10 Messages on God's Holy Love and Astonishing Grace for His Covenant People:
1. The God of Hosea [Hosea 1:1-2:1]
2. God’s Wayward Wife [Hosea 2:2-23]
3. God’s Redeeming Love [Hosea 3:1-5]
4. Lack of Knowledge [Hosea 4:1-5:15]
5. Real Repentance [Hosea 6:1-7:16]
6. Reaping the Whirlwind [Hosea 8:1-14]
7. The Law of the Harvest [Hosea 9:1-10:15]
8. Holy Love [Hosea 11:1-11]
9. Against God [Hosea 11:12-13:16]
10. Return [Hosea 14:1-9]
Showing posts with label Hosea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hosea. Show all posts
Sunday, August 20, 2006
The Book of Hosea
Matt's Messages - Return
“Return”
August 20, 2006
Hosea 14:1-9
Has it seemed longer than 10 sermons that we have been together in the book of Hosea?
Hosea has been full of doom, gloom, judgment, and discipline.
The first 3 chapters told the story of Hosea’s unhappy family. God called the prophet to marry an adulterous wife and to have children that were known for her adultery. And He did that as a pictorial message of judgment to the kingdom of Israel because they had engaged in spiritual adultery–idolatry and been unfaithful to God.
And chapters 4 through 13 were, by and large, prophecies of the discipline and judgment that Israel was facing because of her unfaithfulness to the Lord.
But that’s not the full picture is it? We have also seen–laced in and out and all around and all through–the amazing grace of God. We’ve seen God’s holy love for His covenant people and His promises of gracious restoration. We’ll see that again today.
Hosea may seem, on the surface, like a bleak book.
But it is really a testimony to the amazing grace and holy love of God.
And it ends with a call for Israel to “Return.”
To repent. To turn away from her sin and return to God. Return.
You can easily see where the title for this message comes from. V.1
“Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!”
In many ways, this sums up the entire book, doesn’t it?
So much of Hosea has been a call to repentance.
You and I, though we don’t like to admit it, are a lot like Israel.
And we, too, need repentance. Point #1 of 3.
#1. WE NEED TO REPENT.
Remember, as we’ve said several times this Summer, repentance is not a one-time thing that you do just at the beginning of your Christian experience.
It’s a daily thing. It’s a 24/7 thing.
Martin Luther said that the Christian life is a “race of repentance.” And I think that that’s a very helpful metaphor for thinking about it. “A race of repentance.”
Because, like Israel, our sins will be our downfall, our stumbling block if we don’t turn from them.
We need to repent.
And in Hosea chapter 14, the prophet instructs Israel in how to actually do that. V.2
“Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.’”
These two verses are kind of like a “manual” on repentance. And they needed it because they weren’t too familiar with the concept!
In our day and age, we are not very familiar with what true repentance is, either, so I think it would be helpful to slow down and notice a few things.
First, notice how repentance means personal interaction with God.
Hosea says, “Return, O Israel to the LORD your God.”
This is personal. It is interpersonal. You and God. It is relational.
Repentance is not a mechanical transaction with an impersonal divine force.
It is actually an interaction with a personal God. A transaction between personal beings, beings who are persons.
Israel was not going to get off with some impersonal, mechanical, sacrificial payment for her sins. Notice what Hosea tells Israel to take. V.2
“Take words with you and return to the LORD.”
Not, take a sacrifice. Not, take a payment. Not, go through some motions or ritual.
It has to be real. And it has to involve words. Why? Because we use words in interpersonal communication.
Yes, words can be fake, too, but this is saying that the words need to come from their hearts.
Hosea is saying to Israel, “You need to have a heart-to-heart with God.”
Personal interaction.
If you and I want to run the race of repentance, it will take real relationship with God.
Personal interaction.
Notice also, that repentance means personal admission of sin. V.2 again.
“Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously...”’
Do you remember several weeks ago when we looked at Hosea chapter 6 and the idea of false repentance?
The problem with Israel’s repentance in chapter 6 was that they expected God’s restoration without any reference to their sin and the sinfulness of their sin.
Their motto was “Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall, all we’ve got to do is call, and He’ll be there” without personally owning their sin.
But Hosea, in this instruction on how Israel needed to repent, makes sure that they include their iniquity.
He says to take these exact words, “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously.”
He knows that they are dependent on the mercy of God. If they don’t admit their sin and cry out for grace and forgiveness, it will be their downfall.
Personal admission.
This last week, I sinned against my daughter Robin. She told me that Drew was allowed to do something I didn’t think his mother would allow.
And instead of believing her and seeking the truth before making my judgment, I just decided that she was making it up or lying. And I condescendingly told her, “I doubt it.”
But then later, I asked my wife, and she said that she does allow Drew to do this thing and that Robin was right and telling me the truth.
What did I need to do?
I needed to own my sin. I needed personal admission.
And I need personal interaction. I needed to go to Robin and ask for her forgiveness.
And I’m very thankful that she immediately granted it. That was sweet of her.
The same thing is true of our relationship with God.
We need to personally admit our sins and ask for forgiveness and ask that He receive us graciously.
If you have never confessed your sins to God and asked for His forgiveness, I call you to do it today. For God to grant this forgiveness, it took the death of His Son Jesus on the Cross. That’s how much He loves you. And He invites you to turn from your sins in repentance and turn in faith to Him today.
But you have to admit your sin.
And even once we have professed faith in Christ, we still need to admit our sin. We still are in need of regular cleansing.
Not to establish a relationship with God or to keep a relationship with God, but to keep our fellowship with Him close.
The race of repentance includes personal admission of sin.
Notice also that repentance means personally turning away from sin.
Hosea instructs Israel to get specific about which sins she is admitting and to personally turn away from them. To renounce them. To swear them off. V.3
“Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
Notice what this does. It makes their repentance specific.
David Powlison calls this kind of thing, “Intelligent Repentance.”
Knowing what you are turning from and putting words to it.
Israel was to admit that they had wrongfully put their faith in Assyria and their war horses.
And Israel was to admit that they had committed spiritual adultery. They had said, “Our gods” to what their own hands had made.
And they were not only to admit these sins, but turn from them.
The basic meaning of repentance is “turning.”
They were to renounce, resign, repudiate, foreswear, quit, turn away from bad alliances and idolatry.
Now, this is not works-salvation. Repentance is simply the other side of the coin of faith. To turn to God means to turn away from sin.
This wasn’t earning their salvation by stopping sinning. They couldn’t have done that anyway!
True repentance is a heart-turn away from sin, a true desire to “make a break” with sin.
Repentance is not merely confession. It is not only to personally admit sin, but to turn away from it.
So often, I think I’ve repented when I’ve merely confessed. I like to think that I’ve done something really good when I’ve said, “You’re right, I did that, and that’s bad.”
August 20, 2006
Hosea 14:1-9
Has it seemed longer than 10 sermons that we have been together in the book of Hosea?
Hosea has been full of doom, gloom, judgment, and discipline.
The first 3 chapters told the story of Hosea’s unhappy family. God called the prophet to marry an adulterous wife and to have children that were known for her adultery. And He did that as a pictorial message of judgment to the kingdom of Israel because they had engaged in spiritual adultery–idolatry and been unfaithful to God.
And chapters 4 through 13 were, by and large, prophecies of the discipline and judgment that Israel was facing because of her unfaithfulness to the Lord.
But that’s not the full picture is it? We have also seen–laced in and out and all around and all through–the amazing grace of God. We’ve seen God’s holy love for His covenant people and His promises of gracious restoration. We’ll see that again today.
Hosea may seem, on the surface, like a bleak book.
But it is really a testimony to the amazing grace and holy love of God.
And it ends with a call for Israel to “Return.”
To repent. To turn away from her sin and return to God. Return.
You can easily see where the title for this message comes from. V.1
“Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!”
In many ways, this sums up the entire book, doesn’t it?
So much of Hosea has been a call to repentance.
You and I, though we don’t like to admit it, are a lot like Israel.
And we, too, need repentance. Point #1 of 3.
#1. WE NEED TO REPENT.
Remember, as we’ve said several times this Summer, repentance is not a one-time thing that you do just at the beginning of your Christian experience.
It’s a daily thing. It’s a 24/7 thing.
Martin Luther said that the Christian life is a “race of repentance.” And I think that that’s a very helpful metaphor for thinking about it. “A race of repentance.”
Because, like Israel, our sins will be our downfall, our stumbling block if we don’t turn from them.
We need to repent.
And in Hosea chapter 14, the prophet instructs Israel in how to actually do that. V.2
“Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.’”
These two verses are kind of like a “manual” on repentance. And they needed it because they weren’t too familiar with the concept!
In our day and age, we are not very familiar with what true repentance is, either, so I think it would be helpful to slow down and notice a few things.
First, notice how repentance means personal interaction with God.
Hosea says, “Return, O Israel to the LORD your God.”
This is personal. It is interpersonal. You and God. It is relational.
Repentance is not a mechanical transaction with an impersonal divine force.
It is actually an interaction with a personal God. A transaction between personal beings, beings who are persons.
Israel was not going to get off with some impersonal, mechanical, sacrificial payment for her sins. Notice what Hosea tells Israel to take. V.2
“Take words with you and return to the LORD.”
Not, take a sacrifice. Not, take a payment. Not, go through some motions or ritual.
It has to be real. And it has to involve words. Why? Because we use words in interpersonal communication.
Yes, words can be fake, too, but this is saying that the words need to come from their hearts.
Hosea is saying to Israel, “You need to have a heart-to-heart with God.”
Personal interaction.
If you and I want to run the race of repentance, it will take real relationship with God.
Personal interaction.
Notice also, that repentance means personal admission of sin. V.2 again.
“Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously...”’
Do you remember several weeks ago when we looked at Hosea chapter 6 and the idea of false repentance?
The problem with Israel’s repentance in chapter 6 was that they expected God’s restoration without any reference to their sin and the sinfulness of their sin.
Their motto was “Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall, all we’ve got to do is call, and He’ll be there” without personally owning their sin.
But Hosea, in this instruction on how Israel needed to repent, makes sure that they include their iniquity.
He says to take these exact words, “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously.”
He knows that they are dependent on the mercy of God. If they don’t admit their sin and cry out for grace and forgiveness, it will be their downfall.
Personal admission.
This last week, I sinned against my daughter Robin. She told me that Drew was allowed to do something I didn’t think his mother would allow.
And instead of believing her and seeking the truth before making my judgment, I just decided that she was making it up or lying. And I condescendingly told her, “I doubt it.”
But then later, I asked my wife, and she said that she does allow Drew to do this thing and that Robin was right and telling me the truth.
What did I need to do?
I needed to own my sin. I needed personal admission.
And I need personal interaction. I needed to go to Robin and ask for her forgiveness.
And I’m very thankful that she immediately granted it. That was sweet of her.
The same thing is true of our relationship with God.
We need to personally admit our sins and ask for forgiveness and ask that He receive us graciously.
If you have never confessed your sins to God and asked for His forgiveness, I call you to do it today. For God to grant this forgiveness, it took the death of His Son Jesus on the Cross. That’s how much He loves you. And He invites you to turn from your sins in repentance and turn in faith to Him today.
But you have to admit your sin.
And even once we have professed faith in Christ, we still need to admit our sin. We still are in need of regular cleansing.
Not to establish a relationship with God or to keep a relationship with God, but to keep our fellowship with Him close.
The race of repentance includes personal admission of sin.
Notice also that repentance means personally turning away from sin.
Hosea instructs Israel to get specific about which sins she is admitting and to personally turn away from them. To renounce them. To swear them off. V.3
“Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
Notice what this does. It makes their repentance specific.
David Powlison calls this kind of thing, “Intelligent Repentance.”
Knowing what you are turning from and putting words to it.
Israel was to admit that they had wrongfully put their faith in Assyria and their war horses.
And Israel was to admit that they had committed spiritual adultery. They had said, “Our gods” to what their own hands had made.
And they were not only to admit these sins, but turn from them.
The basic meaning of repentance is “turning.”
They were to renounce, resign, repudiate, foreswear, quit, turn away from bad alliances and idolatry.
Now, this is not works-salvation. Repentance is simply the other side of the coin of faith. To turn to God means to turn away from sin.
This wasn’t earning their salvation by stopping sinning. They couldn’t have done that anyway!
True repentance is a heart-turn away from sin, a true desire to “make a break” with sin.
Repentance is not merely confession. It is not only to personally admit sin, but to turn away from it.
So often, I think I’ve repented when I’ve merely confessed. I like to think that I’ve done something really good when I’ve said, “You’re right, I did that, and that’s bad.”
But repentance goes one step further, it says, “I want to do better. I want to change. I don’t want to sin in that way any longer.”
“Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made...”
How are you doing at repentance?
Let me mention–for the very last time [in this sermon series!]–my carpenter ants.
They’re gone!
I was bound and determined to kill those buggers on Thursday night. Because I didn’t want to end this sermon series without reporting that I had actually done something about it. And I knew that this message was going to be on repentance, so I thought it would be perfect to spray on Thursday night.
So I told Heather that, and she said, “Oh, I think they’re gone. I haven’t seen one in several weeks and there aren’t any signs of them. No chewing sounds, no sawdust, nothing.”
They were gone!
And I didn’t have to do a thing about them. Hooray!
And that’s when I knew that my carpenter ants weren’t really like my heart-idols after all.
Because they do requiring killing. And if they seem like they’ve gone away without my personally turning away from them, I’m kidding myself.
We need to repent.
And if you and I want to run the race of repentance, we need to personally interact with God, personally admit our sin, and personally turn away from that sin and to God.
That’s the last big thing I want you to notice in Hosea’s instruction manual on repentance.
Repentance means personally trusting in the gracious character of God.
“Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made...”
How are you doing at repentance?
Let me mention–for the very last time [in this sermon series!]–my carpenter ants.
They’re gone!
I was bound and determined to kill those buggers on Thursday night. Because I didn’t want to end this sermon series without reporting that I had actually done something about it. And I knew that this message was going to be on repentance, so I thought it would be perfect to spray on Thursday night.
So I told Heather that, and she said, “Oh, I think they’re gone. I haven’t seen one in several weeks and there aren’t any signs of them. No chewing sounds, no sawdust, nothing.”
They were gone!
And I didn’t have to do a thing about them. Hooray!
And that’s when I knew that my carpenter ants weren’t really like my heart-idols after all.
Because they do requiring killing. And if they seem like they’ve gone away without my personally turning away from them, I’m kidding myself.
We need to repent.
And if you and I want to run the race of repentance, we need to personally interact with God, personally admit our sin, and personally turn away from that sin and to God.
That’s the last big thing I want you to notice in Hosea’s instruction manual on repentance.
Repentance means personally trusting in the gracious character of God.
There is a turning from sin and a turning to God.
It’s both sides of that same coin.
Turning from sin and a turning to God Whom we know to be gracious. V.3 again.
“Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
Israel was to know this about God. God was compassionate to the fatherless.
And because Israel knew that, Israel was to trust in Him.
The repentance isn’t complete until the repent-er has put their faith in the gracious character of God.
Do you see that?
Hosea has been painting the picture, all along, of a gracious God slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. A forgiving God. A merciful God.
A holy God! But one that has a holy love for His covenant people.
Remember Hosea 11, two weeks ago, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.”
