The Terrible Price of Sin — Erlo Stegen

Lord, we pray for soft hearts, that we can hear your word and that it can go deep into our hearts and work there. Give us also ears to really hear what you want to say. Because Lord, if we have hardened hearts or ears that do not hear, then we can sit here, we can be listening or hearing, but it doesn't go into our hearts and doesn't find place there in order to change us and transform us.

Hosea’s Marriage as a Picture of Israel’s Unfaithfulness

So Lord, please speak to us and touch our hearts through your holy word. Amen. I will read from the book of Hosea, from the first chapter. Hosea chapter one from verse two. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry.

For the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. So he went and took Goma, the daughter of Deblayim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Read so far. Now the book of Hosea is the first book of the books that we referred to the minor prophets.

One refers to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel as the major prophets. And then from Hosea it's referred to as the minor prophets. But in the beginning it was not like that. The time before the Lord, these, the 12 prophets that are recorded here in the old Testament.

So in that time, these 12 books were referred to as the 12 books of the prophets. So they were, so that was one book, all in one book that these 12 prophets. And that was up to the time of Augustine, who was also known as one of the founding fathers of the church.

From that time, they are known as the books. If you put them all together, they're about the same size or length as the book of Ezekiel, for example. There is of course the danger that if you refer to them as minor prophets, that you get the idea that they are of less worth or small.

That's not true. Their value and their worth, and the quality of what they've written is the same as the major prophets. Now Hosea is now the first book of these 12 books that are referred to. So you've got the major prophets.

Daniel was also there, recorded as well, but he's in between the major and the minor prophets that were all recorded in one volume, these 12 books. So Hosea was the first of the minor prophets. It's shocking what he experienced.

He experienced something terribly difficult and painful. God said to Hosea, go and take a woman of harlotry, a harlot, a prostitute, an immoral person, someone who's going to cause you much grief and pain and will break your heart.

And she also will have children of harlotry from other men. So Hosea, being a faithful prophet, obeyed God and went and got a woman like that and married her. It didn't take long and Goma, this woman, lost her love for Hosea, her husband.

And she fell in love with other men that were good-looking in her eyes. And God said, Hosea, I'm doing this to you that you can also experience what Judah and Israel are like. He said, I want you to really understand and get to grips and get an understanding of what God's children are like.

And you know that the Bible says that one should not be unevenly yoked. As a Christian, one shouldn't get married to a non-believer. And yet here God commands Hosea to do exactly that. And he says, I want you to do it so that you will know and that the whole world will see what my children are like.

And what my people are like. It's something very sad, tragic. For God says, my people are unfaithful, for they follow other gods. And yet I want them to be perfect and to belong completely to me, but they don't.

So the prophet was given a very, very difficult ministry. Hosea went and looked and looked until he found her and he got married to her. And so it didn't take long after they were married that Gomer, his wife, lost interest in him.

She had other lovers and committed adultery with them. And eventually she even left her husband to follow her other lovers. And then God said, Hosea, you go. Go look for her. When you find her, bring her back and you must love her again.

I don't know whether there's a more difficult thing for a husband than that. Imagine your wife losing interest in you, following other husbands, going and living with them. And then God says, in spite of her doing that, now go.

When you find her, woo her back to you. Get her back. And she came back and she had three children. The first one was born a son. And he said, name him Jezreel, for yet a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

The Terrible Price of Unrepented Sin

So there is not a single sin which God will not avenge. He will take revenge. He will punish every single sin. Child of God, know that every sin that you committed, in public or in secret, God will, you won't escape it.

And if you don't repent, he'll finish you off. The price of sin is terribly high. Even if you try to hide it, you pay a high price for it. So long as there is a God in heaven, he will punish you for your sins, if you don't make it right in your repentance of those sins.

Whether it is in secret or in public, he will share with you. He will turn over your life. So that's how that child got his name. Because God said, I will punish you Israel for the sin that you have done.

If you don't repent, I will also put an end to you. We're not sure whether it was his own child or whether it was the child of another man. Now, according to Zulu tradition, if a wife was unfaithful and she bore a child of another man, she would not be brought back into the same home again.

