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Open your Bibles this morning
to Hosea chapter 12. And our desire should be that
our love would be warm and zealous for the Lord and that we would
love him with all our heart, soul, mind. and strength. To love the Lord with our mind
means that we are willing to submit our mind to the scriptures
and to be able to think and think hard thoughts even that come
from the word of God. So we're making our way line
by line through the book of Hosea and we're on the final stretch,
chapter 12 and then 13 and 14 And this is the sixth, or some
say the fifth, cycle of judgment and deliverance that is in the
book of Hosea. And so we come to a new section
today, but we'll review a little bit of the beginning of the chapter
first. But let's pray and ask God to
minimize the distraction. Somebody's car is going off,
I think. Thank you, Father. for your presence
with us. Thank you for your love and mercy. Thank you that your word is inspired,
it's God-breathed, and your word gives us nourishment. Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out
of the mouth of God. So we pray, Lord, that we will
be nourished today We pray we'll be strengthened. We pray we'll
be convicted. We pray, Lord, that we'll be
motivated to dig deeper into your truth. In Jesus' wonderful
name, we pray. Amen. So in chapter 12, which
begins in the Hebrew Bible, in chapter 11, verse 12, we see
that the Lord, Yahweh, contrasts sin Israel, the northern ten
tribes, with Judah to the south. And he says, Ephraim has encircled
me with lies. And then in verse 1 of chapter
12, Israel and Ephraim's foolishness is exposed. pasturing, feeding
on wind, pursuing the east wind, increasing in lives, being deceived,
making covenants with enemies. Makes no sense. And how many
times we hear things and we say, makes no sense. For example,
one of the problems in California is their management of forestry,
where they won't burn in controlled ways. And so then these fires
take over and have so much to burn. Another thing is environmentalists
wanting to protect some little fish. And so I'm thinking, does
it make sense to have 27 people die if you saved a million fish? Does that make sense? And it
wasn't a million. Where's the thinking? Isn't one
person more important than any number of fish? And then why,
when all the rains were present, did we dump all the rainwater
out in the ocean instead of storing it up? You have these things
and they just don't make sense. It's because people today in
our world feed on wind. And they covenant with enemies.
It makes no sense. Ephraim did this 700 years before
Jesus. And then Judah's problems are explained. They're not without
problems. The Lord brings a case against
them, verses 2 through 4. The Lord also brings a charge
against Judah, will punish Jacob. So sin will have its consequences
even in Judah. And then verses 4 and 5, we see
the Lord's revelation to Jacob is reviewed. He took his brother
by the heel, verse three. Verse four, yes, he struggled
with the angel and prevailed. He wept and sought favor from
him. He found him in Bethel and there
he spoke to us. So Hosea is getting a ray of
hope, going back, reminiscing about Jacob hundreds and hundreds
of years before. and saying God spoke to him.
He spoke to us, the nation, as through him when Jacob called
Bethel, house of God, because there he met God. Hosea identifies
whom he's speaking about. That is the Lord God of hosts. The Lord is his memorable name. He is Yahweh. He's the one who
exists in and of himself. And then here is grace, here
is mercy multiplied in the midst of the chaos that was in Israel. Verse six, so you, by the help
of your God, return. Return. Hosea's application to
Judah and Israel. Repent, return, observe mercy,
chesed, loyal love, and justice. and wait on your God continually. So here in the midst of this
chapter pointing out the sins in Ephraim, we have these sunbursts
of mercy, of grace, of God's revelation, and that we have
in verses five and six. It's the Lord of hosts. He has
dealt faithfully with us. So return to him, turn back,
observe his loyal love, and walk and wait on him. And then he
picks up and he again shows the fault of Ephraim. So we come
to verse 7, a new section for today. A cunning Canaanite. What an interesting term here.
Verse 7, a cunning Canaanite. Deceitful scales are in his hand. He loves to oppress. And Ephraim
said, surely I've become rich. I've found wealth for myself
and all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that is
sin. Can't find anything wrong in
me. So Ephraim is compared to a merchant of Canaan. Canaan can mean a tradesman or
a merchant. And so Hosea is calling Ephraim,
calling Israel, a cunning Canaanite. It's not a compliment. Remember,
when Israel came out of Egypt, they went into the land of Canaan
through General Joshua and his warring and his divine direction,
and they destroyed the Canaanites because of their absolute gross
idolatry and polytheism and immorality. And so to be called a Canaanite
is not a compliment. One translation, the American
Standard Version of 1901 translated this, he is a trafficker. The balances of deceit are in
his hand. He loveth to oppress a trafficker."
