Hopewell ARP Church is a Biblical, Reformed, Presbyterian church, serving the Lord in Culleoka, TN, since 1820. Lord's Day Morning, set your gps to arrive by 11a.m. at 3886 Hopewell Road, Culleoka, TN 38451
Read Hosea 10:3–15
Questions from the Scripture text: How will Israel respond to their punishment (Hosea 10:3a–c)? But why would they have wanted a king (verse 3d)? What have they done to the Lord (Hosea 10:4a–b)? With what consequence (verse 4c)? How will the residents of the capital respond (Hosea 10:5a)? What is Bethel called instead in verse 5b? What will happen to its calf (Hosea 10:5-6)? With what effect upon Ephraim/Israel (Hosea 10:6c–d)? What will happen to their king (Hosea 10:7)? What will happen to their worship places (Hosea 10:8a–c)? What will they hope to be covered by (verse 8d–e)? How long has Israel been so wicked (Hosea 10:9a–b, cf. Judges 19–20)? But what hadn’t the Lord yet done (Hosea 10:9c–d)? When will He (Hosea 10:10)? What would Ephraim had liked, metaphorically, to do (Hosea 10:11a–b)? What will the Lord chasten her to do instead (verse 11c–d)? To whom else will He do this (verse 11e–f)? What will they be “digging up” (Hosea 10:12)? What have they “worked at” before (Hosea 10:13a–c)? Especially by doing what (verse 13d–e)? What is coming upon them, as a result (Hosea 10:14-15)?
How does the church respond to judgment? Hosea 10:3–15 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that some in the church respond to God’s judgment in a way that just brings more of it, but His focus is especially upon the others, whom He causes to respond to His judgment with repentance that is met by His mercy.
The end is here, and the end is sad, Hosea 10:1-8. We have heard the final verdict and the sentence (Hosea 10:2). Now, we see the results. They know that their kingdom has fallen because of their sin (Hosea 10:3a–c), but their interest in a king was purely selfish: “what would he do for us?” (verse 3d). They are insincere in their covenant bond to the Lord (Hosea 10:4a–b), so their response to judgment breeds even more judgment, like weeds (verse 4c). In an age in which people do not realize that their church membership is a solemn covenant with God Himself, we grieve to think how appropriately verse 4 could be written about so many in the visible church.
The Lord cuts off their false worship, concentrated in the golden calf at Bethel (and its sister in Dan). They are so proud of it, it is considered their “glory” (Hosea 10:5e), and people and “priests” weep and wail for it (verse 5c–d). They thought they worshiped YHWH by it at “Beth El” (house of God), but the Lord has called the place “Beth Aven” (house of iniquity). When their idol is presented to the Assyrian king, the Lord will have humiliated their purported glory (Hosea 10:6).
The Lord cuts off their false government, concentrated in the king in Samaria. Rather than have the weight of honor to make an impact for them, he will be as weightless and helpless as a twig in a river (Hosea 10:7).
The Lord cuts off their false religion. As He destroys the worship in which they falsely hoped, they will turn to mountains and hills to hide them from God, but their iniquity (“Aven”) will continue to be exposed before God (Hosea 10:8). Just as nettles and thorns inherit their wealth (cf. Hosea 9:6), thorns and thistles will inherit their worship (Hosea 10:8c).
The end is like the beginning, which hints at the only hope, Hosea 10:9-15. “Gibeah” in Hosea 10:9 takes us back to Judges 19–20. How did things “get so bad” in Israel? From the beginning, their hearts were as Sodom and Gomorrah, and so were their actions, when unrestrained! One reason that their sin demands such a response is because it is the genuine expression of what is in them. This is true of us, too, dear reader.
And yet, just as the Lord had shown what that sin deserved in the battle of Gibeah (Hosea 10:9c, cf. Judges 20), He had also patiently borne with them for many generations. The word “two” in Hosea 10:10 has the sense of “double”; in His longsuffering, the Lord has waited until they filled up a double measure of their before bringing this chastening upon them. This has happened by their sin and what it has provoked, but it has happened even more so at His pleasure (“When I desire,” verse 10a).
Their will would have been threshing-floor duty, where they can eat while they do light work (cf. Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9–10; 1 Timothy 5:18). But He will give them, instead, field duty, where they have to do the hard work of pulling a plow to break up clods of dirt (Hosea 10:11). Indeed, this is designed primarily toward those whom He is bringing to repentance through this. They have been happy enough to work hard at sin (Hosea 10:13); now he will bring them to work hard in repentance, which is met with finding the Lord and His mercy and His righteousness (Hosea 10:12). For the purpose of doing such work in those whom He is saving, the Lord is fully willing to bring just and painful judgment upon the visible church (Hosea 10:14-15).
