Now let's turn back to Hosea
chapter 11. And if you wanna just get a jump
on this first portion of this message, look for Matthew chapter
two also. We'll be turning over to Matthew
chapter two on the first of this message. Now the title of this
message is The Holy One in Our Midst. the Holy One in our midst. And I took that title from verse
9 of Hosea chapter 11, where the Lord expresses through the
prophet Hosea, He says, I will not execute the fierceness of
mine anger. That's God not executing His
just wrath. I will not return to destroy
Ephraim. That is after he had already,
this is talking about after he already destroys the nation.
He said, I will not return to destroy Ephraim for I am God
and not man. It has to do with his promise.
God made a promise and here he's destroying Israel. That's what
he's talking about, Ephraim. But now didn't God say that all
Israel shall be saved? Well, he did say that. He made
that promise, made it to Abraham. And what he's saying here is
I'm God, I'm not man, I'm going to keep my promises. The scripture
says that in the book of Romans chapter three, let God be true
and every man a liar. The only one who's unfaithful
to his word is sinful human beings, but God's always faithful to
his word. So he says, I'm God and not man.
And then here's the reason, here's the basis of it all right here.
You can underscore this in your Bible. For I'm God and not man,
the holy one in the midst of thee. Now, that's speaking of
Christ. He is the Holy One of Israel. He's identified as such, and
He says, I will not enter into the city, that is, that city
to destroy, because of the Holy One in the midst of thee. And
I want to show you that this prophecy here in chapter 11,
the whole point of it, the whole crux of it, is that the only
reason that any sinner is not justly and rightly destroyed
by an all-sovereign, all-just, holy God, is because of the Holy
One of Israel, the Holy One in our midst, because of Christ. Now, Christ spoke to His disciples,
and in the book of Matthew chapter 18 and verse 20, He made this
statement. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And he's
speaking there of his presence, his presence in grace and mercy
and in comfort and in assurance. And I always like to use this
little outline. I've often said if you ever get
an opportunity to witness the gospel by people Just sitting
and listening to use this outline about Christ. What is Christ
to the church, to his people? And number one, Christ is the
foundation of the church. He said, upon this rock I will
build my church. He is the rock upon which we
stand. It's not Peter. As the Catholics
say, it's not the denomination, it's not even the church itself,
it's Christ himself, Christ and him crucified and risen again. We sang about it this morning.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
On Christ the solid rock I stand. So he's the foundation of the
church. And then secondly, Christ is the head of the church. He's
the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He's the head of the body. He's the one who is supposed
to do our thinking for us. That's what that means. We have
the mind of Christ. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, speaking of spiritual people. He's our head in authority. He's our head as a representative.
He's on the throne. He guides us. He leads us. He tells us what to do and what
not to do. And so he is the head of the
church. Now both his headship and his being our foundation
are his earned rights because of the redemption that he accomplished
on Calvary. But then thirdly, and that's
what's apropos to this message, Christ is the heart of the church. Or you might say it this way,
he's the center of the church. He's our center. We live and
move and have our being in Him. He's our central issue. He's our central truth. He's
the heart that pumps the life, the lifeblood through the body
of the church. And so we live in and by Him. That truth is portrayed in different
ways in the scripture. For example, in John 15, he says
it this way, I'm the vine, you're the branches. The life comes
from the vine. And so the life that we live in Christ is not
a life that originated with us or by us, it's life that originates
with and by him. And it's Christ living in us. And so that's the outline. Well,
he is in the midst of the church as our heart. He is our life. And here's the thing, this is
what's being taught in Hosea chapter 11. This is what this
prophecy is all about. You say, up to this point in
chapter 10, the end of chapter 10, it's been pretty much just
the sounding forth of God's judgment against sin. But here the tone
sort of changes. But now you read through that
and it sounds like there's a lot of judgment still here. There
is. But here's the point in chapter 11. And that's this, that in
spite of the sinfulness and unbelief and idolatry and rebellion of
Israel, And in spite of God's just judgment and punishment
of them as a nation. Now you understand this northern
kingdom is soon to be destroyed. Totally obliterated and scattered
throughout. But in spite of that, God is
still faithful to His promise to save His covenant people. Now who are His covenant people?