And then another says, the businessmen love to cheat. They use dishonest
scales. So what a condemnation here about
Ephraim that in their business dealings, they're like Canaanites
and they have dishonest scales. I remember a teacher that I had
in junior high who told this story about a man that he knew,
I think he had a meat market or some kind of market, where
they would use scales. They would weigh things out for
people. And this fellow had developed
a very cunning way of cheating his customers. And so he would
put the product, the meat or whatever it was, on that scale,
and then he would put his hand on the scale. And while his hand
is on the scale, he would engage the people and talk to them,
say, well, that'll be, you know, $1.59 a pound. You have, what's
the year? A pound and a half. And all the while, his hand is
on the scale. And it was so slick, the way he did it. He's talking
to them. And so he cheated with his scale. Well, God sees all of that. And
so the scales that the ancient world had, sometimes they would
have little pebbles on them. and they would be true weights
or they could be false weights. And so here's supposed to be
a pound of something, grain, let's say, and the stones weigh
heavy. And so it's dishonest. And they
say, oh, you got a whole pound there. And the stones weigh more
than the grain does and the buyer is cheated. Well, this is what
was going on with Ephraim. In his business dealings, in
his economics, there was falsehood. It's amazing how everything hangs
together based on one's worldview, one's view of God, one's view
of the Bible. It's true today. Economics and
our security, everything all goes together based on our presuppositions
and how we view God and how we view absolute truth. And if there's no absolute truth,
then what's wrong with a dishonest scale? What's wrong with cheating
someone? What's wrong with defrauding
another? Nothing wrong with it if you
have the presupposition that there's no absolute truth, but
that is false. There is absolute truth, and
we have a God who deals in absolutes. I've shared this story before,
but when we lived in Georgia, there was a very prominent car
dealership right on an expressway. We actually had purchased a vehicle
from that place and I hear that the man, the big name that's
on the marquee, you know, it's his place, that he went to jail. What happened to him? Well, he
found a way or his company found a way to falsify the invoices
from Ford Motor Company about a device. I think it was the
radios or something. And so they would install a cheaper
device and falsify the invoice and gain money over time from
that, falsifying it, and eventually caught up to him. They didn't
have Ford cars in Ephraim's day, but they had false scales and
false business dealings. Isn't it refreshing when you
find someone that you deal with in business who is honest? You
can trust them, and they don't cheat you. and they show up when
they say they're gonna show up. And they do what they say they'll
do. It's such a blessing. And it
should be an example for us as believers. But Ephraim loves
to take advantage of people, customers. Verse 7c, he loves
to oppress. Something strikes me about this,
loves. loves to do what? To oppress,
to take advantage of people, take advantage of the customers,
to beat the people down with unfair dealings. How could you
love that? That comes from a depraved heart
that loves to do evil to someone else. Well, then Ephraim gains
from all of this. And look at what he says in verse
8. And Ephraim said, surely I have become rich. I've become rich. Now understand, there is nothing
wrong about being rich in itself. There's nothing wrong about that.
And probably every single one of us could go somewhere in the
world and we would be considered rich. You say, I'm not rich. Compared to some people in the
world, you're rich. I'm rich. There's nothing wrong
with being rich, having riches. There's something very wrong
with putting your hope and your trust in riches. There's something
very wrong with getting your riches through abusing people.
Something very wrong about that. I have become rich, he boasts,
and I have found wealth for myself. See any problem with that? For
myself, I've found wealth. and all my labors, they shall
find in me no iniquity that is sin. In all my efforts and all
my products, you're not gonna find anything wrong with me.
