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Amen. So Hosea chapter number four, we're going to finish up Hosea chapter number four tonight. And of course, we went through the first few verses of Hosea chapter four last week. And I applied that to, you know, the current political situation that we have in our country. And the problem being that my people in verse number six, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. So we looked at that and we're going to start out in verse number eight. What I'm going to do tonight is that I'm just going to go verse by verse through Hosea chapter four. And then I'm going to make some smaller points as we go through these verses. But then towards the end of the chapter, we have a small shift in the word of the Lord here and what God is saying. And I'm going to make that the overall point for this evening's sermon. So for tonight, let's just start out, pick things up in Hosea chapter number four in verse number eight. So Hosea, of course, is a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel, maybe 100 or so years before they are destroyed by the Assyrian empire. And God is giving a warning to the northern kingdom of Israel. The king is Jeroboam, who is the third son of Jehu. And of course, we have the lower kingdom of Judah, who has not fallen nearly as far as the northern kingdom of Israel. So God is giving a warning in Hosea through Hosea through this object lesson in the book of Hosea using the prophet Hosea. All right, look at verse number eight, it says, they eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on iniquity on sin, verse nine, and there shall be like people, like priests, and I will punish them for their ways and reward them their doings. So the Bible here, we have a little bit of a shift here now, because the Bible is saying, the Bible, remember, said that the people strove with each other, and they even strove with the priest. But now we see here in verse number eight, God is actually calling out the priest as well. God is saying that the pastors went bad, and the people went bad. All right, so it's saying that the pastors and the people, bad people, bad priests, is what the Bible is saying here in this verse. And look, turn to 1 Peter chapter number five. So this is the first little, you know, minor lesson here for us is that, you know, look, pastors aren't perfect. And I don't want to set a bar that's too high for myself here tonight as the pastor of this church. Pastors aren't perfect, but pastors can go bad. You know, pastors can be bad. And look, we see that in our country today. Hosea is such an applicable book of the Bible for the day and the times that we are living in in the United States of America. Look at 1 Peter chapter number five, and look at verse number two. So while pastors aren't perfect, there are qualifications for a pastor. And verse number two of 1 Peter chapter five kind of explains why those qualifications are there. It says, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind saying, you know, the pastor is not to, you know, try to gain control over people's lives. He is what he's supposed to try to, you know, he's to be a leader that people want to follow that people are willing to follow. And he's also not to be doing it for filthy lucre for money. He's not to be in it for money, which is unfortunately what you see with a lot of false prophets today is that they're actually out to just, you know, fill as many people possible into their churches and just get themselves as much money as they possibly can. That's why they don't preach really anything, right? If you fill your church with people that really have no beliefs or believe a lot of different things, you really can't stand up and preach hard doctrines from the Bible or you're going to lose sections of people through, out of your church. All right. It says, but look at verse number three, it says, neither as being Lords over God's heritage, kind of repeats that, that the pastor is not to constrain, you know, the people. When I think about these two verses, like, you know, taking constraint to the people and, you know, not by constraint or being Lords over God's heritage. I mean, I, you may think I have a thing about this, but I think of a Pentecostal pastor. I think about a Pentecostal pastor, somebody that has changed doctrine in the Bible. I mean, you could apply it to the Catholic priest as well. Somebody that's literally changed. I mean, these works-based doctrines, adding works to the gospel, really, you can see the origin of those changes in the gospel is to gain constraint over the people, is to gain control over the people. The Pentecostal pastor would say, you better listen to me. You better listen to the doctrines and the standards that I say. And it's, it's even better for the Pentecostal pastor because he can set the standards that will cause you to lose your salvation, right? So how do you, how can you lose your salvation? Well, that's nowhere in the Bible that you could lose your salvation. So I will set those standards and I will tell you, you know, what exactly, exactly things that you can do and can't do in order to, you know, lose your salvation. So you better listen to what I'm saying. This is where also infant baptism comes in. Why you say, why infant baptism? Because it gives the church control over your family. That's why you want your kids to go to heaven. You better come here. You better come to mass. You better put money in the offering plate. You better do this. Or, I mean, the Catholic church literally used to not bury children that weren't baptized in the church because they're not in heaven there. That's how the children get salvation. All right. That's the means of grace that children get the faith. Look, it's