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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a

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moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith.

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Today, what did the prophet Hosea mean for Israel that my people perish for a lack of knowledge?

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And what does it mean for us here in the 21st century of American life? Perhaps you've heard

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this verse before. It is cited from time to time by preachers and statesmen and commentators

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to lend weight to a more general point, perhaps, that Americans are ill-informed and that if they

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only had the right information, oftentimes that means listening to this particular commentator

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or preacher in question like me, well, if they had the right information, then they would have the

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right knowledge and they'd be able to think right, vote right, and live right. But does this exhaust

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the meaning of Hosea chapter 4, verse 6, my people perish for a lack of knowledge?

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I would suggest to you that it has never been more pertinent to America than it is today.

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First of all, we must ask what kind of knowledge is God speaking of when he says my people perish

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for a lack of knowledge? Sailors perished at sea from scurvy for generations for the lack of knowledge

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that they had a vitamin C deficiency. General Custer and his men perished at Little Bighorn

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for a lack of knowledge that the Plains tribes had gathered en masse for war. Whole societies have

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perished from famine for a lack of knowledge that the exhausted soils by failing to rotate their crops,

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among other factors. So it is possible to perish from a lack of knowledge. But is this what God means

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when he proclaims through Hosea, my people perish for a lack of knowledge? Is the lack of knowledge

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he's speaking of a bare ignorance of certain pertinent facts? And I say to you, no, it is not

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that here. If you read this statement in its context, always important to do when you're dealing

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with scripture. If you do read this statement, my people perish for a lack of knowledge, in its context,

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you know that the people are dying for not knowing the Lord. Not knowing the Lord. This is the kind

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of knowledge that they lack. Back in verse one of this very chapter, the text says, the Lord has a

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controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no

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knowledge of God in the land. Bingo. This is the knowledge of which Hosea speaks, the knowledge of God

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in the land. Dear listener, this is the first and prior of all knowledge that is to know the Lord.

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This is that knowledge that America lacks too, for that matter, the knowledge by which in the lack of

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America perishes. America is perishing for a lack of knowledge of God. And God can be known as a person.

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This text also implicates that God can be known as a person, the person. And this kind of knowledge

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is ensconced in what we call the Immanuel principle. Immanuel means God with us. And there is a God with

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us principle all through the scriptures, dear listener. I hope your eyes are attuned to this now.

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There is, for example, one of my favorite texts. There's many, many texts that outline the Immanuel

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principle. But one of my favorites is from Jeremiah chapter 31. And it includes the promise of the new

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covenant. And in it, Jeremiah says, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts

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and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Oh, the precious Immanuel principle. I will be their

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God and they shall be my people. He goes on to say, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor

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and each his brother saying, know the Lord. Here's the knowledge of the Lord right there, isn't it?

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Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord,

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for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Unquote. This sense

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of knowledge, the knowledge of God is critical to understanding the Bible, dear listener.

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It is not a bare comprehension of facts. It is not a shallow acquaintance one may have with a neighbor.

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It's not a simple recognition of something you've seen before. No, the knowledge of God in the Bible

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is deep and personal and intimate. Indeed, involving covenant faithfulness, the bond of covenantal love.

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We know this from how knowledge is used in personal relationships throughout the Bible. For example,

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Genesis 4, as early as Genesis 4, now Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore Cain.

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As well in Hosea, later on in the book of Hosea, chapter 13, where God says, I am the Lord,

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your God from the land of Egypt. You know no other God but me, and besides me, there is no Savior.

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It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. Yeah, I hear that knowledge,

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isn't it? That intimate, personal, deep relationship is reciprocal too. Israel knew no God, but Yahweh,

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and Yahweh in turn knew them in the wilderness. That is just not a bare recognition as a, hi,

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how are you? Oh, you're Israel kind of knowledge. No, it was a knowledge that knew them to love them

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so as to provide for them water and food and guidance and protection throughout the wilderness.

