[0:00] As we turn now to this 11th chapter in the prophecy of Hosea, we find here again this sort of a contrast or the kind of balance between the Lord, on the one hand, having to visit wrath upon his people Israel for their unfaithfulness and for their idolatry.
[0:18] On the other hand, his yearning heart over them personally. He longs for them to be reconciled, but they are determined not to be. And this grieves, if we can say that unrevenently, grieves the heart of a loving father, of a loving God. And yet they draw down the wrath upon them themselves.
[0:40] We open with this verse, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. And most of us will probably recollect that Matthew quotes this verse in Matthew chapter 2 and verse 15, when it says that, you know, the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, fled from Herod and Israel down into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
[1:10] This is the verse that Matthew is quoted. Now, of course, Matthew takes that verse and he applies it to the Messiah, undoubtedly, rightly.
[1:22] It wouldn't be needful simply for the sonship to be applied purely to the Messiah because it's also applied to Israel, in a sense.
[1:33] In the first context here, through Hosea, the Lord is addressing Israel. Israel was a child, I loved him, I called my son out of Egypt. Yes, the Messiah in the fullness of time, but also good to remember that way back in Exodus, in chapter 4, verse 22, we read, Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, this is what Moses is told, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn, and I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me.
[2:05] And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. So you see that the two are not contradictory, but rather they're both, if you like, concentric circles.
[2:19] Both pieces fit together, both prophecies come alive, not only for the people of Israel, described in Exodus as God's firstborn son, but also ultimately for the Messiah.
[2:31] And this is what we find repeatedly, not only in God's word, but also throughout his creation and prominence, and how God makes everything perfect in its fitting together.
[2:44] But just as an example of that, I remember reading a paper some time ago that somebody had prepared about how in the original Greek, the New Testament is written in, they find that it's something to do with the groupings of seven words, and seven being the number of perfection, the number that is ascribed as the divine number, the number for God, how all the words and the letterings not only appear in sevens, but in multiples of seven.
[3:10] This recurs throughout the Greek text, throughout not only Matthew, but then Mark and Luke and John, throughout the New Testament, this pattern is emerging, this beautiful pattern, a concentric circle of sevens and multiples of sevens, and throughout the wording.
[3:27] Now, there is no way that those inspired to write down the New Testament could have said, no, I'll just write six letters. Oh, right, better write the seventh one there. Make sure that's a bracket.
[3:38] Write another group of seven there. Make sure it all fits together. No, they just wrote as they were inspired. Holy men of God wrote down as they were carried along by the Spirit, as Peter, I think, tells us.
[3:50] And yet, through it all, God has this perfection of the pattern. There's another example of something you'll remember that in our intimation sheet, there was the lecture advertised about the Astronomical Society and about the Star of Bethlehem.
[4:05] And I don't want to bore you with all the details of the lecture I managed to get to last night. But just as an example, if we take in Revelation 12, you've got this kind of mysterious reference to a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet.
[4:23] Now, obviously, this is a symbolic reference either to the church or the mania or whatever. You've clothed with the sun as in the sense of the sun of righteousness, and that when the Lord appears in glory, we see that his face shines at the sun.
[4:38] Yes. But also, as the Astronomical people pointed out, if we think of the heavens, I wonder in heaven. What is in the heavens? The stars are in the heavens. And a woman in the heavens appearing.
[4:50] Well, there's only one star constellation that is named as for a female, and that is the constellation of Virgo, the Virgin. And so we have this constellation of the Virgin, where at one stage in the sky is the Earth's orbit and all the planets' orbits and so on, where the sun would be positioned right slap bang in the middle of that constellation.
[5:13] A woman clothed with the sun. And the moon would appear just beneath where the feet of the constellation of the Virgo would be. And around what would be the head, the sort of elliptical circle of, it's not in fact 12 stars, but nine stars and three planets, making an appearance of 12 stars around her head.
[5:37] Now, of course, this is just stars, planets in the sky. You could say it doesn't mean a thing. But it cannot be coincidence. And, you know, you don't need to know astronomy to perhaps get the best or enough out of Revelation or the different text or whatever.
