All right, excellent singing back there in Hosea chapter 10 please, Hosea chapter number
10.
And if you look at verse number 2 how it begins there, Hosea chapter 10 verse number 2, it
begins by saying,
Their heart is divided.
The title for the sermon this evening is a divided heart, a divided heart.
So we see that the Lord is referring to the northern kingdom here as a nation that has
its heart divided.
And we'll soon see what this means.
I don't want us to be a people that have our hearts divided.
I want to make sure that our hearts are single toward the Lord, that you know we love him
with all our hearts, you know that we strive to do what the Lord wants us to do in our
lives and that we don't have this, you know, that we don't develop this heart that you
know loves the things of evil, loves wickedness, loves the world, loves sin.
But then at the same time, oh yeah, we also have a love for God to some extent.
And so we don't want to be people that has a divided heart.
But let's start there in verse number 1.
Hosea chapter 10 verse number 1 begins by saying, Israel is an empty vine.
Okay.
Now that should immediately, as soon as you read that, you know, if you know the New Testament,
you know that story when Jesus Christ came and sought some fruit on the fig tree and
he found no fruit on it.
Okay.
We are going to get to that story soon.
But let's keep going.
It says here, He bringeth four fruits unto himself.
Say, well, hold on.
Israel here first is referred to as empty vine, but now it's saying that it is bringing
four fruits.
But notice, it's not bringing fruits unto the Lord.
It's not bringing fruit to the Lord, it's bringing fruit unto himself.
You see, brethren, you know, we can live a life that on the outward might seem godly.
On the outward, you might trick everybody and it might seem like you have this great
spiritual life.
You just love the Lord and you might be very productive.
You might be doing, you might seemingly be doing a lot, you know, very well in life.
You know, you may seemingly be, you know, having a great job, you know, lots of money,
lots of possessions, but those things are not unto the Lord.
They may very well be unto yourself.
You're bringing four fruit, you're bringing in four something, but it's not unto the Lord.
And the worst place to be is the Lord would refer to you as an empty vine.
So it's an empty vine, but it is bringing four fruits, okay, but not fruit unto the
Lord.
It says, according to the multitude of his fruits, he have increased the altars.
According to the goodness of his land, they have made goodly images.
So what the Bible is teaching us here is that Israel is taking the substance that God
has blessed them with, you know, the productivity of the land, the beautiful land, you know,
the agriculture, their finances, they're doing well, but instead of bringing fruit forth
to the Lord, they're taking that substance that God has given them and they're giving
it to false religion.
They're giving it to things that are worldly, you know, false gods, wicked things, and they're
helping the false religions build up their altars, alright?
So they've taken their substance and put it toward ungodly devices.
Now please turn to Matthew chapter 21.
Keep your finger there in Hosea, and let's go to Matthew 21, please, Matthew 21, because,
you know, God has given us a lot of substance.
You know, as Australians, hey, living on the Sunshine Coast, what a beautiful place to
live.
You know, just coming and coming again on the plane and driving, just seeing how nice
and green everything is, how lush it is, how better the traffic is in Sydney, God has given
us a lot of blessings up here, right?
A lot of substance, a lot to, you know, God has just given us, and given us above measure.
But you know what?
It's easy to look at the substance that you have, look at everything you have, whether
it's your house, your possessions, your bank account, and say, well, you know what, all
this stuff, that's going to be for me, or, you know what, I'm going to take a portion
of this and give this toward ungodly devices.
I might give this toward ungodly movies.
I might give this toward ungodly things.
I know God does not want that, you know, is not pleased in these things, hey, but I'll
still give to church.
You know, I'll have a divided heart where, you know, I still want to show God that I
love him, but at the same time, I'm going to take a substance and give it toward wicked
things.
So we have to be careful not to be that way.
Matthew chapter 21, verse 18, Matthew 21, verse 18, now in the morning, as he returned
into the city, he hungered.
And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon, but
leaves only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever, and presently
the fig tree withered away.
And so what do we notice there, brethren?
We notice that Jesus Christ, you know, he's hungry.
He wants to eat some of these figs.
You know, one of my brothers down in Sydney, Brother Les, he's got a fig tree.
And a couple of weeks ago, he brought me a big plate of figs.
They were wonderful.
They were awesome.
They're my mother's favorite fruit.
In fact, they're not really a fruit.
They're more of a flower.
I don't know if you guys know that.
Okay, you know, they were beautiful to eat.
And I can understand Jesus Christ coming to man, I really need some of that fig.
I need some of those delicious figs.
He comes to the tree expecting that this tree would bring forth, hey, did it bring forth
something?
It did.
It had leaves.
It was bringing forth something, but it wasn't for the Lord.
The Lord wanted to be fed.
The Lord wanted to be satisfied from the tree, but there was nothing on that tree of value.
So what does he do to it?
Okay, he said that, he said, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever, and presently
the fig tree withered away.
And so this is an illustration of Israel, okay?
Just like God spoke about the northern kingdom here in the book of Hosea, that he sees that
he has no fruits, hey, it produces something, hey, this tree was produced in leaves, but
it wasn't produced in anything of value toward the Lord, okay?
And so we see the same similarity there from Hosea to Matthew 21, and look at Matthew 21
verse 20, it says, and when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how soon is
the fig tree withered away?
So they marveled, you know?
And this is kind of the reaction that God has toward Israel, that God has given them
so much.
God has blessed them, but they've just withered away, okay?
And we see how Jesus Christ deals with this nation.
He says that it will grow, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever, forever.
You know, there are still Christians today that believe that Israel today, that physical
nation, the physical Jews, will one day, they'll come back to the Lord.
One day, they're just going to turn to Jesus Christ and believe in him.
It's not going to happen, okay?
They're not going to bring forth fruits henceforth forever.
Forever means no more.
From this time forward, Jesus Christ was done with this nation, and he was moving on toward
bringing forth the spiritual nation, right?
