All right, let's look back at
Hosea chapter nine. God's word to the nation Israel
through the prophet Hosea. Now I've entitled this message
this evening in these first six verses of this prophecy, God's
judgment against a happy nation. That sounds a little weird, doesn't
it? God's judgment against a happy
nation. And as I was thinking about this,
you know I've said this before in studying through the book
of Hosea, that I'm constantly amazed at how this passage of
scripture, this whole prophecy, and Hosea, God's prophet, dealing
with the nation Israel and their sin and His word, the word of
God through Hosea to Israel is such a parallel to our nation
today and to our situation today. I mean, it's just modern, right
here we have modern theology. It's nothing that, this is not
just looking back in the annals of the past and talking about,
well, how awful it was back then. and how much better it is today.
No, it's just as bad or worse as we would say. But one of the
main problems that Israel had in their day, in this day, was
the same problem that all men and women by nature, without
God, without Christ, without truth, without grace, all by
nature have, this problem. And that is this, and many problems,
obviously, but this one problem that's appropriate to this message
is this, is that without the grace of God and the power of
God, without true Holy Spirit conviction that shows us reality,
what things are really like, and that drives us to Christ
for all salvation, for all eternal life, for all righteousness and
all eternal glory. Without that, what we do is we
walk by sight and not by faith. We judge by sight and not by
faith. We determine the value of a thing. the calls of a thing by sight
and not by faith. Now, walking by faith is to live
and walk and judge by the word of God even if it opposes what
we see, even if it doesn't measure up with what we see. We believe
God. That's the bottom line. We who
are of God, we believe God. The Bible says Abraham believed
God. And he gave glory to God. And
we know that believing God is not in the natural man. Said
it so many times in quoting 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14 that the
natural man, the unconverted, that's the unbeliever, That's
man in his sin, in unbelief, in his natural state, as he's
born, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. That is, he cannot judge them
properly. He cannot see the reality of
them, the value of them, because they're spiritually discerned. And that's why Paul cautioned
the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. to judge by the word
of God, to live by the word of God. Whatever God says in this
book, whether it's through the prophet Hosea, the apostle Paul,
or a preacher speaking to you who tells you and begs you to
test me by the word of God, whatever God says is true. And men's opinions
and men's judgments don't mean anything compared to God's word. That's what Israel was doing.
They were walking by sight, by what they see. Well, the scripture
says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
And so faith is living upon the Word of God. To walk by faith
in the scripture is to live upon and walk by Christ and to look
to Him. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
2 says, we run the race of grace looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. And that's what it is to walk
by faith and not by sight. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
38 says, the justified. Who are the justified? Those
who are justified by God in Christ. Those who are declared righteous
by God, the judge of all, in and by Christ. They're washed
in His blood. clothed in his righteousness.
Well those who are justified live and walk by faith and not
by sight. Now here in this passage Israel
was at this time in a time of national rejoicing. They were
generally as a nation. I know you always find problems
in individuals, but as a nation, as a whole, this was a time of
national rejoicing because of their prosperity. The prosperity
of the land, the harvest was abundant. And according to all
appearances, what they could see, they judged that God was
blessing them. and blessing the fruits of their
labors. They're like people today in
this nation and all over this world. They're consumed with
their own prosperity and they judge God's favor by that prosperity. And I'll tell you what now, now
that's a common message today along the airways that's what
we call the health and wealth gospel. In other words, if you
do this, God will prosper you And you can judge his favor and
his blessings and even your salvation by how much you prosper. And
that's why they'll tell people who are sick and claim to be
Christian, well you don't have enough faith. Or you haven't
sent in enough seed money yet. You've heard that one. Send your
seed money. And it's always money. The seed
is always money. It's never the word of God. That's what the
seed in the scriptures here is. Christ taught in the parable
of the seed and the sow. The seed is the word of God.
But now preachers today, they've turned down, it's money now.
Send your money in. And that's not, listen now, that's
not giving. When you do that, you're not giving. What you're
doing is you're investing. That's like sending it to the
stockbroker. You're investing because you
expect a return on your money. And that's what they promise
you. And that's the health and wealth gospel today. That's walking
by sight and not by faith. Consumed with their own prosperity.
