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It's a Trap (part 2) (Hosea 5)
27 Plays1 year ago
Sunday Message recorded 28 January 2024
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosea 5 Overview
00:00:06
Speaker
Well, good morning. It's good to see you this morning. Thank you so much for coming to worship the Lord. He is worthy of our praise and our worship. We'd like to invite you to turn to the Old Testament book of Hosea. We've been going through this book. We took a break over Christmas and Thanksgiving and so forth. And we're back in there now.
00:00:27
Speaker
But we're at chapter five. I started it last week, but I didn't finish. So today is the second part of a message based on the fifth chapter of Hosea.
Personal Anecdote and Spiritual Traps
00:00:38
Speaker
This Old Testament prophet, as you'll remember, was preaching God's truth to a rebellious nation. He was preaching to a resistant king.
00:00:47
Speaker
And there was an Old Testament commentator named Derek Kidner who said about Hosea, and especially about this fifth chapter, he said that the sinner is the prisoner of his habits, that over time develop a stranglehold on him. Have you ever felt strangled? Have you ever walked into a trap and it was Temptations Trap? That's why I've entitled this, It's a Trap.
00:01:14
Speaker
It wasn't a sinful trap. But when I was a student at Union University, I was stressed out. We were in exam week. And I don't know if my roommates were trying to encourage me or what. But I heard them out in the foyer. We had a commons there where we had five bedrooms. And so I had my door closed and was studying as hard as I could. And suddenly, all the lights went out. They turned off the breaker.
00:01:41
Speaker
and they were in there chanting. Have you ever studied in Greek, there's a Greek declension, the ending of
Avoiding Temptation
00:01:50
Speaker
all the verbs, and it's called, oh, aisai, amen eti usi. And so I heard these guys, these are grown men, I mean, these are college students, and they're out there going, oh, aisai.
00:02:02
Speaker
I'm an Eddie Uzi. Oh, I saw it. I'm an Eddie Uzi. And so I thought, what are they doing? So I opened my door, and I could see through there. It was really dark, but I could see they were hooded. And they had like bathrobes on, and they were going, oh, I saw it. I'm an Eddie Uzi. And I said, you guys have lost it. I said, I'm trying to study for an exam here. And when I walked through the doorway, I didn't notice it, but they put masking tape around there.
00:02:31
Speaker
So anyway, I walked through the masking tape and it's all over me. I don't know what it is. I didn't see it in advance. The lights were off. And then they started beating up on me. But anyway, that's about as far as it goes with theological students anyway, but it was a trap and I didn't see it coming.
00:02:51
Speaker
But you know, the Lord compares Israel's priests, his people, and his king to guys like my roommates. He said, you guys are nothing but snares and a net. Last time we said a snare, if you've never seen one, it's like a hidden trap that is made of wire with a noose that tightens around an animal's ankle or around an animal's neck.
00:03:16
Speaker
And the net was something that was used by bird hunters. And what they do is they'd attract the bird, and then they would spring the trap. It was like this net would go over them. But it had to be disguised, because you've seen how nervous birds are. And they're also so nervous they fly away really quickly. And so it had to be sprung really quick. So Jesus urged us to beware.
00:03:43
Speaker
Beware, because in life, he said, there are going to be temptations. So that's why every day he said, you ought to be praying, Lord, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So the Bible uses
Principles of Spiritual Snares
00:03:58
Speaker
the word snare. I don't know if you've ever noticed how often last week I introduced you to some of the different snares that are mentioned, but it's 55 times throughout the scriptures, 17 times it mentions the word trap.
00:04:14
Speaker
But there are all different kinds of traps and Israel had fallen into two different kinds of snares. One was the snare of idolatry, the other one was the snare of immorality.
00:04:26
Speaker
But David, much later, he was praising the Lord in Psalm 124 verses 6 through 8 because the Lord helped him escape from a trap. He was once in a trap. I wonder if it's the one that he was in among the Philistines.
