Hosea, the book of Hosea. What a wonderful book. And we're
going to try to just skim through the whole book. The whole book
is the story of salvation like every book in God's Word. The story of how Christ came
to save sinners. It goes into great detail about
the sins of God's people that He came to save. The whole story
from end to beginning is pretty much summed up in the first three
verses. Look at it. The Word of the Lord
came unto Hosea. Verse 2. The beginning of the
Word of the Lord by Hosea. Now Hosea, his name is the same
name as Joshua. It's the exact same name. Joshua and Jesus. The Word of
the Lord came by Hosea. Well, Christ is the Word and
He came. The Savior, Jesus, our Savior. Verse 2, Go take unto thee a
wife of whoredoms. children of Hortums, the whole
land is committed to Hortum, departing from the Lord. So he
went and took Gomer. And then chapter 3, the first
3 verses, chapter 1, 1-3, chapter 3, 1-3. This whole book. Look at chapter 3. Then said
the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend,
yet an adulteress. according to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel. That's what this is all about.
What do they love before He saved them? What are they in love with?
Sin. Flagons, other gods. Flagons of wine. Verse 2, So
I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver. We were bought
with a price, and out was silver and gold with the precious blood
of our Lord. And it's significant that he
talked about her in reference to barley. That's like Ruth and
Naomi, isn't it? Boaz was a barley farmer. And
he said, this is what is going to happen. This is why I'm buying
her. This is why I'm saving her. Verse
3. She's not going to play the harlot anymore. She's mine. That's why I came. To deliver
her from that. Okay? That's what this is about. Go. Do this, Hosea. Go. Lord Jesus, go. Love her mercifully. Love her graciously. Love her
freely. There's nothing in her to love.
You're just going to have to love her because you do. Love
her effectually. Woo her. You know how she's going
to be won? By his love. By his sacrifice. Win her. Break her heart by your
love for her. By your mercy. Now John sums
it up after all he said. John said, Behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called. And surely Gomer said, Behold
what manner of love Hosea has put upon me that I should be
called his bride. Now chapter 4, chapter 4, the
Word of the Lord condemns All of us. Chapter 4, verse 1. Hear the word of the Lord, you
children of Israel. The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants
of the land. No truth, no mercy, no knowledge
of God. Swearing, lying, killing, stealing,
committing adultery, and so on and so forth. It's amazing how
this all sounds like Romans 1, 2, 3. Because it is the same
story. Where the Lord condemns us all,
verse 6, my people are destroyed. Now understand that God's people,
like Romans 1, 2, and 3, Romans 1 is the lost world, unbelieving
world. Romans 2 is the lost religious
world. Romans 3 says there's no difference between the irreligious
and the religious if they're lost. But now God's people, It
goes on in Romans, you know, to tell the whole story of salvation
when it's all over. They had not lost Him. They're
converted. And so, that's why Christ came,
to save them from their sin. Not only the penalty of sin,
not only the consequences of sin, but the reigning power of
it. You understand? Ephraim, all
through this whole story, is under the power and dominion
of sin. But God, when it's all over, what's He said? What have I to do anymore with
that? I've heard Him. And there's one way, one way
to be delivered is by the blood of Christ. The love of God to
the sacrifice of Christ, the only thing that will deliver
us from the dominion, the penalty of it and the dominion of it.
That's what this is about. The whole story, okay? Chapter 4, look at verse 6. My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. They've rejected
knowledge. That's people that reject the truth. This is unsaved
people, okay? Verse 12. My people ask counsel
of their stocks and their staff, that it declareth unto them the
spirit of whoredoms, that it ignore him from under their God.
It's false religion. Chapter 5, look at this. Hear
ye this, O priests." He's talking to false prophets and priests
here. False prophets. You know what
the problem with our society is? You know why our society
is so perverse, and so wicked, and so filthy, and so vile, and
declare their sin like Sodom? False religion. That's it. Oh, there's plenty of religion,
but it's false. And the religion that says, God loves you, Jesus
died for you, no God, no holy God, no just God, no God that
will punish sin, no law, no nothing, no consequences. And so everybody,
without exception, says, well, God loves me, like I am. That's what they say. That's not what this book teaches,
okay? God loves those in Christ, and
God loves those who have Christ in them. And all those who God
loves, He sends the Spirit of God to convict them of their
sin and lead them out of it. And teach them by His Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Spirit of holiness. Alright? If He doesn't save us
from the power of sin, He hasn't saved us yet. We're in the presence of it.
