Addicted to Independence: The Final Lessons from Hosea - Sermon 30th June 2019

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Morning, everyone.

It's good to be here, and it's...

I wouldn't say it's good to finish the last of the Hosea series,

but let me tell you, it's been a trek, and as you read through it,

there's a lot of questions that come out of it.

It would be great to get down in a connect group

and go through it verse by verse,

because it's very interesting as you go through all that.

So what I've tried to do is, over the time,

pick out some of the eyes from it,

generally going towards the poems that are contained within Hosea.

So that's how I've sort of chosen the passages that have come out from it.

We kind of would expect at the end of Hosea

that it would be like the final episode of some of the TV shows

that we would get into.

Like, you know, Hogan's Heroes, they get out of jail,

or Gilligan's Island, they're rescued from the island.

But you might remember that last TV show from Gilligan's Island.

They actually kind of got rescued from the island,

and they went on a reunion trip, and then they got shipwrecked again,

and they ended up back on the same island.

It was a shocker.

And you might sort of expect that at the end of it,

Israel, they finally would recognise their love of God,

they'd finally recognise the boundless love that he had for them,

and they would go back to him,

and they would live kind of happily ever after in the Promised Land.

No, they kind of went on the reunion trip every single time again,

and back on the desert island, they did not come back to God.

The final stage of sin and pride and arrogance

is to be helpless, yet unwilling to cry out for God's help.

Throughout Israel's history, God identified himself as their helper.

Israel would say, God is our refuge and our strength,

our very present or our ever-present help in times of trouble.

In Psalm 46, it says that.

But no longer would they cry out to God and say that.

Israel's darkest day came and sunk to an all-time low level

of willful independence,

so much so that they could no longer even admit their helplessness

or call on God as their helper.

Life imploded for them, destruction was imminent,

human helpers had failed,

and yet the people were helpless to confess their helplessness.

As one author put it,

Hosea 13 captures the plight of the helpless people of the northern kingdom

and final pleas of the rejected helper of Israel.

It was like Israel was addicted to their independence from God.

We live in a self-help era.

I'm pretty sure you understand that, you've seen it all over again.

Sometimes we might say that we're actually addicted to self-help.

Often people will cry out to God

only when they've eliminated all avenues of self-help,

so much so that they would get to the point at the end of it and say,

all we have left to do is to pray.

Really, the first thing they should have done is pray

rather than get to the end of the self-help.

Sadly, some have resisted God's help for so long

they've fallen into the greatest trap of all,

and that is not even knowing that they need help.

Some, in pride and arrogance,

would never admit their addiction to independence.

I need to ask myself a few questions at this point,

and you may need to ask yourself the same questions.

How deep do I have to go before I'll put my hand up?

It's like Bondi Rescue, isn't it?

Some people put their hand up,

some people are swept all the way out to sea,

and you have right next to them the lifeguard that wants to rescue them.

They say, no, I'll be right, I'm fine.

They can't just force them onto the jet ski,

and so they go back in.

And then sure enough, just 15 minutes later,

they've got their hand up.

How far would I have to go to put my hand up?

How far would I go to guard my sin from being exposed?

And here's the giga.

Do my best friends really know me?

Not just know me, do they really know me?

Will I expose myself to my best friends?

You may have persisted in some habit or activity for so long,

and one that you knew that was wrong,

but you refused to ask for help.

You may have feared what God might do,

how he might change you,

or how he might clamp down on your fun.

Or maybe you're even fearful of change itself,

because you don't bring those things before God.

After all, sin is pleasurable for a season,

and people fear losing pleasure or losing control of their lives

by seeking God's help, so they don't.

Isn't that what Romans talks about?

That the reason why people do not follow God,

while there's many excuses that people use for not following God,

there's only one reason that Romans gives for not following God,

and that is that they love sin more than they love God.

That's the reason why people don't follow God.

God's help is centred in his boundless love,

his mercy and his forgiveness.

He is a good God, who always wants good for his people.

Satan will do all in his power to convince you otherwise.

You read the greatest tragedies of all sometimes

when you're in the horse world, and I've been in the horse world,

of times where massive amounts of horses were killed,

were died in major barn fires.

