Okay, let's look back at Hosea
chapter five. The prophet and the prophecy
of Hosea, God's prophet to Israel, the northern kingdom. And as
I said, I've entitled this message, The Lord Knows. I got that title
from verse three here where God speaking through Hosea proclaims,
he says, I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me. For now, O Ephraim, thou commitest
torture, and Israel is defiled, or Israel is unclean. I know
Ephraim, I know Israel. Nothing hid from the Lord our
God. One of the first books that I
read after having come to a knowledge of God's grace in Christ, the
truth of the gospel, was Arthur Pink's book on the attributes
of God. And I must admit that I've read
that book several times and going back through it, it never fails
to stagger me when you consider the attributes of God. We can
talk about God's holiness, God's omnipotence. He's all powerful.
We can talk about God's omnipresence. He's everywhere at once. God is spirit. All of this great
things that the scriptures teach that identify in truth and distinguish
our God as the one true and living God. And one of the most profound
attributes of God and one of the most hopefully convicting
attributes of God. Convicting us when we learn of
that attribute is what the theologians call God's omniscience. And that means God's all-knowingness. God knows everything. And it's
not like God knows everything because he's a crystal ball gazer. He's not a supreme fortune teller
as many today. When they talk about, for example,
the truth and doctrine of God's electing grace, they want to
talk about how God looked down through some mythical telescope
of time. And I say mythical because you're
not going to find that telescope in the Bible. in the Hebrew or
the Greek, Old Testament or New. But they say God looked down
through some mythical telescope of time and he foresaw what would
happen. and then based his decrees and
his purposes upon what he foresaw. Now that's not God's omniscience
in the scripture. That's not the all-knowing God.
The all-knowing God was described there in Psalm 139 in the first
six verses that I read to you. How God knows all. And the psalmist
said there in verse six, he says, such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's too high for me. I cannot
attain to it. And I thought about that. How
that's just something that just staggers our imaginations and
our reasoning powers. That God is the one whom the
Bible describes in Isaiah chapter 46 as one who declares the end
from the beginning. That's the determinant God. The
Bible says that God works all things after the counsel of his
own will. And it's the determinant counsel
of his own will. So God is not in a process like
us of learning. He knows all. And God is the
God of purpose and decree. He does things on purpose. He
doesn't react. And that's mind-boggling to us.
But when we, you say, well, what does such theology or doctrine
or knowledge, when we come to see that this is what the scripture
says about God, what does that do for us? What can that do for
us? Well, look at Hosea chapter five. That's what I want us to deal
with. Whatever we're going through, whatever we're thinking, whatever
is on our hearts, the state of our hearts, the state of our
minds, the state of our souls, you can rest assured the Lord
knows. The Lord knows. Now that can
be a scary thought, and it can be a comforting thought too.
And we'll see both here. But here in the first seven verses
of Hosea 5, you have a judgment, a pronouncement of judgment.
by God through Hosea upon Israel for their spiritual harlotry
and their idolatry. They departed from God and they
did it because that's what they wanted to do. And then from verses
eight through verse 14, We have a pronouncement of the final
discipline that God has for the nation Israel, but also a warning
to Judah. Now, Hosea was a prophet to the
northern kingdom, but he had prophecies also for the southern
kingdom too. And they were to listen to these
and hear these. And then verse 15, this chapter concludes with
a promise of future repentance and restoration that carries
us on through chapter six. And I'll end with verse 15 tonight
and then pick up there next time on this prophecy of future restoration. And that comes through spiritual
Israel. through God's purpose to send
Christ into the world to save his people from their sins. But
let's just take it verse by verse. Let's see what the Lord knows
about Israel. And I hope as we go through these
verses, we'll apply this to ourselves. That the Holy Spirit will enable
us not to just be spectators, but that we participate in the
convicting message of the fact that the Lord knows. He knows
me. The Lord knows me better than
I know myself. Isn't that right? He knows you
better than you know yourself. He knows me so well, so much
better than myself, that he has to reveal who I am to me. That's
why it's called Holy Spirit conviction, isn't it? Because the heart's
deceitful and desperately wicked. Above all things, who can know
it? And that's why it says there
in Jeremiah 17, I think it's verse nine, it says, I the Lord
search the heart. I try test the reins. You see,
God has to tell us who, he has to tell us who he is, he has
to tell us who we are, and then he has to, by his grace, by his
sovereign will, he leads us to Christ. If we're gonna know Christ,
he has to tell us who Christ is, isn't that right? His way
of salvation. So let's look at, first of all, he has a word for
Israel's leaders. And here's what he says, the
Lord knows the wickedness and the evil and the sin of Israel's
leader. He says, hear ye this, O priest.
