Sermon on Minneapolis 06.12.2015

Thank you for all of your blessings that you have richly given unto us. But above all, we thank you that we can be yet today one of your own, a child of God, alone through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ. He is our perfection. He is our redemption. He is our righteousness. This we can own as a gift of faith, without money, without price, alone of grace.

So we ask that you would be with us again today as always, and bless our services. Comfort and uplift us and lead us and guide us on the near way of life, and feed us and nourish us with your everlasting gospel message. All of this we ask in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Amen. We are living the Advent season. We see two candles lit before us. So today is the second Sunday in Advent. The Old Testament text for today is from the prophet Hosea chapter 2. And I will read part of verse 18 and then 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.

"And in that day I will make a covenant for them. I will betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day I will hear, saith the Lord. I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth. And the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil. And they shall hear Jezreel. 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." Amen.

This portion that we read was from the book of Hosea. Hosea. And the word Hosea in the Hebrew language is basically the same word as Joshua, as it is the same word as Jesus. They all come from the same root word which means salvation.

Prophet Hosea was known as the weeping prophet. And he was the last prophet in the north, in Israel. And he was there as a prophet right up till the time when the northern country of Israel was attacked and then the people brought into exile. So he was the last writing prophet of Israel before the fall.

And it was a time of much instability and a time of spiritual darkness among the people. Many people were practicing idolatry and immorality, and many had rejected God. And so the prophet Hosea was then called to speak to these people.

And something else happened in his life, in his temporal life. His wife had become unfaithful to him. She had committed adultery. From their marriage so far they had three children, and their names are written here in the first chapter of this book of Hosea.

And the names in the Hebrew language are Jezreel, which comes up in our text as well, which means God sows. It's like sowing the seed, planting the seed, casting the seed. It also means God scatters. When they were planting seeds back then, they took the seeds handfuls upon handfuls and they literally scattered the seed. So that is the name of the first child.

The name of the second child was, well, it's got a funny name in the Hebrew language, but in the English language it means one who is not pitied. And the name of the third child was, you are not my people.

So kind of negative sounding names of the children: God scatters or God destroys is the name of the first child; the second child is you are one who isn't pitied; and the name of the third child is you are not my people. And then he has a wife who is unfaithful, commits adultery.

And if we read in the book of Deuteronomy, if a person commits adultery, the law of Moses was strict and it was merciless. Such a person should be stoned to death, no questions asked, should be stoned to death.

But now God comes to Hosea and he tells Hosea that Hosea, your wife has been unfaithful to you, but I tell you take her back and love her as your wife. And then the names of the children are actually changed, or it sounds like they are changed, for the last verse of our text says, you are my people.

The name of the third child is you are not my people, but now the promise is you are my people. And the same, the name of the second child was you are not pitied, and they shall receive mercy.

So we can see that God is a loving God. God is a God of mercy, and God is a God of forgiveness. And so here in our text it began in this way: "And in that day I will make a covenant."

And so in verse 19 it says, "Then I will betroth thee unto me forever." Betroth is kind of an older English word and it literally means to become engaged to, to form a union of such a man and a woman, a boy and a girl get engaged, they have become betrothed to each other.

And so the apostle Paul uses this idea and this concept when he writes to the Corinthians and he said when writing that letter to them that I have betrothed you, the people there in Corinth, or all of the believers, the New Testament congregation, I have betrothed you to Christ through the gospel.

So we are a people that has been, are engaged. We are waiting for a wedding festival. And Paul continues, you are betrothed to Christ in order that there would be received a pure virgin.

So in the book of Revelations when John saw that vision he said, I saw the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and the vision that he saw he says it was like a bride adorned and prepared for her bridegroom, the groom.

So in the Old Testament times the groom was God and the bride was the promised nation of Israel. And now during the New Testament era the picture changes a little bit. Then the groom is Christ Jesus and the bride is the congregation of God, the kingdom of God.

But also the bride can be a picture of an individual believer, child of God. So in this sense we are all like brides and we are betrothed, we are engaged to our bridegroom, the groom Christ Jesus.

So we're living the period of engagement and we're waiting for the consummation of that betrothal which will be the wedding festival there in the glory of heaven one day when this time ends and eternity begins.

So the doctrine of salvation is the doctrine of a picture of a virgin. And when Luther writes of this he says in the wedding chamber there can only be two people, Christ and the bride, and not a third. He said that Moses does not belong there in the wedding chamber. He's not allowed, for Christ is the end of the law unto salvation for all who believe.

