Episode Transcript
If you'll take your Bibles and turn to Hosea chapter 13, Hosea chapter 13, God willing, we'll look at verse 16, which is the last verse of that chapter, and then we'll get into the first verse today of chapter 14.
So we're getting to a brand new chapter.
While you're turning there, I'll give you an update on our gospel contacts.
We had 86 gospel contacts this past week that brings our yearly subtotal up to 4,049.
I've noticed an uptick in e-books of my knowing I'm saved book.
If there's an e-book that's knowing I'm saved, it's always a first time person because you don't give e-books as gifts to somebody.
So it's always a first time person who's getting acquainted with the website, with the book, with the track, the sticky track y'all are putting up, however they're coming in contact with.
I've noticed an uptick lately.
So just keep doing what you're doing.
People are coming in, they're getting the books, and the e-book's like, I think, $1.99.
It's like super cheap.
It's the lowest it can possibly be just to make it easy so anyone can get one.
Just pray for these people.
I don't know who they are, but pray for them because they are getting the books.
I pray that they'll believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Also be in prayer for Brother Bill Barker, aka Bible Bill.
He is on his way to the Philippines today and I reached out to him.
In fact, I was talking to him just now waiting for Luke to finish up with the singing about our tracks.
Our printer, our print shop has quit printing for us.
I've been printing them for several years and so I reached out to Brother Bill to see if maybe some of his printers that he knew might be able to print them for us.
I know they volunteered to print them for countries around the world.
Maybe they'll print them for their own.
I hope they will.
Just sometimes folks don't see America as a mission field.
They think it's somewhere else.
It begins at Jerusalem and then to the other most parts of the earth.
So we always start at home first.
But be in prayer for that.
He said he would reach out to them and he was asking me about the track, which one I wanted.
So just be in prayer that God will supply and we don't charge people for those.
They cost us over a dollar a piece.
If you grab a bunch and you hand them out, you're looking at over a dollar every time you hand one out.
But we never charge people for those.
So hopefully someone will have that heart and volunteer some time.
We'll just pay for the printing and the ink.
I don't mind paying for a little labor too if need be.
I don't mind that.
And then we can supply those to the people who need them so they can reach out to others.
With the Gospel, as Brother Doug is going to be doing at a funeral, he's going to be preaching pretty soon.
It's a tool for people.
Alright, with that, we'll go ahead and start now in Hosea chapter 13.
Verse 16, "The tile of the message this morning is 'Rise and walk.'"
Now God has been talking about Samaria, which is the northern kingdom of Israel.
It's referred to as Samaria.
It's referred to as Ephraim.
It's referred to as Israel.
It's all the same thing.
Same thing as saying the United States, the U.S., the good old U.S.A., the United States of America, North America, the colonies.
Whatever you want to put it, it's all a reference to the same thing.
And the Bible says, if you'll look here, God says Samaria shall become desolate.
Samaria shall become desolate.
Now the Hebrew word that's translated "desolate" here means guilty.
The first time we see this word in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 42, verse 21, "When Joseph's brothers," now they betrayed Joseph and he was sent as a slave down into Egypt.
And finally, "When Joseph was raised up to second in command in Egypt, his brothers ended up standing before him.
And when his brothers were discussing how they had betrayed their brother, this word was used."
Genesis 42, 21, "And they said one to another, 'We are verily or truly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear, therefore, is this distress come upon us.'"
And so when they said we're guilty, that's the same word here translated "desolate," the very same word.
So the word "desolate" in Hosea chapter 13 literally means guilty, and thus implicitly it means the result of being guilty.
So they were already guilty.
They're not going to become guilty, but they're going to become the result of being guilty.
They're going to suffer the consequences of being guilty.
The Lord is saying that Samaria, on account of her guilt, is going to bear the punishment of her guilt.
Now, we've seen this word used in Hosea before.
And once we see how this word was used in Hosea a few chapters back, then it's going to help us understand, I believe, what this passage is telling us here in chapter 13 and the significance of this word.
If you'll look back with me in Hosea chapter 5, Hosea chapter 5, look in verse 14 and 15 with me.
He said, God said, "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.
I will go and return to my place," watch this now, "till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face.
In their affliction they will seek me early."
Now, that word translated "offense" there is the same word translated "guilty" back in Genesis and the same word that's translated "desolate" here in chapter 13.
So Samaria was the northern capital, or the capital rather, the northern kingdom of Israel so whom the Lord has been referring to as Ephraim.
And in chapter 5, the Lord said he was going to judge Ephraim until they acknowledge their offense.
See that on the text?
Until they acknowledge their offense.
Speaking of their guilt.
So God spoke about Ephraim acknowledging their guilt.
And now in chapter 13 he's talking about Ephraim enduring their guilt.
