If you open your Bibles to the
book of Hosea, chapter 7, now this seventh chapter of Hosea is a strong sermon against Israel,
the people who claim to be God's people. This seventh chapter of Hosea
is a sermon of condemnation. The sins and iniquities of Israel
are condemned, and the judgment of God is announced. Now, if you look at verse 1,
God says, When I would have healed Israel, when I would have visited
them with my presence, When I would have dealt with them in mercy,
their iniquities and their wickedness and their allies and their ingratitude
was discovered. It was manifest. It was so clearly
revealed. In verse 2, he said, They considered
not in their hearts that I knew and I saw all their wickedness. In other words, he says, they
did not commune with their hearts. They did not consider in their
minds that while the men of the world did not know nor see their
iniquity, the Lord took notice of their sins. The eye of the
Lord is in every place beholding the evil and the good. And the Lord took notice of their
sins and put them down in the book of his remembrance in order
to call them to account. He says in Hebrews, all things
are open unto him with whom we have to do. They did not consider
in their hearts that I am the one with whom they have to do,
that I am the one who beholds the evil and the good, that I
remember all their wickedness." They did not consider that. And
then in verse 4 he says, "...they are all adulterers, as an oven
heated by the baker, who seeth from waking, or rising out of
his sleep, after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened."
They are adulterers, he said, in a spiritual sense, serving
and worshiping other gods, and their adulterers in a natural
sin, burning in their lust for their neighbor's wives as an
oven heated by a baker, and left unattended. And then in verse
5 he says, In the day of the inauguration of the king, in
the day when the young king was crowned and seated on the throne,
his princes his leaders made him drunk with wine, and he also,
the king, stretched out his hand with the scorners. They made
their king drunk with wine on the day of his inauguration,
so that he, forgetting his royal dignity and forgetting his place
of leadership, joined with the scorners in rebelling against
and disobeying God Almighty. And verse 6, he said, they've
made ready their heart like an oven, being heated with wine
and lust. They lie in wait, ready for all
wickedness. But he goes on and says, like
the baker sleeps all night and forgets that the oven is being
heated, he rises in the morning and finds that it's all consumed,
it's all burned up. And then in verse the last line. He says, there is none among
them, there is none among them that calleth on me. There's no repentance, there's
no conviction, there's no seeking of the Lord, there's no remorse
for evil, there's no prayer, there's no cry for mercy. Not
one voice is Though their sins are great, and though their wickedness
abounds, and though their iniquity is before the eyes of the Lord,
there is not one cry for mercy, there is not one prayer unto
the Lord. There is none among them that
calleth on me." And in verse 8, watch this, Ephraim is a cake
not turned. I sat and looked at that for
a long, long time. Ephraim is a cake not turned. And then I found this that helped
me so much. Like a cake, like a pancake or
a piece of bread that is being cooked and is put on live coals,
if you don't turn it It's going to be burned on one side and
raw on the other. And so it'll be good for nothing.
