Spiritual Adultery
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· 8 viewsHave we committed spiritual adultery on God? Are we staying true to our first love?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome back!
This morning we are going to be returning to the Old Testament looking at the book of Hosea, specifically chapter 3.
Now, just a little bit about Hosea.
Hosea was a prophet that lived in the times just prior to the Assyrian captivity of the Northern Kingdom in 722 B.C.
Hosea was also a citizen of the Northern Kingdom, and God used his personal experiences to serve as an example to all of Israel.
Which is somewhat unique, because at this time Israel was divided into two nations.
But Hosea’s messages were directed and received by both Israel and Judah.
The Book of Hosea is also known as one of the books that call for a national repentance of Israel to turn from its Spiritual Adultery.
And the reason we have this book in our Bible is because Hosea, not only spoke to the nation of Israel, but is speaking to us today as the Church Universal and also as individual Christians to turn from our own forms of Spiritual Adultery in our lives and turn back to God!
It is so applicable to us today that Hosea's name actually means "salvation."
And that is what we all need, whether we are Christians or whether we have never come to know Jesus.
We need a savior!
But before we can receive that Savior, we have to repent of the sin that separates us.
Which is what Hosea is going to be addressing.
So, again Hosea 3, starting in verse one he writes . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.” For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
Background
Background
Now, we picked up a little bit further in the book Hosea than the beginning.
And in order to get the full picture of what is going on here we have to go all the way back to the beginning of Hosea.
When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Now we see something here that seems a bit strange from a cultural standpoint.
Hosea was called by God to go and take a wife, but not just any wife, but rather one who was adulterous, but not just adulterous but rather a prostitute.
Now that’s strange by any standard, but God reveals to Hosea right away the purpose of that call to Hosea.
The Bible goes on to say that it was because, "the land" or Israel had committed a great deal of Spiritual Adultery and had actually DEPARTED FROM THE LORD.
So, in response and obedience to God, Hosea goes and chooses Gomer, and they had a son named Jezreel and later on a daughter named Loruhamah and finally another son named Loammi.
And it was through these three children there will be judgment that falls on Israel.
By the way, Jezreel, the name of Hosea’s first-born, means "God Sows," in that they will all reap what they have sown.
The Bible goes on to say . . .
In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
And Loruhamah, the name of the daughter, means "No Mercy" in that God's compassion has ended and judgment will be poured out.
Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them.
And finally, Loammi, the third child, means "Not my people" indicating that due to their spiritual state they were no longer God's people. They had abandoned God and would suffer the consequences of such a decision.
Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
So God is painting a picture for Israel through Hosea and his family of what is to come to pass.
And, the prophecy continues with Hosea's heartache as Gomer repeatedly leaves him in search for other "lovers" in spite of his attempts to keep her faithful to him.
Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
However, as Gomer seeks out these other lovers, she finds time and time again that their affection and love is shallow, only surface deep.
It has no substance and is only a shell of true love.
It gives the appearance of love and affection but is only a deception to serve it's own fleshly desires.
Gomer was caught up in that temporary "season of pleasure" that came with sin, but there was nothing there.
And Gomer, of course is a representation of Israel’s relationship with God and also a representation of our own relationship with God.
Time and time again Israel was leave God and follow after their own flesh and desires.
How many times have we left God and followed after the desires and things of the world?
Over and over and over again.
Love is Patient
Love is Patient
But the thing about Hosea here is that he was patient.
The thing about God is that God is also patient.
God is patient because God is love.
And love at it’s core is patient . . .
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Hosea had a true love for Gomer and continued to be patient with her and her sins.
Hosea went above and beyond to restore and reconcile with his adulterous wife, instead of casting her aside.
Gomer had even went as far as selling herself and Hosea, paid a great price to buy her back.
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.
That would have been about $75.00 in 722 BC money.
And if you do some fancy math . . .
A day's wages is about a penny, so there would be 7500 pennies or 7500 days wages.
And if you work 6 days a week (312 working days a year), that is 1250 days or just a little over 4 years wages.
The average US household income is roughly $50,000 a year, so this would translate into about $200,000.00!
He paid about $200,000.00 for an adulterous wife who kept leaving him.
How any of us would have done that?
But the key here is not how much Hosea paid for Gomer, but the fact that Hosea loved Gomer so much, He was willing to pay any price for her.
The same hold true for God's love for Israel, as the example shows.
God loves Israel to the point that He is willing to pay any price for her.
I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
And . . .
Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
Not Only Israel
Not Only Israel
But we are not talking about just Israel here.
The same love God has for Israel, God has for each and every one of us.
And, what price was God willing to pay for our redemption?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
And . . .
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
And finally . . .
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
The fact is though that as Isaiah put it, the church is "like sheep we have gone astray."
The Church over the past few generations has slipped into a state of Spiritual Adultery.
The church has, like Israel went after other gods, not heeding to the Word of God!
In Judges, the Bible records that . . .
Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord’s commands.
The church has had a habit of abandoning the faith for the lure of money, pleasure, and man pleasing.
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
And . . .
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
And not only the Church as a WHOLE, but THE CHRISTIANS THAT MAKE UP THE CHURCH!
We don't want to hear about the blood of Jesus anymore.
We don't want to hear about the call to Holiness anymore.
We don't want to hear the words of Joshua that remind us . . .
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
We don’t want to hear the words from Hebrews . . .
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
We don’t want to hear from Paul anymore who tells us to . . .
“Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
And we certainly don’t want to hear from John, who tells us to . . .
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Flat out, in many instances, we just don’t want to hear the truth.
But that is our only hope.
Jesus tells us . . .
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And that . . .
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And the only way is to turn to God and turn from our own adulterous ways.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
That’s it.
How about it church?
Does any of this apply to us?
Have we ever me this man, Jesus?
Have we met Him, walked with Him but turned back our own way?
Have we been cheating on God with other things, other gods?
Have other things taken priority over Him?
We know where we stand, God reveals it to us.
Have we followed that great commandment of God to . . .
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Or, have we been in love with another?
God is still here, God still loves you, God hasn't turned His back on you.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God is still there, waiting on us.
Where are we?
Let’s pray . . .