I want to turn this evening to the seventh chapter of the book of Hosea, Hosea chapter 7. Hosea was an Old Testament prophet, one of what are called the minor prophets. That is, he wrote a relatively short book. There's not a whole lot to it, although it actually is 14 chapters dealing with the sins of the nation of of Israel and of Judah, specifically the prophecies of the judgment of God against Israel for their sins. It was a time when Israel had turned their back upon the Lord, and if you'll remember from the time of the division of the kingdom in the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, there was not a single king in Israel that is called a good king. That contrasted to the nation of Judah where about every other king was described as good and as seeking the Lord. But in Israel there were no good kings, there were just bad kings and worse kings. And there was a turning of the people away from the Lord their God. And yet God did not completely turn His back on them. In fact, He continued to send prophets to them. Some of the more notable and remembered prophets of Judah, of course, are Elijah and Elisha, who together spoke the Word of God to Israel for a period of quite a long time as they lived through the reign of Ahab and then the successive kings in the days of Elisha. And they represented God in a time when, if you remember, Elijah said, everyone is forsaken you. And God said, well, not everyone. I've reserved myself 7,000 that haven't bowed knee to Baal. But what that means for us on the flip side is that millions of people had bowed their knee to Baal. Millions of people had turned their back on the God who had called them by his own name, who had named them a nation of princes of God. That's what Israel means, is prince of God. And they turned their back on God, they rejected Him, and yet when they were in trouble, when they were in need, they would go to the prophets and they would call upon the Lord. I don't know if you remember, but in the story of Elijah and of Elisha, we read about the prophets, the sons of the prophets. Elijah, when he was journeying toward his what became his ascent back into heaven, or his ascent to heaven in a chariot of fire, he stopped and visited with the sons of the prophets. And the idea is that there were prophets of God in those days, it's just nobody really wanted to hear what they had to say. And God did speak through his prophets, but their voice wasn't one that anyone was really interested in hearing. They weren't looking for the Word of God. So Israel had rejected God, and God had never rejected them as a people, but he had sent words of warning and prophecy of impending judgment to them. And Hosea was really the last of these great prophets to Israel. He was giving them a warning that their behavior was not going unnoticed, and God was not going to sit idly by and watch them defame His name and His character in person. Because after all, He was the God who had called them, and they had His name. And that was very important. God cares about His name. We need to understand this idea of representation. A lot of times we talk about representation, we think about Jesus Christ representing us before God the Father. But we also need to recognize that we've been called His ambassadors, and we represent Jesus Christ in this world. And that's represented in our name, if we are called after the name of Christ. If we're called Christians, people look at us and they think, that's what Jesus Christ is like. That's what Jesus Christ is about. And that's why it's so important that once we profess faith in Jesus Christ, we actually live out that faith. And sometimes that's a lot easier said than it is done. But we have the name of Christ. The Apostle Paul refers to that from time to time as he writes to the churches in the New Testament. He says, you have the name of Christ. And that's something that matters. That's something that's important. It's significant. God writes in the 7th chapter of Hosea's prophecy, and he says in verse 1, "...when I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they commit falsehood, and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without." And 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 and the princes with their lies. They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough until it be leavened. In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine. He stretched out his hand with scorners. For they have made ready their heart like an oven. Whilst they lie in wait, their baker sleepeth all the night, and the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges. All their kings are fallen. There is none among them that calleth unto me. He says, there are people who have accomplished nothing. I've called them by my name. I've empowered them. I've directed them. And instead of serving me, he says, they've been lazy and they've been selfish. And he gives you the illustration of a baker, someone who bakes bread, bread to sell, bread to feed people with, maybe donuts like Brother Dean. This is someone who is interested in feeding the people. But instead of taking care of his business and doing what he's there to do, he's burning the bread. Because he's being lazy, he's putting the bread in the oven, allowing the oven to be heated, and then he's allowing the cakes or the bread to burn. It's not serving any purpose. It's not serving any use. He gives us this illustration. He says he works for a time. He kneads the dough. He leavens the dough. And then he doesn't get up and take care of the bread. And it burns so that it's of no use. He says the king has served himself. The king has served his own will and not the will of God. He hasn't benefited the people. He hasn't