"DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE"

Hosea 4:6 I encourage the reader to read the book of Hosea in preparation for this devotion. The knowledge of God which the people lacked here in Hosea's writing was, of course, a knowledge of God by experience. However, even a knowledge by experience of God must come, first, from a knowledge of God's existence and God's Will as God has already revealed Himself. In other words, there is no way to come to an experiential knowledge of God except first to come to an intellectual knowledge of Him through His verbal and His natural revelation of Himself. That is, we must first know that He exists through the various proofs of His existence in both nature and His Word; then we must know what He is like and what it is He invites us to be, and what He promises we may become. Then, when we have trusted Him to be what He is, and able to do what He promises, and when we have done what He commands---it is then that we really begin to know Him as we ought to know Him! This Godly knowledge brings the peace, the joy, the forgiveness, the satisfaction, the fulfillment, the purpose and, ultimately the eternal life that mankind so desparately needs. As Jesus Said in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." However, to lack such knowledge of God through His verbal and His natural revelation of Himself, is to be lost in ignorance, despair, hopelessness, guilt, without purpose in this life and ultimately, eternal separation (death) from God. This should lead us to think of the terrible condition of the Gentiles described in Romans 1:18f when we see the knowledge of God being rejected. Paul says they "refused to have God in their knowledge"... "they exchanged the truth of God for a lie"..."and so God gave them up to serve the enslaving and degrading passions of their bodies." We are also reminded of II Thessalonians 2:10-12 where those who have no love of 'The Truth', God's Word, are given over by God to self-delusion and to believing a lie. And this is, for all practical purposes, the condition to which Israel had fallen in Hosea's writing; they were enslaved, degraded, and self-deluded! And so God has rejected this nation from being a priestly nation. God had chosen this nation for a special purpose, to be "a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). They were His covenant people but would not receive His blessing if they remained in an un-Godly, sinful lifestyle. They stood in a privileged position to both God and the rest of mankind. They were a "bridge" between God and all of creation over which the rest of mankind would eventually be reached by God through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But now, due to a lack of knowledge and sinful stubbornness, they were no longer fit for such a calling and God rejects them until they are purified and cleansed and made fit again for the bringing in of the Messiah. I encourage you, do not neglect the knowledge God offers in His Word. Study His Word to show yourself and others how important it is to be right in the Eyes of God.

IN MEMORY OF MR. ED BOUSMAN

In Matthew 28 there are three Commissions. Depending on the outcome, or on a person's viewpoint, all three of these Commissions could be called Great Commissions. THE ANGELIC COMMISSION First is the Angelic Commission. "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary as it began to dawn on the first day of the week came to see the tomb. There was a great earthquake, an angel of the Lord appeared, rolled away the stone, and sat on it, and the guard of Roman soldiers quaked and fell down like dead men." This earthquake was the most devastating earthquake that this old world ever experienced. The great earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 registered about seven and a half on the seismograph, and killed 3,000 people. This quake at the tomb of Jesus must have registered at least a thousand on the Devil's seismograph because it completely obliterated Hell for the Christian. Even though the angel's lightning-like appearance also scared the two Mary's, the angel assured them that all was well, and gave them a commission. This commission told them to tell the disciples He was risen from the dead. They were not told to tell anyone else, just the disciples. "Come see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples, He is risen from the dead: and lo He goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see Him: lo I have told you." Then it says they ran to tell them. Ran is the verb that describes the action the women took in telling the story of the resurrection to the disciples. What verb best describes the action of evangelism today? Is it run? No! Is it trot? No! Is it hop, skip, or jump? No! Is it crawl? Many times, Yes! That angelic commission is needed for the members of the Church today. The Church needs to hear again the death, burial, resurrection, and the scriptural response to the gospel because some are being brainwashed by the false doctrine heard over and over again that salvation is obtained by simply bowing your head and asking Jesus to come into your heart. The importance of being buried with Christ in baptism as Paul teaches in Romans 6 is illustrated in an event in the story of the death of Elisha in Second Kings. Elisha died and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. If a corpse touched the bones of the prophet Elisha and came back to life: how much more is it true, when we are buried with Jesus at our immersion into Him, shall we be made alive unto God who were once dead in trespasses and sins. Later on in the chapter Jesus repeated this commission and said the meeting in Galilee was appointed. The Apostles had an appointment and they kept the appointment. In the Angelic Commission we are reminded that Jesus has also made appointments for us as His disciples. One of the appointments Jesus has made for us is in the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day as taught in Acts 20:7, "And upon the first day of the week we were gathered together to brake bread." Why does the Lord's Supper become commonplace for many every Lord's Day, and the singing over and over again of the same line thirty times in a certain praise chorus seem acceptable? The appointment to the Lord's Table is always there whether anyone keeps it or not, Jesus is there waiting even if nobody shows up. Another appointment that the Lord has made with us as Christians as well as everyone else is in Acts 17. Paul told the Athenians that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained by the resurrection from the dead. That is an appointment that everyone will keep. This appointment is underscored again in Hebrews 9, "It is appointed once to die and then cometh the judgment." Then we must not forget a very personal appointment the Lord has made with us as individuals. Paul tells us about it when he tells of His historic meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus . Paul said, "What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise and go into Damascus ; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do." When we meet the Lord, does He not also appoint a certain work for each of us to do? Are we keeping that appointment? The angelic commission also included the statement that Jesus went before them to Galilee . When they arrived on the scene He was already there waiting for them. He always goes before us. He has already gone before us into Heaven as he is the first-born of them that sleep, and He will be there waiting for us. He has gone before us in temptation. He was tempted in all points like as we are and yet without sin. He goes before us in prayer. Jesus Himself said in the Sermon on the Mount: He knows what things we have need of before we ask Him. Always He goes before us. Remember, the Angelic Commission is preach the gospel to the disciples.