And I'm going to try to tell you how He's saved and get to
the end of it. But this chapter 5 is aimed at
all false religion and on and on, it's aimed at. Verse 3, I
know Ephraim. Israel, he's not hid from me.
Nothing is hid from our God, is it? Nothing. Nothing. Now Ephraim, look at chapter
4, verse 17. Ephraim, from the rest of this
book, he speaks of Ephraim. She's gone. He's gone. Ephraim,
The name means fruitful. Fruitful. You know what? Why
does God save His people? Galatians 5 talks about the works
of the flesh, doesn't it? Adultery, fornication, selfishness,
all that sort of thing, doesn't it? And then the next thing talks
about the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy. Our Lord said, Herein
is your Father glorified, as you bear much fruit. We're saved to give glory to
God in every way. Not just our lips, but our lives. Boy, we're far from being fruitful.
And before the Lord, much worse, before the Lord saves us, He
gave no thought at all to God and His glory, and our whole
life consisted in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, and this world, and gave God no thought.
Ungodly, that's what that means. No thoughts of God whatsoever.
That's who Christ came to die for, the ungodly. Why? To make
them godly. To make them righteous. To make
them bear fruit. Why? To the praise of the glory
of his grace. You understand? Salvation. Salvation. So he says, I know Ephraim. He's
not here for me. He himself is hid from him. He
himself was hid from him right then. The Lord is going to make
Ephraim know his sin and repent of his sin and smite on his thigh
and smite on his breast. Look what I've done. Okay? Repentance. Pride, verse 4, they
won't frame their doings toward God. Verse 5, the pride of Israel
testifies to His face. I remember a time when I declared
my sin like Sodom, I hid it and mocked. That's Isaiah 3. I remember a
time when I boasted and I was proud of it. God forbid, now
we're still sinners, but God forbid we should talk about sin
without shame. God forbid that we should talk
about ourselves being sinful without our heads hanging down
and tears in our eyes. I hear some preaching going on
that almost boasts of it, like, you know, that makes me sure
that Christ died for me. Oh, really now? That's abominable. Our sins put Christ on that cross. How could we talk about Him in
any way but shame? It's a shame to speak of those
things done by them in secret. It's a shame to speak of the
things that we think in secret. Don't do it. We know you're a
sinner. I'm a sinner. If we want to admit it, hang
your head and immediately ask God to forgive us. Put Christ
on the cross. Do you hear me, preachers? Be ashamed. Fear. There is forgiveness with God.
Why? That thou mayest be feared. David said, deliver me from sins
of presumption. Presume that if I sin, he'll
forgive me for it. I tell you what, I hate what
I'm hearing about that. I hate it. God does too. That's not what this book teaches.
That you can sin with impunity. Diplomatic immunity. God came to save us from it.
Not to it. You hear what I'm saying? Don't
listen to anybody that says otherwise. This book, this is what this
book, that's what my pastor told. And that's what every prophet,
they all bemoaned, they all bewailed. All of Jeremiah, he'd be wailing
the sins of the people. His own sins and their sins.
Weeping and wailing over sin. Where am I? Ephraim. His name means fruitful. Is it?
He's going to be. And this whole thing, you know,
we're saved. We're saved when God says so. Before we were born,
God said, I've purposed it. I'll do it. I've spoken. I believe
in eternal justification. Yes, I do. And when God purposed
to justify me and save me, it was done. Before it was done,
He declared it. That's what Isaiah 43 says. I've
saved. But now we had to be saved when
Christ came. Christ had to die on the cross
to save us, didn't He? The blood had to be shed. He's
a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Christ had to come and shed His
blood for remission of our sin, didn't He? Establish righteousness,
put that done. He did, didn't He? But now I'm
going to have to be broken I'm going to have to repent of my
sin. I'm going to have to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a lifelong thing. You
know, saved, being saved. And we talk about being without
sin. Yeah, I am without sin and Christ. But yet, in my flesh,
there's no good. I've still got sin. You know
when I'm going to be saved? It's one day when there's no
more sin in me at all. You know that? So, you know, I have a desire to part and be
with the Lord, like David said. David said, I'll withhold thy
face in righteousness, dressed in the righteousness of Christ.
He said, but I'm not going to be satisfied until I awake with
his likeness. That's salvation. That's salvation. Ephraim is supposed to be fruitful. Ephraim is a son of Joseph. He's
one of Joseph's sons. Ephraim of Manasseh, remember?
