I see some of you are getting a little glassy-eyed. And I'm also aware of the fact that the mind can take in only what the sheets can stand. So we'll try and not overdo it. I think the greatest mistake that I could make would be to go overtime. And since I don't know when this meeting is supposed to end, I won't go overtime. Passage that came to me when our brother Robert was speaking to us was one that I heard quoted so many times when I was a little boy before I ever got saved. And there was again an elderly gentleman. Nice of you to say it that way. who used to come to Washington from New Jersey. And what must have been his favorite verse was in Jeremiah fifteen. And he used to quote that almost every time he spoke. The verse says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them. My word became unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by thy name, O Lord of hosts. Now today I'd like to talk a little bit about the idols in your life and my life. Now brethren, I've been speaking to us about idols and about the satanic effect in the world today. And also particularly in the message our brother gave us to the book of Esther. how that often Satan will overdo himself. I remember the story that, again, this elderly gentleman told several times about a dear widow lady and her son, a dear widow lady, who was very poor, and it was wintertime, and she needed coal for her fireplace. And she would pray and ask the Lord to send her coal for warmth. Next door to her lived an old infidel, I don't mind using that, an old infidel and his son. And the old man said to the boy one day, he said, I'll tell you what we'll do. This widow lady is praying and asking God to send her some coal. Tonight when she goes to bed, you and I will take over some coal and just pile it up in her yard. And when she says God sent the coal, will tell her no, we did it. And sure enough, the next morning there she was, and she was giving thanks to God for bringing the coal. And the old man said to her, now he said, I want you to know that last night my son and I brought this coal and put it in your yard. and God didn't have anything to do with it. And she said to him, I don't care. She said, God sent it even if he had the devil to bring it. And sometimes Satan will overdo himself. And I want to refer to a couple passages of Scripture that would help us to see that point. Now we've been talking about Hosea's time and how that he was a man with a heavy heart, because Israel had turned from God, and Israel had scurned the love of God. They had sinned against the love of God. As Brother Rob was saying in chapter four and verse six of Hosea, he says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. He wasn't talking in terms of science. He wasn't talking in terms of mathematics. My people are destroyed for the lack of the knowledge of God. Those people had laid aside the word of God. They had forgotten God working on their behalf, bringing them out of the land of Egypt, and bringing them across the Red Sea, bringing them across the River Jordan. caring for them in their wilderness journeys. And if you want to know more about that, you read Romans chapter seven, because I'm afraid many of God's dear people today are floundering about in the wilderness, which is Romans chapter seven, and never brought into the place of rest and assurance and confidence in the living God, which you find in Romans chapter eight. You read those two chapters. Israel was guilty of the same thing that you and I are guilty of so often, possible for us to be guilty in our lifetime of that thing that's called spiritual adultery. Not a nice thing to say, but we have to face it. God was using Hosea and the tragedy of his life and his family. But one day Hosea came home and his wife was gone, gone into harlotry, gone into adultery. And God said to Hosea, my people, my people have sinned against me. They have gone into the worship of Baal. And with all of its roughness, with all of its impurity and everything that's vile, And they are guilty of adultery. And that is spiritual adultery in the people of God. I'd like to illustrate that just a little bit, because we have here one of my favorite stories. Now, if you've heard it twice, you're going to hear it again. In fact, I think most of you hear it. I've heard both of my sermons twice anyway. So it isn't going to make that much difference. But if you'll turn to Psalm, one hundred and twenty-one, and the first two verses. Psalm one hundred and twenty-one, and then we'll get the illustration of this in First Kings chapter twenty. Psalm twenty-one is the traveler's Psalm, and in the earlier days when Alice and I and the children would take off the vacation Bible school and Bible camps for the summer, We'd read the Psalm before we left the house. The Psalmist says, I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Now let's just change that a little bit. If you were to read in your Hebrew Bible, you would find there are two questions here. Question number one. Shall I lift up mine eyes onto the hills? Question number two. From whence cometh my help? The statement, My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Let's turn to I Kings chapter twenty and find what the psalmist means there. We get the illustration of that. And this is one of my favorite Bible stories. Oh, how I like this one. It's not a very long one, and it will help us to