Testing 1, 2, 1, 2, 3. Test 1, 2, 3. Okay. Oh well, it's time. All right, looks like everybody's in. So before we dive into our consideration of God's word, let's open up with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we pray once again we come before the throne of grace and ask that the probing light of your word by the Spirit would penetrate into our hearts as we go through these verses before us. Father, help us to have understanding hearts. Ears that hear, eyes that see, show us our sin, show us how we can make amends and make corrections in our walk before Thee. Father, give us help in this time. Abide with us, protect us from error, and might we go away enriched in the things of God. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. If you have your Bible, let's open it up to the book of Hosea. We're working our way through this prophet, Hosea chapter four, verses one through five. We finally finished the first three chapters. It took a while, but we're making progress. In Hosea chapter four, There's a shift because in chapter four, we're going to leave behind the motif of Hosea's marriage. The first three chapters were depicting a marriage between Hosea and Gomer, which depicted the relationship between God and Israel. But in chapter four, we leave all that behind. We leave Hosea's marriage behind and we begin a new section that carries on all the way through the end of the book. with different words of woe and different words of hope, and they're all intermingled. And so with this one, God has a controversy with his people, Israel, and that controversy is set forth in the form of a prophetic lawsuit. And why do I say that? Well, the sins of the people are brought up, just like charges would be filed in the DA's office due to Israel's violation of the ethical standards by the words, no faithfulness, no steadfast love, and no knowledge of God. Let's read this in chapter four. It says, and I'm using the ESV, it says, Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery. They break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore, the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish. And also the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heaven, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Yet let no one contend, let no one accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day. The prophet also shall stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother. Well, those certainly don't sound like words of hope. They sound like impending destruction. And Thomas McCombsky, one of the guys that I'm consulting his commentary, he says this. Any civilization is threatened when a civilization is at risk, when it neglects honesty and concerns for other people. And Israel all the more, since her national security and prosperity depended on obedience to her sovereign. And we see that they had gone way far away. And so by saying that God had a dispute with the inhabitants of the land, Hosea intends to make the people know that God is going to be an adversary for them, except that they would seek, without delay, to repent and be reconciled unto him. You don't have to turn there, but if you want it for notes, Micah chapter 6, verse 2, says, for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. Well, what is contend? We don't really use that a whole bunch, but I thought, well, to contend is to strive against rivals. The sons are expected to contend for the NBA championship, but in order to get there, they're going to have to contend against the Lakers. They're nemesis. You understand. They're going to make a run for the championship, but in order to get there, they're going to have to contend with their rivals. And it's going to be a struggle. And so God is going to contend with Israel due to their sin, and true repentance is going to be difficult and arduous for these people because they've gone so far away that we'll see later in the book that their sins don't let them turn back. And so the word, that's what I wrote up here, the word controversy. It's derived from the word contrary, and both of those words have their root in the Latin word contra, which means against. And so controversy and contrary, both of them share the same Latin root of contra, which means against. And so what comes to mind? Well, I thought of Romans 10, verse 21, where it says, But of Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. You can think about it in Galatians 1, if we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel which is contrary to what I've preached, let him be accursed. And so you see this friction, and that's what God is doing with his people. And so there's a controversy. And really the message of the prophets is it had to be repeated over and over and over. And why is that? Well, because I think it's in due large part to the slowness and the dullness of the people's minds, just like me. I don't get it the first time, nor the second time. I have to be beat over the head sometimes with certain things, and that's why we have good wives, to keep us in check. But that's what the Spirit of God does too, does he not? And so, Calvin says this, men, men must oftentimes be awakened out of their slumber and stirred up. Why? For no sooner do they hear the message than a spirit of forgetfulness and sloth creeps in over them, and they go back and they indulge themselves more, one more