1. "Every one of you here, especially you young people who have believed that sin is freedom, is believing a straight up big lie. Sin is not freedom. Sin traps. Sin binds. Sin buries itself deep inside. Sin blinds us to God and His concern. Sin makes us not want to talk about sin."

2. "Obedience springs from love. Love is the root, obedience is the fruit."

3. "Church without goodness is as valuable as faith without works."

4. "For good or for ill, the men who fill this pulpit will pull this church up or pull it down. That's just the truth. We're not all there is to the church, but it's like the central pole in a tent. It's going to pull everything up or it's going to pull everything down."

5. "Pride is sin's protein powder. Pride strengthens every other sin. Humility, by contrast, weakens every sin. Ultimately, humility threatens every sin, and at the same time strengthens every virtue."

6. "Kids, I can tell you what you're gonna be like this time next year. And I don't have to be a prophet. It's just by knowing who you hang around this year. Whoever you're hanging around now, today, shows us what you're gonna be like tomorrow, next year."

7. "You may not have realized that getting to know the truth about God will necessarily involve getting to know the truth about yourself. And all the truths about yourself are not flattering."

8. "We are the billboard that God has hired out in this area to show people what He's like. Friend, that's you. That's your calling."

9. "If you're the abusing spouse, chances are you don't think of yourself as that way. So why don't you just go ahead and listen to me, even if you know you're not an abusing spouse?"

10. "What could be greater than all the sins listed in these chapters? I'll tell you the answer: God's grace. God's grace can be even greater, poured out on Calvary in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood was spilt for us."

Observation Questions

1. According to Hosea 4:1, what three things does the Lord say are missing "in the land" as He brings His controversy against Israel?

2. In Hosea 4:6, what does God say will happen to the priests because they have "rejected knowledge" and "forgotten the law of your God"?

3. What does Hosea 5:4 say about Israel's deeds and their ability to return to God, and what is said to be "within them"?

4. In Hosea 6:4, how does God describe the love of Ephraim and Judah, and what two images does He use?

5. According to Hosea 6:6, what does God desire instead of sacrifice and burnt offerings?

6. In Hosea 7:8-10, what does God say about Ephraim mixing with the peoples, and what is the response of Israel despite "gray hairs" being sprinkled upon him?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is the "knowledge of God" (Hosea 4:1, 6:6) presented as the central issue in God's controversy with Israel, rather than simply their outward sins? How does this shape our understanding of what God ultimately desires from His people?

2. The sermon emphasizes that the priests and religious leaders were largely responsible for Israel's spiritual decline (Hosea 4:4-9). What does this passage teach about the relationship between faithful teaching and the spiritual health of God's people?

3. Hosea 5:4 states that Israel's "deeds do not permit them to return to their God." How does this verse challenge the common assumption that sin brings freedom, and what does it reveal about sin's true nature?

4. How does Hosea 6:6 ("I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice") help explain why God was dissatisfied with Israel despite their continued religious observances? What is the relationship between love and obedience that the sermon draws out?

5. The sermon connects Hosea 6:1-3 to Christ's death and resurrection, particularly the phrase "on the third day He will raise us up." How does this passage point forward to the ultimate cost of God's "tough love" and its fulfillment in Christ?

Application Questions

1. The sermon states that "whoever you're hanging around now shows us what you're gonna be like tomorrow." Who are the primary influences in your life right now, and are they drawing you closer to knowing God or pulling you away? What specific step might you need to take this week regarding your relationships?

2. God's complaint against Israel was that they had forgotten Him despite His faithfulness (Hosea 4:1). What practices or habits help you actively remember and know God in your daily life, and what one thing could you add or change to deepen that relationship?

3. The sermon challenges spouses to ask their partner: "Are there any ways in which I'm not loving you as I should?" If you are married, will you commit to having this conversation this week? If you are not married, how might you apply this principle of seeking honest feedback in another close relationship?

4. Hosea 6:6 teaches that God desires love rather than sacrifice—that "love is the root, obedience is the fruit." In what area of your life might you be substituting religious activity or church involvement for genuine love toward God or others? What would it look like to address this?

5. The sermon emphasizes that Christians are "God's billboard" to show others what He is like. Think of one person in your life who may have never gotten to know a Christian well. What is one concrete way you could represent God's character to them this week through your words or actions?

Additional Bible Reading

1. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 — This passage defines the nature of true love that "never gives up" and "believes the best," which the sermon references as the foundation for understanding God's faithful love toward unfaithful Israel.

2. Matthew 9:9-13 — Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 in this passage to teach that God desires mercy over sacrifice, showing how Hosea's message applies to New Testament believers.

3. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 — This passage contains the curses God warned would come upon Israel for disobedience, which the sermon references as the background for understanding the severity of Hosea's warnings.