The spiritual nation.
And let this be a reminder to us, because we see what Christ wants.
He wants to see his people with fruits.
And not just fruit, not just fruit for themselves, or not just fruit for something that is ungodly,
but fruit that God can look at and say, well done, my good and faithful servants.
We need to develop this fruit in our lives, okay?
One thing that can stop us from, you know, producing this fruit, brethren, is having
a divided heart.
And this is one of the major themes that we see here in Hosea chapter number 10.
And so, you know, there are Christians that unfortunately are very focused on how much
money they can make, how many possessions they can have.
Now, is money important?
Of course money is important, okay?
We all need to work, we all need to provide, we all need to pay our bills, but brethren,
I'm not living for money.
You know, I'm sure you can think of people, maybe, you know, some Christians you may be
aware of, that they work, you know, seven days a week, you know?
And it just seems like that they're focused on possessions, they're focused about investments
and the next house they can buy, and the next property they can, you know, the next,
you know, investment that they can come up with in order to, you know, become rich.
And they're living for these things, but quite often I look at their lives and they're just
not happy.
You know, they produce a lot, they've got a lot, okay?
They're very fruitful, but they don't become very fruitful to the Lord, because they're
so invested.
They're so invested on the things on this earth, okay?
And so we need to be a Christian that's balanced, okay?
We know we need money.
You know, we know we need to pay our bills.
You know, we wanna make sure that we provide for our families, but Brevin, I never wanna
get to the point where I just have all the money in the world where I never have to think
about paying another bill.
I like the idea that I have to be concerned somewhat to pay my next bill, because it helps
me put a reliance upon the Lord, making sure that he's gonna open up the doors for me to
have to, you know, pay off the bills, pay off the mortgage, pay off whatever it is.
It's better to be in a position like that than just have, you know, every dollar.
You never have to worry about money anymore, because when you stop worrying about how much,
you know, if you got too much money, and you know, you're not even concerned anymore how
you're gonna pay a bill, that's where these wicked people, these exceedingly rich people,
you know, come up with their crazy plans and crazy ideas.
They don't know what to do with their lives anymore, all right?
Because they don't have to produce anymore.
They've got so much, and they get into wicked things.
You know, sometimes God's gonna hold us back from achieving our, you know, financial milestones,
and that's a good thing.
We never wanna get to a point where we have too much, and we stop relying upon the Lord.
And so we need to remember that, you know, God has given us substances so we can bring
fruit, bring full fruit for him, okay?
You know, we need to be thinking about God as the priority in our lives.
You know, when you give of yourselves, when you give your first 10 minutes of your day,
when you give, you know, the first day of the week, which is Sunday, we have to be thinking,
how can we give this to the Lord?
I wanna make sure that I give to the Lord first, okay?
And look, there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself.
You know, you give to the work of the Lord, you give to the house of the Lord, you know,
but at the same time, I've got a wife, I've got kids, and guess what?
My role as a husband is to look after my wife.
My role as a husband is to love my wife.
You know what that means?
That means I'm gonna take my wife out sometimes on a date.
And you say, oh man, see, Pastor Kevin, you're living for yourself.
No, I'm living for the Lord, because the Lord tells me to love my wife.
The Lord tells me to look after my wife.
And so yeah, if I take her on a date, you know what, the Lord is pleased.
That is fruit being, you know, being brought forth for the Lord, okay?
And so never think that bringing forth fruit is just church, okay?
It's just, oh, here's Pastor Kevin preaching about tithes and offerings once again.
No, I want you, yeah, give to the Lord, prioritize the Lord, but at the same time, look after
the family that God has given you.
You know, look after the friends that you have, be hospitable.
God wants us to enjoy what we have as well, okay?
Just do it unto the Lord.
You do it unto the Lord, and you'll be fine.
Look at verse number two, Hosea chapter 10, verse number two.
Back to Hosea.
Hosea chapter 10, verse number two.
The Bible says, their heart is divided.
Now shall they be found faulty.
He shall break down their altars.
He shall spoil their images.
All right, can you, I'll just read it, actually, I'll just read it to you.
In Proverbs chapter three, verse number nine, it says, honor the Lord with thy substance,
and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy bonds be filled with plenty,
and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
You know what?
When we get our first paycheck, when we get just our, you know, when we're blessed with
something, our first thought ought to be, how do I give this back to the Lord?
How is it that I give my substance to the Lord instead of to myself?
You know, that ought to be the first thing that comes to your mind, brethren, because
you don't want to have a divided heart.
You know, when it comes to issues like finances, it's easy to think, well, Lord, I need all
of this to myself, I know I need to pay my bills, I know there are things coming up,
there are situations coming up, and I'm just going to have to forfeit giving to the house
of the Lord at the moment, okay?
But no, if we give to the Lord, he promises us that our bonds will be filled, right?
Honor the Lord with thy substance.
Brethren, what is it that you use your substance on?
You know, are you prioritizing the things of God first?
Are you honoring God with your substance?
When you go and you pay for something, are you honoring the Lord, or are you honoring
the devil?
You know, I don't know what you spend your money on, I don't know, okay?
But I know it's not always going to be things that are honoring the Lord, okay?
And the problem there, brethren, is that you're going to create that divided heart, the heart
that is divided.
Look at verse number two again, it says, now shall they be found faulty.
You know, a divided heart is a faulty Christian, okay?
You're faulty.
You're not working properly.
You know, if you were to purchase some, you know, go to the shops and purchase some, I
don't know, a toaster, and you bring it home, and then you find it's faulty, all right?
You plug it in, brand new toaster, it's faulty.
What does that mean, that it can't be used?
It's useless.
You've just wasted your time.
And now you've got the inconvenience of having to take it, taking it back to the shop and
trying to get a refund out of it or something, right, or getting replacements.
Well, you know what?
As Christians, we can be found faulty as well, if we have a divided heart, okay?