[5:52] But it's like the more you scratch the surface, like the groupings of seven in the Greek and so on, the more you scratch at the surface, the more layers you peel away, the more you see how everything God has done fits together perfectly, fulfills not only the literal truth, but the deep and symbolic truth, the scriptural truth, the providential truth, the astronomical truth, so the heavens, it all fits together.
[6:23] Just like we're saying here about this, Hosea 11, when Israel was a child, I loved him. Out of Egypt I called my son. Yes, in the first instance, it's Israel.
[6:34] In the fulfillment, it's Christ. The one does not exclude the other. The layers of truth are there in Scripture. It's fulfilled and it's fulfilled again more deeply.
[6:47] It's almost like if you can think of doing a jigsaw puzzle. And you fit all the pieces together and you see the pictures. Oh, I think that's nice. A lovely picture. It all fits together beautifully.
[6:57] Yeah. And you wonder at all the ability and mystery of making a picture. All the pieces fit. And as though you could then somehow go into that picture and it became not only a three-dimensional puzzle, all fitting around you, but you're sort of walking through it, seeing it all life-size.
[7:15] And every single little piece, every detail, every color, every shade, interlocks and connects with everything else. Everything in God's creation, in his providence, in his word, in the appearance of Christ, every detail is all exactly as it should be.
[7:36] It is all part of his sovereign, not only sovereign grace, but sovereign perfection. And thus in the providence of God, as it says, you know, elsewhere, I think it's, maybe you know, in the Proverbs or Job, it says, you know, the Lord hath made all things for his glory, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
[7:56] Even the rebellion of man, even the rebellion of Israel, ends up glorifying God, ends up being part of the picture of perfection.
[8:10] God does nothing in it. It doesn't matter if you don't know the astronomy, if you don't know all the Greek and the text, and so on, there's still enough to feed a hungry soldier. There's enough for us. The jigsaw possible, that's all, if all you get is the flat picture, you still see, hey, great, wonderful, we can see what the image is, but how much more, the deeper you go, the more you find it all fits together.
[8:33] This is what God's work and word is like. The deeper you go into it, the more fulfillment, the more perfection, the more beauty, the more wonder, that you see how God is way ahead of us.
[8:44] Whatever we may discover, God already knew you, all fitted it together. It's God's intentional perfection. perfection. When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
[8:59] And one way of understanding that verse is that Israel is first referred to as God's son, in the time of Egypt, in the time of his bondage. In terms of the Messiah, it's an affirmation, not only is he his son at the time of the annunciation of the birth, but he continues to say, it's not just at the time of his baptism, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, but he's still my son, even in the time of Egypt.
[9:23] He has to go down to Egypt to avoid extinction at the hands of Herod, just as Israel had to go down into Egypt to avoid extinction through famine. It all fits together.
[9:35] As they called them, now the they, in the first instance, are the true prophets. So they went from them, Israel as a nation, turned its back on the message of the true prophets, on the message of the Lord.
[9:48] And we see here again, the sorrow, the tension, of those who remain true to God, and try to call them back, and those who just want to go the way of the world, or the flesh, or the devil, or the false gods.
[10:00] They sacrificed unto Balaam. Now the I am at the end, and Balaam, it means it's plural. Lots of different Bales. You get Bale, Peor, you get Bale, this Bale, that Bale, Nebo, and so on.
[10:12] And it was common to add the little location on the end of the Bale. So every little area had its individual Bale, every mountain, every hilltop, and its Bale that you set up there, and they worshipped, as though that were the particular God, in the particular area.
[10:29] It's, it's not unlike, if you think in terms of, say, Catholicism, where you, it's not uncommon to have, say, Our Lady of this, maybe the local area, or say in Castle, maybe the Our Lady Star of the Sea.
[10:43] In Aberdeen, there was a Roman Catholic Church, so, Our Lady of Aberdeen. And whatever happens to be the area, it would be Our Lady of this, or Our Lady of that, or Our Lady of the next. Now, insofar as if we think of the Virgin Mary, as being somebody you worship, obviously we know she isn't, but if you do, then there's only one, you know, there's only one Virgin Mary, but taking them, and applying it, as though each individual one, makes her personal to that area.
[11:09] It's like this with the Bales, the Bale. You take a different Bale, you set up a different statue, a different area, and you say, that's your little local God. And as you multiply gods, so your energy and worship and devotion is diluted more and more and more away from the true God.
