Hello, I'm Tony Carter, Lead Passive East Point Church. For the past eight years, we've called the City of East Point our home as we've sought to point people to Christ through the preaching of the gospel. And during our time here, we've shared church space and met in civic centers and in schools. But now, God has given us a gracious opportunity to have a place that we can call our own. Currently, we are under contract for a church building and our raising funds for the down payment. And normally, we don't ask for donations in this matter, but this is a unique and a wonderful opportunity for us. And so, if you are so inclined, we ask that you would partner with us in a pursuit of our vision for permanent home for East Point Church. If you would like to give, we invite you to visit our website at epointchurch.org. And there you will find a tab directing you and how you might be able to give and support of us raising the funds to obtain this church building. Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for partnering with us in advance. Over the last three chapters of Hosea, God, if you've been with us, God, you know, has been vividly and at times scandalously showing us His covenant love for the children of Israel. Through the marriage relationship of Hosea and Gomer, God has illustrated for us Israel's unfaithfulness, rebellion, her waywardness and her idolatry. All of this and more has been Gomer's treatment of her husband, Hosea. And even worse, this has been Israel's treatment of God, God desiring, desiring to exercise His covenant's faithfulness, tells Hosea to go again and love his wife who was loved by another man. He was to pursue her and woo her and care for her just as God had planned to do with his unfaithful bride, Israel. That is where we are in the prophecy. We have been introduced to Israel's unfaithfulness and we have seen God's loving kindness woven throughout. So we see in the first three chapters of Hosea. And when we get to Hosea, chapter four, we have a bit of a transition in the prophecy. How many of you a few years ago saw the show, watch the show lost. A couple of you, okay, you need to go back. You saw Netflix, watch every episode. I watched every single episode. Don't judge me. It was good. It was good. You'll see. The reason why I like loss, it was just wonderful. It was wonderfully written. If you know anything about the story, it's about a plane that crashed on a deserted island and there's this group of individuals who are trying to get off of the island and trying to figure out how to survive and get off the island. Well, the writers of the show introduced the strategy. It was a flash forward. And so you would be on the island one minute and then they would flash you forward to them actually getting off the island and what life would be like post island. It was a flash forward of source. What we have in chapter three is a bit of a flash forward. God, it was a picture of what was to come. God was going to go and to rescue his bride Israel. But what we have in chapter four, chapter four brings us back to the island where things weren't so pretty. The things were still broken and amassed. It brings us back to the here and now. And God says we have to deal with the here and now. Despite my proclamations of mercy and forgiveness, despite me giving you an in living color illustration of my love, sin still abounds in the land. Your sin, your sin will not go unpunished. Judgment is at hand. And so what we will see, remember this is a transition in chapter four, what we will see throughout the rest of Hosea's prophecy is that we will see God's judgment. We will see his punishment upon Israel for her unrepentance. See them punish for their sin. We no longer, we no longer hear of the relationship between Hosea, but we can't forget them. The relationship between Hosea and Goma, we cannot forget this relationship for for that illustration. That picture of covenant love is always before us. It's in our vision, even as we look at the judgments and the punishments that come from God. We know, we know, we know that this is a we know that this is a judgment. We know that judgment is coming simply by looking at the first part of verse one. Look at what the prophecy says. Here, the word of the Lord, old children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. This right here is a divine, listen up. Listen up. God wants to have a word with his people. Commentators have referred to this as a courtroom scene. God is the judge and he is calling the courtroom to order. Order in the court. Order in the court and he is bringing a charge against the people of the land. I have been studying this passage all week and looking over it and diving in and meditating on it. Brothers and sisters, I have realized that that this word has relevance for us today. Truth be told, this message has relevance in every generation. So in a real sense, like every generation that has come before us, we also stand in this divine courtroom. So here, the word of the Lord Christians, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. Brothers and sisters, we ought to listen up. We ought to hear this prophecy. We ought to listen to what the word of the Lord has to say to us. For God's first charge against the people is that there are covenant breakers in the land. There are covenant breakers. There are law breakers in the land. One does not have to be overly perceptive to realize and to recognize that there is something amiss in all world.
