The Lord abides faithful and is committed to us. Even in our backsliding and destruction, God is with us and for us. (Hosea 13:9; 14:4, 9; Romans 5:6-8)

Speaker(s): Mat Gehret, Muhib Khalafala
Sermon 12255
6:30 PM on 2/20/2022

P. Mohib –

Good evening. Thank you, Pastor Schaller, for the honor. He called me this afternoon and asked me to share.
Just a little over an hour ago, my wife and I along with George Malouf who usually sits in the
back, we were in Glen Burnie. We met a group of Syrian men. They meet in a church every
Sunday afternoon and we had the Bible open. We had so much joy and so much laughter.
Here’s the shocker. I was preaching in Arabic! So now my brain! We had a white board. I would
write something and I would share about it.

P. Schaller earlier asked me what I would share on and I said God is faithful. I’m looking at
these men and saying God is faithful. They escaped a place and now they have this freedom.
We can just share and laugh and have joy and talk about subjective things. We had a little rap.
Things come out in raps. We just had this freedom to address issues.

I’ve been teaching in New Jersey about history lately. It’s fascinating to me. I see the
faithfulness of God when I look at the Old Testament. So I have a few thoughts from the book of
Hosea, and we’ll see how it goes. (Prayer). Hosea 4:1, Hosea is writing to the ten tribes. God is
using him and God has something to say to Israel, the ten tribes. I love the directness of God.
He’s so direct.

God is showing us through Hosea, he’s telling Israel, there is no mercy, no truth, lack of
knowledge. I love the honesty God has with us. He speaks to us. He’s imparting to us this
courage. We can be off with God. But the Holy Spirit through Hosea is saying to Israel you, as
ten tribes, you left Judah. You were led astray. You were taken captive by the Assyrians in 721
B.C. You really were without God, without a true prophet, without a voice for a number of years,
for decades. God has thought to bring these prophets. He’s sending them out. He’s so faithful.
Raising them earlier and sending them to you to bring a voice of reason. God is saying to Israel
and also to us in a way – I love the expression in chapter 6. We as people we can come when
we get subjective with God, with ourselves, we can hear a voice from the pulpit, from the Bible.
We can read a simple Bible verse and we can come. We can express this.

P. Schaller last Wednesday, he spoke about practicing our faith. This is a good practice. God is
faithful. He’s for us. He’s not against us. When we go off like in our inner lives, we can think with
him. I love this expression in Hosea 6:1. “Come let us return to the Lord.” I love the idea God is
not against me. I can come to him. He never left me cause the day we got saved, we have the
Holy Spirit. We have a lot of blessings from God. They are spiritual blessings. They are not
tangible. I cannot see them but I know them by faith.

I wrote the word “education.” We had a little white board with these Syrian men and I said to
them, we can be like Paul the apostle. Is Paul a learned men? Does he have a lot of
knowledge? And they said, yes. I said we can speak like a child, think like a child. Paul uses
these phrases and expressions in the epistle because he had gone through these things in his
life but he also knew the faithfulness of God. He knew God is the ultimate educator. He can
educate me in the ways of God. This is beautiful. Come let us return to the faithful God. I’m
adding to the Bible now! Come let us return to the Lord.

I sit in these seats just like you and he’s preaching, P. Schaller, and he’s preaching the cross to
me. God is turning me. Wow! But he’s also a healer. Israel, the ten tribes, and Judah they
completely missed the mark. They were under the law of Moses, under the covenant, and they
violated the law. They found themselves under the cycle of disciplines. The highest cycle is
captivity. Israel was taken to Assyria and Judah was taken to Babylon. They experienced the
highest destruction that can happen. The temple is destroyed. And in chapter 13, the same
book of Hosea, Hosea 3:9, let me rub it a little bit. God is speaking to them. You flat out sinned.
You are completely wrong. You are going to go through these cycles of discipline. You have
missed the mark. And this is a reality. No mercy. No knowledge of me of the Holy One. No
knowledge of me among you. And this is a reality. Oh, Israel, you are destroyed. This is
complete destruction but I love these “buts” in the Bible, these transitions when I need that in my

life. But your help is from me.
God is saying I’m transcending the law itself, the cycles of discipline themselves. Go beyond
that. He has turned us. We’ve gone through these cycles but now is the time, now is the time to
speak to you, to sing to you a song of love. P. Cannon and I are teaching the books of wisdom.
I’m looking forward to the Song of Solomon. I love this man. He’s an amazing man. Really.
Thank you. I love – but your help is from me. This is the faithfulness of God. Your not in the
flesh. Rom. 6 is done. You’ve gone through it all, seven cycles or six cycles, Lev. 26, 27. The
temple is destroyed. I’m sending these prophets with a far view. The future of Israel is secured.
Your help is from me.

