Hosea 6:1

I've titled the message "Turn or Burn," but it could also be known as "Love, Grace, and Last Chances." We are going to see the love and grace of the Lord in His heart for His people, but we will also look at the reality that we are accountable. If you don't change, this is what will happen.

God, in His amazing grace, allowed Israel centuries of doing their own thing, always sending prophets to draw them back and warn them of the danger of putting other things above the one true God. Those things soon become idols, and you become a worshiper of an idol. That idol in your life has replaced the love of God, the one true God. We see this in this chapter.

First, we want to look at the love and grace of God. I would like to read from Isaiah 59:1-2, where we read, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is His ear heavy that it cannot hear." His ear is not heavy that He cannot hear. Don't ever say, "Well, God isn't going to listen to me." Try it. Talk to Him.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear. So draw near to Him. Call upon Him. Don't let this other stuff get in the way. God wants to restore and heal His people.

In the context of Israel, we are about 700 BC. At this particular time frame, we are towards the very end of the existence of the Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes that split off after Solomon's son, Rehoboam, listened to the counsel of his young friends rather than the wise counsel of the seniors.

That's a rabbit trail. I can't go on; I've got to stay in my lane. The people weren't loving mercy. They weren't walking humbly with God. They were going through religious motions, but their heart and lifestyle were self-centered. It was wicked and rebellious. The Lord saw it all.

Finally, this message from the prophet Hosea is that you're going to be held accountable. Open your eyes and open your heart. In the last verse of chapter five, he said, "I'm out of here. I'm going home. I'll return again to my place." In verse 15 of chapter five, it states that this will happen until they acknowledge their offense. They were going through the religious motions, thinking that sacrifices and offerings would appease God. But that's not what the Lord wanted; He wanted their hearts.

Because they were so stubborn, He warned them about where a hard heart ends up. Then they'll seek My face, and in their affliction, they'll earnestly seek Me. So just remember, God wants to bless you and me. He does so above what we could ask or even think. However, sometimes we have to be on guard, particularly in our Western culture. We need to be cautious of the blessings He gives us that can turn our hearts away from Him.

We can easily shift our attention from Him to our blessings. Sometimes, God reluctantly withdraws His hand of blessing so that we might once again seek Him. John Corson said about this, "The question becomes not why is God so hard, but why are we so dumb? Why can't we get it?"

God bless you all for being here this morning. You are not only attending church because it's Sunday, but you are here because the Word of God is being shared with you, and you want to draw closer to Him. If that's not where your heart is, you may as well leave now because you're just wasting your time.

But I trust that nobody got up. This is what we're here for, amen. Good Lord, thank you for opening our eyes, opening our hearts, and giving us ears to hear what you want to say to us.

As we look at the first three verses, we see such a beautiful section that stands on its own. However, we must consider the context of all of this. Is there a problem with this prayer? There is a blessing in it, but there is also a potential problem.

First, let's look at some of the blessings in it. Come, let us return to the Lord. Let's return to Him. He has torn, but He will lead us. He was stricken, but He will bind us up. Let us return to the Lord. This may be Hosea's prayer.

I am constantly amazed and overwhelmed by the love and grace of God. That a holy God would ever even bother to intervene in a sinner like me is absolutely astounding. It still blows my mind. I gave my life to the Lord in 1971, and as I look in the mirror in 2024, I ask, "Really? Why do you love me?" I am often a mess inside. Does anyone else feel this way? I am amazed at His grace.

We are often so torn and stricken. God sometimes uses shocking ways to get our attention and wake us up, and I am glad He bothers to do that. Remember His heart as He was teaching. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Maybe you're here this morning carrying some pretty heavy burdens. The Lord wants to lift those from you today, and He wants to guide your walk and guide your life.

So come to Him. If your lifestyle has been anything but what the Word of God teaches us, confess. Confess is a word that means to agree with, to agree with the testimony of another. The testimony of the other is that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the free gift of God, is eternal life in Christ Jesus. So confess your sins. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a sweet promise that is! He doesn't just forgive; He cleanses. He wipes it away.