4. 1 Samuel 15:17-23 — Samuel's rebuke to Saul that "to obey is better than sacrifice" reinforces Hosea's teaching that God values heart obedience over religious ritual.

5. Psalm 51:1-17 — David's confession that God desires "a broken and contrite heart" rather than burnt offerings parallels Hosea's message about what God truly values from His people.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Purpose of Tough Love: Knowing God (Hosea 4:1)

II. Tough Love Finds the Right Helpers (Hosea 4:2-19)

III. Tough Love Is Honest About Sin (Hosea 5)

IV. Tough Love Brings Good to Others (Hosea 6:1-6)

V. Tough Love Steps Up at Crucial Times (Hosea 6:7-11)

VI. Tough Love Knows How to Say Goodbye (Hosea 7:1-8)

VII. Tough Love Needs Humility to Receive It (Hosea 7:9-16)

VIII. Tough Love Costs (Hosea 6:1-3)

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Is romance the essence of love?

Obviously it depends on how you define it. I guess what are some of the things that we know about the greatest loves that we experience?

It's all about the other person.

It's indestructible, undefeatable. I always believe the best when I love. Isn't that what 1 Corinthians 13 tells us?

It's independent of what we do. It can't be tied down. Never gives up.

Perhaps deepest of all these days, it's what we're most proud of. It's what makes us us. We just want to find that other person, our other half, and we complete.

But sometimes what we need is tough love.

To consider this more, we turn to what may seem like an unlikely source, one of the prophets of the Old Testament. These prophetic books are fierce and fiery. They're books of their time, but they contain crucial truths for our own. The twelve books at the end of the Old Testament are called the Minor Prophets, largely because because these books were shorter than the larger prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel called the major prophets. In these 12 books at the end of the Old Testament are some very famous books.

The earliest of them is the most famous. That would be Jonah. Jonah was preaching to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, in the middle of the 8th century BC. Assyria was a great empire north and east of Israel. Its threat to Jerusalem around 700 BC would be the centerpiece of Isaiah's book.

Amos prophesied in the middle of the century, and Hosea, whose messages we're looking at this month, also was prophesying from about 750 to when the Northern Kingdom falls in 722 BC under Israel's King Jeroboam II. Last week we looked at Hosea chapters 1 to 3, the story of Hosea and his family. The rest of the chapters in Hosea are the prophetic messages that Hosea so in chapter 1 to 3 we saw that Hosea was told to take his wife Gomer in the face of her repeated unfaithfulness and adultery. Hosea was to love her. The whole book presents the parallel between Hosea's faithful love of adulterous Gomer and the Lord's faithful love of unfaithful Israel.

Israel. God's genuine love of Israel outlasted great sin. Yet does it outlast all sin? For that, we need to turn again to Hosea and go on from those first three chapters into what messages the Lord gave to Hosea and for His people. If you'd like more help in understanding Hosea, Betsy's gotten on the bookstall for us James Montgomery Boice's exposition of the minor prophets, including Hosea.

Those are available on the book stand, and I would commend them to you. That's James Montgomery Boice, Minor Prophets. So again, to make it crystal clear, we have to keep in mind that Gomer's physical adultery, Gomer is Hosea's wife, Gomer's physical adultery is both historically true and yet also stands for the unfaithfulness to the Lord of Israel. Furthermore, Israel's unfaithfulness also points out our own contemporary temptations that we as God's people today feel to unfaithfulness. So when you're reading this book, you're reading it on three levels.

You're reading it for the historical fact of Gomer and Hosea. But then also by the time you get into the messages where we are now, it's really more that the metaphor is dropped and you're now reading it more straight up about God and his relationship with his people, Israel. But when you're reading it, you also have to remember that what does it mean for us today? How are we tempted to be unfaithful to a God who has been so unerringly faithful to us? So keep those three levels in mind.

The adultery in Hosea is literal, but it also suggests the spiritual sin of idolatry. And both, of course, are forbidden in the Ten Commandments. The seventh commandment forbids adultery. The first two forbid idolatry, the worship of other gods. In the false worship of the true God, in the wisdom of God, he's put these important relationships near to our very heart.

Surely both joys and temptations frequently join together with our most central relationships. But what relationship feels perfect? Relationships seem like an infinite valley of temptations to us. In this fallen world, there are probably no relationships. That are not mixed with disappointments.

As Christians, we believe that all of our dissatisfaction in this life, all of them are temporary. But sometimes they do seem so long.

So our attraction may be pulled, our affections may be drawn to someone that we think might disappoint us less. But of course, that's where the problem begins. Slowly our minds can become accustomed to bad thoughts. This may especially happen when you're upset and you're not thinking clearly or you're tired. You may even find yourself moving into a wrong relationship without even being aware of it at first, like you're in a trance or simply not seeing anything while you're staring.

