Thank you, Tom. Our text tonight
will be found in the book of Hosea chapter five Hosea chapter
five. And for right now, if you'll
just look at the very last phrase in verse 15 and Tom, I'm sure
you chose that him in light of these words, they will seek me
early. Now, I believe that's a reference
to early in the morning every day. The Lord reminds us when
we wake up who we are and who he is and sets our hearts to
seek him. But it's also in the context
of this passage. It reminds us of how the Lord
causes his Children to seek him early in the midst of their trials
and their afflictions. I've titled this message, The
Blessing of Affliction. And I prepared it, began preparing
it long before I knew about Mary going home to be with the Lord.
But in the last two years, I have sat with that dear sister and
grieved over the death of two of her children. She suffered the affliction of
the loss of two of her children in the last couple of years. Patricia reminded me that she
would come in and, like the widows might, she was usually in a walker
the last couple of years, and she'd make her way to that little
box in the back and put her little offering. I don't know what it
was, but she was just such a dear saint. And even when I sat with
her in the death of her children, she confessed her trust in the
Lord. And I was so blessed and encouraged
by her. It's what the Lord's talking
to us about here. It's what the Lord is speaking
to us about in verse 15 of chapter five. I will go and return to
my place, that's the Lord speaking, till they acknowledge their offense
and seek my face in their affliction. They will seek me early. Mark Rene's pastor back in West
Virginia, Scott Richardson, used to say, God keeps his children
in trouble, going into trouble, or coming out of trouble all
the time. And that's true primarily because
this world is trouble to us. it's trouble to us. The children
of Israel, and chapter five, speaking primarily to Judea,
the southern kingdom, which represents the church, were about to be
exiled into Babylon. And for the next 70 years, they
were going to spend in Babylon. And at the end of that time,
the Lord would bring them back rejoicing and they would build
the temple and reestablish worship and the absence of the Lord in
Babylon would cause their hearts to grow fond of him. If we see this historical event
as our experience in this world We were first in a garden. And with our father Adam, we
walked with the Lord in the cool of the day. And there was no
sin in our fellowship with him. But as a result of sin, We now spend three score and
10 years, 70 years of man's life in Babylon. And this whole world
in which you and I live is our Babylonian experience. And that
experience, and we know what Babylon represents and all that
it goes back to in the Tower of Babylon, man-made religion
and then taking it all the way to the book of Revelation where
the whore of Babylon is all the Christ-denying works, free will
religions of this world, all the God-denying philosophies
and systems of this world. We're just not part of it. We
can't be. We're exiled in Babylon right
now. And that exile is causing the
hearts of God's children to long for that day when they'll come
back, not to that original paradise, but one much better, one much
better. We're gonna come back and we're
gonna worship him as he ought to be worshiped. And as we want
to worship him, but as we, as long as we're in this world and
as long as we're in this body of flesh, unable to do. But the absence of his presence
causes our hearts to long for him. And the presence of our sin,
our participation in this world, causes much trouble. And I believe this verse is a
verse of great hope and encouragement for the children of God, where
the Lord says, I will go and return to my place. And they shall acknowledge their
offense. They shall acknowledge their
sin. And in doing so, They will seek
my face in their affliction, and they will seek me early. This word affliction is also
translated poverty, it is translated misery, and it is translated
trouble. Sin has caused life in this world
to be full of trouble for all men, for all men. Believers and
unbelievers alike live with the consequences of sin in this world. Disease, death, sickness, divorce,
depression, discouragements, all those things, all the things
physically and mentally are the afflictions of sin. We know that,
and we go all the way back to Adam's experience in the garden. Let's read a couple of verses
there. If you'll turn back with me to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis
chapter 3. These troubles that I just mentioned
are not just the troubles that believers experience. They're
the troubles that all men go through. In Genesis chapter 3
at verse 15, God says, after the fall, I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel. That's the first covenant promise of redemption. The seed
of the woman was going to be Christ, but it would be a long
time before that would happen. Eve thought that Cain was the
man. that they were going to be redeemed
and restored right away, but it wouldn't be so. The Lord Jesus would have to
come in order to crush the head of the serpent and deliver us
from the power and the penalty of sin, and one day deliver us
from the very presence of it. That's our hope. That's our hope. Unto the woman he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat
of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow thou shalt
eat of it all the days of thy life, thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field, and in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread,
till thou return to the ground, for out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." We can't even begin to imagine
what Adam's life in the garden was like before the fall, but
we can identify very clearly with what Adam's life was like
after the fall because that's what our life is like. We labor
by the sweat of our brow. Much of our labor produces nothing
but thorns and thistles. We suffer in childbearing and
in all the things relating to this world. It all came as a
result of sin. All men know by their own personal
experience what these troubles are. And we go to great lengths,
we go to great lengths to minimize the trouble that we have in this
world. save money to guard against the
potential downfalls of money, whatever it might be. The market,
we prepare for our future. We get sick, we go to doctors.
