← ArchiveHosea (Holiness and heart of God)Sunday, February 12, 2017DateFebruary 12, 2017Speaker—TextHosea 6Passages in this sermonHosea 65:44John 1:1513:55TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00The End The End0:30The End The End1:00The End The End1:30The End The End2:00The End The End2:30The End Think about that person that is closest to you, whether it be your wife, whether it be a best friend, or someone that's dearest to your heart.2:59And imagine you've made this covenant with that person, this agreement to be there with them through the thick, the hard times.3:24And how would you feel if all of a sudden that person began to ignore you, begin to speak ill about you and speak bad things about you and start to gossip about you and embarrass you in front of people? What if that person, all of a sudden, all of a sudden just kind of turned their back on you and some of you know exactly how that feels in different settings and different times in your life.3:46But what if that was to happen and what if that person started to vote for the opposite party that you are subscribed to and they started to cheer for the opposite team. I know in this state, I know in this state that means complete separation in some cases, but what if that person just started to just completely be just belligerent toward you, just hateful.4:05A backstabber is what we call that. Someone that's just completely stabbing you in the back every chance they get. Nothing produces the sharpest emotional and internal pains in the sense of being stabbed in the back by your loved one. Amen? It's a very hurtful thing.4:34It's a very detrimental thing. So when we're stabbed in the back by someone that is closest to us, by someone that we love, by someone that we have made a covenant with, and even a marriage relationship, it is very hard to love that person back. It's just human nature. It's very difficult because we have that hurt in us. We have those memories of the hurt in us. It's very difficult for us by human nature just to forgive them in some cases. So it's hard to love them back.5:03Loving enemies, it takes a whole different level when those are part of, that are different from your circle. Sometimes we can love an enemy back, but it's very difficult to love those that have hurt us, that are close to us, that we've loved in those covenant relationships. Let's flip the scenario. What if you are the backstabber? What if it's you? What if you're the person that has turned your back on those relationships? So today we're going to talk about and look at the redeeming love and our response in spite of betrayal, in spite of maybe being a backstabber.5:32So the redeeming love and our response. So I invite you to turn to Hosea chapter 6. Hosea chapter 6. And Hosea, of course, is a prophet. We've been tracking through this book. He's a prophet who started his ministry in the middle of the 8th century B.C. in the northern kingdom of Israel at the time when Israel had already been divided into two different kingdoms. Last week we talked about Hosea married Gomer.6:03And most of us know this story. They would go on to have three kids. Eventually she leaves him and starts to prostitute herself out to the world, to other men and to other idols. And so she ends up in this slave market. And so as we know the story goes, he buys her back. Homer buys her back for 15 shekels plus some barley. So the book of Hosea continues in a very similar manner. What you have is several chapters, God accusing Israel of unfaithfulness, idolatry, bloodshed, theft, stubbornness, pride, greed, and murder.6:31And yet God is still, God is still chasing after, rebuking at times, and loving and calling to repentance Israel. All through this entire book we see that happening. He's chasing after Israel. He's chasing after the one that he loves, the one that he's made that covenant with.6:59And he's rebuking her, and he's loving her, and he's calling her to repentance. And we often see that even in our own lives. So Hosea chapter 6, we're starting in verse 1. Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us, that he may heal us. He has struck us down, and he will bind us up. He will bind us up. So come, let us return to the Lord.7:29The first reason that Hosea calls for repentance is that repentance naturally brings restoration. When we hear the word repentance, or the word repent, those of us that have been in church for any length of time, we automatically go, uh-oh. There's that word. Now, I was thinking about being clever at this point in time, but I decided not to be, because I started looking at church signs. And I thought, I can't show that. Some of them are pretty ridiculous. Some of them are absolutely completely unbiblical.7:59So I was like, I'm not going to put that heresy up on the screen from other churches and their signs. But some of them are pretty pathetic. And we've seen the