understand what the Psalmist meant. We then say that Israel had left the living God, and they had become enamored with idolatry. All of Baalism, worshiping the nature gods, and there were the gods of the hills, gods of the valley, Gods of the rivers, and the gods of fertility, and more gods than you could name. And Israel had forsaken the living gods to embrace all of these false gods. Now in First Kings chapter twenty-two we read something of the experience of the Syrian king Ben-Hadad and the king of Isaiah, of Israel. with Ahab. Verse twenty-two. And the prophet came to the king of Israel and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself and mark and see what thou doest. For at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are the gods of the hills. Therefore they were stronger than we, but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And do this thing. Take the kings away, every man out of his place, but captains in their places. And number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, chariot for chariot, and we will fight against them in the plain. and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice and did so. And it came to pass at the return of the year that Ben-Hadad numbered the Syrians and went up to APEC to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel were numbered and were all present and went against them. And the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of kids. But the Syrians filled the country. And there came a man of God, and spoke unto the King of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord, Because, you want to mark that down. Thus saith God speaking now. Then Hedad had his turn, not God speaking. And God said, Because, The Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys. Therefore will I deliver all this great multitude unto thy hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And they encamped opposite one another seven days. See, they did that so they all get psyched up and ready for that battle. Seven days, and so it was that In the seventh day the children of Israel slew of the Syrians a hundred thousand footmen in one day. But the rest led to Apex into the city, and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand men who were left. And Ben-Hadad split. What did Ben-Hadad do? Why, he fled and came into the city. into an inner chamber. Sometimes I think there's a great deal of humor in the Bible. On one occasion, the deacons got together with, and I knew I would forget his name, the Prince of Preachers. Mr. Spurgeon. and he said that they were putting him on the carpet because of what they said too much levity in the pulpit. And he said, well, brethren, I appreciate your criticism very much, but you'd have a lot more sympathy with me if they knew how much I held back. And I think sometimes that God has placed in his word for us to see exactly how futile it is to fight against God, the living God, and to allow an idol, whatever that idol may be, to come into your life and displace the living God. God won't stand for that. Now here was the King of Syria. He said, the God of Israel, is the God of the hills. And that's why we can't beat them. But now if we get these Israelites into the valley, we'll just whip the shots off those people and they'll not be a threat to us anymore. When we were on a gospel tour, Brother George Huxley had a nice little story he used to tell. I think it fits here just a little bit. He tells the story of a little boy who went to church one Sunday morning, and he sat right behind an elderly gentleman who was no hair on the top of his head, but had just a little ring around the side. And the gentleman during the message would every once in a while scratch, and he would go like this, and he would scratch. And it finally got the best of the little kid. And he leaned over and whispered into the old elderly gentleman's ear, that, hey, mister, you chase him out into the open, you'll get him. That's what we have with Ben-Hadad and all of those Syrians who said, we have the God of the valley. We'll get him out in the open. And then we'll get him. But you remember what happened? Why there were a hundred thousand footmen in one day. Then Hedad split, and so did what was left. They fled to a city called APEC, and they sat down beside a wall with a tongue slanging out, and if the wall didn't cave in until the rest of them, that's what she called the devil overdrewing himself. Now let's turn to, for a few minutes that are left, to what we have been seeing here in this Book of Hosea. And in chapter, Book of Hosea, and chapter five, we read in verse twelve, we'll just be able to get to some of the highlights here. I would trust you'd read through the Book of Hosea. It's a remarkable book. and it will grow on you. I can promise you that. In verse twelve of chapter five, Therefore will I be unto Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like Rathimus. Verse fourteen. For I will be unto Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will take away, and none shall rescue him. Chapter ten and verse ten. It is in my desire that I should chastise them, and the people shall be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two furs. Now we have the passage here that tells us of God's judgment upon Israel. God is going to judge Israel for their sin. Remember the three children that were born to Hosea. Ephraim, God