Israel here, they were found to be faulty because they had a heart divided.
They had the false gods, but at the same time, they tried to honor the Lord with their lips,
but their heart was far from Him, okay?
And so, verse number three, verse number three, it says, for now they shall say, we have no
king because we feared not the Lord, what then should a king do for us?
All right, so this is obviously following the Assyrian captivity.
This is what they're going to be saying.
Once they're taken over by the Assyrians, they're going to lose the kingdom, they're
going to lose that king, and then they're going to recognize the reason we've lost the
king is because we've not feared the Lord.
And then it says, what then should a king do to us?
So it's like, they don't have a king anymore, but there's no other king of Assyria.
Like, are we going to benefit from this other king?
Are we going to benefit from this foreign king now that we've been taken into captivity?
They're going to come to realize the reason they've lost their substances, the reason
they've lost their possessions, the reason they've lost their kingdom is because they
forgot to fear the Lord.
And so, brethren, point number one here, I don't really have points, but the major point
here, in order for you to not have a divided heart, you must fear the Lord.
You must fear the Lord.
Because if you fear the Lord in the right way, when you take your substance and you
give it toward things that do not please the Lord, when you give it toward things that
you know the Lord's not going to be happy for you to spend your substance on that, if
you have a fear of God, you're going to think twice about that, aren't you?
You're going to stop and say, well, you know what, I fear the Lord too much to give my
money to this cause over here, even though it might provide me plenty of entertainments,
but I know it's something that God does not want in my life, okay?
Because I don't want you to be found faulty.
I don't want you to be found as someone that has their hearts divided.
And so without the fear of the Lord, your kingdom will fall.
The possessions you have, whatever it is you have on this life right now, the things that
you enjoy, if you do not fear the Lord, the Lord can very easily just remove his hand
of blessing, allow somebody to come in, the Assyrians or whoever it is that might come
in and take everything that he's given and blessed you with.
Verse number four, they have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant, thus
judgment spring up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
All right, so what do we learn here is that people on the land are not keeping their promises,
okay?
And again, not keeping their promises is a result of a divided heart.
Because look, if you make a promise and your heart's in it, you're going to accomplish
what you said.
The heart's not in the things that they promised.
The heart is not in, it's not in the marriages, the covenant they make with the marriages.
It's not in the covenants that they make at work, you know, the agreement they make with
the employer, I'll be here at this time, I'll work these hours, I'll get this done.
Look, they're not fulfilling their vows, they're not fulfilling the things that they've promised
to.
Can you please keep your finger there and go to Matthew chapter five.
Please go to Matthew chapter five.
Matthew chapter five and verse number 33.
You know, this was an area that I had to really work on in my life, you know, not keeping
my promises.
I said, oh man, Pastor Kevin, you don't keep your promises?
Well, it's not that I intended to break them, okay?
It's just, you know, life changes, right?
I remember when I was just an employee, you know, my managers would come up to me, my
boss would come up to me, can you get this done by the end of the week?
I'll be like, yes sir, I'll get it done.
Because I wasn't that busy.
I could maybe stay back a couple of hours, work some overtime, get the job done, right?
Or people ask certain things from me, you know, it was very hard for me to say no.
And maybe for some of you guys, it's very hard to say no, okay?
Because, you know, in your heart, you intend to accomplish what they want you to do, right?
You want to be a blessing, you want to get things done.
But then as life gets busier, you know, you get further into life and more kids, more
responsibilities, you find that you just don't have the time that you once had.
And so you get to learn to scale those promises back, all right?
Be careful what you vow, be careful what you say because you can destroy your reputation
and Jesus Christ gives us a word of advice here in Matthew chapter 5 verse number 33,
which says, again, ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time, thou shall
not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths.
So be careful about your oaths because the Lord is holding you accountable for the things
that you promise.
Verse number 34, but I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's
throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city
of the great King, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one
hair white or black, but let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for what's over
is more than these cometh of evil.
So what do we learn there?
Jesus Christ has given us really good counsel, really good advice.
He goes, don't make promises.
Don't make vows because you don't know if you can really keep them.
And it's very easy to make vows out of emotions.
You know, you get emotionally worked up and you're like, I'm never going to do that
again or I'm never going to, you know, I'm never going to talk to that person ever again.
You make some crazy vows when you get full of emotion and then later on you realise how
foolish it was for you to make such claims, okay, and you break those vows.
It's better when you make your decisions to be soberly minded, okay, don't respond
out of emotions and if you're pretty certain you're going to get something done, like
if you're certain you can get something done, yea, yea, and if you don't know you
can get something done, look in the workforce, it's just better, look sir, I don't think
I'm going to get this done.
I know you want me to get this done.
I realise you want to give me this, but I've got this to do, I've got this to do, I've
got this to do and the only way I can get that done if I have to work some extra hours
or some extra days or something like that, you know, be careful what you say, be careful
what comes out of your mouth, yea, yea, nay, nay, now Brevin look, tomorrow morning I know
you guys get together for Bible study, yea, I want to be there, I'm going to try really
hard to be there, right, but don't we sometimes forget to set our alarms, don't we just sometimes
sleep in and completely forget, well you know what, yea or nay, okay, if you realise it's
going to be a hard time, it's going to be a hard effort to get there, maybe the right
response is nay, okay, instead of having memes thrown at you later on for missing out
on the meeting, but look, these are the things that you know, it's easy for us to say we're
going to do this, we're going to be there and then you kind of fail at accomplishing
that.