This is why drunkenness is so often associated with immorality in the Scriptures. Your brain may spin out fantasies of what your life would be like if, or when you start this other relationship, or imagine it, but such unrealistic fantasies usually just prepare disappointments for your current or future relationships. Friends, we must discipline ourselves to love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love others as we should, especially for those of us who are married, to love our spouse. The whole book of Hosea rests upon the close analogy there is between sexual and spiritual unfaithfulness. Between cheating on your God and cheating on your husband or your wife.

In the face of great unfaithfulness on the part of our spouse, how can we learn from God's love through Hosea? Look what we see here about his tough love. We'll make eight observations about this tough love. Number one, it has a purpose. Knowing God.

We see that in 4:1. Number 2, it finds the right helpers. We see that in the rest of chapter 4. Number 3, it's honest about sin. We see that in chapter 5.

Number 4, it brings good to others. We see that in the first half of chapter 6.

Number five, it steps up at crucial times. We see that in the second half of chapter 6. Number six, it knows how to say goodbye. It's the first half of chapter 7. Number seven, it needs humility to receive it.

The second half of chapter 7. And number eight, tough love costs. Those are the first three verses of chapter 6. Because you're who you are, for your 20% who are writing those down, I'm going to repeat them now. So you won't just be all nervous.

Did I miss it? What's number four?

Number one, Tov LaV has a purpose, knowing God. That's 4:1. Number two, finds the right helpers. That's the rest of chapter four. Number three, is honest about sin.

That's chapter five.

Number four, brings good to others. It's the first half of chapter 6. Five, steps up at the crucial time. It's the second half of chapter 6. Number six, knows how to say goodbye.

It's the first half of chapter 7. Number seven, needs humility to receive it. It's the second half of chapter 7. And then number eight, tough love costs. Those are the first three verses of chapter 6.

I pray that God will bless your most significant relationships today, especially your relationship with Him. Tough love first has a purpose, and it's all about knowing God. If you turn to Hosea chapter 4, you'll find it on page 764 in the Bibles provided, Hosea chapter 4 verse 1. Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love and no knowledge of God in the land.

So there we are in this very first verse, you have a summary of the concerns that are going to be brought up in all of the messages in the book of Hosea. Throughout this long prophetic ministry, throughout these chapters, this is the concern. The Lord walks right to the very center of His issue with the people. The God who is always faithful, always good, looks at His people, these are the northern ten tribes, the nation of Israel, and summons them to appear before Him because He has, as He says here, a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. What a striking way to put that.

Michael Wigglesworth was the pastor for half a century of the church in Malden, Massachusetts, second half of the 17th century. And during a period of a great drought, he published a long poem in 1662 entitled God's Controversy with New England. And in it he laid out all the ways that God had been gracious to New England, the way he'd showed his kindness and the way that people in New England had turned against the Lord, had ignored him and not lived as they should, and how they were currently now suffering this long drought because of their rejection of God's kindnesses. And he implored them in this poem to come back to the Lord and to know this prosperity again. Well, Wigglesworth was taking a page out of the prophet's book from ancient prophets like Hosea.

In this summary, first verse of chapter four, the word of the Lord through Hosea points out three things that are missing. He says there's no faithfulness, there's no steadfast love, there's no knowledge of God in the land. And if you stare at these three, you realize that the first two are simply amplifying the last one. The basic charge of God against Israel is that they had ignored and forgotten him. The lack of faithfulness and steadfast love is simply filling out the fundamental problem.

In the land there was no knowledge of God. That didn't mean simply that the facts were forgotten, though they may have been, but that fundamentally the relationship with God was gone. People in Israel no longer knew the Lord. It was him that they no longer steadfastly loved or were faithful to. Whatever else, whatever sins are rebuked, whatever virtues need to be restored, whatever else there is, this is the heart of the Lord's complaint about his people through this entire book of Hosea.

It's right here. They had forgotten and forsaken him. God made his people set them apart, especially for himself to know him and to be known by him in a relationship with him. Now sometimes when you talk about a relationship with God, people who are in more formal churches or in other religions may find our language of being in a relationship with God kind of weird, unsettling, and maybe a kind of cosmic wish fulfillment that narcissistic modern Americans would come up with to think that the Creator of all the earth could want to know each one of us personally as individuals. But, friend, if you have those kind of questions, let me just say that we believe that because that's what the Bible teaches.

Long before Rome raised her cathedrals or Islam its mosques, the ancient Jewish people knew that there was a God who had made all of us, Jewish and not Jewish, made every person in his image to know him personally. The Old Testament Scriptures are full of this. From the anguish of Job to the joys of David in the Psalms to the many sharp passages of rebuke like we find here in the prophets. God made us to know himself. That's what the Bible teaches, Old Testament and New.