To turn on the news or to surf the internet is to find yourself heartbroken, shocked, appalled, angry and frustrated over and over and over again. The world is not well, brothers and sisters. The world was not well now and it wasn't well in the days of Hosea. Verse 2 tells us the condition of the land. They're swearing, lying, murder, stealing and committing adultery. They break all bound and bloodshed follows bloodshed. The land, as you read this prophecy, you realize that the land was full and rampant with sin. What God is communicating through the through the prophet Hosea is that there are covenant breakers in the land swearing and lying and stealing adultery and murdered. Do you recognize it? Do you see it that these are the breaking of the Ten Commandments? God have given to His people. It's interesting as you hear this list swearing, lying, stealing, adultery, murder. As you hear this list, it's interesting that you can rip the headlines from today's paper and without difficulty, match up sin with sin. Sin for sin. Just this morning I approved the internet and hear some of the headlines I've pulled. Boy sentence for killing girl over puppy. Radio active water spills near New York. Family relieved by husband's murdered conviction. North Korea fires long range rocket. US probes possible fraud linked to specialty creams. Firefighter accused of cheating on exam and listen to this. Wife crashes her own funeral. Shocks husband who tried to kill her. There's something, there's something to miss. There's something to miss in our world. There are lawbreakers in the land. There were lawbreakers. There are lawbreakers now and there are lawbreakers then. The people, the people failed. They failed to live according to the laws of God but their unconformity to the commands was just a bribe product of their real guilt. There was a deeper level to their issue. Those were just the branches, the murder and the lying and the adultery. Those were just the branches. They needed to get to the root. God wanted to get to the root of the issue and He does and He tells them that their issue is that there is no faithfulness. There is no steadfast love and those are simply just a bribe product of the fact that there is no knowledge of God in the life. No faithfulness, no steadfast love. Brothers and sisters, this right here is a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe for disaster. No faithfulness meant that the people were constantly watching their backs. You could not trust anyone. It was a dog eat, dog world people could not be trusted. You have a work in an environment where you couldn't trust people. It's in an easy feeling. In fact, it's like in an environment that breeds contempt. It's where it's where sin and evil grows. It was in faithfulness in the land.
There was also no steadfast love. This phrase, this phrase, this no steadfast love, this phrase should be familiar to us for it is the word kissing that we have been referring to throughout our study of Hosea. Hosea has said is the covenant love that God has for his people. It was this love that ultimately it was ultimately have an impact on their vertical relationship. I love God because he first loved me but it was also to impact their horizontal relationship. God loves me. My love for God means I love my neighbor. If this love was absent from the land, it was a land marked not marked by love. It was a land marked by infidelity, murder, strife and bloodshed. It was lack of faithfulness, lack of steadfast love. The people in the land were failing to reflect the character and the nature of God. That was the mandate from the beginning. Human beings were supposed to reflect the character and the nature of God and they were supposed to reflect that in the world and then propagate that reflection throughout the whole earth. But Adam and he fell. But God was faithful. He was faithful to his covenant and he came and he rescued the people of Israel from Egypt and he gave them the Ten Commandments. It's again with a help God's people reflect his character and nature in the world. But what we now see in the land is not that at all. They're not reflecting the character and nature of God. They're not reflecting his steadfast love. They're not reflecting his faithfulness. They're lawbreakers. They're covenant breakers in the land. This was the condition of the land. Sin was blatant. Sin was rampant and as sin always does it was wrecking havoc. It was doing damage. It was it was it was infiltrating and frustrating the world. Look at verse three. Therefore the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish and also the beast of the failed and the birth of the heavens and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Sin is wrecks havoc. It's like an avalanche. It's like an avalanche. It destroys everything in its path and cares not who, why, or when. And left in its wake is anguish, mourning, creation itself is affected. Paul alludes to this. He tells us the effect of it in Romans 8, 20 and 22 for the creation was subjected to futility, not willing because of him who subjected it. We know that the creation belongs for redemption. It belongs for redemption. It belongs to be redeemed for in verse 22 of chapter 8 of Romans says the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now they're with waiting. Creation is waiting for the redemption of creation. I was brothers and sisters with our day and time are uncanny. A world is broken. There are lawbreakers in the land. People are suffering and creation is mourning. It's at this point where we as Christian are going to be tempted to get up on our soapbox. Yes, Lord, you're right. There are covenant lawbreakers in the land. There are murderers. There are adulterers. There's police brutality. There's racism. There's greed. There's strife. There's contempt in the land, Lord. Get them, Lord. Punish them, Lord. They're covenant breakers in the land. They're guilty as charged. We want to stand with God and condemn. But God looks at us and says, but I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. You're the lawbreakers, Israel. I'm accusing the church for the issues in the land. And in fact, it's not just you, but I'm holding your leaders accountable. First force says, yet let no one contend and let no one accuse for with you is my content in no priest. When sin gets pointed out, everyone wants to point the finger at everyone else. I didn't do anything wrong punish them. Those of us who have children know this. And those of us who have been children, which is every one of us knows this. You leave a group of children in a room. You come back and there is chaos in the room. Things are all over the floor. People are screaming at each other. And as soon as you walk in the room, there's silence. What happened here? Who was the answer? It wasn't me. It wasn't me. I didn't do it. We hear that and we laugh and we say, that's just childlike behavior. Problem is, we just never grow up. The problem is we never grow out of saying it wasn't me. We just get more sophisticated in shifting the blame.
