will not waver, and you will swear, “As the LORD lives,” in truth, in justice and in righteousness; then the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory.’ For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds. Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, “Blow the trumpet in the land; cry aloud and say, “Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.” Lift up a standard toward Zion! Seek refuge, do not stand still, for I am bringing evil from the north, and great destruction. A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.’ For this, put on sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned [שוב] back from us.” (Jeremiah 4:1-8).

God commands that His people be a repentant people, a people who do not mingle the world with Himself. What’s at stake? The Gospel fulfillment of the promise to Abraham:

• “...in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
• “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU’” (Galatians 3:8).
• “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth’...after these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (Revelation 5:9,10; 7:9,10).

“And you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice and in righteousness; then the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him they will glory” (Jeremiah 4:2). This is God’s Gospel promise through a repentant, faithful people. No where in this does the Gospel promise extent to a worldly entertainment or gimmicky strategy for drawing the lost. God attaches a promise of supernaturally successful evangelism to a faithful, holy, and repentant people. The "then" is God's promise.

The only alternative to being a people of circumcised heart is being a people under the wrath of God.

This is how the nations will be blessed by the Gospel, and this is how God will ultimately receive the most glory in their sight.

Repent, Church. This is what the unbelieving world needs.

“Saving repentance is an evangelical grace by which a person who is made to feel, by the Holy Spirit, the manifold evils of his sin, and being given faith in Christ, humbles himself over his sin with godly sorrow, detestation of his sin and self-abhorrency. In such repentance the person also prays for pardon and strength of grace, and has a purpose and endeavor, by supplies of the Spirit’s power, to walk before God and to totally please Him in all things. As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, on account of the body of death, and the motions of it, it is therefore every man’s duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly. Such is the provision which God has made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers in the way of salvation, that although even the smallest sin deserves damnation, yet there is no sin great enough to bring damnation on those who repent. This makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary” (1689 Baptist Confession, 15.4-6).

Jeremiah's Turning #5: Key

Following the word “turn” (שוב) through Jeremiah’s prophecy.

“Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘Return [שוב], faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; ‘I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God and have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 3:12,13).

Jeremiah, in his continual use of “turn” (שוב), makes a play on words in his delivery of God’s command to a wayward people: “Return [שוב], faithless [משבה, from שוב] Israel.” They have turned away in apostasy, but God, in His great grace, commands them to turn to Him in repentance.

They must confess their sin. They must confess that they are sinners. Before the rebel can become the daughter, she must self-identify as a breaker of God’s Law. Before the enemy can become the son, he must plead “guilty” in before the righteous Judge of all the living and the dead. A people who have made a living death out of turning from God in every area of their lives must – in obedience to the command of the King – enter a real life by turning away from sin and to Him in humbleness.

Notice that the standard is God’s “voice.” This is the primary mark of God’s people – they have His Word and – together – seek to hear His voice in their midst by the proclamation of this Word. They individually and collectively submit to its power to “teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,” so that they may be “equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Those who hear His voice and obey are His sheep (John 10:26,27). All who hear His voice and obey are those who truly love Him (Exodus 20:6; Deuteronomy 5:10; 7:9; 11:1,13; 30:16; Joshua 22:5; Nehemiah 1:5; Daniel 9:4; John 14:15,21; 15:10; 2 John 6).

Hear His Law and repent of your violations of it (and the fact that you are a violator). Hear His Gospel and receive His free and abundant grace by faith. Repentance and belief are not two acts, but one (Mark 1:15). Repent and believe today. This is key.

Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone

After lifting up the gift of repentance with the Church in the Philippines, on the way home over the Pacific I thought about the warnings in Scripture that the gift can be withdrawn. May we be warned into diligence!

Choosing the world over the promise of God: "But Jacob replied, 'First sell me your birthright.' 'Look,' said Esau, 'I'm about to die! What use is the birthright to me?' But Jacob said, 'Swear an oath to me now.' So Esau swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. So Esau despised his birthright" (Genesis 25:31-34, N.E.T.).

Consequence: "When Esau heard his father's words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. He said to his father, 'Bless me too, my father!'...Esau said to his father, 'Do you have only that one blessing, my father? Bless me too!' Then Esau wept loudly" (Genesis 27:34,38).

Application: "And see to it that no one becomes an immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that later when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for repentance, although he sought the blessing with tears" (Hebrews 12:16,17).

John Bunyan’s illustration from “Pilgrim’s Progress,” Book 1, Stage 2:

“Now,” said Christian, “let me go hence.” “Nay, stay,” said the Interpreter, “Till I have showed thee a little more, and after that thou shalt go on thy way.” So he took him by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage. Now the man, to look on, seemed very sad; he sat with his eyes looking down to the ground, his hands folded together, and he sighed as if he would break his heart. Then said Christian, “What means this?” At which the Interpreter bid him talk with the man.

Then said Christian to the man, “What art thou?” The man answered, “I am what I was not once.”

“What wast thou once?”

The man said, “I was once a fair and flourishing professor [Luke 8:13], both in mine own eyes, and also in the eyes of others: I once was, as I thought, fair for the celestial city, and had then even joy at the thoughts that I should get thither.”

“Well, but what art thou now?”

“I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this iron cage. I cannot get out; Oh now I cannot!”

“But how camest thou into this condition?”

“I left off to watch and be sober: I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and He has left me: I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent.”

Then said Christian to the Interpreter, “But is there no hope for such a man as this?” “Ask him,” said the Interpreter.

Then said Christian, “Is there no hope, but you must be kept in the iron cage of despair?”

“No, none at all.”

“Why, the Son of the Blessed is very pitiful.”

“I have crucified Him to myself afresh [Hebrews 6:6]; I have despised His person [Luke 19:14]; I have despised His righteousness; I have counted His blood an unholy thing; I have done despite to the Spirit of grace [Hebrews 10:29]: therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, faithful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as an adversary.”

“For what did you bring yourself into this condition?”

“For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight: but now every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm.”

“But canst thou not now repent and turn?”

“God hath denied me repentance [desert rat note: remember that repentance is granted by God, Acts 3:26; 5:31; 11:18; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Timothy 2:25,26]. His Word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, Himself hath shut me up in this iron cage: nor can all the men in the world let me out. Oh eternity! Eternity! How shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity?”

Then said the Interpreter to Christian, “Let this man’s misery be remembered by thee, and be an everlasting caution to thee.” “Well,” said Christian, “this is fearful! God help me to watch and to be sober, and to pray that I may shun the cause of this man’s misery.”