Episode Transcript
Alright, Hosea 13, verses 11-13, the tile of the mesh this morning is crowns and frowns.
Crowns and frowns.
And while you're turning there, I have to tell you, y'all pray for the Genesis to Jesus class next door.
I'm absolutely loving it.
We've got a man that Brother Billy invited and he came, you know, he's never been here before.
He can't even get his way around in the Bible, so Abel sits next to him and then whenever I say turn here, Abel's taking his Bible, he just slides it over to Abel.
He said this morning, "This is all new to me."
Man's close to 70 years old.
He's in his 60s surely.
He says, "This is all new to me."
He hands it to Abel, Abel turns to him, he slides it back and the man reads along with us.
This is the second time he came.
He's only had two lessons, he's made each one.
After church, he's stuck around afterward.
We got him a Bible, he didn't have a Bible last week.
Kind of do lucky to do, Brother.
We got him a Bible.
He's stuck around after church and he shook my hand and he says, "Some of this is beginning to make sense."
I love it.
I absolutely love it.
A husband and wife, which is Ms.
Hensley's son-in-law and daughter, they brought their 15-year-old daughter with them this morning.
So that was her first time and she was taking notes.
I watched her taking notes during the class.
"Praise she'll continue to come back."
I love to see these young people learn.
I love to see families learn together.
It's very, very exciting to me.
Verse 11, God told Israel, Israel who had been rebelling against him, he said, "I gave thee a king in mine anger."
I gave thee a king in mine anger.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your precious Word and I pray you'll teach us now.
May all eyes be on you in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
I gave thee a king in mine anger.
After losing his children, his servants, and his livestock, Job made a remarkable statement in Job 121.
He said, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away."
Then he said, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Whether it was Job's children, his servants, or his wealth, Job said, "The Lord is the one who gave it.
The Lord is the one who took it away."
Now, this morning we're talking about a king.
God said, "I gave thee a king in mine anger."
So we're talking about a king this morning, but God says the same thing.
Underscore in Hosea 1311, "I gave a king."
Or "I gave thee a king."
But he gave the king.
I gave thee a king.
Now if you would, go down just a little bit further and underscore the words and took him away, and took him away.
Job could say the same thing about that king, Brother Doug, "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away."
No matter how significant or how insignificant something is, everything comes from God, and everything is taken away by God.
Everything.
See God took away my health, God took away Job's health, God gave Job his health back.
God took away my children, God took away Job's children.
Everything comes from God, everything is taken away by God.
God is in control of everything.
From the king in the castle to the cattle in the field, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
And God is telling Israel, "I gave you a king in my anger."
Now the king that God is talking about here is King Saul.
King Saul was the first king to rule Israel.
King Saul did not always rule according to the will of God, and he did not always do what was best for Israel.
He was a selfish man.
Israel wanted a man to be their king.
God was their king, and they decided they wanted a man to be their king.
They wanted a man to fight their battles for them, instead of simply following God's word and trusting him.
So God gave them a king, he gave them King Saul in his anger against them, because that angered the Lord, that they rejected God from being king, and wanted a man over them instead.
It was a very foolish decision.
First Samuel 12, 13, first Samuel 12, 13, God said, "Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired."
Who chose King Saul?
The people did.
Who wanted King Saul?
The people did.
And then God said, "Behold the Lord hath set a king over you."
Now notice that the people chose the king, but the Lord is the one who set the king over them.
Notice that the people desired the king, but the Lord is the one, again, who set that king over them.
God sets rulers over nations according to the desires of their hearts.
"Ye chose, ye desired, I set."
That's how it works in every nation.
The rulers over these nations are there according to the people's hearts.
They may not get to vote for those rulers as we vote, but those rulers are there according to their heart.
God sets them there.
When Israel got a king like the other nations, they had all these grand ideas that somehow everything was going to turn out okay.
But it didn't turn out the way they thought it would.
They chose against the will of God, expecting a better outcome than the will of God.
We say that again.
