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God is Sounding the Alarm (Hosea 8) - Part 2
26 Plays1 year ago
Sunday Message recorded 03 March 2024
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Introduction of Stephen and Julie Mick and Their Purpose
00:00:06
Speaker
That was Stephen and Julie Mick. I appreciate so much how they want God's story to be magnified in their lives and their family. And many of you feel exactly the same way.
Purpose and Love: God's Plan for Everyone
00:00:18
Speaker
You know that God made you. He made you for a purpose. And even if the Lord so far, you've not invited him into your life, you've not surrendered your heart to him, I want you to know that he's the one who made you. And he loves you so much. And he's got a plan for you.
00:00:35
Speaker
If you'll just turn it over to him, all the pieces, because he has been there all along and he definitely is writing a story in your life. Well, I'm so glad you're here.
Study of Hosea Chapter 8 Begins
00:00:47
Speaker
I hope that you will open up God's word to the Old Testament book of Hosea. The Old Testament book of Hosea. We're looking at chapter eight. We started this last week, Hosea chapter eight.
00:00:59
Speaker
And we didn't finish. And so I wanted to complete that. I want to review briefly as we get started, just in case you were not here last week, you'll kind of be up to speed.
Warnings to Northern Kingdom: Rebellion and Judgment
00:01:12
Speaker
But what's happening in Hosea chapter eight is this Old Testament prophet
00:01:18
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his call to the Lord to speak to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In the Northern Kingdom of Israel, he loved them, he had a great plan for them, but they continued to rebel against him. He was trying to warn them, trying to call them back to repentance, back to him, but they were ignoring his word, they were walking away from him, and unfaithfulness, and all the while, the clock.
00:01:43
Speaker
was ticking. The clock was ticking toward a point of no return. He was saying, please, I love you. I want to have mercy upon you. But by the time we get to Hosea chapter eight, something very important had happened. The time for repentance had passed.
00:02:01
Speaker
And now the warning is, judgment is coming. So that's why Hosea, God is inspiring him to sound the alarm. It's like an alarm clock. You know our society is actually filled with many different kinds of alarms.
00:02:18
Speaker
There are alarms that wake us up and smoke alarms and so forth. There are burglar alarms, all different kinds of alarms. But the sobering point of this chapter is that God is telling them it's time to set the trumpet to your lips. And what he meant by setting the trumpet to the lips, he was telling them, I want to warn you that an army is coming.
00:02:43
Speaker
There's an enemy that is coming. In Isaiah chapter five and verse eight, he had already won them once. You know, God doesn't just give us one warning. He warns us several times.
00:02:55
Speaker
But you can see here in Hosea chapter 8 verse 1, he says, set the trumpet to your lips.
Sounding the Alarm: Accountability and Warnings
00:03:03
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You know, if you were to go to Numbers chapter 10 verses 1 through 10, you would see that there are several different occasions whenever they would sound the horn. The horn was a ram's horn and it was called a shofar.
00:03:18
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not a chauffeur, not the kind of guy that drives you around, but a chauffeur. But anyway, when they would blow this, then there were certain occasions there that you can read about in Numbers 10. But God was sounding the alarm for accountability because they were persistent in their sin. So I want to invite you, if you will, to stand with me. Once again, I want to read through
00:03:40
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the whole chapter so we get the whole picture and then we will pray and ask God to speak to us and we will see what the Lord will say today. It begins in Hosea chapter 8 verse 1 with these words, set the trumpet to your lips.
Israel's Transgression and Rebellion: Covenant Breakers
00:03:57
Speaker
One like a vulture, some translations say eagle, the Hebrew word can be either an eagle or a vulture. One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. To me they cry, my God, we, Israel, know you. Israel has spurned the good. The enemy shall pursue him.
00:04:26
Speaker
They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold, they made idols for their own destruction. I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
00:04:47
Speaker
For it is from Israel, a craftsman made it. It's not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces, for they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads. It shall yield no flower.
00:05:08
Speaker
If it were to yield, strangers would devour it. Israel is swallowed up. Already they're among the nations as a useless vessel. For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers. Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. The king and princess shall soon writhe
00:05:36
Speaker
because of the tribute, because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning.