No, everything's good here. Everything's good. I didn't cheat
anybody. I didn't get my wealth by any
deception. No sin was involved in my gaining
of wealth. Now, I want you to notice a New
Testament passage that is so amazingly parallel with this. Go to James chapter 4, verse
13. There was a problem shortly after
the days of Jesus. Well, in the days of Jesus, I'm
sure, as well. But James, who was a half-brother
to Jesus, he said this. James chapter 4, verse 13. He
said, come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city. Spend a year there, buy and sell
and make a profit. That's business, that's economics.
Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what
is your life? It's even a vapor that appears
for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say,
if the Lord wills, We shall live and do this or that. James is
not telling us that it's wrong to plan, that it's wrong to be
organized. He's saying it's wrong to plan
to be organized and leave God out. That's the problem. And not saying if the Lord will.
Verse 16, but now you boast in your arrogance. You boast about
what you're going to do and how you're going to make money, but
you left God out. All such boasting is evil. Therefore,
to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is
sin. That's the context of that verse. Now let's go on to chapter
five, verse one. Come now, you rich, Weep and
howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches
are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. These would be
riches of the ancient world even today in our world. riches corrupted,
garments moth-eaten, your gold and silver are corroded and their
corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like
fire. You have heaped up treasure in
the last days. Indeed, the wages of the laborers
who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud. Cry out, and the cries of the
reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have
lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. You fattened your
hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have
murdered the just. He does not resist you. You haven't
paid your workers. You haven't paid your reapers,
and you've aggrandized yourself at the expense of others. But judgment is coming. Misery
is coming. This is so parallel to Hosea. In his day, people being abused,
and advantages taken of people, and others getting rich off of
that. Isn't that amazing? And God condemns
it all. Well now go back to Hosea chapter
12 and let's see something that is very positive and yet condemnatory
to Ephraim. He's guilty of all of this, becoming
rich at the expense of other people, not treating them the
way they should be treated. In verse 9 he says, but I am
the Lord your God. Ever since the land of Egypt,
I will again make you dwell in tents as in the days of the appointed
feast. I have also spoken by the prophets
and have multiplied visions. I have given symbols or parables
through the witness of the prophets. The Lord rehearses Ephraim's
advantages. And what are they? First of all,
Yahweh was Ephraim's God. I am the Lord your God. You have been disobedient people,
he's saying. You have gone to idolatry. But I want you to know that I'm
the one who birthed you, we could say. I became your God. I appeared to Abraham, your father. I brought him out of paganism.
I made promises to him. I blessed him. You became a great
nation. You multiplied in the land of
Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. And
don't forget my command, you shall have no other gods before
me. They had forgotten that. The
Lord reminds them. This is again one of the places
where light shines in the darkness. In this negativity of condemnation,
God in his grace shines his light. I was telling the men yesterday,
I noticed on my phone, I love my little weather app. I like
to look at that and it has some great information there. And
what I noticed the other night was the time of moon rise, full
moon, moon rise. And it was like 4.36 in the afternoon. So I'm sitting at my desk and
I'm looking out the window and I see no moon. Should be in the
eastern sky there. I see no moon. Pretty soon, it
looks like someone had a big sugar cookie in their shirt pocket,
but most of it's covered up by a cloud. And here's this big,
bright moon, most of it covered up by the clouds. And then it
began to rise, and there's this beautiful moon. Came through those clouds. God
made that moon. He made that creation. I am the
Lord your God. I brought you out of the land
of Egypt. I have a purpose for you. I give
revelation to you. And so I just begin to watch
that moon as it began to rise and the light that it gives is
just glorious, penetrating the skies. And this is in the afternoon,
but it gets dark about 4.30. What a beautiful sight. Hosea
has these beautiful moonrises and these sunrises, places where
light bursts in on the darkness, where light bursts through the
shadows and through the clouds. And this is one of them. I'm
the Lord, your God, ever since the land of Egypt. Yahweh reminds
them, I was yours since those days when you were in bondage,
and then I brought you out. I delivered you from that. Could
I just say that we need continually to remember who our God is. It's easy to forget when trials
come. If any of you men or women have
ever dealt with hanging drywall, the stuff that's on our houses
inside, and you haven't had any of the modern conveniences, just
old days, hammer, ladder. And you got this four by eight
sheet, and we call it sheet rock because it's like rock inside,
and it's heavy. And if you're trying to get a
piece nailed to a ceiling and you're by yourself, it's almost
impossible, unless you're really good. But even with some help,
and I remember helping this man once hang this sheet of drywall
overhead It was before drills and screws. It was nails. So,
tap in the nail there. And then go over here real fast
and tap one there. Oh, and that one pulls out. And then this
guy in frustration said, nobody cares. And he's a Christian. And I wasn't trying to be pious,
but I said, no, the Lord cares. The Lord cares about your sheetrock
that you can't hang over your head. He cares about everything. We forget who our God is. And
then when the weight of something is coming on us, we may think
God doesn't care. He doesn't care about this. Nobody
cares. No, who is our God? Ever since
you came out of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. We need to remember
who our God is in 2025 and never forget and praise him and rejoice
in him and that he's in control. There's something very interesting
that also happens here where God says, I will again make you
dwell in tents. Now there's some that may view
this negatively. because a tent is something temporary,
but I'm seeing this in a positive sense. He says, as in the days
of the appointed feast. I believe he's talking about
the Feast of Tabernacles, and Jewish people today, Orthodox,
Hasidic Jews, still practice this, where they build a little
framework on their porch or in their yard, and maybe put garments
over it and it's to remind them of this festival, this feast.