[11:28] Just like Solomon with his 700 wives and 300 concubines, there is no way that he can pour all his love and devotion and faithfulness into one wife, one bride, one woman, as God would have intended.
[11:43] When he multiplies wives and concubines, he needs, must dilute the affections of his heart and the energies of his life.
[11:54] He cannot possibly be faithful to all. And so we cannot possibly be faithful to the true God and to all the Bales that Israel is going after here.
[12:07] Burning incense, the graven images. And in a New Testament context, it's like Jesus says, you cannot serve God a man. Now it may be that our particular obsession, it may be our job, we may be completely immersed in our career, it may be cars, it may be golf, it may be football, it may be some other particular pursuit that consumes our time and attention.
[12:30] Let's say, oh yes, but I don't worship these things. Okay, well if you do a wee sort of inventory on your life and say, well how much time do you spend on this and how much time do you spend on the Lord?
[12:41] How much money do you devote to this? How much money do you devote to the Lord? How much of your energy goes into this? How much time do you spend planning for this, this and this? The thing that you do and how much do you give to the Lord?
[12:55] And we will find quite often to our shame that these other things, whatever they may be, end up consuming far more of our life force and our resources than we are prepared to devote to the Lord.
[13:08] Jesus said, you cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon doesn't just mean money, it means all the worldliness that would suck the life out of a living soul.
[13:20] And this is what Israel is doing in a spiritual sense. As they call them, so they went from there. They sacrificed unto Baal. Now when you sacrifice, you offer up a sacrifice, you are the poorer.
[13:34] That's why it's called a sacrifice. You are making a sacrifice of something. And you have impoverished yourself to the extent of the lamb or the goat or the oxen to nothing, to a vain idol, to a false god.
[13:48] And the more of ourselves we pour into the world, the less of us that is left for the Lord. Now, as it's been mentioned in prayer, of course, tonight, and rightly so, none of us knows what a day may bring forth or when we will draw our last breath.
[14:03] And if we knew, say, that our last breath or our last day was to be, let's not get dramatic and say tonight, say next week. If you knew it was to be next week, and you sort of look back and you go, how much have I actually given to the Lord?
[14:17] How much have I given to other things? It would be quite scary, quite frightening. And then we start resolving, oh, well, I must do better, I must do more to the Lord. Well, you know, plenty of time yet.
[14:30] If you gave your whole life to the Lord, it would never be enough. That's why he gives us eternity. That's why he wants us to be with him for all eternity. But God's love to his children never ceases.
[14:43] And you can see the tendons coming out here with the Lord in verse 3. It says, I taught Ephraim also to go. It doesn't mean to go away. It's in the Hebrew, the word go is the same as the word for walk.
[14:58] It's like when Samson finds the honey, it says, and he was eating it as he was walking along. He's going and eating, literally, is in the Hebrew. When it says, I taught Ephraim also to go, it means I taught him to walk.
[15:10] Taking them by their arms. The image is of a little toddler who cannot yet walk properly just sort of leg at each corner kind of stotting along and the parent holding their little arms as they stop along towards you.
[15:24] It's that kind of tenderness. Taking them by their arms. But they knew not that I healed them. It's the Lord that pours his goodness, his healing power into every exodus 15 verse 26.
[15:40] If thou wilt diligently harp into the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt do that which is right to his sight and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee.
[16:00] I am the Lord that healeth thee. You might think, well, they wouldn't need healing if they hadn't had all the afflictions that beset Egypt. Remember, some of the plagues, it was just the Egyptians that affected and some of them, the Israelites who have suffered under them too.
[16:14] But the fact of the matter is that in this world we meet so much that is illness and sickness and that is wrong in the world. If we are going to be made whole, we are going to be healed.
[16:26] It is only the Lord that healeth us. Only the Lord that makes us whole, makes us complete. because at the end of the day, if you are walking around with a piece of your arm chopped off and you have only got a stump or if you are hovering along because one of your legs have been chopped off then you are not going to walk properly.
[16:46] If you have got a piece missing, if you are losing one of your organs or whatever, then you are going to be less healthy than you would otherwise be. Now with your soul, it is like there is a chunk missing.