Point number one: God remembers our sins until we confess them. He remembers them until we confess them, and then He forgets. He wipes it away, as far as the east is from the west, as we are told in Psalm 103. The New English Translation says, "as far as the eastern horizon is from the west." So He removes the guilt of our rebellious actions from us. He takes it away. Is that something you deserve? I don't deserve that, but that's His grace—undeserved, unmerited favor. And He says, "You're clean. Now walk in that cleanliness, the cleanliness that I have brought upon you."

Verse two states, "After two days, He will revive us, and on the third day, He will raise us up that we may live in His sight." Some commentators will look at that and suggest that Paul was looking back at this particular statement in 1 Corinthians 15 when he was talking about the resurrection. In verses three and four, he said, "For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." You could connect those together; that could certainly be a prophecy of the Lord's coming and His sacrifice for us.

On the cross, Jesus was torn and stricken for our sake. He took our sins upon Himself, and yet He was also gloriously raised up on that third day. Some see this as prophetic of the millennial reign of Christ, the thousand years that we read about in the Book of Revelation. They calculate that we have had two thousand years of church history, which they interpret as two days, because another scripture says a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. So, two days have passed, and now we are almost in the third day. This must mean that Jesus is coming back. I would say, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord, come quickly.

I asked the Lord, Maranatha, come quickly, 50 years ago. To me, it's been 50 years, but in God's timing, that is just a millisecond. Come on, let's get it on here! I think it's important for us, when we are looking at end times, to be balanced. Don't get too caught up in things. We may be in the third millennium, and maybe Jesus is about to come back, and boom, it's all going to happen. Maybe not; we might be here for a while.

We need to be about our Father's business while we're here, not just looking for the Antichrist or the rapture. We need to be looking at Jesus. Be careful of charts and timetables. A friend of mine once called it newspaper eschatology, where we try to fit everything going on in the news with prophecy. That can distract you from being the humble servant that God might call you to be.

So, we must keep our eyes and hearts on Jesus, not on the clock. More on that in a minute. Let us pursue. Let us know. Verse three: let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning. He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and the former

It'll be fruitful. The harvest will be there. This is what He wants. He wants us to know Him, that His people would know personally and relationally the God who loved them. Paul probably had this in mind when he encouraged the Philippians to diligently seek the Lord. He says, "I'm focusing on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."

He says, "Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things: to press on to know Him, to pursue Him." That's part of what you're doing this morning. But I pray you're doing it tomorrow morning, too. The joy of being together in fellowship should go with you wherever you're working or serving. If you're retired, it should accompany you wherever you go. Pursue the Lord, press into Him, and walk close to Him.

Gary Laughton, who pastors Calvary Chapel in Santee, once said that he wanted to walk so close to Jesus that he kept bumping into Him. He expressed a desire to have that kind of walk where Jesus is so close. However, what often happens to us, even with our blessings, is that we can begin doing this and that. I'm not saying we shouldn't be responsible for the things we need to be responsible for, but in our Western culture, we have so much to distract us.

Maybe it's the fruit of our wealth, the time we have, or the ease of life that we enjoy. It's easy to get caught up in all these other things. Jesus is walking, but we find ourselves back over here playing around, and then He goes around the corner. Where did He go? We need to get back close to Him.

Maybe that's what you need to do this morning: get back, get back close to Him. Confess. Even as you're sitting there, you can be asking the Lord to renew you and to forgive you.

You need to commit yourself to walking with Him. This is so important. However, the context of these verses could indicate more of a presumption than genuine repentance. I read this in the Old Life Application Bible. It said the people did not understand the depth of their sins. They didn't turn from idols, reject their sins, or pledge to make any changes. They thought that God's wrath might last a couple of days. Little did they know that their nation would soon be taken into exile. We are probably within 10, 15, maybe 20 years of the writing of this when the Assyrian Empire came in and wiped out the northern kingdom.

Remember that God was interested, but Israel was only interested in the material benefits that God would give them and the things that He provided. They didn't value the eternal benefits that come from worshiping Him. Before judging Israel, we need to consider our own attitudes. What do we hope to gain from our religion, from our Christianity? Do I repent easily without seriously considering what changes need to be made in my life? A lot of times, we are that way.

