together and seek his faith. Beloved and blessed Father, how we thank thee that in the name of the Lord Jesus and through the merit of his blessed person, the precious value of his eternal sacrifice, we have liberty to come into thy holy presence. How we bless thee for the bond of eternal affection as well as eternal unions that binds us to one another in Christ. What joy it is to realize, one in Christ, united to him forever as children of God. We bless thee for the relationship. We thank thee as an unbroken one. The relationships of life we know terminate. But, oh, how we thank thee, the relationship of God's dear children. in the family of the Father continues on forever and ever. And now we anticipate with deep longing as well as rejoicing that someday the Father will have all of his family within the home above. We thank thee for those who have gone to be with Christ. We think of those that have gone from the class this present year. We thank thee for the joy that is theirs. For it is written in thy presence this fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And we joy in the knowledge. They are in the brightest place of the universe of God. We are still in the darkness of this world, but we want to bless thee. The light of the glorious gospel of Christ has shone into our hearts so that we have the light of the world. the one who said, I am the light of the world residing in us. Then, Father, we thank thee for thyself. We bless thee, both the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Triune Godhead. They belong to us. They dwell within our hearts. For the Father and himself, together with the Son, has offered to share our hearts while down here. until we are taken up there to be at home with the Lord forever. So we do thank thee for Christ. And then we thank thee for the precious word that we've been able to study from time to time. We think of the present messages of study and ask thy grace and ministry of the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to behold the wondrous truth that are deep within the pages of the Old Testament prophets. grant that we may be illuminated make the book lift to us show thyself and are we blessed thee father there are practical lessons that we can derive from these studies of the old testament scriptures teachers by the spirit today and yet we would not fail to remember one another and remember the families we represent the absent members who may not be able to come with us today and others who may be sick. For them all we pray thy blessing where they are, not forgetting to ask thee for the salvation of our loved ones, who may yet be without of Christ. Grant that they will be brought to him, for surely he is coming again, and that very soon. So we bow in thy presence. We say with the psalmist, Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy word, We ask it in the Savior's name and for his glory, giving thanks. Amen. Chapter six in the book of Hosea, where we are now, you'll find your lesson sheet is page number seven. And we shall begin in chapter six at verse three. A week ago we covered the fifth chapter down into chapter six, completing the study at verse three. Now we continue in chapter six, beginning at verse four. You find your lesson sheet page number seven. We'll take us through the chapter very quickly, perhaps. But it continues to bring before us the divine morning of God, Jehovah, over the condition of Israel or Ephraim, as well as the people of Judah. May I bring before your hearts in the beginning of our reading and study this morning? The remembrance of the fact that we are certainly seeing the outpouring by the Spirit of God given to the Prophet, the outpouring of Jehovah's grief over the people and the condition of God's earthly thing. Well, God's earthly nation to be exact. And God greatly distressed. And may I be reminded with you at the commencement of our study, we made mention of three great facts. The whole book reveals, first of all, that God is holy. And the holiness of God cannot tolerate and will not. The continuance and the pressure of sin that continues to be in disobedience amongst its people is real. God is not only holy, but God is just. For God is just. For we shall see, and we have already seen, and we shall see further, some of the judgments that God pours out and did pour out, and still may, upon his earthly people Israel. But when we come to the end of the book, we shall indeed see the crowning truth. God is not only holy, God is not only just, but God his love. For he manifests his love in the restoration of Israel. as we certainly know. May I begin reading in chapter six at verse four through six, which is your first section on your lesson sheet, where we find the Lord's Greek being expressed over the people whom he loves. Verse four, O Ephraim, and let me repeat again, the name Ephraim was one that was given by Jehovah to the ten tribes of Israel, which were called Israel, while the other two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, were classed as being called Judah. But the name Ephraim undoubtedly was given to them because of the history of Ephraim, the tribe of Ephraim. The tribe of Ephraim, after dwelling in the land of Canaan, manifested great pride, rebellion, and resistance against even God. So the name Ephraim has been connotated by God in using it to describe the rebellious character of the ten tribes. