Dear congregation, if you think back over meals, then I'm sure you can think of special meals, special times as a family, special times going out for dinner, special occasions in which there was a special meal. Certain meals stand out, don't they? You don't forget them. But if the only thing you ever received were those special meals that you remember, you wouldn't be alive today. Because you need not only those special meals, you also need to feed day by day. You can also be thankful for all those many meals that you receive that you've long forgotten. Life has special moments, but also that ongoing sustaining, ups and downs of life. And so it is also spiritually. Spiritual life is not just static. Now I'm saved, that's taken care of, and I can go live my life. Spiritual life is just that. It's life. there are special moments in spiritual life, and there's also that ongoing sustaining in spiritual life. In our text it's especially focused on that ongoing sustaining grace of God's, and it uses the picture of doom where the Lord says, "'I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.'" Let us listen to this text under the theme God promises to be as the dew. First, to refresh. Second, to beautify. And third, to establish. God promises to be as the dew, to refresh, to beautify, and to establish. Children, you know what dew is, right? When you go out early enough in the morning, you look outside, you notice sometimes that, especially if the sun has come up, that the grass is sparkling. And it's sparkling because it's wet. And sometimes you just notice that it's wet. You walk with your shoes, and your shoes get all wet. Sometimes if you look really closely, you see drops of dew. Dew is that water that comes in the night, and it covers what's there on the ground. Sometimes there's heavy dew. Other times there's hardly any dew at all. You don't notice it. But dew can be very valuable. Farmers have told me that heavy dues, even when there's no rain, are still... enable the crops to grow. And if that's here, that's certainly so in Israel. Israel, in its summer months, would have prolonged periods in which there would be no rain at all. And especially when that east wind would come from the desert areas, it would seem to scorch up everything. And the sun would set. and the next morning the plants would seem to be revived. Why is that? because in the night often there would be that gentle wind from the Mediterranean Sea which would carry that damp air from the sea and bring it over the land in misty wave after wave, and they would settle upon the plants. This dew would come, and it would refresh and enliven those plants again to withstand another day. This dew was a great blessing for the people. When Isaac blessed Jacob, he said, "'God, give thee the dew of heavens "'and the fatness of the earth.'" Moses blessed Israel in Deuteronomy 33 with, "'Israel shall dwell safe in safety alone. "'The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine. "'Also his heavens shall drop down dew.'" The dew was an expression of the favour of God towards the people, His people and His promised land. And that's why when Israel rebelled against God, then He withheld not only the rain, but also the dew. Remember how Elijah had to go to Ahab and said, "'As the Lord liveth, there shall be neither rain nor dew.'" These years and everything began to dry up. No dew was a judgment. Dew was a blessing. But the text here before us tonight is even richer than those blessings, because here He doesn't just say that He will give the dew for their crops. He says He Himself will be as the dew unto Israel. What an amazing picture God uses of Himself and of His work at the end of this book. Earlier he compared himself to a bear that's robbed of its cubs. That's scary. Or it spoke of a other great wild beasts that would tear them, or a lion that would devour them. We read of Samaria becoming desolate and falling by the sword. We know soon Israel would be led into exile. We know that still today, Hosea's message that God is as a lion and a bear towards those who come against him is as true today as it ever was. God is a God of wrath. who comes as a lion to tear to pieces those who fight against Him. You can't win the battle against Him. No matter how hard you try, you'll lose if you fight against Him. That's all there in the book of Hosea. But this final picture here of God is God as the dew, so gentle, so life-giving, For whom is this promise so special? God as the dew. Is it not to you who are alive? What so wanted the dew? Not the stones. They didn't care whether dew came or not. But the plants that were alive, they so want the dew to refresh them. And so spiritually, for whom is this due so special? It's not for you who are spiritually dead, who just go through the motions, coming to church, perhaps even coming to the Lord's Supper, praying, reading the Bible, doing your life. But it's just the motions. There's no life. It doesn't mean so much to you that the Lord has to do to refresh spiritual life because it's not there. But how precious this promise is when you realize how dependent you are for spiritual life on God. that you've realized, you've found that in Him there is mercy, mercy to give life, to refresh life. Proverbs 19, verse 12 says, the king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favor is as dew upon the grass. It's the same king. And in this text, it's the same God, but He is so gentle. towards those who have found refuge in Him, mercy in Him. For those He's healed of their backslidings, made spiritually alive, He will never let one of them shrivel up and die in the scorching sun. He will continue to be the dew. He