Well it has nothing to do with a physical nation. It's a spiritual
nation, and it's according to His covenant mercies in Christ,
who is the Holy One in our midst. Now, that's the point. He starts
off with an expression of God's tender love for His elect people
out of Israel. Look at verse 1. He says, when
Israel was a child, a youth, He says, then I loved him and
called my son out of Egypt. Now, what does that mean? Well,
turn to Matthew chapter two. Matthew quotes from Hosea here. And in this Matthew chapter two,
here this specific episode is when the wise men who came from
the east as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit to seek out
the Christ child. And you know, they first went
to Herod, King Herod, they were kings. And if you were a king
and you traveled to another country, where would you go? Well, obviously,
protocol determines you go to the king of that land. And then
it says in verse 7 of Matthew chapter 2, then Herod, when he
had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what
time the star appeared, the star that guided them there. He wanted
to know when that star appeared. And it says, and he sent them
to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently for the young
child. And when you have found him, bring me word again that
I may come and worship him also. Now we know by God's testimony
that Herod's heart was not to worship the Christ child. It was in his heart to murder
him. And it says in verse 9, when
they heard the king, they departed. And lo, the star which they saw
in the east went before them till it came and stood over where
the young child was. Now, I always say I hate to burst
people's bubble or shoot your myths out of the water, but I
really don't hate to do that. I really don't, you know, I'm
just being honest with you. I kind of enjoy doing it, you
know. But if he wasn't an infant, Christ
was not, Jesus of Nazareth was not an infant at this time. This
was later. So all the stories that we see around his birth
at Christmas time, you know, they're kind of, you know, they're
kind of not true. Because this was later. This
was later. wouldn't have called him a young
child, they would have called him an infant or a baby. And it says in verse 10, when
they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Now
listen, it says, verse 11, when they were coming to the house,
they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down
and worshiped him. That's what God had put in their
heart, to worship the King of kings. And I thought about that,
I was talking to David this morning about some things like that.
You know, when we think about what think ye of Christ, as I
preached this morning, one of the greatest passages that I
think, you know, that we can go to is to look at Simeon in
Luke chapter 2. Because when Joseph and Mary
brought the baby Jesus, and he was an infant at this time, to
the temple to have him circumcised, to do what the law said to do.
That was the eighth day after his birth. And you remember what
happened, you know, Simeon the old man there The Holy Spirit
had revealed to Simeon that he would not die, that Simeon would
not leave this life until he had seen the Christ child, until
he had seen the Messiah. And when they brought that child
there, Simeon took the child up in his arms and you remember
what he said? He said, he said, for I'm ready to depart for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. Simeon showed you what he thought
of Christ. This little baby that he's holding
in his hands, Simeon said, he's my salvation. Isn't that amazing?
Now I'm gonna tell you something, it takes a work of God and his
grace to bring a sinner to that kind of faith. That's not in
us by nature, is it? That's not the natural man there,
that's a born again person who sees the glory of salvation. He called him the consolation
of Israel. Now you know another way to say
that is the hope of Israel. He's the Holy One of Israel.
Simeon saw that as it was revealed to him. You know, we say it's
got to be revealed. It was revealed to Simeon, wasn't it? My eyes
have seen thy salvation. What think ye of Christ?" Well,
if you see him, you've seen God's salvation. And you've seen everything
you need to see about salvation. Everything it takes for salvation.