You know, one of the things, one of the challenging things I have at the moment down in Sydney
is we've got the restrictions, we're restricted at how many people can meet at church, so
before you know, before Sundays, I send out in basically a form where people acknowledge
whether they're going to attend or not attend, right, and if they go into attend, they tell
me how many people in their families are going to attend, it's really frustrating, I really
don't want to have to do that, but it's the only way right now to keep the numbers
and you know, people put, you know, I know they mean well, I know people are like yea,
we're going to be there at church and then maybe like in the morning, on Sunday mornings
like I can't make it, but here's the thing, you know, normally it doesn't bother me,
it doesn't bother me if people can't make it to church, but the problem is because we
limited the numbers, there's usually people that I have to say, look you can't, actually
I'm sorry, you can't make it for this service, you know, I'll make sure you get
prioritised next week and then, you know, to have, not to have those people turn up
means those same people that I said that couldn't come, you know, they could have made it and
so, you know, we have to be careful, especially, you know, I guess we don't really face that
frustration here, but it is something that I'm trying to deal with down in Sydney and
so we need to be careful, you know, our yeas should be yeas and our nays need to be nays
and look, don't make promises, look, I made a vow when I got married and I meant that,
it wasn't just out of emotion, I spent time, is this a woman I want to get married
to?
Yes, put a ring on it, right, got engaged first, that was the first ring, okay and then
make sure I'm providing, got a job, making sure I can take care of my family, we got
married, right and listen, that's a vow that I'm going to keep, I'm going to keep
it till I die, okay and you say, oh Pastor Kevin, you better not say that, don't make
any, I already made the vow, okay, I'm just telling you again, I made that vow before
many witnesses when I got married, okay and I'm telling you the same thing, Brevin,
you know what, I'm going to stay married till the day I die, okay or if my wife passes
on first, okay but these are great vows because look, my heart is for one person, okay and
I made that vow to witnesses, I made that vow to the Lord, I'm going to keep that
one, you know, 100% and if I don't keep it Brevin, you can take me out and you can
abuse me because I'm keeping that word to my wife, that's one vow that I'm definitely
going to keep, alright.
But back to Hosea chapter 10 verse number 5, Hosea chapter 10 verse number 5, it says,
the inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven, so these are the
golden calves, for the people thereof shall mourn over it and the priests thereof that
rejoiced on it for the glory thereof because it is departed from it, alright.
So what we also saw in Hosea chapter 8 when we did our study for that, we saw that Bethel
also had some golden calves, you know, in its area and so basically the Lord brings
up the weakness in the cities again, these two cities that there are these golden calves
that they worship in, verse number 6 and it shall also be carried unto Assyria for a present
to king Jareb, so this king of Assyria is going to take those golden calves as his gift,
right, because they're made of gold, you know, they're very costly and it says Ephraim shall
receive shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his own council, alright.
We know we're dealing with a nation that's got a divided heart and notice that this nation,
what council does it seek?
Is this nation seeking the council of God or is it seeking its own council?
We can see there at the end of verse number 6 it says that they should be ashamed of his
own council and brethren, you know what, we need to remember that in order for us to have
a heart that's single toward the Lord, that just loves the Lord, alright, we can't just
seek our own council, you know, we can't just seek the council of men, you have to go to
the word of God, you have to go to the Bible, you have to seek the council of God.
You know, Proverbs 19 verse 21 says there are many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless
the council of the Lord that shall stand.
You want to stay standing as a people of God, you want to stay standing as a child of God
where your heart is not divided, well you need to seek the council of God, okay, and
if someone, you know, as a pastor sometimes people come up to me, ask me questions and
really I don't like giving my own personal opinions, I really don't, if I don't have
a Bible verse, I more often than not will say to that person, what do you think is best?
You're in this situation, you know, you've measured up the pros and the cons, I'm not
in your shoes, what do you think would be best?
But listen, if I know there's a clear Bible verse that can address that, I'm going to
get the council of the Lord and show you, okay, and that's how you're going to stand,
you stand on the council of God, you seek council of other people that are contrary,
especially if they're contrary to God's word, they're going to cause you to fall, okay,
the people of the land of Israel, they sought the council of the wicked, they sought the
council of the ungodly and this is why they fell and listen, and they were shamed because
of the council.
Verse number seven, as for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water, okay,
so Samaria, the capital city of Israel, right, of the northern kingdom of Israel, it's saying
that the king of Samaria is going to be cut off, now, have you guys, I'm sure, you know,
you've all seen the ocean, you don't live that far from the ocean, I'm sure you've seen
times when the waves roll in and it leaves a bit of that foamy substance, right, on the
sand and sometimes just the waters themselves are full of foam, I remember there have been
times that I've gone to the beach and I've looked at the water and there's all this kind
of like brown foam on top of the waves, you guys know what I'm talking about and you just,
you kind of don't want to go in there, unless you think it's fun or something, unless you
think it's like a bubble bath, I don't think, but you know, it's kind of brown, it looks
a little bit dirty, you don't really want to get into that water, right, but that foam
has been separated from the waters, I looked this up very quickly because I was wondering
how, you know, how is that foam created and as I was looking this up, you know, I found
out that seven years ago or eight years ago in Marichal, maybe some of you guys saw this,
but there was these, there was crazy storms, crazy weather and like, there was like, it
generated, because the waters kept moving, the waters kept churning and bringing out
this froth or this foam that it covered like the streets of Marichal, like metres deep,
have you guys, you guys remember that, if you lived here, I saw the videos, I sent it
to Christina, I was like, man, that's crazy, right, but yeah, you know, that's what happens,
the foam separates from the water and I looked this up how it works and basically, the foam
is created when marine life dies and organic matter is broken down in the waters and it
says a substantial amount of particle organic carbon is released into the ocean and then
the dissolved organic matter acts as a foaming agent which combined with the pounding of
ocean waves results in large build-ups of foam in the water and at the beach and then
it says long lasting sea foam, so that long lasting, usually if a wave rolls in, you see
