We are continuing in our series of messages from the prophet Hosea. And we are in chapter 5 this morning. And I will again be using the entire chapter as the text for the message today, 15 verses. Please listen attentively, conscientiously to God's holy, inerrant, and inspired word. Hear this, O priests. Take heed, O House of Israel. Give ear, O House of the King, for yours is the judgment, because you have been a snare to Mizpah and a net spread on Tabor. The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter, though I rebuke them all. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. For now, O Ephraim, you commit adultery, Israel is defiled. They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the Lord. The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore, Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity Judah also stumbles with them. With their flocks and herds, they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him. He has withdrawn himself from them. They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, for they have begotten pagan children. Now a new moon shall devour them and their heritage. Blow the ram's horn in Gebeah, the trumpet in Ramah, cry aloud at Beth-Avon. Look behind you, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I make known what is sure. The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark. I will pour out my wrath on them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked by human precept. Therefore, I will be to Ephraim like a moth and to the house of Judah like rottenness. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jerob. Yet he cannot cure you. nor heal you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away. I will take them away and no one shall rescue. I will return again to my place till they acknowledge their offense. then they will seek my face. In their affliction they will earnestly seek me." This is the reading of God's Word. So in the previous chapter we found the equivalent of divine courtroom with God as the prosecutor and the judge indicting the people, the nation of Israel, Ephraim, for having no faithfulness, for having no steadfast love, for having no knowledge of God in the land. Remember, that phrase, the land, is pointing to the covenant of God and the gracious covenant promises He made with them and their inheritance for obedience in that. You see, they're deliberately accused by God of breaking the covenant He had made with them, and terrible judgment was being promised for them as a result. And then, God in particular turned and pointed out the priests. Some think, in particular in that chapter, it was maybe the high priest that He was pointing to, deliberately therefore failing to promote and to defend the knowledge of God, causing the people to be destroyed. Why? because of their lack of knowledge of God, because it had not been promoted and presented and reinforced as it was supposed to be by the priests. See, the priests were accused by God of encouraging the people to sin and then benefiting from the sin that they engaged in because they got part of every sacrifice that was brought. God presented throughout that chapter overwhelming evidence, all throughout it, of their rampant covenant-breaking, their idolatry, and referred to Israel, remember, as a backsliding cow that was carried away by a spirit of whoredom. And the result of that was that they were forsaking God. God pronounced them guilty, and he hinted several times about coming judgment. Particularly remember in the last verse where he declared that a wind, remember that word could mean spirit or wind, and we saw earlier that a spirit of harlotry was among them leading them away from God, and now a spirit, a wind, has ensnared them with its wings, and that they would be ashamed, disappointed, because of the sacrifices they had been engaging in to these pagan gods. So in chapter 5 here, as you've heard me read it to you, we see this same general theme continuing and even developing further as we move into this text. See, the first verse of this chapter, if you look at it correctly, is really one of very strong emphasis. And you can see that in what I, it may sound a little awkward, but what I call the dual threefold structure of that verse. And I say that because you'll notice that there are three separate words here that are used to command certain guilty parties to listen attentively, and there are three separate guilty parties that are involved. And so you have two sets of three here, a dual three-fold emphasis by God to reinforce what is being done here. Each of them are receiving this command to listen carefully to what God is about to say to them. The priests, remember, were the primary focus of condemnation in chapter 4, but now we see that others are very pointedly included here. The house of Israel is commanded to pay attention, prick up your ears. The house of the king is commanded to listen. That word listen, though, the way it's structured is one that may indicate cupping your hand behind your ear to help you be able to hear better. So just who are these three parties commanded by God? Well, two of them, very obviously, the priests we've already met, and we understand their role and their failure in their role, and we have seen God tell them in this last chapter, chapter 4, like people, like priests. Judgment is coming to the people, and it's coming to the priests as well. The house of the king would have reference to the royal family, the lineage, Jeroboam's descendants who are filling the throne one