Gradually, Then Suddenly | Sunday, August 18, 2024

Thank you, Anthony and team. Good morning! Welcome, Cross Connection. You can have a seat. It's so good to be reminded, even in the lyrics of that song, that the battle belongs to the Lord. We need to remind ourselves of that constantly and continuously.

One of the things we need to recognize and remember is that we're involved in that battle. Even though the battle belongs to the Lord and ultimately He is victorious, we are still involved in it. God has given us armor to put on: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, and to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We are to take up the shield of faith, as the Scriptures say in Ephesians chapter 6, with which we will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Paul also talks about some offensive weapons. He says to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Then he mentions praying always with all prayer and supplication for the saints. We need to be a people who are praying. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, where he says that we do not walk by sight; we walk by faith. The weapons of our warfare are not earthly; they are not carnal, but they are powerful in God for the tearing down of strongholds, casting down every vain thing that exalts itself against God. I need to remind myself of that frequently, and I want to remind you of that today.

I want us to pray for something specific today. This last week, my kids went back to school. Many of your kids may have gone back to school as well. If they didn't last week, many kids are going back to school this next week or in the coming weeks. When I was a kid, we didn't go back to school until after Labor Day, but kids are going back to school now. All the parents rejoice—yay, kids are going back to school!

However, I think we need to pray for the kids that are a part of our church. Many of you have kids, grandkids, or maybe great-grandkids, nieces, and nephews who are going into the schools. There are a lot of things, especially within the public school system, that are exalting vain things against the Lord and trying to sway the hearts and minds of kids. There are many great teachers and staff, though, who know the Lord and are kind of like silent witnesses in the trenches, and we rejoice for them.

I thought it would be good for us today to pray for the kids connected to our church—your kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews, as well as those who are in our youth ministry and children's ministry. We should pray for them as they go back to school, that God would protect them physically, mentally, and spiritually, and guard their hearts and minds.

I'm going to ask you to stand, and we're going to lift up our prayers to the Lord this morning on behalf of our kids in their school. God, we do pray for this school year as kids have been going back to school or getting ready to go back to school. Would you guard their hearts and their minds in You, Lord?

In so many ways, I think of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Babylon, being instructed in the ways of Babylon. Yet, Lord, You used them to be bright, shining witnesses. You guarded them, and they set themselves apart even in the midst of that. Would you help our kids to be, in a sense, thriving in Babylon? Would you pour out Your Spirit upon them and bless them this school year?

We do pray for physical protection, but also emotional and spiritual protection. Guard their hearts and minds in You, Lord. I thank You for the teachers, the staff, and the administrators within the school system here who know You and are on the front lines of a battle. A lot of times, they have to be somewhat covert in that, but Lord, I thank You for them.

We pray for the educators that are a part of our church, that You would pour out Your Spirit upon them and help them to have the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and the shield of faith. Strengthen them in that battle on those front lines, and for these kids as well. Be with them this school year, Lord. Would You continue to use them to be lights shining in the darkness? Set them apart for Your purpose and for Your work.

So we pray for the school year and ask for a blessing upon the kids, the teachers, and the staff. In Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated.

Please continue to be praying this week as kids go back to school. I'm sure you might remember there are a lot of anxieties when you go back to school. I have seen that with my own kids and have been praying for them.

We are continuing our study in the Scriptures this morning in the Old Testament book of Hosea. If you want to take out your Bible, we're in Hosea chapter 13. We are nearly done; we have one more chapter next week. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. Hosea is in the Old Testament, the first two-thirds of the Bible. Turn to about the middle of your Bible; you'll probably be near or about in the Psalms. Then turn to the right, and eventually, you'll get to the prophets, and you'll find Hosea. Hosea chapter 13 is where we are.

There was an influential historian and philosopher in the last century named Will Durant. He wrote a book called "Lessons in History," and the premise, the thesis of the book, is reiterated several times. He states, "The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding."

