Hosea 8:11-14

All right, tonight I invite you to turn with me to the book of Hosea once again. Josea chapter 8, verses 11 to 14. Josea chapter 8, 11 to 14. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto them, unto him, to sin. I have written to him the great things of my law. But they were counted as a strange thing. They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it. But the Lord accepteth them not. Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins. They shall return to Egypt. For Israel hath forgotten His. His maker, imbuilted temples, and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities. But I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devire the palaces thereof. May God bless to us. The sacred Holy Word this evening. Scientific measurements indicate that you are moving. even when you’re standing still. It seems that the continental land masses sit on enormous slabs of rock that slide very slowly at a rate of 1 to 8 inches per year. America is gradually moving westward away from Europe at the rate of 3 inches per year. This drifting is almost imperceptible, and yet as the years roll by, America will be a little bit further away, a little bit further away from Europe. Difting in the spiritual realm is also something that is often going unperceived. Like the continental drifting, you may gradually move further and further away from God and not even realize it as you should. Most of the continental drifting, you may gradually move further away from God and further away from God and not even realize it as you should. people don’t run away from God. They walk away. You take a few steps off the narrow path and then a few more. We’re like Mr. Christian and he takes a bypass Meadow at first. It was running parallel to the narrow way and the next thing we know it twists around and he gets lost and ends up at Doubting Castle. Over a period of time, you you may find yourself totally apostatizing from the faith. As we look at Israel, we see that they have drifted away from God, and they have reached that state of apostasy. So I want to speak tonight on the marks of apostasy from this text here in Hosea, and the means by which you drift away from Christ. Let me begin by saying this. You’re headed for apostasy when you were ignorant of Scripture. I’ll begin with verse 12 tonight with these words. I’ve written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. Dare you ignore a book that God has authored? That he says here, I have written to him. So what other nation had God provided a written record and not just verbal communication? Israel had the law of God. God provided a written record of his will in order that they might do as he required and receive his blessing. Here you sit tonight as one of the people of God. And you have a book in your hands, which is called the Bible. And while there are many human writers, which is Moses and Samuel and David and Matthew and Luke and John and Peter and Paul and so forth, who is the real author of the book? Well, this book is the real author of the book. of the living God. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It’s God breathe. Each letter was penned by His almighty finger. Each word came from the lips of the everlasting one. Each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. This is God’s letter to you. And in this book, God’s speaks to you. This is no ordinary book that we have. If you received a personal letter from somebody that was really important, you’d want to open it up at once and read it. You may be amazed at someone that important took the time to write to you. God says, I have written to you. Therefore, you ought to be afraid to despise and ignore the book. written by Almighty God himself. There is no other book so pure, so perfect. No other book with such light and instruction in it. You might say, well, I want to actually hear the powerful voice of Almighty God speak. Well, I remind you that he often speaks as he speaks to Elijah with a still small voice. The book of Revelation is a small voice. we, you know, his voice thunders like lightning, but often he speaks in a still small voice, such as God’s voice usually in the Bible. If this is the very word of God, what will become of those who don’t read it in a month’s time, in a year’s time, or they never read it? There are many who profess to be the people of God who have not turned over a page in their Bible for a long, long time. What will God say to you on the final day when he asked you, did you read my word? And you have to admit you did not? How is it? I wrote to you a message telling you the way of salvation, and you didn’t listen. You didn’t heed it. You never read it. Well, Lord, I never opened the box to the Bible. I kept my Bible safely entombed in the closet. God’s going to say, you sinful wretch, you deserve to be cast into eternal fire. Let it not be so with you. Postasy comes quickly when you don’t read the letter God has written you. So dare you ignore the book authored by God. dare you ignore a book containing great things he says he’s written great things of my law to you you know the Bible speaks of great things there’s nothing in the Bible that’s unimportant or irrelevant every verse in it has a solemn meaning has an application in every truth written there is an awful, the awful authority of the great God that we serve. Psalm 138 says, Thus magnified thy word above all thy name. Here are the things that proclaim the greatness of the lawgiver and the things of great use and importance to you personally. They are to be your life. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedeth out of the mouth of God. Your eternal welfare depends upon your obedience and observance of the things contained in this book. Proverbs 322, they are life under thy soul and grace under thy neck. Parverves 3246, set your hearts upon all the world. words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. Galatians 310, Cursed it is everyone that continueeth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Doesn’t this book contain great things? Are you going to ignore it? Certainly nothing is unimportant if the curse of God is attached to any violation of anything written in it. Do you realize when you come to hear the word of God, your eternal soul will be damned for rejecting it? He that believeeth not shall be damned, the Bible says, in Mark 16. So the Bible is a serious book. It deals with serious matters of great importance. It talks about election according to the good pleasure of God’s will. It talks about the natural depravity of man and the sinfulness of man. It talks about particular redemption of sinners by the blood of the Son of God. It talks about effectual calling by the Holy Spirit. It talks about the ultimate perseverance of the saints who are upheld by God’s mighty power. God says, I have written to you great things. Do you doubt their greatness? Do you question what God has said here? Said here? Do you think you are unworthy? It’s unworthy of your attention. Is not apostasy a matter of ignoring the great things of God’s word? So dare you ignore a book containing great things? And so we see that here in this passage. dare you allow the Bible to be a strange book? You count it as a strange thing, a foreign thing. Israel set aside God’s law as though it had no application to them. Many, even professing Christians today, are doing the very same thing. How sad to find people who think that the Bible has a reason? really nothing to say to them, that it’s of no importance to their daily lives. So why read it, they say? Why bother studying a book which is archaic? Z. H. Spurgeon once read the sacred story of David and Goliath, and he read it to a group of professing Christians, and a woman asked him a surprising question. She said, Dear me, what an interesting story. Which book is it in? That shows you how much she knew her Bible. I once was talking with a woman who had gone to church all her life and she asked me a surprising question too. Where do you find that passage where it says you must be born again? Think about that a minute. She didn’t know. Isn’t that shocking ignorance? The Bible was a strange book to her. You know, the Gallup poll revealed about one quarter of a quarter of a court. of regular church-going young people could not name any, not one of the Ten Commandments. Well, I think we can spread it beyond the young people of the church. I’m sure there are many adults who couldn’t name one commandment either, such as the ignorant and professing people of God today. Because like Israel of old, people are treating the Bible as a strange book that doesn’t concern them. Many people will read a novel from beginning to end and they may get some type of entertainment out of it. Why can’t you read the Bible through? Why doesn’t it solid, lasting, substantially, and satisfying food feed your soul? You say the Bible is boring and uninteresting. Do you know why? You don’t have the spiritual sight to understand its preciousness. My wife and I were having devotions last night, and we were reading from the Psalms, the passage of Scripture, and I think it was David Dixon was commenting on it. And we just read the one verse and read the comment on it. And we were amazed at how much you got out of that one verse of that one verse of scripture. he had like eight or nine things that he mentioned out of that and we thought man you know that shows you how deep the scripture is how rich it is and yet a lot of people would read that and not get anything out of it like that but you and I if we have any spiritual light at all we’re going to get something out of it and those who have more light we’re going to get a lot more than even we do a minister went to see an old Christian lady. He thought he would give her some precious promises from the word of God. So he picked up her Bible and he opened it and he turned to one of the promises he wanted to read. And he noticed in the margin there was a P that was written there. And he asked, what does this mean? She replied, that means precious. You look further down the page and there was a T and a P. And he asked what those letters meant. She said that means tried and proven. For I have tried that promise and God has proven to me that it’s true. And so we see this is the way we really ought to look at the word of God. If you have tried and proven God’s word, it will be precious to you. Those of you who have been privileged to see Christian films, creation films from Creation Research Institute, know how faulty the evolutionary area scientist’s claims have been. You know, they’re always saying, well, the Bible is at odds with science. Actually, the