after another in this northern kingdom of Israel. The house of Israel, though, is one that presents some ambiguity, some uncertainty for people as they look at this because sometimes that phrase is used to refer to the nation, the people as a whole. But other times it is used in a way to refer to what I would call the ruling class or the bureaucracy in the government of that northern kingdom of Israel. I think that's what's intended here because it seems to me in this context that what we're looking at here in this first verse is a condemnation of the leadership of the northern kingdom of Israel. We have seen the people being condemned for their sin in chapter 4 and earlier. But here in chapter 5, it's beginning with a focus now on the leadership. This judgment is for you. You see, as the leaders, the care of God's people had been entrusted to them. Instead of faithfully shepherding these people, caring for them, nourishing them, correcting them, keeping them safe, These leaders, God charges instead, have ensnared the people in a trap, in a net, a snare of wicked idolatry. You see, the leaders themselves were not innocent parties in this. It isn't as if the people stumbled and the leaders tried to do all they could but couldn't prevent it. The leaders had actually instigated all this. Jeroboam is the one who set up the two calves in Dan and Bethel. The kings have been paying money to keep these shrines operating because it benefits them to keep the people in their country and focused on them and involved there instead of going to Jerusalem. The priests have been encouraging it for their own reason and the bureaucracy as well. And so it's a confederacy all involved in encouraging the people in their idolatrous worship of pagan gods instead of faithfulness to their covenant God. So the people do bear their own guilt. That's why we heard in the last chapter that the wind has ensnared them in its wings, the wind of their own idolatry. But because these leaders have failed in their God-given, God-ordained purpose to protect the people, they in fact led the effort to enslave the people to this. They're now being called out specifically by God for judgment. Now you may remember in that last chapter I also told you that the phrase bloodshed upon bloodshed that we looked at, uncertain again, could just refer to general bloodshed, but many think that that referred to the sacrifice of people to the pagan gods. And what people are willingly going to give themselves up to be the sacrifice, right? And so what would happen apparently is that there would be armed people who would go around to houses and just break in the door and take whoever was to be the next sacrifice so that they could be offered. And so this is referred to then as the bloodshed upon bloodshed that's been just perpetuated over generations within the nation of Israel. And verse 2 here seems to reinforce that understanding of it. The accusation here is that those who turn aside, that's what that word means there, the ones who turn aside are deeply involved in slaughter. And the key word here is slaughter from this perspective. In Isaiah 57.5, God accused the Israelites in their pagan worship, you slaughter your children in the valleys. In Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 21 the same charge is repeated, you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire. In Ezekiel 23 29 God charged, they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they born to me. And in Ezekiel 20, or in Genesis rather, 22, verse 10, you remember the story of Abraham taking his only son Isaac by God's command, sacrifice him to me, and Abram takes him up on the mountain, puts him on the altar, takes his knife out, and as he's standing there with a knife held above his son Isaac's chest, ready to sacrifice him, what the scriptures tell us is that he took the knife to slaughter his son. And so that word slaughter here I think is very indicative, very representative. It's pointing, I think, to the child sacrifice that these Israelites are engaged in to these pagan gods. And for this inhumane and ungodly wickedness, God promises, the phrase actually means, I will discipline all of them. And the word that's used for discipline actually means, I will put them in chains. It really points to exile, the way people were put into chains and dragged out of their country into exile. And so we're talking now, again, not just about the leadership now, but we're talking about the people as a whole, because the people as a whole were involved in this practice, although the leaders sponsored it and they led it, they encouraged it. And I want you to notice in verses three and four, the way those two verses are sort of bookended by a theme that we've seen very prominent in this book, and we're going to continue to see it as well. You see, God doesn't now need any other witnesses against his wicked people. Why? Because he knows Ephraim. He knows them intimately. Israel is not hidden from him at all. They have not been able to keep anything from his sight and from his justice. He's witnessed them throwing themselves into idolatry. He declares them here to be unclean. The most dire pronouncement you could have made against you in that old covenant where holiness and cleanliness was so essential, They are now, as a nation, unclean. And what had to happen to the unclean? They were put out of the camp. They were put out of the covenant community until their unclean status was removed. You see, everything that God has been telling them through Hosea and the other