Hosea 13:1-4

Tonight, I invite you to turn with me to Hosea chapter 13 when we’re looking at the first four verses. Osea chapter 13, verses 1 to 4. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel. But when he demanded, when he offended, when he offended in bail, he died. And now they sin more and more, and have made them molden images of their silver and idols, according to their own understanding, all of it, the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, let them, let them, men that sacrifice kissed the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Yet I am. am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, thou shalt know no other God before me but me, for there is no Savior beside me. That God blessed to us is sacred and holy word this evening. In medicine, we have autopsies. They were often conducted in order to find out the condition of the corpse and what it caused the death. In our text, God is the divine surgeon. He’s conducting a spiritual autopsy of Israel. Why? Well, as verse 1 says, Ephraim died. Nations die. In Oswald, Spangler’s book, The Decline of the West, he views civilization is going through four stages. Civilizations are born, they grow strong, they deteriorate, and then they die. God here is providing a valuable lesson for us. I’ll add as to why nations die. His spiritual autopsy reveals the cause of death. And we should apply this, of course, to our own nation. Sin is always the culprit for the wages of sin is death. But consider the steps that a nation takes and leads to its final death. Your nation’s God consciousness dissipates, we see in verse one. Your nation will be exalted when it acknowledges the true God. God. When we look at Israel, there was a time when Ephraim talked and people listened. It was trembling when they spoke. Back in the days of Joshua, back in the days of David, Solomon, so forth. When the northern kingdom came into existence in the days of Jerobo from the first, it was a very powerful nation. neighboring nations trembled in fear when Ephraim threatened them with war. Strong and exalted nation, it was, a military threat. And in those moments when the nation turned to him, God gave them victories and expanded their territory. Now, while the majority of people did not see the link between the events and their nation, nation’s faith, Josea certainly did, and he points it out, where the population as a whole hopes rise and fall as a direct consequence of good or bad news on the international sea. They thought that their fate was somehow determined by the international sea. They thought that they, uh, that their fate was somehow determined by events beyond the Lord, events out there in the world. They didn’t see that it rested upon their relationship with the Lord God. They missed that point. Whereas, Osea here, points out that their day shall be exultation and honor if they look back and how God took care of them and the reason for it. Now, no nation has ever had a total awareness of God involving every member of the nation. Nevertheless, there are such a, there is such a thing as God consciousness in a nation where the people are aware of the Lord God. and have a fear of the Lord God while not everyone believes. Perhaps at the birth of a nation or after some period of special religious awakening, many people are aware of the Lord God. And there has been impressed upon our society, sometimes as scriptural principles and standards. the case with Israel early on. And the problem is, of course, while not all our founding fathers were Christians, yet the majority of them believed, at least in the Bible, a great God awareness dominated. We were one nation under God. Biblical principles were interwoven. Biblical principles were interwoven Constitution and laws. Prayer was part of national life. In God we trust was a genuine slogan. Schools taught the Bible. In fact, they used it to teach reading early on us. When I first went to school up into the fourth grade, someone always read a chapter of the Psalms every day. before we started school. Declaration of Independence, 1776, says this. With firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledged to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Noah Webster said this. The moral principles and precepts contained in the scripted, ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws, and the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, perceived from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible. It’s interesting that the Supreme Court decision in 1892, the Church of the Holy Trinity versus United States, we read this. Our laws and our institutions must thus necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible. that it should be otherwise. And in this sense, to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. This is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation. We find everywhere. a clear recognition of the same truth. These and many other matters, which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declaration to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation. Historically, this has been the case. God has showered America. With 200 years of blessings when we think back on it, how he’s taking care of us, taking us from a little small nation, just starting out, to one of the most powerful nations on the face of the earth. It was his doing and his help. We enjoy unprecedented wealth, freedom, influence, freedom, influence, In the world, we have medical and technological advances that are well beyond everyone else. The citizens of this country have the world’s highest standard of living. When the U.S. talks, people used to listen. So your nation will be exalted when it acknowledges the true God. But your nation will die when God is the second part of verse 1. How do nations die? They will. They die in spirit first. Then eventually the body of the nation dies and it vanishes. The nation dies in spirit when it forgets God, when it turns away from worshipping the true and living God. Israel was guilty of returning to bail worship, as this first indicates. In more recent times, the worship of bail has been replaced by the worship of race as Nazi Germany. Material prosperity, pleasure, and technology as in the United States. The first step in a nation’s death takes place when its God consciousness disappears. and where at worst is deliberately removed. Americans once honored God and they were blessed because they did. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, she began to attribute her blessings to science and technology instead of the Lord God. The God of secular humanism began to infiltrate all of our our country’s institutions, political, educational, social, and religious. Walling and materialism, self-centeredness, and pride, many Americans decided they really did not need God after all. In your country, particularly in recent years, has been a deliberate attempt to remove any kind of open dependence on God from national life. Prayer and Bible reading have been removed from the schools. A November of 17th, 1980, the Supreme Court, struck on a Kentucky law that required the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The court said the Ten Commandments, were plainly religious and they reduced children, induce children to read, meditate upon, and perhaps to venerate and to obey the commandments. Yeah, I think that’s what they were there for in the first principles. But the Supreme Court didn’t think that was such a good idea. Thus, here we are in the mess we’re in today. Public figures, politicians came afraid to identify their position with biblical principles. Sunday became a fun day. True worship of God is ignored, and we worship sports and recreation. Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina in the book called A Nation Adrift wrote these words. Within my own lifetime, I have seen the most ferocious assaults on the faith and morals. First, on the part of the intellectual community, and then on the part of the government, especially in the last 25 years, the federal government has not even tried. to conceal its hostility to the religion. Now with many of our churches and disarray, the attack is becoming or being prepared against the family as the last bastion opposing the totalitarian estate. Military atheists and socialists have gone very far in imposing their view of life and man on almost every American institution. So your nation’s God consciousness dissipates. That’s the first step. Secondly, your nation’s character deteriorates, as we see in verse 2. The breakdown of moral fiber of your nation is spoken of in the first part of verse 2. Once, a nation’s God consciousness disappears. It wallows in sin. So God charges Israel with increasing in sin. More and more as time on on. When every person does what’s right in his own eyes, true lines between good and evil become blurred. In times, all sorts of godly behavior, ungodly behavior becomes excessive. acceptable, even admired. My friends, Americans are no longer shocked by sin. Your nation’s eyes have become accustomed to spiritual darkness. And what has this nation reaped as a result? Atheistic schools, urban unrest, rampage and crimes, godforsaken homes, God-forsaken homes, drugs, abortion, pornography, homosexuality. You know, you only have to look at the cabinet of this president of the United States to see the disaster that’s taking place. And the ungodly people and the perverse people that he’s putting in office, it is scary to contemplate this. America is on a sin rampage. Sin is being tolerated and even openly approved by our nation. They call evil good and good evil. So there’s the breakdown, the moral fiber of your nation. Your nation pursues man-pleasing religion, which is compatible with immorality. Verse 2, the second part. During our downward plunge in sin, Israel had no shortage of religion. Worship was still going on. They had religious services. Like nominal Christians today, we find their devotion was just an easy religion. Mere insurance against the potential of God turning against. against them. And so they basically gave him a nod and a wink. God here points out that every aspect of their worship was man-made. Notice the emphasis of the words here, all of it, all of it man-made. There’s nothing in their worship which carried the slightest signature. of the living God. In man-pleasing religion, suitable to sue the conscience while they continued to live in their sins. Your nation has turned aside from the true faith. It’s engaged in a religious charade. Totally man-pleasing. Yes, all of it. I’ve talked to them. about this often in the past. I’m not going to wear you with it continually, but Holy Entertainment is the rule today. Whatever gains the crowd, whether it be Christian rock bands or karate lessons or ballet or the biggest hot dog, you know, they’re going to have after the service or whatever. Whatever gains the crowd. Church has become a social event. the mere ritual, something you endure. And you say you’ve fulfilled your obligation for the week. And that’s the way it is in our society. There’s no hard sayings from God’s Word. No thundering and lightning being spoken about. No threats being made. It’s interesting that, uh, God directs you to kiss the sun in Psalm 2, lest you be angry. And you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but little. But here these people were kissing the veils. In our day, Jesus Christ is left out. They don’t want the gospel of sovereign grace. So you see your nation’s character deteriorates. And this is the second step. or death. Thirdly, your nation disappears for failing to heed God’s message in verses 3 and 4. There’s a gradual fading of strength and influence of your nation in verse 3. A nation dies by degrees. To use the example, the body, some of the organs begin to fail, whether it be the lungs or the liver, or the liver. kidneys or something of this nature and then it snowballs where something else breaks down and eventually the body dies the police we see have become ineffective in our country. The courts have become technical battlegrounds and they fail to punish the guilty and exonerate the innocent. Politicians become