As he unpacks that statement in the book, he explains that when he says the present is the past rolled up for action, he means that every single one of us, individually and collectively as a nation and culture, is an amalgamation of many different historical influences. This includes civilizational history, biological history, philosophical history, and cultural history. All of these elements shape who we are as individuals and as a culture. We are, in essence, the product of history, which has led us to our current state.

In many practical ways, we should recognize that when we face various issues or circumstances in our time, we do not approach them as blank slates. Instead, we confront these challenges as people who have been formed and fashioned by a specific history.

When Durant states that the past is the present unrolled for understanding, he emphasizes the importance of considering what has happened in the past. We need to examine how people in the past faced their circumstances and the issues they encountered. Looking back at history provides us with wisdom on how to navigate our own challenges. Another philosopher in the 20th century noted that those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it. Many of you may be familiar with that saying.

Therefore, it is crucial for us to consider the teachings of the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament. This is why we have been exploring passages like Hosea. Before this, we were in Judges, and in just a few weeks, we will return to the Book of Judges. We will focus on a very interesting character, probably the most well-known judge in the Book of Judges, a man named Samson. We will discuss his life and the applications it has for us today.

The challenge is that many times, both Christians and non-Christians alike will look at the Old Testament, the first two-thirds of the Bible from Genesis to Malachi, and question its relevance. Some Christians may express sentiments like, "I don't really need that." Perhaps you have heard this or even said it yourself.

Things like, "Well, I'm a New Testament Christian, so I don't need all that stuff in the Old Testament." Those names are too hard to pronounce anyway—Zephaniah and Habakkuk and all this stuff. What do I need to know about these guys? I have a hard enough time pronouncing their names; I don't need to know anything about their lives. Some Christians will say, "I'm a New Testament Christian; I don't need that stuff." I understand this sentiment, but I think it's shortsighted.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that all these things, speaking about the Old Testament, were written and recorded for our instruction and admonition. He then gives us the application: "Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall." What he's saying is that it's wise for us to consider what other people have gone through. I know you would probably agree with this—it's better to learn from the mistakes of others than to have to suffer those mistakes yourself. He says these things were recorded for us, even saying, "upon whom the ends of the age have come."

Many Christians believe we are living in the last days. Since Jesus ascended into heaven until He returns, the Bible calls this entire period that we are living in right now, and have been for the last 2,000 years, the last days. Paul emphasizes in that passage in Corinthians that it is helpful for us to look back at those things and learn from them. Therefore, it is wrong and shortsighted for Christians to say, "I don't need that because I'm a New Testament Christian and I don't need the Old Testament; that's all Jewish history." No, there are important applications for us to learn from these texts.

There are also many non-Christians—people who don't necessarily read or believe the Bible—who will say things like, "Why would you look back to middle Bronze Age texts to try and figure anything out about now? It has nothing to do with our time." Some people will argue those points, but I think that such a view is shortsighted. These things were written for our instruction. I do think that Durant was correct: the present is the past rolled up for action. We live as we do today because of many things that have happened throughout the past.

As we go through the challenges that we will inevitably face, every generation has its difficulties. Some generations have many, many difficulties. Just thinking over the last 20 to 25 years, we've gone through a lot of crazy ups and downs as a people. As we do, it's helpful to go back and look at how other people in past times went through these challenges and what lessons we can learn from them.

They either should have learned or did learn through the midst of that, which is why we're going through this very old text. The book of Hosea is some 2,800 years old, and for the last 12 weeks, we've been going through the previous 12 chapters. I am somewhat embarrassed to say, and I've said it a few times, that part of the reason I chose this book for the summer is because it has 14 chapters and we had 14 weeks. It was like, hey, it just worked; it was practically speaking perfect.

Yet, as I began to re-familiarize myself with the story of Hosea, which I've read through before and taught through before, I realized that there are many important lessons to learn and things to apply from this text from the time of Hosea. In Hosea's day, the people of Israel were living through a time of cultural chaos. He was ministering to the nation of Israel in the northern kingdom, which had been split by a civil war several hundred years before Hosea's time.