Bible, there’s never a scientific fact in the Bible there’s wrong. But there are many scientific, so-called, facts that were told that later proved to be incorrect. Did you know that some of the greatest scientists who have ever lived were men who believe the Bible? I read a story about Matthew Fontaine Murray, 1806 to 1873. He was an American naval officer, an oceanographer. And one day, he was reading Psalm 8, and he came across. the last verse or verse 8, we’re talked about passing through the paths of the sea. He thought, I wonder what that means. As he began to study that, he realized that he realized that it was talking about the ocean currents as paths through the sea. and he did a study and he made some very famous maps of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian ocean currents. He unlocked that secret from the Bible. He was thinking about what the Bible said and realized what it was teaching. And he picked up on it. So you’re headed for apostasy when you ignore what the scripture says or if you’re ignorant of the scriptures. Secondly, you’re ahead. for apostasy when your worship is sinful. Now let’s look at verse 11 and the first part of verse 13. As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird. Sorry, 811. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin. They sacrifice flesh for their sacrifices of mine offerings and eat it, but the Lord accepteth them not. The first problem is, when it comes to worship, you may not worship God in the prescribed manner. Israel did not build these altars with the intention of sinning, but rather offering sacrifices for sinning. And yet these. These altars were erected for the sake of idols, so that in the end they were sinning against the Lord. Altars for the golden calves, the day that set up in Dan and Bethel. And in all high places, the tops of mountains and so forth, and it led to apostasy. Now, God commanded that there should be one altar for sacrifice. The Neuronomy chapter 12 says that he would set up a place in the land when they got there. And that is the place for sacrifice. And with the construction of the temple under Solomon, the Israelites were bound to come and sacrifice there and nowhere else. It was Jerusalem. Now, if God has appointed a special way of worship, this forbids all other methods of worship. God regulates worship. The instruction or introduction, I should say, of extra-biblical practices into worship inevitably lead to nullifying and undermining God’s appointed worship. Ephraim hath made many altars. God says there will be one altar for sacrificing, and Israel decided the way in which she wished to worship was to make many. And so she took a wrong step in doing this. God would have one altar which would point to Jesus Christ as the only sacrifice for sin, Hebrews 1310. God would not have idols used to portray him. Man will tell you, well, it helps if I have some visible visible image. God forbids it. Whatever is man made and religious worship is rejected by God. And the problem is that man made many religious inventions for worship. Look at the worship services around you. You see people flocking to many of these so-called progressive churches. There’s one church, and I have. areas classified as an experimental church. They’re trying all sorts of religious formats and services to gain new people. But where is there, thus saith the Lord, for what they’re doing? What is this use of panamines and sacred dance and Christian rock music and so forth? What you find today is mostly holy entertainment. It’s not true worship of God. It’s wrapped up in a little bit of religion to make it passable. God says, fine, you wish to worship in your own way, go ahead, but your worship is going to be a sinful snare unto you. The road to apostasy is strewn with man’s attempts to make worship more exciting, more interesting, more colorful, and it leads to disaster. Your worship is self-centered. in carnal, verse 13, the first part. Now, you may continue in outward religious duties, while the great things of God’s law are strange to you. Never question the fact that a person may continue in outward religious duties, yet be apostate. God calls their sacrifices flesh by way of contempt in this passage. You sacrifice, indeed he says, I have a little flesh from you, but you’re not providing what I’m looking for in my offerings, faith and obedience. Most people offer nothing to God in all their worship but flesh. Their offerings, their prayers, their singing are all carnal. Where is the Spirit of God? There’s nothing but flesh. You may have a great deal of fleshly excellence, outward beauty, and worship, and so forth. But you are to offer up spiritual sacrifices, the Bible says. With a heart tuned by faith to worship, not merely to have a carnal display of religion. When they ought to burn the entire flesh when offering burnt sacrifices, they kept. back most of it in order to feast upon it, to eat it. Therefore, they make a great display in sacrificing, and yet it’s all a mockery. It’s self-serving worship. Worship becomes a means to indulge the flesh. This is not an Old Testament problem either. Even the church in Corinth, remember, the people were gorging themselves and getting drunk while they were supposedly celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Many professing Christians give to the