prophets who've been involved, all of those things should have led these people to turn aside from their wickedness and to return to the Lord. That word also is important in this book. But notice what God says here, their wicked deeds will not allow them to do it. Think about that. The wickedness, the things they're doing in their sin won't even allow them to turn back and return to God. Their desire to turn away from God to idolatry, he says, is within them. It's among them. It's in their midst. And they don't know the Lord. They've forgotten Him. God knows them intimately. This is the bookend. God knows them intimately, but they've forgotten Him. You see, rather than resting and trusting God in humble obedience upon him, God says that Israel has shown pride. Pride by trusting in himself, not relying upon God. Making his own arrangements for everything. And because of that sinful pride, God says, Israel and Ephraim. Remember, he separates those two, although they are in essence sort of the same. Ephraim can be another name for Israel, but Ephraim was the largest, the most influential tribe in the northern kingdom of ten tribes. It was the one that the leaders primarily came from. Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their guilt. That word stumble is again a word of judgment. It's indicating that you're not going to know what you're doing and you're going to, instead of walking surely and certainly and being safe, you're going to stumble and fall. And though in the last chapter, remember, Judah was exhorted not to follow in the sinful patterns of Israel, not to engage in the idolatry and pagan worship that they were doing, It is obvious that that exhortation is not going to bear any godly fruit because we see here that God promises that Judah will also stumble right along with Israel and Ephraim. And as they stumble, notice he says, as they stumble, perhaps even after they've stumbled and begun to have problems, they will, quote, seek the Lord by bringing him and sacrificing to him their flocks and herds. Flocks refers to the sheep and goats, herds refers to the cows and cattle and oxen, the bigger animals. They're going to bring these and they're going to offer these sacrifices to God. They're going to seek him, but notice what God says, they won't find him. And why is that? It's not because of looking in the wrong place. It's because God has withdrawn himself from them. The word indicates that he's removed himself. It's the same kind of word that's used in places like in Ruth, for instance, when they're making the vow and the man has to take the sandal off his foot as a testimony of his sincerity in it. It's that same kind of word that's used. God has removed himself from them. Why? Why has God done that? You see, God has been entirely faithful to them. But notice the charge. They have dealt faithlessly with him. They have dealt treacherously. They have betrayed God. And God says, the evidence that you betrayed me is in the fact that you have born some translations say pagan children, illegitimate children. You have born children that aren't mine. They're ungodly children. They are likely illegitimate both physically, because of all the literal harlotry that's been going on, but more importantly, they are illegitimate spiritually. See, the people were required to be gods. They were required to love Him, to obey Him, to hear Him. they were also required to raise their children to do the very same thing. Over and over again you read this in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 10, Moses is reminding the people of God's words to them at Horeb when he said, gather the people to me that I may let them let them hear my words so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth and that they may teach their children to do so. You see, their wickedness, God says, their guilt is evident in the fact that their ungodly children don't know me either. You've completely failed in your responsibilities to your covenant God. Think about what that means to us as Christians living in this world. Are we raising our children to know God or are we showing how ungodly we are by raising children that don't know anything about Him? And then God says about the new moons, and there are new moon things connected with both true worship and the pagan worship, but in this syncretistic worship they've been engaging in where the pagan and worship of God is intermixed, these new moons were times when they sacrificed to their false gods primarily, although they often did it in the name of Jehovah, in order to ask them to bring blessing on them, to make them fruitful, to make their flocks and herds and fields fruitful, so that they could be prosperous. But you see, those idols have no power to bless them at all. God is the one who has been prospering them and blessing them, but because they have dealt treacherously with him, betrayed him, they're going to find that their new moon festivals, instead of bringing prosperity, are going to instead consume them and their fields. Everything will be gone. Again, this is a picture of defeat and exile. you will have nothing from your fields and your fields will be taken away from you as well. Now when we look at the next few verses, 8 through 13, I think you need a little bit of context to understand what the prophet is telling us and showing us is happening in these verses. At the time, at this point when he is writing, remember his ministry is covered probably at least a few decades, at this point There is going on what is called the Syro-Ephraimite