Good evening New Life Baptist Church you should be there in the book of Hosea
Hosea chapter 7 and if you look at verse number 2 Hosea chapter 7 verse
number 2 it says and they consider not in their hearts that I remember all
their wickedness and so the Lord here is speaking about remembering the
wickedness of Israel and so the title for the sermon this evening is God's
remembrance of sin God's remembrance of sin now let's start there in verse number
1 it says when I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was
discovered and the wickedness of Samaria for they committed falsehood and the
thief cometh in and the troop of robbers spoileth without and so the first verse
speaks about you know God's desire to heal Israel to heal this northern
kingdom and of course speaking of Ephraim don't forget Ephraim was one of
the tribes one of the tribes of the northern kingdom one of the larger
tribes and Samaria was the capital city of Israel and so God's desire is to heal
this northern kingdom of Israel but as he's going about to heal them or as he
goes to the desire to heal them it becomes discovered in the eyes of the
Lord that they have these further wickedness on their land some of these
things it's mentioned there for they commit falsehoods so they're not truth
tellers they're telling lies the thief cometh in that they're doing thievery
the troop of robbers again thief there and so the Lord you know as it were and
of course the Lord knows all things you know this is not teaching that there are
things that God does not know but what he's saying is as his as his heart's
desire was to come in and be like a doctor or a nurse to come and heal this
nation it there's just more wickedness that's coming out of the nation right
and and so he refuses to heal them properly he refuses to to be a blessing
to them right verse number two it says and they consider not in their hearts
that I remember all their weakness and so the people of Israel are committing
all manners of sin against the Lord and they've not considered they forgotten
the fact of they've just become ignorant of the fact that God knows the sins that
they have in their hearts you know that they've completely lost the sensitivity
of knowing that God sees when I sin and and brethren the truth is when you sin
you know I don't care who you've hidden it from I don't care if you hidden it
from your from your wife or your husband or you know your your parents children
or you know your family members people that you care about some you know you've
done a sin and you've hidden it from man but you need to remember every time you
sin that God has seen that sin okay you know the worst that you could ever be in
is oh man I got away with that sin you know so-and-so does not know about it
God knows about it God sees it and the Bible saying here that God will
remember all their weakness you know God has remembered all our sins or you say
well hold on are we forgiven yes we are we'll get to that point okay but if you
commit sin don't ever get to the point that I think well God doesn't care about
it God cares about it God will chastise us as his children if we are not upfront
about it if we don't humble ourselves and confess it before God God can come
in and bring swift chastisement upon us and if I can just you know I'm gonna
read to you because it says here and they consider not in their hearts right
and just sorry mom you know this is a very famous passage in the Bible
Jeremiah 17 verse 9 I'll just read it to you it says the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked who can know it then it says in verse
number 10 I the Lord searched their hearts I tried the reins even to give
every man according to his ways and according to the fruits of his doings
and so brethren understand if you have wickedness that you've done that you've
hidden in your heart God sees that God will test you and he's going to give
every man according to his ways if your way is chastisement because of this
weakness God will make sure that you serve the right type of punishment the
right kind of chastisement from his wrath from his fury for sin against the
Lord all right so keep that in mind look at verse number three Hosea to the seven
and verse number three it says they make the king glad with their wickedness and
the princes with their lies and so here we're talking about kings and princes so
obviously the those that are in authority you know that the governing
authorities over the land and it says the king is made glad with their
wickedness now I'll soon prove to you that this is referring to alcohol that
the reason the king and the princess are easily misled is because they're drunk
okay and so you have the people of the land or maybe even surrounding cities
that are full of wilderness and weakness and you know idolatry they're having an
influence on those in authority okay and and these people that in authority they
don't they don't we realize the wickedness that has been done against
them they don't they don't discern the lies that are being spoken about them
and the truth is when you're drunk when you're under the influence of alcohol
okay and you don't have to be off your face drunk you can just be tipsy you can
just have have a small influence of our you know alcohol in your life it's going
to cause you to not be able to discern between what is right and wrong it's
going to dull your senses you know you're not going to know if you're in
danger you're not going to know whether someone has lied to you it's committed
weakness to you what I'm trying to say is alcohol will cause you to be easily
fooled okay and you'll soon see that this is definitely about alcohol but
let's go to verse number four it says they are all adulterers as an oven
heated by the Baker who sees her from rising after he have kneaded the dough
until it be leavened and so God starts using illustrations of a baker that's
bacon bread okay in his bakery and what it's saying here is that the kinds of
sins that are going on the land of course is adultery don't forget adultery
is you not being faithful to your wife or to your husband not being faithful to
your to your marriage vows okay I taking you know I'm a man you know taking
another woman rather than you know you know cheating on his wife this is
