Episode Transcript
God willing will be expounding Hosea chapter 8, the latter part of verse 9 and verse 10.
We left off the first part of verse 9 last week, so Hosea 9b through 10.
We could put it like that.
We left off in verse 9 where God said Israel had gone up to Assyria like a wild ass alone without God by himself.
And I was a little shocked by this, but one of the Gerumeni girls, is it Rebecca?
OK, I'll make sure I got her name right.
Rebecca, based off our text last week, she drew a wild ass bucking at the Bible
and she has a local church's name on it.
I'm not going to share it with you and don't zoom in on it.
But it's apparently a liberal Baptist church around this area.
And it says to Brother Fulton and Tammy from Rebecca Faith
Germany.
And we sure appreciate that photo.
And it's awful sweet and a very good job that you did.
Very good job.
We do not want to be bucking and bring Baptist.
That's for sure.
But they went up without God for help.
They went up to a Syria.
They went up to the other nations.
And they were looking to a serious leadership.
They wanted a Syria's help.
They wanted to forge a strong political alliance between Israel and Assyria.
Right now, Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, they're all big buddies.
They've got these strong political alliances that they're forging together.
And meanwhile, America, Japan, South Korea, and Ukraine,
they're all buddies with each other.
And they formed alliances with each other.
It's all really pretty sickening to watch
those leaders snuggling up close to each other and shaking each other's hands
and putting on fake smiles
and playing war games together.
Because I don't think any of them really like each other.
I don't.
I believe it's fake and I believe just one nation getting close to another nation for the sake of what they can get out of the relationship.
I believe either nation would drop the other nation, the Greece, the moment someone else offered them a better deal.
And when nations form unions like this with themselves, rather than forming a union with God,
you see, we shouldn't be looking to other nations for our strength.
We shouldn't be looking to other nations for our security and our sustenance.
We should be looking to God, not looking around us, looking above us.
And when other nations look to one another like this and cut God out of the picture, and they all do,
God likens it to a love affair between those nations.
But true love is when you love someone for who they are,
not for what you can get out of them.
One of the greatest practical gifts that we can have in life
is for us to be able to recognize the people who are truly our friends,
to be able to recognize the people who truly love us.
Let me tell you this.
Few people will ever love you like your parents.
Nobody will ever love you like God.
Romans chapter five, verse eight says,
but God commended his love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The tile of the message this morning is, "Can't buy me love."
Nothing hurts like the experience of being betrayed.
Nothing hurts like the experience of having someone you love and trust
callously hurt you, rob you, and then discard you.
The godless nations of this world didn't love Israel.
They just wanted Israel's stuff.
Like selfish people, they loved Israel for what they could get out of her at the time.
They weren't there to help Israel, they were there to help themselves to Israel.
And Israel made the foolish mistake of thinking she could buy protection
and buy these friendly alliances from Egypt and Assyria.
God said, look back in your text now, Ephraim, and that stands for the northern part of Israel,
Israel, that northern kingdom, "Is Ephraim hath hired lovers."
Now take your pen and underscore the word "hired."
Hired.
Now circle the word "lovers."
Anyone see anything wrong with that?
Israel thought she could hire people to love her.
You can't hire someone to love you.
You can't pay someone to love you.
You can't buy love.
You can't buy faithfulness.
You can't buy friendship.
You can't buy love.
Listen, if love could be purchased, then everybody would love the Lord Jesus Christ.
If love could be purchased, then everybody would love God because nobody has loved us
like God has.
faithfulness could be bought, then Adam and Eve would have never betrayed God in the Garden of Eden
because God had literally given them the whole world. Every amount of riches, everything
that you could possibly have, it was all the whole world was handed to Adam and Eve,
and they still betrayed him. Adam and Eve were given it all, and they still betrayed the one
who gave it to them. Now, if this stands true between men and God, then how much more does
it stand true between men among themselves? Ephraim had hired lovers. If people are loyal to you
on account of what they get from you, then their loyalty to you will cease as soon as you run out of it.
As soon as you no longer have it to give. Young men or young ladies never use material things
to gain someone's attention, to gain the attention of the opposite sex with their boyfriend or
girlfriend. Never use material things to do that. If you have to buy things to get their attention,
then you'll have to keep buying things to keep their attention.