They chose against God's will, hoping to have a better outcome than if they would have followed God's will.
That's usually what we do when we violate what God's word says.
We say, "Well, I see what God's saying there, but I think in this case if I did differently, it would be more pleasing to me."
It would be more beneficial to me in the long run.
That's always a mistake.
It's always wrong, and that's the mistake that Israel made.
Now, you can say what you want to about Donald Trump, but when he was in office, he supported the nation of Israel.
Period.
You know what God said about Israel?
I will bless them that bless thee.
I will curse them that curseth thee.
That's what God said about Israel.
Donald Trump was the first American president to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
That was a huge step.
All these so-called Jimmy Carter, George W.
Bush, George's daddy, and all these other people, Ronald Reagan, all these other people.
He's supposed to have been all these big Christians.
Donald Trump was the first to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Out of all the so-called Christian presidents, he did something I didn't think I'd ever see in my lifetime.
He got Roe v.
Wade overturned.
That was huge.
Huge.
Saved millions of children's lives over the years, I'm sure.
Who would have thought that Roe v.
Wade would have been reversed in our lifetime when the morality was so low?
Now, the morality was low when he was in office.
The morality was low before he got into office and before the president, before him got into office, but it's concreasingly gotten worse.
In America, it has been judged by God because of it.
We have endured God's judgment.
We are enduring God's judgment now.
When Donald Trump did these things, recognizing Israel and, boy, I'm telling you, the mortal sin packing the court with these judges to get rid of Roe v.
Wade, they hated him for it.
They absolutely hated him and they demanded that somebody else get into office other than him.
Under his leadership, God blessed our nation tremendously, even though we still suffered for our morality.
God did bless our nation, but the ungodly people hated him for what he did.
The people who hate Israel, the people who hate Christians, the people who celebrate abortion and all types of sexual perversions, they demanded people in the White House who would support their wicked way of thinking and they got them.
The people chose, the people desired, but God set Joe Biden and God set Kamala in the White House.
It's always that way.
He set them in his anger because God sets rulers according to the people's desires and the people of our country desire wicked things.
They hoped that their choice would improve their world, their lifestyle, but you know what happened?
It didn't work out the way they had hoped.
People are struggling financially today due to inflation.
I was talking to Brother Tony the other day.
He said he checked, his pickup actually is worth more now than it was when he bought it.
Have you ever heard of vehicles appreciating?
That's inflation.
Criminals are entering our country unchecked.
They're raping our women.
They're killing our citizens.
They're establishing new violent criminal gangs.
Department of Public Safety has recognized one and they're going to try to dismantle it, but it's uncontrollable.
It's making our crime go higher and higher.
For the first time in my lifetime, socialism and communism now actually are being flirted with by people.
They actually want it.
There's actually a real chance for that being implemented in our country in my lifetime.
Jobs have started leaving the country again.
If the inflation keeps rising, the young people who are having a hard time getting a house right now, then those young people who wanted these godless changes may never see retirement but have to work until they die.
This is not what the people wanted, but it's what the people got.
We chose the standards, but God chooses the consequences.
It's always that way.
Here's the kingdom truth.
People choose, but God rules in their choices.
People choose, but God rules in their choices.
God said, "I gave Israel a king in my anger," look back in your text now, "and took him away in my wrath."
The king that God gave in his anger was Saul.
That was Israel's first king.
The king that God took away in his wrath was Hosea.
That was Israel's last king.
Hosea reigned nine years over Israel, and he was their final king.
And God took Hosea away in his wrath because Israel consistently rebelled against God, and he stripped Israel of their national sovereignty.
So it's bad having bad rulers.
It's worse having no ruler at all because you're overtaken by an enemy country.
That's what happened.
I gave Israel a king in my anger.
This is going to cause you trouble.
God told him, "This is going to cause you trouble, but okay, here you go."
But finally, finally, in their persistent rebellion, God said, "All right, I'll take away a king from you, period.
You won't have a king at all now.
Now you're going to be conquered by another nation.
