Bible In A Year - Hosea

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Well, it's it's another week. It's another Lord's Day Another beginning of a new week and we can thank the
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Lord for that For all the mercies he extended to us To bring us through this past week
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It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Remember we saw that in the book of Lamentations and We are one week
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Closer to glory. We're one week closer to seeing our Lord face to face
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How good it is to be able to be called the people of God to have God as our God And we're gonna kind of look at that this morning as we look at the book of Hosea But before we go there, let's let's pray together
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Our Father in heaven, we thank you and we praise you and we bless the name of our great
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God and King Lord you have preserved us. You have kept us. You have been so kind to us this past week
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We look upon all of your good dealings in our lives your handiwork Lord the way that you orchestrated our steps the way that you provided everything that we've needed
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Lord, you've brought us from faith to faith from grace to grace. You've increased us
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Lord in in the knowledge and the in the strength of the Lord And God you have just given us the wisdom that we have needed to make decisions
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You've led us in your path and we want to give you the praise and the glory we'd like to start this time together just thanking you and Saying that we would desire to worship you in truth and in spirit this morning that we would come with proper
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Motives with with just a desire to see the Lord Jesus Christ exalted so as we come to your word as we study as we
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Contemplate these great things of the scriptures. We pray that our hearts would be warmed
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Lord that our that our souls would be just comforted or challenged or that we might be able to Have the strength and Lord just the knowledge to be able to go forward
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With all that you teach us and so we pray as a psalmist would pray give me an understanding
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And I will keep by law Yea, I will observe it with all of my heart
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Please by your grace may it be so for the glory of Christ. We ask it in his name. Amen the book of Hosea now we have we have in our course of going through the
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Bible in a year or so looked at the Books of the law the Pentateuch.
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We have looked at history. We've looked at poetry. We've looked at the book of wisdom book
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We've looked at the major prophets, which was Isaiah and Jeremiah those types
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Daniel Ezekiel And this morning we're going to begin One of the books that heads the collection of the
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Bible books known as the minor prophets not that they are insignificant Not that they are less important They're lower on the totem pole as compared to the other books, but minor in that they are briefer or shorter writings and Even though being brief and even though being shorter
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I've thought of maybe just taking and I still don't know if I'll do this But at the present time
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I haven't thought of doing this was to take because some of them the messages are repeated and you have this idea of where the theme is the sin of the people the judgment of God and then the love of God and The restoration of God towards his people the restoring of Israel and the prophecies concerning that of combining some of them together
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But at the present time, that's not the course that I'm going to chart I'm going to at least it for now take each book at a time
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And look at them in the book of Hosea is particularly unique in this fact that Here we have
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God taking a man and it's not like unlike other prophets because if you remember
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Ezekiel Illustrated truth in some strange ways remember lying on his side
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For a period of days and then the other side and it it all illustrated something and you remember
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Isaiah had to do the same thing, but there's something that God does in the life of of Hosea which depicts which
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Symbolizes which in an illustration of a person's life The dealings of God with his people and This one in particular is one that focuses and you'll see up the top the unconditional love of God the the compassion of God towards his people
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Hosea's name means Yahweh is salvation or the Lord has saved it's similar to Joshua or or Jesus and And the idea that we have is we have a we have a
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God not only who saves us But we have a God who keeps us and we have a God who if he did not keep us we could not be kept
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We we are a wayward people And we see this in the life of the nation
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Israel wayward running from the truth of God Rejecting the knowledge of God Wanting to do their own thing and if you read this book
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It's almost you sometimes read it and you say how could these people with the history that they have with God such in a powerfully?
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powerful way redeeming them and taking them out of Egypt and and bringing them into the promised land and And blazing the trail before them slaughtering the enemies before their very eyes
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Upholding them preserving them feeding them taking care of them making sure that everything that they need is there
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How could they possibly turn? From the Lord or how could they marry themselves trying to say
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I want God in one hand and yet I want bail on the other hand. I want to I want to have this mixed.
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I need this synergistic type of approach to religious things to where If God isn't going to give me everything
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I need I better go to bail because you know there's some idea here of God of agriculture and rain and and all of this and if if one doesn't work that I'll maybe the other one will be just kind of like a stopgap for me to help me and we look at all of this and we say how could they they get into the idolatry and the and the adultery and the wickedness and the and just the the display of immorality and Then all we have to do is look in the mirror
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We look in the mirror and we see our sin as the people of God called by God out of Egypt out of our sin
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Redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and yet we struggle with thoughts. We struggle with actions.