00:04:45
Speaker
But the spiritual trap of temptation, they're serious. If you're getting in one, you need to get out. And there's only one who can help us get out. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why I wanted to say, even though they're serious like you will see in Chapter 5 of Hosea,
00:05:02
Speaker
There's a solution and the solution is to call out to God and say, Lord, get me out of this and he will. So hang with me as we go through the chapter because the best verse is the last verse. Would you stand in honor of God's holy, inspired and errant word?
00:05:22
Speaker
Hosea 5, I'll begin with the first one. Hear this, old priests. Pay attention, old house of Israel. Give ear, old house of the king, for the judgment is for you. For you have been a snare, a misspaw, 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's not hidden from me,
00:05:51
Speaker
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 Hordom 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 also shall stumble with them. With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him.
00:06:20
Speaker
He has withdrawn from them.
The Story of Joshua and Achan
00:06:22
Speaker
They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord. For they have born alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. Bull the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-Avon. We follow you, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment among the tribes of Israel.
00:06:49
Speaker
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.
00:07:14
Speaker
and like dry rot to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his womb, then Ephraim went to Assyria.
00:07:25
Speaker
and sent to the great king. But he's not able to cure you or heal your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and 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.
00:07:51
Speaker
and in their distress, earnestly seek me. Let's go to the father in prayer. Lord, help us to seek you. Lord, guard us. Lord, life is so filled with these traps.
00:08:04
Speaker
These traps are really temptations. They're spiritual traps. We know that the enemy wants us to fall. He wants us to stumble.
Generational Warnings from Judges
00:08:12
Speaker
But through Christ, we don't have to stumble. Through Christ, we can stand. We can avoid temptation. We can have victory and overcome temptation. I thank you Lord that even when we're in a trap,
00:08:25
Speaker
Lord, you can set us free. And so, Lord, that's what I want our church family to know. That's what I want every visitor, every guest that is here today to know. I want them to know that there's a way out. There's freedom in Christ. And so, Lord, bless us as we go to this chapter once again and speak to us these words of life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:08:54
Speaker
Last week we focused on the first three principles about spiritual snares. So let's quickly review the first three and then let's examine the remaining three. Before we do this, I just want to remind you of a great verse. If you're looking for one to memorize for 2024, I recommend 1 Corinthians 10 13.
00:09:15
Speaker
1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13 says, no temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
00:09:31
Speaker
But with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure. That's good news. That's available to us in Christ. So there's always a way out. Well, let's review the three principles about spiritual snares that we saw last time.
00:09:51
Speaker
We see at the beginning of chapter five that whatever God's about to say, he means he's serious about it. Listen to how he mentions three time words that are related to, are listening to, to hearing. He says, hear this, O priest, pay attention.
00:10:09
Speaker
O house of Israel, give ear, O house of the king. See, you see what God is saying? Don't miss this. Don't slough this off. This is serious stuff because God's about to give a caution about snares. He confronts them
00:10:24
Speaker
in verse 1, over their idolatrous snares. That's what he's doing as he talks about Tabor, as he talks about Mizpah, as he compares them to snares and so forth. At one time these were places of worship, but now they're so mixed because now they're given into idolatry and they're worshiping other gods.
00:10:46
Speaker
And God sees it, and God knows it. And so he's confronting them over their idolatrous snares. He's also correcting them for their senseless slaughters. Did you see that in verse two? We saw last week, and the revolters have gone deep into slaughter. Slaughtering who? Who's dying? Children. They were offering up children in their pagan feasts and festivals. That was one of the things they were doing. And God says, I've seen it.
00:11:14
Speaker
And notice what he says about it. I'm going to discipline all of them. He is so tired of it. And so God is saying, I want you
Consequences of Pride and Idolatry
00:11:22
Speaker
to be careful. So he's, he's warning them. It's like he's firing a shot. And he's saying, you better stand down because the judgment is for you. He says in verse one, and he says, I will discipline all of them in verse two. How in the world is he know?
00:11:37
Speaker
He knows, he knows about our sin. That's the second thing we learned last time is that God is conscious of the snares. Of course, the people need to beware, right? Beware, because there are traps out there, temptations out there, so they need to beware. That's us. But I want you to know that God is aware. He is aware of what we are doing.
