The Winds Of False Reliance

Text:Hosea 8:1-14

Children’s Bible: page 963

Introduction: Wedding Crashers/Church Crashers

Have you ever heard of a wedding crasher?

A wedding crasher is a person who was not invited to a wedding.

They most likely do not know the bride and groom at all.

But, they get dressed up, attend the reception, dance, and eat the food just like they were invited.

Now, this can usually only be pulled off at large weddings where you can simply blend into the crowd because a lot of people there don’t know each other anyways.

They rely on a big crowd and anonymity in order to blend in.

Did you know that in the Bible are warnings against being a church crasher, a Christian crasher, a kingdom crasher?

In the same way, these people rely on certain things in order to convince others or to sometimes even convince themselves that they know God, when they truly do not know him at all.

Consider a few sobering verses:

Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV)

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

1 John 2:19 (ESV)

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Hebrews 6:4–6 (ESV)

4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

So, there is a danger when you think you know God but you really don’t.

But even genuine Christians are called to test themselves and see if they are in the faith, because the sinfulness of our flesh can so easily knock us off course and lead us to rely on things other than God.

So, whoever you are today, this passage speaks to you.

In the book of Hosea, God has shown clearly His desire to save us out of our own sin and unfaithfulness and into a loving, intimate, and committed relationship with God,

But so many times, we are tempted to rely on counterfeits instead of relying on God in relationship with Him alone, so let’s let God explore our hearts as we walk through this passage today.

Hosea 8:1–14 (ESV)

1 Set the trumpet to your lips!

One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because they have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2 To me they cry,

“My God, we—Israel—know you.”

3 Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

4 They made kings, but not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

5 I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

6 For it is from Israel;

a craftsman made it;

it is not God.

The calf of Samaria

shall be broken to pieces.

7 For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

strangers would devour it.

8 Israel is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as a useless vessel.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria,

a wild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10 Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And the king and princes shall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

12 Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

13 As for my sacrificial offerings,

they sacrifice meat and eat it,

but the Lord does not accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

they shall return to Egypt.

14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker

and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

so I will send a fire upon his cities,

and it shall devour her strongholds.

1. Do Not Rely On Simply A Factual Knowledge Of God

Verse 1 sets the tone by calling the people to set the trumpet to their lips.

The trumpet was used to warn the people of impending danger and invasion.

Here, he says that one like a vulture of over the house of God.

The vulture was an unclean animal pointing to the way the people had desecrated themselves.

It was also a bird that hovers over dead bodies waiting to eat off of them, so it is a warning of impending doom.

Why?

What was there to be alarmed about?

Why did they deserve the coming destruction?

The second half of verse 1 says: Because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.

But verse 2 tells us that when the people hear this warning, they respond back:

What are you talking about? We know God.

“My God, we - Israel - know you.”

Yet, God responds in verse 3: Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.

You see, the people here, and we too oftentimes as well rely on our factual knowledge of God and the things we have experienced of God in the past in order to say: “We know God.”

But the problem is: knowledge and past experience is not what we should rely on in order to know God.

Because what does the passage say? They have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.

We see this same thing in the Matthew passage where Jesus says, “Depart from me, I never knew you, then the people are like, but we did these mighty works in your name.”

And what does Jesus call them back, “You workers of lawlessness.”

Many times, we are tempted to rely on our factual knowledge and past experiences of God, when all the while Jesus said:

John 14:15 (ESV)

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

If you don’t obey my commands, and if you are lawless, you don’t truly know and love me.

You see, the true test of someone in genuine relationship with God is not how much theology they know or what spritual experiences they have, the true test is: are you obeying his commands?

It’s like when the Israelites said, “God, we know you.”

God pulls out the Ten Commandments and says,

“Oh really? You have no other gods before me?

You have not made any carved image or likeness to represent God?

You have not taken the name of the Lord in vain?

You have not stolen, born false witness, or coveted your neighbor?”

In the same way, the test of your intimate relationship with God is not in knowing some facts or experiencing some warm fuzzy times in a service.

Do you obey God?

Have you obeyed Jesus’ command to be publicly baptized and added to the church?

Does your love for God lead you to go and make disciples teaching others how to be obedient to Jesus?

Are you loving God’s church, not neglecting to meet together, encouraging one another, submitting yourself humbly and joyfully to spiritual leadership?

Are you teaching your kids to love God, His word, and His gospel?

Are you living in an understanding way with your spouse laying down your life for their good?