War. You can find that written about in 2 Kings chapter 16 and 2 Chronicles chapter 28. Remember God's requirement of his people was that they trust in him. And that any time they were threatened by anyone, what were they supposed to do? Turn to God and beg him to be their protector. And he said, if you're faithful to me, no one, no one will be able to overrun you. Well, about 734 BC, the king of Israel, the northern kingdom, was feeling the pressure and threat from the big, huge, powerful nation of Assyria, as was the king of Syria. And at that point, those two kings got together and made an alliance with each other. Instead of Israel turning to God, repenting and depending on him, he went and made an alliance with the king of Syria in order to stand against Assyria. But in order to make that alliance, alliance stronger, they wanted the king of Judah in the south to join them as well so that it would be the three kingdoms standing together against Assyria. But King Ahaz and Judah refused to cooperate. He refused to be part of it and as a result of that Syria and Ephraim attacked Judah with the goal of unseating King Ahaz and replacing him with a puppet king who would support what they wanted done. And so Israel attacks Judah. The people of God attack the people of God in order to carry this out. And Ahaz, when he understands what's going on, instead of turning to God and asking for his protection, Ahaz pleads with the king of Assyria. to protect him, puts himself essentially in a vassal condition to Assyria if he will protect them from Syria and Ephraim, Israel. And so the king of Assyria launches a massive invasion against the northern kingdom, takes Syria, takes most of Israel, probably leaves only Ephraim itself sort of free at that point. And why I say that's important to understand is that while Assyria is attacking sort of from the northeast, Israel and Syria, they had been attacking Judah, now all of a sudden their forces have to swing around and fight Assyria, and while their back is turned, Judah now sends its forces northward to Gabaia, to Ramah, and to Bethaven, three cities in a direct line south to north from Jerusalem, just a few miles away from Jerusalem. And that's why you see that phrase, behind you, Benjamin, because they're facing Assyria and now Judah attacks them from behind. These three cities, the territories around them, were given to the Benjamites way back when the original tribal allotments were set up as the people moved into and took over the promised land. Remember, those were God's divisions. God set those landmarks for them, and in Old Testament law, one of the worst things a person could ever do was to move a landmark so that you could take someone else's territory. But that's exactly what Judah does here. While Benjamin's back is turned fighting to the north, Judah comes in and attacks them and takes back territory that belongs to the Benjamites who were part of Israel. And so that's what you see happening then in this passage. You have them shifting their forces, and these three cities, the watchmen are crying out, blow the horns! Behind you, Benjamin! War is coming! Well, not from the north now, it's coming from the south. And that's why God says, first of all, remember Deuteronomy 27, 17, curse it. Curse it be anyone who moves the ancient landmark, the neighbor's landmark. And that's why we see here Judah, when it took these areas, brought God's curse on itself. And God promised he's going to do what? Pour out his wrath like water on that nation for moving landmarks. And Ephraim, it says, was oppressed and crushed. Why? because he was determined to go after filth. The word means excrement. Likely a reference to their idolatry, to their alliance with Syria, and eventually to Israel Ephraim's plea to Assyria to allow them to be a vassal state and retain their own independence but will pay you tribute. And so because they were determined to go after filth, God says his judgment is coming with them. Notice how strong it is though. Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment. Among the tribes of Israel, I'm going to make known what's already sure and certain. This is guaranteed, this is my word, but you're going to see it and know it. So that's what's going on in there, but what should we make of verses 12 and 13? Because they seem a little bit unusual, to say the least. God describes himself, some translations say, as a moth to Ephraim. Well, don't think about moths fluttering around lights at night. Think about the other thing you know about what moths tend to do. If you put clothes in a cupboard and moths get in there, what happens to your clothes? They eat holes in them, right? They tend to eat away and destroy things. That's the idea here. There are some folks who believe that the word that's in there can legitimately be transferred as pus. That God has become like an infected pussy wound to Ephraim. And then he has also become like rottenness to Judah. That just really just kind of means a decaying rottenness, something that's falling apart. But notice, I have become like a moth to Ephraim. I have become like this rottenness to Judah. You see, the problem is that Ephraim and Judah have started having these problems. They were prosperous, they were doing sort of well, and they started to have all these problems, attacks from other places, they're losing their prosperity, they're losing parts of their country, people are being taken away, and it is like an infected wound and a decaying, rotten disease of some sort. They see they've got a problem, and