Idolatry and Rejection of God's Guidance by Israel
00:05:43
Speaker
They have become to him altars for sinning. Where I to write for him my laws by the 10,000s, they would be regarded as a strange thing. As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them.
00:06:03
Speaker
Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt, for Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces. And Judah has multiplied fortified cities, so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds." Let's go to the Father in prayer, shall we? Oh Lord, we need to hear your voice. There are a lot of voices that compete for our attention.
00:06:31
Speaker
For there's no voice like yours, because your voice tells us the truth. Your voice tells us the truth about our sin, but it also tells us the truth about salvation in Christ. That all of our sins can be forgiven. Thank you for that. Thank you, Lord, that you're inviting us to turn from sin
00:06:54
Speaker
and to turn to Christ, to surrender to Him, to put our faith and our trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Lord, we understand that this is an Old Testament book in the Bible, but you inspired it, just like you inspired the New Testament. Lord, your message is the same message. Lord, you're speaking to a human race that has continued to walk away from you, continued to resist and rebel against you,
00:07:23
Speaker
And all along, you called for repentance. You've offered mercy and grace. Some have received that. Many in this sanctuary, they've been transformed by your grace. Others have not yet tasted the goodness of God. So our prayer today is please, please help them to see.
00:07:45
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that in our flesh we will never be worthy. We will never make it into God's family. We will never be able to take care of our own sin.
00:07:54
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We need to come to the foot of the cross and receive the shed blood that will cover all of our sins and pardon us. Thank you so much, Lord, for the hope that's found in Christ. So speak to us this day about sin. Help us to know how serious it is in your sight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Summary of Hosea's Message: God's Pursuit
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Thank you, you may be seated.
00:08:21
Speaker
Well, last time I said that we're going to look at some of the things regarding the Lord's justice system. The first thing that we saw was the arrest of a rebellious runaway nation. The arrest of a rebellious runaway nation. We saw that last time when he says, set the trumpet to your lips. So what he's saying is, I'm coming after you.
00:08:44
Speaker
You're like a criminal that will not stop when the police are behind them with the lights flashing and they're trying to outrun our law enforcement. And so what must they do? They must be apprehended. They must be arrested. And so God will pursue us. He says, I'm going to pursue you like an eagle.
00:09:04
Speaker
The strength of an eagle we looked at last time, the speed of an eagle we looked at last time, and the sight of an eagle we looked at last time. All of these things, when God picks out a metaphor, he knows exactly why he picked that out, because we might as well surrender to him now, because once he's coming after us, he will apprehend us. But what had the nation done wrong, this northern kingdom of Israel?
00:09:32
Speaker
Well, also the rest of verse one fills in the blank. You don't have to guess. I don't have to guess. The crime was sin. The crime was they had violated the covenant.
00:09:43
Speaker
He says, they're coming after you because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. God takes sin seriously. Perhaps we don't. Maybe we kind of treat it as though it's not a big deal if a nation sins, if an individual sins, if a community sins.
00:10:03
Speaker
But God says, no, it is a big deal. And so the summary here is he's coming after them because of the violations to what he has said he wants mankind to be like. So how do they respond?
Israel's Plea Bargain and Disobedience
00:10:17
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The third thing we saw last time was they tried to respond with a plea bargain. You know, you can do that here in the United States, try to settle outside of court. Maybe we can pay them off. Maybe it'll be OK.
00:10:29
Speaker
But you can't do that because God, they try to say, look, we're Israel. We're the chosen people, right? Look at verse two. To me, God says, they cry, my God, we Israel, we know you. Like, aren't we connected? Aren't we on the same team? But God says, you know what? Your confession
00:10:49
Speaker
and your conduct, they don't match. Like they're not saying the same thing. You're saying that you and I are together, but look at verse three. He says, Israel has spurned the good. And so whenever our confession does not match our conduct, then God says the consequences are coming. They're coming. He says the enemy shall pursue him is what it says at the end of verse three. And so what God was saying was,
00:11:17
Speaker
I'm going to come. They were trying to use their birth, their breeding, all these kind of things. They said the same thing whenever Jesus confronted them with the truth. The Pharisees were saying, look, you know, we're the chosen people. We're the disciples of Abraham and Moses, but it didn't do any good.
