Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Hosea 4:1
As Israel became more engrossed in idolatry and lawlessness, she positioned herself for a mighty fall.
Hosea 4:1 “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.” And in 4:6 he says what it was that destroyed his people, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee... and also I will forget thy children...”
I might add here, that as The United States, being a client nation unto God, a nation which has been tremendously blessed by the grace of God, a nation where liberty has reigned and the Gospel has been previously and overwhelmingly received, where Bible doctrine was the centerpiece of the Sunday morning worship service as well as other services, where believers expected to hear tremendous teaching and preaching from the pulpit, no less than an hour of instruction, that those days are a bygone day. Knowledge of God’s word has been replaced by performance and loud noises, and people clamoring for a microphone and the spot light.
A nation is not saved and preserved through reformed morals, or religious observances, nor emotional sensationalism; it is saved and preserved through the regeneration of lost souls, and then those souls learning and applying the knowledge of God’s word.
Can Prayer Save A Nation?
A nation is not preserved through hours of mass prayer. This could be compared to pointing an empty water hose at a burning house.
Elijah was told by God in I Kings 17:1 to tell King Ahab there would be no rain in the land.
Jm.5:17 says this drought lasted 3 1/2 years. And yet it only took the prayer of one man, a righteous man, Elijah, to reverse this curse from God. It is never the quantity of the prayers, but the quality of the prayers God hears.
No amount of prayer can salvage a nation if the people are not totally absorbing God’s divine viewpoint.
Unintelligent prayer most often asks God to do what his divine justice cannot allow. God’s righteousness cannot bless an unrighteous people, such a prayer is only an exercise in futility, and only brings about a false sense of security, Ps.107:8-12, 33-34], read.
As God’s people, we need to repent. We need to be His salt. Salt comes from God’s word. Salt does not come from feeling good.
Can Church Attendance Save A Nation?
Ask yourself, what is it that you anticipate on Sunday morning in preparation for going to church, that is if you plan to go. Do you anticipate acquiring the mind of Christ so you will be able to think as Christ thinks; so you will be able to see through his eyes your circumstances as God sees them; so you will be uplifted in the hope of your future glorification with Christ? Or do you prepare for church with the anticipation of getting a physical and psychological rush that comes with the intoxicating addictive emotional stimulation of an exciting worship experience consisting of forty minutes or so of singing, instrumentals, testimonies, announcements of coming attractions, and maybe a twenty minute sermonette tacked on at the end.
This may sound harsh, but what is more important to God when his people gather together to worship him, God hearing from us, or us hearing from God?
God has heard us pray to him all week. He has seen our lives at work, and at play and in our homes.
He has seen our secret thoughts as clearly as if they were on a wide screen T.V.
Ps.19:2-3 “Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”
Ps.90:8 “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.”
Obviously, as God has seen our failures and worldly distractions and our suffering during the week, it is clear that we should come to church with needy hearts seeking repose and heavenly guidance. We should come to be fed by the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls as hungry sheep. We should not be coming to entertain other sheep or coming to frolic before the Shepherd. He wants our attention. He wants our spiritual muzzles to sink way down deep in the feed he has placed in our manger, and then He wants to see us depart the feeding mangers in our churches and go out as living witnesses to share the power of the Gospel and the life changing doctrines with a dying world.
Now, it is time for us to give to Him as much time as he requires to instruct us.
Songs of praise and reverence are due God and prayers for his guidance are to come from us. Offerings to support God’s work in our local churches for all of these things are important when we come to worship, but the worth of God is experienced, and acknowledged by us only when we show him honor, by quietly and intently focusing on the instruction of his word.
Satan Likes Sugar, Not Salt
When everything else pushes God’s word out of the service you can be sure Satan is setting there clapping along with all the other good folks. When peoples’ lives are not being changed through spiritual metamorphosis; by the renewing of their minds, then you can be certain Satan is having his way. When entertainment and performance is emphasized above the accurate teaching of God’s word then you can be sure Satan is pleased. When the power of positive thinking is central to a preacher’s message and not the power of God’s thinking evidenced though the communication of the word of God, then you can be sure Satan is pleased. Saints are going hungry though they feel a spiritual sugar rush. When the sugar is gone, they will be seeking another rush. If they had the carbohydrates and proteins of a healthy feeding diet of the word of God they would be more level headed, and sustained for the marathon that the Christian life is. The Christian life is more like a marathon than a sprint. The believer needs endurance, not speed.
Sugar does not give endurance, only a rush. Sugar does not heal, and it does not preserve.
Israel had lost her salt and her testimony as well.
When People Try To Put A Muzzle On God
The people had become lawless, and leaders were permitting lawless people to go free. Idolatry was rampant along with gross sexual immorality, and a majority of believers had forsaken the truth, and as a matter of fact, many would not hear those who taught the word of God anymore.
Amos said in his letter in 7:10-13, that Amaziah the priest of Bethel wanted him to stop raking Israel over the coals with his message of impending judgment from God. They did not want to hear about justice because as a nation they abused justice. As a people they worshipped idols. They kept their religious observances, but God was far from their minds. In Amos 8:11-12 Amos said a drought of the Word of God was coming to Israel. When calamity befell them they would run to and fro seeking answers and consolation from God, but since they had put a muzzle on God’s faithful prophets and priest, they had put a muzzle on God’s Word. They thought they had put a gag order on God.
[Prov.29:1] “He that being often reproved, hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
Here we see both the individual and national demise as Israel was becoming more and more hardened, and her fall was on an unstoppable slide.
This fall came in cycles, and with each rebuke of God Israel would only partially return to God. Each time the tide of apostasy would go out a little further from God until God would intensify the next stage of national discipline, or the next cycle of discipline. God worked to reign in his chosen people until finally their was not enough righteousness found to preserve her. Her salt was too far gone. I pray that our salt is not too far gone, but I’m not so sure.
II Chron.7:14 “ If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
This warning was not written to the lost, but to God’s own people. So often we put the downfall of our nation upon the shoulders of the unsaved, but this is not where God starts when bringing down a nation.
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
I Pet.4:17-18