When Knowledge of God Is Lost (Hosea 4–5)
Transcript
Good to see you this morning. We have quite a few visitors. You are our special guests. We appreciate your presence with us this morning. I'm glad you could join in in worshiping with us, as Tommy had mentioned. And we're going to be in Hosea this morning, so if you'll take some time to find that in your Bibles, Hosea chapter 4. We work our way through different books of the Bible sometimes, and that's what we're doing today is moving our way through the book of Hosea. We looked at the first three chapters last week and saw how unique this prophet is. There's lots of prophets that do things that are symbolic and representing events or ideas that God wants to convey, but Hosea is kind of standing alone as one whose whole life was essentially intended to be a sign for the people to help the nation of Israel, the northern tribes of Israel, see their own unfaithfulness in the life of Hosea as he marries a prostitute essentially, a harlot, a woman who was immoral, who slept around and had children by other men, and yet God wanted Hosea to love her and to bring her back and take care of her and make promises to her.
And all of that was intended to show how God is going to allow Israel to suffer because of their sin but then he's going to bring them back and take care of them. God wants the people to see and understand their sin and that's why these prophecies are given to us and we need to see and understand our sin and that's why we're studying the book of Hosea. A lot of times people don't enjoy going back into the prophets because there's lots of judgment and yet the prophets are rich with an understanding of how merciful God is toward a sinful people. So both ideas are conveyed. There is judgment for sin, but there is also tremendous love and mercy and compassion toward those who sin if they will simply turn back to God, and that should be our desire. If we are away from God, if we're looking to this world and living for ourselves, we should desire to be turning back to God, and we should be constantly checking and evaluating ourselves to make sure that we're on the right path, especially in light of what we're going to be studying this morning.
The lesson this morning as we look at Hosea chapter 4 and 5 is moving on from the symbology of Hosea's life and it begins really a sermon that Hosea is going to be preaching that God has given him the words to preach in order to explain to the people what it is that they have done that is really wrong, and how they have entered into this state of immorality and idolatry that is so wicked, and what's so wicked about it? And ultimately, it boils down to the fact that in all of their prosperity, which they had a lot of, in all of their success and everything going their way, which hopefully we can relate to as our country is very prosperous and very wealthy, in all of the good things that they were busy with. They had forgotten to know their God. And that is super important for us to listen to and understand and take to heart because it's possible for us. We're very busy people. It's interesting how all of the accommodations of technology and all the advances, they haven't made us less busy.
They haven't allowed us to just kick back and relax and be bored. They've made us more busy as we seek to do more things and more things and we feel like we need to accomplish more and in the midst of all of that we can be focused on so many different things and leave out the most important thing to know our God and that's what the problem is in Israel that's the reason why they're being judged and that's something that we need to be sure we aren't following falling into. If you open up chapter 4, read with me the first verse. It says, Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel. For the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There's no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land. The first words there, God has a controversy, are translated differently in different versions. I like the version that says God has a covenant lawsuit against the people of Israel. Here is God saying I have a claim that you have wronged me and I want you to be brought before the judge and tried over the the evil that you've committed. And then he goes through and he lists the guilt that is on them.
He says there is no faithfulness, There is no steadfast love and there's no knowledge of God in the land. Think about these three things. There is no faithfulness, there is no steadfast love, there's no knowledge of God. Sorry, I didn't mean to make it do that. All right. There's no faithfulness, there's no steadfast love, there's no knowledge of God. What are these three things? I mean, is this not the most important things that Israel should have. Faithfulness, steadfast love, knowledge of God. You know, there is some debate about what does he mean by knowing God, and maybe as we think about knowing God, we kind of wonder about that. What does that mean?
What does it mean to know God? If I were to ask you, do you know God? You might say, well, I don't really know what you mean by that, because I've not ever seen him or experienced his presence. So knowing him is kind of an abstract thing for me. I might say I know about God because I've read his word and and I know about him And I can tell you a lot of the things that historically he did But would we say that that is truly to know God and is that really all that he's talking about here notice He talks about there being no faithfulness and no steadfast love Before he says there is no knowledge of God These are key characteristics of God. His trustworthiness, his loyalty, his truthfulness in the faithfulness idea, and his steadfast love, his willingness to endure the sin of the people and show them continual love in spite of all their errors and mistakes and failures. He is steadfastly loving them and providing for them and loyally serving them every day. That's who God is.
