Y'all, we'll open your Bibles
to Hosea. The book of Hosea. The title of this message is, Consistent
Pattern. There's a consistent pattern.
And the more I read through the Lord's Word,
the more I study His Word, the more I see this is more prevalent
to me. There's a pattern. when the Lord
saves somebody and His purpose and His providence. There's a
conviction of sin. There's a conviction of sin. People don't hear this gospel,
they don't hear of this Redeemer, of this people that the Lord
put in Him, the people He saved, and they keep walking down the
street, swinging a can of paint, whistling a tune like ain't nothing
happened. That doesn't happen. There's a heart work done. There's
a conviction of sin. All flesh is grass. We're going
to come to understand that in some capacity. I'm not saying
we need to preach doom and gloom and fire and brimstone. That
is a part of it. The Lord sets us clearly forth
in the book of Hosea, and then He spends several chapters on
it for Ephraim. If we miss what happened in the
garden, we miss it all. And that's what happens inside every one
of us. Let's look here in Hosea chapter 1, verse 2. The beginning of the
word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said unto Hosea,
Go, take thee a wife of Hortums and children of Hortums. This
really happened. Four. Because, you need to do
this, my prophet, because the land hath committed great whoredom
departing from the Lord. It wasn't just this world had
failed, but the Lord's people throughout every land, throughout
Israel, throughout Gentile lands, throughout North America, in
our day, we have created and committed
great whoredoms against the Lord. And for that reason, this man,
Hosea, Lord's prophet on this earth, had to go take Gomer.
For her sake, for his sake, and for mine and yours sake. This
had to happen. It says there in verse 3, So, he went and took
Gomer, the daughter of Diblium. Hosea, the deliverer, our deliverer,
went and took Gomer, that daughter of complete death, consumption. And he married her. He wed her. This is a picture of Christ marrying
his bride before time. When we come on the scene, when
we're born into this world, we're fallen. Sin was imputed to us
in Adam, it was imparted to us in our birth, and we acted on
it the first breath we took coming out of the womb. We cried, we
lied, that's what we did from birth. We failed. Just like that, Gomer, picture
the Lord's church, she fell. Fell right back to her nature,
to her family of whoredoms. Went right back to the family
profession. Got comfortable. So there was a cry for repentance.
There was a falling. Gomer wasn't aware of it. She
thought what she's doing is fine. She justified herself. Just like
Jonah going to Tarsus. I got a ticket. The Lord must
have gave it to me. She thought it was all right,
but there's a cry for repentance there in chapter two, verse two. It
says, plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife,
neither am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her
whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries from between her
breasts. Plead with your mother. Turn from what you are, what
your nature is, and turn to your deliverer that's loved you from
everlasting. That's the plea, the plea of
repentance. Why should we plead to Gomer? Why should we plead to men and
women in our day, repent? Why should we yell to Him, turn?
Turn from our understanding, turn from what we think, turn
from everything that our nature is, our family is, and look to
the Lord. Why should we do that? Because
there's a price for sin. the wages of sin or death. God
will by no means clear the guilty. It says there in verse 3, Lest
I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born,
and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land,
and slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon
her children, for they be the children of whoredoms. There's
a punishment that's due to us, justly earned. that we willingly
went to, a path we willingly took, a nature we willingly cling
to, and there's a price for that. There's a price for that. There's a problem. Repent. Come to the Lord. Dead men can't
repent. You got to a graveyard. You can
say, if any one of y'all come out, you can have my house. I'll
give you my children. You can have every penny I own.
It's yours. Just come out of that grave. With man, this is impossible.