a little bit of that foam and then it kind of just goes away, okay, but it says long
lasting sea foam, so what happened in Marichal, for example, is always a sign that the water
is not pure, which doesn't mean it is necessarily toxic, it's seawater mixed with other components,
okay, another way to look at this is basically it's ocean waste, okay, it's organic material
that's just breaking down and as the water, it's kind of like if you use, you know, shampoo
and you put some bit of shampoo in water or some soap in water and you start to mix the
water, it starts to create bubbles, okay, it's the same kind of idea, the water has
been tainted with this organic material that's kind of just decomposing, so it's kind of
like ocean waste, alright, so what this is saying here in verse number 7 is that the
king is like that foam that's been separated from the water, the water represents his kingdom,
the king represents the foam, okay, and because he's not been fearing the Lord, because his
nation is far from God, because this nation has a divided heart, God has separated the
king from his substance, he separated the king from his possession, he separated the
king from his kingdom and so this is what I've been telling you from the beginning,
brethren, that you know what, if we live a life, a Christian life of a divided heart,
you know, we say we love the Lord but at the same time, half of our heart is toward
wicked things, you know, God can remove the blessings from us, God can separate us like
he does the foam from the waters and you know what, all you're going to be, you know, instead
of being that beautiful water, you know, that brings forth life, all you're going to be
is decomposing flesh, you know, decomposing organic material, you're going to be useless,
you know, for the Lord if you remain in a place where your heart is divided, you know,
God can cut you out of his will, you know, God can end your life if he so wishes, you
know, if you are, if you are of a divided heart, look at verse number 8, let's keep
going, verse number 8, the high places also of Avon, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed,
the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars and they shall say to the mountains,
cover us and to the hills, fall on us, now just out of curiosity, does anyone, when you
look at verse number 8, how it ends, does it remind anyone of anything? End times, yeah,
let's turn there, keep your finger there, Revelation chapter 6 please, Revelation chapter
6, Revelation chapter 6, so God is saying, listen, when my judgment falls, the people
are going to be crying out, cover us, right, they're going to be talking to the mountains,
to the hills, fall on us and we know the direct context of what we read in Hosea is the Assyrian
takeover, it's the Assyrian captivity, right, but the Bible many times, you know, uses
the same kind of language because what we're saying is the judgment of God, the coming
judgment of God, listen, things are going to be worse than in Hosea's day, we're coming
to a time, you know, I don't know how far this is, sometimes it feels like it's not
that far away, but it could still be very far away, okay, but Revelation chapter 6,
verse number 15, we know that this is when the sun and moon is darkened and the heavens
are rolled back as a scroll and the people of God are raptured and they go to be in the
presence of the Lord in the clouds, but then it says in verse number 15, and the kings
of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty
men and every bond man and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks
of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the
face of him that sitteth on the throne, look at this, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for
the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand? Who shall be able
to stand? What did we see before? That they did not seek the counsel of the Lord, had
they sought the counsel of the Lord, they would still be standing today, okay, but they
did not and you see that God's judgment fell upon this nation and it's picturing to us
how the end times is going to be, okay, so in Hosea, this has already taken place with
the Assyrian captivity, but this has given us an idea as well about the disaster to come,
people are going to be afraid when they see the heavens rolled back, people are going
to be afraid when they see the sun go dark and the moon lose its shine and the stars
fall from heaven, they're going to be afraid, you know what, we're going to be rejoicing
as the people of God, we're going to wear, the sun's going dark, praise God, lift up
your heads, right, for the redemption draweth nigh, but for these people, they're going
to, man, that's going to scare them, isn't it, they're going to be full of fear, they're
going to go to the mountains trying to hide themselves from God's wrath and God's judgment
and we see this playing out in a lesser form in Hosea, back to Hosea chapter 10 verse number
9, Hosea chapter 10 verse number 9, it reads, oh Israel, thou hast sinned from the days
of Gibeah, there they stood the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity, did
not overtake them, it is in my desire that I should chastise them and the people shall
be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two foros, alright, when
you look at verse number 9, it mentions the days of Gibeah, does anyone remember what
that's referring to, yeah brother, that's not what I was thinking about, brother, yeah,
yeah, absolutely, so when we looked through Hosea chapter 9, we went through the story
that took place in Gibeah, alright, we saw how, you know, the sodomites, the homosexuals
took advantage, you know, they tried to get to know a man but they gave, the man gave
his concubine and they abused her all night long and she died, alright, well this is kind
of continuing the same story but it's continuing what took place afterwards, alright, so keep
your finger there and please turn to the book of Judges, Judges chapter 20 for me, Judges
chapter 20, you turn to Judges chapter 20 and while you're turning there, I'm going
to read that verse once again to you, it says, oh Israel, thou hast sinned from the days
of Gibeah, it says, there they stood in the battle in Gibeah, okay, so we're going
to look at this battle that took place, so once the news got through all of Israel that
this woman got abused by the sodomites, by the homosexuals, okay, the people of Israel
got together and they said look, we need to punish these people, we're going to punish
these children of the devil, we're going to punish these sodomites, we're going to
kill them, okay, and so they all got together but there was one tribe, if you know the story,
one tribe, the tribe of Benjamin that protected the homosexuals of Gibeah, okay, they protected
so no, we're not going to hand them over to you for them to be killed and so the story
takes place, quite an interesting story, in Judges chapter 20 and verse number 20, Judges
chapter 20 and verse number 20 and so the people of Israel, they agree, yeah, let's
go, you know, we need to take these people out, we need to make war against the Benjamites
because they're protecting them and verse number 20, it reads, and the men of Israel
went out to battle against Benjamin and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight
against them at Gibeah and the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed
down to the ground of the Israelites that day, twenty and two thousand men and by the
way, they've gone asking the Lord, should we go and fight and the Lord says yeah, go
and fight and what happened, they lost, okay, they lose, they lost what, twenty two thousand