And that’s the God whom Israel is to turn to and trust in!
Can you guess what Hebrew word is translated “compassion” at the end of verse 3?
It’s “Ruhammah.”
The opposite of what Gomer’s daughter was named.
Because that’s our God. He’s a God of second chances. He’s a God of forgiveness and mercy and grace and compassion on those who need it most–the fatherless.
And to run the race of repentance means that we put our trust in His compassion, His gracious character.
We personally come to him in personal interaction.
We personally admit our sin.
We personally turn from our sin.
And we personally trust in the gracious character of God.
That’s real repentance and we need it.
We need it for the first time.
And we need it again and again and again.
We need to repent.
And the most amazing thing is how God promises to respond to our repentance!
#2. GOD PROMISES TO RESTORE.
The fatherless do find compassion in Him. V.4
“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.”
What a reversal! What a turnaround!
God promises to restore His repentant people.
There are a ton of illustrations here. Dew and lillies and cedars and roots and shoots and olive trees and shade trees and grain and wine.
And they are all pictures of a fully restored Israel–rich and luxuriant and healthy and vibrant again because of God’s grace.
And the key word that I love the most in this section is “will.”
“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.”
God’s restoration will be efficacious. It will work. It will happen just as He promised.
Now, this didn’t happen before the discipline of the exile.
Hosea has made it clear that Israel was going to go through that discipline.
But it wouldn’t be total destruction.
And some day, Israel would repent and God would restore.
That probably was fulfilled in part with the return of Israel to the land in Nehemiah, Ezra, and Haggai.
But I can’t help thinking that the fullest fulfillment of this promise is found in the New Covenant when Israel’s Messiah came on the scene and Israel began (though they haven’t fully yet) to embrace their Messiah.
But the amazing thing to see today is simply that God promise to restore His repentant people.
There is forgiveness.
There is blessing.
There is rich fullness from God for people who don’t deserve it in the slightest but turn to Him.
Verse 4 again.
“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely...” That means that there is no reason for Him to love us except that He freely chooses it in and of Himself.
“For my anger has turned away from them.”
We know now that this kind of grace is only available to us through the death of Jesus Christ for sinners like you and me.
Because of Jesus, God has freely loved us and turned away His wrath.
God promises to restore.
Are you “on the fence?”
Is there some sin in your life–perhaps your whole life or perhaps only what seems like a small part–that needs repenting of today?
Maybe Satan has been trying to tell you that it won’t do any good. You don’t deserve forgiveness and you’ll just mess up again if you get it.
He’s right that you don’t deserve it, but He’s wrong that it isn’t worth it.
When God’s people repent, God delights to restore them!
The New Testament says it this way, “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you” (James 4:8).
Don’t listen to Satan.
Listen to this description of restoration. V.8
“O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? [Come on! Return! Repent! Give them up!] I will answer [Israel] and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me.”
God delights to restore His repentant people!
Because He gets the glory. Their fruitfulness is real and powerful and blessed and healthy...and comes from Him.
When God’s people repent, God delights to restore them!
And that’s what He offers to do for you and me if we would turn and return to Him.
He offers to be the source of our fruitfulness.
“Fruitfulness” is a play on words with Ephraim’s name. Joseph named his son Ephraim because God had given him fruitfulness in Egypt (Genesis 41:52).
God is offering to be the source of our fruitfulness even in Egypt!
Doesn’t that sound good?
Ironically, to some people it will not.
There are two kinds of people: the righteous and the rebellious.
The book of Hosea ends with one verse of wisdom that calls us to choose which one we will be. V.9
“Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.”
#3. THE WISE RETURN TO THE LORD.
The ways of the LORD are right. Hosea says that there is no debating that.
But not everyone recognizes it.
The rebellious, even if they think they are doing well, will stumble over God’s ways.
They’ll stumble and stay proud.
They’ll stumble against the race of repentance.
And it will be their downfall. [Same Hebrew word in verse 1 and in verse 11.]
Stumble or downfall.
But the righteous, those in whom God is at work, will walk in God’s ways.
They will run the race of repentance.
Personally come to Him in personal interaction.
Personally admitting their own sin.
Personally turning from that sin.
Personally trusting in the gracious character of God.
And being personally restored by God the Father of Jesus Christ!
And if we are restored, how should we respond to that? Look back up again at verse 2.
“Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.”
Does that sound familiar?
It’s picked up again in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 15.
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
If you and I are repentant and restored, we should be forever grateful.
But we have to choose.
Hosea ends with a choice, doesn’t it?
Are we going to walk or are we going to stumble?
Are we going to pridefully go to our downfall?
Or are we going to humble ourselves...and return?
It’s both sides of that same coin.
Turning from sin and a turning to God Whom we know to be gracious. V.3 again.
“Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
Israel was to know this about God. God was compassionate to the fatherless.
And because Israel knew that, Israel was to trust in Him.
The repentance isn’t complete until the repent-er has put their faith in the gracious character of God.
Do you see that?
Hosea has been painting the picture, all along, of a gracious God slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. A forgiving God. A merciful God.
A holy God! But one that has a holy love for His covenant people.
Remember Hosea 11, two weeks ago, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.”
And that’s the God whom Israel is to turn to and trust in!
Can you guess what Hebrew word is translated “compassion” at the end of verse 3?
It’s “Ruhammah.”
The opposite of what Gomer’s daughter was named.
Because that’s our God. He’s a God of second chances. He’s a God of forgiveness and mercy and grace and compassion on those who need it most–the fatherless.
And to run the race of repentance means that we put our trust in His compassion, His gracious character.
We personally come to him in personal interaction.
We personally admit our sin.
We personally turn from our sin.
And we personally trust in the gracious character of God.
That’s real repentance and we need it.
We need it for the first time.
And we need it again and again and again.
We need to repent.
And the most amazing thing is how God promises to respond to our repentance!
#2. GOD PROMISES TO RESTORE.
The fatherless do find compassion in Him. V.4
“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.”
What a reversal! What a turnaround!
God promises to restore His repentant people.
There are a ton of illustrations here. Dew and lillies and cedars and roots and shoots and olive trees and shade trees and grain and wine.
And they are all pictures of a fully restored Israel–rich and luxuriant and healthy and vibrant again because of God’s grace.
And the key word that I love the most in this section is “will.”
“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.”
God’s restoration will be efficacious. It will work. It will happen just as He promised.
Now, this didn’t happen before the discipline of the exile.
Hosea has made it clear that Israel was going to go through that discipline.
But it wouldn’t be total destruction.
And some day, Israel would repent and God would restore.
That probably was fulfilled in part with the return of Israel to the land in Nehemiah, Ezra, and Haggai.
But I can’t help thinking that the fullest fulfillment of this promise is found in the New Covenant when Israel’s Messiah came on the scene and Israel began (though they haven’t fully yet) to embrace their Messiah.
But the amazing thing to see today is simply that God promise to restore His repentant people.
There is forgiveness.
There is blessing.
There is rich fullness from God for people who don’t deserve it in the slightest but turn to Him.
Verse 4 again.
“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely...” That means that there is no reason for Him to love us except that He freely chooses it in and of Himself.
“For my anger has turned away from them.”
We know now that this kind of grace is only available to us through the death of Jesus Christ for sinners like you and me.
Because of Jesus, God has freely loved us and turned away His wrath.
God promises to restore.
Are you “on the fence?”
Is there some sin in your life–perhaps your whole life or perhaps only what seems like a small part–that needs repenting of today?
Maybe Satan has been trying to tell you that it won’t do any good. You don’t deserve forgiveness and you’ll just mess up again if you get it.
He’s right that you don’t deserve it, but He’s wrong that it isn’t worth it.
When God’s people repent, God delights to restore them!
The New Testament says it this way, “Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you” (James 4:8).
Don’t listen to Satan.
Listen to this description of restoration. V.8
“O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? [Come on! Return! Repent! Give them up!] I will answer [Israel] and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me.”
God delights to restore His repentant people!
Because He gets the glory. Their fruitfulness is real and powerful and blessed and healthy...and comes from Him.
When God’s people repent, God delights to restore them!
And that’s what He offers to do for you and me if we would turn and return to Him.
He offers to be the source of our fruitfulness.
“Fruitfulness” is a play on words with Ephraim’s name. Joseph named his son Ephraim because God had given him fruitfulness in Egypt (Genesis 41:52).
God is offering to be the source of our fruitfulness even in Egypt!
Doesn’t that sound good?
Ironically, to some people it will not.
There are two kinds of people: the righteous and the rebellious.
The book of Hosea ends with one verse of wisdom that calls us to choose which one we will be. V.9
“Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.”
#3. THE WISE RETURN TO THE LORD.
The ways of the LORD are right. Hosea says that there is no debating that.
But not everyone recognizes it.
The rebellious, even if they think they are doing well, will stumble over God’s ways.
They’ll stumble and stay proud.
They’ll stumble against the race of repentance.
And it will be their downfall. [Same Hebrew word in verse 1 and in verse 11.]
Stumble or downfall.
But the righteous, those in whom God is at work, will walk in God’s ways.
They will run the race of repentance.
Personally come to Him in personal interaction.
Personally admitting their own sin.
Personally turning from that sin.
Personally trusting in the gracious character of God.
And being personally restored by God the Father of Jesus Christ!
And if we are restored, how should we respond to that? Look back up again at verse 2.
“Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.”
Does that sound familiar?
It’s picked up again in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 15.
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name.”
If you and I are repentant and restored, we should be forever grateful.
But we have to choose.
Hosea ends with a choice, doesn’t it?
Are we going to walk or are we going to stumble?
Are we going to pridefully go to our downfall?
Or are we going to humble ourselves...and return?
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Matt's Messages - Against God
“Against God”
August 13, 2006
Hosea 11:12-13:16
Before we get into Hosea, I want to take some time to say to you again how proud I am of you and thank you.
Like I said last month, I am so proud to be your pastor. This weekend has been West Branch Community Days, and just 1 month ago, we decided to throw our hat in the ring and try to build some bridges to our community at this new community festival.
We only had 4 weeks to plan and that right on the heels of a big Family Bible Week.
But many, many of you rolled up your sleeves and got to work on this outreach. I’m very proud of you.
Obviously, it was a learning experience. There were things that we never thought of in the planning and miscommunications about who was going to do what. It was the first one ever, and there were definitely bumps in the road.
I was very disappointed that almost nobody outside of our church was present at the Vespers on Friday night–we won’t do it like that again! But I was so proud of those of you who put it on. Set-up, take-down, transport, sound, ushers, music, singing, testimonies, prayer. You guys did it. And you did it with a cheerful heart.
One of you said to me afterwards, “Well, we just praised the Lord!” And that was right.
So, thank you. Thank you for serving the Savior and His church.
Thank you to those of you who worked (and are going to work this afternoon from 1 to 5) in our outreach booth. Sarah Myers was our MVS (Most Valuable Servant; she stayed all day yesterday). I think it was a success.
We gave away a ton of sno-cones and bags of popcorn and somewhere around 50 giveaway bags with New Testaments, JESUS Videos, 4 Spiritual Laws, and an invitation brochure to our church.
Have you seen these? Jeff Schiefer worked these up during his lunch hours for us. They have information about our Fall Programs and Services in them, as well as a little bit about the church and a picture of a beautiful woman with your shiny-headed pastor.
Please take some and give them or post them around town because they are time-sensitive. They talk about things that are going to begin first of September, so pass them out.
And what I’m most proud of is just the way that you served the community. Everybody showing up and loving on people in the crowd. Now, the crowd wasn’t as big as we had hoped for this year. But you guys were big. And I’m whatever the spiritual equivalent of proud is of you. Thank you.
We’re going to be in Hosea chapter 11, verse 12. Pew Bible Page #897.
Last week, we got a glimpse into the heart of God.
We saw that God has a holy love for His covenant people that issues into astonishing grace.
And I wish we could stay and linger there a little longer. But in chapters 12 and 13, God once more returns to judgment. God is amazingly gracious and will hold back the full extent of His wrath.
But Israel has not yet repented, and they must face God’s judgment.
Why?
Because Israel has been “Against God.”
And IF YOU ARE AGAINST GOD, GOD WILL BE AGAINST YOU.
Hosea 11, verse 12.
“Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One.”
Israel, even if they didn’t know it, had come against God. Even the Southern Kingdom of Judah (which was generally more godly) was characterized by rebellion “against the faithful Holy One.” Against God.
How had they become against God?
The first is that they were full of lies.
“Ephraim has surrounded me [God] with lies, the house of Israel with deceit.”
They didn’t have an honest bone in their bodies.
And when you lie, you are lying against God.
The second way that they had come against God was bad allegiances. Chapter 12, verse 1.
“Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.”
Remember a couple of weeks ago when it said that they had sown the wind and were going to reap the whirlwind? Here it says that the wind was their dinner. Not very nourishing.
And instead of trusting God, they trusted in their enemies [!] and tried to make placating alliances with them.
First with Assyria, the enemy to the North and East, and then with Egypt, the enemy to the South and West.
They were trusting the wrong people.
Have you ever done that?
When you put your trust in bad friendships you are doing it against God.
And if you are against God, God will be against you. Verse 2.
“The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.”
Judah might think that they are getting away with something because they see Israel get pounded but are going to escape a pounding for the time being.
But God is not missing anything. And to the degree that Judah is against God, God will be against Judah.
This wrestling match with God has been going on for a long time. It is bound up in the names of the whole nation: Jacob and Israel. Verse 3.
“In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there–the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name of renown!”
These verses are all about the Jacob we learned about back in Genesis.
What does Jacob mean? “Heel-grabber.” Another way of saying “Deceiver.” Jacob was always trying to out maneuver someone.
But one day, Jacob met somebody that he couldn’t out maneuver. And he got a new name for it–Israel–“One who wrestles with God.” He won that match, but he found himself weeping and begging for favor, receiving grace.
He found God at his return to Bethel and “talked with Him there–the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name of renown.”
I think that God, through Hosea, is saying that this nation needed to go through a transformation like Jacob had and receive God’s grace like Jacob had.
There was too much Jacob in Hosea’s day and not enough Israel.
Too much deceiving, lying, striving against men.
And not enough seeking, talking, wrestling with God, in a positive way.
If they were just going to be against God, then God would be against them.
But if they were going to turn and seek God...verse 6.
“But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.”
More like Israel than Jacob. We’ll come back to that.
There are more lies in verse 7.
“The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud.”
And that makes him rich. And that makes Israel trust in his riches. Verse 8
“Ephraim boasts, ‘I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.’”
Really? Another way that Israel has been against God is to trust in their wealth.
Remember, this is an exciting time to be a part of the Northern Kingdom. It’s a booming economy. There is money everywhere.
Israel seemed to think that God was blessing them. But they were trusting in their money (have you ever done that? I have.), and when you trust in your money you are trusting against God.
He hates self-sufficiency. He wants to be our sufficiency.
It’s not wrong to have money. It’s wrong to love money and trust money.
Because when you trust in your money, you are trusting against God.
And God will be against you. V.9
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of your appointed feasts.”
Do you see how God is concerned with the fame of His name? Verse 5 said that the LORD is His name of renown. Here He says that He is one who brought them out of Egypt.
And for what? So that they could be against Him? So that they could trust in their own riches?