Well, here's these wise men, they worshiped him. Look at verse
11. It says, and when they had opened their treasures, they
presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And
being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to
Herod, because I suppose Herod would have killed them, They
departed into their own country another way. And when they were
departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph
in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his
mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring
thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
Look at verse 14, it says, when he arose, he took the young child
and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was
there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt
have I called my son. Well, there it is in Hosea chapter
11, verse 1. There's the prophecy in Matthew
2 there. And verse 15, there's the prophecy
fulfilled. Out of Egypt have I called my
son. So now who's Hosea talking about
according to the testimony of God the Holy Spirit? He's not
talking about Ephraim or Israel, the nation. He'd already brought
them out of Egypt years and years before. But he's talking about
Ephraim here going into captivity And what he's speaking of here
is his covenant love to his elect people out of Jew and Gentile,
who are going to experience salvation according to the covenant promise
of God because of his son, whom he calls out of Egypt, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who he's talking about.
Somebody asked me one time, you think those people back then
understood that? I believe Hosea did. I don't
know about anybody else. I'll tell you who I believe understood
it back then, everybody whom God wanted to understand it.
Just like who understands the truth of salvation today? Everybody whom God wants to understand
it. He told his disciples, he said, you've got ears to hear
you, it's been given to you. It's been given. And so that's
what he's talking about. And what Matthew shows in the
fulfillment of the prophecy of Christ, and he connects this
with the coming of Christ to save his people, and what he's
showing and what Isaiah is prophesying of is this, Israel's purpose
can really only be understood and fulfilled in light of God's
ultimate eternal promise to save His elect people, that spiritual
nation out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile,
through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel in our
midst. And this promise, as it pertains
to the nation, goes back to Abraham. But as it pertains to spiritual
Israel, this promise goes back before the foundation of the
world in Christ. This is a salvation that was
given to God's people before the world began in Christ. Read
it in 2 Timothy chapter 1. and verse 9 and 10. It's connected
to Abraham for us only in a spiritual nation because all who have the
same faith as Abraham had. And what faith did Abraham have?
Well, he had the faith of God's elect. He had God-given faith. And Christ talked about it in
John chapter 8. He said, Abraham rejoiced to
see my day and he saw it, he was glad. Look over at Romans
chapter 11 with me. Here's the fulfillment of it
right here. Look at verse 25. of Romans chapter 11. And here
in Romans chapter 11, he's telling Gentile believers to don't be
puffed up and proud over the fact that they believe the gospel
and the majority of the natural children of Abraham, sons of
Abraham, the Jews didn't. Don't be puffed up and proud
about that in any way. Because I'm going to tell you
something, the only reason that any of us believe Christ and trust
and plead his blood and righteousness for our whole salvation is the
miracle power of God's grace. And so don't be puffed up and
proud because God still has a people out of that nation. He called
them in verse 5, a remnant according to the election of grace. But
look at verse 25 of Romans 11. He says, for I would not brethren
that you should be ignorant of this mystery. He says, lest you
should be wise in your own conceits. In other words, unless you be
proud. And he says that blindness in part is happened to Israel.
In other words, what does he mean blindness in part? Well,
there were some in Israel who believed. The whole nation, every
individual in the nation did not perish eternally. There were
some whom God saved. who God brought out of that darkness. So blindness in part. Now the
largest part of the nation were blind. They were blind. That's
what the scripture shows us. But there was some people who
believed the gospel out of that nation, even back in Hosea's
day. You remember, somebody said, well, was Hosea the only one
who believed? The only one saved? Well, I don't
think so. Elijah thought he was at one
time, didn't he? And you remember what God told
him. Of course, Paul uses that and
he deals with that in Romans chapter 11. He said, I've got
7,000 in this nation, Elijah, who haven't bowed the knee to
Baal. And so, he wasn't the only one. But he says, blindness in
part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles
become in. Now God has a people among the
Gentiles and he's calling them in. And when that's complete,
he says, verse 26, and so all Israel shall be saved. Now that's
spiritual Israel. That's the remnant according
to the election of grace. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. He says in verse 27, for this
is my covenant unto them, there's God's covenant promise, when
I shall take away their sins as concerning the gospel, their
enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, that's
God's elect, they are beloved for the Father's sake. For the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. God is not
a man like us. He keeps his promises, his gifts
and his calling are without, it won't change, he won't take
them back. He says in verse 30, for as you in times past have
not believed God, talking about the Gentiles, he says, yet have
now obtained mercy through their unbelief. It was through their
unbelief that the gospel, God used their unbelief, and this
is an amazing thing, God used their unbelief to shoot the gospel
out into the world, catapulted the gospel out to the whole world,
and as a result of that, Many Gentiles have come to know Christ
by the power of God's grace. So he says, you've obtained mercy
through their unbelief. Verse 31, even so have these
also now not believed that through your mercy, they also may obtain
mercy. In other words, what he's talking
about there is that you pray for their salvation. Don't walk
around here proud and puffed up. Look at us, you know. We
have the Messiah, they don't. Oh, no, no, no. Be like Paul,
he said, my heart's desire and prayer for Israels that they
might be saved. Let's pray that for everybody.
