Word of Salvation – Vol. 39 No.42 – November 1994

 

Don’t Forget God

 

Sermon: by Rev. J. Terhorst

Text: Hosea 8

Reading: Mark 12: 28-44

Hymns: 153, 22a, 182, 242 and 533

 

Congregation, visitors and friends,

As you probably all know very well, learning and memorising is essential to remaining mentally alert.  This is true for all age groups.  Retired people too are now being encouraged to keep thinking, reading and learning new things.  The students in our congregation know that learning is vital as well.  That is why when school holidays are nearly over, they become restless.  They cannot wait to begin school again.  Isn't that true, young people?  Yes, they recognise that learning and memorising is the lifeblood of the brain.  Our minds need to be stimulated.  Our brains need to be challenged.  We need to be made to think.  That is what keeps us mentally alert.  Reading good books as a part of the stimulation process is vital, although in some areas of the population, it is becoming a lost art.

Notwithstanding the necessity of learning, it is also true, and in some ways a sad fact, that much of what we learn we are not able to recall at will.  Many psychologists agree that there is one overriding reason for this.  When we do not use what we learn, we tend to forget it.  When what we learn plays no significant part in our day to day living, we forget it.  It may not be our intention to forget.  We may even think it is somewhat useful to remember.  But the truth is that unless what we learn plays an active part in our life, the ability to remember becomes increasingly difficult.  Perhaps it is not so much a matter of forgetting as much as our inability to recall that information at will.  What we do with unused information is that we tend to relegate it to the unlimited storage space on the hard drive of our brain.

According to chapter 8 of the prophecy of Hosea, that is what happened in the life of the nation Israel.  If you still have your Bibles open, look again at the first phrase in verse 14: ‘Israel has forgotten his Maker'.

However, forgetting God is not restricted to those who lived in antiquity.  It also happens in the lives of God's people today.  It can happen to individuals, to local churches and even to whole denominations.  Lloyd Ogilvie writes:

*Few of us set out to extricate God from our lives.  We simply neglect to do what keeps alive a vital relationship with Him'.

That is what happened to Israel.  They did not set out to exclude God from their lives.  They simply neglected to do what was absolutely necessary to keep alive that vital relationship with Him.  That is the reason why Hosea is commanded in verse 1 to put the trumpet to his lips.  He is to sound a warning.  He is to issue a call to stop the regression and put a halt to disobedience.

Do you perhaps need to hear this call today?  Do you perhaps know of someone who needs this reminder?  Perhaps someone in your immediate family?  Or someone in this congregation?  Let us allow Scripture to speak and to decide.  Having listened to God's Word, we can then respond accordingly.

1.  How had Israel forgotten?

Israel has forgotten his Maker.  That is a very sorry summary of this chapter.  This is not the first time God has laid this charge against the nation of Israel, His Old Testament Church.  In chapter 2:13 we read: ‘She burned incense to the Baals... and went after her lovers, but me she forgot.’  And at the end of this prophecy God accuses His people: ‘When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.’  (13:6)

One author made the observation that 'forgot' here means literally that Israel has ‘mislaid' his Maker.  And, congregation, that is probably closer to the meaning.  Israel had not consciously made a decision at a given point in time, to put God out of their minds.  They did not decide to allow their knowledge of God to evaporate.  Israel probably never intended that.  That would be almost impossible to do, anyway.  Have you ever tried to forget something?  To try and forget is probably the best way to remember!  Israel has not so much forgotten as misplaced the knowledge of God.  Verse 2 confirms that: “Israel cries out to Me, ‘O, our God, we acknowledge You!'”  They had not forgotten God.  Their cry of acknowledgment was a cry emptied of meaning.  It was a hollow and false cry.  Israel had not forgotten; they were simply choosing to ignore God.  Choosing to live in a way which did not allow God to have a significant impact on the way they lived.  They did not allow God to lead them in the way they worshipped or in the way they related to others.  They were aware of the existence of God, but He no longer had any significant impact on their lives.  To all intents and purposes, God may as well not have existed.

