When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face. (Hosea 7:1-2)
Reverend Romesh Prakashpalan’s sermon follows the sermon points below. The sermon is 55 minutes in length, but the points may stand alone for those who do not have 55 minutes to hear this fine sermon.
This sermon is about a fundamental problem that Israel and all believers have; the chilling of the heart by idolatry and returning to God via repentance.
SERMON POINTS [bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine]:
The following sermon seems to have been preached in January or February 2021:
- God’s prescription for man’s troubles is simple: Cry Out To Him, Hosea 7:14
- Fallen man will devise his own schemes; turn to idols (materialism, addictions…); heathen and other men before he considers turning to God
- The solution to Israel’s decline would have been to cry out to God via repentance and faith
- What kept her from turning to God? The coldness of her heart (a heart that was enamored with sin)
- So, Israel’s solution can be simply stated, they should have cried out to God and turned from their sin
- To keep such a tragic thing from happening in our lives, we will consider the following 3 headings: 1. The case that is before us, what was Israel like as she was in decline; 2. What were the causes of her decline? And 3. What was the cure for her decline?
- 1. The case of Israel’s decline: Hosea 7:9 [ESV2011] Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.
- Intermarriage with Pagans was the source of much of the decline
- [remember how Solomon’s foreign wives led him to worship false gods, to commit spiritual adultery; Sampson experienced a similar problem; Proverbs 5-7 talks about how actual adultery causes one to lose physical resources and his soul]
- Our nation is on the decline but we do not see it: insurmountable debt; an out-of-control virus; unemployment; businesses are shuddering; we have bread lines (howling for corn and wine)
- Our moral decline is apparent in the legislation of gay marriage; and that abortion is a right; that false religion is preferred to the one true religion; that biblical Christians are called radicals
- Is it a surprise that our nation has turned to wickedness and is simultaneously in spiritual decline
- God’s word states that such things will happen to those (individuals and nations) that turn from Him to sin
- Seeing these things should strengthen our faith, as we are seeing reality align with God’s word
- In the earlier chapters of Hosea, God blasted the priests for not proclaiming God’s word, confronting sin and calling for repentance; and for turning from Him to sin
- The decline of nations always begins with the decline of its spiritual leaders: most Christians today have been converted to strange gospels that are not the true gospel [the leaders have turned to false gospels and are teaching lies to the people…]
- Prosperity gospels, e.g., do not proclaim a gospel that teaches depravity, repentance…
- In such a situation, can we expect to be strengthened by God? Elaborated
- We must find our strength in God’s word and obedience
- It is easy to be blind to spiritual decline [if you are not in the word, and you are listening to false teachers, then you may not know that God hates sin and requires repentance…]
- Those who read the word need to examine themselves, their family and church for spiritual decline
- [For example, even if you read the word, attend church…if you have addictions you turn to when in distress – materialism, gossip, pleasure seeking, fun seeking, movie watching, sexual sin, (many more), then you are turning to idols instead of God. It is important to admit what it is that you do at such times; the Holy Spirit will show you your idols and crush them, He will also ‘hedge’ up your path so these are difficult to turn to, that is discussed elsewhere in Hosea]
- During the past year, was there a trend to or away from God in your own life? [That is, were you receiving strength from the Lord, or loss of strength via turning away]
- Point 2, the cause of decline:
- 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.
- 1 Samuel 15: 22 And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great 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. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”
- Rebellion against God begins in your heart; Hebrews 3: 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
- Matthew 15: 8“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
- Towards what is your heart inclined?
- If your heart is not inclined to Christ, then it is against Him
- God takes sin personally, He is not just an objective Judge, dealing with law violations; but He punishes sin as it is against His marriage covenant: sin is adultery, fornication; as in Psalm 51, against You alone I have sinned
- In the gospels of the New Testament, we often see the Lord Jesus Christ spoken of in the third person; not in the OT; “against Me you have sinned
- 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. [See also verses 7, 14, 15]
- To bring sin into your heart, is adulterous; is to commit witchcraft [1 Samuel 15]
- 7:1 states that He would have healed Israel but she turned from Him to sin
- That is, Israel went deeper into sin – topic briefly expounded in terms of the interests of their private lives and how that resulted in their being sapped of strength by God
- Being unequally yoked and syncretism (the blending of Paganism with biblical faith – such as in ‘Christian yoga’), the impact of such things on spiritual decline of individuals, churches and nations
- Instead of crying out to God with their whole hearts, they sought to have their fleshly desires satisfied by Paganism
- Paganism scratched the sinful itch they had in their flesh [that, undoubtedly is why syncretism is so common, then and now]
- Syncretism prohibits one from mortifying the flesh as Romans 8 calls Christians to do; mortification via the Spirit of God encourages spiritual growth in grace
- He talked about the error of trusting in leaders – the 2020 election
- If we surveyed our 535 member congress to see how many cried out to God, we would also likely discover that number has declined as our nation has declined
- We ought to pray for them that they would themselves cry out to God
- 3, The Cure:
- 7:10 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this.
- She refused to admit to her sin of pride but attempted to fix herself by her own devices
- 7:11 Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
- You are “silly” if you go to another than the Lord for healing because there is no other Savior – that is, there is only one place to go for deliverance, if we go elsewhere, then we are silly
- Pride and folly will also keep you from turning to Him: they bypassed Hosea and returned to their lovers, the Pagans and Pagan nations – our ways compared
- What do you love in your life; what do you spend your time doing? Such things, activities, people…are your lovers – expounded with illustrations of common, current idols
- Was King David able to run from his sin (Bathsheba…Psalm 32, 51)? No
- Why not willingly run to the Lord and repent?
- The hypocrite and the true believer are revealed herein, the true believer turns back to the Lord and repents [it took David a year or more to repent of his great sins, and God had to send Nathan to provoke that repentance – knowing that God forgives such heinous sins, even after such a lengthy period of spiritual decline should be encouraging to us all]
- The cries were not to God; “howls” suggest animal like gestures [God also compares them to animals in the following verses]
- Isaiah 1:2b and 3 “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. 3The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
- Whey we seek comfort or deliverance via other than God, we are like animals [it was already stated that only God can deliver, seeking it elsewhere is folly]
- Pride, folly, unbelief, lack of love…kept Israel from being cured by God
- What is keeping you from being healed?
- 1 Chronicles 4: 10 Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.
- 1 Kings 8:…35 When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them, 36then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.
- That is, God is ready to forgive, turn to Him, not idols
- Heal me and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved [Jeremiah]; it is by the stripes and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved
- Hosea 7: 2But they fail to consider in their heart that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.
- On judgment day, when the books are opened, all your sins will have been noted; you will be forgiven if you have repented and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ
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They did not Cry Out to Me – Reverend Romesh Prakashpalan Sermon
Rom is married to Maegan and they have four children. Rom was raised as a Hindu and became an atheist early in life. The Lord called him to faith through hearing the gospel in 2009 (Romans 10:17). Soon after, he felt a call to gospel ministry. He graduated from the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) in 2020 with an MDiv. He was first ordained and installed as a ruling elder at DRPC in March 2015 and then a teaching elder in July 2020 by the Midwest Presbytery of the RPCNA. In addition to homiletics, counseling, and theology; Rom enjoys cooking, especially smoking meat, computer science (his first vocation), and roadtrips with his family.
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