18th century theologian, Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon called “Men Naturally Are God’s Enemies”.
And by the way…I found this sermon on the web and copied and pasted it to my Word program so that I could extract the quote I’m about to read to you. I want you to know that I put it in the same font and size as my own sermons, and gave it 1.5 line spacing like my own, and whereas my average sermon is 14 to 15 pages, this one of Edwards’ is 54 pages.
So there are two things to consider here. One is that you are fortunate mine are so much shorter; the second is that now you know how long people will listen to someone who really knows what he’s talking about.
In any case, Edwards said something early in this sermon about the reasons the natural man hates God. I want to read it and then I’ll go over the highlights of it as it pertains to our text today. Edwards preached…
“Though they are ignorant of God; yet from what they hear of him, and from what is manifest by the light of nature, they do not like him. By his being endowed with such attributes as he is, they have an aversion to him. They hear God is an infinitely holy, pure, and righteous Being, and they do not like him upon this account; they have no relish of such qualifications.
They take no delight in contemplating them. It would be a mere task, a bondage to a natural man, to be obliged to set himself to contemplate those attributes of God. They see no manner of beauty or loveliness, nor taste any sweetness, in them. And on account of their distaste of these perfections, they dislike all his other attributes. They have greater aversion to him because he is omniscient and knows all things; and because his omniscience is a holy omniscience. They are not pleased that he is omnipotent, and can do whatever he pleases; because it is a holy omnipotence. They are enemies even to his mercy, because it is a holy mercy. They do not like his immutability, because by this he never will be otherwise than he is, an infinitely holy God.”
So the truth Edwards is setting forth, is that natural men, and by that he means unregenerate or what we often refer to as unsaved men, have a great aversion to God because of what His attributes mean. He is omniscient. That means He knows all. That means He knows all about them. Further, He is omnipotent, which means He is all powerful, which means they are not the one ultimately in charge. They hate His mercy because it is a perfectly holy mercy and in its kindness it illuminates their utter unholiness and they despise His immutability, which is His unchangeableness, because that means He will never be other than all these things just listed. And there is no escape.
Therefore when Romans 5:10, which was Edward’s text verse for his sermon, says that we were enemies of God, it is not saying that we were His enemies by His declaration, but by our own. He didn’t call us His enemies, we, in our sin, made ourselves His enemies in arms.
Gomer, by her actions, made herself estranged from her husband although he pursued her. The sons of Israel were guilty of the same.
Through this chapter we see the words that prove the charge. According to verse 3 they think to hide from God. In verse 4 they choose to continue in their evil deeds rather than to return to God. In verse 5 they are filled with pride which causes them to stumble. In 6 and 7 they offer insincere religion and deal treacherously against God.
As we move through we will see that He finally has to deal very harshly with them for their own ultimate good. As we move through, let’s continue to refocus and bring the message back to ourselves that they were the original branches and it is we who were grafted in.
“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” 27 “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” 28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. 32 For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” Rom 11:25-32
So let’s be careful not to gloat at their foolishness and kid ourselves into thinking that somehow we are more than they because of our New Testament knowledge. But let’s revisit some fundamental truths that we often tend to let slip; a tendency that gets us in trouble as it did them.
GOD KNOWS ABOUT OUR SIN
It may sound like a sort of 3rd grade Sunday School thing to say, that God knows about our sin.
Those who have been raised in the church may even be able to remember the first time their teacher stood in front of a flannel board and talked about it. Some will remember singing guilt-trip little songs like, “Be careful, little hands what you do, be careful little hands what you do, for your Father up above is looking down in love, be careful little hands what you do”.
The song goes on ad-nauseum to warn about our lips being careful what they say, and our eyes being careful what they see and our ears being careful what they hear, and so on. And yes, each ends with the assurance that our Father up above is looking down in love. But in my memory the love part did not translate well. All I could see in my mind’s eye was a great big white-haired guy watching everything I do and letting me know I’d better tow the line.
The truth is however, we don’t stay scared. We get older and we get angry instead. How dare He sit up there and judge us? If He’s so holy and just and loving why doesn’t He cut us some slack? This life ain’t easy!
