Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Our reading, and the message is
coming from Josiah, Chapter Two, verses
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fourteen to twenty three. Josiah to
fourteen to twenty three. Here now the
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inspired, authoritative word of the Lord. Therefore behold. I will allure her
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and bring her into the Wilderness and
speak tenderly to her there. I will
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give her her vineyards and make the
Valley of Acre a door of hope,
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and there she shall answer as in
the days of her youth, as at
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the time when she came out of
the land of Egypt, and in that
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day declares a Lord. You will
call me my husband and no longer will
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you call me my Bale, for
I will remove the names of the bales
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from her mouth and they shall be
remembered by name no more. And I
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will make for them a covenant on
that day with the beast of the field
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and the birds of the heavens and
the creeping things of the ground, and
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I will abolish the bow, the
sword and war from the land, and
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I will make you lie down in
safety and I will betroth you to me
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forever. I will betroth you to
me in righteousness and injustice, in steadfast
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love and in mercy. I Will
Betroth you to me in faithfulness and you
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shall know the Lord, and in
that day I will answer, declares the
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Lord. I Will Answer the heavens
and they shall answer the Earth, and
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the Earth shall answer the grain,
the wine and the oil, and they
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shall answer Jezreel. And I will
sew her for myself and the land and
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I will have mercy on no mercy, and I will say to not my
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people, you are my people,
and he shall say you are my God.
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Thus ends the reading of God's word. May he add his blessing to
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it. You may be seated.
Go find your self a wife of whoredom
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and have children of whoreedom. That's
how Josea basically begins. Be Similar today
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to one of you men of marriageable
age, single. Let's say you're with
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your buddies and you're playing some basketball
in the gym and you have the ball
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the top of the key and you
before you pass it, you just kind
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of stand there mournfully. When your
buddy says what's wrong? I just just
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wish. I wish I had a
wife, wish there was somebody I could
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spend my life with, someone I
could be con have companion, someone I
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could lead to cry least and and
walk with Christ, with someone I could
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really depend on, someone I could
love in a way that I can't love
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anyone else. And when your buddy
says, is that all papa in the
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chocolate's go, and he takes you
to I don't know where it is here
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in Tucson, but where the lady
is of the night roam, and he
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says here, take your pick.
They're all perfect candidates to be a wife.
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It's strange, isn't it? It's
startling. You would think your friend
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quite unwise, wouldn't you? What
are you talking about? This isn't the
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place to find a wife. Why
would you direct me to this? It's
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jolting, it's jarring. The Lord
is using this word of whore dumb and
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he calls Gomer a whore because he
wants to wake us up and he wants
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us to see how serious a situation
Israel has found herself to be in.
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It's very startling, and intentionally startling. God does not use this language lightly,
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because the basic message of Hoseiah is
Israel, you've broken the covenant that
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I have made with you through Moses. You've broken the Covenant in every way
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imaginable in thought and word. Indeed, you need to repent, in to
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turn away from your wickedness, turn
away from all of those acts of idolatry.
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Turn away, turn away, turn
away and turn to me. Yahwa,
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your God, your husband, come
back to me. If you don't,
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judgment awaits you. I will discipline
you. Nevertheless, there is still
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hope for a future restoration and an
eventual reversal of judgment. And, in
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an effort to show the Israelite people
just how seriously they have fallen, just
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how seriously they have broken the Covenant, God Commands Joseiah to marry a wife
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of whoredom, Gomer, and to
have children with her. He's then supposed
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to give this these children special symbolic
names, and so the first one,
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he he, he has his Jesreel, a son, and this is a
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name that can mean either God sews
or God scatters, and in chapter one
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of the text it's it's that second
meaning the God is is using here.
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God is going to scatter Israel,
and so he does in seven hundred and
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twenty two, by means of the
Assyrians, the the Rod of his anger,
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God also points to the Jezreel valley
into Jay, who the Jezreel valley
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was where Jay who overthrow the dynasty
of King Omriy Ahab's father, and where
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he in effect established the current dynasty
ruled by Jerobam the second, who is
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not a good man by any stretch
of the imagination. He reintroduced baioe worship.
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So the message is clear from God
to the people through naming Jezreel as
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Jay who's actions at Jezreel and nihilated
Omri's dynasty. So now Yahue is going
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to wipe out the Jay who dynasty. The second child that is born to
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him is Lodo Kama, or no
mercy, a daughter. Although God is
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going to extend mercy to the House
of Judah, there will be no more
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mercy coming from him to the House
of Israel anymore. There will be as
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they continue in their faithlessness. There
will be a temporary suspension of forgiveness.