How do we know all this?  Are we not too harsh on Israel?  Listen to the testimony of our text:

...because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law. (vs.1)

But Israel has rejected what is good. (vs.3)

They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval.  With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves.  (vs.4)

How long will they be incapable of purity? (vs.5)

For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. (vs.9)

They offer sacrifices given to me and they eat the meat. (vs.13)

Let me ask you: Does this sound like a nation of people living in deep intimacy and communion with their God?  Are we being too harsh?  I do not think so.  The examples listed by Hosea tell the story.  So God tells Hosea to put the trumpet to his lips in order to warn His backsliding people.

2.  Do we ever forget God?

Congregation, do you ever have the experience, as I did recently, of receiving something important?  Because the item was so important, I put it in a very safe place.  I was so careful that after a while I forgot where I put it.

That can be a real nuisance.  The worst thing is, if you cannot find it quickly enough, you learn to do without it.

Congregation, it seems to me that people file God away, and then forget where they left Him.  This never happens overnight.  It usually happens over a period of time.

Late in 1993 I spoke with a person who said he was a Christian.  He had attended Sunday school, and for a while went to church as well.  He knew God.  He said, 'I am a Christian'.  I asked him where he went to church.  But he no longer attended church.  Did he ever read the Bible?  From my conversation with him, I'm not sure he had a Bible anymore.  Did he ever pray?  He believed prayer was not necessary to Christianity.  I think in his teenage years, he had filed God away and now was not sure how God should fit into his life.  God was not having any significant impact on how he worked or spent his money.  The knowledge of God had no impact on how he raised his children.  He no longer had a meaningful relationship with God.

Like Israel of old, he would probably cry out, 'O my God I acknowledge you!'  He had not forgotten God.  He had learnt to do without a meaningful relationship with his God.  Jesus warns in Matthew 7, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'  Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.”'

Israel was guilty of undermining God's authority.  They believed in their own autonomy.  The void in their lives had been filled by other things.  They had become self-sufficient.  It all sounds too much like our modern culture.  We see it in our courts of law; in our Parliaments.  The people who make our ethical decisions are undermining God's authority.  They are saying in effect: We know best.  We know what is ethically, morally and educationally correct without reference to God.  We know what is right and what is wrong.

This thinking characterises the people we live and work with.  The people who fill our neighbourhoods, our office blocks, our holiday destinations.  The void in the life of the average Australian is being filled with materialism.  Many people believe they can be self-sufficient.  They no longer need God.  They have outgrown that need.  They have forgotten Him.

Perhaps in some small way, it even describes us.  We too, as God's children, are still prone to covenant breaking.  We are inclined to reject what is good, in favour of what is more convenient.  Of making decisions without bringing the matter before the throne of grace for divine guidance.  Of depending far too quickly on medicine, psychology or people, instead of going to God first in prayer.  If we, as part of the living body of Jesus Christ, want to help others cut off their dilemma, we may need help first.

Israel, as God's covenant partner, had not fulfilled its obligation of obedience to God.  Remember how God had entered into a covenant relationship with these people?  God had made promises, and God had commanded obedience in response.  The promises became dependent on obedience.  But then came widespread disobedience and an unwillingness to repent.  This made God's promises null and void.

Until... until God inaugurated salvation in Christ Jesus.  Congregation, Jesus came, as we read in Romans 5, as the second Adam.  Jesus Christ became God's perfect covenant partner.  Jesus fulfilled all the necessary covenant requirements which God had asked of His people.  And because of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ, God will remain true to His covenant promises.  By faith in Jesus we can share in that perfect obedience.  Through faith in Jesus we inherit all Christ's merit.

Romans 8 has it this way, 'Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.'

Co-heirs of what?  God's promises.  In Christ we have the 'right', (I use the term with reverence), we have the right to expect God to keep His covenant promises.

Conclusion

Have we perhaps misplaced God?  Are we, even in just one area of our lives, perhaps in our work ethic, or maybe in our marriage trying to get by without God?  As parents or as children or even in the life of the church, are we trying to eliminate God?  We can, even in seeking to do God's work, live independently of Him.

Listen to the trumpet warning of Hosea.  Make repentance your first priority!  It is only as all your life is lived in deep communion with God, that you can sound the warning call to others.  In fact, your life will be the warning call.

May it be our desire to bring others to faith in Christ.

AMEN.