Hosea chapter 9, we've been here for some time reading verses tonight. We'll be looking at verses 7 through 9, or at least attempting to look at these three verses. So look with me in Hosea chapter 9 verse 7. The days of visitation are come. The days of recompense are come. Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool. The spiritual man is mad for the multitude of thine iniquity and the great hatred. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God. but the prophet is the snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah, therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins." This is actually a very interesting passage of Scripture, and even in the structure, we're going to look at the grammatical structure of the text because it's important to to recognize that as well. But we saw, before we get into that, let's again just quickly review verses 5 and 6. Last week, we examined verses 5 and 6, and as we discovered, verse 5 is key to the Lord's declaration of judgment against the people when he says, what will you do in the solemn day and in the day of the feast of the Lord? And so he's asking the question, what are you going to do in the solemn day? Again, that being an appointed time celebration, a festival if you will, and in the day of the Feast of the Lord. The statement Hosea 9.5 obviously alludes to a specific day or one of great celebration and activity. And as we saw last week, the celebrations of the Jewish people were celebrations rejoicing in God's faithfulness in His covenant relationship with them. Yet how could they celebrate, and this is somewhat of what's being said when he says, what will you do in the solemn day and in the day of the peace of the Lord? How could they celebrate in the joy of the covenant relationship God had provided them with himself when they had no regard for the relationship itself? And so, again, to stay consistent with the theme throughout Hosea and the analogy that is being used consistently throughout the book of Hosea, or the prophecy of Hosea, we could equate this somewhat to, again, such as a day of an anniversary of a wedding of two individuals, of a married couple. and how the question could be asked. That's a specific appointed day, of course, the day that you were wed. And then saying, how could you possibly rejoice in that day? What are you going to do in that day, when it should be a day of celebration, of joy and rejoicing, if you have not been faithful in the covenant relationship? How are you going to rejoice in that? How are you going to experience joy in that? And again, to put a proper perspective on this and all that's been said up to this point, I think it's as well impaired that we consider how that there was nothing that the people could do or say, including their so-called worship of God, all of their festivities and ceremonies and sacrifices, all the things that they might do, would never make up for the heart that had turned in idolatry from the Lord. So, their words were insignificant, even their actions were insignificant. And again, to show you the truth of that, consider with me again the marital relationship, if you will, or a moment of in that covenant relationship, that being the celebration of an anniversary, for instance, if there is an unfaithful spouse that is in the midst of being unfaithful, especially to their spouse, and then the anniversary comes up, it doesn't matter what they say or what they do, it's not going to remove the hindrance in that relationship and the damage of that relationship whenever they have been unfaithful. So you can go buy all you will, you can go do all you will, you can take your spouse, wherever you will, but if you're unfaithful to your spouse, none of that means anything. And so much more so is that true with God. When you look at Israel and how that they had been guilty of idolatry and whoredoms, they had prostituted themselves out, is what God is accusing them of and calling them out on. When I say accusing them, not in the sense of just making an accusation, but calling them out and accusing them rightfully of their idolatrous ways and of their whoremongering and prostituting themselves out. So, nothing they did was going to change the fact that their hearts were idolatrous and they were set against the Lord and His ways, no matter what they said, no matter what they did, no matter their religious practices. And that is so true today, even in the church. How many people are practicing religion, practicing a ministry, if you will, practicing all these things. And we are, by the way, I'll stop and tell you right away, we all find ourselves guilty of this to some degree, at least, in our own lives. We do. Because there are times that we continue on in our ministry, we continue on, and our hearts have not been submitted unto God or are not submitted unto God. I'm just as guilty of that as anyone else is. I don't want to be that way. I don't. That's not the desire of my heart. But I have still been guilty. And I'll tell you something else, anyone who claims differently is a liar. Because no one is absolutely submitted to God all the time. They are not. Now that does not mean we should continue that way. But the fact of the matter is we are guilty. I am guilty just as you are guilty. And so we must examine our own hearts and our lives concerning this that we not find ourselves caught up that overcome in idolatry in our own hearts towards God. Because listen, nothing else we do means anything. Nothing we say means anything. And again, to give us an understanding