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We struggle with behavior We struggle with words with motives with attitudes
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With the sin that is in our life. Also, there's a battle going on and And yet we claim to be the people of God too.
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So let's not look down upon these people But let's look up to the Lord. Let's look to God and what God is doing in this in this book and with these people and I'll just do a little review on the sheet that we have before we actually get into some of the text of the book
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But this this theme of this book is that it deals and shows and demonstrates the the great
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Faithfulness of God the the love of God Towards a sinful rebellious people
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The love of God towards a people who don't deserve to be loved and when
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I say all of that I mean doesn't that sound like me doesn't it doesn't that sound like us? I mean we don't deserve to be loved and yet God loves us in this whole picture of God loving someone who doesn't deserve to be loved loving someone who is sinful and rebellious is all symbol symbolized or pictured in the relationship of Hosea with his unfaithful wife
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Gomer now if I was to ask anybody about the book of Hosea What is in this book? You would probably not go to Hosea 1012 where it says so do yourselves in righteousness reap in mercy
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Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon us a great verse when it comes to just thinking about and waiting upon the
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Lord in and It is similar to and a parallel to the New Testament verses in Galatians chapter 6 where it says that a person ought to sow to themselves to the
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Spirit so to the Spirit not to the flesh and And wait for wait for God, you know
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We have that verse Let us not grow weary and well -doing For we shall reap if we faint not this idea of spiritual sowing and it's the right thing to do as you wait upon the
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Lord But that verse in in in Hosea 10 verse 12 has probably been one of my favorite verses that I've held on to over the years to where we can be a people who so righteousness who desire to seek after the
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Lord who wait for the for the Lord's mercy to to To rain righteousness upon us and to bring fruit out of our lives
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But no, we don't think we don't probably go there what we go to what we think about we think of Hosea is
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This story about his marriage This this this Unbelievable story of this account where God has asked
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Hosea God has commanded Hosea in chapter 3 and verse 1 to love again to go after his wife this
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The woman named Gomer who was unfaithful Who was an adulteress who went away from Hosea?
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and she got caught up with other lovers other people who she felt would provide her needs and get of her satisfaction and And be there for her and she did not she did not stay faithful to the covenant that she was
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Of of marriage that she had the first entered into with Hosea and she goes off for other loves and this physical immorality of of Gomer is
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Depicts the spiritual idolatry of the nation Israel God is the one they ought to be married to God is the one that they are to love with all of their heart soul mind
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And strength God is the one that they are to obey. He is he is to be Lord and master
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He is to be the one that they set their affections on and their whole life is focused toward him and yet they go away from God Israel has and they go after Baal they go away from God and they are and they are in Not only the immorality that is described in this book physically but the spiritual idolatry to the hooking up with Baal the hooking up with false gods the listening to false prophets and so on and they have
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Forsaken the covenant with God God said I will be your God. You will be my people remember
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We've been hearing that over and over again From from the beginning of the books of the Bible if these people would walk in my ways
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That I will be their God. I will be a God unto them. I will be the I am to them And they will be my people, but that's not the case the people have like Gomer forsook
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The people have forsaken God also in the covenant and broken the covenant and God is not a
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God who? deals lightly With sin, especially when he promises to his people that if you sin,
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I will visit you with judgment And that's exactly what? Hosea's oracle is or his message from God is
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That you are a wayward people and I am going to judge you and yet there's also hope in his prophecies that God will
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Restore them God will bring them to the place where he will call them his they will be his people again
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And he will be their God now what I'd like to do is maybe if there's anything else.
