INTRODUCTION
In the Old Testament the nation of Israel was called to be a nation of priests. Israel was to be a bridge between the nations and God. This is what the church today is supposed to do. 1 PETER 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
The nation of Israel was not doing a very good job of building bridges. The nation was slowing sinking away from God
The nation was accepting the ways of the world. The nation was not carrying out God’s will because they were pushing God aside and were being absorbed by the world.
In Chapter 2:5, we find that the people were worshipping other things besides God.
The people were living in religious hypocrisy. 6:6
Does this sound familiar? The nation was going through the motions of religion.
This is happing today in the church.
Today we will be in the book of Hosea. (LIFE)
God told the prophet Hosea to marry a woman of harlotry by the name of Gomer. His marriage to her was to illustrate to the nation of Israel their unfaithfulness to God. His marriage was to serve as an object lesson to the nation.
What would cause a nation to go through the motions? What would cause a “Christian” to go through the motions?
What is it that was destroying the nation of Israel? What is it that is destroying the church today?
I want us to look at the first part of Chapter four of Hosea today. In these verses I want you to look at what happened to the nation of Israel as a result of not knowing God. These same things will happen to us in the church if we do not get to know God.
Let’s turn to the book of Hosea chapter 4. READ
SERMON
I. THE PROBLEM (VERSE 1, 6)
What was the main problem?
Let’s look at Hosea 4:6. READ
The problem is a lack of knowledge. The problem is that we do not know God.
(Knowledge of God.) The proper relationship of men to God is to know the Lord. Whereas some parts of Scripture emphasize the “fear of God,” Hosea emphasizes knowledge.
The word “know” in Hebrew is used to describe a man’s relation to his wife (Gen. 4:1) the most intimate experience that is humanly possible. With Hosea, to know God is no mere intellectual matter, but is rather an intimate relationship that comes by living with and for him and must be persistently pursued (6:3). Without it there is killing, stealing, and false swearing (4:1, 2).
The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (4:6; 13:4; John 17:3). It is knowledge of God and mercy that God demands more than sacrifice (Hosea 6:6).
When we lack knowledge about God, we not develop a relationship with Him. Our relationships are built upon the foundation of knowledge. A lot of marriages because the relationship is just based on emotions or the satisfaction of needs. To really love someone you really have to know them.
The Israelites did not have an intimate knowledge (or relationship with) of God. Hosea lists six things that resulted.
When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be:
II. NO FAITHFULNESS (1)
• The nation of Israel we being destroyed from within because of their lack of knowledge.
• The people were struggling with their faithfulness to God because of the lack of knowledge and because of the lack of a relationship with God.
• As God’s chosen people looked around them, they saw the pagans worshipping. Pagan worship looked fun to them; it was loose and just about anything was allowed. There were really no rules. This looked good to the people of God; they constantly struggled with Baal worship and other forms of idolatry.
• HOSEA 2:5 “For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ’I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
• When we do not know God, then we will think that we are taking care of ourselves and that God has no part in that. Gomer told herself that she would go where she was taken care of.
• We will struggle with being faithful to God because we will have no foundation for our faithfulness. If you do not know God, what is it that keeps you in line?
• MAT 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
• Notice that Jesus says that faithfulness is one on the important points of the Old Testament Law.
• HEBREWS 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. The Hebrew writer tells us that without faithfulness, we cannot please God.
• Where are you today? Are you going to be found faithful? We are told that if we are faithful, we will go to heaven. REV 2:10 ’Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. The only way for your faith to grow is for you to get to know more and more about your God. The people of Israel were content and stopped growing and they perished.
When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be:
III. NO KINDNESS
• LUKE 6:27 "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
• How many of us want to do this? How many of us want to be kind to people who do not like us? Jesus told us that if we are good to those who are good to us, then we are no better than the pagans who do the same.
• Do you find it hard to be kind to people? As you grow closer to Jesus, you will find that being kind to people becomes so much easier. If we are not kind, we will not attract people to Jesus. I remember the story that Jesus told of the Good Samaritan. Remember, a man was injured, the priest and the Levite walked right by the man, but the Samaritan stopped and helped the man. The punch line was that the Jews hated the Samaritan’s so this story really struck a nerve with them.
• When people in our community need kindness and compassion, who are the first ones there? I hope that it is God’s people. Showing kindness to people will go a long way with people.
• One of the benefits of knowing God is that we will start seeing people the way that Jesus saw them because we as we grow in our knowledge and love for Jesus, we are being transformed into His image. (2 Cor 3:18)
When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be:
IV. IGNORANCE
• This passage says that the people did not have knowledge of God, this is ignorance. Ignorance breeds ignorance.
