Well, what would a Sunday morning in church be if we didn't open the Bible? Amen? So we're going to open the Bible to Hosea chapter 11, continuing on. Over the last two weeks, we've gone through verses 1-4 in the chapter, all about the Gospel, all about how Jesus, God, was showing His love that He drew Israel right from the beginning, delivered them out of Egypt, delivered them through the Red Sea, delivered them through the Jordan River, and He has delivered us into that heavenly promised land. Hence, verse number four, we closed out last week, I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. The law is an oppressive chain upon people, but God used the cords of a man. This points at the person of Jesus Christ, who came stooped down. He took off the yoke. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my burden is easy. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He says, and I laid meat unto them. God, as this picture of the farmer, didn't just say, here, go fend for yourself. He gave his true meat to his people. And we have that meat today, right here. I'm in the process of reading a book that I'll be adding to our upcoming church library. It's by Dr. Mal Couch, who is excellent. If you get a chance to read it, when I'm done with it, read it. It's called God Has Spoken. It's talking about the sufficiency of the Word of God. We need nothing else except to eat at his banquet table of his word and enjoy what he's given us. What it all points out to, as we've been saying, is it points to the Lord Jesus Christ. Today I was hoping to go through verses 5, 6, and 7. So we'll pick up our Bible reading here with verse number 5 and we'll read to the end of the chapter once again. It says, He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrians shall be his king because they refuse to return. and the sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume his branches and devour them because of their counsels. And my people are bent to backsliding from me, though they call them to the Most High, none at all would exalt him. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man. the Holy One in the midst of thee. And I will not enter into the city. They shall walk after the Lord. He shall roar like a lion. When He shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt and as a dove out of the land of Assyria. And I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord. Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. But Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints." And Lord, we just pray that you would bless your word this morning, that we would take something from it, and learn more about your nature and your will, not just for Israel then, but for us today as well. We just pray that you'll have your way with us. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now notice, guess verse 4 again repeating that, God's gracious call to feed His people, to rescue His people. And then verse 5, we pick it up, He shall not return unto the land of Egypt. If we remember back in the last chapter, The people desired to go to Egypt, so it's a repetition that they would not go. They wanted to get their protection. They had made covenants with Egypt and Syria and Assyria, and they were looking to play one nation against another nation and find favor, sort of like the United Nations does today, in order to bring more warfare, not unity. So they desired to go to Egypt, they didn't want to pay the taxes that were exacted upon them by the king of Assyria, but yet God says, no, they're not going to go to Egypt, they're going to be under another king, and this will be the Assyrian king. Now look at this. Because they refused to return. See, there are two reasons why God would want to send them into captivity. They refused to return unto Him. In other words, they refused to repent and trust the Lord instead of all the compacts and all the things that they had signed with the nations around. After all, their idols were providing for them. Why should I trust God? He's awfully slow. He doesn't jump at my command. He wants us to wait. So he shall not return unto the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king because they refuse to turn. Your refuge, just like us, our refuge isn't in anything that we do. Our refuge is in God Himself. I'd love to go on a vacation to get away from things once in a while, but my true refuge is in God. You know, as far as you can get away from things, you never really get away from things at all because you still have you. Try running away from yourself. See, the problem wasn't with them going to Egypt. The problem wasn't with them going to the other nations. The problem was their own hearts. Their own hearts were wicked, so that's why they desired the things that would benefit them in the here and now. That's why the worship of Baal was appealing. We have a statue we can look to. We can see him. We can see these things. They have effect. Oh, how I can touch a little idol. I can touch a cross or a crucifix. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something. But God cannot be touched. God is sovereign, God is providential, He has His way no matter what. Israel just had to trust in what He'd done, and He had just given the whole history of His care of them, and they still rejected Him. So they went to Assyria, they refused to return back unto God and to trusting Him. Now we get verse six, and the sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume his branches and devour them. So the sword, we know all about the Assyrians, we've heard a lot about them, they were brutal, they were ruthless, they would come and kill everyone. everything in sight, they'd make sure the people were dead by hacking them to pieces, flaying them, taking their skin off, and scattering them around. If you got not hold of Assyrian, be sure that he was going to make sure and he would finish the job. It says, not only because the sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume his branches and devour him. Well, the term branches here The term branches here is about leadership in this case. You know who the greatest branch is in the world still today? It's the one called the Branch, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a branch from the root of Jesse. So all these lower branches that were not heeding God's counsel, God would use the Assyrians to bring judgment upon them. We move on here. It says it's because of their own counsels. See, they didn't listen to that one who was called wonderful and the counselor. They listened to what they believed to be true. Those things that would benefit them. This is the result of even today, of today's post-modern movement where you can make up your own truth. Imagine that. Imagine that Jesus Christ isn't the way, the truth, and the life. They thought the same thing. He's just a way. A truth. Jesus works for you, but Buddha works for me. Look how great that I benefit. Look how rich I am. And it's just totally painful to see all the scams of Christians trying to make you rich when you can go to another occultic place and get rich just the same. Amen? They had looked away from them, trusting their own counsels. and their own counsels were wicked because of who they were. Amen. False prophets indeed. the same causes of apostasy today as there were then. They refuse to listen to the counsel of God and listen to their own counsels. What's in it for me? How do I usually say that? With them. What's in it for me? How can I benefit? How can I be blessed? Can I be blessed with health and wealth and all that? You may be, but they're not guaranteed. I know one thing I always liked about the state of New Hampshire, their motto was live free or die. Something my dad used to always tell me, I still remember this, there are only two things sure in this life and that's death and taxes. Well, I don't know about the tax part, but I know we get overtaxed oftentimes, but I know one thing is for sure, is death is certain. The mortality rate in the world is still 100%. If you were born, guess what? I'm no prophet, but I can tell you, you're gonna die. Or, unless the rapture happens, you'll be taken with the Lord. But, you have a 100% chance that if you're sitting here today, you're going to be dead one day. Not a popular message, but it's true. Somebody was talking about divine healing, I was listening to. you're going to be healed in this life. And I thought to myself, where's the Apostle Peter today? Where's Paul? Where's John? Where's James? They all have one thing in common, they're all dead. And they have the same thing in common with you and I, we're all going to be dead one day. So the focus needs not to be on us, the focus needs to be on Him and His counsel, which the end of the chapter deals with about eternity. Let's move on here to verse number 7. and my people are bent to backsliding from me." This term bent is in the Hebrew, it actually means to be uncertain or hesitant. In spite of all of the things that God did for them, they were still uncertain about God. Just like the doubting Thomas. Amen. Doubting Thomas refused to believe the word, the very word of God that was living literally at the time he needed to see proof. Today we have that proof that We have it in the 66 books of the Bible, but yet we are bent on not trusting just the Bible. We need something else. Lord, show me a sign. Show me something. I need more than Your Word to trust You. But see what kind of fleece I can lay down and, Lord, if you do this, I'll do that. Well, you're making a contract with something that you don't know. Because God has completed salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the final Word and His Word is truth. Bottom line. But no matter what, Christian or non-Christian, Everybody's bent to doubting what God has done. Just as I was bent on not coming up here before the start of service because the smell of that food downstairs was so good. I was like, man, this must be how heaven is. Let me just enjoy this. But it's not true. We are so bent on sin. Why? Because it's our nature. We can truly say, I was born that way. For instance, I'll tell you, Helen didn't know I was going to tell a little story about what happened to us one day. Now, those of you that know us, I drive slow as an old man. Well, of course, my kids call me an old man. I drive slow, or so they say. Helen, on the other hand, she has what's called in the vernacular, a lead foot. Vroom! Pedal to the metal, down the road. Her theme song when she was young was, I can't drive 55. We were going down the Mass Pike one day and... I have more stuff to do than you. We were driving on a mass park one day and I wasn't surprised when I saw the lights come on behind us and it was a police cruiser. The state cop pulled us over and she was hoping to sweet talk our way out of it. You know how women are? She was hoping to sweet talk our way out and she was pretending she was shocked when the state cop came over to the car. She said to the state cop, I've never been pulled over like that before. Well, the police, the state trooper said to a ma'am, what do they usually do, shoot your tires out? But this, this is an example of our nature. We know the law. We know God's will, but yet we step away from it. Or, by the way, you can insert anybody else's name into that besides Helen's while you think of that. We all were created equal. Imagine that, we were all created equal. All of us were created with that very same sin nature that has totally polluted us. And even as believers, we still lean on that nature. You