00:12:03
Speaker
That's why it's sobering words from the Almighty when He says, you know what? I know you. I know you, nation. He said, I know you, for him. And Israel's not hidden from me. Whenever you hear the Lord God the Almighty say that, you better listen because God's saying, I know all about it. I see what's happening in the back channels. You know, in the book of Joshua, it was exciting.
00:12:26
Speaker
in chapter six when they had their first battle against Jericho. And it's amazing how they won. I mean, it was clearly God that did it. So when they get ready in chapter seven to face a smaller foe, they're thinking, we've got this one. This is not Jericho. This is I.
00:12:45
Speaker
AI. That's interesting. AI. But anyway, it's AI. And what they say is, we don't even need to take the whole army. Just send 2,000, 3,000. Man, we've got this. They go over there, and you know what? They got whipped. They got whipped bad. Because without God, we're nothing, right? But anyway, they forgot that. And so Joshua, he just falls down on his face. He says, God, I don't understand. Why could we not win this battle?
00:13:14
Speaker
You know what God said? God said to Joshua, get up. He said there's sin in the camp. Somebody took things from Jericho that they were not supposed to take. And so God knew all about it. And so whenever they had to narrow it down, God led them right to the man. There was a man named Achan.
00:13:35
Speaker
And Achan had taken things that he hid in his tent. He put them underneath some kind of blanket or mat or whatever. But I just want you to know that God knows. And so rather than trying to hide it, here's the better thing to do. Be honest with God. Proverbs 28, 13 says, whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper.
00:14:00
Speaker
You're not going to prosper as an individual, as a family, as a county, as a city, as a country, as a state. Whenever we try to hide sin, but whenever we're honest about sin and we come before the Lord and say, Lord, I'm sorry. That's where Proverbs 28, 13 goes on to say, whoever conceals this transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses.
00:14:23
Speaker
and forsakes them will obtain mercy. That's where it's found is by confessing.
00:14:31
Speaker
Also, we saw last time, one last one, when we're caught in a snare, when we're caught in a snare. We get caught in a snare because they baited us anyway to get in there. I remember when I went bear hunting in Alberta, you know, there it's legal to actually put some, well, the guide called them yummies, but I couldn't stand to even be near it. It was like it smelled so bad. But anyway, I was glad when he said, let's go up in that tree over there. I said, yeah, let's get away from that.
00:14:59
Speaker
You know, but anyway, he baited the bear and the bear came right in there. And so I'm just saying, what is it that baited them to disobey God? Well, he says their deeds do not permit them to return to their God for the spirit of boredom is within them. They were unfaithful. Their unfaithfulness was what it was. And so they were being baited by idolatry. They were being baited by immorality.
00:15:26
Speaker
But why couldn't they get this? Why can't you get this? Why can't a nation get this? Why can't a city get this? Well, it's very clear in verse 4. Look at what it says. For the Spirit of Hordom is within them, and they know not the Lord.
00:15:42
Speaker
You see, until we trust Christ, it's like our eyes have blinders. We can't see. But one of the things that happens when we trust Christ is He opens our eyes. We have enlightenment and we can see things way clearer. And we couldn't see the sin before. So we were stepping in all kind of traps before. And that's why they were blind to the trap because they didn't know the Lord.
00:16:06
Speaker
But then you go down and you say, well, also, what is this? Why were they so bound to this trap? Just like the bird, whenever it gets around his ankle and the snare gets him, or whenever he's caught in the net, he can't get away. And so what is it that binds us to sin? Well, it's the same kind of things that abound them. He says here, their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.
00:16:34
Speaker
You know, they're deeds. It's like they're addicted. They're addicted to this and they can't let it go. And so that's one of the things that kept them going back over and over to sin. But look at verse five. It brings up another thing that helped them to stay in that trap.
00:16:51
Speaker
The pride, the pride of Israel testifies to his face. Pride keeps so many people from trusting Christ. When we come to Christ, you have to humble yourself and you have to say, Lord, I made a lot of mistakes in my life. I just want to ask you to please forgive me. It's humbling to do that.