time, and they soon turn aside to a different path. We may be pricked in the heart here while we're in the house with other people, but what happens when we're out there? Here comes sloth. Here comes forgetfulness. You know, we can't let that happen. And so, One of my instructors in this school that I'm going through, Brian Borgman, you might have heard of him. He had an interesting comment. He said, today in our land, there's many people that want the Ten Commandments posted up in our courtroom. They just don't want them preached inside the church. Unless, of course, you're going to be preaching a sermon of why they should be posted in the courtroom. And today, in many circles, as soon as you mention the law of God, you're labeled a legalist. And so what are we to do with not only the law of God, but God himself? If that's the case, I mean, do we just want the Ten Commandments in the courtroom but have no bearing upon our lives? May it never be. And so furthermore, I mean, chapter 19 of our 1689 Confession says that, this is why I wrote here on that second line, the same law that was written on the heart of Adam was reiterated in the Ten Commandments. And today the same law is written on the heart of man. Romans 2, 14 and 15. And so we go from Adam to Mount Sinai to today. And what does that do? That covers the whole spans of humanity. And what we see by that is we see that the moral law still has an effect upon our lives. You know, God doesn't change, His Word doesn't change, and so why would we expect anything different? He gave it to Adam, He reiterated it on Mount Sinai in the form of the Ten Commandments, and it still bears weight on us today. So this should be nothing new for people, and it should press us, it should come home. Question two in the catechism, we've all heard it. What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? Well, the word of God. That's the rule. The word of God contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him. You want to understand God, start with the law. God is holy. We are not. God demands. Well, can I do that within myself? Absolutely not. So that points you to the one that can. The law can act as a schoolmaster to drive you to the cross, and it should, and I hope it does. And so we need to understand, and I thought this was interesting, we need to understand the unique position and the importance of the Ten Commandments Consider this, why? Why do I say that? Well, they alone were spoken by the voice of God. They alone were written by the finger of God. They alone were placed in the ark of God. And they alone were accompanied by the terror of God on Mount Sinai. And they alone were inscribed in stone. Now, while the Ten Commandments were written on stone by God himself, the judicial law and the ceremonial law was written in a book by Moses. And so maybe that would be the five-solar rendition of the Ten Commandments, you know, spoken by God alone, written by God alone, placed in the ark by God alone, accompanied by the terror of God alone. inscribed in stone by God alone, got five solas. I'm just saying. I like those little things. Sometimes those analogies stick with me better than other things. We need things to stick. But I want to shift gears a little bit because I want you to use your imagination and come with me on a little Journey. Chapter four in Hosea begins what I think might be as a formal court proceeding might begin today. Consider the courtroom of heaven. Whatever your partially sanctified imagination will allow you to do. Consider the courtroom of heaven and what do you see? Behold the throne. A throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne, one like the Son of Man, with eyes like a flame of fire, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And over here, we see the 24 elders. They're clothed in white garments, along with the living creatures. And then we have witnesses. There's witnesses in the courtroom. 1 John 5, 7, for there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And then what happens? Well, a mighty angel, what might be called the bailiff in this setting, he proclaims, all rise, all rise. Hear ye, hear ye. The eternal court of the most high is now in session. The honorable judge, I am, is presiding. Your honor. The evidence and the charges have been considered, and let the record show that the inhabitants of the land have been weighed in the balance, and they've been found wanting." Wow. Jeremiah Burrow says, you think that pastors give a harsh word and set forth difficult things by bringing up the guilt of your sin? Just know this, that if you had to deal with God immediately, you would find it to be much more difficult. Amen? These old Puritan guys, man, they knew how to just bring it home. But anyway, what do we have in verse 1? Hosea chapter 4, verse 1. Well, we have here, I believe, the opening arguments that give support to the controversy, and they're composed of three aspects. Each is a sin of omission. No faithfulness, no steadfast love, no knowledge of God. Because you see it right here, verse 1, there is no faithfulness, no steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land. And if you drop down to verse 2, the catalogs of sins, it's imposing, it's daunting. As our brother Warren just read in the opening out of the confession dealing with oath-taking, These people here, oath-taking was false and