Turn back

Gracious Father, as we come to your word now, we pray that you would send your spirit and that you would bless us with soft and tender hearts to your word.

Rescue us, we pray, from hard hearts where your word just washes straight off.

Bless us with repentance, we pray.

Give us that gift tonight.

In the name of the Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

I'll be honest with you, I felt sorry for myself when last Monday I began to read through the final three chapters of Hosea in preparation for tonight's message.

I thought to myself, not again.

Another passage about sin, another passage about judgment.

They have been the dominant themes throughout the three messages so far in Hosea.

Sin and judgment, sin and judgment, sin and judgment.

And then I thought for a moment, if that's how I feel, spare a thought for poor old Hosea.

I mean, which is actually what his original name means.

It actually means Hosea.

It's no wonder we call him Hosea.

For about 30 or 40 years, this was his message to the northern kingdom.

God summoned Hosea to tell his people that they have rebelled against him and that they would face his judgment.

And Hosea must have groaned at times.

It's like the CDs stuck day after day after day after day.

Sin and judgment, sin and judgment, sin and judgment.

But the message couldn't change because the people had not understood.

Israel hadn't accepted the seriousness of their sin.

It's like with their hard hearts, it just washed straight off.

And so I wonder whether or not that is true of us too.

For three weeks now, we have looked at the catalogue of Israel's sin.

They were cavalier about it.

But we've seen how serious God takes sin.

We've seen his heart exposed, broken.

We've seen the damage that our sin does to his heart.

So has anything changed for you?

Has your life changed in light of what God has been saying to you through the prophet Hosea?

Through his word.

How quickly we forget.

How quickly we hear it and then just push it to one side.

We might nod in agreement and say, yes, I agree with that.

And even wonder at times how Israel could have been so stupid.

And then go and put someone down behind their back within 10 minutes of leaving the building.

Or in fact, not even leaving the building.

And so we need to hear it again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

So have your Bibles open.

We're up to chapters 12, 13 and 14.

And it would be great if you could have God's word in front of you to come with me on this.

We're looking at the end of chapter 11, verse 12.

We get introduced again to Israel's sin.

This is another bit to add to the catalogue of sin.

Chapter 11, verse 12.

Ephraim has surrounded me with lies.

The house of Israel with deceit.

That's God's charge against them.

They're dishonest.

That's it in a nutshell.

They can't be trusted.

They say one thing.

They mean another.

They're deceitful.

The evidence there is in their foreign policy.

Chapter 12, verse 1.

Ephraim feeds on the wind.

He pursues the east wind all day.

It multiplies lies and violence.

He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

And so what's happening here is Israel is trying to be allies with two powers, two superpowers, if you like.

They're at each other's throats.

And so Israel's over here trying to form a partnership with Assyria against Egypt,

while all the time sending gifts to Egypt to say, hey, we're on your side, guys.

They're trying to keep them both happy.

They're trying to sit in the middle, keep the balance there, sit on the fence.

It's a foreign policy which is driven by self-interest.

Any sense of truth or conviction is just pushed to one side.

They tell either side whatever they want to hear, all to serve their own interests.

They are untruthful and they are deceitful.

They were just like their forefather Jacob.

See it there in verse 2.

Quite noticeably, God doesn't call the ten tribes of north Israel or Ephraim or Samaria,

which is what he's been doing right throughout this prophecy.

Here he calls them Jacob.

Jacob was one of the founding fathers of Israel.

His 12 sons formed the 12 tribes of Israel.

His name was later changed to Israel.

But at first he was named Jacob, which means deceiver.

That was Jacob.

That was his character.

He deceived his older brother out of his inheritance

and he deceived his father-in-law out of a massive wealth.

And God quite deliberately calls his people Jacob.

Doesn't call them Israel here.

He calls them Jacob.

You are just like your forefather.

You're deceptive.

And they're also deceptive in their business practice.

See there in verse 7.

The merchant uses dishonest scales.

He loves to defraud.

And so Aunt Mary is assuming she's buying a kilo of flour.

But in actual fact she pays for a kilo of flour

but gets about 900 grams instead

because the scales have been adjusted before she gets there

to rip her off.

They're lying and cheating their own people.

And the word merchant there in the original text

is the same word as Canaan.

You see, Canaan was the name of the land that God gave his people.