00:11:36
Speaker
See, maybe you've been thinking, what about grace? What about mercy? Hold it. Hold it just a second. Well, let me remind you that for seven chapters, we're in chapter eight. For seven chapters, God has been extending mercy. God has been extending grace. God has been calling for repentance. But what do you do when no one responds to your offer of forgiveness and grace and mercy and so forth?
00:12:03
Speaker
You see, those seven chapters cover 33 years. Hosea began his ministry in 755 BC and continued to 710 BC. And God had expressed it over and over again, but the nation refused. They didn't want to repent.
00:12:21
Speaker
And so what is left? He rejects their plea bargain. He says, what's left? I'll tell you what's left, the indictment. The Lord is going to let them know the charges. He has corroborating evidence that he outlines. So this is where we pick up in this morning's message with this fourth point.
00:12:41
Speaker
What were the specific ways that the nation of Israel had disobeyed God? Let's look at them together. Look with me, for example, at verse 4. The first thing that I see there is they were selecting leaders without the Lord's guidance. They were selecting leaders without the Lord's guidance.
00:13:01
Speaker
It says here in verse 4, they made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. Did you know that during this period of time that Hosea was in his ministry,
00:13:18
Speaker
that four out of five kings, they were not just sort of transferred with a smooth transition of power, four out of five kings were assassinated. And so one king kills another king and then he says, now I'm the boss, now I'm the king. And all this time God's watching and God's saying, you're not seeking me, you're not asking me for my guidance on this whole thing.
00:13:45
Speaker
That was the first charge. The second charge is mentioned in the next two verses, verses five and six. Not only were they not consulting him and asking him for his guidance about leadership in their country, but also they were worshiping idols rather than glorifying the Lord.
00:14:03
Speaker
He talks about a calf. He talks about idols. And God was saying, you know what? You spurned good. He said that earlier up there in verse 3. Israel has spurned the good. Well, guess what God says in verse 5. I've spurned your calf, O Samaria. So wasn't that where they got off track back in the days of Moses?
00:14:26
Speaker
whenever he was up on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, and what were the people doing down in the valley? They made a golden calf, and they were worshipping it and honoring it. I wonder what God thinks whenever you and I today put anything above him. We put our career above him. We put some boyfriend and girlfriend above him. We put possessions above him. You know, whatever the group wants me to do, we put that above him.
00:14:54
Speaker
But how does God feel about idolatry? Well, I'll tell you how he feels. He said, I'm going to tread upon it. He said, my anger burns. He said, I spurned it. It means when you say you spurned something,
00:15:09
Speaker
It means to reject it, but not just to reject it, but to reject it with disdain. It's like you are so upset about it, you're going to trample upon it heavily. That's how God feels. Why does he feel that way? Why does God not want us to give our total allegiance and our total heart and soul and mind, everything, to some other idol? Well, look at verse 6. It's so clear.
00:15:36
Speaker
For it is from Israel, a craftsman made it. It's not God, the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
00:15:45
Speaker
Why does God not want us to worship an idol? Because the idol didn't make you. God made you. God made me. God made every one of us in this room. There's a special plan. He's worthy for us to worship him. And so that's why God is like, are you kidding me? So you're going to give everything toward that rather than everything toward me?
00:16:10
Speaker
That's why it's so upsetting to the Lord. But then skip down to verses 9 through 11. There's a third charge. He also charges them with forming alliances with other nations rather than seeking the Lord's protection.
Consequences of Alliances and Idol Worship
00:16:26
Speaker
That's exactly what he talks about in verses 9 and 10 and 11. For example, in verses 9 and 10, he talks about the amount that they had to pay for the alliances with these other nations. Look at what he says, for they've gone up to Assyria
00:16:43
Speaker
A wild donkey wandering alone, Ephraim has hired, hired lovers. Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up and the king and princes shall writhe because of the tribute."
