May God be pleased to bless us
this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the prophecy
of Hosea, chapter 14, and reading verse 8. The prophecy of Hosea,
chapter 14, and reading verse 8. Ephraim shall say, what have
I to do with any more with idols? I've heard him and observed him. I'm like a green fir tree. From
me is thy fruit found. Sometimes on face value, the
word of God seems very difficult to understand. And it may be
that you think that of this verse this morning, that it's a difficult
verse to understand. Well, let me just briefly outline
what it means. Ephraim is representative of
the remnant of Israel, or perhaps we should say the believing remnant
of Israel, those who were of the true Church of God. And they
are making a statement, and they are saying, what have I to do
anymore with idols? That means when the Lord had
come and touched their hearts and turned this small company,
this remnant, away from worshipping idols. And therefore they're
saying, what shall I do anymore with idols. It means they didn't
really have any use for them, they didn't really want them.
And then we read the Lord is speaking and he's saying this,
he's saying, I've heard him. He has heard the prayer, he's
heard the cry of this remnant of Israel. And not only does
he say I've heard him, but he's also observed. He's also seen
the reaction of this people. And then he describes himself.
The Lord himself describes himself. He says, I am like a green fir
tree. Description of the Lord himself.
It concludes this verse with these words, from me, that's
from the Lord, is our fruit found. Spiritual fruit is only found
as we are united and as we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well I hope that's just a very
brief outline of this wonderful verse in the Word of God. Hosea lived as you can read if
you turn to the very first and chapter in this book you can
tell when Hosea lived He lived He was the son of Beri in the
days of Isaiah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah,
but we're not told exactly when he was born exactly when he died,
but we know that Isaiah and was a king who had leprosy very badly. And Jotham, his son, took over
the kingdom while his father was still alive, and then reigned.
He was a good king. And then Ahaz reigned, and Ahaz
was a very wicked and bad king. And then Hezekiah reigned. And
Hezekiah, as I'm sure you know, was a good king and did many
right and glorious things. So Hosea lived during that period. just when this prophecy was written
we're not told we know more or less the period and of course
it was a period of much prophesying it was needful because Israel
as a whole that included of course a remnant included Judah and
included all of Israel who were in a very sad and solemn position. They had often, often turned
away from the Lord God. And on many occasions the Lord
had had wonderful mercy upon them and hadn't dealt with them
as their sins deserved. and they'd had a time of favour
and then they departed from the Lord and what had they done?
They'd gone to serve idols. Yes, they'd made idols and they'd
served them. It's almost impossible, or difficult rather, for us to
realise that people should actually do this. Again and again they
went against God. Again and again God was merciful
to them. I suppose we're thankful we have
a history of God's people like that, because as we live in today
and as we might perhaps look at our life as a contracted small
part, as it were, of Israel in our long period, yet our whole
life is contracted into a small part, and yet are we not the
same? Do we not, again and again, turn
our back upon God? And again and again, we are sidetracked
to things which we know, if we're honest, they do not really profit
our soul. The problem is that our nature
likes them. We think, oh, this is good, we'll
do this, and well, I don't think there's any real harm in it,
and it won't really have any effect upon me. Well, of course,
it does. And it's the devil who is so
powerful, always has been, and is, and will be, until the end
of time, in endeavouring to turn people away from the true God. And so we have this statement
now about Ephraim, again this remnant saying, what have I to
do any more with idols? Well, I wonder if we can perhaps
say that in our lives, the Lord's brought us to a condition, to
a situation where perhaps we've had those idols in our life and
God has given us grace, he's given us strength, he's given
us ability to turn away from those idols. Now, I haven't got
anything specific in mind when I say this, but all of us know
in our own lives whether there are those idols which grip us
and turn us away from God. That's really what an idol is.
It may not be a carved golden image or something, but there
may be many other things in our lives which we may be effectively
worshipping because they have taken us, they've drawn us away
from the truth of God, from the word of God. Other things have
come into our lives and have produced therefore perhaps hardness,
perhaps coldness, perhaps lethargy, lukewarmness to the things of
God, and we find it's not quite as easy to read the Word of God,
and in fact it's very hard to pray. And if we look and examine ourselves,
what do we find like Israel? We've strayed away, we've given
an ear to the devil, We found ourselves occupied in things
which, as the Word of God tells us, do not profit. Now it would
be a great blessing if the Spirit of God speaks to our heart and
directs us to search ourselves and see whether we're occupying
ourselves in things which do not profit. Well, my friends,
Israel passed this way and the Church of God passed this way
and we want to be very aware that these things can insidiously
creep into our lives. And before we know where we are,
they've taken a grip of us. They've taken a hold upon us.