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a mourning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Therefore have I viewed them by the prophets? I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and thy judgments are as the light that goeth for. For I desired mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Note, if you will, on your lesson sheet the comment that we may have, and we'd like to dwell upon it, and you have his cry of sorrow. Recognize the implication of the cry denoting the grief and the sorrow of God's heart. Oh, Ephraim! Oh, Judah! as he mentions it and it manifests what shall I do unto thee grieving over them and thus recognizing their condition now may I point out something go to Malachi chapter one where we have a reference I think it would be well to note right at the end of the Old Testament history you have the same expression of devotion and love for his earthly people and grief over their condition We find it in Malachi chapter one and verse two. Note the words of Malachi when he begins, the message that God gave him as the messenger of the Lord to Israel as the last prophet in the Old Testament economy. Note the beginning in verse one. The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, wherein... has thou loved us. Let me just stop there. All I want to do is emphasize the blindness of the people, failing to realize, as God declares through Malachi, I have loved you, saith the Lord. The manifestation of his love and of his power can never be denied, and that we shall see more clearly as our study continues. You have the same expression, we'll not turn to it, but you have it in Romans chapter nine. And may I point out to you, some of you may remember the study of the Roman epistle, that when we divided the letter, we found the divisions of the Holy Epistle could be in three great sections. First chapters one through eight, the doctrinal division, declaring the gospel in all of its purity, fullness and completions. Then came a parenthetical division, chapters nine, ten, and eleven, dispensational, relative particularly to Israel. Israel had been set aside. But in those chapters nine, ten, and eleven, we have the past, we have the present, and we have the future of Israel revealed. So God has not, and did not forsake his people entirely, though he laid them aside. But he has manifested his concern, his care, and his love toward them. But likewise in Hosea in our chapter, how we may recognize, yet while he loved them, if you please note in verse, let it be under your lesson sheet, as we think of the words that follow, while he loved them, their love was like the morning cloud and dew that vanished soon away. Note those words at the end of verse four. Your goodness, and if I may transliterate it, your love to me is like the morning cloud. And it's the only dew. It vanishes away. You know the picture. We see the mist in the morning. We see the cloud in the morning skies. But when the sun appears, it vanishes away. And beloved, as you read in Malachi, you recall the words. I've loved you, said Jehovah, but you say, wherein hath thou lovedest? Questioning the love of Jehovah for them. Now one can recognize, let me please state, here's the principle. That is the condition of any and every heart that questions God's love. Whatever the circumstances, that's the condition of heart questioning God's love. let me illustrate it one of my members of the family one member of her family had a tragic automobile accident just recently was killed struck by a truck and a family grieving not only over that one but preceding in a few months past another similar accident when another of the loved one in the same family was taken away and the father grieving and know what he's doing blaming God blaming God And sad is the condition when a soul, whether believer or unbeliever, will blame God for the conditions that prevail. And yet they question God's love. And then God looked at their love. It's like the morning cloud. It's like the dew. Immediately it vanishes when the sun rises. And the Lord has to say, it goeth away. Now therefore you find in verse five, please note the words. therefore have I hewed them by the prophet I slain my people by the prophet I slain them by the words of my mouth and thy judgment there is the light that goeth forth let me read if I may in verse a on the letter C on your lesson sheet the prophecy it sent came to them with the words of condemnation instead of comfort and cheer and this is typified by the expression I slain them by the words of my mouth. Let me just think with you for just a moment about those words and the expression. I've slain them with the words of my mouth. They're very solemn words. And I want to link them particularly with the coming again of the Lord Jesus to the earth. It will not just be merely Israel that God will in the great tribulation deal with In great judgments. To thus bring out of them a remnant. That will be his nucleus for the kingdom. When Jesus returns. But the whole world. Will be under the judgments of God. Now may I remind you of what you read in Revelation. When the Lord Jesus comes out of heaven. And out of his mouth what? Go with a sharp two edged sword. literally as well as spiritually by the word of his mouth his judgments will fall upon the ungodly let me quote Jude's words that he quotes from coming from Enoch saying Enoch prophesied saying behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all that are ungodly and just as in the days of Israel in the days of Ozea God said, I slain them with the word of my mouth. So when the Lord Jesus comes by the word of his mouth, he will slain them. I think of those words in Second Thessalonians chapter one, and you'll