Hosea 13:12-16

Tonight invite you to turn with me to the book of Hosea once again. Chapter 13, I want to read verses 12, 13, and 15 and 16. And we’ll have to come back and get verse 14 at another time. Book of Hosea, chapter 13, verses 12 and 13, and then 15 and 16. equity of Ephraim is bound up. The sin is hid. The sorrows of a traveling, a prevailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. And then verse 15, though he be fruitful among the brethren, and east wind shall come. The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried, and his fountain shall be dried up. And he shall spend the treasure of all pleasant pleasant vessels. Samaria shall become desolate, for she hath rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword. Their infants shall be dashed to pieces in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. God blessed to us, this sacred and holy word, this evening. During what we’re blessed to us. two, the aircraft carrier, the was one of America’s great vessels. While engaged in protecting the Marines on Guadalcanal and the Pacific, she was struck by a Japanese torpedo and began to sink. Her troops, her sailors were told to abandon ship, but they were told also to swim away from the ship. But a lot of them jumped overboard, but they hung onto the ship. Of course, the ship sank and they went down with it and drowned. If they had heeded the command that they had been given, they would have escaped death. But they’re clinging to the ship caused their death. In the spiritual realm, there are many people who are just like those sailors who perished. Instead of abandoning their sins as commanded by God, they cling to them and they end up destroying themselves. God has already told Israel that she had destroyed herself. The point is you are to blame for all the evil which befalls you before you fall to blame for all the evil which befalls you when you. sin. Now God goes on to explain how it is that you destroy yourself. We’ve been talking about these issues for quite some time. And so some of this is a bit redundant, but it’s all important, I think, for us to ponder. Verse 12, you destroy yourself when you fail to realize that God is keeping your sins on record. You know, your present prosperity is due to the fact that God is patient with his elect people and still is going to call them to the salvation. Here you’re told an uncertain, not uncertain terms, that God is keeping a great record of your sins. Ephraim’s iniquity is not forgotten by the Lord. It is written down and kept track of. Now, it’s not that he speaks of a book per se, but it’s more like he keeps papers on their sin. He’s writing them down like on scrolls, just as you might. you know, take a series of papers and bind them together in order to make a folder or a tablet of some sort to preserve them. So God is doing with record of your sins. The point is that none of your sins escape his attention. He is diligently making a compilation or a scrapbook, if you would, of your sins, of your sins escape his attention. sins. Your sins are carefully hid or put away. This doesn’t mean actually hidden, but it means that they are stored. Restore. The evidence will be ready on the day when God wants to bring it to light and God judges. God says your sin is written with a pen of iron. and with the point of a diamond in Jeremiah 1711. That it is, it’s permanently written down. It’s not something that could be easily erased. You might think that God’s God forbears to bring judgment against you immediately, that somehow or other it has escaped his attention. He’s maybe not paying attention. But he is keeping track of everything. He has a book of remembrance. He doesn’t immediately cut off sinners or destroy you in the midst of your activities all the time. But the wicked businessman may prosper for years ago quite a while and make up, you know, heap up vast sums of wealth, you know, got and gain. judgment comes. The Playboy may live a wildlife for many years with all, you know, affairs after affairs, but eventually it’s going to catch up with him, even though right now it appears that he has the good life. Read the scriptures carefully. God bore with the old world for a period at the 120 years. Then he brought judgment upon it. Look how long he waited in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah before bringing judgment. In the case of the Amarites, see, the Bible says he waited 400 years for their sins to be right before he judged. We read in Psalm 50 tonight that the wicked many times think, well, God is forgotten. He isn’t keeping track. God is reminding us he is keeping track. He is watching what is going on. Just because at the moment, you do not see God’s lion or leopard or a bear or a wild beast. Don’t assume that they aren’t coming, as he says, the verses 7 and 8 of this chapter. So your present prosperity is due to God’s patience with his elect. You may be treasuring up wrath against the day. of rat. We find in animals, snow when disaster is about to come. They