Thank you so much for that. Let's go back to the Old Testament. Again, this morning we're going
to the book of Zechariah. Once again, and also once again,
we're going to chapter number 10. And I want to read to you out
of Zechariah chapter 10, beginning at verse 7. And I'll read down
through the end of the chapter. Okay, Zechariah chapter 10, verse
7. And they of Ephraim, they shall
be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through
wine. Yea, their children shall see
it and be glad. Their heart shall rejoice in
the Lord. And the Lord says, and I will
hiss for them and gather them. And here's the reason. for I
have redeemed them, and they shall increase as they have increased. And I will sow them among the
people, and they shall remember me in far countries, and they
shall live with their children in turn again. I will bring them
again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of
Assyria, and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon,
and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through
the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the
sea, and all the deeps of the rivers shall dry up, and the
pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Egypt
shall depart away. I will strengthen them in the
Lord. They shall walk up and down in
his name, saith the Lord. I have a rather unusual title
to this message this morning. And I hope you'll hear me out
as we go through the message. And it is Ephraim, that's my
name. Ephraim, that's my name. And I hope it's your name too
as we go through this message. I hope that you'll see yourself
set forth in this passage of scripture, even from the beginning
to the end. Let me give you just a little
bit of history. I'm not going to take much time with this.
Jacob was very sick, and word came to Joseph that his dad was
ill. And so Joseph brought his two
boys, Manasseh and Ephraim. They were just little fellows.
They were born to Joseph during the seven years of harvest in
Egypt. So he brought his boys before
Jacob, and in fact, Jacob, he couldn't hardly see, and he said,
who are these? He said, these are my boys. I
brought them to you so you can bless them. And Joseph set them
in front of his dad, because his dad would extend his right
hand and give a blessing or pronounce a blessing upon the firstborn. And so he positioned them, Joseph
positioned them just right. And there's Manasseh, he's over
here, and Jacob's facing this way like y'all are facing me.
So he's on Joseph's left hand, but he's facing Jacob's right
hand. And then Ephraim, he's over here on this side, and he's
facing Jacob's left hand. And so Jacob, he goes to bless,
pronounce a blessing. And instead of blessing Manasseh,
who's the firstborn, he crossed over and he blessed Ephraim. And Joseph said, no, no, you
got it wrong, dad. And he stopped, tried to stop
his hand. And Jacob said, I know what I'm
doing. He said, the blessing of the
firstborn is going to Ephraim. to Ephraim. And Ephraim, of course,
his name means like doubly blessed and doubly populated. Ephraim,
his tribe grew to be bigger than Manassas. And the Lord blessed
them. There was a mighty army in Ephraim. And Ephraim was really preserved
of God and honored of God, you know when they went through the
wilderness and they had to carry the tabernacle, you know? You
know who marched right beside the tabernacle as it was carried,
right beside the Ark of the Covenant? Ephraim, the tribe of Ephraim. Oh, how honored they were. And
I see in Ephraim, in that case, He's blessed of God. He's in
a wonderful position like Adam was before the fall. Things were
great. Things were great for the tribe
of Ephraim. They were very well populated. preserved by God, honored by
God, to march right beside the tabernacle. And everything about
the tabernacle pictured either our Lord Jesus Christ or the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so there's Ephraim, Ephraim's
descendants, Ephraim and all of his family. And they grew
and grew and grew. And all the way through the wilderness,
they marched right beside the tabernacle. What an honor. to be blessed of God, to be so
near the tabernacle and so near the priesthood. And then they
got into the land of promise. And one of the Ephraimites was
a man by the name of Joshua, Joshua. He was one of the 12
spies that went into the land. And when the Lord took Moses
home to glory, Joshua took over. And he's an Ephraimite. How blessed
they were. Joshua represented them. And
they get into the land of Canaan. And Joshua decided, he's from
Ephraim now, Joshua decided the tabernacle would be set up permanently
in a city in Ephraim, in the place designated for the Ephraimites
to live, the land allotted to them, in a place called Shathlo. And you know that ark, or the
ark of the covenant and the rest of the tabernacle, they were
in the land of Ephraim 369 years? What a blessing! Even Judah,
the people of Judah had to go north to worship at the tabernacle. They're highly honored of God,
and I see a picture there as we were in Adam. Wonderful. Things were wonderful. Things
were blessed. Adam communed with God and he
as our representative, remember, as he communed with God and fellowshiped
with God and walked with God, we were in his loins. But then something happened. Adam fell. And the people of Ephraim failed
because they fell into idolatry. They became envious. They became
self-centered. You see, after 369 years of the
tabernacle being in their presence, the Lord rejected them. had the tabernacle. The Ark of
the Covenant, of course, was stolen by the Philistines, and
then it wound up eventually in the city of David. And Judah
then vastly surpassed Ephraim, the tribe of Ephraim. And the
tribe of Ephraim was filled with envy and hatred and idolatry. They weren't happy with the way
things came out. They weren't happy with Judah.