You know who the priests were of the old covenant? The high
priest, and then the attending priest from the tribe of Levi.
You know that whole covenant revolved around that priesthood.
In fact, In fact, in the book of Hebrews, when it's talking
about the abolishment of the old covenant and the establishment
of the new covenant in Christ, in the coming of Christ, the
key issue there is the abolishment and the reformation of the priesthood.
Read it in Hebrews chapter 9, when it talks about the time
of reformation. There being a change in the priesthood
meant a change in the whole covenant. Without that priesthood, that
old covenant was null and void. And that priesthood is finished.
That Levitical human priesthood, that imperfect priesthood, that
earthly priesthood is gone. And as I said in a message earlier
on Hosea, there is no man on earth who could claim a rightful
place of the priesthood according to the terms of the Old Covenant.
The only one who could rightfully and scripturally claim to be
high priest is our Savior, and not after the order of Levi,
but after the order of Melchizedek, which pictures an eternal priesthood.
But these priests, the high priest, as you know, was to be a picture
of Christ, our great high priest. And the high priest of the nation
Israel was the wrong man, in the wrong place, and he had the
wrong message. And the attending priest were
to be pictures of God's people, the church, called out, who are
made priests and kings unto God through Christ. That's what they
pictured. And these priests were in the wrong place, the wrong
people in the wrong place, and had the wrong message. And so
he says, hear this, you priests. They were leading the people,
not in the ways of God, not in the ways of the old covenant,
not in the ways of grace and truth, not pointing sinners to
Christ, but they were leading the people virtually in the same
way the Pharisees were leading the people when Christ came to
earth. They were leading the people to use the law as a system
of legal efforts in order to make themselves righteous before
God. So here, and he says, hearken ye, house of Israel, that's the
nation. He says, and give you ear, O house of the king. The
king was to be a picture of Christ, the supreme king. The king was
to be the leader of the people. leading them in the ways of God,
in the ways of truth, in the ways of grace, like David of
old, like Solomon. But this king, Jeroboam II at
this present time, and all the kings of the nation Israel had
failed to do so. In fact, Israel's kings had a
long history of rejecting and rebelling against God and his
truth and his covenant. Since the time that Jeroboam
I, the very first king of the northern kingdom, set up idols
in Bethel and Dan, they did, the scripture says continually,
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. In other words,
what we have here is this. We have a prime example of what
the Lord said of the Pharisees in His days, recorded in Matthew
15 and verse 14. When He told the disciples, when
they kept rejecting the gospel, He said, let them alone. He said,
they be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead
the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. So don't think that
you're hiding from God. He says in verse one, he says,
for judgment is toward you. Now that has two connotations
here, two meanings. First of all, it means God's
judgment was upon these leaders for their sin. In other words,
God knew their wickedness, He knew their rebellion, He knew
their sin, and His judgment was upon them. But the main meaning
is this, it's more of reminding them of their awesome responsibility
to teach and lead the truth. He's actually saying the response,
the main and most awesome responsibility is upon you leaders. You king,
you priest, you have that responsibility. to do so. That's why in the Bible,
in the prophecies throughout, whenever the kings and the priests
rejected the Lord and led the people astray, the prophets always
came, God's prophets always come along and said, woe unto you
leaders, woe unto you pastors. You see, that's an awesome responsibility
that God does not take lightly. Whenever a man like me or anybody
else who stands before a group of people and opens the word
of God and says, now I want you to listen to me because I'm telling
you the truth. That's an awesome responsibility.
And it's your responsibility, not just to swallow everything
I say hook, line, and sinker, but to be like the noble Bereans,
to test the spirits by the word of God. Don't you ever, I don't
care who they are, how long you've been with them, how much you
love them, don't you ever follow a man blindly. Don't ever do
it. It's never right to follow any
man blindly. Paul told the Ephesians and some
of the other church, he said, you follow me as I follow the
Lord. And these men, these priests
and this king, they were not following the Lord. They weren't
following the gospel. They weren't pointing sinners
to Christ. He says, you have been a snare on Mizpah and a
net spread upon Tabor. These were two places in Israel's
history that were noted because in these places the leaders failed
to lead the people alright. And that's the connection there.
