Hear the Word of the Lord: Hosea 4

Scripture reading this morning is taken from Hosea chapter 4.

Hosea 4 · chapter mention

In your bulletins, you can follow along, and your bulletins are on page 702 and the Bible is in the pew.

Um Hosea chapter 2, and we'll read the whole chapter.

Hosea 2 · chapter mention

Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land.

There is swearing, lying, murder, and committing adultery.

They break all bonds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

Yet let no one no one contend and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.

You shall stumble by day, and the prophet also shall stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because they have rejected knowledge.

I reject you from being the priest to me.

And since they have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

The more they increase, 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 but 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 which take away their under the understanding.

My people inquire of a piece of wood.

Their walking staff gives them oracles, for a spirit of whoredom hath led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.

They sacrifice on the top of mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, terabidh, because their shade is good.

Therefore, your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery, for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with called prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty.

Enter not into Gilgal, nor go into Bethaven, and swear not as the Lord lives.

Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn.

Can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?

Ephraim is joined to idols, leave them alone.

When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring.

Their rulers dearly love shame.

A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

The Lord add a blessing to the reading of his word.

Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for your word.

We do pray as the as the song we just sang proclaimed that you would show us Christ.

That we would see Christ even in harsh words and a difficult passage such as this, Lord, may your glory shine forth.

And we'll be reminded that the gospel shines brightest against the backdrop of our fallenness and our sin.

And so, Lord, we pray, show us Christ this morning.

Open our eyes, Lord, that we might behold wondrous things from your word.

Amen.

We're in a series for these next few weeks in the book of Hosea, God's Love That Pursuits.

It's a tough book.

It's tough reading.

When you hear it week after week, it's like, okay, preacher, aren't we gonna take a break and maybe do something a little more joyous, a little more joyful?

But no, we're not.

We're gonna hit all 14 chapters.

So you might as well brace yourself and prepare yourself for the word of God.

But in the midst of all of this, there's grace.

And that's one thing I think we miss when we read the Old Testament, when we read through the prophets.

We we miss the grace of God all throughout the Old Testament.

One way that helps me see the grace of God is I look at the timestamps, you know, when it says, you know, when something happened and when God did this.

You know, it it was centuries before God actually brought judgment on Israel.

It's a long time for God to put up with rebellion, it's a long time for God to put up with our stubbornness and with our rebellion.

And we tend not to see the grace of God in the fact that God doesn't strike us down the moment we sin.

Remember, beloved, the the wages of sin is still death.

That hasn't changed.

That hasn't gone away.

Peter tells us the only reason that that we have not experienced judgment and that Christ is not returned, God has not returned.

He tells us in Peter, he says, look, the only reason God hasn't done it is because he is long-suffering and he is gracious.

He is not willing that any should perish.

So we often hear people think and they say, Well, you know, God ain't coming back, Jesus is not coming back.

That's that's just a figment of their imagination.

No, count it, count yourself blessed that he is merciful and he is gracious, that he is not returned, and that you or I would have to face the judgment of God if our hearts aren't right with him.

And so as we look at the book of Hosea, it's hard, it's hard words, but but sometimes as as the children of God and the people of God, we need somebody to cut it straight.

We need somebody to get up and tell us, thus saith the Lord.

We don't even hear that phrase much anymore these days.

Most of the time that we say, Well, you know, the Bible says hellfire and brimstone preachers aren't aren't very popular these days.

They ain't very popular.

But but every once in a while, every now and then, we need somebody to stand up and say, Thus saith the Lord, because it still matters.

Now, as we look at the book of Hosea and we're going into chapter four, we need to understand that we're making a transition.

The first three chapters of Hosea gave us a picture.

He lived out what the sin of Israel was doing, and what Israel were doing as a people in their sin.

He he took Gomer as his wife, and he had children that he had borne, and they were a living example, they were a play, as it were, as to the sin of the nation of Israel.