Are you loving your enemies and praying for them?

Are you caring for the poor, the orphan, and the widow?

Are you abiding in God’s word and praying in all circumstances?

Now be careful.

Obeying God’s commands is not the way you earn a relationship with God.

But obeying God’s commands is the evidence that you have a relationship with God.

Let’s use a few illustrations:

What if I were to tell you: you know, this week, I went into surgery, and while I was totally unconscious, the doctor attached a third arm right in the middle of my chest. It’s amazing, I now have this third arm, my productivity is through the roof.

Now, do you have any reason to believe me? Of course not, because here I am and there’s no arm.

Now imagine if I were to tell you that while my family was still getting ready for church this morning, I walked out on the interstate and let a Mack truck run straight into me at 70 miles an hour.

Well, why don’t you believe that? Because if a Mack truck hit me square on at 70 mph I would look different, I’d talk different, I’d walk different.

See, when you entrust your heart to the gospel truth that Jesus died in your place for your sin and rose in victory over your sin,

The Bible says at the moment of salvation, God removes your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh.

You were dead, but are made alive.

And God writes His law on our hearts so that for the very first time we truly from the heart desire to love Him with all that we are and love others as ourselves.

And if you love him, you will keep his commandments.

In no way am I talking about perfection.

We all still have our old sinful nature until we die or Jesus comes again, but if you have been born again, you will have obedience to show for it.

You have been made a new creation.

We become more and more like what we love, so if you truly have grasped and trusted in the love of God in the gospel, you will have a genuine obedience to show for it, no longer how slow or small it may seem.

Do not rely on factual knowledge of God or a past experience.

Are you trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice for your salvation? Has that led you to desire to obey Him?

2. Do Not Rely On Worldly Leaders

Verse 4 says: They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not.

Earlier in their history, they had rejected God as king and asked for a king like other nations.

Since the split of Israel and Judah, Israel never sought the Lord for a new king or sought to have God as their king but followed every bloodthirsty usurper who violently took the throne.

There are two primary problems here:

First, the people were relying on political leaders in the world instead of relying on God.

For, Israel, God was to be there king, but they wanted politics and leaders like the other nations.

Do not rely on worldly politics to do what God alone and His kingdom does.

Listen, God’s church has one leader, and one head, and it is Christ.

Do not ever in your heart, mind, words, or actions submit God’s church to politics or a political leader.

God’s church is not a voting bloc.

God’s church does not have a political Messiah nor has it ever nor will it ever.

In God’s sovereignty, God removes kings and sets up kings.

But may we never assign to a political leader the term “God’s man” or “God’s anointing” to a political figure.

God’s man is Jesus Christ, God’s kingdom is made up of all who bow the knee to king Jesus.

Do not rely on worldly leaders, especially who are violent, angry, immoral usurpers to somehow do God’s will.

Too oftentimes, we too are tempted to rely too strongly on our leaders, whether that be leaders in our society or government and even leaders in the church.

Too oftentimes we rely on someone’s skills, talents, and charisma as a reason they should be given power and influence, and a reason they should be followed instead of prayerfully seeking out the heart and character that God calls for in a leader.

Or instead of patiently and fervently praying for God to provide for a certain person or situation, we take things into our own hands because the need feels desperate.

May we heed:

Psalm 127:1 (ESV)

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

The second problem in this verse is not only a relying on political leaders more than God, but an absence of prayer and seeking God’s wisdom and guidance.

“They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, But I knew it not.”

Too oftentimes we rely on worldly power and leaders because we have forgotten that the greatest power afforded the people of God is the power of God through prayer.

It is the prayer of a righteous person that has great power as it is working.

Proverbs 3:5–8 (ESV)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

7 Be not wise in your own eyes;

fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

8 It will be healing to your flesh

and refreshment to your bones.

The way of the world and the culture is so far from relying on God and His ways.

May the church never follow along, but rely on the power of God, the Kingdom of God, the Word of God, and prayers to God.

Do not rely on worldly leaders.

3. Do Not Rely On Manmade Images Of God

Let’s be honest: in our flesh, it is difficult to worship an invisible God through trusting and relying on the Word of God.

In our flesh, we are such a tactile people.

So, in verses 4-6, God calls out the people’s idol making with silver and gold.

Just as in verse 3, Israel has spurned and rejected the good, in verse 5, God has spurned and rejected the calf of Samaria.

This first leads us to think back on when Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the covenant of God and down below the people were restless and doubting.