They weren't happy when David became king, and they weren't
happy when Solomon became king. And they rebelled against Judah. And eventually, the Ephraimites,
they gathered the other nine other tribes with them, and the
ten tribes, they severed relationships with the southern kingdom. They
were through with Judah. They rebelled against God. What happened to the Ephraimites? What happened to them? What happened
to us? All was great in Adam, but then
we fell into sin and into idolatry. And like the Ephraimites, we
became self-centered. You see, Adam was centered on
God. He blessed the name of God. He
walked with God. That's the way the Ephraimites
did for a long time, for a long time. Not perfectly, of course,
because during that time, they did show some cowardness. They
were rebellious even then against God. God said, kill all the Canaanites,
but they didn't do that. But everything pretty much was
really good for them. But then they became envious
Jealous And they fell they fell into sin Hold your place here
in Zechariah chapter 10 turned with me to Look at Psalm 78 Let
me read you a few verses here Psalm 78 and I hope that you
can Already begin to see yours yourself in Ephraim See our fall in Adam. See your
fall in Adam. Do you know anything about self-centeredness? Do you know anything about idolatry? Putting yourself first? Putting
your family first? God said, Thou shall love the
Lord thy God with all thy mind, soul, and strength, and body.
Is that the way you love God? I bet that's the way you love
yourself. Come on now, you know that's true. We rebelled against
God. Look over here in Psalm 78. Look
at verse, Psalm 78. First of all, look at verse nine. The children of Ephraim, see
that's who we're talking about, being armed and carrying bows
They turned back in the day of battle. They didn't follow through
with what God told them to do about defeating the Canaanites.
And watch this, they kept not the covenant of God. The covenant of God involved
sacrifices to God, to Jehovah, to satisfy his justice in type
and in picture. They failed to shed the blood
of an innocent victim like God taught them to do. Look at the
rest of it. And refused to walk in His law. Look at verse 11. And forgot
His works. and His wonders that He had showed
them. All that God had done for the
Israelites and for the tribe of Ephraim through the years,
especially during the wilderness journeys. Their wanderings in
the wilderness, the way the Lord provided water for them, bread
for them, just like God has provided for us. They forgot that. They
forgot that. In fact, it says in verse 12,
marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers. Look over a little further in
chapter 78. Look at verse 67 and 68. Moreover, The Lord refused the tabernacle
of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim to maintain that tabernacle
there, but chose the tribe of Judah. Judah. That's where the king's coming
from, Judah. Our Lord Jesus rose up out of
the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And of course,
the Ephraimites, they hated this. And I'll tell you something about
all of us, all of us Ephraimites, we have hated the Lord Jesus
Christ. By nature, we're opposed to Him
because He's the sovereign King. He's the only way of salvation.
God doesn't show mercy, God doesn't show grace, God doesn't give
salvation, except by one man, that's the man, Christ Jesus.
And we've rebelled against that. We've sought out many devices. We're like the Ephraimites. And I'll tell you what God did.
As you go back to this passage in Zechariah chapter 10, the
Lord cast him out. He cast him out. Notice in verse 6 of chapter
10, God says, I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will
save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place
them, for I have mercy upon them, and they shall be as though I
had not cast them off." But he did cast them off. He did cast
them off, and then he brought about restoration. Remember,
Adam and Eve in the garden. God cast them out of the garden.