From where does your sin come, demanding God’s response? How do you respond when He brings chastening into your life?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us, for we have taken lightly our covenant with You. And in our church membership and worship, we have been in it primarily for ourselves. Whenever we have worshiped according to our own desires, we have thought of the house of our iniquity as if it were the house of God. Thus, we have gloried, spiritually, in that of which we should have been ashamed. But, You have given Your Son, our Lord Jesus, Who has been forsaken as entirely as we have deserved to be. For His sake, and by His grace, we pray that You would give us repentance. Take away the easy threshing that we would prefer, and give us whatever hard work is necessary until we sow righteousness, reap mercy, and seek You until You come and rain righteousness upon us in Christ, through Whom we ask it, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP51AB “God, Be Merciful to Me” or TPH433 “Amazing Grace”
Read Psalm 141
Questions from the Scripture text: Whose psalm was this (superscript)? To Whom is it addressed (Psalm 141:1a)? What is David doing? What does he ask God to do (verse 1b–c)? As/like what does he ask for his prayer to be received (Psalm 141:2a)? As/like what else (verse 2b)? What does he ask YHWH to do to his speech in Psalm 141:3? In what two ways? What does he ask Him to do to his thoughts in Psalm 141:4a? What will this prevent (verse 4b)? Under what pressure (verse 4c)? And what temptation (verse 4d)? What providence helps against wicked words, thoughts, and actions (Psalm 141:5a, c)? Whom does the Lord use to do it? How should the godly view it (verse 5b, d)? How should he respond to it (verse 5e)? Against what does he pray (verse 5f)? What will happen to wicked judges (Psalm 141:6a)? And whose words will they hear in that day (verse 6b)? But what is the current circumstance (Psalm 141:7)? So, what is David doing in such a circumstance (Psalm 141:8a–b)? What does He ask YHWH not to do (verse 8c)? And, positively, to do to him (Psalm 141:9, Psalm 141:10b)? And to the wicked (verse 10a)?
How should we pray when we are in danger of sinning? Psalm 141 looks forward to the opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these ten verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should pray against our sin as those who come to God smelling like the worthiness of Christ, confident that He will finish the work of making us to be like Christ.
Evening prayers. This psalm forms a pair with Psalm 5, bringing home to us the essential application of the morning (cf. Psalm 5:3) and evening (Psalm 141:2) sacrifices. The Lord has built into our daily habits oases of prayer. Never are they more necessary than in that Psalm, and this, when under the pressure of the aggression of the wicked. And David doesn’t just take from this instruction in what to do in the evenings, but encouragement in how his prayers are received by God. What a mercy, to know that the Lord is receiving our prayer as sweet incense (verse 2a)—all the more so, when we know that the Lord Jesus Himself is adding His incense to our prayers (cf. Revelation 8:3–4). This same Lord Jesus is answering our prayers for vindication with His powerful responses against the wicked in the earth (cf. Revelation 8:5).
Our greatest threat. Even though the wicked are attacking him (Psalm 141:7) and laying snares for him (Psalm 141:9-10a), David has identified a greater threat: his own words (Psalm 141:3), thoughts (Psalm 141:4a), and works (verse 4b). When we pray to be “delivered from the evil” (cf. Matthew 6:13, Luke 11:4), it is not specifically the evil “one” as our English translation has it, but especially that evil which remains in us. While Scripture teaches us that this is our responsibility (cf. Philippians 2:12), yet the biblical man knows that only by God’s grace is it a possibility (cf. Philippians 2:13). So David asks YHWH Himself to guard his mouth (Psalm 141:3), and to incline his heart properly (Psalm 141:4a–b). This grace is needful not only because of our inherent sinfulness, but because of the pressure to join the wicked (verse 4c), and the temptation to desire what they enjoy (verse 4d).
Blessed blows. The wicked are not the only ones in the earth. The Lord has those who are His, and it is a very different matter to be “struck” by them (Psalm 141:5). Not every wound is harmful. Some are kindness and excellent oil (verse 5). We should welcome the rebuke of the righteous, just as much as we shrink from the friendship of the wicked.
Confident about completion. All of this is prayed in the urgency of the evil and danger of sin, but not in the despair or anxiety of uncertainty. As David prays against both his and others (Psalm 141:5f) evil deeds, he does so knowing that even though the wicked have power and include judges (Psalm 141:6a), when they are overthrown, they will be hearing David’s sweetly righteous words (verse 6b). YHWH will not forsake our soul (Psalm 141:8). He will, indeed, deliver us from both the evil within us, and those who would see us fall into it (Psalm 141:9-10). He will complete what He has begun (cf. Philippians 1:6) and perfect that which concerns us (cf. Psalm 138:8).
