Turn, if you would, to the book
of Hosea. The name of the message is Just Judgment. Just Judgment. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book. Last week we looked at redemption
of Gomer by Hosea in chapter 3. It was just so wonderful to
see that, and it pictured us. She was on the slave block, and
she was purchased by Hosea for 12 pieces of silver. Or was it
15? Ah, let's see. 15 pieces of silver,
yeah. And for an omer of barley and
half an omer of barley. And it pictured Christ redeeming
us, though, with something of far more value from the slave
block of sin, which is his precious, precious blood. Tonight we'll
look at chapter four. We're gonna try to do the whole
chapter tonight. We'll try, we'll try. And we will see God's formal
court proceedings against mankind. And we're all born dead in trespasses
and sins, all of mankind. And we who are the people of
God are born sinners just like everyone else by nature, birth,
and choice. And we'll see what we've been
saved from, beloved. It's marvelous. It's wonderful.
It's absolutely incredible. And we've been saved by the perfect
sinatonic work of the Lord Jesus Christ in his precious shed blood. We will see that God has a just
case against the world. He has a just case against the
world. And this prosecution in our text has three parts in this
indictment. God is charging Israel with having
no faithfulness, having no devotion, and having no knowledge of him.
That pictures us in our natural state. No knowledge of him, no
devotion to him, and no understanding of who he is. No knowledge of
him. No faithfulness. So let's read
verses one and two of Hosea chapter four. Hear the word of the Lord,
ye children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with
the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor
mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Now these are the chosen
people of God. My. By swearing and lying and
killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out, and
blood touches blood. So here before us is an awful
account of sin. In some of the deadly branches
of it, we see swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing
adultery, and breakout, and blood, touches blood, murder. So this
is, these are just branches of sin. Sin is the main culprit,
and these are just branches of it. People who murder don't murder,
they don't murder, people say, oh, they're a murderer. Yeah,
they're a murderer because they killed someone, but the reason they
were murderers, first and foremost, they were sinners. That's the
first and foremost thing. Sin is the root cause of all
the branches of whatever it may be called. And we see here that the most
awful part of this sin is that it's against the God of Israel. Our sins are against the God
of Israel. Our sins is against the holy,
righteous God of the universe. And I read this the other day,
and I thought this was marvelous. You can't teach God's love without
his holiness. And the whole way we can be—
I marvel at this, because the way that we're accepted by God
is through the perfect righteousness of Christ, right? Through his
work. And God loves Christ, and He
loves everybody in Christ. And that love is a holy love. It's a righteous love. It's a
perfect love. It's an unchanging love. And so we can't separate
His love, though, from His holiness. So we can't be in his presence
as sinners, and yet we're made perfect in Christ. And as I said
in Sunday school, we're sinner saints while we're on this earth.
We're sinner saints on this earth. We're righteous in Christ, and
we're sinners still. But it's all forgiven, which
is just And as we look at this tonight, this is a picture of
us, too, before we were saved. This is how we were. This is
the pit that God took us out of, beloved. It's absolutely
marvelous. Absolutely marvelous. So again,
sin in any nation, and the crimes here numbered, are horrible,
wherever they may be found. But when God's people are the
first in the transgression, this makes sin exceedingly sinful. So marvel that even before we
are saved, God is faithful to us, to we who are his lost sheep. What a hope we have, beloved.
What a wondrous hope we have. God is faithful to us even before
we're saved. My, marvel at this wondrous salvation. We're chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And we who are the redeemed of
the Lord marvel at this fact, that we who are the redeemed
of the Lord are just as deserving for the judgment of God as anybody
else. And yet we receive mercy and
grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's amazing. That's amazing. And again, we're
gonna see the state that we were in where the Lord found us. My,
it's amazing. It's just incredible. So God's
charging Israel with having no faithfulness, no devotion, and
no knowledge of himself. And again, this is all of us
in our natural state, all of us. Faithfulness is what God
shows towards we who are his people, as his word is his bond. And do you know that he's always
consistent in being faithful to us? There's never been a time
when God hasn't been faithful to his covenant people in Christ. Never. Never. And you know, even
when we're unfaithful, he's faithful. Listen to this, I love this verse.