With God, all things are possible. So we see the Lord's providence
begin in chapter 2, verse 6. Therefore, and this is the Lord
speaking. If you go back up there in chapter 1, this is the Lord
speaking to Hosea. Says in chapter two, verse six,
therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns. I will
make a wall and she shall not find her paths. Lord's providence
comes in to the one he loves in every aspect, in every molecule,
in every breath of our life. And he hedges us about. He sets
walls we cannot climb, we can't get around and there's thorns
in our path and he directs us exactly where he wants us to
go. Sometimes that feels like wealth
and prosperity. It probably did for Gomer. As
she walked down these paths that the Lord God Almighty set for
her, there was plenty of corn, there was plenty of oil, there
was plenty of wool. She had some vineyards planted,
nice trees. Oh, look what my lovers gave
me. Oh, it's beautiful. Look here, the whole way, the
Lord was leaving the corn, He left the oil, He hedged her about,
and then He took it all away. just to bring her to where he
wanted her. It says there in verse 10, and now will I discover
her lewdness in the sight of her lovers. I want to expose
her sin. He didn't discover it. He was letting her know he discovered
it. I will discover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers and none shall deliver her out of
my hand. I don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear it. I'm
going to go hide underneath a rock. I'm going to pray the mountains
fall on me. The mountain ain't going to deliver you out of the
Lord's hand. When he comes to the heart of his child and he
convicts of sin, there ain't no escaping. There ain't no escaping. What's he going to do? He's going
to expose everything we are, all of our false religion, our
nature. That's what he's going to expose.
Not sins, but sin, the source of sins, plural. shows truly
not what I am some days, not what I am on Tuesday evenings,
what I am while I'm sleeping. He's going to expose that. And
if he left us there, what destitution? That's a precursor for eternal
judgment. What misery that'd be if he left
us alone. But for his people, not for all people, for his bride,
for Gomer, He speaks comfortably to them. It says in verse 14,
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring you right where I
want you, and bring her into the wilderness by herself, all
alone, and speak comfortably unto her. I mean, speak to the
heart, and to speak comfortably, kindly, gently, or to come let
us reason together. We don't reason with God. The
Lord said, I have a discussion, a debate that we might win. That's
just His loving kindness. That's His long suffering towards
His people to sit down with us like a small child. Come here,
buddy. Let's talk about it. I'll teach you. And speak comfortably
to our hearts. That was the plan of the Lord.
Hosea hadn't enacted it yet. This hadn't come to pass, but
the Lord told Hosea, this is my providence for my gomer. The one you're married to, I
espoused you to. And this is his providence for
all his people throughout time. From the first saint to the last.
And you know, for Gomer, we don't know how long that took. That
could have been a day and a half. I don't think so. That could
have been 40 years. Could have been a long time. In our lives, sometimes the Lord
comes to one of His people, one of His gomers, at a very young
age in life. Sometimes they're at a more mature
age. But He speaks to them. His providence
directs them throughout the course of their life. He convicts them
of sin, exposes them of what they are, brings them to nothing,
and then speaks comfortably to them. And then it goes on there
in the second chapter, and He restores everything she had and
gives you vineyards. have more oil than you know what
to do with. And He says, I'll betroth you to Me in righteousness.
I'll betroth you to Me in judgment, in loving kindness, in mercies,
even in faithfulness. You'll be Mine forever. That's
the Lord's providence for His people. That's the pattern. And
then it comes to play. Physically, in this earth, this
took place. Hosea says there in chapter 3,
verse 1, Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, go again. Love a woman beloved of her friend,
yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward
the children of Israel, who took to other gods and love flagons
of wine. Hosea says, so I bought her to
me for 15 pieces of silver and for a omer of barley and a half
omer of barley. And I said unto her, thou shalt
abide for me many days. thou shalt not play the harlot,
thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee." Hosea had one gomor, and she
was fully his bride, and he was fully her husband. Nobody else's
husband. And from the first saint to the
last, Christ our husband comes to us, and He is fully mine,
and fully yours, and fully every one of His children's. That's
how He is to us. And He makes us that way to Him.
This really happened in this earth. Why did this really happen? Why did God's prophet take a
wife of whoredoms, Gilmer, and marry her, and then she run off?
She went and played the harlot, literally, until she was just
used up. There was no worth in her. She
was sold for the half price of a cow wounding a little boy.
Just no other bidders. Why did that happen? It's said
in chapter 1, verse 2, for the land hath committed great whoredoms
against God, departing from the Lord. And it goes on there in
chapter 3, verse 4, For the children of Israel shall abide many days
without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and
without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim.
Just like Gomer. Here's the Lord's decree for
his spiritual Israel. Just like Gomer, for many days. You're gonna think you got plenty
of corn, you're gonna think you got plenty of wine, and you got
plenty of vineyards and wool, but you ain't gonna have nothing. For many days, Israel is going
to walk in darkness. From birth all the way until
the Lord does a work in them. That's how long it's going to
take. And then afterwards. After the
Lord comes to His child and He speaks to him, He hedges him
about throughout their whole life. All the way from Adam. What if my dad hit her? He was
in a real bad car wreck back in the 70's before I was born.
