Pathology of Sin Equals Death
Hosea 13:4-6
Introduction
Do you remember The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi? This 1883 classic book really puts our sinful nature into perspective. Pinocchio who was created by his loving father Geppetto as soon as he was created took off with Geppetto following after pleading for Pinocchio to return to the safety of home. In the end Geppetto is tossed into jail and Pinocchio was free from his seemingly oppressive father. But that lasted only a short time. Pinocchio became hungry. No one showed him mercy and he finally fell asleep at home with his feet near the fire, hungry and alone. In the morning Pinocchio finds his feet burned off. Geppetto finally out of jail, finds his son with his feet burned off.
With Pinocchio totally helpless he was very repentant. Geppetto fed the poor marionette with the meal that was meant for him. Finally after Pinocchio pleading for new feet for the day, Geppetto made new feet for Pinocchio.
Pinocchio promised to be good, to learn a trade, and be a boy that would make his father proud. Geppetto went out and sold his coat to buy Pinocchio an ABC book so Pinocchio could go to school. And we know that Pinocchio did not make it to school. Pinocchio took his eye off the path and as we know he went further and further down the path of destruction.
Isn’t it amazing how sin takes so far away from home and fills us with so much grief, guilt and hardship within our life? As we continue looking at Hosea we will see the pathology of sin.
In the last lesson on Hosea Chapter 3 we saw how far down the path of sin Gomer traveled. She had found herself a concubine slave and we saw how patient God is as he waits for Israel to return back to Him. The story of Hosea and Gomer ends in chapter 3 with Gomer living as a slave in Hosea’s home, with Hosea waiting for her heart to return back to him. No nice conclusion. All the ends of the story don’t tie up into a complete package. No happily ever after’s. The story stops as abruptly as it began.
The rest of the book of Hosea is a trial with God being the prosecuting attorney who is laying out His case against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Today as we look at this trial we are going to see the path that leads to destruction laid out before us. Hopefully, this lesson will help us see the warning signs and help us stay clear of this most dangerous of paths.
The Pathology
Let’s go back in time from about 722 BC to 1406 BC or 684 years earlier in time. Moses is giving his final instruction to the Israelites before they were to enter the Promised Land. A generation has died in the wilderness because of their unfaithfulness. Now a new generation has risen up and they are ready to claim what was promised by God. Let’s look at some of the instructions Moses gave the people. Please turn to Deuteronomy 4:5-8
"5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?"
God has given Israel a very special gift. What gift was that? The gift of His decrees and laws. This wonderful gift if followed will allow them to be a great nation. A nation filled with wise and understanding people that will be seen by the nations around them. The nations will know that God is near to Israel because God’s laws are righteous and they are filled with God’s Wisdom and God’s Understanding. Israel was truly blessed! But…Yes there is a but in this story because Moses goes on to give them a warning starting in verse 9.
"9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children."
Step 1 On Fire for Him and are SATISFIED
Moses warns them not to forget. The start of the Pathology is we are sold out for God. On fire for Him. We realize when we come to Christ and are born again how much He loves us and how much he has paid for us to have a special relationship with Him. We love God with all of our hearts and are willing to go and do anything He tells us to do in His righteous word. We will be His Hands and His Feet in this lost world. We counted the cost and we are in. Israel was in. The entered the promised land and God gave them victory over their enemies. Joshua is now old and ready to leave this world and he challenges this new nation. Turn to Joshua 24 and we will start in verse 14.
Joshua 24:14-21 - 14 Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;
17 For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
18 And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.
19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
20 If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord.
Yes, such zeal for the Lord. We will serve the Lord! Praise God!...but
Step 2 We Forget
We forget.
Deuteronomy 6:10-19
10 And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
12 Then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
13 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15 (For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord s ware unto thy fathers.
19 To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken.
You see when we do what is right, that which is righteous, and then things start going well for us. We should expect this. God loves us and his instructions for us to live by are for our own good and happiness. This Bible is filled with His Wisdom and His Understanding is really a book giving us the basic instructions for living life. Do you want happiness? Do you want peace? Do you want good relationships with your spouse? Good relationships with your children? Then do what God tells you to do! God tells us how to live life so we will have all of the priceless things that all the money in the world cannot purchase.
So we are on fire for Him. Saved by His Son’s blood on the cross, forgiven! Doing what He tells us to do and things in our lives start changing. People start wanting to be around us, because we are now, well, likeable! Relationships with others start blooming and we start getting proud. Look at what I have done we say within our heart. Once pride sets in we now have no need for God and we soon forget. You see we are satisfied. When we are satisfied we do not seem to believe we need someone bigger than ourselves for the things of this life are going so good. We forget who the one is who has made life so good.
Step 3 We do what is right in our own eyes
When we forget we start doing things in our own strength and in our own ways. Then we are faced with a new reality.
Judges 2:10-11 - 10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:
Judges 21:25 - 25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
We end up back in sin. We end up doing what is right in our own eyes. Doing everything to please me. Things start to unravel. We are on the wrong path, the path that leads to destruction. Proverbs 4:13-17 gives this picture.
13 Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
15 Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
This path leads to evil. No rest. No peace. No lasting relationships. No hope. Total destruction is the end.
That is what will happen to us if we allow pride to enter our hearts and we forget God and this is what happened to Israel. Turn to Hosea 13:4-6
4 Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.
5 I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
After all the warnings, when they were satisfied, they became proud and forgot God. They started to do things that were right in their own eyes. Now God starts to lay out all of the harms that the people have done against God. Let’s read some of the harms as God lays out his case.