No. He is going to send them out into the desert again. They will have to live in tents like they do once a year at the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s time for another wilderness experience in exile.
They have been against Him. He is going to force them to go wandering again.
How were they against Him? They didn’t listen. V.10
“I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them. [There were ample warnings. Were they heeded? V.11] Is Gilead wicked? [Is the Pope Catholic?] Its people are worthless! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? [Is the sky blue?] Their altars will be like piles of stones on a plowed field.”
They weren’t listening. They weren’t paying attention.
Have you ever done that? I have.
And when you aren’t listening to God, you are listening against God.
God’s been taking care of them. Verse 12.
“Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep. [God’s been tending sheep, too.] The LORD used a prophet [Moses] to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him.”
And how did they return His care? They were against Him. V.14
“But Ephraim has bitterly provoked him to anger; his Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.”
If you are against God, God will be against you.
Obviously, here is another way that they had been against God: bloodshed, violence, hurting people.
When you hurt someone else, you are going against God.
Sometimes we get the idea that we can hurt someone else, and all we’ve done is hurt that person. But that’s not true. When you hurt someone else with your words, or with violence, you are also going against God. All sin is ultimately against God.
Of course, the ultimate way that Israel had gone against God was to go after other gods: idolatry. Chapter 13, verse 1.
“When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died [the wages of sin for this nation were idolatry]. Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols.’
When we worship anything that is not God, we are worshiping against God. V.3
“Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window. [Those are dramatic word-pictures, aren’t they? Who wants to be mist, chaff or smoke?] ‘But I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.”
As we have seen again and again and again this Summer, God is a jealous God who will not allow any rivals.
When we allow ourselves to worship anything that is not God, we are worshipping against God. And God will be against our idols.
I won’t mention my carpenter ants today.
But if I did, it would be to remind us of our heart-idols which we may want to ignore or not talk about, but God does not ignore and actively opposes.
God wants to be our God alone. “You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.”
He wants to be our Savior. Our only Savior. Nothing else can save but Him.
And when He saved before? V.5
“I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”
Another way that Israel was against God was pridefully forgetting Him.
Have you ever done that? I have.
When life is going well, we tend to forget God and get full of ourselves as if we did it!
When life is going well, we pridefully forget God.
And when you are forgetting God, when you are full of yourself, you are going against God. And God will be against you. V.7
“So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open. Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart.”
“You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.”
I’ll say it again. If you are against God, God will be against you.
More pride. Verse 10.
“Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes'? So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away. The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.”
Nobody is getting away with anything.
“Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb.”
And then, these words: ‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?
And then these words: ‘I will have no compassion, even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come [Assyria], blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures. The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.’”
If you are against God, God will be against you.
Lying & deceit & fraud, bad friendship & allegiances, trusting in money, not listening to the Word of God, bloodshed & violence & hurting people, idolatry, and prideful forgetting of God.
If you are against God, God will be against you.
This is what Israel has brought upon themselves.
And, yet, there is verse 14.
Now some scholars believe that verse 14 should be full of questions like the New American Standard Version renders it: “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? [Answer, No] Shall I redeem them from death? [No.] O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?”
In that translation of the Hebrew, God is not showing mercy and is calling upon the powers of death and the grave to wipe out Israel.
And that makes a lot of sense in the context (look at verse 16!), so it could be what Hosea originally meant.
But Hosea 13:14 sounds familiar to you, doesn’t it?
It sounds like something that the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul is writing about the Resurrection. The final resurrection when the believers are raised to new life in new bodies like Christ’s new body.
And He says, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [1 Corinthians 15:51-57]
That’s what Paul saw in Hosea 13:14!
He saw a taunt against death and the grave!
He saw a ransom from the power of the grave. A redemption from death.
He saw Christ and His grace and His resurrection power.
And He saw this: IF GOD IS FOR YOU, WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU?
Yes, if you are ultimately against God, you have everything to be afraid of because God will be against you.
But if God is for you because of Jesus Christ, ultimately nobody, nobody can be against you!
Not even death and the grave–and those are your worst enemies.
If God is for you, who can be against you?
You might have a lot of things coming against you right now.
You might have trials, enemies, hardships, crises, and pain.
But if God is for you because you belong to Jesus Christ, ultimately (and that’s what counts) nothing can be against you.
Now, that’s only true if you belong to Jesus Christ by faith.
It is only those who belong to Him that know that nothing will stand against them.
If you are outside of Christ today or running from Him or don’t know, then I challenge you to come in.
Put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you have not or are not trusting Him and what He did on the Cross, then you are feeding on the wind, you are provoking Him to anger, you are going to be a morning mist, chaff on the threshing floor, smoke escaping through a window. You are against God, and He will be against you.
But you don’t have to be. God will be for you if you trust in what Jesus has done on your behalf.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 Corinthians 5:21]
Lay down your weapons and surrender to His grace. Acknowledge Him as Savior. There is no Savior but Him.
And God will be for you.
And if God is for you, who can be against you? No one.
And what should we do with our lives?
We know that we shouldn’t be against God.
What should we do? Look back at chapter 12, verse 6.
“But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.”
Return, maintain, wait.
To return is to repent. It is to go back to your first love.
Israel need to return to the LORD.
We may need to repent of something and return to Jesus.
Don’t be afraid to repent. It hurts at first but it feels so good.
Maintain love and justice.
That’s the opposite of all the ways that Israel was going against God.
Instead of lies, truth.
Instead of bad friendships and bad allegiances, good ones that help you in your walk.
Instead of trusting in money, trusting in God.
Instead of not listening, listening to the Word of God.
Instead of bloodshed and violence and hurting people, it’s loving people and being concerned about people.
Instead of idolatry, it’s true worship.
Instead of prideful forgetting God, it’s remembering God and making him the center of your life.
Maintain love and justice.
Love for God and justice/compassion with others.
Like the prophet Micah said, “He has shown thee, O Man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee. But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” [6:8]
And to wait upon Him. To look for Him. To seek Him. To do His will.
Return to God.
Maintain love and justice.
And wait for your God always.
Because if God is for you, who can be against you?
August 13, 2006
Hosea 11:12-13:16
Before we get into Hosea, I want to take some time to say to you again how proud I am of you and thank you.
Like I said last month, I am so proud to be your pastor. This weekend has been West Branch Community Days, and just 1 month ago, we decided to throw our hat in the ring and try to build some bridges to our community at this new community festival.
We only had 4 weeks to plan and that right on the heels of a big Family Bible Week.
But many, many of you rolled up your sleeves and got to work on this outreach. I’m very proud of you.
Obviously, it was a learning experience. There were things that we never thought of in the planning and miscommunications about who was going to do what. It was the first one ever, and there were definitely bumps in the road.
I was very disappointed that almost nobody outside of our church was present at the Vespers on Friday night–we won’t do it like that again! But I was so proud of those of you who put it on. Set-up, take-down, transport, sound, ushers, music, singing, testimonies, prayer. You guys did it. And you did it with a cheerful heart.
One of you said to me afterwards, “Well, we just praised the Lord!” And that was right.
So, thank you. Thank you for serving the Savior and His church.
Thank you to those of you who worked (and are going to work this afternoon from 1 to 5) in our outreach booth. Sarah Myers was our MVS (Most Valuable Servant; she stayed all day yesterday). I think it was a success.
We gave away a ton of sno-cones and bags of popcorn and somewhere around 50 giveaway bags with New Testaments, JESUS Videos, 4 Spiritual Laws, and an invitation brochure to our church.
Have you seen these? Jeff Schiefer worked these up during his lunch hours for us. They have information about our Fall Programs and Services in them, as well as a little bit about the church and a picture of a beautiful woman with your shiny-headed pastor.
Please take some and give them or post them around town because they are time-sensitive. They talk about things that are going to begin first of September, so pass them out.
And what I’m most proud of is just the way that you served the community. Everybody showing up and loving on people in the crowd. Now, the crowd wasn’t as big as we had hoped for this year. But you guys were big. And I’m whatever the spiritual equivalent of proud is of you. Thank you.
We’re going to be in Hosea chapter 11, verse 12. Pew Bible Page #897.
Last week, we got a glimpse into the heart of God.
We saw that God has a holy love for His covenant people that issues into astonishing grace.
And I wish we could stay and linger there a little longer. But in chapters 12 and 13, God once more returns to judgment. God is amazingly gracious and will hold back the full extent of His wrath.
But Israel has not yet repented, and they must face God’s judgment.
Why?
Because Israel has been “Against God.”
And IF YOU ARE AGAINST GOD, GOD WILL BE AGAINST YOU.
Hosea 11, verse 12.
“Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One.”
Israel, even if they didn’t know it, had come against God. Even the Southern Kingdom of Judah (which was generally more godly) was characterized by rebellion “against the faithful Holy One.” Against God.
How had they become against God?
The first is that they were full of lies.
“Ephraim has surrounded me [God] with lies, the house of Israel with deceit.”
They didn’t have an honest bone in their bodies.
And when you lie, you are lying against God.
The second way that they had come against God was bad allegiances. Chapter 12, verse 1.
“Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.”
Remember a couple of weeks ago when it said that they had sown the wind and were going to reap the whirlwind? Here it says that the wind was their dinner. Not very nourishing.
And instead of trusting God, they trusted in their enemies [!] and tried to make placating alliances with them.
First with Assyria, the enemy to the North and East, and then with Egypt, the enemy to the South and West.
They were trusting the wrong people.
Have you ever done that?
When you put your trust in bad friendships you are doing it against God.
And if you are against God, God will be against you. Verse 2.
“The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.”
Judah might think that they are getting away with something because they see Israel get pounded but are going to escape a pounding for the time being.
But God is not missing anything. And to the degree that Judah is against God, God will be against Judah.
This wrestling match with God has been going on for a long time. It is bound up in the names of the whole nation: Jacob and Israel. Verse 3.
“In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there–the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name of renown!”
These verses are all about the Jacob we learned about back in Genesis.
What does Jacob mean? “Heel-grabber.” Another way of saying “Deceiver.” Jacob was always trying to out maneuver someone.
But one day, Jacob met somebody that he couldn’t out maneuver. And he got a new name for it–Israel–“One who wrestles with God.” He won that match, but he found himself weeping and begging for favor, receiving grace.
He found God at his return to Bethel and “talked with Him there–the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name of renown.”
I think that God, through Hosea, is saying that this nation needed to go through a transformation like Jacob had and receive God’s grace like Jacob had.
There was too much Jacob in Hosea’s day and not enough Israel.
Too much deceiving, lying, striving against men.
And not enough seeking, talking, wrestling with God, in a positive way.
If they were just going to be against God, then God would be against them.
But if they were going to turn and seek God...verse 6.
“But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.”
More like Israel than Jacob. We’ll come back to that.
There are more lies in verse 7.
“The merchant uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud.”
And that makes him rich. And that makes Israel trust in his riches. Verse 8
“Ephraim boasts, ‘I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.’”
Really? Another way that Israel has been against God is to trust in their wealth.
Remember, this is an exciting time to be a part of the Northern Kingdom. It’s a booming economy. There is money everywhere.
Israel seemed to think that God was blessing them. But they were trusting in their money (have you ever done that? I have.), and when you trust in your money you are trusting against God.
He hates self-sufficiency. He wants to be our sufficiency.
It’s not wrong to have money. It’s wrong to love money and trust money.
Because when you trust in your money, you are trusting against God.
And God will be against you. V.9
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of your appointed feasts.”
Do you see how God is concerned with the fame of His name? Verse 5 said that the LORD is His name of renown. Here He says that He is one who brought them out of Egypt.
And for what? So that they could be against Him? So that they could trust in their own riches?
No. He is going to send them out into the desert again. They will have to live in tents like they do once a year at the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s time for another wilderness experience in exile.
They have been against Him. He is going to force them to go wandering again.
How were they against Him? They didn’t listen. V.10
“I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them. [There were ample warnings. Were they heeded? V.11] Is Gilead wicked? [Is the Pope Catholic?] Its people are worthless! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? [Is the sky blue?] Their altars will be like piles of stones on a plowed field.”
They weren’t listening. They weren’t paying attention.
Have you ever done that? I have.
And when you aren’t listening to God, you are listening against God.
God’s been taking care of them. Verse 12.
“Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep. [God’s been tending sheep, too.] The LORD used a prophet [Moses] to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him.”
And how did they return His care? They were against Him. V.14
“But Ephraim has bitterly provoked him to anger; his Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.”
If you are against God, God will be against you.
Obviously, here is another way that they had been against God: bloodshed, violence, hurting people.
When you hurt someone else, you are going against God.
Sometimes we get the idea that we can hurt someone else, and all we’ve done is hurt that person. But that’s not true. When you hurt someone else with your words, or with violence, you are also going against God. All sin is ultimately against God.
Of course, the ultimate way that Israel had gone against God was to go after other gods: idolatry. Chapter 13, verse 1.
“When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died [the wages of sin for this nation were idolatry]. Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols.’
When we worship anything that is not God, we are worshiping against God. V.3
“Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window. [Those are dramatic word-pictures, aren’t they? Who wants to be mist, chaff or smoke?] ‘But I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.”
As we have seen again and again and again this Summer, God is a jealous God who will not allow any rivals.
When we allow ourselves to worship anything that is not God, we are worshipping against God. And God will be against our idols.
I won’t mention my carpenter ants today.
But if I did, it would be to remind us of our heart-idols which we may want to ignore or not talk about, but God does not ignore and actively opposes.
God wants to be our God alone. “You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.”
He wants to be our Savior. Our only Savior. Nothing else can save but Him.
And when He saved before? V.5
“I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”
Another way that Israel was against God was pridefully forgetting Him.
Have you ever done that? I have.
When life is going well, we tend to forget God and get full of ourselves as if we did it!
When life is going well, we pridefully forget God.
And when you are forgetting God, when you are full of yourself, you are going against God. And God will be against you. V.7
“So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open. Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart.”
“You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.”
I’ll say it again. If you are against God, God will be against you.
More pride. Verse 10.
“Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes'? So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away. The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.”
Nobody is getting away with anything.
“Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb.”
And then, these words: ‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?
And then these words: ‘I will have no compassion, even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come [Assyria], blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures. The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.’”
If you are against God, God will be against you.
Lying & deceit & fraud, bad friendship & allegiances, trusting in money, not listening to the Word of God, bloodshed & violence & hurting people, idolatry, and prideful forgetting of God.
If you are against God, God will be against you.
This is what Israel has brought upon themselves.
And, yet, there is verse 14.
Now some scholars believe that verse 14 should be full of questions like the New American Standard Version renders it: “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? [Answer, No] Shall I redeem them from death? [No.] O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?”
In that translation of the Hebrew, God is not showing mercy and is calling upon the powers of death and the grave to wipe out Israel.
And that makes a lot of sense in the context (look at verse 16!), so it could be what Hosea originally meant.
But Hosea 13:14 sounds familiar to you, doesn’t it?
It sounds like something that the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.
Paul is writing about the Resurrection. The final resurrection when the believers are raised to new life in new bodies like Christ’s new body.
And He says, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [1 Corinthians 15:51-57]
That’s what Paul saw in Hosea 13:14!
He saw a taunt against death and the grave!
He saw a ransom from the power of the grave. A redemption from death.
He saw Christ and His grace and His resurrection power.