Good for nothing. It's not good for dough anymore
because it's burned on one side, and it's not good for bread because
it's raw on one side and burned on the other. And God says, Ephraim,
my people, they're like cakes unturned. They're good for nothing. They profess to serve God, and
yet they serve other gods. They run after me with their
lips, but their hearts are far from me. They halt between two
opinions, and they are of neither. They are nothing in principle,
for they profess one thing, and they do something else. They
are nothing in experience, because having only a form of godliness,
they deny the power they are. They're neither hot nor cold. They're neither fish nor fowl. They're neither gods nor the
devils. They're lukewarm. So Ephraim
is a cake, not turn. And then as I sat and looked
at this chapter, especially verse 9, I believe that verse 9 caught
my eye and thought more than any other portion of this chapter. And the reason for that, of course,
is that it is so applicable to my own heart. He says strangers
have devoured his strength, and he doesn't know it. And here
is the statement, gray hairs are here and there upon him,
and yet He hasn't learned anything. Gray hairs are here and there
upon him and yet he's ignorant. Gray hairs are here and there
upon him and yet he doesn't know the things he should have learned
and the things he ought to know at this stage of life. Now what
does gray hair mean? What does it say when we see
someone like myself with half gray and half black, or someone
like you with just a smattering of gray, or someone like several
of the rest of you with a whole lot of gray hair. What does gray
hair say? Well, it says many things. First
of all, it says we're getting old. We're getting old. I know there's some prematurely
gray people who are yet young, but 99% of the people who have
white hair are getting old. That's what scripture says. Grey
hair says this, you're getting old. And secondly, grey hair
says this, you're going to die soon. You're going to die. That's what grey hair says. It's
a sign of declining years and declining life. It's a sign that
you won't be here much longer. You won't be here near as long
as you've already been here. Now that's a fact. That's a fact. We joke about gray hair, we joke
about old age, but the day's coming when we're not going to
joke about it. When we're not going to joke
about it, when we're not going to laugh about it. A man standing just
outside the judgment has nothing to laugh about. He has nothing
at all to rejoice about. We're getting old, and we're
going to soon die. Now another thing gray hair says,
it says that we've been here long enough to have heard something.
And it says we've been here long enough to have seen some things. And it says we've been here long
enough to have experienced some things, and we've been here long
enough to be a responsible individual, a responsible person. And gray
hair ought to say, this is what it ought to say, this is what
the Bible declares that it ought to be a sign of. Gray hair ought
to be a sign of maturity. Gray hair ought to be a sign
of wisdom. Gray hair ought to be a sign
of patience. Gray hair ought to be a sign
of an elder in Christ Jesus. But here's the solemn charge
made to Ephraim. Gray hairs are here and there
upon him. He's getting old, and he's going
to soon die. And he's been around long enough
to have seen some things, he's been around long enough to have
heard some things, he's been around long enough to have learned
something. But he hasn't. He hasn't learned anything. Gray
hair is here and there upon him, symptoms of declining ears, approaching
death, a certain meeting with God Almighty, but he hasn't learned
anything. He hasn't learned anything. Strangers have devoured his strength. He has no spiritual strength,
but he doesn't know it. And he's dying, and he hasn't
learned anything. I want to point out four things.
I'm preaching to myself, I'm preaching to you. In John 17,
verse 3, I want you to open your Bibles to John 17, verse 3. First
of all, This is what I thought as I looked at this scripture.
Grey hair is here and there upon him, but he's ignorant. What a tragedy to grow old. What a tragedy to approach death. What a tragedy to look the judgment
in the face and not know God. Grey hairs are here and there
upon him, but he doesn't know God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said
in John 17, 3, this is life eternal, that they might know Thee. Not
about Thee, not of Thee, but they might know Thee. The only
true God. Do you know God? Do you know
God? I know there is a God. That's
not what I ask. Do you know God? That's not what Christ says here.
He says eternal life is to know God. to know him, not know his
word, not know his doctrine, to know him. It says in Jeremiah
31, 34, and they shall know me. They shall not, say, teach every
man his neighbor, they shall every man know me. They shall
know me. Somebody says, well, I believe
there's a God. To believe there's one God is
not to know God. James 2.19 declares, Thou believest
there's one God, thou doest well. The devil believes there's one
God, and trembles. To say that you know God is not
to know God. Turn to John 8. This is a shocking
scripture right here. John chapter 8, verse 54. To
say that you know God is not to know God. In John 8, 54, the Master says
in the last line, you say that he's your God, but you have not
known him. That's what he says to the Pharisees,
that's what he says to the religious people, that's what he says to
the Sabbath worshipers on that day. He said, you say he's your
God, but you don't know him. You don't know God. What a tragedy
to get old, and to get gray-headed, and to face death, and not know
God! But we believe there's one God.
The devil believes there's one God. But we do know God! These people said they knew Him,
and Christ said they didn't know Him. He's the authority. He's the authority. He's the
one that needeth not that any man should testify what is in
man. He knows what's in man. To go
through the form of worship is not to know God. The woman at
the well in John chapter 4 said, Why, you Jews say you're supposed
to worship in Jerusalem. Our fathers worshiped in the
mountain. Christ said, You don't know what you worship. You've
gone through the motions. You've gone through the form.
