Now, shall we turn to the prophet Hosea? The prophet Hosea, chapter six. Now, Hosea is the first of the minor prophets. It goes this way. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentation, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obedar, Jonah, Micah, and then he's gone. But Hosea is the first of the minor prophets. Topic Hosea, chapter six. Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he has torn and he will heal us. He has smitten and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us. And in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. O Ephraim, What shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early Jew it goeth away. Therefore have I viewed them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and thy judgment are as the light that grows forth. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings, that they, like men, have transgressed the covenant. There have they dealt treacherously against me. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. And as troops of robbers wait for men, for a man, for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent, for they commit lewdness. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel, that is the whoredom of Ephraim. Israel is defiled. Also, O Judah, He has spoken harvest for thee when I return the captivity of my people. And God bless the reading of his precious words. Let me seek his faith. Blessed God, we thank dear Jane for thy precious words. And there are certain portions of this wonderful book which we neglect. And all of us must be guilty of not reading enough the minor prophets. We thank you for these wonderful prophecies. We thank you for these strong, valiant men of old who stood amidst much opposition. much persecution and suffering, who stood for God in a day of detention, in a day of sin and wickedness. O God, we feel in very much measure we are in the same kind of a day. We feel the nation in which we live is gone away from thee. Help us tonight, Lord, to see truths in thy word which will cheer us and help us to stand for thee in an evil day. We seek thy blessings. Again we commit to thee, those who are sick. We especially pray for our brother, Mr. Harvey. Will thou be with him, give him a safe journey back, and bless and restore him? Now, Lord, be with us, we pray thee, and speak to our hearts tonight. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, I don't think I have spoken here on a Sunday night since before I went to England, and that was in the middle of July. And if I remember rightly, we were speaking on the fifth chapter of the prophet Hosea. Tonight we have the sixth chapter of the prophet Hosea. This revenue fits in after the fifth chapter. In the fifth chapter, Hosea finished up by saying, I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my faith in their affliction, will they seek me early. Hosea lived in a very evil day. He lived during the last days of freedom of the house of Israel. As we've often mentioned on this platform, the house of Jacob, all the children of Israel, split up after the reign of Solomon. After Solomon's death, they divided. Ten kingdoms formed the northern kingdom. Ten tribes formed the northern kingdom, and two tribes formed the southern kingdom, Judah. The northern kingdom was called Israel, the southern kingdom, Judah. But they both sinned. Israel first went into sin. Geroboam, the son of Nebuchad, all through the scripture, is called the man who calls Israel to sin. He set up idols and images, and he led the people from God to worship idols. And God told them that he would punish them, he would take them away, but despite all the warnings of the prophets down through the many, many years, finally they went into, not to captivity, into dispersion. Israel was taken away. And Ozerah was the last of the prophets to Israel. He spoke boldly, but they wouldn't listen to him. He pleaded with them, but they took no notice. They went on in their sting until the judgment of God came and God carried them away. The Assyrians came and took them all away. And that's where they are today. Israel scattered. We don't know where. Now Judah, the southern kingdom, went on for more than a hundred years late, singing, singing, singing. See how he says, O Ephraim, here he's speaking to Israel. to the northern kingdom. Oh, Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? Then he turned down to Judah, the southern kingdom, and he said, Oh, Judah, what shall I do unto thee? And Judah went on in its king until finally Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came, destroyed Jerusalem, burned the temple down, and took the children of Israel into captivity, away into Babylon. where they remained seventy long years. Daniel lived during that time. Daniel was one of the captives taken away. Jeremiah lived during that time. They were taken away, not Jeremiah, but Daniel was taken away into captivity. And Judah was taken into captivity for seventy years. Later, of course, they came back. Not all of them, but a remnant came back. The wall was built. The temple was built. and the worship started again in Jerusalem, but oh, what trouble it is, times they had. And when the Lord Jesus came, they were under the Roman Empire, still in bondage. They never had a king. After the final, the last king was taken away, captured, and how cruelly they treated him. They put his three sons to death before his eyes, and then they took out his eyes. and put him in a set of brass and led him to captivity. And it was, I think, thirty-seven years after that they took him out of the dungeon and raised him up, a blind, broken king, because he disobeyed God. And the Lord Jesus came, and it said he came unto his own, and his own received him not. And I like to