00:17:01
Speaker
So you see what's happening? It's like this amount that they're paying rather than asking God, please, we need you, God. We're crying out to you. We're humbling ourselves before you as a nation, but instead they make alliances with other nations.
00:17:17
Speaker
Notice that he predicts that those alliances will lead to pain. Have you ever made decisions and you find out later? I wish I hadn't made that decision. That was not a good decision. Well, they're going to find out later, he says in verse 10, the agony for those alliances. Agony was coming.
00:17:36
Speaker
He says those kings and those princes, they're going to ride. Do you know what the word ride means? Man, I had to listen to it several times on the computer just to know how to pronounce it today. I'm from Tennessee. We don't use words like ride, but I tell you something I do know. I do know that
00:17:52
Speaker
You know, whenever my mom would pinch me in the side when I was misbehaving in church, I begin to twist and to squirm. And that's the idea here. Ride means you, something is hurting you and you're twisting and you're squirming.
00:18:07
Speaker
If you see any of our kids twisting and squirming, it might be the mom. Notice how closely the mom comes over. My mom could put her hand underneath her other arm and peach my side and twist it. And buddy, I mean, I straightened up real quick. I stopped misbehaving in the pew. But anyway, there's the amount for the alliances and the agony for the alliances. But you know what God saw?
00:18:32
Speaker
Whenever you start making these alliances with these other nations that do not honor the Lord, here's what happens. They're altars. They're altars.
00:18:41
Speaker
See, verse 11, because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning. They've become to him altars for sinning. You see, back in their day, they had an altar where they would offer up these sacrifices as a sin offering. Please forgive us, God, for we have sinned. But he said these altars are actually leading you to sin. You're not turning from sin, you're turning towards sin. And so God is saying, I see what's happening.
00:19:10
Speaker
All of these other nations were affecting them negatively. It wasn't the first time. If you want to see this in action, go to 1 Kings chapter 11, verses 1 through 13. We won't take time to read it today, but there was a king in Israel named Solomon. He was a wise man.
00:19:29
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but he made a very important mistake. 1 Kings 11, 1 through 13, describes how Solomon made alliances with other nations through marriages. And so he multiplied his wives. And so what happened was,
00:19:44
Speaker
It opened him, it opened up his administration to multiple altars to false gods. And so by the time you get down to verse 11, you'll see that God was noticing the whole time. And God is saying, why are you leading your nation to worship at all these false altars? And so once again, here they are many years later during Hosea's day, and they're still doing the same thing.
00:20:11
Speaker
Are you saying, God, I've been told that you are the Lord God. I've been told that Jesus is your son that was sent from me. I want to give him my total life. I want to follow him with everything I have. I know there's other things out there. There are other ways of worshiping, but for you, what is it that you have been told? Just like Israel, you have been told.
00:20:36
Speaker
Well, I want to move on to the fourth and the fifth charges that were also brought against them. Another thing that was very serious to the Lord is found in verse 12. I think what was happening, they were beginning to question the standards written within the Lord's word.
Israel's Displeasure to God: Questioning His Standards
00:20:54
Speaker
And so God begins to say, you know what, it doesn't matter how much I write. He said, if I write all of these things by the 10,000s, were I to write for him my laws by the 10,000s, what would be the response?
00:21:09
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He says, they would be regarded as a strange thing, a strange thing. In other words, we've never heard this. This is unfamiliar to us. This is shocking. That's novel. This is something peculiar. And God is saying, really? I mean, these are the people, and I could put us in there if you've heard the Bible all your life, but these are the same people that heard of Adam and Eve's sin.
00:21:35
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back in 4,246 B.C. They also had heard of the flood in Noah's day back in, let's say, 2348 B.C. They had also been aware of the Tower of Babel in 2246 B.C.
00:21:52
Speaker
You see, some people say, well, God's not relevant today. Yeah, maybe we read about that in the Bible, but God's not relevant today. Well, what if they would have said that in Hosea's day? I mean, knowing that Adam and Eve paid for their sin, knowing that during the days of Noah, they paid for their sin, knowing that during the days of the Tower of Babel, they paid for the sin. What about Sodom and Gomorrah for their homosexuality in 1900 BC?
