Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the time that we have again this evening. We're grateful for the food that you have blessed us with. We're certainly thankful for those who have worked on that for us, especially for Susan. We pray that you would bless them for the way in which they've ministered to us. We ask that you'd be with us as we turn our attention to your word and then to a time of prayer. And we do pray, Lord, that you would prosper our time together here in your presence. As always, we pray for Pioneer Clubs and Wachdorfs and Steeles as they lead our children and ask that you would certainly be pleased to bless them. We are mindful, Lord, that there are folks who are missing this evening. Some are out of town, some are ill, some are resting up from having been out of town. Lord, we pray that you would comfort them and ask that you would restore them. And we ask that you would protect the rest of us as well. So we commit our time then to you this evening and pray that it would be profitable for the good of our souls. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Hosea chapter 10 is where we are this evening. And you remember, as we began to look at this and started in on the first verse of this last week, that we were noting those first two phrases of the verse. Israel is a luxuriant vine. He produces fruit for himself. And we talked about some of the issues associated with the way in which Israel takes the blessings that God has given to them and their lives and invests it in themselves. And so, of course, we turned around and we're asking ourselves the question along the lines of, so when God blesses us in our lives, does the kingdom of God and his Christ advance? Or does my portfolio only advance? Or do I add on a prison room to the pastor's house, as was suggested by somebody last Sunday? The question is, what do we do as God prospers us? In whom do we invest? Do we invest in ourselves? Do we invest in the gospel? What is it that takes place? And we see where the Israelites were. They had been blessed. They're likened to this spreading vine. And yet he produces fruit for himself. And so we recognize where the Israelites are going. We urge ourselves from the scriptures to examine our own hearts in these matters. before the Lord, but we ask and we have to go continue and ask what happened in Israel. Then as God blessed them and the rest of the verse simply says, the more his fruit, the more altars he made, the richer his land, the better he made the sacred pillars. Now, at the outset, that might sound OK to say the more God blessed them, then the more, of course, they invested in their relationship and the worship of Jehovah. the more that they invested in the temple in Jerusalem. Except remember, these are people who are idolaters. They are not necessarily interested in that relationship with the Lord. They are what we call syncretistic in their faith. They're just trying to have their fingers in every religious pie that is out there. And so if I don't know Sort of the attitude, if I don't know which God is God, then let me honor all of them and I'll make sure that I cover, you know, the one that is out there, perhaps, or the ten that are out there. And that's really what the Israelites are doing. So these altars that are being spoken of here, these sacred pillars, these are the tools of idolatry. And so as God blesses the Israelites, they're turning around and investing in idolatry. And we say, why? Why are they doing that? But we've already seen the answer to that question. For example, back in chapter 2, verse 8, the Lord said, concerning the Israelites, she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for bond. So there's the very principle, you see, that that is being spoken of now in Chapter 10. God was talking about this clear back in Chapter 2, saying, as I blessed them, they turn around and they gave all of this to the idol Baal. And the issue here is they don't recognize that it is God who is at work in their lives in this way. They don't acknowledge that it is God who is blessing them in these ways. We've seen something similar. In Hosea chapter 8 verse 14, for Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces. What does that sound like? Doesn't that sound exactly like what I was talking about last week from Haggai, the post-exilic prophet, Hosea being a pre-exilic prophet. Here are the Israelites who are being blessed by the Lord. But again, they forget him. They do not acknowledge him. And so they take those blessings and not only invest them in their idolatry, but they invest it in themselves and they build palaces. And so it makes perfect sense, then does it not? When we come to verse one, Israel is a luxuriant vine. He produces fruit for himself. The more fruit, the more altars, the richer the land, the better he made the sacred pillars. All of this because they are not focused on the Lord God in their lives. They have, at the very least, they have compromised their relationship with God. And as we have seen in several instances, they don't even remember or acknowledge that. Let's go on to verse 2. Their heart is faithless. Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars. That first phrase says their heart is faithless. The word for faithless here is the Hebrew word chalak. You have to kind of clear your throat when you say this. Chalak. It's a word that means to be smooth or slippery. Some have translated it to be oily. How does that make you feel? To be smooth, something, you know, you can describe somebody as being smooth in a positive sort of way, like the way that you always talk about me, I know. And I appreciate your recognizing that. You can talk about something being smooth to where you cannot get a hold of it, something that is slippery where you cannot grasp it, or as others have liked it, something that is oily, so I cannot hang on to it. Do you know what a greased pig is? How many of you remember greased pigs? What's that all about? County fairs, state fairs, take some of these farm kids and put them out there in a corral. They grease this little pig and say, anybody who can catch it can have it. It was great entertainment. if you're of the agricultural background. I can see some of you are looking at... That's kind of what this is. The people's hearts were like a greased