And He saw this: IF GOD IS FOR YOU, WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU?
Yes, if you are ultimately against God, you have everything to be afraid of because God will be against you.
But if God is for you because of Jesus Christ, ultimately nobody, nobody can be against you!
Not even death and the grave–and those are your worst enemies.
If God is for you, who can be against you?
You might have a lot of things coming against you right now.
You might have trials, enemies, hardships, crises, and pain.
But if God is for you because you belong to Jesus Christ, ultimately (and that’s what counts) nothing can be against you.
Now, that’s only true if you belong to Jesus Christ by faith.
It is only those who belong to Him that know that nothing will stand against them.
If you are outside of Christ today or running from Him or don’t know, then I challenge you to come in.
Put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you have not or are not trusting Him and what He did on the Cross, then you are feeding on the wind, you are provoking Him to anger, you are going to be a morning mist, chaff on the threshing floor, smoke escaping through a window. You are against God, and He will be against you.
But you don’t have to be. God will be for you if you trust in what Jesus has done on your behalf.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 Corinthians 5:21]
Lay down your weapons and surrender to His grace. Acknowledge Him as Savior. There is no Savior but Him.
And God will be for you.
And if God is for you, who can be against you? No one.
And what should we do with our lives?
We know that we shouldn’t be against God.
What should we do? Look back at chapter 12, verse 6.
“But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.”
Return, maintain, wait.
To return is to repent. It is to go back to your first love.
Israel need to return to the LORD.
We may need to repent of something and return to Jesus.
Don’t be afraid to repent. It hurts at first but it feels so good.
Maintain love and justice.
That’s the opposite of all the ways that Israel was going against God.
Instead of lies, truth.
Instead of bad friendships and bad allegiances, good ones that help you in your walk.
Instead of trusting in money, trusting in God.
Instead of not listening, listening to the Word of God.
Instead of bloodshed and violence and hurting people, it’s loving people and being concerned about people.
Instead of idolatry, it’s true worship.
Instead of prideful forgetting God, it’s remembering God and making him the center of your life.
Maintain love and justice.
Love for God and justice/compassion with others.
Like the prophet Micah said, “He has shown thee, O Man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee. But to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” [6:8]
And to wait upon Him. To look for Him. To seek Him. To do His will.
Return to God.
Maintain love and justice.
And wait for your God always.
Because if God is for you, who can be against you?
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Matt's Messages - Holy Love
“Holy Love”
August 6, 2006
Hosea 11:1-11
This is our 8th Sunday in the book of Hosea, and at times, it has probably seemed like a broken record: judgment, doom, gloom, discipline - judgment, doom, gloom, discipline, judgment, doom, gloom, discipline.
But that’s not the Big Picture of Hosea! We got the Big Picture in chapters 1 through 3 of Hosea, and there we learned that in spite of Israel’s wickedness–which needed judgment, doom, gloom, and discipline–in spite of that the LORD has a redeeming love for His people and will not be thwarted in loving them.
God has a holy love for His people.
And that’s the message again of Hosea chapter 11.
The first picture we get of God’s holy love in chapter 11 is the love of a Father. Father-Love. Look at verse 1.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
Up till now in Hosea, Israel has been pictured as an adulterous wife. Now, Israel is pictured as a beloved son. A son whom God loves. A son upon whom God has set His love and called out of Egypt–the Exodus.
What kind of a son did Israel turn out to be? Wayward. V.2
“But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.”
So this is a rejected Father whose love is spurned by His son. V.3
“It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.”
There are two images here. In verse 3 it is the image of a Father tenderly teaching His son to walk. Holding out two fingers for him to grab on and gingerly take his first steps. Catching him under the arms so that he doesn’t fall.
But spurned. The Son doesn’t realize what the Father has been for him.
The second image (in v.4) is an agricultural image. The Father is now seen as a Farmer who loves his ox and cares gently for him, like a Father. Cords of human kindness and ties of love. So much like a Father that the Farmer treats his ox like a pet. Lifting the yoke from their neck and bending down to feed them.
Stooping to love them.
That’s Father-love. It’s tender and compassionate and gentle.
But it is also just and firm and disciplinarian when necessary, isn’t it?
When young Israel became an teenager (so to speak), he rebelled and became a stubborn young buck. V.5
“Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? [God has no choice to but to bring this discipline. V.6] Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them.”
God’s Father-Love is firm and just and disciplinarian. He knows in His wisdom that they must have the sword come to ravage their cities and put an end to their wicked plans. He knows that, and He will do it.
But, listen...
He will not give them all that they deserve!
This spurned Father, this rejected Father, will treat His wayward son with astonishing grace!
His holy love is amazingly gracious to His people.
Look at His heart in verse 8.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man–the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.”
This is, perhaps, the most amazing passage in the Book of Hosea.
We get a glimpse into the heart of God for His people.
You might get the idea from chapters 4 through 10 that God doesn’t care that much about His people–except that they have sinned and sinned and sinned against Him and must be disciplined for it.
But here we see the Big Picture again. God has a holy love for His people and it issues into astonishing grace.
Listen again to his four questions. Not one, two, or three, but four times:
“How can I give you up, Ephraim [a pet name for Israel]? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?”
Do you hear what sounds like desperation in the heart of God?
That’s amazing!
Who were Admah and Zebooim? Anyone know?
They were cities of the plain that were the suburbs of Sodom and Gomorrah.
What happened to Admah and Zeboiim? Anyone know?
They were totally destroyed in Genesis 19. Totally decimated. Absolutely nothing left. Archaeologists haven’t been able to locate any traces of those two towns.
They were completely wiped out.
And that’s what Israel deserved! Isn’t it?!
But God has a holy love for His people and it issues into astonishing grace.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim [wipe you out]? How can I hand you over [to total destruction], Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?”
Answer? He can’t. He won’t.
“My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.”
That’s what’s going on in God’s heart.
Now, this is anthropathetic language; meaning that it uses human expressions of a changed heart to somehow accurately get across what is happening in the eternal immutable heart of God.
In the heart of God is stoked a holy love for His people that causes Him to repay their adulterous treachery against Him with astonishing grace!
All of God’s compassion is aroused for His people.
Let me say that again.
In the heart of God is stoked a holy love for His people that causes Him to repay their adulterous treachery against Him with astonishing grace!
All of God’s compassion is aroused for His people.
“My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.”
He will devastate Ephraim, but not finally, not ultimately, not like Admah and Zeboiim. If you have the King James Version, you can see that the word the NIV translates as “turn” could also be rendered “return.”
God will not come back after the exile and totally wipe out Ephraim.
There is a future for Israel. That’s the point of verses 10 and 11.
“I will not come in wrath. They [Israel] will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes,’ declares the LORD.”
There is a future for Israel.
The LORD will roar like a lion and He will call His people home. And they will not resist His summons. They will repent, and they will return. He will see to it.
The will come in humility and reverent fear. They will come trembling, not like a silly dove, like we saw in chapter 7, but like a tremulous obedient dove, a homing pigeon answering the Lion of Judah’s roar.
There is a future for God’s people. He will settle them in their homes.
Is that what they deserved?
Is that what we deserve?
No. The good news of Hosea is that God gives us what we need (tenderly like a compassionate Father and firmly like a disciplining Father), but He also gives us what we don’t deserve. He gives us grace.
He doesn’t carry out the full extreme of His fierce anger even though we deserve it!
Instead, He gives us Holy Love.
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us
How Vast Beyond All Measure!
Why does He do all of this? Why doesn’t He give us what we deserve? V.9
“I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man–the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.”
He does it because He is God.
And He is not man. He is not arbitrary or random. He is not moody and changeable.
All of the talk of His changing heart does not reveal a heart that is undecided and capricious.
His heart is actually holy. It is different, set-apart, unlike our hearts.
And it is full of holy love for His covenant people.
Normally, we think of God’s holiness as issuing into judgment and condemnation. We might expect to put holy together with wrath.
But here God says, “I am the Holy One among you. [Therefore] I will not come in wrath.” I will come in grace.
God’s holiness issues into grace for His people.
That’s amazing!
That is holy love.
And how is this possible?
You know the answer, and it is what we celebrate at this Table.
God has a holy love for His people, and it issues into astonishing grace made possible by the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Did verse 1 sound familiar to you?
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
Did that sound familiar?
It’s quoted in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 about Jesus.
Remember, Jesus went down into Egypt, too, and God called Him up out of Egypt, as well.
Matthew recognized that Jesus was following the pattern of Israel. He was doing what Israel did.
Did He also fail in the wilderness and (v.2) go further away from God? Did Jesus sacrifice to the Baals and burned incense to images?
No, He did not.
Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. He was victorious.
But then, Jesus received the wrath of God.
Jesus was treated like Admah and Zeboiim.
The Father came in wrath.
Jesus took our place.
That’s how God can be gracious like this.
The Holy One of Israel is holy in both judgment and mercy.
He sacrificed His very own Son in our place.
All of the sins we had ever committed and ever will were placed upon His shoulders.
And He received the wrath we deserved.
That’s how costly is His holy love.
What should we do in response?
Well, first of all, we should RECEIVE HIS HOLY LOVE.
If you have not received His love by trusting in what He did on the Cross, then you are still in your sins and are going to Hell.
You don’t have to go to Hell.
I challenge you today to repent (to turn from your sinful way of life, no matter how good it looks or feels) and put your trust in Jesus Christ and what He did on the Cross for the forgiveness of your sins and the hope of heaven.
Receive His holy love. He offers it to you today.
And second, we should REJOICE IN HIS HOLY LOVE!
If you are in Christ, this is how God feels about you!
Do you believe that?
Do you know that?
I remember one time more than a decade ago that I felt this love in a deep way.
I was in my dorm room at Moody Bible Institute meditating on Scripture, and it struck me and I wrote it down that God was “Big, Real, and He Loves Me!”
Brothers and Sisters, “God is Big, Real, and He loves you.”
Rejoice in His Holy Love!
The third response to this, I think, is to RESIDE IN GOD’S HOLY LOVE.
The book of Jude says, “Keep yourself in God’s love.”
And I think that means both rejoicing in it and living in it and living a certain way because of it.
If we knew (really knew in our hearts!) that God loved us, how would we live?”
If we knew that God loved us with a holy love, how would we live? We’d live holy lives, wouldn’t we?
What needs to go in your life and mine?
If we reside in God’s holy love, we’re going to live out holiness and holy love ourselves.
What changes need to be made in your life and mine?
I still haven’t done anything about my carpenter ants. Have you done anything this Summer about your heart-idols?
Receive God’s holy love, rejoice in God’s holy love, reside in God’s holy love, and REMEMBER GOD’S HOLY LOVE.
That’s what this table does for us. It reminds us of what it cost God to love His people with this kind of astonishing grace.
Israel didn’t know about the Cross!
But we do.
So, we pause now to remember God’s holy love.
Holy God in Love Became
Perfect Man to Bear My Blame
On the Cross He Took My Sin
By His Death I Live Again
[The Gospel Song by Drew Jones & Bob Kauflin]
August 6, 2006
Hosea 11:1-11
This is our 8th Sunday in the book of Hosea, and at times, it has probably seemed like a broken record: judgment, doom, gloom, discipline - judgment, doom, gloom, discipline, judgment, doom, gloom, discipline.
But that’s not the Big Picture of Hosea! We got the Big Picture in chapters 1 through 3 of Hosea, and there we learned that in spite of Israel’s wickedness–which needed judgment, doom, gloom, and discipline–in spite of that the LORD has a redeeming love for His people and will not be thwarted in loving them.
God has a holy love for His people.
And that’s the message again of Hosea chapter 11.
The first picture we get of God’s holy love in chapter 11 is the love of a Father. Father-Love. Look at verse 1.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
Up till now in Hosea, Israel has been pictured as an adulterous wife. Now, Israel is pictured as a beloved son. A son whom God loves. A son upon whom God has set His love and called out of Egypt–the Exodus.
What kind of a son did Israel turn out to be? Wayward. V.2
“But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.”
So this is a rejected Father whose love is spurned by His son. V.3
“It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.”
There are two images here. In verse 3 it is the image of a Father tenderly teaching His son to walk. Holding out two fingers for him to grab on and gingerly take his first steps. Catching him under the arms so that he doesn’t fall.
But spurned. The Son doesn’t realize what the Father has been for him.
The second image (in v.4) is an agricultural image. The Father is now seen as a Farmer who loves his ox and cares gently for him, like a Father. Cords of human kindness and ties of love. So much like a Father that the Farmer treats his ox like a pet. Lifting the yoke from their neck and bending down to feed them.
Stooping to love them.
That’s Father-love. It’s tender and compassionate and gentle.
But it is also just and firm and disciplinarian when necessary, isn’t it?
When young Israel became an teenager (so to speak), he rebelled and became a stubborn young buck. V.5
“Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? [God has no choice to but to bring this discipline. V.6] Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them.”
God’s Father-Love is firm and just and disciplinarian. He knows in His wisdom that they must have the sword come to ravage their cities and put an end to their wicked plans. He knows that, and He will do it.
But, listen...
He will not give them all that they deserve!
This spurned Father, this rejected Father, will treat His wayward son with astonishing grace!
His holy love is amazingly gracious to His people.
Look at His heart in verse 8.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man–the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.”
This is, perhaps, the most amazing passage in the Book of Hosea.
We get a glimpse into the heart of God for His people.
You might get the idea from chapters 4 through 10 that God doesn’t care that much about His people–except that they have sinned and sinned and sinned against Him and must be disciplined for it.
But here we see the Big Picture again. God has a holy love for His people and it issues into astonishing grace.
Listen again to his four questions. Not one, two, or three, but four times:
“How can I give you up, Ephraim [a pet name for Israel]? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?”
Do you hear what sounds like desperation in the heart of God?
That’s amazing!
Who were Admah and Zebooim? Anyone know?
They were cities of the plain that were the suburbs of Sodom and Gomorrah.
What happened to Admah and Zeboiim? Anyone know?
They were totally destroyed in Genesis 19. Totally decimated. Absolutely nothing left. Archaeologists haven’t been able to locate any traces of those two towns.
They were completely wiped out.
And that’s what Israel deserved! Isn’t it?!
But God has a holy love for His people and it issues into astonishing grace.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim [wipe you out]? How can I hand you over [to total destruction], Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?”
Answer? He can’t. He won’t.
“My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.”
That’s what’s going on in God’s heart.
Now, this is anthropathetic language; meaning that it uses human expressions of a changed heart to somehow accurately get across what is happening in the eternal immutable heart of God.
In the heart of God is stoked a holy love for His people that causes Him to repay their adulterous treachery against Him with astonishing grace!
All of God’s compassion is aroused for His people.
Let me say that again.
In the heart of God is stoked a holy love for His people that causes Him to repay their adulterous treachery against Him with astonishing grace!
All of God’s compassion is aroused for His people.
“My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.”
He will devastate Ephraim, but not finally, not ultimately, not like Admah and Zeboiim. If you have the King James Version, you can see that the word the NIV translates as “turn” could also be rendered “return.”
God will not come back after the exile and totally wipe out Ephraim.
There is a future for Israel. That’s the point of verses 10 and 11.
“I will not come in wrath. They [Israel] will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes,’ declares the LORD.”
There is a future for Israel.