Can't stand in my garden anymore. He taught them the gospel first,
He taught them about substitution. That the innocent died for the
guilty so that the guilty could be robed, as in robed in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and live. But God said,
get out of my garden. And God casts them off. God casts
them away. And one of these days, you know
what God's going to do? He's going to bring us back in
the garden. in the garden of his presence. But here the Lord says of Ephraim, there's going to come a day when
it will be as though I had not cast some out. Do you understand we're alienated
from God? The Lord said, it's your sins,
it's your iniquities. That's the problem. But our Lord, He will bring about
a restoration of His people. He saves His people by His grace
through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn
to another Old Testament book. Look at Hosea chapter 9, and
if you want to read about Ephraim and learn a lot more about Ephraim
and the way they rebelled, the Ephraimites rebelled against
the Lord as we have, and then learn about the restoration of
Ephraim as the Lord has restored us. Read the book of Hosea. Look
at chapter 9, verse 11. Hosea 9, verse 11. As for Ephraim, their glory shall
fly away like a bird from the birth, from the womb, and from
the conception. Though they bring up their children,
yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left. Yea, woe also to them when I
depart from them." It's one thing for us to depart
from the Lord. Now you're really getting serious
when the Lord departs from us. When He leaves us, He put Adam
and Eve out of the garden. They're separated. They're separated. The Lord says, I'm going to leave you. And I'll tell you something,
and you hear me well, all of you. Unless something is done
for you and me, we're going to be permanently cast away from
the Lord. There'll be some, many who will
hear the words, cast them into outer darkness where there shall
be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. In the end, please hear me, God
is going to cast away everything that offends and everybody who
offends. The only way to be safe is to be made the righteousness
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And how's that to be? Well, our
sins were put to the account of Christ Jesus, the sins of
all of his people, imputed to him. That's a good Bible word. And our Savior, He died for sins
that were not His own, except they were reckoned to Him. And then by His satisfactory
death, satisfying to God's justice, He put away all of the sins of
His people. She sang about the blood of Jesus,
most precious. It put away the sins of His people,
and He brought in for us a righteousness that will stand the inspection
of God Himself. And we're accepted in the Beloved. Something's got to be done for
us. That's the reason I say over and over again, I'm not asking
you to do anything for God, I'm asking God to do something for
you. I tell you what, we all deserve
to be cast away forever. But oh God, restore us. Oh God, come to us. And I pray
that the Lord will come to you individually by His grace right
now through the gospel. The only hope you have is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God, send forth your effectual,
powerful grace to draw sinners unto yourself. You see this Ephraim,
something else about him. He became an idolater. You don't
have to turn, well you can, we're close by. Look at Hosea 4.17.
Hosea 4.17. Just a little short verse. Hosea
4.17, Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone. That's us, folks. That's all of us. We've joined
the idols. We have said concerning King
Jesus Christ the Lord, we will not have this man rule over us. We will not bow the knee to him. It's not fair for him to be sovereign. It's not fair for him to do his
will. He can only do what I let him
do. Ephraim has turned to idols. Leave him alone? Do you want the Lord to leave
you alone? I don't want him to leave me
alone. Lord, don't leave me alone. I've turned to idols, but don't
leave me alone. Don't turn your back on me. Look
over in chapter 7 of Hosea, chapter 7 in verse 11. Chapter 7, verse
11. Ephraim also is like a silly
dove without heart. They call to Egypt, they go to
Assyria. When they got in trouble a little
bit, and this is typical of the natural man when he begins to,
I got some idea of my sin. Okay, I'm a sinner. Well, I'm
gonna run somewhere for help. I'll run to Assyria. And the capital of Assyria is
Babylon. That's false religion. And that's
where the sinner naturally runs to. See, that's really what Prodigal
Son there in Luke 15, Ron read to us. That's what he did. He
went to a certain citizen in a faraway country. He's in trouble. And the man said, I'll tell you
what you need to do. You need to join the church and get to
work. Go, I'll tell you what, feed the pigs. Just get in there
with the pigs. And I'll tell you something,
you turn to babbling, you turn to false religion, you're just
getting in there with the pigs. And you're feeding on husks.
There's no nutritional value there. There's no gospel there. There's no grace there. But that's
what the natural man does. He gets in trouble, realizes,
oh man, I don't want to go to hell. What do I need to do? I
need to run to Egypt. That's the world. Or Assyrian,
that's false religion. But they can't help you. You're
just a silly dove. Me too. We're sitting on the
back porch yesterday. I said, look at those doves right
there, and they're chasing one another. And they're supposed
to be eating seed. I got the seed out there for
them to eat, and they're too busy chasing one another to even
eat the seed. Silly doves. Silly doves. We're running around in circles
and hear the gospel of the grace of God's right in front of us.
and we're feeding on deadly things instead of feeding on Christ.