And so the first three chapters, we're looking at God living out through Hosea the sin of the nation of Israel, the fact that that God had called Israel to be their own, to be his own.

They had rebelled against God and they had chased after other gods and other other work, other idols, and they were serving God.

And God sees that as spiritual adultery.

Just as a husband and a wife, and in a marriage, if if one were to go outside of the marriage and they were to chase and pursue someone else, that's adultery, that's that's that's that's that's that's that's fornication and and and whoredom, as it were.

And God uses this example, He it hits us right in the face because he wants you and I to understand that just as evil as that would be, then you and I are chasing after other gods, and we're chasing after other things that we find more valuable and more important than God, God is saying you're no different than Hosea, I mean than Gomer.

That's why it's so hard.

He hits us right between the eyes.

This is meant to shock us.

This is meant to cause us to recoil when we hear these words.

Because he wants us to understand the magnitude of the sin of rebelling and going after other gods.

It's also repetitive as we continue on through this book of Hosea.

We will continue to hear these same old things over and over again.

And our our our our our minds and our hearts are like, okay, well man, I already got that.

Why do we have to keep hearing the same old thing week after week after week?

Can't we get something fresh?

As I asked in the first service, for those who are parents and those of us who are children and who have been raised in our homes, let me ask you this question.

How many times as a parent have you used the phrase, how many times am I gonna have to tell you fill in the blank?

I mean, how many of us here were the child that when your mom and your dad told you something once, you did it right then and there?

Let me see that hand.

I haven't seen it yet.

How many, how many parents have children who all you gotta do is just say one time, keep your room clean.

And it's clean every day.

You understand.

You understand what God is dealing with.

We we have hearts that are rebellious, we have hearts that are hard, we have hearts that that want to do our own thing and want to go our own way.

And there's a passage of scripture in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 that says this because the sentence against sin, against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of men is fully set to do evil.

Ecclesiastes 8 · chapter mention

Because God doesn't judge you or I, the moment we rebel, the moment we sin, we think we're getting away with it.

We think God doesn't notice, we think that we've played, we've pulled the wool over God's eyes.

And and and beloved, there may be some here this morning, and you have been walking in sin, you have been playing with God, and you think because God has not dealt with you right then and there, God doesn't care.

Don't be tricked, don't be fooled.

The only reason why God has not acted, the only reason why God doesn't move is because God is gracious and he's granting and he's offering you opportunity and time to repent and change and turn away.

And that's the same thing that God did with the nation of Israel.

He kept sending prophets time after time after time and calling them to repentance.

And Israel, the northern kingdom, is at the point now where God says, Hey, look, time's up.

There is no hope.

The Assyrians will come and they will proclaim judgment and they will execute judgment on you as a people.

The time is up.

And beloved, I hope this morning that there may be some here this morning.

You're playing with God, you're doing things you know you ought not to be doing.

Stop doing it.

Let God show you mercy and grace and repent.

And so he repeats this over and over and over again so that he gives us an opportunity to repent.

But not only that, it was written for the southern kingdom also.

Judah was in the south.

Israel during this time, they were divided.

There was a northern kingdom and there was a southern kingdom.

And the northern kingdom had that all the kings were rotten.

None of them were godly, none of them served God.

And and the southern kingdom, though, had kings that were godly and that were faithful.

And God was saying to them, because they were beginning to slip, they were beginning to go down the path of the northern kingdom of Israel, and God was saying, Look, don't be crazy, don't be a fool.

Look at what has happened to them and don't go down that path.

And he was writing to them to warn them that they would not go that way.

Listen to verse 4 in chapter 14, verse 9.

He says, This whoever is wise, and this is the Hosea writing, he says, Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.

Whoever is discerning, let him know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.

God is saying, and Hosea wrote this so that we might be wise.

Don't think that you're gonna get away with sin.

Stop it.

Stop thinking that you're gonna get away with it because he's saying that's not gonna happen.

God does not turn a blind eye to sin.

And so he writes this so that so that so that we might learn from the rebellion of the nation of Israel.