Isn't that right? He said in Romans 9, I'll tell
you, this is a statement, he said, I could wish myself a curse
for my brethren according to the flesh. That's how much he
loved them and desired the salvation of sinners. So he says in verse
32, for God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might
have mercy upon all. Now who's he talking about there?
His elect people out of Israel. Now go back to Hosea 11. This
is what he's talking about here. This is the issue. When they
connected these promises only to themselves as an earthly nation,
they messed up. They were just dead wrong. My
friend, out of Egypt, he's called his son, And that's connected
with the Jewish nation because salvation is of the Jews. Christ
was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. And so
he goes on, look at verse 2, he says, as they called them,
so they went from them. They sacrificed unto Balaam and
burned incense to graven images. The more the prophets called
them to seek the Lord, the more they went away from God. And
the more the false prophets called Israel to follow the Baal gods,
the idols, the more Israel forsook the Lord and followed the idols.
You see, that's us by nature. If God leaves us to ourselves,
it doesn't matter what we hear, who we hear it from, we're going
to follow our idols. Isn't that right? Whatever idol
that might be, an idol of our imagination, an idol of this
world in some way, we're not going to seek the Lord. We're
not going to come to Christ. We're going to be like Israel
of old who sacrificed unto Balaam, the fertility god Balaam, and
the Baals, that's other gods, and burn incense to graven images.
We may not set them up and bow to them physically, but they're
in our mind. because any person who doesn't
serve the true and living God according to the Holy One in
our midst is an idolater. You can mark it down. You see,
God calls His people with an effectual call. The world also
calls, now whom will we follow? You remember when Elijah, when
he withstood the prophets of Baal, he told the people of Israel
at that time, Years before this took place, he said, how long
shall you halt between two opinions? If Baal be God, serve him. If
God be God, serve him. And then look at verse three.
He says, I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms,
but they knew not that I healed them. This is God's blessings
to the nation physically. He says, verse four, I drew them
with cords of a man, with bands of love. In other words, God,
in essence, through Moses, came down to their level, in that
sense, just like the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel,
condescended to be made like unto his brethren. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he emptied himself,
the scripture says. And God said, I did it with bands
of love, not with whips and chains and forced slavery. That's not
how God did it. He says, and I was to them as
they that take off the yoke on their jaws and I laid meat under
them. In other words, I took the yoke, the bondage of Egypt
off of them and I fed them with meat. He gave them the manna
from heaven. He gave them the water from the
rock. He took care of them. That's what he's saying. Took
that yoke of human bondage, that yoke of the law off of them and
brought them out. And he gave them all these blessings,
you see. And yet, they didn't realize
it. He says, they didn't know that I healed them. They didn't
acknowledge God. They, like Homer, Hosea's Homer,
they attributed to the idols, to themselves. Oh, we deserve
what we're getting. We're Abraham's children. We're
circumcised. We keep the law of Moses, which
they didn't, but they claim they did. It's like people today who
claim they're not sinners. They really think they're not,
but they have a real low standard of rule there. And so he says
they rejected him in spite of all these blessings. These physical
blessings. Verse five, he says, he says,
he shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrians
shall be his king because they refuse to return. They refuse
to repent is what that is. To return to God. Remember Christ
told the Pharisees, except you repent, you shall likewise perish.