So how could you argue with their reasoning now? How could you
argue with that? Well, look at me. God's blessing
me, people say. God's favoring me. And here comes
a prophet named Hosea. God's prophet, claiming to have
the Word of God. And not only a prophet, but a
man who married a prostitute. Now you think about that. Think
about appearances now. Think about religious people
and how they look at things naturally. Here's a guy who claims to be
speaking the Word of God to this nation, and he married a prostitute,
and his message His message to the nation Israel who are going
through this abundant harvest now, at this time that's what
they were doing. They're going through this abundant
harvest. His message is God's judgment against you is coming. It's on your doorstep. And let
me show you how, and I'm getting to this in the next message.
I'm not gonna preach on this tonight, but look at verse seven.
Now here's what the nation, Here's how they responded to Hosea's
message. It says in verse seven, the days
of visitation are come. Now that day of visitation is
not a friendly visit. Another way of saying it, the
days of punishment are coming, the days of judgment. God's gonna
visit this nation, but with judgment, with destruction. And that's
Hosea's message. The days of recompense are come. That's justice. That's not revenge
now. That's not personal revenge.
That's God's justice against their sin. And Israel shall know. The it there is in italics. It
was supplied by the King James translated. Israel shall know.
But here's what Israel says to Hosea. The prophet is a fool. and the spiritual man is mad
or insane, crazy. Hosea, you're crazy. That's how
Israel responded to Hosea's message. For the multitude of thine iniquity
and the great hatred. You're a hateful prophet. You
don't have anything good to say about us. Here, these other prophets,
they're telling us that everything's fine, God's blessing us. We're
doing our part, God's doing his part. and you come along with
a message of doom. Gloom and doom, Hosea. And look
at you, Hosea. You're not even a polished prophet.
You married a prostitute. Think about that. You didn't
even have enough insight to know that your wife was a prostitute.
And here Hosea could come by and say, well, God told me to
go get her and marry her. I was just obeying God, and I
love her, he said. But you see, this is the situation.
Jeremiah had much the same thing. You know what they would, they
would deride Jeremiah. You know, the nation at that
time, they were in somewhat of a prosperous setting. And Jeremiah, later on, he came
on with a message of judgment against God. And you know, they
would deride Jeremiah. They would say, here comes the
burden of the word. He's just a burden. That's all
he is. He doesn't tickle our ears. He
doesn't make us feel good about ourselves. That's what people
want today, isn't it? Paul said they'll have itching
ears. You know what you do when your
ear itches? You scratch it. And that's what
happens. People have itching ears. They
want to hear a good message that will make them feel good about
themselves, and they will go looking for a preacher who'll
scratch that itch, and I'll guarantee you they'll be lined up today. Not a Hosea, not a Jeremiah,
not a burden of the word. And that's the situation here.
And here's what Hosea is telling him there in these first six
verses. Israel, sinful people, unbelieving
people, idolatrous people, instead of rejoicing, you ought to be
on your knees in tears begging for mercy. That's what his message
is. God's judgment against a happy
nation. You ought to be in sorrow over
your sin. You ought to be in repentance. You ought to be in sackcloth
and ashes. That was the physical sign of
inward repentance. And here's what he says in verse
1. Look at it. Rejoice not. Don't be happy. You remember that song a few
years back? Don't worry, be happy. I think that's the message of
most preachers today. Don't worry, be happy. Not Hosea. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy
has other people. You're rejoicing not like the
people of God. Now there, listen, let me tell
you something now. Hosea's message wasn't all doom
and gloom. And neither is God's preachers
today. There is rejoicing to be had. And we'll talk about
that in just a moment. But it's not like other people.
It's not like the heathen. And that's what he's telling
them here. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people. Don't
rejoice like other people, like the heathen. He says, for thou
hast gone a whoring from thy God. You've prostituted yourself
out to idols. and gone away from God. Thou
hast loved a reward upon every corn floor." What does that mean?
Well, the corn floor was the threshing floor. That's what
that is. And what he's saying here is
simply this. Don't rejoice, O Israel, with the joy like other peoples,
with exultation like the nations. For you've played the harlot,
Israel. You've forsaken your God and
turned to idols. You've loved harlot's earnings. That's what that means when it
says thou hast loved a reward. You think you deserve this prosperity. You think you've earned it like
a harlot selling herself out and thinking that she's loved.
That's what it is. It's a harlot who is deceived.
