Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to ask you, what did the prophet Hosea mean when he said, my people perish for a lack of knowledge? He spoke this to Israel. And then what does it mean for us in the 21st century in America?

It is cited from time to time, this verse, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. From time to time, you'll hear it from preachers and statesmen, commentators to lend weight to a more general point they're making that Americans are ill-informed. And if they only had the right information, that is, if they listen to the particular commentator in question, right, then they would have the right knowledge and be able to think right, vote right, and live right. But does this exhaust the meaning of this phrase? I would say no, emphatically no.

This text, Hosea chapter 4, verse 6, has never been more pertinent to America than it is today, but not for those above reasons. First of all, we must ask, what kind of knowledge is God speaking of? My people perish for a lack of knowledge. Sailors perished at sea from scurvy for generations for the lack of knowledge that they had a vitamin C deficiency. General Custer and his men perished at Little Bighorn for a lack of knowledge that the Plains tribes had gathered en masse for war.

Whole societies perished from famine for a lack of knowledge that they exhausted soils by failing to rotate their crops, among other factors, right? It is possible to perish from a lack of knowledge. Is this what God means, though, when he proclaims through Hosea, my people perish for a lack of knowledge? Is the lack of knowledge a bare ignorance of certain pertinent facts? And I would say no, emphatically no, and so would Hosea.

If you read this statement in its context, you know that the people are dying for not knowing the Lord. The knowledge that they lack is a close, personal, intimate knowledge of God. The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, Hosea says, to begin chapter 4, a controversy with the people. He goes on to say, there is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land. That's the knowledge for which they perish, dear listener.

This is the first and prior of all knowledge, to know the Lord. Do you know the Lord here today through Jesus Christ? This is that knowledge that America lacks, I submit to you. More and more we see this ignorance across our land, the knowledge by which in the lack of America perishes. America is perishing for a lack of knowledge, but for a lack of knowledge of God.

God can be known as a person, the person. It is ensconced in the Emmanuel principle, that is, God with us. Jeremiah 31 begins, the promise of the new covenant. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each other his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more, unquote. This sense of knowledge is critical to understanding the Bible. It is not a bare comprehension of facts. It is not a shallow acquaintance one may have with a neighbor. It is not a simple recognition of something you've seen before.

The knowledge of God in the Bible is deep, personal, and intimate. We know this from how knowledge is used in personal relationships throughout the Bible. For example, in the very beginning, Genesis 4, verse 1, now Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain. That's intimate knowledge. Or from Hosea 13, verses 4 and 5, I am the Lord your God, who delivered you from the land of Egypt.

You know no God, but me, and besides me, there is no Savior. It is I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought, unquote. And here that knowledge is reciprocal. God knows us, and we know him. And then from Matthew chapter 7, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

And then I will say to them, I never knew you. Depart me from me, you workers of lawlessness, unquote. That's the sense of deep, intimate, personal knowledge the Bible speaks of. The knowledge of God in the Bible is deep, personal, and intimate. To know in the Bible is to love so as to act in deep, personal, and intimate ways.

It does so, the knowledge of God, out of covenantal faithfulness and obedience, very important underlying principle. These are not mutually exclusive, but rather they are requisite. Deep and personal, and covenantal faithfulness, and obedience. This is the kind of knowledge that America lacks, the knowledge of the Lord. So when I use this verse, my people perish for a lack of knowledge, that's what I mean.

This is the prior to all knowledge. It is the kind of knowledge that politicians, and statesmen, and preachers, and commentators should have in mind when they use these words, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. We perish for a lack of knowledge of the Lord. It is the kind of knowledge that used to suffuse the hearts and minds of Americans, and so much so that even our founders could characterize us as a Christian nation.

George Washington said, and I quote, Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers, unquote. Oh, whoops, can I say that anymore? Facebook and Google would probably ban me for doing so, right? But it is true, we'd have more character in Congress instead of more characters in Congress if we did this. And this, despite our holy trinity of progressivism, which is tolerance, diversity, and radical egalitarianism, right?

Progressivism is tolerance, diversity, and radical egalitarianism. And once more, we owe the very values, virtues of tolerance and diversity and egalitarianism in their proper form and perspective to Christianity. Our founders assumed as a working principle that America was a Christian nation. So did entire branches of early government in reflecting upon the early colonial charters and their purposes, that is, that they were founded, as the Mayflower Compact puts it, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.