2 Timothy 2.13. If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful. Even in our doubt and unbelief,
he abides faithful. Listen to this, he cannot deny
himself. That's again 2 Timothy 2.13.
That's wonderful. I remember talking to Norm about
that, and he said, even when our faith is so low, he's still
faithful. He keeps us. He preserves us. My! Even when we were dead in
trespasses and sins, he's still faithful to us. Wasn't he, Brother
Jim? He carried us through all that. watched over us, didn't
allow us to destroy ourselves, but watched over us, right? My,
it's amazing. It's amazing. So he's faithful
to his people all the time. Those he chose in Christ, his
elect. Before we are saved and after
we're saved, he's faithful. Now let's look at verses three
to five of Hosea chapter four. And we see here that Israel is
showing no faithfulness to God. Therefore shall the land mourn,
and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts
of the field, with the fowls of heaven, yea, the fishes of
the sea also shall be taken away. Yet no man strive nor reprove
another, for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also
shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
So devotion or love means what man owes to God. Knowledge is
the experimental love that affects our conduct. Why do we not go
out and go crazy as born-again believers? Because knowledge
of our sin now leads us to love Christ more and not want to go
out and do that, although we're still sinners. We're still sinners. Tomorrow's message, I'm going
to teach on that. And part of the message is me
telling you and whoever will listen that I'm a sinner saved
by grace. And I still sin. And that's true
of all of us. But we're forgiven, which is
absolutely amazing. And the marvelous thing is Christ
came into this world to save sinners. Paul says, of whom I'm
chief. We all say that, don't we? Whom
I'm chief. Oh, my. My, look at this though. This is amazing. So our love
guides, our love for Christ guides our conduct. If each of these
three lacks is bought against Israel, devotion, faithfulness,
knowledge of God, then it's a just case for God's judgment, right? And it's apparent that of the
three, the most important ground of acquisition is failure to
acknowledge God, which natural men do all the time. And if you
notice some of the trends nowadays, and there's nothing new under
the sun. Remember, we think, oh, this is all new. No, no. Some of the trends is that they
forget God. They forget, they don't even
include him in what they're talking about. You know, I recently talked
to someone about AI and they're all freaked out about AI taking
over the world and all this. Well, they don't even mention
God. And I said to the person, God's
in control. Nothing's going to happen without
God allowing it to happen. And AI is actually being harnessed
for good by Sermon Audio. They've transcribed all the sermons
on the web page, which is over millions of sermons. And now
they're going to use AI to take the messages that we gospel preachers
preach and have them spoken in all different languages. So Russian
people can hear it in Russian. Chinese people will be able to
hear it in Mandarin or all the different dialects. Isn't that
amazing? So they're harnessing AI for good, for God's glory. That's wonderful. It's wonderful. And God desires to be acknowledged.
He desires to be worshipped, doesn't he? He desires that. And God commands men to acknowledge
Him. Turn, if you would, over to chapter
13 of the book of Hosea. Chapter 13. And we'll look at
verse 4 of Hosea chapter 13. Yet I am the Lord thy God from
the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me. for there
is no Savior beside me." That's speaking of our King, isn't it?
That's speaking of Christ. There's no other God. God the
Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. That's the only
true living God. My, I love that. Thou shalt know
no God but me, for there is no Savior. Look at how to the point
that is. There's no Savior. beside me."
Now, this is before the Lord even comes to earth. Was He not the Savior of the
elect in the Old Testament? Oh yeah, and the Deliverer. Did
He not deliver Israel out of Egypt's bondage. It's a picture
of us being delivered out of the world. Oh my! He's so faithful,
isn't he? Even when the people are unfaithful,
he's faithful. Oh, it's wonderful. I love it.