will scatter. La Ruhama, no pity. And lo, am I not my people. And it was as though God had disowned his people for their idolatry. But he did not. We're going to see that. And you read Romans chapter eleven. And you'll discover that God had not cast away his people. And God's promise to Israel will yet be fulfilled. We saw that he would put them through the valley of Acre. That's in the coming day. And he said they are going to sing. in that valley. They're not singing today. They're at the wailing wall today. He says, I'll give them the door of hope. Our translation reads, A door of hope. If you read your Hebrew Bible, the definite article, thee is there. I will give them the door of hope. There is only one door of hope for Israel. They're waiting for that door to open up today. And we remember that God puts a great many of his saints through that valley of Acre. The valley of tears. The valley of trouble. Because going through that valley will make us to become more Christ-like. That's what God is interested in. And that's what God is concerned about. The you and I are to be Christ-like. And God said in chapter five, he said, I will be unto Ephraim like a moth. That's an interesting thing. Suppose you were to wake up one night by what seemed to be a cross between a herd of elephants and a freight train going through your living room. and you get up in a big hurry and you put on the light and you open up your closet door and you say, oh, John, come quick. There's a moth in the closet. Doesn't work quite that way. And just because God doesn't thunder his displeasure in your life or mine at the moment doesn't mean that God has forgotten. As a moth, it's going to go into rottenness. Turn to Matthew chapter six, where the Lord Jesus has a very interesting portion for his people in that day. You see, the merchants of the East had their treasures largely in cloth. And that was their treasure. Notice the Lord Jesus says in verse nineteen, of Matthew chapter six, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where mocked and rushed the corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. Let me remember Scripture says, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also And the Lord says, I am going to be to Israel like a moth. And he says, lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust does corrupt. How would you like to go to your closet in the fall when weather gets a little cooler? And you open that closet door and you say, oh, John, come quickly, shredded meat. That's all that's left. And then God said, I'm going to deal with Israel like a lion. I'm going to tear them like a lion. And he says in chapter ten, I'm going to deal with them like a father. Discipline. Evidently, Robert had a dad like I did when I grew up. Your dad was quite patriotic like mine. He put on the stripes and I saw the stars. And patriotic. Like a father, God said. I'm going to deal with Israel in the matter of discipline. And God is disciplining His people even today, living from pillar to post, from the centuries gone by. And God will yet deal with His people in a coming day. I have the opportunity of speaking to an elderly Jewish merchant in town. He has a men's clothing store there. And we had a pretty good report together there for a while. And I said to him one day, Mr. Sedah, you have your store open on Saturday. You are breaking the commandment. Remember, the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. I said, how do you explain that? And in his Jewish way, he said, God, a man has to live, glory to him. I said, no, you don't have to live. He said, no. I said, no, all you have to do is die. You don't have to live. And I pointed out to him that God is going in a future day to deal with the nation of Israel and bring them through what he called the time of Jacob's trouble. And I said, Israel had seen no trouble yet, such as that trouble when God is going to deal with them in that time of Jacob's trouble. He said, not yet. I said, no, not yet. And he threw up his hand and said, hoi, yo, yo, yo, yo. And he'd never heard of that. And I guess you wouldn't believe it. God will deal with this people in a coming day. Now also in the book of Hosea, we read from chapter eleven. And beginning at verse one, when Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them the sacrifice and the bailing, and burnt incense to carve images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arm, but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, and with cords of love. and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid food before them." Now God is rehearsing here concerning Israel, when he brought Israel out of Egypt. And Matthew two and fifteen uses this text, and about nine times, Jose has referred to you in the New Testament, concerning the time when Mary and Joseph took the Lord Jesus into Egypt and then brought him back again at the death of Herod. But God says here, when Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. And God said that he chose Israel, not because there were many, but because they were few, not because they were mighty, but because they were weak. and because he would show the Gentiles what God could do with a nation such as Israel and claim them as his son. Notice he says in verse three. Verse one he says, I loved him and I called him. Verse three says, I taught him. I took them by their arms. And I healed