[16:58] It is not even so much as trying to operate on one lung or one kidney or whatever. Your soul is incomplete. It is damaged until such time as we find the missing piece in Christ.
[17:12] And in Christ we are then made whole. Our heart, our spirit is healed. And the Lord healeth them. The plagues of Egypt, yes, they suffer with and the diseases of this world, yes, we suffer with.
[17:26] But we will never be whole. We will never be healed until we are complete in Christ. I taught every also to go, taking them by their arms like a little toddler with its spinal.
[17:41] But they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with the cords of a man. That is in the sense of humane cords, not like an animal dragging its reins or whatever.
[17:53] It is almost like, to think of reins, I don't know of it. People don't tend to do this so much now. When I was a wee boy, it wasn't uncommon to see wee toddlers on the street with their mothers with literally reins.
[18:04] You know, they'd have this wee thing that's strapped around them and their mother would have these leather straps attached to her handbag or her wrist or whatever and a wee child would go along with its reins. So they couldn't run off too far in this way or that way.
[18:16] Maybe it was too small to be taking its mum's hand the whole time. It wasn't uncommon to see little children with reins when I was a wee boy. It's unusual now. But it's a sense of the cords of a man, this gentleness of reins, the bands of love.
[18:33] I was to them as they take off the yoke on their jaws as a compassionate farmer. when his beast has finished the plowing or finished it. He takes the meal off.
[18:44] He doesn't leave it all night. Takes it off, rubs it down, sets its food before them and laid meat unto them. This is God's tenderness to his children. He shall not return into the land of Egypt.
[18:57] Now remember this was Israel's great problem. Even in the wilderness, they kept saying they wanted to go back to Egypt. They thought things were better in Egypt. They thought they had more food and variety and enjoyment of the things of the flesh in those days in Egypt.
[19:12] They forgot the bondage. They forgot the viciousness of the taskmaster's whip. They forgot the burning sun and the bricks without straw. They forgot that they had cried to the Lord for forgiveness and for release and for deliverance.
[19:28] Now that they were out, they thought, well kids could be free, but you know, it's so much better off in Egypt. You're not going back to Egypt, says the Lord. He shall not return into the land of Egypt.
[19:40] But if you don't want me as your king, then the Assyrian shall be his king. Because they refuse to return, not to Egypt, but refuse to return to me. And this is the thing, you see, sometimes people think, if we don't have the Lord, oh he's so gloomy and his commandments and making us do this and making us do that, oh we'd rather just be free of it.
[20:02] It doesn't mean that then you're completely at liberty, it just means somebody else rules over you. It used to be a proverb in olden times, we are free, we have changed our masters.
[20:16] And that's all it is. Instead of having the Lord as their king, now the Assyrian, the pagan, cruel kingdom would reign over them. Because they refuse to return to the law, the sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume his branches.
[20:34] And what I mean by branches is the villages that depended on those cities for their livelihood. And there's still that to an extent. If you think of our major cities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, they all have a sort of hinterland that looks to that particular city for its economic prosperity, its jobs, its work and so on.
[20:55] And there'll be a whole area around about where people are commuting in from. And in the olden times, this would be where the villagers would take their produce, they'd go in to get their carts and rented or to get their work done or whatever.
[21:09] And every city would have satellite villages that would depend on them, hence this branches. But if the city is destroyed because the sword abides in it, the branches likewise are consumed.
[21:21] There wouldn't be an awful lot of economy in the money for a area if Inverness is destroyed. There wouldn't be much in the northeast if Aberdeen is destroyed. There'd be nothing in the southwest if Glasgow is destroyed and Edinburgh and East and so on.
[21:34] If the cities are destroyed, then all the areas round about that depend on those cities, they likewise suffer. The branches likewise are devoured because of their own councils, chose their own ways instead of the Lord.
[21:50] Like we read, for example, verse 6 of chapter 10, shall be carried on to Assyria for a present to King Jared. Ephraim shall receive shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his own council.
[22:02] This is what they chose, this is what they wanted to do. It goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? Adam and Eve wanted to eat the fruit and they wanted to eat the fruit so they went ahead and did it.
[22:14] And the first thing, the very first thing that enters in when they choose their own council instead of God is shame. That's what we read, isn't it?
