I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hosea. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
Hosea. Hosea chapter 13. Hosea chapter 13, verse 14. I'm going to try to
look at verses 9 to 14, but this is where I want us to begin. This is scripture. Hosea 13,
14. I will ransom them from the power
of the grave. I will. redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes." Last Friday afternoon, we were
all reminded of an appointment that every man, every woman born
in Adam has. We all have an appointment with
death, physical death. Hebrews 9.25 declares this truth
and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment. And according to Almighty God's
appointment, and according to the witness
that was born by Brother Clyde Brewer, he was called home to
glory of which I'm convinced. glory and rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now based upon the word of the
living God and the evidence and the witness of belief, confession
and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ for Clyde and for others
like him, And this is something I've said before, you that know
me well, I will not, I will not just say this lightly. I know
that by and large, everyone that dies, this is the first thing
that most people say, well, they're in a better place. Well, I don't
know that. Maybe they are, maybe they're not. Maybe this was the
best they ever had. And now, they're in eternal torment. I don't know, but based upon
what the scriptures have to say about the evidence of a believer,
based upon what Brother Clyde confessed, and I've had some
wonderful conversations with him. I believe that for him there's
no more tears, there's no more sorrow, no more pain, no more
trouble. I believe that. Now when it comes
to death, we on this side of the grave, we're going to have
to admit that there's a great mystery. We read about it, we
read in the scriptures, we've beheld others that have died,
and really, though we know some things about it, we know that
it's real. I mean, we've witnessed it. And
we know what the scriptures have to say about it, but still, There's
a great mystery because we don't know exactly that which is on
the other side. But though there's a great mystery,
and it is, concerning our complete understanding of that which is
to be, we believe that what the Lord has said is so and therefore
we have some comfort. Now I want to just take in this
book of Hosea I want us to look at verses 9 to 14 and the comfort
that we have is this. This is the way it is. This is
the way it is. When I stand up to preach This
is what I want to do. I want to take this word. I'm going to open up this word.
And we're going to see what does God have to say. Expound what
God has to say. And there we'll stay. Now let's
see what the Lord has to say. Hosea chapter 13 in verse 9. Now this is the word of the Lord. This is the voice. My sheep hear
my voice. Now if you want to know what
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ sounds like, here it is. Not my voice, but what I'm going
to say that He says. This is what His voice sounds
like. Listen to what the Lord has to
say, O Israel, O Israel. Now, you stay where
you are, and I'm going to turn over to Romans chapter 9, and
I'm going to tell you what the Spirit of God says concerning
Israel. This is not concerning all of
the nation of Israel. There's a nation called Israel. But there is found within that
general nation, there is a spiritual Israel. And here's what the Lord
has to say about these, and you'll see that as we go through this.
I'm going to show you. He's talking to His elect. He's talking to His people. He's
talking to those that He's everlastingly loved, that were given Him. He's talking about spiritual
Israel. Now listen, Romans chapter 9.
And beginning in verse 6, Romans 9, 6. Not as though the word
of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of
Abraham are they all children. Just because you can trace your
lineage back to Abraham. So what? But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is according to God's electing
grace. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Isaac was the promised one through
whom the seed of the Lord Jesus would come. And in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word
of promise. At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have
a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. For the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that shall with mercy. So the Lord began speaking in
Hosea chapter 13, and He's talking to His spiritual people. God Almighty has a people. Let the potsherds of this world
strive with the potsherds, let the broken pots of this world
strive with the broken pots. Let them argue and say, oh I
don't, no I don't. God has a people. Oh Israel,
listen to what he said. Thou hast destroyed thyself,
but in me is thine help. Here's what the Lord tells spiritual
Israel. All that almighty God everlastingly
loved. This is what he said. You destroyed
yourself. You have destroyed yourself and
rebelled against me, your only help. Now this is the way. Man is a rebel against God. Are you talking about even the
elect? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Oh
Israel, God chose a people in Christ before the foundation
of the world. But those elect, you know God
has an elect. Ephesians 1 declares that. 2
Thessalonians 2, 13, 14 declares that God has a people. But the
Lord said, Israel, spiritual Israel. And again, I'm going
to show you that here in about two verses. You destroyed yourself,
all of God's people, found within the mass of humanity. When Adam
fell, they fell. All these elect, along with every
other creature, destroyed themselves. How? Disobedience. By one man's disobedience. Many. How many? All of them.
Were made sinners. Sinners against God. And it's
our fault. It's our fault. It was because of our rebellion. Now listen. Damnation and destruction. Now I said that I said that Almighty
God chose a people unto salvation. Is that true? Yes, sir. That's
absolutely right. So, to whom do we attribute salvation? To the Lord. To the Lord. Almighty God chooses to show
mercy to whomsoever He will. Is that right? That's right.
But let me tell you something. By our warped thinking, our distorted
thinking, we will sit here and think, well, if God is the one
that chose, and he's the one alone that shows mercy and compassion,
and someone dies in their sins because God left them to themselves,
then really, if you trace it all back, our warped thinking
will say, it's God's fault. Back in Romans chapter nine,
I'll turn there again. Let me just read this for you.