00:17:10
Speaker
But also notice how sad it is that the worst thing about traps and falling into traps, this is more maybe for adults, but not exclusively. I think even students could think about their example and their influence to other people, is to think about how he says, Judah also shall stumble within.
00:17:30
Speaker
You see, Judah was the southern kingdom. Israel was the northern kingdom. So the northern kingdom is the one that fell in the trap. But you see what he's saying? He's saying, you are going to influence the southern kingdom, your sister to the south. You're going to influence her to follow into all your sin and so forth.
Futility of Rituals and Distress in Snares
00:17:51
Speaker
And so how sad that is that that happens.
00:17:55
Speaker
All I'm saying is we have to say, Lord, don't let me be a stumbling block to my kids. Don't let me be a stumbling block to my neighbors, my friends, my coworkers. Help me to be a good example. Help me to point them to you. Well, let's break some new ground and let me give you the final three principles about spiritual snares. The fourth principle is the cries that are often heard from the snare. The cries from the snare, verses six and seven.
00:18:23
Speaker
Have you ever heard an animal that's caught in a snare? It can sound one of two things. Either it sounds pitiful or it sounds ferocious. It's like when they get trapped, they do not like it and they want to get out.
00:18:39
Speaker
You know, it's the same with humans. You can hear a sob story. No, this is what happened. And this is, you know, it's all coming against me. But then you can also hear them where they get angry. And they're saying, the reason it's against me is because this person, that person, blaming everybody else under the sun, other than saying, I'm responsible for my actions and my own sins.
00:19:01
Speaker
And so look at some of the cries or the ways people try to handle it whenever they get caught in a trap, a spiritual snare.
00:19:11
Speaker
He says in verse six, with their flocks and herds, they shall go to seek the Lord. With their flocks and herds, they shall go to seek the Lord. Some people think, well, if I just do all the rituals, if I just go to church, if I just do this or do that, then that's going to get me out of this trap. No, it won't.
00:19:32
Speaker
It will not. Only Christ, only Christ can set us free. Rituals will never do it. Look at even what he says the rest of this verse. He says, with their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him.
00:19:47
Speaker
He will not find him. Why not? I thought he's supposed to be there for us. But at this point, judgment is fallen upon a nation. At this point, there's the removal of the Lord's presence. A lot of Bible scholars say it's like the removal of His blessing, the removal of His protection. It must have been a scary thing for them to hear the prophets say, you can go and try all the sacrifices you want to try.
00:20:15
Speaker
But God's gone. He's not going to be there. You're not going to find Him. And so how sobering would that have been? He says they've dealt faithlessly with the Lord. For they have born alien children. What's that talking about? Aliens? Are we talking outer space?
00:20:30
Speaker
No, I think what he's talking about there is they've raised a generation of kids that do not know the Lord. They've raised a generation that do not follow the Lord God Almighty. And so he's saying these children are not going to be following me like a previous generation.
God's Judgment on Israel
00:20:52
Speaker
It reminds me so much of what took place in the book of Judges. If you've got a moment, I would like for you to put a marker there and go with me to Judges. I want to read a passage to you, just one passage there from Judges. Judges chapter 2. I'll tell you what can happen sometimes.
00:21:12
Speaker
Judges chapter 2 and verse 10, and we'll read down through verse 15. So I want to give you a moment to find it so you can follow along with this because it's serious stuff whenever you get in this place where the Northern Kingdom was. When there's a nation of people and they're not bringing their kids along.
00:21:31
Speaker
In other words, they followed the Lord, they worshiped the Lord, but now the next generation, they're not following the Lord. And so he called them in Hosea, an alien generation, but something very similar happened in this passage. Listen to what it says. Judges chapter 2 verse 10.
00:21:48
Speaker
And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, the generation of Joshua, generation of Moses and Caleb. It says, and there arose another generation after them. And what was their problem? Who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.
00:22:08
Speaker
And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the bales. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.
00:22:20
Speaker
They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed down to them and they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Get this, this is sobering when you think about it.