So there are several possibilities that arise from this. People decide that God does not exist, which is utter idiocy since those same people would not think that in any other area of life just saying something makes it true; another possibility is that they harden themselves and say ‘God may exist but I am happy as a pagan and if hell is in my future then so be it’. Yes, there are those who say that. Whether they’ll feel like recanting once they are there and it’s too late to change their mind or their circumstances is another matter entirely.
The other possibility is that they eventually come to understand their sinful condition and their helplessness, and they turn from sin and believe the good news of Jesus Christ and they are spiritually born into God’s holy family.
That, of course, is the preferable choice. But here’s the rub.
We come to God through Christ and receive the forgiveness of sin provided for us on the cross of Calvary, and we go through a honeymoon time when the flowers smell better and the sky is bluer and there is a bit of a skip in our step and we want to tell everyone we pass by what Jesus has done for us.
Then, with very few exceptions (and I guess those are the people we read about in the history of the church because of their absolute surrender and devotion to God) most believers settle into a sort of comfort zone, holding back the ‘little sins’ that we don’t want to give up, keeping them a secret, if possible, from even the closest people in our lives, and convincing ourselves that God doesn’t really see them either.
The longer we persist in them, unrepentant, the harder we become and the deafer we become to the urging of the Holy Spirit to confess and surrender them, and the bolder we become in them because if we are not sensing God’s disapproval then they must be ‘ok’.
So we come full circle, back to 3rd grade Sunday School, only this time the message is coming, hopefully, from a preacher faithful enough to dredge this muck up, and we hear him say, ‘God knows about our sin’.
It was vitally important for the addressees of Hosea’s message here in chapter 5 to hear and believe this, because they were the leaders. They were the priests and the princes of Israel.
They were the ones who had set a snare for the people of the land by encouraging them to go up to these places set apart for idol worship and give themselves to false gods.
‘For you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread out on Tabor’.
The names of Ephraim and Israel are used almost interchangeably in this letter. Ephraim was the largest and most prominent tribe in the North and Israel was the name of the Northern Kingdom in general. In other places that we will come to later, such as chapter 7 verse 1 and 8:5, Samaria is named as a guilty party because she was the capital of the Northern Kingdom.
So whether God says Israel, Ephraim or Samaria, He is talking about and to the same group of people.
So here in our text God declares His omniscience and assures them that though they may think their sins are hidden and although they are so steeped in them that they can no longer hear His voice, yet He knows them all and His chastisement will finally come down on their heads.
“The revolters have gone deep in depravity, but I will chastise all of them. 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot, Israel has defiled itself. 4 Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the LORD.” Vs 2-4
In recent months we have been brought back time and again to consider the topic of false teachers. One might begin to think we were developing an unhealthy obsession with the subject except that when it is put so pointedly before our eyes we cannot and should not avoid it.
Here God is addressing the leaders of the nation, in both the political sense and the spiritual. These are the men the people should have been able to trust to take care of them and lead them in the right way.
Ironically, Mizpah means ‘watch tower’ and Tabor means ‘lofty place’. And instead of using their high and lofty positions to be the protectors of the people, watching over them, they called people to these high places to be spiritually slaughtered.
Furthermore, the word ‘revolters’ in verse 2, referring to these same leading men, means ‘swerver’, one who turns aside, one who is unfaithful to a person or principles.
The NIV translates it ‘rebels’ and the Darby translation employs the word ‘apostates’.
So what we finally have here is a picture of the leaders of the church in the 21st century who themselves go after their idols, changing scripture and twisting or altogether ignoring sound doctrine in order to lead the people to a form of worship that God hates and that ultimately leads them on a path of destruction.
God knows. They have a spirit of harlotry, and they do not know the Lord.
This is a word of revelation so that we might recognize the swervers; it is also a word of warning for us, believers, to get on track, stay on track, get openly honest with a holy and omniscient God and neither fall into the snares nor cause others to stumble into them.
Repent, confess and move on. God knows about our sin.
GOD KNOWS ABOUT OUR INSINCERITY
Now here is where that old man in us will balk and try to convince us that our outward forms of religion make everything alright. They somehow gloss everything over and God is appeased.
“Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him, And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also has stumbled with them. 6 They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they will not find Him;” vs 5-6b
There cannot be very many things more nauseating than a person who has no genuine interest in knowing or obeying God, putting up a false front of religious piety.
I’d rather talk to a man who says openly that he disbelieves the claims of Christianity and doesn’t like Christians, than one who lives a worldly, flesh-serving life and then talks about the ‘man upstairs’ and praying (or rather, ‘saying prayers’) and attending church, thinking all the while that he has me thinking he’s a fellow believer.
I think it turns God’s stomach too; symbolically speaking.
Their own pride testifies against them. Their haughtiness itself is the evidence that they are insincere. They take their forms of worship up to the altar and think that God is pleased, but He rejects their sacrifices and their gifts and their insincere display of devotion.
Listen, Christian. You may be ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’ at work; you may be the boss; you may be the important one in the room at the committee meeting or on the business trip. But when you come home you’re just ‘Dad’. You’re just the guy who takes out the trash and leaves rings in the bathtub.
You’re just not that impressive.
Why? Because the better and more intimately you’re known by a person, the less you’re going to be able to fool them about anything.
God says, ‘Do you think I don’t know you? Do you think I don’t see through your façade?
Get away with those trinkets you bring to enhance your worship experience. Go home with your offerings and your false religion. You won’t even find Me there!”
Do you think God ever withdraws from us? I mean, didn’t Jesus say He would never leave us or forsake us? And isn’t God omnipresent; meaning present everywhere?
So what does He mean here in verse 6 that He has withdrawn from them?
He means that He has lifted His protective hand from them, He has stopped being available to them for significant help or to receive their worship and their offerings, because they have withdrawn themselves from Him to pursue their sin in their spirit of harlotry.
And friends and family there are folks out there who at some point expressed an interest in the church and in Jesus and they seemed to be happy to be with His people. But somewhere along the line they have chosen to run from Him and hide from His people in order to follow after their own lusts and be their own master…they think…and on the infrequent occasions that they come back into the assembly and feign faithfulness and worship God is not hearing them; God is not accepting their sacrifices; God is not to be found by them.
In the end, they don’t fool anyone! Not God, not friends and family, not even strangers! Well, I take that back. They fool themselves. They practice their insincerity with such diligent attention to detail that they eventually believe the lie they’re telling themselves about themselves.
But God sees past the mask and so do people, eventually if not right away, and they end up looking very pathetic indeed.
GOD KNOWS ABOUT OUR DESTRUCTION
Well, God knows about the destruction of sinners. By that I mean that He, above all, knows in infinite detail the destruction that sin brings. More than that, he knows what destruction is coming in the future on the one who claims to be a believer and then runs off to engage in spiritual adultery and remains unrepentant after many warnings. He knows, because He is the one who will finally bring the destruction.
Now I’m not talking about losing salvation and falling back into a lost state here. I’m talking about the total upheaval of the physical existence that God will finally bring to a person’s life in order to get their attention.
We’ve all seen examples of this. Some of us have been examples of this. God will not allow His children to continue to wallow in sin and ignore His warnings.
“Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah.” They had played the harlot so long that they were actually still blindly taking their flocks and herds to the high places thinking to worship, while God was saying ‘It’s too late! Blow the trumpets warning of an approaching invader, because here they come.”
And now the Northern kingdom isn’t the only one in trouble. When he says, ‘Behind you, Benjamin”, he is talking about the tribes farther south, and then He goes on to specifically name Judah as among the guilty.
So He says, in verse 12, “Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Judah.” What does He mean? Well, what do moths do? They ruin garments. They bring slow, almost imperceptible destruction and by the time you know they’re there the clothes are no good any more.
And rottenness to a house eventually brings it down around your ears.
But then He finally says through the prophet, “I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah”.
If you catch a moth problem soon enough you can save your wardrobe and if you find termites soon enough you can save your house.
But when you’re going down the road to conduct your business as usual and a lion leaps out of the bushes, you’re done!