The LORD will roar like a lion and He will call His people home. And they will not resist His summons. They will repent, and they will return. He will see to it.
The will come in humility and reverent fear. They will come trembling, not like a silly dove, like we saw in chapter 7, but like a tremulous obedient dove, a homing pigeon answering the Lion of Judah’s roar.
There is a future for God’s people. He will settle them in their homes.
Is that what they deserved?
Is that what we deserve?
No. The good news of Hosea is that God gives us what we need (tenderly like a compassionate Father and firmly like a disciplining Father), but He also gives us what we don’t deserve. He gives us grace.
He doesn’t carry out the full extreme of His fierce anger even though we deserve it!
Instead, He gives us Holy Love.
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us
How Vast Beyond All Measure!
Why does He do all of this? Why doesn’t He give us what we deserve? V.9
“I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man–the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.”
He does it because He is God.
And He is not man. He is not arbitrary or random. He is not moody and changeable.
All of the talk of His changing heart does not reveal a heart that is undecided and capricious.
His heart is actually holy. It is different, set-apart, unlike our hearts.
And it is full of holy love for His covenant people.
Normally, we think of God’s holiness as issuing into judgment and condemnation. We might expect to put holy together with wrath.
But here God says, “I am the Holy One among you. [Therefore] I will not come in wrath.” I will come in grace.
God’s holiness issues into grace for His people.
That’s amazing!
That is holy love.
And how is this possible?
You know the answer, and it is what we celebrate at this Table.
God has a holy love for His people, and it issues into astonishing grace made possible by the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Did verse 1 sound familiar to you?
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
Did that sound familiar?
It’s quoted in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 about Jesus.
Remember, Jesus went down into Egypt, too, and God called Him up out of Egypt, as well.
Matthew recognized that Jesus was following the pattern of Israel. He was doing what Israel did.
Did He also fail in the wilderness and (v.2) go further away from God? Did Jesus sacrifice to the Baals and burned incense to images?
No, He did not.
Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. He was victorious.
But then, Jesus received the wrath of God.
Jesus was treated like Admah and Zeboiim.
The Father came in wrath.
Jesus took our place.
That’s how God can be gracious like this.
The Holy One of Israel is holy in both judgment and mercy.
He sacrificed His very own Son in our place.
All of the sins we had ever committed and ever will were placed upon His shoulders.
And He received the wrath we deserved.
That’s how costly is His holy love.
What should we do in response?
Well, first of all, we should RECEIVE HIS HOLY LOVE.
If you have not received His love by trusting in what He did on the Cross, then you are still in your sins and are going to Hell.
You don’t have to go to Hell.
I challenge you today to repent (to turn from your sinful way of life, no matter how good it looks or feels) and put your trust in Jesus Christ and what He did on the Cross for the forgiveness of your sins and the hope of heaven.
Receive His holy love. He offers it to you today.
And second, we should REJOICE IN HIS HOLY LOVE!
If you are in Christ, this is how God feels about you!
Do you believe that?
Do you know that?
I remember one time more than a decade ago that I felt this love in a deep way.
I was in my dorm room at Moody Bible Institute meditating on Scripture, and it struck me and I wrote it down that God was “Big, Real, and He Loves Me!”
Brothers and Sisters, “God is Big, Real, and He loves you.”
Rejoice in His Holy Love!
The third response to this, I think, is to RESIDE IN GOD’S HOLY LOVE.
The book of Jude says, “Keep yourself in God’s love.”
And I think that means both rejoicing in it and living in it and living a certain way because of it.
If we knew (really knew in our hearts!) that God loved us, how would we live?”
If we knew that God loved us with a holy love, how would we live? We’d live holy lives, wouldn’t we?
What needs to go in your life and mine?
If we reside in God’s holy love, we’re going to live out holiness and holy love ourselves.
What changes need to be made in your life and mine?
I still haven’t done anything about my carpenter ants. Have you done anything this Summer about your heart-idols?
Receive God’s holy love, rejoice in God’s holy love, reside in God’s holy love, and REMEMBER GOD’S HOLY LOVE.
That’s what this table does for us. It reminds us of what it cost God to love His people with this kind of astonishing grace.
Israel didn’t know about the Cross!
But we do.
So, we pause now to remember God’s holy love.
Holy God in Love Became
Perfect Man to Bear My Blame
On the Cross He Took My Sin
By His Death I Live Again
[The Gospel Song by Drew Jones & Bob Kauflin]
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Matt's Messages - The Law of the Harvest
“The Law of the Harvest”
July 30, 2006
Hosea 9:1-10:15
Three weeks ago, when we were last together in our study of Hosea, we learned about the “biblical law of the harvest.”
In God’s world, you harvest what you plant. Or you reap what you sow.
In God’s world, you harvest what you plant.
And we saw that Israel had sowed the wind and reaped...[what?]...the whirlwind. That was God’s judgment.
Well, chapters 9 and 10 have pretty much the same message. They are two of the saddest chapters in the whole book, and the whole Old Testament, even the whole Bible. Because in Hosea 9 and 10, God basically tells Israel that they are going to get what they deserve.
The key verses for these two chapters are in chapter 10, verses 12 and 13. And they are the central idea of today’s message:
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.”
Here’s the biblical principle again. In God’s World, You Harvest What You Plant.
What you are planting with your life will determine what you harvest.
God gave Israel a choice all along. He said (again in chapter 10, verse 12):
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.”
Sadly, most of chapters 9 and 10 explain that last sentence: “But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.”
Let’s look together at the sad seeds that Israel had planted. The first was idolatry. Chapter 9, verse 1.
“Do not rejoice, O Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.”
What is that? It is spiritual adultery which we have learned this Summer is idolatry.
Spiritual adultery is idolatry.
Israel has been unfaithful.
Like a prostitute, she has gone after other gods. Notably, the Baals.
And what will she reap? The evil of exile. V.2
“Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them. They will not remain in the LORD's land [the Promised Land]; Ephraim will return to Egypt [slavery] and eat unclean food in Assyria. They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD. What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts, on the festival days of the LORD? Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. [A foreign graveyard is their destiny.] Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents. The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this.”
Israel planted the wickedness of idolatry and will harvest the evil of exile.
All of the religious trappings and familiar surroundings of Israel will be taken away from them as they are dragged off into slavery.
“The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this.”
Israel planted the wickedness of idolatry and will harvest the evil of exile.
Idolatry is worshiping someone or something that is not God.
And we’ve learned that you don’t need statues of Baal to do it.
Anything other than God will do.
This Summer, we have been challenged to root out “idols of the heart” that take the place of God in our lives.
I have recently come to recognize that one of my strongest heart-idols is being liked and receiving the praise of men. I crave approval.
But I’m called to be a God-pleaser, not a Man-pleaser, so I have some heart-work to do. One my memory verses I’ve been thinking about recently is Proverbs 27:21, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but [Pastor Matt] is tested by the praise he receives.”
How about you?
Are you planting the seeds of idolatry or rooting them out?
I hope that you are not neglecting them.
Remember my carpenter ants? Well, I haven’t done a thing about them yet. I’ve been too busy trying to keep my van running (with the help of some friends) and get my lawn mowed. And I’d hate to kill those ants and lose the opportunity to use them as a sermon illustration!
But if I don’t get them sometime, they’ll ruin my house from the inside out.
And if we don’t root out the seeds of idolatry, we’ll have a painful harvest.
July 30, 2006
Hosea 9:1-10:15
Three weeks ago, when we were last together in our study of Hosea, we learned about the “biblical law of the harvest.”
In God’s world, you harvest what you plant. Or you reap what you sow.
In God’s world, you harvest what you plant.
And we saw that Israel had sowed the wind and reaped...[what?]...the whirlwind. That was God’s judgment.
Well, chapters 9 and 10 have pretty much the same message. They are two of the saddest chapters in the whole book, and the whole Old Testament, even the whole Bible. Because in Hosea 9 and 10, God basically tells Israel that they are going to get what they deserve.
The key verses for these two chapters are in chapter 10, verses 12 and 13. And they are the central idea of today’s message:
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.”
Here’s the biblical principle again. In God’s World, You Harvest What You Plant.
What you are planting with your life will determine what you harvest.
God gave Israel a choice all along. He said (again in chapter 10, verse 12):
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.”
Sadly, most of chapters 9 and 10 explain that last sentence: “But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception.”
Let’s look together at the sad seeds that Israel had planted. The first was idolatry. Chapter 9, verse 1.
“Do not rejoice, O Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.”
What is that? It is spiritual adultery which we have learned this Summer is idolatry.
Spiritual adultery is idolatry.
Israel has been unfaithful.
Like a prostitute, she has gone after other gods. Notably, the Baals.
And what will she reap? The evil of exile. V.2
“Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them. They will not remain in the LORD's land [the Promised Land]; Ephraim will return to Egypt [slavery] and eat unclean food in Assyria. They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD. What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts, on the festival days of the LORD? Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. [A foreign graveyard is their destiny.] Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents. The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this.”
Israel planted the wickedness of idolatry and will harvest the evil of exile.
All of the religious trappings and familiar surroundings of Israel will be taken away from them as they are dragged off into slavery.
“The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this.”
Israel planted the wickedness of idolatry and will harvest the evil of exile.
Idolatry is worshiping someone or something that is not God.
And we’ve learned that you don’t need statues of Baal to do it.
Anything other than God will do.
This Summer, we have been challenged to root out “idols of the heart” that take the place of God in our lives.
I have recently come to recognize that one of my strongest heart-idols is being liked and receiving the praise of men. I crave approval.
But I’m called to be a God-pleaser, not a Man-pleaser, so I have some heart-work to do. One my memory verses I’ve been thinking about recently is Proverbs 27:21, “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but [Pastor Matt] is tested by the praise he receives.”
How about you?
Are you planting the seeds of idolatry or rooting them out?
I hope that you are not neglecting them.
Remember my carpenter ants? Well, I haven’t done a thing about them yet. I’ve been too busy trying to keep my van running (with the help of some friends) and get my lawn mowed. And I’d hate to kill those ants and lose the opportunity to use them as a sermon illustration!
But if I don’t get them sometime, they’ll ruin my house from the inside out.
And if we don’t root out the seeds of idolatry, we’ll have a painful harvest.
The second sad seed of wickedness that Israel planted was hostility. Idolatry and hostility to both God and God’s messengers. V.7
“Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac. The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.”
Israel should have loved God and listened to the truth of His prophets. But they treated Hosea like he was crazy, and they set traps for him.
They not only rejected God, but they hated Him, too.
And they hated His messengers.
They sowed the seeds of hostility.
And what will they reap? Hate in return. V.9
“They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. [We’ll see more about that in chapter 10.] God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins. [They will reap what they have sown. They will get what they deserve.] When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert [it was a happy time]; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree [surprised by joy!]. But when they came to Baal Peor [Numbers 25], they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved [idolatry and hostility together, therefore:]. Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird–no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them! I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.’”
“Give them, O LORD–what will you give them? [What would be right?] Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry. ‘Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious. Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.’ My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.”
Do you have a theological category in your brain for the hate of God?
God is a God of love. But He also hates sin. V.15 again.
“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal [a leading idolatrous city], I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house [like an adulterous wife who is no longer welcome]. I will no longer love them...”
And Hosea was called to name his daughter, “Lo-Ruhamah”–Unloved.
Now, notice that God’s hate is not capricious or impulsive. It is a proper response to the wickedness that Israel had planted. V.17
“My God will reject them because [of hostility] they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.”
God has been more than patient and more than compassionate. But He will not be mocked. They have earned His hate. “Woe to them when I turn away from them!”
You know what? That is what happened to Jesus when He hung on the Cross for you and me.
The Father turned His face away. Jesus bore the same kind of punishment then that God is promising here. He absorbed the hate of God on our behalf.
God is promising that if Israel is going to forsake and reject Him in hate, then He will hate them back.
But if you and I belong to Christ, He has absorbed the hostility of God for us, on our behalf. That’s the gospel!
If we have faith in Christ, we reap what he sowed!
Are you trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation? Why wouldn’t you?!
Turn in your hostility against God for faith in Christ Jesus!
The third sad seed of wickedness that Israel planted was hypocrisy. Idolatry, hostility, and hypocrisy. Chapter 10, verse 1.
“Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. [Sounds good.] As his fruit increased [...He gave more praise to God, right? ...] he built more altars [!]; as his land prospered [...He glorified the LORD...], he adorned his sacred stones[!].”
That’s all messed up. Instead of giving God the glory, Israel went the wrong direction. But he wouldn’t confess to it. V.2
“Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones. Then they will say, ‘We have no king because we did not revere the LORD [then they’ll be truthful]. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us?’ [Here’s what they’re like...] They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.”
They are hypocrites.
On the outside, they claim to be fine upstanding citizens of God’s Kingdom enjoying His blessings.
But on the inside, their hearts are deceitful. They make promises and don’t keep them.
Lawsuits spring up like ragweed in a fertile field because nobody keeps their word.
They are hypocrites. They are sowing hypocrisy.
What will they reap? Terrible destruction. V.5
“The people who live in Samaria fear for the calf-idol of Beth Aven [1 Kings 12]. Its people will mourn over it, and so will its idolatrous priests, those who had rejoiced over its splendor, because it is taken from them into exile. It will be carried to Assyria as tribute for the great king. Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols. [Hypocrisy will be judged.] Samaria and its king will float away like a twig on the surface of the waters. [Samaria was the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel. It will be turbulently destroyed like a twig on a wave. V.8] The high places of wickedness will be destroyed–it is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’ and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’”
They will reap total destruction, so much so, that death will be preferred to life.
Does that last sentence sound familiar? V.8
“Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’ and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’”
The Lord Jesus said used those words in Luke 23 to describe those who will one day want to escape God’s judgment.
And John used those words in Revelation 6 to describe utter despair of the kings of the Earth as they try to get away from the wrath of the Lamb.
This is a foretaste of the great judgment to come.
All because of hypocrisy. Because their hearts were deceitful.
Are you and I sowing seeds of hypocrisy or do we love and live the truth?
Last week, we talked about learning, loving, and living the Bible. And a number of us had made commitments to growing in our learning, loving, and living the truth.
What do our lives say 7 days later?
Have we made any progress?
Are we still committed?
Are we saying one thing and doing another? That’s hypocrisy.
And we might think that we’re getting away with it, but in God’s world, you harvest what you plant. Guaranteed.
Be sure your sin will find you out.
The fourth sad seed of wickedness that Israel planted was the seed of immorality. Idolatry, hostility, hypocrisy, and immorality. V.9
“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah? When I please, I will punish them; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin.”
This is the second mention of Gibeah in today’s passage. The first was in chapter 9, verse 9. Gibeah’s story is told in Judges 19-21 and it is a sordid tale that I don’t want to repeat this morning.
It’s a story about gross rampant sin that was eventually judged by the nation of Israel.
God is saying that Israel now is worse than Gibeah was then. And it will take other nations to judge her.
In chapter 9, verse 9, He said, “They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah.”
They have sown immorality. What will they reap? Military destruction.
“Nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin.” Sin of forsaking the Lord and trusting in other gods and other nations.
Here is the context that the key verses come in. V.11
“Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh [she likes the simple life of chugging along and eating as you go]; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground.”