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God doesn't have to forgive him,
and so he's going to withhold that forgiveness.
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The Third Child Loam, or not
my people as a son, and
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by this name he is reversing.
The Lord is reversing how things got establish
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an exodus six, verse seven,
where the Lord says I would take you
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to be my people and I will
be your God, and you shall know
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that I'm the Lord, your God, who has brought you out from the
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from under the burdens of the Egyptians. So where it began for the nation
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of Israel to be removed from Egyptian
slavery, and now, because Israel has
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found herself wandering away from the Lord
for centuries, they will, at least
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temporarily, not be considered his people, as an act of judgment upon them.
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That's how the book begins. Not
a pleasant start, quite the worst
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start that Israel could find herself in. Yet even in chapter eleven and verses,
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or in Chapter One versus eleven and
twelve, there is hope for a
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future. The children of Israel will
be like the sand on the seashore.
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They will be called children of the
Living God, and Israel and Judah,
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these these divided kingdoms will once again
be gathered together under one head, and
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so we see references back to the
Abrahamic Covenant. The Abraham will be a
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father of many nations. His offspring
will be as numerous as the stars in
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the heavens and the sea and the
sand on the seashore. We also see
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allusions to the divided covenant. There
will be one king who will rule over
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this united people. But once again, so that we do see a glimmer
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of hope, there post tenebras looks. It's a Latin saying that the reformation
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used to refer to the fact that
now we have a renewal or a reformation
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of the word after darkness light.
There is darkness given Israel situation. There
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is darkness, but it won't always
remain dark. There will be light.
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That's what we see in in our
text this morning. As quickly as that
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hope in chapter one came at left, because in chapter two Joseiah holds back
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no punches when he describes the faithlessness
of Israel and what the Lord is going
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to do because of her faithlessness,
because Israel has acted so shamefully, the
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Lord is going to beset her with
afflictions. He's going to cause her to
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be a wasteland, a wilderness,
a land that has been plagued with the
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famine of food and water. Israel
has played the war with other lovers,
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other bales, and so this spiritual
idolatry, this spiritual infidelity is compared to
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adultery Israel was the one who initiated
these relationships with other gods, with other
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pagan nations. She's the one who
sought them out. It wasn't as if
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these other nations sought her. How
she sought them. She started things going,
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she got the ball rolling. She
was full of Mirth when she should
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have been full of sorrow for her
sin. She was having a grand old
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time when she should have been on
her knees crying out to the Lord and
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repentance. Not only was she mirthless, but she was stubborn. She was
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set in her ways. No one
is going to tell her otherwise. And
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so she feasted with her God.
She commune with other lovers. She even
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tried to be intimate with Yahweight and
bail at the same time, thinking that
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the Lord had no problem sharing Israel. Most intimately. More than that,
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she she used as her bride price
the vines and the fig trees that the
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Lord himself had lavished upon her.
And so, ironically, she commits adultery
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through the help of the gifts that
she has been given by God. She
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even eventually forgets about y'all way all
together. So how can she rightly be
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called his wife if she is forgotten
that she's even married to him. So
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the Lord it's going to justly discipline
Israel. How can he not? He
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is holy, he is righteous,
his eyes are too pure to look upon
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evil without consequence. So he's going
to take away those good gifts of wool,
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flax, oil, water, drink, vines, figs and land.
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He's going to take all those away
from her for a time. He's going
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to uncover her nakedness, her lewdness, and she will be ashamed in the
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side of her lovers. And should
Israel try to go back to those lovers,
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the Lord is going to prevent her
from returning. He will hedge her
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way with thorns. He will graciously
build a huge wall around so that grope
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all she wants, she will not
find them. Certainly we are no different
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from Israel in Joseiah chapter two in
this respect. We are faithless at times
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as well. We do not have
a perfect track record of fidelity by any
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stretch of the imagination. Consider the
sins you've committed in thought or word.
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Indeed, and as you got up
in came here. We are stubborn,
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we are set in our ways,
we are dead set in our sinful ways.
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Of Times, ever sinking, ever
drowning, and it takes the Lord's
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gracious hand to Pry us out,
to set us some solid footing and our
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righteous paths. How easy it is
for us to pursue other lovers, even
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former ones, even ones that we
know to be ruinous to our very lives.
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How easy and tempting it is for
us to want to have God and
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the world have y'all, wait end
bail. How we are prone to wander,
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how we are prone to leave the
God we love, how quick we
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are to seek satisfaction in the creation
and not in the creator. Very easy
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to become sons of daughter, or
sons of Adam and daughters of eve.