false doctrine, but you can at least see where it comes from. They're just doing it to take constraint, right? They're doing it to take constraint, but back to the point I was going to make, I didn't mean to rabbit trail too long there, but the Bible says at the end of verse number three, it says, but so there's all these qualifications. So just think about, you know, Titus, think about, um, first Timothy chapter three, think about all those qualifications of a pastor, a Bishop and elder, all the same thing. And it says, but being examples to the flock. So the pastor is, I mean, that's the point of those qualifications. I mean, those qualifications of a pastor, and I've said this before, those are all good things for all of you to strive for. Those are all good things for any Christian to strive for, for any Christian man, husband, father, those are all things that you should be doing. But the Bible is saying that the pastor, because he is to be an example, that's what in samples means, but being examples to the, it says example, sorry, but to be an example to the flock, that's why those qualifications, those details are important. Because if a pastor is a bad example, you know, the people, he, he defines what the church will look like. I mean, the Bible says this in Matthew chapter seven, talking about, you know, a tree, it gives the example of a tree, right? And of course, you can apply this to salvation, but you can also apply this to a pastor and his church. Look at Matthew chapter seven, verse 17. It says, even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Of course, the first application of that is salvation is talking about somebody, you know, that is saved needs to go out and bring forth fruit, but a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. This can also just be applied to leadership. It can be applied to leadership, especially spiritual leadership of a pastor. Look, a pastor will literally set the culture for the church. Through what? Through his example. That's how it works. I mean, this is just leadership 101 right here. And especially from, not only does the pastor, you know, have to hold to the doctrine, be an expert on the Bible, but look, he sets the culture of the church through his example. And if he goes bad, if he goes bad, that's why it's so hard. That's why it's so hard. My wife and I were talking about this this week as I was kind of bantering about this sermon to her. That's why it's so hard. It was very difficult for me to actually find a good pastor in my life. And, you know, we talked about some of the silliness that we saw in pastors. I mean, like, I'm talking, I'm not talking false prophets here. I'm just talking, like, saved pastors or, you know, one that we thought was saved, maybe wasn't or whatever. But I mean, you know, a guy came out 10 years later saying, I wasn't saved and all this, but it's like, we've, I mean, it's, I've been, like, we got out of the Lutheran church, I got saved, we started going to Baptist churches, and we had some really wild experiences with pastors. And to me, I'm telling you for myself, that's why, like, Pastor Jimenez was such a breath of fresh air for this guy and his family right here. Because, look, first of all, I mean, you can see the example in the church. I mean, he sets the culture for that church. He sets the culture, you could see that culture right away. And I just love the culture of that church. Obviously, the doctrine has to be there, the doctrine is there. But also, you can see the example, and this is so important to me, you can see the example in his family. And that is something that I personally needed to see. And that's why, you know, I'm excited, if you haven't met Pastor Jimenez and his family, I'm excited for you all to meet him. Most of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you came from Verity Baptist Church. But the point is, it's an important thing. It sets the example, it sets the bar. It sets the bar for the people in the church. A pastor is not perfect. No pastor is perfect. You can definitely take that too far. And you can find these people that will just find something wrong with every pastor. And that's not what I'm talking about. Because look, if you're looking to find something wrong with this guy, I'm telling you, you're going to find it. Because, you know, no pastor is perfect. A pastor is just a man. But the point is, the qualifications are important. Because the pastor goes bad, just as we see in Hosea chapter four, the people go bad. All right. And then look, look at, go back to Hosea chapter number four. So that's the small lesson. That's the importance of the example of the pastor. The pastor goes bad, the people will follow. Look at Hosea chapter four and look at verse number 10. Now we're continuing on, it says, for they shall eat and not have enough. They shall commit whoredom and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. So this is kind of pointing out here in verse number 10. It's like, they shall eat, but they shall not have enough. They'll be committing whoredom, meaning they'll be going out and committing, you know, fornication and in that act that would normally produce children, but they're not going to increase as a people. It's saying like, nothing, here's what it's saying. It's saying nothing that they do will work out. It's nothing, no matter how hard they try, nothing they do is going to work out. And this is another small lesson for you right here in verse number 10. If God isn't in it, you're just going to be spinning your wheels. I mean, it's a good thing in your life to realize, I mean, haven't you, I mean, have you ever had that feeling that I'm just spinning my wheels here? I mean, I've had that feeling that I'm doing what I think I'm supposed