She sells her body for money and for attention from other
lovers, and she thinks they love her. They're just using her,
but she thinks they really love her. And that's what Israel's
like here when he talks about this reward. It's the reward
of their works. We deserve this. We've earned
this. Now, other people don't. They're
sinners, you see. But not us. And this is what
he's saying. You've loved harlot's earnings
on every corn floor and every threshing floor. And there's
a picture there. It's almost like a picture of some kind of
a ritual, immoral orgy on the threshing floor. And it's a picture
that describes their spiritual harlotry. selling themselves
out to idols. And here it is, at the time Hosea
began to bring this message of judgment, here they are prosperous,
they're enjoying the fruits of their labor on the corn floor,
on the threshing floor. That's where they brought it
all in. And that's where they divided it all up and they prepared
it to be used. And then in verse two, he mentions
the wine press. He says in verse two, he says,
the floor and the wine press shall not feed them and the new
wine shall fail her. These were the places where they
reaped the fruits of their labors. And they had times of feasting,
times of rejoicing, but here's what Hosea says, this is not
the way it should be. Your happiness, your joy, and
your feasting is actually sinful and dishonoring to God. They
should not rejoice like the nations. He compares their joy to the
joy of the heathen. They rejoice not in the Lord,
but in themselves. It's what people are doing today.
They're not truly rejoicing in the Lord, they're rejoicing in
themselves, in their works, in their efforts, in their experiences,
in their feelings, in their circumstances. They rejoice, but only for a
moment, because judgment is coming. He's, one way of putting this
is this, he said, you have made love for hire on every threshing
floor. And they practiced idolatry on
the threshing floor. The very moment that they attributed
their prosperity in any way, to any degree, at any time, at
any stage, to their own goodness or to their own efforts, they
denied the grace and the mercy of God. They worshiped idols
here because they believed that it helped the harvest. They made
love for hire. Love and loyalty for anything
but the glory of God is nothing but sinful and selfish and self-righteous. And so they sold themselves out
to their own idolatry. And so Hosea comes along and
he says, instead of rejoicing, you ought to be mourning over
sin. You ought to be repenting. And
their joy, shall soon be turned to sorrow. And their sorrow would
be the same as the sorrow of the world that led to damnation.
Now listen to me. Hosea's message here may seem
to be all doom and gloom, and it is for unbelievers. It is
for those who will not and who refuse to turn to Christ for
joy. But there is joy for God's people,
but it's joy in the Lord. Joyful, joyful, we adore thee. God's true children are a mournful
people. Turn over to Matthew chapter
five with me. And this is not a mandate for
anybody who calls themselves a Christian to say, well, now,
there's to be no happiness, no joy, no peace, that we're to
go around hanging our heads all the time. Has nothing to do with
that. The joy that God is coming against
for Israel is a joy that's in themselves, not in the Lord.
But listen to what it says in the Sermon on the Mount here
as our Lord opens it up in verse three of Matthew chapter five. He said, blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He's talking
about poverty of spirit. And that's the spiritual man
there. That's the attitude of a person
who knows themselves because the word of God has been revealed
to them by the Holy Spirit. This is the person who realizes
that he has nothing and that he is nothing and that if God
were to judge him based on his best efforts to obey or to do
good, he would be damned forever. This is a person who understands
his frame, who knows his sinfulness and his depravity, and who knows
that at no time in any way can he earn or deserve God's favor
and blessings. He's a person who understands
that he's at the mercy of God. He's like the old publican who
cried as beating on his breast, God be merciful to me, the sinner. He's a person who understands
his need spiritually, that he has no righteousness to plead
before God, that he has no holiness to plead before God, that he
has no work that will please God in and of himself. He understands
basically and ultimately his need of God's grace in Christ.
That's what Israel was missing. That's why they were idolatrous.
You know, their whole existence as a nation was in opposition
to God's covenant that was given to them under Moses. Here, after
that kingdom divided after Solomon and Jeroboam, their first king,
he set up places of worship in Dan and in Bethel, which later
became known as Beth-Avon. Instead of the house of God,
it became known as the house of idolatry, the house of evil.
And he told them, don't go to Jerusalem to worship because
we can worship just as well up here. You know what that is?