We can ask the question just like them. What about now? I have experienced this destructive
lifestyle in my life, whatever they are. It can happen to us even now as believers we can go
through things, but the mercy of God is covering us. I love this expression.
In a way, God is saying to all of us. Sometimes we backslide. But he’s so faithful. Hosea, we’re
not leaving Hosea. I love this book. Hosea 14:4. The faithful God. “I will heal their backsliding.”
You’ve done it all. You’ve gone through it all. You were taken to Assyria. You were taken to
Babylon. The temple was destroyed, but now is the time to get back. Haggai, Ezra, Zachariah.
Let’s go back. Let’s build the temple. Let me heal your backsliding.

Let me read it, vs. 4. God is so objective. He does not like sin. He’s angry at it, but my anger is
turned away because Christ came. He came in our likeness. He called us brethren. He died for
our sins. And now the anger is turned away. vs. 9. Who is wise? This is to us in the church in
this age under grace. I’m not wise sometimes. We can have that confession with him. But we
hear Hosea.

These are written for our learning. I wrote on the whiteboard with these Syrian men. Let’s go to
Romans 15:4. Everything is written for our learning. We need it. I need it over and over again. This
kind of education, education from the Holy One. Who is wise? Let him understand these things.
Hosea 14:9, God is faithful. Let’s rejoice in that and meditate and have a meditation in our homes.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.

P. Schaller –

Wow! That was a message, wasn’t it? Wow. That was amazing. Janea. Second
grade teacher? Kindergarten. Wow. Tim’s wife. Amazing ministry. We sensed that, didn’t we?
The words. Wow! That was amazing. P. Mohib’s message was off the charts, wasn’t it? Wow. It
was off the charts. I’m crying a little bit. So we have P. Matt Gehret. Just welcome him. He’s
going to come and share.

P. Matt Gehret –

Good night or good evening! We can all go now. We’re good! Sorry, P. Steve.
Not really. Okay. Let’s pray (Prayer). So P. Mohib talked about God being faithful, and I have
one very similar word that we got from the marriage weekend this weekend and it’s committed
or commitment. God is committed to us. The three C’s of the marriage seminar, it was
Commitment, Companionship, and Communication.

When you get a call from P. Schaller to be asked to say anything from the pulpit, you
immediately start to freak out a little bit. And I’m on the phone and my voice is shaking. Yeah,
yeah. I go back to the first thing that I remember hearing apart from this morning and it was
yesterday and the day before. I started to think about those three C’s. Though we were talking
about marriage, we were also talking about Christ the entire time. I’m thinking okay. Christ
communicates to us. I’m kind of solacing, I’m comforting myself. Okay. Jesus is going to speak
to me so that I have something to say to you. Psalm 62:11 David says about God, “once has he
spoken, twice have I heard it. This power belongs to God.” God speaks to us. Jesus speaks to
us. He speaks through us.

Then companionship also. I was thinking about the Holy Spirit being inside of me, reciting that
promise I have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. I have God’s presence. If God is in me, then God has something to say. So we rehearse these things to ourselves as believers. It’s a great
practice. Rehearse these things to yourselves.

Then the word I want to speak about tonight is commitment or being committed. I want to start
in Romans 5. If you can turn to Romans 5:6-8. I have a few words that come to mind when I think that
Christ is committed to us. Romans 5:6-8 (KJV). In vs. 6 it says when we were yet without strength.
This phrase actually means in the Greek and think about your teenage years maybe or even
later on in life. It means when you just do not care. When you just do not care. When you’re just
going about your life day after day and whatever happens, happens.

I’m just going to live in the moment and that’s what my life is going to be. It says when we had
that sort of attitude in our lives, it says that in due time Christ died for the ungodly. And then
Paul reasons with us a little bit in vs. 7. But then he makes a very potent point in vs. 8. While we
were careless, carefree, going about our lives, doing our own thing, making a mess of ourselves
and other people, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. Christ is committed to us even
before we have any idea who he is. Before we have any clue that there is this supernatural
human being that came to earth and died for us, Christ already is like he took care of that Paul
is saying. It’s already done. You just have to hear it. You just have to hear it. Then God has to
speak it to you again through his power and it becomes real in your life.