adultery this is the kind of sin that has taken the land and when it says
there that I'll just read it again verse number four they are all adulterers as an
oven heated by the Baker so we know a baker will heat his oven up right when
he needs to cook when he needs to bake okay so there's nothing wrong with that
you know obviously the illustration is a true illustration the illustration is
not sinful okay because the Baker heats up the oven and then says who sees her
from rising after he have kneaded the dough so the Baker will need to knead
the dough right get it ready for it for baking until it be leavened so once he
puts the dough into the oven the Baker will leave it alone in the oven until
the entire thing is leavened right it's not going to come and pull out the dough
out of the oven while it's midway being leavened or being cooked being baked no
he's going to put it in the oven and the and the and the jobs gonna be finished
before he takes it out of the oven he's gonna make sure that it's fully leavened
before it's he takes it out and and he can eat that bread and so it's using
this parallel of baking bread with adultery or all the kinds of sins that
are taking place in this land and so if you want to think about it like this you
know kneading the dough getting it prepared for the oven is similar to the
thoughts of committing adultery it's the temptation right it's you you know you
know if you're a married man you know looking at and another woman and you
start to lust after her you know you start to be tempted and you think well
you know what there's a possibility that I you know I look at this woman and and
you know you know I wish I could have it for myself that's kind of the idea of
kneading the dough okay but then once the dough is kneaded with the leaven and
with the flour it is placed in the oven so that's the next step right and listen
you know temptation in of itself is not sin you know we're all tempted to sin
but when the when the temptation comes you need to make sure that you don't
give in to that temptation which is because which becomes sin and of course
that leads to destruction but you know the thought here is you know it's not
just the thinking of the sin but once that dough is put into the oven now
you're taking action on that sin right you're committing some type of sin in
your body maybe you've taken that woman for yourself and the idea is once it's
in the oven you're not going to go and take it out of the oven until it's fully
realized until it's fully accomplished and the Bible saying here that adultery
is the kind of sin once you start down that path you're going to go all the way
you know it's a very difficult sin to get out of you know the one example that
I you know we're familiar with that one of most famous examples was with Joseph
you know and he had Potiphar's wife who was you know trying to seduce him you
know he had to physically remove himself he had to physically run away from that
situation you know and not give in to that temptation okay but once you start
down this this this pathway of adultery you're going to go all the way and
commit a grievous sin all right and so there's no going back once you have
committed sin you know that sins specific specifically you've committed
adultery okay and you cheated on your wife you know you've lied you know
you've betrayed the vows that you've made on your wedding day if you can keep
your finger there let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter 5 please
1st Corinthians chapter 5 and verse number 5 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and
verse number 5 because the Bible often warns us and it's you know with this
idea of 11 being kind of sin the Bible speaks about this quite a few times in
the Bible for us so one of the first times that it's well you know one of the
times it's referring to the local church here is 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and
verse number 5 and the reason this topic was brought up is because one man in
that church was committing fornication with his father's wife all right and the
people in the church were allowing that to just be a known secret or it's an
open secret I suppose and people were not taking appropriate action to kick
that person out of the church and in 1st Corinthians 5 5 Paul explains you've got
to kick this guy out of the church it says there to deliver such and one unto
Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day
of the Lord Jesus and so this man is saved his spirit will be saved on day
the day of the Lord Jesus is the rapture he's going to be there for the
resurrection he's going to be there for the new body you know there's going to
receive the resurrected body but you know we need to kick certain people out
of the church you know and Satan will have an opportunity to damage that
person you know so the best thing for a person that's been kicked out of church
is to get back into church as soon as possible before Satan has you know
gotten his claws into that person but then it says in verse number six your
glory is not good no ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump
you see if you allow people in the church to commit grievous sins it's
going to cause the entire church to commit grievous sins all right and this
is important you know if someone has committed a grievous sin to the point
that it's mentioned here they need to be called out the whole church needs to be
made aware of the sin that that person has committed and that person needs to
be kicked out of the church all right number one so people know how serious it
is number two if a little bit of that leaven has started to creep into other
people's lives they know they need to get rid of that quickly otherwise they
would be met with the same fate all right it's to keep the church pure you
know leaven leaven you know yeast you know once you put yeast into dough it's
going to cause the entire bread to be affected by that yeast and we do not
want our church New Life Baptist Church to be full of sin right I just allow
somebody to openly sin streamless extreme wicked wicked sins that's
causing others to be influenced by that you know we cannot allow that in our
presence look at verse number seven 1st Corinthians 5 7 it says purge out
therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are as ye are unleavened
for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep
the feast not with old leaven this is you know this is the correct
understanding we shouldn't be prideful and say and and you know and understand
that we're all growing we're at different stages in our Christian life
and sometimes even your pastor has to make you know some mild corrections as I
as I preach and I hope you understand you know I'm not perfect I don't have
all knowledge of the Bible you know it you know we're all growing and we're all
growing right and the reason I bring that up is because you know just
recently when I preached the Christmas message on Isaiah 9 6 I had to correct
my understanding of what the everlasting father was in reference to Jesus Christ
you know and so obviously if I'm constantly making serious mistakes you
know if I'm like constantly preaching heresy or something crazy like that you
know that that would show you that I'm a novice that I should never have been
put into a position of the bishop of the church but you know obviously when it
comes to a pastor yeah you know or even any preacher there can be times where
they will say something that is not exactly 100% correct or you know they
may have a different interpretation of something which isn't which isn't quite
right but that's you know very different from just preaching outright heresy but
see not only should we focus on truth but we need to be sincere okay so you
know we need to make sure that we we have a care we care for one another we
treat we treat each other with sincerity okay that means we truly have a love for
one another we truly have a love for truth but we need to make sure we have
the sincerity and the truth and this will help our church make sure that we
stay as an unleavened lump right that we're not affected by the sin that may
creep into our churches can you also now turn to Luke chapter 12 verse number
1 Luke chapter 12 and verse number 1 Luke chapter 12 and verse number 1 the
Bible reads in the meantime when they were gathered together and innumerable
innumerable multitude of people in so much that they trolled one upon another
he began to say unto his disciples first of all so now Jesus Christ is about to
teach his disciples he says beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees which is
hypocrisy for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid
that shall not be known and so the Pharisees the religious leaders of the
time of Jesus there they also had leaven okay they also had a sin that will be
easily spread amongst other people right and that sin specifically here is
hypocrisy they would say one thing and do another and brethren we need to be
careful of that leaven as well that especially when we're gathered together
as God's people or just as we deal with ourselves and we put forth a Christian
testimony with with our work colleagues our acquaintances our family and friends
that we don't you know act like hypocrites you know we have the truth as
I said right and sometimes you know we can be very zealous from the truth but
then people will not receive the truth if they see that we're acting out of
hypocrisy that we say one thing but do another we need to make sure that we're
honest and open we communicate well with one another because if we try to hide
things for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed neither hid that
shall not be known and so what God is saying here is you know eventually your
hypocrisy will be found out okay as I said you may you may deceive yourself
into thinking that nobody has seen my sin nobody knows my sin but I told you
God knows it God sees it and you know what if you continue down this way don't
be surprised if one day just God puts your sin on show okay so you never hide
it okay God sees what you have done and God may very well allow you one day like
for other people to be made known of your sin and that would bring great
shame amongst your brethren or amongst those that around you you know there's a
passage in the Bible in Numbers 32 verse 23 it says you have sinned against the
Lord and be sure your sin will find you out be sure your sin will find you out
okay oh man what do I do well you go to God you don't hide your sin you confess
it to God and you say sorry to God you make things right and if you've
committed some of these grievous sins like adultery okay like fornication like
drunkenness as we'll soon see you know these are things you need to make sure
that you never do it again all right ask God to help you with some spiritual
victory in your life that you never be tempted or you know you will be tempted
you know but you never give into that temptation okay you need God's strength
you need the Spirit of God and you need to be walking in the new man you need to
be walking in the Spirit of God to help you overcome these kind of wicked
behavior all right so you can't hide your sins from the Lord he will
chastise you if you try and like I said don't be surprised if one day your
fellow man is you know is aware of your sin and that like I said will bring you
great shame can you please go back to Hosea Hosea chapter 7 and verse number
5 Hosea chapter 7 and verse number 5 now you may remember in verse number 3
mentioned the kings and the princes well the kings and princes are brought up
once again here in verse number 5 and I told you that they were they were being
fooled by alcohol so this is where it comes from verse number 5 in the day of
our king the princess have made him sick with bottles of wine he stretched
out his hand with scorners and so this wine is able to make the king sick that
says in the day of our king when it says the day of our king it's speaking about
a special day of the king you know so so you know there might be a day where the
king is being celebrated for example you know we might think of a birthday or
maybe even for the king it would be like the day of his coronation the day that
he took on the office and started to lead you know as a king well anyway
there's a specific day that people are commemorating the king and they bring
out the wine okay the prince says other people there that wants to take
advantage of the king they bring out their wine they bring out the alcohol