The people of his time were facing political chaos and civilizational upheaval. In the 8th century BC, the Assyrian Empire was expanding and growing. It was the first major empire to expand and grow, and they were on the move to conquer as many peoples as they could. There were great kings of Assyria that you would study in a world civilization class during that period. You don't even need to go to the Bible to talk about these individuals, but they were expanding their kingdom, and Israel was in the midst of this expansion, facing possible conquest by the Assyrians.

To mitigate this threat, they were trying to fix the disaster by paying off the Assyrians. They thought, "Let's give them gold and silver, and if we pay them enough money, then they won't come and overtake us." They were also playing both sides of the table, paying the Egyptians to the south in hopes that maybe the Egyptians would help protect them against the Assyrians.

All this was going on: civilizational upheaval, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, which is exactly what Jesus said would happen throughout human history. We would see kingdom against kingdom and nation against nation, and we see it in our time. They were facing all kinds of political and economic disasters in their nation, too. They were a nation dependent upon agriculture for their economy, and during this period, they experienced droughts and famines. Additionally, there were multiple assassinations of kings in Israel during the period of Hosea's life.

Specifically, what you had were these individuals behind the scenes who were observing the events unfolding in the world, such as the Assyrians advancing. As they witnessed the turmoil in their economy, they secretly communicated among themselves, saying, "The king doesn't know what's going on. We need to fix this. We need to take matters into our own hands." One of them, Pekka, went so far as to kill the king and seize power, but he did not improve the situation for the people. Eventually, another individual emerged, conniving and persuading others that if he were king, things would be much better. The economy would improve, and they would stave off the Assyrians. So, HOSA killed the king and took control.

During this period, there was significant political intrigue. When we examine the Scriptures, we see what is happening in the realm of humanity—what makes the headlines in the news, if you will. However, the Bible opens the veil, allowing us to see that something else is occurring behind the scenes in what we would call the spiritual realm. It is my conviction that the inflamed situations we observe in our world are indications of spiritual matters happening behind the scenes. They are the earthly manifestations of those spiritual realities.

Books like Hosea provide insight into what is happening. The reason Israel was suffering from devastating political, economic, and civilizational issues can be traced back to their rejection of God's ways. They turned away from the Lord and experienced chaotic cultural upheaval because, for centuries, they had rejected God's law and opposed His rule. They did not serve God alone, which is the first commandment given to them when He called them out of Egypt. The first commandment was, "You shall have no other gods before me." Yet, what did they do when they entered the land? They began to worship the gods of the people around them.

The second commandment states, "You shall not make for yourself any carved image to bow down to it." Unfortunately, that is exactly what they did. They took the Lord's name in vain by using God's name to worship idols like Asherah, Baal, and Molech. In truly immoral and wicked ways, they worshiped the Canaanite god Moloch, even going so far as to offer their infant children as sacrifices.

As human sacrifices to this molten hot God, they would kindle a fire in its belly. It's a horrible, horrible thing. They had taken God's name in vain; they had bowed down to other idols. They did not observe His ways, especially the Sabbath. They probably broke all the other commandments of God as well. Certainly, we see adultery in the life of Hosea; his wife committed adultery and went out on him. There was adultery and immorality, and you can be certain there was murder, theft, lying, and covetousness. In every way, the people had rejected God's laws for centuries.

The Prophet Jeremiah says it like this: they had played the harlot with idols on every high mountain and under every green tree. They had turned the entire nation into a place of idolatry. God made clear what we read in the New Testament in Galatians 6:8: if you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption. So, they are going to reap what they have sown. Even though for many hundreds of years God has been patient and merciful with His people, He has regularly sent prophets like Hosea to call the people back to the Lord, to call them back to trust and faithfulness to God.