The first word I think of is “adopted.” He’s committed to us. It’s says we are adopted. If you turn
to Galatians 4:4-6, think about this idea of adoption. While you are an enemy of God, while you are a
sinner, think of a worldly example. A man or woman goes to an adoption agency, goes to a
foster home, looks around at all the kids – all of them – and says, I want the worst one. I want
the one who misbehaves all the time. I want the one who never listens to you. I want the one
who just like kicks, runs, screams, fights. All of that. That’s the one I want. That’s what God is
saying to us. We are that kid when he adopts us. At that moment, that’s exactly what we are
like. We’re kicking and screaming the whole way.

P. Hadly gave a testimony this morning as he preached. It was amazing. He talked about the
first time he heard the Gospel. He was so angry by it. He prayed the prayer just to get out of
there and then it took two years to really understand what the Gospel was. Kicking and
screaming and running and just care free. Whatever we want to do, he adopts us. He says no.
I’m going to take you into my house. I’m going to bring you into my presence. I’m going to
conform you into the image of my Son. I’m going to renew your mind. I’m going to transform
you, translate you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. He adopts
us. He’s committed to us.

Second word I think of to speak about these things. His adoption, his dying for us in due time, in
the fullness of time in God’s plan. The second word I think about is “endurance” or “he endured.”
If you turn to Philippians 2, what all did Christ endure? Well, did you guys know that Christ was sitting
in heaven doing fine without us. He was sitting there with God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit, and they were having perfect fellowship all the time, just loving each other back and forth.
Everything was great. Philippians 2, what does it say? What decision does Christ make for us because
he’s committed to us. Philippians 2:7-8. Jesus is God, right? God is sitting in heaven, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and he decides I’m going to take on the likeness of man. I’m
going to be born of a virgin and I’m going to go through life.

I’m going to go through the whole thing, 30 plus years and I am going to take on death eventually. I’m going to take on death. He endures the same life that we live every day. He endured the whole thing. It says he learned
obedience through his suffering in the book of Hebrews.

More succinctly, in Hebrews 2:17-18. He took on all the same temptations. He took on every
hardship, every weakness, every sickness. Every single thing we deal with in life, he took upon
himself. Hebrews 4:15 says something very similar. Jesus endured so much through life and even
up until death. Luke 22:44, he’s praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and what does it say
starts to happen to him when he’s trying to resist the devil, when he’s trying to resist going
against the Father’s will? It says he starts to bleed drops of blood. He’s like enduring so much that his life is literally pouring out of him in that moment for us. Then it confirms this to us in Hebrews
12:2-4.

Can you imagine him in that moment in the garden speaking to God? Lord, take this cup
from me. Lord, remove this from me. I can’t do it. I don’t want it. All the while he’s saying,
nevertheless Lord. I’ll do it. Lord, your will be done and not my own. And he resisted until the
sweat came out with blood. That’s how much Christ endured.

And then obviously his death in Hebrews 12:2. His death. And that’s not where his commitment
ends. That’s not the end of the road right there. Okay, he died. Christ died. What does that
mean? Christ died for the ungodly. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t
resurrect. It doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t come back for us. It doesn’t mean anything
except that it says we are seated in heavenly places with him in Ephesians 2:6. Right now at this very
moment, if you have believed in him you are seated with him at this very moment. It says he
ever lives to make intercession for us.

So even after death, after resurrection, while he is seated at the right hand of the Father in Hebrews
7:24-26. Right now, he is making intercession for us. Believers and unbelievers alike. Sinners,
enemies of God. It doesn’t matter. Whether you are following hard after God right now or you
are carefree, careless. The prodigal son who goes off and spends all of his father’s substance
and does whatever he wants with his life, he’s right now praying for you. Right now committed to
you. Right now saying I have a plan for your life. I have a calling for you by grace for you to
receive if you just hear.