I love it. I see myself in this text there. Yet in spite of God's command,
look at verse 4, Yet I am the Lord, again in chapter 13, I
am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt
know no God but me, for there is no Savior beside me. See,
we see in the text God expressing that he is the only true God,
and yet Israel refused to acknowledge him at this point. They had went
after false gods. And so what he's telling them
is all those false gods, Baal and all those other false gods,
they can't do anything. He's the one Savior. He's the
true Savior. And isn't it amazing that he
just didn't destroy them all? But they're a picture of God's
elect, aren't they? So he's going to be faithful to them. It's
wonderful! It's so wonderful. Oh. So how true is this of our of
us in our own state we don't Israel refused to acknowledge
him She claimed to acknowledge him right she claimed. I know
God. Oh, I know remember the Pharisees. Oh, we know God. We're
Abraham's kin and Then the Lord says well before Abraham was
I am and they they hated it the fact that he said that and And
he says, didn't he say in a point too, I'm gonna paraphrase it,
but he said, basically, if you were Abraham's children, you
would listen to what I'm saying. Oh my, my. So Abraham's children is spiritual
Israel. And our sin, just like Israel,
kept us from a true acknowledgement of God. Remember us in our natural
state. We were dark in sin, dead in
trespasses and sins, so it kept us from a knowledge of God. We
can't, now we formed up, I formed up a God of my imagination and
said, well, am I good or am I bad? And then God, that's not the
God of the Bible at all. I thought I knew God. I found
out I didn't know God at all. My, but that's what happens. And we're blinded. And we see
in the text that Israel, even Israel is blind to God's goodness.
Look over there. Let's turn a couple places here.
Here's some text from this book which brings us back. Look at
Hosea 2, verse 8. Hosea 2, verse 8. We'll look
at a couple places here where we're going to see that Israel
did not know the God, our great God. Look at verse 8. For she
did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and
multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Just like us in our lost state. He provided for us, and we didn't
acknowledge him. Not at all. See, it's such a
picture, isn't it, beloved? And then look at Hosea 4, 6.
It says this. My people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge. I will also
reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou
hast forgotten the law of God. I will also forget thy children.
My. Now look over in chapter five,
verse four. They will not frame their doings
to turn unto God. That's us in our natural state,
beloved. Remember we have to be made willing, we have to be
turned? Oh my. They shall not frame their doings
to turn unto their God, for the spirit of whoredoms is in the
midst of them, and they have not known the Lord. That's again
us in our natural state. And then Hosea chapter 11, Verse
one, see this is, it just keeps being brought up that Israel
has no knowledge of God. Look at this, but God, remember,
God's still faithful. It's just amazing. Oh, look at
verse one of chapter 11. When Israel was a child, then
I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. My, oh my. So he knows them, but they don't
know him. Again, what a picture of us. And I admit that before, I may
not have been bound down to idols, but I was bound down to statues,
which were idols, actually. But even when I came out of that,
and I was into all kinds of other stuff, I might say to myself,
well, I wasn't bound down to, well, yeah, I was. I was following the false gods
of the world. The taperings of the world. My,
oh my. And that's where God found us,
isn't it, Brother Jim? That's where he found us. Just wandering
around in the world, dead in trespasses and sins, drinking
sin like water. My, what a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. It's absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. Love to God. We are Gomer. in our natural
state. We chased after false gods. We
committed spiritual whoredom. And we did not know that as the
lost sheep of God, he was watching over us the whole time. That
still amazes me. I'll be honest with you. That's
one of the things that just Knocks my socks off to think that when
I was dead in trespasses, I had no clue who God was. He's still
watching over me. What a comfort. And he's still
watching over us, isn't he? My dear brother and sister. He's
still watching over us. He's not taking his eyes off
his people. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh my, it's wonderful. He preserves
us and keeps us from trouble and trials. Well, not trials,
we go through trials, but certain circumstances that would have
caused us a major harm or may have even ruined us. And he kept
us from that. Now to know God in a real way,
that's the greatest blessing to the ancient Jew, to know God,
to really know God, to really know. And we know that comes
by revelation, right? He has to reveal himself to us.