God’s will is for Israel to be judged. But here is the call:
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors [which won’t help!], the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated–as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children. Thus will it happen to you, O Bethel, because your wickedness is great. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.”
In God’s World, You Harvest What You Plant.
And if you plant immorality, if you plant wickedness, you will harvest complete destruction.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
You see that the opposite is true, as well.
Israel did all the wrong things. They planted the sad seeds of idolatry, hostility, hypocrisy, and immorality, and they harvested destruction. They reaped evil and ate fruit of deception.
But that’s not what God was looking for!
And it’s not what God wants for us!
He wants us to sow to please the Spirit!
He wants verse 12 for us!
“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
First, SOW FOR YOURSELVES RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Righteousness is right living, just living, goodness and living in God’s right way.
We find out in both testaments that righteousness is only possible by faith. “The righteous shall live by faith.”
So, it takes faith for us to sow in righteousness.
And as we trust, we obey and live in God’s plan. That’s what sowing in righteousness is. It’s living out faith in God’s way.
It’s the opposite of sowing idolatry, hostility, hypocrisy, and immorality.
Sow for yourselves righteousness.
What do you reap?
“Reap the fruit of unfailing love.” That’s God’s love. God’s unfailing love comes to His people.
His covenant love. His never-stopping, never-fainting, never-sleeping, never-ceasing, never-quitting, never-breaking, never-halting, never-slowing, unfailing love.
Second, BREAK UP YOUR UNPLOWED GROUND.
I think that means repentance. Allowing yourself to receive the grace of God by allowing your hardness to be broken.
Remember, repentance (or turning) is not just a one-time event. Martin Luther said that the Christian life is race of repentance.
We need to turn from our idolatry, hostility, hypocrisy, and immorality daily (hourly! minutely! secondly!) and break up our unplowed ground.
And third, SEEK THE LORD.
Hosea says, “It’s time to seek the LORD.”
Run hard after Him.
Meet Him in His Word.
Talk to Him, pray to Him, relate to Him through the day.
Seek the LORD. And what will you reap?
Showers of righteousness.
“It is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
And that’s His righteousness at work in your life: filling it, refreshing it, setting right, bringing joy to it, putting your life back together like it belongs under His righteous rule.
A shower of righteousness from the LORD.
That’s what He wants for us.
He wants to have His way with us.
The Law of the Harvest is that you reap what you sow.
In God’s world, you harvest what you plant.
What you are planting with your life will determine what you harvest.
What are we planting?
It comes down to are we living in verse 12 or verse 13?
Verse 13 was the sad downfall of the Northern Kingdom.
Idolatry, Hostility, Hypocrisy, and Immorality reaping destruction.
But verse 12 is what He wants for us.
Sowing in righteousness, breaking up our unplowed ground, and seeking the LORD.
He wants to have His way with you.
What are you planting with your life?
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Matt's Messages - Reaping the Whirlwind
“Reaping the Whirlwind”
July 9, 2006
Hosea 8:1-14
All Summer long, we’ve been studying the book of Hosea together. This is our 6th message in Hosea. Let me remind you what we’ve learned so far.
We’ve learned that Israel, especially the northern Kingdom, had been spiritually adulterous and had made for themselves idols and worshiped Baal. And because of their spiritual infidelity, God was going to bring destructive judgment upon them. And before He did that, God sent Hosea to tell them in advance what was going to happen. He did that in picture form in chapters 1 through 3 by sending Hosea to marry Gomer–an adulterous wife. And then to have children that were named “Coming Judgment, Not Loved, and Not My People.” And then in chapters 4-7, God has been further explaining this picture of coming judgment for rejection of God.
And that’s what chapter 8 says, as well.
Chapter 8 continues where chapters 1 through 7 left off. It says in prophetic words that Israel will be reaping the consequences of their actions.
Chapter 8 contains that famous phrase that everybody knows but few people know where it comes from: “They sow the wind and reap [what?] the whirlwind.” “Reaping the Whirlwind.”
Hosea chapter 8 is a great example of the biblical “law of the harvest.”
You know what the “biblical law of the harvest” is, don’t you?
In God’s world, you reap what you sow.
Or to put it another way, IN GOD’S WORLD, YOU HARVEST WHAT YOU PLANT.
And we’re talking spiritually here.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (vv.7-9)
That’s the biblical law of the harvest: In God’s world, you harvest what you plant.
What did Israel plant?
Hosea chapter 8 verse 7 says, “They sow[ed] the wind and [will] reap the whirlwind.”
Israel didn’t sow anything worthwhile. They planted worthlessness, just wind.
And wind is what they got back...and did they ever!
“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”
They planted a worthless breeze, and they harvested a terrible storm.
What did they plant? Three things.
They planted rejection of God’s ways, construction of false gods, and confidence in all the wrong places.
Let’s take those one at a time.
First Wind-Seed: THEY REJECTED GOD’S WAYS. V.1
“Put the trumpet to your lips! [Hosea. You need to announce this one big time!] An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law.”
An eagle seems to have been a symbol of coming judgment. The word could also be translated “vulture.” This eagle is not like this one up here that stands for beauty and majesty. This is an swooping eagle ready to devour the people of Israel. But Israel says that they don’t deserve it. V.2
“Israel cries out to me, 'O our God, we acknowledge you!' [We know you!] But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him. They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval.”
Notice all of the rejection words in these first 4 verses:
V.1 “The people have broken my covenant.”
V.1 They have “rebelled against my law.”
V.3 They have “rejected what is good.”
V.4 “They set up kings without my consent! [5 kings in 13 years, 3 by assassination of the one that came before him.] They choose princes without my approval.”
What’s going on here?
They rejected God’s ways.
That’s what they planted, and they will reap the whirlwind for it. V.1 An eagle is coming. V.3, “An enemy will pursue...”
Assyria will swoop down upon Israel and destroy it, carrying off many into exile.
Why? Because they rejected God’s ways.
In our home, we have a saying for this: “With Disobedience Comes Danger.”
The biblical law of the harvest teaches that if you plant the wind-seed of rejection of God’s ways, you will harvest the windstorm of God’s displeasure.
Is that what you are planting with your life?
I’m sure that’s not what you would say with your lips. But what does your life say?
Israel said (v.2), “O our God, we know you!”
But God knows better and cannot be mocked. In God’s World, You Harvest What You Plant.
What are you planting?
Many people claim to know God but have really rejected God’s ways.
We see it all the time:
Professing Christians getting unbiblical divorces.
Professing Christians having sex before and outside of marriage.
Professing Christians cheating on their taxes or not paying their debts.
Professing Christians gossiping about their neighbors.
Professing Christians refusing to forgive those who have sinned against them.
Professing Christians cussing up a storm.
Jesus saw it, too. He said in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?”
What are you planting? Are you planting rejection of God’s ways?
Or submission to God’s ways?
That’s what Israel should have done. Look down at v.12
“I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something alien.”
What should they have done? They should have submitted to God’s ways.
He gave them the law. They should have obeyed it.
What happens if obedience is what you plant?
Well, the biblical law of the harvest says that you harvest what you plant. So if you plant faith-filled-obedience, you will harvest blessing.
In our home we say (just about every day): “With Obedience Comes Blessing.”
Now, that’s not a one-for-one occurrence every day because the Curse is at work in this world and sometimes we have to wait for the next world for that blessing to come through. And this is not an earning of blessing as if it was a work, but a receiving of a blessing by faith–faith-filled obedience is what receives this kind of blessing.
But it’s absolutely true. With Obedience Comes Blessing.
We need to submit to God’s ways.
Have you reached a point in your life where you are ready to surrender to the Lordship of Christ?
What God says goes?
What God says to do, you will do, no matter the cost?
That’s what it means to be a disciple. And none of us do it perfectly, but real disciples do it authentically.
And everyone else is just sowing the wind.
We need to submit to God’s ways.
Are there any of God’s commands that you consciously know right now that you have no plans to submit to?
If so, you are sowing the wind. And you can expect the whirlwind.
The second wind-seed is this: THEY CONSTRUCTED FALSE GODS.
They not only rejected the ways of the true God, they constructed for themselves false gods. V.4.
“With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction [whirlwind]. Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity? They are from Israel! [Shocking!] This calf–a craftsman has made it; it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria.”
July 9, 2006
Hosea 8:1-14
All Summer long, we’ve been studying the book of Hosea together. This is our 6th message in Hosea. Let me remind you what we’ve learned so far.
We’ve learned that Israel, especially the northern Kingdom, had been spiritually adulterous and had made for themselves idols and worshiped Baal. And because of their spiritual infidelity, God was going to bring destructive judgment upon them. And before He did that, God sent Hosea to tell them in advance what was going to happen. He did that in picture form in chapters 1 through 3 by sending Hosea to marry Gomer–an adulterous wife. And then to have children that were named “Coming Judgment, Not Loved, and Not My People.” And then in chapters 4-7, God has been further explaining this picture of coming judgment for rejection of God.
And that’s what chapter 8 says, as well.
Chapter 8 continues where chapters 1 through 7 left off. It says in prophetic words that Israel will be reaping the consequences of their actions.
Chapter 8 contains that famous phrase that everybody knows but few people know where it comes from: “They sow the wind and reap [what?] the whirlwind.” “Reaping the Whirlwind.”
Hosea chapter 8 is a great example of the biblical “law of the harvest.”
You know what the “biblical law of the harvest” is, don’t you?
In God’s world, you reap what you sow.
Or to put it another way, IN GOD’S WORLD, YOU HARVEST WHAT YOU PLANT.
And we’re talking spiritually here.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (vv.7-9)
That’s the biblical law of the harvest: In God’s world, you harvest what you plant.
What did Israel plant?
Hosea chapter 8 verse 7 says, “They sow[ed] the wind and [will] reap the whirlwind.”
Israel didn’t sow anything worthwhile. They planted worthlessness, just wind.
And wind is what they got back...and did they ever!
“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”
They planted a worthless breeze, and they harvested a terrible storm.
What did they plant? Three things.
They planted rejection of God’s ways, construction of false gods, and confidence in all the wrong places.
Let’s take those one at a time.
First Wind-Seed: THEY REJECTED GOD’S WAYS. V.1
“Put the trumpet to your lips! [Hosea. You need to announce this one big time!] An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law.”
An eagle seems to have been a symbol of coming judgment. The word could also be translated “vulture.” This eagle is not like this one up here that stands for beauty and majesty. This is an swooping eagle ready to devour the people of Israel. But Israel says that they don’t deserve it. V.2
“Israel cries out to me, 'O our God, we acknowledge you!' [We know you!] But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him. They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval.”
Notice all of the rejection words in these first 4 verses:
V.1 “The people have broken my covenant.”
V.1 They have “rebelled against my law.”
V.3 They have “rejected what is good.”
V.4 “They set up kings without my consent! [5 kings in 13 years, 3 by assassination of the one that came before him.] They choose princes without my approval.”
What’s going on here?
They rejected God’s ways.
That’s what they planted, and they will reap the whirlwind for it. V.1 An eagle is coming. V.3, “An enemy will pursue...”
Assyria will swoop down upon Israel and destroy it, carrying off many into exile.
Why? Because they rejected God’s ways.
In our home, we have a saying for this: “With Disobedience Comes Danger.”
The biblical law of the harvest teaches that if you plant the wind-seed of rejection of God’s ways, you will harvest the windstorm of God’s displeasure.
Is that what you are planting with your life?
I’m sure that’s not what you would say with your lips. But what does your life say?
Israel said (v.2), “O our God, we know you!”
But God knows better and cannot be mocked. In God’s World, You Harvest What You Plant.
What are you planting?
Many people claim to know God but have really rejected God’s ways.
We see it all the time:
Professing Christians getting unbiblical divorces.
Professing Christians having sex before and outside of marriage.
Professing Christians cheating on their taxes or not paying their debts.
Professing Christians gossiping about their neighbors.
Professing Christians refusing to forgive those who have sinned against them.
Professing Christians cussing up a storm.
Jesus saw it, too. He said in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?”
What are you planting? Are you planting rejection of God’s ways?
Or submission to God’s ways?
That’s what Israel should have done. Look down at v.12
“I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something alien.”
What should they have done? They should have submitted to God’s ways.
He gave them the law. They should have obeyed it.
What happens if obedience is what you plant?
Well, the biblical law of the harvest says that you harvest what you plant. So if you plant faith-filled-obedience, you will harvest blessing.
In our home we say (just about every day): “With Obedience Comes Blessing.”
Now, that’s not a one-for-one occurrence every day because the Curse is at work in this world and sometimes we have to wait for the next world for that blessing to come through. And this is not an earning of blessing as if it was a work, but a receiving of a blessing by faith–faith-filled obedience is what receives this kind of blessing.
But it’s absolutely true. With Obedience Comes Blessing.
We need to submit to God’s ways.
Have you reached a point in your life where you are ready to surrender to the Lordship of Christ?
What God says goes?
What God says to do, you will do, no matter the cost?
That’s what it means to be a disciple. And none of us do it perfectly, but real disciples do it authentically.
And everyone else is just sowing the wind.
We need to submit to God’s ways.
Are there any of God’s commands that you consciously know right now that you have no plans to submit to?
If so, you are sowing the wind. And you can expect the whirlwind.
The second wind-seed is this: THEY CONSTRUCTED FALSE GODS.
They not only rejected the ways of the true God, they constructed for themselves false gods. V.4.
“With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction [whirlwind]. Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity? They are from Israel! [Shocking!] This calf–a craftsman has made it; it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria.”
King Jeroboam I had created two golden calves, one at the top of the kingdom and one at the bottom, to keep the Israelites from going down to the true temple in Jerusalem. And when he did it, he told the people, “Here is your god!” (2 King 12)
I think he took a page out of Priest Aaron’s playbook.
Well, those golden calves were a real snare to the people of the northern kingdom. They worshiped them instead of the LORD.
And the LORD will not stand for any rivals. If you sow idolatry, you will reap God’s hot displeasure.
Notice how almost beside Himself, God is in v.5 “How long will they be incapable of purity? They are from Israel!”
God almost can’t believe it. And it pains Him to no end.
They Constructed False Gods.
We do, too, don’t we?
Most of the time, they aren’t exterior false gods. They are internal false gods. “Idols of the heart.”
How are you doing with your carpenter ants?
I still haven’t sprayed around the perimeter of my house. I was sick last week, and this week was the fourth of July, and I’ve been pretty busy, and a bunch of other excuses.
So far, my house is still standing. But you and I both know that I need to get at those ants or they will destroy my house from the inside out.
Idols of the heart are the same way. If we let them go unchecked, they will destroy us from the inside out.
What are you planting?
Is it construction of a false god?
Maybe that idea of an idol of the heart is a hard idea to wrap your mind around.
My friend Bob Jones has recently published a book entitled, Uprooting Anger. And in it, he offers this list of possible heart-idols. See if you can relate to any of these desires:
Be free of intense problems and pressures.Now, is there anything bad on that list? No. Everything there is a good desire in its proper place.