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And then our own Lord in the New Testament, he says this, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,

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will enter the kingdom of heaven. And then I will say to them, I never knew you. Depart from me,

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you workers of lawlessness. And this is not just a bare recognition either, a facial recognition.

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No, this is a knowledge that is deep and true and loving. And these, Christ never knew in that sense.

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Well, the knowledge of God in the Bible is deep and personal and intimate. To know in the Bible

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is to love so as to act in deep, personal, intimate ways. It does so out of covenantal faithfulness

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and obedience too. These are not mutually exclusive things. That is covenantal faithfulness

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and obedience along with deep, personal, intimate love, but they are rather requisite. If you're

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going to love truly, you will be faithful. You will be obedient. This is the kind of knowledge

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that America lacks, dear listener, the knowledge of the Lord. So when I use this verse, my people

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perish for a lack of knowledge. This is what I mean. This is the prior to all knowledge, the knowledge of

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God, the knowledge of the Lord. It is the kind of knowledge that politicians and statesmen and

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preachers and commentators should have in mind when they use these words, my people perish for

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a lack of knowledge. We perish for a lack of knowledge of the Lord. It is the kind of knowledge

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that used to suffuse the hearts and minds of Americans, listener. So much so was it that even

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our founders could characterize us as a Christian nation. We knew the Lord so well. George Washington

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says this, Providence, that is the hand of God, Providence has given to our people the choice

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of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation

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to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. Oh, uh-oh. Can I say that anymore? Facebook and Google

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would probably ban me for doing so, but it's true. We have in our past been characterized as a

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Christian nation. And if we preferred Christians for rulers, we'd have more character in Congress

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instead of more characters in Congress. Isn't that true? And this, that is, we should prefer Christians

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for our rulers. This we should assert despite our holy trinity of progressivism, which is tolerance,

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diversity, and radical egalitarianism. This bans this kind of thinking, doesn't it? But once more,

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as I have articulated clearly in other sermons, we owe the very values and virtues of tolerance,

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diversity, and egalitarianism in their proper form and perspective, that is, to Christianity.

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Our founders assumed as a working principle that America was a Christian nation. And so did entire

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branches of early governments. Huh. In reflecting upon the early colonial charters and their purposes,

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that is, that these colonial charters, the colonies were founded for the glory of God and the advancement

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of the Christian faith, as the Mayflower Compact states, while the Supreme Court of 1892, in the case

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Church of Holy Trinity versus the United States, in reflecting on these colonial charters, they tediously

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go through charter after charter, and then the Supreme Court, I'm sorry, excuse me, the Supreme Court of

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1892 concludes, and I quote, there is a universal language prevailing them all, having one meaning.

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They affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation. These are not individual sayings, declarations

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of private persons. They are organic utterances. They speak the voice of the entire people, unquote.

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The entire people spoke in colonial America that they were a Christian people. And then, as early,

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as one early American historian, Benjamin Franklin Morris, by name, who published his book in 1864,

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he had this to say in summary about America. He says, this is a Christian nation, first in name,

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and second because of the many and mighty elements of a pure Christianity, which have given it character

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and shaped its destiny from the beginning. The chief security and glory of the United States of America

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has been, has been, now is, and will be forever, the prevalence and domination of the Christian faith,

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unquote. That's pretty bold. You can't say that on Google or Facebook either, can you, today?

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Well, I have only begun to document for you that indeed America used to thrive in an abundance of

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knowledge. Now we perish for a lack of knowledge. Make no mistake about it, dear listener,

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that knowledge is the knowledge of God as well. That knowledge of God as well is deep, personal,

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and intimate, bound closely with covenant faithfulness and obedience. It is to this

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knowledge that we must return, dear listener, as a nation. It is to this knowledge that we must cling

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as a nation. But to date, as the prophet Hosea says, my people perish for a lack of knowledge,

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and there is a cause for this lack of knowledge too. There is indeed a discernible cause for this

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lack of knowledge. And Hosea as well puts his finger on it. He says as well in this chapter,

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the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, yet let no one contend, let no one

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accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. Oh, brother pastor, if you're listening, it is with us

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that God has his contention. Not kings, not prophets, not the pagan soothsayers, no, but it was with the

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priests of the land that God had his contention. It is to their charge that he lays the blame for the

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people's lack of knowledge. It is to them, the priests, the pastors of the land at that time, that

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he says, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. And because you, that is the priests, have rejected

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knowledge, that is the knowledge of God. He says, I reject you from bringing a priest to me, unquote.