and it causes the king to become sick and then it says he stretched out his
hand with scorners and so once again he's intermingling with bad people with
bad character again this is the effect of alcohol he can't discern between
people that mean him well and people that are trying to harm him okay so he's
you know they're padding up they're drinking they're drinking alcohol look
at verse number six it goes back to the illustration of the baker and his oven
it says for they made ready their hearts like an oven whilst they lie in wait
their Baker sleep of all the nights in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire
okay so notice it says there that sorry yeah so verse number six for they have
made ready their heart like an oven okay the idea there is speaking about the the
effects of the out of alcohol you know if you start drinking alcohol you start
getting under the effects of you know alcoholism you know you start to mess up
you know and kill your brain cells with that kind of stuff it's going to cause
you to make your heart ready okay like an oven you know you're preparing
yourself to commit sins you're commit you're preparing yourselves you to
commit wickedness and adultery and all manners of sin you know that's what
alcohol does it just prepares your heart to get into worse sins okay and it says
whilst they lie in wait their Baker sleep of all the nights in the morning
it birth as a flaming fire so let's take the idea of the Baker once again again
the illustration of the Baker is not sinful it's just been used as an
illustration so you know in this day and age obviously they didn't have
electricity so the Baker would need to heat up his oven right and as it common
is commonly is people often bake their bread in the morning all right so it's
fresh and so in order for the Baker's oven to be ready for the morning he
would need to make sure that it's heated up all the nights okay all night
it's it's yeah you know the the fires the wood whatever whatever system is in
place it's burning it's making the oven nice and hot so by the morning it's
ready to be used to bake bread okay so in the morning it's the hottest that
it's going to be it's ready to bake and so it's using that illustration because
it says that in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire so it's extremely hot
some flaming fire right in the morning well that's comparing that's that's been
compared to sin or adultery as it were here and so when it says that Baker
sleepeth all the nights that's the idea of the adultery that's taking place in
the kingdom right and so you may you know spend all night with another person
that is not your spouse okay and you know you're engrossing that sin you're
blinding that sin you know maybe you've been under the effects of alcohol you
don't know exactly what you've done you know it's maybe you know it's wrong but
you just think well at this point I'm gonna do it no matter what well when you
wake up in the morning it's going to burn you it's gonna be like like a
flaming fire you're gonna wake up in the morning you're gonna come to your senses
and go man what have I just done I guess what the Bible's teaching us what have I
just done and you're gonna be burnt you're going to suffer grief and sorrow
for the great sin that you've committed over the night and so yeah so the idea
so the thought there brethren is that sin burns okay sin will burn and you
know if you've ever suffered quite a you know serious burn it's going to leave a
scar you know you know you're always going to have that on your body and so
you know even though God is able to forgive us our sins of course he has and
of course our sins were nailed on the cross of Jesus Christ but many times
when you've committed grievous sins it leaves ongoing consequences right it
could just be the grief it could be effects maybe a broken marriage maybe
you know you're you know especially something like adultery could be that
your spouse just doesn't trust you from this day forward you know that they've
lost that trust that they once had for you and so you need to understand that
while sin might seem pleasurable you know for a moment it'll burn you it'll
burn you and it can have lasting consequences right that you just have to
deal with with the rest of your life and it's just going to be an extra
challenge an extra difficulty that you have to deal with okay look at verse
number seven it says they are all they are all hot as an oven so again the oven
the bake baker just continues right and have devoured their judges all their
kings are fallen there is none among them that calleth unto me so when it
says that the judges and they have been devoured and the kings have fallen you
know it's saying that you know those in authority okay the those that pass
judgment okay those that make our laws right our governing authorities that
they have been devoured they've fallen by the hands of these wicked people that
are causing them to get drunk that are causing them to commit all manners of
sin and because of that God says there is none that calleth sorry there is none
among them that calleth unto me so what is it saying here it's saying that when
you get yourself into grievous sin it's going to harden you against the Lord
you're not going to call upon the Lord for help you know in that time of
committing a grievous act and Brevin you know when I think about this and by the
way you know it says they have devoured their judges so judges aren't punishing
or you know punishing sin or crime the way they are meant to now one of the one
of the sins that we saw here was adultery okay what is the sin of
adultery if you commit you know adultery with another man's wife the Bible says
that's the death penalty all right and so they've been affected by this they're
not passing judgment this kind of sin is running rampant hey adultery is running
rampant in Australia what else has the death penalty homosexuality okay what
else murder what else kidnapping rape all of these things you know God has
made it fit that they would that the punishment for these crimes would be the
death penalty is that what's happening is that happening here in Australia hey
it wasn't happening in Israel okay the judges have been devoured they're not