will be so by His Spirit. Often in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is compared to water, to floods upon a dry ground, to showers, and in this case, to dew. The Spirit comes with that life-giving power, but He also sustains that life. That's why, child of God, amid all the things that are bent on destroying your spiritual life, He remains the sustainer and the refresher of that life. At times you can feel like a plant that's under the burning sun and the withering force of that hot wind. You find yourself in conditions so hostile to spiritual life, whether that's in the midst of the world's temptations or the general spiritual condition of people around you. even in the church, or the devil's attacks, or your work environment, or your family situation, and you say, how can that spiritual life thrive? You can find the soil of your own heart so unfit for spiritual life. And yet you may confess with Psalm 138, though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. because he has said, I will be as the dew." Sometimes he may refresh in striking ways. Also at the Lord's Supper. He may overwhelm your soul with the love of God in Christ. He may fill you with all joy and peace in believing. Those are precious times, whether it be at the Lord's Supper or whether it be at other times. And if something of those floods of the Spirit were there this morning, refreshing you and filling you with the wonder of His salvation for a sinner like you. then what reason you have as you reflect upon that to give all praise and glory to God for what He's done in refreshing, in reviving so powerfully again. But it can also be that reflecting back, it wasn't that way. But notice here how the text doesn't speak of streams, but of dewdrops. Gentle, not with so much show, and yet something that has effect. So it is with the dew. So it is also with the Spirit, how He may work at times, that He quietly, more quietly, humbles you before God. He more quietly encourages you in the grace that is in Christ, and that he strengthens a desire for God that's also a blessing that you may trace back to him as the dew that comes to sustain spiritual life. And how do you know if you have been blessed at the supper? Is one way not that you desire more, more blessing, more refreshing dew from above, that you confess at the end of the day, Lord, I thank Thee for this food and drink, but also, Lord, feed me continually? continue to be that dew in my life, sustaining that life, refreshing that life, causing it to grow. You've been blessed at the Lord's Supper if at the end of the day you realize, I need to feed on Him day by day by day. The text brings out that daily aspect. Due came daily to maintain that life, sometimes heavier, sometimes lighter, but it was there. And far more faithful and continual is the Holy Spirit's work. In this promising God, in this God is promising that He will be as a due and it will be effectual. And so if he will be as the dew, that means he will also draw back to him time and again to receive from him. He will not only just secretly maintain that spiritual life, but he does so through means of directing back to him, of making dependent on him in order to receive from him day by day. If He will be as the dew that refreshes, then He also refreshes and comes with that life-sustaining and growing grace through those means that He has ordained, not only the Lord's Supper, but also that regular use of the Word of God. Where do you receive the dew? It's in His Word. As you open that Word tomorrow morning, as you open that Word tonight, as you open that Word together as a family, as you open that Word day by day, and as you read it, and as you also listen to things that expound that Word, or as you read books that further expound that Word of God, that's where the dew comes, that's where the refreshing comes. It's through His Word. And if He's saying, I will be as the dew, it's also through these means. And isn't that so important? Like we said about meals, that it's not just about this special meal and that special meal in some months from now, but it's about that daily feeding on the Word of God. That's also what we were saying from Psalm 1, isn't it? Blessed is a man who's planted by that stream, who draws from it day by day. Sometimes we want to become wonder trees that are like Jonas Gore that spring up in a night just like that, and it's all there. But God's way is different. It's that continual do day by day whereby He sustains and gives that growth in spiritual life. I will be as the dew. If you want something to get wet, You have to put it on the ground at night. You can't leave it inside. If you want the dew of the Spirit to refresh you, you need to be where He does so. I mentioned those private exercises, activities, but is it not also especially in the regular being in the house of God? Under those regular, ordinary means, that's what God uses. Calm as the dew to refresh time and again. He uses those means. Maybe you are not at the Lord's Supper because you feared you did not have spiritual life to be fed at the table. Then also those regular means of grace are all the more important for you. to be under the preaching of the Word, to be with an open Bible, because that's where He comes with His life-giving power. That Word is not only what comes as a dew, but it's also that seed of regeneration that works spiritual life. That's why it's so important to be with an open Bible, so important to be under the preaching, because God uses that to make dead sinners alive. Does that not make it so urgent? If you fear you don't have spiritual life, to be where He works it, and to open your mouth, and to cry