Hosea 5:8-11

I direct your attention tonight to the book of Hosea once again. Josea chapter 5 and we’ll be looking at verses 8 through 11. Josea chapter 5 and verses 8 through 11. Blow ye the cornet in Ghibia and the trumpet in Raman. cry aloud at Beth Haven after thee, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound. Therefore I will pour out my wrath of. upon them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the commandment. May God bless to us. His sacred and holy word this evening. I remember seeing the pictures of the U.S.-led coalition in the invasion of the U.S.-led coalition in the invasion of the invasion of the invasion of the invasion of the, of Iraq. And it was the most televised war in human history at that time. And you could hear and see the intense anti-aircraft fire. You could see the night skies all lit up over Baghdad with the shells and explosions. And you could hear. bomb explosions and crashes and so forth. You could hear all the sirens wailing. And so you could see people dawning mask in Saudi Arabia and Israel when the Scud missiles were shot at them from Iraq. And you saw the actual footage of the smart bombs falling, you know, right directly where they want them to fall. and the battlefield wreckage and the dead bodies and the surrendering soldiers. And it was a very up-close and personal war for us. It was like you were there. Josea here speaks of a coming war, which will affect both the northern and southern kingdoms. It’s also going to be up close and personal. perhaps too much so. The blasting here of the trumpets and the cornets signal an enemy attack. Josea here is providing very vivid picture of war and destruction. He’s been given a vision by God. And Josea provides the eyewitness account of what he sees taking place. in the near future. Now you should not consider all this ancient history. The people of God today are under attack as well. Our warfare may not be so physical. It’s more spiritual in nature, but it’s just as real. Now we see here tonight in verse 8, you are forewarned of attack. against the people of God. Now you can expect the enemy to wage war against the people of God. This is a war against Israel and Judah that’s being announced here in this passage. When the trumpet is blown or the cornet by the watchman on the city walls, he is warning the army to get ready, to be prepared and the people because an attack is coming. It means that the enemy army is approaching. And so the defending army must be prepared to resist the attack. Also, it’s a warning to the people, maybe those living in the surrounding area that they need to get behind behind the massive walls of the city in order to get some protection. Those here is being Israel’s and Judah’s true watchman. And it should not surprise you that Judah also is included in this warning. Osse has already warned Judah begged her not to get involved with the false worship of the northern kingdom by the last they did. Gibbia and Rama were cities in the southern kingdom that are mentioned here of Judah. There the trumpet is to be blown and the banner of war raised. Bethel or Bethaven was the central city for the northern kingdom involved in idolterous worship. It’s right near the border with Judah. Apparently no one paid any attention to Jose. as warning, thus the Assyrian invasion under Tig Glaf police or recorded in Second Kings 15 through 17 brought much destruction at this time. Now, Scripture indicates to us that we have to put on the whole armor of God that we need to wage warfare. Our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual. as the Bible tells us, but at the same time, we’re in a battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. And it should not be surprising that the world hates you and wages war against you, for it is opposed to God. And thus, there’s a call to arms. You’re the fight, the good fight of faith as a soldier of Jesus Christ. All the professing people of God are to be battle ready, so to speak. You were to have your military equipment on and your sword and your hand. You must be ready at all times, well aware that Satan never gives up, but is always pressing the attack. So you could expect the enemy to wage war against. the people gone. You can expect the enemy to attack unguarded areas. Now, it’s interesting, if you look at this passage, we see an attack from the rear in this passage. Must have been surprising that Josea would mention these cities. It appears that the enemy approached from the wrong direction here. If there was ever a lot of, danger threatening Israel was always from the north. That’s where Syria was and Babylon later on. So that’s where the attack should originate. And there’s a great military road that leads right from that area to Israel. And later it curves around to the northeast, of course, and Assyrian of Babylon. And so this is the threat. Everyone agreed that Israel needed to fortify her northern border. You can imagine that’s where the attack must be coming from. But along comes the prophet Hosea, warns about the possibility of an attack from the rear from the south. He announces that the enemy will approach from a direction where you don’t expect him. Notice the order here of the cities. Gibia and then in Rama and finally in Bethel. The trumpet is blown. That would be like Canada attacking us, but starting with Miami and then going to up to Atlanta and finally get in the Pittsburgh. They’re coming in the wrong direction. And it doesn’t seem reasonable that that that’s the way it would be. But you’ll notice that Bethel is on Israel’s southern border while the other two are in Judah. And then he ends that verse by saying, Josea says that Bethel will fall after thee, oh Benjamin, after the tribe of Benjamin is attacked with the first two cities, then Israel will be attacked. So the attack is from the rear. Now what does this tell us? It tells us that we should be aware of those unguarded areas in our own life from which the enemy may attack. The danger sometimes approaches from a different direction than you think and you get blindsided. In our own time, there are many trumpets being blown. No doubt the church is under attack. And you can see much of it. Watchmen on Zion’s walls see the danger clearly from liberalism, humanistic attacks, government intrusion, into church authority and so forth. you’re not allowed to pray in the schools. There’s no mention now the Ten Commandments