And now they were noted for idol worship. And both of them were
like famous watchtowers. And from those watchtowers a
watchman could look out for an enemy to come and warn the people. of the nation, warn the people
of the cities that an enemy is about to attack. We need to prepare
ourselves. So these places, Mizpah and Tabor,
which should have been places of defense, places of warning,
and ultimately places of safety, what he says, you've become a
snare. That's a trap. A death trap, that's what that
is. These leaders, the king and the priest, they've made Mizpah
and Tabor a death trap for the people. A place of idolatry,
and idolatry is death. They become traps and nets to
trap the people for death. And the Lord knows, as he's saying.
Look at verse two, he says, the Lord knows the rebellion of the
evil leaders. He calls them revolters. Look
at verse two. He says, the revolters are profound. Now profound means deep. They're
deep to make slaughter. In other words, they're deep
into this. This isn't just a side issue to them. They mean business. It's kind of like what the Apostle
Paul wrote of Israel in his day. They had a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge. They meant business. They were
serious about their religion. They were serious about their
idolatry. And he calls them revolters. You know, that's just another
form of saying a sinner. You know, sin has different connotations
in the scripture. It can mean missing the mark.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've missed
the mark. What is the mark? The mark is righteousness in
the law. And that mark is exemplified in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That means for me to hit the
mark, I've got to be in Christ. If I'm not in Christ, I haven't
hit the, I've missed the mark. I've fallen short and the wages
of sin is death. You see, Christ is the Lord,
our righteousness. Christ is our holiness. If we're
not in him, we've missed the mark. I don't care how good we
try to be. I don't care how serious we are, how zealous we are. If
we don't have Christ, we've missed the mark. And then sin is also
called transgression. That's breaking the law, whatever
the law says. and if you don't do it, you're
a transgressor. That's what sin is, transgression
of the law. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. Galatians 3.10. And then sin is also called iniquity. That literally means inequity.
That means we don't balance out. You know, people talk about,
well, when I get to heaven, God's gonna weigh my good works with
my bad works and see if my good works outweigh my bad works or
they balance out. You can forget it. We are those
who commit an inequity. We don't balance out. We're like
the old Babylonian king. Who was it, Darius, I think it
was, where it said, you are weighed in the balance and found what?
Lacking. That's iniquity. And then the
other word for sin is trespass. That means we've gone too far.
We've jumped the line. God's drawn a line in the sand
and we've jumped over it. That's like people who are trying
to work their way into God's favor. God says that line's drawn.
By deeds of law, there's no flesh justified in his sight. And those
who cross that boundary seeking to be justified before God based
on their works are trespassers. That's what these revolters are.
They're revolters, they're rebels. And they have sinned against
the word of God. And not only that, they're profound
in it. They've gone deep into it. And they've done it to make
slaughter. Now, the word slaughter here
is an Old Testament word that denotes the slaughter of animals.
For whatever reason. Slaughtering animals. Well, what
do you think they were slaughtering animals for? Well, they were
shedding the blood of animals. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. They were sacrificing. They were going through the motions.
They were bringing their oblations, their offerings. You remember
Isaiah spoke to the southern kingdom in his day and God spoke
to them through Isaiah saying, I'm tired of your oblations.
Your sacrifices mean nothing because there's no truth there,
there's no heart there, there's no grace there, there's no Christ
there. Bringing that offering without
understanding what that offering meant the blood of an animal,
and who that offering pointed to for total spiritual eternal
salvation was a travesty to God. Did you know that? The blood
of bulls and goats couldn't take away sin. You could slaughter
them all, every animal in the whole kingdom. You could slaughter
them all to where the whole land ran red with blood. But my friend,
if they didn't see their ultimate salvation and redemption, and
righteousness in and by the person and work of the promised Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. It was all travesty.