He said, I'm the true bread that came down from heaven. Eat of
me and live forever. Silly dove. And in that way,
I am a silly bird. Silly dove. That's Ephraim. But then Ephraim did begin to
bemoan himself. You don't have to turn to this.
Jeremiah 31, 18 says that. Life gets unpleasant for him. But it says, turn over to Hebrew,
oh, I'm sorry, Hosea chapter 12. In all of this, when Ephraim,
the Ephraimites, when they got in trouble, run into places that
can't help you. Let me tell you something. Modern
religion can't help you. They don't know who God is. They
don't know what the problem is. They don't know how desperate
our case is. They know nothing about blood
redemption, substitution, satisfaction, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's nothing to them. and they
don't care one iota about the justice of God. Most religionists are not interested
in how God can be just to justify the ungodly. Are you interested? Most people won't listen to that.
Just tell us about how God loves me and how everything's all right. Folks that do that, Just like
Ephraim, chapter 12, verse 1. Ephraim feedeth on wind. He followeth after the east wind. He daily increaseth lies and
desolation. They do make a covenant with
the Assyrians and all is carried into Egypt. They make a covenant with death. It won't touch me. Remember Ephraim portrays the
people of God, the true Israel of God in many ways. And to narrow it down as you
go back to Zechariah 10. My name is Ephraim. I have been
described. I hope you can say that about
yourself. Ephraim, that's my name. But
it's not the end of the story. Because look here again back in Zechariah chapter 10. Ephraim was beloved of the Lord. He even says in verse seven,
and they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, their hearts
shall rejoice through wine. See the Lord Jesus, he's our
strength. I'm weak. What can I do? I can't do anything. But they
of Ephraim shall be as a mighty man. Look back up in verse 5. Yeah, verse 5. And they shall be as mighty men
which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in
the battle, and they shall fight because the Lord is with them.
Because Christ is with them. I'm weak. But Christ is with
me. Christ is with me. Ephraim was beloved of the
Lord. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 20. We got time. Turn over to Jeremiah 31, 20. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 20. Even though the Lord's people
had fallen into error, The Lord hadn't written us off. Jeremiah
31 in verse 20. Is Ephraim, God said, my dear
son, is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still. You know, the Bible has a lot
to say against us. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But he says, I do earnestly remember
him still. And God says further in verse
20, therefore my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy
upon him, saith the Lord. He says, set thee up way marks,
make thee high heaps. Set thine house, set thine heart
toward the highway. Even the way which thou wentest,
turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. God said, I've set up a way, and Christ is that way. He said,
I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life. You see, though Ephraim was the
younger son, he's the chosen son. And the Lord says, I still
remember him. He messed up bad. He's gone astray. But I still remember him. And
I'll tell you what, Ephraim shall be broken by the Lord. Here in
Jeremiah 31, I hope you're still there. Look back in Jeremiah
31. Look at verse 6. Jeremiah 31
6. For there shall be a day that
the watchman upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, let us go
up to Zion unto the Lord our God. You know who the watchman
are? Preachers of the Gospel. And we say to all, to all who
will hear us, arise, let's go to Zion, let's go to the city
of God, to the Lord our God. Verse 7, for thus saith the Lord,
sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of
the nations, publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy
people, the remnant of Israel. And that's what we cry. Lord,
save thy people. And the Lord says, Behold, I
will bring them from the north country, and gather them from
the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind, and the
lame, and the woman with child, and her that travaileth with
child, together a great company shall return thither. They shall
come with weeping, and that's the way we come in it, weeping
over our sins. And with supplications will I
lead them, Watch this. I will cause them to walk by
the rivers of water in a straight way. I will cause them to walk. I will cause... That's effectual
grace. Wherein they shall not stumble. For I'm a father to Israel, an
Ephraim. The Lord says this now. Ephraim
is my firstborn. That's what the Lord said of
Israel to Pharaoh. Israel's my firstborn. Well, I go quickly back to Zechariah
chapter 10. Ephraim's gonna be made to rejoice. The Lord shall make us mighty
though. We're weak and our heart shall
rejoice us through wine You know what makes my heart rejoice,
and I'm I'm Ephraim. I'm guilty I'm guilty of idolatry
I'm guilty of numerous sins far too numerous for me to even count
them Just like your blessings, that song, count your many blessings,
name them one by one. You can't name them all. And
you can't name all your sins either. Somebody said you need
to confess all your sins before you go to bed at night. Well,
you won't go to bed if you're going to be confessing. You don't
even know all that there are. But I will tell you this. The blessings of God that we
have in Christ Jesus are infinite. They're infinite. Makes our heart
rejoice through wine. You see, I've described myself.