no longer worthy of your trust. They’re involved in all kinds of scandals and corruption. Schools cease to educate. Managers cease to manage. Workers cease to work. Eventually the whole thing just caves in. And the country becomes a third or fourth rate power. That last, the nation is taken on. over were dominated by another. In Israel’s case, it was Assyria. Who knows what’s going to happen in our own case? Osaya looks into the future of Israel and he sees nothing but mist, dew, chaff, and smoke. It’s hard to think of four or more images, better calculated to express the light, leaks, and emptiness of the nation. It’s difficult to picture more graphically how she was to vanish at the first ray of heat or a breath of air. Your nation is already fading in various areas. The glory of the past is gone. Yes, America is still a great and powerful nation, but she’s not what she used to be. She’s not what she was when I was growing up. She’s been sliding downhill and sliding downhill fast. And we see that, who knows, whether China is going to overtake us or not. Your nation is ignoring God’s message, verse 4. Your nation has ignored the revelation of the true and living God, which its fathers had. God says here, think back. Who was it that delivered you from Egypt? Who was it that your forefathers worship and served? Can you cast us off the very God that made your nation great and delivered you from bondage in the first place? Can the United States do the same thing? Has your nation forgotten the foundation? on which it was built and made great. George Washington once said this. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and rights, which heaven has ordained. Abraham Lincoln, said this, is the duty of nations as well as of men to own or acknowledge their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime, sublime truth announced in the holy scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. Thomas Jefferson said, Can the liberties of a nation be secure when they have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? So your nation has ignored the revelation of the true God which its father’s heir. Your nation has ignored the teaching of God’s holy law. These words in these verses, are a direct echo of the opening phrases of the Ten Commandments in Genesis chapter 20. God says, I told you plainly to obey my commandments. You knew what I demanded of you. You ignored and despised my laws. Your nation has laughed in God’s face. It has shook its fist for God’s eyes and defiance and said, will do as we please. God has provided his laws to guide you. It’s not a wise thing flagrantly violate God’s law. Martin Luther said, I am much afraid that schools which proved to be will prove to be great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures engraving them in the hearts of the youth. I advise no one, why his child, with his scriptures, do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must be corrupt. How prophetic those words are you can actually see in our society today. It’s a shame, but it’s true. When will this nation learn to obey God? One would quit chafing at the bit of God’s laws. Your nation has ignored the proclamation of God as the only Savior. God says that the only hope of salvation for any nation or any individual is himself. Senator Jesse Helm said this in a nation. to drift. It is debatable at just what point the United States began to drift away from its Christian heritage. But I think we’ve reached that point when many Americans turned away from the idea of salvation through Christ to that of salvation through Christ to that of salvation through technology or science or material influence. or the welfare state. When all these turned out to be dead ends, Americans began to seek escape and the purveyors of drugs, pornography, and vicarious violence were there to meet that end. Human nature left to its own devices has always been a wretched failure at explaining the meaning of the and destiny of life. Proverbs tells us, He that covereth his sin, shall not prosper. Whose whoever confesseth and forsaketh them, shall have mercy. The great need today is for our nation to return to God as we read Isaiah 1. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before your eyes, cease to do evil. learn to do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow, come now, let us reason together, say the Lord. Though your sins be scarlet, they shall be as white as wool. And though they be red like crimson, they shall be like, excuse me, as white as snow. And though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Let me conclude tonight. this. God has provided a spiritual autopsy, revealing the cause of Israel’s death. Your nation, if it follows the same path, will also die. Its God consciousness has dissipated. Its Its character has deteriorated. Your nation’s strength is waning. Destruction is inevitable, it appears. Yet there’s one hope. Now one hope is that we return to God as the only Savior. To return to God’s word, re-estate God’s laws, and repent of sin. It places itself once again under God’s authority and direction. My friends, pray for your nation’s health. Pray for your leaders, both political and religious. pray for reformation to take place which will sweep this country. It is time to stand up and be counted. Otherwise, the United States will be mist and smoke, as our text indicates to us. And God, have mercy upon our souls as a nation tonight. It’s a sad, sad. case we have before us. Let’s close with the word of prayer. Father, we thank you for all the good things you provide for us in this life. We are utterly dependent upon you to survive as a nation. Our nation has turned its back on it. We pray that you would be pleased to begin to work by your spirit turning this nation around. I pray, Lord, that the misery that is upon us would be great so that we might realize how far we’ve turned away from the Lord God and how dangerous that is. Help us as a nation, Father, and forgive us, we pray. Let us stand for the benediction. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ and sincerity. Amen.