repent, turn, or burn. Come and join us for our fellowship next week. At 6 o'clock in the fellowship hall. And so we automatically, when we hear the word repent, we're kind of like, ah, I'm just not too sure about that word. You know, that word means, you know, it's almost like a stone being thrown at me. And so we have this very unbiblical view of what repentance really is.8:28Because of maybe our experience in church, maybe our experience from a church person that have condemned us for whatever reason. And so I want to kind of allot in the load a little bit and look at what repentance means. And it means bringing restoration. Sin, as we have witnessed through the book of Hosea, has compared to adultery. Last week, that's what it was compared to. It was an adulterous relationship. Homer was in this relationship, and Gomer was going out, and she was selling herself off.8:56She was committing adultery. If a spouse walks away like that, if she walks away like that, or even her husband walks away like that, and they come back two years later, and it says, hi, honey, I'm back. Would we immediately just go, probably not? There would be some counseling there. We'd call them the church office, and our counseling ministry, and Bill Deal would be setting that up and everything.9:25And so we would help you counsel through that. And so there needs to be some restoration. There needs to be some time. But there also needs to be some repentance on the fault of the person that has committed the sin. There needs to be some repentance. And so we're going to need some reconciliation, some restoration, some healing. So in verse 1, it's calling for restoration, repentance, and redemption.9:53While Israel has broken every single clause possible with the covenant of God. Every single clause possible. God has made with them a covenant. And what's really interesting about our relationship with the Lord, our relationship with the Lord is not based on how we feel. It's based on God's character. It's based on God's character. God's character is constant.10:25It never changes. The problem is us. We're constantly engaged in sin. We're constantly trying to find ways that we can maybe move and get out of things. And we're engaged in sinful activity. Even those of you that have been in church for your entire life. We're sinful people. And we need a lifestyle of repentance.10:53We need a lifestyle of repentance. We need to be quick to go to the Lord. And so Hosea is calling, come, let us return to the Lord for he has torn us. That he may heal us. And that's what happens oftentimes. He tears us. He causes us to get into that mode of repentance. And I'm reminded of the prodigal son. It's a great story to look at, even in this setting here. It's a great story. You guys know the story.11:23He goes off and he squanders all his father's money. And he gets to that bottom. And sometimes the Lord will allow us to get to that bottom and that place where we're torn. We don't know what to do anymore. We're at the end of our rope. We're eating slop with the pigs. And all of a sudden, we come to our senses. And we go, I need to go back. Because it's better to be there than it is here. So sometimes the Lord allows us to, he tears us in order that we may be healed.11:53And so while Israel has broken every single clause possible, God is constant. He is constant. Restoration from sin is not based on who we are. It is based on God's character. It doesn't matter what tax bracket you're in, what the color of your skin is, how many sins you have committed. It is based on God's character and God's character alone. And that's an awesome thing to know that God is constant.12:20No matter how much we sin against him, he is always willing to restore us. Some of you need to hear that this morning. No matter how much you have sinned, he's always willing to restore you. Always willing to restore you. Verse 2 says this. After two days, he will revive us. That's a promise. He will revive us. And on the third day, he will raise us up that we may live before him. So verse 1 is calling for restoration.12:49It's calling for repentance. Verse 2 is stating a promise. If we do this, this is what happens. Let us go to the Lord. For he has torn us. Let us go to him. And there's the promise. After two days, he will revive us. The promise is if Israel will return to him and repent, he will restore the people. That's the promise. Notice that Israel has gone so far with her sin that she is in an unresponsive state. I think we skip over that sometimes. We read that verse and we go, we don't really know what's going on there.13:19She is unresponsive. Some of us in here this morning, maybe we're unresponsive. We're so far from God, we don't know who he is. And so she has to be what? Revived. After two days, he will revive us. And on the third day, he will rise us up. So some of us in here, we need to be revived. We need