00:22:43
Speaker
and he, that's God, he gave them over to plunderers, to plunderers who plundered them, plunders who plundered the nation. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out,
00:23:03
Speaker
hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. When I think of distress, I think they're crying, crying out. They cried out so often in the book of Judges, you won't believe if you read through that book sometime. It's like a recurring cycle that happened seven times, seven times across multiple generations. And here's the way it would go.
00:23:32
Speaker
There was a generation that would serve the Lord and then something happened. They would fall into sin and into idolatry. So you know what that led to? Trap. They were enslaved. They couldn't get out. So they would cry out to God as a nation, crying out to God in repentance. So you know what God would do? He would raise up a deliverer. And so the deliverer would come through and they would be rescued. And they would begin to serve the Lord again.
00:24:02
Speaker
But unfortunately, seven times it was repeated over and over again. Sometimes it'd be the Edomites that they were facing, sometimes the Moabites, sometimes the Canaanites, the Midianites, the Ammonites, the Philistines. Over and over again, the same thing happened. They get into a trap. What are they doing in the trap? Well, they're crying. We don't like it in this trap. It's miserable in this trap.
00:24:30
Speaker
But you know something, sometimes the trap is God. Remember what he said to that generation in Judges? It said that their armies would go out, but something was against them. The hand of the Lord was against them. The hand of the Lord was against them. You know, that leads me to the fifth thing about the snares. The fifth thing is the clutch, the clutch of God, the grip of God.
00:24:58
Speaker
Can God grip a nation? Can God grip an individual so that they can't go? Man, you don't want, if out of all the people in the whole universe, you do not want the Lord God the Almighty to grab ahold of you in some native, you want His hand of blessing to be upon you. And He wants to put it upon us.
00:25:20
Speaker
But remember that a noose in a snare, it does something whenever the animal struggles. When the animal struggles without trying to ask for help or anything like that, the animal struggles. And the more that animal struggles, the tighter that noose gets. It gets tighter and tighter. That's what they mean by a snare. I wonder sometimes if we struggle in the flesh, I can fix this. I know how to fix this.
00:25:47
Speaker
But what should we do? We'll see that last. But I want you to see, what is it like when you're caught in the clutch of the Lord God the Almighty? When instead of the snare, or maybe it is a snare that we walked into, but God, He's backing it up. I want you to look with me if you would at verses eight through 14. Verse eight says, blow the horn and give you.
00:26:15
Speaker
The trumpet in Ramah, sound the alarm at Beth-Avon. We follow you, O Benjamin. You know, the first thing I want you to know about God's judgment, God's discipline, you know, several words are used. If you see verse two, you'll see the word discipline. If you see verse nine, you see the word punishment. If you see verse 10, you see the word wrath. If you see verse 11, you see the word judgment.
Purpose of Distress and Deliverance
00:26:37
Speaker
All of those God is using to describe His response to this nation of people. But I was thinking, how could we describe the grip of God? So when I saw Versailles, I thought the first thing I would say is the grip of God's judgment, it's urgent. It's urgent. I wouldn't put it off. I would say, you know what? It's time to blow the horn. It's time to pay attention. It's time to wake up.
00:27:03
Speaker
You know, verse 9, I would say also that the grip of God's judgment is something else. It is certain. It is certain. Here's what he says to them. Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of judgment among the tribes of Israel. I make known what is sure.
00:27:20
Speaker
What is sure, we can't wrestle against the Lord God the Almighty. He runs things. He's in control. And so the grip of God's judgment is urgent and certain, but it's also comprehensive. Some people say, well, I think I can buy my way out of that. I think I'd talk my way out of that. No, he says in verse nine, the tribes of Israel, he talks about in verse 10, the princes of Judah. There's nobody going to escape.
00:27:47
Speaker
No one escapes whenever God grabs a hold of our foot.
00:27:52
Speaker
You know, there's a sobering verse about the grip of the Almighty in Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 14. It's not one of those verses probably that stood out to you. Maybe you tried to get by it. But we need to think about the seriousness of Ezekiel 22 verse 14 says, can your courage endure or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with you? No, they can't. That's the answer.
00:28:19
Speaker
That's the answer and I go on and I think, oh my goodness, verse 11 reminds me that God's judgment can be punitive. Of course he used the word punishment. Of course he uses the word crushed in judgment and so forth. It's like, why? He says because the nation is determined to go after filth. That's why it's all coming down.
