Let's stay right there in Hosea.
There are times you don't know until
you get to the service and one of the men will read the Scriptures
and you find out that you just thought you had your text. Hosea
chapter 14. It begins here, O Israel. Who is Israel? Who is he speaking
to when he says, O Israel? He's not talking to that nation,
that political nation over in the Middle East. He's speaking
to God's elect. God's elect are God's Israel.
You can read Romans 9 and you'll find that clearly revealed in
the Scripture. They're not all Israel which
are of Israel, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
they which are the children of the flesh. These are not the
children of promise. The children of the flesh are
not the children of promise. Those natural sons of Abraham,
natural Israel, that's not the sons of promise. The sons of
promise are God's elect. They're the true Israel. And
the call to Israel, we don't know who they are. We don't know
who Israel is. I don't know who God's elect
are. And so our call as we preach the gospel is, O Israel, return
unto the Lord thy God. That's our message. Return to
the Lord thy God. He was thy God in eternity because
He chose you freely by His grace. I'm speaking to God's Israel.
I'm talking about His elect. He chose His people freely before
the world was made. And He entered covenant with
the Christ to redeem His people from all iniquity and that covenant
didn't change when we fell in at Him. He was our Father before
the world was made, and He's still the Father of His people
even though they're lost and dead in sin. That's why we say,
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, because He's still your
God. He's still the God of Israel
though we be fallen in Adam. And here's what our message is. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. We all fell by our iniquity. We sinned and fell in our father
Adam. And when we come forth into this
world, we come forth speaking lies. And it's not anything we
can do. There's nothing we can do to
save ourselves from our sins. He says here, take with you. He says, return unto the Lord
thy God. You have fallen. Your iniquity
has separated you from your God. And He says, now take with you
words and turn to the Lord. Don't take any works. Don't take
anything you've done. Take with you words. Last week
or a week and a half ago, I came home on Sunday afternoon
and Will met me at the door. And he had gotten in trouble. had found out something and he
was in trouble. And he didn't meet me with anything
but words. That's all he met me with was
words. Begging me. Begging me to forgive him. And that's what he says here.
Don't take anything to God except your words. And say unto him,
take away all iniquity. and receive us graciously. Receive us by your grace. Receive
us by that grace that doesn't look for any merit in us. Receive
us by that grace by which you save. So will we render the calves
of our lips. You see, when God said bring
me lambs and bring me calves, God found no pleasure in those
calves, those lambs. Those offerings that they brought
year by year could never take away sin. And there was no righteousness
in the simple act of bringing those calves. But what those
calves pictured, especially those thank offerings, they pictured
a believer coming to the Lord and thanking the Lord for doing
all the saving. That's what God's calling His
people to do. He's calling us to come to Him
and beg Him to take away our iniquity. To beg Him to have
mercy on us and to receive us graciously. The margin there
says to give good and that graciously. Receive us and give to us and
do it by grace. You see, when you truly repent
and you truly come to Christ and believe on Christ, it glorifies
God for purging our iniquity and removing our iniquity. It
glorifies Him as being the only one who could take away our iniquity.
It glorifies Him for being the one who received us by His grace
and gave us righteousness freely by His grace. Gave us free justification
by His grace. Gave us free pardon by His grace.