in the Courthouses any longer. Evolution and situation ethics are promoted everywhere. Abortion is on demand. Seminaries are becoming more liberal. There’s a weak stand on inspiration of scripture, women ordination, doctrine of truth. And there’s a weak stand on. no doubt that you have many warnings from attacks from the north, so this speak, from the more obvious places. We’re aware of what’s going on. But the real danger, however, is we forget about the rear. We forget about Gibia, the south, the unguarded, and unexpected areas. We scan the horizon. We have to scan the horizons in all direction. and keep an eye out for the enemy. Because there are dangers which threaten the doctrine of the church. Dangers which threaten its way of life. You may arm yourself to the teeth against all possible heresies and false doctrines. Yet the world in the flesh can penetrate your defenses unchallenged. I remind you that Samson, when he faced the enemy, directly did well, but he evidently didn’t expect the Lila to be the one that would bring him down, the lesser enemy. And so we have to be aware about the front door and the back door of the church and the dangers that could be associated with them. So you can expect the enemy. to attack unguarded areas and you can expect the enemy to make a gradual advance Jose sees the enemy gradually progressing here. Gibia, Rama, and then Vephel falls. City after city, one after another, fall into enemy hands. The enemy here does not advance in Blitzkrieg fashion where it overruns everything at once. But it slowly but surely, it overruns and defeats us. This is the way it is spiritually. And so the enemy is not trying to overwhelm us with one major assault, but little by little, it defeats us. Instead of taking over the church slowly, instead it tends to take over the church slowly but surely. I, uh, I remember when I was in high school, I read a story called White Fang by Jack London. He was always an outdoors person. It was about a dog. It was sort of half wolf, I believe it was. And the dog was used in dog fights against other dogs all the time. And he almost died once because he got in a fight with a boxer. And the boxer would grab him around the neck and he wouldn’t let go. And then he would grab a little bit more until he almost choked white fang the deck. And that’s how Satan sometimes works. He little grabs it and then keep holding onto it and grab some more. And eventually the church falls apart. It’s too much for it. You do not see the customs and standards. necessarily changing overnight. But I guarantee you, come back in five years, see where the church is. Come back in 10 years, see where the churches. See how far it has fallen. And we see it in our own day and age if we’re old enough and we’ve looked over the situation. We find that first, you know, you start to think in a worldly way, then your speech is affected by the world and last of all your actions become affected by the world. You know, you see, Lott, who first he pitched his tent towards Sodom. The next thing we know he’s moving closer to the city, and the next thing you know, he’s in the city, and the next thing you know, he’s one of the judges at the gates of the city. a prominent citizen of the city. Slowly but surely, he gets overcome. So we have to be aware of this and be careful. So you’re forewarned against attacks against the people of God. Secondly, you are assured that the enemy victory is a rebuke for the people of God. In verse 9, we read this. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. God’s threats are real. There’s going to be a day of rebuke for them. Why should the enemy of the professing people of God be victorious? God says, it’s coming as a rebuke to you, an irrevocable. judgment is coming upon. And one of the greatest dangers in the world is for you and I to turn away from God’s truth and sin in a willful fashion, as Romans 10 tells us. I remind you of these words were not written to ungodly heathen words in Hebrews heathen. It were written to the professing people of God who were willing. wavering about their faith. Have you not read God’s threats to the seven churches in the book of Revelation? Each of the churches at one time was certainly a genuine church of Jesus Christ, that the people began to turn away from the truth, and they became spiritually lukewarm. They lost their first love. They became spiritually dead. And so forth. He says, remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works, or else I will come onto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place. There’s a point of no return with God. He says, surely this is going to be. There’s a time when there’s no way for you to turn away. from the judgment. You can call and you can cry and you can mourn and you can weep, you can fast, you can plead with God, and yet judgment cannot be averted. David, you recall, pleaded with God, fasted, lay upon his face in order that his young child, through Bashiba might live when God said it would be. die. God did not relent in his threat and the child died. There was no way to avert God’s mind on this. I recall Moses sin against the Lord by striking the rock when God said to speak to it. And what happened to Moses? God says because you didn’t honor me, you can’t go into the promise. his land. And that was a terrible blow. Moses repented of his sin. He prayed and pleaded with God, but God said to him finally, speak no more unto me of this matter. My mind is close. I’m not going to change my mind. So all his prayers and repentance could not deliver from this judgment. And he was never allowed to enter into Canaan. He was cut short by those awful words. Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. So it’s not just the wicked to whom God says he’s had enough. Sometimes it is the professing Christian that God says, no. The blow’s going to come and I, and there’s no way to avert it. So when a church becomes a worldly and apostate, God may just indeed write it off. When it becomes foolish, lax and days ago about the things of God, God may still be bring a judgment against it without destroying everybody in the church. So you’re assured that the enemy’s victory is a rebuke for the people, God. And you were warned as to why the people of God suffer this judgment in verses 10 and 11. He says here, the princes of Judah were like them that removed the bound. Therefore, I will pour out my wrath. upon them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the commandment. He may be guilty of calmly allowing God’s inheritance. We violate. In Israel, the boundaries of each piece of land were marked by stones or landmarks of some sort. The inheritance of your parents. your fathers were carefully preserved. And the Bible says, you know, curse would be the one that removes his neighbor’s landmark. Proverbs 2228, remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. Now, Alethea here, I don’t think, is actually talking about literal landmarks here. But just as someone who moved boundary stones, infringed on the land owned by his neighbor. So these leaders of Judah and Israel were infringing on the Lord’s inheritance. In other words, you can squander what your fathers have left you. The law which God gave to Israel forbade the selling and disposing of inheritance needlessly, very serious matter. Remember, Naboth. was well aware of this. This is why he refused to sell his vineyard to King Ahab. He, you know, his conscious bound to God’s commandment. The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. Now, God had given Judah a wonderful inheritance. He gave him the law of correct worship. And so they were to worship the Lord God in the right manner. This was an ancient boundary stone, a landmark, if you would, But by going to Bethel and some of these other places of false worship, they were infringing on God’s boundaries. And the law yielded less and less significance in society. So they were worshipping the golden calf. God promises to send a flood of judgment. There are those today. we’re squandering God’s inheritance also. The boundaries of God’s inheritance are violated. We see in many cases the territory of God’s kingdom being diminished. It’s the business of the Christian to expand it. By kingdom come, we pray. You know, Lord, expand. Grow your kingdom in this world. but even though we have a passionate desire that that would happen and that the world territory would shrink, sometimes just the opposite happens. And the kingdom shrinks inside. Today there are many people who want nothing to do with submission to the Word of God. Yet they want to be considered Christians. This is a shrinking. of the inheritance that we have in scripture. Preaching is okay as long as you don’t get too personal or too long. You may want the word, but you don’t want it to meddle with your personal life. You don’t mind hearing somebody teach, but let’s not get too personal. You know, this idea that I have to submit humbly into my husband, is outrageous. This idea that God controls all that I do in life is too much for me. Do you get the picture here of what we’re talking about? But today, there are those who do not believe the Lord should have any claim upon their lives whatsoever. They can do as they please. many examples of how the Lord’s inheritance is shrinking. And it’s time that we say, no, Lord forbid that that should occur. So you may be guilty of calmly allowing God’s inheritance to be violated. You may be guilty of willingly turning aside to false worship, as verse 11 indicate. Now, it should be obvious that the commandment that’s mentioned here is not God’s commandment. Jose is referring to the commandment of Jerobo for his people to worship at Bethel and the golden calves instead of going up to Jerusalem. The sad thing is that the Israelites willingly yielded to this command and engaged in false worship. And is, is this easy, compliance with the king’s decree to worship the golden calves which ripen the nation for judgment. False worship is nothing new, nor are religious innovations of men. Nor is surprising that the government would interfere with us and try to steer us into humanism and a lot of false ideas. What angers God is the willingness, the readiness, the eagerness of the professing church to follow along these lines. When premarital sex and homosexuality and easy divorce are embraced by the visible church, the people love to have it so. So when Christian rock bands and judo for Jesus and religious drama and sacred dance replace the preaching of the Word of God, the people love to have it. So when feminism infiltrates the church and women in church office and submission to husbands is dropped, and the language of the Bible. is actually changed to make God female. The people love to have it so. It is these types of things. And many others like them that the church may be oppressed for and eventually broken in judgment. So you’re warned as to why the people of God suffer this awful judgment. My friends, there’s no question that you, as one of the people of God are in a spiritual warfare. We should keep that in mind at all times. The trumpet sounds, the warning has gone out. But you should realize also that there are good reasons why the professing people of God often suffer defeat the hands of their enemy. You may fall, I fail to guard all areas. is against attack. And you get caught off guard. They come from different directions than you’re prepared for. And you may fail to see the enemy is slowly but surely overwhelming you. Worldliness creeps into your thinking, then your speech, and then finally your behavior. Me, you suffer defeat at the hands of the enemy as a rebuke by God, as a warning. by God. To change your ways, turn back to him. Perhaps you’re guilty of calmly standing by as God’s inheritance shrinks. You’re not advancing the kingdom. You’re not even attempting to. So God’s law is cast aside and you say not a word. Perhaps you are all too willing for unscriptural innovations to come into the worship. service, you don’t say a word about that either. May God make you aware of the dangers connected with spiritual warfare. We see them here in our text tonight. Well, let’s close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we bow before you. And we confess, Lord, that we often have failed to honor you as you deserve to be honored. please help us, Father, for we are weak and frail and often caught off guard. May we take to heart the warning of our text and be alert to what’s happening around us. Please, Father, we pray, preserve your church in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Spare us from destruction. Help us to be a light in the community that you placed us. Let me ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. May God’s bless them, rest upon His people. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ and sincerity. Amen.