As their special place.

And the Canaanites were so well known.

The people who used to inhabit it

were so well known as travelling merchants

that the word Canaan became synonymous

with the words trader and merchant.

And it's very significant here

for Hosea to use this word.

God's people are not just deceptive like their forefather.

They're even worse than Jacob.

They are in fact just like the pagans.

Just like the people that I judged and cast out of the land

you were the same as those people.

You're no different.

But you know, it just gets worse.

Because verse 8 I think is shocking.

There is no sense of guilt for the people of God.

Ephraim boasts,

I am very rich.

I have become wealthy.

With all my wealth they will not find in me

any iniquity or sin.

You see, but God on the other hand,

remember we're looking at this from God's perspective.

He sees it.

He's a God of truth.

He sees the lies.

He sees the deceit, the hypocrisy,

the dishonesty, the sin.

He expects his people to be people of truth.

And the life of God's people here in Hosea

is one big lie.

They are not who they say they are.

One big lie.

Now apparently lies typically take place

in a fifth of all conversations.

Have a think about that,

how many conversations you've had today.

The figure rises to one in three

if the people talking are university trained.

So be careful of university trained people

and especially us.

I'm assuming the more qualifications you've got,

the bigger lie you are.

Maybe, I don't know.

But I wonder if Christians are any different.

I mean, we should be.

We should take lying

and whether truth is what comes out of our mouth seriously.

How easy it is for us to say as Christians

that we believe the truth,

that we're a church that teaches the truth.

We have a certain sense of pride

in being part of a diocese

that's committed to the truth

and known for that.

And yet in our daily lives,

in our conversations with one another,

we play fast and loose with the truth.

How easy it is to tell people what they want to hear,

to embellish a story in conversation,

or to withhold key information,

to give the impression

that's different than the original impression intended.

And the list can go on and on and on.

That to be people of truth

means that we are to be rigorously truthful

in all of our lives.

not just to say that I am a person of truth.

I believe the truth.

Of course, the worst kind of deception

is there at the end of verse 8,

what I read out before.

This is the biggest lie of all.

They will not find in me any iniquity or sin.

The worst kind of deception is self-deception.

This is the biggest lie here.

I'm okay.

Is there anything worse than self-deception?

You know, it's like,

based on my assessment of my character,

I'm okay.

I mean, it's not really sin.

When I embellish that story,

it's not really sin.

It's not that serious.

God won't take it that seriously.

Hosea says he does.

Really seriously.

I wonder whether,

as Hosea has been open in the last three weeks,

whether you've been doing that.

You know, have you put yourself in Hosea's shoes

rather than Goma's shoes?

You know, that is,

I can see how this word would apply

to so many people in this room.

You know, there's so many people here

that really need to hear,

yeah, they're Goma's all right.

Unfaithful people?

Seriously.

Or you know who Goma's are?

One of the big points of this prophecy

is that we are Goma.

God is Hosea.

We are Goma.

We are the people of deep and committed unfaithfulness.

That is who we are.

Has that hit you, brothers and sisters?

Has it hit you yet?

Let me read to you the best email

that I've received in a long time.

This was written to me

from one of the members of our church family

after the first sermon

that I preached on this series in Hosea.

And particularly the sermon

was focusing on the marriage of Hosea and Goma

and all the ugliness of Goma's unfaithfulness.

Let me read to you.

It was a sermon that cut me clean open

and pricked the proud, arrogant part of my soul

that deceives me the most.

When you began the sermon,

my pride diverted me light years away

from conceiving the proposition

that I could be Goma.

When you were halfway through the sermon,

my pride kept me light years away

from the possibility that I could be Goma.

When you would nearly finish the sermon,

my pride kept me light years away

from the reality that I am Goma.

It was not until you directly stated the obvious

that my pride had nowhere to hide.

I don't normally get overly emotional about things,

but I found myself in church about to cry.

I felt acutely embarrassed at myself before God

and sad that after being a Christian for 15 years,

I had so effortlessly viewed myself

as removed from the relationship

between Hosea and Goma.

In particular,

it was the lack of mental wrangling required

to deceive myself into viewing Goma

as someone quite different to me

that disturbed me the most.

It showed me how strong

my natural default inclination

is to judge others before myself

and to deny myself how really bad I am

at keeping my part of the bargain

in my relationship with God.