of that, think about your spouse for a moment. Just think about that. If your spouse is unfaithful to you, it doesn't matter what they do, it's not going to take that away. It's not just going to dismiss or excuse their unfaithfulness. And so when the heart of man is unfaithful towards his God, towards his Redeemer, in those moments, it doesn't matter what you say or do or how faithful you are in ministry, the fact of the matter is, it's not going to change the condition of your heart in that moment, meaning the hindrance of fellowship that you've allowed to be present. because of sin. And the same is true with all of us. That's just absolutely true. And so our desire as children of God, those who know the Lord, of course, is to follow after Him in holiness and righteousness. And there is the struggle, is it not? Because of this wicked flesh in which we live and the idolatrous ways of our own hearts. Again, I'm so often reminded of the songwriter's words, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. And how true that is, isn't it? Our hearts are so prone to wonder. They really are. And they shouldn't be, but they are. And so, it's something we must examine and be mindful of. Verse 6, the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them, thorns shall be in their tabernacles." So the people would attempt to escape the destruction which was upon them, which is the judgment of sin, and yet they would only be taken into bondage by Egypt and all they cherished and valued would become desolate. The thorns would overtake the tents and tabernacles and such, meaning that the places and the things that they held dear to their hearts or they valued and they cherished they would be a place of desolation. They would be a place that was just overwhelmed and overcome by the thorns as they would grow up out of the ground. You know, you watch, you look at a place that is well-maintained and you let it go for a month and all of a sudden it turns into a mess. Especially here in Florida with the rain and the weeds and things like that. You let it go and it becomes evident quickly that you're not maintaining it properly. Well here he's saying, the Lord is saying to Israel, saying the promised land, remember we saw the promised land and the importance of that, and the land that was promised to you, that I fulfilled my promise in providing you this land, he says I'm going to take you out of it, pluck you from it, and I'm going to put you into bondage and you'll be in exile, and the places that you cherish and hold value and dear and consider valuable, those places will be overwhelmed by the thorns, the thistles, and so on and so forth. So it would leave them desolate. Sin never produces anything good. Sin is ugly and its consequences are evidence of how ugly it actually is. Again, we fail often, myself included, we fail to really acknowledge so many times the ugliness of sin until its consequences come upon us. But the consequences of sin remind us how ugly it truly is. And that's something that is inescapable. So, tonight we continue our study by considering the next division, verses 7-9. of this chapter which consists of these three verses. Within these verses we find that God's judgment is further declared upon the people in very certain terms. So God is pronouncing certain judgment upon the people and it's very clearly explained and declared. So within certain texts, there's something we need to notice grammatically here. Within certain texts, specifically Old Testament passages, It is not uncommon for the writer to use a certain style of writing, which can leave the reader confused if the syntactical structure of his style is not recognized. So in his commentary of Hosea, Dwayne A. Garrett observed that Hosea uses the following grammatical structure, and I'm going to explain this to you so you can see it, and then we're going to study this portion in the grammatical structure in which it was written. So you find that there are six couplets in these three verses, and here's what we see. They are as follows, and I'm going to explain this to you. You have A, B, C, B, C, A. And so that's the structure of this particular text, and so I want to show you that. So let's read it in its structure, and you can be reading along with me and you'll begin to see that. So you find A1, the days of visitation are come, verse 7. A2, the days of recompense are come, and then Israel shall know it. Then B1, the prophet is a fool. B2, the spiritual man is mad. C1, for the multitude of thine iniquity. C2, and the great hatred. Then when you get to verse 8, you find B1, the follow-up here, The Watchman of Ephraim was with my God, but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God, they have deeply corrupted themselves in the days of Gibeah. A1, it goes back to A, remember, and then B, and then C. So here's A1, the follow-up, therefore he will remember their iniquity. A2, he will visit their sins. So to read the corresponding statements put together, we would read it in this manner. So let's read those put together in the structure that it was written. So you find, first of all, A1, the days of visitation are come. And then the follow up, therefore he will remember their iniquity. Now are you seeing the connection here? A2, the days of recompense are come. A2, follow up, he will visit their sins. And Israel shall know it. B1, the prophet is a fool. B1, follow, the watchman of Ephraim was with my God. B2, the spiritual man is mad. B2, the follow, but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways. C1, for the multitude of thine iniquity. C1, follow, and hatred in the house of his God. C2, and the great hatred. C2, and the follow. And 9, they have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. So when we understand the sentence structure as explained by Garrett in his commentary, we see how the groupings of Hosea's statements complement one another. There are parallels that are given. So let us read verses 7-9 together, and then I want us to break down 7-9 according to the grammatical structure. Not in the list as it's given to us, but understanding so we're making the proper connections in the verses as they have been provided. So we read verses 7-9. The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come, Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity and the great hatred. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God, But the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah, Therefore, he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins." So there you have verses 7 through 9, but now we're going to work through them according to the structure, which we see as I've just given you a few moments ago, so that you see the connection of what is actually being said by Hosea. And this is taking the Scriptures as they are, making the proper connections, so we're not just reading through something missing the connecting portions. So let's begin at looking at this first group, because there's really three groups. There's the A group, the B group, and the C group that I just explained. So let's look at the A group first. And the A group is actually an announcement of God's judgment upon the sin of the people, as has been custom throughout this prophecy of Hosea. So let's begin in verse 7, and this is the beginning of the A group. The days of visitation are come. Now, the noun visitation here means oversight or mustering. and to muster is to assign an inspection." In other words, it is an appointed and intentional investigation or inspection. So within this statement, the Lord is declaring that the time for Him to inspect and investigate the people had arrived. Now let me make a statement here because we're going to get into this further, I'm sure, in a few moments, but this is important to recognize. When He says, days of visitation are come there had obviously been a period of time as we will see as we have seen already and as is being addressed by God through Hosea to the people in which the people had been in the sin and it would almost seem as though they were just getting by with their sin, getting by in that sinful lifestyle in that way as though there's really no consequence and God things are just going to be as they have been and things will continue as they have been and there's really going to be no difference or any consequence in reality of anything that's happened or anything we are guilty of. And so it would seem to me that's the case. But here's what God is saying, the days of visitation have come. And what He's saying is, the days for my inspection of you, the days for my investigation of you are present. Now, we understand that God's judgments are righteous and God's judgments are true. So it's not that God has to literally investigate anything or inspect anything, but this terminology obviously is provided for our understanding. Because God already knows the people and He knows the heart of the people. He knows the sins of the people. He knows the desires of the people. So God doesn't have to really literally investigate as you and I would consider it. But might I say this also? God makes His case against Israel, and He does so as a founded case. And so He points out their sin before judgment ever comes to them, before punishment ever comes, before correction ever comes. He first makes His case against them, which is a rightful case. Now, does God have to do that? Absolutely not, but He does. And so here He's saying to them that the days of visitation The time for me to inspect and investigate you has arrived. And that's what's being stated here. Then verse 9, here we are, the days of visitation are come. Therefore he will remember their iniquity. Here's the connection. I'm going to investigate and inspect and I will remember your sins. I will remember your iniquity." Due to the inspection, the iniquity of the people is exposed for what it is. In this passage, the Lord is declaring that He will remember their guilt and blame, but it also implies that God will not forget to punish the people because of their sin. So God is going to punish the people because of sin, because He remembers their iniquity. Why does He remember their iniquity? Because He's performed this inspection and this investigation against them. So He's saying, I've discovered, not as though He comes to an awareness, not in that sense, but discovered in the sense that I have exposed your iniquity, and I've exposed your sin, and when I expose your sin, it will be dealt with. Think about this for a moment. Think about the final judgment. I'm talking about the Great White Throne Judgment, where unbelievers will be. And at the Great White Throne Judgment, what does God do? He exposes the wickedness of man, and the rejection that man has towards him, and the hatred that man has towards him, and then casts him in the lake of fire. Does he not? Isn't that what the scripture teaches us? But does God have to point out the sin? Could God not just cast everybody in the lake of fire because they deserve to be there and never say anything about it? And would He still not be right and just? Of