insincere. People made oaths they never intended to keep. Society was rampant with killings, theft, adultery. And each one of these individual charges is a just cause for God's judgment. But when we look at the book as a whole, if you step back and kind of like pan out a little bit, if you look at the book as a whole, the key concern is that there's no knowledge of God. For genuine knowledge of God produces a character that will be like him in some degree. And the lack of knowledge is why we see the moral decay in the people of Israel and why there is a decay in the world today. Because they are so far away from what God is. And doesn't the knowledge of God have a restraining effect upon society? Kind of subdues men. The knowledge of God has a restraining effect upon a society, but when that restraint is lifted up, and that restraint is gone. And what happens? When that restraint is lifted and people reject God, they slide into moral decay. And that's what Israel had done. I'll turn over to Romans 1, verse 28, because there is a lot of similarities between the people of Israel in this setting and what Paul talks about in the New Testament. Romans 1, verse 28 and 32. We don't have to read all this, but we'll get the gist of it. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave him up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And it has all kinds of abhorrent things that they were doing, and that's what we looked at last week in the book of Judges. There was no king in those days. Everybody did what was right in their own eyes, and we see the same thing. So a man doesn't improve. Man just invents new ways to express his sinful ways. Read Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage? Why do they plot a vain thing? I know, we're going to have a world council over in Denmark and we're going to say that now God is dead. Save it. God laughs. And I'm just trying to pick out certain things that are going on in our world today because men hate God. They don't want to be restrained by God's law. But they're not on the throne. Creatures of dust made in his image. And so, the lack of knowledge is why we see the moral decay. But let's look at the specific charges. What are the crimes? What are the crimes that Hosea is gonna bring up? We've had the opening statements in God's court. Now we'll get into some of the nuances. As to why this is such a, on the surface, it doesn't really seem like that big of a thing. But if you look at the first charge, no faithfulness. No faithfulness. No faithfulness refers to a lack of that very characteristic that God shows towards us. Amen? It's the firmness and the reliability of a person that determines the trustworthiness of their word. We don't want to deal with people that lie. We don't want to have people tell us, oh yeah, I'll be there and pick you up and then nothing. We want people to do what they tell us to do. And God is the same way. God expects his people to follow the rules. And so, faithfulness. Faithfulness needs to be seen in all areas of life, but especially in the marriage situation and in the relationship of God with God that the marriage illustrates in the book of Hosea. How about this? We sing that song, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Is that you? What is man? Well, in man we have not only the shadow of turning, but a complete going the opposite direction. Even amongst God people, don't we sing that one song where it says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. We struggle to stay close, and that's why we need the abiding work of the Spirit working in us continually. Because left to our own, we're just gonna go and drift off into never-never land. And the things of God are just going to become like a distant memory of what used to be. Hosea 6, verse 4, he brings it out. Hosea 6, verse 4, he talks, What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. That's what their faithfulness was like. It's like the morning dew. It's there one moment, and then it goes. As soon as the sun comes up, it's gone. Faithfulness. Really important. But what about the second charge? No steadfast love. Steadfast. What does that conjure up in your mind? Steadfast. Firm. Solid. I think of the rock of Gibraltar. It ain't going nowhere. Mount Everest, firmly fixed in place, not subject to change. Hosea chapter 6, verse 6 has a really interesting thing. And this is God. Hosea chapter 6, verse 6, says this, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. We as people are steadfast in our love and devotion to those things that we think are the most important to us. We're steadfast, we're devoted to those things that pull on our heartstring. And we all struggle with it. Nobody's out of that reach. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 58, Paul says this, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. We need to be like that, just anchored. I mean, and I know we mean well. I know we mean well, but we, again, this life that we're in, this pilgrimage or this journey is plagued with all kinds of different things that are gonna cross us, and it's gonna trip us up. But we can't stay down. If we fall, we got to get back up by God's help. You know, they say, oh, well, you just pull yourself up by your own bootsteps. My bootsteps broke a long time ago. There's nothing to grab onto. I mean, we need God, the Spirit, working in us continually, and we need, and you can't do it, you can't rely upon the Spirit apart from the Word. The Word and the Spirit work, they're one and the same. You gotta have them both. And so we need to be steadfast. We need to be faithful. And by way of comparison, think about this. You look at an individual, you look at a man with his worldly affairs, You set him down amongst his carnal friends, amongst his carnal company, and you let them enjoy a lust, and man, doesn't time go by fast? It goes away by so fast, but you know what? It's gone before they know it. That's how fast they enjoy their stuff. I do that every Monday when I go back to work. I pull up to a place, I make a delivery, and it's like, wow, what happened to the weekend? I mean, I was just, Friday night, I was all in. I was just like amped up. I got the whole weekend. And before you know it, you blink and it's over with. Why? Well, because when people go and they have time to indulge themselves in what they want, it goes like that. But oh, how heavy does that same amount of time go while a prayer is being mentioned, or a sermon is going on, or even the Sabbath day lasts. To some people, the Lord's Day is the longest day of the whole week. And this is nothing new. This was going on back then. There's nothing new under the sun. The Lord's Day for some is the longest day of all the whole week. I mean, could you imagine if they would turn off sports? I think most of the people in this country would die. No, and I'm being kind of, you get the point. You know, the Lord's Day is the longest day of the whole week with many, and the heart says, when's it gonna be over? Amos chapter eight, verse five, it's a really hard little book to find. That's part of the problem with trying to study these minor guys is just trying to find their letter. And I'm serious. I mean, I'm not that good. But in Amos chapter eight, verse five, Sabbath breaking was a telling aspect of the attitude towards the law of Moses. And you go back and you look at Nehemiah. And these merchants were down there at the bottom of the wall. And they were like, they wanted to get in and sell their wares. And Nehemiah tells them, hey, back off. And if I come down there again, you're going to have to deal with me. The Sabbath is for God. You guys have six days to go do your stuff. Give it a break. And so where your treasure is, there your heart will be. And doesn't 1 John say, oh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And unless man is made anew by way of regeneration, he's forever going to be noted by no faithfulness and no steadfastness. That's just the way it is. What about our third crime? No knowledge of God. No knowledge of God. I purposely left off verse six because it talks about how my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, and that one verse alone would justify a whole series, but we're not going to do that. No knowledge of God. This no knowledge of God is not just mere theological knowledge only, but it's knowledge of what we may call his revealed or perceptive will. Oh, they knew God before. They probably had their memories when they came out of Egypt. But this lack of knowledge, I believe, is a lack of knowledge of his revealed or perceptive will. And God's revealed will, where is God's revealed will found? What part of the Bible? Well, it's contained in his precepts. Well, what are those? Well, that's just another word for his law. Precepts. I mean, you go back, Psalm 19, the law of God, the precepts of the Lord, thus saith the Lord. It's all kind of one and the same thing, but just different terminology. Psalm, I'll use an example, because God's revealed will is contained in his precepts in order that we may walk in holiness. God's law, you got two boundaries, don't do this, don't do this, go that way. It's a boundary, and it's for our own good to keep us in the straight and narrow as we try to live a holy life as we go through this world. And so, I only picked out one, Psalm 119, verse four, The psalmist says, you have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. God's law, God's precepts were given and he expects them to be kept with all diligence. So how are we doing with that? I don't know. I'm not God. We each have our own scorecard that we need to deal with. How diligent, how diligent are you in the pursuit of holiness? Well, again, I mean, if you go over to Hosea chapter 11, Hosea chapter 11 in verse seven, he has this. Hosea chapter 11, verse seven, he says, my people are bent on turning away from me. And though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them up at all. Wow, my people are bent, they're hell bent on turning away from me. What he's saying is, my people are hanging on to, they're clinging to. They're hanging on, they're bent, they're clinging, they won't move. What are you hanging on to? Are you gonna be like Lot's wife and keep looking back? No. We've spent enough time in the world doing all those things today. Press on. And so, their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. That's a scary verse. My people are bent on turning away from me And though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them up at all. What are we hanging on to? Well, their deeds do not allow them to turn back to God. And who, what famous person in the Old Testament do we see that happening to? That God raised him up to the King of Israel? It's