And He gives us faith, we're born again, He gives us faith
to believe on Him, just like Old Testament and New Testament
saints saved the same way. You must be born again. My, and
then look to Christ. But that was one of the greatest
blessings for the Old Testament Jew, to know Christ, to know
God, who He really was. And to know that idol worship
was one of the greatest sins one could commit. People, they
list, do you ever notice how people list categories, but they
never list idol worship? Because they don't think there
are worship and idols. But yet that's one of the greatest
sins that a man can commit, is idol worship. But sin is sin,
really, though, isn't it? Whether we lie or steal or, you
know. But idol worship is singled out
in the scriptures. It's wickedness. It's wickedness.
Because it denies the one true, living God. That's where God
found us, beloved. Look at verses six to seven.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. There's that lack
of knowledge we were talking about. Because thou has rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee. That thou shall be no priest
to me, seeing thou has forgotten the law of God, I will also forget
thy children. As they were increased, so they
sinned against me. Therefore will I change their
glory into shame. So here's Hosea, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, bringing an indictment against Israel
in chapter four. And here's the same argument. Do you know this is the same
argument that Paul used in Romans chapter one? Turn if you would
to Romans chapter one. Oh my. We will see in Romans
chapter one, verses 18 to 25, then we'll look at a few more
verses. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, God the Holy
Spirit will bring forth through the pen of Paul that all men
and women have departed from God in our natural state. We're
born dead in trespasses and sins. And you know, we're aware that
we've turned away from God. We do it naturally. What we do is we suppress the
truth and want nothing to do with God. Nothing. But then, it sure changes
when we're born again. Now we want to learn more about
Christ! Tell me about my King! But in
our natural state, we suppress the knowledge of God. Not that
we can come to it by ourselves, it has to be revealed, but we
just don't want anything to do with God. Just don't want anything
to do with Him. So when we fell on Adam, we fell
into total depravity. Total sinfulness. My so the problem
with natural men and women is they suppress the truth they
suppress the truth and They're condemned because of this It's not that men and women have
no knowledge of God at all look in the world look at the sky
Look at the night skies. Find somewhere where there's
no light and look up and see that Milky Way and it just takes
your breath away. Somebody created that. And that's what tells us. Even creation tells us there's
a creator. Now it can't bring us to the
saving knowledge of that creator, but it tells us. You know, I
think it's David says that the words are spoken every day. Every
day, that there's a creator. Now, the question is, how can
a man be just with God? And that's only in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. So men are without excuse. Men and women are without excuse.
They've rejected God. And they have a sense of the
all-powerful God, and that he has a rightful claim over them.
But they do not want to acknowledge this claim. They reject him. They suppress their knowledge.
And this is even in the religion of today. Oh, it is. They say, God's sovereign over
providence. You can talk to people, they say, oh yeah, God's sovereign
over providence. They say, oh yeah, God chose a nation. Yeah.
Israel? Oh yeah, God's got some angels
called the elect angels. Oh yeah. But as soon as you start
talking about God's sovereign in salvation, oh my, the rubber
hits the road real fast there. See, we fully accept that now
because we've been taught that, right, by God. And what it does
though, knowing that God is absolutely fully sovereign in salvation,
it destroys the pride of man. So when you see someone come
up against what we believe from the scripture too, we always
show them the scripture, it's their pride, beloved, bubbling
up. And I know that because I was
like that in the past when I first heard the truths of the gospel
of God's sovereign grace and salvation and in providence.
And so it's just natural for us to react that way. Oh my. So they won't acknowledge. They'll
acknowledge He's sovereign in some things, but not in salvation.