find him coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God. Oh, beloved, did you ever read a twenty-nine Psalm? Do it sometimes. It magnifies the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, thundereth, the God of glory, thundereth. Beloved, this is our God. And if there's one truth for us to take from the study of this prophecy of Othair is to reveal to our heart the holy character of God in relation to sin and ungodliness. And that, well, you have the psalmist again and again saying, He will slay the wicked. How? By the word of His mouth. Beloved, all He has to do is speak. You know how the creation came in the being. God said, it was so. God said, it was so. God spake, and it was so. And here you have God saying, similarly, through the prophets, and by the prophets, I slaying them by the words of my mouth. and thy judgment there is the light that goeth forth and one can recognize the source of those judgments the light of his holiness out from the light and the glory of his presence judgment comes oh to think of the solemn fact of the judgments that are yet to come upon the earth now when you look at verse six you can see what the Lord wanted And you know there were two things that he desired that he never found in his earthly people on this occasion. I desired mercy, not sacrifice. I desired the knowledge of God more than burned offerings. Note those two things. He desired them but he never found them in his people. Mercy and knowledge, the knowledge of God. And this meant to him more than ritual offerings. facrifices have you never noticed if you care to look it up it's in Hebrews chapter ten as well as a quotation from Psalm forty depicting and let me put it in connection here with our verse bringing before us the coming into the world of God's dear son and when you read the context in Hebrews chapter ten and go down particularly from verse six and go on you find like a divine conversation between the Father and between the Son. And you hear the Son saying to the Father, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. But preceding that confession, he makes the statement, sacrifice and offerings, thou desirous not. he recognized all the sacrifices outwardly and this is one of the condemnations and accusations upon Israel outwardly they had sacrifices as we have already seen many of them were being made to idol gods and some of them were carrying out without question of doubt the outward sacrifice in the temple of Jerusalem amongst the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and going in the outward way sacrificing animals in their supposed approach to God, yet their hearts were far from Him. But God said, I want something more than that. I want mercy. I want knowledge. I want you to know me. And oh, that was the greatest thing that they should have been seeking after the knowledge of God. We have noted the failure of the priests who were entrusted to give the knowledge of God to His people. Malachi particularly rebukes the priests. By the priests, the knowledge of God should have been given to the people, but they knew not God. May I make an application? Can I say this? True ministry, true teaching of the Word of God will reveal God Himself to the heart. If it never done, if not doing the objective. God desires that we may know him. Remember what Paul said. And let me quote those words of Paul. As you have them in Philippians three and verse ten. Oh, that I may know him. And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. The knowledge of God. I quote the words of another that I valued. To know God. is the greatest occupation of the mind. To seek to know God, to know this mighty being as far as he may be known, is the noblest aim of human understanding. And beloved me, I write it upon your heart as well as mine. I get rebuked sometimes. The Lord has to rebuke me, you know. I try to listen to the news sometimes. You know, why did I waste my time listening to that trash? Because you don't hear any good news, you know. But oftentimes you realize the most important thing in life of a believer is to know God. Is to know God. Is to know God. And then may I remind you why? So you can reveal him to others. Reveal him to others. I remember dear old brother Waldo Wilson telling the story that when he came to New York City on one occasion on business, he was a medical doctor. He said he got down on his knees in his hotel room after he had registered and asked the Lord to guide him by the Spirit to somebody in that great city who wanted to know God. And he went down to the street and walked down the street and came to a certain stationary store. He looked in the window and saw something he wanted. He went in and the salesman came to him and said, Sir, what can I do for you? He said, You have a prayer book in your window that I want to buy. The man looked at him and said, That's fine. They're prayer books. We don't sell prayer books. Oh, yes. Come here. Let me show you. And he went to the window and showed me. See that little notebook? He said, I want it for my prayer book. I write down on one side my prayer request. And on the other side of the page, I put the date when God answers it. The man looked at him and said, Sir, do you know God? Could you tell me how I could know him? Well, he found this victim that he was praying for, to witness for the Lord. But beloved, frankly, what's the greatest need for the human race? To know God. To know God. What's the greatest need for God's children? To know Him. And God granted, we shall recognize the knowledge of God is the