Gracious Father, as we come to your word now, we pray that you would send your spirit and that you would bless us with soft and tender hearts to your word.
Rescue us, we pray, from hard hearts where your word just washes straight off.
Bless us with repentance, we pray.
Give us that gift tonight.
In the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.
I'll be honest with you, I felt sorry for myself when last Monday I began to read through the final three chapters of Hosea in preparation for tonight's message.
I thought to myself, not again.
Another passage about sin, another passage about judgment.
They have been the dominant themes throughout the three messages so far in Hosea.
Sin and judgment, sin and judgment, sin and judgment.
And then I thought for a moment, if that's how I feel, spare a thought for poor old Hosea.
I mean, which is actually what his original name means.
It actually means Hosea.
It's no wonder we call him Hosea.
For about 30 or 40 years, this was his message to the northern kingdom.
God summoned Hosea to tell his people that they have rebelled against him and that they would face his judgment.
And Hosea must have groaned at times.
It's like the CDs stuck day after day after day after day.
Sin and judgment, sin and judgment, sin and judgment.
But the message couldn't change because the people had not understood.
Israel hadn't accepted the seriousness of their sin.
It's like with their hard hearts, it just washed straight off.
And so I wonder whether or not that is true of us too.
For three weeks now, we have looked at the catalogue of Israel's sin.
They were cavalier about it.
But we've seen how serious God takes sin.
We've seen his heart exposed, broken.
We've seen the damage that our sin does to his heart.
So has anything changed for you?
Has your life changed in light of what God has been saying to you through the prophet Hosea?
Through his word.
How quickly we forget.
How quickly we hear it and then just push it to one side.
We might nod in agreement and say, yes, I agree with that.
And even wonder at times how Israel could have been so stupid.
And then go and put someone down behind their back within 10 minutes of leaving the building.
Or in fact, not even leaving the building.
And so we need to hear it again.
And again.
So have your Bibles open.
We're up to chapters 12, 13 and 14.
And it would be great if you could have God's word in front of you to come with me on this.
We're looking at the end of chapter 11, verse 12.
We get introduced again to Israel's sin.
This is another bit to add to the catalogue of sin.
Chapter 11, verse 12.
Ephraim has surrounded me with lies.
The house of Israel with deceit.
That's God's charge against them.
They're dishonest.
That's it in a nutshell.
They can't be trusted.
They say one thing.
They mean another.
They're deceitful.
The evidence there is in their foreign policy.
Chapter 12, verse 1.
Ephraim feeds on the wind.
He pursues the east wind all day.
It multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.
And so what's happening here is Israel is trying to be allies with two powers, two superpowers, if you like.
They're at each other's throats.
And so Israel's over here trying to form a partnership with Assyria against Egypt,
while all the time sending gifts to Egypt to say, hey, we're on your side, guys.
They're trying to keep them both happy.
They're trying to sit in the middle, keep the balance there, sit on the fence.
It's a foreign policy which is driven by self-interest.
Any sense of truth or conviction is just pushed to one side.
They tell either side whatever they want to hear, all to serve their own interests.
They are untruthful and they are deceitful.
They were just like their forefather Jacob.
See it there in verse 2.
Quite noticeably, God doesn't call the ten tribes of north Israel or Ephraim or Samaria,
which is what he's been doing right throughout this prophecy.
Here he calls them Jacob.
Jacob was one of the founding fathers of Israel.
His 12 sons formed the 12 tribes of Israel.
His name was later changed to Israel.
But at first he was named Jacob, which means deceiver.
That was Jacob.
That was his character.
He deceived his older brother out of his inheritance
and he deceived his father-in-law out of a massive wealth.
And God quite deliberately calls his people Jacob.
Doesn't call them Israel here.
He calls them Jacob.
You are just like your forefather.
You're deceptive.
And they're also deceptive in their business practice.
See there in verse 7.
The merchant uses dishonest scales.
He loves to defraud.
And so Aunt Mary is assuming she's buying a kilo of flour.
But in actual fact she pays for a kilo of flour
but gets about 900 grams instead
because the scales have been adjusted before she gets there
to rip her off.
They're lying and cheating their own people.
And the word merchant there in the original text
is the same word as Canaan.
You see, Canaan was the name of the land that God gave his people.
As their special place.