doing their jobs properly the Kings are fallen no one no one's passing correct
judgments you know in the land of Israel well no one's passing correct judgment
in the land of Australia either you know we're headed in the same direction as
these nations you know both Israel and then Judah later on all right and so you
know the the punishment is not fit in the crime and when the punishment does
not fit the crime then the whole lump is going to be leavened all of Australia
will start pursuing sins and specific sins that crimes and not even think
about them let me consider that God is remembering what we're doing that God
will one day chastise us judge us and correct us for what we've done and it
says again there is none among them that calleth unto me you know to call unto
the Lord is to pray to the Lord are our politicians praying to the Lord these
days of course not you know that they've gotten rid of
praying now this is why you go door-to-door soul winning you get to
the point with someone at the door you know would you like to call upon the
name of the Lord right now and ask him for the free gift of salvation I don't
want to do that you know I mean Australians generally speaking do not
pray you know they it's almost like they're embarrassed to pray and you
really have to encourage them and hey come on yeah you've told me that you've
believed the gospel how about you tell God the one that is actually offering
you the gift of salvation that this is what you believe for whosoever shall
call upon them the Lord shall be saved listen if Australia was ever if
Australia ever had a praying culture it's been lost you say why is it lost
because our judges have been devoured and our Kings have fallen that's why
okay we live in a corrupt nation we live in a wicked nation and the authorities
that we have in power they're not doing us any favors you know they're just
heading back to the same sins heading on downward spiral you know things are just
waxing worse and worse verse number eight please
Hosea 7 verse number 8 Ephraim have mixed himself among the people Ephraim
is a cake not turned all right so when it says Ephraim is a cake not turned
again we're still with a baker with a baker right now the bakers baking a cake
and you know if you're going to I guess bake a cake you've got to turn it right
to make sure that the heat is evenly distributed and you have a properly
baked cake well if you don't turn it what's gonna happen if Ephraim is a cake
not turned you're gonna have one side that is overcooked and burnt and one
side that is undercooked you're not gonna be able to eat that you can't eat
an undercooked cake or a burnt cake right there's no balance in the cake
right there's no balance whatsoever and so you know basically God is saying that
Israel is half-baked okay and we don't want to be half-baked Christians we want
to make sure that we're balanced Christians all right and you know if
you've got this half-baked cake or if you're half-baked Christian you'll you
you're good for nothing you're worthless you cannot be eaten you know as you
would want to eat a cake okay God cannot you know profit from you because
you are you're just a waste okay so we need to make sure in our Christian life
that we are balanced okay that we're well baked on both sides and what we saw
before was the sincerity and the truth now if you can keep your finger there in
Hosea and please go to John chapter 1 and verse number 14 please go to John
chapter 1 and verse number 14 and I love preaching on this topic of being
balanced because there are many unbalanced Christians you know I hope
that I'm pretty balanced right but there's a lot that are unbalanced it's
not that you're unbalanced out of um you know it's sort of selfish reasons or
anything like that it's just that sometimes especially newer Christians
you overvalue or you overcook one side of your Christian life and you leave one
side undercooked okay and let me just show you what that is John chapter 1
verse number 14 John chapter 1 verse number 14 speaking about Jesus it says
and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we behold his glory as the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father and look at this full of grace
and truth now we saw sincerity and truth what we see now is Jesus Christ came
full of grace and full of truth okay he is truth grace what what is grace
undeserved undeserved merits undeserved favor right if you haven't got the grace
how are you going to cause other people to come your way on the truth if you've
got something that is right and somebody else has got what is wrong okay you know
we should desire to teach others to teach our families to teach our children
to teach our friends but you're not going to be effective if you're just
banging them with the truth all the time you know and and not having any grace
you need the grace so people know this person cares about me this person is
trying to help me and then when they understand that you can hit them with
the truth and get them you know convince the gainsayers of what is right okay so
we need to make sure that we're not just Christians that are full of doctrine but
we don't have grace for other people we don't have grace for our fellow brethren
when they do wrong or they say the wrong thing and we just jump down their throats
and attack them and criticize them and think bad of them you know we need to
understand that everybody's trying to grow everyone's trying to serve God
everyone wants to be a little bit more like Jesus okay but we're just all at
different places in our spiritual growth and that's what the grace comes in I
mean Jesus was gracious toward us hey we need to be gracious to what others as
well can you please go to 1st Corinthians 13 1st Corinthians 13 so
don't be a half-baked Christian right be balanced have the grace have the truth
1st Corinthians 13 verse 2 1st Corinthians 13 verse number 2 Paul says
and though I have the gift of prophecy hey can Paul preach absolutely and
understand all mysteries Wow you know did God reveal a lot of great
mysteries to Paul absolutely and all knowledge was Paul knowledgeable in the
scriptures absolutely and though I have all faith hey was Paul faithful
absolutely so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am