out unto Him, and to plead His word of promise that He would work it, for He has said, "'The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live.'" But also, if you have been born again, how important also, after the Lord's Supper, not to neglect those means of grace. You know, it may not always be the same from day to day. And one day, you may feel more blessed by the Word of God than another day. But think again of all those meals. If you would not eat for days, things would go wrong. in your health. So also spiritually is that ongoing that God blesses. For he says, I will be as the dew. And really this is what God has promised. And that promise has been signified and sealed in his supper. I'm the one who feeds. And if he's the one who feeds and promises to feed in the time to come, then you may use those means with expectation in him to be what he has said he would be. And bless. Do you know of such blessing? Times when prayer is not just a dry routine, but that dew of reviving grace descends upon you as you kneel in prayer before God, and it becomes very real to you that you're speaking to the God of glory, the one who says, I dwell in the high and holy place. I'm the one who inhabits eternity, and I dwell also with a contrite heart to revive the heart of the contrite. Do you know of those times when God fulfills His Word of Deuteronomy 32? My doctrine shall drop as the rain, and my speech shall distill as the dew, as a small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. As you open the Word of God for yourself, that it comes with refreshing power. As you sit here under the house of God, that there's times you remember of how it comes with that refreshing power. Do you know times when you, those words that are so familiar to you in song, come with new power, come with freshness, come addressing exactly your condition of heart and directing you to God? Are these not aspects of the fulfillment of this promise, I will be to Israel as the dew? In Jeremiah 2, the Lord asks, have I been as a wilderness to Israel, one that just dries up life and leaves you dead? He says, no, here. I will be as the dew to refresh. And again, we ask, what does that look like? When the Lord comes as a dew and continues to refresh, how does that show itself? Well, the next part of the text tells us, he shall grow as the lily, and so the Lord will not only be due to refresh, but also to beautify. A lily is a common flower. You can see sometimes in this area day lilies, those orange lilies growing beside the road. You may have lilies in your garden, and many different varieties there are. Also in Israel, there were lilies that grew. They were not as common, but they were there, and they would send forth a sweet aroma, and their petals would go wide open for all to admire their beauty. You think of how the Lord Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Solomon, the most prosperous king that Israel saw, could wear the most expensive clothing made by the best of tailors in his realm. And yet, after they had dressed him in the finest of robes, and there was a beauty contest between him and the lily, the lily would be far more beautiful than Solomon in all his expensive clothing. The lily was a symbol of beauty. It was also connected with love, just like we connect roses with love. Now, God promises, he shall grow as the lily. Israel shall be filled with beauty. Isn't that amazing? When we think of who Hosea is preaching to in this passage, he's preaching to Israel that was outwardly prospering in the days of Jeroboam II, but had become a land full of iniquity, fallen by its iniquity, and all the sin that was there that disfigured them and marred them and corrupted them and made them revolting. And yet God says, they shall be as the lily This is the amazing thing. God had said earlier in Hosea, Israel is an empty vine which bringeth forth fruit unto himself. And what's an empty vine? It's worthless. But now they shall be as a lily. How can you explain that? Clearly, that's not thanks to Israel in any way. It'll never be also because of you or because of me that we would be a lily before God. Notice that it begins with what God will be. And flowing out of what God will be, there's what this people will be. Because He is the one who loves freely, because He is the one who heals backsliding, because He is the one who turns His anger away, and because out of that, He is the one who is the dew. Israel shall be as the lily. It all flows out of who God is and what God does. Maybe you hear this promise and you look at yourself and you say, me a lily? So unlike a lily. But where does a lily get its beauty from? Does a lily make itself beautiful? Does a lily stand before the mirror and beautify itself? Christ says, they toil not, neither do they spin nice clothing for themselves. They receive their beauty from the Lord. He gives them that nature of a lily, and He nourishes them with the dew and the sunshine to cause them to grow and flourish and bloom. Also spiritually. All a believer's beauty is from God, who heals that corrupt heart, changes its nature, and beautifies by His Spirit. He does so in the way of taking away all our own imagined beauty. Psalm 39 says, "'When thou with rebukest us correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.'" The Spirit teaches, doesn't He, that even though it may look nice on the outside, yet within I have no beauty of myself that is pleasing unto God. There's sin. Then before the beauty of God and the glory of God, then I have to confess, behold, I am vile. And in that way, He makes room to fulfill His promise, I will make them beautiful as a lily. And again, when we ask how can that