And the Canaanites were so well known.
The people who used to inhabit it
were so well known as travelling merchants
that the word Canaan became synonymous
with the words trader and merchant.
And it's very significant here
for Hosea to use this word.
God's people are not just deceptive like their forefather.
They're even worse than Jacob.
They are in fact just like the pagans.
Just like the people that I judged and cast out of the land
you were the same as those people.
You're no different.
But you know, it just gets worse.
Because verse 8 I think is shocking.
There is no sense of guilt for the people of God.
Ephraim boasts,
I am very rich.
I have become wealthy.
With all my wealth they will not find in me
any iniquity or sin.
You see, but God on the other hand,
remember we're looking at this from God's perspective.
He sees it.
He's a God of truth.
He sees the lies.
He sees the deceit, the hypocrisy,
the dishonesty, the sin.
He expects his people to be people of truth.
And the life of God's people here in Hosea
is one big lie.
They are not who they say they are.
One big lie.
Now apparently lies typically take place
in a fifth of all conversations.
Have a think about that,
how many conversations you've had today.
The figure rises to one in three
if the people talking are university trained.
So be careful of university trained people
and especially us.
I'm assuming the more qualifications you've got,
the bigger lie you are.
Maybe, I don't know.
But I wonder if Christians are any different.
I mean, we should be.
We should take lying
and whether truth is what comes out of our mouth seriously.
How easy it is for us to say as Christians
that we believe the truth,
that we're a church that teaches the truth.
We have a certain sense of pride
in being part of a diocese
that's committed to the truth
and known for that.
And yet in our daily lives,
in our conversations with one another,
we play fast and loose with the truth.
How easy it is to tell people what they want to hear,
to embellish a story in conversation,
or to withhold key information,
to give the impression
that's different than the original impression intended.
And the list can go on and on and on.
That to be people of truth
means that we are to be rigorously truthful
in all of our lives.
not just to say that I am a person of truth.
I believe the truth.
Of course, the worst kind of deception
is there at the end of verse 8,
what I read out before.
This is the biggest lie of all.
They will not find in me any iniquity or sin.
The worst kind of deception is self-deception.
This is the biggest lie here.
I'm okay.
Is there anything worse than self-deception?
You know, it's like,
based on my assessment of my character,
I'm okay.
I mean, it's not really sin.
When I embellish that story,
it's not really sin.
It's not that serious.
God won't take it that seriously.
Hosea says he does.
Really seriously.
I wonder whether,
as Hosea has been open in the last three weeks,
whether you've been doing that.
You know, have you put yourself in Hosea's shoes
rather than Goma's shoes?
You know, that is,
I can see how this word would apply
to so many people in this room.
You know, there's so many people here
that really need to hear,
yeah, they're Goma's all right.
Unfaithful people?
Seriously.
Or you know who Goma's are?
One of the big points of this prophecy
is that we are Goma.
God is Hosea.
We are Goma.
We are the people of deep and committed unfaithfulness.
That is who we are.
Has that hit you, brothers and sisters?
Has it hit you yet?
Let me read to you the best email
that I've received in a long time.
This was written to me
from one of the members of our church family
after the first sermon
that I preached on this series in Hosea.
And particularly the sermon
was focusing on the marriage of Hosea and Goma
and all the ugliness of Goma's unfaithfulness.
Let me read to you.
It was a sermon that cut me clean open
and pricked the proud, arrogant part of my soul
that deceives me the most.
When you began the sermon,
my pride diverted me light years away
from conceiving the proposition
that I could be Goma.
When you were halfway through the sermon,
my pride kept me light years away
from the possibility that I could be Goma.
When you would nearly finish the sermon,
my pride kept me light years away
from the reality that I am Goma.
It was not until you directly stated the obvious
that my pride had nowhere to hide.
I don't normally get overly emotional about things,
but I found myself in church about to cry.
I felt acutely embarrassed at myself before God
and sad that after being a Christian for 15 years,
I had so effortlessly viewed myself
as removed from the relationship
between Hosea and Goma.
In particular,
it was the lack of mental wrangling required
to deceive myself into viewing Goma
as someone quite different to me
that disturbed me the most.
It showed me how strong
my natural default inclination
is to judge others before myself
and to deny myself how really bad I am
at keeping my part of the bargain
in my relationship with God.