Look at this, Romans chapter 1, look at this. Verses 1 to
25. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
They suppress the truth. They don't acknowledge it. Because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God
has showed us, look at our bodies, look at who we are. We're so
fearfully and wonderfully made. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen. Romans 1, 18
to 25. Yeah, yeah. And we're in verse 20, for the
invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead. So that, look at this, they're
without excuse. Beloved, when we were dead in
trespasses and sins, and we thought we were something, we were without
excuse. My, isn't that amazing? And so
it shows us that there's none righteous, no, not one. There's
none good, no, not one. All have sinned to come short
of the glory of God. We're all guilty before God. This was me
professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. Oh, I thought, surely God don't
send good people to hell. You know what I found out? There
ain't no good people. Oh, my. Oh. and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like undecorruptible man,
into birds and forfeited beasts and creeping things. So they
made statues that were animals, and even man made statues, and
they bowed down to them, beloved. They bowed down to them. Look
at this, and changes the glory of the uncorruptible God into
an image made like to corruptible man. I love it when the Lord
says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your
ways. Remember how we've been looking
at the transactional things of the old gods, that you had to
do something to appease them, and even then they're still mad
at you? God doesn't work that way. There's no transaction from
our part. He does it all. He saved our
souls. He saved us from our sins. My,
oh, and then it goes on here. We see a progression here. We
see a progression. And change the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like the corruptible man, the birds and
forfeited beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own heart to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves. who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more
than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Isn't it amazing? And it's so sad that people will
put more value on an animal than a baby. My, oh, my. We just can't understand
that, can we? We just cannot understand that. But there it is right there.
It's right there, my, who changed the truth of God into a lie and
worshiped and served the creature more than the creator, who is
blessed forever, amen. So what happens when people reject
God and turn their back upon such knowledge? We saw it right
there in the text. My, they begin a downhill course,
which we've seen in that text. And we're seeing, Paul says three
times, do you know Paul says three times that God gave them
over? Look at verse 26, for this cause God gave them up to a vile
afflictions for even a woman did change the natural use into
that which is against nature. And then verse 27, And likewise
also the man, having the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lusts, verse 27, toward one another, men with men, working not which
is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error. And even as they did not retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over, there it is again.
So we see it in verse 26, we see it in verse 28, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind to do such things which were
not convenient. So we see the progression, don't
we, in this text of sinfulness. My! And this, beloved, this is
all a consequence of rejecting the knowledge of God. That's
what this is. Look at verses 29 to 32. Here, he's going to give us a
description of what occurs even more. Being filled with all unrighteousness,
that's basically like what the scripture says, we drink sin
like water. We didn't even think anything of it. Fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate,
deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but have pleasure in them that do them." Now, I can look at
that list and see myself before I was saved. God saved us. Look at what God saved us from,
beloved. It's wonderful. Wonderful. It's wonderful. It's amazing. And then, let's
go back to our text in Hosea, and we'll see the third consequence
of a rejection of the knowledge of God is a debasement of leadership,
particularly religious leaders. Religious leaders. Oh my. Look at this, Hosea 4, 7 to 9. And they were increased so that
they sinned against me. Therefore will I change their
glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people.