People go for therapy in order to get some sort of mental comfort. We do what we can to mitigate
and minimize the troubles that are in this world as a result
of sin. There is, however, an affliction
that believers only experience. And there's only one physician
that can be sought after to deliver them from that trouble. And I believe that's what our
verse is reminding us of. For the child of God, there is
a spiritual affliction, a peace, a joy, if you will,
a comfort, that comes in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ
that is lost many, many times a day. I'm speaking for myself. I find
my heart prone to wander. I find myself prone to worry. I find myself to not believe
God when it comes to comparing my feelings and my circumstances
to what I know what God has said. a thousand times a day I lose
sight of the face of the Lord Jesus Christ I set my affections
on things of the earth and the Lord as a result of that sends
an affliction he sends an affliction to my heart that the afflictions
of sin that the world suffers and in the flesh and in their
minds. This is much, much deeper and
it's much greater. It's the greatest affliction
that the child of God experiences is having the Lord withdraw the
awareness of his presence. At least that's how it's identified
here. But in fact, in fact, it's not the Lord that that is moving. We know that our God is immutable
and we know that he's omnipresent. We know that he never changes
and that he is always everywhere. And yet he says here in verse
15, I will go and return to my place. Oftentimes the Lord speaks
in language that we can understand. To understand immutability is
impossible for us to comprehend. To understand omnipresence, it's impossible
for us to understand. We believe it, we know it's true.
These are the attributes of God. But what does it mean? I don't
know. I don't know in my experience
what it means because everything in me and everything in my world
is constantly changing. And the fact that I have a God
who changes not, oh, I'm so thankful. That's my hope. That's the only
reason I'm not consumed is that he doesn't change. To have one
who is omnipresent. These are the attributes of God's
deity These are eternal matters that
cannot possibly be understood or comprehended by us. They're too grand for us. David
said in Psalm 139, when he was contemplating these things, he
finally just threw up his hands and said, these things are too
wonderful for me. I can't enter into them. I don't know what
they mean. I believe them. And so with that in mind, the
Lord oftentimes, speak of the hand of God, he will speak of
God seeing, he will speak of God hearing. He's using language
that we can identify with. It's kind of like what we do
when we speak to a baby. We talk to a child, a young child,
in language that they can identify with. And it might not make any
sense at all, to someone else, but you're connecting with that
child when you talk to them in baby talk. And that's what the
Lord's doing. I believe that's what he's saying
here. The Bible speaks of God repenting. God's never changed,
he's never repented. And yet, the circumstances seem
to us that the Lord changed his mind, that the Lord changed direction. You see, there's, well, we won't
get into that, Verse 15, I will go and return to my place. God
didn't move. He didn't leave us. He didn't
return to his place. But it appears to us that he
has withdrawn his presence. In fact, we're the ones who moved.
We're the ones who looked away from him. We're the ones that
changed. But here's the result of that. We lose sight of him and all
the blessings that come with that. We're not just looking
for peace and assurance and comfort and joy. We look for those things
by themselves and we can be fooled with cheap counterfeits. We're
looking for Christ. We're looking for the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the Lord tells us
in Colossians chapter three, set your affections on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not
on the things of the earth. The Lord's having to remind us
how oftentimes we look from there to here and we start walking
by sight rather than walking by faith. And what happens when we lose
sight of Christ? Well, we lose our joy. We lose
our hope. We lose our comfort. We lose
our assurance when we lose Christ. We lose our happiness. But oh, when he enters into the
picture, we can sit chained to the wall of a dark, damp dungeon
with Paul and Silas and rejoice in singing after being beaten
half to death, when he enters into the picture. What a blessing
it is. This is why it's not just the
afflictions that God sends periodically in his providence to rebuke us
or to chastise us, as the scripture speaks of. In Hebrews chapter
12, a father chastising his children Yes, he does that. And he always
does that out of love. And his measure of chastisement
is always perfect. But I'm looking at this verse
for myself in every experience that I have daily, as I'm so
prone to lose sight of him, to look away from him, and to measure
things by my experience and by my feelings and by what I see
in this world. And so the Lord says, till they
acknowledge their offense. You see, that's an offense. That's
an offense. Anytime I look away from Christ,
that's my unbelief. That's my sin. And as soon as
I do, he says, till they acknowledge
their offense and seek my face. And in their affliction, They
will return early. Oh, I'm so thankful for that
grace, that sustaining grace, that constant grace, that never
leaving or forsaking his children and always drawing them back
to himself and never letting them be satisfied with the things
that they're looking to for the hope of their happiness. We get deceived by it. There's
pleasure in sin for a season, but in the end that leads to
death. And that's not just talking about getting involved in some