Solomon. King Solomon, back when we first started this whole series, we were looking at the history of Israel. And what happened with King Solomon, it's, if you want, First Kings chapter 11. And it's a good way of reminding us because we all need to be on guard. First Kings chapter 11, verse two and three, it says this. From the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, you shall not enter into marriage with them. Neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. And it goes on and it talks about he had 700 wives who were princesses, 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. God expects his people to walk and pursue and to be diligent in the things of God. not to be clinging to some... thing in the world. And the thing that you might be clinging to can be a good thing within itself, your wife, your husband, your children. There's nothing inherently wrong with having love and devotion for those type of things, but we gotta be careful. I mean, our Lord said, you know, if you love mother and father and children more than me, you're not worthy to be my disciple. Man, that's a hard thing, Lord. But we need to be diligent. And really, James Montgomery Boyce has a really good little insight. And again, what are you clinging to? Well, I didn't list it, but there's a passage in Hosea where it says, and we'll get to it, it says that their deeds do not permit them to turn back to the Lord. And I think we have the same thing if over in the book of John, over in John chapter three in the gospel, John 3, verse 19, it says this, and we've all heard it, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his words lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." And what I was going to say is that James Montgomery Boyce says this, it says, it's not that men and women, it's not that they don't have any knowledge of God, but rather they reject it because they don't like the direction in which that knowledge takes them. Here's John, you know, the light came into the world, judgment has come into the world and people love the darkness. It's not that people are stupid, they just don't like the direction that the word commands them to go. I don't know, I'm not making it up, I'm just a guy, as we all are. But I'll get back to Hosea. Hosea is a fascinating book. I never knew how much was in that little book. And really, as we see Hosea and we see the people of Israel, we should see ourselves. Because they're people and we ought never to think like, oh, well, if I was in that crowd, I would be the one holding the charge. No, you wouldn't. We're, you know, we're not that different. We're not that different. But look at this, Hosea chapter four, verse, this is the third charge. Verse three, therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. The land mourns, and the people languish. That's why I wrote here, languish. Languish. What is languish? Well, languish is the thing that came to my mind, and I just made a correction last night, because we sing a song. Art thou weary? Art thou languid? Art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith one, and coming, be at rest. Languid and languish have the same root word, and I can't even pronounce it because it's Latin. If there's some other linguistic people in the house, langiri, I guess, I don't know. But languish and languid mean the same thing. It means to be weak or faint, to be sluggish, without strength. And so here we have the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish. Art thou weary? Art thou languid? Are you sore distressed? Here's the answer. Come to me, saith one, and be at rest. And so, this state of being in languish, I like comparing opposites when I do these little Bible studies. In opposition to being full of languish, Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31, I now flip over there, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31. And there's one of the hard things about trying to put a lesson together is because there's so many different comparisons that you can make, you just got to try to pick one and hope it works. But Hosea, excuse me Hosea, Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31, look at this compared to what these people were doing. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31 says this, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. I think you get the point. Those that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They're going to run and they're not going to be weary. They're not going to be languished. They're going to walk and they're not going to faint. But what happens is that the whole land, the whole land, the people in the land, the whole land suffers. The whole land is going to suffer under the curse and it goes back to the breaking of the law because the land was tied into the covenant And we don't have time to get into it all, but if you go back and you look at Deuteronomy 11, verses 13 through 17, there was curses to be upon the land, and it was all predicated upon their obedience to the Lord. We don't have time to flesh all that out, but it's there. Deuteronomy 11, verse 13. to 17. And again, you know, people say, oh, global warming, you know, global warming. God controls the weather. God controls the rain. Quit trying to inject man's remedies for a problem that man is doing. Repent and get rid of the sin and maybe God will bring forth the rain