course. But notice God's order. He inspects, He investigates. Not that He's discovering in the sense of coming to an awareness, but He is exposing. And what He's really doing is bringing us to an awareness. And so He brings the people to an awareness. He brings Israel to an awareness. But He also, of course, will bring the sinner, the wicked, to an awareness in that final judgment. and man will be absolutely aware, there will be no man who will plunge into the lake of fire who thinks he's not deserving of what he is getting. The case is made. It is settled. You understand? And though man doesn't believe that today, and many don't, when they stand before God and are cast into the lake of fire, he knows he is right. He hates God, he will still hate God, but he will know that he is getting what he rightly deserves. And so in God's judgment of His people here in Israel, He's making His case, inspecting, and then He says He will remember their iniquity. Then verse 7, go back to verse 7, the days of recompense are come. The noun recompense means retribution. So upon investigation of the people, the Lord will deal with them according to their sins. The people had seemingly escaped judgment, but again, this was only an illusion on their part. Do you see that? Because the days of visitation have come. So God's saying, oh yeah, you may believe that you've escaped judgment, you may believe that you've escaped consequence, you may believe that you've escaped my correction, but that's just not so. Your belief that you've escaped is an illusion. You think that, but it's just not true. as believers in Christ. We know even the Old Testament believer, those who had faith, who trusted the Lord, God had given them faith, we know that He does not deal with us after our iniquities. We know that He remembers our sins no more. And we should be so grateful for that. But that does not mean God will not chasten us and correct us. And that does not mean that God's going to simply sweep our sin under the rug as though it never happened. So what is the answer to this? What does that mean? Does that mean I'm going to answer for all of my sins, meaning that I'm going to bear the just consequence of my sins? Absolutely not, because if we bore the just consequence of our sins, we would perish. So what is the answer to this? Well, 1 John 1-9 is the answer to this. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So the answer to this overwhelming guilt that we otherwise would have, the answer is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And so even as believers in Christ, this is the answer. And so we see here that he will remember their iniquity, the days of recompense are come, retribution, dealing with them according to their sins. And then he goes on in verse 9 to say, he will visit their sins. The days of recompense are come, he will visit their sins. The verb visit means to inventory, such as the investigation of visitation, such as the looking into, well here it is to inventory. So he will visit their sins. God's going to inventory their sins. That's an interesting statement, isn't it? Here Israel is, idolatrous in heart towards God, and God's saying, I've got a record. I know what you are. I know what you've done. I know how you've rejected my provision for you. And I've got a record. I'm going to inventory your sins. Again, look, we don't get by with sin. God's going to correct us. He's going to chasten us as His children. But I am sure thankful He's not inventorying my sin. that he's not counting it against me. As he rightfully could do, as he rightfully should do, if I were getting what I deserve. By the way, this is where justification is so beautiful. Because justified, again, means to be set into a right relationship with God. So though I fail and I err in this relationship, I've been made to be right with God and nothing can change that. And again, this is not an excuse to sin, and those who know Christ and know grace will never view it as such. To do so is to abuse the grace of God. Again, Romans 6, 1, Paul makes this so clear when he makes the statement, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! One of the strongest negative statements in all of Scripture. No. Absolutely not. Remember something new. This is Old Testament Israel, and we know that not all Israel is Israel. So we understand that there are those who are not devoted. Hosea, obviously, was absolutely committed to the Lord. But he would still suffer as part of Israel, no doubt, just like Israel suffered. By the way, that lends itself to the truth of Sunday morning. How that whenever, as individual members in particular, individual members, when we are not in fellowship with the Lord and submitted to Him, that doesn't affect anyone else's personal relationship or fellowship with the Lord, but it sure does affect the fellowship of the body. as a body. And so though, look, if you are in sin, that doesn't affect me at all, meaning in my fellowship with God at all. And if I'm in sin, that should not and doesn't affect you in any way in your fellowship with God. But I'll tell you what it does do. If we are in sin, it affects the fellowship of the body as a whole and we cannot function in the proper manner because there is a hindrance in our fellowship with our Savior, then how can we not have a hindrance with other believers who have fellowship with Him? But you're right, that division, the schism in the body, the division in the body and how it exists. But listen, it doesn't have to exist at that scale. Because we can have division between