Hosea 7:1-7

Tonight I direct your attention once again to the book of Hosea. We continue our study through this book. I want to look at chapter seven and the first seven verses. The book of Hosea, chapter seven, and I’ll be reading the first seven verses here. When I would have healed Israel, then the first seven verses. Iniquity of Ephraim was discovered in the wickedness of Samaria, for they commit falsehood, and the thief comeeth in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have beset them about they. are before my face. They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. They are all adulterers as an oven heated by the baker who ceaseth from rising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine and stretched out his hand with scorners for they have made ready their heart like an oven whilst they lie in wait their baker sleepeth all the night in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire they are all hot as an oven and have devired their judges all their kings are fallen there is none among them that calleth unto me. May God bless to us. His sacred and holy word this evening. It’s amazing what a good photographer can do. They can touch up the negatives and make the picture look quite pleasing. I remember my daughter had a picture taken and right before her wedding, I think. And she had braces on her teeth. Well, they just waited those out. The final picture didn’t have braces in there at all. So they can remove blemishes and wrinkles and wisp of unruly hair and scars and birthmarks and everything else. It’s no wonder we all like the finished product. It doesn’t really look like us. All the flaws have been eliminated. The problem with Israel in our text is that our x-rays showed a very serious disease. She has spiritual cancer. But Israel is happy to have her physician merely touch up the x-rays and make it appear that everything is okay. However, the nation was literally on the verge of collapse. It was marred by violence and crime. Now, this text is not ancient history. We should see it far as in, in this light that as we look at it, we can see it. This living book talks about every generation. What it says about Israel certainly can be applied to our own nation as well. Now we see here that your nation has spurned God’s healing remedies. As we read here in verse 1, then I would have healed Israel. I would have healed. I would have healed. Sins are destructive, a destructive disease really, to every nation. So we have the words iniquity and wickedness mentioned here. God is diagnosing the problem with Israel, and it’s interesting to note what he’s looking at. If you use your nation to the x-ray of his holy law, he sees the diseases of a disease. Iniquity, wickedness within. God says your nation is terribly diseased. It’s in need of a healing from the plague of sin. In a leprosy, it has overspread the whole body of your country, threatening to destroy it. There is nothing but sin and corruption within. Your nation has turned away from God to pursue the fleeting pleasures of sin. So sins are destructive, a destructive disease of your nation. God is the only healer of your nation’s disease. I would have healed Israel, it says here. Israel had a dangerous and malignant disease was likely to be fatal, and God offered to be their physician. You undertake to cure them. The Lord really is the healing. of every nation or any nation, God alone can help your nation, except the Lord heal your nation. With his pardoning and cleansing mercies, destruction is going to be inevitable. We read in Jeremiah 811 about those who healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. There are always those who would like to put a band-aid over something that needs major surgery. People living in the United States realize that there are serious problems with our country. And various remedies have been offered. You know, we need more education. We need more government programs. We need a better law enforcement. We need better health care. We need better psychiatric counseling and care and so forth. But none of these things will actually heal your nation. We see here that God is the only one it can affect a cure or any nation. There are many encouragements in Scripture to seek a healing from God, yet it seems that God is only turned to as a last resort. If you look with me at Second Chronicles, Chapter 7 and verse 14. This is a typical verse that certainly points us in the right direction. Second Chronicle 714. It says here, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin. and heal their land. They’ll humble themselves. If they’ll repent, turn from their wicked ways, God will hear from heaven and heal them. But we don’t see that happen very often, do we? Choosing a physician is extremely important. The manner in which your doctor treats you can be. a difference for life and death. You know, doctors could give you a pain pillor, a killer, and take away maybe some of the symptoms of a serious disease. But the problem is they don’t cure the disease. They only mask the problem. So your country has chosen spiritual physicians which distribute pain pillars, killers to ease the severity of its problems when major surgery is what is needed. Until the United States returns to God in repentance, till it seeks the healing, still it comes humbly, there is no hope for recovery. So God is the only healer of your nation’s disease. Now your nation has spurned God’s healing remedies and become worse. We see the word discovered here in our text that stands out. When he would heal them, he discovered their iniquities, their corruption. And this is the problem that they didn’t really change anything. A physician here is treating a very sick patient. and while trying various remedies becomes apparent that the patient is far worse than expected. The more the doctor examines the patient, the worse the situation appears. It’s like a person going to a doctor with a painful lump on his arm. And the doctor runs various tests and you’re thinking, well, if he just maybe cut out the cyst or whatever’s on there, I’ll be okay. But running the test show that you’ve got terminal cancer. And that’s your problem. That’s just the lump is just the symptom of it. The