Turn to Hosea 4:1-2
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
Now turn to Hosea 7:1-2
When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.
Now Chapter 10:4
They make many promises,
take false oaths
and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up
like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
Chapter 12:7-8
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
Chapter 13:1-2
When Ephraim spoke, people trembled;
he was exalted in Israel.
But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
2 Now they sin more and more;
they make idols for themselves from their silver,
cleverly fashioned images,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of these people,
“They offer human sacrifices!
They kiss[a] calf-idols!”
Sounds like our culture. Listen to this list from what we just read:
Swearing, deception, murder, stealing, adultery, violence, deceit, robbery, gangs, the practice perjury, enter contracts they don’t intend to keep, they drag people to court with all sorts of lawsuits, corporations are dishonest and take advantage of their costumers, people boast that their wealth places them above the law, They worship the works of their own hands just like we worship technology, and they offer their children in human sacrifices much like we do with pro-choice.
Oh my, what an indictment against Israel. We truly need to understand the importance of not becoming proud. Keeping humble before our God and teaching about Him to our children. Look how far Israel has fallen. What pain and hurt they must have been going through. Everyone doing what is right in their own eyes leads to all sorts of evil.
We are so often like Pinocchio. We encounter hardship from our sin and we say we will do what is right to avoid the hard punishment from our sin, but our heart is only to avoid the consequences, and as soon as the bad situation is past we are off again. Going further and further down the path of destruction.
There is a warning to all of us as Christians in this incredible book. To the new Christians be forewarned, Satan wants you back. You came to Christ in your desperate need. You were doing things in your own strength and way and found that you were not big enough to solve your situation. The band Switchfoot put it this way, “There ain’t no drug. There ain’t no drug. That can save me from myself.” We have a self-problem that we cannot solve. We need something so much bigger than ourselves. You realized that and choose God over self. The problem is, after we start following God, things start improving in our lives! How is that a problem? The problem lies in the fact that when we do what is right things go well for us and we start feeling good about ourselves. The hurt, pain and heartache that drove us to our knees in repentance are in the past. No need for God anymore. Pride rises in our hearts and the old habits return and off we go a whoring once more.
The Solution
It is the beginning of a new year where many make some New Year’s resolutions. The top resolution again this year is to lose weight. That is a good goal to lose weight and get more fit, but have we forgotten spiritual fitness? 1 Timothy 4:7-8 says, “But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
To become more godly certainly did not make the top 10 list of New Year’s resolutions! Have we forgotten God? Certainly Spiritual training is of far greater value. It has value for this life and for the life to come! Have we forgotten God?
So how do we avoid becoming proud and forgetting God? This is a series of lessons all to themselves, but to boil it down to a couple of the biggies; things that I encourage each one of you to make a resolution to do this year. Make them a habit within your lives. Here they are:
• To stay humble be a generous person. Help those who are in need. Help free the captives of this world that have been entangled in the deceptions and lies of this world. By thinking of others and touching others’ lives you will be in a position of humbleness. You will be the Hands and Feet of Jesus on this earth touching lives and restoring relationships.
• Second, to keep us from forgetting, be in God’s Word daily. George Washington spent one hour in the morning and one hour before bed each day in study and prayer. George Washington was a very busy man, but he made time to devote to God’s Word each day. Patrick Henry another founding father who gave the “Give me liberty or give me death” speech had this to say about Bible reading, "One of his neighbors going to see him found him reading the Bible. Holding it up in his hand, he said: 'This book is worth all the books that ever were printed, and it has been my misfortune that I have never found time to read it with the proper attention and feeling till lately. I trust in the mercy of Heaven that it is not yet too late." It was his habit to seat himself in his dining room every morning directly after rising, and read his Bible …" (Patrick Henry; life, correspondence, and speeches, Volume II, by William Wirt Henry, p. 519)
Bible reading and study are so important to me that I often challenge my children who have learned to read to read thirty minutes each day for the year and as a reward I will give them $100. Why do I do this? Because if they read every day for a year they will have a solid habit of scripture reading set for their lives. If you do not want to forget, if you want to know what is right, be in God’s Word reading and studying it daily.
If you make and keep these two resolutions, you will be on your way to a life that will stay humble and will not forget God!
Closing
Carlo Collodi told it right in his story of Pinocchio. Pinocchio was an obnoxious puppet, who would only do what was right when he had too. It was a long road for Pinocchio. Don’t follow that path. It was tough on Pinocchio and it was tough on Israel and it will be tough on you. Stay humble. Be in God’s word daily learning his ways. What you learn put into practice. Be sexually pure in your relationships. Be honest. Be kind. In your Bible reading each day read a chapter of Proverbs with it. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so whatever day of the month it is read that chapter.
As for us who are older in our walk with Christ. Keep diligent. Keep learning. Keep touching lives for Christ. We can still lose our focus. We can still become proud. As Paul tells us in I Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
In Hebrews 12:1-3 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, those who are young and old, keep going; throw off everything that hinders you. Remove the sinful attitudes that will entangle you feet from running the race. This is a long distance race and it takes perseverance. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. The gospel message is not just about salvation, it should be in the forefront of our thoughts every day of our lives as we consider what he endured to open the door for us to have our sins forgiven. What challenges in life do we have that even come close to comparing to what Christ did for us? Don’t lose heart. God loves us beyond measure, let us give Him our everything.