to be risen up because we've gone so far.13:47John 1.15, chapter 1, verse 15. You don't have to turn this to what it says. The desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. The desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.14:16Sin can lead to death. It can lead to death. Ask the parent of someone that has dealt with an addict that has passed on. Sin will lead to death. I've seen it happen. People will go through phases of their life, and they just can't seem to shake this habit that they've got.14:43They can't seem to shake this sin that they're in. And they may do well for years. And all of a sudden, somehow or another, they're snared again. For whatever reason, lack of accountability, they just get away from the Lord. They don't really fellowship anymore. And eventually, that sin gets them. It snares them. And we see that happen. But God is always faithful. He's always there.15:13He's always there. So is it worth repenting from sin? Is it worth repenting from sin? Because it may save your life. And so the word repent, we need to get out of our minds that it's a bad word. It is a good word. It is the Christian life. Forgiveness and repentance. Forgiveness and repentance. When Jesus said, follow me, he didn't mean just happenstance.15:39Just accidentally. It means it is a lifestyle change. It's a change in your life. Something happens to someone that has confessed him. So repentance is turning to God in order to be with God and to fellowship with him. It means commitment, dedication, loyalty. It's not just changing your behavior for a season. It's a personal.16:10It's very intimate. And a lot of us is on this roller coaster that we're constantly just kind of changing our behavior when things are good. And then when things are bad, we automatically go back to that device, that sin. You haven't truly repented. Repentance is literally turning 180 degrees, not 360, because you're going in the same direction you were before. So it's literally turning from that and turning to the Lord. It's very simple. Matter of fact, that's what we teach our children.16:40You turn and go the other way. So let's look at verse 3. Verse 3 says, So verse 1 is calling us to restoration, redemption, to repentance.16:52Verse 2 is stating the promise that if that happens, he will revive us. And verse 3 is having an intimate knowledge of God.17:20It's having an intimate knowledge of God. To know the Lord, to press in, to know the Lord. I can say this. I know who Donald Trump is. I know who LeBron James is. And if you're in my generation, I know who Michael Jordan is. I know who certain people are. I can't call LeBron James up and say, hey dog, let's go have lunch.17:48I can't do that because I don't know him. I know who he is. But I don't have an intimate relationship with him. Some of us, we know who God is. But we don't have that intimate relationship with him. So do you know him? Do you know the Lord? Do you have that intimate relationship with him? So there's a difference in just knowing about Jesus and actually knowing him.18:14So do you know him this morning? Israel has lost that knowing relationship with God. They had lost that relationship. They had gotten so distant. So Isaiah is pleading, let us get to know the Lord. So God was in a covenant with his people that did not even really know him. And that's the case with a lot of churches today. A lot of believers today. We're in a relationship with Christ and we've lost something.18:43We don't really know. And the question is, did you ever really know? And that's the dangerous part about repentance. And the dangerous part about believing is, do you really know him? Do you really know him? Yet how amazing it is that God reminded his promise to us, never abandoning them, never going away from him.19:08Again, Hosea's request rests on God's character. It's resting on God's character. He knows that God will be there no matter what. It's worth pursuing him. It's worth pressing hard and running towards him because he will always be there to love and to bless us. He is coming as sure as the dawn. Amen? He is coming as sure as the dawn.19:38It happens every single morning. It never stops. Have you ever known of dawn not to happen? Of the sunrise not to take place? That's what God is. He's reminding us that that's what God is like. He is constant. He is always there. The problem is we're trying to make a better version of ourselves by studying the effects of sin. And how to change our behavior.20:06Wednesday I did a little thing with our students about relationships. We're kind of in a relationship type of mode with our students right now. And I actually looked on Amazon. And I typed in relationships. Students, I forgot what the number was. It was 800,000 books on relationships. And some of them are pretty ridiculous. The guy to have a divorce is on there.20:34It's on there. I wish I had the list with