But she would be built another house next door, outside of the complex. And she was even given a special name for that, because the Zulus did not get divorced from their wives, but she would be built another place outside.

And then God again said, but Hosea, you must show love towards her, try your best, do everything you can. But no matter what he tried, she wasn't interested in him, she was after other men. And this Hosea shows us what the Lord Jesus is like.

He loves us even though we deny him and we betray him. He loves us even though we turn our backs on him. And then God says, love her. And then she fell pregnant again. And then we don't even know where that child came from.

It's a terribly sad situation when a wife is unfaithful, she's after other men, she's like a cow that is just after a bull, and she'll break through any barrier to get there. And then in verse 6, the Lord said, when she had given birth to a daughter, the Lord said to him, name her Lo-Ruhamah.

For I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I should ever forgive them. And the Lord says, I will no longer show compassion, I will no longer show love. Can you imagine such words being said about you who forsake the Lord?

And then in verse 9, she gave birth to another son. And the Lord said, name him Lo-Emi. For you are not my people. And I am not your God. This is a description of a person who forsakes the Lord Jesus.

And God says, God says eventually of these people who he's been trying to woo, he's been trying to show love, trying from every side, different things. And eventually he gets to the point, he says, I am no longer your God, you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Like if he'd say to us, you people of Sizabantu, you are not my people anymore, neither will I be your God anymore. So whether you go to church here or belong to another congregation, remember this is a word for you, just you.

Losing the First Love Through Compromise

Maybe you are faithful to your husband. Maybe you're a boy or you're a girl, you're unmarried. And yet you can still be guilty of the sin of this woman who was a harlot. God wanted his people to have a very special relationship with him.

God wants each one of us to be totally one with him. God wants each one of us, man, woman, you child, you teenager, whoever you are, God wants each one of us to have a life that's totally one with him.

But it's sad when people lose their first love. They lose their love for the Lord and they start loving other things instead. If you continue reading in this book of Hosea, the first, the second chapter, you see that eventually the people of God are bowing down to Baal, to other gods.

They started mixing things. They still served God in a way and yet they also were serving the Baals. So they were compromising, they were mixing these two things. They didn't forsake God outright at any given point.

No, but they started making these compromises. Like Goma, she was still living with her husband. Physically she was there, but her heart was with these other men. Baal influenced people and he gave them his blessings, his gifts.

One of the gifts of Baal was food, good food. Imagine that even food can become an idol. There are people that if they don't have food, they go and steal it. They forsake God because of food. So food becomes an idol to you.

You find a person who doesn't have enough food, who goes through difficulty, he forsakes God. He says, no, it's not worth it, it's difficult. You forsake God, you forsake your calling just because of that.

When Appetite Becomes an Idol

Paul says, I say this with tears, that there are those whom God is not their God, but their God is their belly. And so it is that you can have a craving for something, you crave for it to such an extent that you will even do something wrong to get it.

And that sin is equivalent to hunger. And that sin is equivalent to harlotry, like a woman who is unfaithful to her husband going after another woman. And you forsaking God, going after other things because of the lusts of the flesh.

So they served other gods. Another gift of Paul was the clothing that you wear. A person wearing just what pleases him and which is according to the fashion of the time. They didn't pray to God, full of the Holy Spirit, saying, Lord, this body is your temple, how shall I clothe it?

No, they didn't do that. They copied and imitated the world. We say we don't serve Baal, but you find many Christians serving Baal. And so it is that you can have a craving for something, you crave for it to such an extent that you will even do something wrong to get it.

Clothing, Worldliness, and the Christian Witness

A while ago, I spoke to the young people and to the girls, I said, I noticed that it's now fashionable to have long dresses. And I noticed your dresses are getting longer and longer, but I'll watch you closely because at some stage the fashion is going to change and then minis will be in fashion again.

And then I'll see what you do. And sure enough, minis came back into fashion. And then I noticed some people whose skirts were getting shorter and shorter. And then I realized, and that's when you realize, that a person is not filled with the Spirit of God.