whole inner being of the patient has been exposed to this dreadful disease, and it may be too late for a cure. God is saying that while applying various remedies, he found out how corrupt Israel really was. Of course, he’s speaking. here on a human level, God knew everything ahead of time. But Samaria is the capital of the nation of Israel in the Northern Kingdom. It’s the seat of government. A certain indication really of the pulse of the people. And while a patient grows worse under the prescribed treatment, a doctor is looking at this and realizing this is not good. grow worse. Nothing’s working. God has used good gifts. He has used judgments. He’s used reproofs and exhortations to cure his people. He sent a long line of prophets. How did Israel respond to this? They spurned God’s healing remedies. Many nations do this. Your nation is no different in Israel old. When God sends the light of the God, and discovers your nation’s disease, people hate it. They hate the light. They don’t want to come to it. They will not listen to God’s servants who warn them day and night. They need to repent. God has been good to this nation. This is one of the most powerful, influential, and financially blessed nations on earth. And God has brought judgments upon this nation. Whether it be AIDS or cancer, or heart disease or droughts or earthquakes or tornadoes. God has used war to humble us. Yet it appears that your nation steadily, progressively becomes worse and worse. The checks did not cause repentance. What more does God need to do? Has he not as a faithful physician used all the correct remedies to cure your nation. And yet the more God deals with the United States, it seems the worst the spiritual disease appears. Your nation has spurned God’s healing remedies. Now notice your nation may indeed be a terminal case. Your nation is totally corrupt as the last part of verse one indicates to us. But they commit falsehood, and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. And he calls them out for their iniquity and their wickedness. I understand falsehood here is using a sense of false worship, idols and so forth, like the golden calves. This represents then a violation of the first table of the law. They are religious, but they have no true knowledge of God. Your nation doesn’t have to be atheistic to be wicked and ungodly. False religion corrupts a nation. Evidently, people go to church. In fact, readers died just once reported that more people go to church than go to all the sporting events combined. But the religion of today is the deceitful one. There is an appearance of godliness, but no spiritual power. John Brown, 1784 to 1858, he lived, said this, He alone preaches true Christianity who preaches what Christ preached. And he alone preaches it rightly, who preaches it as Christ preached. Apostate religion has always been a telltale sign of a spiritually diseased nation. Notice he says you’re a lawless nation. The thief cometh in and the troop of robbers spoileth without. Josea now progresses to the second table of the law. He shows that the people were corrupt inwardly and outwardly. These two kinds of sins evidently are used to represent everything in general as far as sin is concerned. They sin like a thief. and that they do it stealthily and secretly. And sometimes they seem like a robber. They do it openly and publicly. The law of God doesn’t matter to many in your society today. There’s a flagrant violation of God’s a holy precepts. Others are a little more cautious, so they secretly break the commandments. They break them all the same. You know, Some people engage in open adultery. They may even brag about it. Others slip around secretly and enjoy the same sin. Some people openly steal from you. You know, they’ll break the door down and take what they want. Others do it more subtly. They swindle you out of your money. Smiling at you all the while. But it amounts to the same thing. Some people tell big lies. Whoppers. Others shade the truth. They tell little white lies. But it all wants the same thing. Lying. So your nation is totally corrupt. Your nation has no fear of God. Verse 2 indicates that to us. Scripture says, they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. now their own doings have beset them about, and they are before my face. I don’t know if you remember a Charlie Brown character named Pigpen. He was a walking ball of dirt and dust. It surrounded him wherever he went. And that’s the way it is with Israel’s people. They didn’t consider that they were beset with wickedness all around them. every aspect of their life was vile it didn’t enter to people’s minds that god took notice of all their wickedness yet god promises i will remember all their wickednesses as the psalma says there is no fear of god before their eyes you really believe that god was watching and recording all that you did in life certainly you live differently. People are not always living as if God was watching. Look at the Lord’s Day. It becomes a fun day. The apostate churches have accommodated the pleasure mad people so that, well, we can’t have a Sunday night service. And if you can’t come Sunday morning, we’ll have a Saturday evening worship. You can come then. Where? We’ll have a convenient. it. Why is it that promiscuous sex, adultery, incest, rape, homosexuality are so commonplace in your society? There’s no fear of God before that. Why is it that car theft, robbery, insider trading, embezzlement, and telephone scams are so prominent? They consider not that he is watching all this wickedness going on. Consider what’s going on. Consider what’s going on. and your nation carefully, the violence, the crime, the promise of notorious sins, and they all point to this. They do not consider that God is watching them. Your nation endorses evil, according to verse three of our text. It says this. They make the king glad with their wickedness and the princes with their lives. Now, God has established government who was for the purpose of restraining and punishing evil. Evil-doers. But Israel’s kings and princes, instead of checking evil, have pleasure in them to do such vile things. In fact, they delight in an evil nation. It pleased the leaders to see people conform