What if it killed him? Well, I wouldn't be here. Hey,
it couldn't have killed him. Why, the Lord put a wall around him,
hedged him about, didn't he? For every person throughout time
to bring it just to me. And when he comes to his child,
and he gets them exactly where he wants them, and he shows them
their lewdness, exposes their sin, breaks them down to nothing,
takes everything from them, he's going to speak comfortably to
them. So after this, Israel goes for a long time without a prince,
without everything. It says there in verse 5, afterward, after
he comes to them in the wilderness, "...shall the children of Israel
return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and
shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days." The Lord laid us a pattern down,
clearly, for three chapters. And in these last two verses
it says, I'm going to do it to Israel. Do you know what the next couple
of chapters have to deal with? The Lord doing this to Israel. That's
what He does. He's going to begin chapter 4
speaking to the children of Israel. He's going to discover their
lewdness. In chapter 4 and chapter 5, there ain't a way you can
read through that and there not be an arrow piercing from some
direction and just get you good. It's thorough. The Lord thoroughly
discovers our lewdness. But he deals with the children
of Israel in chapter 4 and after chapter 5 he deals with the priests. The priests of Israel. Why does
he do that? It says there in chapter 4 verse 5, Therefore
shalt thou fall in the day, speaking of the children of Israel, and
the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will
destroy thy mother. The first one that is going to
fall is going to be the child. It's going to be the children of Israel.
And then second is going to be the priest. Those physical children
of the Lord. People say, well, everybody's
a child of God. In a sense, yes. We're humans
and He owns everything. He owns everybody. In a physical
sense, yes, we are the Lord's possession. But for that physical
child that meets God outside of Christ, oh, what despair. What a shame. on an eternal justice
and judgment they face. For the priest who stood in the
name of God falsely, and he meets God without Christ, oh, what
a greater despair. Paul said, blood of no man's
on me. Paul said that. He told them
the truth. Blood's not on him. The Lord uses Hosea to call to
his bride of Hortums. It begins there in chapter 4,
verse 1. It says, Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel. Hear! What do we say in chapter 2? Plead
with your mother. Listen. Plead. These ten northern
tribes of Ephraim Not Judah, not Benjamin, but those 10 other
ones that went up north. They were doing okay, weren't
they? They heard the Lord. They knew God. It's no different
than everybody walking up down the street in our town, is it?
They sacrificed. They burned incense. They had
priests. Guys in the garments required of the priesthood. They're
fine. Oh no. For the land. hath committed a great whoredom."
And it says there, hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel,
for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
The Lord has a controversy. It's not common for us to hear. The Lord's a plaintiff and mankind's
the defendant. In our day, we have that completely
flip-flopped, don't we? We charge God foolishly with
our controversies. I do every day. Boy, I wish it
was a little bit cooler. Boy, I wish it was a little bit
warmer. I wish it rained. Rain's coming. I hope it rains
soon. It ain't rained in a long time. It should have rained.
I'm foolishly bringing a legal charge against the Lord in my
ignorance. Job lost everything he had. The servants come to him, and
they said, all your camels are gone, all your she-asses are
gone, everything you've got's gone. Oh, what a hit. They come in and just pillage
everything you own. You're broke. And here come another
servant and said, your seven sons and your three daughters
are feasting together in the house. It's a happy family. Oh,
they're just having a good time, getting along great. They're
dead. You have nothing. Job shaved his head, he rent
his mantle, he fell down on the ground and he worshipped God.
Saying, naked came I forth from my mother's womb, naked shall
I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And in all this, All that happening, and everything that Job said,
and all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. If that happened to me, what
would I say? Would I sin? Would I have one thing foolishly
to say to charge God? I don't have reason, I don't
have a leg to stand on charging God with anything. He has a complaint
with me. He has a complaint with mankind. Just as Gomer had all her oil,
all her wool, and all her fine things, she had all that taken
away. Job had all his possessions.
His children killed. Everything had taken away. The
Lord here has taken away any confidence that that physical nation had.
As he calls out his spiritual Israel, he's taking away all
confidence. He says, the Lord hath a controversy with you.
Does that get your attention? God's mad at you. If we understand
that, if the Lord allows us to hear that and not plug our ears
and say, let's make a rule up so we don't talk about that no
more, that may run people out the door. Don't say that. If
he gives us the grace to get our attention with that, what
a blessing. What a blessing. Why would God be mad at me? Why would God be mad at you?