Your mom comes in and finds your hands stuck in the cookie jar. "What are you doing? You're grounded." "Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I won't do that again." Mom leaves the room, and back to the cookie jar you go. That's not repentance. Repentance is changing your direction completely. One day, you were going this way, and now you've changed. You were following the things of the flesh, and now you want to follow the things of the Spirit. True repentance is that change of direction.

It is really a lifestyle; it's not just something you do once. So, point number two: repentance is evidenced by a changed character, a manner of living that is always seeking to grow more and more like Jesus.

What was that tongue? Way back, I want more of Jesus. More and more and more. I want more of Jesus than I ever had before—more and more of His great love, rich and full and free. I want more of Jesus. I'll give Him more of me. And that's a great prayer. I want to give myself more and more to You, Lord.

But there was a problem. Now we get into perhaps why this was more presumptive on the lips of the people if they were saying this. They weren't really interested in having to change their lives. They were interested in maybe some of the problems they were having going away, but they weren't interested in really following hard after the Lord.

So the prophet says, "Oh, Ephraim," in verse four, looking at that whole northern kingdom and the Lord's heart, "Ephraim, what am I going to do with you? What shall I do with you? Oh, Judah, what am I going to do with you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and the earth with the early dew, it goes away."

How many of you were up early this morning when the fog was just settling all over? But sure enough, an hour later, the sun began to burn it off. How do you remember it? They were like the fog and dew that quickly burns off. They brought sacrifices and engaged in religious services, but those activities made no difference in the way they lived. They had a lot of religious training, a lot of knowledge, but it wasn't reflected in their character. God help us.

The reality was that they needed to return to the Lord with a whole heart or face judgment and destruction. The Lord is still speaking to them in verse five. He says, "I've hewn them by the prophets. You know, I've used the prophets who have come in, and there are stony hearts, and I've been knocking and chipping away. I've slain them by the words of My mouth."

And your judgments are like light that goes forth and exposes sin. I've worked with you people for so long, and what I desired from you all along was mercy. I wanted you to be a merciful people. I've been merciful to you, and I wanted you to show mercy to others. I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

Now, that doesn't mean that the sacrificial system wasn't what they were supposed to do back in the Old Testament; it was. But it was all to point them into a closer walk with the Lord. They just got hung up in the routines. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I desire the knowledge of Me, knowledge of God, more than burnt offerings. They kept on practicing religion without a personal relationship with the one true God. That's what the Lord is hungry for even now for each of us.

We don't have to bring bulls, lambs, turtle doves, and goats to sacrifice somewhere. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. That's what God is looking for in His people. If we're that way, then He can use us to help a hurting people. But if we're not broken inside over our sin, if we're not receptors of His mercy and walking in His mercy, then we're not going to be merciful to the folks outside.

Do you agree that we are in a very diverse culture right now? Most of it we would sometimes wish would stay outside and not come in here. But this is not meant to be our safe zone. This is our refueling station, if you will, because the real work is not coming to church on Sunday. The real work is practicing what you're learning here on Sunday when you go out. Amen. That's what God calls us to do.

So point number three is a simple one: information about God can never replace a relationship with God. It doesn't matter how much you know about God; it doesn't matter how much you know about the Bible. I mean, there are professors in seminaries that teach the Bible, they teach the Greek and the Hebrew, and all of the different ologies of theology.

Many of them don't have a personal walk with the Lord, a broken spirit, or a contrite heart. They have a lot of knowledge, but knowledge puffs up; love builds up. God doesn't want you to be brain dead. He wants you to think and to use the capacities that He has given you. However, He wants your character and how you handle those capacities to bring Him glory.

In Hosea, we hear the heartbeat of God saying, "Repent and return." But their hearts are far from God. Over and over in the prophecy of Hosea, we hear God saying, "I want your love; I don't want your duty. I want your love." The sacrifices were substitutes for obedience. God didn't want the Israelites' rituals if He didn't have their hearts. This theme has been repeated throughout Old Testament history.

I think of Samuel in First Samuel and his dealings with Saul, the first king of Israel. He had told them to go and wipe out the Amalekites and to destroy everything. When they returned, they had taken all kinds of plunder. They didn't obey the voice of the prophet. The people took of the plunder, the sheep, the oxen, and the best things that should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice to the Lord, your God.

