Wednesday Night Bible Study

praise the lord everyone let's do it again praise the lord everyone all right well it's good to see each one of you in this service tonight that praise the lord kind of reminded me something happened many many many decades ago brother bob and i was in revival in madisonville kentucky and the pastor asked brother bob to bless the food and uh bob said lord bless his food amen the pastor's wife looked said young man you do that again he said lord bless this food amen so i don't know i don't know if our praise the lord was any better the second time or not but anyway i believe you do believe in praising the lord and what a great joy it is to be in the house of the lord tonight and to see each one of you in the bible class i love to see people in in bible class who who who are sincerely interested in in studying the the word of god paul said to study to show yourself approved and that's something that we need to do is to study and um we we apostolic with pentecostals we have and not criticizing it all but we've come to that we kind of like that loud foot stomping yelling as abraham lincoln said he liked for his preacher to preach like he was fighting a swarm of bees and we kind of like that something to to motivate us and and i guess emotion stirs emotion um and there's nothing wrong with that but we need to sometimes settle down and just look at that word and see what that word means father we thank you tonight for the privilege of opening the blessed word i pray god that you will anoint the lips of clay with the spirit of god give that's what you would have spoken in this service tonight in jesus name we pray amen our lesson is entitled faithful to forgive faithful to forgive brother carol magruder wrote a song and recorded years ago said there was a woman who was brought to jesus she was taken in her sin cast down at his feet that day she was guilty and condemned the law said she must pay the price for mistakes that she had made but her shame became rejoicing when she heard the savior say i forgive you i forgive you you are free to go your way and sin no more neither do i condemn thee for the life that you have lived the sweetest words ever spoken i forgive not beautiful i forgive i forgive you focus thought god is faithful to forgive and restore those who turn to him i didn't really i didn't realize uh sunday morning when i took the re i didn't take the offering and gave you the opportunity to give in the offering but the lord just put a scripture in my mind about hosea paying the price for his wayward wife and i was talking about how benevolent and how kind and forgiving and and the bible does say that love covers a multitude of sin we don't don't believe in hiding sin but the 13th chapter of first corinthians tells you what love will do and the apostle paul and his younger ministry i consider him brother brother dean wilson gave me a book on the life of the apostle paul and i he's one of my favorite bible characters and thank you brother wilson um but in his young days he was filled with vigor and vitality and and uh but you remember when um when john mark decided he didn't want to go and went back home then the next missionary trip uh paul got into it with the uh part of us and said that no we we we're not going to take him because he left us and later on when paul was in jail he he was requesting to see john mark where he's profitable to me for the ministry and i guess my point in this is and what i'm trying to get us to understand uh age and experience will teach you a lot of things age and experience will teach you a lot and god is faithful to forgive and restore those who turn to him and when we realize how badly we need restoration how badly we need forgiveness as an individual it makes me a little more prone to forgive others god is faithful to forgive and to restore those who turn to him and that is not quoting scripture per se but it should be something that comforts every one of our hearts because we either need that forgiveness ourself or we have a loved one son daughter husband and wife cousin if somebody that we love dearly that we would love to see them forgiven and and this story of hosea i told you this i believe it was sunday morning it's to me probably the most unique and confusing book in the bible god used so many ways to teach people the reality he he told uh told ezekiel to go lay on his right side 390 days and then said after that said turn on your left side and turn around and lay 390 days because that's the number of days that god's got marked down that his people have sinned and transgressed i i i can't explain that because i i have a hard time laying on my left side more than 20 minutes so i of course maybe ezekiel wasn't 84 years old either but whatever i have to have to keep flip-flopping and turning but god made him able to but my point is and what uh i believe isaiah and another one god told them to go to go naked to illustrate a point so my point is god uses some of the most unusual things to drive home something to make us remember it and and i'll always remember why i hate birds pastor did such a great job teaching that he he took a little incident and showed just so happened they have security cameras and caught that picture of of of sister jamie and and easton slipping up on that wreath on the wall and there's a little brown bird in there it built an s and had laid eggs and and when that little bird zipped out of there and scared the daylights i don't know which one scared most uh eastern sister jamie mccool but anyway uh he preached a fantastic message about that you have to listen to it so as we look at this god told this man to go take a wife of whoredoms the the most unusual thing that could possibly be requested and be told a man of god this is what god told hosea to do and as i was studying this lesson of course i i do research everything i can find that that time gives me permission i i like to study it and get other views and somehow another i don't know how this got i really don't know how i got it but it was on my in my uh material that i saved for sermon and and thoughts and study but it was written by my twin brother bob mccool west memphis arkansas and let me read it too because i i thought it's rather unique the way he the way he describes this story that we're going to be talking about tonight and here's what he