You know when he said that? You know what he was doing? He
was denying God's way. He was ultimately denying Christ
because there was only one place and one way to worship God according
to that covenant, and that was at the temple in Jerusalem. And
that was a picture of Christ, the one way of salvation. Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. But Jeroboam said, no, we can,
you know, we're pretty good people. We've got good intentions. We're
sincere and zealous. We can worship here, we can worship
there, but not where God says to. But the person who is poor
in spirit knows that he has only one way to God. And that's the
Lord Jesus Christ in his blood and righteousness alone. No other
way. No other way. Go on, he says, blessed are they
that mourn. Mourn over their sin. Mourn over
their depravity. Mourn over their condition. For
they shall be comforted. Where are you gonna find comfort?
In Christ. In him, in his finished work.
That's the only place. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
7 with me. The Apostle Paul was admonishing
the Corinthian church here over their casual attitude towards
sin. They were tolerating open, scandalous
sin in their congregation, which brought shame and reproach upon
the gospel and upon their witness of the gospel in that community.
And he wrote them a letter. And the intent of the letter
was to bring them to sorrow over sin. And listen to what he says
in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Look at verse 8. He says, for though I made you
sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent."
And what Paul, I believe, is expressing there is he was wondering
within himself, well, was I too hard on him? But then he said,
I wasn't. He said, for I perceive that
the same epistle or letter hath made you sorry, though it were
but for a season. Paul's intention wasn't just
to beat him down. to whip them up with the law,
to make them feel bad. He says, verse nine, now I rejoice,
not that you were made sorry. It wasn't just the fact that
you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. That's
the issue. We pray that God will bring us
to repentance, a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of
habit and attitude. And he says, for you were made
sorry after a godly sort. that you might receive damage
by us in nothing. In other words, it was to edify
them. It was to build them up, to bring them to growth in grace
and in knowledge of Christ. Now look at verse 10. For godly
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, that's deliverance,
not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world worketh
death. You know the difference between
sorrow of the world and sorrow under repentance? The sorrow
of the world, will always cause a person to seek relief, to seek
a clear conscience, to seek purification and salvation and satisfaction
and peace somewhere other than Christ. But the sorrow that brings
to repentance always brings a sinner to Christ, and he can find no
hope, no peace, no satisfaction, no cleansed conscience in anyone
but Christ. in his blood. And so Paul writes
here, he says in verse 11, for behold this selfsame thing that
you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought,
it worked in you. Yea, what clearing of yourselves,
that is seeking to put off that sin. That's what he's talking
about. Yea, what indignation. Yea, what
fear. That's worship. He says, yea,
what vehement desire. Yea, what zeal. Yea, what revenge. Vengeance against myself. Lord,
deliver me from myself and all things you have approved yourselves
to be clear in this matter. Turn over to John chapter 16.
Our Lord speaking to his disciples in John chapter 16. He speaks
of sorrow. And it's godly sorrow. And listen
to how he deals with it in John 16, look at verse 20. He says in verse 20 of John 16,
he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you that you shall weep
and lament, but the world shall rejoice. You see that? The world shall rejoice. Now
the kind of rejoicing that Israel was going through at the time
of Hosea was this worldly rejoicing. It's based on appearance, circumstance,
feeling, consumed with their own prosperity, their own power,
their own goodness, self-perceived but deceived. And he says now,
and he's talking about when he would go to the cross, the world
would rejoice. They've gotten rid of this rabble
rouser. They've gotten rid of this prophet of doom. but he
says you'll lament, but he says in verse 20, and you shall be
sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. How's it
gonna be turned into the joy with his death? Well, you're
gonna realize something when you see this great event take
place and that he's not gonna stay dead. He's gonna be raised
from the dead unto victory. And that's our salvation, because
in his death we find life. In his sorrow, think about the
sorrow that our Savior went through in the Garden of Gethsemane when
he sweat great drops of blood, praying, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. And he knew it wasn't possible.
He said, nevertheless, thy will be done. Look at the sorrow and
the agony that he went through. And out of his sorrow and his
agony is our joy. For Paul wrote in Galatians 6.14,
we glory in the cross because it's our life. His finished work
on the cross put away my sins. His finished work on the cross
gave me a righteousness whereby I can stand before God and be
eternally and unchangeably accepted. I'm accepted in Christ. This
sinner is. This sinner who laments over
his sin and not enough. Not enough now. You see, it's not our tears that
wash away our sins. a lot about the preacher I heard
on television, he was talking about the forgiveness of sins.
