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Alright, thank you brother. Now, just keep your finger there in Hosea 13. Can you please turn to Luke chapter 11. Turn to Luke chapter 11. Keep your finger there in Hosea 13. I'm not saying this sermon just yet, but I just wanted to show you something here in Luke 11 verse 50. Luke 11 verse 50, because I got a gentle rebuke on my sermon last week. So I won't name who it was, but let me just correct something that I said last week. So I was going through the ministry of the prophets last week in Hosea chapter 12, and the man who's laughing is the one that gently rebuked me. He did it the right way, don't worry. There's something I just need to correct there, but look at Luke 11 verse 50. It says that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation. So this is the Lord preaching against the generation. He was preaching too, because they were rejecting him, and by rejecting him, they were also rejecting all the prophets that came before him. So you can see that the blood of the prophets are going to be required. It says here in verse 51, it says, From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple, verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. So because this generation rejected the Lord Jesus, they also rejected the prophets that came before him. And you can see there that Abel is listed as one of the prophets of the blood that was being shed there. So there's a correction there that Abel is the first one at least that's given that title of a prophet. And what did I say? Enoch. Anyway, the point was about what Enoch was preaching being a template of what prophets ought to be preaching. But anyway, appreciate that, brother. But if you actually don't move away from Luke completely, because maybe turn to Luke 14. Turn to Luke 14 for me. And then go back to Hosea 13. Hosea 13 and look at verse number 2. Hosea chapter 13 and verse number 2 begins by saying, And now they sin more and more. The title for the sermon tonight is, They Sin More and More. Now I'm not going to preach as loudly as I normally do. I'm going to try to reserve my voice. You can probably tell I'm already struggling to preach a little bit. So if brother Matt needs to, I don't know. I don't know if he can lift up the volume of my voice. That would be great. Otherwise, just be patient with me. I've been sick just the past week. I'm okay physically, but I've lost my voice. I lost my voice, especially on Sunday. I couldn't preach. I had someone to come and step in and preach for me. And then even Monday and even Tuesday I was struggling with my voice. This is actually the strongest I've had for a long time. So if you just keep me in prayer while I'm preaching, that would be great. I need to keep my voice strong for tomorrow as well. On Friday I had a men's Bible study I was going to do in the evening. With the men up there. I've cancelled it because on Saturday there's a baby shower. And I'm going to preach a little sermon at the baby shower. And then I'll preach it on Sunday again. So just pray for me this week. I really need your prayers. But the title for the sermon, as I said, is They Sin More and More. And so what I was looking, as I was studying for this chapter, I just couldn't help but see the parallels of the damage that sin has caused Israel. And then to take that and apply that to ourselves. Even to our state before salvation. And just what sin does to ourselves. So we'll be looking at the topic of sin as we study through this chapter. But Hosea 13, verse 1, it says, When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel. But when he offended in Baal, he died. So first thing you notice there is that Ephraim, of course, being referred to as Israel there, there was a time when Israel was a humble nation before the Lord. Because it says when Ephraim spake trembling, it's kind of like as they would do the things of the Lord, as they would speak of the Lord and follow the Lord, they would do it by trembling. And that's the fear of God was upon them. And when you have that fear of God, and when you can lower yourself and be humble, you'll be exalted. This nation exalted himself in Israel. It's not that he exalted himself in sin at this point in time, but it's that the Lord had exalted him. Now, I told you to go to Luke 14. So if you can go back there to Luke 14, verse 11, this ties in with, of course, the words of Jesus Christ in Luke 14, verse 11, which says, For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Now, brethren, I want to be exalted. I want to leave this earth and leave a mark on this earth. That there's something that I was able to accomplish, whether it's the 11 kids that I have so far and what they're able to accomplish, that'll be great. Whether it's the two churches that I'm pastoring at the moment, I want to be able to leave a mark on this earth, something that will continue on even after I'm gone. And I realize that I'm going to need to be exalted. Now, you can do it in two ways. You either exalt yourself or you just humble yourself before the Lord. Just tremble before the Lord. I've always told you guys, before I come out to preach, I'm always trembling. I've always got a fear. I've always got butterflies in my stomach before I get up here. And I need the strength of the Lord to help me preach His Word. And you can see here that if you just abase yourself, if you just lower yourself, you'll be humble. It's the Lord that'll exalt you. If you want to be successful in this life as a Christian, leave a mark for the future generations and the work of God, you need to learn to just be a humble person. Hey, that's how Ephraim started. Now, if you look at Hosea 13 verse 1, the second part of it says, But when he offended God, when he committed sin in Baal, that Baal was the false gods, he died. Don't forget that the people of Israel had gone and worshipped the false gods. And the Bible tells us when they started to do that, when they started to worship Baal, he died. The nation died. Now, the first point that I have for you, brethren, is that sin brings forth spiritual death. Sin brings forth spiritual death. Because as soon as I read verse number 1, and he died, I was immediately brought to remembrance, Romans chapter 7, I'll just read it to you. Romans 7 verse 9, which