them. Verse four, I drew them with bands of love. I was to them that take off the yoke on their jaws and laid food before them. He fed them. He loved them. He called them. He drew them. He healed them. And what was their response? Their response was to turn their back upon the living God. and go into idolatry, and God calls that spiritual adultery. Oh, I wonder, Christian, what are the idols in your life? In the epistle of John, we read, little children, keep yourselves from idols. What would constitute an idol for you, perhaps? Well, you know, you have a little boy in your house. and you love that little boy. But you call upon heaven and earth to move out of the way to make room for him. Everybody's got to get out of the way for him. Because whatever is his sweet will, that's what he's going to get. And it's possible, young Christian, that you can make an idol out of that sum. or out of that daughter of yours. Never discipline him. Never say no to him. Just ignore his temper tantrums and never assert your own will against his. And I can guarantee you there will come into your life more sorrow and more grief than you ever thought possible. I have seen that, and I'm sure many of us here have also, an idol in your life. Remember the song we used to sing? It was called The Shelf Behind the Door. Maybe you have a shelf behind the door in your house, and there may be something on that shelf that you find hard to give up. that you find hard to lay aside. I had a shelf behind my door when I was a very young Christian. And that thing on that shelf behind the door became an idol in my life. It took me away from the Lord. It cooled off my heart. And it took me away from the fellowship of God's saints. Oh, I was at the worship meeting every Sunday morning. That is, my body was there, but my mind was far away. It was on that home run that I hit the other day, and it was on that blunder I made at a most crucial moment the other day that was the idol in my life. I still enjoy baseball, and I watch it once in a while, as my brother was saying, There's nothing wrong with that. But when it goes to the extent, you see, of replacing the Word of God, because I had laid the Word of God to one side, and I was the most miserable and unhappy young fellow you ever saw. And I thought the trouble was with Dad and Mom and everybody else. Everybody else was out of step. that leave. And I thank God for that happy day when he brought me back to himself. In chapter fourteen we get the chapter of God dealing with Israel and bringing her to the place of confession. And you know that the only way for you to go is confession. Whatever they may be in your life, Christian, be sure that you out with it and make it clear before God. Solomon said in Proverbs, He that covers his sin shall not prosper. But whoso confesses and forsake of them shall have mercy. Which we suppose is the best? To continue and go on in your own way ought to know the mercy of God. in your case. Now he says in verse one, Return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity. Take with your words and turn to the Lord and say unto him, Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of thou lips. That's just another expression for the idea of praise. And we get in the other chapter of Israel, and it says of them they kiss the cats. That's an interesting expression. It's like the old fellow that said everybody threw his own face when he kissed the cow. When we were in Rome, we saw the statue of Peter there, and almost a line of men and women that come by. bending over and kissing the toe of that statue. But here the Israel is saying that we are going to render praise to our God. For too long they sacrificed to their idols. And now they're going to render praise to God. According to Hebrews chapter thirteen. In verse four God is saying, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them. Now God is saying here, I will. Israel had said, I will, in their rebellion against God. And here is a word that simply means uninterrupted, continuous healing for the people of Israel. I will love them. I love them with an everlasting love, continuous love, uninterrupted love. And then the other thing he says, and they say in verse eight a response, Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, observed him, I'm like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. God is saying, I will love them freely, willingly, voluntarily, chiefly a free will offering. The Lord Jesus said, They hated me without a cause. That's the word freely. They hated me freely without a cause. Romans three, therefore being justified freely by His grace without a cause. Can you give one reason as to why God should have been obligated to save your guilty soul? Can you give one reason as to why God in grace was obligated to forgive your sins? He says, O Israel, O Ephraim, how shall I give the up? How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim? God loved Ephraim, and he reminds me of the words of that lovely hymn with this little close. And you know the hymn. And it may be that you and I can say in our hearts today, in response to God, how can I give thee up? How could God give up his people whom he loved and whom he redeemed? And throughout Hosea, we see God's redeeming love. Let him you know so well. O love, that will not let me go. I rest my weary soul on thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.