And if someone comes along that can out buy you, outbid you, they're gone.
If you have to buy them things to keep them interested in you, then they're not interested in you,
they're interested in the things they're getting from you.
Never hire a lover, for love is not for sale.
I knew a woman once who tried to make a man interested in her
in her by telling him how she was financially well off. That's not a wise thing to do.
Would you rather have someone love you for who you are, love you for what you have? I
want them to love me for who I am. My wife and I were talking last night how we will
be true to each other just like we vowed for better or for worse in sickness or in health
death do we part? If I lose it all, if she lost it all, you can't lose love because it
can't be bought. The same principles apply to a nation like Israel, to people among themselves,
to people like us because today, because our nation is just made up of people.
People can't buy love, and a nation that is a group of people, they can't buy love.
The reason the Lord documented this, the reason that he documented Israel's foolishness in
hiring other nations to love her, to protect her, to sustain her, is because it's a common
mistake that people make.
Did you know that the United States gives money to almost every nation on Earth?
I'm serious.
When I was studying for this message, I looked it up.
I pulled up a map of all the countries we give money to.
It's hard to find one that we don't.
It's absolutely amazing how much money we give away to other nations, and they still
don't like us.
been hiring lovers for a long time. The sad thing was God truly loved Israel. He was the
only one who actually loved Israel. Israel didn't have to hire God's love. They didn't
have to give anything to God to make God love them, protect them, lead them, and provide
for them. If you'll remember, God started the nation of Israel from nothing. He promised
to make a nation out of Abraham. He made Abraham. He then promised to make a nation out of Abraham.
Abraham couldn't have any kids. God gave him a son miraculously. And then when Israel
had nothing, had nothing to give God, when they're at their absolute worst and they were
slaves in the land of Egypt, God delivered them from Egypt and God gave them everything.
everything, think about it now, everything that Israel gave those godless nations in
an attempt to buy love was first given to them by God who really loved them.
It's amazing.
They were a bunch of fools.
And so as everybody else who seeks to gain from the world what only God can give.
God was the only one who ever loved Israel and his love is always free.
You get that?
God's love is always free.
Ephraim hath what?
Hired lovers.
There's a powerful truth in this that we don't want to miss here.
So God's love was free.
They already had God's love.
When they rejected God's love, there was a natural reaction.
The action was they rejected God's love, which was free.
The reaction was, once they rejected God's free love, they then had to hire it out.
When you reject God's free love, there's always going to be a cost for your rejection
of His grace.
You hear that?
That's the kingdom truth.
When you reject the free grace of God, it will always come at a personal cost to you.
They rejected God's love, so then they had to hire lovers.
Ephraim rejected God's love and they spent their wealth, their sovereignty, even their
own lives in an attempt to try to achieve at their own expense what God freely offered
them by His grace.
Man, this doesn't not just apply nationally or personally.
It applies spiritually, doesn't it?
Plies across the board.
America has rejected the love of God and we also have paid a heavy price trying to unsuccessfully
replace the sense of purpose for our children.
The sense of belonging, protection for our nation, and the freedom that God had freely
offered us in the past.
But we proudly rejected it because we didn't want to receive those things on God's righteous
terms.
I read last week where a public school teacher was ordered to take down a Bible verse she
had hanging in her classroom.
See the American school system is rejecting free Bible verses and purchasing expensive
security systems.
They reject the free grace of God and they try to hire what only God can actually give
them.
Once upon a time it used to be fun to go to the airport.
Now you all remember that.
But America rejected God and had to start hiring TSA agents.
That's what they did.
Israel rejected God and had to hire security.
America rejected God and had to hire security.
Today Israel is still doing the same thing.
Maybe you all saw in the news where Hamas attacked Israel Saturday, yesterday.
Maybe you all did not.
I'm just curious.
That's a lot.
Hamas not only lobbed lots of rockets in, Hamas actually put soldiers on the ground
and invaded Israel yesterday.
They had to fight it out.
The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who I really think is a fine fellow, he declared
war.
There was a time when Israel was at peace.