Romans chapter nine, with that thinking right there, Romans
nine, the spirit of God moved upon the apostle Paul to also
head that thinking off. Romans chapter nine, and in verse
17, the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up that I might show my power in thee and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, verse
18, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he
will he hardeneth. And then the Spirit of God moved
on Paul to say this, Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he
yet find fault? If you didn't choose me, If you
didn't choose to show mercy to me and compassion to me or Pharaoh
or somebody else, how can you find fault with me? If you'd
have chose me, then I wouldn't have done this. That's what he's
saying. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
And then the Spirit of God moved on Paul to say, nay, but O man,
who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
under honor and another under dishonor? What if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted or made up to
destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto
glory? Here's the bottom line. If a
man destroys himself, which all men born in Adam have, whose
fault is it? It's ours. You destroyed yourself. You destroyed, you broke yourself
and resisted me, your only help, back in Hosea 13. Verse 10, he
says, I will be thy king. Or actually, the literal of that
is, where is thy king? You that destroyed yourself,
you that resisted me, your only help. Where is your king? Where is any other that may save
thee in all thy cities? And thy judges of whom thou saidest,
give me a king and princes. Where is the one since you have
destroyed yourself and resisted me. Where is the one that can
help you now? Man by nature does not want God
to rule over him. Man's broken. He's broken. He's destroyed. He wants one
that he can see and feel and touch. Let me tell you who he
wants. Let me tell you who man wants
to be his king. Me. Me. He voices in his heart
the same thing that Satan said, I will exalt myself. above the
most. I will exalt myself to the throne. I will. Man wants himself. He wants to be his own help and
security. But there's a problem. Who can
deliver or save himself from the penalty and punishment of
sin? Here's the warped thinking. All
I have to do is just quote a sinner's prayer, all I have to do is believe. Now they've got one big problem. What about justice? We've got
one problem here. What about justice? Don't say,
don't say in your heart, well, the Lord died for everybody and
made salvation possible and all I have to do is accept it because
now you've made salvation to be by your work. You're saying,
if I do this, he made it possible. If I do it, then I get the glory
for it. No, that ain't gonna fly. So you got a problem. We got a problem. We're broken
and we don't have the power to fix it. We're destroyed and resisted
our only help. Look at verse 11. The Lord said,
I gave thee a king in mine anger and took him away in my wrath. Now that actually happened In
1 Samuel chapter 8, you remember when the people said to Samuel,
I won't go back and read it, you know what happened. People
came to Samuel, give us a king like everybody else. We want
a king that we can see. Samuel said, the Lord's your
king. No, no, no, no, no. We don't want that. He said, I'll tell you what.
God's going to give you what you want. He's going to give
you exactly what you want. And He's going to take everything
from you. He's going to abuse you. He's going to abuse your
lands. He's going to abuse your families. He's going to take
everything. But that's what you want. And
God's going to give it to you. You know, I think to myself,
Lord, don't give me what I want. You give me what you say I need. Verse 11, I gave thee a king
in mine anger. The Lord in chastisement may,
and he has, for a while been pleased to leave even his people. Now remember, he's still talking
to Israel. He's talking to us, his people. He's talking to his
elect. He may allow us to continue on for a while and give us what
we think. we want, what we think we need. He may allow us to keep believing
that what we need is what we have supplied. I have been faithful. I've exercised my will. I myself,
like Saul, is what I truly desired. But our sin remains. Look at
verse 12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound
up. His sin is hid. Now this is the most revealing
of scriptures concerning who we really are. I'm talking about
the true Israel of God. This is who we are. He said the
iniquity of Ephraim. Now who is Ephraim? You remember,
and again I'll just, you can go back and read this, it's in
Genesis 48. You remember Ephraim was the younger brother of a
man named Manasseh. There was Manasseh and Ephraim. And Manasseh being the older
of the two should have been the one that received the blessing.
And when it came time to bless him, What happened was that Joseph,
their dad, their daddy was Joseph, and Joseph's daddy was Jacob. And Jacob was going to come and
bless these two boys. So what happened was Joseph kind
of strategically, you know, here was Jacob getting ready to bless
them. He always laid the hand of blessing,
going to lay his right hand, you know, on the one that was
going to receive the blessing, the birthright. the inheritance,
a picture of God's elect, of God's blessing upon. And so he
sits over here and he puts Manasseh over here, and here's Jacob,
and here's his right hand. And there's Manasseh. And all
he has to do now is just lay his hands. And wherever that
right hand goes, who's going to get the blessing? Well, according
to Joseph, Manasseh's going to get it. And Jacob gets ready
to put his hands on him. What does he do? He crossed hands. And Joseph
looked at him and took his hand and said, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no. Here's the one you've got to
bless. And Jacob said, no, no, no. No, this is the way it is,
right here. Who got the blessing? Ephraim. Ephraim, the younger. A picture,
a type of God's elect. of God's blessing. My blessing
is going to be on Ephraim. Not Manasseh. Ephraim. And so,
Jacob puts his hands on top of Ephraim. And here's what the
scripture says. Thine iniquity, Ephraim, is bound
up, not hid. Here's the way it is, brethren.