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Let's see I'll probably touch on some of these things as we go along But I'd like to be
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I'd like to begin reading because in In this book there are there are portions in it that as we just begin to read it and if you get the first three chapters of this book you will understand this relationship that Between Hosea and Gomer and it kind of completely lays the foundation
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That is the prodigal wife And then lays the foundation in those first three chapters for the last chapters 4 through 14 about a prodigal nation that God is going to deal with and Let's let's just take a look at this and begin follow with me
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If you would as I begin reading in verse 1 The word of the Lord that came unto
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Hosea the son of Berai in the day of Uzziah Uzziah Jotham hate these are the kings
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Ahaz Hezekiah kings of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash the king of Israel of course
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Hosea is Amongst only the two prophets Hosea and Jonah were the only two that prophesied in the northern kingdom
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In in Israel, that's what is being spoken of here The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea And the
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Lord said to Hosea go take unto thee a wife of Hortum's and children of Hortum's For the land hath committed great
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Hortum departing from the Lord the people are departing from the Lord so he went and took
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Gomer the daughter of Deblayim which conceived and bear him a son and the
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Lord said unto him call his name Jezreel for yet a little while And I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel And it shall come to pass at that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel And she conceived again and bear a daughter and God sent unto him call her low
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Rue low Rue Hema For I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away
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But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God And will not save them by bone or sword nor by battle by horses nor by horsemen
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Now when she had weaned low Rue Hema She conceived and bear a son then said
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God call his name low Amy For for ye are not my people and I will not be your
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God We'll see in the names of these children as it says in the notes. We have this idea of this decree this increasing
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Position of the people of God before their God and It's depicted in the names of the children first.
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It's God scatters Is Jezreel and then we have this low Rue Hema, which is not pitied
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Meaning God is not going to have mercy not as God is not going to have compassion upon them as he had had in the past because judgment is going to come and Then finally, it's low low army, which means not my people and that is where we see that the covenant is broken and And God is rejecting his people sounds harsh but it's what
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God had promised that he would do to the people if they would not be faithful to him and they would not Obey him and walk in his ways and if they forgot
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God and they forgot his law then God said that his face would be turned against them and he would reject them and He would deal harshly with them but we do have the promises that are there that God will always have a remnant
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God will always have a a Group that that he will be faithful to that.
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He will not totally obliterate them It's not annihilation here But it is a judgment towards the people of God who are disobeying
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To bring them back to the place where they ought to be to be faithfully serving the Lord in Verse 10 yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sands of the sea
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Which cannot be measured nor numbered here's we see some of the hope for the future In the times of restoration and it shall come to pass
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Then in the place where it was said unto them you are not my people There it shall be said unto them
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You are the sons of the Living God Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head and they shall come up out
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Of the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel now as you read this book You know This is one thing that you need to remember
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Also, it can be difficult because it is a collection of prophecies over a long period of time and some of its repeated
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It kind of goes back chronologically don't read the book chronologically thinking it's all happening in this order because you'll have times where God is is the sin of the people the
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Judgment and then the restoration and then it'll start over again the sin of the people the judgment and the restoration
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So as you're reading the book Read it with that in mind that it is just it is these repetitive time
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Messages of Hosea calling the people back to God. That's that is we heard last week
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I remember I reviewed that that that was one of the mercies of the Lord to give us messages to Call us not just once but twice you remember
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Even in the book of Jonah as we'll get into the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time
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God is a God of mercy God is a God of great grace and compassion and Gives opportunities for the people to hear his word and how many times
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I mean in our own lives When when we are growing when we are desiring and seeking after the
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Lord and there's times when the Lord may point out something in Our lives and we don't deal with it right away, and it's like we think you know
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We we just leave it and we don't deal with it as as quickly as we Should maybe it's sin
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Maybe it's some attitude some something in our lives and yet and yet the Lord will bring another message
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It'll be something you turn on the radio and you hear this about the same verses you open the Bible And it's the same theme somebody calls you on the phone, and it's just a reminder, and it brings us to the place where We we must stop to learn that lesson.
