IGNORANCE
Hosea 4: 1-19
Exposition by Max A Forsythe
One observation on the intellectual state of mankind is that ignorance can
be cured, but stupidity is forever! Sometimes you can just tell the
difference in character by watching people on the street. While our
youngest son was preparing to get his driver's license, another family came
into the parking lot beside the examiner's office. The next candidate for
the driver's test parked her car badly in the space provided. At least the
examiner suggested that the car be straightened while she was on the road
with my son. Then the fun began. The young lady tried while her mother
bellowed orders, thus reducing the young lady to tears! Then mother pulled
open the door yanked your daughter out of the way and demanded that she
watch how it was to be done. Mother bumped into a shopping cart, came
within six inches of a light pole and scared an older driver almost into an
accident. Evidently proud of herself, she yelled at her daughter, I do not know if the young lady in question passed her test, if she did not
I do not think it was entirely her fault. In much the same way I have to
deal with my fallen charges in the public sector. Years of wasted
ignorance compounded by the sheer stupidity of the system has brought up a
generation that knows not the God of creation, nor any of the civilities
associated with belonging to Him. A few, here and there understand their
predicament and when opportunities for real learning come their way, they
jump into it like little ducklings to a puddle of water. Sadly our
intellectual puddle is none too deep, but the sheer enjoyment of learning
something worthwhile is a wonder to behold.
We should not think that times like our own in this regard are rare beyond
measure. Our passage from Hosea shows us that ignorance once reigned in
Israel, and indeed in many many other places since the dawn of time. The
essential ignorance addressed by Hosea is that of not knowing the true God
of heaven and not worshipping and glorifying Him as God! This is the very
warning in the first phrases of our catechism question for this morning.
And as time allows I will catalog twelve failures of ignorance or related
sins on the part of fallen mankind when measured against the holiness of
the first commandment's instruction: The first sin against this commandment is atheism, a philosophic denial of
God's existence. Hear what the Lord says about this: Psalm 14:1 The second sin against this commandment is idolatry, in having or
worshiping more gods than one, or any with, or instead of the true God.
God mocks these simpletons in words from Jeremiah 2:28: A third sin is more common among nominal atheists, people who claim God as
their own but who live daily as if he were powerless. This sin is a
failure to vouch God as our God. By this we mean attesting in a legal
sense that we belong to Christ. Just imagine yourself being hauled into
court on the accusation of being a Christian. Hopefully there would be
enough evidence to convict you? God speaks to the nominal atheist in these
words from Psalm 81: 11: The fourth sin in this regard is the omission or neglect of anything due to
Him required in this commandment. Isaiah reports God's accusation against
Israel: The fifth sin is the one entitled in our message today: ignorance. Hosea
in our passage laments the fact that The sixth sin is forgetfulness. This is really quite a common problem
because if we choose not to remember something, then we are not bothered by
it. Well does the Lord complain in Jeremiah 2:32 that His people The seventh sin includes misapprehensions and false opinions. Paul
addresses this problem in these words from Acts 17: 29: The eighth sin is related to the seventh in having unworthy or wicked
thoughts of God. Asaph the psalmist reveals this from the heart of God.
(Psalm 50:21) The ninth sin involves a bold and curious searching into God's secrets.
There is on the web a craven hag who believes that she knows the
unknowable. She claims that she has found the heaven star and that the
world will end next spring. God speaks to any and all who would seem to
announce His unknowable secrets in these words: The eleventh sin against our Father God is hatred of God as Paul reported
in our text from last week, where God-haters actually invent ways of doing
evil and approve any who practice their wickedness. Before I come over to
the PCA I finally became so appalled at what was beginning to pass for
Christian witness and lifestyle that I couldn't stay in that denomination
any longer. Truthfully, what was once considered good behavior was changed
dramatically to an affirmation of what God condemns as sinful. And those
who still practiced the godly walk were berated because they would not
accept those whose definition of godly was in all actuality satanic.
Our last catalog item today includes both self love and self-seeking. Did
Paul really live two thousand years ago, or is he part of our contemporary
landscape? We hear him speak from 2 Timothy 3: 1-4:
"You shall have no other gods before
me."
Our list of sins against the first commandment come from the
confessions of our Church, the particular descriptions come from God's
revelation record in both the Old and New Covenants.
"The
fool says in his heart, 'There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds
are vile".
This philosophy is like trying to travel on the interstate
without a vehicle. How many miles could you walk in the slow lane without
getting run over? Yet some irrational fools persist in this delusion!
This is human stupidity at its most profound!
"Where then are the
gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you
are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah."
We
should see here in the practice of polytheism that Satan has been in the
franchise business from early on! At the very least you would not expect
anyone this stupid to turn up in a Christian Church? Well guess again,
when I was in college, my psychology professor admitted that while he had
no love for the Christian message, in order to find trustworthy and likable
friends, he hung around the local Methodist Church because the people were
nice.
"But my people would not listen to me, Israel
would not submit to me."
All of those who would claim Christ as Lord must
live a life that glorifies Him and that proves their allegiance.
"You have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied
yourselves for me, O Israel."
Have you ever neglected to call home or
visit your parents or other loved ones? Like the movie creature, ET - we
have to call home on a regular basis and remember our regular duties
towards our God and King.
"my people are destroyed from lack of
knowledge. 'Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my
priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore
your children."
What an apt description of the educational process in the
modern world. Ignorance of spiritual things and character development is
unfortunately planned and imposed across the whole once civilized world.
"have
forgotten me days without number".
I once remember two families that have
not been with us for several years. Both families were seldom in church
and both families had been coming to church for six or seven months. One
week they were both in attendance and greeted each other as a new visitor.
As I heard the conversation developing, I tiptoed quietly out of the way so
they would be no more embarrassed than necessary!
"Therefore since
we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like
gold or silver or stone - an image made by man's design and skill."
The
Creator God of heaven and earth is not as some would suggest a figma of our
imagination. He is real indeed and altogether different from any false
expectations we might have.
"You thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke
you and accuse you to your face".
Many liberal commentators have belittled
the Old Testament God and believed that by the New Testament, He had grown
and matured. How absolutely tragic to think for even a moment that the God
of heaven was not the same "yesterday, today and forever".
"The secret things belong
to the Lord our God, but the revealed belong to us and to our children
forever, that we may follow all the words of this law." (Deut 9: 29)
The tenth sin against the first commandment concerns a worldly profaneness
which is well condemned in Hebrews 12: 16 in these words: "See that no one
is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold
his inheritance rights as the oldest son".
Around the Presbytery I have
heard of several people who have resigned their membership from Christ's
Church for worldly desires. Welcome is the prodigal who turns from such a
sin to return to our Father and our God.
"But mark this: there
will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited,
lovers of pleasure - rather than lovers of God."
Have you seen yourself in any one of those apt descriptions? If so, your
ignorance can be forgiven in the precious blood of Christ. But fair
warning, if in this continuing list of offenses against the first
commandment, you sense that you have it all covered and that there is no
way in heaven or on earth that you are contaminated, you must be warned:
Stupid is forever! May God have mercy on our souls and show us how much we
truly need His perfect Son to obey this commandment that we are unable to
comply with. And knowing our sin, may we seek the covering atonement of
Christ so that we may continue in the very presence of our God and King.
-
Amen.
Resources Used:
Green, James B. A Harmony of the Westminster Presbyterian Standards.
(PCA) The Confession of Faith: The Shorter Catechism.
Watson, Thomas. The Ten Commandments.
Places Preached:
Christ Covenant REFORMED (Presbyterian Church in America)
Box 132049 -- Columbus, OH 43213-8049
WSC0472 21 July 97
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