nothing or I am worthless okay so you can be a Christian we've all the
knowledge and I understand all the mysteries of the Bible but if you don't
have charity which is love okay then you are nothing okay you're like a cake that
is not turned you're burnt on one side and you're undercooked on the other side
good for nothing all right we need to strive to be a balanced Christian Paul
hey yes he rebuked in his letters to the churches okay he had knowledge he had
wisdom that was given to him by God but he also had charity he loved his
brethren okay when he rebuked it was for the purpose of correct them to edify
them to encourage them to motivate them okay not to destroy and so you know I
just wanted to give you a couple of examples there and this is again this is
one of my favorite topics to preach on being balanced you don't want to be love
love love who cares about the truth hey that's unbalanced as well but you don't
want to be truth to truth who cares about grace and love and sincerity no
you be unbalanced and both extremes causes you to be good for nothing okay a
cake that cannot be eaten and if you go back to Hosea chapter 7 verse number 8
Hosea chapter 7 verse number 8 it started by saying Ephraim he have mixed
himself among the people and so the call for us brethren is that we do not get
ourselves mixed up with the wrong kind of people that we don't become mixed up
in this world all right we have to function in this world hey appreciate
the good things that are in this world but let's not get caught up with the
things of this world that prevents us from stepping out and serving God you
know in Titus 2 11 it says for the grace of God that bringeth salvation have
appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we
should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world okay so are
we called to live in this present world absolutely how are we supposed to live
in this present world soberly righteously and godly okay but not given
into ungodliness not given into worldly lusts you can see here that the
authorities or I guess the nation as a whole had mixed themselves with the
wrong kind of people and maybe even mix themselves with the other nations around
it that were worshiping false gods and and doing all manners of wickedness
verse number nine strangers have devoured his strength and he knoweth it
not yea gray hairs are here and there upon him and he knoweth not so this is
speaking about the that the nation was in decline right it was once a strong
nation Israel was okay but strangers have devoured his strength it had become
weak okay but says any no for not so the people have forgotten or don't remember
their former strength you know which is the Lord you know that the former help
and the blessings of the of God like again they forgotten their sinful state
but God has remember it right here and then it says yea gray hairs are here and
there upon him yet he knoweth not all right so the gray hairs obviously
represents that represents age right and as this nation has gotten older you know
there's been some deterioration right it's not you know bright and vibrant as
it once was you know the nation had started to get gray hairs but the
nation doesn't even know that he has gray hairs all right now with me with
black hair when I get a white hair or gray hair it's very noticeable okay for
a lot of you guys up there on the Sunshine Coast you've got like lighter
hair or blonde hair you know you're kind of blessed because when you get white
hair no one really notices but with me or my wife you know it's quite obvious
when we start to show the white hairs and so this is something that it's
supposed to be noticeable but the nation had gotten to a point where they don't
even notice how they've deteriorated how they've gotten older have they how
they've lost their prosperity and and national strength and national identity
they've gone the way of the heathen okay they had forgotten but God had not
forgotten their sins another sin that's brought up here in verse number 10 and
the pride of Israel testifies to his face this is very similar to Hosea 5 5
you may remember a very similar statement being made that basically the
pride is on the face of Israel like it's hard in its face against God and
it's obvious that this nation was full of pride and it says and they do not
return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this and so we need to be
careful of the sin of pride because pride will cause you to not return to
the Lord right if you're in a sinful condition and you're full of pride and
you're like well I'm just gonna do what I want you're not gonna turn back to the
Lord all right no seek him for all this you know pride will stop you from asking
or seeking God for help and guidance in your present difficulties verse number
11 if we aim also is like a silly dove without hearts they call to Egypt they
go to Assyria now silly of course references to the idea of being foolish
you know foolish dove so it's kind of like a stupid or brain dead dove brain
dead ant like bird right without hearts so the heart is far from God but you
know what they do they instead of going to God for help it says they call to
Egypt they go to Assyria now I'm also preaching for Jeremiah as you guys know
down here at blessed hope Baptist Church and when I went through Jeremiah
chapter 2 helped me understand this idea of Egypt and Assyria it's a bit
more clearer there but basically you know the the Northern Kingdom was aware
you know either by the preaching of Hosea or just by what's happening in in
in you know world events around them that the Assyrians were on their way to
take him into exile and to destroy the nation and so instead of turning to God
for help Israel they went to Egypt they went to one of their former enemies you
know trying to help trying to get Egypt to help them against the Assyrians well
Egypt decline right and then what they say well what can we do they go to
Assyria instead they they send their ambassadors they try to make peace with
with Assyria and it's not going to work okay the Assyrians are on their way
that they're on there they already got their marching orders they've got their
there that you know their objective to destroy Israel and so you know this is