Just realising that I am Goma,

particularly hit home to me

the faithfulness of Christ

that he sustains, protects,

and nurtures me despite my shortcomings.

He paid a terrible price

so that he and I could have a relationship.

I cannot imagine why he persists,

but he does as he promised.

The sermon also forced me

to re-examine my relationship with my family

and my faithfulness to them,

that the degree to which I am like Goma

in my relationship with Christ

is the degree to which that I am equally like that

to my own family.

It was hard medicine to swallow.

The exquisitely beautiful thing

in all of this

is that there is no mystery for me

in how to deal with all of this.

It is also scary

because it follows

that if there is no mystery,

then there's no excuse either.

To live and struggle

to follow Christ with his help,

to be obedient and humble before him,

being mindful of what lies at the heart

of why he purchased me,

is surely restorative.

I read that email.

We were on staff retreat at the time.

I had to excuse myself.

I went off away from the rest of the group,

sat in the corner under a tree,

and I just cried.

I cried for two reasons.

My friend helped me see the sin in my own heart

as they expressed the sin in their heart.

And I just cried.

You know, just nailed it for me.

That's the first thing.

And the second thing was that I,

in between crying,

I was just laughing

with joy at the same time

of what Christ has done for me

and the security that I felt

and the security that this person felt

at the same time

as their sin was exposed.

It was so beautiful.

It was so beautiful.

What has been your response

as you've heard the word of God come to you?

This is the word of God through Hosea.

Has it struck you yet that you are Goma?

Hosea has helped us to see the seriousness

of Israel's sin and our sin.

We're seeing sin from God's perspective

and like no other book in the Old Testament

and probably the new,

let's just leave with the Old Testament.

He rips open his heart

to show us what his heart is like.

We make little of it.

We explain it away.

We excuse it.

We call things like little white lies.

God has no such category.

We justify it.

But God is angry.

He is a lover scorned

as Hosea is the picture

that Hosea gives us.

His holiness demands

that he must judge

and God's judgment is inevitable.

We see it there in chapter 13, verse 3.

They will be like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears,

like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,

like smoke escaping through a window.

Back in chapter 6, verse 4,

it was Hosea who likened Israel's love

to the morning mist that vanishes so quickly.

That's what their faithfulness is like to God.

It's like they're gone.

And now it's shifted.

It will be Israel themselves

that will vanish in an instant

like steam from a kettle.

It's an image that speaks

of the effect of God's judgment.

They had forgotten God

and so God here,

in verse 3, chapter 13,

says,

I will forget them.

And that's what happened

when Assyria came in 722 BC.

God said it was going to happen.

He meant it.

In the same way,

when he says that the Lord Jesus

will come and judge the living and the dead,

he will judge everyone who's ever lived

and he will judge everyone

who's in this building.

It will happen.

He said it.

It's going to happen.

And yet,

as we saw last week,

God's judgment isn't the end.

We are sinful people.

He is a holy God,

but he is a God of infinite grace.

And so it's not surprising

in amongst all the gloom

of sin and judgment in these chapters,

there are just like shafts of light.

which just come down.

They just give you just a bit of hope

that it's not all gloom.

And one of the shafts of light there

is in chapter 12, verse 6.

You must return to your God,

maintain love and justice,

and wait for your God always.

What it's saying there is

that there's an opportunity here, Israel.

There's an opportunity to turn back.

It's not a done deal yet.

Turn back.

And that is how the prophecy ends

in chapter 14.

Chapter 14 is a call to return

to the Lord

before it's too late.

See it there in verse 1.

Return, O Israel,

to the Lord your God.

Your sins have been your downfall.

Sin is always your downfall.

The word return there in verse 1

literally means to turn.

It means turn.

In other words, just turn.

Turn and face God.

It's one of the great covenant words.

It's used 25 times in Hosea.

Not always positively, mind you,

but it's used 25 times in Hosea.

The great call of Hosea,

and in fact all of the prophets

in the Old Testament,

is turn, turn, turn,

and face your God.

Stop putting him to your back.

They consistently call God's people

to covenant faithfulness.

Stop turning away from him.

Stop turning to religion.

Stop turning to other security.

Stop turning to wealth.

Stop turning to sex and physical desires.

Stop turning to personal ambition.