And he went over to 1 John 1, where it talks about if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and he is. And so he said the
cost of forgiveness is confession, repentance. And I thought to
myself when he said, oh no, that's not true, no, no. Now it's true,
we confess our sins. And it's true that God is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
but our confession and our repentance and our sorrow and our tears
and our pentance is not, our repentance is not the cost of
forgiveness. There's only one cost of the
forgiveness of sins. There's only one payment for
the forgiveness of sins, and that's the blood. of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now there's the cost of forgiveness. Hebrews chapter, I think it's
chapter 10 says, for without the shedding of blood, there's
no cleansing, no remittance of sin. Without the shedding, no
forgiveness, no pardon. That's what that means. It takes
the blood of the Lamb. And God made that clear right
after the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3. You remember when
Adam and Eve, after they fell, they realized their shame and
their nakedness and they tried to hide from God and they tried
to cover their shame with their fig leaf aprons, man-made aprons. That's what people in false religion
do. They seek to cover their shame, their exposure to the
wrath of God and the judgment of God with their religion, with
their works, with a robe of their own making. And you know when
God came to Adam and Eve and he took those fig leaf aprons
off of them, and there in Genesis 3 and verse 21 it says that he
took an animal, I believe it was a lamb, and he slew that
animal and made them coats of skin. The blood of Christ, that's
what that pictured. And the righteousness of Christ
imputed. That's what it takes to bring
about forgiveness. Not anything we do. Now yes,
we're to mourn. Yes, we're to sorrow, unto repentance. Yes, we're to confess. But that's
not the cost. We're not paying God for our
forgiveness. That's already been paid at Calvary.
You see what I'm saying? And if you ever see that, then
you will mourn and repent and confess. If you ever see that. Incidentally, there in Genesis
321, I believe that's when God established the sacrificial system
of worship to picture the blood of the Lamb of God throughout
the Old Testament. Because right after that, you
see the difference between a man coming before God with his own
works and labors, Cain, and being rejected, and a man coming before
God, mourning over sin, presenting the blood of the animal, the
blood of the lamb, which pictured the blood of Christ, that's Abel.
Think about that. But this is what he says, your
joy shall be turned to sorrow. Now look at verse 21. He says
in verse 21 of John 16, he says, a woman, when she is in travail,
hath sorrow, because her hour is come, the hour of the birth.
But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth
no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
And you now, therefore, have sorrow. But I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from
you. Now back over here in Hosea,
their joy is about to be taken away from them. And it's gonna be taken away
by a heathen army, the Assyrian army. It's gonna come in and
spoil them and take away their joy. Ultimately though, it's
God who takes away their joy. Because the Assyrian army is
just an instrument of God's judgment against these people who are
rejoicing in themselves. You see, we sorrow, but we have
a joy that's unspeakable. It's a joy in the Holy Ghost
because it leads us to Christ in whom we rejoice. And Paul
wrote in Philippians chapter four and verse four, rejoice
in the Lord, always and again I say rejoice. That was Israel's
problem. They were rejoicing, but not
in the Lord. They were rejoicing in themselves.
We read, as we studied through the book of Ecclesiastes, how
we are commanded by God and enabled by God to enjoy the good things
of this life that God gives us, but we're to enjoy them and rejoice
in them, not as unto ourselves and not for ourselves and not
because of ourselves, but we're to enjoy them in the Lord. as a gift from God, which we
didn't deserve and didn't earn, and as to the praise of the glory
of his grace in Christ. That's the issue. Philippians
3.3 says we rejoice, or our confidence is in Christ Jesus. Israel's
confidence was in themselves. And look back here, look at verse
two again of Hosea 9. He says, he says, the floor and
the winepress, the threshing floor and the winepress shall
not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. Because of
their idolatry, because of their self-centered, self-righteous
rejoicing, the Lord would curse their harvest, the threshing
floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and their harvest
would yield destruction. It reminds me of what Paul talked
about in Romans chapter 7. Turn over there just a moment.
You know, there are all kinds of fruit and harvest The Holy Spirit inspired Paul
to divide it up in this way, bringing forth fruit. And you
know, I've often said that when we come to see the reality of
God's grace and the power of his grace in our lives, we don't
produce fruit out of that. And we're not fruit producers.