It glorifies Him. And from that day forward the
believer glorifies not himself, but he glorifies God, saying,
offering up the calves of his lips, thanking God. And here's
what we say, verse 3, Asher shall not save us, we will not ride
upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our
hands, ye are our gods, for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. Go with me over to Isaiah chapter
30. You remember this when we looked
at Isaiah in Isaiah 30? This is one of my favorite chapters
right here. Verse 1, Woe to the rebellious
children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me. They cover with a covering, but
it's not of my spirit. And all they're doing by their
religious deeds is adding sin to sin. Adding sin upon sin. They went down to Egypt, but
they've not asked it by mouth. They went to strengthen themselves
in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt
rather than trusting in the Lord and His strength. Therefore shall
the strength of Pharaoh be your shame. The trust in the shadow
of Egypt will be your confusion. Look down at verse 15. Thus said the Lord God, the Holy
One of Israel, in returning and rest shall you be saved. In quietness,
trust in the Lord. In confidence, trust in the Lord
shall be your strength and you would not. But you said, no,
we'll flee upon horses. Therefore shall you flee. We'll
ride upon the swift. Therefore they that pursue you
will be swift. And before it's all over with,
God said, 1,000 shall flee at the rebuke of one. At the rebuke
of five shall you flee until you're left as a beacon upon
the top of a mountain and as an ensign on a hill. The margin
says it as a tree bereaved of branches. You're going to be
brought to be like a tree that's had all its branches broken off. This is what God will do for
His child. We're going to flee on horses. And by that, He's
talking about the work of our hands. And just like the text
says, when you're worshipping some goodness in you, and you're
glorying in something you've done to make God receive you,
you're saying of those work of your hands, this is my God. This is my God. Just as real
as a man who takes and by the works of his hand builds some
big statue and calls it God. The works of our hands trying
to save ourselves by our own will and our own works which
is what they were doing in Isaiah 30. They thought in their wisdom,
let's go to Egypt. They're a mighty nation, they'll
save us rather than going to God. God brought that trial upon
them to turn them to Him, not to turn them to Egypt. When God
brings a trial upon you and me, we've got some brethren right
now suffering some severe trials. When He brings a trial, He's
not bringing it to test us so that we'll turn to the world.
In our will, in our works, He's doing it to make us turn to Him. And if we won't turn to Him,
and usually we won't, usually we won't turn to Him, we look
to ourselves. But God says, go ahead and flee. Go ahead and try to be swift
and get out of this. Those that pursue you are going
to be swift too. And I'm going to keep going with this trial
until you're like a tree with all your branches broken off.
You're going to be a beacon on a hill. I'm going to do this
so everybody can see it. What's God doing? Why is He doing
it that way? Look at the next verse, verse
18. Therefore will the Lord wait. He's waiting to be brought to
the end of yourself that He may be gracious unto you. Therefore
will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you, because
the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for Him. So He brings us now, in our text
back in Hosea 14.3, you've got a people who've already been
brought here. They've had all their branches broken off. They've
been brought to the end of themselves. And when you're brought to the
end of yourself, that's when you'll say, I'm not going to
look to anybody else to save me. I'm not looking to anybody
else to save me. I'm not going to ride upon horses.
I'm not going to say any more to the work of my hands, you're
my gods. Because now I know, Lord, in
thee the fatherless findeth mercy. You know what the fatherless
are? That's an orphan. You know what an orphan is? What
does he stand for in the Scripture? An orphan. He's the absolute
most helpless person there is. Incapable of doing anything for
himself. Incapable of feeding himself,
clothing himself, putting a shelter over his head. Incapable of anything. An orphan. And he's saying, I'm
going to bring you to the place where I'm teaching you. that
it's those that are totally unable, totally incapable of saving themselves
that find mercy in the Lord. You want to find mercy in the
Lord? We're not going to find it when we think we're somebody.
We're not going to find it when we think that God will receive
us because of something we've done. We're only going to find
mercy in the Lord when we come to the Lord like an orphan. Helpless. Unable to do one thing
to save ourselves. That's who finds mercy from the
Lord. And this is what the Lord says about that. Now we turn
to the Lord and we see what the Lord will do for such a sinner
that comes to Him totally helpless. The Lord says, I will heal their
backsliding. I'll heal their backsliding.
All we could do in our sin was go away backwards. That's all
we could do. We, like sheep, all went our
own way and all we could do was go away backwards. The Lord said,
I'm going to heal that. I'm going to heal that. You're
not going away backwards anymore. I'm going to heal that. Look,
I will love them freely. I will love them freely. Think about us. Somebody spit
in your face, cussed you out, ran you down, treated you with utter contempt.
We usually, usually have a little trouble loving that person, don't
we? That's what we did to our God.