Ephraim is the grandson of Jacob. So what's that make him? That
makes him the son of Jacob. And he's sorry. That's an old
Southern saying, meaning worthless. An old sorry son of Jacob. Ephraim
is every sinner saved by grace. He's the son of Jacob. He's chosen.
Ephraim's chosen by God. Ephraim's loved by God, but there
ain't nothing lovable about him. In chapter 4, verse 17, it says,
Ephraim has joined his idols, leave him alone. You know what
a man will do if God leaves him alone? Everything and anything. He'll just be a monster. God's going to do something with
Ephraim. He's not going to leave him as a monster. Ephraim is
lost. He's a wild man. Ephraim gets
religion. Ephraim is false religion. It
talks about verse 4. We saw that they asked counsel
of their stocks and the whoredoms. And chapter 5, it talks about,
all through Hosea, it talks about false religion. Look at chapter
5, verse 4. That frame up there. doings toward
God, the Spirit of Horde, on verse 5, the pride of Israel
testifies to his face, down in verse, let's see, verse 13. He saw his sickness, but so where'd
he go? He went to the Assyrian. He went
to the world. He went looking for help, like the prodigal son,
you know, got religious, got religion. That didn't help him
in it. Look at verse 15. God says, I'll
go, I'll return to my place until they acknowledge their offense
and seek my thanks. And in their affliction, they
will seek me. They'll seek me. They're going to seek me. But
they went everywhere but to God. Ephraim turned to everyone but
God to try to help him. He got in a little trouble and
he got a little conviction, so he got some religion. Anybody? Anybody do that? Turn over a
new leaf? Chapter 6, here's the admonition. Here's the exhortation. Come, let us return to the Lord.
He's the one that's torn us. He'll heal us. He's smitten. He'll bind us up. Right in the
middle, right in the heart of Hosea is the answer. Like Isaiah. Right in the heart
of it is the answer. Turn to the Lord. Don't turn
to... Religion, don't turn to the world, don't turn to the
Lord. Verse 2, after two days He'll revive us, in the third
day He'll raise us up. We'll live in His sight. Surely
that's Christ crucified. Yes it is. Then we'll know. Then
we'll know. If we follow on to know the Lord,
again to follow Christ, we'll know. We'll know the truth. And
He shall come, verse 3. What a verse this is. He'll come
upon us like rain. The latter and former reign. Oh, verse 4, God says, O weep,
for what shall I do unto thee? What am I going to do with you? I love this language, don't you?
What am I going to do with you? Your dad or your parent ever
say that to you? Son, what am I going to do with
you? You know, this is my story. I'm
the prodigal son. You've heard my story. Is that
your story? A wild ass is called. Loving,
kind, merciful father and mother, godly parents who raised me in
the way that I should go, taught me the truth, I heard the Word
of God. Like that prodigal, you know.
I'm out of here. Didn't hear a thing. Didn't hear
a thing. I'm out of here. And all that
I went through all my life, giving no thought to who I, what I was,
My parents, what they did for me, no thought. No thought. And God brought me through so
much, and while I was going through it, I didn't realize it. I didn't
see it. I'm telling you, I could look
back on some miraculous deliverances. At the time, I didn't see it. But God. When I heard the gospel,
when I heard the truth, He brought me to Christ and I saw it. And
I look back at what all He brought me through. I didn't realize. I did not appreciate my parents
at all until God the Father showed me that He became my parent. And how Christ, what Christ did
for me. That opened my blind eyes, everything.
What am I going to do with you? My parents couldn't do anything
with me, but my Heavenly Father can and does. He must. He does. Well, Ephraim, what shall I do
with thee? Verse 6, this scripture is quoted,
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, knowledge of God more than burnt
offering. You know, it's amazing. I have a nephew. His name's Mahan. I didn't show you this picture,
but I looked up a picture of him. He was my brother's son,
and a while passed us cold. We got religion. And Henry Mahan
is his grandfather. Has there been a better preacher
in our modern day? No. Henry Mahan, his grandfather. You know, he's in Episcopal religion.
He wears a long white robe in Ashland, Kentucky. Right in the
town where Dad preached. He wears this long white robe
and does all this hocus-pocus, dominocus and all. Unbelievable. He got religion. Oh, man. And I told him, you need to listen
to your grandfather preach. He's the greatest preacher that
this modern world has ever known. Now he's got religion. He's trying
to clean up and turn over a new leaf, but false religion. I hope
he hears this message. That won't do it. That won't
do it. Do you want to see how? The Lord's
going to have to turn you to Jesus Christ and Him crucified
alone, the truth. Chapter 7, I was going to read
the first 14 verses. Oh my, I won't do it. You read
it for yourself. It talks about, oh my, I'm steeped
in lust of the flesh and so forth. And as I said, Romans 1 through
3, But God, who maketh us to differ? Is there any difference? Romans
3 says there's no difference between the Jew and the Gentile.