They set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be
like people, like priests. Oh my. Like, don't we see that
nowadays? There's no glorifying God. in a lot of the religion out
there. You've got false preachers basically robbing people blind
of their money and saying that people don't have enough faith
so they have to give them more money. It's awful. That's spiritual
adultery. That's changing the glory of
God into corruptible things, beloved. My, look at this. They eat up the sin of my people,
and they set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be
people like priests, and I will punish them for their ways and
reward them for their doings." Now this is where we were. This
is what God saved us out of. So the period of moral and spiritual
decline, do you notice it's getting worse and worse as we read in
the text? No knowledge of God, it's a free-for-all,
like we saw that in Romans 1 too. Oh my, praise God, He saved us. Praise God, He gave us a knowledge
of Him. Praise His mighty name. So this period of moral and spiritual
decline did not mean less religion, we see, because godliness is
incompatible with religion. but rather they go together,
they're not incompatible, they go together. You ever notice how strict religion
is? How there's no grace? How it's
do this or you're lost? What do they do with Lot? Scripture says Lot was a righteous
man. Well, what we read about Lot My. Samson. He was off with Delilah. He's
in the Hall of Fame. My, oh my. See, man looks at
one thing and God looks at another. Right? Either our sins are all
forgiven and washed under the blood of Christ, or we're not
forgiven at all. And again, the love of Christ
constrains us from sin. It constrains us. My. Now here was a period characterized
by cursing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery. But during this period
we see the priesthood grew in numbers. They were professional religionists. You don't know how many people
I've ran into that through the years have told
me that they got into the ministry, it's a good job. Good job. And I always tell them, it's
not a job. It's a calling. It's not a job. If you're looking
at it as a job, you're in the wrong place. It's not a job. The pastor wants to pour his
life out for Christ. And that's all we want to do,
and be with the Lord's people. And then one day be with our
king, which all comes by his mercy and grace. So during this
priesthood times, during this time is professional religions. Look at the Pharisees. My oh my. And what happens? Well, it starts to go into debauchery. We have examples of that in religion,
don't we? I don't even have to name them. My, oh, my. And we say, there go I but for
the grace of God. But we see this today. When knowledge
of the true God is refused, when you show someone the scripture
and they refuse it and say, oh, I'm a Bible believer, and they
just absolutely refuse it, And they have a God of their
own imagination. You know what? It troubles you so much. It just
causes us to pray for them, doesn't it? Because, you know what? We
were there. I was there. Oh, we all were. Amen, sister. Oh, my. My, oh,
my. We see this today, though. False
gods came in, take the true God's place, then godliness is replaced
by superstition. Sovereignty is replaced by free
will religion. Regeneration is replaced by bow
your head and repeat a prayer. My! So we see in verse 9 that
the people got the leaders they deserve. That's what the Holy
Spirit's telling us here. Like people, like priest. They
got the leaders that they deserved. He means that if people are godly,
they will be sent godly leaders. If they are corrupt, God will
send them corrupt leaders. If they are superstitious, God
will abandon them to cults and other charlatans. Again, what a picture of us in
our natural state. This is why we have such a burden
for the lost, because we were there. We know where they're
at. My. But what a picture of us in our
natural state. But, beloved God, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ
saves us from. This is what he's redeemed us
from by his precious, precious blood. Now, the fourth consequence
of rejection of knowledge of God is personal emptiness or
dissatisfaction. Let's read Hosea chapter 4, verses
10 to 12. For they shall eat and not have enough, never satisfied. They shall commit whoredom and
shall not increase, because they have left off to take heed to
the Lord. Whoredom and wine and new wine
take away the heart. My people ask counsel at their
stocks, And their staff declareth unto them, for the spirit of
whoredoms has caused them to err, and they have gone a-whoring
from under their God. Now, this is talking about them
following false idols, following gods of their imagination. The
one true gods delivered them and provided for them, and they've
left them in their minds. Now, he's always got a remnant,
right? He's always got a remnant, though. He always does. He always
does. But we see, in this debauchery,
four things come together in this text, verses 10 to 12. Food,
sex, wealth, and religion. The world says, what more can
one want? But God tells us that he's arranged
life in such a way that if these things are pursued apart from
holiness, The result will be frustration instead of satisfaction.
I know, I have a brother who's a millionaire, and he has more
than enough money to settle down, more than enough money to stop,
and he can't stop. There's no satisfaction. More,
more, more, more, more. And I talked to him one time,
and I said, Dave, I'm quite content with what I have and where I'm
at. I'm so content it's not funny. And I told him, I said, God's
given me everything I need. And he always gives us what we
need, doesn't he? Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful,
beloved. Takes care of us. My, the food,
what we see here, the food will be plentiful. But it's tiring
after a while. The glutton will be searching
for some new taste. Sex will abound, but it will
not satisfy. And those who run after it will
try to find new forms of it. We see that all over the place.
