Okay, let's turn back to Hosea
chapter 10. Hosea chapter 10. As I said,
the title of this message this evening is this. It is time to seek the Lord. It's time to seek the Lord. And
I want you to understand that this is a message from this prophet,
this weeping prophet, and I believe Hosea was just like Jeremiah
in that way, that when he delivered this message all the way through
the book of Hosea, but in this chapter 10, that he was, as one
writer said, like a skillful physician. who keeps probing
at the core of the problem, the core of the sickness, the core
of Israel's sin, which is self-righteousness and unbelief and idolatry. But he doesn't keep probing at
the core of these sins in order to gloat or to simply grind it
in or to beat them down or to threaten them with the threatenings
of the law. but to show them that there is
no hope of salvation for any sinner apart from God's grace,
which could only be found in looking to his promise to send
a Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to put away their
sin. and to show them that now is the time to seek the Lord. He starts off with reminding
them of their sad and sinful condition. Look at verses one
and two. This is the sinful fruit of a
divided heart. It says, Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit unto
himself. According to the multitude of
his fruit, he hath increased the altars. According to the
goodness of his land, they have made goodly images." That's idols,
statues. Their heart is divided. Now shall
they be found faulty, which literally means guilty. He shall break
down their altars. He shall spoil their images. Israel is an empty vine. Some
translations, if you do study other translations, you might
find a different word there that kind of seems a little strange,
which says that Israel is a luxuriant vine, that it is bringing forth
fruit, which means if that was the case, that it's emphasizing
that the good gifts of God that are given to Israel by God are
used in a sinful way, either way. Here's the problem and he
says it right here, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself. And so whether they are flourishing
or whether they are empty, it's fruit unto death, bringing forth
fruit unto themselves. In other words, this is not fruit
unto the glory of God. It's not fruit that drives them
to God seeking mercy and grace in time of need. It's not to
the praise of the glory of God's grace. It's the fruit of sin
that brings forth idolatry. It's fruit unto death. Look over
at Romans chapter seven. The apostle Paul deals with this
in his day when he speaks of Israel and his own experience
under the religion of the Jews which had perverted the old covenant
and turned it into a system of work salvation. And he says in
Romans 7 and verse 4, he talked, well, look at verse 5. He says,
for when we were in the flesh, now that's as a natural man,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. That's an unconverted, unregenerate,
unbelieving man. When we were in the flesh, when
I was an unbeliever, the motions or the passions of sins which
were by the law." In other words, I was motivated within myself
as I interpreted the law. He says, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. And it may have looked well on
the outside, and it may have looked good on the outside, but
it was fruit unto death. In order to bring forth fruit
unto God, we've got to be married to Christ. Look at verse 4. He
says, wherefore my brethren, you are become dead to the law.
which simply means that the law's justice has been completely fulfilled
and satisfied in your case, and you don't owe a debt to God's
law. That law's been paid, you're dead to the law. The law can
no longer condemn you or bring you in guilty before God. You
become dead to the law. Now, how did that happen? He
says, by the body of Christ, by the sacrifice of Christ. The
death of Christ on the cross was the believer's death to the
law. Thank God. And he says that you
should be married to another, that we might be united to Christ
in faith, in love, and he says even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Now that's
the difference between salvation and condemnation. That's the
difference between being a child of God and a child of Satan. That's the difference between
being born again by the Spirit and being unregenerate. Israel
back here, Hosea says, is an empty vine. And like I said,
it may be flourishing in the eyes of men. It may be productive. It's like false religion. They
may have multitudes following them. They may have a lot of
money. They may have big buildings.
They may have a lot of things that looks like they're flourishing.