We, God's Israel, God's Ephraim. We've destroyed ourselves. We
fell in Adam and resisted our only help. Our only hope came
forth from my mother's womb with one attitude. I will be my own
king. I want the king of my choosing. That's what I want. The Lord
said, I gave you what you wanted. for a while. We're gonna see
that in just a second. And then tells us, this is what
it is, Ephraim. This is the way we are. Our iniquity
is bound up. Our sin, Ephraim's sin, all the
iniquity of God's people, bound up. as indictments drawn up by
the one against whom all sin has been committed. God knows. He knows. And has an exact account
of them. That's what He's saying. The
iniquity, He doesn't say iniquity, He's the individual. Just bound
them all up. This is it. This is the totality
of it. The iniquity of Ephraim. Bound
up, bundled up. sinned, not hid from God. That iniquity is not loosed from
those who have committed the transgressions, but found to
be laid up in reserve, ready to be brought forth into account
on the day of judgment, when all the accounts are going to
have to be settled, iniquity hidden and kept in the mind of
the omniscience of God Himself. This is the way it is. Are we
guiltless? No, sir. No, sir. We are rebels. We've destroyed
ourselves. Our sin separated us from God. The sorrows of a travailing woman
shall come upon him. He is an unwise son. Oh, isn't that, just that wording
right there, Neil. He's an unwise, he's a son, but
he's an unwise son. I mean, just I read that and
I thought, you know, there's some hope right there. He's an unwise
son. He should not stay long in the
place of the breaking forth of children. What is that? Here's
the just due to all that will not have Christ to rule over
them. This is God's elect. I mean,
this is where the Lord is talking to his people and telling him,
you want to talk about grace. You want to talk about mercy.
You know, so often we do, and rightly so, how thankful we are
when we speak of the elect of God, you know. But let me tell
you something, my friends. We have nothing to glory in but
Christ, and His honor, and His glory, and His mercy. We are
rebels against God. Here's the just do, God's elect. Though they're loved with an
everlasting love, still they deserve, we deserve the punishment
for our sins. We deserve to feel the sorrows
like a woman in travail that comes upon her and feels. Because
here's what we are. We're unwise sons. Remember verse 9, we destroyed
ourselves, we rebelled against Him. And what would we do if
left to ourselves? What would we do? Now this latter
part of verse 13 is kind of one of those that needs just a little
bit of explanation. It did for me. I had to look
it up and find out. Just tell me exactly what's being
said. For he should not stay long in
the place of the breaking forth of children. What he's saying
is this. It gives an amazing picture and
account of man's resistance. God's elect resistance against
life in Christ. If left to himself, what would
he do? What would be his attitude? Here
it is. He said here to be as a child. that is in the birth
canal of his mother, ready to come forth unto life. And if
he had his way, if he left it up to him, if he left it to his
own free will, what would he do? He'd linger or hesitate concerning
coming out. He would not come forth to be
born. That's man. That's man. Somebody says just do whatever
your will says. Do whatever seems right. You
leave man to himself and he will never do that which is right. Except for the grace of God to
deliver him. All he'll do is vacillate, resist
against the God of his only hope. Boy, I tell you what a difference
there is in God's description of man's will and man's way and
man's description of it. This is what he said, the sorrows
of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He's an unwise son
because he should not stay long or not stay for a time in the
place of the breaking forth. He won't come. But God. I couldn't help but
put this scripture. I needed to read this, Ephesians
2, 4, and 5. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you're saved. While we, the spiritual Israel
of God, the elect in Christ, have destroyed ourselves in sin
and unbelief, resisting, resisting the only God of our help and
salvation. We who in ourselves foolishly
desired a king, ourselves, who could not save, while we were
yet sinners and rebels against God, having our iniquity remembered,
not being hid from God, bound up, hid only, in God's mind,
known, resisting the very way of deliverance from sin. We won't
come. We won't come. We won't come
into life. Here's the hope that we have.
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, not good people. not those who think they're good,
to save rebels. This is us. Here's the way we
are, and here's the mercy of God, verse 14. I will ransom
them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
my eyes. Here's what he said in conclusion.
I, this is the way you are. This is the way we are. We're
rebels against God. We want our own self to be king.
We will not come. We will not come. But he said,
I, Jehovah. the Messiah, the one promised
by the Father, I will ransom by power and purchase with the
price of redemption my own blood. I'm going to ransom them. Who's he talking to? He's talking
to spiritual Israel. He's talking to Ephraim. I'm
going to ransom them from the power of the grave. He alone
is the near kinsman redeemer. He's our kinsman by God's electing
grace. He is our elder brother. We're
chosen in him. He's our husband. The one to
whom belongs the right of redemption, the one to whom possesses the
only right and the power to do so. Can you imagine trying to
think that we had the power to do, we destroy it, destroy something
and then tell it to destroy it, then tell it to put itself back
together, give itself life again. He bore at Calvary. How did he
ransom them from the power of the grave? He bore our