We might learn from the rebellion of others that we might see in the body of Christ who have been playing with God and God brings judgment in their lives.

He says, Don't don't think that I have forgotten that.

Sometimes I think as Christians, what happens is that we we look at the Old Testament, we look at the judgment of God and the harsh hand of God, and we we tend to think because we are in the age of grace, God has forgotten all about that.

He doesn't roll like that anymore.

No, no, don't be don't be that be not deceived.

God is not mocked.

Whatever you sow, you will also reap.

So the first three chapters talk about Hosea and Gomer.

He he lives out in the midst of the people.

He shows them and and and and and you know how we are.

We we love gossip, we love a good story.

You don't think that that story didn't go all throughout Israel?

You didn't think folks all throughout the nation were talking about Hosea.

You see what Gomer was doing?

You hear those kids and the names he's giving those kids, and what he's doing as Hosea is living this out.

He is he is in a sense setting them up because just like Nathan came to David and told him the story about the man who took the sheep, and David was all riled up, he says to David, he says, David, you're the man.

And just like with Hosea, as they are living this out, and the children of Israel and the people are looking at this life and this this wrecked family, and this this this this woman that continues to go whoring after other men, and they look and they say, Well, Hosea must be a fool.

God says, You're Gomer.

It's there to wake us up and to shock us.

Now, as we transition from chapter three in the first three chapters of Hosea, we leave we leave Hosea's home, and now we go into the courtroom.

We go into the courtroom because now from the rest of the book, God is going to begin levying the charges against the children of Israel.

He's going to begin to level the charges.

So the curtain closes on Hosea and Goma.

We won't hear that story anymore.

Now it's like in a courtroom.

And Goma and Hosea becomes God's prosecuting attorney.

He begins to go to the nation of Israel and he says to them, These are the specific things you have done against God, and this is why judgment is coming upon you.

One thing to notice as we go through this passage in this text, we need to understand and notice this.

God knows what you're doing, He knows what all of us are doing.

That's the thing that's, you know, we we we we talk about the all-seeing, all-knowing eye of God, and that's a good and a comforting thing, but but when you endure, and when you're doing something you ain't supposed to be doing, that's not real comforting or comfortable.

But understand as we go through here, we will see a God who knows everything they're doing.

And that ought to cause us to pay attention.

Notice in verse chapter four, verse one, he begins, he says, and the Lord said to me, Go, not there, I'm sorry.

He says, In chapter four, he begins and he says, In verse one, hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

This is his charge against them.

He has a controversy, he's taking up a case with them.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land.

So he says, This is the problem.

There's no faithfulness, there's no steadfast love, and there's no knowledge of me in the land.

Y'all doing all kinds of stuff.

You're living any old kind of way.

You don't know me, you don't know what my standards are, you don't know what I require of you.

You're ignoring all that I've called you to do and ignore.

I'm taking up a case against you.

He also says there is no faithfulness and there's no steadfast love.

The very characteristics of God, that God is a faithful God, that God is a God who has steadfast love, that loves in spite of all of them, as they were the recipients of all of these things, and yet it did not reflect in their lives.

So God says, I got a case against you, because your life ought to reflect the family's.

There ought to be a family resemblance.

And then he continues on, he gets more specific in verse 2.

He says, There is swearing, there's lying, there's murder, there's stealing, they're committing adultery, they break all bonds, and their bloodshed follows bloodshed.

They are all of the various things they are doing are a direct rebellion against the very commandments of God.

Read the Ten Commandments, read those things, and the very things that God says, these are the things that you are to be doing as my people and as my covenant people, they were not doing.

They were not loving God, they were not showing mercy, they were out there lying, cheating, scheming, doing all kinds of things.

This is what was going on with the people of God.

So he says, I got a case.

I got a case.

Let me ask you this morning: does God have a case against you?

He said, Well, no, he doesn't have a case against me.