think that that final verse of the fifth chapter refers to the Lord Jesus. Just as they rejected all the prophets, Just as they rejected God, just as they rejected the entreaties of God, so they rejected the tender, loving call of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was here on us. And what did they do? They treated him worse than any of the prophets. They took him outside the city wall of Jerusalem and nailed him to a cross and crucified the blessed Son of God. And I think this is his language. I will go and return to my place. And you and I many times have walked out with those two disciples in memory and in thought to the Mount of Olives. And we've seen the Lord Jesus recede up into heaven. I sometimes think that Psalm twenty-four describes the scene. Lift up your heads, though ye gates and be, lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. And the Lord Jesus Christ went back into the glory of heaven. I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my faith in their affliction. And seek my faith in their affliction, they will seek me early. We know, we who read the Bible know that there is a terrible time of judgment coming for Israel. Shall I say for Judah? You see, Israel, as such, the northern kingdom was never called the Jews, as far as I know. It was the southern kingdom, those that were in captivity who came back from captivity, but were called the Jews. And when we speak of a Jew today, we speak of one of these of the kingdom of Judah. Judah or Benjamin, these two sons of Jacob. But these are the very ones, Peter, that said that their leaders said, when the Lord Jesus stood before Pilate, his blood be upon us and upon our children. Now it wasn't Israel that said it. They were already gone into captivity hundreds of years before. But Judas said, his blood be upon us and upon our children. And we read in the scripture of a day of Jacob's trouble. That day is yet to come. The Lord Jesus said, Watch the trees, and when you see the fig tree begin to blossom, you know that summer is nigh its hands. And we have lived, we have had the great privilege of living in a wonderful age. I think it's a great privilege to be alive in the year of the year of the year of the year clock of prophecy beginning to move, the hands of the clock beginning to move once more, when we see God dealing with his ancient people. True, we have seen the children of Israel, some of them go back to Palestine in our day. I remember when I used to hear men talking about this when I was a boy, I wondered how it would ever be possible. But we have seen the state of Israel came into being in the year And last year, last year, after over two thousand years, not after two thousand, ever since AD seventy then, that's nearly two thousand years, last year, Jerusalem came back into the hands of the Jews. And we must remember the words of the Lord Jesus. Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. I would suggest that the end of this present age is so near that we can almost say now the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled because Jerusalem has gone back into the hands of the Jews. I think we are about to see tremendous events take place in this world of ours. God is moving. We live in this critical age. O'Sare lives in the critical age. He lives just before the dispersion, just before Israel was taken away. We live just before the church is going to be taken away to be in the glory of heaven with the Lord Jesus. We live just before that terrible day of retribution, the day of the wrath of God which is going to fall upon this Christ-rejecting age. And this message of Hosea fits our time today. I said that the last verse could apply, and I think it does apply to the Lord Jesus, going back to the glory of heaven and saying, I will return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my faith. In their affliction they will seek me early. And in that terrible day of Jacob's trouble, which is just around the corner, in that terrible day of Jacob's trouble, Israel will come back to him. And chapter six starts with a little future scene. Ozea is projected into the future, and he gives us a future scene. Let's read it. This is Israel in the coming day. Come and let us return unto the Lord. What a wonderful day that will be when Israel. What a wonderful day that will be when the Jews say, Come and let us return unto the Lord. For he has torn and he will heal us. He has slitten and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us. In the third day we shall be raised. He will raise us up and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know We follow on to know the Lord. Let me refer you, and I'd like to read some verses rather extensively, in the thirty-seventh chapter of the wonderful prophecy of Ezekiel. Ezekiel, chapter thirty-seven. Ezekiel was one of the captives. And down by the river Chiba there in Babylon, he is the one who prophesied and gave us these wonderful things in this great prophecy. vision we had down there by the river at Sheba. Chapter thirty-seven. And here he's talking about the things I've been mentioning the day when Israel will come back to God. Let's read it. Chapter thirty-seven of Ezekiel. The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus there the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put my breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied, as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, that there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesy, as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Now look at this. Listen to these words. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones, are the whole house of Israel. Now, this is not only Judah, this is Judah and Israel. Israel that's been scattered, dispersed for so many, many years. We don't know where they are. Listen. He said unto me, These bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, and we're cut off for our part. Therefore, prophesy and chant to them, just there at the Lord God. Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your grave and bring you into the land of Israel. And I notice in reading the amplified version it says, And I will bring you back home. I will bring you back home into the land of Israel. Isn't that just what's happening today? I will bring you back home into the land of Israel. And he shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves on my people and brought you up out of your grave. and shall put my spirit in you, and he shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then shall he know that I am the Lord. I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord. The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stake and write upon it for Judah, and for the children of Israel, his companions. They take another stake and write upon it, Joseph and Ephraim. Ephraim was in Israel, not in Judah. and all the house of Israel, his companions, and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thy hands. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Will thou not show us what thou meanest by this? Say unto them, thou stress the Lord God. Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah. and make them one stick and they should be one in my hand again. You see how God is going to bring Israel and Judah back again? Who will be divided for so many years and Israel lost. We don't know where they are. God says, I'm going to bring them back and make them one again. And the sticks there that were on thou rightest shall be in thy hand before thine eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen whither they have begun. And I will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king unto them all. And they shall be no more two nations. Neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions, for I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So shall they be my people, and I will be their gods. And David, my servant, shall be king over them. And they shall all have one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgment and observe my statutes and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob, my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt. And they shall dwell therein, even they and their children and their children's children forever. And my servant David shall be their prince. Forever. What a wonderful future for Israel. And for Judah that have sinned so much, there's a wonderful picture. And it seems to me these verses I have been reading, speak of that day. Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he has torn and he will heal us. He is slitting, he will bind us up. After two days, he will revive us in the third day, he will raise us up, and we shall live in this life. And then shall we know, if we follow on, to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as a morning, and He shall come to us as the rain, as the latter in the former rain upon the earth. The coming of the Lord Jesus will be like the day's spring. The coming of the Lord will be like the rain to refresh the past earth. So the Lord Jesus will come back to his own. In that day you make himself known to his people. Let me read you a verse from Zechariah. Zechariah chapter twelve and verse ten. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have feared. What do you think of that? The Lord says, I will go and return to my place and wait till they acknowledge their offense. What was their offense? They took the son of God and nailed him to a cross and listened to what they're going to do. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one that mourns for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. And in that day they look upon the Lord Jesus and they say, What are those wounds in thine hands? And he will say, there are the wounds that I received at the house of my friend. And the Lord Jesus will be revealed to his brethren, like Joseph long, long ago was revealed to his brethren down in Egypt. What a glorious day that will be. And so Hosea, led by the Spirit of God, looks ahead to that glorious reunion and that wonderful day of restoration for Israel. Ah, but Hosea was writing, not in action today. Hosea was writing nearly eight hundred years before the Lord Jesus came. Hosea was writing just before the final fall of Israel. Hosea was writing when Israel was sinning, grieving, sinning God's sight. So immediately he turned and listened to the lament, shall I call it, the lament of the blessed God himself, verse four. Oh, he framed, if it is Israel. Oh, he framed, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto you? God looked down and saw what he will do ultimately, but what can I do now? You will see, O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is a morning cloud. You see, there were little reformations under this king and that king, little reformations and returning, but he says, your goodness, like a morning cloud, comes up in the morning, the sun comes up, the cloud disappears and it's gone. Your goodness is like a morning cloud. And there's the early Jewish going away. Oh, beloved, let's stop a minute and think of the words of the New Testament. Then the Lord Jesus writes through John in the Revelation, and he speaks to the church at Ephesus. Do you remember what he said? That church which seemed to be so perfect, as he describes all their works and what they were doing, and he says, I've got somewhat against things. You've lost your first love. You've lost your first love. That love of that