Stop turning to comfort and indulgence.

Stop turning to sin.

Stop turning to anything else.

But turn and come.

Come to your greatest treasure,

your God, your lover.

And as verse 2 says,

take words with you

and return to the Lord.

You see, God isn't wanting you

to come back to him

with a whole list of things

that you must do.

He's not interested in, you know,

looking for you to do some more

religious ceremonies,

looking for sacrifice.

He wants you.

This book of Hosea

is all about a relationship

with the living God.

And the image here

takes us back into chapter 3.

Remember it,

if you can cast your mind

back to the first sermon.

Hosea goes out

and he pays a price

to redeem his unfaithful wife

out of the arms

of another lover.

He actually has to buy her back

and he gives everything

that he's got

in order to buy her back.

And he's brought her back

out of the arms

of another lover.

He brings her

into the family home

but he has no intimacy

with her.

It literally says

in chapter 3,

I will wait for her.

Hosea has done the work

of purchasing his wife

and now he waits for her

to come to him.

And he doesn't want her

to come to him

and cook his favourite meal

or to clean the house

to try and somehow

make it up to him

in some way.

He wants her to come

with words like verse 2.

Forgive all of our sins

and receive us graciously

that we may offer

the fruit of our lips.

Sorry.

You see,

God's saying

return and come to me.

I'm not interested

in your money

without your heart.

I'm not interested

in your worship

without your heart.

I'm not interested

in your service

without your heart.

I'm not interested

in your prayers

without your heart.

He wants our heart

because when he has

our heart,

he has our money

and our worship

and our service

and our prayers

and our hands

and our feet

and all of our lives.

you see return to fellowship with the father here requires exposure of my heart

expressed in words of heartfelt admission confession and acknowledgement of the lord

you see genuine repentance is turning away turning to god and away from other gods

that's the picture of verse 3 of chapter 14 they have now turned their backs on a cereal

that's what the call is turn your backs on assyria turn your backs on your idols and turn to me

you see repentance is not mere words repentance is a daily decision it is a moment by moment

decision it's an all-of-life decision for the person of god to turn to him rather than other loves

and in returning to god daily we are making commitment to faithfulness to love and

acknowledgement of god the three things that god accuses israel of not having towards him

faithfulness love and acknowledgement of god

so friends what what sins have you committed what sins are you committing if i can put it in the

hosea image which gods are you in bed with

how about that for an image which gods are you in bed with

are they priorities that displace god so that you don't love the lord your god with all your heart

soul and mind is there a small part of your life that you want to keep control of

he could have most of it but this bit here is pretty much untouchable i need to keep control of that

do you claim personal relationship with god but you slander his name by the way you live

are you busy with personal personal ambition and self to ever let go and find rest with god

are they your sins

then they'd be the sins that break the first five commandments

or are they the sins against god that are against your neighbors perhaps the abuse of privileges and

the lack of honor to your mother and father maybe it's a savage rejection of another person in the way

that you speak about them think about them and put them down are your sins sexual has greed given way