to do. I'm working really hard. I got good plans, all these things. And I'm just spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning. I'm not really getting anywhere. And every saved believer should take account of situations like that in their life. They say, why am I spinning my wheels? Why am I working so hard? Why am I doing all these things that appear to be right and nothing's working out for me? You should take personal account of those situations in your life. Because the bottom line is Hosea 4.10 is saying, if God isn't in it, if God isn't with you, nothing is going to work out for you, no matter what you think you're doing right. Turn to Romans chapter 8. We see the opposite of this in Romans chapter 8. Look, you can apply this to the entire, you know, invasion or taking over of the promised land. What was the important thing? The important thing wasn't how many people they had. The important thing was, was God with them or not? That's what made them win the battles or lose the battles. Whenever they did something to where, you know, God was not with them like AI, they lost the battle because God wasn't with them. So they started spinning their wheels. Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 31. Here's what the opposite of that is. The Bible says this, it says, what shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? The Bible's literally saying, if God's on your side, it's like, that's all that matters. That's the key situation. So look, this is a mini lesson. Whenever you're doing something in your life, you're working hard, things aren't working out. You know, you got to take, take account of that. Ask yourself, you know what, maybe I'm not in the right place. Is this where God wants me to be working hard and doing all these things and making all these plans and raising my family or whatever? I mean, ask yourself, am I in the right place? Ask yourself, do I have the right priorities? You know, am I doing all these things, having all these plans, making these, look, it's not wrong to have plans. It's not wrong to work hard. It's not wrong to better your situation or whatever, but are your priorities mixed up? Is God at the center of your life? Are you trading God for something? Well, because if you're trading God for something in your life, that thing, that something is not going to work out if you're saved. I don't care what it is. But look, these people in Hosea 4, they've turned against God completely in this nation. And what the Bible is saying, all the effort in the world will not matter if that is the case, if God is not in it. So look, it's best to keep God in his proper place and keep him there and everything else will just work out. You keep God in his right place and then do all the things that he wants you to do and everything will work out. Go back to Hosea chapter number 4. Everything else will fall into place. Hosea chapter 4, look down at verse number 11. Hosea chapter 4, we're just going verse by verse here through Hosea. Look at verse number 11. It says, hordom and wine and new wine take away the heart. I love this verse right here because people, they're like, wine in the Bible is like always alcohol. Like, what are you talking about? Why would they list two types of wine here? This is like the perfect verse to just show people that say like, well, Jesus turned water into wine, got everybody drunk. Look, wine in the Bible, it can mean alcoholic drink or grape juice is what the Bible is saying here. So literally what chapter number, verse number 11 is saying is that hordom and wine, meaning hordom and drunkenness and new wine, it's talking about abundance. So hordom and wine is, it's literally talking about alcoholic wine there and then it lists new wine. So new wine is just wine that is just freshly squeezed from the grape, that it hasn't had any time to ferment. It's just grape juice is all it is. All right. But it says those two things take away the heart. So it's saying hordom, meaning all this fornication and literal hordom is, you know, sin that's taking away their heart. Drunkenness is taking away their heart and abundance is taking away their heart. Turn to Proverbs 23 and verse number 30. This one kind of matches up with what I said about wine here. If you just turn real quickly to Proverbs 23, look at verse number 30. Proverbs 23 and verse number 30. So just talking about this idea that wine always means alcohol is just false doctrine. All right. Look at verse number 30 of Proverbs chapter number 23. It says, they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. So here we see wine and mixed wine. It says, look not upon the wine, but look at this, when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself, all right. So this is talking about the fermentation process when the wine ferments and it gases off and it gets mixed with yeast from the skin of the grape or whatever. And it actually has a chemical process where it ferments, which means basically to ferment is to like rot, basically. It just, it gets alcoholic. It moves itself aright, meaning, you know, there's a process taking place in the wine. So there's definitely a time when wine should not be even looked at, the Bible is saying. And there's a time when wine is new, when it's just grape juice. All right. So that's pretty easy to understand. All right. There's two different kinds of wine. And then, you know, what kind of wine did Jesus make? Well, he just made it. Like he made it immediately and then they drank it. So unless you think Jesus made like, you know, wine with leaven in it, which if you've ever read the Bible at all, you will know that that's not the case since leaven literally pictures sin in the Bible. He made freshly squeezed grape juice and they were so amazed at