Open your Bibles this morning to the book of Hosea chapter 4 and we continue our study in this great book. I hope you noticed the words from the psalm that we read. That's the backdrop for Israel's sin. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, to idols. And it's no wonder that we have, then, this amazing book of Hosea, where Hosea and his family were object lessons of God's work on the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom. And we saw hope at the end of chapter 3. But now God has a case to speak to Israel, Israel's day in court. And the Lord lays out His case and judgment against the nation of Israel. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that You will open our eyes, that we may see, open our hearts, that we may hear and obey. We pray that Your Word will speak to us by Your Spirit. We pray Your Spirit to make the application as we need. In Jesus' name, amen. A brief review of chapter three would be this. The Lord tells Hosea to love a woman who has been loved by another in verse one. And Hosea graciously purchases, redeems Gomer, his own wife, who is basically in the slave market. And he purchases her. What a picture of what Jehovah would do for Israel. In chapter 3, verse 3, Hosea offers kindly counsel. In verse four, his actions give a prophetic illustration. Israel would be without political leaders for many days and without religious activities for many days. In verse five, it says, afterward, the children of Israel shall return, a wonderful word in Hosea, will return, will seek the Lord their God and David their king and fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. It's pointing beyond our time to when Jesus will come and reign here on this earth during the millennial kingdom. So here is hope, here is restoration, here is joy beyond the pain and even the judgment of Israel's day. Now we come to chapter four and notice verse one. Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land. There's no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint with bloodshed after bloodshed. therefore the land will mourn and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air even the fish of the sea will be taken away. So we come now to chapter 4 and after showing the future blessings that are in verse 5 of chapter 3 and the unconditional love of the Lord for Israel as symbolized in Hosea's redeeming love for Gomer. Hosea now presents a message from the Lord to Israel and he commands Israel to hear the word of the Lord. I love this. hear the word of the Lord and here again is that self-authenticating truth in scripture that the Bible is the word of the Lord. Hosea is saying here listen to the word of the Lord thus saith the Lord so this message is from God it's a word from God it is then authoritative and it is to be heard. Same today. The Bible is the word from God. It's authoritative. It's the final authority for Bible-believing churches. The final authority. There's no higher court of appeal than the scriptures. You wanna know what God says about a subject? Look to the scriptures. And what a tragedy that so many churches have departed from that long ago. They don't look to the scripture. Or they say, sure, the Bible's a good book. It's a book from God. It's authoritative along with this and this and this. Or this one, this person. No, the Bible is the final authority. We don't add to it. We don't take away from it. What a need today to hear the authoritative word of God. To let the message of the Lord be heard in the land. The word of Yahweh. Notice chapter one, verse one. And when we first saw it there, Hosea 1.1, the word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the word of the Lord. And verse two, a similar expression. When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea. I love that. So the word of the Lord is very important and he spoke through human vessels. That's the doctrine of inspiration. God, the spirit worked through human beings, human personalities to convey the message that he wanted conveyed. So look at the word of the Lord here in chapter four, verse one. Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel. The Lord brings a charge. He brings a charge. The Lord presents a legal case against Israel. So indeed, the Lord is taking Israel to court. He's bringing a charge against them. And this is very interesting, this word charge. It means strife or dispute. a strife, a quarrel, in words of public hostilities, especially a dispute, a controversy, case at law, or a lawsuit. The Lord brings a lawsuit against his people, Israel. So the Lord enters the courtroom and states his case against the nation of Israel. Here are the parties in this lawsuit. The Lord Yahweh, notice capital L, small capitals, O-R-D, it's Yahweh, Jehovah, the one who exists in and of himself, the uncaused cause, Yahweh. He's in this lawsuit. He brings a charge and it's against or with the inhabitants of the land, that is the Israelites in the Northern 10 tribes, those kingdoms. So here are the parties in this case. Notice the last part of verse one, the Lord's case, what's the problem? What is missing? What's missing in these 10 tribes? What's missing in the inhabitants of the land? You would think this would be today's news. Notice the first thing missing. There is no truth, no truth. We can't see it so much in English, the no before truth goes with truth and mercy and knowledge. But in Hebrew, there's a no, a negative repeated three times. There's a repetition. There is not truth. There is not mercy. There is not knowledge. It repeats three times. It makes a clear, powerful point. What's missing in the Lord's case against them, what's missing in the land is