God, you know, I'm I'm a Christian, but I'm covered in the blood of Jesus.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's true.

But that doesn't give us the right.

That doesn't give us the freedom to live any old kind of way.

That doesn't give us the freedom to compromise the truths and the holiness of God and the standards of God.

That doesn't give you or I the freedom just because we've been saved and covered by the blood of Christ, that I have the right to do whatever I want to do.

No, he expects us, Peter says, be ye holy, because I'm holy.

The standard is still holiness.

The standard is still purity, the standard is still justice, the standard is still righteousness.

That hasn't changed, beloved.

That hasn't changed.

And sometimes as Christians, we get so relaxed in what we do and how we live and what we've given ourselves to, what we intend, what we take in and what we go, where we go.

We just think, oh, well, I'll just do a 1 John 1 9.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and justificated.

No, that's not how that thing works.

God still takes up cause with us.

That passage in Ephesians that we read this morning.

Let me read it again.

Remember in Revelation chapter 2, when God is going and he's dealing with his churches, he goes to each of the churches and he says, I've seen and I've known what you're doing, I know how you're acting, I know what you ain't doing, I know what you should be doing, I got a case against you.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

Notice, listen again to the words.

He says to the angel of the church in Ephesus, I'm reading this so that we might understand that just as God had a case against Israel, that that just isn't an old testament thing.

And that just doesn't mean that you and I can just say, well, that happened to them back then, and and and God doesn't act like that.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Understand that that's just what is important, and he does the same thing, and he holds the same standard for us today.

He says to the angel of the church at Ephesus, right, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden stamps.

I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

I know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you.

You see, he he sees what they're doing right, but he knows what we're doing.

And he says, I have this against you.

He says that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember, therefore, from where you were fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.

If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Yet this I had you have, you hate the works of the Nicolaites, which I also hate.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers, I will grant to them to eat of the tree of life, which is the rich, which is in the paradise of God.

The very same thing, and the very same thing Hosea was doing when he wrote that book to the children of the nation of Judah, and saying to them, I want y'all to look and see what these folks are doing.

Don't do that.

God says the very same thing to me.

If you have ears to hear, hear and repent, whatever it is you're doing, however it is you're living, whatever it is you're compromising with, let it go.

Let it go.

But not only does he have a word against the people, they're lying and cheating and scheming and doing all, he has a word against the priest.

Look at chapter 4, verse 1 of Hosea.

There is no faithfulness for steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land.

Verse 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because they have rejected knowledge.

I reject you from being a priest in me.

And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will forget your children.

The children of Israel had given themselves to idols and all manner of perversions because they failed to understand and believe.

The character and the nature of God, and God blamed the priest for failing to instruct the people in the ways of the Lord.

You see, God has given pastors and preachers and elders and leaders in the church, He's given them the responsibility to proclaim faithfully the Word of God.

And thank God God has given this church and blessed this church with faithful men.

But that ain't always the case.

And it may not always be the case for us here at APC.

And so you pray for your leaders, you pray for those who are in authority, you pray for those who handle the word, that they might be faithful stewards of the word of God.

Because as you eat, that's what comes out.

And so often, as Christians, we want folks that are gonna tickle our ears, tell me what I'm gonna hear, find some obscure word in the passage that can give me the freedom to do the sin I want to do.

We want people to manipulate the scriptures and we want them to change it and say, well, well, that was what back then, and and and and and we've progressed, and and God really couldn't mean that now.

No, he does mean it now.

And he's judging the priests, he says, because you guys, I'm gonna hold you accountable.

That's why the Bible tells those who are teaching.

He says, Don't seek to be a teacher.

He says, You will receive the greater condemnation and judgment.

That gives me something to think about because I've been doing a whole lot of talking up here.

I gotta give an account for it all.

I gotta give an account for every Sunday school class I teach, every Bible study that I teach, every sermon that I preach, every test, every every discipling that I do.

I must give an account for what comes out of my mouth.

I'm responsible for that.

And he says that to these priests.