And as he says there is no faithfulness, there is no steadfast love, there is no knowledge of God in the land, what that's telling us is, they may know things about God, they may have come to an understanding of the Old Testament law and they may be reciting passages and talking about all the feast days, about all the things that he's done, but they don't truly understand who He is, and they don't truly understand what He desires from them, who He desires them to be. They just have lost the understanding of their covenant relationship that they're having with God and how they're supposed to love Him as He has loved them and how they're supposed to be more and more like Him.
this sermon is essentially going to tell us what happens when people might know a lot about God, but they don't really know Him. What happens to people who don't truly know God? Imagine just for a second if you didn't ever hear about God. You may be brought up in a land where there were other pagan gods and you'd never really heard or learned anything about the God of the Bible. You don't know His Word, you don't know His ways, you don't know His faithfulness, you don't know His holiness, His character, His power, none of those things. You're just completely unaware of who God is. How's that going to affect you? Is that going to cause you to live in a certain way? Are you going to be more self-seeking? Are you going to be more following along the path of whatever is emotionally drawing you. Is that going to be what your life's about? That's probably what your life's going to be about. Notice what he says in verse 2, as a result of not knowing God, there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery. It says they break all bounds and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Not knowing God, not being aware of his character, not being aware of his holiness, not being aware of his power and who he is and what he desires and how he interacts with people and how faithful and loyal and good he is. Not knowing about those things has caused people to fall into all different kinds of immorality. Now look at the immorality. This is immorality that hurts people. All of these things are about destroying relationships and bringing about pain and suffering on other people so that I get my way and I receive the joy and satisfaction that I want. This is what What happens when we don't know God? Losing the knowledge of God ruins everything.
It ruins everything. Look at verse 3. He says, the land, therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. This is a common picture throughout the Old Testament prophets that sin is not contained. It's not private. Whenever the people lose knowledge of God and they enter into this life of sinning and lying and committing adultery and hurting other people and swearing and not meaning whatever it is that they swore and taking advantage of people, it's not just a personal thing that you hurt yourself. It's a thing that affects everybody, and it says the land is mourning over this.
In the Old Testament, God brought about destruction on the land for the sin of the people. So they suffered the consequences of the sins that the people had committed. And here he's bringing up the fact that when we sin, there are consequences. There is pain and there is suffering that will be spread throughout the land. Have you not seen that in your own life? Why is it that you suffer? Why is it that life is difficult for you? Does it have anything to do with the greed or the selfishness of someone around you sometimes? Sometimes. Does it have anything to do with your own greed and your own selfishness and your own wickedness?
Sometimes. causes issues in our lives. Not knowing God brings about sin, and that's the claim that he's trying to make. If we don't know God, we lose track of what is morally good and right and faithful and true, and the result is broken lives. Imagine a world where everyone knows God perfectly and where everyone acts like God acts. Everyone's honest and true and full of integrity. Everyone loves and they care and they give to one another. There's no pain and suffering in that world. If there is, it's it's minor compared to the pain and suffering that we cause one another. Well, the people here, the people of Israel that God is is talking to, they should know better. They've had plenty of opportunities to learn this lesson. We've been going through the Old Testament on Sunday nights and learning about all these different Bible characters, and God is teaching Israel and teaching Judah over and over again. When you sin, you're gonna suffer, and if you'll repent and turn, then I can make things better again, but don't sin anymore, and they keep sinning over and over again. You know as we as we think about this, notice this is God's people.
