Hosea chapter five. Now the title of the lesson this
morning is conviction of sin. Now the book of Hosea is the
first of what we call the minor prophets. They're not minor prophets
because their message is minor. They're less important than the
other books of the Bible. They major on Christ. So their
message is major. But we call them minor prophets
because they're smaller books. I gave you some more time to
find it. It's a smaller book, harder to find. But this small
book of Hosea has a wonderful message of Christ. Hosea's message
is that the love of Christ for his people is unchanging, it's
indestructible, and it's certain. The love of Christ means something. If Christ loves you, he will
save you and he's gonna have you. He's going to have you for
His own. Now, the process that God uses
to bring a sinner to Himself is Holy Spirit conviction. And
I want us to look this morning in the lesson at Holy Spirit
conviction, bringing a sinner to Christ, how God uses that
to bring a sinner to Christ. And in the message, I want us
to look at an example of how that happened to a real person.
But the reason that the Holy Spirit must convict us of sin
is we're lost in sin and we don't even realize it. We don't realize
that sin has ruined us. Now let's begin in verse 11 of
Hosea chapter five. Ephraim is oppressed and broken
in judgment because he willingly walked after the commandment.
Now we're oppressed and broken in judgment and we don't even
know it. You know, we think everything's okay because we've tried to walk
after the commandment. And that commandment is not just
obeying the word or the law of God, but we've tried to walk
according to the whole word of God. We've lived what people
today call the Christian life. And we think, well, let's make
God happy with us. And you're trying to do that. You know what
it's really done? It's oppressed us and it's broken us. It's not
our sin that sends us to hell. God saves sinners. It's our self-righteousness
that sends us to hell. When a person refuses to rely
on the Lord Jesus Christ and insists on relying on self, that's
when God sends a man to hell because we've rejected the Savior.
But by nature, we think everything's just fine and all of our religious
activities, you know, we think that makes everything just wonderful.
But if we belong to God, God loves you, He's not gonna leave
you in that condition. He's not gonna leave you in that
way of thinking. He's gonna send the Holy Spirit to bring us through
this very necessary but painful process of the conviction of
sin. Conviction of sin involves the
stripping of this flesh. Everything that we trust in has
to be stripped away. The conviction of sin involves
the humbling of this flesh. We've got to see this flesh for
what it really is before we'll ever look away from it and look
to Christ. And you know, normally, When this process, when the Spirit
begins to convict us of sin, we don't even realize what's
going on. Look at verse 12. Therefore, will I be unto Ephraim
as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness? The Lord
says, I'll be to Ephraim, and when he, all the way through
this book, when he refers to Ephraim and Judah, he's talking
about Israel. He says, I'll be to my people
as a moth. Well, how does a moth operate?
Well, a moth silently. eats away at the clothes, you
know, gets into the closet or gets into the drawer and silently
eats away. And we don't even know it until
it's too late. We open the closet, we open the
drawer and realize the garment's destroyed. And often God deals
with his people that way. They're in false religion and
they think they've got them a nice robe of righteousness. It's their
goodness, it's their morality, things that they think will make
God pleased with them. Why wouldn't they think that?
They've done everything their religion requires them to do.
Everything the false prophet told them to do, they did. They
think they're just fine. But without even knowing why,
slowly, they start to become dissatisfied with their religion. They just become miserable in
what they're doing. They become miserable in their
sin. And they don't realize it. But the reason for that is, is
the Holy Spirit has begun slowly to eat away at their self-righteousness
until they become dissatisfied. And the Lord says he'll deal
with the house of Judah as rottenness. And that word rottenness is as
a worm. Your worm can get into a tree,
just burrow its way in there and just eat silently away at
that tree. Nobody knows what's going on
inside that tree until it becomes unstable and falls down. And
often that's how the Holy Spirit deals with God's elect. He silently
eats away at the pillars of that false religion until it falls
down. And you know, we don't even know
what's going on. When that happens and we start
to become dissatisfied with our religion and dissatisfied with
self, when we begin to see sin for what it really is, we don't
know what's going on. And because we don't know what
the problem is, we look in all the wrong places. Look at verse
13. When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian
and sent to King Jerob. Yet could he not heal you nor
cure you of your wound? But look back at Isaiah chapter
one. You know, we start to see if God is going to deal with
us, we will start to see our sin. as a sin sickness. And we're going to see it in
this wretched way that Isaiah describes it in Isaiah chapter
one. In verse five, he said, why should
you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint from
the sole of the foot, even into the head. There's no soundness
in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They've
not been closed, either bound up, neither modified with ointment. When we begin to see our sin
sickness that way, you know what our nature will do? Instead of
going to the great physician, what we do is we start looking
at all the sores. We start looking at the disease.