pig. How are you going to get a hold of this? Everything just kind of slides off of it. It's oily. This word can also, and as many times is, translated in the Old Testament as simply divided. I think that's the better way for us to think about this. The Israelites, their heart is divided. So what does that mean? That means that they're trying to be committed to more than one thing. That means they're trying to live with a split loyalty, if you will. And of course, in particular, we're talking about their religious faith. they're trying to be committed to all kinds of gods, perhaps, that are out there. Certainly that is inclusive of Jehovah, the Lord God, but they're committed to Baal as well. And so their hearts are divided. And you can see how I like that translation in particular, that definition of this word in particular, because there really does point to the spiritual position in which the Israelites find themselves. If you have a divided heart, if you have split loyalties, you cannot be as committed to a single object as you should be or as you need to be. How many of you who are married would be, just on an emotional sense, how many of you who are married would be appreciative of having more than one spouse? Well, yes, I'm going to bring the mic and we're going to move around the room. I'm going to poll everybody. You understand the question. How can you be committed in a marriage covenant to more than one person under the providence of God in your life? in different things that are going on, you can perhaps you can accomplish that as the Lord allows not the same time. I remember the very first full time pastor that I had years ago. I had a young guy come to me. He said, I got a problem. I said, OK, that's my business. What's the problem? He said, I'm in love with two women. He said, I've been married for five years. We have a little boy and I love my wife. He says, there's this girl. at work and we've developed the relationship and he said, you know, I love her too. I said, he said, what should I do? I said, repent because you are in sin. You cannot be in love with two women at the same time. You may love one and lust after the other one, but you're not going to be in a love marital covenant commitment relationship with two women at the same time. You just cannot do that, and you need to repent. That's the kind of thing that we're talking about here. This is what the Israelites were trying to do spiritually. They were trying to be committed, even perhaps covenantally, to more than the Lord God. And it cannot happen, and it cannot take place, and God will not allow that. God will not allow divided spiritual loyalties. far beyond ourselves, God far beyond us, recognizes that He deserves absolute, sold-out, singular-hearted commitment to Him. He recognizes He deserves that, and we need to recognize that God, in a redemptive relationship with us, requires that. God requires a singular commitment to Him. What does the first commandment say? I'm sorry? Your commentary was? Okay. And so how many gods are there allowable in our lives then? Just one. Just one. That's the very first thing that God says to us as a part of the Ten Commandments. You know that passage from Isaiah 42 that I'm reading every chance I get, looking for excuses to bring that into our study, of course. Isaiah 42, 8, I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another nor my praise to graven images. He's saying you worship me and me alone. The glory, he says, belongs to me. It is mine. It belongs to no one else. He says, I understand that and you as my people need to understand that. A little bit later in Isaiah 48 verse 11, he says, for my own sake, for my own sake, I will act. Notice how he says this twice and notice what he's talking about. He's saying, I am going to act as the sovereign God and I'm going to do this for my own sake. This is a part of what What we mean when we say God understands far better than do we what He is worthy of and what He deserves. And He recognizes, I am going to act to the glory of my own name. Now, if Bob Myers did that, it would be sin, wouldn't it? Oh, yeah. Because because he doesn't deserve that. You get the idea. We're not clouding up and raining all over Bob. It would be arrogance on our part, on any of us, to turn around and say, I act in my own glory. I don't deserve that because of my sin and my weakness and my imperfection. But God who has no sin, God who has no weakness, God who has no imperfection, and who understands that, again, better than anybody else, can step forward and say, I will act for my own sake. I will act to my own glory. And he can say that without sin, and he can say that without arrogance. And guess how he ends that verse. He says, for how can my name be profaned in my glory? I will not give to another." The Lord is described to us in the Scriptures as a jealous God. And again, that is not a sinful sort of jealousy, but it is a holy jealousy of recognizing that He is worthy of all adoration and praise and honor. He acts in ways that are consistent with this, and he requires that of us as his people. And so this divided heart commitment stuff, in reference to God, is just simply not possible. Well, so this is what happens. Their heart is divided. Now they must bear their guilt. the Lord will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars. And so God is going to work here so as to seek to move them in the direction where they need to go. And we recognize here, perhaps for the thousandth time as we look at that passage of Scripture, that if there is anything that God truly hates, it is what? First commandment. You shall have no other gods before me." If there's anything God really hates, it is idolatry. It is that that which belongs to Him alone should be ascribed in any way, shape, or form to another. And He hates it even syncretistically. He hates it when we try to cover all the bases. like the Israelites are doing. It wasn't always that they just totally ignored Jehovah and ran after Baal, but they tried to do both things. Sometimes they did, but sometimes they would seek to do both. And it is with God an impossible task. It's an impossible project. Over in Matthew chapter 6, verse 24, Jesus puts it this way. He says, no one can serve two masters. For either he'll hate the one and love the other, he'll hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You see what Jesus is saying at that point. He's saying you must have a single heart commitment to God. You cannot love God and anything else at the same time. God requires, God by His very nature requires that we have a complete and a unified commitment and dedication to Him. That statement from Christ then should drive us to Psalm 139 verses 23 And 24, where David writes, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way. So the teaching of Christ in Matthew 6, 24 should drive us to this request in Psalm 139, recognizing that we cannot serve God and anything else with a single heart, then we must come before the Lord and ask God by the truth of his word and by the presence of his spirit within us to sift our hearts and to search our hearts to see if there is in any sense a division of our loyalty and our spiritual commitments. itself, then, should drive us to Psalm 86, verse 11. Here again, David is writing when he says, teach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth, unite my heart to fear thy name. So you see where we go? Jesus teaching us in Matthew 6 drives us to Psalm 139, and that should take us as a matter of prayer. to solve 8611. Let us pray that God would unite our heart in commitment and faith to him. More than 100 years after Hosea is writing, Jeremiah is being inspired by God's spirit to write to the tribe of Judah. Of course, Hosea is warning the Israelites about the Assyrian captivity that is about to fall upon them. under the just judgment of God. Jeremiah is writing to the Judahites, warning them about the Babylonian captivity that is about to fall upon them under the just judgment of God. Though they are two different geographical places, these are two different prophets, there is an extended period of time in between them. Look at the similarity of a message between Hosea In Jeremiah 32 verses 38 and 39, God is speaking by way of Jeremiah when he says, and they shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them. And so here is God again about 110 to 130 years later. talking now to the Israelites brethren, the inhabitants of Judah, saying, look, if you are to be my covenant people, that you must have one heart. There is only one way. And this is for your good. And it is for the good of your children after you. And so it is these things we must understand within our own relationship with God that we must not come to our walk with Christ. in any sort of a way of a divided heart, that is simply to say that we must be absolutely focused on being completely committed to Jesus Christ, no matter what, above anything else, above anyone else, we must be committed to Christ. And if we are not, then we have cause to step back and examine our hearts to see if there is a spiritual division there. Now, as we consider, I want to go on to verse three, as we consider Israel's position at this point before the Lord, and you can see how Hosea talks about that in the second phrase in verse two, when he says, now they must bear their guilt. OK. As we do this, let's note the heart attitude that goes beyond even what we have been talking about at this point. God is warning them, your guilt, you will end up bearing. And we say, why is that? Verse 1, as we have seen, the second phrase, even though they've been blessed by God, he produces fruit for himself. There is a self-centeredness in the Israelites' relationship with God. And so they are more than willing to receive the fruit of the blessing of the Lord. They're more than willing to receive the fruit of a relationship with the living God. But they take that. And of course, it all then goes inward to themselves. And they use this for themselves rather than for the glory of God. In verse two, as we've just talked about, their heart is divided. This is a divided commitment, which is simply no commitment ultimately at all. When we come to verse 3, I want to suggest to you we're dealing with what we could call as perhaps a spiritual libertarianism. There is a self-centeredness in verse 1, there is a divided heart in verse 2, and now in verse 3 there really is a sense of lawlessness He says, Surely now they will say, We have no king, for we do not revere the Lord. What I want to suggest to you at this point is that the Israelites are saying to themselves, We don't have to follow anyone's lead. We have no king. We have not revered God. And therefore, we don't have a qualified king, or perhaps even necessarily much of a king at all. I really think that what their attitude is goes all the way back to 1 Samuel chapter 8. And you will remember this. When Samuel is getting old, and he is about to die, and the people of Israel recognize that that Samuel, the great prophet and priest who has been their spiritual leader for a long time, is going to be removed from them. They come to him and they say to him, behold, you have grown old. I'm sure they said that nicely. Behold, you are old and your sins do not walk. Your sons do not walk in your way. Now appoint a king for us to judge us Like all the nations, I'm in verse 6 now, 1 Samuel 8. But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Now in Hosea 10, surely now they will say, we have no king, for we do not revere the Lord. And I ask you again, what has changed from 1 Samuel chapter 8 to Hosea chapter 10? And there's a long period of time and generation upon generation through here. But I ask you, what's changed here? Nothing. Nothing has really changed. What we're really talking about at this point is a refusal to live under any sense of the lordship of God. The issue back in first Samuel chapter eight was with God removing Samuel who has taught them all throughout their generation. Now they should be ready to live their lives under the kingship of God himself. But they don't want to do that. And God is the one who is saying, look, they haven't rejected you, Samuel. They have rejected me as their king. Now, in Hosea 10, they're basically saying the same thing. We have no regard for the Lord. We do not revere the Lord. We have no king. They go on at the end of saying, as for the king, what can he do for us? Even if we're talking about a heavenly king or an earthly king, it doesn't really matter because they do not wish to live under any sense of lordship or authority. This is what we call being a