Maybe you don’t believe Christ is committed to you. Maybe your life circumstances have proved
otherwise or you think they’ve proved otherwise. Maybe you have a bent in life that makes you
think of God as some, I don’t know, master manipulator or something like that.
In 2 Timothy 2:13, it says this speaking of God’s commitment, speaking of his faithfulness. It does
not matter where you are in your mindset towards Christ. It doesn’t matter whether you think he
was God himself or whether you think he was like, I don’t know, a skilled teacher or great
speaker or something like that. He is right now praying for that person who doesn’t believe in
him. He is right now an advocate for all of us who are believers whether we are in good standing
that we think, or whether we think we’re being shunned or I don’t know. The different things that
we’re attacked with. The different lies that we believe from the devil.

He is standing at the right hand of God the Father right now saying my blood paid for that
person. My blood paid for their sins. My blood took away that dumb decision. My blood cancels
all of their debt. There is nothing else. There is just Christ standing there. God looking at Christ.
Do we think that Christ is committed to us? Do we believe it? If we don’t believe it, he abides
faithful. He is not contradicting himself. He’s still going to be faithful to us. He’s still going to
come after us. He’s still going to welcome us with open arms whenever we see him face to face
when you put your trust in him.

And then finally, in 1 Thessalonians to wrap it up. 1 Thessalonians 4, and I love this about the worship
song. The last worship song said this, 1 Thessalnians 4:16-17. Christ is committed to us. He’s coming
back for us. I love this last part, vs. 18. “Comfort each other with these words.” Comfort one
another with these words.

P. Muhib said tonight that God is faithful to us. I’m just changing the word. God is committed to
us. How does he show us his commitment? Well, in the fulness of time in Gal. 4, he sent his
Son to die for us. To die for who? All of us. All the sins of the world, 1 John. 2:2. “God so loved the
world he gave his only son” John 3:16, “that whosever believes in him.” It does not matter what
part of life you are living in, what your attitude is. If you believe in Jesus Christ, that death
means something for you. You now have a companion in your heart, in your mind, in your soul,
in the Holy Spirit because – okay. You don’t think God is committed to you?

You don’t think God is committed to you? When you guys go and you put a down payment on a house, what’s the reason for putting a down payment on a house? To what? You’re making a
commitment to purchase that house, to live in that house, to abide in that house for as long as
you possibly can, right? Okay. Now we’re humans. We default on loans. We mess things up.
We get kicked out. Things get foreclosed. They take things from us. Things go back to the bank,
but Jesus Christ is never going to default on his loan. God is never going to default on his loan.
In Ephesians 1:13-14, when it says he sealed us with the Holy Spirit. He sealed us with the Holy
Spirit. It says the earnest, down payment that he gave us. Let’s read it, Ephesians 1:13-14.

God himself gave us the down payment of the Holy Spirit to put inside of us, so that when he comes
back whether we are dead or alive, he pulls us right up with him. He’s committed to us. He’s
committed to you in your situation, whatever that situation is.
I’m also teaching the wisdom books on Thursday morning. P. Muhib and P. Glen do an amazing
job on Tuesday nights. And we just finished the book of Job. Can you imagine being in Job’s
situation if you’ve ever read that book? Can you imagine being the one who lost every single
one of his possessions and all of his children all within a matter of minutes. All within a matter of
minutes or days. I don’t know. Just one after the other, servant after servant after servant. While
he was yet speaking, more bad news. More bad news. More bad news.

But what Job learns in that book, what we all learn as we go through life, whether we start with
that care free attitude or that attitude where we kick against God like Saul was who turned into
Paul and became one of the most – he wrote like most of the New Testament. No matter where
we stand, what Job learns in that book is what we all learn is that God is real and he’s
committed to us, that he loves us unconditionally. No matter what worldly possession we lose,
he is storing for us an eternal possession far beyond all wealth, far beyond all rubies, far beyond
all gold, and he’s just giving us the opportunity to receive him by faith.

No where in the Bible does it say we need to be committed to Christ at all times. If it did, we
wouldn’t stand a chance. We would have no shot. If we tried to give God some sort of deposit
for ourselves, we would come running back for it to take it away and go somewhere else at
some point. It would happen to all of us.

But he’s never going back on that promise. He’s never ever leaving or forsaking us in Hebrews 13:5.
Sometimes we look in the Old Testament and we see these amazing things happen. He says
the same thing to Moses and the same thing to Joshua. And we think he’ll never say that to us
and then in the book of Hebrews to any believer, he will never leave you or forsake you, Hebrews
13:8, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He’s not going back on his
promise. He’s committed to you and that’s where it stands. Nothing will change that. Nothing will
take that away. So let’s pray.