Hosea - Reaping the Whirlwind-Part III

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Unknown

Scripture: Hosea 8:1-14- Listen

The conclusion to a convicting chapter.

  1. The biblical principle that generally accounts for our life situations: You reap what you sew. (8:7)
    • See Part I.
  2. The primary cause for the difficulty of man's condition is a disregard for God. (8:1-6,9-10,11,14)
    • See Part II.
    • Israel for got their God; we must remember our God
    • How did Israel forget her God? How can we remember our God?
      1. Israel broke the covenant; we must maintain fellowship with God By abiding in Christ.
      2. Israel disobeyed the law; we must obey God's word.
      3. Israel rejected the good things of God; we must accept, enjoy and be grateful for the good things of God.
      4. Israel refused to seek God's wisdom; we must seek and apply the wisdom of God.
      5. Israel had an infatuation with idolatry.
        • Is our passionate pursuit of the American dream, the tendency to evaluate the success of church by whether it succeeds by the measurements of this dream, of business... are these not one of our great idolatries. I think this passage of the Israelites is very similar. They pursued these idols to find safety and security is the face of adversity, to fit in and be like and liked by our neighbors.
        • Sports, television, movies, hobbies, reading, our work, the pursuit of success.  Are these all bad?  No. But are our affection for Christ greater than these?
        • We must sow the seed of Christ as our treasure. He is the thing of greatest worth.
        • Matthew 13 - The pearl of great value.
      6. Israel aligned themselves with unholy company.
        • Why are alliance's with other nations a bad thing? The issue here is that they were struggling and turned not to God's providential hand, but to the hands of other men around them. 
        • When an alliance was made to other nations, it usually meant they would have to give allegiance to another king,and to their gods.
        • "Do not be unequally yoked"  - 2 Corinthians 6
  3. The harvest we reap can be broadly categorized in three ways (8:1,5-6,8,10,13-14)
    1. We experience suffering.
      • Not all suffering is directly connected to our sin.
      • Yet there are consequences for our sin. God made the world so that sin does result in suffering.    
      • V. 5, v6, v13. We are getting exactly what we deserve.
      • God's ultimate goal to is to bring glory to His name.  See Romans 9.  See v 24. Why does God delay in judgement?  Why don't we get the full punishment? That God's mercy may be made known.  
      • 1 Corinthians11:27-32
    2. We miss the blessing.
      1. We we cling to that that is not God, we miss out of his blessings. Most importantly of the blessing of himself.
    3. We realize the value of our treasure.
      1. We will realize that the things we normally devote ourselves to are worthless. 
      2. Why sow an inferior seed?  
      3. God is good. He is the greatest treasure.  In him we find our JOY!

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