It goes on to say that the way of God they don't know. Turn
there, turn with me. Romans chapter 3, turn there
with me. Romans 1 and 2, we looked at
it. In Romans 3, is there a difference between God's people? Yes, there
is. Yes, there is. God makes them today. In every
way. Now here's the mystery, here's
the problem. We got an old man in us. It's always going to be
there. He's never going to get rid of it. But now there's a
new man that wasn't there before. And Christ didn't use the hope
of glory. Christ died for you, that's your hope of glory. The
blood on your houses in Egypt, that's what makes you to differ
from the Egyptians. But now a spirit and an angel
led the children of God through the wilderness the whole way,
didn't it? And he kept telling them, don't go back, don't go
back. You can't go back. Didn't it? He made them to differ. They
were different. They're in the world, they're
not out of the world. Are they tempted by the world?
Yes. Are they going to go back to it? No. They have lapses. And this book, Hosea, talks about
backsliding. Is God going to let them go back?
No. That's where he came to save them from. And he goes on in
Hosea to say, How shall I give you up? I'm not going to give
you up, Ephraim. Here's our salvation in it. We can't keep ourselves. God said, I'm not going to give
you up. But Romans 3, verse 9, Paul says, Are we better than
they? Talking about Gentiles in the first chapter and Jews
in the second. Are we better than they? No,
no. Why? All understand. None righteous. No, not one.
None that understandeth. None that seeketh after God.
Do you seek God? Do you seek God? Do you? Yes, you do. Do you understand?
Yes, you do. Verse 17, the way of peace they
don't know. Do you know the way of peace?
Do you? Do you? Somebody tell me the way of peace.
One more. This is not talking about saved
people. He's talking about unsaved people,
unsaved religion. No difference between religious
people and non-religious. You're religious people. They
don't know the way. They don't know Christ. They
don't seek God. They're all sold unto sin. The rest of Romans
talks about how God saves His people, reveals the way, reveals
the way of peace, reveals Christ. And then Romans 12 says, present
your bodies a living sacrifice because He did all this for you.
That's how Romans ends up. Now, therefore, because He did
all that for you, present your body as a living sacrifice. I'm
not saying save yourself. You can't. You can't keep yourself. He can, and He does, and He will. That's good news, isn't it? So, am I reading that right?
Okay. Preach the word, Timothy. Preach
it just exactly like God says it. All right? Make no excuses
for anything. Anybody. Chapter 8 of Hosea. Chapter 8 of Hosea is religious
idolatry all the way through here. It says they've transgressed
my covenant, my law. Verse 11, Ephraim has many altars,
but they're just sinful. Chapter 8, verse 11, Ephraim
has many altars, like my poor nephew. He's an altar boy. That's sad. That could be me. That could be you. He's got a
white robe on, and he goes down to an altar. How ignorant can
you be? And you know, I'm wearing a robe.
I'm wearing a robe. You're wearing a robe. It's a
white robe. But it's not outwards. It's inwards. What is it? Somebody
tell me what that robe is in one word. Christ. That's the righteousness of saints,
isn't it? That's the dress code. That's the dress, the wedding
garment of glory, isn't it? We have an altar, don't we? We
have an altar, and we come to that altar every Lord's Day,
every day we come to that altar and confess our sins and bring
a sacrifice. What is it? One word, tell me
what our altar is. Tell me what we bring to God,
one word. You do differ, don't you? You
do know the way, don't you? You do understand, don't you? Chapter 9, verse 8, your watchman,
watchman of Ephraim, the prophet's a snare, a fowler in all his
ways. Hatred in the house of God. These
so-called preachers today talk about love, love, love. They
hate the God of love. And religious people hate them
too. You tell them the truth. You tell religious people the
truth about what they really are, they'll hate you. Verse 9, they deeply corrupted
themselves. Like the days of Gibeah. Boy,
go back and read that story in Judges 19. You know, and this is what it
said in the beginning. What causes homosexuality to be rampant in
the land? What causes adultery, fornication,
sevistice, and hatred, and lying, and wrath, and malice, and all
the sins of the flesh? What caused that to just run
wild? Religion, false religion, as
we see. If there's no holy God, If there's
no law, if there's no right, no wrong, no judgment of sin,
anything goes. And Judges, the last verse in
the book of Judges says, because there was no king in Israel,
everybody did that which was right in their own eyes. Boy,
if you read Judges, it was a mess. And that's where this Gibeonite,
Gibeons, read it. The homosexuals wanted to know
these men and this man, the prophet, and he sent this concubine of
his out there instead. Like Lot and Sodom, same sort.
