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In our studies in the prophet Hosea we have already seen something of the LORD's commitment to His faithless people - He was intent on doing all He could to secure their restoration. In order that we might understand the cost of this we are shown just how rotten the people had become and just how rebellious they really were.

Last Sunday we considered the wonderfully generous invitation that had been issued to the people (6:1-3) but they had met it with only a superficial and very temporary response. However even now the LORD does not give up but confirms His readiness to help His people and in forgiving them to restore them:

7:1         "I would heal…"

7:13      "I would redeem…"

Nevertheless the people prove resistant still. How stubborn the sinful heart can be!

And so the LORD must make clear to the people just what it is that they are doing. He must show them their sin. They must somehow be brought to recognise just how parlous and pitiful their state has actually become.

Now we may not particularly like the thought of talking about sin this morning especially when we will be looking at the sin of a people who lived some 2700 years ago. Sin is such an old-fashioned word and perhaps we're tempted to think that it is also an old-fashioned concept that is no longer relevant to life in the 21^st century. Why spend our time looking at ancient history?

Well there are excellent reasons why we should consider seriously the sin of this people this morning:

Firstly because it is recorded in God's Word the Bible and everything written there has been written for our instruction – in other words we don't know everything there is to know and God speaks so that we might know what is important.

Secondly, although the outward circumstances of the people of Hosea's day may well be very different from our own the God with whom they have to deal does not change one iota. The sins that offended Him then offend Him still today; the things He looked for then, He looks for still today. If God was concerned to make the people understand the reality of their sinful rebellion against Him then, He will do the same for those He wants to draw to Himself today.

So this morning as we think about the sin of the people of Hosea's day we do so, not to gloat, but rather to have our own consciences sensitised so that we might be made aware of our own sin. Unless and until we have some understanding of our sin the salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ came to secure will have very little appeal to us.

Before we look at the details of this chapter we'll start by reading v.13 which contains something of a summary of how the LORD assesses the behaviour of His people:

7:13 "Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me."

Three aspects of the people's behaviour are highlighted for us and please note the broadness of what is said. Individual and specific "sins" are not really the focus here but the LORD is more concerned to show that the whole tenor of His people's life is wrong. The individual sins which do pollute and spoil flow out of a sinful disposition.

There is progression too in this verse: the people began by straying and to our ears "to stray" doesn't sound all that serious but straying is soon followed by rebellion and that is suddenly a whole lot more serious. But they don't want to face up to the facts and so are forced into justifying themselves and their behaviour and the only way they can do that is by contradicting and denying what God says about them – they are now involved in wholesale lying about God.

There is no hope of this people being restored if they will not face up to the reality of what they are doing. And the same is true of us!

We are all in basically in the same boat as the men and women of Hosea's day. The prophet Isaiah made a general statement which still applies today. He said:

Is.53:6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;"

 Isaiah goes on to indicate very clearly that such straying and turning leads directly to behaviour that is wrong – he speaks of iniquity, transgression and sin – all words which describe in one way or another a falling short of God's standards, conduct which calls for judgment. The apostle Paul puts it like this in his letter to the church in Rome:

Rom.3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

Hosea's contemporaries were slipping further and further away from God and the people didn't seem to realise what was happening.

Twice in v.9 Hosea speaks of this ignorance "and he knows it not;" yet this ignorance was no excuse indeed their ignorance was a further evidence of how far from God they had fallen. This ignorance was culpable because it was wilful ignorance they did not know because they did not want to know and they went on and on resisting God's efforts to tell them otherwise.

At the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 Nelson disobeyed direct orders to disengage from battle. The story is told that he put his telescope to his blind eye and then declared "I see no ships". He got away with it and won an important sea battle against the Danish fleet. Israel was trying to do the same thing. She thought she could "turn a blind eye" to the warnings, that the dangers simply weren't there.

Are you trying to do the same thing I wonder? Are you trying hard to believe that things aren't as bad between you and God as the Bible and the preacher are trying to make out? Unlike Nelson you'll find that things won't turn out right unless you face up to reality.

Sinful attitudes and sinful dispositions soon make themselves evident in the behaviour that flows from them.

v.1 evil deeds have come to characterise the people. When God calls them their rebellious acts stand out even more clearly. Did you know that that is one of the major purposes of God's law? God gave us His law not that we might try to save ourselves by trying to live by it but that by the clarity and the purity of the law our own tawdriness might become more obvious to us. The apostle Paul thought he was OK in the way he lived his life until that is he read the commandment "you shall not covet".

v.2 yet as God drew near seeking to heal and redeem His people they simply wouldn't take things seriously. "God won't punish sin" they said "He won't remember, it doesn't matter". Oh but it does because God does punish sin and rather than forgetting their sin He sees it as though they were wrapped in it like a blanket.

Do you realise that that applies to your sin, to that sin you've forgotten all about which you committed perhaps a long time ago. Time is a great healer we say but it does nothing to heal our relationship with God because God is not affected by time. The only way our sin can be forgotten by God is by it being dealt with definitively by His Son Jesus Christ – then as we repent and cry to God for mercy for Jesus' sake He removes our sin far from us promising never to remember it ever again. But that is the only way. Without going to God through Christ for mercy your sin remains on you and the wages of sin is death!

v.3 Convincing themselves that God didn't take sin seriously they followed the standards of their day and not the standards of a Holy God. Instead of regarding God's description of human life as the norm they preferred to follow the usual/habitual practice of those round about them, of mere men.