When they judged those sinners who deserve God's damnation,
he said, well, you're gonna perish too unless you repent. Well,
they'd say, well, what do we have to repent of? Well, you've
got to repent of your dead works and your idol. You've got to
repent of thinking that anything you are or do either earns or
deserves God's favor and blessings and salvation. You've got to
come to God like a sinner, begging for mercy. In verse six he says,
and the sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume
his branches and devour them because of their own counsels.
They're listening to their own word and their own opinions and
their own ways instead of God and judgment shall fall upon
them. Verse seven, my people are bent to backsliding from
me. When he says they're bent that
way, he's talking about that's the way they're made. That's
the way we're born. Born dead. in trespasses and
sin. That's in the heart, you see.
It's a bent. It's not just a whim. It's not
just a sideline. That's man without God, without
Christ, without grace. He's bent to backslide. He'll
always run from God. And he'll do it religiously or
he'll do it morally. In some way he'll do it. He says,
though they called them to the Most High, the prophets, none
at all would exalt him. The prophets like Hosea, The
prophets like Isaiah, the prophets later on like Jeremiah, they
called them to look unto the Lord, to trust in the Lord, to
rest in the Lord, to worship the Lord. But he says none at
all would exalt, they would not lift up God, they would not worship
God. That was their heart and their
nature. And that's why, you know, one of the gifts of God that
we need to thank Him for every day is repentance. Not only faith,
but repentance. Faith is a gift from God, we
know that, the scripture says that. But understand that repentance
is the gift of God too. He brings us to faith in Christ
and repentance. Look at verse eight, he says,
how shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee Israel? And how shall I make thee as
Adma? How shall I set thee as Zeboam? My heart is turned within me,
my repentings are kindled together." Now that's not a real good translation
of that verse. But let me show you what he's
talking about. First of all, he's talking here about God's
faithfulness to save his people, his chosen people. God's faithfulness
to save his elect remnant. And he says how, how in the world,
when you consider what we deserve, When you consider what we've
earned from God, when you consider, as the psalmist said in Psalm
130, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who among us
would stand? How? How can God save us? And yet, because God has chosen
us in Christ and made a promise to save us, how is He going to
give us up? And so, what this does is this kind of dilemma
reaches all the way back to the eternal dilemma that asks this
question as Job and his friends ask it, how can God be just and
justify the ungodly? That's the problem that's promoted
here because now listen, if we all got what we deserved, we
would be like this town called Adma. You ever heard of Adma?