00:28:44
Speaker
And then the grip of God's judgment can also be stealth, stealthy and silent. It can be so silent that we don't hear it. Look at what God, I mean, Hosea was a master of metaphors. And he would pick this and pick that. It's like the Holy Spirit knew exactly what he wanted to say. And so he would say it through this man Hosea who thought in pictures. And here's what he says in verse 12, but I am like a moth.
00:29:12
Speaker
to Ephraim. God's talking. God is saying I'm like a moth to Ephraim and like dry rot to the house of Judah. You know what those two have in common? You don't hear them. You don't hear them.
00:29:25
Speaker
They just eat away and you don't hear them. And God is saying, that's exactly what I'm going to be like. You're never going to see me come. I'm going to be so silent that you're not going to see it until it's on you. And the grip of God's judgment, of course, verse 13 and 14, it's hopeless.
00:29:45
Speaker
It's hopeless for us to face the judgment of God in the flesh, without Christ, without the redemption, without the blood of Christ, without salvation, saying, I've got this on my own. No, we don't. We don't have this on our own. And that's what he says when Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah, his wound, what did he do? Then Ephraim went to Assyria. Oh, he said, well, another political alliance is going to fix this. And he said to the great king,
00:30:14
Speaker
But here's what God says. He's not able to cure you or heal your wound. For I'll be like a lion to eat for him and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I will even tear and go away. I will carry off and no one shall rescue. No one. There's no escape for us whenever we reject Christ. Whenever we say, I'm fine. I'm a good person. I'm not as bad as somebody else. Well, that's not going to cut it.
00:30:43
Speaker
And so that's why in 1741, on July the 8th, in a small place called Enfield, Connecticut, there was a preacher named Jonathan Edwards.
Christ's Sacrifice and Salvation
00:30:53
Speaker
He gave a classic sermon that I remember studying when I was in high school. I saw it again in college, but it was called, Centers in the Hands of an Angry God. It's based on Deuteronomy 32, 35.
00:31:06
Speaker
where God says, vengeance is mine and recompense for the time when their foot shall slip, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. And it says that people are crying out. We don't cry out anymore, but back then they cried out when they heard the reality of the penalty of sin, apart from Christ.
00:31:30
Speaker
But you see, it leads me to this last verse, and it tells me, what does God want? Here's what he wants. He wants for us to call out, to call out to him from the snare. He says, I will return again to my place.
00:31:47
Speaker
See what he's doing? He said, I'm withdrawing. I'm out of here. You don't want me. You don't want my blessing. You don't want to put me first. So he says, I'm out of here. Just like remember how he departed. It says the Spirit departed from Saul. Spirit just departed. 1 Samuel 16, 14. But whenever God withdraws, there's something he's waiting on.
00:32:09
Speaker
He's waiting. A lot of times we say, we need to wait upon the Lord. But sometimes, you know what I think? It's not us waiting upon the Lord. God's waiting on us. God is waiting on us. Notice this little bitty word in the middle of the sentence. I will return again to my place until...
00:32:29
Speaker
Until, it's a great word. It's a great word. So God's saying, I'm going to stay, I'm going to withhold the blessing. I'm going to hold the protection until, what's he waiting on? Oh, this is it. Until they acknowledge their guilt.
00:32:46
Speaker
and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me." So simple. There it is, turning to Him. Not trying to struggle to get out of it by yourself, you're just simply turning to Him. And notice that all of this happens
00:33:04
Speaker
in, where? In their distress. Their distress has a purpose. And the purpose was call out to God, return to God, go back to Him in repentance, go back to Him in faith, go back to Him in surrender. See, the good news of the gospel is this, deliverance is not only possible, deliverance is available. When Jesus died on the cross, He died with those hands wide open. He's so ready.
00:33:33
Speaker
He's so ready to step in and to get us out of the trap. It's like freedom is waiting. It's just waiting. But the truth is you and I can't free ourself from sin. We're like the animal. It's caught in the snare and the animal can't get loose. The truth is others can't release you. They can't get you out of sin. Nope.