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Oh, is your knowledge increasing, dear listener? Do you begin to see the fuller context? The priests,

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the pastors were the teachers of Israel. They were the ones who were to teach the knowledge of the Lord.

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For example, to Aaron and his sons, God says, you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes

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that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses. The final words of Moses to the Levites were,

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they shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. By this knowledge of the word, people would come

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to know God. And that's how God works, isn't it? It's still true today. Pastors serve this priestly

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function today. That's our role, if you're listening, dear pastor, to teach the people. The priests of

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the land were those who not only interceded for the people at the altar of God, because indeed,

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Moses did charge the Levites, they shall put incense before you and hold burnt offerings on

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your altar. But also, the priests made the people to understand God's word so that they might obey

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and come to know this God, the knowledge of God, for the lack of which the people perish.

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When Nehemiah, for example, called all of the returnees from Babylon to Israel to hear the

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reading of the book of the law, the Torah, who was it who exegeted the text? Nehemiah says in chapter

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eight, the Levites helped the people to understand the law, that is the priests. The Levites helped

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the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book,

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from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading.

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They gave the sense. The Greek word there is the Greek word from which we derive our word to exegete,

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that is to draw out the meaning. Oh, the priests, the Levites gave the sense. They drew out the meaning

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of the text for the people. Behold the mandate of the priest under the old covenant, and as well,

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behold the mandate of the pastor under the new covenant. As well, behold the condemnation of Hosea

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to false priests. He says, my people perish for a lack of knowledge, and because you, that is the

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priest, have rejected knowledge, that is the knowledge of God, I reject you from being a priest

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to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will forget your children. Oh, the priests

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and pastors of Hosea's day, they neglected their teaching, their knowing of God function, because

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they were too busy satisfying their appetites at the expense of the people. Hosea goes on to say,

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they feed, that is the pastors feed on the sin of my people. They are greedy for their iniquity,

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unquote. Because indeed in this day, by this time, the people of Israel had lapsed into idolatry

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and all of the corruption and debauchery that that entailed. Hosea says that the priests saw it and

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they were hungry. They were greedy for that very same corruption and debauchery, the wine, women,

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and song of the pagan festivities and the worship of them as well. The priests pursued as eagerly

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as the people. Oh, what then? What then? Oh, what was God's judgment against these pastors,

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dear listener? Hosea says, it shall be like people, like priests. I shall punish them for their ways

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and I will repay them for their deeds, unquote. Oh, what a judgment, like people, like priests.

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God's judgment against these false pastors was that they would become like the people they so

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envied for their wickedness. It would be a punishment and judgment too, not a relief and a

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reward. This fate of the priests is exactly 180 degrees opposite of their role. Priests were to be

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leaders, not followers. The true model should be like priests, like people. The model at the time of

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Hosea, like people, like priests. And Jesus too was fond of telling his disciples the same truth.

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That is, like teacher, like student, right? The student is not above his teacher, Jesus says. And

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like master, like servant. The servant will be like his master, Jesus says. This he would do,

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Jesus, especially when he wished to underline the certainty of suffering for the disciples' future.

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Well, the true pastoral model is that of Jesus and Hosea. That is, like priests, like people.

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Pastors as well, under the new covenant, are to be leaders out in front, sometimes halting the

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advance of the people when its direction is wrong, telling them things they may not want to hear,

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not following them in their error. Pastors are to declare clearly, this is the way, walk ye in it,

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not, which way are you guys going? Okay, I'm right behind you. That's the Obama model of leadership,

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leading from behind. We see where that has gotten us to in the world, right? And you also see where it

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gets to the United States of America when her pastors lead from behind, like the priests of Israel.