says, I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. So as soon as you have sinned against the Lord and you have that conscious awareness that you have done so, that you have broken His commandments, you die spiritually. You die that spiritual death, and this is verse number 10, And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin, taken occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it it slew me. And so, before you were saved, there was a point in your life, okay, where you were dead spiritually. You know, most people in this earth, you know, they're walking physically, they're alive physically, but most people are spiritually dead, right? They've sinned against the Lord, just about everybody. I mean, it's very few that would try to tell you that they've never sinned. Most people are willing to admit they've told a lie. Most people are willing to admit they've done wrong to some extent, right? They don't necessarily know the full judgment of God, but there's a concern, and they know they're not perfect. And so that's why, you know, you often ask the question, would you be 100% sure, you know, if you were to die, you'd be in heaven? Most people say, well, I wouldn't be sure. I have some doubts, okay? Because we all realize that spiritually, within us, there is this death, that there is something lacking in us, right? And that's what takes place. When you commit sin, you know, you die spiritually. And, you know, if you go back to Hosea 13, verse number 2, and, you know, we're looking at a nation that died, though. You know, and I often think about Australia. You know, is our nation dead spiritually? I'd say yeah, man. There's just, I mean, there's a few signs of life. There's one at New Life Baptist Church, there's another sign of life at Blessed Hope Baptist Church. There's some, there's some pulse there, but really, I mean, you know, this nation, you know, it's dying. You know, this nation is dying. This nation has rejected the Lord. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 14, verse 34, Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. You know, our nation is a very sinful nation. It's a very wicked nation. You know, it's a nation that has exalted itself in the flesh, in our prosperity. You know, in the beauty of our nation. You know, the riches that we have here, it's exalted itself, but that's not what exalts a nation. It's righteousness that exalts a nation, right? Righteousness, being humble before the Lord, following after the Lord. If our nation was doing that, the Lord would exalt this nation. It wouldn't need to try to exalt itself, and in fact, when it tries to do that, that's when it dies spiritually. Because it's far from the Lord. Now, look at verse number 2 there. It says, and now they sin more and more. Now, this is the reality, you know, that, you know, in our lives, you're going to sin more and more. You've probably sinned already today. You're going to sin tomorrow. You're going to sin next month. You're going to sin next year. You know, you're going to sin till the day you die, or till the day that Jesus Christ comes back, you know, to take you away. And so, once we have experienced this spiritual death that sin has brought, we are operating through this sinful flesh that we have. And as much as you try to stop sinning, you're not going to succeed. You know, a lot of religion, a lot of even Christians will tell you that salvation is by turning from your sins, by repenting of your sins. You know, self-reformation, right? And they're like, well, just try to stop sinning. Just be willing to try to stop sinning. Look, it's not going to work. Once you have that sinful nature, you're going to sin more and more. Salvation isn't how little can I sin. Once you've sinned, you've already broken God's laws. You've already died spiritually, right? Our nation is already dead spiritually as a nation. And so, this is just a reality that we have to accept. And, you know, it can be embarrassing before the Lord, when we know we've sinned against the Lord. And we'll look at that soon. But the reality is that you will sin more and more. Now, you know, as a Christian, we also desire to actually sin less and less. You're never going to get to the point where you no longer sin, okay? You're never going to get to that point. But for some of you that maybe got saved later in life, you know, you know what kind of life you got, you were into. You know what kind of wicked things you got into. You know what kind of wicked imaginations were through your mind, okay? And you might have tried to live a good life, you know, in comparison to your fellow Australian. But really, you know, once you have saved, your desire ought to be, okay? It doesn't happen automatically. We'll have a look at that. But your desire ought to be, I want to sin less and less. Now, I can't really say that because I got saved at four years old, right? I don't remember how wicked and terrible my life was when I was three. You know, I've sinned more since I've been saved than before I got saved. You know, I got into worse sins after I got saved than before I was saved. And that's just the nature of being saved at an earlier age, okay? But one of the advantages of being saved at an early age, you've got the Holy Ghost in you. Early on, you know, teaching you, guiding you, teaching you the Bible. You know, and you don't, you know, you can make the same mistakes. But you have this inner being, the Lord God within you that's going to keep you, that's going to protect you, that's going to warn you when you do have that desire to sin more and more. Now, in what way did they sin? It keeps going there. It says, and have made them molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding. All over the work of the craftsmen, they say of them, let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. I mean, that's kind of like a ridiculous picture, right? They create these calves, these idols, and then those that go and worship him, they go and kiss those calves. This is my God. They kiss him. I mean, just picture that in your mind and how ridiculous that is. But you go to a Catholic church and guess what they're doing? They're kissing the same idols. Okay, it might not look like a calf, but it looks like a human being or whatever. They're kissing the feet of wood, you know, and so this