They would say, "If you will turn from these idols and return to the Lord, then God will bless you." The promise was so very clear. Hundreds of years before this, before they even came into the Promised Land, God spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy. He said, "If you will walk in the ways, the statutes, the principles of God, then you will be blessed. Every aspect of your life will experience blessing. But if you reject God's ways, you will receive what I call anti-blessings, what the Scripture calls curses."

They are about to experience the final consequence of hundreds of years of unfaithfulness, of centuries of sin. They are about to reap the final consequence. What is the final consequence that God told them would come in Deuteronomy 28? It was very clear: they would be exiled from the land that God had given to them as a blessing. Deuteronomy 28:63 states, "It shall be that just as the Lord rejoiced over you, Israel, to do good to you and to multiply you, the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing, and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to."

Possess hundreds of years before Hosea's time, God said, "If you will walk in my ways and you will keep my law, you will be blessed. But if you will not, then eventually you're going to be plucked from the land; you're going to be exiled from the promised land." This means that what Israel is facing was a completely avoidable disaster.

A cultural critic I follow even today would call it a slow-moving disaster. What is a slow-moving disaster? It is something that you can completely avoid if you would use just an ounce of wisdom. Israel was about to face an entirely avoidable disaster, and they had been given hundreds of years to repent. Prophet after prophet—some of the names we know, some we don't—had come to the children of Israel, calling the people to return to the Lord. This is the final call. Hosea's message is the last word to Israel; he is the last of the prophets to speak to the northern ten tribes. We are in the last two chapters, chapters 13 and 14. Effectively, what we have here before us is God's very last word.

The last call comes to them in Hosea 13:1: "When Ephraim spoke..." Ephraim is the name of the largest, most influential tribe of the northern kingdom, and so sometimes the Northern Kingdom of Israel would be called Ephraim instead of Israel. When Ephraim spoke, trembling, what is Hosea saying? He is saying that in times past, they were a powerful and influential people. It used to be that when Israel and Ephraim spoke, other people trembled. They were strong; they were mighty.

However, when Ephraim exalted himself in Israel, he offended through Baal worship and died. They had once been strong; they had once been mighty, but they had given themselves over to idols, and idolatry was their undoing. This is a simple thing for us to hold in our own hearts and minds as an application: when we give ourselves to serving the passing pleasures of sin, it will inevitably lead to destruction. They offended through Baal worship, and so he died. Now, Hosea says they sin more and more. In Hosea 13:2, he states, "They have made for themselves molded images, idols of silver according to their skill." All of this is the work of...

Craftsmen say to the men who sacrifice, "Kiss the calves." They have these craftsmen who are making images of silver and gold to Baal, Molech, and Asherah. The craftsmen are saying, "Come and kiss the calves," just like the children of Israel were seduced to worship during the time of the Exodus. Because of their idolatry, even though they had once been strong and mighty, God says, "Therefore, they shall be like the morning cloud, like the early dew that passes away, like the chaff that is blown from off the threshing floor, and like the smoke from a chimney."

They had once been strong; they had once been mighty, but their strength and success had led them toward disaster. Point number one: the arrogance of success produces the perfect conditions for ruin. Another way of saying this might be, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." A very wise king in Israel had said this several hundred years before Hosea, who is now calling the children of Israel to repentance. King Solomon, in Proverbs 16:18, stated, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." This sentiment is very similar to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:11, where he notes that all these things happened to the children of Israel and are written down as examples for us. Therefore, take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

I don't need a show of hands this morning, but you can just ask yourself how many of you have found that you experienced this: the arrogance of success produces the perfect conditions for ruin. You thought you had it all figured out. "I'm so strong; I can handle this." Some of you still have a bad back because you thought, "I can handle this." Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. The children of Israel had become boastful and arrogant because of their success. They did not recognize that their success was directly related to their God. It was His blessing, His goodness, and His grace that gave them all these things. As they served God in faith and faithfulness, they saw blessing. However, they had departed from the Lord. They added sin to sin and had begun down the path of sin many hundreds of years before Hosea's day. By the time Hosea is writing these last words to them, we read that they sin more and more.