Well, the Supreme Court of 1892, in the case of Church of the Holy Trinity versus the United States, the Supreme Court decision tediously goes through charter after charter and concludes, and I quote, there is a universal language pervading them all, having one meaning. They affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation. These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons. They are organic utterances. They speak the voice of the entire people, unquote.

We are a Christian nation. At least early on, we were. An early American historian, Benjamin Franklin Morris, said in 1864, this is a Christian nation, first in name and second because of the many and mighty elements of a pure Christianity which have given it character and shaped its destiny from the beginning. The chief security and glory of the United States of America has been, now is, and will be forever the prevalence and domination of the Christian faith, unquote. Historian Benjamin Franklin Morris, I've only begun to document for you that indeed America used to thrive in an abundance of knowledge.

Now we perish for a lack of knowledge. Make no mistake about it, dear listener, that knowledge is the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is deep, personal, and intimate, and is bound closely with covenant faithfulness and obedience. It is to this knowledge that we must return. It is to this knowledge that we must cling.

But today, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. There is cause for this lack of knowledge. Hosea puts his finger on it too. Read the wider context. He says, and Hosea says, the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, yet let no one contend, and let no one accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest, unquote.

Not kings, not prophets, not pagan soothsayers, not radio commentators, no, but the priests of the land. It is to their charge that he lays the blame for the people's lack of knowledge. It is to them, the priests, that he says, my people perish for a lack of knowledge, because you, that is the priest, have rejected knowledge. Remember what we mean by knowledge now. I reject you from being a priest to me, the Lord says in Hosea.

Aha! Is your knowledge increasing, dear listener? Do you begin to see the fuller context? The priests were the teachers of Israel, the pastors of Israel, who were to teach the knowledge of the Lord. That's our job, men, fellow pastors.

To Aaron and his sons, the Lord said, you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses. He says in Deuteronomy chapter 33, in the final word of Moses to the Levites, he says, they shall teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law. By this knowledge of the word, the people would come to know God. This is how God works. Dear listener, dear fellow pastor, it's still true today.

Pastors serve this priestly function today. The priests of the land were those who not only interceded for the people at the altar of God, right? The Bible says they shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. So they were not only to intercede on behalf of the people, but also made the people to understand God's word so that they might then obey and come to know him. Good example, when Nehemiah called all of the returnees from Babylon to Israel to hear the reading of the book of the law, the Torah, who was it who exegeted the text?

It was the priest. Nehemiah chapter 8 verses 7 and 8 put it this way. The Levites helped the people to understand the law while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the law of God clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. Yes, it was the Levites, the teachers of the land who gave the sense of the text.

We get our word exegete from that word used there, giving the sense. That is to draw out the meaning of the text so that the people understood the reading. Behold the mandate of the priest under the old covenant, dear listener. Behold the mandate of the pastor under the new covenant. Behold the condemnation of Hosea to false priests, false pastors today.

My people perish for a lack of knowledge because you priests or pastors in our day, because you pastors have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a pastor to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children, unquote. The priests slash pastors of Hosea's day neglected their teaching, knowing function, that is, because they were too busy satisfying their appetites at the expense of the people. Hosea says, they feed on the sin of my people.

They are greedy for their iniquity. By this time, by Hosea's day, the people of Israel had lapsed into idolatry, even as America has fallen into idolatry, and all of the corruption and debauchery that that entails. And Hosea says that the priests saw it, and they were hungry, greedy for that very same corruption and debauchery. The wine, women, and song of the pagan festivities, and the worship that the priests pursued as eagerly as the people. What then was God's judgment against these pastors, right?

He says, it shall be like people like priests. I shall punish them for their ways, and I will repay them for their deeds, unquote. Oh, like people like priests. Oh, in our own day, it's like people like pastors. God's judgment against these false pastors was that they would become like the people they so envied for their wickedness.

It would be a punishment slash judgment, not a relief and reward. And this fate is exactly 180 degrees opposite of their role. They were to be leaders, not followers. The true model would be like priests, like people. The model at the time of Hosea, like people like priests.

Oh, Jesus was fond of telling his disciples this truth as well. Teaching is extant throughout the ancient world. He says, like teacher, like student, like master, like servant. And this he would do, especially when he wished to undermine the certainty of suffering, to underline, excuse me, to underline the certainty of suffering in their future. Oh, yes.