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I'm convinced that when the Lord desires to teach us a lesson It just keeps coming until we learn that lesson
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He's going to he's going to conform us to the image of his Son He's going and desires for us to be sanctified and holy unto him a peculiar people
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Just a different unique group of people who are to be taught of God and one way that God teaches us is through his repetitive
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Messages to us and that's why it's so critical for us to read the Word of God So that we might know what it is that God would have us do in our in our lives now chapter 2 say
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You unto your brethren? me and to your sisters Ruhamah Plead with your mother plead for she is not my wife neither am
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I her husband Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts and this this idea here is
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And you might have heard this a pastor Mike taught this on a Sunday evening for a period of time this book
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We'd had a good overview also and here the idea is a
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Divorce language or a court language Israel is in being indicted for her in faithfulness and God is saying that in these words that that their physical immorality
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That they have entered into that we see in Gomer, I mean the physical immorality depicting the spiritual
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Idolatry of Israel and the going away from the covenant the forsaking of the covenant is something that they are guilty of and we have this courtroom language
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It's a saying Israel is to be indicted and and the children are to to say to her, you know
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That that and plead this Case to her that she is guilty for this express purpose of not only understanding about the judgment which is to come but also that it might be
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That which might cause her to turn from her wicked ways in verse 3 lest I strip her naked set her as in the day that she was born and make her as wilderness and set her like dry land
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Slay her with thirst and I will not have mercy upon her children for they are the children of whoredoms
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For their mother hath played the harlot. She hath conceived them She that hath conceived them have done shamefully for she had said
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I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax mine oil and my drink notice the estrangement from God and yet this idea that that all these things are going to be
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Provided that I think that I need from other sources other than God and the heart is is deceived here to think
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That there is satisfaction in this world that there is satisfaction in sin and that that it will provide and it will satisfy
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And we know that none, but God can satisfy We know that none, but God is the one that truly is the one that their hearts are to love
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And verse 6 therefore behold I will hedge up the way with thorns and make a wall and she shall not find her paths
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And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them and she saw she shall seek them
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But she'll not find them then shall she say I will go and return to my first husband For then was it better with me than now
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For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal Therefore will
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I return and take away my corn in my time thereof and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wool
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And my flax given to cover her nakedness And now I will discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers and none shall deliver her out of mine hand
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I will also cause all her mirth to cease her feast days her new moons her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts
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And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees where if she had said These are my rewards that my lovers are given
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Have given me and I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall eat them
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And this is God speaking of the judgment that is going to come their way, and I will destroy And I will visit upon her in verse 13 the days of Balaam wherein she burned incense to them and she decked herself with earrings and Her jewels and she went after her lovers and forget me.
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She forgets God says the Lord I mean Can that possibly be can a person actually live their life in forgetfulness to God?
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And certainly it's possible and certainly they did this and we see this over and over again that they increase and they prosper and things are well and really this time during the time of Jeroboam if you if you
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When you read the notes afterwards is considered the Golden Age of Israel during this time in the northern kingdom
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They were prosperous and things were well and what happens in the time prosperity. There's this lack of dependence upon God There's a lack of looking to God.
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There is this Sometimes this comfort that comes in we can do this We have all that we need we don't need
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God and and and what they do is they forget God They forget his word and they grow
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Cold towards the Lord and they have left their first love verse 14 therefore in chapter 2
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Behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably under her and I will give her her vineyards from thence in the
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Valley of Acre for a door of hope now these verses 14 through the end of the chapter are again
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We have the sin we have the judgment and now from 14 through the end of the verse notice how it changes and it talks
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About a restoration this time of hope there is this This eventual hope that will come for the people of God God is going to give her her vineyards verse 15 from thence in the
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Valley of Acre for a door of hope And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt and it shall be at that day sayeth the
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Lord that thou shall call me she and shall call me no more Bailey Bali And I will take away the names of Balaam out of her mouth and they shall no more be remembered by their name
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And that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven with the creeping things
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To the ground and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle Out of the earth and will make them to lie down safely and I will betroth thee unto me forever yea,
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I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in lovingkindness and in mercies and we hear these this
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This clean new state what God is going to do as he restores his people and it's wonderful I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness
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And thou shalt know the Lord and there shall come to pass in that day. I will hear sayeth the Lord I will hear that the heavens and they shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil and They shall hear
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Jezreel and I will sow her unto me. Notice the idea of Jezreel at the beginning with the name of the children what
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God was going to do is Scattering and now he's talking about just the opposite and using the same word in the
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Hebrew But taking the meaning of that God is going to sow her unto himself And there's going to be fruit and there's going to be prosperity and he was saying and I will have mercy upon her that had not
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Obtained mercy remember before in the in the name of the second child that there's not going to be pity and not going to be
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Mercy here He says he's gonna there are gonna attain mercy and then the third child's name was not my people anymore
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And I will say at the end of verse 23 to them which were not my people thou art my people and they shall say thou
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Art my God So, I mean we have we always have this we have this picture in this book of the great sin of the people and the great judgment of God But then we also have the great mercies and the compassion and the love of the
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Lord John This is futuristic. Yeah, this is a prop. This is prophetically. Yeah, and could be just that.