We don't go to Christ. We just keep looking at the disease
to see, is it getting any better? We just keep looking at the problem. Isn't that our dead nature? Instead
of going to the great physician, we keep looking at the disease.
We keep studying the disease and wonder what caused it. Will
it go away? We think it'll go away on its
own. And then we think, well, it's
not going away. I better get some outside help. But again,
we look in all the wrong places. We go, do we look to the wrong
person? Israel, we've seen this in our
study in Isaiah, was all the time trying to make political
and military alliances with the heathen nations that lived around
them. Here in our text, the Lord says, you try to make a, you
went to the Assyrian. Well, the Assyrians, who are
they? They're the natural enemy of Israel. Often we read of them
coming and oppressing Israel. That's who they went to. And
that's just what we do. What do we do when we first start
to see our sin sickness? We go to the law. We think we
can be cured by keeping the law, but the laws are natural enemy.
The law is against us. It's opposed to us. The law can't
heal us. All the law can do is oppress
us and show us our sin even more clearly. And then Ephraim, they
went to King Jerob. Now King Jerob, his name means
he will contend. First, we try to go to the law.
And then when we see our sin sickness, we try to contend with
God. We try to argue with him and bargain with God. Instead
of begging him for mercy. The Lord said, you come to me,
I'll wash you whiter than snow. But we won't come that way, will
we? We won't come as a mercy beggar who's sick with sin. We
want to contend with God. We want to argue with him. We
want to bargain with God. You know, we'll bargain with
God. As long as we think we got something to bargain with. As
long as we think there's something good in us, something that God
wants, we'll bargain with God. And God's gonna make us see there's
no soundness in this. There's no goodness. You don't
have anything to bargain with. You don't have anything to contend
with. So the Lord's gonna teach us
that now, verse 14. For I will be unto Ephraim as
a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I,
will tear and go away. I will take away, and none shall
rescue him. Now first, the Lord says the
spirit eats away silently like a moth. And then he begins to
attack the attacks against our self-righteousness and our false
religion. They become more violent. They
become more obvious. Now the lion's jumping out of
the weeds with a roar and he's tearing us apart. He just jumps
out, tears at us, and then goes back where he came from, leaves
us laying there bleeding and wounded and nobody around to
help. And we just keep going on in our misery. I mean, we're
just like frightened all the time. When's the next attack
going to come? We know it's going to come, but
we don't know where it's going to come from. We don't know why.
And we just keep constantly being torn and left in this sinful,
helpless condition. And God's going to deal with
his people that way now because everything about us, everything
about this flesh that we trust in has got to be torn away. Remember I told you this thing
of conviction of sin is a painful process. It's the tearing away
of everything we're clutching to that we trust in rather than
Christ. That's pretty bad. But if you
want to hear something, it gets worse. It gets even worse than
that. Next thing God does is hide himself
from us. Verse 15. He says, I'll go and
return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and
seek my face. In their affliction, they will
seek me early. Look over Job chapter 23. Job
went through this. God hides his face, and it's
miserable. We'll seek him, but can't find
him. Job 23, verse eight. Job says, Behold, I go forward,
but he's not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On
the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right
hand, that I cannot see him. I can't see him. I keep looking
for him, I can't see him. And the Lord does this with His
people. And you know why He does it? so that we'll acknowledge
our guilt. He does that so we'll acknowledge
our sin. When we can't find the Lord,
when we can't find the one who can forgive our sin and heal
us of our sin sicknesses, you know what begins to dawn on us? The Lord doesn't have to reveal
himself to me. He doesn't have to. It begins
to dawn on us, I know why I can't find God, because it's my sin
that separated me from him, And that frightens me. My sin has
separated me from God and he doesn't have to reveal himself
to me. We see our sin and it frightens us, doesn't it? Now
that's miserable. Isn't that miserable? But that's
one of the best things the Lord will ever do for you. Because
the Lord says, I'm going to do that to you for this reason.