And dearly beloved, if you are walking in disobedience, seeking to serve two masters and hating the wrong one in your spirit of harlotry, if you open your eyes and spend some time in meditation on where your life is right now you may begin to recognize the little moths and termites God has sent into your life to get you to turn and seek His help.
But if you ignore the warnings, the little insects, and continue in your folly there will one day come a very sudden crisis that you will not be able to avoid, and may even bring with it repercussions in your life, the scars of which will remain with you until your dying day, whether you repent and return to the Lord or not.
God had to remove an entire generation of people from their land and keep them in exile until another generation came up in order to purge His people from absolute rebellion and spiritual adultery.
Examine yourselves. What is there about your life that you have clung to in your insincerity, ignoring the warnings, that God may eventually have to purge you of by removing you from your comforts and your familiarities or removing them from you and putting you in a sort of spiritual exile until you come to repentance? If you belong to Him, He will do it. It is Biblical and historical fact.
GOD KNOWS WHEN TO LET US GO
Well I refer back briefly to verse 6 and the statement that He has withdrawn Himself from them.
Then if you look with me at verse 15 we’ll find a way to end this on a more positive note, as God did with His people through the prophet.
“I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
There is something in these words both chillingly dreadful, yet immensely helpful.
That God would finally say, “I’m going to my own place” Meaning, I am removing the influence of My presence from this person’s life, or as in the case of our text from this nation’s life.
And if He stopped there the pronouncement could only be dreadful. It could only sound the mournful tone of a funeral dirge in the ears of those steeped in rebellion and sin, who have lost their way and founder in the darkness.
But the God of all hope pours out hope in this phrase, “…until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face”
Friend, if you are one who has lost the sense of God’s presence with you and maybe you even wonder if you haven’t blown it for good because of your faithlessness and your sinful behavior, these words come to you on a wave of hope.
Because in them is the message that when God’s face is sought it can be found.
You may have to be seriously afflicted. You may be in affliction now, or you may still be chasing after a spirit of harlotry, unwilling to surrender or heed the calling of the Holy Spirit to repent and come back, in which case at some point He will tear you like a lion and rip from you the ability to revel in your adultery.
In that time, that is when you will earnestly seek Him, and according to what He says here He will be found.
“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15) Paul to Timothy
It was Jesus Himself who told the Pharisees that He didn’t come to save the righteous, but sinners. He has nothing to say to the righteous because they think they’re all right. It is the man who knows he is lost who asks for directions. It is the woman who recognizes persistent discomfort and knows something isn’t right, who goes to the doctor. It is the student who finally realizes they cannot find the sum, who goes to the math teacher for guidance.
It is the Christian who never forgets from whence he came who turns most quickly to seek the face of his God when he finds himself in the muck.
C.H. MacKintosh wrote, “God’s grace is magnified by man’s ruin; and the more keenly the ruin is felt, the more highly the grace is valued.”
It is not those who think they are alright with God who understand His grace the best. It is those who are constantly aware that but for that same grace they would be among the worst of sinners; lost and ruined and hopeless.
But God’s face may be found by even the one in the worst of afflictions when they earnestly seek Him.
You know the name John Newton, the slave trader who became a believer and turned from evil to God. There is a new movie out about him.
I haven’t seen it yet. But I have heard that he had a plaque above his mantle in his home with a verse from Deuteronomy that said, “Thou shalt remember that thou wert a bondsman in Egypt, and God redeemed Thee”.
And it was he, who never forgot where he had come from, who wrote the words to the most widely known and recognizable hymn of all.
“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see”
God sent His people away to exile and slavery. But it wasn’t the Assyrians who helped them. It was God, by His grace, who when their chastisement was finished, brought them back to the land He had given their fathers, restoring their wealth and establishing them once again as a nation in His own name.
And whether you have found yourself in spiritual exile or you just feel that you have been torn apart and there is no hope left, you’re not going to find your help in the world and in worldly things.
His word to you today is that you will find Him when you earnestly seek Him. He will take away your rags of adultery and replace them with His own garments of righteousness. He will reestablish you.
And you will say “My God” and He will say, “My beloved”.
