We are looking for sermon transcribers/transcript reviewers.
Email [email protected] to serve or to report transcription errors.

 
A very good morning to all of you and welcome to Gospel Light, our first English worship service this Sunday morning. Glad you can join us.

We are on a book, or journey through the book of Hosea, an Old Testament book. It's a minor prophet, not that the message is minor or unimportant, but that this is a shorter prophetic book in the Bible, so it's given the title of a minor prophet.

Now let me start with this question. Do you know that in Singapore, it is very difficult to prove adultery for the purpose of divorce? I read this on website - 'The courts in Singapore require a very high standard of proof to succeed with a claim of adultery'. Adultery used as a reason for divorce is very, very small by percentage.

Another website says, "According to the Department of Statistics' statistics, the period between 2004 and 2014 highlighted 1.3% to 2.1% of those who filed under the Women's Charter citing adultery as the main reason."

I think adultery is far more prevalent than these statistics may reveal. But because it's so hard to prove adultery, many couples decide to file under unreasonable behaviour.

So we are today looking at a case of adultery. Not between a man and a woman but between God and Israel. God is saying, God is charging Israel with spiritual whoredom or adultery, that they are not faithful to God.

In fact, God makes this clear by saying, "Hosea, get for yourself a wife, Gomer, who will be unfaithful to you." But the issue here is: what if Israel denies these charges? What if Israel says, "Where got?" What if Israel is, what we say, 'tee ki' [Hokkien dialect, steel teeth] - stubborn, and rejects these accusations or charges from God?

So, after we've looked at Chapters 1 to 3, which is the story of Hosea and Gomer, God now lays down the charges on Israel and points out their spiritual unfaithfulness toward Him. Chapter 4 is a passage that tells us how God says Israel is both faithless, that is, they are not loyal to Him and that they are fickle.

Chapter 4, I think, can be divided into two halves. I.. I like to preach sermons with three points. But today's text allows me only to preach two points.

The first half of Chapter 4 says: Israel is faithless, they do not love Me. The second half of Chapter 4 says: Israel is fickle, they love everyone else but Me. So this will be the outline for today - 'Faithless and Fickle'.

1. Their Faithlessness
First of all, we see Israel's faithlessness. The word 'faithless' means that they do not keep faith with God. They are not loyal to God. They are not in covenant fidelity with God.

So God opens Chapter 4 with saying, "Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy (a quarrel, an argument, a dispute) with the inhabitants of the land" [4:1a]. It sounds like an opening of a court case. "Hear everyone! I have a charge against Israel."

Now what is this charge here? Faithlessness. "There is no faithfulness or steadfast love" [4:1b]. The word 'steadfast' or the words 'steadfast love' here is the Hebrew word..... hesed. There is no hesed! I am a God of hesed to Israel. But Israel has no hesed to Me.

They are not steadfast and loyal in their love toward Me. So there is no faithfulness or hesed and there is 'no knowledge of God in the land' [4:1b]. Now, no knowledge, of course, does not mean that they do not even know about the Name of God. It's not that they do not have information about God. It's not that they do not have data about God. But that there is no intimacy with God. That there is no real relationship with God. They do not know Me, that's what God is saying.

So the people of Israel, though they are known to be the people of God externally; internally and realistically, they do not know God. There is no love. There is no hesed. There is no faithfulness. They have no real intimate relationship with Him.

And that is expressed in the way they live. Because they do not know God and they do not want God, basically they 'bochup' [Hokkien dialect, ignore or could not care less about] God, so they do not bother with the covenant. They live as they wish. They break all bounds of the law. "There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing . . ." [4:2]; they basically 'bochup'. Who cares about the Ten Commandments anyway? They live in sinful ways. This is evidencing their lack of relationship with God.

So they are a people externally identified as the children of Israel, the people of God but inwardly God sees all their hearts. They commit all sins.

"Therefore the land mourns . . ." [4:3a]. Therefore your land, Israel, is grieving, it's barren, it's fruitless. And so 'all who dwell in it languish' [4:3a], they are weak and feeble because the land is not producing what it's supposed to produce. And not only are the inhabitants suffering for it, the animals, the beasts, the birds, the fish - they all suffer.

So we see here, God says, "There is no faithfulness, no steadfast love with Israel. And therefore your land mourns." You see that cause and effect, their unfaithfulness and the consequence they bear. So remember this, God is saying in this early charge in Chapter 4, no faithfulness, no fruitfulness. This is My beef with you, as it were.

Now why? Why is Israel in such a terrible state? Well God says in verse 4, "Yet let no one contend and let no one accuse, for with you is My contention, O priest." So the fault here is squarely now laid on the shoulders of the priests.