And festivals were joyous times. Go back to the book of Leviticus
chapter 23 and notice verse 42. Leviticus 23 and verse 42. You
shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites
shall dwell in booths. Okay, you back up to verse 39. On the 15th day of the seventh
month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you
shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days. And on the first
day, there shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day,
a Sabbath rest. And you shall take for yourselves
on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of
palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook.
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in
the year. It shall be a statue forever
in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the
seventh month. You shall dwell in booths that
you've made out of these leafy branches. All who are native
Israelites shall dwell in booths. Why? That your generations may
know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when
I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your
God. So Moses declared to the children
of Israel the feasts of the Lord. I believe there's hope, there's
grace in this, where God is saying through Hosea, you're gonna have
some good days again. You're going to observe some
festivals again. There's going to be joy and rejoicing
again when you remember who I am and what I have done for you. Former times, the good times,
I'm going to remind you. I'm going to bring you back to
that. Now, verse 10, we see an advantage here. Yahweh communicated
to Ephraim via his prophets. Verse 10 is so amazing. The doctrine of the inspiration
of scripture, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by inspiration
of God. It's not just in one verse. There
is evidence for it throughout the Bible, and here's one of
them. I have also spoken. God is saying that. by the prophets. I've spoken by the prophets.
The prophetic ministry and the school of the prophets was a
tremendous blessing to Israel. They spoke the truth. They gave
the mind of God to the people of God. They explained God. They explained what he has done
to the people of God. Prophetic messages convicted
kings and rulers and people as well. We have the prophetic word
made more sure in that we have the written word of God. We have
what God has said in his word recorded. What a blessing is
the word of God that God has spoken to us through the prophets,
through his son. And we have the written inspired
word of God showing God's love and mercy to us. And someone
as well said, the Bible is God's love letter to Christians. When
I was a teenager, I heard this story. I've probably repeated
it here before, but this college freshman was in a class that
was antagonistic to the Bible, to the gospel, and the professor
said, It is my mission here to cause you to disbelieve the Bible. How many of you are Christians?
A few hands went up. How many of you believe the Bible?
A few hands went up. After he said that, he said,
how many of you still believe the Bible? One hand went up. He said, young man, you understand
what I said? He said, yes, sir, I do. He said, the Bible is God's
love letter to Christians, and you've been reading someone else's
mail. Great answer, great response, and the truth. This is God's
love letter to us. I've spoken to you by the prophets. And before the completion of
scripture, notice this. He says, I've multiplied visions. He gave visions. Remember Jacob's
vision, the ladder to heaven? I have given symbols or parables
through the witness of the prophets and even Jesus spoken parables. So Yahweh communicated to Ephraim
via his prophets what an advantage they had that they had the word
of God. I've multiplied visions and used
similitudes and I love this translation by the ministry of the prophets. It's literally by the hand of
the prophets. by the hand of the prophets.
Now, I don't know if you noticed this, but in our scripture reading
today, in the providence of God, did you catch this in the book
of Romans, where Paul says, what advantage is it to being a Jew?