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Yeah. Yes Futuristic not in this of course not at the time that he's saying it because it hadn't happened yet.
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But but Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah for sure It really
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Right in all in all the actuality from what from what I've studied it looks like it's millennial it is futuristic it is after This is what the
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Lord is going to do for his people now again we come back to chapter 3 And we see like we're starting all over again
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Notice if it says then said the Lord unto me go yet love a woman beloved of her friend yet another adulterous
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Yeah, I mean yet an adulterous According to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel who look to other gods and Love these raisin cakes or flagons of wine dependent upon your your your translation
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And what what is saying here? God is saying that he is to love again. He is to He is to go unto
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Gomer who has been unfaithful in the lover now just so that you might remember this or in case you ever hear this elsewhere there's all kinds of ideas of what and who
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The the relationships are as far as Gomer and what this means There are some people who believe and interpret this as being strictly symbolic
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All of it Even the children that they have there wasn't true. It wasn't literal It's just written after the fact and it's just a nice little story and it just symbolizes what
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God's doing But he did not marry Gomer. He did not marry an adulterous. He did not have these children And of course to me that was an easy one take and throw that one out
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The second there's a second one which says that He married Gomer Gomer was unfaithful
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Gomer left and now he's asked in chapter 3 here to marry a different woman as someone separate a second wife
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This just doesn't hold up to me either when when we look at this because because the whole idea is this what
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God is doing is saying that Hosea has this wife. She's unfaithful.
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She goes away and Hosea is to pursue her even though she is not worthy to be pursued not worthy to be loved.
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She's in sin She's in rebellion. She's broken the covenant and he's to love her because God said he's to love her
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This is the wife that he's supposed to love again and take unto himself and to me This is a perfect picture and it just fits to all together that this is speaking of One husband one wife with this relationship of one
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God and his his bride so to speak or that The people of God who were to have this love relationship with the
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Lord and here we have in this chapter 3 here this this loyal love
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He is to I mean, can you imagine if those of you that are married having an unfaithful spouse?
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Take off on you for a period of time and knowing that there is all kinds of immorality and and just the provision that that The satisfaction that this that the other spouses thinks that they have seen in these other people that they're in supposedly in love with and Then they're forsaken and they're and they're like the prodigal son.
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There's no there's no No more desire there and then she's forsaking of those lovers in this horrible condition and Then you're to go after and pursue and love
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That that one that is unlovable and yet when I think of the book of Hosea It's not on your sheet, but down the bottom of the first page as far as for key verses
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I wrote all these other neat verses, you know, God has a charge against them in chapter 4 and he lays that all out
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My people are a backsliding people and yet, you know God is not gonna be fierce with them forever and he's gonna withhold his anger, but to me
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The whole thrust of this whole book the whole key to this whole book to me is chapter 3 and in verse 1
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Where we have this idea that God instructs Hosea to love like God loves to love
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Unconditionally to love faithfully to love the unlovable Now if If we think and we kind of talked about this just recently in Brother Lewis's class last week if we think
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That there's something in us That recommends us to God if we think that that we are
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Okay if we think that we're on a higher level than what we really are if we think that we're
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Acceptable to God Then we're not going to really understand the loyal love of the
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Lord but if we if we read the scriptures and if we truly understand our situation in our condition before God as sinners before a holy
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God as those that are blind and and those that are
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Wayward those that are like sheep that have gone astray those
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That are and those are easier words to think about But as those that are polluted
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Those that are defiled Those that are that are so disgusting that's that would be a word that we would use today
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We are all as an unclean thing Isaiah said and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags that that description
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The idea I think it might be in Ezekiel Where it might be
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Ezekiel is an Ezekiel. I think it might be where it talks about that the the description of Man is from the head of his the top of his head to the sole of his foot
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He's like one putrefying sore that is that is what sin? Makes us like or look like or be in relationship to when it comes to a holy
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God and Also the idea of This having a love for something else or someone else that is
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That outweighs or is far superior than a love for God Because we're to love the
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Lord our God with all of our heart soul mind and strength the love that we have for God Is it to be first second third or fourth in our in our lives?