Privacy
Hold and express personal opinions
Have money/possessions and use them as you choose
Plan my daily schedule
Be respected, appreciated, considered important
Friends, close relationships
Be loved and accepted
Be understood, listened to
Be supported and cared for
Make my own decisions
Plan my future
Good health, adequate medical care
Date or marry
Loving, caring, committed spouse
Sexual fulfillment
Children
Raise children the way you choose
Children who obey, respect, appreciate you
Children who work hard and succeed in school/job/marriage
Be successful in job, family, or church
Satisfying employment, enjoying your job
Affirmation from your employer
Day off from work
Coworkers respect, appreciate you
Personal hopes and aspirations fulfilled
Be treated fairly
Have fun in life
Be physically protected, secure
But any desire there that takes the place of God, is a false god and needs to go.
What does God say to Israel in v.5?
“Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria!”
Throw it out! It’s got to go.
Why? V.6 “It is not God!”
None of these things can satisfy. The Old Testament makes the case again and again that idols are man-made and therefore are not god. If it can be constructed, it shouldn’t be worshiped.
It is not God.
So, how are you doing this Summer at throwing out your heart-idols.
I have really struggled with that this Summer. If Hosea isn’t for any one else this Summer, it’s for me.
Last night, I got another picture in my head of what it’s like carting around these idols of the heart.
We still have two in diapers right now. I’m hoping that one or both of them move out of the diaper stage in the next few months. But for the last 6 years, we’ve had this thing called a diaper pail in our house. You’re familiar with what goes in there, right?
Well, every evening, we take the bag out of the diaper pail and tie it up and toss it out the steps to be put into the garbage cans. For the last several years, that has often been one of the kids’ jobs–to take out the garbage. It’s cute to watch Isaac do it, for example.
Well, last night, I thought to myself, what if I didn’t throw them out, but clung to them and hid them around the house. In the cupboard, in the fridge, under the bed, in the closet, and so forth.
Because they are good things, right? Diapers are a great idea. Especially the paper kind, I’d love to thank the person who came up with Pampers! They are a good thing.
And what if I continued to cling onto that good thing?
Well, our house would become uninhabitable, wouldn’t it?
My wife would leave me!
If that’s what I planted, the harvest would really stink. [Pun intended.]
Well, that’s what are doing when we cling to our heart idols. And God wants us to “throw them out.”
The New Testament book of first John ends by saying, “Dear Children, keep yourselves from idols.” And John knew that it was the heart-idols that stunk the most.
What are you planting?
Israel constructed false gods.
We need to throw them out. And worship God alone.
In God’s world, you harvest what you plant. V.7
“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.”
In other words, Israel is getting what they deserve.
In God’s world, you harvest what you plant.
The third wind-seed that Israel planted was confidence in all the wrong things.
THEY PUT THEIR TRUST IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES.
Others. V.8
“Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations like a worthless thing. For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone [nothing more stupidly independent than a wild donkey]. Ephraim has sold herself to lovers. Although they have sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them together. They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king.”
Israel thought that they should put their trust in bad alliances.
Israel put their confidence in their bonds with other nations. And God thinks of that as adultery, too!
When Israel should have trusted in God alone, instead they trusted in other people.
We do the same thing, don’t we? We look to other people to make us happy.
A husband, a wife, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a roommate, a child, a parent.
A boss? An employee.
Now, we are to trust people in a limited way, but not exclusively and definitely not at the exclusion of God.
We are to love people and trust God.
Israel put their confidence in all the wrong places.
Others. And religion. V.11
“Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings [sounds good], these have become altars for sinning. I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something alien. They offer sacrifices given to me and they eat the meat [looks good], but the LORD is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt. [They will return to slavery.]”
It’s not that these people weren’t religious. They were very religious.
In fact, they were trusting in their religion to get them by!
But God cannot be mocked.
He doesn’t care about our religiosity if it isn’t based upon true relationship with Him.
He’s the One we need to trust.
But Israel put their confidence in all the wrong places.
Other nations, religion, and worst of all, themselves. V.14
“Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns. But I will [bring the harvest] send fire upon their cities that will consume their fortresses.”
Israel forgot God and trusted in their own abilities.
That’s what a palace and fortress and a fortified town signify.
Instead of trusting in the God, they trusted in their own abilities to protect themselves.
Have you ever done that? I know that I have.
Self-reliance is what they planted. What did it harvest? V.14
“I will send fire upon their cities that will consume their fortresses.”
If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.
If you plant the wind, you will harvest the windstorm.
What are you planting?
Confidence in all the wrong places or trusting in Jesus?
Do you know that Jesus never planted, never sowed, to the flesh?
He never sinned.
And because He never sinned and because He died in our place, He gives us His perfect score at submitting to God’s ways, rejecting false gods, and trusting in God alone.
You might hear a message like this and think, “I’ll never make it. I’ll never submit perfectly to God’s ways. I’ll never get the 100% best of my heart-idols. I’m always putting my trust in other people who will let me down, religiosity, and self-reliance.”
And you’re right. But as much as this passage is about planting towards righteousness, it’s also about how we can’t do it ourselves.
Hosea chapter 8 points us to our need of a Savior Who did it all perfectly on our behalf.
Are you trusting Him?
He is worthy of your trust.
If you are not yet a faith-follower of Jesus Christ, I challenge you to begin to follow Him today by placing your trust in Him and what He did on the Cross.
Tell Jesus that you want to submit to God’s ways.
Tell Jesus that you want to worship God alone.
Tell Jesus that you want to trust Him and not other people, religion, or yourself.
Tell Jesus that you want to begin to sow to the Spirit and to reap eternal life.
Because if you don’t, your whirlwind will be an eternal fire.
Trust Him right now.
If you are a faith-follower of Christ today, I challenge you to live like it.
Because if you don’t, your whirlwind could be a painful discipline.
Our girls who went to the Challenge Conference this week were challenged to actually live the Christian life.
To submit to God’s ways. What He says, goes.
To worship God alone and throw out their heart-idols.
And to trust in God alone and not in friends, religiosity, or themselves.
To sow to the Spirit.
To not forget your Maker but to trust in Him with all your heart.
I challenge you to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
It’s the greatest adventure you could ever live.
And it leads to the greatest blessing.
Because the biblical law of the harvest says, “In God’s World, You Harvest What You Plant.”
What are you planting?
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Matt's Messages - Real Repentance
“Real Repentance”
June 25, 2006
Hosea 6:1-7:16
Last week in our study of this Israeli prophet in the last years of the northern kingdom, we heard God charge Israel with a lack of knowledge of Himself–a deliberately chosen rejection of knowledge of God Himself. And God said that because Israel had broken her covenant and chosen to not know God, judgment and destruction would come upon her. He said, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (4:6) and He promised to do the destroying Himself.
Chapter 5 ended with the Lord prophesying, “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them. Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (5:14-15).
And it appears, at first glance, that chapter 6 begins with that very seeking.
But is it genuine? Is it authentic? Is it “Real Repentance?”
Because you know and I know that there are two kinds of repentance: the real kind and the fake.
Fake repentance sounds like real repentance but there’s no real change in the heart.
Fake repentance looks good at first glance but the inside isn’t there.
We’ve all seen it with children, haven’t we?
“Say you’re sorry.”
“I’m sorry!”
“You don’t sound sorry!”
And you know that they are not.
Well, you and I are just more sophisticated than children. We’re not necessarily any better.
And I believe that one of the reasons this passage is in the Bible is to teach us about the dangers of false repentance. And to call us to the real deal.
These first three verses sound really good don’t they? “Come, let us return to the LORD!”
But is it real repentance?
Some Bible scholars think so, and I respect their opinion. It’s possible that these are the words of Hosea calling the people to repentance or these are the words of Israel some day down the line–inserted here to give hope.
But I don’t think so.
I think this is a case of fake repentance. Israel just going through the motions.
I think that Israel is presuming upon God here.
ISRAEL EXPECTS REVIVAL WITHOUT REAL REPENTANCE. V.1
“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. [These are words taken directly out of the previous chapter. The LORD promised to tear them and injure them. But Israel expects Him to heal them. V.2] After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.”
Now, that sounds to me like presumption. Like Israel didn’t really expect any elongated discipline for their sin. Israel expects to be quickly forgiven and cleared of all charges.
Kind of like Catherine the Great who said something like, “God will forgive me; that’s His job!”
I think a lot of people have that kind of a view of God. “God will forgive me; that’s His job!”
Now, there is the ditch on the one hand of not believing that God will ever forgive, that God is not gracious, that God is not generous.
But the other ditch is just as dangerous and it is what I think Israel is doing here–presuming upon God’s grace.
“After two days he will revive us; [at least!] on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. [That’s what He says He wants!] As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”
Count on it! Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all we have to do is call and He’ll be there!
What’s missing in this little speech?
Sin. Humility. Brokenness. Real Repentance.
Israel expects to just breeze back in with little to no consequence for their actions.
Gomer has been off with another man but expects Hosea to welcome her back with an indulgent smile.
Israel expects revival without real repentance.
And it’s not going to happen.
But we do the same thing don’t we?
We expect God to bless us and never consider our own personal sin.
Most of our prayer times lack confession.
We don’t examine ourselves very often and when we do we quickly move over our sin.
Now, I’m not calling here for morbid introspection. Some of us are prone to that and need a different message–one of “look to Christ 10 times for every look at your sinful heart.” And as the Puritan Richard Sibbes said, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in me.” Some of us need to hear that.
But most of us need to hear a call to real repentance.
Most of us need to hear a call to self-examination, regular confession, and a real turning from our sin.
Remember, repentance is not just something that happens at our new birth. Repentance is a way of life for the Christian.
Martin Luther said that the Christian life is “a race of repentance.”
And we can’t expect revival without it.
Personal revival or corporate revival.
Revival won’t come unless and until there is real repentance.
Do you desire personal and corporate revival? It begins with real repentance.
That’s now what we are seeing here. God sees through their words to their hearts. V.4
“‘What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love [Hebrew: HESED, covenant loyalty] is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.”
You say you love me now but a few minutes later your love has Alzheimer’s. There’s no real repentance here. But there will be real judgment. V.5
“Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.”
It is coming. It’s so sure that my words have made it so. Why?
“For I desire mercy [Hebrew: HESED], not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
This is what God wants. God wants covenant loyalty. That word “mercy” in v.6 is translated “loyalty” in the New American Standard Bible. Hesed. Others translate it “steadfast love.”
And God wants knowledge of Himself. We use the phrase around here a “love relationship” with God. That’s what He’s talking about here.
He wants covenant love and knowledge of Himself rather than sacrifice or burnt offerings.
Now, this verse does not mean that God didn’t ever want sacrifices of burnt offerings. Of course, He did. He required them in the Old Testament Law, and He fulfilled them in the New Covenant sacrifice of our Savior.
But Israel thought that they could do the sacrifices without the mercy/love.
And they thought that they could do the burnt offerings without the knowledge/acknowledgment of God Himself.
They thought they could get away with the outside stuff and skip the inside.
But God wanted their hearts!
They wanted to simply placate God instead of pleasing Him.
And that’s not what God wants.
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
GOD DESIRES REAL REPENTANCE AND RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS PEOPLE.
He wants our hearts.
But that’s not what Israel was offering. V.7
“Like Adam, they have broken the covenant–they were unfaithful to me there. Gilead is a city of wicked men, stained with footprints of blood. As marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests [priests!]; they murder on the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There Ephraim is given to prostitution and Israel is defiled. Also for you, Judah, a harvest is appointed.”
Israel from town to town and up and down had become idolatrous with spiritual adultery.
It’s not because God didn’t desire to give them revival, it’s because He knew that their repentance was not real. Chapter 7, verse 1.
“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I would heal Israel [I wanted to!], the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets; but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me.”
That doesn’t sound like real repentance.
Paul Tripp defines repentance as “a radical change of heart that leads to a radical change of life.”
There is no repentance here.
How are you doing with your “carpenter ants?”
Last week, I told you about the little black intruders in our house and my plans to exterminate them. [Note to blog readers and email subscribers, this was in the audio version of last week's sermon only.]
Well, I haven’t got it done yet. I was out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week and it rained on Friday night. So, I haven’t been able to spray the perimeter and send some poisoned granules back to the queen.
And this week, I’m going to Denver for the EFCA National Conference on Tuesday.
June 25, 2006
Hosea 6:1-7:16
Last week in our study of this Israeli prophet in the last years of the northern kingdom, we heard God charge Israel with a lack of knowledge of Himself–a deliberately chosen rejection of knowledge of God Himself. And God said that because Israel had broken her covenant and chosen to not know God, judgment and destruction would come upon her. He said, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (4:6) and He promised to do the destroying Himself.
Chapter 5 ended with the Lord prophesying, “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them. Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (5:14-15).
And it appears, at first glance, that chapter 6 begins with that very seeking.
But is it genuine? Is it authentic? Is it “Real Repentance?”
Because you know and I know that there are two kinds of repentance: the real kind and the fake.
Fake repentance sounds like real repentance but there’s no real change in the heart.
Fake repentance looks good at first glance but the inside isn’t there.
We’ve all seen it with children, haven’t we?
“Say you’re sorry.”
“I’m sorry!”
“You don’t sound sorry!”
And you know that they are not.
Well, you and I are just more sophisticated than children. We’re not necessarily any better.
And I believe that one of the reasons this passage is in the Bible is to teach us about the dangers of false repentance. And to call us to the real deal.
These first three verses sound really good don’t they? “Come, let us return to the LORD!”
But is it real repentance?
Some Bible scholars think so, and I respect their opinion. It’s possible that these are the words of Hosea calling the people to repentance or these are the words of Israel some day down the line–inserted here to give hope.
But I don’t think so.
I think this is a case of fake repentance. Israel just going through the motions.
I think that Israel is presuming upon God here.
ISRAEL EXPECTS REVIVAL WITHOUT REAL REPENTANCE. V.1
“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. [These are words taken directly out of the previous chapter. The LORD promised to tear them and injure them. But Israel expects Him to heal them. V.2] After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.”
Now, that sounds to me like presumption. Like Israel didn’t really expect any elongated discipline for their sin. Israel expects to be quickly forgiven and cleared of all charges.
Kind of like Catherine the Great who said something like, “God will forgive me; that’s His job!”
I think a lot of people have that kind of a view of God. “God will forgive me; that’s His job!”
Now, there is the ditch on the one hand of not believing that God will ever forgive, that God is not gracious, that God is not generous.
But the other ditch is just as dangerous and it is what I think Israel is doing here–presuming upon God’s grace.
“After two days he will revive us; [at least!] on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. [That’s what He says He wants!] As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”
Count on it! Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all we have to do is call and He’ll be there!
What’s missing in this little speech?
Sin. Humility. Brokenness. Real Repentance.
Israel expects to just breeze back in with little to no consequence for their actions.
Gomer has been off with another man but expects Hosea to welcome her back with an indulgent smile.
Israel expects revival without real repentance.
And it’s not going to happen.
But we do the same thing don’t we?
We expect God to bless us and never consider our own personal sin.
Most of our prayer times lack confession.
We don’t examine ourselves very often and when we do we quickly move over our sin.
Now, I’m not calling here for morbid introspection. Some of us are prone to that and need a different message–one of “look to Christ 10 times for every look at your sinful heart.” And as the Puritan Richard Sibbes said, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in me.” Some of us need to hear that.
But most of us need to hear a call to real repentance.
Most of us need to hear a call to self-examination, regular confession, and a real turning from our sin.
Remember, repentance is not just something that happens at our new birth. Repentance is a way of life for the Christian.