says and oddly enough he uses the same statement that i use he says this is one of the most unique and intriguing stories in the entire bible every time i read the story i'm amazed at the grace and mercy god extends to you and me hosea is a prophet whom god chose to use to teach the lesson to the children of israel that they would never forget this is an old story of trouble in the parsonage now this is brother bob's article and and i'm honest i don't i don't ever remember him hearing him preach that don't don't know how it got in my material but somehow it did this stores is the is troubling the parsonage listen to the shocking command to god from god to hosea hosea 1 and 2 the beginning of the word of the lord by hosea and the lord said to hosea go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms the children of whoredoms from the land have committed great hormones departing from the lord hosea cannot search for a wife among the nice now these are his comments now hosea cannot search for a wife among the nice respectable families he didn't find her at a pentecostal youth camp or at a singles conference the lesson that must be taught to israel is how god sees them in their backslid condition it would be bad enough for god if god said hosea go get drunk for this is the way i see israel in their backside condition or go steal something from the corner store for this is the way i see israel in their backslidden condition but he sends the preacher to stand on the street corner and to purpose and to propose to a woman dressed in a tight short skirt whose face is covered with gloves of paint and she's wearing gutty earrings and winking her eye at potential customers walking down this sinful street there's no mistaking what she is gomer is her name she's the daughter of dublin d-i-b-l-a-i-m her father the name dybala means two fig cakes signifying to me that her father was a sweet old fellow who tried hard to feed his family and raised him right he's been successful with all the family with the exception of gomer as a child she's beautiful smooth olive skin jet black hair and a smile that would win any anybody's heart as she grew so her popularity as she grew so did her her popularity she seemed too mature faster in the than the other girls in fact as a preteen she looked like a teenager as a teenager she looked like a mature woman there's a rebellious spirit about this child that the father cannot explain i can imagine the first time she stays out past her curfew mr dabalam is walking the floor words sick about her the door opens at 2 a.m and there she stands her lipstick smeared her clothes wrinkled her hair must be uh and smell like liquor on her breath her father with tears in his eyes grounds her and forbids her to go to any other wild parties but gomer rebelliously climbs out the window in the middle of the night and goes back to her good time friends i don't know where he got all of that but it's a good imagination i would say that mr dublin tries buying her things to bribe her into being the decent god-fearing child he had hoped for but to no fail her behavior grew progressively worse until some nights she wouldn't come home at all after a period of time it is not a rumor anymore but an undeniable fact at what she has become you're beginning to see israel as god sees her in a backslidden condition the rough life she's living the late hours she's keeping is taking its toll on her here hosea the preacher is trying to convince her that there is a better life for her to live a life of respect a life of hope no more late hours no more degrading insults no more physical abuse if she will only marry jose she finally says yes to the marriage and her and he proposes to her hosea marries gomer this lady of the night what will be the reaction of the church family when she marches in with her on sunday morning a church split is inevitable jose's action is bound to invoke the wrath of his peers and what about the townsfolk this will surely be the talk of the town god is showing israel that their sin has upset heaven and earth my friends your sin does not only affect you but every one of you in contact you come in contact with but most of all it hurts the heart of god jose is now going to try to make the best of a bad situation he sits gomer down and tries to tell her how she should dress and act so as not to bring more embarrassment upon the church gomer tries but her very walk that she has perfected to entice her sensual partners still exposes an ungenerated heart the church family tries hard to understand and be kind and patient with her for a while she seems to make progress but an unregenerated heart will not stand the test of time she begins to talk of the past and once and one can readily see a longing in her eyes for the world she's now leaving the parsonage staying out late with no explanation of her whereabouts jose tries to figure out what to do to make home more enjoyable and then one morning she wakes up very sick at her stomach jose realizes she's going to that he's going to be a father maybe having a child will hold the family together this first baby was born and they called her name lou rehoma not having obtained mercy is the meaning of lou rehema the mercy hosea was hoping for did not come from the birth of a little girl gomer tried to take care of the baby for a while but soon she lost interest and the father was left night after night to tuck the baby in bed and after a few months gomer became pregnant again and by this time hosea was sure the child was not even his and he named the little boy lo and mama l-o-a-m-m-i meaning no kind of mind once she was pure as the snow but fell like the snow but from heaven to hell fell trampled as the filth of the street failed to be cursed at spit on and beat my god can it be that she's fallen so low when she was once like the beautiful snow oh backsliding israel how disappointed god is in your actions oh backslider how you have hurt the heart of god finally gomer leaves for good leaves her two children to be cared for by our preacher husband for months he did not see her nor hear from her one day one of the members of one of the members told him of a slave auction down at the court square and someone had seen gomer with chains on her hands and feet standing waiting in line to be sold hosea quickly got someone to stay with his children he went