More that gives us insight into the reality of the compounding and expanding effects of sin. This is why sin in the Bible is related to or pictured as leaven or yeast. The Scriptures talk about sin being like leaven. Some of you have been involved in baking before, and you use leaven or yeast in baking to cause the dough to expand and rise. The Scriptures say a little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump.

You might say, "Well, it's just a little issue of dishonesty. It's just a small lack of integrity. It's just a tiny thing of immorality. Nobody else knows about it. Who sees us? Who knows us? It's in darkness. No one knows about it. It's just my little thing, and it's not that big of a deal." Except that sin has a way of expanding and compounding to the point that now Israel sins more and more, to the point that the dominant thing in their life was their sin. Their sin had taken over.

As a result of their sin, Hosea gives four similes to describe what is coming for Ephraim, what is facing them. Ephraim shall be like the morning cloud, like the early dew, like the chaff blown from off the threshing floor, and like the smoke of a chimney. What is common to these four images that he poetically gives to us? The common thing is that they come and pass quickly.

I was driving here this morning through San Pasqual Valley. We live out in San Pasqual Valley, and when I was driving here this morning at about 6:00, there were clouds covering the hills and kind of hugging the hills in San Pasqual Valley. I know that by 9:00, they will all be gone. These images that Hosea gives indicate that because of your sin, though you have been great, now you are going to fade quickly. You are going to be gone very fast.

Point number two: the ruin of sin comes slowly at first and then all at once. Hemingway, in his book "The Sun Also Rises," has a conversation between two characters. One character asks the other, "How did you go bankrupt?" The other character responds, "Two ways: gradually at first and then all of a sudden." Gradually, then suddenly. The ruin of sin comes slowly at first.

Then, all at once, it's like the dam that is beginning to break. There's just a little bit of water coming through, and then all of a sudden, it falls, and the torrent of the wave comes to disaster. Israel was in that spot because of their sin, which they had been compounding and expanding to the point that now it is the dominant aspect of their lives. They have added sin to sin, and now the judgment is coming. What hope do they have?

In verse four, Hosea says, "Yet I am the Lord your God." God is calling out to them one final time. This is it. He says, "I am the Lord your God." Ever since the land of Egypt, He is calling them to remember their past. This is about 2,800 years ago, in the 8th Century BC, and about 700 years before that, God had taken Israel from Egypt by the hand. He had rescued and saved them, showing them, "I am your Lord; I am your God." He had redeemed them and saved them, and He says, "Ever since Egypt, I have been your Lord, and you shall know no God but Me."

That is the first commandment: "You shall have no other gods before Me." Exodus chapter 20 makes this very clear. Why should you have no God before Me? Because there is no Savior besides Me. Who else has been able to rescue and redeem as I have rescued you? The reason you shall have no other God before Me is that I am the only one who redeemed and rescued you.

He reminds them of how He led them through the wilderness in the land of great drought. When they were in the desert and had no water, who was it that gave them water out of rocks? It was God, their Lord, from Egypt and in the wilderness. Then, when they had pasture, as stated in verse six, "When I brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, I gave them the promised land." When they had pasture, they were filled; they expanded and grew, and their hearts were exalted. Therefore, they forgot Me.

I know none of you have ever been in this sort of circumstance before. You know things are difficult; you're in the wilderness, in a dry and weary land. It is there, where you're lacking, that you're calling out to God, on your knees, saying, "God, help me! Save me! Rescue me! I need Your help." And somehow, in some miraculous way, you made it through. God provided, and you have been the recipient of miraculous grace.