You see the difference?
In chapter 5, God spoke about them acknowledging their guilt, and now in chapter 13 he's speaking about them enduring the consequences of their guilt.
In Hosea 5.15 God said he would punish them till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face.
You see they did not acknowledge their guilt in chapter 5.
Therefore they must endure their guiltiness in chapter 13.
You see how the two are working together?
Here's the kingdom truth this morning.
The acknowledgement of guilt prevents the endurance of guilt.
That's sweet, isn't it?
That's a great truth.
You keep that truth in your heart.
I have hung on that truth, not in those words.
I didn't phrase it that way when I hung on that truth in the past, but there's been many times where I've hung on that truth.
The acknowledgement of guilt prevents the endurance of guilt.
Listen to what God said through the prophet Jeremiah.
God gave these instructions to Jeremiah concerning his people.
In Jeremiah chapter 3 verses 12 through 13 God told Jeremiah, "Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, 'Return thou backsliding Israel.'"
Now Jeremiah's talking to the same people that Hosea is talking to.
"Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you."
If they returned, they would not have to experience God's anger.
If they would abandon their guilt, they would not have to experience the consequence of their guilt.
God said, "For I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever, only," here's our word, "acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord."
Now that's repentance.
Acknowledgement.
What's acknowledgement?
Well God has been telling them, "You've been an idolater.
You've been worshiping false gods.
You've been serving under green trees rather than in my temple.
You are guilty of idolatry."
To acknowledge that, they would have to say, "God, we are guilty of idolatry.
We're wrong."
Now the moment they say that, that's confession.
That's them coming into agreement with God.
To come into agreement with God is another word that we call faith.
You see?
It's all the same thing.
And so God's saying, "acknowledge, acknowledge, acknowledge."
Listen, you know what we do when we're saved?
God tells us we're guilty sinners.
God tells us His son bore our guilt on the cross.
God tells us he died and shed his blood and suffered our condemnation in our place so we could go free.
And we acknowledge what God says.
That's believing.
"Yes, God, I am guilty.
Yes, God, Jesus is my only hope.
Yes, God, because of Him, I am free."
And you see that acknowledgement and faith are the same thing, and God calls that returning.
So how do we return through acknowledgement, through faith in God's Word to us?
That's how we return to God.
Bible says, "Christ once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us back to God.
God acknowledges that iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord."
The acknowledgement of our sins takes the hand of God's mercy.
When we acknowledge our sin, God is reaching out to us.
He's telling us what we need to know.
And when we acknowledge, "God, yes, you're right, I'm wrong, and Jesus died for me," that's our hand taking God's mercy.
That's the hand of faith grabbing the Word of God's promise.
But since Israel would not acknowledge her sin, she would become desolate.
She would experience or endure the guilt of her sin.
Look back in your text.
She would become desolate.
Why?
Look here in Hosea 13, verse 16.
For she hath rebelled against her God.
The Hebrew word translated "rebelled" has the idea of being bitter.
I mean literally that's what it means, bitterness.
Literally they were bitter against God.
Why?
Because His Word was bitter to them.
Is bitter to their taste.
His commandments were bitter.
His truth was bitter.
Now what a contrast to the believer in Jesus Christ.
Listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 119, 103.
The Bible says, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste.
Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.
Oh man, I tell you what, that's the difference.
God's words were bitter to their hearts so they refused them.
God's words are sweeter than honey to our mouths so we eagerly receive them."
It's amazing to me how the same words from the same God can be so bitter to some people and yet so sweet to others, all depending on the attitude of their hearts.
That's all it is.
Same God, same words, but a different heart.
You see rebels find God's Word distasteful.
The obedient find God's words delightful.
If a rebel will ever get his heart right then he will get his taste right.
And we have seen rebels get their heart right in the past.
And when rebels get their heart right then their taste gets right and what they want to love they hate and what they once hated they love.
The things of the world become bitter, the things of God become sweet.
Praise God if our heart just gets right.
The more we humble ourselves to our Creator the sweeter his Word will become to our taste.
But Israel wouldn't do it.
They wouldn't humble themselves to their God.
Therefore God said, if you look back in your text, "They shall fall by the sword.
They shall fall by the sword."
Those who refuse to submit to God's Word would fall in destruction by God's sword.
And God would send his sword to them by the enemy nation of Assyria.
When you're looking at enemy nations threatening us, wanting to destroy us, that's God's warning to us that we need him.
That the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, whom he may destroy.
And every person will either rise in submission or they will fall in destruction.
And repeat that again.
Every person will either rise in submission or they will fall in destruction.
The obedient experience construction.
The disobedient experience destruction.
Think about that.
The obedient believe God's Word.
They trust in God's Son for their salvation.
They acknowledge their sin.