[22:26] That as soon as they partook of the fruit, suddenly they knew that they were naked and they were ashamed and they sought to cover themselves. You may cover your physical shame but you can't cover the fact of your rebellion.
[22:41] You can't cover the shame itself, you can only cover the symptoms of it. If the cause is going to be addressed, then it is we who must be healed in our souls by Christ alone.
[22:55] And my people are bent to backsliding. In other words, it's not happening by accident. They sort of set their shoulder to it. You know how if you're carrying a heavy weight or if you're sort of walking into the wind, you don't sort of walk along like there's no body.
[23:09] You bend your head, you hunch your shoulders, you're bent into the wind, determined to sort of walk through the wind. It's like that. My people are bent and backsliding, they're determined on it.
[23:20] Though they were back to the true prophets again, called unto the Most High, none at all would exalt him. And yet, in the midst of all this rebellion, there's this heartbreak again, if we may say so reverently, O the Lord.
[23:36] How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? I can't let go of you. He doesn't let go of them as a people.
[23:48] But of course, those who rebel against them, they will perish. I think, well, you know, that's a contradiction, surely. No, it's not. Do you think of all those who came out of Egypt? All of Israel came out of Egypt.
[24:00] How much of Israel entered into the promised land? All of Israel entered into the promised land, but not the same people. Because those who rebelled, their carcasses fell in the wilderness.
[24:11] They fell dead in the desert because they rebelled against the Lord. It was the next generations who came up and were prepared to obey who entered into the promised land.
[24:22] All of Israel came out of Egypt. All Israel came out of the promised land, but not the same people. And when the Lord says he's not going to give up Ephraim, he's not going to give up Israel, nevertheless, every single soul that rebels permanently against it, it will be to their own destruction.
[24:43] He will gather in those who will be faithful. There will be the faithful Israelites. Ephraimites. There will be the faithful Ephraimites. Even those who may be in the midst of Babylon itself.
[24:54] That's what it says in Revelation 17 or 18. I can't remember what you have. Come out of her, my people. Now, what does that say to us? It says that right up to the last minute, right up to the closing chapters of Revelation, the Lord has his own chosen people in the very midst of Babylon.
[25:14] God, the mother of harlots, as we read there in Revelation. He has his own people there. It is not for us to say, oh, nobody could belong to that organization.
[25:25] Nobody could dwell there and be a true Christian. The Lord will have his true people in the most unlikely places right up to the end.
[25:36] And he will have his true Ephraimites, his true Israelites. He will not give them up. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Adma?
[25:47] How shall I set thee as Zebulun? Now, what do these refer to? Well, we find in Deuteronomy 29, at verse 23. The whole land thereof is brimstone and salt and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zebulun, which the Lord overthrew, in his anger and in his wrath.
[26:15] So it's along with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, is this Adma and Zebulun. So he's not going to allow Israel to be completely cut off without memory, like Adma and Zebulun.
[26:29] Yes, they'll be chastised, yes, they'll be punished, but my heart is turned with a knee. My repentings are kindled together. Oh, wait a minute. God repenting, well, that's a bit difficult.
[26:42] How can God repent if he never makes mistakes? But to bear in mind that the language that is being used here is the language of a human mode of expression.
[26:54] Numbers 23 tells us, remember when Baal is being given his message to Baal, the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, we read in Numbers 23, verse 19, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent.
[27:12] If he said, and shall he not do it, or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? So what do we understand then by these repentings are kindled together?
[27:22] God doesn't ever have cause to repent. How can it seem like he's repenting? Well, there's the key word, seems. God's seeming changes. It is in accordance with the secret everlasting counsel of his world, the everlasting purpose of love to his people.
[27:43] All along he intends these particular things to move in this direction and then that. Most of you at some point have been on the sound of Harris Ferry.
[27:54] Now, if you've travelled on the sound of Harris Ferry, then you know that that journey that properly speaking should take something like 25 minutes ends up taking about another because it's going this way and then that way and then backwards and then forwards and then past this rock and that sandbank and so on.
[28:09] And sometimes you look out and think, James, there's the Harris Coastline and then you look out the same side, oh, there's the Coast of Burnery or whatever, because it keeps zigzagging and turning around and twisting and turning.
