It says here in verse number one,
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.
Now, I'm not really preaching here on verse one so much,
but I would say this, that if you're a preacher out there,
you could take verse one and make a three-point sermon,
and see that God is angry because there's no truth, no mercy, no knowledge.
You know, oftentimes in the Bible, it kind of outlines itself into sermons,
and you know, you guys can steal that sermon, okay, in the future.
You got a three-point sermon there because I'm already preaching through Hosea 4,
so that's like years from now when I'm going to preach on that.
But the Bible kind of outlines itself here,
but the point in verse one is this, God is angry, okay?
God is angry, there's no truth, there's no mercy,
and there's no knowledge in the land of Israel.
Now, what is the result of this?
Well, the result of this is sin is going to increase.
So point number one is this, sin increases.
Sin increases, meaning when you have a little bit of sin,
it will become a lot of sin.
It spreads very quickly.
Notice what it says in verse two.
By swearing and lying and killing and stealing
and committing adultery, they break out,
and blood toucheth blood.
Now, sometimes we read these verses,
and you know, we don't really focus really closely on what's being said,
but when you look up what is being said here,
when you cross-reference this phrase, they break out,
it's gonna help you understand what's being said.
So notice what it, go to Exodus 22, Exodus 22.
Let's look up this phrase, break out, throughout the Bible.
Break out.
Because what it says is swearing, lying, killing,
stealing and committing adultery, they,
all of those things, they break out.
Basically, swearing breaks out.
Lying breaks out.
Killing breaks out.
Stealing breaks out.
Committing adultery breaks out.
Well, what does that even mean?
Well, notice what it says in Exodus 22, verse six.
If fire break out and catch in thorns
so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn
or the field be consumed therewith, okay?
To be consumed means it completely gets covered in fire
and gets destroyed, right?
So what it's saying is fire breaks out, fire starts
and eventually it will consume everything.
And isn't it true we use the expression
spreads like a wildfire?
All it takes is a little bit of flame
and you want a fire can just spread all over the place.
You know, if you've ever paid attention
in the last couple of years in California,
they've had some fires that just got started
and they had the best crew in the world
to try to get rid of those fires and it took weeks.
They had to kind of just let it do what it wanted
because you know, here's the thing,
you're gonna die when you got a wildfire,
that out of control if you try to stop it.
And pretty much you stop once it's consumed everything,
right?
They do the best they can to just put it out
but it's really impossible.
And see, when it's saying fire breaks out,
it's saying it starts small and it just spreads rapidly.
And see, that is what Hosea was talking about
when sin breaks out, it starts small and it spreads.
Now go to Leviticus 13, Leviticus 13.
Leviticus chapter 13, Leviticus 13.
You know, the New Testament talks about
how the tongue is a fire, it's a world of iniquity
and the context is saying that basically
your tongue can start with like small problems
and it becomes like a wildfire that spreads everywhere.
Fires spread very rapidly.
Once they start, it becomes massive.
You know, sometimes you read about
these major fires that take place.
Near my grandmother, they had a big fire a few years ago
and I was actually living with my parents
which is just a couple miles away at the time.
And you could smell the fire, you know,
two weeks after it had happened.
You could just smell the smoke just still in the air.
And they said it started because somebody was camping
and threw like a match out.
Like they were smoking a cigarette or something
or they threw a match or a cigarette
and that started a wildfire.
It doesn't take much and yet it just spreads.
And that's what the Bible's saying about sin.
Leviticus 13 verse 12.
And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin,
leprosy breaks out.
It starts and the leprosy cover all the skin.
See, notice how leprosy just starts
to break out a little bit and then immediately,
the same verse, it's covering all the skin, okay?
It can start small and it can spread rapidly.
And leprosy in the Bible is literally uncleanness
but it's also a picture symbolism of sin.
And see, leprosy breaks out and you know what, so does sin.
Sin in your lives, sin in my life,
sin in the life of a country, sin in the life of a church.
It starts small and it spreads like a wildfire.
Go to Isaiah chapter 35.
Isaiah 35, Isaiah 35.
I think tonight I'm gonna be competing
with all the music and the partying going on
with this New Year's celebration.
I'll do my best to out-preach them
and be as loud as I can, you know, I'll do my best.
So Isaiah 35 verse six, Isaiah 35 verse six.
It's funny because, you know, people think,
man, this is so entertaining, partying,
like this is the most entertaining thing
you could be doing tonight.
Hearing the word of God, I mean, this is interesting to me.
Like honestly, this chapter is probably the most interesting
in the book of Hosea.
When I was looking at it, I was like, man,
it's really interesting when you're paying attention
to exactly what God is trying to tell us here.
Isaiah 35 verse six, then shall the lame man leap
as in heart and the tongue of the dumb sing
for in the wilderness shall waters break out
and streams in the desert.
So waters break out, streams in the desert,
in the wilderness, notice the next verse,
and the parched corn shall become a pool
and the thirsty land springs of water.
What it's saying is an area with no water,
an area that is barren, no water whatsoever,
and it becomes a pool.
It becomes filled with water.
It breaks out, it starts small, and it becomes big.
Has anybody ever watched tsunami videos on YouTube
that happened either here or in Japan
or some of these countries where you'll see people
that they don't know what's coming, right?
You'll see this wave come,
and then people are kind of a little bit afraid,
and then all of a sudden that water spreads quickly,
doesn't it?
And people have no hope, right?
It just breaks out a little bit,
and you would think you could outrun it,
and then all of a sudden that water's just like boom,
and it's covering everything instantaneously, right?
And see, that's what the Bible's trying to tell you
about sin in Hosea four.
Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter five,
1 Corinthians chapter five, 1 Corinthians five.
Now this is true in our personal lives,
and I'll make that application,
but the direct application is in a country,
and what the Bible's saying is that the nation of Israel,
I mean, they started godly.
They were God's people.
They were chosen by God.
They were given a special blessing from God,
and sin started to come, sin started to break out,
and it just spread like crazy,
and then it was all over the country.