He continues on, verse 7.

He says in chapter uh chapter 4, the more they increase, 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.

They're just hearts that just they their hearts are wicked.

And it's hard to understand and believe that, but not everybody that stands in a pulpit loves God.

Not everyone that you hear on the radio is faithful to the word of God.

A lot of them got ulterior motives, they've got things that they want to do and they want to manipulate you, and they want to manipulate us so they can get out of you and me what they want, but they could care less about your soul.

And that's why you got to read the book yourself.

That's why you got to know the scriptures yourself.

You gotta be, you gotta have ears trained that when you hear stuff, something ought to quicken you in your spirit and say, something ain't right here.

Something ain't adding up here with this brother.

Don't fall as the old folks say for the okey doke all the time.

Just because somebody up here telling you something, you better make sure as the Bereans that you are checking the scriptures daily to make sure that what Paul they checked Paul.

Now, if anybody should have got a pass, it should have been Paul.

I mean, I just look at Paul, we look at Paul like super saint.

But the Bereans were like, well, no, I'm checking this brother.

Make sure what he's telling me is consistent with the scriptures.

Not only that, verse 90 says, and they shall be like people, like priests.

I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

You see, he's saying, look, you know what, they're all the same, the people and the priests.

There's no difference.

You know, sometimes, sometimes God, God gives a people leaders that that mirror themselves.

You want rebellion, you want to live in sin, you want to mess, you want to live like that?

Well, God says, okay, I'll give you those leaders.

I'll let them lead you.

That's what you want.

You don't want to hear the truth.

He says they will eat but not be satisfied.

They shall play the whore but not multiply because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish, to cherish whore and wine and new wine, which take away the understanding.

The feast, the priests failed miserably to instruct and warn and train the people in the ways of the Lord.

Now, the question is for us this morning is okay, well, okay, where's the hope?

Where's the answer?

If the priests don't get it right, then where do we find hope?

Something that you'll notice in the Old Testament that these these offices of prophet and priest and king, they they never got it right.

There was never a king that got it right all the time.

David failed, all these great men, they failed and they good, they weren't the perfect and the holy and the righteous king.

The priest got it wrong.

The the prophets, not they all didn't get they didn't get it wrong.

Where are we gonna find someone who can get it right?

Oh, the hope of the gospel and the truth of the gospel that Jesus is that one.

He's that perfect prophet, he's that great prophet that Moses spoke about in the old testament when Moses said that God will send a prophet like me.

He's that great prophet, he's the priest that none of the priests could could could ultimately and completely bring us and usher us into the presence of God.

Jesus is that priest, and he is the king of kings, and he is the Lord of lords, and all that God required of him, and all that God requires of us, he has fulfilled.

Oh, listen to this passage of scripture in Hosea.

And so, and so so these guys in the Old Testament, they got it wrong.

They they they they could not lead the people, but but God in his grace and his mercy, he sent us a priest that would get it right, a priest that would do for us what we could not and cannot do for ourselves.

And look at here in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 11, he says this let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fail by the same sort of disobedience.

Hebrews 4:11

And then he talks about the word of God.

He says, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and the discerning of the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him and to whom we must give an account.

That is not a very encouraging passage of scripture there.

Because what that passage of scripture says is that when God's word gets busy, it cuts, it gets downright to the heart, it determines and it discerns what the motives and the intentions of my heart and your heart are.

You can fool me, but you can't fool God, and you can't fool the word of God.

It will cut to the quick.

Not only does it cut to the quick, it says it leaves you naked.

Now we've all had those dreams where you like something, you don't have some part of your clothing on, and you know how uncomfortable that is.

Since then we have a high, great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the Son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession.

And notice in verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

You see, he, even though the word cuts us and lays us bare, we have a high priest who sympathizes.

He knows what it means and what it feels like to be tested and to be tried.

He knows what it feels like to have the pressure of the evil one on us.

He knows what it feels like to hold up under the load.