cared for the people. And then verse 6, he says, they made ready their heart like an oven. While they lie and wait, their baker sleepeth all the night, and in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. That is, the bread is consumed by the fire. And the idea is, it's not serving the purpose that it was created for. And he says, Israel is not serving the purpose that I called them for, that I created them for. Then verse 8 says, Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is a cake not turned. That's an expression that's probably familiar to us. That's one of those biblical expressions that's taken out of its context and place, and people talk about that from time to time. In fact, we have an English expression for somebody who doesn't know what they're doing that says they're half-baked. And that's what this is saying. So he says Ephraim is a cake not turned. That is a cake like a pancake or a hoe cake, a corn cake that is cooked on a skillet or on a griddle. And it's left on one side so that the one side burns and the other side is still raw dough. I like how John Gill explains this in his commentary. He says what this is is nothing. It's not dough. It can't be described as dough because it's cooked on one side. But it also can't be described as a cake because one side is dough. It's not good to be eaten and it's not good to be cooked because anything you do to cook it is going to overcook or further burn the side that is bad. It's good for nothing except to be thrown away. And he says, this is Ephraim. This is my people. This is the ruling people of the nation of Israel, and what they are is half-baked. They don't know what they are, and that's what's under consideration here. They've mixed themselves with the people so that they've lost their identity, or they've confused their identity. And this is something that Israel was guilty of time and time again, but it's something that we struggle with ourselves. Finding our identity. What is it that makes us the people of God? What is it that makes us useful in the Kingdom of God? You say, well, I know the answer to that question, and maybe you have an answer. There is something that we're called to do, and there is such a thing as being useful. But what's the problem that Ephraim has? He has mixed himself among the people. What he's done is diluted his strength. He's diluted his allegiance to Christ with an allegiance to others. and he has lost his identity with the God who has called him, so that he doesn't know what he is. He doesn't know what his purpose is. And that really is what Christians in the world today have done, and it's not the first time. In fact, world history reads as a people of God drawing near to God and then drifting away from God. And Jesus Christ himself warns against this. In the Sermon on the Mount, he says, you are the salt of the earth. You're here to season the earth. You're here to preserve the earth. You're here to be of use in the earth. But he says, if the salt hath lost its savor, it's henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under the feet of men. It's good for nothing. And again and again in Jesus' ministry, that terminology raises itself. It brings itself out. Jesus says, if you don't do what I've commanded you to do, you're good for nothing. We need to understand that if He has called us to a purpose in our life, and we fail to execute that purpose, we fail to do His will, what we're doing is not profitable. It's good for nothing. And that's not a place that we want to be found. That's where Israel was. And God's getting sick of it. He's getting tired of it. And He's telling them by the word of His prophet, you're going to lose your identity forever, so that you will not know who you are or who it is that you worship. And if there's any question about the reality of that threat, that promise coming true, we just have to see Jesus going out of His way to go through Samaria. And John tells us in John chapter 4, He needs to go through Samaria, and when He goes there, He finds there a woman by the well, who comes to Him and begins to talk to Him, and Jesus reveals to her His power, His knowledge. She says, I know you must be a prophet, so let me ask you a question. Where should men worship? Should they worship here in these mountains like my fathers say? Or should they worship up at Jerusalem where your fathers say? And notice Jesus' response to the woman there at the well. What does He say? You remember? He says, You worship you know not what. But we know who we worship. Well, the Samaritans were the descendants of Ephraim, the descendants of this nation that God prophesied to. And what does he say? You don't know who you are. You've become so mixed, so watered down, that you've lost your identity as a people. And you don't know who you are. finishing out this short reading here in Hosea 7. Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not. Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not. The pride of Israel testifieth to his face, and they did not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. He says Ephraim has lost his mind. He's so confused, he's so mixed up that the facts are staring him in the face and he can't even recognize what's going on. He doesn't know that he's old, he doesn't know that he's lost his strength, he doesn't know that he needs to return to the Lord. He doesn't even know who the Lord is. Now we each have seen that in our own lives to some degree, and we certainly have seen it in the country that we live in, and we've seen it in the church that we have associated ourselves with. How a people can say the right things and yet not have the truth of it, the power, the strength behind it. They can have the right name, the right identity, but no reality to back up the words. America is full of people who, if you ask them, will tell you they are Christians. Churches are full of members who, if you ask them, will say, I'm a Christian. I have the name of Christ. And yet you begin to consider what they believe, what they understand, or consider further their works, and you find out that they don't know what Jesus Christ is, who Jesus Christ is. They have no real concept and no real understanding. And then to bring it more to the point and more home, in our lives, we who have received the Word, who know the Gospel of Christ and know the commands associated with it, when it comes to doing His will, It seems like we fall so far short, and we lose sight of what really matters, of what's really important. It doesn't take a whole lot for us to find ourselves in that situation. I mean, this afternoon all it took was turning on NASCAR for a little while, and all of a sudden you find yourself sucked into something as meaningless as what's going on on the TV set. For those of you who aren't NASCAR fans, substitute football. It doesn't take much to distract our minds from what's really significant, what's really important. And that doesn't mean those things have to be excluded from our lives, they have to be ruled out entirely. But what it does mean is we need to reevaluate what's really significant, what's really important. And a real Christian doesn't take the things of this earth too seriously. Doesn't worry too much about things that really bother those who don't have Christ. Because Jesus Christ is the only one who is significant to a believer in Jesus Christ. And God's Word was the only thing that should have been significant in the lives of the Samaritans. And yet, Ephraim looked to Egypt. Ephraim looked to Assyria. Ephraim looked everywhere but to the God of Heaven because they wanted something they could see and something they could have a sense of control over. And that's how we are in our lives. We look for something we can understand, for something we think we can control, something we think we can grasp, until all of a sudden we face something that we can't deal with, we can't overcome. and we don't have the answers for. And God is gracious in that He brings those things into our life. He brings us up against something we can't deal with on our own. We can't comprehend. We don't have the answer for. And He often does that simply to give us a reality check, to cause us to look to Him, to cause us to understand what really matters, what's really important, and to make us look to the one who has called us, the one who has saved us, and the one who is going to preserve us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul deals with a church that has lost their identity. The Corinthian church he identifies as a church of Jesus Christ, and if he hadn't said it, you would have had a hard time realizing it if you looked at the lives and the experience of these people. He writes to the Corinthian church, and in chapter 4, he defends his own ministry and his own work by pointing out to them that it's God who has worked in them. In verse 6, he says, These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. He says, I don't want you to be puffed up, to think more of yourselves than you ought to think, or more of someone else than you ought to think, because, he says, we all have one thing in common as men, and that is that we're weak. That is that we're insignificant, that we're not important. Certainly we have no right to be puffed up one against another. Because, he says, it's Jesus Christ who makes you differ from another. You've received whatever it is that makes you important, whatever it is that makes you special. Whatever it is that makes you significant in your own life or in anyone else's life is a gift of God. And if you can begin to comprehend that and understand that, he says, then you may be able to fulfill your calling in this world. You may be able to be what Jesus Christ has called you to be. He says, myself and Apollos, two of the greatest ministers of the gospel in the history of the church, he says, God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were, appointed to death. We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. He then says, we are weak and you are strong. We are despised, but you are honorable. He says, we hunger, we thirst, we're naked, we're buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place. He says, we have nothing that you might desire, and we have no control over the lives that we live. And he meant that literally. Paul never knew from one day to the next where he was going to be living, what he was going to be eating. He never knew what people were going to think about him or what they were going to do to him. His ministry, when you begin to break it down, involves things like shipwrecks and stonings and beatings, more than even what's recorded in the book of Acts. We realize that when he begins to describe in the epistles what he endured. We read about one shipwreck, but he talks about multiple shipwrecks. We read about one stoning to the point of death, he talks about multiple stonings, he talks about multiple beatings. This was Paul's journey with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, all of these things, he says, I write these things not to shame you, but I warn you as my beloved sons. Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. What's Paul doing for this church? He's seeking to establish in them an identity, who they are. because they're confused about who they are, about what their calling is, about what they're supposed to be experiencing. They're thinking about divorcing themselves from the Apostle Paul because they look at Paul and they see him suffering. They don't want to suffer. They don't want to experience what he's experienced. What's he doing? He's calling them home. He's saying, I am your Father. I've begotten you in the Gospel and you should expect to endure the things I've endured. You should expect to experience things similar to what I've experienced. And more than that, he says, Jesus Christ has called you, and He's the one who said, if they've beaten me, they'll beat you. If they've killed me, they'll kill you. Don't think it's strange when they persecute you because they persecuted me first. He says you haven't been called to experience what you think you want in this world. You've been called to serve Jesus Christ, to live for Jesus Christ. He says your identity is found in Jesus Christ. He says that's the identity that you need to have. Israel was confused in Hosea's time. Their identity was lost. They didn't know what they were. Were they dough or were they cake? Were they fit for use? Were they useful in God's Kingdom? Or were they worthless? They were becoming worthless because they didn't lay hold upon the identity they had in God, in God's will and in God's Word. And for that, they were suffering and they were yet going to suffer. And if we're not careful, that's where we find ourselves. As primitive Baptists, we suffered because of a confusion about our identity. For year after year after year, primitive Baptists found their identity in what they called the doctrines of grace, what we believe. We believe in predestination, we believe in election. Some of the more sophisticated who aren't afraid of being called Calvinists would say we believe in tulip, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance or preservation of the saints. Good principles, good acronym to remember it by. Certainly truths that we believe from the Word of God, but that's never been the identity of the Church of Jesus Christ. It's never been what distinguished us as Primitive Baptists from all of the other professing Christians in the world. And we ran into a great problem about 15 years ago when all of a sudden other denominations rediscovered those truths they had lost. And all of a sudden they were preaching predestination, they were preaching election, they were preaching total depravity, they were preaching limited atonement or partially limited atonement. And we all of a sudden got confused. Who are we? What's our identity? Where do we find our identity? And many grow discouraged. And many more leave and go elsewhere because if our identity is with those groups as well, let's go and join with them. They have a better production, a better show. Maybe they're more successful. And there's a lot of confusion. For all of the orthodoxy that is taught in doctrine, in God's Word, our identity is never found in that orthodoxy of doctrine. It's never found in those words that are spoken or those key catchphrases that people use. Our identity is found in Christ alone, in Jesus Christ. And it's found in our willingness to suffer, it's found in our willingness to stand, it's found in our willingness to uphold the principles of His Word. and to live out His righteousness in our lives, even if it costs us a lot, even if it costs us everything. The Apostle Paul writes here to the Corinthians, teaching them exactly this. He says, for this cause, in verse 17, I sent you Timotheus, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ. As I teach everywhere, in every church. What does he say? Is Timothy going to shore you up on your doctrinal understanding? No. Is Timothy going to preach to you about the person of Jesus Christ and the Trinity of the Godhead? No, that's not what he talks about either. Those are all truths and they're important principles. But he says Timothy is going to remind you of my ways which be in Christ. He's going to teach you how you ought to behave yourself. He's going to teach you how to live like Jesus Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. He goes on to say, some of you are puffed up as though I would not come to you. You're puffed up, you're proud, your feelings are hurt because you say, why is Paul sending this Timothy to us? Why isn't Paul coming ourself? He says, I will come again if the Lord will. But he says, I want you to understand the kingdom of God, verse 20, is not in words, but in power. The Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. We need to realize in our lives that while the Word is important, the Word is supremely important, the power is more vital. It's more significant. And if we lose the power of Jesus Christ in our message, if we lose the power of Jesus Christ in our lives, if we lose the working of the Holy Spirit, if we devalue the Holy Spirit's role in our daily lives, in our daily walk, if we don't depend upon Him, if we don't trust in Him, we're going to find ourselves wandering aimlessly and we're going to lose our identity as it is in Christ. And then we're going to be useless. That's something that we as Christians should care about. Am I being useful? Is what I'm doing making a difference? Does it matter? And that's not something we can measure so easily as you might think. That's not about looking and seeing how many people are sitting in the pews. It's not about how many people have I brought to church with me. It's not about how many people have I converted or how many people have I talked to or any of the ways that people measure the working of God in their lives or their evangelism. No, those statistics are not what's significant. What's significant is, if God is working in me for his own glory, and if his spirit is moving me, motivating me. And that's the identity of a real Christian, is a daily walk