Just realising that I am Goma,
particularly hit home to me
the faithfulness of Christ
that he sustains, protects,
and nurtures me despite my shortcomings.
He paid a terrible price
so that he and I could have a relationship.
I cannot imagine why he persists,
but he does as he promised.
The sermon also forced me
to re-examine my relationship with my family
and my faithfulness to them,
that the degree to which I am like Goma
in my relationship with Christ
is the degree to which that I am equally like that
to my own family.
It was hard medicine to swallow.
The exquisitely beautiful thing
in all of this
is that there is no mystery for me
in how to deal with all of this.
It is also scary
because it follows
that if there is no mystery,
then there's no excuse either.
To live and struggle
to follow Christ with his help,
to be obedient and humble before him,
being mindful of what lies at the heart
of why he purchased me,
is surely restorative.
I read that email.
We were on staff retreat at the time.
I had to excuse myself.
I went off away from the rest of the group,
sat in the corner under a tree,
and I just cried.
I cried for two reasons.
My friend helped me see the sin in my own heart
as they expressed the sin in their heart.
And I just cried.
You know, just nailed it for me.
That's the first thing.
And the second thing was that I,
in between crying,
I was just laughing
with joy at the same time
of what Christ has done for me
and the security that I felt
and the security that this person felt
at the same time
as their sin was exposed.
It was so beautiful.
What has been your response
as you've heard the word of God come to you?
This is the word of God through Hosea.
Has it struck you yet that you are Goma?
Hosea has helped us to see the seriousness
of Israel's sin and our sin.
We're seeing sin from God's perspective
and like no other book in the Old Testament
and probably the new,
let's just leave with the Old Testament.
He rips open his heart
to show us what his heart is like.
We make little of it.
We explain it away.
We excuse it.
We call things like little white lies.
God has no such category.
We justify it.
But God is angry.
He is a lover scorned
as Hosea is the picture
that Hosea gives us.
His holiness demands
that he must judge
and God's judgment is inevitable.
We see it there in chapter 13, verse 3.
They will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears,
like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,
like smoke escaping through a window.
Back in chapter 6, verse 4,
it was Hosea who likened Israel's love
to the morning mist that vanishes so quickly.
That's what their faithfulness is like to God.
It's like they're gone.
And now it's shifted.
It will be Israel themselves
that will vanish in an instant
like steam from a kettle.
It's an image that speaks
of the effect of God's judgment.
They had forgotten God
and so God here,
in verse 3, chapter 13,
says,
I will forget them.
And that's what happened
when Assyria came in 722 BC.
God said it was going to happen.
He meant it.
In the same way,
when he says that the Lord Jesus
will come and judge the living and the dead,
he will judge everyone who's ever lived
and he will judge everyone
who's in this building.
It will happen.
He said it.
It's going to happen.
And yet,
as we saw last week,
God's judgment isn't the end.
We are sinful people.
He is a holy God,
but he is a God of infinite grace.
And so it's not surprising
in amongst all the gloom
of sin and judgment in these chapters,
there are just like shafts of light.
which just come down.
They just give you just a bit of hope
that it's not all gloom.
And one of the shafts of light there
is in chapter 12, verse 6.
You must return to your God,
maintain love and justice,
and wait for your God always.
What it's saying there is
that there's an opportunity here, Israel.
There's an opportunity to turn back.
It's not a done deal yet.
Turn back.
And that is how the prophecy ends
in chapter 14.
Chapter 14 is a call to return
to the Lord
before it's too late.
See it there in verse 1.
Return, O Israel,
to the Lord your God.
Your sins have been your downfall.
Sin is always your downfall.
The word return there in verse 1
literally means to turn.
It means turn.
In other words, just turn.
Turn and face God.
It's one of the great covenant words.
It's used 25 times in Hosea.
Not always positively, mind you,
but it's used 25 times in Hosea.
The great call of Hosea,
and in fact all of the prophets
in the Old Testament,
is turn, turn, turn,
and face your God.
Stop putting him to your back.
They consistently call God's people
to covenant faithfulness.
Stop turning away from him.
Stop turning to religion.
Stop turning to other security.
Stop turning to wealth.
Stop turning to sex and physical desires.
Stop turning to personal ambition.
Stop turning to comfort and indulgence.