But they're deep into it. And God says here, he says in
verse 2, he says, though I have been a rebuker of them all, corrector. God says, I've told them they
know better. One who corrects and chastises and sets things
right. See, that's why they're revolters. Because they had the
word of God. They had the prophets. And they
rejected what God said for their own ways. Verse three, it says,
the Lord knows well the evil of the nation. He says, I know
Ephraim. Ephraim was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom,
and sometimes the whole kingdom was called Ephraim. But he mentions
Ephraim as the largest kingdom. They were the leaders. And Israel
is not hid from me, for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom. Speaking of spiritual whoredom,
they have prostituted themselves out to idols. And he says, and
Israel is defiled. God knows the sin of Ephraim
and Israel. Apply that to ourselves. God
knows our sin. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
four. Here's the classic passage that
shows us how God knows our hearts. You remember, there were those
who came to Christ claiming to believe on him. but he did not
commit himself unto them because he knew their hearts. God's saying
here, I know Ephraim, I know this nation, I know their hearts.
Verse 12 of Hebrews chapter four, listen to it, for the word of
God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and marrow and the discerner of the thoughts
and the intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Now somebody
says, well, that's a scary thought. That thought that just shot through
your head, God knows it. I mean, he knows it as if it
was just flashed up on a screen up here behind me and everybody
else could see it. You wouldn't want that, would you? I wouldn't.
But God knows it. So where's our hope? Where's
there any comfort then? Where's there any peace? Well,
he shows us in verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high
priest. Here's where we get hope. The fact that God knows my frame
and knows my sin and knows the thoughts and he knows every thought,
every good thought, every bad thought. Here's my hope. I have
a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, literally through
into the heavens. He went through the fire into
glory, through the cross, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. We have Christ, who is our Redeemer. We have Christ's blood to wash
us clean from all our sins. We have his righteousness to
clothe us so that we stand accepted eternally and unchangeably before
a holy God who knows our thoughts, who knows our heart. Think about
that. Now we can fool men, but we cannot
fool God. Look back at Hosea 5, verse 4.
The Lord knows the evil of their deeds. Look here in verse 4.
He says, they will not frame their doings to turn unto their
God. In other words, what they're
doing will not allow them to approach God and seek God and
draw near unto God. He says, for the spirit of Hortens
is in the midst of them and they've not known the Lord. What is it
about their doings? Well, my friend, You know, our sins separate us from God,
and therefore we have one hope, and that's for someone who's
able and willing to take care of that sin problem. And that's
what Christ did. He suffered once for our sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And
he brought us to God. He removed the sin problem that
separated God's elect from God. But you know what? Our works
also separate us from God. Turn with me, if you will, to
Colossians chapter one. And what I mean by that is the
deeds of men that are aimed at their salvation. Whenever a sinner
seeks salvation and blessing and communion with God by their
best efforts to keep the law, that separates them from God.
That didn't cause you to draw near to God or God to draw near
to you. That separates you from God. Look at verse 19 of Colossians
chapter one. He said, for it pleased the Father
that in him should all fullness dwell, in Christ should all fullness
dwell. If you want fullness, look to
Christ. the fullness of everything, the fullness of everything that
God has for his people. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him, I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated, that means
separated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled. What are the wicked works he's
talking about? He's talking about the deeds, that men and women
by nature think so highly of. What Saul of Tarsus was trying
to do, Paul said in Philippians chapter three, all those things
he thought recommended him unto God. And what he's shown back
here in Hosea chapter five is that in their religion, you know,
men think of religion as getting you closer to God, making you
accepted with God, no sir. He says in verse 4, they will
not frame their doings to turn unto their God. How are you going
to frame your doings to turn to God? There's only one way.
Look to Christ. Rest in His doing, in His dying,
His suffering, His death, His resurrection. Look to Christ. Look to His righteousness. That's
how you frame your doings to turn unto God. You repent of
dead works and the evil deeds and the self-righteous religious
efforts that men and women think so highly of. Because they'll
always keep you away from God. They'll always alienate you from
God. Man trying to make himself righteous
before a holy God only separates him from God. And that's what
the natural man will not receive, the things of the Spirit of God.
