This episode brings an intriguing discussion on the Book of Hosea, exploring Israel’s prophecies and their relevance in our modern world. Delve into the lives of individuals transformed by faith and understand how these ancient scriptures apply to our lives today. With heartwarming testimonies and prophetic insights, we invite you to learn and grow in faith as we anticipate the Lord’s return.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
The story is told about a wonderful problem a Christian home for children with special needs was having. A chapel speaker told the children about how one day soon Jesus was coming in the clouds and he would gather up his children to meet him in the air. Ever since then, said the schoolmaster, we’ve had a terrible time keeping the windows clean. The children are glued to the glass, watching the sky. Well, welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I’m your host, Steve Schwetz. And, you know, I love that story. We can learn a lot from those kids. So full of faith and ready for the Lord to call us to be with him in the clouds. Well, in this study, we’re also fixing our hope on the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ. We’re about halfway through the Old Testament book of Hosea in chapter 3. Beginning in verse 4, you know, the last words that Jesus gave us just as he was ascending into heaven were words of instruction about what we should be doing while we wait for his return. Acts 1 8 records them. He says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me. And you know, we’re doing that now as we take the whole Word of God out to the whole world, and you’re helping us. Followers of Jesus are being built up in their faith, and those who don’t yet know Him as their Savior, well, they hear of the hope and assurance of everlasting life with God. So before we jump into our study, I want you to hear from a few of those whose lives are being changed by the whole Word of God here on Through the Bible. First, we got a note from Jim in Illinois. I’ve really enjoyed going through the Bible for several years, Jim says. And then he goes on. I’m recently divorced, living in Illinois, and unable to attend church due to the fact that I gave up my only vehicle to my ex-wife, and there is no public transportation to my house on Sundays. I would like to eventually be a chaplain somewhere. I know I am called to some sort of ministry. I’m 63 years old, but still planning my future with God. I’ll keep riding the Bible bus as long as I have ears to hear.” Well, it’s great to have you with us, Jim, and I’ll be sure to save your seat on the Bible bus. Now, here’s a note. This one’s from Stephanie. She’s in Maryland. I came to Christ in November 2014 while listening to Dr. McGee in my car on my way to work. I was so lost and searching for the truth, but through you, God showed me the truth. God changed my life and, as a result, changed my two daughters’ lives as I raised them in Christ. My husband told me that he could not take me being a Christian any longer because He said I was very different, didn’t drink, and didn’t even listen to the same music since I’d started listening to Christian music. Over time, he became very abusive and was cheating on me with multiple women. Sadly, I received a protective order against him and a divorce. But not to feel sad for me, but praise God because he held my hand the whole 18-month process. Without Jesus, I would have been just as wicked throughout the process as my husband was. Instead, I await the return of Jesus. Thank you for sharing your story and your journey, Stephanie. We’re glad to have you as part of our Through the Bible family. Now, our final note comes from a listener in Kenya who joins us on the Bible bus in his language of Swahili. He says, My family and I heard your programs and chose to follow Jesus Christ. I’m an old man now and cannot read, but listening, I am growing in faith and teaching my family. We fellowship in the house after dinner and pray together. You are in our thoughts and hearts. Isn’t that great? If you want to learn more about how you can pray for listeners like these worldwide, visit ttb.org forward slash pray. And to share the story of what God’s doing in your life, contact us in our app, also by email at BibleBus at ttb.org or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. in Canada Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1, or call and leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE. We really do love hearing from you, and we’re not the only ones. When we share a story of how God is moving in the lives of His children and those seeking Him, everyone listening is blessed. So please consider reaching out. Let’s pray together now and get to our study. Heavenly Father, we’re grateful for your grace and how you extend your blessing across the earth, drawing people from every tribe and every nation to yourself. Please deepen our understanding of your word as we listen. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Open to Hosea 3 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, friends, we’re back in this third chapter of Hosea. Now, this is a very brief chapter, has only five verses here, yet this is actually one of the great prophetic passages in the Word of God. And you will find that you have here the past dealings of God with Israel, His present dealings with Israel, and His future dealings. Many of you were with us when we went through Romans. You will recall that I consider chapter 9, 10, and 11, being the dispensational section, deals with the nation Israel. And you have in the ninth chapter the past of Israel, and in the tent, the present of Israel, and in chapter 11, the future for the nation Israel. Now, these two verses right here, you’ve got this all compacted into one, and they say what? Precious things come in little packages? Well, may I say that powerful things do too. Take the atom bomb and take these two verses here. They’re tremendous verses. Now, I got to the fourth verse and got into it, and I want to deal with this now. manner in which I did last time because I didn’t have time to even finish it. He says, for the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king. Now, we mentioned the fact here of this problem of many days, and we were going to talk about it today. If you’ll notice, it doesn’t give the number of days. And this is unusual because the children of Israel were told that they were to be put out of that land three times, and they would be returned three times. And each time God put them out of that land, he told them how long they would be out except the last time. Now, he said, first Abraham, I’m going to put your children out of the land. I’m going to give you this land. It’s yours. But I’ll put you out of the land for 430 years down in the land of Egypt. Then you’re going to come back. They did. That was fulfilled, literally. Jeremiah said to them, because of your sin, you’re going to be sent into captivity to Babylon. You’ll be down there 70 years. Now, Hosea is speaking to the northern kingdom because they actually never return. And there’s many days. They’ll abide many days. Well, how long is many days? Well, right now we have some that are saying that the Lord’s going to come by 2000 A.D., And I don’t know where they get that. I always feel like these fellows must have a private line in the heaven that I don’t have. And I guess maybe I’m a little jealous because I’d like to have that private line also, or at least know what the number is. But they got the number. Some say now 2,000. And there are others saying, I know one, I have a tape of a message he gave. And he says that This generation living today is the one that’s going to see the coming of Christ. I’d like to know where you get that. May I say to you, that sounds good today to a lot of untaught Christians and those that are sensational mongers today. And we have those. We have a lot of prophecy mongers about today. But the children of Israel shall abide many days. How many days? And why didn’t the Lord give the number here? Because in this interval, while they’re out of the land, and they went out in 70 AD. And they actually have never returned to the land according to the word of God. Now, hear me very carefully, because this is very important to see. They have returned to the land today, and it’s remarkable what has happened over there. But it’s not the fulfillment of prophecy, because the prophecy says when they return, they’ll return to God. And it’s the belief now of several outstanding prophetic students, that is two men I know, that believe they may be put out of that land again before you have really the fulfillment of prophecy of their return to the land as a nation. And when they return, they’ll return to God. Now, will you notice here, they have no king. The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king. We mentioned that last time, without a prince. We mentioned that. And without a sacrifice. And that’s where I left off. And that’s where, really, I want to put in today. Now, a great many people are saying to me, they said, well, Dr. McGee, you have quoted the scripture in Luke 21. that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. We must be at the end because now Israel has Jerusalem. Now, guess where I want you to hear me very carefully. So easy today to jump to conclusions, you see. Now, I want to say, first of all, I believe we’re living in the last days. And somebody says, well, you mean then the Lord will be coming soon? I don’t know how soon, because we’ve been in the last days for 1900 years. And the Lord Jesus said, behold, I come quickly. And that is 1900 years ago. So I’m not prepared to say it’ll be tomorrow or next week or next year or in this century. I just don’t happen to know. But I do believe we see the setting of a stage today. when action will begin when the church is removed from this earth. Now, the reason the date’s not given here is that the church is dateless, nameless, timeless. You see, we’re a heavenly people, have no name, but some of you folk thought it was Baptist, and some others of you thought the name of the church was Presbyterian, and even some of you thought it was Methodist, and some of you thought it was independent. But I have news for you. Church has no name. Never was given a name. Ecclesia just means a called out body. And he’s calling out a body that’s going to be his bride. I could make a suggestion to you. The church in the parable of the pearl of great price, the church is, I think, the pearl that this merchant man, Jesus, came and he bought it. And he paid a big price for the church. And I’m not going to go into that today other than to say this, that the word for pearl is margaritas. And if the church has any name at all, it’s Margaret. That may astound you. I bet you never heard of a church that was named Margaret, the Margaret Church. Somebody says, what church you go to? I told a fellow one time, I said, I go to the