be, then is it not for Christ's sake? Christ who came into this world and who failed His glory in a certain sense. And then Isaiah had to say, Isaiah 53, when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him, no outward splendor. The man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, rejected, despised, And yet, exactly there, He has such a beauty to the eye of faith, because faith sees the sin that disfigures me on Him. Him suffering all the consequences of my sins When I see Him as having no comeliness, no beauty, I see what my corruption has done, and I see Him burying it away. What a beauty in Christ is that substitute who suffered to purchase that beautiful robe of righteousness to cover His people with so that they may be beautiful in the sight of God. God gives that beauty of Christ. Christ is perfect spiritual beauty. There's not a more beautiful sight that's ever appeared on the face of this earth than Jesus Christ the righteous. Without a stain of sin, without a spot to disfigure him spiritually, without a single bad character trait, pure and holy, loving, kind, truthful, honest, caring, just, filled with reverence for God, filled with love to God, filled with devotion to God, filled to the praise of God. He was the perfect lily that flourished in the midst of all the thorns of this world. And He did it to be able to cover sinners with His perfect beauty so that God may see them as a lily. But He does more. When He saves you, He begins to work His beauty in you by His Spirit. What is the effect of Him coming as a dew and continuing to sustain that spiritual life and refresh that spiritual life? What is that spiritual life? It's a life that comes from Christ, that beautiful life of Christ being worked in you. The closer He draws to Himself, who is the lily, the more His fragrance begins to flow from you. And so when we read this promise that Israel shall be as a lily and compare it to Christ saying that the beauty of the lily is greater than all the greatness of Solomon, then we learn that there's a beauty to the Spirit's renewing, sanctifying work that can't be compared to any other beauty. There's such a fixation on outward beauty. but it pales in comparison to this spiritual beauty of the grace of the Spirit changing a young person, changing an older one to be conformed to Christ. To see the proud becoming humble. To see the self-centered becoming God-centered. To see the selfish become self-sacrificing. to see the stubborn become meek and submissive, to see the fools become wise and the spiteful becoming loving and the self-satisfying ones who thirst for God. And if that shows in their life, it's a beautiful thing, an attractive thing. And is that not also the purpose of the Lord's Supper? not just to have an experience for a moment, but that it leads to Christ with that desire to live close to Him. With this prayer, let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Lord, refresh as I do day by day. Feed day by day that I may be as that lily in the midst of all the sin that there is. Israel, I, Israel shall be as the lily for beauty. Is that your desire? This beautiful grace to fill you more and more. Is that what makes you so dependent on this Christ and His Spirit to come day by day, refreshing through His Word? But this would be the fruit. Israel shall be as the lily. Now, the lily is a picture of beauty. But there's also a limit to that picture of the lily, because a lily is also a picture in the Word of God of something that grows up, and it quickly fades and withers and dies. The flower of the field fades and dies. It seems so transient. But that's why there's a final picture here, and that's in our final point, the promise of divine due to establish. The picture in this last part of verse 5 is very different. The last promise is, he shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon. When we think of Lebanon today, we might think of Hezbollah and Muslim militants and other things that we'd rather not think of, dangerous things. But in the time of the Bible, Lebanon was a place renowned for its beauty. It had towering, snow-covered mountain, Mount Hermon. And Psalm 133 speaks of how the oil that was poured on Aaron's head ran down his beard and garments, just like the dew of Hermon descended down its sides, that those waters would trickle down the mountain, and it would nourish all the forests that were there lower down. Lebanon was known for its towering cedars and fir trees, and for its mountains. So all of that together was a picture of firmness. The towering cedars that stood perhaps higher than this sanctuary ceiling were rooted so firmly There they were to withstand the winds and the rains and everything that would try to destroy and topple them. They could stand tall because they were firmly rooted. Children, you can, this time of year, you go into the gardens, and your garden, and there's weeds, and you just pull up that weed. A bigger weed, it's harder to pull up. You really have to use two hands sometimes. But if you had come to a tree that's taller than this sanctuary, and your dad said, pull up that tree, you'd say, I can't. Can't even get my arms around it. It's there, so deeply rooted in the ground. It says here, they shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon. That means God will establish them in their place and keep them. from just toppling over and dying. And if that's not a powerful enough picture, then you can think of something even more firmly established, the very mountains of Lebanon themselves. Job speaks of the roots of the mountains. The roots of the mountains of Lebanon would plunge so deep into the earth. Those vast masses