But it's really empty spiritually. There's no grace, there's no
truth, there's no Christ. And so it says, he bringeth forth
fruit unto himself. It's for his own glory. It's
for his own self-fulfillment. It's not to the praise of the
glory of God's grace. And God's purpose and work in
salvation is to bring his people to repentance from this very
thing. The book of Hebrews chapter nine,
I believe it is, calls it repentance of dead works. Repent of this
fruit unto death. Don't relish in it. Don't promote
it. Look at verse two again. He says,
their heart is divided That's the abomination of a divided
heart, divided loyalties. They enjoy the blessings of God
but in ungodly ways. And he says they claim to worship
and honor and glorify God but they love sin and they love self. And it's divided in a way, literally
what this word means is in smoothness and in flattery. Now what does
that mean? Well, they justify themselves
and they promote sin under the guise of religion. Psalm 12 and
verse 2 spoke of that. That's why I read that psalm
at the beginning. It says, they speak vanity every one with his
neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they
speak. They want smooth words. They
don't want to hear the truth that would bring them to conviction
of sin and depravity, to show them their need of salvation
by the sovereign mercy and grace of God. And the idea of Israel's
smooth or insincere, faithless heart here is reflected And it
was pictured back in Hosea's marriage to Gomer. You remember
his wife, Gomer, in the same way that an unfaithful wife will
say they love their husband, all the while living a lie, it's
the same way Israel's heart was toward God. Somebody said it's
like this, he said, their sweet smiles are lies and they're guilty. But now God's prophets and God's
preachers don't operate that way. Turn over to First Thessalonians
chapter two with me. And this is the issue now. Is this the case now? Do you tell me what I want to
hear or do you tell me what I need to hear? That's the issue. It
was said at the beginning when I quoted the commentator, he
said, Hosea is like a skillful physician probing at the core
of Israel's sin. I mean, you would rather be told,
I would rather be told that I'm healthy and everything's fine
and I'm just the picture of health and everything. But if I'm sick,
I need to hear something different. But look here at 1 Thessalonians
chapter two and verse one. Paul writes here to the church
at Thessalonica. He says, for you, for yourselves,
brethren, you know our entrance in unto you that it was not in
vain. But even after that we had suffered
before and were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, we were
bold in our God, to speak unto you the gospel of God with much
contention. For our exhortation was not of
deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed
of God to be put in trust with the gospel even so we speak,
not as pleasing men. You see, that's what was going
on in Israel. Not as pleasing men, but God,
which trieth our hearts, for neither at any time use we flattering
words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness God has witnessed,
nor of men sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others, when
we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ." You
see, that's what God's preachers do. We're not here to use flattering
words to honor men, to memorialize men. I thought about that in
preparing for Kitty's memorial service. The last thing that
a child of God wants any preacher to do when we are saying our
goodbyes to them, when they leave this line, is to stand up here
and brag and boast on them. They want you who are living
to hear of their Savior. They want you who are living
to hear of their hope in Christ. And so Hosea brings them to task
back here in Hosea 10. He says, your heart's divided.
You have divided loyalties. They're like those whose heart
has been hardened, grown hard, not hearts that know and love
and trust Christ, purified by faith, established with grace.
This is the opposite of the true heart that Paul described in
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 22 when he talked about a true
heart in full assurance of faith. That true heart is an honest
heart. That true heart is a heart It's being cleansed by the blood
of Christ, cleansed by faith in him, sprinkled from an evil
conscience, he said. And then God says here in verse
two, he says they're found guilty. Oh, I'll tell you, how can a
sinner become not guilty before a holy God? There's not but one
way, and idolatry is not that way. He said he'll break down
their altars, he'll spoil their images. These altars and images,
false religion, idolatry, cannot remove the guilt of sin, cannot
remove the depravity of sin. Only Christ, by the grace of
God, can remove the guilt and the depravity of sin. And so
listen to what they say. It says in verse three, for now
they shall say, we have no king because we feared not the Lord.
What then should a king do for us? Now they had rejected God
as their true king. They had rejected the line of
David through whom the Messiah, the king of kings would come.
They did that when they left Jerusalem. They left him when
they left the temple. Why? It says, because we feared
not the Lord. Now that's the state of all men
and women by nature. You know when Paul described
the natural man, and that's all of us too by nature without Christ,
without God, without grace. In Romans chapter three when
he said, there's none righteous, no not one, there's none that
doeth good, there's none that seeketh after God. One of the
things that he said of us by nature is that there is no fear
of God before our eyes. Romans chapter three and verse
18. No fear of God, no respect, no regard, and therefore they
would not bow to God as king, to God's way. They said, what
then should a king do for us? It reminds me of that parable
that the Lord taught in Luke chapter 19 when the king sent
his sons to deal with the rebellious people And it said, his citizens
hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not
have this man to reign over us. The Pharisees and the Sadducees,
the Jews, said the same thing when it was put upon the cross
of our King, of our Lord and Savior, King of Israel. And they said, we have no King
but Caesar. And they didn't really want to
bow to Caesar. We have no king. What can God do for us? They will not submit to God as
a sovereign lord and king. They will not submit to Christ.
By nature, none of us will. That's why Paul spoke in Romans,
wrote in Romans chapter 10, he said, they will not, Israel,
that his heart's desire and prayer for Israel is that they be saved,
but they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,
for they are ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness and would not submit to the righteousness
of God in Christ. Look at verse four of Hosea 10.