truth. No truth in the land. It sounds like 2023 in our world. Missing truth. This is the Hebrew word emeth, emeth. It means firmness, faithfulness, truth, reliability, sureness, stability, continuance, faithfulness, reliableness. Wow, that's a great word. And the word of the Lord is true, but this truth missing and is it ever missing today in our land? People believe so many lies and the devil is so happy about that. There are many lies about the Bible, many lies about salvation, there are many lies about morality, there are many lies in just practical matters. What did Jesus say about this? Understand these words, these are powerful. And Jesus spoke to Jewish leaders in John chapter 8. He said something very dramatic to them. He said, you are of your father, the devil. John 8, 41, you do the deeds of your father. Jesus had just said, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth. which I heard from God. The Lord Jesus Christ tells us the truth. He's from God. And so when he says, I'm the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the father, but by me, we can rest on that. We can rest in the crucified. They insulted Jesus. They said to him, verse 41, we were not born of fornication. What were they saying? You had an illegitimate birth. It was blasphemous. Notice verse 44, you are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it. The devil has a hold on so many outputs of information today. Name the media, television, radio, internet, and lies are constantly spewed. Scripture mocked, God's ways mocked. Jesus said here, the devil doesn't stand in the truth. He has no truth in him. He speaks a lie speaking from his own resources. Verse 45, but because I tell you the truth, You do not believe me. So what do you do when you don't want to hear the truth? Well, here's an option, verse 48. Then the Jews answered and said to him, do we not say rightly that you're a Samaritan and have a demon? You can just say, well, you're crazy. We don't accept the truth. Or verse 59, then they took up stones to throw at him. Kill the messenger of truth. And that's what's happening many times a day. We don't like to hear the truth, so just get rid of the messenger. Here's God's case against the nation of Israel. There's no truth in the land. It departed from the truth of scripture. And what a condemnation to our day to day. Here are some examples, and I would encourage you to list several more, but here are some examples. of the absence of truth in our culture, denial of miracles in the Bible. That's an old, old tenant of liberalism. A denial of the possibility of absolute truth as we live in this whole age of relativism and humanism. And we have been informing East End Baptist Church about that through the Sunday school class and the videos that have been played that have exposed this. denying absolute truth and exalting humanism. How about this? The repetition of lies and absurdities as true. Well, just keep saying it over and over. And when you say a lie over and over and over, then people will accept it. And that's happened right before our eyes. Example, men can have babies. And you can be persecuted for denying that, speaking the truth. That is a lie. You repeat this absurdity over and over. It's true, then people accept it. The punishment of those who hold views contrary to the accepted standard, and then outright censorship, removing free speech that our First Amendment gives to us in this nation. No, we don't like what you say so we won't let you say it. Removal of free speech, censorship, it's happening before our very eyes. And then where journalism I think in its day reflected reality. Now journalism is by opinion to shape opinion with no concern for facts or truth. It could be outright lie. Who cares? We want it to achieve our end goal of shaping the thoughts to be like this, so we don't care what we say. Well, they don't exactly say all that, but that's what they do. No concern for facts or truth. Would God say, I have a case? And it's this, there's no truth in the land. Truth has departed. Thank God, there still is truth here. There is a remnant still. There are still churches, and many of them, praise the Lord, around the land that are still speaking the truth of the word of God, who open the Bible and teach from the Bible on Sunday morning from the pulpit. We're not coming to a show. We're not coming to entertainment. We're not coming to just feel good when we leave. We're coming to be saved, first of all, We're coming to be edified, secondly. We're coming to be strong in the Lord and the power of his mind. That's why we come together. We're coming here based on truth. And sometimes the truth makes us feel terrible, but it points us to the answer. And then we can have forgiveness and we can be relieved of that terrible guilt. We come to Christ. What else was missing in the land of Israel? God's case against them. There's no truth, there's no mercy. Here's our word, chesed. C-H-E-S-E-D, we can spell it like that, chesed. No loyal love. Loyal love is missing, covenantal love. Because you see, they had gone in spiritual harlotry after these idols, as Psalm 106 was showing us. And so they had broken covenant loyalty with Yahweh, with Jehovah. And they weren't showing that love to him that they should have shown. But he still loved them like Hosea loving Gomer. No unconditional love, no committed love in the land. How can a culture engage in no mercy, no loyal love? Well, first of all, by disloyalty to the scriptures, dishonoring the scriptures, denying the scriptures. A man told me once, we were talking about the Bible and inspiration of scripture. He was telling me about this denomination that had separated from a more conservative group because of their liberal bent, especially about inspiration of scripture and the inerrancy of scripture. And he made this comment. He said, well, last I checked, there wasn't a fourth person of the Trinity. As if Bible believers who hold to inspiration of the Bible is inerrant, that we're exalting it to the Trinity. It was a confused view that he was showing It was disloyal to the scripture and excuse to admit or to say there are errors in the Bible. We believe in biblical inspiration. Theopneustos, God breathed his word. 