One brother was visiting with a person who had at one time been a believer but had gone into a heresy, into a schism. And so that person asked this believer, he said that, well, what is the difference between you and I spiritually?

And the believing minister said that, well, I have a living bride and you are married to a dead bride. Guy scratched his head and he said, well, my wife is a little bit old and a little bit feeble, but she's still living.

Well, this minister was of course speaking in another sense, not literally, but as it's written. Paul writes to the Romans that when Christ came then that former wife needed to die, which was the law, and then they were married to a new bridegroom, which is Christ Jesus.

And so this is what he was meaning that I am married to a living bride and you are married to a dead one. And that is Christ. Through Christ and through the merits of Christ Jesus that old relationship has been nullified. Christ has fulfilled the law and thus that new relationship by faith has occurred.

So the law binds a person in a natural sense, in the literal sense, in the temporal sense. When a man and a woman get married they say their vows to each other that until death do you part. And then when one of the spouses die then they are free to remarry.

And if there is unfaithfulness before the death of one of the spouses then adultery occurs. So this is the picture that the apostle Paul is using when he writes to the Romans.

For the woman which has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead she is loose from the law of her husband.

So therefore my brethren, you are also become dead to the law by the body of Christ that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

So here is the prophet Hosea speaking about a covenant, an agreement of sorts between God and his people here upon this earth. And on that day I will make a covenant, which is the first part of the verse.

And in verse 18, but then jumping to 19, he says, I will betroth you unto me forever. And then he says how he'll do it. He says, I will betroth you unto me in righteousness.

Of course the word righteousness comes from the word which is correct, something which is true. And of course a lot of people state things that they claim to be true here on this earth which are not necessarily true.

For example, there's a very famous well-known newspaper in this world published by one major country and they call it Pravda. And the word Pravda is truth. But I would claim to say that does that paper, everything stated in that paper, is it the truth? I wouldn't. I don't believe so.

Even though I don't read the Russian language, I've heard enough about the content of the newspaper that it's not always true which is in that paper.

But there is one who is true. Amen. And that means verily, truly, it is certainly so. It is certainly true.

And when John is on the Isle of Patmos and he hears those visions and he sees those visions or hears those messages and sees those visions and the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ who is talking to him, and he says the resurrected Jesus says, I am the Amen and I am the Alpha and I am the Omega. I am the author and the finisher. I am the first and I am the last.

So Jesus says that I am the Amen. I am the truth. Jesus said earlier when he was still walking on this earth that I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

So when Pontius Pilate was standing before Jesus, he is talking to the truth himself and he asks Jesus, what is truth? He had no idea what truth was even though it was standing right before him.

So Paul in one of his epistles said that we have been begotten, we have received new life, we have received new birth through the gospel of truth.

So God is truth. He is righteous. He is just. He is perfect. And also his Son Jesus Christ is truth. He is the Amen. I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

And so we as human beings are sinners and we are erring and we are corrupt from the top of our head to the heel of our foot. And there is no one who is righteous, no, not one. All have gone astray. All have fallen short of the glory of God.

But we through faith by owning, believing, and possessing the gospel, we are able to own this righteousness. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, He is our righteousness. Christ Jesus is our perfection. Christ Jesus is our sanctification, our holiness. He is our redemption.

So here Hosea says, I will betroth you, my people, my members of my kingdom, my brides of Christ. I will betroth you to me forever and I will betroth you in righteousness.

So by faith we can own this perfection. We can own this redemption. We can own this sanctification and righteousness in the gospel and thus it makes us heaven acceptable, one of God's own.

So I will betroth you unto me in righteousness, but I will also betroth you in judgment.

Often believers have been accused that you judge, you are judgmental, and we don't as human beings want to come across and begin to pass judgment and cut ears of people. No.

But yet on the other hand there was one sermon, a radio sermon kept years ago in Finland, the old country as we call it, and it was at their major summer meetings which we call Suvi in the Finnish language.

And the person who was delivering the sermon, who eventually went astray, said that we don't have a word of judgment in our sermon. And one of the persons listening said that, uh oh, that's incorrect.

Well, we don't come waving the hand of judgment at people, but the Bible says my word it will for those who do not believe it will judge on the last day.

So the word of God contains a word of judgment. It is the word of truth and this cannot be removed from the word of God.