me. But they're pretty ridiculous. We're all the time trying to find ways to change our behavior. Never looking at the core issue. The problem. And oftentimes here's the temptation as a believer in Christ. We know that sin is the issue. We can even name the sin. And so what we'll do is we'll get all the information we can on that particular sin.21:02Let's just name one. It's pornography. Let's just name that one. And because that one's so prevalent in today's generation. And we get every book we can on how to conquer it. How to deal with it. How to take it away and just deal with those issues. But here's what we don't do oftentimes.21:33We forget about this. We forget about this. This is the instruction book. And now here's the deal. I'm not against Christian books. Because there's some great authors that have come up with some awesome stuff on how to help people. Okay? But my question is, was you ever in this first? Was this consistent in your life to begin with? And I'm going to be honest with you. In a counseling setting, Bill knows. And I know, too, when someone comes to us with a habitual issue and sin, they're hardly ever in this.22:00Lack of devotion is the number one issue because for ministers to come out of a ministry. Lack of devotion. Number two, lack of accountability. It's the same thing with everybody else. It just doesn't affect ministers. The reason why you end up in a relationship that is going to rise is because you're not in the book.22:29More than likely. Y'all all right? Y'all okay? So verses one through three, we read as a desperate plea from Hosea. To turn to God. To repent. Verses four through six, we read God's response. So let's look at verse four. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?23:00What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. So do you sense God's disappointment there? Do you sense the frustration in these verses? Let me read it again. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. It's like a frustrated parent at a strong-willed child who is either at their wit's end or going completely crazy23:30because that child will not do what that parent wants it to do. Can I get an amen? That is the frustration that we see here. So how many of you parents have ever used these words? What am I going to do with you? What am I going to do with you? And that's the Lord here.24:00He's like, what am I going to do with you? We see this frustration here. And so it's a real struggle between the frustrated parent and the unwilling son. We thought that Luke was going to be our strong-willed child. We were wrong. Lane has become top of that list. We're sitting at dinnertime, and dinnertime is a struggle for us.24:31And we believe in disciplining our children by using the rod. We have a five-gallon paint stick, for those of you who want to know. And if you don't do that, that's okay. I'm not condemning you. If you do timeout, if that works for your kid, amen. Okay? It don't work for ours. It just don't. They'll laugh at you. Lane would not eat his food. And this is a common theme at night. He will not eat his food. It doesn't matter what we fix for him, unless it's sweet tarts or chocolate.24:57And so we used to want to let him do that. So we're having to set some boundaries for him. And so I'll never forget this first time this happened. I'm sitting there. We try to eat as a family. And I look at Lane. I said, Lane, eat your food, son. And he does this. Very subtle at first. Blech. And I thought, does he not like his food? Is that why he's just got a blech? Is that what that was? I'm like, okay. Luke scooted over like, I ain't catching this.25:28So he just kind of gets quiet at the table. And Jesse just kind of looked at me and seen my response to it. I said, Lane, Lane, eat your food. Eat your food, son. Blech. Rolls his eyes. I could feel the hair start standing up on the back of my head. And my blood pressure starts to go up. And Luke is like, at the end, and Jessica says this, I think he just told you to jump25:55off a cliff. I think that's the translation there. And I went, Lane, eat your food, son. Blech. So I'm grabbing the stick. He gets up and runs. And he knows he is in disobedience. And he is being very disrespectful.26:23He knows. He's two. About to be three. He's two. He hasn't done that in a while. He still does it every now and then. Sometimes our struggle, as the Lord responds to the people, the people's heart hopefully will change. That's what we hope for. Because of the consistency of the Lord, because of his love toward us, as a loving parent,26:50might be disgusted, might be angry, might be frustrated, but always loving. Always loving. And so we see the frustration in verse four. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? Corrupt Ephraim. Wicked Ephraim. Hosea writes that Ephraim was consumed by corruption. Government officials were accepting bribes. The king encourages drunkenness.27:20And the pride of the people separates them from God. What shall I do with you, O Judah? Judah, fallen as well with leaders who seek their own gain above others to deny the God above all. And so it's not that the all-knowing God of the universe does not know what to do. Don't miss that. Don't miss that. He knows exactly what to do. It's that he does not really want to do what he needs to do. We all deserve death.27:50That's what we deserve. And eventually, that's what Israel would get. They'd get correction from the Assyrians later on. So what is God going to do with us? What's he going to do with you? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. It's short-lived love.28:19There's no commitment attached to it. No loyalty, no sacrifice. It is self-serving, self-centered. That's what the word is saying here. Your love is like the morning cloud, like the dew that goes away. It's short-lived. It shows up when it wants to and leaves when it feels like. It bears the name of love, but it has no love at all. We praise him for his earthly blessings on us, but then when things get bad, we can barely even spend near hours with him.28:42We love God, yet we have prostituted ourselves to stuff, addictions, and dangerous habits. That is our culture. That is the culture that we're living in. We love God, yet we can't make disciples because we don't preach what we teach. There is no place on earth where you can hide, where I can hide sin.29:11And so why not repent? Why not go to the Lord and be restored? We are so consumed with the daily grime, the status quo, the same old, same old. And what we'll do is we'll complain about others before we look at ourselves. Man, we'll do that so quickly. It's part of human nature.29:43Our tendency is to list and dissect other people's issues, problems, sins. And that's why we like watching things like cops. It makes me feel better. At least I'm not that. That's our society. It's sad. But what we need to do is we need to look ourselves in a mirror and go, Okay, Lord, what do I need to do? Lord, what do I need to do? You're asking me. You're constantly pushing me to come to you.30:12You're wanting me to repent. What is it in my life that's causing separation in our relationship? What is it, Lord? And most of the time we know what it is. Sometimes we need to be reminded. Sometimes we need to ask somebody. What is it with me? Ask your spouse. She'll tell you. Ask that loved one. Most of the time we know. Most of us walked into this room a mess.30:42If we're honest with each other, most of us walked in this room a mess at different levels. Some of you are more bigger messes than others. But most of us walked in this room a mess. Here's my point. God is at work in the mess. He is at work in the mess. He is there in the mess. It's okay to walk into this room a complete mess.31:11It's not okay to stay that way. It's not okay to stay that way. It's okay to walk in here with your sin, with your issues. But it's not okay to leave that way and to stay that way. You don't get righteousness and continue on the same track that you're on. Some of you may be asking, what's wrong? What's wrong with my issues? What's the deal? We need to examine. We need to press in on the Lord.31:41Stop studying a book about your sin and look in the book. Look in your instruction book and start trying to figure out how you need to live. Verse 5. Verse 5. Therefore, I have honed them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as like the light. I have honed them. It literally means to chop at.32:11It means to take a hammer and to hit to the point to where it's bleeding. To hone. Therefore, I have honed them by the prophets. In other words, man, I have sent prophets there to hit them. To be drastic with them. Because Israel's lack of love and intimate knowledge, God has sent them prophets to speak his words. Sometimes they're very harsh words. And like sheep, God has gathered them time after time with powerful speakers in their generation,32:39sometimes only to be entertained. Often times we hear words and we hear sermons like this, and we're like, okay, that's really, I'm not sure if that's for me or not. Verse 6 says, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.33:09And this is where we get into religious. The religious. Israel was very religious. That's how they thought they were okay. Israel really thought that they were fine because they were very religious. A lot of people in the Bible Belt in this area, they think that they're okay because they're very religious. We get in this mindset. We get in this mode. We get in this habitual way of doing things. You say, well, Brad, how do we change that?33:40How does that happen in our society? How do we do that? It's really simple. Get in the Word. Man, it's so simple. It is so, God has, God's Word is so awesome because He makes it so simple for us. But