have a sense about these things. All the creatures have been given some type of instinct by God, help them survive under adverse circumstances. An interesting article. article from the Australian papers talked about how they had advanced warning of seismic upheavals and natural disasters. They are animals that are capable of sensing impending danger. For instance, fish have eternal membran, they are animals that are capable of sensing, impending danger. that are nearly 10 times more sensitive than the best man-made devices that we have. Birds will often fly out of an area where there’s going to be disaster, earthquake, or something. Ants will pick up their eggs and move them to a safer location. Also, we find it when a tremor is eminent, bears and tigers will sleep outside of caves so that they’re not trapped by falling rocks. How is it that the animals are so astute to danger? Man is so foolish as to not be prepared for danger at all. The Bible says, but after thy hardness and impetinent heart, treasures up under thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of righteous judgment of God God is storing up your sins because there’s going to come a day when there’s going to be a judgment and he’s going to hold you a counten and this is why repentance is necessary now it’s true in the case of his but God, they bring judgment in this life and you will have to face judgment. He may postpone his wrath for a period of time and then unleash it all of a sudden at a later date. The point is that he will remember and punish ever, every sin. God’s honor is at stake, and he never will. allow his honor to be discredited. There’s going to be a book of works at the final judgment. And all our sins will be exposed at that time. So you destroy yourself and you fail to realize that God is keeping your sins on record. Notice here in verse 13, you destroy yourself when you unwise, continue to sin, though suffering severely. Your sin inevitably is going to bring suffering into your life. You know, whenever a woman comes pregnant, she knows that there is coming a period of time which is going to have to endure the agony and the pain of childbirth. It’s inevitable that that’s going to occur. And God is saying here that he’s going to bring hardship upon us when we sin. And that there’s going to be affliction and distresses and calamities, which are often compared in Scripture to the sorrow of childbirth, like in Isaiah chapter 13. So what God is saying is you’re going to have to endure the pain. You’re going to have to endure the suffering. God’s pain should lead you to forsake your sins in turn to repentance and faith. Your sin inevitably brings pain and suffering. Notice also, you are unwise to refuse to repent when suffering for your sins. Can you imagine the birthing room of a hospital in the mother’s life? is struggling in great pain to deliver her baby. But she just can’t seem to do it. And the nurses and the doctors are trying everything to help that baby be delivered. Now, can you imagine what it was like before the days when we could do C-sections? They can most easily get the baby out now. Back in the days of scripture, this was a very serious matter. If you kept going through childbirth but you couldn’t deliver, it would only kill the child. It could kill you as well. It destroys you. And so the baby has to come out. It’s dangerous. What not to come out. Josea here is comparing Israel to both. A woman in labor and the child in the womb. Israel, however, is unwise. Because she keeps on laboring and laboring, but never delivers. It’s unnatural. It’s like a child refusing to be born. So she stands now under God’s judgment. Ultimately, her actions will prove to be faith. For the nation is going to go into captivity. It will never return from captivity. There will be individuals that will come back. The nation itself will never be restored. So you are foolish. You don’t wake him to the danger at hand under these circumstances. In fact, can you imagine Pharaoh as God’s plagues are falling upon him and he just, can’t repent. He just continues to go on and bear the judgments that are coming one after another and it destroyed him as we see in the end. So you destroy yourself when you unwisely continue to sin against the Lord and your suffering unwisely. So this is my third point tonight is this. You destroy yourself when you rebel against God. And again, that rebellion continues past the time of repentance. Versus 15 and 16. God may close the door of mercy to you. Samaria shall be desolate, it says. There comes a point when a nation or individual goes beyond the hope of recovery so that it was with Israel. Israel’s capital here, Samaria, will be laid waste. Indeed, this speaks of the overthrow of the entire nation. The cause of it is that they’ve rebelled against the Lord. She really has no reason to complain. She’s getting exactly what she deserved. There comes a point when God can be sought in vain, or he will not listen. You read in Isaiah 115. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers. I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. God turned you over to a reprobate mind. And we find that your fate is sealed before your very eyes. When the unwise virgins tried to get into the door where Christ was in fellowship with him, we find that it was too late. Their lamps didn’t have oil. And so when they got the oil and tried to come back, they pounded on the door, but God refused to let them in. And so there are warnings in Scripture about being careful in this regard. God’s judgments also will fall upon you bringing destruction. It’s interesting that Ephraim means fruitfulness. The nation was fruitful with regard to its plentiful products and its great number of people and so forth. And yet God promises here to lay them waste. God promises here that an east wind and always the destructive will come and destroy them. A wind from God himself. This represents an invasion from a Syria. But it is the wind of the Lord ultimately. And he’s going to send them into captivity in this manner. God will lay waste their vineyards, their fields. They’re all of yards and so forth. All the springs and fountains of wealth will dry up. And we find that their fruitfulness will come to an end. And this is what God promises here in this text. The inhabitants of the land will fall by the sword. And their women and children are going to be saved. slaughter. God points out how cruelly the Assyrians are going to treat Israel. And even tearing up their women with children, killing the children and the women as well that were pregnant, God is able to snatch you away from your suffering. But, uh, but. once you reach a certain point, it won’t happen. In fact, your possessions will be taken from you, your houses, your cars, your precious goods, and so forth. God is always able to take away your family, which is sad, the wife and children. That is a very severe blow. But ultimately, the destruction of your soul and hell awaits. That is a very severe blow. the fierce judgment of all. You can only blame yourself. You rebelled against God’s clear commands. You pursued your life of sinfulness. And in the end, you’re going to have to confess, I’ve destroyed myself. How many in hellfire are mourning that very point, even now. Let me close with a couple of thoughts. Talk about destroying yourself. Like the sailors of the wasp, they didn’t do what they were commanded to do, but get away from the ship. So they went down with the ship and drowned. You know, I think that you were safe because your pattern of sin has continued for a long time without God judging you. Because God is careful. He’s careful in recording and storing all your sins. And you may merely be treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath that’s going to come. When God brings upon you suffering, it will be very severe. Suffering for sin is inevitable. It’s like the pain of a wound with child. It is going to come. It’s going to be very severe. So once God’s wrath begins to fall upon you, and you feel the full force, you will realize your mercy may have been shot. And there will be no deliverance. Finally, notice here that God keeps the records of your sins. If you’re honest, you would rather have you keep track of your sins and not God. Because we would probably overlook a lot of things and not put them on the list. But God is keeping track, and he’s very minute in what he checks out. He knows exactly what’s going on. Sometimes we’re in a bad mood. We speak with someone. in anger. We don’t control our tongue. We don’t think much of it. In other times, you may sail on your duty in some small way, and you were a bit selfish, perhaps. Didn’t love your neighbor as yourself. But you wonder whether or not it’s really necessary. You include these things on your minor list of faults. But God. God’s going to keep track of it. Secondly, I’m afraid that you might be very concerned about your neighbor missing some of his sins. You know, you’re checking out all the moats in his eyes rather than keeping track of the beams in your own. It’s easy to see all those moats in your neighbor and not see any beams. in your own eye. It’s easy to strain out a little mat that end up swallowing a camel in your case. Yes, you would certainly like it better if God left it up to you keep track of your sins, but he doesn’t. Be thankful that in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness of sins. thankful that while there’s opportunity, you can go to Christ, you can find forgiveness, you can turn from your sins, you can be delivered from yourself. But there may be a point where it’s too late, in the end is inevitable, and you will be destroyed. Let’s close with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this opportunity tonight. We’ve had to study your word briefly, speak to us from it, open our understanding to it. We pray, Lord, protect us, watch over us, and keep us safe. May we not do the same thing that Israel did of all. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ and sincerity. Amen.