greatest education. There are three little words, and I point them out to you. In first John chapter two and verse three, right in the very center of the verse that I love, and it says three little words, we know him. The greatest education to know God in Christ. God help us to realize that's why he has made us his people to know him. And God grants, we'll know him better. Now we look as we go on to verse seven through eleven. And we have God continuing the recital of the transgressions that he has displayed to say against them. Please note the opening words of verse seven. But they like men have transgressed the covenant. There have they dealt treacherously against me. Now I want to dwell on that one verse especially. I want to bring out something you don't find it as you read this authorized version and maybe other translations either but in the original text I'm not a Hebrew scholar but I do try to dig out what will help me and I have noted something very special about this one verse and I'm going to read it again and you note the change that I'll make because I'm going to translate the word man as it is in the original Hebrew but they like Adam now that's the name Adam They, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant. There have they dealt treacherously against me. And frankly, you find in the original, as well as even in the Septuagint translation of seventy Jewish scholars three hundred years before Christ, when they translated the Hebrew into Greek, it's Adam. Like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. Now, when you stop to think of it, Let's consider for just a moment, a few moments, how Adam, what did he do? He had a covenant. There in the Garden of Eden, God set the standard of obedience for him by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying he must not touch it, lest he die. And that was God's covenant. And what did Adam do? Transgress it. Now may I point out something. There's no transgression unless there's a covenant, unless there's a law. There can be sin, and may I point out, there was no other covenant made until God got his people Israel out of Egypt and made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. And they became his covenant with people. To the Gentiles, God never made a covenant. Read Ephesians chapter two. How you may remember. Please let me point it out to you, please. It might be a good idea for us to go there. I want you to notice, as far as the Gentiles were concerned, Ephesians chapter two. And please note these words that the beloved Apostle Paul writes regarding the Gentiles. As we know, please, if I may read it. Verse nineteen. I'll read verse eighteen to get the connection. For in the context, Paul is bringing out that whether a believing Jew or whether a believing Gentile, they now belong to the household of God. But please note these words of verse nineteen. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners and fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. And then if I may even go back, if you please, Let me go back, if I may, to verse twelve. Go to verse eleven. Verse eleven. As he refers to the past condition of these Gentile believers at Ephesus. But look in verse eleven. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision, by that which is called the circumcision, that would be the Jews, in the flesh made by hands. That at that time... being without we were without Christ being aliens strangers from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the covenants are promised having no hope and without God in the world now let me point out something obvious beautiful to see it underneath this text Adam transgressed the covenant and then may I remind you you can go all the way through The Old Testament from the days of Adam to the setting up of the nation of Israel. And God didn't make a covenant with the Gentiles. Yes, they sinned. They weren't called transgressors. They were called sinners of the Gentiles. Even though the flood came. But where there was a law, the breaking of it was a transgression against what God had declared. And when God looks at his earthly people in the days of Hosea, you find him saying what they did. Like Adam, they have transgressed the covenant. Now, may I remind you to, let me repeat again, I hope you get it clear, God never made a covenant with the Gentiles. And we who are Gentiles, Thank God when we believe on the Lord Jesus, we come in under the everlasting covenant of his precious blood. But as far as the Gentile nation, no covenant, there are outside the promises of God that he made to Israel. But that doesn't mean they're not sinners. They sure are. They need to be saved, as we well know. But Israel was given a covenant. And then, if you will turn some time as you convene, to Jeremiah thirty-one, The prophet writes that someday God's going to make a new covenant with Israel. And he's going to put his laws into their hearts. And the remnant of people, God's earthly people in the millennial kingdom, will obey his word. And keep his covenant. Now let me just go back to our verse and think with you very carefully. As you look at verse seven. They like Adam have transgressed the covenant I made with them. There have they dealt treacherously against me. Oh, beloved, let's solemnize the truth of this. To realize God's hurt, even when his people disobey him. I think of the statement. I think we made it at the commencement of our study. They not only broke the laws of God, they broke the heart of God. They hurt his heart. And, beloved, you know that even in the