each other and it be something so minuscule but yet allow it to divide the fellowship and therefore we cannot edify one another as we should. Let me tell you something. I'll just get personal with you here, okay? And I know this is going to shock you. I'm not perfect. I look at my own life, seriously, and my own, even as a pastor, and even as a husband, as a father, and I find faults everywhere. I'm not lying. It's constant. And I can see that. And even as a pastor, I find faults, as much so as I don't want that to be speaking to you as a body. But just like with my wife, just like with my children, just like with you, it's the same with you as far as I have faults. I am not by any means and I'm going to keep it at the scale of a pastor here, okay? But I'm not a perfect pastor. There is no perfect pastor, and that's not an excuse. I am not a perfect pastor, and there are other pastors who are gifted in ways that are tremendous. And I look at them, and in a sense, I admire that tremendously. And that's just not me, okay? That's just not who I am. But it doesn't mean I should not still desire to still display some of those traits, if you will, even though that's not who I am. My point being this, That I am not perfect and I fail in areas, obviously. And so in my imperfections, in my imperfections, even as a pastor, if you cannot see beyond that, if you cannot pray for me in areas where I lack, I'm being serious, if you cannot get over that, and I don't mean that in a callous way at all, then that will breed contention that I don't even know is present. But the same is true with me towards you. I mean, if I allow things, if I can't overlook, when I say overlook, I'm not talking about sin, okay? I'm not talking about brushing sin out, sweeping sin out of the rug. I'm talking about our character, our personality traits that are flawed, and if we can't assist each other, help each other, attempt to edify each other, to strengthen each other, and where one is weak, where someone else is strong, to come in and be the strength in that area as they submit to the Spirit of God, using them to do so. The point being that we will be divided. It doesn't have to be on a large scale. It doesn't have to be the whole church is divided. It can simply be that we are divided, individual members in particular, which then hinders the entire fellowship of the body and edification as it's supposed to be. And I cannot stress this enough. And again, that's why it's important. Listen, it's not important that everybody be faithful to church tonight. That's not what's important. What's important is that we are faithful for the sake of edification and growth and maturing and ministering to one another. I tell you this, there's not a time that I come to gather with you that I don't need to be ministered to. And you're the same way. And so we are to be submissive to the Lord in those areas and not allow the schism to exist. So as we move forward, The scripture is saying here that he will visit their sins, to visit, to inventory, as I mentioned. So the implication is that God would judge the people according to their sin. And we must remember this. Although the Lord is longsuffering and although he is righteous, without question, and although he is patient, his righteousness and his holiness is not dismissed by his patience and his longsuffering. And God cannot and God will not tolerate sin. Look at what the scripture says next. Israel shall know it. This is like an interjection in here, okay? Between these groups of parallelisms, we find that there's this interjection, and Israel shall know it. Well, what does Israel know? Well, they're going to know what is about to be stated, but they know what has previously been stated. And here's what's being stated, notice. Let's go back. The days of hesitation are come, verse 7, therefore he will remember their iniquity, verse 9. Verse 7, the days of recompense are come, verse 9, he will visit their sins, Israel shall know it. There will not be a question as to what is happening. The people would know without any doubt that the Lord was punishing them and the Lord would leave no room for the people to misunderstand or to believe that their condition was simply some misfortune. Let me say it to you like this. God's judgment is sure. And even as New Testament believers, we know when the Lord is chastening us, there can be what we would reference as, or others may call, misfortunes in life. And that may have nothing to do with the chastening hand of God. It can be all because of sin. When I say sin, I'm talking about original sin. Bad things happen because of sin. And it doesn't mean it's your particular sin or actual sins. So there can be misfortunes, quote unquote, if we can call it that, that occur in life, that have nothing to do with God's judgment, nothing to do with God's correction, nothing to do with chastening. But let me make you aware of this, if you're not already, you should be. You will know it when God chastens you. And you will not be confused about it. God is not going to leave it to where it's like, well, maybe this is just, and it may not always be a misfortune or some situation of life that is bad, so to speak. It may just be the Spirit of God using the Word of God to prick your heart, correct you, to pierce your heart concerning the truth, and you know that's God. Even though you may be mad at the person saying it, the person speaking to you, or the preacher preaching it, you cannot get away from, that's not them, that's God. That is God. Is that not true? So we are aware