He says, they have spoken words, swearing falsely and making a
covenant, Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock or poison in the
furrows of the field. They speak lies. They make promises
they cannot or do not keep. And like a poisonous herb will
destroy a whole field, they destroy themselves with these lies. He
says in verse five, the inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because
of the calves of Beth-Avon. Now you remember now the history
of this, now how Jeroboam, the first king of the northern kingdom,
how he turned the people away from Jerusalem and he set up
other places of worship such as Beth-El and other places and
he turned Beth-El into a place of idolatry. It's called Beth-Avon
here. Beth-El, that's the same place.
Beth-El means house of God. Beth-Avon means house of evil. And he put up the golden calf
there. And it says, and that was another way of rejecting
God's king, God's promise, God's Messiah. He said, for the people
thereof shall mourn over it and the priests thereof that rejoiced
on it for the glory thereof because it is departed from. And God's
gonna take all their pride, all their glory, all their hope away. It's gonna be gone. Their refuge
is gonna be removed. Their peace is going to be overturned. It's going to be turned into
shame and destruction. Look at verse six. How's God
gonna do it? He says, it shall be also carried
unto Assyria for a present to King Jerob. Now, you remember
that King Jerob, how he was mentioned back in Hosea chapter five? There
is no literal King Jerob. That was just a play on words
describing the king of Assyria, whose name was probably Shalmaneser.
That was his real name. But it was King Jerob, meaning
the warrior king. One commentator said it was like
a play on words, like saying something like, king, pick a
fight, or something like that. He was just ready to fight, ready
to war. And then he says, Ephraim shall
receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. They're gonna be ashamed of their
own words. Verse seven, as for Samaria,
her king is cut off as the foam, or literally, as a twig upon
the water. I don't know why some of the
translators translated that foam, but you know foam on the ocean
that comes in on the shore, it's gone. But literally this is a
twig upon the water, just like a little twig in the ocean. It's
gone, it's nothing. It has no significance whatsoever. Has no positive effect on its
environment whatsoever. It's totally worthless. And so
he says in verse eight, the high places also of Avon, that's evil,
like Beth Avon. The sin of Israel shall be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle shall
come upon their altars. It's gonna be overgrown with
weeds. And they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and
to the hills, fall on us. In other words, when Assyria
comes down on them with God's wrath, unknowingly being instruments
of God's wrath, they're gonna say it'd be better for the mountains
or the hills to fall on us and consume us. So look at God's
counsel to Israel. Now when you read through this,
this is God's counsel to us too. It says in verse nine, O Israel,
thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah. Gibeah was mentioned
back in Hosea chapter nine when that great sin in the book of
Judges as recorded in Judges 19 took place. where the Levite
allowed his concubine to be raped and raped and raped, and then
he cut her up into 12 pieces and sent her all over the land.
In other words, the picture back there is that they've become
so calloused over these sins that they couldn't even recognize
it. So he says, your sin, you're no different today in your idolatry,
in your religion, your divided heart, you're no different today.
It says, there they stood, the battling Gibeah against the children
of iniquity did not overtake them. They couldn't fix it back
then, they can't fix it today. Man cannot conquer sin. Man cannot conquer self. I don't care how new and improved
we are in our society today, the problem is still the same.
S-I-N. And we cannot come up, man cannot
come up with a cure from it in his science, in his economy,
in his philosophy, or in his religion. Isn't that right? You
cannot do it. It'll kill every one of us if
left to ourselves. And so he says in verse 10, he
says, it is in my desire that I should chastise them. Here's
what God's saying. He said, when I'm ready in my
time, when I say so, there'll be punishment. in God's time. And he says, and the people shall
be gathered against them. There's going to be a great multitude
of people gathered against Israel when they shall bind themselves
in their two furrows. That literally is when they shall
bind themselves in their two transgressions, their two transgressions
or their two habitations. In other words, where they try
to hide themselves. And what he's simply saying there is this,
wherever they try to hide themselves from God's wrath, it's sinful,
it's a transgression. Now why is that? Because the
only refuge that God has for sin is turning unto Christ. You turn anywhere, just think
about it, go back to the garden. When Adam and Eve fell, And they
realized in their shame, their nakedness, and their exposure
to the wrath of God, where did they turn for refuge? They sewed
fig leaf aprons together to try to hide themselves. And they
tried to hide from God. That was transgression. And that's
what he's saying here. What is their two transgressions
here in Israel? What's their idols? Their places
of idol worship? And then they ran to the enemy.