men to these Sodomites or to these, at least these people that are protecting the Sodomites,
well they try again, let's drop down to verse number 24, verse number 24, they try
again, there it says, and the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin
the second day, verse number 25, and Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the
second day and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel, again eighteen
thousand men, all these drew the sword, so they go a second time and they lose the battle
once again, this time they lose eighteen thousand men, this doesn't look like it's very successful,
once again they did go to the Lord, asking the Lord, should we go and fight and the Lord
says yeah, go and fight and what happened, they lost, they lost, so how do you think
these people of Gibeah are feeling right now, how do you think the Benjamites are feeling
right now, we've protected the Sodomites, okay, they've come to fight us, they've
come twice, we've defeated them, do you think they've been lifted up with pride at
this point, do you think they're going to just man, you know what, we're in the right,
you know, we've shown ourselves to be strong in battle, we've shown ourselves to be stronger
than the God of the Bible and that's what these Sodomites think, when they go around
marching in their pride parades, they think they're so much better than the Lord, they
think look, we're getting away with our sin, alright, you know, last year they went
marching, the year before they went marching, I don't know if they went marching this
year because of Covid, I can't remember, anyway if they didn't, praise God, but look,
every year they think they can go down in Sydney, marching in their gay and lesbian
Mardi Gras parade and they're just flaunting their filthy lifestyle, you know, just against
the Lord, having a strong face against the Lord, thinking that this is wonderful, look
at us, we're winning the battle of the homosexuals, we're winning the battle to have all these
rights and we're winning the battle against marriage and we're winning the battle against
paedophilia, you know, we're getting our way, they seem to think, okay, but then what
happened, look at verse number 30, drop down to verse number 30, Judges chapter 20 verse
number 30, and the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the
third day and put themselves in array against Gibeah as at other times and the children
of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city and they began
to smite of the people and kill as at other times in the highways of which one goeth up
to the house of God and the other to Gibeah in the field, about 30 men of Israel, so the
Benjaminites on the third day, they're winning once again, okay, they're defeating Israel's,
you know, they're defeating the Lord, they think, verse number 32, and the children of
Benjamin said, they are smitten down before us as at the first, but the children of Israel
said let us flee and draw them from the city unto the highways and all the men of Israel
rose up out of their place and put themselves in array at Baal, Tamar, and the liars in
wait of Israel came forth out of their places even out of the meadows of Gibeah.
So the Israelites here, they had a different plan, they had a different tactic, right,
they made it seem like they were losing the battle, they draw themselves away, it brings
these Benjaminites out of the city to come and fight and then there are others waiting
to fight them, verse number 34, and there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men
out of all Israel and the battle was sore, but they knew not that evil was near them
and the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel and the children of Israel destroyed of the
Benjaminites that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men, all these drew the sword.
So look, third time, the Lord defeats them, did you notice it said that in verse number
35, and the Lord smote Benjamin before Israel.
So my point in all this brethren is that the wicked will look like they're winning, okay,
the sodomites, the homosexuals, they look like they're winning in 2021, okay, they look
like they've been winning for the last decade, okay, and they think they're winning, they
think they're beating the Lord, and they may have some success, you know, from their
position, alright, and this, you know, but listen, the destruction is coming, the judgment
is coming, we saw that in Revelation, God is going to pour out his wrath on this wicked
world, okay, and if they die before that happens, listen, they're going to face God's wrath
in hell fire, okay, they're going to burn for all eternity, and then they're going to
come out of hell, they're going to be thrown into the lake of fire, and continue burning
for all eternity, God's going to win, God's won, you know, when we talk about battling,
we don't fight for victory, we fight from victory, I really know how to win, I know
we win, I know I'm going to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, I know God's
going to create a new heaven and a new earth, and guess what, no more sodomites, okay, no
more pedophiles, no more serial killers, and that's going to be the state for all eternity,
it's going to be the best, alright, we'll be together for all eternity, and so, listen,
even though it may seem like the wicked are winning, we need to just rest and know that
God is going to win, okay, the Lord is going to smite these wicked people, now let me bring
this a little bit closer to home, because if we have a divided heart, and we live a
wicked lifestyle, maybe no one in church knows, you know, maybe it's just our little secret,
or maybe a few people know about it, you know, and you've got a divided heart, well, just
like the Benjamites, you know, you may win some battles, you may say, well, you know
what, Lord, I keep getting into this sin, I keep seeking, you know, what the devil wants,
I keep seeking the world and wilderness, and you can go, day after day, week after week,
month after month, and seemingly no judgement of God, seemingly no chastisement, seemingly
I'm getting away with it, you know, you could get away with it day one, day two, day three,
you may feel like you're getting away with it, but listen, God's judgement is going to
fall, okay, if you've got a divided heart, God's judgement is going to fall upon you,
brethren, you better make sure your heart is right with God, you know, God is long suffering,
he gives us time, he gives us time to sort out these things that are bringing us low,
these sins, he wants us to come to him, you know, the Lord can win the battle, and if
there's some sin you're struggling with, you go to the Lord, Lord, just like you defeated
the Benjaminites, Lord, it seemed like they had victory, Lord, this sin has victory in my life
right now, but I know you can defeat it, Lord, you go to the Lord, and you ask him to win the battle
for you, you know, I don't want us to be a people of a divided heart, because it's going to,
there's going to be that flesh that lifts itself up and thinks, I know better than God, I know
God doesn't want me to do X, Y, and Z, but I'm doing it, and look, I'm all fine, I'm in Australia,
I have my resources, I've got my substances, I've got my work, I've got my bank account,
I'm doing well, it's not going to be like that forever, God's hand of judgment falls,
okay, and it can fall very heavily, okay, so don't be like the Benjaminites, okay,
back to Hosea chapter 10, verse number 11, Hosea chapter 10, verse number 11,
it says in Ephraim, remember Ephraim is the larger tribe in Israel, so every time it says Ephraim,