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Well, it's to be first But before God saved us it was not first God was not first we were first and others were first and our love for this world
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We were we were at enmity with God and we had a love for this world That was idolatry
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And we don't sometimes think of ourselves that way that we were idolaters worshiping something else or someone else other than God Maybe it might have been self we or we had this
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God of our imagination that we worshipped We thought we worshipped or we thought we were serving and yet No different than a
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God that someone else makes up in a foreign third world country where they raise up this Idol this sticks or whatever it might be a stone and and worship it
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That's the type of that's the type of people we are by nature sinful
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That's the idea of the exceeding sinfulness of sin And and I get this idea of we're in as as the psalmist said
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God has You hear me say this a lot I called the verse because I love the verse But God has brought me up out of an horrible pit out of the miry clay out of the muck
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Out of the not only the grasp of sin But the pollution of sin the there's the idea of if we confess our sins
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God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins that's the transaction God forgives us, but then
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God cleanses us from all unrighteousness because Because we're filthy with sin now think about that think about a parent having a child who falls in the mud and Hurts themselves and crying out and The parent runs out and does the you know?
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The parent runs out to to show that they love and to aid them and say Oh Johnny. Oh, you know
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What did you do that for you know and? Come on no I mean
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I've I've seen parents go out and they just pick them up and they get they get not that on the every illustration falls
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Fall short, but this this idea it that the love is demonstrated in the place of where they are even though They don't deserve to be loved and that's us and that's the picture here in this book
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Gomer does not deserve this and Yet God instructs Hosea to love her in this way to love her again
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To love her like God loves her this love is gonna cost something notice in chapter 3 verse 2 so I bought her to me 15 pieces of silver for a
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Homer of barley and a half Homer of barley and I said in her I mean it cost him something and I said in her thou shall abide for me many days thou shall not play the harlot and thou shall not be for another man for So will
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I also be for thee this and this love is Illustrated here in verse 4 for the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king or without a prince
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Without a sacrifice without an image without an ephod without a tariff him afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the
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Lord Their God and David their king and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days And this idea is that love cost something and love is unconditional and love is faith
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God is faithful in his love towards us and this ought to melt our hearts
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That's basically I mean to me there is the the key to this book The the place that I go to when
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I look at the idea of this unconditional love and compassion of the Lord Louis Did you have a hand earlier?
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Doesn't reflect the same thing you were saying, you know, it's not it's not that we're of such great value
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But That's good
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And it gives you some idea Her owners don't place a great value
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And Yeah And the idea is that it almost has this idea that this is like a an auction a slave market and and fits perfectly well into the idea of redemption and The the price here with the two things added together
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I was reading someplace that all of it together would be about the price of a slave
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Would be about the average in the in the idea of the barley is and is the one that is giving the offering of for an adulterous for for cleansing the whole the whole thing here is
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Is definitely just telling us the story in physical asked in the physical story of?
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Hosea and Gomer is a wonderful account of God towards the nation
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Israel And of course We've looked at the the Old Testament and seen that what is concealed in the
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Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament And we get the same idea that we were sold as on as slaves
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Into the slave market. We're in we're in the slave market of sin Where God comes and by the precious blood of Jesus Christ?
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with that great cost for Those that are unworthy. I mean something Normally if you're gonna go if you're gonna go buy something you're gonna buy something of worth and And here we see that there's nothing
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There's nothing in in Gomer that should drive him to do this other than His desire to be compassionate and to love her and as God instructed her to him to do towards her.
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Yes, Daniel. Oh There's an idea here that There's these could have been something that was eaten like an aphrodisiac that has something to do with With idolatrous worship.