to their wicked laws, examples, and immorality, like the golden calves that were set up by the government. When King Herod saw that his wickedness pleased the Jews, he proceeded further in it. First he took James and killed him, and then when he saw how pleased the people of the Jews were, he took Peter with the same idea in mind. If God had not intervened, it would have been the same thing. Barberts 29, 12, says, if a ruler harkened to lies, all his servants are wicked. Has anything really changed? Does not your government endorse evil? Your tax dollars fund many evil things. Even abortions, it seems, at times, even though they’re not supposed to. Your government endorses humanism. While rejecting any form of true religion, it promotes the cause of evolution. And basically, does it? does away with God. Your government counsels save sex, not the marriage covenant, that God created. And so we see these things going on. Your state government has done away with the blue laws so that commercial businesses may trade on the Lord’s Day in defiance of the Sabbath and so forth. Your nation endorses evil. Your nation is full of sexual sin and drunkenness. Let’s look at verses four. They are all adulterous as an oven heated by the baker who ceased from raising arising after he had kneaded the dough until it be leavened. In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine. He stretched out his hand with scorners. Osaya here uses the image of an oven to refer to the unbiblical sexual desires of the nation. Their sexual desires are portrayed as like an intense fire that dries them on in their adulteries and consumes them. You find here intoxicating feast in which adulteries were most likely to occur. During the king’s birthday or inauguration, or something of this nature his day, he set the tone for the nation by getting dead drunk and joining in those scorners who mock God. The fire continued to burn by itself, even after the baker ceased to feed it with fuel until he rose up in the morning while he was kneading the dough. So their sexual lusts were ever on fire. even though there may be some short periods in which it was curtailed. Thus the Bible speaks of those who burn in lust in Romans 1.27. So your nation is full of sexual sin and drunkenness, and your nation is full of violence and bloodshed. Notice verse of six and seven of our text. for they have made ready their heart like an oven whilst they lie and wait their baker sleepeth all the night in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire they are all hot as an oven and have devoured their judges all their kings are fallen there is none among them they calleth unto me Josea here uses the illustration of the baker and oven again. Only this time I have something, it has something different in mind. He’s talking about the Sixth Commandment. He’s talking about conspirators and murderers. Some people break the Sixth Commandment by actually killing people. Well, let us violate the Sixth Commandment by hatred, as Jesus taught in the Sermon of the Mount. Josea seems to be describing here the horrible trend of murdering king. all the kings have fallen now if you notice the history in first and second chronicles and first and second or second kings in particular much royal blood flowed after the rule of Derebaum the second king after king was toppled in 20 years they had no less than six kings the crown passed from one king to another because of violence. Zachariah only ruled a half a year. Shalom only lasted one month. Like the baker, the plotters waited for the right moment to carry out their murderous designs. The baker must first make ready the oven. He starts the fire in his oven, but he keeps the door closed and sealing the flames. When the baker wakes in the morning, all he has to do is throw a little more fuel on it, and it burns as a flaming fire. And that’s how it is with the hatred of these potters. They have designs that smolder in their hearts and waiting for the appropriate moment. This is the same type of spirit that lies in the hearts of people of your nation. Jealousy and hatred burn a fire within them. We have to watch out. or sleeping bakers because their anger, it always stays hot. Silent resentment smolders within and the explosion of a quarrel soon erupts. Bloodshed breaks out. Murder is commonplace in communities where a few years ago was unheard of. We see how many people are killed every weekend in Chicago and some of these other larger cities. The violence and bloodshed in your country are terrible. And the police can’t even keep up with all the violence. Well, let me close. They’re saying this. They didn’t call on the Lord. With all the wickedness, all that’s going on, all the kings being killed, nobody called on the Lord. Yes, a good photographer can touch negatives up and make you look good, remove the blemishes and so forth. You can easily see that rejection of God leads to an outbreak of depravity. The nation is suffering with a fatal disease. It needs to be healed. As the people of God, you and I need to pray for mercy for our country. God is a God of patience, but how much longer can it be before he pronounces the death sentence on our own nation? He’s still calling out his elect, and while that’s going on, he will probably wait. But we know that eventually this nation is going to fall unless there is a change, unless there is repentance, and God’s people need to pray and humbly pray that God would spare us from destruction. Let’s close with the word of prayer to my father. we give you thanks for your goodness, your mercy, and your grace. We look to you tonight and we see in this picture of Israel, a picture of our own wicked perverse nation. Oh God, I pray that you may be pleased to spare us and raise up men to preach, turn our nation back to you. All seems lost, Father, the right things are going. But Lord, we trust in you. But for the sake of your people, your church, you just spare the nation and allow longer for the gospel to go forth from us from other places to the rest of the world. We ask these things in Jesus’ precious name. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction tonight. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ and sincere. There.