And yet He says, come to Me. I'll love you freely. I'll love
you freely. For my anger is turned away from
Him. That one who is God's Israel. That one who's brought to see
that His iniquity is what made Him fall. That one who's been
brought to bring with Him nothing but words, begging God to have
mercy on Him. That one who's been brought down
and made to see that His works were His God's and He's not going
to turn to them anymore. He's had all His branches broken
off. That one who comes to God God
says, my anger is turned away from Him. Was it His coming to
God that made His anger be turned away from Him? Oh, it was turned
away from Him before that. You see, that's what the world
is teaching. The world is teaching that if you believe on Christ,
now by your faith and by your work in coming to the Lord, now
you've made God love you. Because you've made Christ's
blood effectual for you. That's not what He's saying.
He's saying, my anger is turned away from Him in my son. And here's what I love about
the Old Testament. His son hadn't come yet. To us, He can say,
my anger is turned away because it was turned away when my son
laid down his life on Calvary's cross. But it was turned away
before that. Christ hadn't been to the cross
right here. But Christ still stood as the surety of His people,
and He'd been the surety of His people from the foundation of
the world. He's that lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And when He entered into covenant
with God and said, whatever they owe, I'll pay it, God said, my
anger's turned away from them right now. For whom He did foreknow, Him He also called, and whom
He called, Him He also justified, and whom He justified, Him He
also glorified, and He did every bit of it in Christ before the
world was made. Isn't that what Ephesians 1 says?
When He chose us in Christ, He blessed us with what? All spiritual
blessings. And He says to that Old Testament
saint the same thing He says to the New Testament saint. You
come to Me, because my anger is turned away from you. in Christ,
in Christ. And he says, and I will be as
the dew unto Israel. We need the dew. You know, the
dew is something that falls and it's just unnoticed and it's
unobserved by us most of the time. The only time we really
notice it is if we go outside with our socks on early in the
morning and get your feet wet or something like that. But dew
is needed. is needed to grow everything. It falls and it's watering everything. It's life. And that's what He's
saying here. I will be the life to Israel. I'll be the life of those who
come to Me. And what will be the result of
Him being the life? He shall grow as the lily. He shall grow as the lily. There is no way He can help but
grow. He has to grow. He has to grow. There is a passage,
I want to find it here. I want to read this to you if
I can find it real quick. Give me just a second. Yeah. Song of Solomon chapter
2. The Lord says, I am the rose
of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. Now listen to what he
says to his bride, his elect. As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. How is she like a lily? How are
we like a lily? He said, I'm the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valleys. What He is, that's what His people
are. What He is, that's what the believer
is who comes to Him and rests entirely in Him. As the lily
among thorns, who are the thorns? That's the unregenerate sinners
of this world. And He says of His child, as
the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters.
And when He loves you like this, His love is in you. He abides
in you and you abide in Him. And here's the result. Now the
bride speaks. As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the suns. I sat down under
his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my
taste. He brought me to the banqueting
house and his banner over me was love. See that? That's what He's saying in our
text. I'll heal their backslidings. I'll love them freely because
my anger is turned away from Him. I'll be as due unto Him
and He'll grow as the lily. He'll grow as the lily, as the
lily among thorns. Because Christ is the life who
abides in His child. Christ is the due upon His child. Christ is the one who's making
you grow like Him. He's the lily. and He makes us
like Him. And He says this, He'll cast
forth His roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and
His beauty shall be as the olive tree and His smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under His shadow
shall return. They shall revive as the corn
and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do anymore with idols? I've heard Him. I've observed
Him. I'm like a green fir tree. Now
where did all this fruit of this tree come from? He said, from
me is thy fruit found. Go with me to John chapter 15.
What's he saying there? You're going to be like a tree
and your roots are going to spread forth. He said, Your roots are
going to spread forth. You're going to grow as the vine.
You're going to smell like Lebanon. You smell a green fir tree. We
have some kind of fir trees in our front yard, big trees. Every
time it rains, if I'm standing out there under them, rain can't
touch you under those trees. And it reminds me of what he's
talking about when he talks about the cedars of Lebanon. That's
what he's talking about here. You're going to grow up like
a cedar of Lebanon. A green fir tree, it's always
green. It smells pleasant. The roots
spread out. It can't be uprooted. Where do
we get all this fruitfulness? He says, you're fruits of Me.