what do they do about their problem? Do they turn to God and say, it seems to me, oh God, that you're afflicting me for a reason. Have I sinned against you? Let me repent to you. Please take away your punishment and bring your blessing. No, what they do is they go to the king of Assyria. Judah goes to the king of Assyria to give himself so that he can get protection from the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom goes to Assyria to get relief from the desolation that is eventually going to overtake them anyway. You see, they go to Assyria instead of to God. What they didn't understand was that Assyria had no power of its own to either cause their problems or cure them because God was the one who was giving Assyria any power that it had. You see, God is telling them that He's the one who was bringing these earlier problems on them. I'm the one who was like a moth to you and like a rotten sore. I'm the one who was doing that to you. But instead of knowing that, instead of realizing that, and instead of returning to God in repentance, sincerely asking Him to cure their problems, to heal their wounds, instead they turned away from Him as they've consistently been doing. They didn't depend on him. Instead, they trusted in a foreign alliance with Assyria to make things better for them. But notice what God says. He is not able to cure your wound or heal your wound. Why? Because he didn't ultimately cause them to begin with. I did. And he has no power to undo what I'm doing to you. And that's why, with that understanding of verses 12 and 13, that's how you then have to look at verse 14. See, the people and nations of Israel and Judah have suffered, at God's decree, problems that, from the descriptions we've been given, sound like an infected wound or a decaying type of disease. That doesn't mean those weren't serious things. Remember, in that day, no antibiotics, an infected wound, could kill you. It could be deadly. These have been serious sobering warnings that should have led these sinners to repent and return to God, but instead they just keep turning away from Him. And so now God says, I'm not just going to be like a moth and a rottenness to you. Now I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. There's no distinction between those. It's just emphasis. I'm going to be like a lion to you. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will carry off. No one will rescue. So God is saying to them, you're going to stop making the mistake of thinking that Assyria is either your problem or your solution. I'm your problem. You have been forsaking and forgetting Me. Don't miss the three-fold self-identification here in this verse that's put there for emphasis. I will be like a lion. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will carry off. Three times God makes sure they understand this isn't going to be Assyria doing this to you, it's going to be Me. These two nations are going to be like vulnerable, helpless prey facing a young, powerful, and hungry lion. He is going to tear them, as a lion is known to do, and he's also then going to carry them off, just like a lion also was known to do, to carry their prey away, to feed on it later. Again, this is A definition of terrible defeat and exile is the people will literally be dragged off to other countries and no one is going to be able to save them from God's wrath. Surely this is the prophecy of how the northern kingdom is going to be carried off into exile to Assyria and how a hundred plus years later the southern kingdom of Judah is going to be carried off defeated by Babylon and carried off to that nation. as if all of that isn't terrible enough, then you look at verse 15 and in verse 15 God makes this chilling promise, when all of these other judgments have been accomplished, after I've been like the lion that tears you and carries you off, I will return again to my place. Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face and in their distress earnestly seek me, earnestly. they were seeking Him before but they weren't going to find Him. You hear that this is the second time in this chapter verse 6 and here in verse 15 that God has said that He either has or will withdraw from the people that He had made a covenant with. Understand something, God's presence with and among these people is the one thing that set them apart from everybody else. The one thing that made them different from every other nation on earth. Deuteronomy 4.7, Moses asked them this question, what great nation is there that has a God so near to them as the Lord our God is to us? Whenever we call on him, You see, the one true and living God, the almighty one, had made himself that available to his people. No one else, no one else in the world had that. But in response, they had forsaken him, forgotten him, betrayed him, and turned away from him. And so now, part of their punishment is that he will withdraw and remove himself from them. most terrible, terrible judgment. But don't miss the fact that it is also bound up, as Hosea is so good at doing, inextricably with a gracious covenantal promise, I will return to my place until, until they acknowledge their guilt, until they seek my face, and in their distress, notice, it has to come through their distress, that they earnestly seek me. Now there are a few, lots of lessons you can get from here, a few important ones we'll focus on this morning. And the first one I would impress on you is the vital essential importance of godly leadership in the church. Here in our own church at this time, we