Stop turning to sin.
Stop turning to anything else.
But turn and come.
Come to your greatest treasure,
your God, your lover.
And as verse 2 says,
take words with you
and return to the Lord.
You see, God isn't wanting you
to come back to him
with a whole list of things
that you must do.
He's not interested in, you know,
looking for you to do some more
religious ceremonies,
looking for sacrifice.
He wants you.
This book of Hosea
is all about a relationship
with the living God.
And the image here
takes us back into chapter 3.
Remember it,
if you can cast your mind
back to the first sermon.
Hosea goes out
and he pays a price
to redeem his unfaithful wife
out of the arms
of another lover.
He actually has to buy her back
and he gives everything
that he's got
in order to buy her back.
And he's brought her back
out of the arms
of another lover.
He brings her
into the family home
but he has no intimacy
with her.
It literally says
in chapter 3,
I will wait for her.
Hosea has done the work
of purchasing his wife
and now he waits for her
to come to him.
And he doesn't want her
to come to him
and cook his favourite meal
or to clean the house
to try and somehow
make it up to him
in some way.
He wants her to come
with words like verse 2.
Forgive all of our sins
and receive us graciously
that we may offer
the fruit of our lips.
Sorry.
You see,
God's saying
return and come to me.
I'm not interested
in your money
without your heart.
I'm not interested
in your worship
without your heart.
I'm not interested
in your service
without your heart.
I'm not interested
in your prayers
without your heart.
He wants our heart
because when he has
our heart,
he has our money
and our worship
and our service
and our prayers
and our hands
and our feet
and all of our lives.
you see return to fellowship with the father here requires exposure of my heart
expressed in words of heartfelt admission confession and acknowledgement of the lord
you see genuine repentance is turning away turning to god and away from other gods
that's the picture of verse 3 of chapter 14 they have now turned their backs on a cereal
that's what the call is turn your backs on assyria turn your backs on your idols and turn to me
you see repentance is not mere words repentance is a daily decision it is a moment by moment
decision it's an all-of-life decision for the person of god to turn to him rather than other loves
and in returning to god daily we are making commitment to faithfulness to love and
acknowledgement of god the three things that god accuses israel of not having towards him
faithfulness love and acknowledgement of god
so friends what what sins have you committed what sins are you committing if i can put it in the
hosea image which gods are you in bed with
how about that for an image which gods are you in bed with
are they priorities that displace god so that you don't love the lord your god with all your heart
soul and mind is there a small part of your life that you want to keep control of
he could have most of it but this bit here is pretty much untouchable i need to keep control of that
do you claim personal relationship with god but you slander his name by the way you live
are you busy with personal personal ambition and self to ever let go and find rest with god
are they your sins
then they'd be the sins that break the first five commandments
or are they the sins against god that are against your neighbors perhaps the abuse of privileges and
the lack of honor to your mother and father maybe it's a savage rejection of another person in the way
that you speak about them think about them and put them down are your sins sexual has greed given way
a deception so that you take more than your that is yours
and you think it's by right
are lying lips
and slanderous tongue
you're failing
or is it the internal motions of envy and jealousy
that have you tearing
yourself and others apart
because you cannot have what god never intended for you to have
all i've simply asked you to reflect upon in just that moment
is the ten commandments given to israel at sinai
have you broken the commandments of god
if you have
then join with me and return to the living god
that's what hosea is calling us to do
return to him
our confidence in turning to god is there in verse four
these are magnificent words
and and for you
who might be feeling
conscious stricken right now
feeling guilty
these are tender
hearted words
for the pricked conscience
i will heal
their waywardness
and love them freely
for my anger
has turned away from them
you see
remember what we saw last week
god has turned
all of his centuries
of pent up
held back
anger
he's turned it away from us
and he's unleashed it
on the lord jesus christ
on the cross
jesus is the one
who paid the penalty for our sin
he's the one who has dealt with all the consequences of our sin
and if you put your trust in jesus
god accounts righteousness to your account
his righteousness to your account