church money or donate materials, but in self-serving manner. Like the Pharisees, you may be concerned that everybody knows, you’re the one that’s giving the money or donating this gift, so you tut your own trumpet before doing it. Like Anonias and Safira, it’s all a sham. There are many, when it comes to religious duties and actions, who desire to make a fair show in the flesh. Galatians 612. It’s the road to apostasy. Thirdly, you are heading for apostasy when you forget God. Verse 14. The scripture says here, For Israel has forgotten his maker and buildeth temples and Judah has multiplied fenced cities. He become preoccupied with self. And in doing that, you forget your maker. Israel didn’t forget that there was a true god. But the word forget here means to neglect. They neglected the true God. Israel knew about Jehovah. But she let the lesser things of life dominate, and she neglected the Lord. Moses warned about this in Deuteronomy 8, 10 to 20, which Russell read before the service tonight with the preaching. This danger existed, you will notice, when people became settled in the land and prosperous. A familiar. situation prevails today in many Christian circles. It’s not that God is denied. It’s that God is neglected. They forget God. They forget He must be obeyed. That your life must be lived in a godly manner. There are people who would be very useful in the Lord’s work, but they are caught up in their jobs and families and cars and houses and all other kinds of things. things of this life. They have no time for serving God. Others are useless because they’re sinful. They have forgotten God by the way they are living. They’re wrongly thinking that they can profess Christ as Savior but not bow before Him as Lord. Many faithfully attend church somewhere. While they’re still engaged in premarital sex, sinful business practices, adultery, and so forth, it’s the road to apostas. You become preoccupied with bigness. They build temples, he says. The word for temples here is actually a word meaning bigness or spaciousness. The central idea is bigness. There is a word meaning bigness. passion among the professing people of God to do something big. Having forsaken God, Israel tried to compensate by constructing large and elaborate cathedrals. Boy, is that contemporary. You build big things to take God’s place and fill a spiritual void. Here is a mark of apostasy. Many are shallow in their knowledge of a spirit of apostasy. Many are shallow in their knowledge of God and the morality and service to God and yet they attempt to cover it up by bigness. They launch bigger and bigger projects. They build more and more elaborate churches. If you could put it into a formula, bigness equals blessing. But the size really doesn’t guarantee God’s blessing. Sometimes God does his prosper his people. C.H. Spurgeon had very large congregation. But the equation is wrong. It’s often the small things that are the greatest blessings that are the greatest blessings that are given. We’re not to despise the day of small things, the Bible says. And it’s the insignificant things that God often is shown to be most present in. If God grants big, that’s fine. But whenever you find yourself long for bigness, struggling for it, you best be on your guard. Apostasy is to seek bigness for the sake of notoriety, honor, or prestige. So you brag, well, we’re the fastest growing Sundays. We’re the largest Baptist church in the world. Well, we have the biggest bus ministry in the world or something of this nature. It becomes a badge of honor for bigness. So you become preoccupied with bigness. Finally, you are preoccupied with defense. Fence cities. Judah, seeing God’s judgment upon the northern kingdom of Israel, does not use that message to reconsider their own sins and to repent. all they cared about was fortifying themselves, building stronger cities to escape the misery that had befallen Israel. This is, of course, what a carnal heart pursues. Instead of trusting in God for protection, they think they can build something outward structurally that’s going to protect them. Are you preoccupied with outward safety? with staying away from poverty and your enemies and financial ruin while neglecting to consider that God is your shield and defender? In the spiritual things, you contend, you are content with little. But when it comes to temporal security, you can never have enough. You can never be safe enough, supposedly. what is your heart set upon most? What do you endeavor to secure the most? If it’s these outward things, then it’s the road to apostasy. Well, let me close tonight. Like Israel, you may be on the road to apostasy. Like continental drifting, you gradually drift away and you don’t even realize you’re moving. When you forget God, other things begin to occupy your mind and your time and attention. and you begin to pursue a host of false trails in life. Scripture study is ignored. You look for thrills and excitement in your worship rather than the biblical teaching and oversight. And what is the result of all this? The same thing that happened to Israel. God will remember and God will visit your sins, as verse 11 tells us. So here are the marks. of apostasy, the dangers we should avoid. And help us, God help us to keep this before others in dealing with their souls. Let’s close with a word of prayer tonight.