Why would God be mad at somebody walking up and down the street?
Look here in verse 1, chapter 4. Hear the word of the Lord,
ye children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with
the inhabitants of the land, every one of us, because There
is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. There's no
truth. I have truth. If I pick that
pencil up and I let go of it, it's going to hit the ground.
I have the truth of gravity. I understand some things. The
sky is red at night. The Lord said you can discern
the skies. What good is that doing you? Can't discern the
Scriptures. Can't discern the sign of the times. Can't see
God Almighty standing in front of you. No truth. We don't see the truth of man.
We don't see the truth of God's holiness and His covenants, His
promise to a people, to Gomer before time. To His Gomer. We don't see that. Truth's not
in them. It's not in the land. And have crossed the truth. It
says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life,
and no man comes to the Father but by me. He is the truth. The Lord has a controversy against
people that don't have Christ, don't have the truth. It says
there's no mercy, no mercy. In Luke 6, 36, our Lord said,
Be merciful as your Father also is merciful. You have to be merciful
like God's merciful. How am I going to do that? You
have to know His mercies. You have to experience His mercies,
don't you? How was God merciful and still
holy? That's a true mercy. How did
mercy and truth... There's no truth, there's no
mercy. How did mercy and truth meet in harmony? Crossed on the
cross. I know Christ in it. without
God. And it says no knowledge. Now
we know things. We understand some things, don't
we? I know 1 Peter comes before 2 Peter. I know something. I know my Bible. I can quote
seven hours of scripture to you. We have knowledge. No, we don't
have knowledge. What's the knowledge that God says is knowledge? That's
what we need to be concerned. What does He say concerning truth?
What does He say concerning mercy? And what does He say concerning
knowledge? That's what we need to know. It says in Proverbs 1.7, the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. You want to start
knowing something, fear God. Close our mouths and open our
ears, don't we? He teaches us. It says, but the fools despise
wisdom and instruction. They think they have knowledge.
I have wisdom. Why do I need your wisdom? I
have my instruction. I know how to do these things.
I know what the rules are. Why are you telling me anything?
The Lord says, that's foolish. But fear the Lord, that's the
beginning of knowledge. Does this lack of Christ apparent
on the outside? It says there in verse 2, chapter
4, verse 2, by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and
committing adultery, they break out and blood touches blood.
There's so many dead bodies laying around that the blood from one
body is going and touching the blood from the other body. Well,
see, clean up your living. That's all you got to do. Just
quit stealing and cussing and carrying on and killing folks,
and you'll be fine. Oh, no. No, if it was just on the outside,
it ain't the outside of the cup. It's the inside of the cup. It's
not that white painted sepulcher we live in. It's them dead man
bones on the inside, isn't it? Outside, we might be fine, but
on the inside, we lie against God. Man ain't that bad. Great-great-grandma was a good
woman. She's a sweet lady. We lie against God. We steal
His glory. I accepted Jesus. Boy, He's just
up there wringing His hands, wanting somebody to come to Him.
He needed a gomer. There wasn't no gomers to be
found, but I let Him say, stealing God's glory. We worship other
gods. That's our adultery. Outwardly,
we shouldn't do those things. We know better. Learn that in
kindergarten. Don't steal, don't lie. We go after the idolatry
of our heart, don't we? Stuff, things, gods, people,
myself. And blood touches blood. It covers
it all. It covers everything. And it's
spread abroad in our minds and our hearts and we drink it like
water and we don't know no different. I think we're doing just fine.
We're just like Israel. I got priests, I'm fine. We do
stuff. We go to church, we're fine.
Blood touches blood. What is the end state of God's
controversy? When He has a controversy with
the people, when He has a controversy with a person, when He can get
down to one-to-one, when He has a controversy with you, what's
the end state of it? For us forsaking Christ our Deliverer,
for us not honoring the Lord and living only for ourselves,
It says there in verse 3, Therefore shall the land mourn, and every
one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the
field and with the fowls of the heaven. Yea, the fishes of the
sea also shall be taken away. When the last saints called to
know Christ, when He comes that last gomer, and He hedges them
about their whole life, and at the right moment He speaks comfortably
to their hearts, and He restores them. He betrothed them to Himself
and they know Him and they look only to Him. When that last one,
when that happens, this earth's over with a fervent heat. There
won't be elements. We can heat gold up and it's
still going to be gold. That's an element. God said there
ain't going to be no gold left. It's gone. He melts every one
of it. So what about His promises and His covenants? When we wake
up, the sun's already went down this evening. If you wake up
in the morning and the sun comes up, know there's a saint walking
around this earth that the Lord hasn't spoke to yet. We know
His promises are sure to every one of His people. Men don't
like to hear this. They don't want to hear wisdom.
