Judgment Booth
Hosea 8:1-4
Many of you are familiar with the term "Judgment House." This is the name of a Halloween season event put on by many churches that presents the need for salvation by previewing the horrors of a godless hell. This morning I want to twist that term slightly and talk about Judgment Booth.
Judgment Booth is a place designated to make Christians realize the horrors of an godless government and call them to holy living. Judgment Booth is almost upon us. Our Judgment Booth is the voting booth many of you will be visiting this Tuesday, November 7th.
As Christians, we have allowed ourselves to be deceived about out duty as citizens. We have allowed ourselves to be lulled into believing the lie of separation of church and state. We have even taken for our own the cliché never to talk about politics and religion.
There is an obvious double standard in the world of politics today. As your pastor I cannot legally stand in this pulpit and endorse a candidate. To do so would jeopardize the tax exempt status of this church. Yet, the Democratic Presidential Candidate has gone to nationally recognized African-American pastors and encouraged them to endorse him before their congregations. Could it be that he has assured them there would be no reprisal from his Justice Department or the Internal Revenue Service? I wonder what kind of media outcry there would have been if the Republican candidate for President had asked conservative pastors to endorse him to their churches?
There is a double standard, and I am afraid it has affected how we regard the election process as a whole. Many of us feel, as Jay Leno said, if God had intended for us to have elections He would have given us candidates!
Dr. Peter Marshall, author of "The Light and the Glory," believes this is one of the most important elections in our nation’s history. "We’re losing our religious liberties," said Marshall, "The Supreme Court is systematically chipping away at religious freedom in this nation, in the guise of individual rights, and this is at an extremely critical time."
As Christians we are accountable to God for the men and women we elect to serve in public office. If we continue to elect godless leaders and allow them to move our nation farther and farther away from God and His rightful service and worship, He will judge us accordingly. I can say this with authority because there was a time before when God’s people set ungodly leaders in office and brought God’s judgment upon themselves.
"1 Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
2 Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off." (Hosea 8:1-4).
I. The Call To Judgment
Hosea’s name means "God’s salvation", or "God has saved us." Hosea declares that God is going to bring judgment on His people, specifically, the nation of Israel, because they have failed to live up to their obligations under their covenant agreement with God.
He says the judgment has already been called for. The behavior of the nation has brought them to the point where they can expect nothing except the judgment of God to fall upon them. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, as I see our great country today, I see that we, too, stand on the threshold of the judgment of God. I see that we are at a place where we have rejected God. We know what God has called us to, and we know that what God’s Word says is right, and yet we allow our leaders, we allow our government to tells us it’s wrong, or to tell us we cannot do it.
We’ve let the leaders of this nation tell us that we cannot pray to God in school. Now, folks I believe that prayer, public prayer, and prayer in public places is a very important and crucial Christian liberty that we have. I’m of a mind as this, that if our Christian children were allowed to pray in school we would not be haunted by the demons that have attacked our schools in the last few years. I’m of a mind that if God’s children in school were allowed to publicly pray, that we wouldn’t have the turmoil and confusion that we have today.
Now, I know that there are some of you that say, wait a minute! If you let the Christians pray you have to let the Muslims pray and and you have to let the Buddhists pray. And I say, So What? Let them pray!
Do you remember on Mt. Carmel that the prophet of God stood up and challenged the false god and challenged the believers of the false god and said you pray to your god and I’ll pray to God and we’ll see which God answers!
Well, today the god of the humanists, the god of this world, is the god that’s answering because he’s the only one that they are allowed to call upon from the schools. But the call for judgment has come now. And not only has the call for judgment come now, but the cause for judgment is before us.
II. The Cause For Judgment
Look at the last part of verse number two. It says, "because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law."
God says that there is a legal, binding contract that I have with Israel and they have broken it. God says there is a covenant that I made and they have transgressed. Transgressed means to go beyond. They have stepped beyond the boundaries of the covenant. They knew what the covenant called for and yet they operated outside the covenant. He says they have trespassed against my laws. Literally, they have rebelled against my law. The cause for judgment, the reason that Hosea was able to call God’s judgment on Israel was because of their rebellion.
We, too, are a rebellious people. Any time that we take God out of our decision making process we are rebelling against God. God wants to be involved in everything we do. God wants to be a part of every decision that we make. God wants to be in control of every thought that we think, every word that we speak, every deed that we do. And when we take God out of any part of that we are in rebellion against God! And Hosea said the cause for the judgment is that very rebellion!