church at Ephesus was like a morning cloud. It was so wonderful in the beginning. Like the Jews, but oh, how quickly it precipitated. Can we say anything about the church at Ephesus? Let's look back over our lives tonight. Some of us are way up in the years now, and we can look back over many years. It's over fifty-six years ago that the Lord saved me, and I can look back over those years. And I remember those early days when we first knew the Lord as Savior. I remember as a young man going to work in the mornings. I used to look up on lots of clouds every morning and expect the Lord was going to break through the clouds and come and still see us to be with Himself. We used to live in that thrill, the early days of preaching the gospel in the open air. What a thrill it was. Long away, far years ago in those two Wonderful days in England. I met some of my old friends when I was there, and we talked about the wonderful media, open air meetings we used to have, preaching the gospel, preaching the wind and the wind to Christ, and we were living our way to heaven, you know. But God says, your goodness is like a morning cloud. It's soon over and we can get down in the valley again. Let's search our hearts, and I've cut some of us a bit down in the low. You know, in the valley, the Lord wants us to come back. And not let our goodness be like a fog in the morning that soon dissipates and goes. And that's how he looks at Israel. Oh, Ephraim, old Judah, what shall I do to you? Say, you try to turn to me with your reformations and your ways. It's like a morning cloud. Soon he passed away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophet. What does he mean by this? I've hewed them by the prophet. He's looking upon the prophet now. as a man in the forest, pruning the trees and cutting off the branches. And isn't that just what the Lord said he's going to do with us? Every branch he needed bears not food, he cut it off. Isn't that what he means when he Hebrews twelve, he talks about every son whom the Father receives, he chases, he chases. And the Lord has to bring us through days of sorrow and trial and trouble and all sorts of devious pathways that we might know the Lord. and follow on to know the Lord. How slow we are in learning. And so he says, I viewed thee, the prophets of viewed thee, I claimed them by the woods of my mouth, and by judgment I was the light that you were before. God has dealt with your need, it's great. He's had to chastise us. He's had to deal with us in devious ways. Saul has filled some of the months and years and days of our lives. illness and sickness and problems. All this God is using, what for? That we might learn to know Him better. That we might follow on to know the Lord and get nearer and nearer to Him for that glorious day when He's going to call us to be with Himself. Oh, He says to Israel, I desired piety. This word, mercy really is piety. I desired piety and not sacrifice. See, they were going to the temple. They were offering sacrifice to him. But there weren't real sacrifices. God don't want something real in the heart. How many people there are today that are just religious, religious. They go to the church, they wouldn't miss. But how much debt, how many are really born again, how many are really sincere. You know, we're living in a day when it's a wonderful thing to be religious. And in a day when you're trying to amalgamate and join up all the religious religions in this one great big world council of churches, and God's outside of the whole thing. And God says, I desire the real thing, the real piety, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt out. And you talk to some of these religious people, and you ask them to exchange something out of the Bible where they don't know Genesis or Revelation, they don't know anything about it. And God says, I desire the knowledge of God, not sacrifices and religion and churchy energy and all these things. I want the knowledge of God. How much do you and I know about it? How much do we read this book day by day? Oh, may God make it more and more precious to our heart. And now for verses seven and eight, I want to read them to you out of the amplified, and I think it's a wonderful description of the United States of America. today. Verses, verse seven, they, they like men have transgressed the covenant, they have dealt treacherously. This is in the authorites. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with their blood. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent, for they commit lewdness. Now listen to this in the amplified. Verse six. They shall go with their flocks. No, I'm sorry. Verse six. For I desire and delight in beautiful steadfast love and goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God more than burnt offerings. But they... like less privileged men, like Adam. I think here this word man really is Adam. Like Adam, they like Adam of transgress. And remember it says, for as by one man's sin, one man's transgression sin entered into the world. They like Adam of transgress, the covenant, they have dealt faithlessly and treacherously with me. Gillian. is a city of evil doers. Gilead was one of the priest's cities where the priests live. Gilead was one of the cities of refuge. If a man accidentally committed murder and the pursuers were running out for him to take his life, if he ran quickly enough and he could get into the cities of refuge, and there were a number of them, Gilead was one. If he got in, he was shelter in that city. And Gilead was a city of shelter for the sinners. Look what happened to Gilead. He said, Gilead is a city of evil doers. It is tracked with bloody footprints. This is the Amplified version of verse seven, verse eight. It is tracked with bloody