We read in times in the Bible when Israel was serving God, every time you saw a king
do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, they had rest.
They had security.
They had God's blessing.
But when the kings did wrong in the eyes of God and they forsook God's law, and they went
off serving false gods, that's when they started losing their security, their protection, their
provision, that's when they started having trouble. Do you know why Israel is still having
trouble today? They rejected their God when he came to die for them, when he came to redeem
them and they're still rejecting. Did you know not only does Israel reject Christ nationally
at least as their Messiah, but did you know today in a recent poll last week that came
out on the news. 45% of Jewish people in Israel do not believe in God. They're secularist.
Do you know what a secularist Jew is? We're reading about them right here. They're Jews
that say, "I know we're unique people. I know we have unique circumstances and I know we're
put here in this spot and I know what our scriptures and our history says.
Nevertheless, we want to be like the nations around us.
They're secular.
They embrace our ideology.
Instead of going up to Assyria, they go up to America.
Here, we rejected God's free grace.
Will you give us money and build us an iron dome?
And it's really sad that this is happening, but that's what's happening.
That's why we're seeing what we're seeing in the nation of Israel.
In the Bible says there'll come a time when they will repent, they will turn back to God,
and God's going to destroy the nations that come against them.
But until they do, it's not happening.
There will be no peace for Israel until the Prince of Peace is called unto by them.
Israel rejected God's love and now they are hiring their lovers and it always ends in
disaster.
God said, look now in verse 10, "Yea, though they have hired among the nations," they have
hired among the nations.
Like the United States, Israel was hiring among the nations what they could have freely
receive from God. They hired help for what they should have sought God for. And the Bible
says to obey is better than sacrifice. Remember that in the Old Testament? To obey is better
than sacrifice. But the world says to pay is better than obey. That's really what they're
doing. To obey is better than sacrifice. It's better to obey God than to tell God you're
sorry and offer him a sacrifice, but they say no, it's better to pay than to obey.
How sad.
But though they hire among the nations, God said, look back in your text, now will I gather
them?
So we have the pronoun they and them.
And so we're saying, well, is God gathering Israel or is God gathering the nations?
Which does this refer to?
I believe it's referring to the nations.
They've hired among the nations, and God says even though they've hired among the nations,
even though they paid the nations off to protect, provide for them, now I will I gather them.
They hired their lovers.
They wanted to be friends with the godless world rather than the God who loved them.
And I believe God is saying they hired among the nations for their love, but now I will
gather those nations up whom they hired to protect them and I will send them against
Israel to destroy them."
Right down to your notes or your margin, Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 37.
Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 37.
God told Israel, "Behold, therefore, I will gather all thy lovers."
You see that?
So God is speaking through Ezekiel that he's going to gather Israel's lovers together.
And I believe he's saying the same thing here through the prophet Hosea.
He says, "I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them
that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated."
I'm going to gather the people up you paid off.
I'm going to gather the nations up you loved, and I'm going to gather the nations up you
hated and they're all going to come at you together. He says, "I will even gather them
round about against thee and will discover thy nakedness unto them that it make you ashamed
that they may see all thy nakedness." Both the nations you loved, the nations you hated
will come against you. Why? Because the ones they loved never loved them in the first place.
You can't buy love.
Love is the grace of God, and grace is always free.
The grace of God will always give what you need.
The work of man will always take what you have.
Repeat that again.
The grace of God will always give what you need.
The work of man or the pavement of man will always take what you have.
Look back in your text, God says, "And they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the
king of princes."
The King James translates this as king of princes, which that would be a reference to
the king of Assyria at that time.
What other versions translated as kings and princes, meaning those who are the leaders
of those nations that God's going to gather against them, "And they, Israel," God said,
"shall sorrow a little for the heavy burden that these nations would cause them to bear."
Now God's not saying that Israel's only going to be a little bit sad for what they've done.
I'll just make them sorrow a little bit.
The Jewish translation puts it this way, "And they began to be minished by reason of the
burden of king and princes."
Minished.
Sorrow a little.
Sorrow in the sense of diminishment.
Does that make sense?
Minish is an archaic word that we would call deminish today.
So you can say press or depress.
It means the same thing, right?