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For many of us, dear pastors, I'm speaking to myself, too. I look in the mirror when I say

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this. For many of us, it is like people like pastor. We are so afraid of offending too many people,

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they'll just go down the street to another church. Or we're afraid of preaching the whole counsel of

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God. We like to stroke people's ears. So many of us just like to pet and stroke our congregation

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rather than prodding and poking them from time to time. We are not only to comfort the afflicted,

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but sometimes we are to afflict the comfortable as well. Pastor, this is on us. If you're listening,

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dear pastor, I'm speaking to you as a brother, this is on us. Rather than crying crocodile tears and

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wringing our hands and pointing the finger at the people for the sad spiritual state of the nation,

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perhaps we ought to look first to our own house. This is on us. God holds us, pastors, responsible

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for this mess. The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, all right. For with you is

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my contention, oh pastor. If we are not preaching Christ crucified first, foremost, and boldly, then

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with us is God's contention. If we are not preaching Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone,

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based on scripture alone, then with us is God's contention, dear pastor. If we are letting the

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worldling dictate our worship styles, that is the seeker who is an unbeliever basically, and worship

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is for the believer, not the unbeliever, if we are letting this worldling, the seeker dictate our worship

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styles with the mick music and mick praying and mick sermons, well then with us is God's contention. If

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we're still preaching blood, moon, buffoon, balderdash, dear pastor, if we're still preaching revelation,

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red heifer, rapture, rigmarole, if we're still preaching, oh pastor, end time prophecy with no end in

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sight, then with us is God's contention, this hobby horse of eschatology. If we are not preaching God's

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true economy with man, if we're preaching, for example, dispensationalism, instead of preaching

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God's true economy with man, that is covenant, then with us is God's contention. If we are not preaching

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Christians' obligations under the civil covenant, for example, that is to do all within our power to

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ensure godly culture, society, and government, then with us is God's contention. Because dear pastor,

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if you do not know this already, if you do not know this by now, God has dealt with us under four

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great covenants. Four great covenants, many, many other covenants under them, but there are four great

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ones. There is, first of all, the covenant of creation. Indeed, the covenant in the covenant

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of creation, God made with the creature who bore his image, man, a true bond. This bond of the covenant

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of creation, God made with the creature who bore his image, that is, Adam. God made all of creation

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out of nothing and put it all under someone, that is, our first father, Adam. And under the covenant

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of creation, he gave him the dominion mandate, which is from Genesis 128, that is, be fruitful and multiply

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and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the

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heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. The creation covenant, the second

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covenant, great covenant that he has made that still endures today is the covenant of marriage.

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This bond God makes between the man and the woman, between the husband and the wife. And he says in

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Genesis, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Therefore, a man shall leave his father

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and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh, unquote. The covenant of

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marriage, by it we find fruitfulness and companionship and God gets for himself godly seed, as he says in

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Malachi. That's the second great covenant. The third great covenant, of course, is the covenant of

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redemption. Oh, dear brother and sister in Christ, this is that great solemn covenant by which we are

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saved. God the father has covenanted with his son to purchase and redeem a people for himself from among

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the lost of mankind. For example, we see this covenant reflected in John 17 in his high priestly prayer

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when Jesus says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you since you have

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given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal

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life. That they know, there's that idea of knowledge of God again, that they know you, the only two God

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and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, unquote. The third great covenant, the covenant of redemption

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without which there is no salvation for you and me. That fourth great covenant then that still endures

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today is the civil covenant neglected by preachers right and left. Do you preach this, dear preacher, the

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covenant of the civil law, the civil covenant? Here in the civil covenant, God rules the temporal affairs

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of men immediately through his image bearer, that is man. God doesn't sit on a cloud every day with his

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gavel yelling, hey, you off to jail, you a big fat fine, you off with your head. No, God doesn't rule

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that way, does he? He rules immediately through men and he expects godly men to rule as well. God first

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ordained this civil covenant after the flood. He says in Genesis 9, for your lifeblood, I will require

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a reckoning. From every beast, I will require it and from man. From his fellow man, I will require a

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reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God

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made man in his own image, unquote. The beginning of the civil covenant, God first ordained this covenant

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after the flood. And this was the first obligation of government then, outlined here, that is justice.