00:22:19
Speaker
Well, they were also, they knew that. They knew that they paid for their sin. What about the sad cycles of the judges in 1200 to 1020 B.C.? Over and over again.
00:22:31
Speaker
The people of God would turn away from his word and they would say, you know what, we're going to do it this way. And so every man did what was right in his own eyes. And so the cycles just were over and over again. Many of these people that Hosea was preaching to, they had memorized much of the law of Moses. So they could quote it.
00:22:53
Speaker
These people knew that King Saul lost because he disobeyed God. They knew that King David won because he submitted to God. They had heard another prophet already who had been preaching to the same generation named Amos, just a little bit earlier. So Amos had already said the same things. And now here comes Hosea saying the same things. But God is saying, it doesn't matter how many times you hear it.
00:23:19
Speaker
You still will not submit to it. You are questioning the standards that are written within the word of God. There was a fifth charge. He said one other thing. Verse 13, as for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat, but then notice and eat it. But the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They said they shall return to Egypt.
00:23:47
Speaker
You know, isn't that amazing that God is saying, what should have been offered to me, you are consuming. Do you ever do that? Do you ever feel like, well, I'm really tight this month, so I believe rather than giving to the Lord, I believe I'll just use it to get this new fishing rod, to get this new gun, to get this new computer, get this new cell phone. You ever used what could have been given to God's work for something else?
00:24:15
Speaker
Well, that's what they were doing. What's amazing is that probably about 275 years after Hosea preached, there was another prophet. He would actually be the last prophet during the Old Testament period. His words were inspired, but after Malachi preached, do you know what? For 400 years, God said, I have nothing more to say. For 400 years, God was silent.
Silence After Malachi: 400 Years of Disobedience
00:24:41
Speaker
So what was it? What was the last thing that God said?
00:24:45
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Well, if you read the book of Malachi, it's four chapters long, but out of those four chapters, the third chapter is about tithes and offerings. These people were beginning to cut corners with that. And so it's amazing that God says, you are robbing me. And they're like, how are we robbing you? And he said, because you're not bringing what belongs to me. And so that's why they were under a curse, he says.
00:25:13
Speaker
But see, the Lord presented his evidence. He presented the charges. And so all that is left is the sentence. So what's the sentence for disobeying God? What was the sentence for their nation? What will be the final word for our nation if our nation continues to be in rebellion before God? Well, the sentencing is always the same. The wages of sin is dead.
00:25:36
Speaker
Don't you know that it leads to destruction. So the sentencing for their persistent sins are these. Let me share a few of them with you. Go back with me to verses one and three. One will be conflict with the Assyrians. He's trying to tell them they're coming. They're coming. The Assyrians are coming.
00:25:57
Speaker
If you want to interpret verse one is the vulture that is already circling, or if you want to interpret it as the eagle is swooping down and you can't run, either way is fine by me. But just know verse three, he says the enemy shall pursue them. And so he's going to release the Assyrians. And it's just a short period of time after Hosea preaches that the northern kingdom of Israel, it fell. Samaria was defeated.
00:26:31
Speaker
consequence of disobeying God was the destruction of the idols they are worshiping. Don't you know it would have been shocking in verse four, verse six, for them to hear God say, there's coming a day when I'm gonna crush that calf. I'm gonna crush all those things that you've been depending on and trusting in, worshiping and living for and glorifying rather than me. You know, I guarantee you, whatever it is that you and I have put above him,
00:26:49
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and it went down in history.
00:26:58
Speaker
If God ever takes care of that, it'll be so debilitating and crushing and you will say, oh God, this is what I've been living for all my life. Has it been anything other than Him? Well, God says, I'm going to take care of those idols.
00:27:14
Speaker
You know, another thing in verse seven, we sometimes can't forget is we think, if I work hard, then the production, the productivity, you know, all of my wealth and all of these things, they'll be fine. I don't have to live for God. Well, look at verse seven, what he said to their nation. He said, there's coming a lack of production and a loss of productivity. He said, they saw the wind and they're going to reap the whirlwind.