a deception so that you take more than your that is yours

and you think it's by right

are lying lips

and slanderous tongue

you're failing

or is it the internal motions of envy and jealousy

that have you tearing

yourself and others apart

because you cannot have what god never intended for you to have

all i've simply asked you to reflect upon in just that moment

is the ten commandments given to israel at sinai

have you broken the commandments of god

if you have

then join with me and return to the living god

that's what hosea is calling us to do

return to him

our confidence in turning to god is there in verse four

these are magnificent words

and and for you

who might be feeling

conscious stricken right now

feeling guilty

these are tender

hearted words

for the pricked conscience

i will heal

their waywardness

and love them freely

for my anger

has turned away from them

you see

remember what we saw last week

god has turned

all of his centuries

of pent up

held back

anger

he's turned it away from us

and he's unleashed it

on the lord jesus christ

on the cross

jesus is the one

who paid the penalty for our sin

he's the one who has dealt with all the consequences of our sin

and if you put your trust in jesus

god accounts righteousness to your account

his righteousness to your account

so there is no sin in your account

and when there is no sin

there is no anger from god

directed at you

where there is no sin

there is no anger

there is no condemnation

from god

to you

my friends

he is a fearful god

but he is safe

and he is good

come to him

there is only blessing for those who turn to him

in faith and repentance

that's the point of verses 5 to 8

of chapter 14

your gracious father will pick you up

and he will restore you

and so will you

that's the point of the very last verse of this prophecy

hosea ends with a question

what are you going to do

it says

who is wise

he will realize these things

who is discerning

he will understand them

the ways of the lord are right

the righteous walk in them

but the rebellious stumble in them

and so the word of god

through hosea has spoken

and this word from god

has helped us to see

our inclination towards sin

and the intensity of god's emotions

towards the unfaithfulness of his people

it has nailed for us

the universality of rebellion against god

hosea has also revealed the uncharted depths

of god's love and his commitment

to love his people

the god whom everyone in this room

should meet in wrath and anger

has turned

to meet us in mercy

isn't that magnificent

and so we're left with a choice

it says

heed the warning

be wise

and turn to god

through the lord jesus

or ignore it

and continue with a cavalier attitude

she'll be right

seems like a pretty simple choice

but israel didn't do it

see chapter 13 verse 13

see the awful picture here

pains as of a woman

in childbirth

come to him

but he is a child

without wisdom

when the time arrives

he does not come

to the opening of the womb

the picture here is

an opportunity

for

for israel to be born

into new life

they're going through all the pain

of their sin

new life is the option

they have a look

and they go

no

we'll stay put

and hope to

don't want to have to

gross you out here

but in my former life

on a farm

we had many issues

where

a

a cow

or a sheep

or something like that

could not give birth

and you either gave it

a c-section

or you shot it

because to leave

the baby

inside the mother

would cause

an excruciating death

for both

death is the only option

no other option

and israel

chooses

death

it's astounding

their hearts

were hard

and centuries later

the writer to the hebrews

was concerned

that the christian recipients

of his letter

learnt the lesson

of god's people

past

who hardened

their hearts

and did not

listen

or obey

the word of god

it is a concern

god has

for every generation

of his people

it isn't just

the writer

of this letter

penning some thoughts

in hebrews chapter 3

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

it is the holy spirit

who says to us

today

if you hear his voice

do not

harden

your hearts

that's the central

issue here

god doesn't want

us to be asking

first and foremost

well what do i need

to do now

to make it up

with god

the issue

is the heart

our friends

just reflect upon

this for a moment

a hardened heart

might no longer

love

or have a love

for christ

as it used

to

a hardened heart

might not

love christ's word

and prayer

and worship

and missions

and generosity

and living

for the glory

of god

a hardened heart

finds the

fleeting pleasures

of this world

more attractive

than things

of the spirit

you know

once upon a time

you had a passion

for those things

and over time

you're still here

and you're going

through the motions

but you're just

doing it

prayer life

has become

formal

and dry

still praying

but it's

prayerless praying

still reading

the bible

but god

hasn't spoken

to you

for years

it's like

a verse

a day

keeps the

devil away

god

hasn't spoken

to you

for years

worship

is no longer

driven from

the heart

we're just

fulfilling

what we

need to

do

and i think

what hebrew

says

which is

what hosea

says

in verse

12

it says

seek to

it

brothers

that none

of you

has a

sinful

unbelieving

heart

that turns

away

from the

living

god

see to

it

it says

take heed

take care

look

at

your

heart

put the

word of

god

against

your

heart

and

look

don't

be

careless

or apathetic

or dispassion

or attentive

or i'll get

to it

next week

be attentive

to the

condition

of your

heart

we need

to hold

the

practical

mirror

of god's

word

to our

hearts

so that

we take

an

accurate

reading

of our

spiritual

pulse

and keep

turning to

god and

repentance

and faith

keep doing

it day

in day

out day

in to

stop making

excuses for

sin

if your

prayer life

has come to

all of a sudden

it's formal

and it's just

haphazard and

doesn't feel

anything

don't stay

there

your

prayer should be

god

give me a

tender

heart

so brothers

and sisters

if you have

heard god's

voice dig

deep into

your heart

through

hosea

it is

your

merciful

god

and father

and husband

and saviour

calling to

you to

come back

he's just

calling you

to come

back

do not

harden your

hearts

wake up to

the deceitfulness

of sin

turn away

from it

and turn

to god

and hold

fast to your

confidence

and your

hope in him

he is a

fearful god

but he is

good

he is

good

he is

good

come back

to him