And I know that we are in a very awkward position when we talk about rebellion because . . .
A. Rebellion is man’s nature. We are a rebellious people.
If you don’t think I’m right, just think back to the time when you had little children, or if you’ve not been around little babies, just borrow my grandson for about 15 minutes and you’ll learn how rebellious people are.
To think that a child that cannot feed himself, that can barely stand by himself, that cannot dress himself nor clean himself will stand defiant when his loving, gray haired papa tells him no, and will do what he wants to do any way! It is our very basic nature to be rebellious.
Rebellion is not only man’s nature,
B. Rebellion is man’s choice. We cannot rebel unless we intend to rebel. We cannot defy God unless we intend to defy God. We cannot stand up and refuse to do what God has called us to do unless we do it intentionally. When we rebel against God we rebel by choice. And Hosea says it is this rebellion that brings about the judgment of God.
C. Rebellion leads to judgment. We had a conflict at the parsonage yesterday. We have a nightlight in the hallway. There is a reason for that nightlight being in the hallway, that’s so I can get up and get a drink of water during the night without bouncing off the walls and bumping into the furniture. There is a purpose for it being there. And I certainly don’t want that nightlight taken out.
My rebellious grandson decided that the nightlight shouldn’t be in the wall outlet. Maybe he thinks that in the daytime you don’t need it, and it shouldn’t be there. But he’d reach over to take it out of the outlet. And he caught my attention before he did. And that’s what really hurts. He waits until he know that I am watching him before he reaches for it. And as he reaches for it, I holler, "Jake, no!" And he looks at me. He’s got this really neat little grin that he has that means I hear no, but I’m going to do it anyway. And he reaches for the nightlight again. I go over to him and tell him again, "Jake, no, no!" And he stills looks up and grins and reaches for the nightlight. I take Jake’s little hand and swat his hand, and he begins to pout because he doesn’t understand why he can’t have his way. He wants the light out. Why can’t he just take the light out and let it go at that? If I let him have his way, as far as he’s concerned, everything will be fine.
As Christians, though, we are just like that. God tells us we can’t have something; we reach for it; God raises His voice and says, "No, you can’t have that."
Maybe we are like Jake. Maybe we don’t understand the danger. You see, Jake doesn’t know that if he pulls that nightlight half-way out, and the prongs are still in the wall socket, and he touches those prongs he might loose his life. He doesn’t understand that.
And maybe there are some areas in our life that God has told us no, and we don’t understand the potential of destruction from the sin. We are so excited about grabbing hold, we are so excited about doing what we want to do that we don’t realize the danger that is involved. As we reach again, just as Papa says no a little louder, God says no a little louder; and just as Papa has to come over, take the hand and swat the hand, sometimes God has to take us by the hand and swat our hand. Sometimes the judgment of God comes upon us because we are a rebellious people.
The cause for judgment is rebellion. And here we see the cry from judgment.
III. The Cry From Judgment
I love this part. Look at verse number 2. "Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee."
Israel is in the midst of judgment. They are being chastened by God. They are soon to be taken away by the Assyrians, to be led off into captivity. What worse chastisement could a nation endure than that they be taken away from their homes, separated from their families, and taken to a godless nation? And now God says when that happens they’ll call out to me, "My God, we know you," as if simply knowing God is enough to prevent the calamity that is about to come to them.
Sometimes we think the same way. We think that God won’t allow something bad to happen to us because "we know Him." We know God, and since we know God, He certainly wouldn’t let bad things happen to us. But we fail to recognize, maybe we know God but we are not being obedient to God! Maybe we know God be we are not serving God! Maybe we know God but we really don’t love God! Matthew Henry asks, "What stead will it stand in to say, My God, I know thee, if we cannot say, My God, I love thee, serve thee, and cleave to thee only?"
Friends, let me tell you something about the judgment of God. First of all . . .
A. The judgment of God is certain. When God sets a penalty, that penalty will be met. When God demands a behavior, that behavior will come about, or terrible chastisement will come. God will always chasten those that He loves if they are disobedient or rebellious toward Him.