it. Why were they amazed at it? They were amazed at it because it was so good and it was so fresh, which means what? They're like, I can't believe you serve this at the end. Usually you serve the junk at the end. You know, when people have been drinking like actual, you know, alcoholic wine and they don't even really know what they're drinking, but he's saying this is expensive is what they were talking about. Why would you like wait till the end to bring out the expensive stuff? It doesn't make any sense at all. Even if you were serving like food, you would just serve the best things first to just impress people. You know, you wouldn't serve like, you know, a bunch of junk and then bring out the best food, you know, at the end when everyone's already full. That makes no sense at all. All right. It's just honestly, and I've actually met people from other countries that have noted this as well. It's this idea. The reason like Jesus turning water into wine is so hard for Americans to believe that it was not alcoholic wine is because the culture in America with alcohol is to drink to get drunk. It's to drink to get buzzed or just drunk. That's the culture. I mean, there are cultures in other countries where they were, you know, they don't have the culture where it's like you just go and, you know, buy a 12 pack of beer and drink the whole thing. Like that's weird to people from, you know, other countries. You know, there's countries that that's not weird. But the point is, is that it's an American culture thing where they read like, oh, wine, like everyone must have well drunk. That means everyone's just drunk. That's not what that means. It means they've had enough to drink. They're full. They're not, they're not thirsty anymore. That's what that means. All right. Anyway, enough about that. Look at verse number 12 of Hosea chapter number four. Hosea chapter four. Look at verse number 12. So these people, they've, they're hard to turn away from God. They have abundance, they're a bunch of drunks, and they're into fornication and whoredom. Look at verse 12. It says, my people ask counsel at their stocks. This kind of backs up verse number 10, where it's talking about like just nothing's going to work out for you. You turn against God, nothing's going to work out for you, and their staff declareth unto them, for the spirit of whoredoms have caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. This is just saying, they're, they're just getting like, even the people that are giving them advice are just giving them bad advice. All the people that are counseling them are just telling them to just keep going and, you know, just, just do what they're doing and just keep the whoredoms going and just keep the drunkenness going, just keep turning away from God. But the mini lesson number two here is that, look, first of all, like the source of your advice matters. That's the first thing that you should take away from this verse. Like, let me tell you something. There's a lot of bad advice out there. I was just talking to brother Trevor before church. There's a lot of really foolish advice out there. And let me tell you something. If you get into sin, especially like this kingdom, there is going to be plenty of people that will be lining up to tell you that what you're doing is correct. There's going to be plenty of people. You go out and you get into sin. You go out and you backslide as the Bible is going to tell us here in just a few verses. You go out and you turn your heart away from God and go into horrible sin like these people are into. And there's going to be people that are going to tell you, Hey, you're doing great. You're doing great. You're doing the right thing. Hey, you know what? We'll do it with you. We'll go and we'll join you. And people will just give you bad counsel. That's why, look, if I could say anything to you, but just anything in the, this is why like people that don't believe the Bible and don't know the Bible, like you have like no chance. My people are destroyed for what? For lack of knowledge. What is knowledge? Knowledge is the word of God. There are plenty of people out there that will give you advice that will just completely destroy you. The source matters for your advice. Right? Go to verse number 13. That's what, that's why you turn to the Bible. That's why I'm not just like, take my word for it. Verse number 13 says this, take my word for it. Verse number 10 says this. You're literally looking at the Bible because look, I believe that you, I believe that you have trust in what I say, but you know where the trust, you know where your trust in me comes from? Your trust in me comes from the fact that you have listened to me preach over 400 sermons, you poor people, and you have looked at the Bible as I preached those sermons. Maybe you thought some were good, maybe you thought some were not as good as the others, whatever, but they all lined up with the Bible. You trust the fact, and look, I know this because I have said, I mean, I've misquoted a verse before or I've, you know, called something, you know, Acts when I should have said, you know, 1 Corinthians or whatever, and people brought up to me, like, you said this verse and didn't you mean this verse? And I'm like, yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks for paying attention. But the point is, you have trust in me not because I'm so great or I'm whatever, it's just because I have the credibility that I have this history that I preach things from the Bible. That's my credibility. The Bible is my credibility, that I have a track record of just following what the Bible says, and you're sitting there and you're following along right with me, and that's the credibility. That's why the advice can be given and can be