The idea of blame shifting brothers and sisters is all too prevalent in our lives. Conflict arises. All is not well in the house. The relationship is hitting some bumps in the road. Things are a mess. And the first thing we want to do is point the finger and say, it wasn't me.
We want to remove ourselves from the situation. Stand with God and say, judge them, Lord. There's a guilty one. Punish them. Jesus hears that. He looks at you and says, why do you see the spec that is in your brother's eye but not notice the love that is in your own eye? Brothers and sisters, none of us. No one. Me included. Everyone. No one is without sin. We are all law-breakers and contributes to the chaos that is in the land. Paul says in Romans, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. No one is righteous. No not one. Not one is righteous.
Blame shifting. This covenant breaking in Israel clearly showed they really didn't know God. They knew of God but they were suppressors of the truth as Romans one says. They failed to acknowledge the true and living God. They knew of him but they didn't have a fear of him which revealed that they really didn't know him. You know that that's always the underlying factor of our sin is that we just do not know God and that was the next charge God had against Israel. There was no knowledge of God in the land. There was no knowledge of God in the land. I don't know of anything more detrimental to a land, a nation, a people, a world, than not having a knowledge of God. Some atheists actually believe. They actually believe that the world would be better off if Christians did not believe in God. Not according to Hosea chapter 4. The rest of the Bible, the world's main issue is that it doesn't know God. Christians, many of our issues stem from the fact that we don't know God as well as we should. We don't know how good he is. We don't know how good he is. So we look for something else to satisfy. We don't know how loving and merciful he is and so we run from him. We don't know how holy and how other he is from us and so we don't fear him. We're veer him. We don't know God. Not know about him. Not know that he exists. I mean God's people have failed to know what God loves and know what God hates. We don't know his character, his nature, and how we ought to live in light of those things. Therefore, we find ourselves stumbling. We find ourselves stumbling just like the children of Israel in Hosea. This ignorance of God is not just dangerous. It's destructive. Look at Hosea 4 and 6. My people, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. This is the issue. This is why God had such an issue with the priests. His contention was with them. They were the ones that were supposed to be defeating the flock of God. They were supposed to be feeding the people of God. They were supposed to be leading people into the knowledge of God, but they were unfaithful just like the people. It was the blind leading the blind. Lord goes on to say, because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me and since you have forgotten the love of your God, I will also forget your children. God was going to punish, he was going to punish the priests because they failed to lead the people of God into the knowledge of God. Quite serious. This is frightening. Shepherds leading the flock into destruction. That's scary. This is why James 3.1 says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers. For you know that we who teach will be judged with a greater strictness. Jesus goes on to say, Matthew 9 and 42, 32. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he was thrown into the sea. The sisters, I read those and it causes me to come before you with fear and trepidation. I pray that God would keep me faithful. That's why we pray, Lord, keep me from error. Lord, help me. Help me to get out the way and put you forward. Help, Lord, that I would that I and others that stand before the people of God opening up the scriptures would recognize the weight of such a calling. It's a weight, brothers and sisters, it's a burden. A strict judgment comes on those who desire to teach the word of God. A fateful shepherd doesn't seek to lead the people away. They desire that the people would grow, would increase in their knowledge of God. They would grow in the knowledge of God. Here are the prayers of the Apostle Paul. Ephesians 1, 16 and 17. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. He goes on to tell the church at Colossus and so one in nine and ten and so from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and doing what and increasing in the knowledge of God. Why is Paul praying these things? Why is this? Why is Jesus this prayer for the people? Because the fateful shepherd desires that God's people would grow, that they would thrive, that they would be built up, that they would be able to withstand the evil one and ultimately that God's people would be able to finish the race. They would get to the end increasing in the knowledge of God. The priests, the priests in Israel whom God was punishing were only concerned with themselves, only concerned with themselves. They were greedy, they fleeced the people, they were caught up in the entrapments of this world, they were concerned about stuffing