Guilty! (2)
Boundless Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Over the last several weeks we’ve looked at Hosea’s story. It’s a pretty crazy story isn’t it? God wanted him to marry a woman whom He knew would be unfaithful to Hosea, but He wanted him to marry her anyway! He wanted Hosea to do this to reflect Israel and Judah’s unfaithfulness to Him. They had committed spiritual adultery against God by running to idols and Canaanite deities rather than seeking after God with all their heart, mind and soul. Gomer would commit adultery against Hosea too. But God called him to love her still. He told Hosea to buy her back after she had gotten herself into slavery. Just like God would pursue Israel and Judah and seek to bring them back to Himself, He wanted Hosea to pursue Gomer and bring her back. Although he had a case to divorce Gomer because of her unfaithfulness, God wanted them to reconcile.
God had a case against Israel and Judah too! God wanted Hosea to lay out His case against them like a prosecuting attorney. So he got their attention and confronted them...
Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no knowledge of God in the land;
They had become a people who were UNFAITHFUL—they were unstable and unreliable. They were unfaithful to God and their love for others and for God had waned.
Those who were responsible to teach the next generations (the priests and the fathers) were NEGLECTING their responsibilities. As a result the knowledge of God, which once permeated the land, was deteriorating.
As a result, the commandments that God had once given through Moses were being broken left and right. He reminded them:
there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Now understand that “swearing” has a different connotation in our society than it did in Hosea’s. One aspect of cursing was invoking God’s name to call down unjustified curses on others. As people would use God’s name in this way that were “taking it in vain” which was a violation of the THIRD COMMANDMENT.
They had also become “liars.” Deceit had become a part of their lives. Because they had no steadfast love toward their neighbors, bearing false witness against them, which was a violation of one of the other commandments, became very commonplace.
They had also become guilty of murder. They had begun taking the lives of those around them who were created in the image of God. Their value of life had also deteriorated. Once again they were ignoring the commands of God.
Not only were they not valuing life, they were not valuing the concept of private property that God had established in the Law. Many of the people had resorted to stealing and taking things that did not belong to them.
And yes, just like Gomer, they had resorted to adultery. Many of the men and women of Israel and Judah were not valuing their marriage vows and had become unfaithful to their spouse.
Things were out of control and it seemed like every person was simply doing what was right in their own eyes. The nation was deteriorating and God was fed up with the unfaithfulness of His people. Their actions brought harsh and difficult consequences upon the land and its inhabitants. Remember God warned them that He was going to bring them into the wilderness, He was going to bring them to the end of themselves and bring them to a place that there was no where else to turn and as a result...
Therefore the land mourns,
and all who dwell in it languish,
and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens,
and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
One of the big reasons things had gotten so bad is because the very people who were supposed to be God’s representatives to the people, the priests, were neglecting their responsibilities.
They weren’t teaching God’s people the truth and as a result:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
because you have rejected knowledge,
I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
The spiritual leadership, who should have been leading God’s people into knowledge were neglecting doing so and as a result the people lived in ignorance. The priests were rejecting knowledge and so God would reject the priests.
The priesthood had become so corrupt that they were using the sacrificial system for their own gain and benefit. God had allowed he priests to partake of a portion of the sacrifice in order to take care of feeding their families, but it had become a sham! It was as if they encouraged the people to sin MORE AND MORE so they would get MORE AND MORE food.
God was not pleased!
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,
they would be regarded as a strange thing.
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.
The priests underlying motive wasn’t helping people repent and get right with God, their underlying motive was GREED! They abused their power for the purpose of filling their own bellies!
God wasn’t going to keep blessing their wickedness! As someone said, “You can’t live with the devil and expect God to pay the rent.”
So God removes His blessing and He told me
They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine,
which take away the understanding.
The very thing that they were pursuing to find satisfaction was only going to leave them hungering for more. The very “false gods” they were worshiping to bring fertility to their lives and their land was going to leave the BARREN!
They said NO to God in order to say “YES” to whoredom, wine, and new wine which does nothing but “dull the senses” and decrease their “understanding.”