Look here at John 15. Here's what He's describing.
I am the true vine. My Father's the husbandman. Look
down at verse 4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I'm the vine,
you're the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. You see, that's what he's talking
about in our text. Look at it again with me. Hosea
14 and look at verse 5. I'll be as the dew unto Israel.
And he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon,
like a cedar of Lebanon. His branches shall spread, his
beauty shall be as the olive tree, his smell as the cedar
of Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. They shall revive as the corn,
they'll grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim, that's this one he calls,
that's who he calls. You know who Ephraim was in the
literal? Ephraim was the ten tribes of
Israel, ten and a half tribes, counting the half tribe of Benjamin.
Ephraim turned away from God and went after idols. Judah was the one through whom
Christ came, the one tribe, Judah. He's the line of the tribe of
Judah. Ephraim is who he calls Israel in the Scripture. Ephraim
was the ten and a half tribes that left God and went and worshipped
idols. They left the temple where God
said, I'll meet with you, picture a leave in Christ. They left
the one place God said He'd meet with His people. He said, but
when I get done with Ephraim, that's you and me, brethren,
by nature. But He says, when I'm done with him, verse 8, He'll
say, what have I to do anymore with idols? I've heard Him. I've observed Him. I'm like a
green fir tree. Why do I want to go back to idols?
Brother Henry used to tell this story. He illustrates this pretty
well. He was down at... Brother Marvin
Stoniker's dad had a restaurant down in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Fish restaurant. Seafood restaurant. And Brother
Henry was down there one night eating at Brother Gerald's restaurant. And our little boy had a had
a corncob and he had eaten all the corn off the corncob but
that corncob was still sweet to him, had a lot of butter on
it and he didn't want to let that corncob go. He was just
hanging on to that corncob and his mother and his daddy tried
everything in the world to get him to let go of that corncob.
He wouldn't let it go. That corncob is like you and
me when we are in our sin and we are holding on to what we
think is righteousness and goodness and something is going to make
us accepted with God. We are hanging on to it and we won't
let it go. That little boy would not let
go of that corn cob. And Mr. Stoddard walked over
there and he said, can I try something? And the mother said,
have at it. We tried everything we can. We
can't get him to let it go. And he pulled out a big old chocolate
bar. And that little boy dropped that
Hershey bar and latched on to that chocolate bar. He gave Him
something better. That's what God does for us.
He gives us something better. And He says here, Ephraim will
say, what have I to do anymore with idols? I've heard Him now.
I've observed Him now. I'm like a green fir tree. All
my fruit is from Him. Now, here's the question. Who's
wise? Who here is wise? Who here understands
these things? Is there anybody here that understands
these things I'm saying tonight? Anybody understand what God's
saying right here in His Word? Who's prudent and shall know
these things? The ways of the Lord are right. The just shall walk in His ways. but the transgressors shall fall
therein. Which one are we? Which one am
I and which one are you? Are we wise and prudent? Do we
behold that the ways of the Lord are right? Do we? God says, you've fallen by your
iniquity. Is He right? Can we say with
David, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this
evil in thy sight, that you might be justified when you judge? Can we say that? He said, come
to me and don't bring anything in your hand, just come with
words and beg mercy. We see that's the right way to
come to God? Why is that the right way? Because
if you bring something with you, you're diminishing Christ's glory.
You're diminishing the glory of God's own Son. God's own Son
came and He is the righteousness of God. He is the one God says,
I will receive you. You come with my Son and I'll
receive you. That's right. Because He's come
and declared God just. He's come and upheld God's law.
And He's come and justified God's people. And God says, now you
come in Him, believe in Him, without any of your works, that's
the right way to come. Can we say with God, that's the
right way to come? He said there, that all our fruit
is of Him. He healed our backsliding. He
loves us freely. His anger is turned away because
Christ bore the wrath of God in the place of His people. He's
as the dew upon His Israel. He makes us to grow. He makes
us to spread forth. He turns us so that we say we
don't want anything more to do with idols because we've heard
Him. Is that the right way to come? so that He gets all the
glory for drawing us to Him and we get none. He gets all the
glory for growing us and we get none. He gets all the glory for
keeping us persevering in faith and we don't get any glory. Is
that the right way? That's the right way. The wise
man says, yes, that's the right way. And you know what he does? He says there, the just. How did he get to be just? I
thought we fell by our iniquity. He got to be just by Christ,
by this right way. And the just shall walk in them.