And you know what, this, notice, and I like what, I love what
the scripture says. What it says is we were, there's
nothing new. This has been going on for 6,000
years. It's the same thing, just repeated,
just repeated over and over and over again. Somebody says, oh,
I found something new. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. Someone else did it before you.
Oh, and money will be everywhere, but it'll never be enough. People
are always striving for more. True contentment is a blessing
from God. To be content with what we have and where we are
is a blessing from God. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. And people will seem religious,
but the great questions of life continue to go unanswered. And
people will have a gnawing suspicion that God has turned a deaf ear
to them. And they will see Him as worthless. My he's the one thing needful
Christ is the one thing needful But people say I don't want nothing
to do with him See that's it's us in our natural state Marvel
at what God delivered us from beloved. This is amazing now.
Let's read verses 13 to the end of the chapter verse 19 I They sacrifice upon the tops
of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and
poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good. Therefore
your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouse shall commit
adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom,
nor your spouse when they commit adultery, for themselves are
separated with oars, and they sacrifice with harlots, therefore
the people that doth not understand shall fall. Though thou, Israel,
play the harlot... Now, look at this. There's a
gem of mercy right here. Oh! Oh, there's mercy spread
all... See, we see all that stuff going
on. And watch. Watch the mercy of
God right here. Yet not... Yet let not Judah
offend. What tribe did our king come
from? Judah. He's a lion of the tribe of Judah,
beloved. And come not ye unto Gilgal,
neither ye up to Bethhaven, nor swear the Lord liveth, for Israel
slideth back as a backsliding heifer. I read something about
this. I never knew this, but when a
heifer is backsliding in mud, that's what this is a picture
of, they keep their head looking forward, even though they're
sliding backwards. They're still trying to get out, but they're
getting deeper and deeper. I had no idea. That's us. We just kept getting further
and further from God, didn't we? In our natural state. My. But we kept our head up. We're proud, aren't we? Oh, my. Yeah. Oh, my. Yeah. Now the Lord will feed
them as a lamb in a large place. Oh, our shepherd feeds his lambs,
doesn't he? Oh. Ephraim has joined the idols,
let them alone. Look at that. Their drink is
sour, they have committed oredom continually. Her rulers with
shame do love, give ye. The wind hath bound her up in
her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifice. So we see here the final and
lowest part of no knowledge of God is ruined on a national scale. in individual's lives, next in
their families, husbands, wives, and children. Wives leaving,
husbands leaving, children abandoned. Now even amidst that though,
okay, so there's the blackness, right? You know, you ever go
into a jewelry store and they put, if you ask to look at a
diamond, they put down the black. Felt right? I remember Henry
saying this. And they put that diamond on
there. You know why? Because it shines even more. So here's the blackness of our
sin. And then look at this nugget right here. Look at this. Even
amidst this judgment, we see the words of grace to God's people.
Verse 15. Words of mercy and grace. Yet
let not Judah offend. Oh, my beloved. Let us marvel
over the tender watching over Judah. God's watching over Judah. Pitches him watching over his
people. Oh, my. It's the Lord watching over them.
And notice the Lord's charge to them not to follow Israel.
Don't go after idols. Don't follow after them. For
us, don't follow after the world. Keep looking to Christ. Keep
looking to Christ. Now, none of us can ever recover
ourselves, right, from that sin that we just read about. None
of us can ever recover ourselves from the idols of our own heart.
