Hosea 4:6-11

Josea, Minor Prophet, Chapter 4, and verses 6 through 11. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of God, by God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me. Therefore will I change their glory in the shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be like people, like priest. and I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings. For they shall eat and not have enough. They shall commit hortem and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. Hortem and wine and new wine take away the heart. God bless to it. is sacred and holy word this evening. A number of years ago, Judy John took a letter to her minister. And he was a pastor of the largest church in Hammond, Indiana. In a portion of the letter reads as follows, as I am sure you are well aware, my husband and I are moving to the Los Angeles area this month. The culmination of many events in our lives brought us to the decision that we have made to move. By this letter, I wish to express my thoughts on the role you have played in these events over the past 15-plus years. For over 15 years, I’ve watched and learned much from the circus that you have performed with the lives of those I love most in the world. With your own insecurities and personal failures as your driving force, you have quite simply played havoc with an entire church. Some of my dearest friends, and worst of all, my family. The saddest realization is that it has all been under the guise of Christianity. How I emerged from such a pit of secret sin, manipulation, and hypocrisy, with the slightest interest in my professed religion at all, I do not know. You can imagine what a letter that would be to receive. Josea has brought God’s lawsuit against the entire nation of Israel in verses 1.3. He is charged to people with being past the stage of rebuke as we saw in verses 4 through 5. However, he isn’t finished. His words about moral and spiritual decline do not exclude the religious leaders. It’s obvious that there is a religion which goes hand in hand with the worst types of sins imaginable. Ozaea here talks about the destructiveness of unfaithful pastors, ministers, ministers in any age, certainly out of take heed to this passage of scripture. Let me begin by saying this. Your soul may be destroyed by an unfaithful minister. How your minister may be unfaithful is laid out for us here in verse 6. Will we read these words, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge. will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me. Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. It is the duty of religious leaders to explain and proclaim God’s law, his word. Often, however, there is a neglect of God’s law, his word. Often, however, there is a neglect of this spiritual responsibility in a very shameful way. A minister ought to be laboring in the scriptures, giving himself to the study of the word of God and to prayer. God, God, however, charges unfaithful religious leaders here with three things. One, forgetting the law. Two, rejecting knowledge, and three, not heeding the Lord. Forgetting the law implies a willful negligence. They have let slip what was at least in their memory at one point, and the very truths that they should know, they have forgot. It indicates a lack of study, a lack of concern about seeking the truth. God has told the minister to study to show yourself approved under God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Rejecting knowledge. and not heeding the Lord are even more serious. Because you know the truth, but you cast it aside. What happens is that the minister begins to substitute his own ideas for what the scripture is teaching. Christ condemned the Pharisees because you teach for doctrines the doctrines the commandments the commandments of You reject the commandments of God that you may keep your own tradition. One of the things that I would always say to you is watch the minister’s attitude toward the word of God. How does he treat the scriptures in his preaching and his private conversations? Is he careful to always have a thus sayeth the Lord? behind what he’s teaching. For what is he teaching? Does he promote the doctrines of scripture? The Reverend Jim Jones sounded authentic to a lot of people and he had quite a following. But the danger was there if you were looking for it. If you were paying attention to his attitude towards scripture and reverence of scripture you would pick up on it. He revealed himself for what he was when he threw the Bible on the floor during a sermon and declared too many people were looking at this instead of me. I read about a man and wanted to study at a pastor’s school and he said, I took my Bible with me to the pastor school. He said, I never used it except for my private devotions. He says the main teacher, Jack Howes, would read a verse of scripture, and then he would give us Howesology. A member and leader of the church for 20 years stated that Howells very frequently said, close your Bibles and just listen to me. These kind of statement tell us a lot about the man who is standing in the pulpit. So look for this trait, good minister. It will tell you that he is forgetting the law of God. That’s what it will tell you. But there’s also a willful rejection of God’s truth and substitution of false teaching in its place. For example, we have the teaching that there’s one mediator between God and man. the man Christ Jesus. But the Roman Catholic Church rejects this truth, encourages you to pray to Mary instead. Proverbs 3 or 30, 5 and 6 says, Every word of God is pure, and add not thou to his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be filed a liar. So how your minister may be unfaithful here. How you may suffer at the hands of an unfaithful minister’s in front of the first part of verse six. People are often misled about God’s directives for faith and living and they’re rushing headlong to their own destruction. This is a fixed law because if the blind lead the blind, they’re both going to fall in a ditch. And it is the fault of the reason religious leaders when the people are in ignorance and do not understand what the scriptures teach. Biblical instruction is a very serious matter. Those who have God’s word must handle God’s word faithfully. And God is going to hold them account if they do not. That failure pushed an indebted. entire generation of the brink of disaster in Josea’s day. And the same thing happens today as well. In the Roman Catholic Church tells us that ignorance is the mother of devotion. I tell you it is not. It’s the mother of destruction. It’s the mother of destruction. Paul spoke of false teachers in this way. There are grievous wolves who will bring harm to the flock. Acts 20 tells us. I read about a man who had this to say about his leaving a well-known church. Our leaving the church had to do with the fact that we were not getting fed spiritually. That we knew our pastor had told us lies from the pulpit and that we had lost faith in the man and his word. That I saw him as a manipulator of people. he shook my faith. And that happens to people. And what a danger it is for the church members. We sit in a church and only hear some sweet, calming message, never prepare for eternity and perish with sudden destruction in the end. Faith comes by eternity and perish with sudden destruction in the end. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word, and if we don’t preach the word, then who can come to Christ? So your soul may be destroyed by an unfaithful ministry. Secondly, what may cause your minister to be unfaithful. Increased prosperity may ruin him. Notice the first part of verse 7. They were increased, so they see. sinned against me. The priest in the northern kingdom had their houses, their lands, and their incomes. Under Jerobo and the second, we said there was a lot of prosperity in the land. And so the priest became very attached to the wealth and comforts that they enjoyed. They had every abundance. And they faithfully were supposed to teach the word of God. But if they did, that would mean sending the people of the northern kingdom down to the southern kingdom to go to Jerusalem and worship at the temple. And if they brace the true way of worshiping God, then it was farewell to their incomes, their living, their houses, their well. wealth and their prosperity. How could they give it all up? They had the favor of the political leaders who wanted to maintain the false worship at Bethel and other places, Dan, the calf’s worship, the golden calves, because that kept everybody in the north. They didn’t go down to the worship in Jerusalem. And so the people, the people. people would line the pockets of the priests with money. And so they flourished and enjoyed wealth and income. False teachers are like Balam. They love the wages of unrighteousness. And that is a major problem. So money can corrupt the minister. Now, I’m not saying this one. morning or this evening that you ought to keep the minister poor. But I think we should realize that too much money, too much luxury can lead to less seriousness by proclaiming what God’s word says. If you think that by proclaiming the harsh things or the most hard things of God’s scripture, you’re going to cause you to leave, lose people who are supporting the work, then you’re, you know, you’re going to say, well, I’m not going to do that. That’ll hurt my income. And so we find that there are many who like Gahazi, who were in the service of God, who focused on material things and their own wealth. And we have those like Deimos, who love this person. present evil world and would not continue on in the ministry. So increased prosperity may ruin the minister. Feeding on the sins of the people is another problem when we see that in verse 8. They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their inequity. Josea does not condemn the priests for eating of the sacrifices that were brought by the people, but he does accuse them instead of feeding on sin here. Can you see what he was talking about? What he’s saying is going on? When the people sinned, they brought the wrong. roast and the stakes that the minister ate. And therefore, there was a sense in which it was a welcome source of income. And so they were pleased, in sense, with the sinfulness of the people, because it meant they were provided well for in this situation. So they set their heart on this situation where they would be provided for well. Undoubtedly, a true priest would suffer a grief when he saw the sins of the people, whereas these people were looking at, well, I’m going to get plenty to eat because of this. You know, our great high priest, Jesus Christ, died to save his people from me. their sins. Here, this man, this minister is happy with the people in their sin because of what they get out of it. You know, prostitutes who walk the streets openly live off of people’s sin. Movie directors, you know, pornographic films live off of sin. It’s easy to look down on some people and think, well, that’s terrible that they would be like that. But there are many who live in a shameful way. But you can be just as bad in a sense. Think about a doctor who secretly was delighted that people contracted cancer because they could make a lot of money off the treatments. and would prolong the treatment maybe, milking every last dollar they could out of it. Well, we would, that’s despicable, we would think. And yet this is done all the time, it seems, in the spiritual level, religious leaders line their pockets, praying on the victims of sin. The Roman Catholic Church, the priest there, with their first communions and with their confessions and the special masses for those in purgatory lined their pockets. I remember when I was growing up that they used to charge, I think, $5. You had to take your Easter basket in and get it blessed by the priest. Five bucks, a shot. And so their followers may take a vow of poverty to enter the priesthood. I guarantee. to you, there’s money to be made in this. And so they take advantage of the guilt of people’s sinfulness and pray upon them. Feeding on the sins of the people. Lust also snatch away the heart. Notice verse 11 here. Hortem and wine and new wine, take away. the heart. As Jesus said, well have Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as is written, the people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from it. When ministers are negligent in preaching, then they grow sensual. Lust take hold upon them and lead them astray, even first. He mentions two specific sins, it seems, like sexual sin and drink. It’s a sad thing. If that’s what’s plaguing our pastor, lusts take away the heart. They steal your affection. They captivate you. Secret lusts in the heart snatch away any religious vigor that you may have. The Bible says that people do not glorify God. is God. Then he gives them unnatural affections and turns them over to sexual sin in Romans chapter 1. The strong man Samson first had his heart snatched away from Delilah before he lost his strength. And even though he knew that Delia was trying to find out the secret of his strength and was trying to find out the secret of his strength and was trying everything that he said in order her to take it away. He couldn’t help himself. His lust drove him on and he told her the truth and you know what happened. Homosexuality is rampant in the Roman Catholic Church, and we should be aware of that. Drunkenness is also a serious problem among them as well. I had a friend who his father died and he said to me he was Catholic. He said to me the priest came and did the eulogy, but he was drunk. Can you imagine that? So what may cause the minister to be unfaithful prosperity, feeding on the sins of the people, and lusts snatching away his heart? Thirdly, The judgment your minister will endure for his unfaithfulness. First, God’s rejection as one of his ministers, as we see in six, verse six. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me, seeing they have, thou hast forgotten the law of thy, God. I will also forget my children. Those who reject the true knowledge of God will find themselves rejected by God himself. God does not put up with foolishness. It is a serious thing to claim to be God’s man, to claim that you’re going to proclaim his truth and then totally fail. in this regard. In Ezekiel 44, the priest that forsook the Lord when Israel turned to other gods, must never come near God or end of the priesthood again. God even says your children shall not succeed you into the office. There’s no succession succession here on the priesthood. I’m going to reject your children as well. So God makes it known to his people that a man is a false teacher and unsound because God’s people know the voice of Christ and this isn’t it. So we see his rejection as one of his ministers. We see also him disgraced. I, in verse 7, I will change their glory into shame. Here they are swelled with pride and arrogance, but eventually brought the shame by the Lord. False priests are made by God contemptible and base before all the people, according to Malachi 2.15. Isaiah 9.15 says, the prophet that teaches lies lies. He is the tail. I want to make him the lowest of the whole nation. 1 Samuel 2.30, those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed, Scripture says. So we should keep this in mind. We see the evil that men get into, but the self-proclaimed biggest and best as men, as men, declare themselves to be often end up being brought very low by an angry God who is unhappy that they are abusing the privilege of the office. We see here also they’re given an appropriate punishment according to verse 9. And there shall be like people, like priest and I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings. God threatens both the people and the priest here because they have made themselves alike in their sinfulness. There’s no difference between. Jeremiah 23 says this. The land is full of adulterers. Both prophet and priest are profane. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing. They commit adultery and walk in lies. Think about that. God will certainly reward these evil ministers. A lot of ministers they’ve got up in sexual sin and God says he will punish it and they will not escape. And then of course we have the loss of satisfaction that he promises as another punishment verse 10 for they shall eat and not have enough they shall commit hoard of and not increase because they have left off to heed to take heed to the Lord when you choose a base sinful way of living God will take away the satisfaction of that sin from you they believe that sinful pursuits will make them prosperous and happy. God says I’ll make you empty. In Ecclesiastes 5’10, we read, He that love us silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. So you may love prosperity, but God will make you empty anyhow, even when you get the prosperity. You may be, engage in adultery, God says, I withhold offspring from your family. You will not increase. We see these judgments that God brings against them. So the judgment of your ministers for unfaithfulness is rejection, disgrace, punishment, loss of satisfaction. Let me conclude conclude with a couple of thoughts. One is this. The minister is accountable for much. To whom much is given, much is required. And these priests have been given a great responsibility, and their failure was all the more dramatic and damning because of it. Those to whom the privilege of leadership is given, but who willingly misle are responsible not only for their own sins, but for the sins of the people that they leave. The role of the minister is both privileged and perilous. Privileged because you get to study the Word of God. Paralless, because there are 100 ways in which Satan attacks you to lead you astray and manipulate you and conspire against following the principles of the Word of God. Israel priest here lost sight of their priorities and accommodated themselves to the status quo of their culture. And we see what happens here. Once you’ve turned aside from the straight and narrow way as leaders, you’re accustomed to the more liberal path after a while and you just pursue it. it. The old religion seems too narrow, too restrictive, and the people don’t like it. But we should see that God, of course, is going to hold them accountable for this. Last of all, let me say this. It’s easy for us to say, well, these ministers, they’re really bad. Look what they’re doing. But I would remind you that according to the scriptures, you and I are a priest of God also. You and I belong to the universal priesthood of all believers, according to 1 Peter 2.9. And so the heart of any priest here must be focused on doing the will of God. You remember Israel’s priest, delighted in the sins of the people. We can’t delight in the sins of the people. We can’t be involved in that. And can’t be eating up the sins of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We can’t be delighted in gossip about their sins and their failures. And so when you hear sinful stories, you don’t go around just spreading and have you heard about so-and-so. Our duty is to try to bring them to repentance and to pray for them and see them change. And you must consider your own life lest you be tempted as well. Let it never be said of us that we eat up the sins of the people. May you always be a faithful priest under the Lord yourself. Let’s close with the word of you.