So that in your affliction, you'll seek me early. And he also said,
if you seek me early, you'll find me. See, he sends this affliction,
this conviction of sin, so his people will seek him and find
him. If we don't seek him early, we never will do it until he
makes us miserable in the conviction of sin. And then when we're as
miserable as we can get, chapter six, verse one, he says, come. and let us return unto the Lord.
For he hath torn, and he will heal us. He hath smitten, and
he'll bind us up. Now the Lord prepares the hearts
of his people to hear the gospel through Holy Spirit conviction
by making us see our need of a Savior. And then he sends us
a preacher, one of his servants preaching the gospel of peace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He sends us a preacher who preaches
the forgiveness of our sin in Christ. And He tells us, see,
you know where these wounds and this smiting is coming from?
It's coming from the Lord. See, first the Spirit wounds
us. Then He heals us by pouring in the sweet balm of Gilead,
the balm of Christ. First the Spirit makes us see
the filth of our sin, and then He washes us in the blood of
Christ. First the Spirit makes us see, I cannot come to Christ. I'm dead in sin. cannot. And then he brings us nigh through
the blood of Christ. See the message of the gospel
is return to the Lord. Return to him, he'll heal. The
gospel is preached by sinners to sinners. He says here, let
us return. We all need Christ. You beware
of a preacher, not a sinner, who tells you what you need,
not what he needs. That's one of the things I enjoy
about preaching and studying. I spend all day in my study seeing
these great blessings that I need, seeing Christ who I need, and
then I got the privilege of telling you. That's what preaching is.
It's one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread.
It's one leper telling another leper where he found healing.
Now come. Let us return to the Lord. Let
us return. See, before the Lord sent us
a preacher and began to teach us, we thought, I've had a string
of bad luck. It's bad luck that's made me
miserable. Maybe we thought that false prophet
ain't losing his touch. He couldn't make me feel better
like he used to do. But really, it was the Lord all
along, wasn't it? It was the Lord who was wounding
us. It was the Lord who was smiting us. And it's the Lord who healed. He'll heal and He'll wound with
the same tool, with the Word of God. A double-edged sword
that both cuts and heals, that both destroys and gives life.
And the message of the Gospel is there's healing in Christ.
There's life in Christ. Look at verse 2. After two days
will He revive us. In the third day, He'll raise
us up and we shall live in His sight. Now this is a prophecy
of the resurrection of Christ on the third day. What does this have to do with
what we've been looking at? What does this have to do with the
conviction of sin? What does this got to do? Oh, it's got
everything to do with it. This is the message that God
sends his preacher to preach. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Salvation is through union with
Christ. How can I not be eternally smitten
for my sin. God's smitten me in affliction,
but how can I not be eternally smitten? How can I not die the
eternal death? Because Christ, the shepherd
of his people, has already been smitten for his people. Smite
the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. Smite the shepherd as
a substitute for his people so they won't be smitten. Now I
know God's angry with me for my sin. He's smitten me. He's
wounded me here. What will turn away God's hand
of justice from my sin? One person, the Lord Jesus Christ. God's hand of justice is turned
away from his people because he turned that hand of justice
on his son, the sinner substitute. The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He made him to be sin for his
people. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him because he was made sin. It pleased God's justice to bruise
him. He punished the substitute. So
the elect go free. Here the Lord revealed to me
all my sin sicknesses. How can I be healed? Here I see
this. The sin sickness is obvious to
me now. How can I be healed? One way
through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. How are we
healed? by his stripes, by his sacrifice,
by his stripes were healed. Look over Romans chapter four.