They tried to make alliances with the enemy, with Assyria,
with Egypt, their two transgressions. God's gonna remove it. There's
no refuge from the wrath of God, but Christ and him crucified
and risen again. So they'd rejected God and they
turned to idols and wicked allies. They leaned upon their own understanding
and leaned upon the flesh. Look at verse 11. It says, and
Ephraim is an heifer that is taught or trained and loveth
to tread out the corn. but I passed over upon her fair
neck, I will make Ephraim to ride, Judas shall plow, and Jacob
shall break his clods." That's a little strange, isn't it, that
language there? What's he saying? Well, that heifer that is trained
is like one that's loose and is trained and it eats wherever
it wants to, out in the pasture, out in the field, Wherever it
wants to go, it eats. And what God is saying is, I've
allowed you to do that up to this point, but now I'm going
to bring a harness down upon your neck that's gonna bear you
to the ground, and you're gonna be an animal, a beast of burden,
because I'm bringing this Assyrian army down upon you. You've been
having your way up to this time, and here's what you've done.
You've transgressed, you've sinned, but now I'm gonna bring a yoke
down upon you. and I'm gonna hold you back with
that yoke. I'm gonna bear down upon you,
and you're gonna be ridden like a beast of burden, and even Judah."
He mentions Judah again. Now, Hosea was mainly a prophet
to the northern kingdom, but he did have some words for Judah,
too. This is a warning to Judah. You're
gonna be in the same shape. You're gonna plow, too. And Jacob
shall break his clods. Like out there just breaking
hard, hard, dry earth instead of free range, instead of freely
eating here and here. You know, when it gets, when
you eat up this pasture, you go, no, you won't be able to
do that anymore. God's gonna put it, bring it down upon you.
So what do you do? Where's there any hope here?
Oh, these words of judgment from this weeping prophet, this probing
physician, What do we do? Well, here's the answer verse
12. Here's the answer for them Here's
the answer for us today. Now listen this very carefully.
He says so to yourselves in righteousness Reap in mercy Break up your fallow
ground For it is time to seek the Lord Till he come and reign
righteousness upon you Underscore that verse in your Bibles. Not
only is that a prophecy, it's a promise. And not only is it
a promise, it's a direction. It's a commandment from God.
Not only is it symbolic language, it's gospel language. This is
the language of grace. First of all, he says seek It's
time to seek the Lord. Who is the Lord? He's Jehovah,
our Savior. He's the God of the covenant.
The covenant that God made with Abraham. The covenant that God
made with Moses in Israel on Sinai. He's the God of grace
and mercy who justifies the ungodly. That's who you're to seek. Don't
turn to Assyria. Don't turn to Egypt. Don't turn
to your idols. Don't turn to yourself. Don't
turn to your thoughts and your ideas and certainly don't turn
to your works. Turn to the Lord, the Lord of
glory. The Lord of promise who justified
Abraham by promise. of a coming Messiah, who established
a system of sacrifice by which sinners would approach him on
the basis of a blood atonement which pictured the one blood
atonement which would come in time in their future, the Lamb
of God slain on Calvary. Seek the Lord. Israel had sought
their ways, their thoughts, their ideas, their self-fulfillment,
even to satisfy their fleshly appetites, but they'd failed
to seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. The Bible tells
us that men by nature will not seek the Lord. Do you know the
scripture tells us that? None of us by nature of our own
wills will seek the Lord. Scripture says in Romans 3, 10
and 11, as it is written, there's none righteous, no not one, there's
none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God. Now what it says, that's the
state of all men and women by nature. Now, many people don't
believe that. You know that? Many people don't
believe. They believe that they do it of their own free will
because they have a better will than other sinners. And here's
how they would have to read it. Now, if you don't agree with
this, let me tell you how to read this verse. You have to
add to it. Of course, the scripture says don't add to it. But here's
how you'd have to read it. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one, except me. As it is written, there's none
that understandeth, oh, except me. Or there is none that seeketh
after God except me. Now is that the way you want
to read the scriptures? No, I hope not. Because it's just not right. This is just a statement of fact.