Blessing. When everything is just fine, we think, "I've got this; we're good. We can handle whatever comes to us." In those moments, we forget God. It is so easy for us to point the finger at Israel and say, "You bunch of wicked wretches! I can't believe you do such terrible things. Why would you not trust in your God, who has been so gracious to you?" Yet, as we do that, we realize we are guilty of the same. We can so quickly fall into the same pattern: we only seek God when things are difficult. We only cry out to Him when we're in the wilderness. Then, when things are all better, we think, "I've got this," and we forget God.

Because of this rejection, God speaks through the prophet in verse 7, using more poetic similes. He says, "I will be to them like a lion, like a leopard by the road I will lurk. I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs." What will He do? "I will tear open their rib cage." This is vivid, horrible language. "I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them."

The idols that Israel gave themselves to were not powerful. The Lord had redeemed them from Egypt. He had led them in the wilderness and provided for them food—manna from Heaven. He had given them water out of rocks and the promised land. Yet, they instantly rejected God and began to bow down to idols that were absolutely nothing. As the psalmist says in Psalm 115, the gods of this world, the idols of men, are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell. They have hands but do not handle, feet but do not walk, nor do they mutter through their throat. These idols are useless; they are nothing.

Yet, Israel completely committed themselves to them. God, on the other hand, had redeemed and saved them, tended to them, taken care of them, blessed them, and given them the land. When they were filled with abundance, they rejected Him. When they had the promised land, they turned to their idols, and their hearts were exalted with pride. Therefore, they are going to reap the consequences, and judgment is going to come upon them. It will come upon them like a bear deprived of her cubs, like a lion, like a leopard. It is going to tear them apart. "I will tear them; I will devour them. The beast shall tear them apart."

What is this? Point number three: God's retribution for their actions.

Unrighteousness will be absolute and unsparing, like a beast laying upon the carcass. This vindication, this righteous judgment, as Hosea says, is absolute; it is certain. It is going to happen, just as it was certain 2,800 years ago for these people who had rejected God.

What is the application to us? No, we are not Israel. No, we are not the tribe of Ephraim. No, we are not living in the promised land. Yet, we have reaped the blessings of God in so many abundant ways, individually and as a people. As we reject God and put our trust in other things, devoting ourselves to those other things, the inevitable consequences are this judgment that is going to come. These are the inevitable consequences. Ultimately, if you continue in a persistent path of rejecting God, what is called sin, and you continue in that persistent path, the judgment of God will be revealed. It will come; it is a certainty.

Sometimes we think, "Oh, it's not coming. He's been so patient; he's been so gracious." We soothe ourselves or others by saying, "Oh, don't worry, you're going to be just fine. Everything's going to be okay." No, listen. Romans chapter 1 says the wrath of God will be revealed. It is inevitable; there will be wrath. The wrath of God will be revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

Paul, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, says the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead at His appearing. Now, is that in view? The right question is: what hope, if any, do we have against the relentless wrath of God? What hope?

Look at Hosea 13:9: "Oh Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me." If you will turn, if you will come before the Lord and reject your idols—that's repentance—and turn to Me. "Oh Israel, you're destroyed, but your help will be from Me. I will be your king. Where is any other that he may save you in all your cities? Is there someone else you can turn to, somebody else that you can find help from?"

Your judges, to whom you said, "Give me a king or princes," he says, "If you would turn to me and you would trust in me, then I will come and I will help, and I will save you. I will be your ruler; I will be your king." But you keep looking to your judges. You keep looking to other people, trying to find somebody among you who can fix this.

As a result, in verse 11, I gave you a king in my anger. I allowed you to have what you thought you wanted, and I took him away from you in my wrath. You said, "Well, we don't want God to rule over us; we want an earthly king." So God says, "Fine, I'm going to give you an earthly king, but that king is going to lead you towards sin, which is going to lead you towards my wrath. I'm going to allow you to go down the path that you so desperately want to go."

