Ephraim feedeth on, and fedeth after the east wind

Fables are like "east wind"
- hot, dry, withering, blistering wind from the desert!

The LORD's words of rebuke to His people:

Hosea 12 KJT
1 ¶ Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
2 The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

God's people feeding on wind, and following after the east wind - hot, dry, withering, blistering wind blowing from the desert!

What an indictment!

What foolishness and stupidity!

And this is what God's children are capable of.

In fact, they are bent on backsliding!
Ho 11:7 "And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him."

What about this present generation?

The LORD's words of warning to His people:
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Fables are like "east wind" - hot, dry, withering, blistering wind from the desert! And yet so many follow such fables.

When the people of the world do that, it is to be expected! But the LORD was addressing Ephraim and Judah!

The context is NOT the WORLD.... it is the evil going on within the CHURCH!!! 

A child is born into a family

Only in tragic circumstances
is a child not born into a family! 

 The new birth, by the free and sovereign and immediate act of the Spirit of God, quickens a man from his native state of spiritual deadness; he is brought into a state of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ.

Hearing and believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and confessing Him as Lord and Saviour in water baptism, makes the child of God a Christian.

A child of God that is baptised is added to the membership of an NT church that he may be nourished and edified, i.e. to be taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded His Apostles.

Churchless Christian is a monstrosity foreign to and unknown in the Holy Scriptures.

The Apostolic practice set the precedent once and for all.

"Then they that gladly received his word were baptised: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." Acts 2.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the sole Head of His church, must have good reasons why He commanded those who confessed His name to be members of His church. When you have become invisible, then speak of your invisible church, 😉.

Only in tragic circumstances is a child not born into a family! 

How well do you hear/read the word of God?

Never hear the truth...
Is it because the truth is never preached?

Or is it because they have no ears to hear?

Mat 13:23 But he that received seed into the good ground

is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it;

which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth,

some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

2Timothy 3
1 ¶This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be...
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Verse 7 is one of the long list of signs of the perilous times.

It's tragic and heartbreaking to have believers in that evil condition - ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Reading their Bible for decades has not enabled them to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Imagine having children who are ever feeding but never able to grow and develop; what grief and sorrow to the parents!

Heb 5:12 KJVT
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

1 Cor 3:1 KJT
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

See the opposite scenario here:

1 The 1:8 KJT— For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.

We have these commands, calling for all diligence:

2Peter 1 KJT
5 ¶And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

2Pet 3:18 KJT
"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”

O gracious Lord, have mercy; wake up the slumbering people and revive us all. Amen. 

--------

Danny Lee
Those people are not truly Born Again Christians.

Sing F Lau
Danny Lee, in my understanding, a man is either born again or he is still dead in trespasses and sins. Term such as "not truly born again" suggests that there is such a thing as being born again but not truly born again, implying a terrible failure on the part of the Holy Spirit in His divine and sovereign activity in regeneration.

The Scriptures teach us that there are born-again elect who are stunted at the childhood stage and not growing.

Also, it is obvious that Apostle Paul was dealing with God's children; why would the inspired Apostle Paul find fault with those dead in trespasses and sins for their ever learning the word of God but never come to the knowledge of the truth? It is like faulting a dead child for not eating and growing.

Danny Lee
Sing, you are correct. 
This is a language thing
A person is either spiritually alive ( born again ) or spiritually dead.
I will endeavour to be more precise in the future. Thank you

Dr Khaw
Knowing everything but not doing anything is worse.

Sing F Lau
Luke 12:47 KJV — "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes."

I probably deserve many stripes even though I have been taught and know a few things, but fail in many things.

Sir, what is your view on free will?

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/pfbid0qfKxRRM5bAfDz6t61gYH9qr9QxcFjEdbMUzmCb4vSjLbiM5gme85ypW2BqbnVkGRl

##freewill

Leongsy
Sir, what is your view on free will?

Sing
Take a look here:
https://things-new-and-old.blogspot.com/2019/01/luthers-confusion-on-mans-freewill.html

Leongsy
So you are saying that man has free will but it's tainted with sin. Whereas Luther said men have no free will because  we are all under God's control?