They don't want to hear instruction. We don't need to talk about sin
so much. Oh, I don't like to hear that. It's heavy on me. Let's make a rule up so we don't
have to do it. Look here at verse 4. Yet let no man strive nor
approve another. for thy people are as they that
strive with the priests." They made a rule, don't tell the truth. Snuff this stuff out. And there's
several claiming nowadays that that's what they're trying to
do in our society. And that's just man's moralism
coming around or anti-moralism under the guise of moralism.
We can't talk about sodomites. We can't talk about abortion.
Pray to God that the day doesn't come in our lifetime that they
might actually say, you stop telling the truth of Christ.
I don't want to hear His name. You stop telling about the mercies
of Christ. Man can do it by himself. And then on the knowledge, we
know stuff. Just hush. Go play an instrument somewhere.
Go sing a song. That day could come. I hope it
doesn't come in our lifetimes, because it won't be fun. But
that day could come. It did here. Don't get on to them, and you
don't get on to you, and we'll just mind our own business. But
that's the people that's fighting against the priest. I don't want
to hear nothing. Throughout this whole chapter,
lewdness is exposed. Our oil has dried up. Any angle,
you can cut it. And they seek there in verse
12, it says, My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff
declareth unto them, for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused
them to err, and they have gone a-whoring from under their God.
They come to where they ask. This stuff starts drying up,
and we start seeing a little bit of sin. Start getting a little
bit of handle on it. And the Lord's dealing with somebody,
and they say, you know what? Maybe I ain't just as shiny and as
good as I thought I was. Maybe I don't know what I think
I know. Let me go ask somebody. And in the first place you can
find, go out driving down the street, go talk to them. Well,
they didn't help none, did they? They have zeal. This is in earnest. This ain't pretend. The Lord
starts convicting sin. It starts weighing on a human.
There's a zeal. Look there in verse 13. It says, "...they sacrifice
upon the tops of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills,
under oaks and under poplars and elms, because the shadow
thereof is good." What are they doing? Are they doing it in the
house of the Lord? They're doing it where it's comfortable. I'm not
going to walk all the way down there. I'm not going to ride
a horse all the way down there to where there's services. Here's
a nice tree. It's got plenty of shade, I'll
just go here. And the Lord says, therefore
your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit
adultery. Everything that's produced of that ain't gonna be any profit.
Any offspring of that ain't gonna be profitable. Being without truth, being without
mercy, being without knowledge, here's the most frightening thing
of it all. If we're left to ourselves, If
the Lord just convicted us of that sin like He did to Gomer
and didn't speak comfortably to him, here's the most frightening
thing, verse 17. Ephraim is joined to idols. Let
him alone. Leave him alone. What a fright. The God we offended
and continued to offend. He said, you are a stiff neck,
and again, saying people all day long, I've stretched out
my hand, I've given you my profits. You didn't want it. Willfully,
you turned your back from me. Leave him alone. What a frightening thing. But
it wasn't just the children of Israel he got a hold of. He laid
it in priests too. That's what begins there in chapter
five. Says there in verse 1, Hear ye this, O priest, and hearken,
ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king, for
judgment is towards you, because ye have been a snare and mispha,
and a net spread upon Tabor. You've preyed upon my people. And the Lord convicts them. He
exposes their lewdness. He dries up all their stocks
that they've stored up for themselves. And He says there in verse 7,
They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have
begotten strange children. Now shall a month devour them
with their portions. Everything that those priests
build up to themselves, those spiritual offsprings, what they
said, Oh, I saved so-and-so and I taught so-and-so, is here's
my children, the religious ceremonies I've put them through. The Lord
said, you've begotten strange children. They're strange to
me. They ain't my children. That's the children of whoredom.