They acknowledge the Savior that God sent.
And when speaking of his church, that Savior said, "On this rock I will what?
Build my church."
The obedience rise in submission.
The obedient experience construction.
The disobedient experience destruction.
So God said through Christ, "I'll build my church."
But when speaking of these rebels, God said they shall fall by the sword.
One's going to be built up, the other's going to be hewn down.
And not only would they fall by the enemy's sword, but God said, look back in your text, their infants shall be dashed in pieces.
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces.
Now this is ugly folks.
There's simply no nice way of wording this.
But listen to how plain and how straightforward God puts this.
Their infants, their precious little babies.
God said, "Shall be dashed in pieces."
Rebellion's an ugly thing.
And it comes with ugly consequences.
Sin is an ugly thing.
And that sin comes with ugly consequences.
This is ugly.
When telling this about the rich man in Lazarus, Jesus said in Luke chapter 16, verse 24 and verse 26, "That the rich man," the rich man was a rebel on earth, "that the rich man cried, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.'
But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime, in thy lifetime, receive its thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.'"
See, in thy lifetime was the time the rich man should have acknowledged his guilt.
In his lifetime was the time the rich man should have accepted God's salvation.
But now the rich man was dead.
And in his lifetime he did not acknowledge his guilt.
So now for all eternity he would be experiencing it.
He would be desolate for all eternity, destroyed for all eternity, hewn down by God's sword of judgment for all eternity.
There is no nice way of wording it.
Abraham didn't say like some telemarketer, or not telemarketer, but the customer service rep that we get.
He didn't say, "I understand your concern, sir, and I'll be happy to help you with that."
He didn't say, "Sir, I know you're hot right now and I know you're tormented in this flame.
Just hang in there.
It will get easier with time."
He couldn't say that.
Why?
Because rebellion is an ugly thing and it comes with ugly consequences.
For the rich man the consequences were and still are, to this day, very ugly.
The same man that was tormented 2,000 years ago is still being tormented right now as we speak.
There is nothing he can do about it.
There is nothing we can do about it.
There is nothing Lazarus can do about it.
Abraham can do about it.
Abraham said, "Lazarus is comforted and you are tormented and that's that."
God said, "Their infants shall be dashed in pieces and that's that."
The Apostle John said in Revelation 20 verse 15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
And that's that.
The time for mercy is now while we live.
Now when we can acknowledge our guilt before in the future we must experience it forever.
Someone may say those little babies didn't deserve to die like that.
Why did God allow that to happen?
Isn't it funny that man does all the wrong and God gets all the blame?
It's amazing how that happens.
The question really should be, why did their parents allow that to happen?
Why did their parents?
God didn't want that to happen.
God had been warning their parents this whole time but Israel chose God's words bitter.
They didn't want to hear them.
They rejected them.
They rebelled against them and now the children of God that the children rather that God had given to them would be dashed in pieces because of that rebellion.
See our children are our greatest possessions, earthly possessions that is.
Not spiritual possessions but our children are our greatest earthly possessions.
And how we live is going to have a direct impact on their lives for better or for worse.
They had choices to make and they deemed God's words bitter.
You see if our choices had no consequences then they wouldn't be real choices would they?
They wouldn't be real choices.
If we could not damage our possessions then they would not really be ours to do as we chose with.
God gives them, the Bible says the fruit of the womb is the blessing of the Lord.
He gives us those kids.
He allows us to name them, allows us to raise them, allows us to dress them, allows us to raise them.
He tells us how to raise them but it's our choice.
It's always our choice.
And if we couldn't damage our most precious possessions then they wouldn't be ours to do as we chose with.
Satan didn't defile Adam.
Satan couldn't go into the Garden of Eden and defile it and just bring sin into the Garden of Eden.
Satan couldn't come in and kill Adam.
Satan was stronger than Adam but he couldn't kill Adam.
He couldn't make Adam sinful.
He had no power to.
Satan couldn't defile the Garden of Eden.
He couldn't destroy Adam.
Why?
Because it did not belong to him.
It was not his possession to do as he chose with.
Only Adam could defile the Garden of Eden because God put that in his hand.
Let them have dominion.
It would not be true dominion if Adam couldn't destroy it.
It would not be true dominion if Adam couldn't preserve it.
He would not truly have that dominion.
Only Adam could defile the Garden of Eden because he had genuine control of it and that's why Satan went after him.
Here's the kingdom truth.
Genuine choices experience genuine consequences.
Genuine control experiences genuine loss.
Repeat that again.
Genuine choices experience genuine consequences.
Genuine control experiences genuine loss.
The reason we had such a devastating fallout in the human race because of Adam's sin is because it was a genuine choice and it came with real consequences.
Having rebelled against God's word, the Israelites would fall by the sword.