But you don't know Him. You don't know whom you worship. Paul said there at Mars Hill,
I declare unto you the God you do not know, the unknown God. To go to the temple is not to
know God. In John chapter 7, verse 28,
look at this scripture. You have to look at it carefully
to see the implication, to get the implication. Then Christ
cried out in the temple, in the house of worship. in the temple,
in the place where men had assembled themselves to worship God, and
he said the last line, he that sent me is true, you know him
not. To believe there's one God is
not to know God. To say that you know God is not
to know God. To go through the motions of
worship is not to know God. To know the doctrines and be
a part of temple worship is not to know God. All right, preacher,
what is it to know God? Now, this is one of the responsibilities
of being a preacher. What is it to know God? Well, I've jotted down several
things that I believe are true if a man knows God. First of
all, to know God is to know Him in His true character as He's
revealed in His Word. That's where I've got to start.
I've got to start with the Word. We don't know everything about
God. Who could? I don't profess to. Only the infinite can comprehend
the infinite. But I do know this. I do know
the God of the Bible, the God of the universe, is holy. Isaiah said, In the year King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, and the cherubims and seraphims
cried, Holy! Holy. Holy. The God of the Bible is holy. The God of the Bible is sovereign. He declared to Nebuchadnezzar,
The Lord ruleth in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of this earth, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. None can stay his hand, or say
unto him, What doest thou? He is righteous, he will in no
wise clear the guilty. He is just, he is merciful, he
is plenteous in mercy, he is love. To know God is to know
God in His true character as He's revealed in His Word. And then secondly, to know God
is to know His Son. In Luke chapter 10, verse 22,
the Lord Jesus said, All things are delivered to me of my Father. No man knoweth who the Son is
but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him." Lord, Philip said, show us the Father.
And the Lord Jesus said, Philip, have I been with you this long,
and still you don't know me? He that hath seen me He that
hath seen me, he that hath seen me with eyes of faith, he that
hath seen me with eyes of confidence, he that hath beheld me with eyes
of affection, he that hath looked upon me with eyes of understanding
given by the Holy Ghost, he's seen God. He's seen God. I am in the Father, and the Father
is in me. and Christ of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. To know God is to know His as
prophet who reveals unto us the Father, as priest who makes the
perfect, sufficient, effectual sacrifice for our sin, as King
to reign and rule over us. He that hath seen me, Christ
said, he's seen God. For I and my Father are one."
And then to know God, turn to I John To know God is to know
Him in His true character, not just any God, the true and living
God. Not just any God, but the God
of the universe, the God who made all things, the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then to know God is to walk
in His fellowship. Do you talk with God? Does God
talk with you? Is God an historical character,
or does He live in your heart? In 1 John 1, verse 6, if we say
we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we're liars. We don't know God. Now, brethren, there's something
we need to learn right here. The walk that he's talking about
here is the direction of life. It's the tenor of a man's life. If we say that we have fellowship
with God and the direction of our lives—now, the compass points
to the north. It'll have some deflections.
Sometimes that old compass wiggles a little, but that compass direction
in which it points is north. It may flip over here, but it's
right back north. It may flip over here, but it's
right back north. That's the direction in which
it points. And as a believer walks through
this world and through life, he walks in the direction of
holiness and honesty and righteousness and morality and truth and the
glory of God. He may step over here. and he
may step over here, and he may stumble here, but the direction
of his life is in fellowship with God. That's so. If a man's walking the other
way, he's not walking with God, and he's not fellowshiping with
God, and he doesn't know God. Verse 7 says, if we walk in the
light as he is in the light, We have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from
all sin. The bent of the wheel, the direction
of the life, the tenor of the life, the direction in which
we're moving, the direction in which we're going, is with God,
walking in the light. Some darkness comes here and
some darkness comes there. But we don't walk in darkness.