And as you look through our passage today, you find this reason for God's tough love. His reason is to be in a relationship with us. It's found again and again. Look over in chapter 5, verse 4.

Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord.

Or positively, look in chapter 6 verse 3, the call, Let us press on to know the Lord. This is really the compelling center of this tough love, knowing God. But if we're going to find Hosea's particular concerns, we need to move on. And when we do that, we find another truth about tough love, and that is that tough love finds the right helpers. What do I mean by that?

Well, look with me at chapter 4, starting with verse 2. There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery. They break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish. Also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, even the fish of the sea.

Are taken away. Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day, the prophet also shall stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

The more they increase, the more they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of My people. They are greedy for their iniquity. And it shall be like people like priests.

I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. They shall eat but not be satisfied. They shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they've forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine and new wine, which take away the understanding. My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they've left their God to play the whore.

They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills under oak, poplar and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery, for the men themselves. Go aside with prostitutes, and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty.

Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Bethaven. Swear not as the Lord lives, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn. Can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave them alone.

When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring. Their rulers dearly love shame. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Before we consider those helpers, consider how serious their fate pronounced is here, right there in the end of the chapter, Forsaken. That's what we see in verse 17 is going to happen to Ephraim. Ephraim is just another name for Israel. It's the largest of the northern tribes. Because they've joined themselves to that which God cannot abide, idols and false gods, then they shall be put away as the lifeless and false idols shall be themselves.

What an appropriate yet terrible fate to be forsaken by the one that they have forsaken. And so terrible is their fate, he says here in verse 17, Leave them alone. Sins of stand back, like the Israelites shrinking back from the convicted Achan when he had stolen and he and his family were about to be punished, all the Israelites shrank back. But now God pronounces this ban on the whole nation. How had they come to such a terrible situation?

It was through the preachers. It was through their false prophets, their false priests. That's how scheming Jeroboam had set the country up. If you remember earlier, centuries before when they had divided off from the southern kingdom, Jeroboam did not want his people running down to Jerusalem, into the southern kingdom to follow the Lord. So he built his own temples that the Lord never commanded him to.

One in the southern part of his kingdom, one in the northern part. And he started his own priesthood, one that God never called. And he did it so that the people would center their worship in their own land. And friends, worshiping God in the wrong way is not a far distance from worshiping the wrong gods. And that's what happened in Israel.

They began to worship the local Baals and Asheras, the gods of fertility. That came to typify the people. Friends, for good or for ill, the men who fill this pulpit will pull this church up or pull it down. That's just the truth. We're not all there is to the church, but it's like the central pole in a tent.

It's going to pull everything up or it's going to pull everything down. You need to pay attention to that. So it was here in ancient Israel, these priests who should be there to help the people, they were there to explain God's law. That was the job of the priest, to express God's law. But they didn't understand it, so they couldn't explain it.

God wanted a relationship with individuals. He wanted the truth to be told because people matter. Why was there this kind of sin that we see mentioned here? Because the priests and the prophets, the pastors and the preachers hadn't taught the people what God was like, what he wanted. Listen again to the role of the teachers.

No, let no one contend, verse 4, let no one accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. And then he goes on throughout the chapter and just details the problems. I find verse 8 particularly gross. They feed on the sin of my people. They are greedy for their iniquity.

Can you imagine a religion in which the priests make their money off of people trying to get right with God because of their sin. That's what was going on in ancient Israel. Friends, if there are those who are today like Israel, if they're to be reached, it will take people telling them the truth, just like they had once been taught falsehoods. The members and pastors of this church are not here to profit from your sin. But we are here to help you, prophet, by repenting of your sins and believing in Christ.

Friends, pray for your elders. We labor for your good. We were meeting Thursday night until after midnight. Just as the people then had been led astray by bad religious leaders, so they would be led back by prophets like Hosea that would speak the Lord's truth to them. And we today are in the same place.

We need those helpers who will bring the news of God's love to us in Christ. We need parents. We need children's workers. We need teachers, godly friends. We need elders and preachers who are committed to the truth of knowing God and making Him known.

Christian, just look back on your own path. Who has helped you?

Can you think of their faces or their names, parents? Friends, Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, pastors, maybe members in the past. Oh, one of the great things about Kayla Morrel's book Light on the Hill is she introduces us to lots of individuals who've helped us that we didn't even know personally. Dear Sister Agnes Shankel standing up to the whole church and saying that the pulpit search committee had the wrong person in mind. Because of this reason, try somebody else.

Or before her, Celestia Farris, who simply wanted to see children on the hill reached with the gospel. And so she started praying and organizing. Friends, these people have helped us along the way. Thank God for them. Desire more to be added to the list of those who've helped you spiritually, who've worked for and sought your spiritual good.