How this fits with the book of Hosea. He says here, Romans chapter
three, what advantage then has the Jew or what is the profit
of circumcision? much in every way, chiefly because
to them were committed the articles of God. They had the word of
God. The prophet spoke to them. So
they have an advantage. Our Bible in entirety, with maybe
one exception, the book of Luke, was written from the Holy Spirit
through Jewish men. God gave us his word, he carried
them along, he superintended the writing so that what ended
up on the papyrus or the vellum, the animal skin, was indeed the
very words of God. How blessed we are today to have
the scriptures. How advantaged Ephraim was. You have the word of God, the
prophets have spoken to you the word of God. And Hosea is a prophet
himself. He's speaking perhaps even of
himself included here. God says, I've spoken to you
by the prophets and to Hosea. They weren't listening. They
weren't listening. We need today to hear, to listen
to what God has spoken through the prophets. Now, something
else. Do we have prophets today? You say, well, yes, we do. We
have prophet as a pastor. Prophet is not a prophet. Prophet
is a servant pastor. Notice Hebrews chapter 1. And
this will help us because you have people today. This is prophet
so-and-so. This is prophet so-and-so. They
said this. They prophesied that. And we
say, oh, let me pay attention to all that. No, don't pay attention
to that. Pay attention to this. Hebrews
chapter 1. Verse 1, God who at various times
and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the
prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son. whom he has appointed heir of
all things, through whom also he made the worlds. So we have
the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's recorded. We have the gospels. It's explained in the epistles.
God has spoken to us in his son. We need to seek no other prophetic
voice other than what's already been said. except for this, and
that's the prophetic voice that is not foretelling, telling the
future, but it's simply proclaiming what God has said, foretelling. And that we need today because
God speaks to us through his written word. So Ephraim had
a great advantage here. Now let's go back to Hosea 12
and verse 11. and two representative towns
are exposed as vanity. One is Gilead. Though Gilead
has idols, they're part of Ephraim, part of Israel. Surely they are
vanity. This is a lesson through the
whole book of Hosea that idolatry is vain. So Gilead is full of
iniquity and idols. You see the word idols there?
It can mean trouble, sorrow, wickedness, but it can also mean
idolatry. And the trouble of iniquity and
wickedness. Idolatry indeed leads to sorrow,
into wickedness. Gilead has idols. Surely they
are vanity, just like feeding on the wind in verse one, vain. Think about this for a minute.
And this is absolutely tragic. We may know someone, Sister Linda's
brother lost his house in California, absolutely tragic. And I don't
want to minimize that at all. But just think, let's just suppose
that there was someone who could say with Ephraim, I'm rich, I've
found wealth for myself, and maybe even they got there through
ungodly means, and they were so secure in their setting, and
in just a day or two, it all went to ashes. Vanity. That's why we are not
to trust in the gifts that God gives us. We put our trust in
the giver of the gifts and don't rely on our houses, our cars,
our bank accounts, but in the Lord who gave them to us. Gilead
has idols. The modern world has all kinds
of idols. They can be brought to nothing
in a moment of time. And then there's another city,
town, Gilgal. And he says, though they sacrifice
bulls in Gilgal, false worship, indeed their altars shall be
heaps in the furrows of the field. Their altars are stone heaps,
but they're misplaced. And the furrows of the field
mean they would have to be moved in order to plow the field. So
they're in the wrong place. and they bring disappointment,
they also are vain, even though they sacrifice bulls on them. Look back at chapter 9 verse
15. Chapter 9 verse 15. All their
wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. So Gilgal
is known for its wickedness, its debauchery, and Gilead known
for its vanity. Chapter 12 verse 11 as we saw. There's vanity there and their
altars are misplaced. Well, then let's see this truth.
Gilead and Gilgal are two towns exposed as vanity. But in verses
12 and 13, two key incidents of Yahweh's protection are given. Here's the moon rising, a full
moon showing light. Here's the sun rising showing
light as Hosea takes us back to Jacob and his journey. It
says, Jacob fled to the country of Syria. Israel served for a
spouse and for a wife he tended sheep. By a prophet the Lord
brought Israel out of Egypt and by a prophet he was preserved.
