Hosea 8-10: “Reap what you Sow”
INTRO:REAP WHAT YOU SOW!
-Agriculture: sow seeds in ground and reap the harvest later.
-Analogy=Our actions (seeds) have consequences (reap the results).
-Never change oil on car; Work at instrument daily; Choose sports/activities over church
-ANALOGY IN HOSEA: Hosea 7:7; 10:13; 10:12
–CONTEXT: Preaching God’s Word to Northern Kingdom (financially prosperous, but spiritually rebellious)
–Summary 8-10: You have sown seeds of sin and will reap God’s judgment; now, sow seeds of righteousness and reap the fruit of God’s love!
*MI: Sow sin, reap judgment; sow righteousness, reap life.
- Sow Sin, Reap Judgment
Israel was a religious people, but their lives were marked by sin, idolatry, and faithlessness to God.
-Israel has sown the seeds of sin, and now they will reap the fruit of God’s judgment!
Israel’s Sins: SOWING THE SEEDS OF SIN
1. Law-Breaking: 8:1-3.
-How might this be true of us? What parts are we breaking? (10th Commandment, ‘You shall not covet’)
2. God-Rejecting: 8:4a; 8:14a
-How might this be true of us? In what ways have we been ignoring rejecting God?
3. Idol-Worshipping: 8:4b-6
-How does idolatry manifest itself in your life? What idols most tempt you?
–NCC: Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than our Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.
–Keller, ‘What do you daydream of?’ or Said ‘If I had that, then I would be happy and fulfilled?’
4. Foreign Alliances: 8:9-10
-Where am I looking to find safety and security that is not God?
-Bank account; health; career; accomplishments.
SUMMARY: Israel has sown the seeds of sin through breaking God’s law, ignoring God, worshiping idols and putting her trust in foreign nations instead of God. Many seeds of sin have been sown, and there will be a consequence.
Reaping Judgment: REAPING GOD’S JUDGMENT
In our pride, arrogance, and folly, we often think our actions will not have any consequences.
-Text and drive; Fudge numbers at work; Neglect what our health
-Reap what we sow: car accident; getting fired or arrested; health fall apart.
-So much so before God: Our sins will reap the fruit of God’s righteous judgment.
1. God’s Displeasure: 8:5 ‘My anger burns’
-Don’t believe the view that because God is love, he is indifferent toward our sins.
2. Futility: 9:2
-Sin never pays, it always in the end leads to emptiness and futility
3. Transformation to Evil: 9:10b
-Become like what you worship
-Worship money, become greedy; worship sex, become pervert; worship comfort, become selfish
-Worship God, become holy, righteous, pure, truthful.
C.S. Lewis, “Weight of Glory” “It is a serious thing, to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and
most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a
horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or
another of those destinations”
4. Exile: 8:13
-Took place in 722 B.C. (several decades after Hosea) [Southern Kingdom in 586 B.C.]
5. Punishment: 9:7a, 9b
-God, as a just God, will punish sin. This is because He is holy.
OBJECTION: That’s the OLD TESTAMENT… Thankfully we don’t have to worry about this in the NT…
JESUS: Confirms the Truth of ‘Sow Sin, Reap God’s Judgment’
-Jesus spoke of deadly nature of sin (John 8:34-35)
-Sin leads to destruction (Matt 7:13-14)
-Jesus spoke of God’s judgment on sin—warned of hell more than anyone else.
–Hosea 10:8 is quoted in Revelation 6:16-17
-God’s judgment is terrifying and inescapable.
UNBELIEVER: Consider the evil of your sin and reality of God’s judgment
-Your sin is more pervasive and offensive than you realize.
-God’s Judgment is real and is coming.
-Don’t make foolish errors of our day
1. God is too kind to judge sin or send anyone to hell
-You will reap what you sow: God’s just judgment on sin.
2. I can decide what happens after I die.
-You will reap what you sow: God’s just judgment on sin.
BELIEVER: Apostle Paul applies this principle in Galatians 6:7-8 (READ)
–Help for us in following Jesus: If we ‘sow to the flesh’ we will reap corruption
-This truth can strengthen us to say no to temptationàsin only leads us away from God and into corruption
-Let this passage strengthen us to say no to temptation.
-How have I been ‘sowing the flesh’?
-Overindulgent in entertainment; Neglecting God and spiritual disciplines; bitterness
- SOW RIGHTEOUSNESS, REAP LIFE:
The opposite is also true: if we sow righteousness, we reap the fruit of God’s love and life.
-There is a goodness to walking in God’s ways: It is pleasing to Him and good for us.
-Israel then, and we today, need to recapture this precious truth.
-Call to Sow Righteousness in Hosea 8-10: ONE VERSE! Hosea 10:12
–GIANT CANVAS with one dot of color: 46 verses—45 of judgment, 1 of Repentance.
-Surely intentional: Meant to grab our attention.
Wonderful call to repentance: READ 10:12.
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
-Choose to actively love and follow God, obey Him, be faithful to Him alone; forsake all idols
reap steadfast love;
-REAP God’s love and acceptance; Walking in God’s good pleasure
break up your fallow ground,
-Going to take some work; may not be easy; will require some difficult decisions.
for it is time to seek the LORD
-Time to seek God
-Heart of Christianity: Seeking and knowing God.
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.”
-God rewarding and blessing your obedience.
JESUS:
Unbeliever: Jesus invites you to come to Him, and receive the gift of His righteousness through faith
-GIFTED RIGHTEOUSNESS: 2 Cor 5:21
-RECEIVED THROUGH FAITH: Romans 1:16-17
Believer: Jesus leads us to follow Him, and sow seeds of righteousness as we walk by faith through the Spirit.
Gal 6:8b “but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
-Christian life: doing what is right in the power of the Holy Spirit, in light of our gifted righteousness, out
of love for God and others.
CLOSE: Sow sin, reap judgment; sow righteousness, reap life.
