Getting Right with God — E.A. Johnston

Israel’s Divided Heart and the Roots of Idolatry

In the days of Hosea, we find a bleak picture of the people of God. People who once devotedly served God with their whole heart, now attempted to serve Him with a divided heart. They were enjoying a time of material prosperity under the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel, but mixed with their religion was idol worship.

Because their hearts had strayed so far away from God, they believed their prosperity came from the idols. We see this in Hosea chapter 2 and verse 5, which states, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

The people of God were so far away from God that self-gratification was their primary concern. They had become covetous and greedy and full of lust. Jehovah forbade his people to adopt the religious worship of idols.

He knew how spiritually destructive it was and physically harmful it could be. The mixing of pagan worship would actually ruin them. It was a violation of the Ten Commandments and it robbed God of His glory.

I think it's important, friends, for us to take some time now to familiarize ourselves with the practices of pagan worship that was going on in the days of Hosea and that the Jews fell into, for it can speak to us today.

Canaanite Idolatry and Its Corruption of Israel

Both the Canaanite deities of Baal and Ashtoreth remained a snare to the Jews until the Babylonian exile. Only the 70 years in captivity finally cured Israel of its idolatrous ways of polytheism had different community gods whose names differed from region to region.

At times, Baal was called Baal-Pior, Baal-Bareth, and Baal-Zebub. It's this reason Scripture describes Israel as serving Baal or Balaam. The religion of the Canaanites was evil and corrupt. It was reeking with all kinds of perversion and devil worship.

It was characterized by the practice of human sacrifice, ritual prostitution, and homosexuality, as well as self-mutilating. The pagans believed their gods participated in these practices as well, so there was debauchery as well as debasing among the people.

The term lovers used in Hosea referred to the pagan idols that Israel worshipped. These idols Israel trusted in for prosperity. The Baals were weather gods which the people believed controlled agricultural prosperity.

But unfortunately, to serve Baal, one had to engage in cult prostitution and debauchery. We see God's response to Israel's sin problem of idolatry in Hosea 2, verses 8 -13. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax, given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, But these are my rewards that my lovers have given me.

And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.

God’s Judgment on Persistent Idolatry

Almighty God is provoked by their sins. God is stating His case against Israel. Their idolatry caused them to violate God's law in its moral, social, and religious aspects. This brought God's remedial judgments upon them, which led to poverty and famine.

The entire nation was guilty, the people as well as their religious leaders. God laments in Hosea chapter 4, As they were increased, so they sinned against Me. Therefore will I change their glory into shame.

They eat up the sin of My people, and they set their hearts on their iniquity. And there shall be like people, like priests. And I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their doings. For they shall eat and not have enough.

They shall commit whoredom, and they shall not increase, because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart. My people, ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them.

For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a-whoring from under their God. If you take time, friends, to read the rest of that passage, you'll make you sick to your stomach on how far the people of God had backslidden away.

From him, the hardest verse in that passage is verse 17. It hurts me even when I read it. Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone. I think that's one of the worst judgments of God upon a people.

For God to leave them alone, the withdrawn presence of God in our church today, just breaks my heart. And if you want to go to hell, friend, all you have to do is let God leave you alone. If God doesn't invade your life and conquer your stubborn will and black heart, then there's not much hope for you, friend.

Modern America’s Spiritual Backsliding

I believe this passage in Hosea is a stark picture of America right now. A nation full of pagans. A nation full of evil, wickedness, and perversion. A nation corrupt from the head to the heel, from government on down to the courthouse and to the schoolhouse.

And unfortunately... I can't even say it. I have to include the church house as well. We're so far away from God today, friends. Because we as a nation are desensitized to sin. Our television programming is just full of nudity, sex, and sexual perversion.

We've grown accustomed to having our entertainment taint and harden us in sin. Sexual sin is rampant in the church today. Many church members are living together in fornication. And they're calling it love and see nothing wrong with it.