We say in Chinese, 冤有头..., not bad, 债有主 [yuan you tou, zhai you zhu]. Or if you like, basically I don't know how to explain in English, err... There's always this mastermind, there's always this.. this guy who is ultimately culpable, and you should trace it to this guy who is culpable.

Or if another Chinese phrase may help, er.. 上梁不正,下梁歪 [shang liang bu zheng, xia liang wai]. That means if the upper beam is not straight, the bottom beam is also not straight. For a building to stand up, the beam must be totally straight. But if the upper beam is not straight, means the bottom one must have to compensate in that sense.

So if the priests are corrupted, no wonder the people will be corrupted. So God is saying, "My problem, my blame is now on you, O priest." What's their problem? "You shall stumble by day," in other words you will fall by day, and together with you, "the prophet shall also stumble with you by night" [4:5].

So it is quite obvious, the prophet and the priest are working together in cahoots. They are in this together. And as a result of what they do, and in fact what they do not do, the people of Israel will suffer, the mother will be destroyed, the nation of Israel will be in ruins.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," they do not love Me, they do not know Me - why, "because you have rejected knowledge" [4:6a]. You do not want to know Me. The priests do not know God. The priests do not teach about God and therefore the people in Israel are destroyed for the lack of knowledge.

And as a result, 'I will reject you from being a priest to Me'. "And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children" [4:6b]. You 'bochup' My law. Forgotten not in the sense that they totally cannot recall the details, but they do not prioritize nor focus on it. So if you 'bochup', you cannot be bothered, you don't care about My law and Me, I will also do likewise to your children.

"The more they increased," the.. the more prosperous the priests have become, "the more they sinned against Me" [4:7a]. And so 'I will definitely change their glory into shame' [4:7b], and this is the issue: "They feed on the sin of My people; they are greedy for their iniquity." [4:8]

Wow..how does this work? Well, it's..it's like this. When people bring sacrifices as a sign of their contrition, or their seeking of forgiveness, they bring it to offer to God.

But God's Word has it that the priest will often have a cut of their offering. So if you present five pounds of lamb, well the priest may get one pound out of it. So the priests are very happy when people bring sacrifices along. So maybe that fuels their lack of desire to teach the Word of God at all, even if they do know the Word of God.

So they say, "Well, what's the problem? Let Israel sin, let them bring the sacrifices. We are enriched as a result of the lamb and the sheep that they bring in." So they feed on the sin of My people, they are greedy for their iniquity and they will be punished. "It shall be like people, like priest" [4:9a]. No faithfulness, no fruitfulness in the land; the people suffer and likewise, I will punish the priests for all their wicked deeds.

"They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply" [4:10a]. They will not have children, they will not have abundance, there will be that difficulty in their conception 'because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish whoredom, wine, new wine, which take away the understanding' [4:10b-11]. They are so wrapped up in their lusts that they have become fools.

So Chapter 4 is God laying down the charge that you are faithless. You do not love Me. There are just two things I'd like to emphasize, and the first thing is 上梁不正下梁歪. You know what that means again. It means that if the priests are corrupt, the people will be corrupt.

I read this week that there were quite a few people who lost over $220,000 after downloading Android apps. What's the lesson here? Get iPhone, okay, very smart.

Ah no, huh..huh. Well, what happened.. well, there's of course a whole gang of people behind this scam. Er..they were arrested for investigation and so on, but their modus operandi is eerily familiar to me.

Er.. they would post advertisements on social media and Facebook about seafood and groceries. Something I'm a sucker for, right, huh? But anyway, they post those ads on social media platforms. People will respond, and then they will say, "In order for you to make a payment, you should download this app."

And once they download these Android apps, there is malware in these apps. And this malware will allow these scammers to remotely access your handphones and obtain your password, OTP, account information and log in to your CPF, bank account, SingPass account.

It is terrible! How dangerous it is! These people who saw the advertisements for seafood and groceries must be thinking to themselves, "I must buy because it is such a good deal!" But they end up in a mess. They end up in ruins.

This is what I think about when I think about Israel. They must have seen and looked upon their priests and say, "Well, the priests are given by God to us so that they will lead us to God. They will lead us to abundance." But when they downloaded these priests, or when they had these priests, they did not know there is malware there. They did not know that they will actually lead them to a worse situation.

You see, Jeroboam II was the king at those days, in those days. And in 1 Kings, we are told the way he appointed priests was totally horrible. He 'made temples on high places', there is only to be one temple but he made many temples in high places and he 'appointed priests from among all the people who were not of the Levites.' [1 Kings 12:31]

God is very clear! Only the tribe of Levites will be priests but Jeroboam 'bochup'. Download, get all these priests in.