And one happened just close to us at Seen Ranch,

where a farmer lost all the horses that he had.

And it wasn't because he didn't help.

He got every horse and he dragged them out of the barn,

he set them loose out into the fields,

and they could have ran away from the fire,

but they didn't because they thought back in the barn was where the help was.

And they ran straight back into the barn,

straight back into the fire and died.

It's famous, horses are famous for doing that.

They'll run back into the barn, and so are people.

Back into the fire, back into the place where they are going to be destroyed,

back into the place where there is no security.

Even though God would lead them out, lead them to the place

where they would find life and help and security from him,

they'll run straight back into the barn.

Sadly, it's the same for Israel.

They are deceived by Satan in thinking that life is found outside of God.

And instead of finding forgiveness and love in Jesus today,

people seek substitute helpers or saviors,

but in fact become addicted to substitute helpers.

First three verses in your Bible that you've got in front of you,

of Isaiah, review the progressive dependence on substitute help of God

that led into an addiction to independence from him.

We read, when Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel,

but when he offended in Baal, he died.

Just in one sentence, we go from the shift from the Lord to Baal.

When Ephraim, the largest tribe, had trembled before God,

they expect praise and dependence upon him.

But as we've looked at in some detail during the Hosea series,

Ephraim turned away from God, didn't they?

They sinned.

They sinned against him, the only source of strength and security

and success that they had.

They moved away from him and they turned to Baal and other idols.

They even stooped so low that we read that they worshipped fruitcakes.

Amazing, isn't it?

Might be funny, but they stooped even lower than that, we read in our passage,

to sacrifice babies as they kissed bulls made by men.

It's a slippery slope, isn't it?

If we synchronize our faith in God with all the self-help mechanisms

that this world offers, we are in great danger of relying

or even becoming dependent on anything and everything except for God.

Insert what's most applicable to you.

Such or something is my ever-present help in times of trouble.

If you can put anything in there other than God,

we've fallen into the trap of the self-help world.

As we look at Israel, instead of turning to God,

we read that now their sin became more and more.

They got caught up in this whirlpool of adultery.

They proverbially went down to the theme park giant slide

and their stomach was left up the top until they reached the bottom.

And when they reached the bottom, with an almighty splash, they went down.

I'll leave it to your imagination what happens when you reach the bottom

of big slides, but it happened to them.

We read that they made themselves moulded images, idols out of silver

according to their skill, the work of the craftsmen,

God-given talents of the tradies.

They used for their own worship, their own building,

their manufacturing of substitutes for God himself.

Of course, we can do that.

We can worship man-made things and even become dependent upon them.

People worship all sorts of stuff like boats and cars and sport

and careers and travel and computers.

People even worship coffee.

You don't have to go down to the northern beaches

and you'll see that for sure.

They can provide a temporary sense of purpose and pleasure or position.

But make no mistake about it, they're addictive.

Sadly, there are also times when people can be addicted

to overtly destructive substitutes to help them cope

through their times of trouble.

Drugs or even the abuse of prescription medicines,

we see that all the time, or elective medical procedures.

You may have seen and watched some of those plastic surgery shows.

There's going to be a picture that comes up here where people think

the answer to their problems is to make themselves out something

that they're not.

One girl removed her ribs to achieve a Barbie doll look.

And even when people were warned of the possibility of death

or lasting disfigurement, they still go ahead.

It's a sad saying from Psalm 26, but it says,

a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.

The very thing that made the dog sick and throw up,

they go and eat it again.

People do that in destructive relationships.

They go back again and again.

People are addicted to magazines or the endless advice blogs

that are out there, the ever-present help in times of trouble.

And they're willing helpers for sure.

Sadly, in our consumeristic world, we either mask happiness as pleasure

rather than contentment.

Our world presents that happiness is found in pleasure.

When we know from Christians that our happiness are found in contentment,

contentment in God.

So our consumer capitalism creates a world of discontentment

where you can't look at yourself and be content.

You can't be in the place that you are and be content.

So we're ever and ever dissatisfied with our life,

always looking to buy the latest and the greatest to bring about

either pleasure or some level of contentment.

But the businesses and the capitalism know that you will not buy

and you will not be content, so they keep on going and going and going.