with God, and a daily understanding of his presence, and daily direction of our words and actions. That's what we need. Jesus Christ was the greatest evangelist who ever lived. And yet Jesus Christ, at the time of his death, had approximately 120 faithful followers. How can we reconcile that with modern Christian math? We can't. There's a lot of modern-day preachers, modern-day televangelists, Medica church pastors, who have outdone Jesus in ministry if we use that criteria. So we need to be careful how we judge the work of God in us. What Paul's looking for here to identify a church, what he's looking for to identify a Christian, is someone who faithfully puts God's Word first, and who relies upon the power of the Holy Ghost directing our life every day. And we've all got a long way to go. At best, we're like Ephraim. We're half-baked. not turned, a work that's not complete. But you see that condition is not a condition that's without remedy and without hope. It wasn't without remedy and without hope even in Hosea's day. As we continue reading the book of Hosea, we see the message that he was given by God. We find him speaking words of judgment to Ephraim, words of condemnation. But the last chapter of Hosea is a chapter of great hope. But it's a hope that only comes with dependence on God and rejection of every other vice. Rejection of every other dependency. Complete and total surrender to God. Chapter 14, O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. We need to understand the source of our destruction, the source of our suffering, the source of everything wrong in our lives and our usefulness in the kingdom, our uselessness in the kingdom rather, is our own iniquity. You've fallen by your own iniquity. If we understand that it's our own iniquity, our own ability that has brought us low, we're not going to look to ourselves to raise us up. We're not going to look to the very cause of our falling. So if we can acknowledge that first, if our dependency on self gets thrown out the window, then what's left? God says, take with you words and turn to the Lord, saying to him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves of our lips." What is that? We'll render the praise. We'll speak words of praise and words of truth. Lord, save us. We need You to save us. Say to Him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. Asher shall not save us. We won't ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. Ye are our gods. For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. In thee the fatherless findeth mercy." These are people who have lost their identity. They don't know who they are. They are like orphans cast out in the world. No idea who their father is. No father to call them, to claim them. in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." And then we have God's response to that prayer. He says, take with you words. Turn to the Lord. Speak to the Lord. Commit yourself to the Lord. Commit your way to the Lord. And God says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine. The Sintero shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, what have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him and observed him. I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found." This is a chapter of hope. hoping the Lord, and turning to Him, and selling out to Him, and saying, nothing else matters, nothing else is important. Lord, I'm going to follow You, and I'm going to make You not only first, but only in my life. And when that happens, the Lord says, I will love them freely. I will love them freely, and I will revive them. and I'll make them useful in the place that I have placed them." He gives the analogy of this tree that is going to grow. It's going to grow, it's going to have branches, it's going to be beautiful, it's going to produce fruit, it's going to provide shadow. It's going to be useful in its time. Notice verse 8, "...from me is thy fruit found." A lot of times we talk about fruit-bearing. We talk about our desire to bear much fruit. Jesus talked about this as well. The parable of the sower. What is it about? It's about fruit-bearing. Some bore thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. And that's all that really matters in that parable. We get wrapped up in that parable arguing about the different kinds of soil. We argue about the wayside and the stony ground and all of the soil that's not prepared, that's not fruitful. We get talking about that and we miss the point of the story. The point of the story is this. Are you bearing fruit? And if you are, are you bearing much fruit? Are you bearing 60? Are you bearing 30? Are you bearing a hundredfold? Whatever you're bearing, whatever you're capable of bearing, God says, their fruit is found in me. God is the one who brings forth fruit in its season. And He brings forth that fruit in our lives. It's a fruit of His work in us. The prophecy of Hosea closes out in verse 9 of 14. Who is wise, he shall understand these things, prudent, and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein. And that closes the book of Hosea. That was his last word to Israel. Now unfortunately, Israel were transgressors. Israel fell by the words of this prophet. There was no fruit found in Israel because they would not turn to the Lord their God. and generation after generation of Christians have lost sight of their identity in Christ, lost sight of their purpose in Christ. They've been so busy focusing on how they were going to work for Christ, how they were going to bring forth fruit for Christ, how they were going to do this and they were going to do that. But they failed to see that without Jesus Christ working in them, they had no identity at all. Our identity