So here we have these two key incidents of Yahweh's protection. One was when Jacob traveled to
Haran escaping Esau, his brother whom he had cheated and defiled.
Just go for a minute back to Genesis 29. And Jacob's on the
run. He fled to Syria, to Aram. Genesis chapter 29, notice a
few verses here. But God protected him. And there
he meets Uncle Laban. But first he had met Laban's
beautiful daughter, Rachel. Genesis 29 verse 18, it says,
Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, I will serve you seven
years. That's to her father. I will
serve you seven years for Rachel, your youngest daughter. That's
commitment. And Laban said, it's better that
I give her to you than I should give her to another man. Stay
with me. So everything was arranged. Jacob
performed seven years of duty, got Rachel as his wife. And in
their wedding tent, he discovered the next morning that he had
Rachel's sister, Leah. Jacob the trickster has been
tricked. Uncle Laban is a trickster as
well. He's a cheater as well. And then
he makes up this silly thing, oh, that's not the way we do
it here. You know, you gotta have the oldest before you can
have the younger. Well, why didn't you tell me
that seven years ago? Because he was a cheater. So
Jacob worked again, and then he received Rachel as his wife. So God protected him. He fled
there, he served, he kept sheep for both wives. And then notice
Moses' leadership in the Exodus. God used a prophet, back to Hosea
chapter 12, God used Moses the prophet to bring them out, to
deliver them from the land of Egypt. So Moses was a great man,
a great man of God, a man of strength. And it says, by a prophet. Who is that? It's Moses. The
Lord brought Israel out of Egypt. And by a prophet, he was preserved. That is, Israel was preserved. God used Moses to do those amazing
miracles to Pharaoh. And then God gave to Moses the
Passover and he says, you take this animal and then you kill
it and you put the blood in a basin and then you take the leafy hyssop
plant and dip it into that basin and put the blood on the lentil
of your house and on the doorpost of your house. And when the death
angel comes through, I will pass over you. And that feast was
to be celebrated, that Passover. They would remember God's deliverance
of them from slavery in Egypt. And he used Moses to do that.
He used Moses to preserve them, to bring them out. And Pharaoh's
army was drowned in the Red Sea. And Israel was victorious. So
two key incidents of Yahweh's protection are given. In the
midst of this gloom, we see the moon rise. In the midst of the
clouds, we see the moon rise. And then there's a conclusion
here in verse 14. Ephraim will suffer consequences
for making Yahweh angry. Ephraim provoked him to anger
most bitterly. What is it to be provoked? to
be so irritated to a point of action in here to anger. And that's what they did to the
one who said, I'm the Lord your God. They made him angry. And it says, most bitterly, his
bitter action was provocation of the Lord and the consequences
Therefore, his Lord will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon
him. If he's been guilty of bloodshed,
that guilt is going to stay on him. And return his reproach
upon him. He's going to become a disgrace,
a shame, a reproach. I want you to notice something.
You see in verse 14, the last line of the verse where it says,
and return his reproach upon him. You see that? You see in
chapter 12, in verse 6, so you, by the help of your God, return. See that? It's the same Hebrew
word, shuv. And in verse 6, it means repent,
return, turn back, turn from your evil and turn to God. In
verse 14, If you refuse to repent, God is going to return. He's
going to turn back, bring back on you the judgment you deserve. And that's what happened in 722
BC. They were blind to Hosea's message. They were deaf to his prophetic
calls. And the enemy came in and carried
them off captive. They wouldn't return. And so
God made reproach and shame return. Great lessons for us. Because
they did not repent or return to the Lord, shame and reproach
would return to them. Let me close with these applications. There are consequences for sin. First, for the unbeliever. Many
people think, I'm not worried about the afterlife. I'm not
worried about those Christians pie in the sky that they talk
about. I'm not into any of that. As
one man told me once, when I die, I'm just like a dog. I just go
into the ground and that's it. No, that's not it. There are consequences for sin.
And if we have not trusted Christ, that's where we have to start.