The sins of swearing and lying and killing and,
I mean, stealing, committing adultery,
those are some big sins, right?
1 Corinthians five, notice what it says in verse one.
Obviously in 1 Corinthians five,
we're in the context of a local church
and sin that is spread in a local church,
and it says, it is reported commonly
that there is fornication among you,
and such fornication as is not so much
as named among the Gentiles,
that one should have his father's wife,
and what it's saying is there's fornication
taking place in the church,
but it's so bad that the world's not doing it,
that a man should have his father's wife.
Now, I'm assuming that the father's remarried, okay?
I'm assuming it's not his mom that it's referring to,
but look, that's disgusting, that's sick, right?
Verse two, an ear puffed up and have not rather mourned
that he that hath done this deed
might be taken away from among you.
For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit
have judged already as though I were present
concerning him that hath so done this deed.
Paul's saying this has gotten so bad,
I wasn't even there to know about the situation.
I was absent in body,
and yet I can make a complete judgment right now.
It's like I don't need to hear all the sides.
Like people have this idea
that when there's a problem in the church
and before somebody gets kicked out,
they need 57 chances,
and you need to set up like a court system,
and you'll have like the prosecution and the defense.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Paul says I wasn't even there for the situation,
but Paul knew about it.
And since it was so known and everybody knew about it,
Paul says I've already made a judgment.
It's already done.
There's too many witnesses for them all to be lying.
You know what I mean?
I mean, you might be able to come up
with one false witness,
but when you got like 25 people telling,
hey, Paul, it's like, okay,
you can pretty much assume that, hey,
it's like Paul's like, on Facebook,
I see that he's out on a date with his father's wife.
It's like, okay, you got evidence, right?
Verse number four.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when ye are gathered together in my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to deliver such an one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
You say, Brother Stuckey,
why is it that the Bible teaches
church discipline sometimes?
Well, here's the reason why in verse six.
Your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Now, the whole lump is referring
to the local church in this context.
And what it's saying is a little sin in the church
will spread to everybody.
Now, look, we're not talking about like,
you got caught listening to rock music.
Oh, tell Brother Stuckey this.
No, that's not what we're talking about.
In the context, we're talking about major sins
that the Bible specifically states.
And they're major sins.
And eventually, you know what?
That will spread to everybody.
Because I'm sure some people in the church of Corinth said,
this has to be dealt with and it's not being dealt with.
And they were angry about that.
And then it taught others,
well, I guess it's not that big of a deal.
And when we have young kids growing up in a church,
when you have major sin and it isn't dealt with,
what you're indirectly teaching those young kids is,
it's not that big of a deal.
It's okay to commit these sins.
You won't be judged.
You won't be held accountable.
But look, that is not what the Bible teaches, okay?
Notice what it says in verse seven.
Purge out there for the old leaven,
that you may be a new lump as you're unleavened.
For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
What Paul is saying is, kick out that person
that's committing that bad sin.
Now, I want you to realize, when it comes to this situation
where somebody has to get kicked out of church,
you know what, the last person you should be concerned with
is the person getting kicked out.
The concern is the entire lump.
It's like if you got an infection in part of your body
and it's just like, man, you're worried
it's gonna spread to everything, right?
And Paul's saying, I'm concerned about this church
because it's a soul-winning church, it's a godly church,
and this sin is destroying that entire church.
And look, the same thing is true when it comes
to our church, if there's ever a situation in the future,
you know what, you ought to be concerned about,
you should be, praise the Lord,
that this church was spared from this wicked sin
that's spread in the church, okay?
Now, turn in your Bible to Hosea chapter four.
Hosea four, Hosea four.
You say, why is this?
Well, because sin increases.
That's why it's a big concern.
Sin increases, and here's the thing about this.
You know, the Bible actually gives us guidelines
for things such as church discipline,
so we don't have to try to guess,
well, what sin will get you kicked out of church, right?
Well, the Bible gives us a template.
Here's a verse as you're turning to Hosea four
where it says, but shun profane and vain babblings,
for they will increase onto more ungodliness.
See, the Bible's saying sin will increase.
That's what it's teaching in Hosea chapter four.
That's what happened in the nation of Israel.
Swearing was breaking out, it became everywhere.
Lying was breaking out, killing was breaking out,
stealing was breaking out,
committing adultery was breaking out,
to the point where the Bible says blood touches blood.
You say, what is that trying to teach you?
You have to picture this in your head
to understand what God's trying to tell you, okay?
Now, look, I know this is not the most pleasant thought
in your head, but I want you to understand
what God's trying to tell you,
because this is what the Bible's teaching here in Hosea.
Imagine somebody got killed in a very brutal way,
and there was like a pool of blood surrounding them, okay?
Because one of the things mentioned was killing,
and this is kind of symbolism.
It's not literal that there's blood everywhere,
but basically, there's one murder,
but there's so many that blood is touching blood.
Basically, the land is covered in blood is what it's saying,
and it's saying there's so much killing,
there's so much lying, there's so much swearing
that every single place you go, it's there.
There's nowhere where you can go
where you don't see that blood
just touching blood everywhere.
It's everywhere you go, and look,
even in the house of God during this time period,
they weren't right with God.
There's sin, there's fornication, there's adultery,
there's lying, there's stealing,
everything all throughout the land.
Man, I wonder why God said I've gotta start over.
Should it be shocking to us when he's saying
this was the state of the nation of Israel at this time?
Of course he had to start over.
Notice what it says in verse three.
Point number one is sin increases.
Point number two, sin injures.
Sin increases and sin injures.
Verse three, therefore shall the land mourn.
See, the result of this sin is the land is crying out
because the land has been injured due to the sin.
It's caused a lot of harm.
They've lost their wealth.
They've lost all the blessing they had from God.
And everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish.
You say, Brother Stuckey, what does languish mean?
It means to grow weak.
It basically means something that's strong
becomes very weak, okay?
Have you ever seen professional athletes
that took a lot of steroids?
And then like 10 years later, they're off the juice, right?