[28:20] That's the nature of the journey. Now, does that mean the captain doesn't know what he's doing? Or does it mean it's not actually going to Burnery, actually it's turning around and it's going somewhere? No, it is making the journey.
[28:31] The fact that the captain knows exactly what he's doing, he's made this journey upteen times before and just because to an inexperienced land lover passenger, it might seem like it's going all over the place and turning backwards and turning forwards, it is nonetheless making the journey which it is precisely intended to do.
[28:50] It is getting from A to B, from Liverpool to Burnery or back again, whatever the case may be, by exactly the route that is intended. And while it may be turning this way at one point or that way at another point, and God may seem to be acting in one direction at one moment, another direction another day, he is not in fact changing his mind.
[29:14] He is not in fact repenting. The seeming repentings of the Lord are part and parcel of his everlasting purpose towards his people in love.
[29:28] He knows exactly where he is going. He knows exactly what he is doing. It is in accordance with his secret and everlasting purpose of love to his people.
[29:41] I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim in the sense of coming back to finish them off. For I am God and not man.
[29:52] The Holy One in the midst of me. I will not enter into the city. Now the sense is of how the angels entered into Sodom and Gomorrah and then called down the fire upon it.
[30:03] When God comes in he is not coming in as a destroyer. He is not coming in to return again to wipe out his opponents in Ephraim. But rather it is in mercy.
[30:15] Now this is the example that the Lord sets for us himself. They shall walk after the Lord. He shall roar like a lion. When he shall roar the children shall tremble from the west.
[30:26] God's desire yes is to chastise sin. But his desire is always for mercy. Now our Lord on the cross sets this perfect example.
[30:36] Remember what he says. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Now that means all those involved whether the high priests in the Sanhedrin or Pilate or their Roman soldiers banging in the nails as our Lord is in the process of being crucified.
[30:53] None of men are having that sin, that sin laid to their charge. Does that mean then also these Roman soldiers and these Jewish leaders and Pilate they're all in glory because the Lord has said Father forgive them.
[31:08] They know not what they do. So does that mean oh they're all saved? No. It means that for that sin arguably one of the most serious sins ever committed on the face of this earth.
[31:19] That sin will not be laid to their charge. But unless they themselves turn and repent and believe in the Lord for the forgiveness of their sins, all the other sins they have committed will drag them down to a lost eternity.
[31:33] But that one will not be amongst them. Now what is the example then we are to follow there? The example we are to follow is that we are to forgive from the heart those who have wronged us.
[31:46] Not because we expect thereby that they will be in glory. They may be in glory in which case they will be our brothers and sisters in Christ and his precious blood will have forgiven and washed away their sin in which case through a wheat the whole of their blood.
[31:59] But even if they are going down to hell then it will not be us putting them there. It will not be the weight of sin against us that we wouldn't forgive that will add to the weight crushing them down into the fiery abbess.
[32:16] our sins that we've sustained from them. We forgive and let go of those sins. If these people are not going to be saved by Christ there will be plenty to rank them down plenty to send them to hell without us.
[32:29] it is as though somebody is being loaded with breeze blocks and going to be dropped in the sea and let's say half a dozen of those breeze blocks are ours. And we say no, no, don't drown these people that's terrible.
[32:41] And we say well what are you going to do about those six breeze blocks are mine. So we'll take these ones off and now they'll be that much like it. I mean I'm enough to say that we might still end up drowning with all the other breeze blocks and all the other weight is there.
[32:55] We can't stop that but we can make sure ours will not contribute to it. We can make sure the sins committed against us will not be part of what sends any other living soul to hell.
[33:11] That is the very least that we can do is to forgive from the heart so that those who may have wronged us and may end up lost and damned it won't be because of us.
[33:26] It won't be ours, our injury sustained, our sin that wasn't forgiven that sent them down to hell. There'll be enough. There'll be enough to damn them at the end of the day if we don't belong to Christ without us adding our tuples worth and making it worse.
[33:41] Cut that loose. Let that go. Take those breeze blocks off the drowning soul. You may not save them but at the end of the day you will be clearer in your own conscience.
[33:53] You will know you did not contribute to sending another soul to a lost eternity. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I am God and not man.