Like teacher, like student, like teacher, like student, like master, like servant. The true pastoral model is that of Jesus and Hosea, like priests, like people. Pastors are to be leaders out in front, brothers, sometimes halting the advance of the people when its direction is wrong, not following them in their error. Pastors are to declare clearly, this is the way, walk ye in it, not which way are you guys going? Okay, I'm right behind you, leading from behind, right?

We say we, we see where that model, the Obama model of leadership has gotten us, all right, leading from behind. You see where it gets the United States of America when her pastors lead from behind too, like the priests of Israel. For many of us, brothers, I'm talking to you, fellow pastors, it is like people like pastor. We are so afraid of offending too many people or preaching the whole counsel of God. Dear pastor, this is on us.

Rather than crying crocodile tears and wringing our hands and pointing the finger at the people for the sad spiritual state of the nation, perhaps we ought to look first to our own house, to look in the mirror. This is on us. God holds us responsible for this mess. The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. For with you is my contention, O pastor, we might say today.

Dear brother and dear listener, you need to exhort your own pastor in these things. Dear brother pastor, if we are not preaching Christ crucified, first, foremost, and boldly, then with us is God's contention. If we are not preaching Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, based upon scripture alone, then with us is God's contention. If we are letting the worldling dictate our worship styles, like in the seeker model with McMusic and McPraying and McSermons, that is insipid, comfortable worship to make the seeker, that is the unbeliever, feel comfortable if we're doing this kind of thing, then with us is God's contention.

If we are still preaching blood, moon, buffoon, balderdash, revelation, red heifer, rapture, rigamarole, end time prophecy with no end in sight, if we're doing this and preaching these kinds of eschatologies, then with us is God's contention. If we're not preaching God's true economy with man, that is his motive, dispensing grace and law, blessing and cursing, judgment and salvation, that is if we're not preaching covenant, then with us is God's contention.

And if we are not preaching the Christian's obligation under the civil covenant, that is to do all within our power to ensure godly culture, society and government, then with us is God's contention. God has dealt with us under four great covenants, which is his economy, the way he works with man, the way he deals with man, four great covenants, the covenant of creation, this bond God made with the creature who bore his image, that is Adam. God made all of creation out of nothing and put it all under someone that is our first father, Adam, under the covenant of creation.

Under it, he gave him the dominion mandate, that is be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. From Genesis chapter one, the covenant of creation. There's also the covenant of marriage. Number two, the second of four, the covenant of marriage. And this bond God makes between the man and woman, between husband and wife.

This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, Adam declares. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. By the covenant of marriage, we find fruitfulness and companionship and God gets for himself godly seed, as Malachi says, all the sweet and great covenant of marriage. The third covenant is the covenant of redemption. This is that great solemn covenant by which we are saved, the covenant of redemption.

Number three, God the father has covenanted with his son to purchase and redeem a people for himself from among the lost of mankind. He says in his great high priestly prayer, Jesus does, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, glorify your son, that the son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given to him. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Excuse me, there we have the knowledge of God again.

And then fourthly, the fourth great covenant that God has made with us is the civil covenant. Here, God rules the temporal affairs of men, immediately through his image bearer, that is man. He doesn't just sit on a cloud every day with his gavel yelling, hey you, off to jail, you a big fat fine, you off with your head. No, this is not how God rules. God rules immediately, that is through his intermediary, godly men.

God first ordained this covenant, a covenant that is forgotten today, ignored, swept aside, held in contempt. Even as one of my favorite old-timey preachers used to say, we're not going to soil the garments of the gospel with politics, right? Nothing but scorn and contempt for politics, when indeed we ought to be interacting in our cultures, our societies, and our government. Because we are under a civil covenant, God first ordained the civil covenant after the flood, when he said, for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning.

From every beast I will require it, and from man, from his fellow man, I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. From Genesis chapter 9. This is the first obligation of government, justice.

To those who would be magistrates he commands. In Deuteronomy chapter 16. Justice and only justice you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you. This is reinforced for us in the New Testament. Rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

He is God's servant for your good. From Romans 13. The idea of the just magistrate. That good is good defined by what? Defined by what?

Dear listener, is it the code of Hammurabi? Is it the communist manifesto? Is it the Sharia law of Islam? No. Good is defined by the Bible.

Biblical standards of justice, dear pastor. We must hold to these and command and commend these. Biblical standards of justice and mercy. By what other standard will you measure this good, the bad, and the ugly, right? Dear fellow pastor, fellow priest and servant of the Most High God, we are under covenant obligation to strive after godly government.