So menish or diminish is the same thing.
In other words, Israel would begin to be diminished by the burden of the nations that came against
them.
Little by little they would suddenly start shrinking up, shrinking up financially by
paying tribute numerically through death or powerfully by the loss of their strength.
But they would start shrinking up.
In the end, they would lose the love they purchased and they would gain the hate they
feared.
Remember, this does not only apply to nations, it also applies to people too.
You can't work your way into heaven.
You can't buy your way out of hell.
It's not possible.
is given freely by the grace of God through the love of Jesus Christ. Remember, you cannot buy love.
They rejected God's free love, so then they had to hire a substitute out.
Remember what God says about the gospel?
John 3 16, "For God so what?"
Love the world that he gave his only begotten Son. The gospel is based on the
love of God therefore it can only be freely received. You can't hire out
salvation in any form. You can't work it off, you can't pay it off. Because
salvation, because the gospel, because the death of Christ is based on God's love,
It can only be received freely.
And those who reject that free grace, those who won't receive it freely,
will in some form attempt to hide out in their flesh to their doom.
They do it all the time.
I said, "Oh well, I just can't see it being free, Grace.
I can't see it being free."
What situation was Israel in when God took them out of Egypt?
They had nothing to give God.
They had no strength to get themselves out.
No ability, no gift, no way to work themselves loose, nothing.
By God's love, God's power in the sacrifice of that Passover lamb, that's what liberated
them from their bondage.
That's what got them across the desert.
That's what put them in the Promised Land.
That's what would have kept them in the Promised Land until they finally had a generation rise
up and say, "We don't want your free love.
We're going to hire our love out because we don't want the righteous condition you offer
your love in.
Well, that would cause them to repent.
That would cause them to not have the false gods they wanted and the lifestyle they wanted.
That would cause them to recognize that God was indeed their God and His way was right,
not having that.
So they rejected it.
And people today that reject the free grace of God through the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ, they do the same thing.
We're not going to have that.
We're going to work ourself into it, buy ourself into it, whatever they do through their good
works, through their religiosity, through their philanthropy, whatever they do, they
try to hire it out and it's always going to come to their ruin.
The very things that they try to hire out to be their lovers will in the end, God will
gather them up and destroy them with them. Think about it now. Israel hired these lovers
out and the people, the nations they hired to protect and provide for them are the very
things that God gathered up to come destroy them. Those people who say, I am going to
be accepted by God. I am going to enter into heaven. I am going to overcome sin and death
through my good works, through my righteousness, through my religiosities, the things that I do,
the good works that I do, I'm going to gain eternal life through that. I'm going to gain
God's approval through that, that they're hiring out lovers because they're rejecting the free
love of Christ. And in the end, God's going to take those same lovers they hired out in
their own flesh. He's going to gather them up against them and the law, God's law, that
they thought would approve them will come back and condemn them. It'll prove they're
It will prove they've all come sin and come short of the glory of God.
If we reject God's free gift of salvation, we pay under the heavy burden of God's law.
And like the nations Israel hoped would save in those very laws we trusted in, will destroy
us in the end.
Like Israel, if we do not freely accept God's deliverance, we shall foolishly purchase our
own destruction.
With that we'll go ahead and close and Lord willing take back up in verse 11 next Lord's
day.
Let's pray.
And if we haven't turned the video off, if you don't leave it on while we pray, I know
I've heard some say they would like to hear us pray and close in prayer with us if they're
online so allow them to do that please.
Father we love you so much.
I pray, Father, that You'll be with us today.
I thank You so much for bringing Rusty and Megan and Beckett here safely.
And I pray, Father, Lord, that they'll be able to get the church painted and have a
wonderful time here and enjoy their fellowship with us, Lord, and they'll be comfortable
while they're here.
And I pray, Father, for all those who are listening to the message today, Lord, I pray
I pray if there's anyone, Father, who is trying to struggle in their own flesh,
trying to buy off, trying to work off, trying to somehow gain on their own, as Israel did,
the things that only you can give, I pray, Father God, they'll give it up
and receive your salvation based on your love, your free grace,
that Jesus paid it all.
And I ask this in His precious name, Amen.