And we may not be aware of it until the Blessed Spirit of God
comes and points to us and shows us perhaps the condition we're
in, that we're not in. a healthy condition spiritually
and we're not reading the word of God prayerfully and as carefully
as we should and we haven't been praying as we should and religion
has just become just something which we've gone through the
motions with. It hasn't really been the life
of God toward us. Well, bless God then, if we have
been brought to a position, and if you read the rest of Hosea,
you will see how the prophet had to castigate Israel, and
many of them he spoke against, totally, that there was no way
of returning backwards. Indeed, he says these words,
O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. Destroyed thyself. What a terrible condemnation
that is. The Word of God should come to
us in such a way as that, and point to us and say, yes, you
man have destroyed yourself. Well, here is hope, because as
we begin this 14th chapter, which is really quite a lot different
from the rest of this book, O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. for thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity." You see, what a blessing when the Spirit of God speaks
to us and directs us to return unto Him. There's no greater
blessing, is there, than being found returning unto the Lord
thy God. Oh, what a wonderful blessing
it is. And he says, take with you words
Turns the Lord that means to pray that means to pray And that
means to pray truly urgently fervently Take with you words
and turn on the Lord and sound him take away all iniquity Well,
you know, it's a blessing if you and I can pray like that
because you know sin Gets hold of us You don't always want to
give up sin. You might say, well, I'm surprised
you say that. Well, you think of it. You look
into your life and just see whether there are those things which,
when you stand before a holy God, remember this, a holy God
is sinless. When you compare the holiness
of God with your life, my life, Is it holy? Or are those things
in it which are sinful, which are iniquitous, and therefore,
bless God with the Spirit of God. And my friends, it's only
the Spirit of God which could bless us to such an effect, and
to cry like this, take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
on it, so will we proclaim the truth of God. And so he goes
on, I won't go through it all, but he says, I will heal their
backslidings. My friends, it's very easy to
backslide. As I've sometimes made the point,
if you're on a slope, you know, a slope, and it's a slippery
slope, it's very easy to slide down that slope. My friends,
it's not very easy to climb back up a slippery slope. Bless God,
then, for such a word as this. I, as he says, I, the Lord God,
will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for when
anger is turned away from me. Isn't that a tremendous word
of encouragement to an unworthy sinner? I will be, as the Jew
unto Israel, shall grow as a lily and cast
forth his roots as Lebanon's branches shall spread 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 a
corn and grow as a vine essential thereof shall be as the wine
of Lebanon." Well, then we hear, what have I to do anymore with
idols? What a blessing the Lord has so brought us to a position
like that, that we're willing to get rid of the idols in our
life. And God knows, and you know,
if you have idols in your life. And so then, the Lord says, I
have heard him. Well, The Lord heard your cry. The Lord heard your prayer. It
may have not been a very involved prayer. It may have been a very,
very simple prayer. My friends, you know, effectual
prayers are often very simple prayers. Yes, they're not long,
complicated prayers. They're very simple prayers because
you're standing before God and you have to plead for His mercy. You have to plead for His help. And so the Lord says, I have
heard him. There's no greater blessing to
know that God has heard your prayer. And why has he heard
your prayer? For Jesus' sake. And why has
he heard it for Jesus' sake? Because Jesus has died to atone
for your sin. I have heard him. but a favour
than it is to know that God has heard our prayers. And that will
be real prayer, true prayer, not just a familiar repeating
phrases. My friends, the prayer from our
heart, the prayer we might say indicted by the Spirit of God,
true prayer. It's a wonderful thing when the
Spirit of God gives us true prayer. Real prayer. Urgent prayer. A prayer that says, I will not
let thee go except thou bless me. Remember Jacob on that wonderful
occasion. Yes, he was blessed with prayer. The Lord heard his prayer, didn't
he? The Lord heard his prayer and the Lord answered his prayer.
But Jacob was in such a state and such a concern with so many
things against him. He had to pray a real urgency,
and he wouldn't let the Lord go until the Lord heard and blessed
him. What have I to do? Any more with
idleness, I have heard him. Well my friends, may we have
the evidence that God has heard our prayers. As it were, our
prayers have entered in. They haven't bounced back from
the ceiling. They've gone through, they've entered in to the mercy
seat through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have heard him. Well, blessed
soul today, if we have the evidence that God has heard our prayers. I have heard him. And then he
says, and observed him. The Lord observes us. He knows
what we do. He knows where we go. He knows
what we think. He knows every item of our life. And the Lord is observing us.