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But how can we, who are
dead to sins, still living it?
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How can we, like the dog
that returns to its vomit, return to
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our sin from a volt tenebras?
There's the darkness, there's the storm,
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there's the affliction, there is the
suffering that's due to our own sin.
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Do you hurt? Of course you
hurt. You're a human living in a
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fallen world and you hurt because of
your own sin, or you hurt because
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at the sin of others. Why
do you hurt? Do you feel the
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weight of a harsh but solitary providence
upon you like a psalm, like the
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psalmist? Do you feel the hand
of God's fatherly discipline pressing upon you?
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Or perhaps you're facing those trials of
various kinds that have no connection to your
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own sinfulness, but the Lord has
graciously sent your way, and they hurt.
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Does your fate as your heart faint
within you? Do your bones rot?
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Have your tears been your food day
and night? Is your soul troubled?
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Does your heart ache from within the
deepest of deaths? You might,
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at this very moment, be in
a time of tenebras darkness looms over you,
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waves of affliction envelop you. You
might be in the belly of school
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and there is no light in sight. You may have brought this upon yourself
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because of sin, but know that
the Lord uses even your own sin to
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bring about his gracious will for your
life. The Lord himself, maybe,
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may have brought these trials in your
life to humble you, as he did
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Paul the Thorn in his flesh.
Even though Paul asked that it would be
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removed three times, the Lord said
no, No, no, my grace
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is sufficient. For you. Paul
says he had that thorn so that he
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wouldn't become conceited about the surpassing revelation
he had received. Your Good God may
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have sent you affliction to teach you, to remind you of his presence,
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to remind you that you are in
immense need of him, that you are
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not self sufficient and you were not
meant to live this life alone. But,
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whatever the case may be, wherever
these however these afflictions are coming upon
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you, is their hope after the
darkness or, even better, is their
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hope or light in the midst of
the darkness? Yes, there is hope.
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Yes, there is light. And
where does this hope come from?
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Where does this light come from?
Well, for Israel, it didn't come
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from bail. What can a God
that doesn't exist do for Israel? What
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can an idol do for you,
Squat Nolch, nothing, Nichol Nida for
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Israel didn't come from their vines,
didn't come from their figs, their land.
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They're here today, gone tomorrow.
Can Creation truly satisfy your heart's longings?
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Amass all the cars you want,
homes, get gather all the food
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you could ask for? Does the
creation satisfy you. Truly doesn't come from
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drugs. Substance Abuse. Francis Shaeffer, speaking of the drug indulged S S,
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says this. The Utopian dream of
the turn dawn world was that if
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enough people were on drugs, the
problems of modern civilizations would be solved.
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With this in mind, there was
talk of introducing Ls d into the drinking
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water of the cities. This was
not vicious, for the people suggesting it
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really believe the drugs were the door
to paradise. Is that where we find
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freedom? Is that we find hope? Coming out of our body is,
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in a sense, these experiences?
Is that where realities nor from romantic intimacy
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with with another who here has experienced
such heightened pleasures and said this is the
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only thing I need in my life? Of course, some have bought that
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lie, haven't they? And their
lives are ruined because of it. Nor
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from alcohol. Drink all you want, drown your trials and suds and your
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troubles will meet you in the morning
as you sober up. Doesn't come from
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food. Of all the twinkies you
want. They might satisfy you for a
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moment, you regret it. Nor
from entertainment binge, watch all the episodes
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the latest show of stranger things,
the Queen, whatever it is you kids
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are watching these days. Does that
satisfy? No, because you want to
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have that. You want to watch
the next season and the next one and
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the next one. Nor from yourself. Does God leave it to yourself to
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get yourself out of your own trials? Did God tell Paul, just pull
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that thorn out in your flesh?
Philippians thirteen, you way through that,
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bad boy, Paul, you can
do this. Doesn't say that, though,
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if Philippians four thirteen was used correctly, yes, he could. Philippians
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four thirteen his way through that.
He can do all things through Christ to
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give them strength. But it doesn't
come from Paul. The hope, the
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that the the light, doesn't come
from him or many of those things.
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And where does his hope come from? It comes from God, through Christ.
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Verse Fourteen therefore aught. Behold.