They're no longer injecting themselves
because that's gonna kill you at a young age.
Because you see these athletes that are on these steroids
and they die when they're like 40 years old.
Like all these bodybuilders,
they die when they're like 40 years old, 45 years old.
These professional wrestlers that are like
pumped full of painkillers and steroids,
they always die when they're like
in their late 30s or 40, right?
They die of a heart attack.
And you know, when you're young,
you think that these people are in like the greatest shape
because they're ripped, they're strong.
In reality, they're in terrible shape, right?
But you'll see some of these people that survive
and like 10 years after they're retired,
they go from being really muscular
to just becoming very weak, right?
Now there's an example I wanted to give you.
I thought about this because you know,
I'll admit my faults one to another.
When I was a kid, I loved professional wrestling, right?
I used to watch professional wrestling
that's really big in the US and everything.
There's this one wrestler that really made me
think about this and his name was Lex Luger.
Has anyone ever heard of Lex Luger?
Brother June, don't be embarrassed, brother, right?
I know Lex Luger too, right?
I remember I was a kid and you know,
Lex Luger beat Hulk Hogan.
Some of you might know that person.
I was like so excited and everything as a kid.
But Lex Luger was known as like the strongest wrestler.
Like he did this move where he put somebody on your back,
they called it the torture rack,
which I've learned it's actually not harmful
because my kids, they love it when I put them on the back
and everything like that.
But he's known as like the strongest guy, okay?
Now, he ended up getting on all these painkillers
and drugs and he almost died.
He actually, and I don't know if he got saved or not,
but he's actually an independent fundamental Baptist today.
So all of this sin in his life,
this is why I wanted to give this example.
It destroyed his life, but he has a testimony of salvation.
He's an independent fundamental Baptist.
So hey, praise the Lord if you had to lose everything
to get saved, right?
But you can see pictures of him now
and he's very frail and weak.
I mean, he's only probably in his early 50s.
This was the strongest guy 15 years ago.
He looks like he's in his 80s.
He's really weak now because the drugs destroyed his body.
That's what the Bible's saying when it says languishes.
Basically someone who's really strong and then destroyed
and that's what happened to the nation of Israel.
They were strong, they were prosperous.
They had every gulai, every fruit imaginable,
everything they want, all the calamansi,
like everything they wanted, all the avocados,
they were doing great.
And then all of a sudden, they just had sin that came in
and their land was completely destroyed.
It grew weak.
They became nothing.
They became poor, okay?
That's what the Bible's saying here.
It says therein shall languish with the beasts of the field
and with the fowls of heaven.
Yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
So the Bible's saying the beasts and the fowls are the birds
and the fishes are mourning and crying out as well.
You say why?
Because when the land is devastated,
it will affect the animals also, right?
I mean, there's a lot of animals that are vegetarians
and the reality is if there's nothing to eat, guess what?
Their lives are gonna be destroyed.
The whole land is mourning as a result of sin, okay?
We're talking about the devastation of sin here tonight.
Sin will injure you.
Verse four, yea, yet let no man strive nor approve another
for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
Therefore, shalt thou fall in the day.
When it says fall in the day,
that is a reference to dying, okay?
And the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night
and I will destroy thy mother.
Now, what he's referring to here is the children of Israel.
So when he's saying I'll destroy thy mother,
he's saying I'm going to destroy the nation of Israel, okay?
That's the context of I'm gonna destroy your mother.
He's not saying your individual mom is gonna be destroyed.
He's saying the nation of Israel is gonna be destroyed
because the nation of Israel hoard around on God
and created these offspring, these children
and everything's gonna be destroyed.
That's what the Bible's saying here, okay?
Verse seven, verse six.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge
because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me.
Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
As they were increased, so they sinned against me,
therefore will I change their glory into shame.
Now, we're gonna talk about verses six and seven
here at the end of the sermon,
but what we're seeing here is number one, sin increases.
You start with a little bit of sin
and it spreads like a wildfire.
The result of that is sin will injure.
If you have sin in your personal life,
it will literally destroy your life.
It will injure you.
You say, what are you talking about?
Well, I'm talking about Samson day after day
just fornicating.
What was the end result?
He lost his eyes, literally.
Sin will destroy your life.
Or what about if somebody drinks and does drugs
and they smoke all the time?
What's gonna happen to them?
Let's check them 20 years down the road, right?
Their lives are gonna be destroyed.
It's injuring, it's destroying their body.
That sin will destroy their body.
Or what about, the Bible says that
when you commit fornication, you sin against your own flesh.
The Bible says there's actually something built in
about that sin where you're actually sinning
against your own body.
You're actually injuring your own body.
Now look, we don't necessarily know exactly how that works,
but that's what the Bible teaches.
If you remember a long time ago,
I talked about the basketball player, Will Chamberlain,
who died when he was in his early 60s.
And I read this article from a doctor
because this was the greatest, in my opinion,
the greatest athlete in the 20th century, bar none.
He was the greatest athlete in the 20th century,
fantastic shape, when he was in his 50s.
Still lifting 400 pounds, running marathons,
running a five minute mile, just in tremendous shape.
And then he died when he was around 60 years old
and everyone was shocked.
And then the doctor was going through all of the symptoms
and it said there was no genetic problems from his parents.
And then at the end, and it said it was due to an infection
is the only way this could have spread,
and he said the only evidence we have is this,
that it probably came as a result of the fact
that he committed fornication by his own admission.
I can't remember how much it was, 10,000 times
or 100,000 times, something ridiculous.
By his own admission, he wanted to set the record
for sleeping with the most people, right?
And then the doctor said, the moral of the story,
this is a doctor that casual encounters
or something like that has a price.
Basically, sin injures is what he was saying, right?
And that was from a doctor.
I read that article, if you remember,
and that was from a doctor that was not
from an independent fundamental Baptist.
And yet, the Bible teaches the same thing,
that when you fornicate, you sin against your own body.
Sin injures.
Notice what it says in Hosea four, verse eight.
Point number one, sin increases.