Come to the cross and our sin problem can be dealt with, praise
God, by his mercy, his grace, and I won't face the consequences
of my sin. Eternal judgment away from God. That's why we need salvation,
praise the Lord. And as believers, though, let
us never think there are no consequences to sin. Yes, there are. There are consequences. Back
to the book of James. I wonder if James had been reading
Hosea. James chapter one. Verse 14,
James tells us, but each one of us is tempted when he's drawn
away by his own lust or desires and enticed. Then when desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fulfilled,
full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved
brethren. I must not be deceived about
sowing sin and then it grows and gives birth and brings forth
death. So yes, there can be discipline
in the Christian life. Let us just remember this wonderful
truth. If I sin as a Christian, I need
to confess it. If we confess our sin, he's faithful
and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And let us never think, oh yeah, I'm gonna wait till Sunday, I'll
do that. I'll go to church, I'll confess my sin. No, let us not
even think, yeah, I'll wait till I say my prayers at bedtime.
No, whenever we sin, confess it and deal with it and don't
linger along and God is willing to forgive us. but let us never
be deceived to think no consequences. There was a senior in high school
who didn't make it to graduation because last he was seen, I think
he was with a friend, they were at a McDonald's, and they don't
know exactly what they were doing there, but probably not good,
and he took his car and he was going, I think the speedometer
was stuck at like 110 or 120. He went over this bridge and
became airborne and went right into a pole and was tragically
taken and death. You know, we can think, I can
live fast and free and I can party it up and no consequences. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. Or we can think, I can just hide
away in my heart these little private sins. No consequences. Let us not be deceived. Let us
confess sin and turn from it and turn to the Lord. And then
turn with me to this, Galatians 6, 7, and 8. There's a principle
that Hosea reminds us of. that we need to remember continually,
sowing and reaping. If you got the email last night,
I mentioned this. It can be positive and it can
be negative. Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8. Do
not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that
he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh
will of the flesh reap corruption. but he who sows to the Spirit
will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." Ephraim was deceived. They thought they could mock
God. They could sow to the wind. Ephraim says, you're going to
reap the whirlwind. Sowing and reaping, understanding
this principle as believers should help us to resist sin. It's not worth it. I sow that, I don't know what
I'm going to reap. I love Adrian Rogers, he's in
heaven. He had great radio ministry. Maybe you still hear him, Loveworth
Finding. One of his most popular messages
was a message on alcohol. And he was completely against
it. But he had a fun little way of engaging people at a restaurant.
They'd come to him, can I get you a drink? No ma'am, I'm concerned
I might become an alcoholic. And it meant a smile or a chuckle.
What was he saying? I don't want to start that. I
don't want to start sowing that because I don't know where that
might make me reap. So I'm not going to start it.
That's wise. And there are many things that
we could argue that we have the Christian liberty, the right
to do. Okay? But we'll end up in the
harvest field reaping, sowing and reaping. Ephraim, all their
advantages, all their blessings would still sow the seeds of
rebellion against the God who brought them out of Egypt. And
one last one, and please turn with me to Psalm 19. Here's the
application. God spoke through his prophets
the power of the Word of God. The power of the Word of God. I love this. God was gracious to Ephraim. God blessed Israel with prophets. And God has blessed us, the church,
with his word to guide us, to instruct us, to change us. Let's appreciate it. Psalm 19
verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right. rejoicing the heart. The commandment
of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold. Yea, they're much fine gold,
sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Moreover, by them
your servant is warned. And in keeping them, there's
great reward. Isn't that great? So let's understand
consequences, let's understand sowing and reaping, and let's
understand the power of the Word of God and appreciate that God
has spoken to us through the prophets and they're recorded
in His Word. Let's pray together. Father,
thank you for your Word today. You know the needs of each of
our hearts. I pray, Lord, that you will give us grace and strength
to understand consequences, to avoid sin by understanding sowing
and reaping, and to understand and appreciate the power of your
word. Help us, Lord. And thank you
for this sweet and gentle and powerful ministry of the Holy
Spirit to take your word and apply it to our hearts. We ask
that you do that in Jesus' powerful name. Amen.
A Cunning Canaanite
Series Hosea
Yahweh speaks truth to Ephraim (Israel), showing them their sin, their advantages and their punishment.
| Sermon ID | 119252435217 |
| Duration | 53:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Hosea 12:7-14 |
| Language | English |
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