Lord Jesus, he bore the sin of his people at Calvary. He suffered
everything that sin deserved. He suffered and he bled and he
died. He died as a sacrifice for the
sin of his people. And the clear evidence that the
sacrifice of Christ completely removed the sin of God's elect
is the third day the father raised him from the dead. Romans 4 verse
25, who was delivered for our offenses. He was delivered to
God's justice. He was delivered to God's hand
and the father put him to death. He was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. He was raised
again as the proof, as the evidence that we're justified before God
because the sacrifice of Christ removed our sin. It's the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us from all sin. So
healing is in Christ. Life is in Christ. When he rose
again, all of his people rose again in him. And we receive
that life in the new birth. Chapter three of Hosea, chapter
six. Then shall we know, we follow on to know the Lord. His going
forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as
the rain, as the latter and former rain upon the earth. Now, you'll
notice when I read that verse, I left out that word if. You'll
notice it's in italics. You've got an ink pen, cross
it out. Cross it out. The translators
added that word and they completely changed the meaning. They harmed
the meaning of the verse. This promise of the new birth
is not a conditional promise. It's not if we do this, God will
do this. If we do this, God will show
us this. No. The promise of the new birth
is an absolute promise. Christ died for you. You're going
to have this new birth. You will be born again because
Christ has already met every condition. What did it require
to forgive your sin? Christ met that condition. He
took it away. What is required? for the conversion
of God's people. Christ already met every one
of those conditions. He took their sin away. He died
for them so that they must live. And when the Lord makes Himself
known to His people, when they're born again, you want to know
what they'll do? There's no if about it. They will follow Him. There's no if. The Spirit convinces
us of sin. And then the Spirit convinces
us Christ is sufficient. and we follow Him. The Spirit
convinces us of the nothingness of our flesh and then He convinces
us that Christ is all. If you're convinced Christ is
all, there's no if about it. You'll follow Him. You will follow
Him. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. And this time, when the Lord
reveals Himself to His people, it's a set time. It's not left
to chance. It's a set time. It says here,
his going forth is prepared. It's a set time. God has a set
time to reveal himself to his people in the gospel and give
them life in the new birth. And that's what these two rains
represent. They represent the new birth. Now, it's different
for people in this area of the world than it is for us. You
know, we plant in the springtime. Well, they planted in the fall,
the autumn of the year. And right after they plant in
the fall of the year, they'd get a rain. And the crops would
be watered, you know, and then they wouldn't pretty much get
any rain until almost harvest time. And when it was almost
harvest time, you know, there'd been enough nutrients and water
and stuff for the plants to grow. And when it was almost harvest
time, there was another rain. It was a substantial rain, just
gushing rain. And that rain came on those crops.
They're almost ready to be harvested. And it just fattened them up.
It just ripened them all up and gave them abundant life. Now
you're ready to harvest some good fruits and vegetables. Well,
God has a set time for the seed to be planted in the hearts of
his people. And he plants that seed through the preaching of
the word. This is the word. This is the word we sow. That's
why we preach it. When we preach God's word, we're
sowing that word. We're sowing the seed. He sends
his service to sow. He sends his service to water.
And then in mercy, God sends the latter rain. He sends that
substantial rainfall, the water of life. And a new man's born
from that seed has been planted in the heart. That's what the
apostle Paul told the Corinthians. He said, I planted. Paul is water. God gave the increase. He sent
that latter rain and gave the increase. And God always does
that for His people. First, He sends the conviction
of sin. He gives us the misery of seeing
what our sin really is, what we really are by nature. Then
He sends us the good news of the gospel. Then He sends someone
to sow the seed of His Word in our heart. And then the Spirit
comes. In that latter rain, He gives
the water of life and causes a new man to be born. But where
did all that begin? Where'd this life, this abundant
life and new birth, where'd all that begin? It began with the
conviction of sin. Now that's miserable, but it's
necessary, isn't it? If we miss conviction, we're
gonna miss the good news of the gospel and the water of life,
because that's where God always begins, the conviction of sin,
showing us what we are so that we appreciate and love the good
news of the gospel, and we love that water of life that he sends.
So here in a few moments, we'll look in Hosea chapter one and
we'll start to see an example of God doing this very thing
to a real person, calling her to himself. All right, the Lord
bless you.