The iniquity of Ephraim, in verse 12, is bound up; his sin is stored up. The sorrows of a woman in childbirth have come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long where children are born. If only Israel had turned to God in repentance and faith, then they would have found the necessary help for their devastating situation. Instead, they turned to earthly kings. They figured if they just had this king, if they just had a better ruler—like I said, they had two kings in successive periods of time during the time of Hosea—who were behind the scenes saying, "If I was king, everything would be better."

They would help this person to conspire to kill the current king, and then he would come into place. Pekah would come, and he didn't save them. Hoshea would come, and he didn't save them. They just continued to lead them in directions that would ultimately bring about their undoing and destruction.

Watch out! A simple application from this reality of Hosea's day among the children of Israel is to be cautious when you think that your hope and salvation is in an earthly leader or ruler. This is such an important point for us sitting at this moment in August of 2024. Be careful if you think that your ultimate hope and salvation lies in taking over Congress as a whole, if we just had the Supreme Court, or if we just had the right person in the White House. Everything would be okay.

I mean, I'm old enough now to know that I've been hearing this a lot for the last 20 to 25 years, and it hasn't really gotten much better. But we're going to be told—there are going to be signs everywhere you look, on every intersection, on every road. They are going to dominate everything for the next three months. You're going to hear every news segment, and you're going to hear all the advertisements on talk radio, on YouTube, and on the news. It's all going to be about how...

If I approved this message, if I did this, you chose me; everything would be all better. It would be fixed.

One American satirist and cultural critic of the last century said, "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

Point number four: sometimes God gives us what we think we want, even when He knows it is not best. He does this as a judgment. He allows us to have what we think we want, even when He knows this isn't going to fix it. Ephraim has been completely given over to sin. It is as if they have sinned so much that they have such an excess of sin that they have stored it up. That's what the text says. Imagine it, if you will, like Amazon warehouses of sin. They have so much sin that they've just built up tall buildings. It's like they have more than they can contain, so they have storehouses of all of their sin.

What is going to be the storehouses of the recompense? The payment, the wages of sin, as Paul says in Romans 2. He could have said this to Israel, but he says it for you and me: "Do you show contempt for the riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead us to repentance?" But because of the stubbornness and the unrepentant heart that you have, you are storing up for yourself wrath against the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. God will repay each according to his deeds. They had storehouses of sin, and God says, "I have storehouses of wrath stored up in waiting for the recompense of your sin."

My goodness, what hope then is there in light of such certain judgment? Well, look at Hosea 13:14. There is only this hope: God says, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Oh death, I will be your plagues; oh grave, I..."

Will be your destruction; pity is hidden from my eyes.

Point number five, and I'll wrap it up: our only ultimate hope is the resurrecting power of God. This is what Hosea is alluding to here, under the inspiration of God. He is alluding to the resurrecting power of God. How do we know that? Because the Apostle Paul takes this text in the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, and he applies this text in verse 14 of Hosea 13 to the resurrection. He says this in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 54: "So when this corruptible body has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory."

Oh death, where is your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our only hope for victory is the resurrecting power of God. That is our only hope.

We will be told constantly through every voice in our culture that your hope is this: if we just went back to the Gold Standard, that would fix everything. Our hope is this: if we just got rid of Roe v. Wade, which we did by God's grace, everything would be okay. If we just had more people on the Supreme Court, or if we just took both houses of Congress, or if we just did this, this would fix everything.

But our only ultimate hope, because at the core, at the root of every problem that we see in culture, in society, in the world, is sin. The only ultimate victory over sin and death—because that is what comes from sin—is the resurrecting power of God. That's it. He is our only hope.

I emphasize this, as I have many times before, and I will continue to do so because, number one, I want you to know this, but I also want you to recognize it is God's call in your life. If you know this, make it known, because you have people that I will never connect with. You work with them, you go to school with them, you live next door to them; they are part of your family. God has put you in their life to share this message.