You know, they call it, you go to the fruit stand, they call
that a produce stand, because somebody produces it. Well, we
don't produce the fruit. Christ produces the fruit. Read
about that in John 15. He's the vine, we're the what?
Branches. And the branches bear fruit out
of what? Not of themselves, but out of
the vine. Christ is the life, you see. And the life comes from
the vine. We're the branches and we bear
fruit. We're not fruit producers, we're fruit bearers. We bear
fruit, the fruit of his grace, the fruit of his power, the fruit
of his goodness. It's not of us, it's of him.
And that's what we mean when we talk about Christ living in
us by his spirit and by his word. Paul said in Galatians 2 in verse
20, it's not I, but Christ who is in me, who dwelleth in me,
lives in me. But there's all kinds of fruit.
And Paul divides it up this way. Look at verse four of Romans
chapter seven. And this is what I'm saying.
Now, Israel as a nation, they were bringing forth fruit in
their harvest, but it was fruit unto destruction because of their
idolatry and their self-righteousness and their unbelief. And Paul
writes about that here in a believer and in an unbeliever. He says,
wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. Now, what is it to be dead to
the law? It means the law cannot condemn you. The sentence of
the law, which is death, for the wages of sin is what? Death. Now that's the sentence of the
law. Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 15, I can't remember which verse,
I think it's one, maybe like around 50 or 51 or something
like that. But he said this, he said, the sting of death is
sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Now what that means
is this, the reason that death is prevalent and inevitable is
because of sin. The sting of death is sin. And
the reason sin has power to condemn a person is because of the law. The law which requires perfect
satisfaction to its precepts and its penalty. You see, God's
law is a just law. So the power of sin to condemn
is the law. If there were no law, there'd
be no sin charged. Paul spoke of that in Romans
chapter 5. Where there is no law, there is no sin imputed,
no sin charged. So the reason that sin has power
to condemn a sinner is because the law requires justice, all
right? Now, he says in Romans 7, 4 here,
that you're dead to the law. The law has no power to condemn
you because of sin. Now, how did I become dead to
the law? Well, look at it, by the body
of Christ. Now, what does that mean? That's
the death of Christ. That's his human body, his sinless human
body offered upon that cross as the God man. And he said,
now the reason that happened is that you should be married
to another, even to him who's raised from the dead. We're married
to Christ. His people, his church, lock,
stock and barrel, paid the full price. And he says that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. We'll be fruit bearers, but fruit
unto God, to God's glory, to the praise of the glory of his
grace. Now look at verse five. Now for when we were in the flesh,
that is when we were unbelievers, unregenerate, The motions or
passions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. That's what's happening back
here in Hosea, chapter nine. They're bringing forth fruit
unto death. It's not to the praise of the glory of God's grace.
It's not the power of his grace. It's their own efforts, their
own righteousness. You see, trying to establish
a righteousness of their own, trying to worship in their own
way, which is idolatry. bringing forth fruit unto death. That's the issue. Look back at
Hosea 9, look at verse 3. He says, they shall not dwell
in the Lord's land, but Ephraim, now remember Ephraim in Israel,
the same thing, that was the largest tribe in Israel, the
northern kingdom. Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
not literally, because they were gonna be scattered throughout
the Gentile world. The Assyrian army was who's going
to oppress them. It says, they shall eat unclean
things in Assyria, But Egypt is a symbol of Israel's bondage. That's what it is. And so they
wouldn't remain in the promised land, but go into captivity.