I will allure her and bring her
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into the Wilderness and speak tenderly to
her. The Lord is going to draw
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Israel back to himself. He is
going to romance her, he is going
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to entice her by his goodness,
by his love. He is going to
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court her as a virgin, as
a young maiden, even though in reality
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she does not deserve to bear that
title. He's going to bring her into
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the Wilderness, restore Israel to that
state of the wilderness when, in a
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sense, when times were good and
when when they were newly weds for a
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brief time. So Christ our beloved
then speaks tenderly to us in our hearts.
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He says, I am the way, he says, Beloved, I
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am the truth, I am the
life. He says, come to me,
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I will give you rest, I
will never leave you, I will
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never forsake you. Christ our beloved, washes us with the water of his
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word. He says, behold,
I am making all things new. He
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says, it's finished, there's nothing
left for you to do. Christ will
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allure us back to himself, births
of teen, and there I will give
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her her vineyards and make the Valley
of Acre a door of hope, and
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there she shall answer as in the
days of her youth, as at the
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time when she came out of land
of Egypt. God will make her her
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vineyards. He is going to reverse
what he had great had taken away through
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judgment. It's going to reverse that
this valley of Acre refers us back to
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Joshua, Chapter Seven. Joshua seven
verses twenty four to twenty six. This
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passage deals with guy named Aiken and
his sin of taking treasure when he was
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not supposed to. After they had
conquered AI, says so Joshua sent or
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verse twenty four it and Joshua and
all Israel with him took a can the
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son of Zerah and the silver and
the the cloak and the bar of gold
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and his sons and daughters and his
oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent
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and all that he had, and
they brought them up to the Valley of
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Acre. And Joshua said, why
did you bring trouble on us? The
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Lord brings trouble on you today,
and all Israel stoned him with stones.
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They burned them with fire and stone
them with stones, and they raised over
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him a great heap of stones that
remains to this day. Then the Lord
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turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that
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place is called the Valley of Acre. Acorn means trouble. It sounds similar
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to our own English word Ache.
We ache there's trouble in us or upon
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us, and this value of Acre
gave the Israelites a bad taste in their
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mouth. This was not something that
they wanted to remember. This is not
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a good time in their history.
This is a time of disappointment, time
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where there was death, where there
there's disobedience of vacan and all of his
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all of his belongings or stone be
killed because of it. But here in
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Joseah, God is saying that he
is going to make that valley a door.
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Is a door of hope, door
of promise, a door of restoration,
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a door of life, a door
of light. Of course we we
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all pass our own valleys of Acre
of sorts. We all pass our own
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valleys of the shadow of death,
and the Lord takes our trouble, our
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ach or our ache and he makes
it a gateway of hope, of restoration,
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of peace, of reconciliation. God
works all things together for good those
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who love God, who are called
according to his purpose. The Lord does
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is because Christ himself passed through the
Valley of Acre. Christ himself passed through
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the Valley of the shadow of death
as he walked on earth with his glory
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veiled, as he was a man
of sorrows, acquainted with grief, as
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he was utterly humiliated, crucified,
died, was buried and descended into hell.
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And, having passed through that Valley
of trouble, he has now be
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come that door of hope, that
door of light, that door for the
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sheep to come through to enjoy perfect
fellowship with try you and God. Verse
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Sixteen, he says, and in
that day declares the Lord. You will
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call me my husband and no longer
will you call me my bail. Israel
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had used bail for the Lord.
Israel made no distinction between Yahweh and the
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false gods, the covenant keeping God
and God's that don't exist. The Lord
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is saying that one day his people
will be exclusively devoted to him, will
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be singularly focused upon him, committed
to him. They will reject, they
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will rebuff any seductive suitor that comes
their way. Say No, I don't
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need, not tempted by that,
I don't need to give into that kind
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of temptation. That idol does nothing
for me. One day, God's faithless
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bride would once again call Yahua my
husband, and he's going to do this,
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he says, by removing the bails
from her mouth. The bales will
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be utterly forgotten, because Israel be
so in love with the Lord, her
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husband, and that day is now
in Christ in part even now we are
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joined to Christ. Even now he
is our spotless bridegroom. Even now we
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are called his beloved bride. We
now have this privilege of calling Christ our
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husband. We are no longer the
bride of bail, but we are the
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bride of Christ. We are not
married to the world, we are married
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to the Lord. And when God
called us to Christ, he has removed
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those bails from our mouths. He
has subdued and is subduing our idolatrous hearts
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and he is working to abolish those
idols. Versus Nineteen and twenty, he
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says, and I will betroth you
to me forever. I will betroth you
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to me in righteousness and injustice and
steadfast love and in mercy. I Will
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Betroth you to me in faithfulness,
and you shall know the Lord. Three
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times. Here he says, I
will betrothe you. The Lord himself will
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betrothed Israel to him forever, and
he will do this in righteousness and justice
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and steadfast love in mercy. These
are the bride price of this new marriage.