It starts small, and then it breaks out
and spreads like a wildfire.
The result of that is sin is going to injure.
Point number three, though, sin innovates.
Sin innovates.
Now, I want you to realize innovation
is similar to invention, but it's not quite the same thing.
You can think of it as invent,
but invent is when you basically make something brand new.
Innovate is when you kind of take something
and kind of upgrade it or change it to a degree.
The words are pretty closely linked.
But sin innovates.
You say, what do you mean by that?
Notice what it says in verse eight.
They eat up the sin of my people,
and they set their hearts on their iniquity.
What the Bible's saying in verse eight is that when,
and this is in reference to a nation,
but to an individual, it's true as well,
that when you're committing sin,
what will happen is you will end up
setting your heart on that sin.
It will cause you to start enjoying it.
It will cause you to want to commit
more and more and more sin.
It actually makes an innovation a change to your heart.
See, you might think it's no big deal if I commit this sin.
I know it's wrong, but I'm not gonna do it again,
and then it's gonna be done.
Here's the problem.
You're gonna end up setting your heart on that iniquity.
It's gonna make an innovation,
and all of a sudden, the next day,
not only is there that sin you gotta worry about,
but now you wanna do something else.
Why?
Because once you start living a sinful life,
it will increase, it will injure you,
and it will cause an innovation
where you're gonna start to desire new things
that are wrong that you didn't desire before.
Notice what it says in verse nine.
And there shall be like people, like priests,
and I will punish them for their ways
and reward them their doings.
For they shall eat and not have enough.
They shall commit whoredom and shall not increase
because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.
Verse 11, whoredom and wine and new wine
take away the heart.
Now, here's sins that are being mentioned here,
whoredom and wine and new wine,
and it says what these sins do is they take away the heart,
and it causes you on the inside
to not desire the things of God.
You know, see, tomorrow morning,
everyone here is gonna wake up and do what?
Read your nine chapters, right?
Our New Testament Bible reading challenge.
But I'll tell you what, you know the quickest route
to not finishing your New Testament Bible reading challenge?
Allow a little bit of sin in your life.
Because, you know, when you have sin in your life,
you know what takes place?
You don't desire to read the Bible.
Now, look, the truth is this.
All of us have some days
where we're more right with God than others.
And the truth is, when you're right with God,
don't you wanna read the Bible?
Don't you wanna come to church?
Don't you wanna go soul winning?
How about when you're not right with God?
Do you feel like reading the Bible?
I don't, right?
When I know I'm not as right with God
as I am at other times, it's a chore to read the Bible.
But, you know, when you're right with God, it's not a chore.
It's actually fun.
See, the Bible's saying here in verse 11
that whoredom and wine and new wine,
they can take away the heart.
They can cause you to no longer desire the things of God.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I love this church.
I love the soul winning, I love the preaching,
I love the zeal, my old church wasn't like this.
Yeah, that's great, but I'll tell you what,
if you allow sin in your life,
it's gonna cause an innovation
where it's gonna change the desires of your heart.
And you're no longer gonna love this church that much.
Even though the church is not gonna change.
I'm not planning to change anything.
I don't plan to tone it down over the next 25 years.
But the reality is that if we allow sin in our lives,
it will cause us not to enjoy the things of God as much.
I don't know about you, but I've known times in my life
where I really felt like I was right with God.
I was reading the Bible, going soul winning,
just thinking about the things of God.
And at those times when I was in church
and I heard the sermons, I always walked away like,
that was the greatest sermon I've ever heard.
It just kinda shows that when you're right with God,
you get more out of the preaching.
I mean, the people that are gonna get the most
out of this sermon are the people that are serving God.
That's the reality, right?
The people that are already doing the things
I'm talking about, you're gonna get more out of it, okay?
But if you allow sin in your life, it causes an innovation
and it can take away your heart, it can change your heart,
it can change your desires, and you know what?
You might not really enjoy soul winning that much
another year from now.
You might not enjoy this preaching a year from now.
You might start saying, you know what,
I just wanna kinda tone it down.
Look, that is the result of sin in your life.
It's actually gonna cause a change.
Now the good thing for us is this,
that when you're serving God, that also causes a change.
Whatever your heart desires right now,
that can change in six months for the good or the bad.
You start reading the Bible and all of a sudden
you're gonna start desiring the things of God
more and more and more.
However, you start committing sins in your life,
you're gonna desire the things of God less and less
and less and less and less.
That's the way it works, right?
Verse 12, my people ask counsel at their stocks
and their staff declareth unto them.
For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err
and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
And so people are getting counsel, not from God,
but other sources, false prophets, false religions,
anything else they're gonna get counsel from
except the Bible itself.
You know, isn't it true that when people are not right
with God, that they don't really wanna get advice
from what the Bible says?
When people are backslidden, they'll get advice
from someone that they think will okay what they're doing.
Right, I mean, do you think it's okay for me
to get divorced?
Yeah, I understand your situation, right?
I would never say that.
That's why they won't ask me if they're backslidden, right?
When people wanna do something,
they're gonna go to the person that's gonna okay them.
Right, and that's what the Bible's saying here
that the nation of Israel, instead of going to God,
they just said, you know what, we're gonna go after
whatever we want, we're gonna get counsel
from the sources that we want, right?
Here's some quotes for you in the Bible where it says,
examples of basically how your heart can change,
mine eye affecteth my heart.
The Bible says that if you look upon things
that you should not, it will affect your heart.
What are some examples of this?
Well, there could be people in this room that are married,
that love their wives, but if you allow yourself
to start looking at pornography, you might find yourself
committing adultery six months from now, right?
You allow yourself to start looking at things
that are wrong, it can change the desires of your heart
and it's gonna cause you to love your spouse less and less.
Why, because your eye affects your heart.
That's what the Bible says.
Think of David committing adultery with Bathsheba.
It started because he looked upon her
and then he took a man's wife.
And the Bible also says the eye is not satisfied with seeing.
Like we have this idea that, you know what,
I wanna fulfill this sinful desire.
