Hosea chapter 13. It is the book immediately after
Daniel. Hosea chapter 13. And the title of the message
this morning is The Fall and the Rise of Ephraim. The Fall
and Rise of Ephraim. In chapter 13 of Hosea, it begins
by observing Ephraim before his fall into iniquity. Look at this
in verse 1 of chapter 13. When Ephraim spake, trembling,
he exalted himself in Israel. Now, remember that Ephraim was
the son of Joseph, but here in Hosea, Ephraim being the chief
tribe in Israel represents the whole of Israel. Ephraim is just
another word for Israel. Okay? So, when we see this, you
can say, when Israel spake, trembling, Ephraim being the chief tribe
of the ten northern tribes, he is a representative of all Israel. And when God called this small
family, you remember Israel came from a small family. It came
actually from one man, Abraham. Abraham, and then Isaac, and
Jacob. It was a small people. And during
their infancy, you remember how Israel, how Jacob trembled before
God. How Jacob humbled himself underneath
the mighty hand of God, being wrestled by the Son of God. And being smote on his thigh,
he humbled himself. This is a remembrance of when
Jacob, when Israel was humbled before God. It was then he was
exalted. It was then Israel dwelt under
the mighty blessings of God. But what happened to Israel? It says in this verse 1, But
when he offended in Baal, he died. In other words, when he
stopped worshiping God and started worshiping the false god, Baal. It's then Israel died. Israel
was highly exalted, highly favored of God, freely chosen and loved
of God, but when he offended in Baal, he died. What is this
to remind us of? Let this be a reminder to us
of our father, Adam. I don't care where your family
is or who your family is. We all have this in common. We
come from one father, Adam, Adam. And our father Adam was a representative
man, a representative man. He who is blessed of God, exalted
of God, and freely given the rule over all things. Consider
the blessing of Adam. Son, son, I need you to stop
that. Do you understand me? If that was my daughter, I would
be very offended. Let this be a reminder to us
that we all have A son. We all have a son of Adam. He
was blessed of God, exalted of God, and freely given the rule
over all the earth. He was freely given to eat of
all the trees that God gave. Consider that. Consider the free
grace of God that He blessed our Father with. And yet in the
day he took and ate of that forbidden fruit, he died. He died. And we died in him. Adam set himself up as God. And the justice of God fell on
him. And just like Israel, the moment
that he forsook God and worshiped Baal, Their death did not cause
them to repent. It only inflamed them to rebellion. You get that? Adam died. God came down in justice. And Adam, our father, died. And we died in him. But instead
of turning to God, instead of his death causing him to turn
to God, what did it do? It incited more rebellion. Look at that in verse 2. That's
what happened to Israel. When he's convicted of his sin,
what happens? He only sins more. And now they
sin more and more. and have made them molten images
of their silver, and idols, according to their own understanding, all
the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, let the men
that sacrifice kiss the calves. Even so as it was with Adam,
His death did not cause his repentance. It only caused more sin. Adam
tried then to cover his sins. He ran from God. He hid from
God. And even so, do all of his race
run from God. Run from God. As Adam made fig leaves to cover
his sin, even so do men more wickedly make their works, their
religion, and their idols to try to cover their sin. Dark the stain! Dark the stain
that soiled man's nature. Sin soiled our nature. All works religion, friends,
listen, is idolatry. All works religion is idolatry. And because one work is never
enough, they must produce more and more of them. What are they
doing? They're molding a calf. They're
molding an idol to worship. That's what men do with their
works. They take their works and they mold them and they make
them and they shape them. Why? So that they might be accepted
of God by their works. They say, kiss the calves. Calves are sacrifices. In other
words, look what I've done. When they brag on their works
or they brag on what they've done, what are they doing? They're
saying, look at my works. Kiss my sacrifice. It's precious. It's precious. See what God says of those who
would worship the idols of their own making. Look at verse 3.
Therefore, they say they shall be as the morning cloud, and
as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven
by the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Behold, hear the vanity of man.
Vanity. James says this, to you who say,
I will go do this and do that, you should say, if the Lord will,
I'll go do this and do that. You have plans. Every one of
you have plans today. We have plans to eat together.