We think, sometimes, that the chastisement of God means that God doesn’t love us. But quite the contrary, it proves that God does love us because He wants stop us before sin consumes us. He wants us to quit our bad behavior and move back into good behavior. He wants us to quit being rebellious, not serving Him, and turn back to loving, serving, and worshiping Him. And that’s why the judgment of God comes. Not only is it certain . . .
B. The judgment of God is unavoidable. When God demands a price, that price will be paid.
Now, I know some of you are thinking "I got saved, I didn’t have to pay the price." Wait. I said when God demands a price, that price will be paid. Those of you that have trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you know that you don’t have to pay your sin debt, why is that? It’s because Jesus Christ paid that debt for you. So that price that God demands has already been met. You didn’t have to pay it; God Himself paid it for you. But when God demands a price, that price will be paid.
Now, here’s something else about the judgment of God. As harsh as it may seem: O, God, how could you take a nation, a people, away from their homeland; how could you take these people away from house they built and gardens they tilled and families they raised and carry them off, and it seems so unfair. But listen, folks . . .
C. The judgment of God is always fair. God, in fact, is the only judge who can judge fairly. God is the only judge who can judge honestly. So, the decision He makes is a perfect decision and a holy decision.
And I fear that when God calls His judgment down on the United States of America, although we will cry, although we will bemoan our great nation, I fear that we will be facing a true, a just, and a fair judgment.
Let’s move on. Let’s move on to verses number 3 and 4 because I want to show you . . .
IV. The Case For Judgment
The reason that judgment has to come. In verse number 3, "Israel hath cast off the thing that is good." That’s what the King James says. Now, if you have the New King James, NIV, NASB or some other translation, you don’t have these words "the thing that is." Your translation may just say "Israel has cast off good."
And that’s an accurate translation. That’s exactly what Israel had done. Whatever was good, they had turned their back on. Whatever was right, whatever was fair, they turned away from that.
You remember in the book of 1st Thessalonians Paul warns those at Thessalonica not to do that. He tells them see than none render evil for evil, but follow that which is good; he tells them to prove all things and hold fast that which is good; he tells them to abstain from all appearance of evil. (1 Thes. 5). But Israel hasn’t done that. They knew what was good. They knew what was right, yet they turned their back on it anyway.
Then, back to verse number three, God says, "the enemy shall pursue him." That’s the reason that they will be taken out. Then in verse number 4, God says, "They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not." To me, that almost describes the political process that we have today. We have elected officials to office, never once offering up a prayer for them, never once asking God to give us wisdom. Instead of saying, "God give me wisdom to choose the candidate You would have me choose, God, give me wisdom to vote for the person you would have me vote for," instead, we say, "God, bless my decision. God, bless the person I chose." But folks, that’s not the way God operates.
We must seek God’s will. We cannot set up kings and princes, we cannot set up governors and presidents, we cannot set up local politicians, we cannot vote people into office without asking God for wisdom. And I’m going to tell you why: we don’t know how to vote. We do not know what God knows. And if we seek God’s wisdom and let God direct our vote, then we will elect men and women that He has ordained and that He has approved and who will honor Him in that office.
What we see next, though, is even worse, and that is the idolatry that is involved. "of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off."
I know, the first thought that runs through your mind is that we don’t do that; we don’t make idols; we don’t fashion icons to set on altars in our homes and bow down before them; we don’t go out in the back yard and set up a grove of trees and build an altar and set our little silver and gold gods on them.
No we don’t. We are so calloused and so crass that we don’t even do that. We set our gods up in our hearts and bring them with us everywhere we go. We’ve let the god of prosperity rule us; we’ve let the god of prosperity tell us who we should vote for. We’ve let the promise of a tax cut, or a rebate, or medical care, or whatever decide for us who we would put in the position of leadership.
We have set up idols of our own, nonetheless. We may not worship them publicly, we may not make an outward show, but deep inside we are as idolatrous as any nation has ever been. One writer has said . . .
A. Idolatry conforms to society. Our society worships recreation, our society worships pleasure, our society worships prosperity, so our idols are in their image. Our idols are idols that we hook up to the ball joint on the back of our pick-up and take down to the lake with us on the Lord’s Day.
Our idols are the things that we save and store up in the bank and the safety deposit box. Those have become our idols because that is what society today holds dear.
B. Idolatry worships the creature rather than the Creator. When a person falls into idolatry they are worshiping the created thing instead of the Creator.