• Ignorance is dangerous. If we are ignorant of something, we will believe anything about it. The Constitution of the United States is a good example. How many of you know that the Constitution speaks about the separation of church and state? It does have that phrase in it doesn’t it?
• Can you tell me where the phrase is or where it is implied? NO WHERE! READ IT.
• We have a whole nation of people who think that is in there, so based on that assumption; we are allowing the ACLU to rid us of God in our society.
• When we are ignorant of God’s word, we will not know when we are being sold a bill of goods. What if the church buys into the thought that all roads lead to heaven, so there is really no difference in the different religions and that doctrinal differences mean nothing. We would quit reaching out to various people groups!
• Whom we pray to is important. What we need to do to be saved is important. What I believe about how the world will end is not so important as long as I am ready.
• When the people are ignorant, then they we believe everything except the truth!
• If you proclaim the truth, you are a bigot and narrow-minded. Why is it that if you stand for truth, people will be tolerant to everything but the truth? Why is a person who proclaims the truth narrow-minded?
• There are many benefits to possessing the truth about God. Here are just a couple.
• EPH 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
• JOHN 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
• The truth does not put you into bondage it releases you!
When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be:
V. A LIFE OF SIN VS 2-3
• Look at verses 2-3. A lack of knowledge makes us ignorant to the truth we do not know what God wants us to do in our lives. If we do not know God’s word, then how are we supposed to live for Him?
• Ignorance of God and His word lead to a life of sins. Notice the items mentioned here. They are all direct violations of God’s Law.
• The “People of God” were being swept away by the sinful life-styles of the pagans around them. If we do not know God, we will let the same thing happen to us. If you look at most of the negative statistics that indicate a societal downfall, the church is right in line with most of them.
• Why is this happening to the church? We have allowed the teachings of the world to overtake the church. 1JO 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. We have fallen too much in love with the world to keep it out of us.
• Sin enslaves us, sin is not your friend, as you grow closer to Jesus, you will overcome sin in your life, Jesus will help you. We cannot live long enough to overcome all sin, but that is God gives us this 5-letter word called GRACE.
When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be:
VI. NO REPROOF VS 4-5
• READ VERSE 4
• When we are ignorant of God and His ways, we will not be able to help one another on the path to heaven.
• Not only that, we will give approval to what is wrong.
• ROM 1:32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
• If you do try to share the truth about something, you are called intolerant. Go to a larger town and talk about how Homosexuality is wrong. Tell people God calls that a sin, see what happens to you.
• Go and tell people that it DOES matter what you believe and see what happens to you. Go tell people that Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life and see what happens. Tell people that there are absolutes and that sin is sin, see what happens to you.
• Tell people that without Jesus, Buddhist, and Muslims will die and go to hell.
• Tell people that because of what Jehovah’s witnesses and Mormon’s believe about Jesus that they are lost and see what happens to you. Dare to tell people that God tells us that we should not do certain things and see what happens to you.
• We have a whole nation that is wonder why things are getting so bad socially, and when we tell them why, we are intolerant narrow-minded homophobic bigots.
• There are absolutes even if over 70% of the people say there are none. If God says it is wrong, it I wrong for everyone.
When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be:
VII. FUTURE GENERATIONS ARE AFFECTED VS 6-7
• Ignorance breeds ignorance. God says to the Israelites that He was going to turn from the children of the people because the more they had, the more they sinned.
• We are raising a society of people who know little to nothing about God and we will pay and are paying the price for that. The nation of Israel suffered because one generation did not teach the other.
• If we sit in the church and do not know anything, how in the world will we teach our children, and how will they teach their children?
CONCLUSION
We have people perishing everyday who do not know Jesus. We can stop that. If the church does not know Jesus, how in the world are we going to teach the lost world? Can you tell me something that is more important than Jesus?
How can we show people the kindness of the Lord if we do not know Him.
When people are hurting, how can we really help them if we do not know God. If a person comes to you, do you want to really help them? If you do, tell them what God’s says about their problem in a way that they can see the application.
READ 4:6. This is a warning to us. This was given to us so that we could learn a lesson.
If you read the rest of the book of Hosea, you will find that God still loved His disobedient people. The last chapter of the book encourages the people to return to God and He would accept them with open arms. God said He would heal them and restore them. That promise is for you today. Give yourself to Jesus and He will accept you and love you in spite of your past. What God is looking at is from today forward.
God will not hold the past against you if you will come to Jesus today.
If you have been a Christian for a long time and really do not know God, now is the time to get to know Him. I PROMISE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE SORRY AND THAT YOU WILL NOT REGRET YOU COMMITMENT TO JESUS. ANYONE CAN BE COMMITTED TO THE LORD. Commit yourself to knowing God today!