You're going to lose your national sovereignty."
2 Kings chapter 18.
2 Kings chapter 18.
That sound familiar, Brother Shepherd?
2 Kings chapter 18 verses 9 through 12.
And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hosea.
That's the one that God took away in his wrath.
Son of Eli, king of Israel, that Shalmanasir, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it.
And at the end of three years they took it, even in the sixth year of Hezekiah.
That is the ninth year of Hosea.
Hosea reigned nine years.
This was God taking away a king in his wrath.
The ninth year of Hosea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken, and the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Galzun.
And in the cities of the Medes, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded and would not hear them nor do them, Israel has been without a king ever since.
Now they have an embattled prime minister.
They tried to put the prime minister in jail not too long ago.
They hate their prime minister.
He is just as disrupted politically as we are, maybe not as much as we are, but quite a bit.
But they never had a king, no true sovereign ruler like King David, who can be their champion when the enemy comes.
They have no champion right now.
They're looking to us, looking to people around them, help supply them with weapons and such.
And even though they're fighting and they're winning a campaign right now, they're still dying.
Their people still get kidnapped.
They still live in fear.
There's no one like King David to come deliver them from the big Goliath.
The next king that Israel will have is King Jesus.
They will continue to do without a king until Jesus comes.
And when he comes, he's going to fulfill God's promise to rule as the descendant of King David on the throne.
Look back in Hosea, please, chapter 3.
We've already studied this, of course, but Hosea, chapter 3, verse 4 through 5.
We're looking at God giving Israel a king and his anger.
That's Saul and taking him away in his wrath.
That's Hosea.
Hosea 3, 4 through 5, God said, "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king."
To this day, this is still happening.
They still have abided many days without a king.
When Jesus came, they were still without a king.
Remember, they said, "We have no king but Caesar."
Caesar was Roman.
They're still without a king today.
This is being fulfilled before our eyes, "For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a terraform."
Even their priestly work they're going to do without, even their idols they're going to do without.
Israel is a secular nation right now.
They have some religious factors, but they're secular, and they'll let you know they're secular.
God said, "Afterward shall the children of Israel return," that means return to God, "and seek the Lord their God, and David their king."
Now, David their king is dead.
This is prophetic.
This is talking about the prophecy of the coming Savior who would sit on King David's throne as his descendant.
That person is Jesus.
They're finally going to get back to their scriptures, they're going to turn back to their God, and they're going to seek his Savior.
And David their king, and others are going to come to Jesus Christ and shall fear the Lord in his goodness in the latter days.
We haven't got to those latter days yet, but we will soon.
Here's what we can expect.
Enemies of Israel will strengthen, and they're going to come against them in the last days, more than what you're seeing now.
Ultimately, Israel will turn back to God and seek his face.
It will be their only hope.
Jesus will then come as the King David of the prophecy, and as David did, he'll come back and win the battle for them.
It's going to be a beautiful thing.
God gave them a king in his anger.
God took away a king in his wrath.
God will return a king in his grace.
Meanwhile, God said, look with me in verse 12, "The iniquity of Ephraim," that's Israel, "is bound up, his sin is hid."
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up.
Their sin was bound up.
Now speaking of the bread dough that Israel had, remember that unleavened bread?
They had their dough in the trough, and suddenly they got thrust out of Israel on Passover night.
The women had to bind the dough up in their aprons or whatever they had and take it with them.
That's the same word used here about Israel's iniquities bound up.
Speaking of that bread dough, the Bible says in Exodus 12, 34, it says, "And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
They made them a knapsack, so to speak, got it, threw it over their shoulders, and now their sin is bound up."
It's inside, or not their sin, their dough is bound up.
And so Israel's sin was like that dough.
In the sense that it was bundled up in their clothes.
It was hid.
That's why he said it's bound up.
It's like concealing something like this, and they said it's hid.
Speaking of Moses' mother, looking at this word hid, again in Exodus 2, 2-3, the Bible says, "And the woman conceived and bare a son, and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months."