Well, you'd have to go back and read about it in Genesis chapter
19. We'd be like this town called Zeboam. You ever heard of that?
Same place, Genesis 19. What this was, these were two
cities that were connected and joined with two places that you
do know about, Sodom and Gomorrah. And when Sodom and Gomorrah was
destroyed, this Adma and Zeboam was destroyed. And the only ones
who were spared out of those cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, Adam
and Zoboam, was Lot and part of his family. And they represented
God's elect. Lot was a just man. We don't
know about the spiritual state of his daughters other than what
the scripture tells us of their evil ways, which kind of tips
you off. but it was all a picture of how
God delivers a small remnant of people out of that mass destruction
of God giving them what they deserve. And so what he's saying
here is this, he said, how shall I make thee as Admon, how shall
I set thee as Zoboam? God's promised to save some people,
so how's he going to destroy them all? Well, he can't. And
then he says, my heart is turned within me and my repenting. This
language here is not the language of God changing his mind or anything
like that. It doesn't mean that God's rethinking
the situation and trying to make a decision here like we do. It's
not that at all. It's not that God is responding
to anything here. It's literally this. Here's how
it would read literally. My heart churns within me. My sympathy is stirred. I will not execute my fierceness
or my anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. Look at verse nine. I will not
execute the fierceness of my anger. God's anger is going to
be held back from some people. In other words, there's going
to be some justice here as far as God giving Ephraim what he
deserves, Israel. But it's not going to be a complete
destruction like it was in Admah and Zeboam, like it was in Sodom
and Gomorrah. Every Sodomite perished. There's going to be a salvation
here. And he says, I will not return to destroy Ephraim. In
other words, this one last judgment that God's gonna bring down upon
this nation, that's it. And he said, I've made a promise,
I'm God, I keep my promises, I'm not man. And here's the issue,
the Holy One in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into
the city to destroy it. Turn to Isaiah chapter one. Now
Isaiah says the exact same thing here, but he says it in a different
way. And you know, Hosea was a contemporary
of Isaiah. They prophesied about the same
time. But they prophesied in different places. Hosea, as you
know, prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel. Isaiah, he
prophesied in the southern kingdom of Judah. And it was about the
same time, but It was a different situation, but there was sin
and idolatry and depravity run amuck in both places. But look
at verse 9 of Isaiah chapter 1. He says, Except the Lord of
hosts, that's the sovereign God of the covenant, had left unto
us a very small remnant, a remnant of people, We should have been
as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. In other
words, there'd be no salvation at all. It would all be completely
destroyed because of sin. That's what Hosea is saying over
here in these verses. Just like Adma, just like Zeboam. But God, in his mind and in his
heart, has devised a way of salvation. And that way of salvation is
summarized and capsulized in the holy one in the midst of
thee. And what is he talking about?
He's talking about eternal salvation. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if there's any doubt in anybody's mind that the Holy One there
is Christ, just go through the Scriptures and read them. There's
so many and I don't have time to go into all of them this day.
You know, even the devils in hell recognize that fact. You
remember over in the book of Mark chapter 1 and verse 24 when
Christ cast out the demons? And they said, Let us alone,
what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou
come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. Even they know that. In Acts
chapter 3 and verse 14, it was said that those who denied Christ
denied the Holy One and the just. In 1 John chapter 2 and verse
20, he speaks of those who are born again by the Spirit and
he says, you have an unction from the Holy One, that's from
Christ. And so God says here, His heart
is in His eternal, unchangeable purpose and grace given to His
spiritual people, Jew and Gentile, in Christ Jesus, the Holy One
in our midst, before the foundation of the world. His sympathy is
his pity upon his people according to his covenant mercies in Christ.
We are nothing but sin and guilty before God in ourselves and in
our father Adam. Yet God says, how can I give
you up? You know, we spend our lives
wrestling with that question about people who make us angry. I'm just gonna give you up. You
ever said that or thought that about anybody? I'm just gonna
give up on that guy or that girl. I'm gonna give you up. Well,
God looks at a sinner like me and he says, how can I give you
up? Wow. If that don't send chills
down your spine, I don't know what will. How can I give you
up? Justice demands that he give
us up. But His heart, in His heart and
in His mind, He finds a way of eternal salvation. And in this,
God sends Jesus Christ and put Him on the cross of Calvary to
die for our sins. He was actually made sin as our
sins were accounted to Him. As somebody said, a massive sin.