know, as I always say, when me, the slow driver, has somebody that's slower than me in front, I want to knock them off the road. That's my nature. That's our sin natures. We are bent away from God. I think it was Martin Luther King that one time said that the earth is bent toward justice. Well, God is bent towards justice and he's rightful to do so because of the world's sin. But however, he has given his son as the final solution for sin. His was the way to go. One thing that we need, being born as sinners, each and every one of us, the whole world around us, as sinners, the one thing that everyone needs is they need the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. Without that convicting word of the Holy Spirit bringing us into a relationship with Him and also, not that we That work of the Holy Spirit keeps our fellowship right with Him. We have hope because of that. Otherwise, without the Holy Spirit and His drawing of men unto Christ, the whole world lies in condemnation. Yes, we're used to seeing the good news of John 3.16, but go two verses later and you see the whole world is condemned. because they don't believe in the Son of God. The most often asked question in the world today, and perhaps you've heard this, is why do bad things happen to good people? Did you ever hear that, or perhaps you've said it? It's actually backwards. In God's perspective, it's why do good things happen to bad people? Why does God have so much mercy upon his people? Because he loves them and desires that they would trust him and love him as well. Where was I? Verse number 7 still. My people are bent to backsliding from me. They're held in doubt of who God is and this backsliding, in two places in the whole Bible the term backsliding is used, in the New Testament it's called apostasy. Apostasy, that they're backsliding or turning away from God. This apostasy is held by, you heard Butz say it, by false prophets. A false message, a false messiah, a false Mohammed. I'm trying to think of as many M's as I can in the next moment or two. But all these false voices together trying to find another way. Know the reality of it today? There are a lot of teachers that are supposedly Christians, but when you weigh them with scriptures, you find they are not. They are false prophets. Some very popular ones, if you listen to their teaching really carefully, and not so carefully anymore because they wax worse and worse and worse, it becomes more obvious, they will say that you can be a Christian no matter what your religion is. Listen to Charles Stanley's son, Andy, one of the leaders in that movement. That church is for everybody, where you can grow in your own faith in God, you can be a better Muslim. You can be a better Hindu. But we're gonna present church in such a way that you're gonna find that Jesus works best. See where the focus is? The focus isn't on above. The focus is on what can I get? This is the apostasy. This was the backsliding that was the same as it is now. Now I want that to be the ending because we have communion here, but I want to take a quick peek ahead to Hosea chapter 14. Hosea 14, I almost feel like I'm giving away the end, so if you don't want to hear the end, you can block your ears and we'll get to it in a few weeks. Let's go to verse 4, that way we can go back to 1 through 3 later. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. Get the point of who the picture is upon now? For mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. You feel like you want to start singing, He's the lily of the valley. Amen. The bright and morning star, His branches shall spread. Man, this is, this branches here shall spread would be Christianity, would be the branch from Christ. His branches shall spread and His beauty shall be as the olive tree. I've got to stop here or else I'll stay here. But the olive tree, have you ever seen an olive tree? Physically, it's an ugly tree. It's not a becoming tree, it's got big giant knots and the branches going every which direction, but the thing, the beauty of it is it's enduring. It lasts a long time. Do you know in Jerusalem today, when Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, you can go there and find some of the same trees that Jesus was at. So that beauty isn't one of being pretty, it's of endurance. It would be long And going into olives more and more, the tree is everlasting. The oil of the olive is something that's enduring as well. It's one of the only oils that you can't kill. is a reason for it at no matter what stages. That's why I still don't understand this extra virgin and virgin and all these different stages of its fermentation that it's useful all the time. Another picture of Christ Jesus. His branches shall spread and His beauty shall be as the olive tree and His smell as Lebanon. I don't want to go smell Lebanon today. But Lebanon was known for its giant fir trees. As actually the symbol still of Lebanon is the giant pine tree. And one of the things I love most is the fresh smell of pines. I even, when we get a fake Christmas tree, go out and get that spray. But that's a picture. of what God's love is. Let's go back to Hosea 11. Keep that in mind. Remember, even Hosea, though we've been in it for umpteen weeks, The reality, it's designed that the reader can sit down and read it in one sitting. So you get the whole picture at one time. You see God's love in his drawing of them. And though I just want to read the next few verses here. Oh wait, let me finish verse seven here. And my people are bent to backsliding from me, though they called them to the Most High, though the prophets called them unto the Lord. The prophets, until the chapter begins in verse one, or verse two, it starts with a prophet's call of Israel to rescue them, and it's the same thing