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See, Yaw way is now paying
himself the bride prices. Y'All,
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wigh, as Israel's husband and father, the Lord is the one who is
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making all the payment. The Lord
makes all the payment. Israel does nothing.
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Salvation comes from the Lord. This
new marriage is now characterized by rightness,
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by deliverance, by dependability, by
unfailing devotion and honesty and care and
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protection for forgiveness. That's that's what
Israel is going to receive and that's what
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you and I receive, moment by
moment, day after day, week after
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week, month after month, year
after year. That's what you and I
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receive from the Lord, his steadfast
love, his faithfulness, his goodness.
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Mike a seven says that the Lord
Delights in steadfast love. How often do
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you hear people saying that they just
are so pleased and delighted in being faithful
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to their spouse? I love being
loyal to my wife, I love being
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loyal to my husband. Well,
we should be saying that more often.
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The Lord is saying that I love
to be faithful to my people. I
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love to be long suffering towards my
people, to be patient with them,
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forgiving them always. Israel is said
that she will know the Lord. This
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knowing the Lord is that kind of
knowledge that takes place only between a husband
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and wife. It's used in scripture
of Adam knowing his wife Eve and that
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them having children, the two will
become one. This kind of knowledge is
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the knowledge that is experienced only in
marriage, the only kind relationship that is
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is unique. John, husband and
wife. We have that intimacy, we
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have that faithfulness because we are married
to our faithful groom. Pastor Ortland says
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divine mercy is not defeated by Human
Sin. Be Is Divi mercy is not
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defeated by human sin, because God
purposes to win a people for himself by
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sovereign grace. Your sin does not
win in the end. God's Mercy Does,
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God's faithfulness does, and we see
great news in Verse Twenty Three.
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And I will sew her for myself
in the land and I will have mercy
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on no mercy, and I will
say to not my people, you are
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my people, and he shall say
you are my God. So here,
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the end of chapter two, we
see more hope. We see the reversal
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of these children's cursed names. Those
temporary curses are going to be reversed.
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The Lord will sow his people,
he will plant his people. No longer
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will they be scattered. He will
sew them into rich soil, so us
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into rich soil, so that we
will become the sturdy, faithful fruit bearing
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plant as we are attached to the
root, which is God. Mercy will
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be ours forever. Mercy shall pursue
us all the days of our lives.
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Do you think about that? That
mercy is pursuing you all the days of
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your life. You are God's people, you are people belonging to God.
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You don't belong to your sin anymore. You don't belong to the devil any
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more. He is no longer your
father, your sin is no longer your
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master. You are now a slave
to righteousness. You are now a slave
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to God. You are God's people
and he doesn't just call you slaice.
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He calls you friends and he calls
you his children. You are right now
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children of the Living God. What
beautiful news that is. Christ tells you
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that you are his, that you
are the branches, that he is the
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vine and he will have mercy on
you all the days of your life,
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that you are forever his people,
so he says. I will allure your
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eye, will speak tenderly to you. I will give you your vineyards.
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I will make your value of Acre
a door of hope. I will remove
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the names of the bales from Your
Lips. I will betroth you to me
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forever. I will stow you,
I will have mercy upon you, I
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will say you are my people.
I, I, I. Salvation Belongs
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to the Lord. Salvation comes from
Christ. Our prostituting hearts should be crushed
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under the weight of God's righteous wrath. When our faithlessness is confronted face to
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face with the glory of God,
our souls should shrivel up and be obliterated.
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But, as Cornelius spent till says, all the billows of the wrath
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of God fall upon apostitized humanity.
Were there on the cross, poured out
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upon the substitute for man. That's
not what you and I receive. We
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don't receive the unrelenting wrath of God. God, in Christ, has reconciled
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us to himself, because this is
through Christ perfect faithfulesness to the father,
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and now, by God's steadfast love, the groom will turn us into the
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bride we have failed to be.
The Lord has taken the worst situation than
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we could ever be in, one
of despair, and he has redeemed us,
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his people, out of it because
his steadfast love, not ours,
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endures forever, we're told. In
this world you will have trouble, but
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take heart, God, in Christ
and in Christ alone, has overcome your
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trouble with Righteousness, Justice, faithfulness, steadfast love and mercy. In this
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world you will have tribulation, but
take heart, Christ has overcome the world.
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Post Tenebra US looks. Let's pray