the problem is we complicate it so much because of our shortcomings, because of our sin, because of our issues. If we would just understand that He's there in the mess with us. He's there in the mess with us.34:10So Israel was very religious. They would offer burnt offerings, which is the burning of the entire animal. It wasn't cheap. Some offerings you could partake in the meat, but with burnt offerings you could not do that. And so Israel would do that, but their worship was empty. Their worship was empty. Religion is not fixing ourselves under the banner of God's name while at no point really leaning into God for our help and our salvation. That's what religion does.34:39It doesn't last long. It's short. It's a fix. We get our fill on and we go. And sometimes it's condemning. Sometimes it's not freeing at all. We set a certain standard of laws for ourself in the name of religion and we can't own up to any of them. And so we check out. I can't do any of that. I can't do those things.35:10And so we check out. Religious people run to religion. And they say this, let me be in favor of God. Let me tip the scales in my favor. Let me be a good man so God will bless me. Let me be a good woman so I may put God on. Religion can be a very dangerous thing. They would boast about their religion, but they do not know their God.35:40We boast about Christianity. We boast about being a Christian. But we're so little like Christ. And we boast about our knowledge of our religion when the level of intimacy we have is like the morning cloud. Like the mist. It just goes away. And so the whole idea of redemption, the whole idea of repentance is to fix, is to bring back into alignment, to bring back into a way it ought to be.36:04And that's God's way because he is consistent. He never changes. And so will you respond to the redeeming love of Christ? So the question I have, I have a series of questions. How are things with you and Jesus right now? Believer. Christian.36:36Christian. Follower of Christ. How are things between you and Jesus right now? Think about that. How are things with you and Jesus right now? Because you know it isn't about your behavior. It's about your relationship with Jesus. Will your response to repentance and turning to Christ, or will your response be to continue on the same path you are on today? Will your response be repentance and turning to Christ, or will you be on the same track that you're on today?37:01It's about your relationship with Jesus. Only you, listen to me, only you know if you need to come clean. Because that's why it's a relationship. Only you know if there's an issue. Some of you may be looking at me and going, man, I'm fine, Brad. Seriously, I'm okay. And man, God bless you. But there's still areas in our life we need to examine.37:31For my two-year-old, it's constantly correcting him. For my five-year-old, it may be something simple. Taking cookies when he's not supposed to. Stealing. For some of you, it may be something not as drastic as others. That's why I love life group. And that's why I love getting in that setting where you're sitting next to people.38:01And you may be sitting next to someone. You're sharing your story with someone. Man, I quit smoking cigarettes. And man, I gave that to the Lord. And the person next to you is like, dude, cigarettes. Man, I've been on heroin. I'm trying to kick that. And you may have someone on the other side of you that's going, man, I've been living for the Lord. Ever since I was 12 years old.38:30Man, what a testimony that is. And so we're all walks of life. We're all different in different seasons of our life. In different messes. And what we need to realize is that the body of Christ needs to come together and help with the mess. And help with the mess. Here's the big question for tonight, or this morning. Here's the big question. How are you when no one else is around?39:00What do you like when no one else is around? And it's just your thoughts. Are you a lover of God, pursuer of truth, walking in purity? How are you when no one else is around? Here's the good news. I'm not trying to put weight on you. I'm trying to tell you to take the weight off. Go to the Lord.39:31Go to Christ. Because he already knows. He already knows. Man, he's not surprised by your issues. He's not surprised by the mess. He already knows. In our active rebellion against God, he already knows. And that's huge. Maybe you're not a believer. And you've never confessed Christ as Lord of your life. And the same is true for you. Christ died for you.39:59He died for your sins. He died for your mess. And how will you respond to him? It's okay to walk in this room a mess. It's not okay to stay that way. Amen? It is not okay to stay that way. I'm going to pray for us. I'm going to ask the guys to come on up. Lord Jesus.40:29Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus.More sermons on Hosea →