He understands and he knows that.

He says, Well we do not have a priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

He says, So therefore, verse 16, and this ought to make all of us shout and say, Thank you, Jesus.

He says, Let us with confidence draw near.

Oh, this is a priest that I can with confidence come to the throne of God.

I don't have to come with my head down, I don't have to throw my hat in the door first and see whether or not they're gonna throw it back out.

I know that because of who he is, I can come with confidence into his presence.

Confidence with my menace, confidence with my failures, confidence with my weaknesses, confidence with my my my backsliding.

I can come with confidence and find help.

Help.

Oh, are there times when your soul just cries, I need help?

I can't do this.

He says I can draw near with confidence to the throne of what?

Judgment?

To the throne of bringing up your past.

No, the throne of grace.

You know how we are with some folks, you just don't want to tell them.

You don't want to tell them what your issues are because you know they ain't gonna do it.

Bring up your past.

Well, you've always been like that.

I don't know why you think you're gonna change it, you know, blah, blah, blah.

You know, you just so you know sometimes you're like, I just don't want to hear it.

But when you come to God, when you come to God because of Christ, and and you've tripped up over and over and over again, you come and it's a throne of grace.

But not only is it a throne of grace, he says that we may that we're a throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find more grace to help.

To help.

Those are some of the sweetest words.

When someone says, Let me help you.

He isn't saying, look, you go and get yourself together, and I'm gonna give you another chance, go out there and fix it and get it right and and and try harder and all that.

No, that's what he says.

He doesn't say that.

He doesn't say that.

He says, Look, I know it, I see your mess, I see, I see what you're doing, I see how jacked up your life is, I see how many times you've been failing, I see how many times would you stop trying?

And would you come to me that I can give you grace and I can give you mercy, and I can help you.

I want to help.

And when we look at Hosea, and we look at their failures, even in the midst of their rebellion, you read throughout the book, and God is saying, How can I give them up?

How can I abandon you?

Maybe this morning God is saying to some of us, and he has a charge against us in various ways and in various areas of our lives, and he is saying, Would you put down your hands and would you receive help?

I want to help you.

I've already done for you what you could not do for yourself.

I've already accomplished for you at Calvary and lived that perfect life and did all that God requires, and all the Lord, all the prophets, and all that is required of you.

I have already done and lived that out for you.

Stop trying to do it yourself.

Let me help you and receive that grace.

What is the words of that one song the line?

It says, put down your deadly doings.

Stop trying to show God how good you are.

Stop trying to show God how, okay, God, I can, you know, there was a point in my life as a Christian where I was like, because I was just screwing up and I was just messing everything up.

Everything.

My life was just jacked up.

And I was like, I mean, God, is there something I can do here?

I mean, I can't be that bad that I can't do X, Y, or Z.

I mean, I I wanted to find something that I could say and hand to God and say, hey, look what I've done.

And God just said, no, you you are jacked up.

And there is nothing you can bring to me but empty hands.

Oh dear, when as we close this morning, I ask the question: Does God have a case against you this morning?

Are there gods, are there idols that you have been bowing down to as God is saying, Would you let them go?

And you can come to me.

And you can find grace and mercy and help in your time of need.

Let's pray.

Father, we uh we are a people whose hearts are prone to wander.

And Lord, we there are times, Lord, when we just think, well, you don't we can live any old kind of way, and Lord, it really doesn't matter how we live.

And there are times that we in ways in which we have taken you lightly.

Would you forgive us for that, Lord?

Lord, we pray, Lord, that as we we do business with our hearts in our hearts, Lord, that we would realize and recognize, Lord, that um your word is hard, it's quick, it's powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged sword.

It pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and bone and marrow, and it leaves us bare, but you don't leave us bare, you don't cut us to let us bleed out.

You cut us so that we might come to you and find grace and mercy to help.

Thank you for Jesus, our great high priest, who did for us what we could not possibly do for ourselves.

In Jesus' name of prayer.