are in the process of evaluating and eventually electing men as officers, leaders in this church under Christ's appointment. And as we've been going through that process, I've been urging you to consider the godly character and the biblical qualifications that are given for such men to be in these kinds of positions, that they are required to possess. Because you see, the leaders of God's people are intended by him to be a blessing to his people. In a sense, almost a means of grace, a means by which God's grace can be poured out on his people. But if they don't possess the requisite character and qualifications, those leaders can instead, as we've seen here in our text today, they can become not a blessing but a snare to the people that they are supposed to be shepherding. They can actually lead them into sin instead of protecting them from it and calling them out of it. I urge you, I urge you to pray for your leaders, for your offers, so that by God's grace, They can be faithful blessings to you instead of causing you to stumble and being a snare. And for those who would be officers, who are officers, I remind you of Jesus' words, to whom much is given, much will be required. Remember his words to the leaders in these first verse or two, the judgment is for you because you became a snare. We've also seen here, though, that the people who belonged to God had sinned significantly against him in an ongoing way. It wasn't just a one-time thing, but it's just been progressive, continual, ongoing sin. And through the Holy Spirit, Hosea tells us, so interestingly, that their deeds did not permit them to return to their God, because the spirit of turning away from God was within them. Understand something, that spirit of turning away isn't something that's unique to those Old Testament saints or those Old Testament pagans. That spirit of turning away that's within them is the same spirit that's within us, that old nature, our fleshly nature, the old man that always is trying to make us turn away from God and faithfulness to him. Paul teaches us in Galatians chapter 5 verse 17 that for Christians, he says, the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. You see he's describing warfare there between the Holy Spirit and the old nature. For these are opposed to each other and notice what they do, they are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. You see how that fits with what Hosea said? Their evil deeds won't let them return to God, and Paul says in Galatians, that old nature in you opposes to keep you from doing what you're supposed to do. In fact, the author of Hebrews in chapter 3, verses 12 and 13, warns us about exactly the same thing Hosea is talking about. Listen to his words. Take care, brothers, lest... No, this isn't brothers, this isn't pagans outside. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be, notice the word he uses, none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. See, there are many people who have professed to be Christians, and many of them may likely be real, true Christians, but they are regularly and habitually under the power of certain sins. Some of the most obvious ones in our day that come to mind, pornography and sexual sin, alcohol and drug abuse, things like that, that people are enslaved to. The problem is that as they continue in those sins, something happens inside their heart and their mind, and the Scriptures tell us that they become hardened. We become hardened by our sin. Hardened in the sense that we no longer hear and feel the condemning power of the Word and Law of God as it speaks to us, commanding us to obey Him and turn away from wickedness and sinfulness. As the people continue in those sins, they're no longer following God, they're turning away from Him. And they are more driven by, they are desiring more their sinful desires and actions, more than they are obedience to God. They may still be going through the motions of serving and worshiping God. They may still be coming to church and talking about God. They may sound like they're saying all the right kind of things and even doing. Some of them are even leaders in the church. We've seen that over and over again. But the truth is that when they bring their worship to God while they're in that state, they don't really find Him. Hosea 5, 6. because God withdraws from them. But what does that mean? Because as Christians, as God's people, His true people, the Word, I thought, promises us that we have the promise of Christ, the promise of God, that He will never leave us or forsake us. So what does it mean that He withdraws from us? Well, I believe one of the best summaries of the Bible's teaching on this is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith, in chapter 17, section 3, the one on perseverance of the saints. You'll actually find it in your bulletins. I printed it on the inside cover of the bulletins if you want to look at it there. It's on the perseverance of the saints, and the first two sections talk about how we only persevere as saints because of God's grace, because he elects us, he calls us, his spirit seals us, and he is the one who makes sure that we stay in the faith. But then in the third and last section he says, they say this, nevertheless they, Christians, may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, through the prevalency of corruption remaining in them and the neglect of the means of their preservation, may fall into grievous sins and for a time continue herein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to be