Now, this is what Saul is saying. Samuel is calling him on the carpet, and Saul responds, "That's not my fault. The people took it, and we got the best stuff. We're going to sacrifice some of it to the Lord." Samuel wants to grab Saul by his beard and say, "Look at me. That's not what I told you. I didn't tell you to bring that stuff back. You just lusted after it."

Then Samuel said, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity."

Idolatry is a serious issue. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He is speaking to Saul when He says, "God has also rejected you from being king." So, don't mess with that stuff.

In the book of Amos, chapter five, it is written, "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Nor will you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings. I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream." This is what God is looking for in our lives.

As we have seen in the first six chapters, particularly the last three, the sin of Israel is being exposed and detailed. They rejected the knowledge of God and instead embraced the lies of idols. The same thing is happening all around the world today, as people everywhere reject the knowledge of the one true God and create substitutes that are lies.

Paul warned us in his letter to Timothy, chapter four. He said, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking

And their worship of Me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote. Because of this, I will once again astound these hypocrites with amazing wonders. The wisdom of the wise will pass away, and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear. What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their evil deeds in the dark. They say, "The Lord can't see us. He doesn't know what's going on." Did you ever do that? You think, "Oh, I'll just go do this. I know the Lord will forgive me later." Don't go there. He does know what's going on. He's omniscient. He knows exactly what's happening. You might be able to hide from me or your friends, but you can't hide from God. He knows. Don't play games with that.

Isaiah said, "How foolish can you be? He's the potter, and He is certainly greater than you, the clay." Should the created thing say of the one who made it, "He didn't make me"? Does a jar ever say, "The potter who made me is stupid"? But sometimes we act that way. There's another writer, Charles Feinberg, who said this: "God is requiring something deeper than the mere routine of sacrifice, bringing and sacrifice offering. It is easy to substitute the visible for the real." The Lord would have godliness first and foremost, but instead, they have been found to be covenant breakers.

Miles talked a lot about that a couple of weeks ago—shedders of blood and workers of iniquity. We read in verse seven, "But like men, they transgress the covenant; they dealt treacherously with Me. They willfully disobeyed." Gilead is a city of evildoers and defiled with blood. In verse nine, "As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem. Surely they commit lewdness." These were cities of refuge, places where the priests would teach the people the Word. They would provide the wisdom that was needed.

They would give fair judgment, but now they were just eating and enjoying all of the sacrifices of the sinful people. The more the people sacrificed, the more they filled their pockets. They didn't want to tell them to quit doing that because, if the people really got right with the Lord, they would be losing money. I think there could be parallels somewhere today, but if the shoe fits.

Down to today, there has been infidelity and unfaithfulness towards God. This infidelity and unfaithfulness have resulted in violence and danger to man. The entire social fabric is insecure when men turn their backs upon God and walk headlong to their own destruction. The northern kingdom of Israel, Ephraim, was beyond hope of human recovery. This is important as we kind of get to the end of this chapter. God calls Israel to repent, to turn from their idolatry, and to turn to the Lord. But they refused.

From the middle of chapter six through the end of chapter eight, it shows us that all of this was willful refusal. They just didn't want anything to do with the Lord. Miles pointed out in Hosea 4, that very sad verse 17, where Ephraim is joined to idols. They are married to idols. So let them alone. Let them alone. God was done with that spiritual, physical, as well as spiritual adultery that was taking place.

In verse 11, God says to Judah, "A harvest is appointed for you when I return the captives of my people." Harvest here implies a coming time of judgment. That's what He is talking about. The word means severed; it's a powerful word, severed or reaped. Judah was never very far from the prophet's mind, and here he is warning Judah to learn from the critical mistakes of her northern sister. He wanted to heal them.

Even chapter seven reminds us of that. Right at the first verse, it states, "When I would have healed them, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered in the wickedness of Samaria." I wanted to heal them, but the more I spoke to them, the more the ugliness of their prostitution was being poured out. I still think it's amazing that God wanted to heal them. How patient He was with them! They were so steeped in wickedness, and yet God still wanted to bring them back.