footprints. And as troops of robbers lying wait for a man, so the company of the priests murder on the road towards Shechem. Yes, they commit villainy and alchemy. I written again in this margin of my Bible. The United States of America, nineteen sixty-eight. Am I right? USA, nineteen sixty-eight. David is a city of evil doers. It is tracked with bloody footprints. As troops of robbers lying wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the road towards Shechem. Yes, they commit villainy and outrage. Pick up the paper tomorrow morning, I guarantee you'll find six murders on the front page. The United States of America is a city, a land of evil doers, stacked with bloody footprints. This is the age in which we live. Osair lived in the end of an age. The end of the story of Israel is going to be dispersed. And you and I live in the end of an age. And God's judgment is about to fall upon this scene as truly as it fell upon Israel in Osiris Day. We live in a bad age. We all know what took place only a week or two ago in Chicago. And we know the evil and the iniquities in our land today. Shooting and murder and rape and wickedness, mounting up more and more and more each year. Oh, beloved, let me tell you, the judgment of God exists around the corner. and the United States of America is not going to escape. Great Britain is not going to escape. Other nations are not going to escape. The judgment of God, because they've turned away from the living God. This country that was built on a right foundation has gone the wrong way. The priests this day. The priests murder on the road. And where are the priests today? Where are the leaders of religion in this land today? Why the great leaders of religions today, of religion in this land of the United States of America today, don't believe the Bible. They don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And they don't preach redemption through the blood. And this is the land we're living in. And this is the age we're living in. And like Jose long ago, surely we should speak up. Just a couple of verses left. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There is the whoredom of Ephraim. And in another version it says, the virgin of Israel is defiled. God intended that his church should be a chaste virgin. God intended that we should be separated from the world. The picture of the church is a virgin, pure and clean, separated to the Lord. And what happened? The church has got all mixed up with the world. And God calls that hoarder. God calls that adultery. God calls that a mixing with that which is evil. And God cannot abide that sort of thing. His church has to be clean and pure and holy. And he says the virgin of Israel is defiled. And the church of God is defiled today. So many called Christians are so mixed up in the world that we don't know where they are. Beloved, this is where we live today. May God help you and me to come out from among these things and be separate. And may God help us to purify ourselves of these sites day by day and spend much time in this world and to confess known sin to him day by day that we might be clean and that we might be pure and clean for him that it's coming. He purchased the church unto himself that he might wash it by the washing of the water of the word that it might be without spot and wrinkle, pure for him when he comes back to call his pride to be with himself. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel, the hoardings of Ephraim, and oh, how they pay the price, and they were taken away never to come back. And so by and by God shall find them wherever they are in this great world and bring them back to himself. Then the final verse of this chapter, also, O Judah, this is the southern kingdom. Judah, he set an harvest for thee. When I return the captivity of my people, when he brings back his people, he said, I set a harvest for thee, Judah. And if Israel suffers... How much more is Judah going to suffer? As I said just now, it was Judah that said, his blood be upon us and upon our children. It's an awful time of Jacob's trouble coming. The grave tribulation is round the corner, but thank God we believe that every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be cut up when the Lord comes. And it says, Jesus. Last verse of the first chapter of Thessalonians. Jesus. who saved us from the wrath to come. Thank God. I don't think we're going to taste the wrath to come because we're going to be in the Lord's presence with himself for all eternity. May God keep that hope bright before us, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's much trouble for Israel, but a wonderful future ultimately for Israel. But thank God our future also is secured, not only, sir, but our future is secured amid the wondrous glories of heaven. I don't think there's anyone here tonight out of Christ. But if there should be, let me tell you, that all this wonderful future of joy and glory with the Lord Jesus Christ can be yours if you only accept him as your own personal Savior. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou should be saved. Shall we look to see? Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee for thy wonderful word. Verse is that were written hundreds of years before Christ came, and yet they are so true today. Oh God, help us to take thy word and apply it to our day and generation and to our lives. Help us to be men and women of the books, men and women in glory better, that we might serve thee better. We pray, Lord, that thy blessing might be upon part of the crown, and our wonderful fellowship here. Lead us in all this, Lord. And we pray that thy name might be magnified and glorified, as we live together here for thy glory in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.