And if it wasn't for the Lord's grace and his almighty power,
God the Holy Spirit, his almighty power, we're born again and delivered
from our natural state, beloved, and given faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this has been the case with
our whole nature after the fall. We cannot recover ourselves from
being dead in trespasses and sins. That's why salvation is
such a miracle. Because we are dead like a dead
person, spiritually. And brother Jim, sister, we're
made alive in Christ. By nothing we did, all by God's
almighty power. Oh my, it's absolutely wonderful. And so, what's the whole purpose
that the Lord came to this earth? To save sinners. To save sinners. Isn't that amazing? And we've
just seen a picture of our sinnership, haven't we? And we who are the
redeemed of the Lord, we're saved from all of those. We're saved
from all our sin. Past, present, and future. And
who saved us? God incarnate in the flesh, the
Lord Jesus Christ. What great mercy is shown in
this last section of Hosea. What great mercy! Oh my! And it says too, as Ephraim
is joined to his idols, therefore let him alone. One might ask,
but why let him alone? Well, to see and feel the richness
of such a union. What happens to us when the Holy
Spirit's starting to draw us? We start to see the wretchedness
of our union with idols. Oh my. Until when, like the prodigal,
we come to ourselves. So leave him be. Let God do the
work. That's why he's doing it. Yeah, he's the one who does it.
So we don't get in the way, do we? We try to get in the way. No,
we do. We all do. Especially when I'm
talking to my kids, I'm like, you know, but one of the things
we have to learn is just to step back and give them the truth
and leave it be. Because God, the Holy Spirit,
has shown us our wretchedness, shown us the wretchedness of
our union, being dead in trespasses and sins with idols. And like
the prodigal, by the grace of God, we come to ourselves. And
by God making our idols bitter to us, that's what he does. He
makes the things of the world bitter to us. The things we once
loved, they don't have the luster anymore. Isn't that amazing?
The things we chased after don't have the appeal. And I know this,
the older I get, the more that has happened. The more the things
of the world are just like shiny toys. That's all they are. They're just like shiny toys.
My, my. Mm-hmm, yeah. And he makes idols bitter to
us, and you know what he does? He hedges our way up with thorns
so that we have nowhere to go but to Christ. What mercy, what
grace. Then God makes us will in the
day of his power. He makes us willing in the day
of His power, and we begin to incline our heart to consider
God's love, His holiness, our baseness. And by the regenerating
power of God the Holy Spirit, we hear the gospel, and He regenerates
us, and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my. And we who are God's elect are
back with the cry of grace in our heart, saying, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. We still say that, don't we?
We still say that. Even though we know we've received
grace, we still say, oh, please be merciful to me. It's our continuous
cry. And we see our desperate need
for Christ, and we desire God to be merciful to us, merciful
to a sinner like me. So what a sweet representation
here we have of our Lord and Savior when he talks about Judah. Judah's safe. Judah's safe. Oh my We're just like Israel
in our natural state Just like and we see though how God deals
with Ephraim and Let us marvel Ephraim's a picture of the Lord's
sheep In our natural state turn if you would to Jeremiah chapter
31 we're going to close with this We're going to close with
this Oh, this is beautiful. I saw this in the cross references
when I was looking at Ephraim, and I thought, I've got to bring
this into the message. This is so wonderful. This is
so wonderful. Jeremiah 31. We're going to look
at verses 18 to 20. We'll see how God deals with
Ephraim. Oh, marvel. It's a picture of
us, beloved. It's a picture of us. Jeremiah
31, verses 18 to 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself. Do we not say, O God, please
be merciful to me? We bemoan ourselves. Thou hast
chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke. Oh, turn thou me, look at this,
and I shall be turned. Oh, that's what God does to us,
beloved. For thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned,
I've repented. Look at that, born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, given faith and repentance before God. And
after that I was instructed. Oh my, now we're learning about
who he is. He instructs us in his word.
I swore upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear
son? Is he a pleasant child? For since
I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. My, therefore my bowels, that
is your love, the innermost part of him, are troubled for him.
I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. He says
that about his people, beloved, in Christ. He'll surely have
mercy on all who come to him, all who flee them. And this is
a saying worthy of acceptation, that Christ came into this world
to save sinners. Praise his mighty name. So marvel,
beloved of God, at the mercy God has shown to Ephraim, and
what a picture it is of the mercy he's shown to his born-again,
blood-washed children, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen and amen. Brother Jim, can you close us
in prayer?