So they persuaded Aaron to make gods who shall go before us. So Aaron collected their gold jewelry and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.

And they said these are your gods of Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

The golden calf was in a sense Israel's original sin and it set the pattern for the rest of their history.

Later when the Kingdom was broken in two, Jeroboam lead the 10 tribes to separate from the two and the first act he made was to set up two golden calves at Bethel and Dan.

But by the time of Hosea the calf and Dan was no longer under Israelite control.

That is why he refers to just one calf.

And you see, the people did not see making these idols as a rejection of God but simply an improvement.

They were going to give the people a representation of God that they could see and touch.

A representation of God that appeals to their own felt needs and desires.

I can imagine the people explaining that they are presenting God in a way that people can grasp and understand.

We are making him relevant and palatable with shiny gold and an animal expressing strength and fertility, two things the people desired.

Yet, no image or likeness formed by men can adequately reflect the fullness of God, it can only downgrade and make god more into the image of this world.

We are constantly being challenged and tempted to make God in our own image.

To promise that God will give you the worldly things that you desire if you turn to him.

To dress God up in a palatable form for today’s culture.

To only emphasize the truths and characteristics of God that make God who worldly people want him to be.

Yet, these depictions are not God, they are from Israel, verse 6 says.

A craftsmen made it.

This is why a church such as ours who believe that Christians are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone don’t use a bunch of signs and symbols.

There are no religious relics or ornate religious decoration which can easily lead to idolatry and superstition.

What was God going to do in order to teach his people to not rely on gods of their own making?

He was going to remove the possibility of relying on them by being conquered and deported to a foreign nation.

Many times, God takes the things we rely upon most away from us in order that we would learn to fully rely on God.

Do not rely on manmade images of God.

4. Do Not Rely On Your Own Wisdom

Verse 7 - For they sow the wind, but they shall reap the whirlwind.

Listen, your decisions have consequences.

The way you live your life matters.

The things you think, say, and do cause an impact, whether for good or for bad.

Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”

So, anything that we do apart from God.

Anything that we do that does not proceed from faith in God.

Any choice that we make or road that we take without seeking God through His word and prayer.

That is sowing the wind.

And the warning here is that the consequences of just throwing your decisions to the wind actually come back on you like a raging storm.

Imagine telling one little lie to avoid embarrassment, but then you have to tell another lie to cover up for the first one, and on and on it goes until you are found out, and your raging storm of embarrassment is so much worse than it would have been if you would have been honest at first.

Or imagine starting to take a second glance at a coworker or allowing yourself to flirt just here or there, then you have no idea how you allowed yourself to cheat on your spouse. You sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

God’s people will have no yield from their crops and will be swallowed up and useless. Why?

Like a wild donkey looking for a mate, they ran to Assyria, their enemy, and paid tribute in order to try to placate their enemy.

They didn’t seek God’s face or do things God’s way.

I’m sure it seems like just a little compromise, and they probably felt so justified in it.

They probably said things like, “Hey, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to keep our women and children safe.”

But they put their trust and reliance on their tribute money given over to their enemy instead of placing it on their God.

Maybe some of you are being tempted to cheat and cut corners with your work because everyone else is doing it and that is the only way to be successful in this climate.

Or maybe some of you are being tempted to be harsh or ugly toward your kids, your spouse, or your employees because you think that is the only way to get them to listen.

Or maybe you are being tempted to compromise your integrity by cheating at school because you are feeling the pressure to perform well.

Or maybe you have every excuse in the world for why someone deserves the way you are treating them, or it is okay that you are doing what you are doing when it either clearly goes against God’s word, or you haven’t sought God about it in prayer at all.

Small sins and small compromises don’t stay small.

Sin and compromise always demands more and more.

You sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

Seek God. Pray in all circumstances. Commit yourself to His way, his character, his commands, rely on His wisdom, not your own.

Consider one example from Scripture:

1 Peter 3:1–2 (ESV)

1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

If the husband is not obeying the word, I can imagine He is not treating his wife the best.

She probably, in her flesh, has some really good reasons not to be subject to him and not to be respectful toward him.

But if she gives in to the flesh, and is disrespectful toward him because He is ugly toward her, it just perpetuates the cycle.

They reap the whirlwind.

Instead of prayerfully seeking to be godly, and doing things God’s way even when the spouse is not.

That’s how they may be won over to the Lord.

Don’t rely on your own wisdom.