And while you're at it, why not try to add yourself to that list in other people's lives. You become one of those who know and teach God's gospel and God's word to others and help them along the way. Others around you need help today, just like you do, in seeking the Lord. All this brings us to another matter of tough love, number three, it's honest about sin. Look at chapter five.

Hear this, O priests, pay attention, O house of Israel, give ear, O house of the king, for the judgment is for you, for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor, and the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me, for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore, Israel is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord. The pride of Israel testifies to his face: Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt. Judah shall also stumble with them; with their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.

They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin! Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment among the of Israel, I make known what is sure. The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark.

Upon them I will pour out my wrath like water. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth. But I am like a moth to Ephraim, like a dry rot to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king, But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, even I, will tear and go away. I will carry off and no one shall rescue. I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face and in their distress earnestly seek me. Verse 4 is so clear and unvarnished in its presentation of sin and sin's nature and power, isn't it? Look there at verse 4 again.

Their deeds Do not permit them to return to their God. Every one of you here, especially you young people who have believed that sin is freedom, is believing a straight up big lie. Sin is not freedom. Sin traps.

Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them and they know not the Lord. Sin Sin binds. Sin buries itself deep inside. Sin blinds us to God and His concern. Sin makes us not want to talk about sin.

Being honest about sin is one of the things that marks off Christianity from the broader, more vague kind of beliefs you'll hear about in religiously themed op-ed pieces that are always popular in America. As a historian, I love the fact that Alexander Hamilton has found fresh interest because of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical. But I'm saddened that people who like Hamilton aren't aware of the change that came over him later in his life. And by the time he came to die, he knew that only Christ had the power to save him from such a mighty foe as sin was.

Reverend John Mason shared the gospel with Hamilton and reported his response. Mason wrote, In the sight of God all men are on a level, as all have sinned and come short of his glory, and that they must apply to him for pardon in life as sinners, whose only refuge is in his grace reigning by righteousness through our Lord Jesus Christ. I perceive it to be so, said Hamilton. I am a sinner. I looked to His mercy.

I then adverted to the infinite merit of the Redeemer as the propitiation for sin. The sole ground of our acceptance with God, the sole channel of His favor to us, and cited the following passages of the Scripture. Acts 4:12, There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus. Hebrews 7:25, He is able to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. 1 John 1:7 the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.

Hamilton assented with strong emotion to these representations. Mason went on to discuss the grace which brings salvation and said Hamilton interrupted him to affirm that it is rich grace. Then according to Mason the general looking up towards heaven and with emphasis said I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, in identifying himself as a sinner, emphasizing grace, and appealing specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ, Hamilton was showing the difference in language between the kind of theistic rationalism, which some of the founders certainly were, and Hamilton had himself been, I think, the difference between that and a Christian. It's also instructive to note that Mason more than once mentioned that Hamilton displayed religious emotion.

Which also separated the Christian that Hamilton was then from his former theistic rationalism.

In ancient Israel, the religious priests had led people into sin, and the Lord was clear about that through Hosea. And so should we be. Just like John Mason was clear with Alexander Hamilton. The sin in ancient Israel was concentrated in these places that are mentioned, named in this chapter, but was also spread throughout the whole land. They couldn't come to know the truth about the holy God without becoming more aware of their sin.

That's a problem you may have today. You may have come with some vague notion of church is okay if it can actually help me get to know God better. But you may not have realized that getting to know the truth about God will necessarily involve getting to know the truth about yourself. And all the truths about yourself are not flattering. How long had the ancient Israelites lain in their sins?

And their self-created religious practices did nothing to caution them or warn them to prevent them, let alone to atone for them. Neighbors defrauded each other by moving landmarks. Their worldly practices just reflected what pleased the nations around them rather than what pleased the Lord. This last verse of chapter 5 invites them to forsake their sins. I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face and in their Distress earnestly, seek me.

Even in this dark book of warning, there's that line of hope until they forsake their sin and seek me. Almost sounds like Hebrews 2:3, How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? What other salvation is there? From sin.

We also see here that tough love, number four, brings good to others.

Look there in chapter 6, verse 4. Hosea chapter 6, verse 4. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love.

And not sacrifice. The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Verse 6 is just what we heard Claire read earlier from Jesus' words in Matthew 9. Jesus cited this passage to show that God desires love rather than sacrifice. In this period where Hosea was warning them of God's judgment that was suddenly to come upon them, where Hosea warned them of this for years, You can just imagine the people's protests of innocence.

Perhaps he was pointing to ways in which the laws of Moses were half kept or remembered. But God says to them here in verse 4, you, love is like morning cloud, it's like dew that goes away early. But God taught them in verse 6 that he wanted love rather than sacrifice. Consider this, friends, very, very carefully. Obedience springs from love.