Martin Luther said that the Christian life is “a race of repentance.”
And we can’t expect revival without it.
Personal revival or corporate revival.
Revival won’t come unless and until there is real repentance.
Do you desire personal and corporate revival? It begins with real repentance.
That’s now what we are seeing here. God sees through their words to their hearts. V.4
“‘What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love [Hebrew: HESED, covenant loyalty] is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.”
You say you love me now but a few minutes later your love has Alzheimer’s. There’s no real repentance here. But there will be real judgment. V.5
“Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.”
It is coming. It’s so sure that my words have made it so. Why?
“For I desire mercy [Hebrew: HESED], not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
This is what God wants. God wants covenant loyalty. That word “mercy” in v.6 is translated “loyalty” in the New American Standard Bible. Hesed. Others translate it “steadfast love.”
And God wants knowledge of Himself. We use the phrase around here a “love relationship” with God. That’s what He’s talking about here.
He wants covenant love and knowledge of Himself rather than sacrifice or burnt offerings.
Now, this verse does not mean that God didn’t ever want sacrifices of burnt offerings. Of course, He did. He required them in the Old Testament Law, and He fulfilled them in the New Covenant sacrifice of our Savior.
But Israel thought that they could do the sacrifices without the mercy/love.
And they thought that they could do the burnt offerings without the knowledge/acknowledgment of God Himself.
They thought they could get away with the outside stuff and skip the inside.
But God wanted their hearts!
They wanted to simply placate God instead of pleasing Him.
And that’s not what God wants.
“I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
GOD DESIRES REAL REPENTANCE AND RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS PEOPLE.
He wants our hearts.
But that’s not what Israel was offering. V.7
“Like Adam, they have broken the covenant–they were unfaithful to me there. Gilead is a city of wicked men, stained with footprints of blood. As marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests [priests!]; they murder on the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There Ephraim is given to prostitution and Israel is defiled. Also for you, Judah, a harvest is appointed.”
Israel from town to town and up and down had become idolatrous with spiritual adultery.
It’s not because God didn’t desire to give them revival, it’s because He knew that their repentance was not real. Chapter 7, verse 1.
“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I would heal Israel [I wanted to!], the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets; but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me.”
That doesn’t sound like real repentance.
Paul Tripp defines repentance as “a radical change of heart that leads to a radical change of life.”
There is no repentance here.
How are you doing with your “carpenter ants?”
Last week, I told you about the little black intruders in our house and my plans to exterminate them. [Note to blog readers and email subscribers, this was in the audio version of last week's sermon only.]
Well, I haven’t got it done yet. I was out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week and it rained on Friday night. So, I haven’t been able to spray the perimeter and send some poisoned granules back to the queen.
And this week, I’m going to Denver for the EFCA National Conference on Tuesday.
If I don’t get it done on Monday, it’s not going to get done this week.
So, all of my big words last week about really killing those big black ants didn’t issue into any reality, yet.
Last week, I said that those ants are like our heart-idols. We’ve got to do away them.
We’ve got to eliminate them.
We’ve got to exterminate the flesh.
No more excuses. No more playing games. No more saying one thing but really doing another.
Because God desires real repentance and relationship with His people.
That’s where revival comes from.
God desires real repentance and relationship with His people.
Fake repentance just gets you more in trouble!
FAKE REPENTANCE MAKES PEOPLE EVEN MORE FOOLISH.
In chapter 7, God uses 4 colorful word pictures to show how foolish fake repentance makes somebody.
The first is an oven. V.3
“They [Israel] delight the king with their wickedness, the princes with their lies. [The leaders are happy with the spiritual state of the nation.] They are all adulterers, burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir from the kneading of the dough till it rises. [In other words, there’s a lot of hot coals of sin sizzling away in that furnace.] On the day of the festival of our king the princes become inflamed with wine, and he joins hands with the mockers. [A drunken orgy in the palace of God’s king!] Their hearts are like an oven; they approach him with intrigue [that is, the others at this party don’t really love the king, they are out to get his place]. Their passion smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. All of them are hot as an oven; they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them calls on me.”
Did you know that during 30 years of Hosea’s ministry, four of the six kings that lived then assassinated their predecessor and only one of them died in his bed?
They said, “Come, let us return to the LORD!” But they were burning and burning and burning inside.
Friends, if we have fake repentance, our inner sins will inflame us even more.
You might talk a good talk here at church, but if you aren’t right with God on the inside, then it’s just going to burn and churn and burn and churn and it will come blazing out. Guaranteed.
The second word-picture is a half-baked cake. V.8
“Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over. Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice. Israel's arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this he does not return to the LORD his God or search for him.”
“A flat cake not turned over.”
In other words, it’s burnt on one side and raw on the other. Good for nothing.
That comes because Ephraim/Israel puts her trust in other nations. And Ephraim has gotten old and gray, his death is on the way, but he doesn’t realize it. He is so full of himself that it gives the lie to his words of repentance.
His repentance is fake. And He is more and more foolish and more and more good for nothing.
Who would like a cake that was burnt on one side and raw on the other?
I wonder if Gomer ever baked one like that for good old Hosea?
False repentance makes you good for nothing, and you don’t even realize it.
You say you are living for God, but you aren’t effective for the kingdom, and in time, you don’t even know that you’re not the real deal.
False repentance makes you good for nothing, and you don’t even realize it.
And it makes you dupe, too. D-U-P-E. A sucker. You fall for anything. V.11
“Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless–now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria. [Make up your mind!] When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like birds of the air. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them.”
This word picture is that of a dove. Or we would say, “a stool pigeon.”
Ephraim couldn’t make up their minds, and they fell for everything.
First Egypt, then Assyria. Like a dumb bird.
And God says that He’s a fowler going to hunt them down. V.13
“Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak lies against me.”
There is no real repentance here.
They’ve lied so long they can’t tell what is true!
And they don’t look to God. V.14
“They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds. They gather together for grain and new wine but turn away from me.”
Notice that they do cry. Tears do not always mean real repentance.
I’ve sat with several people who have cried and cried over their sin but did not really turn from it.
Paul calls that “worldly sorrow.” Not godly sorrow. (2 Cor. 7:10)
It’s what Esau had when he lost the birthright and the blessing.
Sorry he got caught. Sorry he didn’t get the blessing.
Not really sorry for his sin against God.
Real repentance (v.14) cries out from the heart to God. It doesn’t just “wail upon their beds.”
V.15 “I trained them and strengthened them, but they plot evil against me. They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.”
The last word picture is that of a faulty bow. It doesn’t do what it was made to do.
God laments that He trained them and strengthened them, taught them like His own child, but they rebelled. They didn’t do what they were made to do. They are like a bow that can’t be trusted to send a arrow where it belongs.
And they are going to suffer for it. Even down in the land of their enemy, Egypt, they are going to be laughed at.
They aren’t what they were meant to be.
That’s what fake repentance does to us. It turns us into something that we were never meant to be.
Are you just pretending?
Are you just going through the motions?
If so, you are a faulty bow. You aren’t what you were meant to be.
But you don’t have to.
GOD IS CALLING US ALL TO REAL REPENTANCE.
Did you notice how willing God was to revive His people?
Chapter 7, verse 1. “Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I would heal Israel.”
Verse 13, “I long to redeem them...”
All of chapter 7 is a back and forth between them and God.
I would do this, but they did that.
I would do this, but they did that.
V.7 “None of them calls on me.”
V.10 “He does not return to the LORD his God or search for Him.”
V.14 “They do not cry out to me from their hearts.”
V.16 “They do not turn to the Most High God.”
That’s what He wants!
He wants real repentance.
He wants real relationship.
He wants healing and wholeness in our covenant love.
He wants real repentance.
And He calls us to it today.
Hosea 6:6 is a famous passage in the rest of the Bible because it shows up in the Gospel of Matthew on the lips of our Savior.
Jesus had called Matthew the tax collector to be his disciple. And Matthew had thrown an evangelistic party to celebrate His conversion to the Messiah.
Well, the Pharisees got wind of this little party. They saw that he was eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners–people who knew that they were sinners!
And they asked the disciples (Matthew 9:11), “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners.’” You can hear the pride and arrogance in their words!
Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who a need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy (covenant love), not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The Pharisees were sinners, too, but they couldn’t even see it.
Their repentance was fake. And they had even fooled themselves.
But Jesus is after sinners. He loves them!
He loves sinners!
He came to seek and the save that which was lost!
He loves sinners!
He isn’t surprised at your sin or shocked by it!
He wants to redeem you from it. He wants to forgive and restore and bring revival.
But you have to believe that you’re a sinner, too, and that that’s a bad thing.
And you have to respond to Him in a real turning in your heart to Him.
A real repentance, not just words. But if you do, He will restore you.
If you are not yet a Christian, He will save you.
And if you are a Christian, He will revive you.
It’s not cheap and easy. Fake repentance doesn’t realize how costly God’s grace is.
It cost Him the death of His own Son to be this generous!
It’s not cheap and easy. But it is free to you and to me.
Jesus is calling us all to real repentance.
Will you answer the call?
So, all of my big words last week about really killing those big black ants didn’t issue into any reality, yet.
Last week, I said that those ants are like our heart-idols. We’ve got to do away them.
We’ve got to eliminate them.
We’ve got to exterminate the flesh.
No more excuses. No more playing games. No more saying one thing but really doing another.
Because God desires real repentance and relationship with His people.
That’s where revival comes from.
God desires real repentance and relationship with His people.
Fake repentance just gets you more in trouble!
FAKE REPENTANCE MAKES PEOPLE EVEN MORE FOOLISH.
In chapter 7, God uses 4 colorful word pictures to show how foolish fake repentance makes somebody.
The first is an oven. V.3
“They [Israel] delight the king with their wickedness, the princes with their lies. [The leaders are happy with the spiritual state of the nation.] They are all adulterers, burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir from the kneading of the dough till it rises. [In other words, there’s a lot of hot coals of sin sizzling away in that furnace.] On the day of the festival of our king the princes become inflamed with wine, and he joins hands with the mockers. [A drunken orgy in the palace of God’s king!] Their hearts are like an oven; they approach him with intrigue [that is, the others at this party don’t really love the king, they are out to get his place]. Their passion smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. All of them are hot as an oven; they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them calls on me.”
Did you know that during 30 years of Hosea’s ministry, four of the six kings that lived then assassinated their predecessor and only one of them died in his bed?
They said, “Come, let us return to the LORD!” But they were burning and burning and burning inside.
Friends, if we have fake repentance, our inner sins will inflame us even more.
You might talk a good talk here at church, but if you aren’t right with God on the inside, then it’s just going to burn and churn and burn and churn and it will come blazing out. Guaranteed.
The second word-picture is a half-baked cake. V.8
“Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over. Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice. Israel's arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this he does not return to the LORD his God or search for him.”
“A flat cake not turned over.”
In other words, it’s burnt on one side and raw on the other. Good for nothing.
That comes because Ephraim/Israel puts her trust in other nations. And Ephraim has gotten old and gray, his death is on the way, but he doesn’t realize it. He is so full of himself that it gives the lie to his words of repentance.
His repentance is fake. And He is more and more foolish and more and more good for nothing.
Who would like a cake that was burnt on one side and raw on the other?
I wonder if Gomer ever baked one like that for good old Hosea?
False repentance makes you good for nothing, and you don’t even realize it.
You say you are living for God, but you aren’t effective for the kingdom, and in time, you don’t even know that you’re not the real deal.
False repentance makes you good for nothing, and you don’t even realize it.
And it makes you dupe, too. D-U-P-E. A sucker. You fall for anything. V.11
“Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless–now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria. [Make up your mind!] When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like birds of the air. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them.”
This word picture is that of a dove. Or we would say, “a stool pigeon.”
Ephraim couldn’t make up their minds, and they fell for everything.
First Egypt, then Assyria. Like a dumb bird.
And God says that He’s a fowler going to hunt them down. V.13
“Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak lies against me.”
There is no real repentance here.
They’ve lied so long they can’t tell what is true!
And they don’t look to God. V.14
“They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds. They gather together for grain and new wine but turn away from me.”
Notice that they do cry. Tears do not always mean real repentance.
I’ve sat with several people who have cried and cried over their sin but did not really turn from it.
Paul calls that “worldly sorrow.” Not godly sorrow. (2 Cor. 7:10)
It’s what Esau had when he lost the birthright and the blessing.
Sorry he got caught. Sorry he didn’t get the blessing.
Not really sorry for his sin against God.
Real repentance (v.14) cries out from the heart to God. It doesn’t just “wail upon their beds.”
V.15 “I trained them and strengthened them, but they plot evil against me. They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.”
The last word picture is that of a faulty bow. It doesn’t do what it was made to do.
God laments that He trained them and strengthened them, taught them like His own child, but they rebelled. They didn’t do what they were made to do. They are like a bow that can’t be trusted to send a arrow where it belongs.
And they are going to suffer for it. Even down in the land of their enemy, Egypt, they are going to be laughed at.
They aren’t what they were meant to be.
That’s what fake repentance does to us. It turns us into something that we were never meant to be.
Are you just pretending?
Are you just going through the motions?
If so, you are a faulty bow. You aren’t what you were meant to be.
But you don’t have to.
GOD IS CALLING US ALL TO REAL REPENTANCE.
Did you notice how willing God was to revive His people?
Chapter 7, verse 1. “Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I would heal Israel.”
Verse 13, “I long to redeem them...”
All of chapter 7 is a back and forth between them and God.
I would do this, but they did that.
I would do this, but they did that.
V.7 “None of them calls on me.”
V.10 “He does not return to the LORD his God or search for Him.”
V.14 “They do not cry out to me from their hearts.”
V.16 “They do not turn to the Most High God.”
That’s what He wants!
He wants real repentance.
He wants real relationship.
He wants healing and wholeness in our covenant love.
He wants real repentance.
And He calls us to it today.
Hosea 6:6 is a famous passage in the rest of the Bible because it shows up in the Gospel of Matthew on the lips of our Savior.
Jesus had called Matthew the tax collector to be his disciple. And Matthew had thrown an evangelistic party to celebrate His conversion to the Messiah.
Well, the Pharisees got wind of this little party. They saw that he was eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners–people who knew that they were sinners!
And they asked the disciples (Matthew 9:11), “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners.’” You can hear the pride and arrogance in their words!
Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who a need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy (covenant love), not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The Pharisees were sinners, too, but they couldn’t even see it.
Their repentance was fake. And they had even fooled themselves.
But Jesus is after sinners. He loves them!
He loves sinners!
He came to seek and the save that which was lost!
He loves sinners!
He isn’t surprised at your sin or shocked by it!
He wants to redeem you from it. He wants to forgive and restore and bring revival.
But you have to believe that you’re a sinner, too, and that that’s a bad thing.
And you have to respond to Him in a real turning in your heart to Him.
A real repentance, not just words. But if you do, He will restore you.
If you are not yet a Christian, He will save you.
And if you are a Christian, He will revive you.
It’s not cheap and easy. Fake repentance doesn’t realize how costly God’s grace is.
It cost Him the death of His own Son to be this generous!
It’s not cheap and easy. But it is free to you and to me.
Jesus is calling us all to real repentance.
Will you answer the call?