And the direction of our lives is not on righteousness, but
holiness. To know God is to walk with God. And then fourthly, to know God.
Turn to Revelation 19. To know God is to approve with
satisfaction of all his judgments and his providence. They came
to Eli, and they said, Eli, God's going to kill your sons. He said,
well, it's the Lord. Let him do what he will. His judgments are just. His providence
is pure. His wisdom is my desire. In Revelation 19, after these
things, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying,
Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the
Lord our God, for true and righteous are his judgments. He judged
the great whore which did corrupt the earth. He's cast her into
hell. He's avenged the blood of his
servants, and they said, Hallelujah, hallelujah. The saved shout hallelujah
while God sends men to hell. That's to know God. It's to approve
of His judgments. It's to approve of His divine
providence. It's to set the seal of approval
on whatever He does, whenever He does it, with whomever He
does it. It's the Lord! It's good. God is sovereign. and we'll be
thankful. To know God, Isaiah chapter 6,
to know God is to know myself. Isaiah said, when I saw the Lord,
Isaiah 6 verse 3, and the cherubims cried, holy, holy, holy. Verse
5, then said I, then said I, then said I. When I came to know
the Lord, then I said, O woe is me! Under God I am a man of
unclean limbs. The man who has a high opinion
of himself doesn't know God. He has a God, but not the God. He knows his God, but not the
God of the Bible. Isaiah said, When I saw the Lord,
I said, Woe is me! Chapter 5 of Isaiah, if you take
the time to read it some other time, you'll find Isaiah running
around saying, woe is them, woe is them, woe is them, woe is
them. He said it five times in one
chapter. And then he saw the Lord, and the very first words
out of his mouth after he met the God of the Bible, not the
God of modern religion, not the God of piety, Not the God of
self-righteousness, but the God of this Bible. When he saw God,
he said, Woe is me. And Job, in Job chapter 42, he
said, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, now might
I see of thee, wherefore I hate myself. That's the first words
out of his mouth. The first words out of the mouth
of a man who knows God. It's not what's wrong with everybody
else, it's what's wrong with himself. Oh, what a tragedy to go through
life and come to the end of the road with the signs of death
all over us and not know God. And not know God. Secondly, I
thought about this. And I'm talking to myself, what
a tragedy to grow old and not know the true worthwhile things
in life. What shall it profit a man if
he gained the whole world and lose his most precious possession,
his soul? Now, we in 1973 are too concerned
about material comforts. We're too concerned about physical
comforts. We're too concerned about me,
mine, and ours. We're too little concerned about
our relationship with God Almighty. with too little concern with
those things which are really important in life. Turn, if you
will, to Proverbs 15. Now this is so. In Proverbs chapter
15, it says in verse 16, Proverbs 15, verse 16, better is little,
better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure. and trouble. You'd be better off if you had
your log cabin out on the side of the hill or up one of these
eastern Kentucky hollers, sitting on the front porch in a rocker,
fellowshipping with God, than you are in your great big mansion
with your fine clothes and excellent food and a heart that does not
know God. That's the truth. We may not
like it, but that's the truth. We're too concerned. Esau sold
his birthright for a bowl of beans. Well, you say that birthright
didn't amount to a whole lot. Wait a minute now. That birthright
made him head of the house. That birthright made him as the
firstborn son, the priest of the home. That birthright made
him the leader of the tribe. That birthright made him God's
ambassador. He said, I'd rather have a bowl
of beans than be God's ambassador. I'd rather preach the gospel
than be President of the United States. One great old missionary, son
Felix, was a missionary. And the Queen of England, back
in the days of Spurgeon, made this young man Felix an ambassador
to India. And he quit the ministry and
took the job. And his old gray-haired daddy
shook his head and said, well, my son, my son has fallen from
a missionary to an ambassador. Turn to Psalms 37. Better is
a little with the fear of God than great riches with great
trouble. Psalms 37, verse 16. Listen to it. A little that a
righteous man hath is better than the riches of many Judas sold his Lord for $18. Paul said, Demas hath forsaken
me because he loved this present world. What was he talking about? He loved the pleasures of the
world. He loved the treasures of the world. He loved the good
times of the world. He loved the companionship of
the world. Paul said in order to walk with
them he had to leave God. That's right. No man can serve
two masters. No man. Christ said that. No man. No man can serve two
masters. Matthew 6, verse 25. Our Lord
said this, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat,
what you shall drink, your body, what you shall put on. Your life's
more than meat, your body's more than clothes. Verse 30, If God
so clothe the grass of the field which today is, and tomorrow
is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall I eat? What shall
I drink? What shall I wear? How am I going to children, going
to be educated? After all these things do the
heathen seek. Your Heavenly Father knows what
you have wants, need of. Your father knows what you need.