The Lord has observed us today. He has observed us yesterday. He has observed us during the
week. If you realise that, are there
any things in your life, perhaps in the past week, that if you
had been embarrassed by, if God had come and suddenly physically
stood by your side, would you have been embarrassed? Would
you have been ashamed? The things that you were doing?
The things that you were thinking? The things that you were saying?
Well, the Lord says here, I have observed him. My friends, God
observes everything we do. Everything. He knows all about
us. He knows what you're thinking.
God observes your thoughts. He observes my thoughts. We have a great God. We haven't
got a little God. We've got a great God who observes
everything about us. Everything. God doesn't miss
anything. Nothing's hidden. Almighty God. He knows our very thought. He
knows our very motive. He knows our desires. Are our
desires honest? Are our desires true? Or, my friends, are our actions
sometimes, do we perhaps give a wrong impression of our spiritual
life? You know there's such a very
solemn position as being a hypocrite, a hypocrite in Zion, a hypocrite
in the Church of God. That means that somebody is pretending
to be what they're not. And my friends, there have been
many hypocrites in the Church of God who've gone on through
their life pretending they're a Christian, pretending. Now,
born again in the Spirit of God, and in fact they remained dead
in trespasses and in sins. There has been no life in them.
My friends, we don't achieve anything by pretending what we're
not. Remember, God observes us. I have observed him. God observes you and he observes
me. Now it would be a good thing
also if the Lord has observed our true repentance. Yes, when we've come to God and
we've bowed down and we've been truly sorry for the things that
we've done against God, perhaps we've mourned because of the
evil of our heart. Now that's when it's an encouragement
to know that God has observed us. He's seen us pray to him,
he's seen us cry to him for mercy and that we might know the blessing
of the Lord in our souls. He's observed the reality of
that. Yes, it hasn't been just a hypocritical
action. It's come from the very deep
recess of our heart. We really needed the Lord to
come. We really needed God to be merciful
to us. We've cried out from our heart God, be merciful to me
a sinner. We prayed, Lord, help me. The Lord has observed that. Isn't
that a blessing? You see, God has given this prayer. God has observed it. And we're
thankful for it. And our hearts and our souls
are encouraged by it. Well, what am I to do anymore
with idols? I have heard him and I have observed
him. We always realise that God, my
friends, Almighty God, let us never have small views of God. Let us not think that God is
asleep, or God is not looking, or God is not watching, or God
is not hearing. My friend, God knows everything.
Let us be very clear that we have a great God, and that's
the God before whom we stand now upon the earth, and that's
the God before whom you and I will stand on that great day of judgement.
and there will be no place to hide then. There will be no place
of escape then. You and I, little you, little
me, puny us, before that great majesty of God on that white
throne, we shall stand and we shall have
to give an account of the things done in the flesh. And we will
then indeed know, if we don't know now, that everything God
observed in our life, every single thing, I've heard him and observed him. So God comes and puts us in a
right place to realise we have a great God who knows all the
evil and knows all the good. And we can thank God, therefore
He does observe us when we cry unto Him from our heart. He does
observe our true desires, that we seek to know Him more, to
love Him more, and to serve Him better. God observes that. And that's a wonderful consolation,
isn't it? To know that we have a God then
who is like that, who observes everything that we do, good and
bad. Well then, the Prophet goes on
and he tells us this. He then describes something of
himself. He says, I am like a green fir
tree. Well, there's many examples we
have in the Word of God of the Saviour, of what he is like.
And here we have just a very simple illustration which says,
I am like a green fir tree. Well, one of the Things, of course,
about a fir tree, it is always green. It's always green. What do we deduce from that?