families, In a proper family, in a family with proper conditions, when children disobey the hearts of the parent, have to be grieved. And we recognize the heart grieves over the condition. So did God. They just walked treacherously with me, with me. Thanks, Gretz. God entered into a covenant with Israel, gave them the land of promise, But when they transgressed like Adam, they were also driven out. And in the New Testament, Gentiles are called sinners of the Gentiles, for no covenant existed between them and God. As law had been given, no law had been given to them. Hence, while they are called lost sinners, they are not called transgressors in the sense in which the covenant people are called transgressors. And the seriousness of Israel's transgression is very evident. Now know verses eight and nine. Please let me know what God says. Now look, when God so speaks, he said, Listen, is the evidence. Here's the reason that I have to judge you. As you look at verse eight and nine. Gilead is the city of them that work iniquity. And it is polluted with blood. And there's troops and robbers waiting for a man. So the company of priests murder in the way by consent, for they commit lewdness. Let me read the paragraph we have on our lesson sheet. It covers it in brief, but completely. Iniquity and blood, we're everywhere. Iniquity and blood. Can I think for a moment with you? Will you dwell upon the conditions that prevail around us? Do not these two words illustrate us. Everywhere. iniquity thin violence the shedding of blood I don't know how many of you know that I'm sure you must the multiplicity of murders that we have in and around our city hardly a day gone by without someone being murdered blood being shed violently iniquity and blood oh beloved as it was in the days of Noah So shall it also be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. And in the days of Noah, as you read the account of Genesis six, corruption, violence, corruption, violence, corruption, violence. Solomon Gamal, please let me say very frankly, the Lord Jesus likened in Luke seventeen and in Luke twenty one the days preceding his coming again to the earth. He likens them in one scripture, in chapter twenty-one of Luke, as well as Matthew twenty-four. He likens them to the days of Noah. In Luke seventeen, he likens them to the days of Lot, in the days of Sodom. And beloved, you've got the character of Sodom coming out on your front pages, in your newspaper, and in all publications, and in radio news. And all of it is a result of man's rebelliousness against God. It's sin. And I've got the complete conviction that when in the days of Noah, they had, and in the days of Sodom, they had AIDS then. And they've got it around here. Why not? We know from the scriptures how it comes. God gave them up to their vital lust and put judgment upon them. But the strange thing, I remember in Newcastle, where a hearing was in the city of Washington and the government, some of the government officers and with some committee. And the man demanding that the government do something about AIDS. The old question is this, why don't they stop sinning? God's judgment. And one can recognize, as he looks at Israel in the past, and Judah, violence and blood, iniquity and blood. And God has to say, pollute it. And then note in verse nine, let me read your paragraph. Even the priest lurked as a band of robbers and murdered the travelers on their way to Shechem, one of the cities of refuge. For the correct translation of verse nine is that the priest murdered those who go to Shechem and send the Septuagint to the corrected version. I think we have it in the preceding chapter. Our God accused the priest. In Israel. Now may I remind you of something. When the tribes separated in the days of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and under Jeroboam, king of Israel, the king of the ten tribes, Jeroboam set up a false worship, a false priesthood, a false altar, because he knew that Jerusalem was the place where men should go to worship. Jerusalem was the divine center. The temple was there. The priesthood operated there. The sacrifices were made there. All the temple rituals were carried out there. And Jelabon, crafty and shrewd, knew if the people kept going back to Jerusalem, he'd lose them. He'd lose his power over them. And he set up strange gods. He put a golden calf in dam and one down a Beersheba that they might worship. This is your God, Israel. And he set up a false priesthood. And they worship. Now one can recognize the priesthood of Israel was not genuine. It was a false priesthood. But when worshippers who lived in Israel, whose hearts went out toward Jerusalem, who knew that was the place God had given and placed his name, and the place where men should worship, they would go in spite of the fact. And when returning, the priests of Israel often murdered them. As they came returning back, from their worship of Jehovah. Beloved one, can I not say, one of the tragic consequences of man's sin and disobedience can oftentimes be manifested in the worst form under religious character. How solemn. In the name of religion. In the... Well, may I say frankly, you take the fanatical arrows. it's in the name of their religion they do their fanatical deeds even to the sacrifice of their own life believing they'll get to nirvana or heaven itself and by the sacrifice they make oh beloved what a tragic world we live in and one may recognize that in so doing as the prophet writes they not only murder but they commit lewdness when you read the paragraph that follows on your lesson sheet The horrible fact is that Israel was filled with hoardings. They were not only spiritual adulterers, but following idol worship, they lived in literal harlotry and ludeness. Let me read verse ten rather, and ten. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel. There is the hoarding of Ephraim. Israel is defiled. Now words of warning come to Judah. Also, O Judah, He hath set and harvested for thee when I returned the captivity of my people. Can I read the last paragraph on your lesson sheet? And we'll go into the next chapter, God willing. Judah also would reap a harvest. But the final sentence, when I returned the captivity of my people, it is a prophecy not concerning the return from Babylon, but the great restoration at the end of the Gentile age that is yet to come. Yet preceding the restoration will be, even at that time, the visitation of divine judgment. Let me read those last words of chapter six again. I want you to notice. Also, Judah, he has set an harvest for thee. When I return the captivity of my people, let me just point out, this expression not only indicates... The temporal return that took place after the Babylonian captivity, we know it was not complete. It was not a true and full restoration. But let me just point out again. We've emphasized that in the prophets, the minor prophets particularly, and the major prophets, there are two great leading thoughts. Judgment, mercy. Judgment, mercy. They are woven together all the way through. God declaring His judgments upon His people, but also indicating coming and ultimately fruitful mercy when they will be fully restored back to Jehovah again. Now go into chapter seven, if you please. And we'll turn to page eight in your book if you don't mind. And we can try to follow and see. And now we have the record of the moral depravity of Israel further described. Oh, what depravity. Let me first of all read the first seven verses. You have it in your first section of that lesson. And you find God residing it. Can I point out something that is very unique when you read these minor prophets? And I bring out one particular truth relative to one particular prophecy. It's the prophecy of the Bacchuk. Only three chapters, I believe. A small prophecy, but the prophecy of the Bacchuk is so unique and different from the rest of the process. We find in all the prophets, other than a Bacchuk, God speaking through his prophets to the people, chiefly. And the prophecy is dealing with God's judgment accusation condemnation upon his people the prophecy of a backer gets so different in fact a backer doesn't speak to the people all the way through his prophecy he's talking to God he's talking to God he's talking to God it's a dialogue between himself and God and over the condition of God's people makes me think of the statement that I once read by a certain man of God. Bless his heart. A man that was a praying character. He said, speaking to men for God is a great thing. But talking to God for men is greater still. And Abakab evidently knew that and proved that too. Wonderful prophecy. We'll get to it, God willing. If the Lord be not come, if he does come, you can look it up in the glory. And you might meet the follower himself. And he might ask, did you ever read the book I wrote? But But how precious to realize he spoke to God. But the rest of them, they were speaking to the people. And notice God speaks through the promise to the people. Nobody says in the opening of the verse in chapter seven, When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered. And the wickedness of Samaria. For they commit falsehood. The thief cometh in. The truth of robbers, spoilers without. They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have beset them about. They are before my face. They make the king glad with their wickedness. The princes with their lies. They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by the baker, who ceases from raising after he hath needed the dog, until he be leavened. In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine. He stretched out his hand with scorneth. For they have made ready their heart like an oven. While they lie in wait, their baker sleepeth all the night. In the morning it burns as a flaming fire. They are all hot as an oven. And they have devoured their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is none among them that calleth upon me. And you will know please. And I want to re-emphasize it as we did last week. You know the paragraph mark. You note you come to the end of the paragraph. Now, the verse numbers and the chapter divisions are not inspired in the original writings. But the paragraph marks off so that you've got a very separate paragraph from verse one through verse seven, where God describes the condition of his people and their iniquity. May I note with your lesson sheet very carefully as we go down this section. In verse one, All the graciousness of the Lord to heal Israel resulted in a greater manifestation of iniquity. Please note to those, when I wanted to heal you, you wouldn't have it. You got worse. And the wickedness of Samaria, they committed falsehood. The sin and the thief came in, and one can recognize. When God wanted to heal them, they became worse in character and conduct. Beloved, you can't say this and we should. God wanted to heal. God wanted to heal. And, oh, beloved, may I say, here's a divine principle. It carries a very deep, significant, sacred, solemn warning. The persistency of a sinner or a sinner to go on in their way of iniquity