I just wanna watch this one movie
and my eye is gonna be satisfied.
The Bible said the eye is not satisfied with seeing.
I mean, think about these people
that are super rich in this world.
They always want more money.
You would think that if you have 100 million pesos,
you'd be happy, but it's like,
no, I gotta get 200 million pesos.
No, I know this other person who has more money than me.
I only have 12 bedrooms in my house.
I want 20.
It's like, I'm not satisfied with 12.
I want a bigger mansion.
Money can cause you to want more and more and more.
I mean, that's the way it is with just everything in life.
But that's what we're talking about here with your eye,
that when your eye looks upon things, it's gonna want more.
Same thing with your ears.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I know this music's wrong
that I listen to.
There's just this one artist
that I'm gonna listen to, and that's it.
And then I'll be satisfied.
No, you will not.
Why?
Because an innovation will occur,
and all of a sudden, you're gonna wanna listen
to two artists.
All of a sudden, it's not just gonna be this one person,
but also this other person.
All of a sudden, it's not just a few of these movies
that are a little bit bad.
No, then pretty much, you'll be laughing
at Vice Pong eat again, right?
It's gonna cause an innovation.
It's gonna change the desires of your heart.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Hosea chapter four, verse 13.
Hosea four, verse 13.
Point number one, sin increases.
Point two, sin injures.
Point three, sin innovates.
And point four, sin influences.
Sin influences.
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains
and burn incense upon the hills under oaks
and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good.
Therefore, your daughters shall commit whoredom
and your spouses shall commit adultery.
Now, notice it says therefore,
and the result is this passes upon toward the daughters.
It passes on toward the children.
You say, why?
Because the sin of a parent will influence the children.
That's what the Bible's teaching.
Now, this is the nation of Israel,
but you can also apply it to your personal life
and realize the sin in your life influences other people.
You say, Brother Stuckey, it doesn't affect anybody else.
It just affects me.
Well, you didn't get that concept from the Bible,
because sin always affects those around you.
And look, if you're married and you have kids,
don't tell me that your sin doesn't affect your children
and your wife and your husband.
It's gonna affect your family.
Look, I'm married, I have two kids.
Any sins I commit, yeah, you know what?
It's gonna be an influence on my kids.
If my kids see me watching something worldly on YouTube,
guess what?
It's gonna enter into their hearts
and they're gonna grow up with those desires.
That's the way it works.
Your sin, your worldliness,
it will pass on to your children.
It will influence the next generation.
That's what takes place.
Now look, it could be good news for us as parents
because you will influence your children.
If you read the Bible every day,
your kids, and they see that,
guess what they're gonna do when they grow up?
They're gonna read the Bible every day.
Why?
Look, whenever you talk to people
that read the Bible every day that are really devoted
and you talk to them,
oftentimes they'll tell you this.
You say, why do you read it every day?
You know what?
They said, I always woke up in the morning
and I saw my dad reading the Bible with a cup of coffee
before he went to work in the morning, right?
That's what you hear them say.
I always saw my dad.
I always saw my mom reading the Bible.
So guess what happens?
Kids emulate their parents.
You say, brother Sucky,
why is it that your daughter's
always trying to do song leading here?
Because I'm always doing this at home.
I'm always practicing doing songs at home.
And guess what?
My daughter wants to be a song leader.
Now we're gonna try to change that desire
as she gets older,
but I'm just saying kids will emulate their parents.
They wanna be like mom and dad.
That's reality.
Here's the thing.
If mom and dad are living sinful lives,
that's gonna influence those children.
Now, sometimes, you know,
there'll be a guy who's like a big drunk
and he's such a bad drunk that he beats his family.
He beats his wife.
He beats the kids.
And it causes those kids to be like,
I'm never touching alcohol.
But you know, that is an exception.
Cause usually those kids will do
the exact same thing as their parents.
If the dad was a drunk,
you can better believe those sons
are gonna grow up and be drunks.
That's usually what takes place.
Now I'm not saying it's impossible to beat that situation.
I'm not saying it's impossible not to break that.
Of course you can break it through the word of God.
I'm just saying usually the kids
are gonna do what the parents do.
You know, I remember when we first,
you know, we first moved into a condo
like a year and a half ago here or whatever.
And all of a sudden my son,
I just noticed he started knocking on every door.
You say, brother Saki,
why was your son knocking on every door at that condo?
Well, because of the fact he went out soul winning with us.
We knock on every door and then all of a sudden
our son just going up to random doors and just knocking.
It's like, son, you can't do that, right?
Why?
That's what mom and dad do.
And so guess what?
They emulate the parents.
Look, that can be a good thing for us.
I mean, that's exciting for us that are raising young kids
that, you know, we can raise our children correctly.
We serve God, they're gonna serve God.
Train up a child in the way he should go.
And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
What though if you train up a child in the wrong way?
What's okay, brother Saki,
because I'm bringing them to this church
and your preaching is gonna change them.
No, no, no, no, no.
They're gonna emulate you 10 times as much
as what they hear me preach.
It's gonna have 10 times as much of an effect
what you do with your kids at your house
in your personal lives than what they hear me preaching.
I can get up here and preach a 20 part series
against smoking cigarettes,
but if they catch you smoking cigarettes, guess what?
They're gonna smoke cigarettes.
I can preach against drinking alcohol,
but if the parents drink,
those kids are probably gonna be curious
and probably gonna drink alcohol.
That's just the way it works, right?
Sin will influence the next generation.
Verse 14, I will not punish your daughters
when they commit whoredom,
nor your spouses when they commit adultery.
Now this is an interesting phrase here in this verse,
where it says I will not punish your daughters
when they commit whoredom,
nor your spouses when they commit adultery.
You say, Brother Stuckey, what is that talking about?
Well, I had to think about this
because you'd say, Brother Stuckey,
why would sin not be punished, okay?
Well, some people might say, well,
it's not gonna be punished
because the parents are gonna be to blame
and they'll take the blame.
I don't think that's what he's trying to say
from the context.