by the bank drew out all the savings and rushed to the town square there he stood bruised hair matted hot tears running down her cheeks the binding the bidding starts hands up hands go up but jose tops every bid why love is why for seven dollars and fifty cents and seven and a half pints of barley he buys her back but not as a slave oh no a thousand times known but as his wife god said gomer is your is you israel gomer is you west memphis gomer is your center gomer is your backslider god said i bought you back but not as a slave but i am your man i thought that was a pretty good way of putting things in everyday language that brother bob i don't i have no idea when that was preached or whatever's when it was written but it tells the story so vividly of what god was trying to teach israel by picking the man of god and having the man of god go marry a prostitute and the reason for that was uh adultery is uh idolatry is not liken unto adultery in the bible and god was wanting to show the man of god that was going to be the preacher what it was like to be married to a lover that was untrue and miserably unfaithful um one preacher i know of was uh well he said this i'm sure it had to be in jest but he said i hate saints well he he meant by that he he hated the difficulties of being a pastor and it's like you've heard me say uh the the fellow that opens the garage he's going to have all kind of cars that's going to come in there's going to be rattle traps if if you go to a hospital you're going to see a lot of sick folks and when we hang out a sign says church i preached one time a message about the church as a troubled machine we're asking for trouble and then for us to whine and whimper because we've got folks that don't live right and there's hypocrites in the church and and oftentimes we try to defend that well no need to defend it except it's the truth if they were not in the church they wouldn't be hypocrites they'd just be sinners but the fact of the matter is that's what the house of god is for it's for folks who who need help it's for folks who have gone astray now if one one of the children in our school said to me said uh when i grow up i i want to be a preacher i said is that right yes he said i said why do you want to be a preacher he said because so i won't have to study anymore well what a what a surprise he was if he grew up to be a preacher not to have to study and if you're a preacher if you're an elder if you're a worker in the church and you better accept the fact that that you're going to be around troubled people hurting people backslidden people backsliding people and you've got to find a heart of forgiveness and one one person said god cast my sins in the depths of the sea and put up a no fishing sign and i thought that was pretty good when god takes all of my mistakes and my sins and and my misbehavior and throws them in the depths of the sea he puts up an old fishing sign if god don't remember nobody else you first of all you don't have evidence of any sin i've ever committed because once i repent he puts him in the sea of forgiveness and and i know the bible don't i've heard a little controversy about the bible don't say the sea of forgiveness it may not but it says he will cast your sins in the depths of the sea and to remember them against you no more so this is not a license to sin but it is uh it is a a contract to you and me that if we will just bring it to the lord and ask him to forgive us he will forgive us and and i i guess the reason god wanted ezekiel to lay on one side to know how uncomfortable it was to to lay on one side so long and he wanted him to know how god felt laying on one side while people were doing wrong now all these things happen for for someone to understand how much god loves us and what he would do what he could now remember at the tomb of lazarus the bible said jesus wept now if jesus wept they said they said oh how he loved him jesus wept jesus got hungry jesus got tired he once told his disciples says cut me apart and rest a while for they had no much leisure so much as time to eat so he was as much man as if he wasn't god and he was as much god as if he was a man so what i'm what i'm teaching tonight in the book of hosea this most drastic circumstance and situation was for a reason for hosa if i'm going to be a preacher if i'm going to be a pastor i better learn how to suffer you've heard me tell i guess every little every little uh heartache story we've had you've heard us tell about living in a house trailer with no septic tank and and we finally got uh ashamed going up to sister mckinney's and brother mckinney's to use the restroom and we'd get in the car and drive out oak ridge highway and back then they had service stations sure enough service stations and they sold gasoline you could get a road map there for free and they had restrooms you could use and it wasn't like a 7-11 a grocery store but anyway sis michael and i would drive towards oak ridge and try to find us a different service station every day but those those are the little things that uh we to look back we didn't know we was having it rough we thought we were home missionaries we thought we thought that's what home missionaries are supposed to do and let me tell you something if you're going to do something for god you better expect difficulties to come your way and you better start out to win the race and not ready to quit at the first little bump in the road now then hosea 14-4 now we told you that much now we've gone all the way over to the 14th chapter now and god said i will heal their backsliding it sounds like a reoccurring disease doesn't it it sounds like a reoccurring disease i'll heal your backsliding i i don't i don't believe in backsliding and i never have been a professed backslider but i i can't say i god may have seen me through the eyes as a backslider i'm the story goes of a young doctor used to make house calls and he went to this house and went in uh fella had breaking out on him and very very sick and and he didn't know what it was and he went back to his car and got his doctor's book out and looked and read read and dressed for as long as he could he couldn't find anything i went back in and asked that fellow said have you ever had this before he said yes i have he said well you've got it again so i i guess we you might as well accept the fact that