He said, have her. And they did. And they ravaged
this woman. And he cut her up in pieces.
Killed her and cut her up in pieces. And sent the pieces all
over Israel and said, look what's going on in our land. That's
America. And religion's to blame. Religion's to blame. See, the truth convicts, convinces
of sin. Truth will bring you out. By
mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. Only by that. Chapter 10, it says in verse
1, Israel is an empty vine. Religion is empty at Ichabod. That's what, when Lot, you know
what Lot did? He came out of Sodom. The Lord
bring him out. But look what he learned in Sodom.
And look what happened. And his daughter had a child
by him. That's what his daughters learned
in Sodom. Does God teach our daughters differently? Yes, He
does. But this child that was born of Lot is named Ichabod. Ichabod. Name his name, Ichabod.
Glory is to partner. Ichabod. And then Moab, you know,
those are heathen. It's a mess, isn't it? Our religion is to blame. Chapter
11. Verse 1, look at this. Now, when
Israel was a child, I loved him. I called my son out of Egypt.
Jesus Christ did that. Christ became us. Came into this world because
He loved us. Came into this world. Was He
of this world? No. He's holy. He's harmless.
He's separate from sin. Undefiled. You know, that's the
way I want it. Don't you? Ephraim, he says in verse 3,
I taught Ephraim, took him by the arms. Verse 4, I drew them
with cords of a man. Isn't this wonderful? Baths of
love. What cords? Bind the sacrifice
to the altar with cord. That's Christ. Cords of love. He said, in verse 4, I took the
yoke off their... I wanted to take off the yoke
from their jaws and laid meat unto them. You know what our
Lord did when He... does when He comes to save us?
He sets the captive free. The Son makes you free, you're
free. And I've told you before, we
often quote that wrong. It says, if your son shall set
you free. It doesn't say that. It says, make you free. The truth
shall make you free. Make you free from the law. Make
you free from the requirements of the law. Make you free from
the penalty of the law. Make you free from the power
of sin. Make you free. But you're not
your own anymore. He doesn't set you free. You
don't want set free. In the beginning, he said, leave
me alone. What did he do? Everything, anything. Oh, you don't want
to be left alone. You want a yoke, all right. And Christ said, I'm
going to put my yoke on you. I'm going to take the yoke of
the law off of you. But I'm going to put my yoke
on you. Now, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. And it's
a yoke that he puts on you, the yoke of discipleship, the yoke
of following. You want to follow him. He puts
this yoke on you, you know, a broken old horse. And he goes on to
talk about it from plowing. I'm going to teach him to plow.
And what I'm going to do, how I'm going to do it, is I'm going
to plow on him. I'm going to plow up his fallow ground. I'm
going to break his hard heart. And he did. But he put that yoke
on an old broken old horse, you know, and he just hunkers on
down. I had one. She'd just lower her head like
an old dog and just go on. All he did was speak a word. And that's the yoke of discipleship.
You know, we don't want to be turned loose. We want the yoke
on us. These cords, we need cords on
us, don't we? We need cord. We need a leash
on us. A rope, a lead rope. Not a lawman. And verse 5, he says, he shall
not return to the land of Egypt. He's not going back. See that?
Chapter 11, verse 5. He's not going to go back. I'm
not going to let him. Verse 7, they're bent to it. They're bent
to backsliding. You know, if you let a horse
have its way, if you don't chase it, if you don't lead it, if you
don't guide it, if you don't teach it, if you don't instruct
it, it's going to turn wild again in it. Just let him run out in the pasture
all the time. Yeah, you'll have a hard time
getting him to come to you. Right? So all the time you're
putting that rope on him. We need ground work all the time.
Yeah, we sure do. Verse 8, I love this. How shall
I give thee up? I'm not going to give up on you. Uh-uh. Remember in the beginning,
He says, you're mine. You're mine. I bought you with
a price. You're mine. Verse 9, don't you love this?