He knows what you need. What do I need? I need God. That's
what I need. That's all I need. I say, well,
we got to live. No, you hadn't got to live, but
you've got to die. Now, that's for sure. You don't
have to live. I don't have to live, but I do have to die. Seek ye first, in first place,
the first beat of your heart, the first thought in the morning,
the first act of the day. Seek ye first God's kingdom. And all these other things will
be added to you. John Newton wrote, listen, how tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus No longer I see. Have you ever been there? Sweet
prospects, sweet birds, sweet flowers, they all lost their
sweetness for me. The midsummer sun shines, but
dim. The fields strive in vain to
look gay, but when I'm happy and him, December's as pleasant
as May. I'd rather walk through the snow,"
he said, with the Lord, than to walk through the fields of
clover with the sun shining on my head without him. Content
with beholding his face, my awe to his pleasure resigned. No
change of season or place would make any change in my mind. While
blessed with a sense of his presence, a palace, a toy, would appear.
And prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me
there. How could the old martyrs go
to prison and sit there with nothing but a candle in the room,
cold, hungry? The Lord was there. And the Lord
can turn a prison into a palace. And when the Lord's not there,
your palace is a prison. When the Lord's there, your cabin
is a palace, blessed with His presence, a sense of His love. But when He's not there, all
of your dangling silver and gold is nothing but a prison, and
it's bars, iron bars about you, and the silken pillar under your
head is like a brick, isn't it, without Christ. And then I thought,
what a tragedy to grow old, to have gray hair here and there,
the signs of declining life, and never really know. He said
Ephraim's got gray hair, but he doesn't know what it is to
love people. In 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians
13, it says, I may speak with the tongues the oratorical ability
of the greatest man and the greatest angel, and I don't have love,
you might as well sound that old Chinese gong for all the
good it'll do. And though I have the gift of
prophecy, I'm a theologian, I understand the mysteries, I've got the doctrines
down, and I've got all knowledge, and I've got faith I can remove
mountains and have not love, I am nothing, nothing. And I may give my goods to feed
the poor, I may be charitable, I may reach out my heart to others
and feed them and clothe them and all these other things, but
if I don't love them, it profits me nothing. Christ said, This
is my commandment, that you love one that you love one another. How shall I love them? Love them
as I loved you. By this shall all men know you
are my disciples, if you love one another. Now you listen to
this. If you don't hear anything else I say on this point, you
hear this statement right here. We miss the truth of love by
being more concerned with receiving love than giving it. That's where
we miss We're more concerned with having
a friend than being a friend. See what
I'm saying? I'd love to have a friend. Why
don't you try being a friend? Being a friend. I wish people
loved each other. Why don't you start? Instead
of talking about receiving love and what people ought to do,
what others ought to do, why don't you start doing that? I
guarantee you this, love begets love. I guarantee you this, he
that would have friends must show himself friendly. Now what does the Word of God
say? What is a friend, preacher? Well, a true friend loves sincerely. Benjamin Keats says cold friendship
is the song of hypocrisy. True love comes swiftly and departs
there slowly. A true friend will make your
case his own. If you're afflicted, he's afflicted.
If you weep, he weeps. If you prosper, he rejoices.