the situation sometimes when you're far from the Lord and you can be in sin and
you need help you're gonna go to bad counsel you're gonna go to bad help
you're gonna go and seek the the wisdom and the guidance of man when really you
should be going straight to the Lord God you know you should be opening up his
word praying to the Lord and asking God help me God forgive me for my sins okay
instead of going to worldly counsel counselors okay that's like going to
Egypt or going to Assyria verse number 12 when they shall go that's when they
when they shall go to Egypt and Assyria for help he said God says I will spread
my nets upon them that's like a trap I will bring them down as the fowls of the
heaven I will chastise them as their current congregation have heard so God
is promising some severe chastisement to come upon the Israelites and of course
that was by the Assyrian captivity that was on its way and so what the one great
thing that I can see here it says I will chastise them as their congregation have
heard okay so what I'm really thankful about at least in this time that the
preachers were preaching about chastisements they were preaching that
if you at sin against the Lord the Lord will chastise you for the wrong that
you've done okay they were aware of that preaching part of that preaching of
course came through Hosea and came from other great men of God and so at least
you know at least they're hearing that God will judge you God will chastise you
when you sin against him okay and so we need to make sure that this congregation
or actually you guys up in your life at this church right are also being taught
the chastisement of God you know don't fool yourself into thinking that you can
just sin and continue and have no regrets and just seek after worldliness
and turn your hearts against God and think you're going to get away with
chastisements hey that'll happen to the non-believer but if you're God's people
if you're saved you're a child of God he's going to chastise you for the wrong
that you've done all right so once again get it right with God get it right with
God right go and confess your sins keep a clean account with God as much as you
possibly can verse number 13 woe unto them for they have fled from me
destruction unto them because they have transgressed against me though I have
redeemed them yet they have spoken lies against me when God says that he's
redeemed them I don't think that's referring to salvation because actually
many of them were not even saved okay and look obviously we can tie this into
salvation if we want to take a spiritual lesson for us we've been
redeemed okay redeemed by the blood of the Lamb okay if we've been redeemed
then yeah if you know if God has blessed us and God has done us well we should
not go and speak lies against God or about God okay and this is why when you
preach behind the pulpit men you need to make sure that you're careful not to
preach lies about God you know you may have accidentally believed something to
not be true you need to make sure that you're preaching the truth but the
direct context of this for for them I believe is referring to that they've
been redeemed by by Egypt of course in some of Exodus through Moses and you
know redeemed from all the other enemies that they have surrounding their land
where God has given them many victories in their battles and so God has seen
them through because of course the context is the Assyrians are coming
right and God has redeemed them from in the past okay but instead of being
thankful to God instead of seeking God and asking to help him against the
Assyrians instead they have spoken lies against God okay that's a pretty bad
place to be verse number 14 and they have not cried
unto me with their hearts when they howed upon their beds so look sin will
cause you to how upon your bed sin will bring you great sorrow all right but
listen they don't cry with this great sorrow that they have they're not crying
to the Lord okay they're just crying because of the consequences of their
sins it says they assemble themselves for corn and wine and they rebel against
me so they commit a grievous sin they get burnt by the sin okay that they're
in grief they're in sorrow they're howling for the sins that they've done
but what do they do they go back to the corn wine they go back to party they go
back to their old ways right and they rebel against God verse number 15 though
I have bound and strengthened their arms yet they do imagine mischief against me
I believe verse 15 is referring back to verse number one where it said when I
would have healed Israel so you know God was making this attempt to heal Israel
and you know verse number 15 says that though I have bound and strengthened
their arms all right so you know God has you know is trying to strengthen that
nation God is trying to help that nation the reason Hosea is preaching and
other preachers are preaching is to help this nation and God has bounded and
strengthened their arms I think the idea there is you know maybe they had like a
broken arm you know don't forget that this nation was losing its strength and
so when you you know when you got a broken bone you need to bound bind it
you know you need to make sure that you know you don't move it much and you
allow the bone to heal back together and so God has made sure that the the
healing is taking place he's given them strength but what do they do when that
when God steps in and blesses them and God steps in and is trying to help them
what do they do with the blessings that God has given them it says yet do they
imagine mischief against me okay so instead of being thankful for God's aid
and blessings they take it for granted and use what God has given them for
mischief brethren be careful about what you spend your money on you know God has
blessed you with work God has blessed you with your bank account and your
resources we're blessed in Australia reverend we're blessed in Australia God
has given us so much all right God has given us so much and so the warning here
brethren is to not take what God has given us and use it for mischief okay
not to use it for rebellion against God be careful what you invest your time and
your money and your resources on when God has given them to you to strengthen