He said, I will not execute the pierce of somebody's anger. Though
you sin, do things that you did when you were younger, sins of
your youth, though you're prone to backsliding, though you do
fall into sin, I'm not going to let you stay there. I'm not
going to let you live, and I'm not going to pour out my wrath
on you. We ought to, shouldn't we? Believers ought to get greater
damnation. But they don't. Why? Christ. For Christ's sake. Like on Mephibosheth. And he knew it. Mephibosheth
never forgot that. Don't you love verse 9 of chapter
11? God says, I'm God, not man. Anybody ever had a dog or a horse
that you gave up on? Huh? Sure you had. You ever had
a horse and Kevin said, I can't train him? He's a good trainer. I can't train him. He's untrainable. Is there a son of Adam that's
unsavable? No. No. Nothing too hard for
God. See, the harder the case, the
more glory He gives. They said of that wild horse,
you can't tame him. They said of that gatorade, everybody's
tried to tame that gatorade. Bring him to me. Now did he tame
him? Did he or did he not? If he didn't, he didn't tame
him. Did he? He did. He did. Is that man capable? Did he have the tendency? Did
he have the temptation? Yes. But did he go back to being
a demon? Did he go back in the tongue?
No. Because Christ belongs to the Lord. I'm not... I'm teaching you to hope in the
Lord. Hoping is mercy. Hoping is God.
I'm telling you to listen to Him. Listen to Him. This is how
He leads in God. This is the power of the Lord.
This is the rope that binds us to Him. Love. Here's what's...
I'm trying to get to this. Love. Chapter... Let me go on. I was going to go through all
these chapters, but go to Chapter 12. Let's see. Chapter 12. No, Chapter 13. Let's
go on to Chapter 13. Verse... No, let's go to Chapter 14. Chapter
14. I don't have time. Israel, O
Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. Thou hast fallen by
thine iniquity. Here's what you do. Take with
you words, turn to the Lord, say unto Him, take away all,
all iniquity. Receive us graciously, so will
we render the calves of our lamb. Asher won't save us. Horses won't
save us. Neither will the works of our
hands, they're not our God's, but in Him we find mercy. You
see? And here's what God says, I will
heal their backsliding. I will. I will love them freely. Mine anger's turned away. Why?
You know, God ought to be angrier with us than with the world. But what has turned His anger
away at Christ? And it says, I will be as the
dew unto Israel, and grow as the lily. Brother Donnie preached
from Psalm of Solomon. The Lord calls His bride lovely. Cast forth roots, the root of
the matters in His people. Verse 6, His branches. Christ
is the vine. Where are the branches? Shall
spread His beauty, shall be as the olive tree. Whose beauty?
Christ is the tree, but in Him He calls us beautiful. And His
smell as Lebanon, that's what the Psalm of Solomon says. Let
my beloved come into His garden and let the wind blow and the
spices flow. Let my beloved come into His
garden, eat the fruit. Ephraim, what happened to Ephraim,
he's bearing some fruit finally. There was no fruit at all before. All he could do was sin. Now
he's bearing some fruit. What did it? Love. It's branches. Verse 7, they
that dwell under His shadow shall return. Oh my, those that dwell
under the shadow of the Almighty, the secret place of the Most
High, the shadow of the Almighty, they shall revive as the corn
and grow as the vine. Christ said, He said to you,
abide in Me. When I worry about you, you'll
bear no fruit. And it grows divine, the scent
thereof, to be the wine of Lebanon, the wine of the gospel. Now here's
what Ephraim, here's what, here's why the Lord sent Hosea to save
Gomer and why the Lord sent Christ to save Ephraim, his people. Here's what's going to happen.
In the end, they're going to say, what have I to do anymore
without Him? Why would I prostitute myself to these things
when my Lord has given Himself for me like that? I've heard
Him. I've heard what He's done. I've
heard what Christ did on the cross for me. I've observed Him. By the chastisement that was
meant for me laid on Him. That God laid on Him my iniquity. The blessed man became a man
of sorrow and acquaintance. Whose? Mine. Now why would I
go back to all that? How could I? No way. In verse
8 he says, Oh my, from him is thy fruit found, from me is thy
fruit found. Now who's wise, verse 9, shall
understand these things. Prudence, he'll know them. The
ways of the Lord are right. The just shall walk in them.
The transgressors shall fall in them. Oh, praise our Lord, our Hosea. Our Joshua, our Lord
Jesus Christ, our God, who sent in His Son, die for us. Oh, may He deliver us from sin.