Ephraim, that's my name. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. Ain't proud of it. I'm ashamed
of my sin. But I'll tell you what, I sure
am thankful for the grace of God given to me in Christ Jesus
from before the world began. And look in verse 8. God says,
I will hiss for them. I will hiss for them. I read
a story this week, and it was one of the writers of a commentary
on the book of Zechariah. And right about shortly after
1910, 1911, something like that, he was in Israel. And they were at an oasis, he
and his traveling companions. He was a Jew, and he was over
there to see some sights. And he said, along came a shepherd,
and he had a flock of sheep. And he stopped to visit with
the visitor. And as the shepherd began to
speak to them, the sheep began to go hither and yonder, and
this way and that way, and they began to talk. He said, this
writer said, and I said to the shepherd, your sheep are going
everywhere. Oh, he said, not to worry. And he reached in his
pocket, and he pulled out something that kind of looked like a pitch
pipe, really crude looking. And it made just a whistling
sound. And he blew on that, and he blew
on that. He said, I always use the same
one. And here come a lamb here, and here come a sheep, and here
come sheep, and finally there's all at his feet. The Lord says
of his people, I will hiss for them. And I'm gonna tell you
something, the word is literally whistle. I'll whistle for them. I'll call them. My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they, when they hear the whistle,
when they hear the call, when they hear the effectual call
of God to their hearts, they'll follow. They'll come
to the shepherd. Oh, God, hiss for me. Oh God, hiss for these. You who
are watching, oh God the Spirit, hiss for these. If you don't
hiss for us, we'll never come. If you don't draw me, we won't
come. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me. Permit me to rephrase this. Hiss. Hiss for them. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me. Draw him. Hiss for them. Whistle for them. Do you hear
the whistle, you who are the sheep of God? Do you hear the
shepherd calling? He always uses the same pipe,
the gospel of His grace, the gospel of Christ Jesus. That's
what He always uses. He says, I will hiss for them
and gather them. And here's the reason, for I've
redeemed them. I've redeemed them. And you'll notice previous to
this, like in verse 6, I will strengthen, I will save, I will
bring them, for I have mercy. And now he says, for I have redeemed. This is in the past tense. Well,
how can that be? This is hundreds of years before
Christ came. Wait! Christ is the Lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. in the mind and purpose
and goodwill of God. I have redeemed them, and everybody
redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit
is going to come to them one day when one of His watchmen
is preaching the gospel. It doesn't matter who the watchman
is, but He's always preaching the same message, the gospel
of grace, the gospel of Christ, dead, buried, risen again, exalted. And God the Spirit will hiss
for them to come. And it says in verses 8 and 9, they shall increase as they have
increased. The Lord adds to the church dailies
that you should be saved. Christ said, I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not Prevail against it
look at verse 9. I will sow them among the people
and They shall remember me They shall remember me no matter where
they go They gonna remember me and they shall live with their
children and turn again. I will bring them again also
out of the land of Egypt, gather them out of Assyria. I'll bring
them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and place shall
not be found for them." In other words, it's going to be so many
in the end. It's going to take a big place
for them to all live. That's why it's going to be a
new heaven and a new earth. And the Lord's gonna gather us
all together. All of His Ephraims, I'm gonna
be there. By His grace, Bill, right? By
His grace. And all of His Ephraims gonna
be gathered together. Now, during this life, verse
11, He shall pass through the sea with affliction. You're not
expecting to miss out on affliction, are you? You're not expecting
to be exempt, are you? But I'll tell you what, they
shall smite the waves of the sea and all the deeps of the
rivers shall dry up. Because the Lord's with us. And
as far as the pride of Assyria, Babylon, false religion, that's
going to be brought down all the way to hell. And the scepter
of Egypt shall depart away, this world and the things of this
world. And he says, and I will strengthen them in Christ. They
shall walk up and down in my name. We're not running. We're
not anxious. We're just walking. Just walking. Walk up and down in his name,
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephraim, that's my name. That's my name. You can call
me James. You can call me Jim. You can
call me Ephraim. That'd be just fine. Is that
your name too? I hope it is. May the Lord hiss
for you. And if He does, you'll come. You'll come. Let's sing a closing
song.