00:33:57
Speaker
The truth is only Jesus Christ can deliver you from the snare of the fowler. That's why I thought about Psalm 91 and verse three as the last thing to place upon your heart. Can we get that on the screen yet perfect? For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler. Who's he? It's the Lord God. It's the Lord. The Lord provided a way for us to get out of the snare.
00:34:28
Speaker
Do you remember the vivid picture of the father's amazing love back in chapter three of this same book? Hosea chapter three, verse one. Remember what God tells Hosea the prophet to do? His wife had been unfaithful to him.
00:34:44
Speaker
And God says to the prophet, go again, love a woman who is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel. So you see what God is saying in this book? Oh, he's being honest about the reality of sin, about the penalty of sin and all that, but he's also being so clear. I love you so much. I haven't given up on you.
00:35:09
Speaker
And so he's saying, not only do I want you to go, I think that's a beautiful picture of the father's amazing love, right? It's so unconditional. But then the other thing I think is when in verse two, whenever Hosea did go back to get his wife back, you know where she was? She was on the slave market. So he had to pay for her. He had to pay. What a beautiful portrayal of redemption. Do you know that Jesus paid it all for you and for me?
00:35:37
Speaker
See, our sins do deserve judgment. That's the truth, that's the truth. Holy God says, your sins deserve judgment. But also, the good news, the truth is, Jesus died on the cross having lived a perfect life and he said, I'll pay what you owe. That's why in John 8, verses 34 and 36, it says, well, the one who continues in sin, he's nothing but a slave to sin.
00:36:05
Speaker
Are you a slave to sinful habits and you can't break free? But there's freedom in Christ because in John 836, Jesus said, he who the Son sets free, he's free indeed. You can get out of the trap. You can get out of the trap because of the perfect
00:36:25
Speaker
the perfect death of Christ on the cross. When he died on the cross, all of our sins were placed upon him. I'm getting a sort of a devotion or message ready someday on the plagues of Israel. And so right now I'm in chapter 10, I'm looking at the ninth plague and how God sent darkness for three days. Can you imagine if God just sent darkness for three days on the United States or around the world?
00:36:54
Speaker
But I just thought to myself, you know how blessed we are? You know what he did? Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all tell us he took the darkness.
00:37:06
Speaker
He did. He took the punishment. He took the judgment. That's why for three hours there. See, I'm from Tennessee. No, that's six hours in from six to nine. That's three hours. But he took our punishment. He took our darkness cause judgment. Judgment is sometimes symbolized by darkness. And so all of our darkness was placed upon Christ, all of our judgment. And that's why the lights turned out because Jesus was so perfect.
00:37:36
Speaker
and yet all of our sins were placed upon him. That's why he can get you out of that trap of sin, because he never wasn't a trap of sin. The only thing he did was he said, I'll pay the penalty. I'll take the pain if you'll give it to me. So let's stand together. I like to offer a time of invitation and response. Our musicians will come back to lead us in one more song. We often call this song the invitation.
00:38:03
Speaker
It's the invitation. It's not our invitation as much as it's God's invitation. He's inviting you to come to Him for freedom in Christ, to come to you for cleansing, come to Him for peace and so forth. Would you come to the Lord if He's speaking to your heart this day? Let's pray. Oh Lord, thank you so much for how your Word is so alive.
00:38:29
Speaker
that it was spoken so long ago in Hosea's generation, and yet you speak so clearly in our generation. So help us, O Lord, just to really heed that last verse to where we would come to you and say, okay, I want to acknowledge my guilt. I want to seek your face. I want to seek your forgiveness. I want to seek you yourself.
00:38:52
Speaker
Oh, Lord, help us to turn to you. Maybe some need to talk to me. Maybe some don't need to talk to me. They need to talk to you.
Concluding Prayer and Freedom in Christ
00:38:59
Speaker
And so, Lord, help us to reconnect to you, to return to you. Let us be weary of all those traps that are out there. Give us the caution that we need to live our lives. So we love you, Lord. Thank you so much for providing deliverance and freedom in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:39:25
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.