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This is That's that's what I've read in some of the in some of the commentaries
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You know, that's what it says That you're to love her According to the love of the
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Lord towards the children of Israel who look to other gods It has to do with their idolatrous practices and they love these flag some
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Translations, it's flagons of wine or or raisin cakes Let me let me just show you some things in this book that I'd like to bring out
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In the in the in the moments that we have remaining What are the reasons for judgment
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Towards Israel and as we think of these and as we enumerate these Let's think of those personally in our own lives so that practically we can we can see these these reasons
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For way of warning us so that we might be careful to walk in a way That we ought to walk and the first one if you look in chapter 4
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There was a lack of knowledge These are reasons. I'm just going to list for for the judgment that came upon them
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At the end of verse At the end of verse well Let me just read chapter 4 verse 1 hear the word of the
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Lord you children of Israel for the Lord Has a controversy or the Lord has a case or the
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Lord has a lawsuit Against you with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land
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There's no knowledge notice in verse 6 My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge because they have rejected knowledge
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Dangerous place to be Knowing what God would have for us in the Word of God and they are and they are destroyed the judgment comes upon them
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Because they will not go in the way of the Lord and they will not uphold or keep or walk
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I mean if you know something Then you to walk in that and that's the way that you're to and we are to order our lives secondly there was a lack of lack of growth in chapter 4 notice in in verse 16
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We see that Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer Now the
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Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place They are stubborn as an animal is trained and it works
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It grows to the place or it moves on to the place where it willingly works For the the farmer those that are or the person that is wanting to use this animal in a way and Israel is like a stubborn animal that will not go forward and it will not come to the place where it ought to be to be a profitable
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Animal for the person who wants to use it or Israel is not profitable before God They're not living the way that they ought to be living
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How about this one in chapter 4 and in verse 17 We see that there is not only a lack of knowledge lack of growth, but a lack of separation
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Ephraim is joined to idols and we also see this in chapter 7 in In verse 8
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Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people Ephraim is a cake not turned
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So we see that there's a lack of separation and basically that's what happened historically The people of God went into the promised land and they did not fully
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Get the Canaanites out of the land. And so there was this mixing of marriages.
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There was a mixing of Families and there was a going after the God the the false gods
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Their hearts being taken away from the Lord and because of that judgment and this that's what's being spoken of here that they're still
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Mixing themselves with the people that they ought not to be mixing themselves with and they're not staying holy and separate to the
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Lord So there's a lack of separation Also, there's a lack of humility that we see in verse in chapter 5 in verse 5 and the pride of Israel doth testify
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To his face therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity Judah also will fall or will stumble with them
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There's a lack of humility. They they They do not humble themselves before the
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Lord they lift themselves up in pride and that sometimes comes during times of of Prosperity as I said earlier and it's a place where we need to check our hearts also in chapter 7 and in verse 14
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We see that there's a lack of prayer 7 14 and they have not cried unto me with all with their heart when they howled upon their beds
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They assemble themselves for corn and wine and the rebel against me so there's a lack of prayer and they are so blinded that they don't even see their need to call upon the
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Lord in chapter 1 Yeah chapter 1 in verse 13 no, not chapter 1.
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It can't be gotta read my notes right here. Can't be chapter 1 must be chapter
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The the idea there is a lack of God awareness or a lack of God consciousness They forget
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God and his law and that's chapter 4 in verse 6 at the end of that verse is seen seeing that thou has
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Forgotten the law of thy God they forgot that and then it was yeah, it was chapter 2
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It was chapter 2 verse 13 at the end. It says that they have forgotten me says the Lord.
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So this there's this lack of Of awareness of God the consciousness of God in chapter 10.
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There is a lack of the fear of God What is some what is the fear of the
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Lord? beginning of wisdom And these people were not walking in the correct way
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We're not walking in a wise way and one of the reasons this judgment came upon them in chapter 10 and in verse 3
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It says for now. They shall say we have no king Because we feared not the
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Lord what then should a king do to us? and then in the same in the same chapter
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There's a tremendous verse that I was looking at as I was thinking of my favorite verse in verse 12 Notice what it says in 1013.
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You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies because now notice
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You all of this is in your life This this these evil works and of course the judgment that's going to fall on them because of that because Thou didst trust in thy way in the multitude of thy mighty men at one place in this book it says you've asked counsel of Your idols that they make they set up these idols and they go to the idols to seek for counsel
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Where they ought to be seek going to the Lord for that counsel and here it says, what are they trusting in?
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They're trusting in their own way. Isn't that just the opposite of? Proverbs 3 5 and 6 where it says to trust in the
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Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths or he will straight cut thy paths
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And here they are trusting in their own way they leaned on their own
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Understanding. Okay. Somehow I got to wrap this up in two minutes. I'll do it
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There were a couple of causes for the conditions of the people and I won't be able to go there.