So we don't judge, but the word of God, the living word of God, contains the truth which is a word of judgment. One who does not believe he will be judged on the last day.

But we can ask any individual who has traveled at some point in time outside of God's kingdom and then has been able to return, receive the grace of repentance, and again become a child of God, how has it happened? What has caused you or drawn you to come back?

And isn't it so that a person has realized and felt some to a greater extent and some to a lesser extent? It's not dependent on the amount of penitence or the deepness of one's sorrow, but I'm sure one has felt when before receiving the grace of repentance that my matters are not in order before God, my creator.

I don't have peace with God in my heart and I am unsure of my state of salvation. And hasn't this been what has drawn a person to begin to seek and to find and to search for hope and salvation and peace for one's soul?

It's not like one man told me that when he was a young boy his mother told him to clean the house, sweep the house, and she's got to go to the store and she'll be back in a little while.

And so he took the broom out and he quickly swept everything underneath the rug so it wasn't visible to the eye, but it was still in the house.

He said later his mother came back and she said, good boy, you did a great job. And the more she was praising him the worse he felt. He knew that he hadn't done his job correctly.

The dirt wasn't visible to the eyes but it was still there. So he likened that to a person who is in unbelief, not having had their sins forgiven.

And a person doesn't correct their state of salvation or their position before God by just, I will clean up my life and I will begin to have a new lifestyle and now that will make me acceptable unto God the heavenly Father.

One brother was in the old country and he worked as a state church minister, ordained minister. And one day a person came into his office and that guest, the visitor that came into the office, said that I've had my sins forgiven.

And the minister said, well, that's good. That's a very nice message to hear. That, well, how did it happen?

And he says, well, I just turned my heart in prayer to God the heavenly Father when I was out alone in the woods and God forgave me my sins.

And so then he didn't want to outright say that, sorry, that's not the way it happens, but he in a very tactful way then talked about Cornelius.

And he says in the Bible it speaks about a man whose name is Cornelius and Cornelius prayed and Cornelius was offering alms but he still hadn't received the gift of salvation.

And so he said that, but then it was told that Cornelius, your prayers have been heard and your alms have been received, but go and send for Peter and have him come into your home.

And so then Peter later came into the house of Cornelius and it wasn't until Cornelius received Peter into his home and Peter then preached the oral proclamation of the gospel and then Cornelius and all of those in his house received the grace of repentance.

And so here it says that I will betroth you unto me forever and I will betroth you unto me in righteousness and I will betroth you unto me in judgment.

And so as I was mentioning that anyone who has walked in darkness in the ways of unbelief in the world has come into God's kingdom by and through the means of judgment.

They have felt a prick in their heart. They have realized that my matters are not in order with God the heavenly Father and if I die in this state and in this condition I am not heaven acceptable.

But then when they have received the grace of repentance, when they have heard the living gospel, the pardoning message of the forgiveness of sins, then the prophet here continues.

Then I will betroth you unto me in loving kindness or in other words mercy or grace and in mercies.

So I will betroth you unto me in grace and in mercy. So these are two words which are very similar to each other but yet they're kind of flip sides to the coin.

So grace is we receive something that we don't deserve and through the gift of salvation we have, we are able to own and possess the gift of heaven which we don't deserve.

As I mentioned already that after the fall and the sin God looked down from heaven to see if he could find anyone who was good or acceptable and he found no one who was good, no one who was righteous, no, not one.

So that was our human state before God. But yet of grace, without any merit or worthiness of ourselves, we are heirs of heaven.

So receive something that we don't deserve. But then mercy is the flip side. We don't receive something which we would rightfully deserve.

If there is no one who is righteous, no not one, and all have gone astray and fallen short of the glory of God, then what would we as human beings rightfully deserve? Condemnation in hell.

But God is merciful. God is loving. And through faith and through the merits of his Son Christ Jesus we have been, we will be spared from condemnation in hell which we as sinful human beings on our own part would rightfully deserve.

So a very good, interesting, deep, and comforting word by the prophet.

So I will betroth you unto me in loving kindness and in mercy and I will betroth you unto me in faithfulness.

By faith we are saved through grace, not of ourselves, is a gift of God so that not one would boast.

But then it goes on to say, and it shall come to pass in that day I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth.