What are your morning prayers like? What are your evening prayers like? What effect does it have on you to grasp Christ’s intercession “sweetening” your prayers unto God? How have you been treating your own sin as your greatest threat? What righteous have loved you with rebuke? How have you received it? What would it look/feel like in your heart to be praying for your sanctification with more confidence?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank you for giving us to cry out to You evening and morning, with Your Son, our Lord Jesus, Himself, offering incense with our prayers. Receive us, in Him, as sweet-smelling sacrifice. And work in us, by the means of Your grace, to guard our mouths, and incline our hearts, and form our works according to the character of Christ. By Your Spirit’s applying Christ to us, bring us safely to You in our worship here, until You have brought us safely, in Him, all the way home to You, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP141B “When Just Men Strike Me in Reproof” or TPH141 “O LORD, to You I Call”
Read Proverbs 13:20–25
Questions from the Scripture text: With whom does the one in Proverbs 13:20a walk? What happens to him? Whose companion is he one in verse 20b? What happens to him? What pursues sinners (Proverbs 13:21a)? What shall be repaid to the righteous (verse 21b)? What does the good man leave to whom (Proverbs 13:22a)? What happens to whom else’s wealth (verse 22b)? How much food is where (Proverbs 13:23a)? What does lack of justice cause (verse 23b)? What is he man in Proverbs 13:24a failing to do? What sort of action is this toward his son? What does the man who loves his son do (verse 24b)? What does the righteous get out of eating (Proverbs 13:25a)? How about the wicked (verse 25b)?
To what end should we aim our parenting? Proverbs 13:20–25 looks forward to the sermon in this week’s midweek meeting. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should live and parent as those who wish to be satisfied upon the Lord, forever.
In this little section, Proverbs 13:20-21 establishes the theme, and Proverbs 13:22-25 applies it, especially to what we do with our children, and especially through he image of hunger. One preliminary step to humbling ourselves under the wisdom of others is spending time with those who are wise (Proverbs 13:20), and the needfulness of receiving this instruction is immediately seen in Proverbs 13:21. Just as goodness and covenant love are hot on the heels of the believer in Psalm 23:6, the same verb tells us that evil is hot on the heels of sinners in Proverbs 13:21a. How very much we need wisdom! It is the difference between having an evil end and a good end (verse 21b).
And there are those whose end we have been especially assigned, by God’s providence, to care for: our children and our children’s children. Proverbs 13:22 teaches not so much a principle (that the good should try to leave an inheritance to children’s children) as a generalized fact (that, ordinarily, godliness is met with multi-generational blessing). Of course, this wealth is especially spiritual—as we remember, from earlier in the chapter, that God Himself (and the righteousness necessary for right relationship with Him) is true riches. This should be the godly’s aim, and hope, for his children and children’s children.
This is why the godly will not leave his children to themselves, or to other children. If, indeed, rod-demanding folly is bound up in their hearts (Proverbs 13:24, cf. Proverbs 22:15), then two things are true. First, the godly ought not to seek “peer groups” for their children and youth. This is to consign them to the fate of the companion of fools: destruction. Let parents instead be their children’s companions, and let them seek for their children other mature believers to be companions. In such good, multigenerational company, children of parents who are pursuing the same biblical wisdom for them may grow safely together in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and with men. Second, the godly must not only employ the rod, but do so instantly. Like their child’s life depends upon it (Proverbs 13:20, cf. Proverbs 22:15, Proverbs 23:13–14). This is what love does, when so much is at stake (Proverbs 13:24b)!
In the alternating verses (Proverbs 13:23, Proverbs 13:25), the reality and metaphor of hunger is used to illustrate the whole of godliness from the part of diligence. Those poor in Proverbs 13:23 are poor because neither have they been diligent to work their ground (verse 23a), nor have they been good stewards of what it produced (verse 23b). Untrained children exhibit this exact laziness and wastefulness. And, the parent sees in it a glimpse of what their children may be. Notice the imbalance in the contrast in Proverbs 13:25. The difference between the righteous and the wicked can be seen even in their area of focus. For the righteous, it is his soul that he seeks to see satisfied—and it will be (verse 25a)! For the wicked, his stomach is his focus (cf. Philippians 3:19), but even that will always feel like it is needing more (Proverbs 13:25b). The godly desire, for themselves and for their children and children’s children, to have everlastingly satisfied souls!