00:27:38
Speaker
The standing grain, so it should be ready for harvest, right? There's only one problem. It doesn't have a head. And so there's nothing there to harvest. It says, it shall yield no flower. If it were to yield, the strangers would devour it. When the Assyrian army comes through the fields, they're going to get it. They're not going to share it with the Northern Kingdom and their residents.
00:28:00
Speaker
And so it's a strange thing. There was a comedian named Fred Allen who used to say, sometimes we enjoy sowing our wild oats. And then we think, okay, if I sow my wild oats, all I've got to do is pray for crop failure and I'm good. But that's not true. You can't sow wild oats before God and get away with it. It has a way of catching up with us. And so it will cause the production or the productivity to go down.
00:28:29
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I'll tell you something that won't go down, it will increase.
00:28:32
Speaker
Sorrow, sorrow will increase. The international irrelevance will increase.
International Irrelevance and Return to Bondage
00:28:38
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Verse eight speaks to that international irrelevance when it says, Israel swallowed up already. He said, Israel, don't you, are you paying attention? Already people are laughing at you all across the world. He said, Israel swallowed up already there among the nations as a useless, useless vessel. The word there in the Hebrew means useless,
00:29:01
Speaker
worthless, dishonorable. It's like, what are we going to do with Him? You know, I think that we have to realize that how can we be used of God and blessed of God and have a place at the table whenever we disobey Him and we reject Him and we walk away from Him. It only leads to sorrow, as you can see in verses 10 and 13. You know, I think that
00:29:26
Speaker
Sin has pleasure, but only for a season. That's what it says in Hebrews 11, that the passing pleasures of sin, they are there. It is fun, but only for so long. And then what happens is once the harvest from sin comes in,
00:29:44
Speaker
There's great pain. There's great sorrow. Maybe you've seen that somewhere in your life. But when he says in verse 13, they shall return to Egypt. What does it mean? Like they had been in Egypt for 400 years and they were set free. Remember Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt. They were free.
00:30:04
Speaker
But what does he mean? What he means is it's like a metaphor. And he's saying, you know what? You're going back into bondage. You don't know how to handle freedom. So I'm going to lead you back into bondage. And so it's a reference to the northern kingdom of Israel's defeat by the Assyrians. Then verse 14 is perhaps the most sobering thing of all.
00:30:25
Speaker
the destruction of a nation, the death of a nation where he says, for Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces and Judah has multiplied fortified cities. So I will send a fire upon his cities and it shall devour her strongholds.
00:30:43
Speaker
You see, for some reason, even though God had been so good and so gracious to that nation of Israel, they forgot. They forgot the maker of their nation. Israel has forgotten his maker, it says. So what they did was in place of honoring him, they decided, you know what? We're going to build a bunch of palaces all across the nation. We're going to build these mansions and so forth. So they framed their mansions.
00:31:09
Speaker
And they said, we're OK. We're doing good. We don't have to bow before the Lord. We don't have to honor Him. We don't have to repent. And so they fortified munitions across the nation. It says they multiplied fortified cities. Once again, they're not asking for God to be their shield. They're thinking, we've got this. But then fire will come from the master over the nation. Because he says, so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour strongholds.
00:31:40
Speaker
I wonder how sad it was once the Assyrians came through their land and it was all gone. Once all the people had been deported over to Assyria. And then later when the southern kingdom fell, they were deported over to Babylon.
00:31:54
Speaker
Do you know that the prophet Daniel read the Babylonian King Belshazzar, God's verdict.
Judgment of Nations: Babylon and Revelation
00:32:01
Speaker
You know, Daniel 5, 27 and 28 reminds us, hey, God's not just watching Israel, God's watching other nations too, like the nation of Babylon. And so there he was, King Belshazzar, he had a great party going on. But at the moment of that party, suddenly a hand appears and writes on the wall.
00:32:22
Speaker
And so no one knew how to interpret what was written, so they had to bring in the Old Testament prophet Daniel, another prophet. And Daniel reads it and he says, here's what God says to you, King Belshazzar. Here's what God says to you, Babylonian kingdom. You've been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.