And we go down the rabbit hole, we slide down the slide

till we get to the end, and it destroys us.

People might even say that alcohol is my ever-present help

in times of trouble.

But for many, it's addictive, dependent vice that masks the reality

and masks the truth.

Because that's what truth is, isn't it?

When you get to the place that you're at and you bump into reality,

when you know that the life and the happiness that you're supposed to have had

through the thing that you put your trust in just doesn't supply it,

and you go, well, it's not true that it supplies happiness

and it's certainly not true that it supplies contentment.

Addiction to substitute help us.

Nationally, when we're separated from our true help,

we produce replicas to worship.

We chop down trees, we build houses, we shape metal, we make cars,

we mine ore, we even make weapons.

We split the atom.

And sometimes we create bombs to provide our security for our help,

for our ever-present help in times of trouble, rather than God.

We create a system that we rely upon, but it's not God's paradigm of reliance

where we need to rely upon him.

He is our help.

We place our security in the created rather than the creator.

People of Israel took it to a whole other level, like I mentioned.

They sacrificed humans.

They made golden calves and they kissed the calves as they sacrificed humans.

Humans were created to trust God, love people, and use things.

When trusting God as our help diminishes,

we usually use people and love things.

And what gets sacrificed is our true selves.

When we deny God's help, we deny our full potential.

It's impossible to become all that we're meant to be without Jesus

at the center, at the very center of our lives and our worship.

When Jesus pronounced that,

I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me,

it is the same warning that we have as Israel did.

The addictions of this world that we try to substitute for God

will not satisfy and will not give you contentment.

Only Jesus will because he is the life, he is the truth, he is the way.

And if you live apart from him, you'll bump into reality that life is not satisfying

and there's no contentment found outside, lasting contentment found outside of him.

Just like with Israel, when they were warned,

people will hold on to their independence from God,

they'll slide down that slippery slope, only discover the very bottom,

and people get to the point, and it's a sad point, isn't it?

Where they don't even want God.

Isaiah verse 3 describes the fate of those who reach the final stage of helplessness.

They don't even want God's help.

Four metaphors are used to describe their fate.

The ones who refuse to put their ultimate trust in God,

they'll be like the mist, they'll be like the dew, they'll be like the chaff,

they'll be like smoke, it will all disappear.

The independent nation that they had will go,

it's just like all the other major dynasties of this world, isn't it?

There's none left, the ancient dynasties of the world.

They all thought themselves powerful, they all thought themselves security in them,

they all ramped up pleasure and they ramped up the things of this world

and they no longer exist.

Independence without God is like dew, mist and chaff and smoke.

It all will go.

Under the hand of the Assyrians, the nation of Israel or Ephraim in the northern tribe

will vanish as a national identity and the people will disappear from the promised land

just like the morning mist, just like the chaff,

just like smoke that comes up from a chimney and just gone.

Except for when there's bushfires, it hangs around for a while but they're gone.

The Lord has given these images as a warning

that those who persistently refuse the Lord's help will be given exactly what they want,

no help.

It's a sad place that nations get to and people can get to

and they say no for so long that they no longer want to say yes.

Someone might come to mind right now who has been on your heart for some time

and been in your prayers for some time where they've said no for so long

that they no longer will say yes or want to say yes.

As we'll see, there is hope.

Hosea is addressing Israel as a nation

but it does make you think of our situation here in Australia, doesn't it?

It might get to a point or has gotten to the point where we can say no for so long

that we no longer want to say yes.

A hardening of the heart, a hardening of our heart that only God can soften.

We might think that we're progressing somewhere.

We might think that the tides come in and we're finally at the place where we want to be

but really, if you want to use the ocean analogy, the tide's running out

and there is a huge wave of water that's ready to come in

but we might have to get to the lowest point that we ever will get to

before that wave will come in again.

That's our prayer.

God's hope and his promise is that he will.

He will prevail.

In Hosea verse 4, it says,

It's a first-person pronouncement given by God

that God himself will be the hope of Israel and will be our hope.

He says,

And besides me, there is no saviour.

An expression of the boundless love of God

clearly communicated in chapter 11 that we looked at last week

and as we see this week, it is,

The helper was rejected yet he still longs to help.