And if we're not doing so, if you're not doing so, I'm preaching this to your people, then with us is God's contention. It is an abrogation of duty as a pastor to say, ah, get them saved and let the devil take the hindmost, right? Well, hunker down, save a few souls, and wait for the rapture. No, that's an abrogation of your calling. It is a partial gospel that you preach if we do not preach sanctification of the whole man, including his obligation under the civil covenant to sanctify his culture, society, and government insofar as he is able.

Because we do not do this, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. Knowing and fulfilling God's covenants is part and parcel of knowing God. If the knowledge of God is deep and personal and intimate, a bond of covenant and obedience, then knowing and obeying his covenants is crucial that my people thrive for an abundance of knowledge, not my people perish for a lack of knowledge.

Ah, dear fellow pastor, dear brother, it requires that we engage with our culture, society, and government, not withdraw from it and keep silent about it, pretending that all we have to do is cloister ourselves in the four walls of the church and preach the gospel in season and out of season. We pick at faults and foibles, pimples and picadillos, but we ignore the big cancerous tumor that is mushrooming in our gut as a nation. We must call evil for what it is and the evil for who they are. It's part of the prophetic stance of the prophet pastor and part of the teaching function of the priest pastor.

Here, there is an implicit warning, dear listener, God judges and obstinate people by confirming them in their ignorance. That's happening to us. Sinners do not go on at their own timing and discretion, letting God know when they're done sinning, ready now for an accounting. Rather, it is God who decides when he has had enough and when he should bring judgment and what kind of judgment that should be.

Ah, Jesus said to them, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. Oh, those are awful words of judgment. Right now, our people, including us, dear fellow pastor, were wandering around in the wilderness of our civil society like sheep without a shepherd. That's us. It's not always been so.

The history of this nation, you hear the church through the centuries is that the church has always been a prophetic voice to its ruling magistrates. They've been faithful to the civil covenant, excuse me, that is, in seeking justice and only justice. Oh, just for example, brief example, St. John Chrysostom preached against the injustices of Queen Eudoxia, and he was persecuted severely for it. John Knox, during the Reformation, preached against the injustices of Bloody Mary to her face, and he stunned her into silence for a full 15 minutes. She couldn't speak.

She had never been spoken to so frankly before, and he was thrown into prison for it. Preachers in the colonies spoke relentlessly against the injustices of King George and Parliament against the American colonies and made the hanging list of General Cornwallis. On and on we could go. The Bible and church history are filled with examples of those knowledgeable of and faithful to their covenants, even the civil covenant. You must investigate this, Pastor.

Brother preacher, if we do not shake off these false notions of pacifism and compartmentalization of the gospel, oh, then my people will continue to perish for a lack of knowledge, and God's contention will continue to be with us. In order to be faithful, dear preacher, to our charge, we must do a couple of things. We must first fully awaken the people. We are right to call people to repentance and salvation in Christ. Awake, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5.

But as we've outlined above, that awakening involves the whole consciousness of the Christian life. All who are saved and entering into discipleship in the Christian life must understand that a crucial part of discipleship is how they frame, form, and fashion their surrounding culture, society, and government. Right now, the church is walking around in a hypnotic stupor, babbling about revelation, red heifers, raptures, and antichrists. Meanwhile, the beast is already here, ravaging the world, and all we can do is throw up our hands figuratively and say, God's in control, God's in control. It only means the rapture's almost here, right?

It's time for us to offer our people the red pill and show them the truth. Come out of the cloister and break the hypnosis of dispensational premillennialism, and look to the eschatology, indeed, of covenant that has served the church in her past. Secondly, we must hearken back to biblical models, dear listener. We here in the United States especially have a rich tradition of a constitutional republic. Inculcate, teach the American constitutional republic again.

And then thirdly, mitigate the ignorance of our people with true sources, true sources. Indeed, people perish for a lack of knowledge. And that knowledge begins with the truth of Scripture, but doesn't end there. The evil one deceives not only with bad theology, but also with bad information. Let us give our people good information, dear listener, dear pastor.

In any case, we have to stop here. But let us ensure that our people will no longer perish for a lack of knowledge. Let's bring them to the Lord and keep them true to their covenants. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship, and there is no lack of knowledge preached at our church.

We meet for holy worship on Sundays. Come and join us at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information and some feedback perhaps at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.