These are people who know the histories of God, but they apparently don't know Him. Let's think about why it is that sometimes people know about God and they don't know God. Why is that? What happens to cause that to happen? Well, God tells us. First of all, it's not a matter of scarcity. It's not a matter of not having anything revealed to them. Hosea is proof of that. The whole book of Hosea is given to them to explain things to them. And there's plenty of other prophets and plenty of other writings and historical records for them to refer to. So it's not a matter of not being able to understand these things. And Romans tells us that nature itself is teaching us about God's character and who God is. And we have everything we need in nature to honor and glorify God. So it's not a matter of not having enough information, but it's something else. Look at verse 4. He says, yet let no one contend, and let none accuse. For with you is my contention, O priest, you shall stumble by day.
The prophet also shall stumble with you by night and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Notice they should have everything. It's all there. But there's a problem. The way Israel is set up, the priests and the prophets are supposed to teach the people the Word of God. It's their responsibility to explain God's Word to the people in a way that they can understand who God is and what His will is. That's their role. But notice some things are said about the priests here.
First of all, you have rejected knowledge. So the knowledge of God has been given to you. It's been nice and tightly packaged and handed to you so that you understand it. And you have said, I don't want to believe that. You've rejected it and said, ah, that can't be true. That doesn't sound good because it doesn't line up with what I want to believe. Second, it says, the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, you've rejected knowledge. I reject you from being priest, since you have forgotten the law of your God." They decided not to study anymore. They decided to just forget about the books, and they decided to operate on the basis of what sounded good to them.
The people are reliant on the priest and the prophet, and they let the priest and prophet change the rules and change the laws so that they could do what they wanted to do, and now that's why they are where they are. You keep reading. It says in verse 7, the more they increased, the more they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people. They are greedy for their iniquity. And it shall be like people, like priests. I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. They shall eat and not be satisfied. They shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding."
He brings out ultimately what the priests are doing, is they're living for themselves. I like this phrase, it says, they feed on the sins of my people. What the priests are doing is they're teaching the people enough to make the people feel religious, but they're not teaching the people enough so that they They know how to repent of their sins and overcome their sins. And the result of that is, the people keep on sinning. And what do the people do whenever they sin? Oh, well, they have to take an animal up to the priest and offer it up as a sacrifice. And then the priests get to eat the meat from the sacrifice.
So do you see the system? The priests have set up a system whereby the people are more dependent on the priests than ever to offer up their sacrifices, and the priests who are living in a very prosperous land where they have more wealth than they know what to do with because of the success of their king, Jeroboam II. They are now bringing their sheep and their cattle to the priests and offering up all these sacrifices upset about the sins that they have that they can't repent of because they don't understand how and the priests are just raking it in and enjoying it for themselves. And the people don't know God. They've rejected His Word. They've rejected His will. You know in the New Testament, Paul tells preachers and teachers a warning against doing this very thing in 2nd Timothy chapter 4. He says, preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching, for the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Notice here in this text in 2nd Timothy what we read is kind of, it's not the priest's fault, it's not the preacher's fault, but it's the people who are enticing the preacher, the evangelist. They have itching ears. They want to hear certain things. They want to hear that they're okay if they continue in the sins that they've always continued in. Their ears are itching for it. They're trying to find teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, and they're rejecting the teachers who don't tell them or who tell them the truth. Well here in the in Hosea we have a similar kind of picture where priests have been set up who are not speaking the truth but they're going against it for their own gain. That can be a temptation for us. Be a temptation for me. It can be a temptation for you as you're listening to me. I say something you don't like. I step on a toe and bloody it a little bit. And so I must be wrong and there needs to be an argument against me.
Thankfully that's not happened. There's been a lot of really positive responses on some of my most difficult sermons because there's some really great humble people here. But we could just see how this would turn a group of people into people who do not know God. If we listen with a desire to filter out everything we don't like. And if somebody says something that embarrasses us because it reveals our sinfulness and our failure, and we respond in a way that is trying to be defensive and reject that word, reject that message that hurts our feelings, then we can fall into this same kind of scenario. We see in this it's possible for us to create an environment where people feel religious but they never feel a calling to change their lives and that's at the heart of the problem here that there are a lot of religious people in Israel who aren't changing who aren't becoming what God has called them to be because maybe they've set up these priests or these priests have somehow come into power who are living off of the sin of the people and just enjoying life while the people continually sin more and more and more and more.