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To those who would be magistrates he commands, justice and only justice you shall follow, that you

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may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you, unquote. And this idea of justice is

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reinforced for us in the New Testament. Paul says in Romans 13, rulers are not a terror to good conduct,

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but to bad. He, that is the magistrate, is God's servant for your good. And this good is good defined

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by the Bible. That is biblical standards of justice and mercy. By what other standard will you measure

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the good, dear listener? By what other standard than the Bible will you measure the good, the bad,

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and the ugly? Dear fellow pastor, I'm speaking to my brothers now, fellow priest and servant of the

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most high God. We are under covenant obligation to strive after godly government. And if we are not

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doing so and preaching this to our people, then with us is God's contention. It is an abrogation

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of duty as a pastor to say, get him saved and let the devil take the hindmost. It is a partial gospel

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that we preach. If we do not preach sanctification of the whole man, including his obligation under the

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civil covenant to sanctify his culture, society, and government insofar as he is able. It won't be

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perfection. There never will be perfection in this covenant until Christ comes again, even as there will

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be no perfection under the civil, or under the marriage covenant. Is your marriage perfect? No, of course it's

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not. Neither is our dominion and perfect. It won't be completely perfect, but we are nevertheless

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obligated to strive to perfect it. Because we do not. Because we do not do this, we neglect it.

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My people perish for a lack of knowledge, and it's our fault, pastors. Knowing and fulfilling God's

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covenants is part and parcel of knowing God. If the knowledge of God is deep, personal, and intimate,

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as we say, a bond of covenant and obedience, then knowing and obeying his covenants is crucial

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that my people may thrive for an abundance of knowledge and not my people perish for a lack of

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knowledge. That requires, dear listener, dear pastor, it requires your pastor, dear listener,

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give your pastor this message. It requires that we engage with our culture, society, and government

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and not withdraw from it and keep silent about it, pretending that all we have to do is cloister

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ourselves in the four walls of the church and preach the gospel in season and out of season.

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We're not preaching the full gospel, the whole gospel, unless we are preaching the covenants

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of God. As it is now, we pick at faults and foibles, pimples and piccadillos, but we ignore

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the big cancerous tumor that's mushrooming in our gut as a nation. Pastors, we must call evil

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for what it is and the evil for who they are. It is part of the prophetic stance of the prophet

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pastor, part of the teaching function of the priest pastor. Right now, our people, including

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us, our fellow pastor, we are perishing for a lack of knowledge, wandering around in the

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wilderness of our civil society like sheep without a shepherd. This has not always been

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so. This is a recent phenomenon in the history of the United States of America, brainwashed

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by the separation of church and state, brainwashed about not soiling the garments of the gospel

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with politics, society, and culture. Oh, it hasn't always been so, though. The history of

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this nation, yea, of the church through the centuries, is indeed that the church has always

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been a prophetic voice, a prophetic voice to its ruling magistrates. That is, it has been

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faithful to the civil covenant in seeking justice and only justice. Dear listener, we will continue

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this in point two, in part two of our series here on the people perish for a lack of knowledge,

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for indeed the people of America are perishing for a lack of knowledge, the knowledge of the

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living God. And it's been in part mostly our fault, dear pastor, because we have preached

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not the full counsel of God, but only a partial message. Take up this message, dear listener,

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take up this message to your pastor. Dear pastor, take this message to your people, that indeed the

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people, rather than thriving with an abundance of the knowledge of God, perish for a lack of

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knowledge. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva

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Meets for Holy Worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.

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And you can call us for further information, for further feedback too, at our church phone,

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523-0196. Call me for further information for worship or for feedback at 523-0196.