their own pockets, they were adulterers, they were out with the women. One doesn't have to search high and low to find the same unfaithful shepherds in our day. For the world is full of so-called shepherds who have no desire to feed the flock. They are concerned with their own pockets, they fleece the sheep, they twist the word, they lead people astray, teaching themselves and their own agenda. This is prevalent in our land, brothers and sisters, I know too many people, I know too many people who have been fleeced by these shepherds, led astray by these shepherds. In many respects they've been destroyed, no desire to go back to the church. The reason why you look back and you say, well how did that happen? There was no knowledge of God, there was no knowledge of God, there was a terrible thing. God's contention was with the priests because they weren't teaching the knowledge of God, they weren't leading the people into the knowledge of God, but let us not be fooled. Remember we're prone to finger-point. It wasn't me, Lord. The sheep have a part to play in this as well. Jeremiah 5, 30, and 31 says, this is a scary verse, an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land, the prophets prophesy falsely and the priest rule at their discretion, my people love to have it so. But what will you do when the end comes? Brothers and sisters, no one, no one is without excuse, excuse both sheep and shepherd are punished. Look at verse 9 in our text, and it shall be like people, like priests. I will punish them, I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds, may we not be guilty of following the shepherd who would lead us astray. Brothers and sisters, my exhortation to you is to be growing in your knowledge of God. Study the word, pray, seek after the Lord, spend time with him, get to know him for yourself. Brothers and sisters, that's why we praise the word, that's why we seek to give you tools so that you can dig into the scriptures and study and get to know God once we want you to be built up in him. No, God, grow, be growing, be growing in your knowledge of God in the court. The charges, the charges have been laid against the people of God and they were guilty as charged. They couldn't respond. All you have to do is look around and they would see that they were guilty as charged. They were covenant breakers in the land and there was no knowledge of God. Punishment for these charges only seemed right and just. Punishment for the charges only seemed right and just. You know, we look at our world, we see its brokenness, we see it's evil, we look at the state of the church and we are appalled at what we see. See the role we have played in it and we say guilty, guilty as charged. We deserve, we deserve of the right and just punishment of God. We have a we have a part to play in it. We're guilty as charged. We're we're the covenant breakers. We don't know God as well as we should and so we stumble in the way but in the midst of brokenness, sin and punishment. We always have hope. We always have a hope brothers and sisters. I should be seeing smiles all over your faces right now because there's always hope. There's always hope in the midst of brokenness. There's always hope in the midst of sin and brokenness because as we read these chapters, as we read these charges even as Israel is hearing these charges before them, before their eyes is the vision of Hosea and Gomer. That's the thread running through it. They hear these charges in light of the picture of Hosea and Gomer and in that marriage we are reminded that Hosea went and sought Gomer while she was still in her sin and he loved her. Hosea entered into the brokenness and redeemed Gomer the charges. The punishment is meant to drive us, to drive us to repentance and to be embraced in the arms of a loving, faithful husband, no brothers and sisters in the picture of Hosea and Gomer and really in the picture of the cross. We are reminded that that Jesus came and got us. He came and he got us. We are reminded that we are yoked to a husband who loves us. We are reminded that those who stray and are disciplined are those who are loved by God. We are reminded that in that divine courtroom as God reads out the charges covenant lawbreakers in the land. There is ignorance of God in the land. There is murder, there is stealing, there is adultery, there is covetousness in the land, all are guilty. You can open up your mouth in that divine courtroom. Jesus steps in, raises his hand, punish me and let them go. Give them my righteousness and I'll take their guilt or punish me and let them go free. Are you guilty this morning? Have you heard the charges levied against you or you guilty as charge you can be free? Turn from your sin and let Jesus take your place. We have a knowledge of God. We want to know how God is. We want to know his character and his nature. The nature and character of our God is that he hates sin but he loves to redeem sinners. That's the nature and the character of our God. That is how he loves. Here is love. Here is love. Rebels, covenant, lawbreakers, ready. The grace of God is amazing. If I had all the guilt of the world, guilty as charged, he's able to forgive not because of what we've done because Jesus said, punish me and let them go free.