Hosea 4:1-6:3
Do You Know God?

I. What Do You Know?
1. Everybody likes to feel that they are an expert on something; that they know a lot about part of life.
2. Christians seem to put a big emphasis on knowledge. We emphasize the sermon and teaching the Word.
3. It’s important to learn the Bible and some theology so that through that, you know God.
4. Our challenge is that we can know a lot about the Bible or theology but still not know God.
II. Charges (4:1-3)
A. Faithfulness
1. There is no faithfulness. It means “firmness,” “truth,” reliability, stability, integrity.
2. An uncle had a wife who went violently insane. He stayed married to her for over 50 years.
3. Some modern Christians find it repugnant to be asked to be faithful, rather than a consumer.
4. The little bit of lip-service we give to faithfulness to marriage is shallow. There is no faithfulness.
B. Steadfast Love
1. “Hesed,” is loyalty; it’s covenant love. It’s portrayed for us in the book of Ruth.
2. Ruth said, “Where you go, I will go; .… Your people shall be my people and your God my God.”
3. Today, there’s back-stabbing, self-seeking, the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitude.
4. That’s why we dare not forget Mr. Perry or the Lord will have a controversy with us.
C. Knowledge of God
1. The people don’t know God. We know that because there is no faithfulness or steadfast love.
2. 1 John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love, does not know God, because God is love.”
3. If there is no faithfulness and no steadfast love, then there is no knowledge of God.
4. Without knowledge of God, we become just like the people around us; just as selfish, as uncaring.
D. Results
1. “They break all bounds,” (4:2). None of the restraints that should hold people back work.
2. The covenant they made to “walk together” doesn’t hold them back from walking away.
3. The maternal instinct doesn’t hold some back from killing their children in the womb.
III. The Accused (4:4-6)
2. This controversy is with the Israelites but now He narrows the charges to priests, spiritual leaders.
3. The professional prophets, the preachers, were leaving people in the dark. They were enabling sin.
4. “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” (4:6.) They don’t know God.
5. They think learning to be a person of integrity, who loves the Body Christ died for is too hard.
6. The preachers don’t tell them about the true God. They’ve rejected the true God for respectable religion.
7. The ministry has rejected knowledge of God because the people want them to. So, God rejects them.
IV. The Case (4:7-19)
1. They increased in number and increased in sin. “They feed on the sin of my people.” (4:8.)
2. When people wanted to made a sin offering, the priest got to eat most of the animal being sacrificed.
3. So, the more the people sinned, the more meat the priests got. “Like people, like priests.” (4:9)
4. Instead of the ministry changing the people, the people change the ministry.
5. They preached where racism ruled and never mention it, because, if they do, they lose their meal ticket.
6. They’ll eat from the food earned by their compromise but not be full. Their life will be futile.
7. Don’t go to Israel’s shrines. Don’t darken the doors of its churches because they are a bad example.
8. They’re proud of their religion now but one day God will make them ashamed of it.
V. The Verdict (5:1-6:3)
1. Instead of helping people, showing them the light, you’ve caught and trapped people.
2. “I know Ephraim” (5:3). They lack knowledge of God but God doesn’t lack knowledge of them.
3. They take their flocks for sacrifice to seek the Lord at their shrines but they will never find Him.
4. God is like a moth to them, slowly eating away; then, He is like a lion tearing them up.
5. He afflicts us that He might make us whole. He disciplines every child He receives.
6. The Lord will go away from them until they plead guilty and earnestly seek God’s face.
7. Distress leads to recognizing our sin. Acknowledging our guilt leads to knowledge of God.
8. “For He has torn us that He may heal us; he has struck us down and He will bind us up.” (6:1.)
9. First our problem isn’t just something we can be trained or educated out of by learning information.
10. We are dead in trespasses and sin; our spirits are held captive to sin and we are unable to seek God.
11. We need Christ Himself to take our guilt on Him, to be torn and on the third days be raised up.
12. So, “We may live before Him” (6:3). He was raised for our justification.
VI. Invitation: “Let us know,” (6:3), “let us press on to know the Lord.” Know that He is coming to judge as sure as dawn will come tomorrow. Know what He’s done, that He’s faithful, that He has steadfast love for His people that is new every morning. Know the Lord.