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But in chapter 4 verses 4 8 9 it talks about bad leadership the priests
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Were corrupt and the nation was as corrupt as religiously the priesthood was and The the people that just tells us practically that the people were not going to rise above the level of leadership, that's why it's so important for there to be integrity and character and in Spirituality in the leaders and why
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God wanted them to be thus They were the ones that were supposed to be the good examples, but just because there was this bad leadership
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There was also still personal sin as we see in the land It tells us in in verse in chapter 7 and in verse 4 that all of them were idolaters all of them had gone away from the
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Lord and just because there's bad leadership Doesn't excuse their sin and I think more than any other like no other
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New Old Testament book Hosea is a book that emphasizes the responsibility of man to live properly before God and Not just be if there's bad leaders, that doesn't matter if your parents go bonkers children.
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It doesn't matter If if your boss is off the handle and we're working there, it doesn't matter.
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It doesn't excuse us if if Pastor Mike and brother
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Lewis and Steve and and myself Go off the deep end you stay faithful You don't say just because they're doing that we're gonna do that We're gonna it gives us an excuse or a reason a license to sin or or no we maintain we
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Continue to go on no matter what happens to those who we look to now We all hope and trust by the by the great that God keeps us and and he does and he will and he promises that It'll do so.
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Okay, lastly These People who are described in this book as an adulterous wife a drunkard or backsliding
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Hefford troops of robbers half -baked cakes silly doves crooked bows broken vessels and wild donkeys
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God judges them and I'm gonna show you there's so many different ways that God judges them.
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He puts roadblocks in front of them He exposes their sin. He humiliates them. He takes away their joy and satisfaction in their religious worships
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Worship and religious activities saying that he takes away their mirror. He rejects them.
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He humbles them he Takes away the production of the fruit of the land There's death for their children departure of the glory of God and so on But look lastly with me if you would in chapter 4 and in verse 17 a verse that I had already read
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But notice this one one of the most scariest things that could ever happen Well, one of the most serious things that could ever happen to a person who is desiring to walk in the way of the
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Lord Saying that they are a person who wants to seek after God for 17 Ephraim is joined in the idols
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Let him alone One of the most serious things the worst things that is divine abandonment for God to step back like in Romans chapter 1
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So you want to live that way and you go that way divine Abandonment just the worst thing that could happen
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God leaving a person alone. No protection. No care. No help no counsel and it's just It's just the opposite of one of the the verses in the book where God says
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I taught Ephraim Also to go how to walk Taking them by their arms
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But they knew not that I had healed them and the idea was you know when you have a child who's trying to learn to Walk, what does the parent do or sibling do older?
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They hold them by their arms so they won't fall down and that's God's saying I'm the ones that held you by the arms to teach you how to walk and now you are going in the wrong direction
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You're going away from me. You've broken the Covenant and God says I'm going to leave them alone
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That's why it's so important to heed the message of the Prophet When he calls he called the nation back to God to for to repent to come back to the
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Lord to walk in the way of God so that God would be their God and they would be his people and And maybe you could take chapter 10 and read
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Read through there and look at that verse 12 just a good great practical verse this idea of breaking up our fallow ground this idea of this repenting of sin and also sowing good seeds unto the
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Lord and Seeking the Lord till he comes and rain righteousness upon us so that we might have some fruit in our life
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And we might be a people of God who understand that we have a God Who like it says in chapter 3 verse 1 there that loves the unlovable isn't that wonderful?
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God loves us even and we know that we're not lovable. We know who we are before the Lord We know when we sin that we don't deserve anything from the
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Lord yet He promises that he will and he'll love us and nothing can separate us from the love of God Which is in Christ Jesus, and he'll take that person who is so wayward and so So polluted and so and so vile before a holy
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God and we confess our sins He's faithful and just to forgive us and he wipes the slate clean and he hugs us unto himself
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And he just rids us of all unrighteousness and and shows his great compassion and love toward us
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We have a we have a wonderful God And I and I would just encourage you to as you look at this book remember that one theme there about this
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Faithful loyal love of the Lord, let's pray father.
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Thank you Sometimes we are just in awe as we think of this truth
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But knowing how much we have failed you knowing how much our sin must grieve you and grieve the
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Holy Spirit And yet Lord we know that you have called us unto your very self you've put your name upon us that we are the children of the
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Heavenly King You are our father who is in heaven And Lord we do say hallowed be thy name, and we praise you and honor you
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We're just so amazed that you would love us Amazing love how can it be? Lord we praise the name of our
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God and ask you to please be with us this morning as we continue desire to serve and Adore and worship you with all of our hearts in Christ.