here in verse seven. Look it, none at all would exalt him. There was none righteous, no, not one. Nobody there. That's a picture of the sin still. No one has the righteousness of God. Let's look ahead here. Verse number eight, think of the Lord's thoughts here. In spite of their sin, in spite of their backsliding, in spite of their idol worship, their worship of other gods, look what he says. How shall I give thee up? How? I love you so much. I know my justice. How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? By the way, Admah and Zeboim are two pretty much unknown places, but when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, their wickedness was known, but there were two other cities that were destroyed in the plain with Sodom and Gomorrah. It was Zebulun and Admonah. None of us knows about them. Nobody knows. They're unheard of. They're unknown. So his God was saying, how? Even though this would happen historically, the Jews would be scattered throughout the entire world. They would be like Admonar and Zebulim, no mention. They would be a forgotten people, but yet God kept them. God will still have and still has a plan for the Jewish nation today when he draws people together, the current nation Israel, a foreshadow of the true kingdom of God that will come in the millennium. Let's go on further. My heart is turned within me. Did you ever have a turned heart? Has your heart ever been so broken? Have you ever had to discipline somebody and chastise somebody and say, how can I do this? A son or a daughter or a friend that is in sin, and yet you have to turn your back on them and let them do as they want, otherwise you'd be involved with their sin. It tore God's heart apart, that His people were like they were. We think in terms of modernism today, we think that, oh yeah, the Old Testament God, He was the God of hate. But as Jesus, He came as the God of love. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has always been the God of love. The God of compassion for His people. My heart is turned within me My heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together. All these judgments that I need to show to my people inside me, it's burning. That's what kindled means. It's a set, a fire is set within him with his compassion that he has. Look at verse number nine. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city. In other words, I will not enter this city. They're going to have to go through what they're going to go through in the here and now. Right now it's meant for judgment in order to redeem them later. Just as Judah would be taken into Babylon into captivity, God would preserve them there and bring them back. But yet he had to let them go. That's what happens here. He had to let them, at that time, go under his judgment, though it broke his heart. He was not the mean, wrathful God. The people deserved that judgment. But God would still have the better, the upper hand on the whole situation, where those that would turn to him would be rescued, God would preserve a remnant of Ephraim, of Israel. He would keep a remnant of Judah throughout all history, and they will be brought back together again in the Kingdom. That's where I'll leave it. Jesus Christ, today, if you read Romans 9, 10, and 11 in their proper context, has come At the rejection of his people, Israel, salvation has come to the Gentiles, of which all of us are here today. We are Gentile believers. I don't believe we have anybody of a Jewish heritage, and if you are, you still need to be saved. Amen. He has brought them together. See, the grace that was given shedding of His blood was made to make Israel jealous. The Jews are to be jealous of what you have. You say you know God? You say you know His Son? Who is His Son? He is Jesus. And though your forefathers witnessed His deliverance out of Egypt and all these things, He's coming back to deliver you from the world of sin and death, and also from the ultimate in persecution during the reign of Antichrist. Oh, I can't wait to witness that from above. When Christians will be in heaven with the Lord and will actually witness God drawing His elect from the four corners of the earth and bringing them back into the land. That's a lot heavier than a 747 landing with about 100 Russian Jews. It will be from all of the world gathered. He'll take this land that was once accursed and use it for his purpose in bringing salvation to Israel. He's not done. Hosea looks like doom and gloom. And it was for them then. They did go through the afflictions from the Assyrians. They did go through that, the persecutions. But yet God has preserved that remnant that will once again be coming back, a remnant of Jews that he will draw together. Oh, what a glorious day that will be. Amen. Christ is the answer. Sounds like a broken record, isn't it? Christ is the answer. What's your problem? Christ is the answer. You say you're going through trial? Christ is the answer. Just believe. Imagine how much of the Old Testament would have been saved if Israel had just simply believed. We'd only have a New Testament. That's all Israel would have been saved. But they were accursed for our sake. I almost feel like singing an Easter song. Christ the Lord is risen today. Yeah, somebody else finish the hallelujah. The Lord is good. His desire, in spite of all of the trials that his people went through, in the end he gets the upper hand. Even today, the trials we go through, they might even kill us. They might take us out of this earth, but our faith is not on what's on earth. Our faith is in the one that sits on the throne. I can't think of anything better to think of than that. That one day we'll be with Him. We'll see Him as He is. Amen? I'd love to be 30 years old again. Amen? The glory of God is what we look to.