gross sin that would destroy your life or your marriage or
whatever. Every sin leads to death. Every time, every offense, every
time that we find ourselves looking to the things of this world for
our hope and for our happiness, what does that result in, child
of God? By the grace of God, what does it result in? Paul
put it like this. I die daily. I die daily. I have to be put to death. multiple
times every day. Because my flesh will rear up
and think, well, there's my hope. There's my happiness. There's
my strength. There's my future. There's my
power. And the Lord will not allow his children to be there. He causes them to see early the
death of that path. He causes them to be discontent. He causes them to find no comfort
and no hope. Sometimes immediately, sometimes
he may allow his children to stay on that path for some time,
but he's got them all on a leash and they'll never go over the
cliff. He'll bring them back in his time and they will seek
his face and they will find him. early. Early. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8. Look with me in verse Verse 35. Remember our verse now. God says, I will go and return
to my place. That's what it seems like. But
in fact, we're the ones who moved, not him. And till they acknowledge their
offense, and they will, they will confess their sin. They
will acknowledge their unbelief. They will acknowledge their need
for me, and they will seek my face instead of seeking something
else. And they will return unto me. Verse 35, Romans chapter 8, who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? What of these afflictions
can possibly cause us to be separated from his love? This is the love
of Christ that sends these afflictions. David talks about that in Psalm
119. Before I was afflicted, I'd gone
astray, but now I've kept that word. Lord, you've sent this
affliction, whether it be just the daily conviction of sin and
unbelief and my crying out to him and my need for him and seeking
his face again and again and again, or whether it be some
some great need of turning from a sin. Nothing can separate me from
the love of Christ. Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long,
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. This is, the wages
of sin is death. There's pleasure in sin for a
season. How many times a day we take pleasure in trying to
find comfort and strength away from Christ. And then what's
he do? Nothing, that's not going to
separate you from me. I'm going to show you the death
in that. And you're going to die to it again. And you're going
to die to it again. and you're gonna keep dying to
it because you're in Babylon. And in this world, you will have
tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. I
know what you're going through. I've experienced every bit of
it to its infinite degree. We give in pretty quickly. The
reason why the Lord told us to ask him to lead us not into temptation,
because we know if we're tempted, we're eventually going to give
in. Lord, don't let me be tempted.
If I'm not tempted, then I won't sin in that. He was tempted in all ways that
we are, yet without sin. The temptations that the Lord
Jesus suffered in this world were carried by him to their
infinite end, and he never sinned. Well, we sin in our temptations,
don't we? He never did. And he bore the
full shame and sorrow for all of our sin at Calvary's cross. He knows. He knows exactly what
we're going through. Every temptation and everything
in Babylon that would draw us away from him, he understands.
He knows. And so he says, these things
will not separate you from me. You're going to have affliction. But then, you're going to acknowledge. You're going to, how does it
say? You're going to acknowledge your offense. And you're gonna
seek my face. And you're gonna do it early. Verse 37, nay, in all these things,
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. The Lord doesn't just deliver
us from sin, He uses our sin to reveal His glory and His grace,
where sin abounds, where sin abounds and it does abound. Sin
abounds in us as sinners. Grace does much more bound. So
even in our afflictions and in our sin and in our temptations
and in our trials, the Lord glorifies Himself and blesses us. blesses
us with His grace and with His appearance. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Now, in the book of Hosea, many
of the judgments that God speaks are to the northern nation, the
10 lost tribes of Israel. And once they were carried off,
those tribes were never reestablished. From 600 BC to this day, the
10 tribes, the 10 northern tribes were so dispersed and so lost,
they never identified themselves again with a tribe. Judah, on
the other hand, the southern kingdom, also called Ephraim,
remained together and faithful and remained a king on the throne. And that's the church. And this
is the covenant that I will make. A new covenant will I make with
my people, not like the old covenant. Those 10 tribes are gone. Those
represent all the unbelievers of Israel. I'm not saying they
weren't in In national Old Testament Israel, Judah, there were lots
of unbelievers. But you see the picture here.
You see the picture. The promise of God now being
made to Judah in Hosea chapter 5 is different from the curses
and judgments that God gave through Hosea for Israel, the northern
kingdom. He's saying of his people, Judah,
you're going to go into Babylon. You're going to suffer there. These afflictions are gonna be
because of your sin, but in your affliction, you will, by my grace,
and for my glory, and for your good, you will acknowledge your
offenses, and you will seek my face, and you will return unto
me early. What a gracious God we serve. Sinful as we are, he takes the
worst part about us and uses it for our good and for his glory. Tom, let's sing. 354. 354. Let's stand together.
354. Same tune we started with, just
different hymn. 354.