Their infants would be dashed to pieces.
Look back in your text now.
Their women with child shall be ripped up.
It's amazing to me when I say this was a scary punishment to them.
Today we call it women's health care.
Isn't it amazing?
Absolutely amazing.
Their women with child shall be ripped up.
Their babies would be ripped right out of the womb and destroyed.
They weren't going to allow these women to have babies and come back and grow up and come after them.
They would be without mercy, ripped from the safety of their mother's womb.
This is how cruel people can be and this is how far reaching God's judgment can be.
That it reached even to the future generation.
Now when they ripped those babies out of those wombs, when they dashed those babies to pieces, they did so as God had warned them when he gave them his commandment against idolatry in Exodus chapter 20 verse 4 and 5.
All this is, is God's warning coming to pass when he gave them the ten commandments saying, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for either Lord thy God or my jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."
What the fathers did, what those mothers did was passed down to those innocent babies and to the offspring that they would have had had they not been ripped from their mother's womb.
Now Israel, who was guilty of worshipping these graven images, would experience this warning that God gave them back in Exodus first hand.
But even in their guilt, God still loved them.
Even with all of this threat of judgment, God still loved them.
God didn't want Israel to perish.
God doesn't want us to perish.
If you're watching online, God doesn't want you to perish.
He wants you to turn and live.
He wanted Israel to turn and live.
God has no pleasure in the death of wicked people.
In spite of all their rebellion against him, God pleads with them now in chapter 14.
Listen to him now.
After all of this dread, all of this talk of judgment, look now in chapter 14, verse 1.
"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity."
"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity."
If you would, underscore the word "return."
Now underscore amazingly the word "fallen."
"Fallen."
The word "fallen" has the idea of someone who stumbled and fallen due to the weakness of their legs and their ankles, that they just can't support their weight anymore and they just fall.
They had fallen by their iniquity.
Their sin had made their legs too weak to move on.
Their ankles too weak to bear the weight.
God says, "Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen."
Isn't that amazing?
I remember one day a little Shiloh was in here.
I was babysitting Shiloh and I seemed like a hundred other kids at the time while the women were doing something.
Shiloh had some bone issues that they did not know about at the time.
She fell, well she didn't fall, but she hurt her leg, actually fractured her leg in here.
When she did, she couldn't get back up.
I said, "Shiloh, come to Grandpa.
Shiloh stand up."
I was getting aggravated at her, but she couldn't stand.
She had fallen and her leg couldn't bear weight anymore.
But amazingly, God is saying, "Return unto the Lord because you've fallen."
Fallen again, too weak to get up.
But to these weak-legged fallen people, God says to return.
Here's the kingdom truth for you this morning.
Though our legs may fail us in our journey from God, they will never fail us in our journey to God.
Though our legs may fail us in our journey from God.
So these people, they had journeyed so far from God and because so, they'd fallen.
But God says, "Come back.
Come back."
Absolutely amazing.
Here's the truth you learn from that, folks.
When you can't go any further, you can always go home.
When you can't go any further, you can always go home.
When you're completely down in life, you can always get up and go to God.
Always.
When your life seems completely over, you can always be born again.
God said, "Return for you have fallen."
I love this.
Do you know what that means?
The devil's going to tell you to quit.
When you've made a mess out of your life and you sit there and you think, "God, how did I get here?
How did I get in this mess that I'm in?"
Devil's going to tell you to quit.
The devil's going to tell you that it's too late.
Devil's going to say, "God doesn't want you, but to the fallen, God says, 'Return.'
If you are down and you're on your last leg and that leg's given out on you and you have no strength to carry on, you have done everything wrong, you have fallen in your iniquity before God, you have gone so far you can't go any further in your sin.
You've reached the limit of wickedness."
In that condition, God says, "Come on back.
I still want you.
Return."
You can always return, and how do we return?
By acknowledgment.
God, I've fallen because of my sin.
God, I've strayed from you.
God, I acknowledge my wrong.
God, I want to come home.
I confess my sin to you.
That is the first step back home to God.
God bids every straying lamb to return home.
What a wonderful encouragement this is.
Our departure causes us to fall, but our return will always cause us to rise, return, you who have fallen.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word.
God, I marvel, Father, at the great hope.
I marvel, Father, at the amazing graphic language of violence, at the severity, Father, of your condemnation to those rebellious people, and yet at the same time, at the same time, Lord, you bid them to come to you.
Whether they're fallen, filthy, dead in their trespasses and sins, with all their history of shame and wrongdoing, you still tell them to come.
Thank you, Lord, because by telling them, you've told every one of us the same.
We acknowledge our guilt, and we acknowledge your son.
We thank you, Father, for sending him to die for our sins.
In Jesus' precious name, amen.