and water the crops. I'm just saying, you know, it's not that hard. And, you know, growing up, I used to watch documentaries about animals, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I'm dating myself. But I would look at these nations like Africa and India, and they had such abject poverty and malnutrition. And I remember going trick-or-treating for UNICEF with these little cartons and trying to get money for the children. I was really ignorant about a lot of things. Why did these countries have such abject poverty and they just had malnutrition? You see these little babies and they're all like skinny little sticks with a big old bloated belly. I think that's horrible. Why? Well, I think in part corrupt governments to be sure, but behind all that isn't, could it be, could it be that the people bow down to false gods in idolatry? I don't know. Maybe. And so the whole thrust of this message is highlighting the negative effect that sin has upon a land. Sin has a negative effect upon the land, and we dare not lose sight of that. Because even today, when perversion and violence are rampant, and that society will suffer, both individuals institutions, and then what we might call the gross domestic product. I'm just making some comparisons, looking back there at Mr. Cluck. Let me get back to our friend Hosea. Hosea chapter four, verses four and five. Yet let no one contend, let no one accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day, the prophet also shall stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother. While the people, I believe that while the people are the focal point of this chapter, the priest had the responsibility of teaching the people God's law, but they had failed miserably. They had failed miserably. The priests were supposed to be able to discern between the holy and the profane, what is good, what is bad, but they weren't doing it. They had given themselves over to blatant idolatry by worshiping the golden cow, and it just opened up a Pandora's box into all kinds of aberrant living. And so, if you want, we can reference one scripture and it's found over in Malachi. That's an easy book to find because it's the last one in the Old Testament before you jump ship and go into the new. Malachi chapter two, verse seven and eight. Malachi 2, verse 7 and 8, it says, here, for the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way, you have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts. And he goes on, so I'm gonna make you a despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your instruction. So the people, the priests were bad priests, but the people had just as much guilt to bear because they were culpable. I mean, you go back and you read Jeremiah, and they said, oh, prophesy to us smooth things. We don't want to hear all this judgment. Tell us smooth things. Peace, peace. There's no peace. And one of the things I want to bring out hopefully in my next lesson is that when somebody dies and they put that acronym, RIP, rest in peace, how can a person rest in peace if they never lived in peace? I hate going to these kind of things. Oh, rest in peace, bro. What the hell is that? Excuse my language. It's foolish nonsense. And so in closing, Again, I think there's some very far-reaching eschatological implications in all of this because God, if you go back and you read in Exodus chapter 19, God was to raise up a whole nation of priests, not just one guy, but a whole kingdom of priests, a holy nation unto himself. And we'll close with this. If you flip over to Peter, 1 Peter chapter two. I'm trying to minimize the bouncing around because it's kind of hard sometimes with the time that we have, but 1 Peter chapter two, verse four and five. And I could be going out on stretch, but I think it has some application here. 1 Peter 2, verse 4 and 5, talking about this priest thing. It says, as you come to Him, a living stone, rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. You can't do any of that without the knowledge of God. Without the knowledge of God, you're on your own, you're just making things up based on your feelings, the burning in the bosom, whatever the Mormons do, or whatever they want to call it. Stay in that same book and then flip over to verse 9 and verse 10, and we'll close with this. Peter says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That's the same thing that Hosea opened up in chapter one. I will be a God, you will be my people. There was this union, but as we saw a few lessons back, that's what God planned. I will be your God and you will be my people. I am holy, so you're gonna be holy. We know how it all unfolds. But I think this is where it's all culminating. God's gonna get his people. God's gonna have a priesthood of holy saints redeemed by the blood of Christ. Are you in? We gotta, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the revelation of your word, which is truly a probing spotlight into our innermost recesses. Each one of us knows what we need to do, but sometimes we don't do it, and we ask that your grace would compel us to make those changes. Oh, Father, how searching and broad is your word. It covers every aspect of our being. So Father, we thank you for this time. Thank you for giving us your word. And might we all do a soul inventory as we consider our standing before you. We pray all these mercies in Christ's name. Amen.