They'd be in the place where they would have to eat unclean
food that was opposed to the law. They'd eat defiled food
in a land because she defiled herself with sin. And so this
symbol of bondage, that's where they were going. Look at verse
4. He says, They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither
shall they be pleasing unto Him. You see, without faith it's impossible
to please the Lord. That is, without looking to Christ
and pleading the merits of His death. Their sacrifices shall
be unto them as the bread of mourners. The bread of mourners. You know what the bread of mourners
is? Well, during the time of death of a family member, they
were forbidden, according to the law, to eat bread during
that time if they had touched a dead body. It was ceremonially
unclean. You can read about it in Numbers
chapter 19. And it was because of their contact with preparing
the body. It represented death. It was
death. And that bread would be suitable for human consumption,
but it was unacceptable as an offering to the Lord. It was
defiled and they couldn't offer it. So it represents death. So they're eating bread and they're
getting full, but it's death. It's the opposite of the bread
of life. What is the bread of life? Read
John chapter six sometimes. Christ is the bread of life,
you see. And what they're doing is they're
feasting, and they're being full, and they're getting fat, but
it's the bread of death, the bread of mourners. Christ said,
whosoever drinks my blood, that means, and eateth my flesh, that
means believe in him, rest in him, feed upon him, he's the
bread of life. And so he says in verse four,
all that eat thereof shall be polluted, unclean, for their
bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
In other words, this bread alienates them from God. It's the bread
of self-righteousness. It's the bread of idolatry. It's
the bread of sin. So look at verse five and six
now. This is something. He says, what will you do in
the solemn day and in the day of the feast of the Lord? Well,
what are you going to do then when you're in captivity, when
you're scattered throughout, you're not in the land of promise
anymore? What are you going to do? What
are you going to do when these Sabbath days and these feast
days that the Lord commanded come up? Well, he says, verse
6, for lo, they are gone because of destruction. Literally, spoil. You've been spoiled. You're a
fighter for the land. Egypt shall gather them up. There
is that symbol of bondage and cursedness again. And he says
Memphis shall bury them. Where did Memphis come from?
Well, that's a city in Egypt near modern Cairo. And it was
a city that was famous because of its graves. It was famous
because of the pyramids and the burial sites. It was famous for
death. That's it. Memphis shall bury
them. You're going to be buried just
like the heathen. No better off. The pleasant places for their
silver. That's where, you know, these
Egyptian pharaohs, you know how they buried their wealth in those
pyramids and then of course they had to put up with grave robberies.
But that's all, see it's all, it's a shadow of death. The valley
of the shadow of death. That's all it is. It's not, this
silver here is not used as a symbol of redemption like it was in
the tabernacle in the temple that leads you to Christ. But
it's death upon death. And he said, nettles, that's
like weeds. Weeds that choke out and kill
the good crop shall possess them. Thorns shall be in their tabernacles. Think about it. Is this the destiny
of all sinful men? Let me close with this. Look
at Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. Is this
the destiny of all sinful Israelites? Well, the answer to that is no.
Not of all without exception. Because underlying these judgments
against this happy nation, this rejoicing nation who was rejoicing
in their own prosperity and their own self-worth and self-righteousness. And no matter how severe and
complete God's judgment is, against the background of this is the
promise of future restoration for God's elect people, spiritual
Israel. But here's the thing. This future
restoration of God's true Israel, God's spiritual people, His elect,
Jew and Gentile, chosen from the foundation of the world,
redeemed by the blood of Christ. This future restoration will
come about with tears and mourning. But it's tears and mourning that
will turn into joy by the grace of God in Christ. Look at Jeremiah
31. Look at verse 9. He's talking about the future
restoration of his people who will be gathered together as
they're brought to Christ, the Messiah. And he says this, he
says, they shall come with weeping and with supplications will I
lead them. I will cause them to walk by
the rivers of waters in a straight way. That's the straight and
narrow way. That's Christ. Wherein they shall
not stumble for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my
firstborn." Now, the literal Israel and Ephraim are already
gone by this time, by the time Jeremiah makes this prophecy.
They're already destroyed and scattered. And so he says, "'Hear
the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar
off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him and keep
him as a shepherd does his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob.'"
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than
he." Who's this talking about? This is not talking about the
goodness of any man. It's talking about Christ. He
says, therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion,
that's the church, and shall flow together to the goodness
of the Lord for weed and for wine and for oil. You remember
he said over there in Hosea, he said the threshing floor and
the wine press won't feed them in that day of destruction, but
here they're coming for weed and for wine and for oil. That's
the bread of life, that's the joy of spiritual life, that's
the work of the Holy Spirit. He says, and for the young of
their flock and of the herd and their soul shall be as a watered
garden and they shall not sorrow anymore at all. What's he talking
about? He's talking about our joy in
Christ. He's talking about that joy and that peace which passes
understanding. understanding of the natural
man. All right. Let's close with hymn number
32. It's our closing hymn. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Hymn number 32. Let's just sing a couple of verses.