This is the state of all men and women by nature. If any of
us seek the Lord, let me tell you what it is. It's a miracle
of God's grace and power and goodness in Christ. And so it says here, none will
seek the Lord. And yet we're told in the Bible,
listen to Hebrews 11 verse six, but without faith it's impossible
to please him. Now faith there in Hebrews 11
is simply looking to and resting in Christ for all salvation,
for all righteousness, for all life, for all glory. And then
it says, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. That's
what it says. And then we're commanded to seek
him. We read it in the opening of our service tonight, Isaiah
55 and verse 6. It says, this is a command now,
this is an imperative, this is not an option. It says, seek
ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is
near. For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, this
is a prophecy of Amos, seek ye me and ye shall live. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek
of the earth, which have wrought his judgment. Seek righteousness,
seek meekness. It may be you shall be hid in
the day of the Lord's anger. Our Lord said in the Sermon on
the Mount, Matthew six and verse 33, but seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things, the things
of this life that we need, the necessities shall be added unto
you. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 27 and verse 4, listen to this,
he said, one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek
after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
his temple. That will I seek after. Now the
world cannot understand this. That's why they said back here
in Hosea chapter nine that the prophet is a fool and the believer
is a madman, insane. So what are we to do? What are
we to do? Well, over there in Psalm 27
and verse eight, the Lord tells us, as the psalmist relates here,
When thou said, seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy
face, Lord, will I seek. Now what is your heart telling
you tonight? What is my heart telling me tonight? If my heart tells me, thy face,
Lord, will I seek, then I can know from God's testimony that
the Lord has sought me and found me. That he's visited me. He's visited me. And he didn't
tell anybody. Listen, somebody says, well,
if what you're saying is true, if I seek him, I may not find
him. Well, listen to his word again. Let's read God's word.
I could argue with you, I could debate with you, I could reason
with you, but let's just read a verse out of God's word. This
is Isaiah 45 and verse 19. And listen to what the Lord says.
He said, I've not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth.
I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord,
speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
He never commanded or told anybody to seek him in vain. He never
said, seek me, you may not find me. You may, you may not. No,
sir. He says, seek me and you'll find
me. He said, ask. Knock. Seek. Ask and it'll be
given. Seek and you'll find. Knock and
it shall be opened. Well, what's the problem then?
Well, by nature and in our own way and in our own thoughts and
in our own ideas and from our own deceptive hearts, we don't
know how to seek the Lord. Did you know that? Well, he tells
us how. Right here in verse 12 of Hosea
chapter 10, he tells you how to seek him. Listen to what he
says in verse 12. First of all, here's number one.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your
fallow ground. What does that mean when he says
sow to yourselves in righteousness? What does that mean? I'm to go
out and try to establish a righteousness of my own? To try to make myself
righteous by my works? to try to do the best I can to
earn and deserve God's favor and God's blessings. Is that
what that means? Well, if that's what it means, Israel would have
found it. Let me show you that. Turn to
Romans chapter nine. We've seen this before. But Israel
didn't find it. And why didn't they find it?
They were seeking something. They would probably have told
you If you'd ask them what they were doing, they would have probably
said, well, we're sowing to righteousness. But look at verse 31 of Romans
9. It says, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore,
or why? Because they sought it not by
faith. That sought was added by the
translators, but it's a good addition. How'd they seek it? How'd they seek righteousness?
Not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law, by their
works. They were trying to be righteous.
They would have said, we're so into righteousness, but how? By their works. And they stumbled
at the stumbling stone. Now, what's the stumbling stone?
Well, that's a prophecy that identifies something. You'll
find it back in the book of Isaiah, chapter 8 and chapter 28, this
stumbling stone. And it says in verse 33, as he
quotes from Isaiah 28, he says, behold, or as it is written,
behold, I lay in Zion. Zion, that's that symbol of the
church, isn't it? A stumbling stone and rock of
a fence, and whosoever believeth on him, that stumbling stone
is a person, shall not be ashamed. That's Christ. What is it to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek it in Christ and
find it in Christ. You seek it in works, you won't
find it. And that's what he says down
here in Romans 10 and verse 4, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Go back to Hosea
10, 12. What is it to sow to yourselves
in righteousness, to reap in mercy, to break up your fallow
ground? That fallow ground, that's the
hard, unplowed ground of our natural hearts. It's the stony
heart. That's what that fallow ground
is. Christ described it in Matthew 13 and verse 15, for this people's
heart is waxed gross. That means it's grown hard. Their
ears are dull of hearing, their eyes have they closed, lest that
any time they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their heart, be converted and I should heal
them. Sow to yourselves in righteousness. Does that mean seek righteousness
in the law? No. Why was the law given? The
law entered that the offense might abound, Romans 5 20. The
law was given to bring sinners in guilty before God to know
that by deeds of law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, Romans chapter three, 19 through 20. The law was added
because of transgressions till the seed, somebody should come
to whom the promise was made, Galatians 3, 19, that seed is
Christ. The law was a schoolmaster, a
tutor to lead them to Christ. The law was never given as a
way or a means of righteousness by men's works. It was given
because of sin. What is it to sow to yourselves
in righteousness, to reap in mercy, to break up your fallow
ground? It's to come to God, seek him
as you really are, a sinner in need of mercy. God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. That's an example of sowing to
righteousness, reaping in mercy, and breaking up the fallow ground. There's not but one who can break
up that fallow ground, and that's God the Holy Spirit in true conviction. That's why God says, I'll take
away the stony heart and give unto them a heart that's pliable. sow to yourselves in righteousness.