is, it just shows us the nature of man. That we could get so far from God, and not we, but the unsaved world can get so far from God, but they just want to go and kiss a piece of wood, kiss an idol, you know, and that's their sign of worship toward a false God. Now, the next point that I have for you here, brethren, point number two is a sinner is a servant of sin. A sinner is a servant of sin. Can you please turn to Romans chapter six for me? Turn to Romans chapter six. Again, keep your finger there in Hosea 13, but go to Romans six. And while you're turning, I'm going to read to you from John chapter eight, verse 34, the words of Jesus. It says, Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commit of sin is the servant of sin. Whosoever commit of sin is the servant of sin. So, two realities here. One, before you were saved, when you sinned, you were a servant. Is that a positive thing or a negative thing? You know, if you're a servant of sin, it demonstrates that sin has power over you, okay? You're a servant. Now, we still sin to this day, okay, as Christians, and so in a sense, when you sin, you know, you're doing it through the flesh. You know, you are acting as a servant of sin, but the reality of your spiritual life is you are no longer a servant of sin. In fact, you're commanded to be a servant of righteousness, and we'll have a look at that soon in Romans chapter six. But I wanted to park on this a little bit, especially for the younger people in our church. Because, you know, I remember going to school, and who were the popular kids at school? You know, I mean, you guys get homeschooled now, but, you know, you probably know what I'm talking about anyway. At least this, your parents know. Usually the popular kids in school were like the wicked ones. Were like the rebellious ones, right? Like they were the ones that were bringing, you know, marijuana to school. Or drinking alcohol during lunch time or something. Or going out and fornicating or something like that. Like these were considered, you know, I'm just telling you, my school, maybe yours were the same. I'm talking about primary school and high school, it doesn't matter which grade. They were often seen as the cool kids. I mean, the student that was academic and did well, he wasn't really popular in school. He'd probably be laughed at, okay? Or the student who had good character, who had good Christian character, he wasn't popular at school either. Okay? And so, you know, you grow up as a child and then a teenager. And, you know, for the children that grow up in church, you're going to start to see this a little bit. And you're going to see people of your age group, you know, committing all kinds of crazy sins. And it seems like they're just having a wonderful time. You know, you're going to think, man, what a hero. You know, I kind of wish my parents weren't so strict. You know, I wish my parents let me, you know, do a bit of what they're doing. You know, there's no, they're not a hero. They're a servant of sin. Sin has power over that individual, okay? They're a servant, they're a slave, okay? They're no hero. And, you know, I often remember, you know, going to a, I was going to a Christian high school. And we would have people come and give their testimonies. And I've told you guys this before. The person that the students loved the most was always the guy who was, you know, he was a gang member. You know, he was out dealing drugs before he got saved. You know, he was stealing cars. And maybe he was in some biker gang or something. And he had long hairs and he's got tattoos all over his body. And, you know, he's telling all about his wicked, sinful life. You know, and, you know, ultimately he's going to explain how he's repented from those things. And he got saved or whatever it is, what some folks gospel. And, you know, and then they talk about how, you know, now Christ is in their life. And now they're a better person and now they're serving Christ. And, you know, they're no longer in that lifestyle. And, you know, what made them so popular was not that they got saved. What made them so popular is, man, that guy, you know, used to be in jail. That guy used to take, you know, deal drugs. And he was out there doing all kinds of wicked things. That's what made them popular. That's all the testimony of their salvation. But, really, the guy that has the best testimony is the one that grew up in a Christian home. And we don't have this testimony. Grew up in a Christian home. Like, okay, you know, get me up on a stage full of kids, you know, teenage kids. All right, guys, I'll tell you about my wicked life. You know, when I was three years old, I probably disobeyed my parents a couple of times. When I was four years old, my mom gave me the gospel I believed on Jesus Christ and I got saved. That's not popular, you know, as far as, you know, what young people think. Hey, but that's a great testimony. That's wonderful. It's a wonderful testimony. You know, I'm not ashamed of that. But, you know, when I was a teenager, I kind of wished I had a bad life. I wished I had this testimony when I was out, you know, taking drugs and sleeping around. Look at me now. Look at me. I'm a great Christian now. I thought that way, brethren. You know, because we make our churches, and, you know, they're not even real churches, but they make these people, these wicked people with wicked lifestyles, as the heroes. Okay, they're not the heroes. If anyone's going to be the hero of salvation, it's Jesus Christ. All right, I mean, even the apostle Paul said, you know, he counted all the things he did in the past as dung. Okay, but these guys use all this history. That's their ticket. That's what gets them to be a speaker. That's what gets them paid to go and do their ministry. Okay, but they're promoting the wrong things. You ought to be promoting Christ and our testimony in walking His ways rather than promoting our old sinful lifestyle. Okay. Now, you're in Romans chapter 6, look at verse number 17. Romans 6, 17. But God be thanked that ye were, notice that's past tense, the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you, being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Now, again, became is past tense. So, the unsaved person is a servant of sin, but now that you are saved, what are you? A servant of righteousness. Okay, now, are you still going to sin? Well, of course, because if we keep going, says verse number 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. Why is it that you still sin today after you got saved? There's an infirmity, there's a sickness in your flesh. It's that sin nature. Okay, so Paul is addressing this to the church there in Rome. He says, for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity. So, he's saying, look, the same way that you've used your members, your body, to commit all kinds of sin, He says this, even so now, yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. So, you see, when you get saved, it's not that you've given up sin to get saved, because if you had to give up sin to get saved, then this would be a pointless command, right? No, you know, once you are saved, we need to, what? Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. This is not automatic, you know, a yielding must take place. You know, sin will be this constant battle till the day you die and until you have this flesh. This flesh will be its iniquity of sin, okay? You need to understand, I'm going to have a battle every day of my life. Do I become a servant of righteousness, which I am? You know, I'm called to live after that righteousness. Or, do I yield to the temptations of this flesh? Do I yield to the infirmities that I have in this flesh? And you're just going to have this battle for the rest of your life. I'm sorry to say it, but you will have it for the rest of your life, okay? But once you understand this, this is what helps you, you know, live the Christian life, even though you do have sin that you have within you. Now go back to Hosea chapter 13, verse number 3. Hosea 13, verse number 3. So the first two points so far, sin brings forth spiritual death, and number 2, a sinner is a servant of sin. Verse number 3, it says, Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. And so Israel has been, compared to all these things, the early dew that passeth away, so the current trajectory is that they'll soon disappear. You've got that early mist, once the sun calms, you know, it evaporates away, it's gone, right? The chaff of the grain. Once, you know, you want the grain, you don't want the chaff, the wind will blow it away. You know, the smoke that comes out of the chimney, it will eventually blow away. And God is telling Israel, you know, you will soon be blown away. You will soon cease to exist because of your sinful nation. Okay, verse number 4. Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me, that there is no saviour beside me. So the third point that I have for you here, is that sinners need the saviour, okay? Sinners need the saviour. God's telling his nation, listen, you guys are just sinners. You're soon going to die, you're soon going to pass away. But I'm your saviour, okay? I'm your saviour, I'm the one that delivered you from Egypt. I can deliver you again from the coming judgments, right? Now we know they didn't heed the prophets, they did not heed the words of God here, but you can see that God is putting himself out, okay? For there is no saviour beside me, and thou shalt know no God but me. You know, I really appreciate Brother Callum preaching on Sunday, you know, against, you know, even though it's a small part, but against oneness, against modalism, because that is another God, that is another Jesus, right? God is telling us here, thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no saviour beside me. You see, salvation is only through the one true God. You've got another Jesus, you've got some other God, there is no salvation in that God, okay? Now, what's wonderful about this is we see that God is saying, God is saying that there is no saviour beside him. And if you can please turn to Titus chapter 2 for me, turn to Titus chapter 2. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from Luke chapter 2 verse 11. This is about the birth of Jesus Christ. And it says, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Okay? So the Saviour, the Lord, is Christ. Okay? So what I love about verse number 14 in Hosea 13, it only points us to Christ. You know, Christ is the Lord God of Israel, even in the Old Testament. He's not some lesser being, all right? He's not some other God, okay? He's the same God of the Old Testament, okay? Jesus Christ. I'll also read to you in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15, which says, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and then Paul says these words, Of whom I am chief. Present tense. Of whom I am chief. So Jesus Christ came to save sinners. What did we read there in Hosea? It said, For there is no Saviour beside me, the words of God. Okay? So I don't know how people lose this. You know, people that do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. When God makes it so clear there is just but one Saviour. It's Jesus. Jesus is the Saviour. Notice what Paul said to Timothy, though. He says, Of whom I am chief. He says, I'm the chief of sinners. Now I've heard, in one of my old churches, I won't name it, but just a young guy get up to preach, not the pastor, and he was really wrestling with this, because I came to understand that he believed to be saved you had to turn from your sins. Repent of your sins. And so now you have the apostle Paul writing to a pastor, and he's telling the pastor that I'm a chief of sinners. And he says, Oh, well, Paul was talking about before he got saved. Like, what in the world? No, this is present tense. Right? You know, and so Jesus Christ saved us. Okay? Yes, he saved us from our sins. Positioning before God we're saved. Positioning before God we're righteous. But we're still going to be this sinful person. Okay? It's just, you know, this is the battle. And even a great man like Paul was able to say, I'm the chief of sinners. Okay? So, and this is good, because when you struggle with sin, you know, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. When you struggle with sin, you can get cast down. You know, it's easy to get cast down. I failed again, God. God, I promised. I said I wasn't going to die. I did it again, Lord. When you get cast down like that, just remind yourself, well, Paul, even when he's instructing a pastor of a church, was able to say of himself, I'm still a chief of