There were warnings and blessings if the people followed the Lord. Miles brought you to Deuteronomy several times as the basis. They knew what was right; they knew what was wrong. Yet, they willfully chose to do what was wrong. There was a warning: if you follow Me, this is what's going to happen. It was an if-then sort of situation. You're going to be blessed. You're going to walk close. God is going to be radiant through you. But if you choose to go your own way, it's going to be destructive—not only destroying yourself but everybody around you, too.

We're reminded way back in the beginning, in Genesis 6, when the Lord said, "My spirit shall not strive with man forever." The idea of that is that there's a point of no return in our rejection of God. Now, I'm kind of assuming that none of you are at that place yet because you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't even be a part of your mind. But perhaps a few of you have strolled in just because it's Sunday and you're going to church, yet you've got all kinds of wickedness going on. Maybe lying, maybe cheating, stealing, or hurting—any number of things. God wants to be the light that exposes that this morning.

I'm not going to point to anybody, but the Holy Spirit is good at pointing, isn't He? The Holy Spirit can indicate, "Okay, today's the day to deal with this. Don't put this off any longer." Point number four is that God will not woo us forever. There comes a point where He will say, "No more."

I know we live in an age of amazing grace, and I'm grateful for that. By grace, we are saved through faith, not of works, not of ourselves, lest we should boast. We're living in a time when Jew and Gentile alike can call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. So, if you haven't committed your life to the Lord, now is the time to do it. Don't put it off.

There is a reality. There was a reality for the Old Testament, and with the New Testament too, as you read all the way through, there is a reality of judgment. Judgment is coming to this fallen world. I know we look around, and there is so much craziness happening all around the world. We think surely this can't last much longer. Surely this nation, the ungodliness of our own nation, is going to be judged. How it's going to be judged, when it's going to be judged, I don't know. But I do know this: there is a judgment waiting.

There is a train heading for that bridge that's out, and there is nothing you can do to stop that train. You understand that? Judgment is happening. What we can do is get people off the train. We can run alongside and jump in. What must I do to be saved? Get off this train. Come to Jesus, because it's heading for a wreck. This is our job now, really.

Why are we here in America? Why are we free to believe in the Lord and follow after Him? Because the train is heading for judgment. Sin will be accounted for. If you come to Jesus, your sin was accounted for on the cross. You believe in Him, you're free, you're saved, and you're going to be with Him forever. Now you have a mission: help others to get off that train.

So that we can all walk close to Jesus and keep bumping into Him, right? That's where I know my heart is at this morning, and I pray yours is too. I want to wrap up with just a reading of a few verses; let them sink into your heart.

Isaiah 55:6-7 says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." What a blessing! Jeremiah said something similar: "Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Indeed, we come to You, for You are the Lord our God."

So let us search and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven. I want to ask the worship team to come back up at this time.

I learned something just this last Wednesday night at our Through the Bible study at Calvary San Diego. In 2 Chronicles 30:18-20, we read about a multitude of people during a revival that Hezekiah was bringing to the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom had already been taken into captivity after the time of Hosea; they were scattered everywhere by the Assyrians.

As this revival was happening in Jerusalem, a multitude of people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—tribes from the northern kingdom—came. These were refugees who had not yet cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers."

Though they were not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary, the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people. What blows my mind is that during the revival happening in Jerusalem, the sweet worship of the one true God, the Lord was still dealing with people from the north.

They were scattered, and they heard about it. People from these tribes, who were now exiles, came to worship. Maybe you've been like an exile, floating around in other places, and the Lord just wants you so badly.

Ephesians 2:4-5 says, "But God." How many of you are glad for that "but God"? But God intervened in your life. But God snatched you out of darkness. God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you have been saved.

We've heard of love and grace. We studied a little bit about last chances. I don't know if this is your last chance to get right, but I wouldn't mess with it. If you haven't been walking close to the Lord, today's the day to get back to walking closely with Him.

We would love to pray with you after we're dismissed. Several of the leaders in the worship team will be around here to pray for any of you that need prayer. You can commit your life to the Lord this morning. You can recommit your life to serving Him and to be the men and women that God has called in this day to this culture.

May God bless you richly and pour out His grace upon you. Cross Connection, love you guys. It's so good to be here with you this morning. Let's worship. Amen.