00:32:45
Speaker
So maybe Belshazzar and those at the party would have said, that's okay, it'll be a long time off. Wasn't a long time off. Two verses later in Daniel chapter five and verse 31, here's what it says. That very night Belshazzar was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom. Wow, that's pretty fast, isn't it?
00:33:09
Speaker
how quickly it all changes. You know, the last book in the Bible, Revelation tells us of the coming end of the kingdoms of man, all of them, all that we are doing. Once again, God says, I'm gonna sound an alarm. I'm gonna blow a trumpet seven different times. You can read about it in the book of Revelation. But while it is true that God is indeed sounding the alarm over our sin, over judgment that's coming, he's also announcing something.
00:33:39
Speaker
He's announcing the atonement of Christ. He's trying to tell us if you will come back to me, then guess what? Second Corinthians chapter five verses 19 through 21 is perhaps the best summary of the good news. So if judgment is coming, if it's imminent, and we don't know when it's gonna come to us as individuals, to us as a nation, if it will come, how can I avoid that? How can I be safe with the Lord?
Reconciliation Through Christ: Forgiveness and Righteousness
00:34:10
Speaker
Well, verses 19 and 20 and 21 of 2 Corinthians 5 has some good news for us. And this also, God's, he's trying to announce it. I mean, it's just as loud or louder than the alarm clock. Here's what it says. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. Get this. Not counting their trespasses against them.
00:34:34
Speaker
I like that. And in trusting to us the message of reconciliation, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. I love this last verse, verse 21. For our sake,
00:35:00
Speaker
He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
00:35:09
Speaker
How in the world does that happen? Here's how it happened. God says, all of you are so sinful, you deserve judgment, you deserve penalty, you deserve punishment for your sins. But I'm gonna take all of that and I'm gonna place it on my son. So he takes all of our sin and when Jesus died on the cross, he died as a substitute for our sins. There he was, all of my punishment, Jesus said, I will take it.
00:35:35
Speaker
But then it's not finished because then he says, I'm going to take all of his perfect life, his righteousness, and I'm going to place that on you whenever you repent, whenever you put your trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. So all of my sins were placed upon him and all of his righteousness.
00:35:56
Speaker
placed upon me. To me I'm thinking, that's good news. That is good news for people that we know we are guilty as charged. So today, maybe if the Holy Spirit has been convicting you, you know, the Holy Spirit tells us that Christ is sufficient.
00:36:13
Speaker
The Holy Spirit will also tell us that we are not sufficient. The Holy Spirit will bring before us our sin and let us know I'm not gonna make it by myself. And so I urge you, like the word said here, I implore you on behalf of God, be reconciled to God today. He loves you so much. He gave his son. He took all of the judgment that your sins and my sins, all that we deserve, and he placed it on his son.
00:36:42
Speaker
And then he took his son's perfect life and his righteousness and he placed it on us. There's no better news. There's no better opportunity. It's standing wide open to you right now. Don't wait till some day whenever you're right at the point of death. Don't wait until judgment comes upon a nation. Why don't you say right now today?
00:37:03
Speaker
I'm going to run to Jesus Christ. That's the best opportunity I've ever heard in my life. Would you stand together? Well, we pray for this time of invitation. You can pray for others that don't have a personal relationship with Christ, that today would be the day. Lord, I thank you so much for how your word speaks. It doesn't matter if we open Genesis, it doesn't matter if we open Hosea, if we open Matthew, Revelation, if we open Colossians,
00:37:29
Speaker
It's all inspired. It's all your word. And when we read it together, it's amazing how your spirit makes it come alive. Perhaps some have looked into the word of God and you said your word would be like a mirror and your word has told them the truth about sin, the truth about judgment upon sin. But your word has also introduced them to the Savior. They've heard today that Jesus took
00:37:56
Speaker
all of our judgment. He took all of our sins and He paid for it on the cross and He offers to us His righteousness in exchange so that we can be accepted before the Father. So Lord, all I'm saying is if anyone is here and they're not prepared, they're not reconciled with You yet,
00:38:16
Speaker
I pray they wouldn't leave today until they get that settled. So bless this time of invitation. We extend it in Christ's name. In Jesus' name we make our prayer, amen. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.