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Passagraphe, Theopneustos, all scripture, God breathed. We hold that, we believe that. And there are two corollaries that come from that. Inerrancy, there aren't errors in the scripture as originally given. And infallibility, there are no errors and God's word will not lead us astray. Praise the Lord for that. So a day is our day where there's disloyalty to the scriptures and then unfaithfulness to the Savior. They follow one after the other. Disloyalty to the scriptures, unfaithfulness to the Savior, lovelessness in marriage. That's an example of no mercy, no loyal love in the land. Lovelessness, departure, downplaying marriage, treating it as something common and even something rare, unheard of. And that's all around us. And no commitment in families. No commitment. Fathers, irresponsible, walking out on their families. That's lack of mercy, lack of loyal love, lack of hesed. And mothers don't care about their kids. Cast them off. We hear these horrific stories of a baby found in a dumpster. That's lack of hesed. No loyal love, no mercy. How could you do that without natural affection? And the New Testament says, and brokenness and friendships and betrayals, all of that, lack of mercy and loyal love in the land. Is that today in 2023? Absolutely. And how sad. And where does it all start? Departing from the truth, departing from the God of the Bible who sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, no loyal love. And then the third thing, or knowledge of God. There's no knowledge of God, no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God in the land. And that Bible has a note that says here, knowledge of God refers to recognition of his authority and obedience to his will. I think there's even more to it than that as it refers to truth about him. And when that is pushed aside, then indeed there's no recognition of his authority and there is not obedience to his will. Think with me of this. How clever is the devil, remember? He's the liar, the father of lies. So the evil one is so clever, remove the knowledge about God away from the land, the people, the children, and the youth. Remove that knowledge from them, and then you can begin to control them and program them as you wish. because the vacuum is powerful. When the knowledge of God is taken away and the recognition of God's authority is removed from a family, from a church, from a city, from a state, from a nation, that produces a powerful vacuum and in that vacuum will come all sorts of belief systems, bizarre systems and denials. So what's growing? We see Islam growing. We see Satanism growing. I heard reports, I think it was last Sunday, maybe it was two weeks ago, the Grammy Awards, and I'm not into that, I don't follow that stuff, but the featured artists portrayed satanic themes. And guess who sponsored them? The Pfizer drug company. So Satanism is very real and the featured song Unholy. I don't know what it was all about. They had red colors and all of this. So you deny God, push him out. There's a vacuum and in that there will be a belief system. Things will come in because we will worship something or someone. An atheist is consumed with his atheism. I hear that there are atheist churches. There was one in North Dallas and it was very intriguing to me. What do you do? Like apparently they sing. What do you sing about? Where did you ever get the idea of having church? Something will fill the vacuum. When the knowledge of God is taken away, that place will be filled with something. When we depart from Genesis 1.1, what will flood its way in? We evolved. And evolution is the root of racism and all kinds of evils in our land, saying that people evolved. No, they did not. God created us. The vacuum is powerful. No knowledge of God in the land. So friends, we as a church, We have a vital role of lifting up the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Christ. The knowledge of the Bible. In case you didn't hear it, I'm gonna say it again. We as a church in 2023, we need to be passionate about this. To lift up the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Christ, and the knowledge of the Bible to a confused world that is bent on its own destruction. No knowledge of God in the land. May God help us to be that vessel, that church that speaks the knowledge of God to a watching and waiting and very confused world. The church of Jesus Christ must stand strong. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 4.22, For my people are foolish, they have not known me. They are silly children, they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. And Hosea had a similar thought. No knowledge of God in the land. May God use us to lift up the knowledge of God. So right here in this vacuum, The truth, the mercy, the knowledge is missing. So in that vacuum, what comes? So here's the Lord's case. What is present? What is present in his case against the nation of Israel? What was going on in the land? Look at this list. It looks like the nightly news. Swearing, lying, killing, and stealing, and committing adultery. They break all restraint with bloodshed after bloodshed, breaking through the restraints, swearing, taking God's name in vain, and bringing down curses, lying, a culture of untruth and lying, and murder. I heard this week that Our murder rate in America is at all-time high. We hear that, we get used to it, don't we? Oh, someone was killed in the train. Someone was stabbed here. This one died there. We get used to it. It is not normal. It is not right. It is wrong to kill another human being made in the image of God. And it's all around us. It was going on in Hosea's day. Stealing. Can you imagine this? People breaking into a store with a garbage bag and load it up and walk out and it's okay. It is not okay for anyone to do that. Well, I deserve it. No, I don't deserve it. And places say we're not even gonna mess with it. It's under $1,000, $900 and something. Police aren't even gonna bother with it. And we live in a culture of stealing. No, it is wrong. It is wrong. Stealing. Walk by a neighbor's house. Wow, that's a really nice bicycle. Nice this, that. I could use one like that. Why don't we lock them up? Because people will steal. Adultery, what an adulterous age in which we live. God's case against the nation of Israel sounds like the nightly news. Breaking through restraint and bloodshed, literally bloodshed, touching bloodshed. Think of the works of the flesh in Galatians chapter 5 and commentators have noted in this list of Hosea, five of the Ten Commandments are here. Five are broken. So here's the Lord's case. This is what is present in the case. Quickly, the Lord's case, the consequences, the sentence, the judgment. Verse three, therefore the land will mourn. The land will mourn. You see politicians scratching their head. What can we do? All this crime going on. Can we do this? Can we do that? Sometimes it's this. I've used this analogy before. Suppose you call me up and say, I got a flood in my house. Could you please come over and help me? And so I go over to your house. I go in the front door, and I'm already ankle deep in the water. And I say, whoa, you do have a problem. And I look in, and I notice I see a little hall bathroom there, and the sink is overflowing. And I look past that in the kitchen and that sink is just overflowing. And I said, hey, did you turn the water off? Oh, no, we can't do that. Here, here's a towel. Go for it. Start mopping it up. I said, no, turn the faucet off. Let's start there. This is the solution today. Throw you a towel, clean it up. No, turn the faucet off to stop the flow of the evil. He said, this is insane. And it is. So here are consequences, a sentence, a judgment, the land is mourning. At first thought I thought this was referring to when they're actually carried away in captivity and maybe it is but I saw that some see this as referring to famine that would come which was a judgment on Israel when famine would come and The result, perhaps, is the same. The land will mourn. Everyone who dwells there will waste away. If you don't have rain, you don't have grain, you don't have water in the wells, they will waste away with the beasts of the field, even the creation will suffer, and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea. So that certainly would fit a famine. They will be taken away. So here's the Lord's case. At any rate, it all speaks to judgment because of what's going on in the land of Israel. The Lord's case, there are consequences. We need to continually remember this. The judge of all the earth will do right. I want to apply this with these thoughts. The Lord's condemnation of Israel looks so up to date. No truth, no loyal love, no knowledge of God in the land. The Bible is relevant. The Bible is relevant. We can depend on the word of God. I'm thankful that there is knowledge of God still in our land and we exist to continue to promote that But think about this, friends. No matter what happens in our culture, no matter what the news reports bring to us, our job description as a church does not change. It just becomes more and more important and necessary. Go and make disciples. Grounded in the word of God, Yes, there are all kinds of evil things that go on this whole list in verse two, goes on all around us. So what do we do? We become strong in the Lord, we stand on his truth and we continue to preach the truth of the word of God, to witness the truth of the word of God to our neighbors, our friends, our working associates. We continue to carry the baton of truth forward. Our job description to make disciples has not changed. And so we want to passionately do that from Bible club to Sunday school to the preaching of the word to every ministry in the church. Our job description hasn't changed. And one other application. Have you believed the truth of the gospel? Have you accepted it as your own? Let's pray together. Our father, we thank you so much for your love and mercy. We thank you, Lord, that in your mercy, there still is the knowledge of God. There still is some truth in America. And Lord, we pray that it would be multiplied, that the forces of darkness that so want to take over, that so want to conquer our culture, our entertainment, our politics, our churches. We pray, Lord, that the truth will resist all of that, stand against it. and we will be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Lord, I pray that you will multiply your truth, multiply the knowledge about God and the submission to his authority, and use East End Baptist Church to that end. And I pray, Lord, for anyone who's here today who's not yet believed the gospel, that they would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. In Jesus' wonderful, powerful name we pray, amen.