Obedience springs from love. Love is the root, obedience is the fruit. Love is the root, obedience is the fruit. This is so important to be said at a church like this. Is there any church that is churchier than us?

We are the churchiest of the churches. We are very self-conscious about being a church. We will have a members meeting tonight only for members of the church. But friend, be very careful, or you could be damned through the church. If you ever think about all the externals as if they are what God cares about most, the fact that we can see you here, see you at the members meeting, doing what you should do in that sense.

Churches are such thick, involving things. To be a part of them, we can sometimes think that that's all that God values. But friends, this is only valuable as an expression of another reality. Church without goodness is as valuable as faith without works. Church without goodness is only as valuable as faith without works.

While we're in this book of Hosea, seeing this image of faithfulness and unfaithfulness in marriage, I can't help but think of the dear elders of this church laboring in word and prayer, discussing and searching the word this past Thursday night. Some of the most difficult matters we prayed about are matters where we are sorely limited by our own ignorance. All the facts are not known to us. If we knew all the facts, if we had God's omniscience, we could act so quickly and so well. But we lack the omniscience of God.

We have to act with the limited knowledge we're given. Our experience is the one we read of in Proverbs 18. The one who states his case first seems right until the other comes and examines him.

Pray for insight for your elders. Pray for wisdom and freedom in the case of spouses who are being mistreated or abused. Please speak to us. We can't do anything we don't know about.

Let me take this opportunity here to do something a bit more unusual and speak to you if you're the abusing spouse. Now, if you're the abusing spouse, chances are you don't think of yourself as that way. So why don't you just go ahead and listen to me, even if you know you're not an abusing spouse?

If you're not, what can it hurt to have a conversation when you go home with your spouse simply asking them? Are there any ways in which, and you can use smaller words if you want to enable the conversation honestly, are there any ways in which I'm not loving you as I should, in which I'm ignoring you, in which I'm I'm mistreating you. Ask them, if you've been mistreating or ignoring or abusing them in any way, pray that they tell you the truth for your own sake as well as for theirs. And beware your own tendency to think that your being here in any way counteracts that sin. I pray, God, that you will do surprising good to your spouse today.

Because as you act in a more loving and godly way to your spouse, you're actually clarifying to them what God himself is like. You're helping to take lies out of the evil one's charges. Friends, the Lord is clear in this book that he loves righteousness and justice and steadfast love and faithfulness.

Remember Samuel's rebuke to Saul when Saul goes ahead and he does those religious sacrifices? Samuel says, Has the Lord been as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. Or that beautiful Psalm 40, a little bit after the part we sang in which David says, In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear, burnt offerings and sin offerings you have not required. To do your will, O my God, you, law is within my heart.

Or David's famous 51st Psalm, For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it, you, will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you, will not despise. Friends, when unrepentant murderers and other sinners came to publicly offer costly sacrifices, the Lord through Isaiah 1 just says to them, Get out of here. I don't want your solemn assemblies. Beloved, don't be confused by the fact that we see you at church because God can see you at home.

Pray for true love for God and for true love and good that you can do in the lives of others.

Another matter about tough love, number five, it steps up at the crucial time. Look at the second half of chapter 6. Beginning verse 7, But like Adam they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with Me. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.

As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy. In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim's whoredom is there, Israel is defiled. For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. Israel was a special place, just like Adam was in a special place in the garden. And like Adam, the Israelites were being evil covenant breakers.

That's basically what we see here. See, back in Exodus 24, when the Lord had brought His people out of bondage in Egypt, He had made a special covenant with the nation, and they agreed to it. Exodus 24, verse 3, all the people responded, All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. And as Moses was reflecting with them a generation later, right before they entered the Promised Land, he said in Deuteronomy 5, the Lord our God made a covenant with us. So just like Adam had been in a special place in the Garden of Eden, the whole nation of Israel was in a special place with God, in a special position of responsibility.

And friends, that's the amazing position that we are in today as God's people. We are in a special position of responsibility. This kind of tough love of God gives special assignments. And if we have that kind of answering love back, we take them. The people of Israel were warned in Deuteronomy 28.

They were warned about all the curses that would come on them if they disobeyed God's command. If you want something chilling to read, read Deuteronomy chapter 28 this afternoon. The very last verse is particularly unsettling, Deuteronomy 28, and the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised you should never make again, and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no one to buy you.

Failure to represent God among the nations would mean being reabsorbed back into the nations, losing that special blessing that had come on them as God's people. My Christian brothers and sisters, this is the kind of, kind of like the blessings and curses that we take upon ourselves here. When we see people baptized next week, when they're leaning back in that water, they're basically saying, My old self is dead, I have now been born again. But what that also means is I am taking on God's right judgment of my sins if I don't really have faith in Christ. Or the Lord's Supper, where body is broken and blood is spilled in picture.