sinners. I'm still sinning today. Okay? So this is just, and look, was God using him? Of course he was. Look at all the churches he was planting, all the pastors he was mentoring. Right? God still used him even though he was able to say that he was a chief of sinners. Where did I get you to turn? Titus chapter 2, verse number 13. It says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Could it get any clearer than that? That the Saviour is Jesus and that the great God is Jesus Christ. Alright? And lastly, I'll just read to you from Acts 4-12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So salvation is not just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's also the rejection of false gods. If you're preaching to a Hindu person, I've not had many Hindus call upon them the Lord, but the few times I didn't realize this at the time, I hope they got saved. But I got told later on, if you didn't tell them that they've got to reject their false gods, they probably just added Jesus to the list of it. Because they believe in a oneness or modalist God. They believe there's one supreme being and that there's literally tens of thousands. I think they don't even know how many gods there might be. And so they may consider Jesus. Look, I hope they got saved. I'm not saying they didn't, but I wish I knew this, because then I would have made it clear in my gospel presentation that salvation is just, like it said there in Hosea, thou shall know no God but me. That's what salvation is. You've got to reject the false gods. And even if you believe in a false Jesus, if you believe in a Jesus of the Catholic Church, or you believe in a Jesus of the Mormon Church, or you believe in a Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses, you've got to reject that other Jesus, that's not Jesus, and believe on the right Jesus Christ. That's the danger of things like modalism and oneness. Because it's so similar. It's easy to reject Allah or something. A God that's totally different. But it's harder when they make other gods another Jesus. And it's so similar. And there is no salvation in that Jesus. This is why preaching against modalism and oneness is necessary. As much as I kind of cringe to think about this thought, because I don't want to always consider my sin in church. But it needs to be taught, because otherwise we're leading people to have a false profession or salvation in a false god. And now that Jesus is a false god, we need to make sure that we believe in the Jesus, in the God that delivered them out of Egypt, the God who is the Saviour, who is God and the Saviour, who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now go back to Hosea 13 please, verse number 5. Hosea 13 verse number 5. Point number 3 was sinners need the Saviour. Verse number 5 says, I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. So, you know, after they left Egypt, you know, they were wandering in the wilderness and there were times they needed water. Well, God was there with them. God saw them through some hardships. Verse number 6. According to their pasture, so were they filled, they were filled. So did God provide for the Israelites as they were going through the wilderness? Yeah, you know. And God provided for them. And they were filled. I like being filled by God. You know, before church I was able to just, I took some photos, I went to Golden Beach, just breathed in some sea and I just thought, man, thank you, Lord, that I can travel up here even though I'm down in Sydney and I can just, you know, I have two churches, Lord, and I've got family and I can bring Isabel and Sebastian with me tonight and I look after my family, I'm just having some time with God, you know, alone. And I was just thinking about how blessed I am, how filled I am, you know. I'm really happy. Even though I feel like this world is upside down. I've never seen it so upside down, right? But anyway, I want to constantly be thinking about how upside down this world is because I get depressed. But when I think about how God has filled my life, how God has blessed me, you know, it's amazing, right? But there is a danger when it comes to thinking about, you know, about being filled because it says there, they were filled and their heart was exalted, therefore have they forgotten me. Therefore have they forgotten me. So, when you're overly blessed, you know, one thing that you need to be careful of is you can't have the tendency to forget God. When everything's going well for you, when your bank account's full, every bill is paid, you know, all sicknesses are gone, you know, you're getting a pay rise at work and you get along with your friends and, you know, you get along with your family and your extended family and you just don't have any personal enemies, when things are just going super well for you, you've got to be careful, okay? Now, it's good to stop and thank God, but what can happen, what does happen, and what's happened in my life in the past, and I've seen this happen in other Christians' lives, you forget God. You think, oh, it's just too easy, right? And, you know, a good prayer to have, and I don't know if you all want to pray this, but I pray this prayer sometimes. I say to the Lord, Lord, can you always keep a part of my life unsettled? Just, you know, God, you've given me so much, you've given me so much, and I don't want you to turn my life into hell, okay? Because I want to have a happy life, you know, I don't want to be constantly worried and stressed, but can you always have just one part of my life that's not sorted out, you know, whether it's a bill that I can't pay, just one bill that I can't pay, or whether it's, you know, things are going well at church, whether it's just, I don't know, a church member that's kind of making my life a little bit hard. It's good to just have a situation where, you know, you're not fully satisfied, and then you're driven to run back to God. When things are a bit unsettled, you know, you're driven to run back to God and not forget him. You know, I don't want to have everything sorted in life. I don't want to have every part of my life sorted where I never have to worry about a single thing, or be concerned about a single thing, because I can see the heart of the Israelites, I know my flesh, and I know we're made of the same things, and I know that I can have this desire to walk away from the Lord. Not even intentionally, just because things are going so well. It's just you kind of forget the need to go back to God. And so I think it's always good to praise the Lord, you know, not Lord, give me no problems, not Lord, you know, turn my life into hell, but Lord, just always have something in my life that will cause me to run to you so I never forget you. You know, so I never depart from you. Verse number seven. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion, as a leopard by the way will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved from her whelps. Her whelps is her children. So this mother bear has lost her children, right? And now she's seeking revenge, right? She's looking for her children. This is how God describes himself. And then he says, and I will rend the call of the heart, and there will I devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them. Why is God saying this about the nation of Israel? Again, because we just saw in verse number six that they had forgotten him. And so when they forget God, God gets angry. He's a jealous God, okay? He deserves worship. These are his people. He's looked after them. They've forgotten God. God says, you know what? I'm going to be like this lion. I'm going to be like this bear that just comes and destroys you. And of course he's carrying that out with the Assyrians that are on their way. And so the fourth point that I have about sin, brethren, is that sin is offensive to God. Sin is offensive to God. I know you know this already, but we need to be reminded. Because sometimes we can sin against our fellow man and forget that we've actually sinned against God. You know, every sin that you commit is a sin toward the Lord, okay? Because what is sin? Sin, the Bible tells us, is the transgression of the law. Who's the law? The laws of God, all right? God says, this is how I want you to live. These are the commandments I want you to keep. This is how I want you to follow, you know, walk in, you know? And then when you sin, you break those things that God has asked you to do, all right? And yeah, you may sin against your flesh. You may sin against your fellow man, all right? You may sin against someone in your family. But every sin is a sin toward God. Every sin is offensive to God. Keep this in mind. Because when you sin against, you know, sometimes my kids might, you know, have a fight amongst themselves. You know, we always tell them, hey, go and apologize and say sorry and forgive one another. And they do, that's great, you know, but they need to be reminded, well, now you need to go and say sorry to God. You've offended God. You've broken God's laws as well, okay? And so you've got to keep this in mind that every sin is a sin against the Lord. Can you please keep your Bibles there and go to Psalm 51 for me. Psalm 51 verse 4. Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is a very famous chapter, or very famous psalm. Does anybody know why Psalm 51 is a famous psalm? Yeah, when King David repented after taking Bathsheba as his wife and, you know, killing her husband. And in Psalm 51 verse 4, David says these words, Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. So, obviously, David sinned against Bathsheba, and sinned against himself, and sinned against her husband, okay? He sinned against man, alright? He's not saying that I didn't sin against anybody else, God. Of course he sinned against man, okay? But he acknowledges, even when I've done this, I've also sinned against you, Lord. Okay, I've sinned against you, against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Keep that in mind. I think that's going to help you from sin sometimes. You know, before you, when you're having that temptation, and say, do I commit this sin? Remind yourself, oh man, if I do this, I'm actually offending God. Do I want to offend God? I mean, I don't want God to be like this lion, or this mother bear, you know, that comes down on me with this harsh judgement, alright? So just keep that in mind. Go back to Hosea chapter 13 verse 9. Hosea 13 verse 9. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. I will be thy king, where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities, and thy judges of whom thou seest, give me a king and princess. Alright, so, Lord's telling Israel, yeah, you've destroyed yourself, you know, that's what sin does, sin destroys your life. But God is saying, look, if you want help, I'm here. Who's going to help you? He's saying to Israel, who's going to help you in this time? The only one that can help you is God. He says, I will be thy king. You know, God is saying, hey, take me again as your king. You know what this should remind us of? I'll just read to you from 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 6. Because remember, before the kings, God had the judges that would rule over Israel pretty much. They would travel to different places and pass judgement. Samuel, you know, not just a prophet, but Samuel was probably the last judge. Because Samuel wanted to make his sons into judges as well, but the people rejected his sons because they weren't walking godly. Alright, so, they demanded a king. They wanted to be like the other nations and they wanted, instead of having this system of judges, they wanted a king to rule over Israel. And then in 1 Samuel 8 and 6 it says, But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. And so the fact that they had these earthly kings, these men, men who are sinners, just like them, with infirmities in their flesh, demonstrated not just that they wanted to be like the other nations, but demonstrated that they had rejected God, even in those early days with Samuel. And of course God gave them king's soul. And of course God would use that. God permitted that and God would use that. And eventually Jesus Christ would be born for the kingly line of David. And again, who is the God that's saying these words? It's Jesus Christ. He says, look, I will be thy king. God ought to be, or have been the king, because there's no other man that could help them during this time of judgment. Look at verse 11. He says, I gave thee a king in mine anger. So when they wanted king's soul, God gave them that, but it was in his anger. God was angry about that, because they were rejecting God. But then he says this, and took him away in my wrath. He says, I was angry when I gave you a king, and this last king that you have before the Assyrians come, I'm going to remove his kingship as well. I'm angry as well. The whole thing was done out of anger. But again, God allowed them to have this, and this was just a sign that they had rejected God as their king. Verse 12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up. His sin is hid. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. So the place of the breaking forth of children, of course, is the travailing woman, as though this woman is giving birth. The sorrow that's been brought forth from sin is being made equivalent to a woman giving birth. It's hard, it's tough on the body. The thing about verse 12, it says the iniquity of Ephraim is bound up. Remember how we said that a sinner is a servant of sin? So it's like they're bound in sin. But then it says, his sin is hid. Point number 5 that I have for you today, guys, is that sin cannot be hid from God. Sin cannot be hid from God. I know it says his sin is hid, but you can't hide from God. But they're trying to hide it from themselves. And we've all sinned. And I'm sure we don't want our sins all to be known. I'm sure you don't want me to just come here and start naming all your sins. I want to start naming all my sins before you. Because it's shameful. And one of the worst things that you can do as a Christian is that when you know you've sinned against God, it's just, I'm going to hide this from God. You cannot hide it from God. But for some reason we think this. We think we can hide this from God. It goes all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I'll just read it to you. If you can please turn to 1 John 1. Go to 1 John 1. I'll read to you from Genesis 3 verse 8. It says, So you can see the natural reaction of man. I've sinned against God. I've got to hide. God's walking. God's around. God's presence is here. I've got to get out of here. This is one reason why people drop out of church. Because they know God's presence is in his house. It's hard, but I understand. Because I've been there. I'm sure you've been there. Where you've sinned and you're like, I can't even tell God about this sin. I can't even approach God. How can I face God and tell him that I've done this? But he knows. That's what's crazy about it. God already knows. You can't hide it from God. But we try to hide sin sometimes. You can see it's just a natural reaction from man. When you do sin, it can cause you to just flee from the presence of God. And you're just making things worse. You're just making things worse for yourself. You're in 1 John 1 verse 8. And so, don't tell me you've not sinned. If you tell me I haven't sinned today, I haven't sinned yesterday. I'll just say, you're a liar. You're not deceiving me. You're not deceiving God. You're deceiving yourself. It's just that desire. And it is natural because we have that flesh, the iniquity of that flesh. That battle that we constantly have. To try to seem righteous. To try to hide. But the best thing to do is just get a hold of God and say, God I'm sorry. I'm trying to hide this from you Lord, but I can't hide from you Lord. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there. Isn't that what the Bible tells us? God's in heaven. God's in hell. God's on the earth. God is everywhere. He sees all things. As I said, we had a great sermon from Brother Callum on Sunday. Reminding us about the nature of God. And so, you can't hide from God. But sin, it will cause you to try to do that. It will cause you to try to hide from the Lord. Hide from his presence. Be away from the Lord. The best thing to do is just go to God. Just admit, Lord I stuffed up again. Please make me right with you. I want to be in fellowship with you again Lord. And help me put this behind me. Help me to be a servant to righteousness and not this servant to sin. Now we're going to skip verse number 14. Let's go to verse number 15. We'll come back to verse 14 later. Verse number 15. It says, Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come. The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness. That reminded me of that Kenneth Copeland. You know the COVID-19? What was it? COVID-19! How's it going? Come on, you've all seen it. COVID-19! COVID-19! I blow the wind of God! Well, look, there is a wind here. I guess he's read this part of the Bible. It says here, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness. And his spring shall become dry. And his fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. And so verse number 15 says, it looks like you're fruitful, Israel. Looks like you're doing good. But God's going to send this strong wind and you're going to be left with nothing. Again, his judgment that's coming through. The wind representing the Assyrians. Verse number 16. Samaria shall become desolate, for she hath rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword. Now look at this. This is really sad. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces. And their women with child shall be ripped up. Pretty harsh, huh? Pretty harsh. The sixth point that I have is not the last one. The sixth point that I have for you on sin is sin has lasting consequences. Sin has lasting consequences. I'm sure these people did not want their infants to die during this time. During this judgment to come from God, right? I mean, the Assyrians came. They were violent. I mean, these are violent days on the earth. Okay? And so children will be destroyed. Mothers will be, even with pregnant mothers, will have their wombs opened up and ripped up. And look, again, Australians are doing this every day. Abortions. Two hundred and fifty abortions every day. Ripping out the child out of the mother's womb. It's crazy. I mean, we read this and we think, how harsh. But then our nation does it to themselves. They're not even waiting for God's judgment. We'll just do it. And it's wonderful. It's crazy. This world is upside down. But the point I wanted to drive here, brethren, is, and especially as parents, we have to be careful about our sins. It can have lasting effects on our children. You know, God can judge you because of your sin, put you in a bad place and it just has lasting effects, lasting consequences, you