The people don't know God because the priests have fallen short and failed at their calling. We need to hold preachers to a high standard, not to meet all of our desires and to preach the things that we like to hear, but we need to hold them to a high standard to preach and teach what the Bible says, what the truth is. Let that be the focus of everything that they do. I'm grateful to you for allowing me to do that, try to do that, just studying the Word together, like that's it. You don't come for some fluffy version of a storytelling for 10 minutes and then walk away saying well I didn't really hear anything I need to change that was a great lesson I'm so glad that I came it made me feel good it made me laugh you know it was a good time overall you don't act that way you expect me to say things that will hurt your feelings and you come back anyway after I've done Having worked on yourself and trying to change and do the right things. We need to keep that mentality. Finally, we see the people don't change. They don't know God because sin has taken their understanding away. This is fascinating.
We're gonna move quickly through the rest. You're like, oh man, we're only through nine verses and we've got all the rest of this chapter, chapter 5. We're gonna move really quickly through this one and kind of cover the rest of what he's talking about. He lays out a really interesting idea that people don't know God and they get to the point of not knowing God because they start sinning and they don't repent of the sin. And when that happens they keep sinning and they continually just kind of chips away at their understanding of who God is and what God wants. There in verse 11 it said, "...whoredom, wine and new wine which take away the understanding. Sin takes away your understanding. You know, alcohol is something that removes your ability to think clearly and sexual drive and temptations can cause you to not think clearly and do things that are foolish.
There's a number of things about sin that are enticing and addictive that can pull us away from things that we know are good and can cause us to do things that we know are wrong and evil. And all sin can be like this. It can be something that pulls us, that lures us away from God. And the more that we commit the sin, the more that it hurts our conscience, and the more that it hurts our conscience, the more that we sin. It becomes a continual cycle. Look at verse 12 my people inquire of a piece of wood and their walking staff gives them oracles can you just picture that just there's wood around here just go up to it hey piece of wood I need you to tell me what to do in this case do I am I okay to commit this sin am I okay to sleep with this woman okay the wood said it's okay, everything's fine. What? You see how far the people have fallen that they're speaking to wood. He says, for a spirit of whoredom has led them astray. How do they get that way? Their desires are pulling them away to do the sin and the evil that they're doing.
The spirit of whoredom is a thing that he's gonna to bring up throughout this is a spirit of unfaithfulness. There is no faithfulness. There is no steadfast love for God. Instead, it's replaced with a spirit of whoredom, a spirit of desiring to do things that are wicked and evil, that are against the will of God. Verse 16 says, like a stubborn heifer. Israel is stubborn. Can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in the broad pasture? Eventually you become stubborn over your sin. You don't want to give it up. Your conscience is seared. You don't think there's anything wrong with it because you've been doing it all this time and you don't want to change.
So you're stubborn. And then if you skip over to chapter 5 and look at verse 4 it says, Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for the Spirit of whoredom is within them and they know not the Lord." Just read that and understand. It's possible that as we sin and as we choose to sin, that we go so far down the rabbit hole that we can never find our way out. The New Testament reiterates this. It tells us about people who there's no hope in ever calling them back to repentance in Hebrews. They're going on sinning willfully. They're trampling underfoot the grace that God's given them. It says that God gives them over to their sin. He sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe the lie. That's the end of the path that chooses to sin, knowing sin is evil and wrong. That chooses to just continue in it against their own conscience. This is why they don't know God. Because they've made the choice to sin and then sin has deceived them and they are now locked in and they can't imagine life without their sin. Understand that. That's what sin does. That's what Satan is working to do inside each and every one of our lives.
He's trying to convince us that sin is okay so he can get a foothold and then get us to the point where we're unwilling to let go of sin and return back to God. After telling us why the people don't know God, he gives us a number of images of judgment. He judges all the priests, he judges all the the kings and all the the rulers and leaders of the land, and he judges all the people too. And he tells them all these different ways that he's going to judge them. He says they're gonna bring flocks and they're gonna try to repent because all this wealth and all these riches are gonna go away and they're gonna be like oh well we need God's help because this nation's up against us. God please save us. Look here's a bunch of animals. Save us. Love us. We're paying you. You should serve us and do what we want you to do.