Margaret Church. He thought I was kidding him. I really was serious about it. I think that’s the name of it. And it was down here, Daedalus. If you had met Simon Peter an hour before the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, Why? And you’d said, do you know what’s going to happen here in a little while? He’d said, no, what’s going to happen? He didn’t know. Church came in existence, dateless. The birth was announced, but not the date of it. And the time of the rapture, you are not given any date concerning it. And because of that, the children of Israel are going to abide many days without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice. Now, let’s come back to this. Do they have Jerusalem today? Well, may I say this to you? All of the holy places in Jerusalem, old Jerusalem, are in the hands of either the Muslims, either the Russian Catholic, the Greek Catholic, the Armenian Church, or the Roman Catholic. And they’ve all built cathedrals or churches over all these spots. And Israel doesn’t have them. Israel doesn’t dare touch those sacred spots. I said to a guy that I got acquainted with, and he’s become a Jewish friend of mine. I said to him, why don’t you go up there? You’ve got Jerusalem now. And tear down that mosque of Omar and put up a temple. He says, what do you want us to do? To start World War III? It’ll sure start it, friends. Be no question about that. May I say to you, they don’t have the temple area. They don’t have a sacrifice today. The only place they’ve gotten to is the weeping wall. They’re still at the weeping wall, friends. That’s where they are today. And they do not have a sacrifice except the one that we have today. And that’s when Jesus died. 1900 years ago outside the city. But he has been raised from the dead and he’s at God’s right hand. They do not have a sacrifice and without an image. Now, the idea here of an image is the fact that God didn’t give them, very frankly, God never gave them any images, if you’ll notice, no likeness at all. But he did give them many things, for instance, without an ephod or without teraphim. And teraphim are these little things that they carried around, little objects. And actually, they were little idols that they were carrying around, and they began to worship those things. Now, God says they’re going to get away from idolatry. They won’t have an image. And there’s one thing you can say about Israel over there. They’re not in idolatry. They’ve not turned to God, but they certainly have turned away from idolatry. Now he says here, afterward. Now, afterward doesn’t mean 2000 A.D., I don’t know when it is. “‘Afterward shall the children of Israel return.'” Now, they are going to return. And when they return, this is the way they’ll return to the land. “‘And seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.'” Now, the latter days are yet in the future, because I think the latter days here refers to the nation Israel. And it refers, beginning with the great tribulation, goes through the second coming of Christ into the millennium. So that they have returned, but they have not turned to the Lord. Now, I’m going to say something to you that’s very startling. Because my last trip over there, I learned more than any trip I ever took before. And this is one of the things that we can not only show you, but we can demonstrate it. Over there, there’s no turning to God at all. Well, when they celebrated, for instance, some time ago, their anniversary, they had a big motto. I have a picture of it. It says that science will bring peace to this land. Well, I thought the Messiah was going to, but they’re not turning to the Messiah. It’s to science. Now they’ve added something to that, and that is prosperity. That is economics. And while we were over there, while they were having a great economic conference, one of the Rockefellers was there. One of the Fords was there. And a hundred outstanding men put up a million dollars each to invest in that land. And they said they just wanted a hundred. They could have had 500. And they’re building over there like mad. You’ve never seen anything like it. Now, may I say this to you? Economics today is that. And there are two missionaries that I know over there that I consider very reputable. And these two missionaries have made this very clear. One of them, and he was asked the specific question, how many really Christians are there in this land today? Now, this man is an intelligent man. He speaks several languages. He’s been a professor over there. And he’s become a Christian and he’s doing missionary work. And he made this statement. There are less than 300 Israelites that are real believers in Israel today. Now, that I know is going to cause a great deal of discussion and disagreement. For the very simple reason that there are some that are giving out propaganda today that hundreds are turning to Christ in that land. That just does not happen to be true. Now, there are actually more Arab Christians in Israel than there are Jewish Christians. That may also amaze you. And there are fine works among Arabs that are being carried on over there today. But missionary work in Israel is really a tough job. And there are very few missionaries over there to tell the truth. So that they have not returned to God today. And this prophecy… Right here, this verse 5 is an evidence of the fact that this present return to the land is not the fulfillment of the Word of God. Now, I know this is different than what you’re hearing