We have plans. And then after that, you've got
plans. You've got things you want to
do. And so you say, I'll do this
and I'll do that and I'll do this. You'll do that if the Lord's
willing. And if he's not, you won't. Your
life is but a vapor. It's here for a moment, and it's
gone. It's gone. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. In the parable of the rich man,
you remember that rich man said within himself, he said to his
soul, eat, drink and be married for thou hast accumulated so
much and you just need to take your ease. What did God say? God said, you're
a fool. You're a fool. This night, thy soul is required
of thee. this night. Who shall these things
be? The world calls those wise who
work so hard for the future. They work and they work all the
while neglecting their eternal immortal souls for the sake of
what? Ease, comfort, and pleasure. The same is true of worldly religion. They work so hard to merit God's
favor. They try to earn their own righteousness
by their own obedience of the law, by their traditions. And when they think they've got
enough, what do they say? Eat, drink, and be merry. They say, all is well with my
soul. God must accept me because I'm a good person. God must accept me because of
all the prayers and sighs and tears and all the sermons I listen
to. Surely my sacrifices are sufficient. God says you're a fool. If you are trusting in your own
righteousness, you're a fool. Oh sinner, what is your hope
to be accepted? If your life is so short, if
life is but a vapor, and all your plans are in the hands of
Almighty God, what will you do when your time comes? What will you do? How will you
be accepted? My friend wrote this and obviously
it was a foolish and ignorant quote by some lost man. The quote
was this, the man of talent lives after death. What a fool. The man of talent lives after
death. I'll read you what God says about
that. Ecclesiastes chapter 6 and verse 6. I'm sorry, I think I got the
wrong passage there. The scripture says that when a man dies, it's done. And who shall remember
him? Who shall remember him? Who's going to remember you a
hundred years from now? We think we're so important.
We think we're just so important. Who in the world is going to
remember us a hundred years from now? No one. And if you had any
talent at all, that's remembered. Remember, God gave it to you,
and all you did was use it for wickedness. Behold, God says
of Israel. God says of Israel. God says
of those of Adam's race who are now dead. Look at verse 12 in
our text. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound
up, and his sin is hid. The sorrow of a travailing woman
shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should
not stay long in the place of the bringing forth of children. Israel's sin is hid. It's bound up, but not for long. See, this is the gospel. This
is the gospel message here. Behold the glory of God's free
grace in this. Remember that Israel is a picture
of God's elect. Those who God loved, those who
God chose, those who the Son redeemed, and the Spirit shall
call. Those, all of God's elect, are
born dead and whose iniquity, idolatry, and sin only increase
more and more, yet there is a day appointed for their salvation. Beloved, we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you. Beloved of the Lord, chosen before
the foundation of the world to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. We have, like our Father,
hid our sins. We are like a whorish woman who
would hide her adultery But soon as she is found with child, her
sin will be manifest to all. God's elect are as an adulterous
woman, pregnant with sin. That's the picture here. The
picture is, Israel's sin is hid. Until when? Until she brings
forth. until she bears the child. The
adulterous woman's sin is hid until when? Until she becomes
pregnant and has to bear the child. Then it's known to everybody
what kind of person she is. And as God chose His people,
He also assumed, well, we will have no place to hide our sin. All God's people at the appointed
time will travail as a woman delivering a baby and she can't
hold back. Neither can we anymore hide our
sin. Have you ever been, has your
sin ever been exposed? Have you ever become naked before
God? Yet hear the gracious call of
God our Savior to such guilty sinners. Hear the gospel. Listen to it. I will ransom them
from the power of the grave. What did the law say of such
a woman who was committed adultery and found with child? What did
the law say? It demanded her death. And hear
the Savior as her husband stands between her and the law and says,
I will ransom her. I will pay the price for her. I will ransom her from the grave.
The law required our death, but Christ stands in our stead and
says, I will ransom them from the hand of the grave. This is
what is being... This He did when He bore, when
He became a man. He came in flesh. Jesus Christ came as a man to
accomplish what we could not accomplish. Righteousness. Redemption. Reconciliation. This He did, as the Scripture
says over in Isaiah chapter 42. This was the prophecy of Him
that should come. It says, the Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. But this is a people robbed and
spoiled. They are all of them snared in
holes, and they are hid in prison houses. They are for a prey,
and none delivereth, a spoil, and none restoreth. Who among
them will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for
the time to come? Who will listen to this, that
you're a prisoner and snared? that you're a sinner. Who gave
Jacob for a spoil in Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord,
against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his
ways, neither were they obedient unto his laws. Therefore he hath
poured upon him the fury of his anger." Notice this. In this,
there's a transition. He says, for they, would not
walk. Neither were they obedient. Yet, the Scripture in verse 25
says, therefore, he hath poured on him. Not them, him. Who's that? We were a people
robbed and spoiled by sin, and yet God says, this is how I'm
going to remedy it. I'm going to pour on Him my anger, which is Christ. He poured out His anger on Christ. Behold, the Redeemer of Jacob
is Jesus Christ. God hath poured on him infinite,
eternal, unrelenting justice without mercy. Behold the righteous
and sinless blood of the Son of God that poured from his body as his soul was made an offering
for sin. And back in our text, verse 15,
though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall
come. The wind of the Lord shall come
upon the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and
his fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil his treasure of
all pleasant vessels. Samaria shall become desolate. For she hath rebelled against
her God. They shall fall by the sword,
their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with
child shall be ripped up. Has God dried up your self-righteous
fountain? Has God dashed your little gods
against the stone of his justice? If you're ever to be saved, he
must do it. He must. God must be preeminent. If you are such a sinner, then I've got great news for
you. I have good news for great sinners. Look at verse 1 of chapter 14.