Sensual pleasures were robbing them of their sensibilities. They engaged in PAGAN practices and were looking to “STICKS OF WOOD” rather than the Creator for answers.
My people inquire of a piece of wood,
and their walking staff gives them oracles.
For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
and they have left their God to play the whore.
The very places on the mountaintops that Moses told them to destroy were the places they were going to worship the false “gods.”
They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
and your brides commit adultery.
But God is a just God and He realized that it wasn’t just the women who were living like spiritual prostitutes, but the men, who should have been the spiritual leaders, were leading their families away from God!
I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
and sacrifice with cult prostitutes,
and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.
Israel was so STUBBORN! God hates stubbornness! Stubbornness is like a fasting growing, uncontrollable cancer that destroys the healthy cells around it! God even called for extreme punishment against stubborn children in the Law. Solomon said this about stubbornness:
He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck,
will suddenly be broken beyond healing.
The Psalmist also said:
“But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
What a sad state of affairs. This is where continued stubbornness leads. It leads to brokenness. Continued stubbornness leads to God letting them REAP THE SEEDS of their stubbornness. There will come a time when people turn away from God, and His counsel and His Word long enough and often enough that God will allow them to have exactly what they want…LIFE WITHOUT HIM!
They want God to leave them alone, GOD WILL LEAVE THEM ALONE!
He told me to tell them...
I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress earnestly seek me.
Do you see that? The word “UNTIL.” God said He will leave them alone, and He will go to His own place until they do TWO THINGS...
Acknowledge Guilt
Acknowledge Guilt
God laid out His case against Israel and Judah and it was clear they were GUILTY! But they were so DECEIVED and so IGNORANT of TRUTH, God sent me and other prophets to confront them time and time again about their guilt.
They were guilty of SPIRITUAL ADULTERY, IDOLATRY, IMMORALITY, and many other sins. They were WILLFULLY IGNORANT of the truth and had refused to confess their GUILT.
But how about YOU? Have YOU ever acknowledged YOUR GUILT before a HOLY GOD. Have YOU ever come to the place where you recognized and realized that there was absolutely NOTHING you could do to take away the stains of your past sins. Have you ever realized that you are GUILTY before an INFINITELY HOLY GOD who has declared...
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Did you get that? YOUR sin has earned SEPARATION from God. Your sin has earned ETERNAL SEPARATION from God in Hell. You cannot ERASE your sins, you cannot PAY for your sins, you cannot EXCUSE your sins, you cannot MAKE RESTITUTION for your sins...
The FIRST thing you must do is ACKNOWLEDGE your GUILT and YOUR SINFULNESS
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The second thing God wanted them to do was to
SEEK GOD!
SEEK GOD!
Listen again to what God said...
I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress earnestly seek me.
What had Israel and Judah been seeking? They had been seeking a God of their own making!
God wants us to seek HIM. But too often people seek a "god" of their own making! They are looking for a spiritual “SUGAR DADDY.” They are looking for a “god” who will SERVE THEM rather than seeking for a God who is worthy of their service! They are seeking after a “god” who will give them their “best life now” rather than seeking the God who is WORTHY of their best life!
How about you?
Until they came FACE to FACE with their guilt they would never seek the ONLY ONE who can solve their guilt and that is the ONE, TRUE God!
God promised through the prophet Isaiah...
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
How on earth would that be possible? It would be possible because God the Father would send His Son, the Messiah, to become the holy and pure sacrifice, to take upon the wages that SIN had brought to YOU and that SIN had brought to me!
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
God’s GRACE and MERCY and FORGIVENESS are BOUNDLESS! However, you will never experience HIS BOUNDLESS MERCY, GRACE and FORGIVENESS until you confess your guilt and turn from your worthless idols to the CREATOR of the universe and surrender YOUR LIFE to HIS LORDSHIP!
Will you CONFESS YOUR GUILT TODAY to the ONLY ONE who can remove it and remedy it?
Will you quit seeking anything and everything but God, and TURN TO HIM and GIVE HIM YOUR LIFE!?