Who are your companions? Who are your children’s companions? What might change in your disciplining (or your being disciplined), if it was done like your life depends on it? How diligent are you in satisfying your stomach? How diligent are you in satisfying your soul?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for being our good Father, Who gives us both the instruction that we need and the discipline that we need. Grant that we might walk with those wise, with whom we too will become wise, and have our souls satisfied in You, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH119B “How Shall the Young Direct Their Way?”
Read Matthew 17:22–27
Questions from the Scripture text: Where were they staying (Matthew 17:22)? What did Jesus say would happen to the Son of man in verse 22? What would men do to Him (Matthew 17:23)? But what would happen on the third day? How did the disciples receive this news? To where did they come in Matthew 17:24? Who came to Peter? What did they ask him? How did Peter answer (Matthew 17:25)? Into where did he go? Who anticipated the interaction? What binary-option question does He ask him? What two options does He give? What option does Peter select (Matthew 17:26)? What does Jesus say about the sons? When He says “nevertheless,” as what does he identify Himself (Matthew 17:27)? What reason does He give for paying the tax? Where does He tell Peter to go? What does He tell Peter to do? Where is he to find the money? What is Peter to do with that money?
What is Jesus teaching Peter as they pay the temple tax? Matthew 17:22–27 prepares us for the sermon in the morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Jesus is King and God, Who freely humbled Himself to save us.
Jesus is the Son of Man, that glorious figure of Daniel 7:13–14 to whom belongs dominion, glory, and kingdom over all peoples and nations and languages. Yet it is this Son of Man Who is about to be betrayed (Matthew 17:22) and killed (Matthew 17:23). Even though Jesus includes the truth about His resurrection, the disciples are exceedingly sorrowful. This could be because of the fact that He must be humiliated first, or it might be because they don’t comprehend the certainty and glory of the resurrection. Whichever the case, they certainly recognize the great contradiction between Who Jesus is and how He will be treated. The kings of earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against YHWH and against His Christ (Psalm 2:2). They continue to do so today, even though He has been exalted above them.
Immediately, in Matthew 17:24, we see the hostility of the world against Christ’s Kingship. No sooner do they arrive, than the temple-tax collectors come find them. Truly, Jesus came to His own, but His own received Him not. That very temple was a symbol of Him Himself. Here He was, its fulfillment; and, rather than worship Him, they were hoping to get their half-shekel. How many have come to Christ to gain from Him what they desire, rather than to submit to Him and worship Him! Don’t you make this dreadful error, dear reader.
Peter knows Jesus to be perfectly righteous. His Master has never violated God’s law in all the time that he has known Him. So, of course, he answers that Jesus pays the double-drachma (worth half a shekel, Matthew 17:24). But he has missed the great contradiction. Just as he was sorrowful that they would betray and kill Christ, he should have been sorrowful that the servants of the temple did not acknowledge the God and Christ of that temple.
So Jesus brings this incongruity to Peter’s attention in two ways. First, He asks the question in Matthew 17:25. The kings of earth do not tax their sons, and the King of Heaven does not tax the Son of God. Sons are free. The Son is free (Matthew 17:26). He doesn’t pay the tax under compulsion. He pays it the same way that He goes to the cross: willingly humbling Himself. Jesus did not come, insisting upon His rights. He came, humbling Himself in order to save us. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (cf. Matthew 20:28).
The second way that Jesus underlines the incongruity to Peter is by highlighting that He is not just Christ but Creator. Not only did He create the fish at the beginning, but He rules the location of every fish in the sea, and every stater (a four-drachma coin, worth one shekel, exactly two men’s temple tax), and the path of the fishhook through air and in the water. The One Who upholds all things by the Word of His power (cf. Hebrews 1:2–3) is paying the temple tax for Himself and His friend! This, the Lord has done on a much grander scale, when He paid for the sins of Himself and all His friends (cf. John 15:13–15). Dear reader, believe into Christ. Give yourself entirely up to Him. You can have no greater friend.
What is the difference between how you would approach Jesus as someone trying to get something from Him, and how you would approach Him if He is your King and your God? How has Jesus humbled Himself for you? How are you willing to humble yourself for Him and for His church?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for giving Your Son, through Whom You made the worlds, and Who upholds all things by the Word of His power. Though kings and rulers take counsel together against You and against Him, give us to serve You with trembling and to kiss the Son. Thank You that He humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross. For His sake, make us to be those blessed who put our trust in Him, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage” or TPH280 “Wondrous King, All Glorious”