whatever causes a person the backside if you're not careful it'll cause you to backslide again if you don't learn your lesson and stay away from that thing that's causing you the problem somebody say amen give the lord a hand clap so it sounds like a reoccurring condition i will heal their maxillary i will love them freely for my anger is turned away from him oh this is the there's a great sermon right there i'll heal the backsliding and i will love them freely not begrudgingly i will when i see them coming down the road back home i'm going to run as fast as i can and fall on the neck and kiss them and let them know how glad i am to have him back home and that's what the church is for that's what we're here for and not to cover sin not to compromise with sin but if if god will do all of that what will i what am i willing to do to paul said of all things to all people that i may win some you hear me and that's saying a whole lot he one time he said i would be willing to be lost that israel would be saved and boy that's really i that's another one of those i have a hard time understanding and explaining but i'm going to tell you something the love for the church should be betrayed be betrayed portrayed in our actions toward the loss the the backslider the wayward one until we get them back you remember the bible study i taught for several weeks don't remove him and prove him we can always cut the tree down but just because it's not producing right now don't mean that it'll never produce the keeper of of the of the the the garden said oh don't don't make me cut it down now let me dig around it and fertilize it another year so we can always cut it down but give me one more chance added oh god i have first apostolic church lord i have that attitude lord give us one more chance to fertilize to feed to nurture and that can always be cut down you can always run folks off but that's not what we're in the business for oh israel return of the lord for those fallen that oh it's return unto the lord thy god for thou has fallen by thine iniquity take with you now boy this next verse i i i really love it and and i notice this pretty closely take with you words and turn to the lord say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips now when you go to god you you're a backslider you're done wrong david said if god wanted to sacrifice i would give it if he wanted an offering i would give it david was used to giving offerings and he said if god if that's what god's wanting but said what god wants is a broken and a contrite spirit oh hallelujah pastor asked me a while back if i'd let him play the sermon i preached in in louisiana about i'll we would do that some of these days pastor if any broke break it and my point was and i better wait to let you hear it but anyway the thing god wants he don't want you to come leading a a a a a bull or a goat an animal he don't want you bringing in some kind of uh i'm saying now that here i've got a i'm going to give a thousand dollars no you can't buy forgiveness you can't pay enough money what god wants he said bring with you words bring with you words what are the words you need you need to say forgive me of my sins take with you words and turn to the lord and say to him take away all the inequity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our now they they accepted calves bulls heifers and goats turtle doves and what have you and the old testament had many different uh values in different animals and birds and so forth but now then he said don't bring me any calves or bulls or goats bring me the calves of your lips do you know what's going on when these young folks get around here and they start and first thing they start doing and then the next thing you know folks start getting out of their seat you know what they're doing they're bringing the calves of their lips they're not trying to buy with money but with a song and a dance we will praise him in the dance i'll praise him with the music praise him with the sound of the of the harp praise him praise me everything they have breath praise the lord and that's what we're doing gloria i wish somebody here felt a little bit of what i'm feeling right now to understand where i'm coming from and what the word of god is telling us i i can't i can't buy it i can't sell i can't give it up but i can praise the lord i can lift up my voice i got i got a i got a email today and and i didn't realize that my phone it's hooked up to my car radio now since i got that and whatever if i'm talking on the phone it comes through my speakers on the on the car radio sounds so much better loud clearing and i got in the car and i started to church and the most beautiful music started playing and there was a voice in the background that was saying heavens sounding sweeter all the time seems like lately all i'm thinking about all the it was sister brenda perry had recorded that and sent it to me in a text form and i wasn't meaning it to do that but it was coming over my radio and i listened to it all the way to church now when i set home last sunday night and and and i listen to this music in this choir and i listen to the preaching i can see what god was saying to hosea about bringing the calves of your lips when i hear the choir singing when i hear the praise singer singing when i hear the music appear when i hear what they're doing i i can see heaven rejoicing because some folks are worshiping him let everything that has breath praise the lord praise him in the dance praise him with the loud song let's give the lord praise the calves of our lips forgiveness now here's what came to my mind when i read this romans 10 came to my mind romans 10 starting verse 8 but what saith then the word is not thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach now uh some people say uh i may not say when the bible says let the redeemed of the lord what let the redeemed of the lord say so but once saith it the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and shall believe in thine heart that god hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved now i know that scripture is misused many times because they stop reading right that right there but don't stop reading right there the next two verses for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confessions made unto salvation for the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed there is no difference between the jew and the greek for the same lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call on the name of the lord storm was raging the ship was about to go down the disciples for one time were alone without jesus he wasn't on the boat he wasn't with them in the storm but in the midst of that storm they saw jesus walking on the water and you know what the bible said the bible said he would have passed them by but they cried out did you know the lord allows us to get into some predicaments in such a condition that we might he wants us to cry out to him he wants us to say something let there be no lord say so whosoever shall call on the name of the lord shall be saved how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher it's easy to say whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord first of all you can't call on if you don't know his name the first thing paul said when he was knocked down in the middle of the road on his way to damascus he said lord who art thou he knew and the lord but he said lord who art thou the lord said i am jesus whom thou persecuted saul saw while persecutors thou me now if i'm going to call on the name of the lord come on stay with me now and this is this is one of the main scriptures and some of the denominations and it's a good one but if i'm going to call on the name of the lord i've got to know what the name of the lord is and that says how shall they call him and whom they've not believed how shall they believe on him and whom they've not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach accepted be sin how then shall they call on him whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him whom without heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things the old muddy boots of the firemen by your house is on fire he comes stomping him with those muddy boots squirting water all over the house wrecking the place it's a beautiful sight because he's there to save your life when he said how beautiful the fear it don't mean that the preacher's feet are literally pretty but it means that man that comes running to you in your time of of lost despair he's and that's a beautiful sight when the man comes to preach you the word of god back to our lesson and hosea 14. i sure uh we're actually we're talking about assyria shall not save us we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands ye are our gods for in the fatherless findeth mercy i will heal their backsliding now i'm not going to trust in syria they were mighty and powerful and their military might but there's a higher power than syria there's a higher power than russia there's a higher power than china there's a higher power than the united states the power wall is the god of gods the lord of lords and he said ah who can say this but him i will heal their backsliding i will love them freely for mine angers turned away from him i will be as the new upon israel he shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roost as lebanon his branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and it smells leavened they that dwell under the shadow shall return they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine the scent thereof shall be as the wine of leaven abram shall say what have i to do anymore with idols i've heard him and observed him i am like a green fir tree from me is thy fruit found who is wise he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know him for the way of the lord is right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressor shall fall therein would you stand to your feet with me please hallelujah glory i think i preached from this text once is the ishai or bellai hosea therefore behold i will lower her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her i'll give her her vineyards from fence and the valley of anchor for a door of hope she shall sing there is in the day of her you she shall sing as in the day of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of egypt and it shall be at that day saith the lord that thou shalt call me isha and shall call me no more baali now that baali had to do with the word baal and it was a term meaning lord you're a lor a hard taskmaster lord some of the husbands in those days they were tyrants they were heard taskmasters and and they were called baily now the term ishai drops that term of being my lord and it means my husband or my man literally my man not my lord not my master not my ruler when you turn to jesus away from sin he said i'm gonna call you something more don't don't call me a servant i'm your friend i'm not gonna be yours don't don't call me something but a friend i'm gonna be closer to you than any relationship you've ever had and it's a loving relationship don't call me a lie because hey you're my taskmaster you've whipped me in the line no you're my husband you're my man you heard me tell the story when sister mccool i started to leave the house and i always give her a hug and a cast she said did you put on any cologne tonight evidently i didn't or she wouldn't ask that so i mean to tell you i i i went back found my obsession that that's what that name obsession and i came back out i'd splashed that on i gave her another hug and a kiss she said now that smells like my man if you can get the mundane meaning what i'm trying to say no matter how bad you've been no matter what a stinking personality stinking person you are when you're turning over the lord you can say of him he he's my man because he became a man father we thank you for the blessed word of god may we understand the greatness of the relationship we have with you and all that you went through to become our redeemer and savior and all you ask for is the calves of our lips you want to hear us sing praises you want to see us raise our hands you want to hear our hands clapping you want to see us rejoicing just as we love our little children when they come running clapping their hands to put their arms around their neck nothing is so valuable and lord we're your children and you're wanting us to bring you the calves of our lips let the message take root in our heart and do for us what you would have done bring us back at our next appointed time in jesus name we pray you're dismissed in the name of the lord follow whatever protocol you are comfortable with