know, to the following generations. Be careful about the kind of sins that you get involved in because your kids are going to think, well, this is just good and fine. Dad did it. And they're going to find themselves getting into worse sins in their life. Okay? You know, we all just try to set a good example. And when I say that, I know I sin and my kids know I sin. My kids know and Dad messes up and they know I'm not perfect. And, you know, we need to also teach our children that, you know, as parents, we're not perfect. You know, we're striving to live a godly life. We're striving to raise you to love the Lord and to serve the Lord. But at some point in time, you need to put your spiritual eyes, not on your parents, which are just human beings, with the infirmity of the flesh and set your eyes on the Lord God who will never fail you, who will never sin, you know, who will always give you the best direction in life, better than Mum and Dad. You know, hopefully we can help in that process, but eventually our kids need to learn to grow up and say, well, you know what, thank God for my parents, but you know what, I've got a better Father, a heavenly Father who never gets things wrong, who's my Savior as well. And so I'm just saying, you know, obviously it would be horrible to have your infants stashed in pieces. Or to have your babies ripped out of your wife's womb like this as a judgment. But this is not, you know, God did not come and do this, all right? This is the consequence of the sin. Judgment fell upon them, the Assyrians came, this is what happened. It had lasting effects on the future generations. Please be careful about the kinds of sins you get into, okay? You're forgiven from your sins, but there can be lasting consequences, okay, because of your sin. All right, let's go back to verse number 14. We'll end on this one, verse number 14. It says, I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Now when we read verse number 14, what does that remind you of? Does anyone ring any bells to anybody? As soon as I read it, because, see, 1 Corinthians, you can turn it now, 1 Corinthians 15 is like my favorite chapter in the Bible. You know, I hesitate to say my favorite, I think it is my favorite. It's definitely, if you said give me top five chapters in the Bible, that would definitely be there, okay? And as soon as I read that, I kind of forgot that it was in Hosea, and I was like, oh man, that's in 1 Corinthians 15, okay? And I thought this was a great place to end the sermon. So turn to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55. Because Paul, as he writes in the Corinthian church, takes this from Hosea and teaches on this topic in verse number 55. It says, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? How did Hosea term it? O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. The Lord is basically saying, look, he's going to have victory over death, he's going to have victory over the grave, okay? And when we think of this, we think of immediately the resurrection, right? And maybe your first thought is on the resurrection of Christ, and that's a good place to start, because that's exactly how 1 Corinthians 15 starts, on the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this resurrection is actually our resurrection that's being taught here, all the way back in the days of Hosea. And you know, it's crazy how some preachers say, well, you know, the Old Testament prophets have nothing to do about, like, they knew nothing about the resurrection, they knew nothing about the rapture. They knew exactly about the rapture, because this is what ties in exactly with the verse that happened, If we look back to verse 55, in the same chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, sorry, 51, it says, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. What's that? That's the rapture. Guess who else knew about the rapture? Hosea knew about the rapture, okay? It's the same teaching. And then it says in verse 53, For this corruptible, that's your corruptible flesh, that's your flesh with the infirmity, must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So point number seven is the resurrection is victory over sin. Now again, positionally, we have victory over sin. It's through Jesus Christ. It's through his resurrection. Spiritually, yeah, our soul is saved. We have a new birth, the new man. But again, we still have this flesh, okay? But the final victory against sin is going to come at the rapture. It's going to come at the resurrection, when you get a brand new body, you know, a body that is immortal, a body that cannot be corrupted, meaning it's a body that will never sin. You won't even desire to sin in that body. You won't be like, Oh man, I wish I could get back some old sins in my own life. That won't even cross your mind, okay? You will truly, not just your spirit, but your flesh will truly be a servant to righteousness rather than a servant of sin. It's amazing how Hosea knew all about this already. You know, God already revealed this. He's telling, you know, God's telling about this nation, how wicked, how sinful you are. Hey, I'm your savior. I can be your king, right? And not only that, listen, you get saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. One day, you're going to be brought out of the graves. Your body's going to come back to life in a new, better body, right, that cannot ever die, that will never be corrupted, and that will be the end of sin. You're never going to struggle with sin in your flesh. So I say that because I want to end on a good note, okay? We have this constant battle, constant battle, the sin, sorry, the spirit versus the flesh. One day, the flesh and the spirit are going to be like, Yeah, man, that's sin. Why did you guys ever do that? You're just going to have this like, Man, you know, that was crazy. But it's going to be wonderful that we can have these bodies and we never have to be ashamed of God ever again. We can see Him face to face, okay? We're never going to, I'm never going to go to, after the resurrection, I'm never going to go to God and say, God, I'm so sorry I sinned again. It's over. It's done. You know, it's the end of sin in our lives. So, you know, we see there that in Hosea chapter 13, we have this great promise to come, the resurrection. Let's pray.