So it always happens in this way that first of all heaven hears the earth. And Luther says if it would happen the other way that first in heaven the word of proclamation of the forgiveness of sins would be preached then we wouldn't know when that occurred in heaven.

But it always happens first in this way that the word of the gospel, the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins, is preached here on earth and then in heaven is answered. Amen.

And so this is what the prophet Hosea is here saying as well. In the earth shall hear corn and wine and oil and they shall hear Jezreel.

So this is kind of an interesting play on words where this name of the first child was Jezreel which was very similar to corn and wine and oil and this had to do with their former walk of in darkness and paganism.

But that's just a play on words that is another level of the understanding of the text.

But this word Jezreel means to sow or to plant or to spread the seed. And of course the living seed is the living word of God.

And we as God's children and members of God's kingdom have been given this task and this mission and this duty and it is to spread the seed.

An interesting question came up in a discussion yesterday in the meeting at Rockford about the forgiveness of sins, that is there ever a situation where the forgiveness would not be preached and someone asked for it.

Well Jesus in the sermon on the mount says that if we don't forgive another person their sins then neither will God the heavenly Father forgive us our sins. It's pretty clear.

And then also Jesus says in the parable of the sower that the sower went out to sow the seed and the sower began to liberally just cast seed and he wasn't asked to determine what kind of soil you're going to cast the seed on.

Is this a good type of soil or is this maybe not a good type of soil? So liberally, not counting the cost, of the seed began to cast the seed.

Actually they used to have in the olden times they'd have a basket and the farmer was just with two hands put his hands into the seeds in the basket and just liberally just cast the seeds everywhere almost wastefully expending the seeds on the ground.

And lo and behold some of the seeds fell on along the wayside. The farmer wasn't looking was this now the roadside it doesn't pay to cast seeds there. He cast them there anyways.

And some fell along the roadside. Lo and behold the birds came and ate some of those seeds and it didn't bear fruit but yet they were cast there anyways.

And then some fell on the rocky soil. It was basically a bedrock underneath with just a thin layer of topsoil and seeds germinated and sprung up.

And during the heat of the summer and when there wasn't much rain then the plants that were beginning to grow and had a good start they withered and died because of the lack of the depth of the soil and perhaps the lack of moisture.

And then some fell on such soil which grew up, sprung forth thorns and thistles and the thorns and thistles then smothered out the growth and it didn't bear fruit.

And lo and behold then some fell on what Jesus says was good soil and those seeds then sprung up and grew and brought forth abundant fruit.

So Paul says that my duty was to plant and the duty of Apollos was to water but it is God in the end who gives the growth or the increase.

There was one preacher who visited this country with Heikki Yli-Suola back in the 1920s. His name was E. To Hurula.

And he lived at a time in Finland when this question came up that maybe the gospel is being preached too liberally and that maybe we should ration the gospel.

And so they told him and the believers at that time that you're wastefully preaching the gospel that you can hear the gospel to the outer edges of the room.

And he said, well, I wish there were no walls surrounding this room for it is God's hope and God's prayer and God's desire that all would be able to hear that gospel as many that would be able to hear it and believe it and own it and possess it by faith in their hearts.

As it says Paul or it says one of the New Testament writers says that it is God's wish that not one person would be condemned or go on to judgment.

So that is our prayer and that is our heart and wish and desire.

So I will betroth you unto me forever and I will betroth you unto me in righteousness, in judgment, in loving kindness, and in mercies.

And I will sow unto her, unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that they had not obtained mercy and I will say unto them which were not my people, you are now my people.

And they shall say that you are my God.

So brothers and sisters, this morning we can be happy and free and we have been able to experience that judgment at the throne of grace.

And what has been that word of judgment that we as believers, the children of God, one of his own, have been able to hear and receive and possess?

When we have come to the throne of grace, we have maybe dragged ourselves there and humbly begged for mercy.

Has it ever been said no, you have done something so wrong that there is the door, you might as well leave, you can go?

But no, it has always been said there is grace abundant, there is the bottomless sea of grace, there is infinite forgiveness.

Son and daughter, you can be of good cheer. You can come as many times, you can come up to seventy times seven times in a day.

For as many times as you come, you can believe freely of grace just as you are, just as you find yourself.

The wounds of Christ Jesus are open and flowing freely. Believe, sins forgiven in his name and precious atonement blood.

You can believe unto peace, freedom, and joy.

Can I also believe my sins forgiven? I wish to believe together with you in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.