Elsewhere in Chapter 13 verse 33, and this thing, 'Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be the priests of the high place' [1 Kings 13:33]. 'Suka suka' [Malay, to one's own liking or whim and fancy], anybody want to sign up? You come. We enroll you into the priesthood of Israel.

So with these kinds of priests who do not know God, Israel has been infected with malware. So 上梁不正下梁歪. The nation perishes because they do not know God.

You know, this reminds us of the importance of spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership of the church, spiritual leadership in a care group, in a discipleship group, spiritual leadership at home. They are supposed to lead people to a better place. They are supposed to point people to know God and to walk with Him and to enjoy Him. But corrupt leadership leads people terribly down the drain.

It is a reminder today about the leaders we should pray for and support and appoint in this church. It is a prayer that we should make for our fathers, for our parents, to lead our children in the way they should go. And it is a reminder that spiritual leadership is about teaching people the Word of God. The priests neglect to do so and the land perishes without knowledge.

And we today must aim always to preach the Word of God. I.. I think it is very obvious to one and all today that there is a departure from the preaching of the pure Word of God. People today like to preach topics, ideas, philosophies, signs, research. How many really believe all Scripture is sufficient?

How many people believe that it is in the knowledge of God, through the Word of God, that really leads people to abundance in life? I think there is a great temptation to depart. And I hope that Gospel Light, for the many years and generations to come, will remember never to forget the law, to forget the Word of God. I'm not saying that you forget what is Romans, Hosea, what these things mean but to neglect it, to 'bochup' it, to set it as a secondary issue.

I thought another thing to think about is a quote that I read this week, 'Godlessness is not incompatible with religion'. It is certainly true for Israel. They had religion, right? They had religion in many places. Not just the temple, but in the various high places, they have lots of religion. But they were absolutely godless.

I want to clarify. Religion has been used as, as if it's a bad word. No, I don't think the word 'religion' is necessarily bad. James 1:27 tells us, pure religion and undefiled is this, and so on and so forth. There is good religion. But of course, there is also bad religion. And there is the danger that if we have bad religion, we use it as a cover up for godlessness.

Israel was a religious place. Everybody believes in some kind of a god. Not like in our day, there is this view of agnosticism or atheism. Israel does not have the problem. But the problem with them is empty religion. It is a hypocritical religion. They do not know God. It's clear in verse 2, they abound in all kinds of sin - swearing, lying, murdering, stealing. But they say they are.. they are the people of God.

Can it be that this is also the case in Gospel Light Christian Church? That there is a lot of religion? That there is this routine that you keep every Sunday? You will be here in the morning, you will sing some songs, attend a service, maybe fall asleep here since this guy is boring and say, "I've done my dues, I'm religious!"

But, you're exactly like what is said in verse 2. You murder in your heart. You commit adultery with your eyes. You steal from your employers and there is absolutely no remorse, no desire for change. You just say, "I have religion, don't disturb me."

Gospel Light does not exist to provide for you a religious cloak for hypocrisy. That's not what I'm interested in. We did not have this church to have godless religion. We have a clear mission to be leading generations into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. It's about holiness, godliness. If I may say, it's about faithfulness to God. It's about the hesed for God. It's about the knowledge of God. It's about walking rightly before God. That's what we are about. And I hope that is what you are about.

I know people do not like to be asked, "Do you really know God?" It's very uncomfortable! Because sometimes we are so used to wearing a jacket called 'religion' that we are afraid to take off our jacket and show what's really on the inside.

But God sees everything. And I want to remind you that Hosea is written not so much to condemn you, condemn them, because God could have just condemned them without giving them any word. But this Word by the prophet Hosea is so that perhaps before it is too late, they can today return to the love of God, repent and be saved.

Time is running by but let me go on to the second half, it will be faster - guaranteed. Er, so don't be anxious.

2. Their Fickleness
Their fickleness. They were a fickle people.

If the first says.. first charge is God saying, "You do not love Me," the second charge is, "you love everyone else but Me." You are adulterous.

He says here, "My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff," that..that walking stick, "gives them oracles" [4:12a]. So the people of Israel are a strange bunch! They.. they know Jehovah God in theory but they do not seek Jehovah God. They seek... 'kayu' [Malay]. They seek 木头 [chinese, mu tou, wood]. You know what is 'kayu' or not? 'Kayu' is wood, right? I.. I.. I grew up in Jalan Kayu, that's why I.. I..I'm the walking 木头.