We deduce this from our God. He is the same yesterday and
today and forever. And what does the greenness show? It shows life. What does it teach us? about
our Saviour, I am alive forevermore. So we see a God who is the same
and a God who is alive forevermore. Now what a blessing it is then
to be directed to a situation like this and then just a number
of other comments but first of all a fir tree is normally very
upright. You look at fir trees, they're
normally very erect, aren't they? And very straight, and they grow
to often a very great height, and they are vertical. Yes, they're
not bent over, they're usually vertical. And my friends, how
upright is our God. And so here we have this, said,
I am like, I am like a green fir tree. And what does a fir
tree provide? The foliage is very dense. It's very dense. What does it
provide? It provides a shadow. From the
heat of the sun, provides a shadow. What does it do? What is its
illustration then for the Church of God? Well, my friends, we
can hide under his shadow. Yes, from all the fiery darts
of the devil, all the fire, all the heat that he produces to
hide in the shadow of our God. And so to think then of the little
bit here, a little view of the greatness of this God. And it's
good you see that we have an understanding this God is so
great. I am like a green fir tree. What a wonderful favour it is
to know that this God is, therefore, ever the same. I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. So whatever condition you and
I come in to, whatever place we're in, however far off, however
near, yes, the Lord is the same. The same yesterday and today
forever. He does not change. No, he doesn't have moods. He
doesn't have swings, my friends. He's always the same. He is a
just God. He is a compassionate God. He is a loving God. He is a merciful
God. Put these things together. Do
we not have something of a little view of the wonder and the greatness
of God? And here is Hosea, Prophesying
to ancient Israel to these company of believers and encouraging
them in this Situation and telling them yes, the Lord says I am
like a green fir tree and my friends to think that we have
therefore a God like this a God who is always the same he does
not change He know he there's no variation with God. I No variation. And my friends, he is always,
always there. A fir tree, a green fir tree
is always green, it's always there. My friends, the Lord is
always ready to hear and answer our prayers. Whatever condition
we're in, whatever time of the day, whatever time of the night,
We think of those simple words, the door of his mercy stands
open all day and night to the poor and the needy that knock
by the way. Yes, my friends, any time we
can come to our God, he is like a green fir tree. And then just,
he says then, from me is thy fruit found. From me is thy fruit
found. How important it is that we have
an understanding of that. We cannot be fruitful unless
we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord gave us some wonderful
words when he spoke to his disciples on that Passover night in the
upper room and he told them that he was the true vine. I am the true vine, my father
is the husband. He says, I am the vine, ye are
the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. What it means is this, if we
are outside of Christ, If we're not in Christ, there will be
no fruit, no true fruit. No true fruit which, and my friends,
you see, the blessing is that spiritual fruit, it brings help
and encouragement to us, but more than that, it brings honour
and glory to God. Now then, we are then part of
this living vine, And the Lord Jesus tells us, Herein is my
Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my
disciples. So all those years ago, the Lord,
through his servant Hosea, speaks these words, From me is thy fruit
found. There is no fruit found anywhere
else other than being in Christ Jesus. Well, and he says, Herein
is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye
be my disciples. The inference there is that unless
we're fruit-bearing, we're not a true disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're not a true follower of our blessed Saviour. But what
a favour it is if you and I are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if we are found in the
Lord Jesus Christ, then there will be the evidence of this
fruit. You might say, well, what is
the evidence of this fruit? Well, the Apostle Paul, when
he wrote to the Galatians in the 5th chapter and the 20th
verse, he gives us a picture of what this fruit really is. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness,
revidings and such like. of the witch, I tell you before,
as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Now note, these
are the works of the flesh. They are the works of the flesh.
And now the Lord comes and says, but the fruit of the Spirit,
not the work of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit, the
effect of the work of God in our souls. The fruit of the Spirit
is, he gives in a list, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.
And then he rounds it up by saying this, and they that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with their affections and lusts. Again,
simply, if we are turning away from our idols, It means that
there will be crucifixion of the flesh. Crucifixion was the
worst, most painful death that could ever be experienced. And
therefore the Lord brings the analogy here, direct us in this
way, that crucifixion of the flesh is difficult. They that are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the
Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another." Well, we
see here then the importance and the wonderful statement,
from me is thy fruit found. My friends, What does Christ
mean to us today? This is really the centre of
true religion. What does Christ mean to us today? If we come and say, yes, he's
all my hope for time and eternity, and if he is truly all our hope
for time and eternity, then you see, is it our desire then to
be fruitful in the things of God, to be living nearer to our
Saviour? you are to somebody, the more
easily you hear what they're saying. And if you're a long
way away, you can't hear what people are saying. My friends,
it's a great blessing if we're drawn to the Saviour, drawn to
the Saviour, so we walk with Him, we run with Him, we go with
Him, we learn of Him. We grow then in grace and in
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Well, here we have
then in this verse here, a wonderful truth really, a wonderful blessing
if you and I are concerned about our spiritual state, to be able
to align ourselves with words like this. Ephraim shall say,
what am I to do any more with idols? They don't now mean anything
to me. Then the Lord says, I have heard
him, bless God if he's heard us, and observed us, thankful
that the Lord sees all the evil, but also all the good, all the
desires, all the God-given desires. I am like a green fir tree to
view the Saviour in all his blessedness, and then to prove from me is
thy fruit found. Amen.