It is Time
Hosea 10:12
“Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”
After the death of Solomon, In 922 BCE, the Kingdom of Israel was divided. The northern Israelite tribes led by Jeroboam revolted against the Davidic monarchy and established the Kingdom of Israel Judah, the southern Kingdom, had Jerusalem as its capital and was led by Rehoboam. Jeroboam realized that it was necessary for them to do something about the religious situation of the northern Kingdom, because there was only one place in which it was right to worship God, and that was in Jerusalem, everyone had to go to Jerusalem. Today there is only one way of salvation, through the Lord Jesus Christ, everyone must come through Him. To avoid a loss of allegiance to his kingdom Jeroboam set up two places of worship constructing golden calves as objects of worship, one of them in Bethel which is Hebrew for “House of God” . As a result Hosea tells us in the opening verses of chapter 10 that Israel’s heart was divided, faithless and deceitful. Hosea warns of the impending judgment and displeasure of God. In verse twelve Hosea tells Israel it is time for them to seek Jehovah that He might hear their prayer and see the evidence of their sincerity and rain His righteous blessing upon them rather than judgment. Like Israel I believe God is telling us today that “It is Time.” It’s time to…
I. Seek the Lord
A. Isaiah 55:6 “Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.”
B. Psalm 34:10 “The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”
C. Seeking the Lord is to set God as the Supreme Authority of everything in your life and the object of your every desire.
D. Deuteronomy 4:29 “seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
E. I believe that if we are to seek the Lord the way God’s Word tells us it is not a matter of priorities – putting Christ first. I believe it is to become totally absorbed with Christ through a conscious yielding of all to the Holy Spirit. Anything less than a conscious commitment to Jesus Christ is an unconscious commitment to the things of this world.
F. Psalm 27:4 “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”
G. Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
H. What are the signs of a divided heart?
1 Formality – We go to church but as far as our hearts are concerned, not really interested in growing. Not really interested in putting aside some of our interests for the things of the Lord. Not really interested in sacrificing any of our personal interests; we just want to add to it the worship of God and come on Sunday.
2 Inconsistency – On Sunday, we’re vital and vigorous, but on Monday, you’d never know we were Christians if someone didn’t say, “Are you a Christian?”
3 Fruitlessness – We have no evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives or little if any spiritual offspring that we have brought to the Lord.
I. We sometimes like to say that a person who has one aim in life, one goal, one motivating thing in his life is a fanatic. In one sense, that’s probably true. And if our goal is, as we have just mentioned, good health, happiness, success, proper self-esteem, one would be a fanatic if that’s all that he has as his goal in life. As believers the world may call us fanatics if we become through and through Christians whose lives are fully consecrated to Christ, but the tags do not matter. - copied
J. Paul summed it up in Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ...”
K. How would you feel...?
1 ...If God gave you the same amount of time and attention that we devote to Him?
2 ...If God put as many things ahead of us as we put ahead of Him?
3 ...If God offered as many excuses as we do, and if the excuses were no more justifiable than ours?
4 ...If God’s promises were no more certain than ours?
5 ...If God withheld His blessings from us as we withhold our offerings from Him? – Source: Robert G. Lee, SERMONIC LIBRARY, p. 11.
L. It is time to Seek the Lord!
II. Obey God
A. Hosea tells Israel to break up the fallow ground. Fallow ground is ground that hasn’t been plowed for quite some time. It is ground that is hard and stubborn, resistant to the seed. It does very little good to sow seed on fallow ground. It is hard and compact and does not want to accept the seed. But it must be broken up because if you do not get the seed in the ground there can be no harvest.
B. Absolute obedience is a prerequisite for possessing the promises. What God wants and expects is absolute obedience to the will and Word of God.
C. Deuteronomy 26:16-17 “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice.”
D. Many Christians claim to know Christ, claim Him as their “Lord and Savior”. Many extol the virtues of knowing Christ and worshipping Him, but fail to execute obedience to the One they sing about.
E. James 4:17 "To him who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin."
F. Luke 6:46-49 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
G. Churches are filled with disobedient Christians who smugly trust in their eternal security. We should be glad we’re saved but we should also try to make it more evident in our lives Disobedient Christians are a danger to themselves and others. Obedient Christians are a blessing to others.
H. You can at once begin to be a disciple of the Living One — by obeying him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying him. We must learn to obey him in everything, and so must begin somewhere. Let it be immediately, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience! – adapted from George MacDonald, Knowing the Heart of God
I. It is Time to Obey God!
III. Work for time is running out
A. Hosea says “Sow for yourselves righteousness”
B. Psalm 126:6 “He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
C. John 9:4 “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.”
D. Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions:
• "How old are you?" "I’m 4 and a half." You’re never 36 and a half, but you’re 4 and a half going on 5! That’s the key. You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number.
• "How old are you?" "I’m gonna be 16." Oh, you might actually be only 13, but that’s okay: You’re gonna be 16!
• And then the greatest day of your life happens: you become 21. Even the words sounds like a ceremony—you "become" 21. Yes!!
• But then you turn 30. Ooohhh, what happened here?? Makes you sound like bad milk. He "turned. We had to throw him out."
• There’s no fun now. What’s wrong? What changed? You "become" 21, then you "turn" 30 … then you’re "pushing" 40. Stay over there, it’s all slipping away…
• …Then you "reach" 50. My dreams are gone…
• Next, you "make it" to 60. Whew! I didn’t think I’d make it…
• After you "make it" to 60, you’ve built up so much speed that, before you know what’s happened, you "hit" 70!
• After that, it’s a day by day thing. You no longer speak of "hitting" each new year. Rather, your goals become much more immediate. You speak of "hitting" Wednesday, for example. Why, by the time you get into 80s, it’s a great accomplishment just to "hit" lunchtime! (My grandmother won’t even buy green bananas anymore. "It’s quite an investment, you know…" she says.)
• And it doesn’t end there. Whereas in your teens you were always looking forward to the next year, by the time you get into your 90s you start looking backwards: I was just 92…
• Then a strange thing happens if you make it over 100, you become a little kid again:"I’m 100 and a half!" – David Zimmerman
E. Time passes by so quickly and opportunities pass. Someone has said that when a person is about to die, you will never hear them say "Gee, I wish I had spent more time at the office, or more time watching TV."
F. Colossians 4:5 “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.”
G. 2 Corinthians 6:2 “For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
H. I believe that the greatest hindrance to witnessing is a lack of urgency. We do not see men in danger of hells’ fire.
I. "A sense of urgency is that feeling that lets you know yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow never comes. Today is in your hands. It lets you know that shirking today’s task will add to wasted yesterdays and postponing today’s work will add to tomorrow’s burden. The sense of urgency causes you to accomplish what today sets before you. Thank God for the sense of urgency that can change a dull, shabby existence into a sparkling life. Right now, ask God to give you a sense of urgency. Believe that He did, and then act accordingly." – Charles "Tremendous" Jones
J. We’ll have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset to win them. – Robert Moffat.
K. “Work for the Night is Coming When Man’s Work is O’er.”
L. It’s Time to Work.