Uup.. But no, Israel sought after pieces of wood! They.. they say, "I need guidance!" Instead of turning to Jehovah, they turn to this tree, or this stick, or this branch. How bizarre! And.. and to them, these pieces of wood is god! "Save me, god! Tell me, god!"

My people are adulterous! A spirit of whoredom! They are so inclined towards spiritual adultery that they are now left astray or they have been 'led astray and they have left their God to play the whore' [4:12b], the spiritual prostitute. They have prostituted themselves to these foreign, useless, impotent gods.

'They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, burn offerings on the hills, under these kinds of trees'. Why? Look at their sensuality - 'because their shade is good' [4:13a]. They are not the people who want to sacrifice, really. They do whatever is easy and convenient; they like to do these things. It's kind of a slap on their face, isn't it? A description of their love for sensuality and ease.

"Therefore your daughters play the whore" [4:13b]. Now this is, to me, the key to understanding that this chapter should be divided into these two halves. Remember, in Chapter 4, verses 1 to 3, 'There is no faithfulness . . . ; therefore the land mourns'. So no faithfulness, no fruitfulness - first half.

Second half, how do I tell it's the second half? Because 'they have left their God to play the whore' - they are guilty of spiritual whoredom. 'Therefore, your daughters play the whore' - you now have children, your daughters, who are really behaving like whores.

So, spiritual whoredom leads to their physical whoredom. That's the language device Hosea has given and that is what we respect to understand that this is a two-parter chapter.

"I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery . . ." [4:14a]. Why? "For the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin." [4:14b]

God is saying here, "I will not just punish the ladies as if they are the only ones who are guilty. The men.. the men themselves go to cult prostitutes."

So, I don't think you should read this first half as if there is no consequence on the women of the land. Perhaps it may be that God lets them continue in their sinful ways so that they will come to ruin or more likely it is God saying, "I will not just punish the ladies because even more culpable will be the men themselves who go to the male, who will go to the cult prostitutes."

In either case, the context is clear. God is rendering judgement upon the whole nation of Israel.

"Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty" [4:15a]. Wah you're so terribly steeped in this. It is so infectious and so bad! Please don't let Judah come near. I think this is a poetic language.

It's saying, "Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, 'As the LORD lives' " [4:15b]. So now I think this is God speaking to Judah. Gilgal and Beth-aven are in Israel, the northern kingdom. God is saying to the southern kingdom of Judah, "Don't come near them, please." They COVID already. Spiritual COVID - very, very bad. Don't come near.

Where.. where is Gilgal and Beth-aven? They are the southernmost, they are cities in the southern part of northern Israel. So it's almost like across the border from Judah.

It's almost like we say to people in Malaysia if we have terrible disease here in Singapore, "Eh, don't come to Sembawang and Yishun uh." You.. you know what I'm saying, right? Very near.. I mean, it's like just across the causeway. Don't come to Woodlands. Don't come to.. to..to Yishun. We have problems. So God is saying, "Don't come to Israel. They are in deep trouble."

"Like a stubborn heifer," a kind of a cow, animal, "Israel is stubborn" [4:16]. They are so stubborn. Do you think I should feed them? Like feeding a lamb in a lavish, wide pasture? Of course not! They should be punished.

Ephraim - this is, you would realize throughout the book of Hosea and even in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, a literary device that the prophets used. They sometimes used Ephraim for Israel; Israel for Ephraim. Ephraim is the most dominant tribe in Israel. So we call this a metonymy, that is a word that replaces another word. They can be synonymous or sometimes God is specifically talking about that one tribe of Ephraim.

In either case, I think in this context, probably best to understand this as another word for Israel. Israel 'is joined to idols,' they are so far gone, 'leave him alone' [4:17].

"When their drink is gone," or literally, their drink is spoiled, is soured, is turned bad. They are drunk with wine and new wine but now it is really turning bad. They thought they would have joy in their spiritual adultery but now it's going to go bad. "They give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame. And a wind has wrapped them in its wings". There will be this sweeping judgement that will come, 'and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices' [4:18-19].

I know the details are hard to figure. I know the specific languages and words are hard but I think the overall picture is very simple. God in Chapter 4, lays down the charge like as in a court case: Israel is adulterous. Why? Because there is no faith with Me. There is no covenant fidelity. They do not love Me. And number two, they love others but Me; they are fickle. They turn to wood and trees and things that cannot save to save them. They will not want Me.

I think it is in the nature of human hearts to seek after other lovers. We are filled with scandals in this world - celebrities, politicians having affairs and adulterous relationships. I think that is an evidence of a sin-deranged human heart.