can only bring horrible judgment. and greater condemnation. But it does not do it without the fact. God is willing and was willing to heal them. To heal them. You have in the writings of Moses, you've got it in all the prophets and their writings. You have the suggestion Moses wrote long before Israel got it in the land of Canaan. That if they wandered away from God, he would punish them. But if they turned back to him, he would heal them. There's one sure thing. You don't have to keep going away from God. You don't have to keep going away from God. And one certain fact is, you'll never be able to run away from him. He'll catch you. He'll catch you. But oh, the willingness to heal. But oh, the solemn sad fact. The unwillingness. to turn back to him but to persist and go on in the road of sin and of iniquity please note in verse two God said they did not consider that the Lord would remember all their evil deeds and punish them now their own doings have beset them about they are before my faith their own actions had brought face to face with him divine judgment And then as you go to verse three, and you'll find again in verse three, that even the king and the princes, the political heads of the nation, were as corrupt as the priests, and even pleased with the wickedness of the people under them. Now let me read those words. They make the king glad with their wickedness and the princes with their lies. Can I point out something? Notice that. Universally, king. princes, priests, people, completely wicked, completely wicked. All this sad commentary, the rulers enjoying the iniquity and made glad, and the princes made glad with the lies of the people. But let me say, that's the spirit of today. That's the spirit in the world today. Where can you find a godly ruler? Where can you find a godly nation? Where can you find where righteousness prevails in a nation? Righteousness will exalt a nation, but sin will be a reproach to any people. And oh, beloved, please let me state There was the complete saturation of evil in Israel and Ephraim from the princes and the king together also with the people. And God says he would remember. Now I know what he goes on to say in verse four. He calls them all adulterers. May I read, if I may please, the graphic description that he gives. If you look under your paragraph, letter D. A graphic description follows adulterers who were burning with lust. They were heated with wine as drunken, as they were with lusts in verse five. Their hearts became like an oven. They slept all night, but in the morning their lust is stirred up again. None called on the name of the Lord. And the source of all this was unbelief and rejection of the word of God. And the sad history of Christendom is a repetition of Israel history. Oh, note the words. Note them very briefly as we've read them. And point them out again in verse four. Like a big... An oven. He... In other words... You know what God's doing? He's showing the heat of their passions. The passionate lusts of the flesh. Can I please state? Very solemnly. Advisably. Carefully. It's in the world today. Let me quote John's words in his epistle. First epistle of John. Chapter two. Verse fifteen. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world, and the world passes away. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. There are two things that are in the world. Completely. By nature, under Satan's power. Lust and pride. And what is lust? Wanting for what we do not have. And then when we have it, proud that we possess it. Lust, pride. Do I need, please, I don't need, I'm sure, in this instructed audience, to remind our heart that today we see the lust of the human heart open, open, open. And may I say, sadly, It's permeated down to the level of the elementary schools where the subject of fleshly lust is trying to be governed. They never can do it. But the subject of it is brought right down to the lowest grade of humanity. Beloved, believe you, me, Jesus has to come soon. And like an oven, it's burning with heat. It's burning with heat. It's burning with heat. I remember reading a book, two books in fact, written by a brother by the name of Sidney Watson, if I recall correctly, in London, England. One was on the rapture, and the other was on the mark of the beast. But he visualized in his second contemporary book, following the first one, the conditions between, and the Great Tribulation, between what it will be then and be formed. He tried to visualize it more. He missed the boat. I thought it was bad enough, but he missed the boat. And he made one illustration of it, to my amazement. And I must have read the book sixty, nearly seventy years ago, but I recall himself stating, as he pictures the story in fiction, Stevenson revealed the truth of God's word relative to the conditions after the rapture. He visualized the public display of a naked woman being taken through the streets of the city of London. Beloved, you don't have to wait for that. The lusts are burning like an oven, like a baker. And as the prophet wrote, right, after he needs the dough, till it be eleven. And the eleven, oh, how it is spread. Have you not noticed? Look with me in Matthew chapter thirteen, will you, very briefly. Chapter thirteen in the Gospel of Matthew, if you don't mind, where the Lord speaks of the kingdom of heaven during his absence upon the earth and the marks of this kingdom. And may I remind you of something that I certainly think should be well emphasized as you read the words of the Lord Jesus. And I'd like to read it. Verse thirty-three. Verse