I think what he's saying is this.
Hey, I'm done with you, nation of Israel,
so I'm no longer gonna punish you
because I'm just done with you.
Your children are not my children, right?
I mean, just imagine, look, as a parent,
I'm never gonna do this with my children,
but I punish my son when he acts up.
But what if he was not my son?
Would I punish him?
No, right?
I mean, you've seen me spank my kids here.
Have you ever seen me spank somebody else's kid?
No, why?
They're not my children.
And I believe what God's saying is this.
I'm not gonna punish your children.
You say, why?
Because you know what?
They're done.
I'm done with the nation of Israel.
It's too late.
I don't consider you to be my spouse anymore,
nation of Israel.
I'm done with you, right?
And your children are not my children.
I'm over with you.
You say, why do you say that?
Well, notice what it says.
For themselves are separated with whores
and they sacrifice with harlots.
Therefore, the people that doth not understand shall fall.
He's saying you're separated onto these whores
and you're sacrificing with harlots.
It's too late.
You've given your heart over to them.
I mean, you would rather just worship these false gods
than worship the true God.
It's too late.
He's saying I'm not gonna punish you anymore.
It's like I've spanked you 20 times.
Now I'm done with you.
You say, why?
God never promised this everlasting covenant
with the nation of Israel no matter what they did.
What he promised is if you obey.
That's what you see throughout the Old Testament.
If you obey, you are my people.
If you obey.
Did the nation of Israel obey?
No, I'm pretty sure there's a book in the Bible
called Hosea, which is all about the rejection
of the nation of Israel.
Not even the southern kingdom of Judah,
specifically those 10 tribes.
That's what this whole book's about.
I mean, it's using examples with marriage
and stuff like that, but the whole book,
this is literally the book about the rejection
of the nation of Israel so much that the book of Romans
is quoting from Hosea when he's talking
about the rejection of Israel.
This is the book that makes it very clear.
He says over and over and over again, I'm done with you.
So when he's saying I'm not gonna punish your daughters,
what he's saying is, you know what?
It's too late.
I mean, they've already given themselves over.
I'm done with the nation of Israel.
You say, what does that mean?
It means that the nation of Israel ended up ceasing to be.
They went into captivity to Assyria
and they were done at that point
and they never came back.
Now, there was a line where God would have accepted them
back with punishments added in,
but they just completely crossed this line, okay?
They didn't come back.
I mean, when you look at the kingdom of Assyria and Nineveh,
they were warned by God, you will be destroyed.
And then that king of Assyria was just like, you know what?
We need to get right with God.
And he made all the people decide to serve God.
But you know what?
The nation of Israel, they didn't do that.
I mean, isn't it amazing that the kingdom of Assyria,
the most wicked empire that ever existed,
but you know what?
They had a king that when he heard the word of God,
he actually changed.
I've tried to find out who that king was in history.
I've tried to look up the timelines.
Who was that king who was righteous?
I have no idea though.
I've never been able to find that out.
But yeah, that was a king who basically heard
the word of God and said, you know what?
We gotta fix this.
You know, the nation of Israel,
they didn't heed the warnings.
And here's the thing, they had plenty of warnings.
Because he's saying, I'm not gonna punish your daughters.
Why?
Well, he already punished them time after time
after time after time.
Isn't that what you read
throughout the entire Old Testament?
They had chance after chance after chance
after chance after chance.
Eventually, I'm done with you, right?
Imagine somebody hires somebody at a company
and they get in trouble and they get reprimanded
and then they get a chance
and they get chance after chance after chance.
And then the boss reaches the point where he says,
you know what?
I'm no longer gonna punish you.
I'm no longer gonna scold you.
I mean, why?
Well, because you're no longer my employee, right?
It's like, that's what the Bible's stating here,
I believe, in verse 14.
He's saying, you know what?
You're no longer mine, so I'm past the point.
I'm gonna punish you.
It's just too late.
And look, if you've heard the first few sermons
in the book of Hosea, I mean, that fits with the book
where he's saying, I'm done with you.
I'm done with you.
Verse 15, though thou Israel play the harlot,
yet let not Judah offend.
And come not ye unto Gilgal,
neither go ye up to Beth-haven,
nor swear the Lord liveth.
Now we'll talk about Beth-haven here in a few weeks.
I'm not gonna go into it right now.
But verse 16, for Israel sideth back
as a backsliding heifer.
Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
Verse 17, Ephraim is joined to idols.
Let him alone.
And Ephraim was basically the chief
or the capital city of Israel.
What he's saying here is the chief tribe.
What he's saying here is this,
Ephraim, who is so synonymous with Israel,
they're completely joined onto idols.
Look, idolatry, it's throughout several of the chapters
in the book of Hosea.
Idolatry is a major sin to God, major sin.
You say, why?
Because if there's a lot of idolatry,
that's basically signaling there's also
a lot of other problems that go along with it.
I guarantee when you have areas
where there's a lot of idolatry,
you have a lot of wickedness as well.
It's reality, right?
Now we're a very idolatrous country
and we're not the only ones,
but you look at the areas of the Philippines
with the most idolatry,
they're also the most wicked areas.
I mean, it's amazing how this works,
but that's the way it works.
It works all this way all over the world.
You'll get areas that are very idolatrous.
I mean, India is probably
the most idolatrous country in the world
and good luck finding a country more wicked than that.
Right?
And all you gotta do is look up statistics
on everything of all kinds of sins
and they're like number one on just about everything.
Right?
They're number one in percentage of child trafficking
with children being like stolen, tons of stuff.
You say, why?
Well, there's a lot of idolatry.
So look, when we believe the Bible,
we can know if there's a lot of idolatry,
there's also a lot of other sin.
But they're so religious.
Yeah, you know what?
Really religious people that are not saved
are usually the worst people.
Isn't that true?
I mean, when people are extremely religious,
I mean, you meet people and look,
we all have family members that are Catholics
that, you know, super religious
and you know, a lot of the same people
that are always praying to these idols
are also getting drunk right now.
Right?