That's okay. He was made sin. And you know
what happened to Him? Based upon our sins imputed,
charged, accounted to him, God the Father gave him up. To the
point where the son cried out on the cross, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He wasn't asking that for information,
he was making a point. I'll tell you exactly why the
Father forsook him, because of my sin. And he drank damnation dry. and brought in righteousness
to be accounted to us. And that's why God cannot give
us up. His glory, His mercy, His righteousness. Child of God, do you realize
if God gave you tonight what you deserved, you would be eternally
damned? And yet God looks straight at
you and into your heart, even into the the annals of darkness
that even you cannot see and he says, how can I give you up? He can't do it. He's not leaning
over the banister of heaven just hoping that you'll decide for
him, oh no. He said this before the foundation
of the world, how can I give you up? He can't. And you know why? Because He's
God and not man. He made a promise and all the
promises of God in Christ are yea and amen. That's an amazing
thing. And He says, I will not again
destroy Ephraim. Though their sin deserves it,
God will not wipe out Israel. He will leave a remnant and will
restore the nation through that remnant. It's called the election
of grace. It's restoration by the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's redemption by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's restoration under Christ,
not an earthly temple, not an earthly covenant, not an earthly
government, not a piece of real estate in Palestine. but a spiritual
nation, a heavenly Jerusalem that is bought and paid for and
ruled over by the Holy One in our midst. If the President of
the United States would walk into this room tonight, every
eye would turn. But do you realize there's someone
who's much, much more powerful and important in our midst tonight? Where two or three are gathered
in my name, There am I in the midst of them. And so listen
to what he says. He says in verse 10, look at
this. They shall walk after the Lord. Now who's he talking about? He's not talking about this physical
nation. He's talking about his covenant people who redeemed
by the blood of Christ and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. They shall
walk after the Lord. What is it to walk after the
Lord? It's to believe in the Son. That's a born again person. is to repent of dead works and
idolatry. And it says, he shall roar like
a lion. When he shall roar, then the
children shall tremble from the west. That's the calling of the
Gentiles. That's what that's talking about.
The roaring of the lion to call back his people. He's the lion
of the tribe of Judah. And he calls his people with
a roar. It's in the gospel message. And
when he roars, when the king roars, the people come. That's
what he's talking about. And they come trembling. That
means not afraid of God, but in the fear of the Lord, respecting
and revering him. By knowing that we would all
be consumed were it not for his mercies because of the Holy One
in our midst. We'd all be consumed. It's of
the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. And look here,
he says in verse 11, he says, they shall tremble as a bird
out of Egypt and as a dove out of the land of Assyria were brought
out of our bondage and I will place them in their houses, saith
the Lord." That house is the house of the Lord. And do you
notice it says He will place us there? This is His house. Read Hebrews chapter 3. I don't
have time to turn there tonight, but read Hebrews chapter 3. Christ
is the builder of the house. Whose household are we? His family. He's our elder brother. He's
our Savior. And he's not ashamed to call
us brothers, and he places us in our houses. That's the safety
and the security that we have in Christ, the Holy One in our
midst. Now, verse 12 actually goes with
the next chapter, but let me just read it, and I'll pick up
there next time. He says, Ephraim compasseth me
or surrounds me about with lies. In other words, when they come
together, it's all a big lie. That's man by nature. And the
house of Israel with deceit, it's deception. The reason they
lie is because they're deceived. That's why people lie. You know,
a false prophet, on the whole, I won't say always, but on the
whole, they don't really know they're false prophets. They
think they're telling the truth. But they're telling a lie. But
the reason they're telling a lie is because they're deceived.
So understand that now. And we'd be deceived were it
not for the light of God's truth, isn't that right? But he says,
but Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithful with the saints.
Now, there were more times in the southern kingdom of Judah
when they were more obedient than the northern kingdom. But
ultimately, and you read the book of Isaiah, he talks about
the sin of Judah. So he's not talking about how
Judah, the nation, is so good and so much better than Israel
that they're okay and God's gonna preserve them. What's he talking
about? He's talking again about the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
Our salvation's gonna come out of Judah. And the reason our
salvation is going to come out of Judah has nothing to do with
the people of Judah themselves and their goodness because they're
sinners just like us and deserve damnation just like us. The reason
that our salvation is going to come out of Judah is because
Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
Salvation is of the Jews in His humanity. Judah is connected with our salvation. It's not through that nation,
it's through Christ, the Holy One in our midst. All right.