thirty-three of Matthew chapter thirteen. The whole chapter has seven parables in it. And you have the Lord Jesus describing the kingdom of heaven on the earth during his absence. But look at verse thirty-three. Another parable spakee unto them. The kingdom of heaven is like unto eleven. Which a woman took, hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Now, I want to say something very carefully. Whenever you read of leaven in the Bible, it always means evil. It never... Now, I'd like to say, frankly, the verse that we have just read, the so-called post-millennialists who believed that they were going to bring in the kingdom of the Lord's They believe the leaven in this verse was the gospel. And you're going to preach the gospel and the whole world is going to be converted. Far from it. Leaven in Scripture from beginning to the end is symbolic of evil. And a little leaven as Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter five, leaven is the whole month. And in the days of Israel there was the feast of unleavened bread. They had to kick leaven out of their house. During that feast. And may I say, please, brother and sister, you and I as believers should keep leavened, whether it be the leaven of moral evil or doctrinal evil, out of our lives. But here's the Lord Jesus saying, during my absence, the kingdom is going to be like, as he says here, it's going to be like unto leaven. It's not going to convert the world. and like a woman who takes a little lemon and puts it in the meal corrupts the pure word of God. Now I hope you'll take my statement frankly and truthfully. Christendom has corrupted the word of God in the world. Corrupted the word of God. Let me raise the question. It's personally obvious. Where are you sure of hearing the truth on the adulterated word of God for your spiritual food? There's such a mixture. There's so much leaven. And it leavens the whole lump. And as the Lord Jesus said, and please note it, this woman, she hides it secretly into the meal. Secretly. Give me notice something in the second chapter of the second book. There came a beautiful illustration of it. In the days of Elisha, the days of Salmon. And Elisha had a school of prophets, young prophets, that he was teaching and training, evidently. And they needed food. And Elisha said, Put on the great pot. So they put on the great pot. And borrowed potting. boil it, feed it, boil it till it's hot that the prophets may eat. And then one of them, without being sent, he gathered some wild goads. And according to the Hebrew meaning of the word, it was a very strong purgative. I heard there was a very strong purgative. And he put it in the pot and got mixed up with it. And when they began to dish it out, They tasted the poison in the pot. And they said to Elijah, there's death in the pot. There's death in the pot. They couldn't taste it. They couldn't drink it. They couldn't need it. He had no business doing that. Now, let me point out something. In the epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, you've got carnality coming into the pot. The great profession of Christianity. You go to Galatians. You've got legalism coming in. Law instead of grace being taught. And so on. And you look in the early church. And you see leaven coming in. Please. Paul said. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump. And my brother and my sister. Like an oven. That adversary is brought. Into the divine testimony of even the church. Leaven. that's polluted the whole lot. You know how sad it is. Well, let me remind you what Elijah did. Elijah said, big meal. What's meal? Well, very fresh. Put all the meal you take. He couldn't take the poison out of the pot, but he said, let's put some meal into it. And you know what the meal is? The word of God. The more you put the word of God into the situation, the better the situation will taste. But you've got to put the word of God in it. And it's the word of God we need. Oh, beloved, please let me say, as the oven burns and did in the case of Israel long ago, look at the last phrase I've got on the letter C in that item on page eight. The last sentence or two, the source of all of this was unbelief and rejection of the word of God. And the sad history of Christendom is a repetition of the history of Israel. Rejection of the word of God. Oh, beloved, how we need that unadulterated, precious Word of God. Well, I'm sure glad you came this morning to get some meal in the pot and to realize the Word of God. Shall we pray? Beloved and blessed Father, we marvel at thy truth. No wonder Paul wrote by the Spirit, All these things that were written aforetime were written for our learning upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And here we see what has happened in Israel. We confess sadly with grief and sorrow the permeating influence of doctrinal evil as well as moral evil in Christendom today. Now, Lord, we would say in the words of another, Keep us, Lord, O keep us cleaving to thyself, and still believing till the hour of our receiving those promised joys with thee. For then we shall be where we would be. Then we shall be what we should be, things that are not now nor could be, soon shall be our own. We pray for one another. We pray for each other. We pray for thy people. Lord, give us thy precious word, and give us a hunger for it. A longing to hear it, to read it, to know it, to know thee, to know our blessed Savior more and more. We ask it giving thee our thanks in the Savior's worthy name. Amen. Thank you for coming. Oh, how do you all put up with me?