They're getting drunk tonight.
It's like, if you're so religious,
if you're so spiritual,
why don't you just read the Bible?
But these people that are super religious
and worshiping these false,
they're the same people getting drunk
and committing bad sins.
And they somehow think that, you know,
by being religious, being zealous,
it's gonna forgive those wicked sins.
It's like, no, it's not.
Look, the person that goes to the confessional booth
at the Catholic Church the most,
that's the person you wanna watch out for.
You say, why?
Because they got a lot of sins they're confessing.
Right?
You say, but they're going all the time.
Yeah, because they got a lot of sins
and they're really religious
because they wanna get those sins covered.
Right?
Notice what it says in verse 18.
Their drink is sour.
They have committed whoredom continually.
Her rulers with shame do love.
Give ye.
The wind hath bound her up in her wings
and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
Now go back to verse six.
We're gonna cover two more verses.
Hosea four, verse six.
What were the points we saw tonight?
Point number one, sin increases.
Sin increases.
Point number two, sin injures.
When sin increases, it's going to injure and cause harm.
Whether it's a nation, whether it's a church,
whether or not it's in an individual,
it will literally cause problems in your life.
And that injury could be physically.
I mean, it will.
I mean, if you live a sinful life,
it will destroy your physical health.
Okay?
But it's also gonna destroy your life in general.
It's just gonna injure your life and destroy that life.
Point number three, sin innovates.
When you commit sins, it will cause an innovation,
a change in your heart,
and cause you to desire things that are wrong
that you would not have desired before.
That before, you would have said,
this is wrong, this is wicked.
But as a result of sin, it will cause an innovation.
And sin influences.
It influences those around you, specifically your family.
Now, why is it that sin is such a problem
that's mentioned here in this chapter?
What's the theme?
Well, go to verse six, and notice this.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee,
that thou shalt be no priest to me.
Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
Now, why is it that this is taking place?
Because there's a lack of knowledge in the land.
There's a lack of knowledge in the land of Israel.
You say, Brother Succy,
who was at fault for the sin increasing?
Was it the wicked reprobates?
Nope.
Was it the government?
Nope.
It was the churches.
It was the houses of God that weren't preaching the truth.
You say, why is the LGBT running out of control
in this country?
Because of the Baptist churches in this country.
They're the ones to blame.
You say, why?
Because of the fact they're the ones 50 years ago
that were actually preaching hard.
They're not doing it.
The reason why sin is taking over
is because there's a lack of knowledge.
And look, we would never expect knowledge
in the Catholic church.
We never expect knowledge in these cults,
but you would expect it in a Baptist church.
And yet you come to churches and you learn nothing.
Literally nothing.
I can't tell you how many times I went to church,
I walked in, I was like, man,
I'm not gonna learn anything today,
but I have to be here.
And then I left and I learned nothing.
And look, many of you,
same thing at your old Baptist churches, right?
Right.
You literally, and you knew,
I'm probably not gonna learn anything.
I mean, I'll tell you what,
in some of those churches,
you know, I would do this thing
where I'd kind of lean down in my chair
and I would kind of like memorize the Bible.
And it's just like, you know,
I didn't want the pastor to see,
but it's just like, you know, if I wasn't in,
look, this was not at Verity Baptist, okay?
But at churches I went to in the past
where I was just like,
and I'm not saying the church was bad.
I mean, I liked the pastor,
but I literally wasn't learning
and I was like bored.
And I was just like, all right,
Galatians chapter one, right?
This, yeah.
Look, that's reality at a lot of churches.
And unfortunately, when churches don't preach the truth
and they don't motivate their members
to try to serve God,
the people, they don't have an emphasis
on why they need to read the Bibles.
And there's a lack of knowledge
because nobody's really reading the Bible
because the pastors aren't telling the people
to read the Bible.
Now at this church,
I tell us to read the Bible, right?
It's funny because here's the thing, you know,
these other churches, they don't preach much.
They don't use a lot of Bible.
And then they don't really encourage you to read the Bible.
I give you a lot of stuff, a lot of verses,
and it's like, all right, prove me wrong.
Right, read and read and read to see for yourself.
I'm not afraid of what I'm saying.
Look, I'm sure I make mistakes.
I'm not saying I'm perfect,
but here's the thing, I'll tell you what,
if I can motivate you to read the Bible
in your personal life,
that will have so much of an effect in your life.
And it will cause you to be a great church member
and love God and serve God.
Most important thing you can really get your people to do
is read the Bible for themselves
because then they're gonna be seeing the word of God
every single day.
And see, the Bible says here in Hosea 4
that there's a lack of knowledge.
And why is there a lack of knowledge?
Because the churches aren't preaching the truth
and people aren't reading the word of God
because there's not much of an emphasis on the word of God.
That's the reason why.
A lack of knowledge.
So you say, what does that mean for us?
Well, it means for us that tomorrow morning,
start with your New Testament Bible reading challenge.
And you know what?
If you've never read the Bible before,
it's gonna be a challenge for all of us.
But you might say,
Brother Stuckey, I've never done this before.
Well, I mean, we gave you a plan,
we gave you all the information,
and basically you just get away from the computer,
get away from the TV,
you turn the cell phone off or put it on silent, right?
You know, some people,
they sit down to read the Bible for like an hour and a half
and it's like, man, I only got through like one chapter.
What happened?
It's like, oh, wait.
Okay.
And they're texting on their phone.
Yeah, you gotta put away distractions.
And it's like, you know,
all you gotta do is really say, you know what?
I'm just gonna set aside some time in the morning,
just put away all distractions and read the word.
You say, why?
Well, because here's the thing,
if there's a lack of knowledge,
it's gonna cause you to destroy areas of your life.
We saw on Sunday that Josiah was a great king
before he had the word of God.
And you know what?
There's a lot of sin he was not aware of
because he wasn't reading the Bible for himself.
And I'm not saying it was his fault.
I'm just saying that's reality.
And the same is true in our lives,
that there's a lot of stuff that,
and here's the thing,
you don't need me to understand the Bible.