Just as the Old Testament talks of the craftsman who would go out to the woods and search for just the right tree, and when he found the tree that pleased him he would cut the tree down and strip off the branches and he would drag the log back to his shop. From that log he would take those pieces of wood that were usable for him, for his livelihood, that would support his family, and then from the scraps he would carve out an idol and he would worship that created thing.
And we have begun to worship the things that we have created; the prosperity that we have built; the homes we have built; the fine cars we drive. We have begun to idolize those rather than the One who gives us strength that we might work, the One who gives us the abilities to earn a living, the One that saves us and calls us to His side.
There is not denying it; there is no way around it . . .
C. Idolatry is rejection of God. If we put anything before God, we have rejected Him. Anything. Anything. Self. Family. Pleasure. Clothes. Job. Anything. O, folks in so many ways, and so many times we have rejected God.
Hosea shows us the call for judgment. The time is come. Judgment is here. The eagle is here. The instrument of judgment is come.
He tells us the cause for judgment and that is the rebellion that man has.
He gives us the cry from judgment: God we know you. We don’t love you; we don’t honor you; we don’t worship you; we don’t serve you but we know you.
He tells us the case for judgment. Idolatry upon idolatry.
But listen, now. How many of you have read the book of Hosea? A few. Okay. Great. Hosea is a really gloomy book. I won’t go into all the details but the prophet of God is instructed by God to do some very degrading things to emphasize to Israel how from away from God they are, and to show them that the judgment of God is coming and there is nothing they can do to head off that judgment except . . .
The book of Hosea is 14 chapters long and you have 13 chapters of gloom and doom. And if the 14 chapter of Hosea had never been written it would be terrible indeed. But the 14 chapter of the book of Hosea gives us . . .
V. The Cure For Judgment
Hosea explains to Israel the cure for the judgment that is coming upon them and I share with you this morning the cure for the judgment that America most certainly faces.
Hosea Chapter 14:1 "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity."
O Israel. Let me rephrase that, O, America. Let me change that again, O, God’s people return unto the Lord thy God; for thou has fallen by thine iniquity.
Isn’t that simple? Isn’t that the way God does things? When things are so far out of hand that we can’t do anything; when things are so far out of control that we are at our wits end, God gives us something so simple to do. Return to thy God.
God’s challenge to Israel was return to your God. God’s challenge to America is return to your God. God’s challenge to Christians today is return to your God.
You know what returning to God is, don’t you? Simply put it is repentance. We think that repentance is some long drawn out process, some great, hard thing to do. But listen, folks, it’s as simple as this. Repentance is as simple as turning to God and walking away from your sin. It’s as simple as making a change in direction. And do you know what the great part about it is? The Holy Spirit in you gives you the wisdom to recognize that you are going away from God and towards sin. The Holy Spirit in you gives you the wisdom to know to turn around and go back to God. The Holy Spirit in you gives you the strength to forsake your sin and turn to God. The Holy Spirit is our cure for judgment.
If we will let the Holy Spirit rule our life, if we’ll let Him have charge of everything we do, if we’ll let Him have charge of every thought that we think, every word that we speak, every action that we take, the Holy Spirit of God will be our cure for judgment.
Listen, I want you to know that God’s judgment comes on God’s people when they turn their back on God and face some other idol, some other god, whether it be a god of prosperity, a god of good times, or a graven image that they kneel down before. And when God’s people do that God brings judgment.
But if God’s people will turn back to their God, God will forgive them and deliver them.
Tuesday you are being called on to make some very important decisions. When we don’t walk hand in hand, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder, step for step with God we don’t know how to make that decision. We have let prosperity in this nation, comfort for ourselves and our families, so blind us that we are not qualified to make moral decisions.
Tuesday you are being called upon to make moral decisions. Is it right to take the life of a defenseless, unborn baby? Yes or no? Is it right to give special privilege to homosexual men and women? Yes or no?
Don’t vote your pocketbook. Don’t vote your party. Don’t vote at all until you talk to God and He tells you how to vote. When we repent, turn to God, and let God make our decisions, the world sees it. This coming Tuesday would be a great time for us as a people to show the world that we have repented from the ways of this world, turned ourselves back to the Lord, and that we are trusting Him and depending on Him.
We can demonstrate our repentance and desire to be obedient to God by seeking His will this week as we step into the Judgment Booth.
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Preached at Patterson Baptist Church
11-5-00 by Pastor Don Hutto