Know this truth and make it known. We all think that if we just had something—fill in the blank—everything would be great. I mean, even I’m tempted to say things like, "Well, if I just had a million dollars, that would fix everything." The number keeps getting bigger; if I just had ten million, or maybe if I just had a hundred million, I would certainly tithe on it. It would be the greatest tithe check ever. If I just had X, that would make Y better.

Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Unfortunately, Israel would not turn to the Lord. In Hosea 13:15, it states, "Though he, Ephraim, Israel, the northern kingdom, is fruitful among his brothers, he was great among the other tribes." Even though he was great, an East Wind shall come. I talked about this last week. If you were here, you understand this concept living in San Diego. When we get an East Wind out of the desert, it brings hot, dry air, and we call it a Santa Ana. When it does, it destroys fruitfulness.

The children of Israel experienced the same thing because east of them was the vast expanse of the Arabian Desert. The East Wind would blow, and so Israel was fruitful and great among his brethren. But the East Wind shall come as a judgment from God. The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness; then his spring shall become dry, his fountain shall be dried up, and he shall be plundered—the treasury of every desirable prize. He will be destroyed by his enemies.

Samaria, the capital city of Ephraim, is held guilty, for she has rebelled against her Lord. They shall fall by the sword. This is such a vivid and terrible image: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women, speaking of pregnant women, shall be ripped open. What a horrible, horrible image! You might think, "What on Earth are you talking about, Hosea?" The enemy is going to come and show absolutely no mercy. There will be no mercy for the child or the pregnant woman; it will be total and complete destruction.

Why? Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people. God made it clear for centuries. Not only did He make clear what the outcome of sin would be, but He also made clear what the remedy for sin would be. It is only in the resurrecting power of God.

If we would return in repentance and faith before God, we would find ready help and mercy. That is the application for me and for you. If we confess our sins to the Lord, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. As Romans chapter 10 says, if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved and shall not be put to shame.

That is the message we need to know and make known. This week, you will have opportunities with people that I will probably never meet. We come here to be strengthened, encouraged, and equipped to go out there. When you walk through those doors, after you get your donut, hang out with your friends, and get in your car to leave, you are going to your mission field.

It is my hope that you know these truths because there are a lot of hopeless people around us. Our only ultimate hope is in the resurrecting power of God, and you need to know this so much that you make it known to others. This week, you will encounter people who, in some way, shape, or form, will express their dissatisfaction, discomfort, or lack of hope. You will have these conversations and think, "Man, this is the same conversation I've had 87 times before with this person." All they ever do is tell me how bad things are in their life.

God is saying, "Yes, I've been trying to tell you for 87 times to tell them that you know the answer to their dilemma." You will keep hearing it until you say, "You know, I know exactly what you need. It's Jesus Christ." I just want you to know that when you have that conversation with that person who always tells you how their life is falling apart, you all know exactly who I'm talking about right now.

This wasn't in my notes, but it's for some of you. There is somebody in your life who, every time you talk with them, only tells you how everything is falling apart—the government is falling apart, the world is falling apart. You might see them coming and think, "Oh, I want to go the other way," but they always say, "I need to talk to you and tell you about this thing." God is trying to tell you, "Hey, would you listen to me? I'm trying to tell you to tell them you have the answer."

The question will be, do you actually have peace in that answer or not? That's the question. I'm really happy we're going to finish Hosea next week because I'm tired of giving these really heavy messages.

But it seems that God has a word for us, so let's stand and close in prayer.

Father God, I thank You for Your word. I pray that You would plant these realities, these truths, in our hearts. Help us this week when we're given the opportunity to talk with someone who is sharing their disillusionment, discomfort, or distress. Open our mouths and give us Your words to share the hope that we have, the peace that we have, and the joy that we have in You, even in the midst of cultural chaos.

God, help us to find our joy and the hope that we have in You and not in the things of this world. Cause that joy and peace in believing to shine brightly in our lives, we pray. We praise You, Jesus. It is in Your mighty name that we pray. Amen.