this is referring to Israel as a whole, the northern kingdom, and Ephraim is as an heifer,
a heifer is a young female cow that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn,
all right, so God is going to explain that the nation is like this cow, okay, that loves to,
it loves to tread out the corn, and that's good, it's good to have a job that you love doing,
okay, and this cow, it loves to work on the field, it loves to tread out the corn, right,
and we know that God will allow the creatures that if they tread out the corn, they're allowed
to eat of their work, of their labor, right, and so this is not just about giving to God and God
alone, but it's also enjoying the fruits of our labor, as long as we're doing it to the Lord,
hey, we can be like this heifer, okay, that loves to serve the Lord, that loves to work,
and then it says, but I passed over upon her fair neck, then it says this, I will make Ephraim to
ride, to ride, Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods, all right, now we've all made fun
of brother Callum, haven't we, about the golden, not the golden, the mechanical bull, the mechanical
bull, all right, what God is saying is, he wants us to be a bull, okay, a cow that just loves to
work, that just loves to serve God, you know, Jesus Christ said that his burden is light,
take my yoke upon you, okay, just what God asked from us is not that much, you know, just to
live godly, preach his word, win souls, right, love your family, love the brethren, you know,
God does not ask that much from us, and you know what, he wants us to love doing it, the way this
cow loves to tread out the corn, but if you're not that way, okay, instead of you treading out
the corn, well God may very well allow someone else to tread upon you, okay, and the idea there
is that he's going to make that cow as one to just be ridden upon, okay, and listen, you know,
you know, generally speaking, animals don't like that, like they've got to be taught
to put up with a human being on its back, okay, because it's a burden, you've got this, the weight
of a human being, right, and you can't go around where you want to go as an animal, you've been
directed by your master, and so God is saying look, you can either work and love your work,
you can serve me and love what you're doing and be fruitful and enjoy the fruits of your labours,
or if you don't do that, if you don't have your heart toward me, I'm going to allow great burdens
to fall upon you, you know, you're just going to be this plaything for others, you're going to be
this thing just to be ridden upon, you know, and you know, other people are going to have fun
taking advantage of you rather than you enjoying the work that I've given you to do.
Verse number 12, it says, so to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, I've already
preached on reaping and sowing and reaping in Hosea chapter 8, but it says here, break up
your fellow ground, fellow ground means ground that has not been, seeds have not been planted
in yet, right, it says for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
So verse number 12 gives us the answer, gives us the solution to a divided heart,
okay, what do we do? It is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
You know, if you can keep your finger there and turn to Isaiah 55, please turn to Isaiah 55,
seek the Lord. You say, Pastor Kevin, I go to church every week and I read my Bible,
but my heart is far from God, you just need to seek the Lord, okay, you don't want your service
to God just to be this religious affair, just this religious act, you know, you just do it every
week, I go to church every week, I repeat my Bible every day, your heart needs to be in it,
you need to seek the Lord, you know, when you pick up your Bible, don't be like, well, you know,
I've got to get from my 10 minutes this morning, no, seek the Lord, you know, bow your head down
and say, Lord, I want to learn some great treasures from your word this morning,
Lord, this is a brand new day, let me dedicate the first few minutes of this day to you, okay,
because you've given me my substance, you've given me this day, I want this to be directed to you,
Lord, I'm going to pick up your word and I want you to speak to me with your Holy Spirit through
your word, all right, just seek the Lord and he'll make sure that he comes and rain righteousness
upon you, so man, I want God to rain money upon me, I want God to rain possessions upon me,
I want God to rain all my problems away, no, God comes and gives you righteousness, you know,
the more you seek the Lord, the more righteous you're going to be in your daily walk, okay,
and that's what God loves, God wants to see a righteous person, he wants to see someone
walking after his ways, this is the solution to a divided heart, Isaiah 55 verse 6,
Isaiah 55 verse 6 says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near,
now it gives us instructions of seeking the Lord, it says in verse number 7, let the wicked forsake
his way, that's number one, you want to seek the Lord, brethren, number one, you've got to forsake
your evil way, your wicked ways, then it says, and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, you got
to clean up your thought life, all the wicked things, the foolish things that you think about,
we've got to clear that up, to seek the Lord, and let him, look at it, let him return unto the Lord,
and what a great promise from God, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon, we need to be abundantly pardoned by God, don't we,
because we we fail all the time, I'm not this perfect Christian, you're not, I know,
okay, but listen, we need to look at our divided heart, and say, Lord, I've got too many things
that take me away from you, there are too many things that I do that just do not please you,
Lord, and I need to give more of my heart to you, I need to give you more of my love,
I need to give you more of my attention, I need to give you more of my substance,
you know, whether it's your time, you know, whether it's just your love, your, your, your
Bible reading, right, I mean, it's a great thing that we can have church on Sundays,
you know, thank God for the men who are preaching, you know, especially brother Sam,
brother Jason, who are doing most of it, but also brother Callum, brother Matt, it's important to
have church on Sundays, you know, if you're, if you just feel unprepared to preach, just come and
preach what you've got anyway, brethren, because we need to start the week with the Lord, brand
new week, the Lord give us, let's just give it to the Lord, let's start our week with the Lord,
we come to church, we sing him praises, we learn from his word, he's going to help us in the week,
because the week's going to be, there's going to be struggles in the week, there are going to be
things in the week that cause us to turn our hearts away from the Lord, let's start our
week's well on Sunday, you know, let's be there in the house of the Lord, and listen, the Lord will
forgive us, he's going to have, he's going to pardon us, right, if we seek him, but notice we
have to clean up our thought life and forsake the sinful things that we're doing in our bodies,
okay, we can't think that we're just seeking the Lord, open up our Bible, start reading,
and be thinking about what am I going to do today, what am I going to be doing at work today,
listen, just stop, stop everything else, and just focus on what God wants to tell you through his
word, you know, give God your time, give him your substance, make him the priority in your life,
back to Hosea chapter 10 verse number 13, Hosea 10 13,