The saviour was despised yet his heart was still to save

and he remembers the call and the promise that he made with Israel,

the covenant that we read in our first sermon on Hosea,

that agreement that he made with his people, he still keeps.

We are not to miss, though, the emphasis on the saviour.

In this context, it means the deliverer, the provider, the protector.

It's exactly what the people of Israel denied

in their search for saviours among the Baha'is

and human sacrifices and other nations.

In human strength, they could not find deliverance, protection

or provision from anywhere other than God.

What should do for us to drive us to prayer, shouldn't it?

That if God is the one who provides those things

and he is the only means in which our world, our nation,

our family, our friends and ourselves can find deliverance,

protection and provision, our prayer should be to him.

That the salvation of the people is never about techniques

or manipulation or any kind of methods whatsoever.

The salvation of the people is not from our own ability,

the things that we can produce, but it's only by the grace of God

who, through his spirit, convicts people of their helplessness.

And in his mercy, they understand that he is the very present help

that brings about repentance, response and results.

We need to pray as a church.

We need to pray as individuals,

that those we know who no longer can say yes,

their hearts would be softened.

That is clearly not to say that we do nothing.

We need to train how to present the good news of our saviour to others.

The heights needs to engage with our community

in relevant, meaningful ways.

We need to connect to God, the one who saves,

and abide with him so we can listen.

But prayer at our church needs to be, first and foremost,

we need to pray to God.

As I've said many times,

we will never rise above our passion for prayer.

Prayer to God at the heights for individuals, for our community,

for our government, for our nation, needs to be a priority.

Have we prayed for those who have said no for so long?

Do we pray for our nation?

Do we believe that God saves?

Do we believe that God wants to save?

An examination, really, of our prayer life

and our passion for prayer will answer that question.

Because without dependent prayer,

we're in danger of conducting ministry independent from God.

We read how Israel got to the point,

the last part of verse 6,

they were filled and their hearts were exalted,

therefore they forgot me.

They broke the covenant and they paid the price.

Right throughout Hosea, you ask the question,

is all hope gone?

They've left the saver, they've forgotten about him.

And then in verse 14,

the confidence that salvation is possible,

that ultimate hope for God is given,

the promise is given from God.

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?

Shall I redeem them from death?

O death, where are your plagues?

O Sheol, where is your sting?

Some translate it as a question,

others as a statement, but it makes no difference.

God will be praised.

Paul uses Hosea and we have Scripture,

interpret it, interpretate Scripture.

So if we want to know what the meaning of all that is all about,

he interprets it for us under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We see God's answer to the question or fulfillment of the promises

when Jesus returns with the great roar that it will be.

Remember the lion that we spoke about last week?

And it kind of takes you back to the chronicles of Narnia,

that great roar, where is, where, O death,

in 1 Corinthians 15, where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?

The sting of death is sin,

and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God,

it is the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to notice that the sting of death is not the grave.

The sting of death is sin.

How awful it is when people die still in their sin.

That's the sting.

But through Jesus dying on the cross and rising again,

we have confidence that if our faith is in him,

that sting can be removed.

No longer will sin have a hold on our eternity,

but it's taken on by Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin.

How great that is.

That's the great roar, that it is finished.

Taken upon the sin of this world upon himself.

He went down in the grave.

God raised him,

so that all who believe in him and have faith in him

can be forgiven of their sin.

O sin, where is, there is no sting,

there's no victory in the grave.

We are risen to eternal life with Jesus.

The roar will be heard,

and Paul continues on.

The one who has overcome the grave,

the one who took upon himself the penalty of sin,

the one who rose in great victory,

the one who will come again to welcome all who trust in him,

will hear this.

Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin,

and the power of sin is the law,

but thanks be to God who gives us victory

through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers,

be steadfast and movable,

always abounding in the work of the Lord,

knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

What a great victory, eh?

Hosea points that out,

that even in Israel's death,

in the national death,

he will raise a remnant of faithful people

that will live forever with him.

We're included in that.

Jews and Gentiles, the people of God under Jesus,

the ones who will live forever

because our sin has been forgiven

from such a wonderful Savior

and his boundless love for his people.