of rock went down deep, deep, deep. And that made them a picture of something that is immovable. But even all those cedars, they will come down, and all the mountains will be removed. Isaiah 54 says, "'The mountains shall depart, and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither the covenant of my peace be removed,' saith the Lord that hath mercy upon thee." God's grace is even more immovable than those towering cedars and then those very mountains themselves. And who so needs this promise tonight of being established by God so that you would not be overcome? Isaiah 54 addresses that promise to, "'O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest,' and not comfort. If you think you can remain standing simply because you've gone to the Lord's Supper, and now you will remain standing, then you don't know what to do with this promise. But when you feel your weakness, even after the Lord's Supper, then this promise may be such an encouragement to you. God himself will establish. You feel you can't weather the storms that may be coming in the future, the storms of Satan's assaults, the storms of the world's temptations, the storms even within your own heart. You don't know how to weather that. And you know that if you had to remain standing in your own strength, you'd topple. And you cry out to God. And God says, I will establish you. You will cast your roots as Lebanon. And what's that mean? Those roots are very important, aren't they? If you just had a tree without roots, It'd come crashing down. You put a big piece of wood straight up, it topples. You need the roots. Can I say the roots are faith? But for faith to give stability, that faith needs to be grounded in something. You can have roots, a tree with lots of big roots. But if it's all on top of the ground, what will happen? It'll topple over. You can take that tree with all its roots, and you can put it in the water, and what will happen? It'll topple over. Those roots have to go into something that's firm. And the firmness of the tree depends on the firmness of the soil that it's rooted in. And so also spiritually, it will cast forth its roots as Lebanon. Where is the firm ground to be rooted in? Is it not the Word of God? Is it not the promises of God? Is that not why the Lord's Supper is a means to strengthen faith? Because there God testifies of the firmness of that soil that the roots of faith may be rooted in, so that you'd be more and more rooted, not in yourself and not in what you do and what you say you will do, but in Him and what He says He is and He will do. The Lord has sealed those promises at His supper, because He knows how weak and unsteady His people are of themselves. And He knows how to strengthen by leading deeper into those promises, those I wills of God. I will. There's the stability. It's in Him. And to be rooted more in Him in that word of promise is to be rooted more in Christ. Colossians 2 says, "'As ye have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith.'" Nothing is more certain than that Christ is a Savior, and nothing is more sure than those who are rooted in Christ shall enjoy that grace of Christ." Ultimately, to be rooted and grounded in Christ is to be rooted in the love of God. Is that not what Ephesians 3 says? That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge." There, congregation, we come full circle to the text of this morning, where God promises, I will love them freely. At the Lord's Supper, He shows His free love in Christ. the greatness of His love that moved Him to give Himself as a sacrifice for sin. And how to go from the Lord's Supper other than to be rooted and grounded evermore in Christ, to draw more from Christ to Him alone. The Lord knows how weak you are. But he says, I will be as a dew to continue to refresh so that those roots may also continue and there may be fruit. The way to go forward is only looking unto Him. There's so much to be drawn from Him. It's such fertile soil. Christ is. He's the soil. He's the rain. He's the dew. He's everything. And that's why it's so essential to know this Christ, to belong to this Christ, because all life is in Him and from Him alone. Without Him, there is no dew. He's the dew. Without Him, there's no fertile soil. He's the soil. Without Him, there's no beauty, because all beauty is in Him. Jeremiah puts it this way. Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall inhabit the parched places of the wilderness in a salt land, and not inhabit it." My friend, if that's still your condition, you're not standing because only those rooted in Christ can stand your falling. If you're fallen, then he says, return unto me. Take with you words. Say, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. And the Lord goes on to say, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is, For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots, and shall not see when heat cometh. But her leaf shall be green, and shall not cease from yielding fruit." It's through that daily grace of God. And the Lord's Supper has been a seal of his promise that he will not just give grace at his supper, special time, but daily, daily he shall. That's why we prayed at the Lord's Supper, grant we beseech Thee, O faithful God and Father, through the operation of Thy Holy Spirit, that the commemoration of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ may tend to the daily increase of our faith and saving fellowship with Him. Is that your desire? Lord, that daily do. daily refreshing, daily beautifying, daily establishing. He says, I will be to Israel as the dew. He shall grow as a lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. Amen.