ye have ploughed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity, ye have eaten the fruit of lies,
because thou didst trust in thy way in the multitude of thy mighty men, you know what
this is telling me, it's telling me that what the multitude say is right is going to be wrong,
okay, what the multitude do is going to be a lie, we saw that this nation had no fruit,
no fruit that the Lord enjoyed, but it says that ye have eaten the fruit of lies, of lies,
brethren, when we talk about being fruitful, we love speaking about soul winning, praise God for
the soul winners, praise God for the souls that are getting saved because of this local church,
you know, but there are those that are against the fruit of the righteous, there are those that
are against soul winning, listen, if someone comes to you and tell you that soul winning is a waste
of time, soul winning is not something that God wants you to do, listen, that's a fruit of lies,
okay, don't eat it up, the Israelites had eaten up that fruit, the fruit of lies, no, we're
commanded to be fruitful, we're commanded to produce the fruit of the righteous by winning
souls, what else does the multitude teach, well you know what, God has blessed us, you know,
husbands and wives with the fruit of the womb, yeah, I mean that's true fruit, that's fruit that
God wants us to reward us with, the very first commandment that we read in the Bible that God
has given man was to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, hey what does the multitude
say, don't have kids, you know, wait till you're 30 and 40 and then maybe think about having one,
yeah, after the woman's taken all these birth control pills and destroyed her body
and she can't fall pregnant, hey listen, you know all that stuff they tell you,
they're fruit of lies, don't listen to the world, okay, it's corrupt fruits
and you know, God also wants us to develop the fruits of the spirit in our lives, right,
the fruits of the spirit and you know, there are those that do not want that kind of development,
you know, the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, these are fruits that God wants to see develop in our lives,
okay, it's the work of the Holy Ghost, you say how do I develop this, you got to spend time with
the Holy Ghost, okay, you got to walk in the spirit, if you're lacking in this area, it means
you're not walking in the spirit the way you ought to, okay and if you say about those fruits
of the spirit, who cares about that, you know what, that's a fruit of lies, okay, it's not
being fruit, look, God wants nothing more than to see the fruit of the righteous, that's going to
give him glory, people getting saved, the fruit of the womb, mums and dads having children and
having as many children as God will bless you with and you know what, developing the fruits of
the spirit in our lives, okay, God has given us all these different fruits that he wants to see
produced in our lives, don't listen to those that are contrary to that, verse number 14,
therefore shall atonement arise among thy people and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled,
as Shaoman spoiled Bethabel in the day of battle, the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children,
all right, I haven't got time to go through all of this today but Shaoman was basically,
you can read about him in Second Kings, that's King Shalmaneser of Assyria, that's the king's
name, kill Shalmaneser of Assyria and it says here in verse number 14, as Shaoman spoiled Bethabel,
now the town of Bethabel, this is the only mention we have in the Bible, okay, so you can't really go
back to another scripture and compare what has been referred to but one thing that you
realise here is that the Assyrians are already making war against the Israelites, it's already
happening, okay and if you look at from the time they started to make war against the Israelites
to the time they overthrew Samaria, it was kind of just shy of 20 years, you know, some people
believe it was like, you know, 17, 18, 19 years, something like that but just shy, it took 20 years
for the Assyrians to completely take over the northern kingdom and just keep that in your mind
because, you know, as Hosea is preaching these things, we already saw that Hosea is preaching
for many decades, okay, so time is moving, okay, the Assyrians are moving, they're already making
war against the Israelites and as you can see here in verse number 14, they already took over this
town of Bethabel, okay and what Hosea is telling them, look, if you don't change, if you look,
you know, God can still deliver you, okay, God can still help this nation but if you don't change,
okay, it's going to be just like when this king spoilt Bethabel and what took place at the end of
that says, the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children, severe judgment, children saw their
own mothers being slaughtered by the Assyrians, okay, so severe judgment and, you know, Hosea,
I mean, what Hosea is preaching should be a reality for these people at this point in time,
okay, it's not like this is far away, it's happening, it's developing, okay, the Assyrians
are coming down and taking over and destroying these towns, verse number 15, so shall Bethel
do unto you because of your great wickedness, in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly,
sorry, of Israel utterly be cut off, alright, so the king of Israel, of course, is in Samaria
and if you know the story in the Old Testament, once the Assyrians came down and they got to
Samaria, Samaria was under siege, was besieged for about three years,
it took three years for the Assyrian army to completely capture the capital of Samaria and
so again, we just see, you know, we see God's judgment, it's already fallen, it's already
started, okay and people need to wake up, you know, I think about, you know, end times and we
know how God's going to come and destroy this wicked world, we know that people are going to
be so afraid to face the judgment of God and you know, I'll put it to you brethren, I think the
judgment's already starting, okay, I still might be 20 years away like it was back then, still
might be 100 years away but you know what, God's given us these opportunities, you know, I think
back to the fires of 2019, 2020, you know and the, you know, it brought a lot of fear, alright,
the fires that were out of control, the intense heat, this Covid issue and you know, I think on
the Central Coast, we don't even really notice it that much but you know, in Sydney, it's just,
it's this constant, you know, instability, you know, what are we allowed to do this week,
what are we allowed to do next month, right, there's this instability, you know and it's
time for our nation to wake up, I was listening to brother Jason preach, he says it's too late
for Australia, probably, okay but here's the thing, it's not too late to see souls saved,
okay, every week we're seeing souls saved, whether it's this church, whether it's a church
down there and listen, I'm not interested in saving this nation anyway, okay, I'm interested
in saving the individual, okay and look, if God has to allow this nation to be destroyed,
so we get more people saved, so be it, okay, because that's what matters for eternity,
okay, that we bring forth fruits to the Lord and so in conclusion brethren, you know, is your heart
divided tonight, what do you have to do if your heart is divided, you need to fear the Lord
and seek him, I'll just end on Isaiah 55 verse 6, seek ye the Lord while he may be found,
call ye upon him while here is near, okay, let's pray, heavenly father Lord, we want to thank you
for your word, thank you for the book of