trusted. You can't just listen to whatever anyone tells you because it sounds pretty good or whatever. Some quote from Oprah or something, it's like, what in the world? Are you serious? Look at verse number 13. Look at verse number 13. It says, they sacrifice on the tops of mountains and burn incense upon the hills under oaks and poplars of elms because the shadow thereof is good. Therefore, your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery. Now we get an interesting little comment here. It says, I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery. For themselves are separated with whores and they sacrifice with harlots. Therefore, the people that doth not understand shall fall. You're like, that's kind of a confusing verse there. What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you what I think it means. I think it means two things. The first thing is this. Verse number 14, I will not punish your daughters and your spouses. Here's what I think it means. The first thing I think it means is this. They're not worthy of punishment. Why? It says he's not going to punish them. Why is he not going to punish them? Turn to Hebrews chapter 12 and I'll show you why he's not going to punish them. Talking about daughters, the next generation. Think about this for a second. These people are wicked. What have these people done? What have the parents done? What have the parents done? They've turned away from God. They're worshiping idols. They've turned their hearts away from the Lord. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 6. The Bible says this, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Meaning, he punishes those that he loveth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons. But God's not going to chasten these daughters. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? The answer is in verse number 8. And we don't quote this one that much. But it says if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then ye are bastards, not sons. The next generation is not even saved, is what the Bible is saying in Hosea chapter 4 and verse number 13. It's saying two things. I believe it's saying they're not even saved. They're not going to get chastised by me because they're not sons and daughters. They're an unsaved group of people. But the second thing that I believe that it is saying is that their sin alone will destroy them. It's saying, yeah, they're not saved. They're not adopted into my family. I'm not going to chastise them. They're bastards, but their sin alone will destroy them. Their whoredoms alone and their drunkenness alone will destroy them. Because, look, I don't care if you're saved or not saved. Those things will just destroy you. Those sins will just, I mean, they will end your life early. They will kill you physically, those things. All right? So that's the two things that I think that that verse is saying very clearly is that they're not saved. The next generation, look, there may be some people in that generation where Israel is, where Hosea is preaching against these people, but he's saying, I mean, look, I explain this to people at the door, by the way, because people that come to you and they say, oh, you're telling me that I can go and I can get saved and I can do whatever I want. It's just some free ticket. It makes no sense. If you think about it for more than four seconds, it makes no sense because, yes, it is true that I could get saved and I could go and just go into sin and just let God punish me my whole life. That would be a stupid decision for me to make, but how about this one? My kids will probably never get saved if that's what I do. I will have no credibility to lead my children to the truth if that's how I, I mean, that's the biggest punishment of the saved, of the believer not following God, is the next generation will not be chastised by him. Why? Because they're not even going to get saved. So, yes, your sins as a believer, your sins, and I'll tell people this, your sins will not send you to hell. You're sealed to send your kids to hell. And the irony is, is that people would much rather themselves go to hell than see their kids go there. So this idea that it's like some free ticket to just sin away once you get saved is ridiculous if you just put a little bit of thought to it. And we should explain that. If that's a hang up for people, we should explain what the Bible is saying here. All right, go back to Hosea chapter four. All that was introduction. Now we see a key shift here. This is really what I want to point out tonight. We see a key shift in Hosea chapter number four. Look at verse number 15. Remember, who is Hosea a prophet to? He's a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. But we see a shift here in verse 15. It says, that though thou Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend, and come ye not unto, come ye, come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go up to Beth haven nor swear the Lord liveth. I'll explain that one in a few minutes. For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer. Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone. Ephraim is like the biggest tribe of the 10 tribes. And many times, you'll just see Ephraim as kind of a reference to the northern kingdom of Israel in the Bible. So whenever it says, you know, Ephraim, it's just talking about, it's kind of generalizing the northern kingdom of Israel. So you can read that that way when you're looking at the minor prophets especially. But it's warning who here? We see a shift in the chapter because first he was preaching against Israel, but now he's warning who? He's warning Judah. He's warning Judah to what? Let him alone. Stay away from this backsliding heifer. Now we say, we call it backslidden or whatever, but just if you just want to look at it like this in the context of a cow or whatever, you're talking about an animal that won't go. It's like, you know what I'm talking about? Any way that's ever dealt with livestock? Like they just won't move. They're dug in and they're like, they're back like this and like, I've got scary stories from my childhood of animals doing that. And I mean when they don't want to go, they don't want to go. What's it talking about? It's like they're stubborn. It's they're stubborn. They won't get in the trailer. They won't go. And he's comparing them to that. He's saying this nation of Israel, they're stubborn. They're a stubborn nation. They won't get right. And what does he say? Let him alone. Let him alone. Is it saying going up, go up there? Let me show you something. Let me show you something. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. Let's look at the king of Judah at this time. Let's do a little history lesson. Let's look at who the king of Judah was at the same time as Jeroboam. All right. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter number 26. The Lord literally turns to Judah and he says, you know, this is the nation that has not completely fallen away. Look at 2 Chronicles 26 three for proof of this. It says 16 years old was Uzziah when he began to reign. And he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. That's a record. 52 years. David and Saul only reigned 40. His mother's name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And look at verse number four. It says that he did right in the sight of the Lord. Look, I know he messed up at the end of his life. He made a mistake, but he did right. He was a good king according to all that his father Amaziah did. Amaziah also did right in the eyes of the Lord for a long time. He got, look, he got lifted up with pride, you know, at the end of his life. And he burned incense at the altar and God struck him with leprosy. That's a famous story. But the point is he reigned 52 years and he did right in the sight of the Lord. All right. So Judah was right. And Israel is getting this kind of message from Hosea. Okay. The point I'm trying to make is Judah was not fallen away at this time of this advice. And God's advice to Judah is what? His advice to Judah is stay away. Stay away from them. Leave them alone. And look, we need to understand this with backslidden, stubborn people. Let them alone. You say, why? Because look, let God work it out. I'm going to prove it to you from the Bible tonight. All right. I want to show you the story of the Judah, the King of Judah during the Assyrian destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. So Hosea, turn to 2 Kings chapter number 18. Let's do a little Bible study tonight. Go to 2 Kings chapter number 18. And let's look at the time. Let's look at the nation of Judah while the Northern Kingdom of Israel was being destroyed. They did not get taken into captivity, folks. They're gone. They were taken away to Assyria. This is the 10 lost tribes of Israel. They were just gone. They were taken away. They were either killed or just, they just became this, they became the Samaritans basically is what this nation became. All right. Look at 2 Kings chapter 18. This is a story about Rabsheki or Rabsheki or however you want to pronounce it, but this Assyrian messenger that comes to Hezekiah. Hezekiah, the King of Judah, during the invasion of Israel. Look at 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse number 7. And the Lord was with him, talking about Hezekiah and he prospered whithersoever he went forth and he rebelled against the King of Assyria as he was taking over Israel and served him not. This is Hezekiah. He smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And it came to pass, verse number 9, in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and besieged it. He took over the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And at the end of three years, he took it. And in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Israel, Samaria was taken. This is the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel right here. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria and put them in Hala and Habor by the river of Gozan and the cities of the Medes, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, this is what we're reading about in Hoshea, but transgressed his covenant and all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded and would not hear them nor do them. Didn't listen to Hoshea either. Now on the 14th, now look at this in verse 13, in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, did Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them? He took some cities of Judah. And Hezekiah, go to 2 Kings 19 and verse 35 for the sake of time, so look, this guy almost took over Judah as well. He came in and he even took some border cities when he knocked out Israel and dragged them away. In 2 Kings 19, look at verse 35, but you know what Hezekiah did? Hezekiah trusted the Lord. Hezekiah trusted the Lord, he had no affinity with Israel, he just trusted the Lord. He literally took the letters. He literally took the letters that the Assyrian ambassadors gave to him. He just laid them on the altar of the Lord. He's like, what am I supposed to do about this? It's like, God, you handle this. Look at verse number 35. Look at verse number 35. Hezekiah just put complete trust in the Lord. And what happened? And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians and a hundred four score and five thousand, 185,000 people when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses. God went out and killed the entire army of the Assyrians. God just took care of