Neither can he know. That's why we must repent, be
brought to repentance of idolatry and dead works. Because anything
we do short of resting in Christ will separate us from God. But
now in Christ, nothing will separate us from God. And you know one
of the best examples in the Bible that you'll find of that is Hosea
and Gomer. In Christ, nothing can separate
us from God. Nothing can condemn us. Nothing
can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Well, their
religion was a spirit of prostitution and whoredoms. That's what was
in the midst of them. Look at verse 5 now. The Lord
knows their pride and how it reaches even to Judah. He says,
and the pride of Israel doth testify to his face. Their religion
was one of self-righteousness and pride. God hates a proud
look, you see. And he says, therefore shall
Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity. That means they're
going to trip over their own false ways. That's what that
means. They're not going to walk with
the Lord as they think, but they're going to trip over their own
false ways. And then Judah also shall fall with them. Now, Judah
will follow in the future. That's a future prophecy concerning
Judah, but it's coming to Judah too. And then in verse six, he
says, the Lord knows the evil of human religion. Now here's
what's gonna happen. Look at verse six. He says, they
shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the
Lord, but they shall not find him. He hath withdrawn himself
from them. I think that's some of the worst,
the awfulest thoughts that we can read in the scripture. He
hath withdrawn himself from them. that God would withdraw himself. What he's talking about here,
they go with their flocks and with their herds, that's a picture
of them going out into a pastoral setting to get away from human
contact and seeking the Lord. But he says they're not going
to find him. Why? Because man cannot find God in
his own natural ways. He cannot do it. They go on pilgrimages
looking for God. They sacrifice these animals,
the flocks and the herds, but they will not find God. You see,
it's hypocrisy. First, they X out God of their
lives through their idolatry, and then they go looking for
him. They reject God's word, God's word in the covenant, God's
word from the prophet, but then they go seeking after God. They
go elsewhere. My friend, if you're going to
seek God, you have to begin seeking him in his word. And then his word will lead you
to Christ. And that's where we find God.
In the person and finished work of Christ, as we're led by his
word. If you reject God's word, let
me tell you something. I want you to listen to me very
well here. You reject the revealed written word of God, it'll do
you no good to hit your knees in prayer seeking the Lord. It'll
do you no good hopping around from church to church. It'll
do you no good to get baptized. It'll do you no good to go out
and meditate on a rock or sit in a lotus position and view
the universe through your navel. It'll do you no good. If you
reject God's word, And I'm not just making fun of people, I'm
just telling you seriously what the Lord through Hosea is telling
that nation here. They've rejected the word of
God, but then they go seeking the Lord. Wouldn't it be great
if you could just walk into any so-called church in America and
find the truth? But you can't. Because there
are many who reject God's word and yet they hold their religious
services. It'll do you no good. And then
here's the worst thing can happen. God withdrew himself from them.
Look at verse seven. He says, they have dealt treacherously
against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children. Now
shall a month devour them with their portions. They dealt treacherously
against God. They bore strange children. That month there is the new moon and that's talking about a religious
time. Who are these strange children?
They're converts. converts to their idolatry. You
remember Christ told the Pharisees in Matthew 23, he says, woe unto
you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you encompass sea and land to
make one proselyte, a convert, and when he's made, you make
him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Strange
here means foreign, foreign to the truth, foreign to God, foreign
to the kingdom of God. You see, true children of God
look to and find God in Christ. That's what we do. We're all
the children of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Galatians
chapter three says. And we must look for him and
to him as he's identified and distinguished in the word of
God. Otherwise, it's foreign to him. And this month, this
new moon, was a time for idol worship. And what he's saying
here is human, self-righteous, works religion will devour them,
eternal death. What they're engaged in religiously,
they think will save them, or make them acceptable before God,
or bring them blessing. But he said it'll devour them
with their portions. It's eternal death. Look at verse
eight. The Lord knows the judgment they
deserve. Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah,
that's the ram's horn, and the trumpet in Ramah. Cry aloud at
Beth-Avon after the old Benjamin. God's judgments, that's what
he's talking about, the trumpet of judgments, the horn of judgment.