You don't need me.
Like people have this idea that they need their pastors
to understand the Bible.
Look, of course, I can help teach you things
and I can motivate you,
but there's something inside of you
called the Holy Spirit of God,
which is called the Spirit of Truth.
Amen.
And it will teach you all things the Bible says,
which means when you set aside time with God
to read the word of God,
the Holy Spirit is gonna teach you what you're reading.
And here's the thing,
the Holy Spirit's a better teacher than me.
Right.
Right, I mean, you can literally read,
you honestly don't need me to understand the Bible.
No, look, obviously there's things that are deep things
that are complicated.
You gotta keep reading.
Look, and I've read the Bible many times.
And so there might be things that you've never heard
that I'm teaching you and I'm explaining things
and I'm studying for these sermons
and cross-referencing and finding out
what all this stuff means.
Look, I'm not saying that you can't learn.
Obviously, I think you can learn at church,
but I'm saying this,
that everything I teach you,
every single thing, you could learn that on your own.
Every single thing.
Every single thing I teach you,
the Holy Spirit of God can teach you the same thing.
Because everything I teach you,
I either learn from somebody else
or I read and I learned from the Holy Spirit teaching me.
And it's the same thing for you, right?
There's no modern day prophet
that's got this special revelation, right?
This modern day prophet that has all this information
and you gotta just listen to them
because they've been specifically taught by God.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Look, obviously I believe that
if somebody is running a church
that God can use them and teach them the word of God
to teach the people.
But what I'm saying is this,
if you're saved, you've got the Holy Spirit of truth,
the Holy Spirit of God inside of you.
And the Bible says He will teach you all things
when you're reading for yourself.
So look, when you read tomorrow morning,
you're gonna learn stuff
and you're gonna have the knowledge of what God says
and you're gonna know what the Bible says.
And you know what?
Knowing what the Bible says will actually help
spare you from making mistakes in your life.
So it says in verse six,
my people are destroyed, why?
For lack of knowledge.
Because I was rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee,
that thou shalt be no priest to me.
Seeing now has forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
Unfortunately, what happens is the children are forgotten.
Why?
Because if the parents don't have knowledge
and they don't pass that on to their kids,
it's gonna affect the kids, right?
It's gonna influence them.
Verse seven, why did this take place?
Why was knowledge lost?
As they were increased, so they sinned against me.
Therefore will I change their glory into shame.
The Bible says that as the nation of Israel increased
and became powerful and mighty and wealthy
and things were going great, that's when they sinned.
You know what?
It's one of those things that often happens
that when things are going well in our lives,
we don't really serve God like we should, right?
When everything's going great in our life,
it's like we don't feel the need to pray,
we don't feel the need to read the Bible.
Then once our life is getting messed up,
it's like, God, please help me.
I mean, that's reality.
And that's reality for all of us, right?
And the Bible's saying as the nation was increased,
as things were going well, that's when they sinned.
And I'll tell you what, when you look at our church,
I would say right now, in my opinion,
our church is better than it's ever been, right?
Our church is great right now in many ways.
Like our attendance is just going through the roof.
And here's the thing, it's a slow, steady, real growth.
It's not just like a couple service, you have a big day.
No, we actually have new people going.
I mean, lots of people that are going soul winning
and serving God.
I mean, things are going great in so many ways
at our church, despite all of the things happening
in the world that's making it very difficult,
things are going great in our church right now, right?
And I believe 2021, it's gonna increase
and get better and better and better.
But you know, that's actually the time
that can be kind of scary, where when things are going well,
you can start saying, oh, I got this covered.
I don't need to pray to God anymore for help.
As a church, everything's going well.
And you know, you can tend to forget about God
when things are going well.
I mean, we go soul winning and talk to rich people.
And isn't it true that rich people
just don't even think much about God?
They don't have time for God.
Why?
Well, everything's great in their life.
Why would they need God when everything's great?
Right?
I mean, that's reality.
And look, obviously, you know,
there's people that are rich, people that have money
that do love God, that do serve God.
I'm just saying, you know, by and large,
when we go soul winning, we see it's people
that have more money that are less receptive, right?
Anyway, that is actually when we need to be careful
as a church, which is where we're at right now.
Things are going great at a church.
I don't think there's any question about that.
I mean, we got, how many people did we get saved yesterday?
I don't even know what the final count was.
You know, I mean, it was 88,
and then everyone kept going soul winning.
I don't think we reached 100, but I don't know, right?
Things were going great.
And we've got people saved in Quezon province,
Cavite, Laguna, Quezon, I mean, all over the place.
It's like, things are going great.
But you know, that's actually the time
we need to be careful.
And the same thing is true in our individual lives.
Maybe right now your life is going great.
Maybe you went through a tough time
and things are going better now.
Don't forget God when it's going well.
Wake up tomorrow morning, spend some time in prayer.
Set aside your distractions and spend time
in this new year on January 1st in the Word of God.
You say why?
Because if we stop getting knowledge,
we stop spending time with God,
eventually what's gonna happen is
sin is going to increase in our lives.
It's gonna start, it's gonna break out, it's gonna increase.
It's going to injure us.
It's gonna cause innovations,
which will change the desires of our heart.
And that will influence the people we love most.
And I'll tell you what, as a father,
the last thing I want to do
is destroy the life of my children.
Now obviously I don't want to destroy my own life,
but man would I be sad if 20 years from now
my kids don't want to read the Bible.
They don't want to go soul winning.
They don't want this type of church.
They don't want this type of preaching.
That would sadden me more than anything else.
But you know what, that is what sin can do in our lives
if we let it break out.
Let's close in the Word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us
to be here as a church family on December 31st, God,
and help us have a great time of fellowship here tonight.
But help us also, God, in January
to just wake up in the morning
and spend some time with you and read the Bible and learn.
Help all of us, including myself.
There's so many things left for us to learn.
The Bible is just packed with information
that we'll never scratch the surface about, God.
And help us just continue to serve you
and have a great time tonight.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.