you to help you to bless you and then you might you know you take it and you
use it to sin against God you know you don't want to be like the Israelites
here of old verse number 16 they return but not to the most high they are like a
deceitful bow their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their
tongue this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt so God is you know
finishing this chapter here you know using the analogy of warfare so you have
the dimension of the sword which is a close combat weapon and you've got the
bow the bow and arrow which is a long distance weapon and so God is basically
saying that you know Israel is like this deceitful bow okay so normally if you're
this you know if there's you got an enemy at a distance in a far distance if
you had a bow and arrow you should be able to take him out before they can
even come close to harming you with a sword all right but a deceitful bow is
one that doesn't shoot straight okay so you aim at your enemies and it's just
it's it's going off target you know it's deceitful it's not working the bow is
broken somehow and because the bow is broken your enemy can advance and with
your sword plunge it into you okay and so this is the same idea here that you
know the devil wants to destroy us the devil throws all kinds of thoughts and
temptations and it's not not just a devil it's our flesh it's this world you
know and we need to be like these archers with a bow that works and taken
out of our enemy before it comes and defiles us before it defiles our bodies
before it defiles our minds we need to be taking that bow and shooting it okay
but it only works if you're close to the Lord it only works if you're walking in
God's ways you know when you're far from God and you're prideful and you
commit all kinds of sins and you're in darkness you know in fellowship with God
well the time when it comes to try and you're trying to defend yourself your
arrows going to be off target okay and destruction will come you know by the
bother you know as it were that sword there okay now the conclusion you know I
mentioned that the title for the sermon this evening was God's remembrance of
sin and you know what God remembered their sin and brought great judgment
upon that nation okay but we're children of God and I don't want God to remember
my sins okay I mean I don't know about you but I you know I'm thankful that
when we get to heaven you know those sins are long gone okay and we have that
new resurrected body which will never be tempted to sin which which which cannot
sin okay it'll be in the same alignment you'll be lined up with the new
man with the spirit that we have in us okay so I don't want God to remember my
sin now if you can take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 2 Colossians
chapter 2 verse number 13 Colossians chapter 2 and verse number 13 because I
don't want to leave you with the thought that you know when you got saved when
you caught upon the Lord and you believed on his death, burial and resurrection when
you believe the gospel that somehow God is still remembering your sins okay
that's not the situation in Colossians 2 13 it says and you being dead in your
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh have you quickened together with
him having forgiven you all trespasses blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the
way nailed it to the cross okay so brethren those sins were nailed to the
cross okay and the cross is important but even more important in the in the
gospel message is that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead so he was not bound
on that cross forever okay but the sins were nailed on the cross and we have
victory through Jesus Christ through the power of his resurrection and so praise
God that our sins back then 2,000 years ago that's where they were and who cares
about that now because we have a resurrected Christ can you please go to
Psalm 103 verse 12 Psalm 103 and verse number 12 so once again you know the
cross represents our position before God okay our sins have been forgiven but
don't forget we have our walk with God and our walk you know hopefully we'll
walk with the Lord hopefully we're not walking away from the Lord and when we
commit sin we're in darkness we're not in fellowship with God when we're doing
a sin like that and so we need forgiveness on a daily basis as well not
for salvation but forgiveness to maintain a fellowship with God you go to
Psalm 103 verse number 12 and I'm going to read to you from Jeremiah 31 34 which
says and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his
brother I'm saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least
of them unto the greatest of them save the Lord for I will forgive their
iniquity and I will remember their sin no more God's remembrance of sin look I
don't want God to remember my sin what a great promise right as long as we're
saves as we're children of God he will remember our sin no more you're in Psalm
103 verse 12 will end on this one it says as far as the east is from the
West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us listen East will
never meet West that's how far God has removed our transgressions our
iniquities our weakness our sin from his sights praise God for a great God that
we serve okay so I don't want you to live a life where God is constantly
remembering your sin that's a bad place to be hey how about being in a place
where God will remember our sin no more number one you need to be saved number
two you need to be walking in the ways of the Lord okay let's pray heavenly
Father Lord want to thank you so much for this portion of Scripture Lord help
us to learn from the mistakes of the Israelites of old here and Lord help us
to be aware of your chastisement and judgment and that you Lord see when we
commit our sins and so there's no hiding Lord you will make you will put
on display you ensure that our sin will find us out Lord but you've given us and
the the method by which we can come before you and be be humble and confess
our sins before you Lord to maintain a close walk and fellowship with you help
us to never become as far from you Lord as much as we see Israel here of old we
pray these things in Jesus name amen thank you brethren