is found in Jesus Christ, and the fruit that we bear is His fruit. If we can understand that, if we can embrace that truth, and we can seek Him while He is near, while He may be found, then we'll see profitable endeavors in our lives. We'll see our lives actually benefiting the Kingdom of God. We'll actually begin to make a difference. We'll see it in the lives of individuals that we touch, the lives of individuals that we meet. We'll see it in our own internal worship, our daily praise of God. When we wake up in the morning, we'll be filled with joy at His presence, and we'll know that we're walking with Him, and not just walking as robots through life doing the right things, but no feeling, no power therein. We'll begin to see that when we read God's Word, instead of it being a daily exercise, I hope it's a daily exercise for all of us, but instead of it being something we do out of habit, It'll be something we get excited about. And we'll begin to read His Word, and His Word will actually come alive to us. It'll speak to us. It'll be God communing with us. We'll see Jesus Christ not as a historical figure, but as a living friend, a living Savior. And when we begin to experience difficulties and trials in our lives, when things go against us, instead of taking it personally, instead of being offended, instead of saying, God, how could you let this happen to me? We'll see it as God working in us, as opportunities to praise Him, opportunities to depend upon Him, opportunities to experience what it is to follow Him. And then we'll see the Word of God not just as a historical book, but as the story of our life. So we begin to identify with the experiences of the various ones whose lives are recorded. And we start to identify that the same God who was with them is the God who walks with us, who fills us with His power. And then we won't be confused any longer. We won't be questioning whether we are bread or whether we are dough. We won't be wondering whether we're finished or not. We'll see the finish line and we'll know that it's God that works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. We'll know that He's going to perform the work until the day of Jesus Christ. And when this life is ended, when this journey is passed, we know that of a surety our life is going to praise God. We'll have the same testimony the Apostle Paul had in the Philippian letter when he said, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. When he says, I'm in a strait between two. I desire to depart and be with God, which is far better. He says, either way, I know God is glorified in me. God is going to be magnified, whether by life or by death. And that's where we need to be found every day. knowing that we are living the life that God has called us to live. We represent Him as surely as He represents us. And then we need to be careful of what that witness is, what representation we're providing. Because it's so easy for us to get off track, so easy for us to get puffed up. We're saying all the right words, we're doing externally all the right things, but there's no power in it. There's no love in it. and then we're dead while we think we're alive. Did you know there was a church that Jesus said that about? He said, thou hast a name that thou art alive, but thou art dead. What a condition to be found in. You know, every church that goes out of existence, almost without exception, dies many years before it ceases to meet. We need to understand that, because as Christians, we're prone to, as long as we can keep the doors open, as long as we can keep a couple of seats in the pews, then we say, we're okay, we're still alive, we're still holding on. But the church that is alive is a church that's filled with joy. A church that's filled with love, one for another, and love for Jesus Christ. And if we lose that, if we lose that love, if we lose that affection, if we lose that feeling of God in us, of Christ in us, then we may have a name that we're alive, but we're going to be nothing but death. And that doesn't do any good in God's kingdom. That's a useless church. The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians. He warns them of this condition. He warns them of this confusion. He tells them, you need to repent. You need to turn. You need to re-examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith or not. The Ephesian church had it all figured out. Orthodoxy was nailed down. They tried those who said they were apostles and were not. They found them to be liars. They established orthodoxy in practice and orthodoxy in doctrine. Did all the right things. Except Christ says, I have somewhat against you. You've left your first love. He says, I'll take the candlestick out of its place. I'll take my name from you. And then what are you going to be? Is it a church if it doesn't have Jesus Christ in its midst? Not at all. It's nothing. And that's where Ephraim found themselves. They were nothing. They were nothing because their name was Prince of God. But God didn't dwell in their midst. God was not with them. By God's grace, in spite of all of our mistakes, in spite of all of our failings, all of our sins, all the opportunities we've had to praise Him that we've turned into denials of His presence and His grace, God is still with His people. His love is still upon us. So the hour of repentance, the hour of turning, the hour of praise, the hour of service is now, while He's with us, while it's called today. Thank you for your prayer and your attention this evening. I pray that this will be an encouragement to us, that we'll think about and meditate on these words. Looking forward to being with you next week. Pray for Brother Dean this Wednesday night. I'll be praying for you guys.