Judgment's coming. Here it's a sign of the enemy
coming, but this enemy was an instrument of God's judgment
against Israel for their idolatry. This enemy was the wicked nation
and kingdom of Assyria. But God's judgments are always
according to truth. This Gibeah and Ramah and Beth-Avon,
they're all strategic cities. And here the enemy Assyria was
already upon them and the prophet says, sound the alarm. He says,
look here in verse 8, he says, after the old Benjamin, that
means literally look behind you Benjamin, talking about the southern
kingdom, made up of Judah and Benjamin, they're going to be
punished too because of their sin. Now they wouldn't be utterly
destroyed and obliterated as the northern kingdom would be,
because God had purpose to keep Judah together until the Messiah
would come. But they were going to be punished
too. Always know, that if God dealt with us based upon what
we deserve, it would be eternal death. But in Christ, he deals
with us in grace and in mercy. Not without justice, though,
because in Christ, there's justice. But look at verse nine. He says,
Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Among the
tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely
be. This judgment is certain. There's no turning it back. It
was foretold by the prophets, and here it's revealed to the
people through the prophet Hosea. The rebuke here is one from a
legal context, from a lawful judge, a judge who stands with
the righteous law behind him. And the desolation will be a
just one indeed. And it's revealed to them so
that they could not plead ignorance as an excuse. And look at verse
10. The Lord knows and makes void man's wicked devices. Look
here. The princes of Judah were like
them, that remove the bound, therefore I will pour out my
wrath upon them like water. What he's talking about there
is they removed the boundary stone that would encompass certain
cities and bring them into their kingdom. And that was a crime. That was the same as like stealing
land. And when the people set boundary stones back then, they'd
sacrifice to God and they'd worship God to commemorate that this
was their property given them by God, that God was the source
of it. So to move a boundary was to steal land and to deny
God's goodness and power and gifts. And what's worse, Israel
and Judah's leaders, they'd sought to move these boundaries to gain
land, to bargain with. That's what they were doing.
And even worse than that, Israel and Judah's leaders had sought
to move spiritual boundaries established by God in His truth
and in His covenant and say, go our way, not God's way. So look at verse 11. He says,
Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly
walked after the commandment. The reason Ephraim, or Israel,
was crushed in judgment was because they were determined to follow
the commandments of men rather than God. Christ said that of
the Pharisees and of the nation Israel in his day, Matthew 15,
9. He said, in vain they do worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And you
know what this verse here, this verse 11, literally portrays? Someone who's drunk. In other
words, it calls into question the spiritual authority of those
who command the people to do this and not do that, but they're
drunk on their own self-righteousness and their own pride. And so they're
not pointing sinners to God. In verse 12, he says, therefore
will I be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the house of Judah as
rottenness. That describes their destruction, their decay. of
Ephraim and Judah, like the moth eats the garment, like the worm
poisons and destroys and corrupts with rottenness the meat, it's
going to be destroyed. In verse 13, he says, when Ephraim
saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim
to the Assyrian. Notice they didn't go to God.
They went to the Assyrian and sent to King Jerob. Yet could
he not heal you nor cure you of your wound? Instead of turning
to the Lord, what did they do? The northern kingdom and later
on the southern kingdom, they sought alliances with the king
of Assyria. Now his name wasn't Jerob, there
was no king Jerob, but that was a play on words, that was a mockery.
It meant king warrior or king combat. In other words, this
man was known for being a great warrior. And one of the kings
of Israel tried to bribe this king Jerob. But it didn't work. And later on, King Ahaz of Judah,
he tried to win him over too, but that didn't work. They turned
to the heathen king for an alliance, for a bribe, to save their own
hides, instead of turning to the Lord. Well, what does God's
word say? Jeremiah 17, five. Cursed be
the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and
whose heart departeth from the Lord. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord. Look at
verse 14. He says, for I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and
as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I will tear
and go away. I will take away and none shall
rescue him. God's discipline, God's judgment
will be like the attack of a vicious lion and there'll be no deliverance
for sinners from that judgment. You see, I thought about this
when I thought about the lion. I always think about the lion
of the tribe of Judah, Christ. And he shows us that there's
no deliverance for sinners without Christ. He's the only deliverer. So in verse 15, he shows us how
the Lord knows his purpose to restore his people to himself. He says, I will go and return
to my place till they acknowledge their offense, their guilt, and
seek my face, and in their affliction they will seek me early." This
speaks of God, first of all, removing his covenant, his temporal
covenant favor from Israel and Judah as set forth in the old
covenant. That covenant's gonna be abolished.
He said, I'm gonna return to my place. We know God's place
is everywhere. But this speaks of the place
of his glory among his chosen people. his elect spiritual Israel
in Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you're complete in him. And
he says he's going to go and return to his place till they
acknowledge their guilt, till they admit their guilt and seek
his face. God's people will be convicted
of guilt and sin and depravity by the Holy Spirit and they'll
seek him in Christ. They'll seek salvation. You see,
the Lord knows how to punish. He knows how to judge. But he
also knows how to save. 2 Timothy chapter two and verse
19 says this, nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure
having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. And let every one that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Second Peter 3.9 says
this, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness, but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any
of us should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
That's what he's talking about. Now that thought's carried on
over in chapter six, but you can rest assured that the Lord
knows. He knows, doesn't he? All right.