He walks in these ways. He walks in this gospel of Christ,
in the doctrine of Christ, in the way of our Lord. He walks
in this way. And God says, that's a wise man.
That's a prudent man. But, the transgressor. Who's the transgressor? Oh, that's
the wicked sinner that's just sinful. Oh, you are already that. We already fell by our iniquity.
That's not the transgression he's talking about. The transgressor
is the one who's heard this message of Christ and says, I don't want
it. I'll hold on to my corn cob.
Thank you very much. That's the transgressor. And
the transgressors shall fall because of the same way that
His people are saved. Christ Jesus. You see what Brother
Gabe preached from when he preached from Matthew and he said, the
Lord said, all that fall on this stone, they're going to be broken. If you fall on Him in grace,
you'll be broken. But, if that stone falls on you
in judgment, you'll be ground to powder. But it's the same
stone that does both. It's the same Christ that heals
and it's the same Christ that condemns. All I can do is preach
this message and call on you. Are you Israel? Are you Israel? Are you one of God's elect? Men that are fighting against
God and saying, I don't think it's fair that God elected a
people. I don't think it's fair. I just don't think it's fair.
All they're proving is they're probably not His elect. But when
He brings you to see Him, you'll quit arguing against God's election. And you'll do what He said right
here. And that's when you find out, I am one of His elect. I
am one of His elect. Are you one of His elect? Are
you Israel? Israel returns. to the Lord. Israel comes to the Lord. Are
you Israel? All I can do is preach it. All
I can do is tell you these things. And I pray God preaches it to
you in your heart. I pray God gives it to you in
your heart and makes you a wise man. You know how we are made wise?
Of God is Christ made unto us wisdom. We see Christ is all
the counsel of God, all the revelation of God, and we see the wisest
thing we can do is flee to Him. Has He made you wise? If not,
oh, if not, you're a transgressor because you don't believe on
Christ. You've heard the Gospel and you don't believe on Christ.
And as sure as God's people shall be saved by Christ, you shall
fall by Christ. I pray God make you a wise man.
Let's stand together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we need You to make us wise.
We need You to turn us and we'll be turned. We need You to draw
us to Christ. We need You to make Him altogether
lovely in our hearts. We need You to give us faith.
We need You to give us repentance. And Lord, for those to whom You've
done this work, we come with the calves of our lips and we
thank You. Everything that we have and everything
has been done for us, not by us. You've done it in the person
of Your dear Son. And Lord, we thank You. We praise
You. All our fruitfulness from the
first hour, we believe, to right now is all of You. Lord, how
we pray You make the lost sinner here wise. Make him to behold
Christ. Make him to come and fall down
at Christ's feet, in the heart, through faith, casting all their
care on Christ. Make him confess Him in believers'
baptism. Make him unite with His people.
Make him not ashamed, Lord. Lord, we pray for our brethren
who are hurting, who are suffering sadness and trials. You know
what they're going through. You know the pain. We pray, Lord, that You would
succor them, that You would comfort them, and Your sovereign power
come, and in Your mercy and in Your experience, give them what
they need. And Lord, make whatever the trial
is, make it for your glory. Make them behold Christ a little
better than they did before the trial. We pray for the meetings down
in Missouri and pray you bless Brother Eric and the folks there.
Bless Brother Darwin as he preaches. Lord, pray that you bring us
together again safely on Sunday. We thank You for Your manifold
blessings. Oh, Your grace is so marvelous
to us. Forgive us, Lord, our sins, our
iniquity, our looking to ourselves and trying to flee on horses. We thank You for forgiveness
and long-suffering and forbearance. In the name of our gracious Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, we ask these things. Amen. Alright,
brother. Another heart.