And I was sitting in a man's office a while back who was a homosexual. And he showed me his wedding ring. And very proudly said he was married to his male lover. And that it was good in the sight of the Lord as they both were Christians.

And they wanted to make it legal. And they went to church faithfully every week. It reminds me that my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Alford, once shared with me that one of his sons was a counselor to pastors out in California.

And the number one problem with the pastors he counseled was their addiction to cyber sex. Like the Jews in the days of Hosea, the priests and the people have corrupted themselves with Ordom. But we also see in Hosea the love of God toward his straying people and his desire for his people to get right with him.

God’s Love and the Call to Genuine Revival

He wants them to experience revival and enter a right relationship with him once again. For in Hosea chapter 6 we read, Come and let us return unto the Lord. For he hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten and he will bind us up.

After two days will he revive us. The word revive in the Hebrew is the word Jeia. And it means to recover, to come to a right relationship with God. The main problem with the Israel friends was that her repentance wasn't sincere.

It didn't last. Hosea 6 .4 declares, O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew, it goeth away. The picture God paints of Israel's repentance is short-lived and insincere, like the morning dew that appears on the grass for a little while before it quickly evaporates in the sun, or like a passing cloud which is there in the sky one moment and then it's gone.

And I think that's the main problem, friends, in the church in America today. We say with our lips we want to see revival. We pray for revival. We promote revival. But we refuse to follow the biblical mandate for revival in its entirety, as it's found in 2 Chronicles 7 .14.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, let me pause here, friends, to say we're more than willing to do all these things to see revival in our day, but we are very unwilling to do the last aspect of this verse, which God requires in turn from the wicked ways.

Confession, Repentance, and Forsaking Sin

Our sin problem is our wicked ways. We have confused confession with repentance. In confession, one keeps drifting back and repeating the same sin over and over again. It's a sin area in our life that has a long track record and history.

It's a sin we take great pleasure in, a sin we love as much as we hate. But it's part of our life. We struggle with it. So when we give in to the temptation and fall into our hogwallah, a sin, we slip and slide there and wallow in that sin like a hog in its wallah until we get sick of it and confess it in return to God.

But the problem is, friends, we've never broken off from it in true repentance because in true repentance we turn and forsake that sin completely. I think the issue is our lack of faith and trust in God to take that sin away and the desire for it.

God's grace is sufficient to keep us from that sin if we'd only get serious with Him. It's that turn from the wicked ways which hangs us up time and time again. Getting right with God means getting rid of that sin, that sin area in your life that's dominated you, plagued you, wasted you time and time again.

I don't believe, friends, in sinless perfection. For there is only one man who ever walked this earth and had no sin, and that was Jesus. But I do believe God calls each of us to a life of holiness in consecration to Him.

Holiness, Restoration, and Readiness for Christ’s Return

Getting right with God should be your chief desire if we're out of step with Him. Sin is a corrupting and corrosive thing. Sin takes you farther than you want to go, leaves you there longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you ever realize.

God declares a promise to us in His Word, Return unto me, and I will return unto you. The most miserable person on earth is not the lost sinner. They are enjoying sin for a season, and they are happy as a clam for the time being.

I believe the most miserable person in the world is the believer who's out of fellowship with God because of presumptuous sin. We each are born with a sin nature and are bent toward sin. And God laments in Hosea 11 .7, And my people are bent to backsliding from me.

But He also declares in the same chapter, When Israel was a child, then I loved him. I drew them with cords, with bands of love. God still loves His sinful children, but He knows how harmful and destructive sin can be to us.

God the Father wants His very best for His children. And He knows that when He gave us His only begotten Son on Calvary as a sacrifice for sin, that in the work of redemption, Jesus not only paid the penalty for sin, He gave power over sin.

We must turn that sin area of our life over to Jesus and ask Him for the sanctified grace by His Spirit to turn and forsake that sin so we can turn from their wicked ways. Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Let me ask you, friend, does our land need healing? Only a heaven-sent revival can get the job done and prepare the bride for the approaching bridegroom who will soon come again in righteousness to judge the living and the dead.