so there is no sin in your account
and when there is no sin
there is no anger from god
directed at you
where there is no sin
there is no anger
there is no condemnation
from god
to you
my friends
he is a fearful god
but he is safe
and he is good
come to him
there is only blessing for those who turn to him
in faith and repentance
that's the point of verses 5 to 8
of chapter 14
your gracious father will pick you up
and he will restore you
and so will you
that's the point of the very last verse of this prophecy
hosea ends with a question
what are you going to do
it says
who is wise
he will realize these things
who is discerning
he will understand them
the ways of the lord are right
the righteous walk in them
but the rebellious stumble in them
and so the word of god
through hosea has spoken
and this word from god
has helped us to see
our inclination towards sin
and the intensity of god's emotions
towards the unfaithfulness of his people
it has nailed for us
the universality of rebellion against god
hosea has also revealed the uncharted depths
of god's love and his commitment
to love his people
the god whom everyone in this room
should meet in wrath and anger
has turned
to meet us in mercy
isn't that magnificent
and so we're left with a choice
it says
heed the warning
be wise
and turn to god
through the lord jesus
or ignore it
and continue with a cavalier attitude
she'll be right
seems like a pretty simple choice
but israel didn't do it
see chapter 13 verse 13
see the awful picture here
pains as of a woman
in childbirth
come to him
but he is a child
without wisdom
when the time arrives
he does not come
to the opening of the womb
the picture here is
an opportunity
for
for israel to be born
into new life
they're going through all the pain
of their sin
new life is the option
they have a look
and they go
no
we'll stay put
and hope to
don't want to have to
gross you out here
but in my former life
on a farm
we had many issues
where
a
a cow
or a sheep
or something like that
could not give birth
and you either gave it
a c-section
or you shot it
because to leave
the baby
inside the mother
would cause
an excruciating death
for both
death is the only option
no other option
and israel
chooses
death
it's astounding
their hearts
were hard
and centuries later
the writer to the hebrews
was concerned
that the christian recipients
of his letter
learnt the lesson
of god's people
past
who hardened
their hearts
and did not
listen
or obey
the word of god
it is a concern
god has
for every generation
of his people
it isn't just
the writer
of this letter
penning some thoughts
in hebrews chapter 3
it is the holy spirit
who says to us
today
if you hear his voice
do not
harden
your hearts
that's the central
issue here
god doesn't want
us to be asking
first and foremost
well what do i need
to do now
to make it up
with god
the issue
is the heart
our friends
just reflect upon
this for a moment
a hardened heart
might no longer
love
or have a love
for christ
as it used
to
a hardened heart
might not
love christ's word
and prayer
and worship
and missions
and generosity
and living
for the glory
of god
a hardened heart
finds the
fleeting pleasures
of this world
more attractive
than things
of the spirit
you know
once upon a time
you had a passion
for those things
and over time
you're still here
and you're going
through the motions
but you're just
doing it
prayer life
has become
formal
and dry
still praying
but it's
prayerless praying
still reading
the bible
but god
hasn't spoken
to you
for years
it's like
a verse
a day
keeps the
devil away
god
hasn't spoken
to you
for years
worship
is no longer
driven from
the heart
we're just
fulfilling
what we
need to
do
and i think
what hebrew
says
which is
what hosea
says
in verse
12
it says
seek to
it
brothers
that none
of you
has a
sinful
unbelieving
heart
that turns
away
from the
living
god
see to
it
it says
take heed
take care
look
at
your
heart
put the
word of
god
against
your
heart
and
look
don't
be
careless
or apathetic
or dispassion
or attentive
or i'll get
to it
next week
be attentive
to the
condition
of your
heart
we need
to hold
the
practical
mirror
of god's
word
to our
hearts
so that
we take
an
accurate
reading
of our
spiritual
pulse
and keep
turning to
god and
repentance
and faith
keep doing
it day
in day
out day
in to
stop making
excuses for
sin
if your
prayer life
has come to
all of a sudden
it's formal
and it's just
haphazard and
doesn't feel
anything
don't stay
there
your
prayer should be
god
give me a
tender
heart
so brothers
and sisters
if you have
heard god's
voice dig
deep into
your heart
through
hosea
it is
your
merciful
god
and father
and husband
and saviour
calling to
you to
come back
he's just
calling you
to come
back
do not
harden your
hearts
wake up to
the deceitfulness
of sin
turn away
from it
and turn
to god
and hold
fast to your
confidence
and your
hope in him
he is a
fearful god
but he is
good
he is
good
he is
good
come back
to him