Oh, Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. For, because thou hast fallen
by thine iniquity. This is the gospel call for sinners
to return. The cause of our sorrow, sin
and death, grief and death is sin. Let me ask you, if your fountain
is dried up, why would you ever want to return to it? I tell you, I don't want to go
back to where I was. I don't want it. I don't want
it. It's dry, dead. I don't want
my former life. I don't want any part of it. from self. Repent from your idols. Repent
from your works, your religious exercises, which are nothing
but sin. And return to God. And notice God gives you the
grounds for coming. Why should you return? For you
have fallen by your own iniquity. Sin is no reason why you should
not return. Sin is the reason you should
return. If you say, I'm too great a sinner
to return, you've just missed it. You've missed it. It's because
you're a great sinner that you need to return. that you should
return unto God. Only sinners have need of iniquity
to be taken away. And notice God doesn't give you,
He doesn't leave it to your imagination what to do. He said, look, take
with you words. What words? Not yours. Your words are about as useless
as mine. What word? Take with you my words. my words. Return and take with
you words. What words? Here's the word.
Take away all iniquity. Receive us graciously. Oh God, that's what I need. I
need you to take away my sin. I need you to take away all my
sin. I can't do anything. I can't
take away one sin. I need you to take all my sins
away. And I need you to do it graciously. I don't need you to do it based
on merit. I don't need you to do it based on worth. I have
no worth. I have no merit. Take it all
away because you're gracious. Take it away, please, graciously. By free grace. This is how sinners come. They
come begging. Begging for mercy. Lord, said the publican, Lord,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Blind Bartimaeus, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. David said against thee, and
of thee only have I sinned and done this evil. What do these
all have in common? They come as sinners seeking
mercy. Seeking mercy. So will we render the calves
of our lips. What is that? The praise of our
lips. In other words, everyone who
comes to the center in need and finds grace, you know who we
brag about? We brag about God. This morning as I preached to
you, have I bragged about anything I've done? Ain't nothing to brag about.
I'm just like you. I'm a sinner. I am a sinner. And I stand in need of the grace
of God. Mercy. And sin is no excuse not to come. Sin is the reason you should
come. Therefore, all who come to Christ gladly offer praise. We then coming for grace, finding
grace, give all our hopes in men, give up all hopes in men, all our works, we gladly give
up this world. Think of a man who only owns
a garbage dump. And someone comes along and says,
if you'll trade that dump, I'll give you my treasure, billions. Would that be a hard trade? Garbage, billions. Wouldn't be
a hard trade at all, would it? Christ said, give up the garbage
of your sins and you can have my righteousness. That's not
a trade at all. We gladly give up those things.
We confess we are orphans and bastard sons of Adam. We are
outcast children who are in need of mercy. Do you need mercy? Behold his words to all Israel. who turn to Christ for salvation. Look at verse 4 of chapter 14,
I will heal their backsliding. Listen, I will love them freely. For mine anger is turned away
from him. There's that principle again
of them. Notice their backslidings there. Love them freely for I've
turned away mine anger from him. Christ bore our sins in his own
body. God turned his anger from us
on to him. And now then that he satisfied
God's justice forever, God has turned his anger away. There's
no more anger. God is not angry with his people. I will love them freely, without a cause in them. I'll tell you that's good news
because I, after 43 years, cannot find a cause as to why God would
love me. Take with you words and here's
the word. I will love them freely. Why do I come here? Do I come
here for duty? I come here freely. because I'm freely loved. Isn't that the thing that moves
us? Isn't that the thing that stirs
our hearts? It moves us to leave the world
behind. You bet it does. This is home. This is all my righteousness. That He will heal me and love me. I will be as the dew unto Israel,
and he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and
his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. This is speaking of Christ. My
mom's got an old cedar chest. I love it when I go there. As
soon as she opens that, there's a smell. And you know what that does?
It brings back memories. I mean, I know I'm gonna go in
there and look at pictures and memories. Family and friends,
I'm gonna, I'm excited. And when I open it up, the smell
just reminds me. That cedar smell. That incorruptible
wood. Oh, how Christ is the smell of
Lebanon uncorruptible. It undefiled that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for me. He loves me because his anger has
been satisfied. Listen to me, faith is necessary
for salvation, but my faith is not the cause of my salvation. Not the cause. It's the result. I believe because He's given
me faith. And that faith freely embraces
the death and resurrection of my Savior as all my justification. Is He not the dew? Isn't He the
refreshing spring in our souls? He is. For he hath by his one offering
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Believer in Christ, listen to
me. You are justified. You are sanctified. We don't become holier, do we? Matter of fact, I know this.
I see more and more of my sin. But I know this. I hate it. I loathe it. Who then is wise? And he shall understand these
things, prudent, and he shall know them. For the ways of the
Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them. But the transgressors shall fall
therein. Time is short. Time is short. If God by his grace would make
you wise, you would hear what I say. you should beg him to reveal
it to you. You would be wise, but the transgressor will fall. If you will not heed these things,
you will die in your sins. Is this not important? What could be more important? What? Nothing. May God even bless you now.