And then here's the second thing. He says, for it is time to seek
the Lord till he come. That's future now. Something
in the future. In other words, we're looking
for something to come, someone to come in the future. And what
is it? And rain righteousness upon you. Where does rain fall
from? From heavens. So where are you going to look
for it? Where are you going to seek the Lord and find righteousness?
From the heavens. God's gonna send it, he's gonna
rain it on us from the heavens. What's that talking about? It's
talking about what the psalmist spoke of in Psalm 72 and verse
six. He shall come down like rain
upon the mown grass as showers that water there. Talking about
the coming of Christ, the Messiah. Second Samuel 23 in verse four,
he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth,
even a morning without clouds as the tender grass springing
out of the earth by clear shining after the rain. That's Christ.
What is it to seek the Lord? It's to seek him as we are, not
as we think we are, not as we try to be, but as we are, sinners
in need of mercy. Sinners who have nothing to recommend
us to God. Sinners who have no righteousness
and cannot make ourselves righteous before God. It's to seek Him
in His Word. It's to seek Him in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ who is our righteousness. And here's what
God says, look at verse 13. Here's His judgment for their
sin and idolatry. He says, you've plowed wickedness,
You've reaped iniquity. That's why we need to sow unto
ourselves in righteousness and reap in mercy. We need mercy
from God. Don't plow wickedness, because
if you do, you'll reap iniquity. What you sow, so shall you reap.
You've eaten the fruit of lies. You've listened to these false
preachers. Because thou didst trust in thy way, that's the
problem right there. Man trusts in his own way and
not in God's way. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. In the multitude of thy mighty
men, men trying to be saved by their own power, their own goodness,
he says in verse 14, therefore shall a tumult arise among thy
people and all thy fortresses, every hiding place you have shall
be spoiled and Shalman, that's probably Shalmaneser, the king
of Assyria, spoiled Beth Arbel in the day of battle. We really
don't know where this Beth Arbel is, but what it indicates here
is this is a place that Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, utterly
destroyed. And what he's saying here, he
says, that's the same way you're going to be destroyed. And he
says the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. That's
how bad it was, killing mothers with child. And he says in verse
15, so shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness.
You've turned Bethel, the house of God, into Beth-Avon with your
idolatry. And he says that's how it's gonna
happen. And in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be
cut off. Well, let me conclude this way.
And I've been thinking about this a lot. For me, for you,
for all of us, And that's this, now listen to me, I've got a
profound thought here for all of us. Well, y'all know me. It's time to seek the Lord. And we think about lost sinners
and preaching the gospel to them, and that's certainly the way
it is, evangelism. They need to hear the good news
and they need to seek the Lord. But you believers, This preacher
right here, you know right now it's time for me and for you
to seek the Lord. I know we got other things to
do. We got other places to be. We've got other things occupying
our minds and our time and all that. It's time right now to
seek the Lord. And you know, we may have grown
much in grace and in knowledge of Christ, and I hope we have.
Hope we continue to do so. But we'll never grow beyond our
present need to seek the Lord right now. Seek him in his word. You may be thinking, well, I
need some things, I need to do some things, I need to get some
things. There's nothing you need, there's nothing I need more right
now than to seek the Lord. Especially in our day and age.
This old world's winding down. And I'm gonna be preaching a
lot on that in the next few Sunday mornings. It's winding down. I'm not trying to tell you I
know when the world's gonna come to an end, when the Lord's coming
back. I don't know, but I know that he is. This old thing's
winding down. And if he doesn't come back in my lifetime, I know
I'm winding down. It's time to seek the Lord. And if you don't have the time
to seek the Lord, you better make the time to seek the Lord. That's Hosea's message to Israel.
And they didn't, they didn't listen. They didn't listen. And
oh, that the Lord, by his grace, would cause each and every one
of us to listen and to heed what he says. All right.