But it's not just looking for human lovers. The heart is strangely deranged to seek after other gods.

It's so bizarre because when we look at the nation of Israel, we almost say it's unbelievable that after God saved them out of Egypt, that they will immediately turn to the golden calf and say, "This is the god who saved us." How strange! How illogical! Why would they turn to an impotent statue to say, "Save me", when there is the presence of Jehovah God with them?

But let's not point the finger only at Israel because we today worship many golden calves. We today have many idols. We today go after things and stuff and people to satisfy us, believing that God cannot satisfy us.

We today go for power and money and sex and relationships. We say to ourselves, "I don't care whatever it takes, I must marry him even if he is not a believer. Because if I marry him, he will make me happy. And if I deny myself this desire to marry him, God cannot make me happy."

It's idolatry. But that's who we are. I must have this car, I must have this bag, I must have this promotion. I must cheat in this deal because only if I get this deal will I be happy.

Strange! We go to pieces of wood and do not believe that Jehovah God is enough.

Why Hosea? Hosea writes to confront their rebellion. Hosea writes so that the people of Israel can face up to their sins. Hosea writes so that they can be called to repentance. It's not just for information; it's so that they can take action.

And God is saying there is comfort in redemption. The whole book of Hosea will lead to that glorious promise - there is forgiveness for the people of Israel someday.

And all that is in spite of Israel's unfaithfulness. And this pitch black darkness of sin is the perfect setting for the diamond and the jewel of God's loyal love. And this is the theme of the entire book of Hosea - His hesed love for us.

I'm saying here today, whilst this sermon is like, wah.. you whack about sin and so on, I.. I hope you will understand it's ultimately about God's love. It's ultimately about God emotionally reaching out to a wayward people to repent of their sins and to come back to Him.

If you're here today with us for the first time, you're not a Christian, or maybe even if you have been with us for a long time and you have been satisfying yourself with a godless religion, just going through the motions, attending the services, putting on a kind of a cloak to hide your sin, I say to you, "You do not need to do that because you can't do that anyway." You can't do that before God!

But God has given us a solution for our sin - Jesus Christ, God's Son, who died and rose again to save you from your sins. I pray today you would see your sin against Him, you will repent of your sin and realize that there is redemption for you because God still loves you.

But before I close, I also want to speak a word to my brothers and sisters in Christ. This chapter is not about Christians, it's about phony people who call themselves God's people. But the challenge and the temptation to idolatry exists, even for Christians today. Maybe as we think about God's hesed love for us, we need to open up the drawers and the cabinets of our hearts to check for idols and ask God for grace that we will not turn to these idols. But that we will love Him and to love Him alone.

We will sing a song soon, 'Break down the High Place'. And I think it's very apt for something like this.

The stanza goes,
In Israel's time Jehovah God was God alone.
But soon they worship hidden idols made of stone.
The high place used to worship God now mocks His Holy Name.
He's no longer God alone.
His people bring Him shame.

Second stanza,
In my own life I longed for God to have first place.
But soon my focus turned away from His dear face.
My heart was once reserved for Him but soon I went astray.
He's no longer God alone.
I'm seeking my own way.

Oh thank You Lord for loving me although I fall.
Please take my life and use it now I give You all.
I want You to have everything to please You is my goal.
In my heart You're God alone.
My life You now control.

And the chorus goes three times,
Help me break down the high place once reserved for You.
Help me rebuild my altar and worship You anew.
Help me cast out all thoughts that exalt above Your own.
Help me listen for Your sweet voice so Your will is always known.

I like the words, but I also like the reminder here, fourfold cry - help me. I can't do it myself. Help me O God, to live purely, singularly, loyally towards You. This is what Hosea is about. Let's bow for a word of prayer together.

Father, we thank You this morning, and we pray that You will tear away false pretenses in our lives so that our friends, our guests, those who do not know Jesus as yet, can humbly come to You and ask for forgiveness and plead for cleansing.

Thank You that there is forgiveness in the cross of Jesus Christ, Your Son. Thank You that a sinful, rebellious, adulterous creation, humanity, can find redemption in Jesus, Your Son.

So I pray this morning for men and women, children, young and old, to come to Christ and Christ alone. But O God, I also pray for our church because we still wrestle with the flesh and the flesh is that factory for idols in the heart. I pray that You will help us as we will sing fourfold, help me, help me, help me, help me. Help me to love You and You alone.

May the love of the Gospel, the hesed love of God be understood and received in all our hearts. Thank You, we pray all this in Jesus' Name, Amen.

We are looking for sermon transcribers/transcript reviewers.
Email [email protected] to serve or to report transcription errors.