Sing
Man has free will; he sins freely, by free choice, without any coercion or any forces from without; the exercise of his free will is determined by his nature, fallen and sinful.

For example, a fish has free will, it can swim anywhere it freely chooses BUT its fishy nature will not enable it to choose to swim outside of water.

Even so, the free will of a natural man is subjected to his fallen sinful nature - in enmity against God.

So many are SO STUPID ( i.e. too lacking in common sense). They vehemently deny man's free will because they rightly believe that a natural man cannot freely choose God.

To say that a natural man DOES NOT choose God - which is a truth is NOT the same as saying that man has no free will.

To say that a natural man has free will BUT he is ALSO incapable of choosing God are not contradictory; both are scriptural.

Man freely sins, man is freely in enmity against God. It's his fallen nature; it's NOT God's control over them. If it is God's  control over them, then they have excuse indeed. But man is justly WITHOUT EXCUSE.

IF man has no free will, he CANNOT be justly charged as without excuse. Man's free will is essential to the moral government of God over His creatures.

To say that you are not able to eat stones is not the same as saying that you have no ability to eat. 😂

Time to tell people to stop regurgitating nonsense without engaging their brains!

Leongsy
How is your view of free will different from the Arminians' free will then?

Sing
Good question.
The  Arminians say natural man has freewill, THAT IS, natural man can choose God to be saved.

The Calvinists say that man has no free will, THAT IS, man is incapable of choosing God.

They are BOTH WRONG.

The Bible says man has free will, but his free will is held in bondage to his fallen, sinful nature; therefore, he is wholly incapable of choosing any spiritual good to be saved. He freely chooses to remain in sin.

Arminians' freewill affirms natural man's willingness and ability to choose to be saved.

The Bible's freewill affirms BOTH the natural man's freewill AND  his absolute inability to choose to be saved.

John 3:3 KJT — Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:5 KJT— Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

The declaration, "except a man be born again, he cannot..." is absolute, without exceptions; it declares the absolute necessity of the new birth; spiritual life through a divine act of regeneration precedes any ability for spiritual activities.

Without real free will, God's moral government over the moral creature made in His image collapses.

Without real free will, man cannot be justly declared to be without excuse; with his free will, he acts freely without external coercion; thus, he is justly without excuse. 
Comments

Tyler
Amen brother. I find it interesting that the apostle Paul directly addresses the error of thinking that man's sin is somehow needed to glorify and commend God's righteousness while in the same chapter speaking of man's total depravity. Both errors of Absolutism and Arminianism addressed in the same passage.

Romans 3:5-8 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) [6] God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? [7] For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? [8] And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

How are you born? John 1:12-13

"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12-13. 

Many read these words and conclude that their believing in Christ is a condition of their being born of God. They believe the fable that those not born of God, still in their native state of sin and death, are capable of believing IN ORDER to be born of God. 

There is obviously a clear distinction between the new birth by the will of God and the blessing of given to the power to become God's children, conditioned upon believing.

The problem arises when the two are equated as one and the same thing.

The logic is so simple: those who had been born of God were enabled to believe... and in believing, they were given the right and authority to claim God as their Father!

Verse 12 describes the experiential effect of believing in Christ - given the power (right and authority) to claim themselves as children of God.

Verse 13 describes the basis and ground of that act of believing in Christ - WERE born of God.

One must be made son first by spiritual birth from above before he can ever begin to believe in Jesus Christ. In believing, he certifies and justifies himself as someone possessing eternal life... evidence of having been born by God... thus enjoying the right and authority to claim himself a child of God.

Of course, VERY MANY believe and insist that a person is born by God when he believes. This would amount to 'born of the will of flesh'!

Yes, both the gospel regeneration and decisional regeneration are by the will and the flesh of man. They are both lies.

An illustration:
Little Wong is Big Wang's son, but he would not believe that Wing, Big Wang's eldest son, is his elder brother. In such a case, how could Little Wong have the right and authority to claim himself a son of Big Wang?