We're saying, if we are unrepentant in our sins, so our bodies should be broken and our blood should be spilled. When we begin with our church covenant tonight at our members meeting, we are calling on one another before the Lord and calling on the Lord to keep us accountable for what we do together. Friend, the gift of holy status before the Lord is to be matched by the witness of our holy lives, because because we are those who represent God twice over in creation, as all people do, but by redemption as only Christians do, as those elected by the Father and purchased by the Son and united to Him and indwelt by the Spirit.

So if you're here today as a husband or wife, you realize you're in that special covenanted relationship where you have a special way you can show the truth of God's covenant love to your spouse. Like nobody else can do. Over here as a parent, you have that kind of relationship with your children. You may be the clearest picture of God that your kids will ever see. Friends, consider that carefully.

Don't follow the example of the first Adam. Follow instead the example of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. What a special, wonderful opportunity the Lord has He has placed us in. We have the opportunity now, today, this week, this day, to represent Him to those we see regularly, maybe to some who've never met a Christian before or never gotten to know one well. We are the billboard that God has hired out in this area to show people what He's like.

Friend, that's you. That's your calling.

Turning to chapter 7, we see this tough love. Number 6 knows how to say goodbye. Let's read the first part of chapter 7. And here we see that healing begins with revealing the truth.

When I restore the fortunes of My people, when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely, the thief breaks in and the bandits raid outside, but they do not consider that I remember all their evil Now their deeds surround them, they are before my face. By their evil they make the king glad, the princes by their treachery. They're all adulterers. They're like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine.

He stretched out his hand with mockers. For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue. All night their anger smolders, in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. All of them are hot as an an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon Me.

Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples. Ephraim is a cake not turned. You'll notice there in verse 2, God's intimate knowledge of their sins. But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them, they are before My face.

Nothing we do is hidden from God.

Remember that. When Hosea says there in verse 8 that Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples, that's not good. God's people are to live distinctly holy lives. That was to set them apart from all the things the nations were doing, the mocking of God, the true God, the ignorance of the true God and His ways. Remember Jesus said that salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?

You and I are to be that distinctive taste in the world that we're in, in the company that we're in, the school that we're in, the family that we're a part of, the team that we're on, the office that we're in, the neighborhood that we live in. But we're only of use to them if we are different from them in ways that are special to Christians.

So kids, I'm talking to you, kids. That means you, if you're 16, I'm counting you as a kid. If you're 10, I'm counting you as a kid. Kids, I can tell you what you're gonna be like this time next year. And I don't have to be a prophet.

It's just by knowing who you hang around this year. Whoever you're hanging around now, today, shows us what you're gonna be like like tomorrow, next year. It's true with all of us, not just kids. We are affected by the people we surround ourselves with. Israel was intermixing with the nations.

It was not being distinct at all. It was not being a good witness. The Israelites needed to say goodbye to their sinful practices of religion, to their sinful pagan neighbors, to their own sins. And if they didn't, it seemed clear that God here would be saying goodbye to them. Their religious leaders had long since stopped helping them this.

The religious leaders were part of the problem. The things that God said were wrong, the religious leaders were saying were okay. Their situation looked dire. And that's why the Lord sent Hosea to tell the truth. Part of what can help you and I say goodbye to some people that we should probably say goodbye to is saying hello to others.

Maybe you need some new people in your life, some people who are hungry for the Lord, who love the Lord, and who be honest with you and will love you, will serve you and be kind to you. Friends, that's what we're gonna be dealing with tonight is a church. We deal with questions of membership and discipline. We practice and we're trying to help those of us who know that we're sinners what it means to be a repenting sinner. We want to live here and work here with each other, loving and helping each other.

We don't want to be like the leaders here in verse 7 who refuse to call upon God. We want to be the people who regularly rely on the Lord, who help each other to rely on the Lord. You know, in Hosea's day, Israel was worshiping the gods of the other people around. So God's people became like the world. They had intermarried.

And the problem with that mixing was not ethnicities mixing or races mixing. It was cultures and especially values. Values, and particularly the religion, who they would worship. What did they know and teach about God and His ways? I pray that each of us here will have the wisdom to know about those non-Christians we spend time with regularly.

Are we having more influence on them, or are they having more influence on us? Part of tough love is knowing when to say goodbye.

And if the Israelites didn't learn that, God would be saying goodbye to them. Looking on at the last verse in chapter 7, we see that Tuvlov needs humility to receive it. Let me start reading with chapter 7, verse 9.

Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not. Gray hairs are sprinkled upon him He knows it not. The pride of Israel testifies to his face, yet they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek Him for all this. Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria, as they go, 'I will spread over them my net, I will bring them down like the birds of heaven, I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. 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. They do not cry to Me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds. For grain and wine they gash themselves. They rebel against Me.

Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against Me.

They return, but not upward. They're like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. They shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. We see here in verses 9 and 10 that the Israelites were being ruined by worshiping foreign gods.

The corrosive power of worshiping false gods and of sin meant that they were losing power, they were losing accurate self-knowledge, they were losing any inclination for the Lord. Verse 10 refers to Israel's pride. That's really a summary of it all. Pride. Pride is sin's protein powder.

Pride strengthens every other sin. Humility, by contrast, weakens every sin. Ultimately, humility threatens every sin, and at the same time strengthens every virtue. Brothers and sisters, if you would be instructed by Israel here, then take them and their pride as a negative example, and you today seek humility.

Ask yourself, what would it mean for someone like me to seek humility? Pray for humility. God can do better things in us than we even know how to ask for. The Israelites were about to be destroyed because of their sins against the Lord. Verse 11 shows them as rendered witless, silly, and without sense, calling going to Egypt, going to Assyria, if you know their history, that's how it ended.

They went to the one, it didn't work. They went to the other and they came and ate them. 722 B.C. that's exactly what happened. And then in the last stanza, verses 14 to 16, the Lord laments that though they were mine, they sinned against me.

They rebelled against me, although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. And there in the last sentence of chapter 7, you see that the Lord would underscore the irony. Of them going back into captivity. It's just like the end of Deuteronomy 28.

Egypt, he calls it here in verse 16.

Egypt, Assyria would be their new Egypt from which they would not emerge. Exactly like the Lord had finished those curses He warned of back in Deuteronomy 28 before they first went into the Promised Land centuries before, this was a preview of the dirge that would be sung at Israel's funeral.

If they only would have humbled themselves, humility would have led them to do the Lord's just commands, not to leave them undone, would have led them to seek righteousness. Not the unrighteousness they had come to characterize them. Then perhaps they would be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord. Humility before God would mean setting your heart on understanding God and His Word, but Israel seemed to be all out of humility. No more.

We're here today humbly seeking to hear and obey God and His Word. Why else would you choose on a beautiful day to come inside a building with a bunch of other people and listen to somebody talk at you for an hour because you must think there's something that you can learn, that you need. Friends, if we're not humbly seeking to hear and obey the Lord, what makes Christians different than non-Christians? Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, we're very glad you're here. Realize that you're always welcome.

That what I'm exhorting us to right now, trying to humbly receive from God what he will give us, that's how we can best serve you. If we can do this, we'll help you most. Otherwise, we will just make stuff up. Otherwise, we'll just start giving you what we like best or what we think you like best, because maybe you'll buy that. But friends, what we will do that will help you most is to tell you the truth about what God has said, what he's revealed.

We need his wisdom, the true wisdom of God from his word about his way with sinners like us. And that's what brings us briefly to our final part there. Perhaps the most obvious thing of all about tough love is that it costs. That's what we read in those three verses at the beginning of chapter 6. Turn back to chapter 6, those three verses.

Tough love costs.

Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn us, that He may heal us. He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him. The violent language of having been torn or struck down is referring to the convicting work of God's Spirit. But notice that here that work is envisaged as continuing on into our being healed, to our being bound up and revived.

Paul in 1 Corinthians seems to reference verse 2 here when he refers to Christ's own being raised up on the third day. Christ was torn for us. He was struck down for us so that we might be healed and He might bind us up. Oh friend, if you're not a Christian, The good news for you is there is forgiveness for all your sins because of the righteousness of Christ. Our sins and their guilt can be drowned in the ocean of Christ's righteousness.

If we will trust in Him, have faith in Him, God sent Him as a sacrifice for all of us who would turn and trust in Him. That means new life for you to you today. That's why we're all here, because we are those who've come to know this forgiveness and new life in Christ. What blessings come to us? Look at verse 3.

Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going out is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. We'll know the truth about ourselves. We'll know the truth about him.

Instead of exile and alienation, we follow on and know the Lord, and there is inclusion and acceptance and love and blessings poured out. Friends, what could be greater than all the sins listed in these chapters? From swearing and insolent speech to lying and even devising evil against God, that sounds bad. What could be greater than all that? I'll tell you the answer: God's grace.

God's grace can be even greater, poured out on Calvary in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, whose blood was spilt for us.

I pray that we may all love the Lord today, for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's pray together.

Lord God, we pray that yout would help us by good threats.

We pray that yout would teach us the truth, that yout would help us to find people who will help us know you better. Teach us how we can help others. Change us to make us a blessing to those around us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.