today. Have you ever heard any of these folk take the prophecy of Hosea or any of the prophets? And we take the whole book, friends, so we have to face up to it. They don’t. They can always edge around these verses like this. And you can pull out a few verses that say, well, we’ve got this ridiculous thing going. And I mentioned it too. We heard some time ago that they were shipping Indiana stone over to Israel to build a temple. to that land, you know one thing that they don’t need is stone. Jerusalem is on a rocky place, and every hill around it, including the Mount of Olives, are just loaded with rocks. Now, if Indiana wants to buy some stone, I can tell them where they can get it. Israel would be glad to export stone. Now, there’s another prophecy that they talk about. They say, now, oranges are growing in that land, and that means that these are the strange slips that Isaiah said would grow in that land. Well, may I say to you, the orange tree in that land is not a strange slip. Actually, in the Song of Solomon, where it speaks of apples, the apple tree, it’s the orange tree. Oranges grow in that land, and it’s the belief now of some that oranges were taken from there to Spain and from Spain to Florida and to California. And today, that’s the land that grows oranges and they’re not a strange slip, my beloved. How ridiculous these things are becoming today. Friends, let’s stay close to the Word of God. And if we do, we will not become one of these prophetic fanatics that are abroad in the land today. Now, I’ve spent a long time on this passage of Scripture. Five verses, and somebody says, my, but do you see how important it is? These last two verses are very important. Now we’re not going to be talking anymore, or not very much at least, about Hosea’s private personal life. We’re moving now into the beginning here with verse 4 of chapter 3. We move into the prophetic section. And when we get here to chapter 4, where we’re coming to right now, We are finding we’re in the prophetic section, and he’s going to talk a great deal about the faithless nation now that has been playing the harlot. Just as the church today, there are a lot of wonderful churches. Don’t misunderstand me. Oh, they’re wonderful, fundamental churches across this land. Thank God for them. But liberalism has taken over in so many places today, outstanding places, and the gospel is not given. And I say again, God says this nation has become a brothel and you’re a bunch of prostitutes. What do you think Jesus would say today to his church? He’d walk in some of the churches today. I think he’d call them brothels. My friend, may I say to you that this is very strong language. And it’s going to be too strong for some folk. They’ve already tuned me out. Now, chapter 4 and chapter 4 and 5, we have Israel plays the harlot. And here in chapter 4, we have Israel guilty. of lawlessness, immorality, ignorance of God’s Word, and idolatry. Now, I believe that you could put that down today on this nation in which we live. These are the sins of the nation. Now, it’s true that the nation Israel was God’s chosen people, and he gave the law to them. But let’s understand one thing, that his pattern for any nation that wants to be blessed by is along this same line. And therefore, we find here this nation guilty of the same things, or our nation, that the nation Israel was when God judged them and sent them into captivity. Now, somebody will disagree with me and say, well, we’re not idolatrous. Well, covetousness is idolatry. And I do not know of a nation that is more greedy, more worshipping the almighty dollar, and believe me, it’s not worth worshipping today, than this nation of ours. May I say to you, the judgment of God was upon this nation. But we might read this and point a finger at them and say it is a shame about how they turn from God. Look around you today and see if the same thing may not be true of us. Now, I can only read one verse. Just get a foot in the door, chapter 4. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel. For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth. nor mercy, nor knowledge of God. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out and blood toucheth blood. And my friend, God judges these things. We’re going to look at these things next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thanks so much for joining us. And we’ve got some more great teaching by Dr. McGee ahead in Hosea. But in the meantime, if we can help you find a Bible study resource by Dr. McGee to deepen your own personal study of God’s Word, just call us. The number is 1-865-BIBLE. You can always visit our website, ttb.org, where you’ll find an entire library of materials, including our most recent newsletter that contains additional content from Dr. McGee, as well as tips that will help you apply what you’re learning. And that’s always good to do. Again, the newsletter is available anytime at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you sign up. This is Steve Schwetz, and I’m looking forward to beginning with you again as the Bible bus comes around your corner for another great study in God’s Word. Until then, may God bless you as you walk with Him.
SPEAKER 02 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, ride the Bible bus for five years and you’ll be amazed at what God teaches you from his word about what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It’s a blessing that keeps on going. That’s what we believe at Through the Bible.