deprived, notice that word, deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened and their conscience is wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments on themselves. Ever known anybody that applies to? Ever been anybody that that applies to? You see, the truth is that if we truly belong to Him, If we are truly His and we are caught in the snares of sin in this way, the truth is that God withdraws from us in the sense of His gracious presence. What the Puritans used to call His manifest Spirit. He doesn't really take His Spirit away from you, but He takes away the manifestation of it in your life. the way in which you feel and sense and experience and enjoy His presence in your life. That sense of fellowship and communion and peace that we have with God is taken away from us. And He causes us to be deprived, to feel deprived of this blessedness so that we might, by His Spirit, feel and grieve over its loss And through that experience of grieving over that loss, be granted the ability to return to him, to return to him in heartfelt repentance and godly sorrow over our sins. You see, the loss and grief is necessary for us. It's something that is absolutely necessary. The Apostle Paul writes about that in 2 Corinthians 7, verses 8 and 10. He had written apparently a letter to the Corinthians rebuking them for sin. apparently sharply rebuking them for sin, and he says to them, for even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you. He didn't like the fact that they had had to be grieved, though you were grieved only for a while. As it is, Paul says, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so you suffered no loss through us, for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. You hear Paul. You hear how clear that is. That's the withdrawal of the Spirit, that grief that you feel as you're rebuked by God in your sin, and as the Spirit works in you through that, you are brought to an ability to have godly repentance and sorrow and return to God. But that's not just a New Testament experience either. That's not something that only we have available to us. These folks would have had it available to them also. David clearly talked about that in his Psalm of Repentance that we read together this morning. in Psalm 51. You see, David had been confronted by God's word through the prophet Nathan, and he was convicted of his sin. You are the man, Nathan said, and David's response was, I have sinned against God. And we can see in this Psalm that he experienced this withdrawal of God's gracious presence. Listen to him plead, let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones you have broken or crushed rejoice. See, God withdrew, crushed him, and he felt it. And those circumstances that God had sent to him, used by the Spirit, caused him to see that God requires and desires obedience more than just the outward forms of worship. Bringing sacrifices does nothing if my heart isn't right, David said. And so he was brought by God to desire and to receive a broken and contrite spirit, a spirit of true repentance so that he could earnestly confess his guilt. You see that in verses 1 through 6. And then in verses 7 through 9, he is able then to plead with God for forgiveness of his sins. And then in verses 10 through 12, he was able to beg God, notice, Don't withdraw your spirit from me. I felt that already. Don't do it again. Don't withdraw your spirit from me and restore to me what? The joy of your salvation, not mine, yours, because it's given to me by you. But when we're in the place where we are turning away from God and sin, caught by our actions so that we don't tend to return to God, how do we reach the place where instead of turning away from him, we turn to God and seek him with sincere, earnest repentance, as God says they need to do? Understand that it's through something that these purely physical descendants of Abraham that we're seeing here in Hosea, it's something they didn't have available to them, most of them. because they only had a spirit of turning away in them, the old nature. That's all they had. But those who truly belong to God in Christ also have a different spirit in them, in us, the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and it is the Holy Spirit in the heart of believers who takes us where we're in those situations when God withdraws his presence and causes us to be grieved by that. causes us to hurt over it and to sincerely repent of our sin and earnestly seek Him. And although it may seem as if He has withdrawn from us, The truth is, He's never left us. He promised He would always be with us, and He always has been and always will be. In fact, when we come to Him in true repentance by His Word and Spirit, we will find the words of Psalm 145.18 to be vitally alive for us. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call on Him in truth. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the blessings that are ours in Christ. We thank you that you are a God who pursues your sinful people and who will not let us go. That you are a God who calls us to holiness and then brings us to holiness. We pray that you would help us to be a people who would not be left to that nature and spirit of turning away from you, but that you would, by your word and spirit, cause the new nature in us to grow and flourish so that we would instead be drawn to turn back to you to see our sin and its awfulness and to repent of it and to desire your blessing instead. We pray these things in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.