that God chastens us. We know when it's Him. So whether it be the conviction of the Spirit using the Word of God or the Lord using circumstances of life to capture our attention and turn our focus back upon Him, we know when it is the Lord who is correcting us. We know. The B group, I told you the A group, the A group is an announcement of God's judgment upon the sin of the people. Let's look at that again. Here you find God's judgment further declared. But then you come to the B group, and this is an accusation of the rejection of God by the people. Notice this. Verse 7, the prophet is a fool. Now these two verses, verses 7 and 8, provide an example of the false prophet contrasted with the true prophet. And we're going to see that as it's structured. The people were more interested in hearing the declaration of the false prophet than the truth of God. In 1 Kings 22 you'll find a similar account where the king wants to raise up someone to tell him what he wants to hear while the man of the prophet, if you will, God's prophet is declaring unto them the truth and he would rather set him aside and bring up false prophets to tell him what he wants to hear. That still goes on today. So he says here that those who declared anything other than God's truth were fools. Yet the people would rather have heard what their heart desired to hear over the truth of God. This is what Paul warned of concerning the false teachers within the church. In 2 Timothy 4, 3 and 4 he said this, And again, the structure of that sentence, or that statement, is very interesting. Because Paul says, they shall turn away their ears from the truth. That's an active voice verb. They are turning from the truth. But then it's passive voice, and shall be turned unto fables. And so once man rejects God's truth, which he's born rejecting God's truth, he's left wide open only for the lies. And that's what he will believe, and that's what he will receive. The true prophet is referred to as the watchman in verse 8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God. So God sent the watchman. God provided a watchman. He was with God, meaning that he was sent of God and he was aligned with God. So he's declaring the truth of God. The name watchman means keep watch, look and spy. So they were those who remained faithful to the Lord and they would not provide false prophecies to please the people, but they would keep watch. They were diligent. Verse 7, the spiritual man is mad. This again speaks of the false prophet. They were demented. They were as madmen. Verse 7 goes on to say, but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways. Now this is not contrasting the spiritual man is mad. This is contrasting the watchman. But he says, but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways. So the statement is in contrast to that watchman mentioned previously. And the false prophet was a snare who would capture the people by their words although they were lies. And the snare is that of a trap. of a fowler and all his ways, so it would be a trap to catch and to gather, if you will, to ensnare, to entrap. So that prophet speaks words which ensnare and entrap the false prophet, the people. Oh, it's what they want to hear, but isn't it interesting? That's what they want and they raise them up to themselves, but yet the more they hear, the more ensnared and entrapped they become. rather than truth, rather than hearing the watchman. The watchman's crying out saying, listen, this is a lie! This is not truth! And yet the people are going, oh no, this is what we want. And they just become more ingrained and more ensnared and trapped to the lies and to the falsehood. So then we move to the C group, and this is a declaration of the depravity of the people. Verse 7, for the multitude of thine iniquity, the people's sins were multiplied. Verse 8, and hatred in the house of his God. This is showing the depravity of the people and God's judgment coming upon them because of their depraved state. Just as those of Malachi's day, the people despised the Lord. Although they would have never made such a statement, their actions spoke otherwise. We must never forget that no matter what one may say, one's actions prove where their devotion lies or where his devotion lies and his affection is set. tell the tale. People can say all kinds of things, again, and we keep coming back to this, and part of it is because of Hosea, no doubt, and what's being said here in this text. But over the last few weeks, it seems like we have continued to come back to this truth of how that people will make statements, and they'll make all these professions, and they'll make all these claims, but their lives are an absolute contradiction to what they claim to be. and what they say. Again, we're not talking about perfection here, we're talking about conversion, redemption. Redemption in its present experienced state is not perfection. Redemption will result in perfection in the end, but not as long as we're experiencing it here in this life. And so what happens is people will make all this talk about how they love God, and how they love the church, and how they love the brethren, and how they want to serve and be faithful, but their lives totally contradict their claims. Again, let's use the marital covenant relationship because that's what God uses throughout the entire book of Hosea. So why can't we see that and as well understand it? That's like your spouse telling you, oh I love you and I'm committed to you and then going out into whorehomes. It doesn't matter what they