God says they're not gonna find me. I don't want their sacrifices. He's gonna say that again in chapter 6. I want their steadfast love. I want their faithfulness. I don't want their sacrifices. It says, blow the horn in verse 8. Sound the alarm. There's an army that's coming, and it's going to desolate them and destroy them, and that army is going to give my wrath upon this wicked people. pour out my wrath like water." Then he gives other images of judgment that are interesting. He says, in their destruction, God is going to be to them like a moth, like to Israel, to Ephraim, like a moth. To Judah, he's going to be like dry-rot. Now this is a picture of judgment that is slow and that's just deteriorating from the inside, the nation. They're growing weaker, and even though they've got this beautiful nation with all this glory and pomp, it's all starting to slip away in a very inconspicuous type of way. You know, God can judge by bringing an army against and bringing total destruction, but God can also judge by destroying a nation from the inside, causing it to rot and lose all strength.
And that's the picture he says he's got of Israel. Then he's going to bring in the enemy Assyria like a young lion, like a lion, and just devour the nation. And that's exactly what's going to happen. So the rest of chapter 5 has all these different images of judgment. And then we have verse 15, the very last verse of chapter 5, so I'll turn you there. He says, after this, I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face and in their distress earnestly seek me. There's this picture of God saying, I'm going to, I'm gonna hurt them. I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to punish them for the evil that they've done.
They've got a wound that can't be cured and they're going to go somewhere else looking for a cure and they're not going to be able to find a cure and I'm going to hurt them. And then he says, I'm going to sit back in my place and I'm going to wait and see if they'll turn to me and look for help. Or are they just going to keep going to all these other places to try to find the help and the healing that they need. They're going to be eating and drinking and committing all kinds of immorality and they're not going to be satisfied by any of that kind of stuff and I'm just gonna sit back and I'm gonna watch and I'm gonna be here and I I could fix it all. They have to acknowledge their guilt. They have to repent genuinely from their heart. Repent over the evil that they've done and seek me out in order to find my salvation. You know this is a very powerful message for us. Maybe you're here and you don't know God. You've not known God. Maybe sin has taken away your understanding of God.
Maybe that's the struggle that you have, or maybe you have gone through all of the religious practices and everything, but you don't know God. You know about Him, but you're not really living the life that He's called you to live. You don't know what it's like to be humble and lowly and serving others, you've lived selfishly. You've committed all kinds of evil and immorality and sin and you're lost in your sin and you just don't really know who God is. What he says here is true. He's waiting for you to make a move, to turn to Him. He's actually drawing you, trying to get you to come to Him, trying to let you see the immorality and the evil gets you nothing but pain and suffering and to give up on all that stuff and turn to Him for help. In the New Testament, this is the plea that God has for all of mankind. Choose to know me. Make the choice to know me. That's why He sent Jesus to us so that we could know God, so that we could understand who He is and fall in love with Him.
Have faithfulness and steadfast love and want to know about Him and want to be like Him. You have to make that choice. New Testament is full of texts that talk about this in 1 John 2, 3 through 5. By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him truly, the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him." If you're wondering, do you know God, well, are you trying to keep his commandments?
Are you living for him or are you living for yourself and just doing religious things to get him off your back? We know God when we're living to keep his commandments. Also, in 1 John 4, 7 through 8, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. If you don't love, you don't know God.
We're talking about the genuine, sincere love we talked about a few weeks ago that's supposed to be inside of us. Why? Because of the mercies that God has shown to us. We now love one another genuinely and sincerely. I want to say I know God. I have to keep His commandments. I have to be living for Him, but I also have to love those who are around me. Finally in 1st John 5.20 it says, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true. In His Son, Jesus Christ, He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. If you're here today and you're not giving your life to God, you're not loving Him and knowing Him, we want to help you and encourage you to make that decision, to choose to know God. And we want to help you in any way we can. It's not just simply about reading the Bible a whole lot, but it's about the Bible changing you from within and becoming more and more like Him. If you need anything, please let us know. Please come as we stand and as we sing.