A true friend does what he can to uphold the honor and reputation
of his friend. He will not hear one speak, nor
will he hear an evil report on his loved one. A true friend
gives his friend a room in his heart. The sight of him is pleasing
to the eye, and his presence delightful to the heart. A true
friend loves to be very familiar, and he's always ready to share
his heart's secrets in complete confidence. A true friend is
generous with his thoughts, his time. He will spare nothing to
help the one he loves. But I'm afraid rather than experiencing
gray hair and true love, the thing that's prevalent in our
day is gray hair and selfishness, gray hair and greed, gray hair
and unloveliness, gray hair and loneliness, gray hair and separation
from others, gray hair and an unlovely spirit,
gray hair and a cantankerous attitude. gray hair and impatience. What a tragedy. It's awful. Ephraim's got gray hair, and
he hasn't learned anything! It's better to be around him
when he was young than when he's old. That ought not be. That's backwards. We excuse youth
for impulsiveness. We excuse youth for rudeness. We excuse youth for impatience
because they don't know. But how do we excuse ourselves?
We got gray hair. We're supposed to learn something.
We're supposed to have learned something. We're supposed to
have embraced and drawn close and brought in our hearts. We're
supposed to have been over the road and understood. We're supposed
to have experienced some things. We're supposed to be able to
reach out and forgive. We're supposed to live in understanding. Why do homes break up after people
have been there twenty and twenty-five and thirty years? They hadn't
learned anything. They got gray hair and ignorance.
Ignorance. And then last of all, what a
tragedy to grow old, to have gray hair. What a tragedy. You know, back when I was 25
or 26, 27 years old, somebody says, Do you know the Lord? If
you were to die right now, would you go to be with the Lord? You
could sort of understand if I said, I hope so. I just don't know
whether I have a sure hope or not. But brother, not now. Forty-seven
years old without a hope. Gray hair without a sure hope. Standing one foot away from the
open sepulchre and don't know where I'm going to wind up. Ephraim's got gray hair here
and there and he doesn't know his Redeemer. He can't say, I
know whom I have believed, I know my Redeemer living, I know with
my eyes I'll behold my God. Can't you say that? You're a
white-haired man and you can't say that? Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, the
time of my departure is at hand, and yours is too, mine is too.
It's right at the door. It's right at the door. And Paul
said, I can look at the past without regret. I fought a good
fight. I don't have any regrets. I fought
a good fight. It's been a fight. Hadn't been
easy. And I fought it. And I can view the present without
despair. I finished my course. I finished
my course. I've stumbled, I've fallen, I've
strayed, but I stayed on the track because my direction was
the finish line. That's where I was headed. That's
where I was headed. And I finished it. And I can
look in the future without any fear. I've kept the faith, the
faith, just one faith, the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. I kept faith. I met Him at Calvary
years ago, and I'm still at the cross. I looked into His blessed,
beloved face, who is my justifier? I looked into His face, who is
my righteousness? I looked into His face, who is
my Savior? And I'm still looking in His
face. He was my hope then, and He's
my hope now. He was the beat of my heart then,
and He's the beat of my heart now. I've kept faith. I've never
had but one faith, and that's that Christ loved me, and He
died for me. If I go to hell, I'll go to hell
clinging to the cross of Jesus Christ. And on this, the authority
of this Bible, if there's one word in it true, and it's all
true, that's an impossibility. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. I dare not, I dare not trust
the sweetest frame. I hold the lead on Jesus' name.
Lord, I'm getting old, and you are too. We're aging together.
But I want us to know the Lord. I don't want us to be white-headed
one of these days, and God has to say of us what he said of
Ephraim, he's white-headed now. He doesn't know anything. I want
to know the Lord. I want to know what's worthwhile.
I want to live for the things that are valuable, the things
that are worthwhile, the things that are eternal. Don't you?
I want to live for those things. I want them to be my concern.
I don't want to pant after and hunger after and seek after and
thirst after something when I get it, it disappears. The soap bubbles
of this old world, the glamour and glory of this world, ain't
nothing to it. Ain't nothing to it. Seek ye
first the kingdom of God.