Now, have you ever heard of a woman trying to hide her pregnancy?
Maybe you all know someone who tried to hide.
I mean, they get pregnant, and they're like, "Well, I don't want someone to know I'm pregnant."
At first it's no big deal.
Well, then they're like, "Whoop, I got a little bump here."
They said, "Well, just wear little, looser clothes."
That'll work for a while, but you're going to hide that baby so long.
And that's the problem that Moses' mother was having.
She hid the baby as long as she could.
She finally had the baby.
Babies don't stay babies.
They grow up.
They don't stay little.
So it says, "She hid him three months," verse 3, "and when she saw, she could no longer hide him."
That's the key.
She hid him, but she could no longer hide him.
She took for him an ark of bull rushes and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child there in, and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
Israel had bundled their sin up in their clothes where it could not be seen.
Now, that didn't mean that they were worshipping idols in private.
They weren't.
It didn't mean that they were sitting in the open.
They were sitting in the open.
Nevertheless, they bundled their sin up in their clothes, and they hid their clothes so it could not be seen, like a woman hiding her pregnancy from the king there.
In Exodus, they hid their sin from God in the sense that they would not come clean and confess their iniquities against him.
But as a pregnancy can't be hid forever, so their sin could not be hid forever.
What happens with that baby when a woman's trying to hide that pregnancy?
Before long, that baby's got to come out, and she might change that baby's diaper.
She might have to deal with it.
God had been patient with Israel for so long, sending them prophets, correcting them, telling them what they needed to do.
As a baby's conceived but grows up and has to be dealt with, so does sin.
Book of James chapter 1 verse 15.
James chapter 1 verse 15 says, "Then when lust hath conceived," now there's your pregnancy.
"When lust has conceived," there's your conception.
"It bringeth forth," that means it gives birth.
So first there's the lust, what I desire.
Then there's acting on that lust.
There's the conception.
And after a while, you can hide that sin for a while.
You can bundle it up, and there's no consequences that are apparent for that sin.
But after a while, that sin's going to grow up, and you've got to change that baby's diaper.
So it says, "It brings forth," that means it gives birth to sin.
And sin when it is finished, that means when it's full grown, brings forth death.
So God says in verse 13, "The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him."
That means a woman travailing in childbirth.
He had his sin bundled up, Israel did, going around hiding that pregnancy.
But you know what?
God says, "He's going to give birth to that baby.
He's going to give birth to that baby.
Israel conceived that sin against God.
Israel concealed that sin against God, and now Israel's going to have to die for the baby and deal with the consequences of their choices."
That's how it works.
You can conceive the sin.
For a time, you can conceal the sin.
But after a while, you're going to have to deliver the sin and change that baby's diaper.
You're going to deal with its consequences.
And by God's grace, we'll pick back up here in verse 13 next week.
This was not a good place to continue talking because it gets on into more of a different train of thought.
And I thought this would be a good place for us to break off here.
But for now, just remember, God gives, God takes away.
People make their choices, but God rules in those choices.
Thank God that we can make our choices too.
We don't have to choose to do what the rest of the world does.
We have to deal with some of their consequences, don't we?
But you know what?
Our obedience, that obedience, it gets conceived and it grows up too.
And God will reward us for our faithfulness in the end.
Just be patient while we're going through these rocky kingdoms and rocky political seasons.
Be patient because when Israel seeks her king and God sends her king back to her, then our king's coming back to us and everything's going to be okay in Christ.
Father, thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you for the wonderful Sunday school time we had today.
Thank you for the people who've been coming.
I pray for them, Lord.
I pray, Father, they'll come to the knowledge of the truth and believe on Christ as their Savior.
Father, I pray both for those in person and online.
I pray for each person here this morning.
I thank you, dear Lord God, that you're sovereign in people's choices.
You give us a choice, but you rule in those choices.
We make the choices, you choose the consequences.
Thank you, God, for being king in ruling no matter who is on the throne.
In Jesus' precious name, amen.