Are you in danger of acting in that way too? Do you find it tempting to justify your lifestyle and what you do by arguing everyone does it? Everyone may well do it – but then again "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God…"

vv.4-7 And one sin leads to another! When passions are given free rein then men run into wilder and wilder excesses. When there is little to restrain them then they "just do it" becoming more and more like beasts than men made in the image of the majestic and glorious God.

The is a real progression of wickedness traced in this chapter – false dealing and theft moves on to adultery, intrigue, plotting and murder. Sin tolerated grows and develops. When you begin to accept sinful patterns in one area of life you're likely to start accepting them in others too. Truces cannot and must not be made with sin!

v.7 And yet as all is getting worse and worse this people makes no effort to cry out to the LORD!

v.8 Ephraim has by now become worthless as a nation. Originally called to belong to God and to reflect His goodness amongst the nations so that these nations too would long to know the true and Living God Ephraim had instead become inextricably mixed with those nations and was no different from them at all. Like a scone that is burnt on one side and uncooked the other Ephraim has become good for nothing.

There is a warning to the Christian church here too. The church is designed to be as a city set on a hill – visible and different, characterised by the presence of the living God in her midst. That is why the call is launched in the NT for the church not to form alliances with the worldliness of the world. The church fulfils her calling by being set apart for God the Father through God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit, she loses her identity and her effectiveness by aping the world and by adopting the world's values and methods.

And still the indictment must go on because sin is so pervasive and so perfidious.

The signs of decadence are there for all to see but it Ephraim does not see it at all! v.9 The tragedy of the decline was that it went unnoticed by the people and how unnatural it all was – their ignorance was a by-product of their sin.

I wonder how many of you were unaware of the grey hairs that began to appear on your heads? And yet here is a people with not just one or two grey hairs – they have a liberal sprinkling of them and still they remain unaware.

v.10 In their pride the people persist in the course of denial – there's no problem, there's nothing to worry about – no need to call on God, no we won't do that! And how tragic that was – the LORD would heal, the LORD would redeem but the people would not return to Him and seek Him.

v.11 And yet the people were aware that all wasn't well – it wasn't as though they were unconscious of any issues at all – just look on to v.14 where they are described as wailing - but rather they were determined not to go to God about any of it.

That is so like so many people today – they'll try anything to resolve their perceived problems, anything that is but the only One who is well able and well disposed to help.

Hosea now describes Ephraim as a silly dove. Off to Egypt they go looking for help – yet Egypt had been the land of harsh slavery for them in time past but they're oblivious to the dangers. Next it's off to Assyria – maybe help can be found there. But the prophets had been warning that Assyria far from being the solution to the problem would exacerbate them! The powers were hostile towards each other and here is Ephraim going from one extreme to another, turning to mutually exclusive alternatives, to try to resolve her problems.

Would Hosea describe you as a silly dove if he were here this morning or have you finally given up turning here, there and everywhere and turned instead in repentance and faith to God through Jesus  Christ?

The tragedy of this people is that they refuse to listen to the LORD who reaches out to them in love. When His judgments do succeed in bringing some awareness of the fact that all is not well their response is not heart-felt and they prefer indeed to run off to try other more sensual, man-made religions v.14. They want to re-write their own history and reject any notion that He has been active in their lives with discipline and training. They come up with a set of alternative analyses of their condition – they make God out to be a liar!

My friend is that you too?

The gospel of Jesus Christ is wonderfully suited to meet your needs because it was designed and planned by God.

Sin is a problem in your life because it offends your Maker who is also to be your judge. Call it by a different name if you will – it remains a problem. Try and ignore it but it won't go away. Don't do anything at all about it and you will continue under the judgment of God until all will be lost when you are called away to give an account before God of how you have lived and what you have done with the offer of salvation in His Son.

The gospel deals with our sin problem because God has laid sin upon His Son who in dying as a willing substitute and sacrifice has paid the penalty in the place of sinners. God sets Him forth as the Saviour, the only Saviour of sinners. You don't earn His forgiveness He offers it freely to repentant sinners who lay down their arms and sue for peace!

Do you see here in ch.7 of the prophet Hosea how, in the face of repeated rejection and rebelliousness, the LORD continues to speak in patient steadfast love He commends His love towards His people  by declaring His readiness to heal and to redeem.

Elsewhere in the Scriptures He tells us that He takes no delight in the death of the wicked and that He is not wishing for the loss of any.

Jesus spoke over wayward Jerusalem declaring very similar truths to the ones revealed in Hosea Ch.7

Mt.23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!"

Do you see? There is no unwillingness on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ to save – but is there unwillingness on your part to be saved?

Jesus is ready to be your Lord and Saviour but only on His terms – you must recognise your need and go humbly to Him:

Lk.5:31-32 "And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”"

Amen.