spiritual libertine. It is being a religious narcissist. It is being a religious antinomian. Because I've used all the big words I can think of, we're down to this. It is just plain old heart rebellion. I'm not going to live my life under the authority of another. That's what that all means. It reminded me of the parable, you remember, that Jesus is teaching over in Luke chapter 19. In Luke chapter 19, he talks about a certain nobleman who went on to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return, he called ten of his slaves. gave them 10 minus, said to them, do business with this until I come back. And of course, we recognize that the story, this parable, was meant to be reflective of the fact that here is Jesus, who is the King, who is going to ascend unto heaven. He is going to be there during the inter-advent period of time in which we live. We are to use the resources and all the blessings that God has given us to further the gospel and the glory of God to the ends of the earth. And someday he is the king is going to come back and he's going to hold us accountable for all that we have done. We understand that. So the king going away and coming back and leaving with all of his servants, you know, certain responsibilities is Jesus. But he goes on to say in verse 14, but his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. You see, that's exactly what we're talking about here. This is exactly what we're talking about with the Israelites in 1 Samuel chapter 8. We do not want God to reign over us. The Israelites in Hosea chapter 10 are saying, we do not revere God. We have no king. We do not want to live under the lordship or the authority of God. And this is their life's attitude from what they're saying. We have no king, for we do not revere the Lord. As for the king, what can he do for us? He is useless. There is no need for him. We can take care of these matters ourselves. And the issue is they're saying we have no use for authority, gods or the kings. Do you remember the days of the judges? That was a great orderly righteous period of time. I can see you've read the book of Judges twice. Judges chapter 17, Judges chapter 21. What does the scripture say? There was no king in Israel in those days, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. What is that? OK. I can accept that. It's everything we're talking about. It doesn't matter whether we go to 1 Samuel chapter 8, or whether we go to Judges chapter 17, or Judges chapter 21, or Hosea chapter 10, or Luke chapter 19. It doesn't matter where we're going. The heart of natural man, the heart of rebellious man says, no, I will be king. I will not live under authority. Do we have a problem with that? Do we struggle with that? I think the real question is, how many times today have you struggled with that? Beloved, I want to say to you, beware. Having sought to throw off the rule of God you will only find yourself under some other yoke. It may be false religion. It might be ungodly ideology. Could be the yoke of sinful demands of the flesh. Could be the yoke of another individual. who takes an overbearing place in your life. In our inquirer's class last Sunday, I talked to the folks there, and I said, look, we know that God has made us to worship, and you're going to worship something. It's not a matter of asking the question, will I worship? You will worship. The only question is what is going to be the object of your worship. In the same way, I would say to us tonight, God has made us to serve Him. You will serve something. You may serve the simple desires of your own flesh. You may serve, you know, these other matters that we talked about, but you will serve something. That's not the question. The question is simply, what will it be that you commit yourself to serve in this life? So, I want to leave us all, you and me, tonight, of course, with the challenge of Joshua. In Joshua 24, he too is old, and he too is about to pass from the scene, and he gathers the Israelites together for the last time, and he exhorts them in a variety of things. He rehearses the great covenant history of God's faithfulness to them And of course, he says in Joshua 24, verse 15. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves a day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And so, beloved, that should be your one hearted commitment tonight, no matter what and no matter who, I will serve the Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Maybe God will grant us the strength to do that. So help us, God, we pray. We have looked in a in a very cursory way, the length and breadth of your scriptures tonight, and we have found the same thing. Everywhere we have gone, a rebellious and hard heart, sometimes a divided heart. And Lord, we know that we are just like the Israelites of the Book of Judges. We're just like the Israelites in 1 Samuel 8. We're just like the Israelites of Hosea 10. We're just like the servants of the King in Luke 19 in Jesus' parable. We, too, can have hearts that will not only be divided, but rebellious. And we, too, can struggle with those issues of whether or not we're going to be willing to live under authority, and whether or not you will be king. And that's really what this comes down to for us. Are you king or are you not? Lord, we know that you are indeed king of the universe. You have made it. It belongs to you. You have creator rights over it. You are the Lord of all things. Whether we think that you are such in our lives or not does not change in any way the truth that you are the Lord of all things. Only if you conquer our hearts through the gospel of Jesus Christ can we really step forward and say, and thus, you are also my Redeemer and my active King, one in whose submission I live. So, our God, we pray that you would help us with that. We know that we are in the throes of getting rid of the old man and putting on the new man nature. And we ask, O God, that you would help us to do that, that you would sanctify our hearts. And we pray, Lord, that we might be able to go forth tonight, recognizing that because of that work of the gospel that you have done within us, we truly can be one hearted in our commitment to live under the lordship of Jesus, our King. So help us, God, we pray. in his blessed name and by his authority. And all the Lord's people can say, Amen.