say, it's what they do that tells the truth. Isn't it? And he goes on in verse 8, in the great hatred, the people hated God's truth as indicated by the receptiveness towards the false prophets and rejection of the watchmen of God. Reject those who speak truth, embrace those who speak lies, and become more ensnared and entrapped by the very lies that we embrace. Verse 9 goes on to say, they have deeply corrupted themselves. The Lord declared that the people were greatly involved in sin which perverted them and revealed their true depravity. And then another interjection here, as in the days of Gibeon. Now what is he talking about as the days of Gibeon? What is the reference to Gibeon? Because he's given us a simile here using, remember it's a comparison using like or as, and so he's saying here, here is you're corrupted yourselves, you are corrupt as in the days of Gibeon, just as in the time of Gibeon. So what is Gibeon? What is he referencing? Judges, in Judges chapters 19-21, and you'll know this account when I reference it. In Judges 19-21, there's an account of a Levite. There was no king in that day, and there was a Levite who had a concubine. Are y'all remembering this at all yet? And the concubine, they end up lingering and staying, and long story short, the concubine is raped severely and murdered. And the Levite takes the concubine, now this is where you're going to remember the account, and cuts her into 12 pieces and sends her piece by piece to the 12 tribes of Israel. What's that? Yes, Judges 19-21. And sends her out to the 12 tribes of Israel, which stirs up some controversy. and some contention, and turns into war, if you will, civil war to a degree. So the point is that that is Gibeah, that's what's being referenced here. Now listen to the seriousness of this, and by the way, isn't it interesting that even in using this analogy, or this, not analogy actually, of this comparison of an actual event, in using this comparison of this actual event in Judges, it still had to do with this sexual immorality. And so here you have God's saying to the people in Hosea's day, which they understood what he meant, you, listen to what he says, they have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. One of the most grotesque sins, if you will, that resulted in the cutting up, in the dispersing, showing the wicked, depraved nature of the people, and yet he says, here you are. You're just as corrupt. And just as in Malachi's day, what do the people think? We know God. Remember that? We know God. Remember we read that earlier? And God shall not remember them. So as in Malachi's day, it's as though they say, well, have we despised thy name? Great hatred. Have we despised your name? Have we polluted your altar? And here you find it. He says, you're just as corrupt as that in Gibeah. The Lord is declaring this passage of people who are as corrupt as the account in Judges 19-21. Once again, from this account of Hosea, we see the Scriptures teach us the seriousness of sin, although we may dismiss sin from time to time. We need to remember this, and this is so important. We may dismiss sin from time to time, God never does. God never dismisses. He forgives, He cleanses, but He doesn't dismiss sin. It must be dealt with. And see, here's the beauty of this. God has provided an opportunity for us to deal with our sin before Him. But it will not go undealt with. Either we will deal with it with Him as He's provided, or He will deal with us in whatever means is necessary. Just as Hosea declared God's view of sin to the people, we must understand that God's view of sin has not changed. Sin corrupts man and leaves him destitute and perverted. Yet for us, God has made the provision of His Son. As New Testament believers, we can humbly come to the Lord, confessing our sin before Him and unto Him, and He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all sin. And again, as we confess what we're aware of, as we confess what we know, as we confess before the Lord in that in which we know we are guilty, when I say guilty, meaning we have erred, we have sinned, He doesn't just take care of that, but He cleanses us completely. Even of that which we're so ignorant of, if you will, or unaware of at the time. So, interesting verses 7 through 9 of Hosea chapter 9, and we see how through the structural writing of Hosea, the connections between the statements that are dispersed within these three verses, and the significance of them in showing the people their sin, their rejection of God, and their utter depravity. Their utter depravity. I say this to you again just to be reminded, so you would be reminded of this truth, that your flesh is still depraved. And my flesh is still depraved. And sin will not go dismissed. God will not just overlook sin. He will not dismiss sin, but He will confront us. He will convict us. And He will chasten us. And He will use whatever means is necessary to chasten us so that we turn our focus and attention back to Him. But I'm thankful He does that, I am, and it's painful. It can be a painful process. If we are not submitted to the Lord, chastening can be a very painful process. It doesn't have to be a very painful process. It's not that we enjoy it, but it doesn't have to be very painful, meaning extremely, severely painful, but we can make it that way for certain. So God has made provision for us in Christ. Sin is serious, God will not dismiss it, God will not overlook it, but God has made provision for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, to which we all can say, Amen.