[34:04] The Holy One in the midst of thee. I will not enter into the city to destroy the city. They shall walk after the Lord. He shall roar like a lamb. When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
[34:16] Literally, that translation, literally, from the sea. It's not just from the Mediterranean, so it's the west, but also it says, they'll tremble as I've heard out of Egypt, in other words, from Africa, as a dove out of the land of the city, from Asia.
[34:30] And I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord. I will bring back roads that tremble at my name. It doesn't matter whether they're in Israel, or Syria, or Egypt, or the west, or Mediterranean, wherever it may be, all chorus of the world, I will bring them to their true home.
[34:49] Ephraim, come past me about the lies. And the house of Israel would be deceived. What does that mean? It means they pretended to worship the Lord. It means they pretended to be this, but in reality, they were just lying.
[35:05] They were just pretending it wasn't true. Now, the Lord knows at the end of the day, he'll sift out his wheat, he'll know how many souls may have, yeah, gone to church week in, week out, week in, week out, but the Lord wasn't in their hearts.
[35:19] Tragically, there will be such souls. For them, it was just the outward practice of a cultural religion. It wasn't the love of Christ in their hearts. Ephraim compasses me about with lies of pretense.
[35:33] The house of Israel with deceit. The Judah yet roometh with God and is faithful with the saints. Now, that doesn't mean, oh, they're spotless, they're good. What it means is, so far, like normal, Israel was still going away of idolatry.
[35:47] The saints, that means the faithful priests and Levites in a worship of the devil was still holding on in Judah. Something still remained. Now, we can't say, oh, well, I'll definitely be saved, or he won't be, or she won't be, but rather, we can hold fast to what we do have.
[36:05] The world is not as it should be. The church is not as it should be. But what we do have, we may hold fast to and seek the Lord in that, in the worship of his house, in the service of his name, in the word of God, in the singing of his praise.
[36:24] And it shouldn't just be, oh, our deceitful hearts, thinking we can fool God, but rather him that we desire, him that we love, him that we long for. You see, all the church services in the world, they might make you feel good outwardly, but they won't heal the wounds of your heart.
[36:42] They won't restore the amputation, as it were, of your innermost being. It won't heal, because no man, no churchman, no organization has the power to do that.
[36:55] Only the Lord has the power to heal. That I was the one that healed that, said the Lord. Judah yet ruleth with God. In other words, because they are serving the Lord, they are ruling and reigning with God.
[37:10] Israel, northern Israel wanted to try and rule without God. It's like Paul writes to the Corinthians, now you are fool, now you are rich, you are reigned as kings without us, and I would to God, you did reign, and we also might reign with you.
[37:25] Trying to throw off the shackles, of God doesn't set us free, it just means that somebody else puts shackles on us.
[37:36] God's shackles are not chains of bondage, they are like chains of gold around the neck, they are ornaments of grace, they are means of beautifying.
[37:49] The shackles and chains of the world are just that, they are slavery, they are that which binds us to this world which is due to be destroyed. What the Lord would give us is that which would set us free, that which would heal.
[38:05] To rule with God is what he has promised to his children. They would sit with him in his throne, they would reign over the twelve tribes of Israel, that's what he said to the apostles, he will sit on twelve throats, judging the tribes of Israel.
[38:19] Judah yet ruled with God and his faith for with the saints, with those that love the Lord. That is where God desires to be, in the midst of his people, isn't that what Jesus taught his disciples?
[38:32] Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, they remain in the midst of them. That's where he wants to be. He wants to be with his own family, with his own people. He wants to be with those that he has taught to walk in the ways of the Lord.
[38:46] When they were little toddlers in the faith, he drew them gently, when he healed them of their infirmities, when he delivered them from their bondage, that is what he wants them to be.
[38:59] That is where he wants to be, in the midst of his people. How do we ensure the Lord wants to be amongst us? Love and obey the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and whatever may be the false gods and the Baals and the idols with which we are cluttering our eyes.
[39:20] give them their proper place, less than God, beneath God, after God, but instead to make him the focus of all our love, our heart, our soul, our devotion.
[39:36] That is how we will get the best out of this world and all its benefits. It is how we will secure a blessed eternity. ettr land on earth.