Pray for God to give you wisdom and rely on Him to be obedient to that wisdom even when it’s hard.

5. Do Not Rely On Religious Activity

Verse 11 - Because Israel has multiplied altars for sinning, they have become to him altars for sinning.

You see, back in Deuteronomy 12, God told the people to tear down all the altars the pagan people have built and to build one altar in the specific place he would show them, and they should bring their sacrifices for sin to that one altar.

But the people didn’t obey, so they built altars for sin offerings all over the place.

I can imagine how justified they felt in doing this.

I can hear them arguing: You know, it would be a lot more practical to make a lot of altars and put them closer to people so that it’s more convenient for people to come and sacrifice more often.

I mean, it’s not a very efficient system to make everyone travel to one place.

We can make a much more efficient sacrificial system doing it this way.

The problem is: God said make one and only one, and He is the one we must obey.

Verse 12 - Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.

Having one altar for sacrifice for such a vast amount of people seemed strange, inefficient, and didn’t make practical sense.

But God has good reasons and purposes that don’t always make clear sense to us, and we must obey Him.

To our flesh, many of God’s commands seem strange, restrictive, out of date.

Consider the Bible’s teaching on sexual ethics where sex is always and only to be experienced between one man and one woman who are in covenant marriage for one lifetime.

Or how about the complementary roles of men and women in the home and church?

Or the command to submit to government leaders even when they are wicked?

Because the people did not obey God in this matter, verse 13 says, “They are doing a lot of sacrificing, but none of it is acceptable to God.”

Because of their sins, they are going to return to Egypt, meaning they are going to become slaves once again.

Verse 14, they have forgotten their maker and built palaces.

Palaces were to impress and intimidate the nations around them like the other nations did.

Judah multiplied fortified cities, that’s not what God told them to do, but it seemed right in their own eyes.

And the book of 2 Kings records for us that it happened just as Hosea prophesied.

Those fortified cities were burned and devoured by their enemies one by one.

How many times have you reacted to circumstances and situations in your life by doing what seemed right in your own eyes, while all the while coming to church every Sunday and proclaiming Jesus as your Lord, and even asking Jesus to bless the things you have done in your life apart from prayer, apart from faith, and apart from His leading?

It interesting, when I first read this passage, I wasn’t sure what I would have to say, but after digging in, I agree with the commentator Duane A. Garrett:

Could we go back to Hosea’s time, we might be shocked to discover that the spiritual decadence of Hosea’s day was no more severe than that of our own. Worse yet, we might find ourselves wondering why Hosea was so upset with his generation because we have more in common with them than with him.

Duane A. Garrett

When we are confronted with passages like this one that focus on and point out all these negative aspects of our sin, I want to remind you that is it in the darkest places that the light shines out all the clearer and more glorious.

If you have been in a well lit room and then walk out into the sun, the sun does not seem very bright.

But when you walk out of a pitch dark room out into the sun, the sun is brilliantly bright.

In the same way, when we consider our sin as some kind of abstract idea, the gospel of Jesus’ death in our place for our salvation seems good.

But when we are confronted with specific ways that we fall so short of God and rely on other things instead of Him, the gospel of Jesus shines out all the more brilliantly to us!

For in the midst of hearing the winds of our false reliance blowing all around us, verse 5 asks: how long will they be incapable of innocence?

Then, as we come to verses 11-14, we recognize that the reason why God desired there to be one place where all the people would bring there sacrifices was to signify the fact that there would be one and only one place, and one moment, and one man who was God, who would die on a cross one time to take all the penalty and punishment for our sins.

While we were relying on worldly knowledge, and worldly leaders, manmade images of God, our own wisdom and religious activities:

1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

That one sacrifice of Jesus flesh covers, forgives, and redeems every time you have ever relied on the things of the world instead of the things of God.

Because of the sacrifice of Jesus alone, we are made capable of innocence.

And Jesus’ resurrection three days later ensures that when we come to Jesus, our spirits are made alive to know God, and love God, and to rely on God, His presence, His leadership, His guidance, through His spirit and His word,

And because of the Holy Spirit within us, we can now obey.

Have you repented of your sin and trusted the gospel of Jesus Christ for your salvation?

That’s different than just knowing some stuff about Jesus.

If you are in Christ, have you begun to rely on worldly leaders, manmade images, your own wisdom, or even your religious activity over and above an intimate, prayer filled, Bible saturated relationship with God?

I want to invite you to respond to God as He calls you today.

Elder at chairs.