And it keeps going on to them, keeps convicting them of sin,
just like that long time it took with Gomer. Dried up in molehills,
and then it says there in verse 13, when Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judas saw his wound, Then went Ephraim to the Assyrian,
and sent to King Jerob, yet he could not heal you, nor cure
you of your wound." All of a sudden, it went a little past me, traveling
around town, trying to get some comfort, trying to burn some
incense, trying to do something. I see a little bit of that. Now
we've got wounds. Now I'm cut. Now I'm sick. There's
an illness in me. So they go to the Assyrians.
They can't help. Where did these wounds come from?
Why can't the Assyrians help? Look here in verse 14. For I
will be unto Ephraim as a lion, as a young lion in the house
of Judah. We got some kittens several months
ago. If y'all ever been around a little
tiny kitten, them nails on a cat's like razor blades, ain't they?
I was in the kitchen one day, that one went climbing up my
leg. Woo! His mandate as a young lion. Now here's a lion. Sharp,
skillful claws. Where's that young lion from?
The house of Judah. The lion of the tribe of Judah. Even I will tear and go away. I will take away and none shall
rescue. Who calls that sickness? Who
calls that wounds that they saw in themselves? The same one that
hedges them about. The same one that gave more and
took it away. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Deliverer,
Hosea, comes to save His people. Christ comes to save His people.
And after He wounds them, verse 15, I will go and return to My
place till they acknowledge their offense and seek My face. In
their affliction, they will seek Me early. I don't know if I'm
afflicted enough, to seek Him. He hasn't afflicted you enough
yet. You don't afflict yourself, the Lord afflicts you. A lion
comes in and takes a chunk out of you, right where he wants
it. That's a lure into the wilderness.
I said that this morning, there ain't no such thing as concerning
the Lord's love, there's no such thing as tough love, there's
just love. That sounds horrible. Oh, man, it's so rough. What
kindness, what gentleness, if that line of the tribe of Judah
comes to you. Oh, if it works in your heart, what preciousness
that is. What will we do? We'll learn some stuff. Look
here at chapter 6, verse 1. Come, let us return to the Lord,
for He hath torn, He's the one that tore us, and He will heal
us. Oh, this ain't just a sovereign
God. There's a whole mess of people that believe in a sovereign
God. Devils do. He tore me, but He can heal.
He heals us. He is smitten. He's broken my
bones. And He will bind us up. He will heal us. Where are we
going to see all that? This is the Old Testament. This
is the old stuff. What did they believe in? Is
this something different? Is their dispensation different
than our dispensation? Look here at verse 2. After two
days will He revive us In the third day, He will raise us up
and we shall live in His sight. My reference in the Bible there
is 1 Corinthians 15. Paul said, according to the Scriptures, Christ put
away our sins according to the Scriptures. He rose the third
day according to the Scriptures. As we go on through chapter 6,
chapter 6, verse 6. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Christ
told them Pharisees, he said, go learn what that means. You
know what he's telling them? Go read Hosea 6, 6. Make sure you
catch the first three chapters and you might learn something.
See what that means. We're made to seek Christ. When
we see that He tore us, He heals us. He's smitten us. He's the
one that binds us up. And we say, you know what? All
that took place in three days. Took place in Him taking my place.
Him taking my sin, my whoredoms upon Himself as His own who knew
no sin. And He buried it in the ground
three days and He rose again. And when He rose again, I rose
with Him. He is my resurrection. Then shall we know, verse 3,
if we follow on to know the Lord, His going forth is prepared as
the morning, and He shall come unto us as the latter and former
rain unto the earth. The Lord's going forth is prepared
just as that sun rises. We'll come up tomorrow morning
if His sheep are still here. It's place in the sky is exactly where
He put it. The orbit of this earth is exactly
where He put it, and the time is exactly as He decrees. That's
how He goes to His people, exactly on His providence, on purpose.
Purpose He comes to His people. And He shall come at us as the
rain, the latter and former unto the earth. There ain't no hiding
from Him. There ain't no somebody else
taking you out of His hand. You go outside and it rains,
you're going to get wet. Ain't no getting away from it.
He comes just as the rain. Either as the mist or a heavy
rain. Sometimes it's gentle and slow and sometimes it'll drown
you that day. But He comes in His time and His providence.
Alright, I'm going to run out of time. Next week we'll look
at the Lord's will and the rest of this chapter. I know I told
you to read chapter 4. I didn't know I was going to
go all the way to chapter 6.