it. So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh. The point is this. What if they would have been attached to backslidden Israel? It was close enough the way it was. It came and almost got them the way it was. What if they would have been attached as attached to backslidden Israel as Jehoshaphat was to Ahab? They would have been in a lot of trouble. As Jehoshaphat was to Ahab, and don't forget this, he destroyed generations of his family by doing that. They narrowly avoided destruction and the only way they avoided destruction was because the Lord just stepped in and just took care of it. So look folks, I know I just preached a sermon on discipleship on Sunday morning. Go out and go soul winning and disciple people and make connections with people out soul winning and get those people into church and encourage those people to be baptized and encourage those people to grow in their Christian life. But backslidden people? That's a different story. Go to Luke chapter number 12. Backslidden people that know better? That's a different story. That's a completely different story. But you know what people do? You know what people do? You know what Christian people do? You know what nice Christian people do? They feel sorry for people that are backslidden. They're like, oh poor backslidden person. But look, or maybe they're just, you know, and many times maybe they're not feeling sorry for, maybe they're just hanging out with backslidden people. But it's a problem. It's a problem because there's a missile coming. This is the problem. Do you think, I mean, do you think God is just making this stuff up in Hosea chapter 4? He's like, why would you tell him to stay away? He's telling him to stay away because there's a strike coming. And you know, even when God opened up the ground and, you know, the people that follow Korah fell on the ground. Were they the only people that fell on the ground? No. It was all the people that were over there kind of hanging over there too. Now what's gone on over here? They all went in too. That's why God is saying stay away. Look at Luke chapter 12 and verse number 47. And that servant which knew his Lord's will. See, there's a difference. There's a difference between a new Christian, somebody that's just getting into church, somebody that's just starting to learn the Bible. There's somebody, there's a difference. There's a distinct group of people here. Two different groups of people. It says that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. And God is saying here, and then we see the other, you know, group that's like, you're not going to be beaten with many stripes because they just didn't know. They didn't know. But once they knew and they just decided, hey, I'm going to just dig in my heels. I'm going to, I'm going to just be stubborn on this thing. That is the point where, look, you don't feel sorry for those people. Look, it's possible, you know, rebuke them, if anything. If anything, but other than that, other than that, just stay away because there's a beating coming. And if you're in the vicinity, you're going to get beat too. That's what God is explaining to Judah here. And certainly, certainly don't stand in the way of the beating. That is a serious mistake because when the punishment comes, and first of all, why would you want to stand in the way of the beating? Why would you want to stand? This is why in First Corinthians chapter number five, actually go ahead and just turn there. I mean, we're not even just talking about people that are just kicked out of church. Look at First Corinthians chapter five in verse number five. The whole point of putting the guy out of the church was so he would get right. The whole point of putting the guy out of the church for fornication was because they loved him, because they wanted him to get right. It says in verse number five, to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus talking about just let him go out and just take the consequences for a while. But don't get into the way of God's punishment with people. Oh, they're going through a hard time. And you know, they just need some. Well, if God's punishing them, they need to go through a hard time. If they're not doing the right thing, and God is bringing the blows down on them, he's trying to get them right. And then you come in there and you try to you try to fix it. You try to take away the chastisement of God. Look, you're going to get hit too. That's what God is telling Judah here. But is a great case for separation for us. So there is a distinction between baby Christians and new people that were discipling and just like hanging out and just trying to cover up the chastisement of God for people that have just burned up against him. People that clearly know what they should be doing and they're not doing it. They're just like, not going to do it. It's just kind of like, I mean, ultimately, it's not really our place to be Job's friends anyway. I mean, I wouldn't be like upset if like somebody, you know, rebuked a backsliding friend. You know, I'm not going to get all over you for that. I think that's probably a good thing to do maybe once. But other than that, take a few steps back would be my advice. Because if they're a son, if they're a son, you know, there's an airstrike coming. Look at it that way. And you don't want to be anywhere near the vicinity of that. The point is to bring them back. This is why God chastises his children because he loves them. And look, he's good at chastisement. If you've been chastised, you know this. I think we've all been chastised. And we know that God is good at it. And the point is that he loves us and he wants to get us right. So let him do it. That's the whole point. All right, let God chastise his people. Let's bow our heads and have a word.