And amazingly, these girls will say, oh, I don't have nice legs. And yet, they show off these horrible legs of theirs. Now I've got to look at these terrible legs. You are of the devil. He's your father.

You're not filled with the Spirit of God. A donkey knows more about music than what you do about Christ. You are of the devil. He's your father. You're not filled with the Spirit of God. A donkey knows more about music than what you do about Christ.

Don't you know what it means to be filled with the Spirit of God? Aren't you filled with the Spirit? Where you go onto your knees, you say, Lord, I want to buy myself a dress. Now lead me, guide me, teach me what I should wear, how I should adorn your temple.

Not that I go around showing my belly, even if you have a ring in your belly button. We don't want to see that. Or your back. You just do this. We can see your back. Although people say the backside of a donkey is the best.

It's more decent than your belly. A woman's belly isn't nice, even if you put a gold ring into it, into your navel. So you're like those who serve Baal, like that cow that is after a bull. So you're like those who serve Baal, like that cow that is after a bull.

So you're like those who serve Baal, like that cow that is after a bull. Then you say, oh, but your excuse is you can't find proper dresses. You say, in the shops you just don't get anything decent anymore.

But aren't there quite a few people among us who know how to sew that you could go to and say, look, I don't want to dress like a prostitute. I want to dress in a way that's a testimony and a witness for the Lord.

Help me and sew me something proper. That's the naked truth. TNT. God doesn't need look at the dress. He doesn't need it to see your heart. He knows it. In spite of your dress. But we can't see your heart, but we see it through your dress.

Your dress reveals us your heart. Whether your dress goes up from the bottom or it goes down from the top, it just shows you that you're a child of a prostitute. And if your mother isn't, then you are because of Baal.

So you just need to open your eyes and you'll quickly identify those whose hearts are filled with the Spirit of God and those who aren't. But of course, I know that there are those that have the form of godliness, but they deny the power.

You get that all over. But I can't think of something better, something more heavenly than a woman who's filled with the Holy Spirit. Before she sews a dress, she goes on her knees and say, now, Lord, you thrice holy God, how would you like me to cover your temple?

Your dwelling place. I know you teenagers, you may think you're clever, but you're still very green. Whether your brains are in your noses or your backside, I don't know. But when you grow older, you'll become wiser.

And then you'll see, I served Baal. So clothing can be an idol and is an idol to many people. And the devil uses it very much with young people. And that's why you've got a mother and the mother should look after it.

But maybe your children are not taking after you. You are taking after them. And you never take the Bible and read it. Addressing young people and say, young man or woman, be an example to others. Impurity.

Squanate. God shown you love. Christ died for you. He drew you unto himself. But now you are flirting and sinning with other men. So there were even these gods of nature. And then these things in nature become so valuable to you, they take the place of God in your life.

Cosmetics and the Idolatry of Appearance

There was also another idol in Baal worship. Squanates middles. Cosmetics. That you attempt to change yourself, whether it be your complexion or your hair or whatever. You do it in secret because it's a thing of darkness.

You hide it somewhere. Your father, your husband, your relations can't see it. You don't want anybody to see it. But you are a child of Baal. Not the one who died for you. No. You are flirting and sinning, sleeping with other men.

There is a white man who recently was released from prison. If I am not mistaken, it was Stander who stole money from the banks. How long was he in the trunk? 10 years or something? 27 years. 27 years.

27 years, Stander. These people were part of a gang, Stander's gang, who went around robbing banks. He said, now that I am out of the trunk, I am lost. I live in another world. Everything has changed.

Before I went into the trunk, it was the whore who had red lips. And now everyone has red lips. It was the whore, he said. Before I went to prison, only prostitutes had red lips. But now I see everyone's got red lips.

I have been smoking for 27 years. I have been smoking for 27 years. I have been smoking. I have been smoking. I have been using make-up. I have been using make-up. I have been singing in the streets.

I have been doing this and that. So, you are always in the wrong. You are the ones who know the truth. The people of God, Stander, Marseille, in the world, in the world, in the church, they are all the same.

They are all the same. They are all the same. It doesn't happen overnight. Little by little. The devil is just a small finger. He knows after that the hand. He knows that after that, your whole being.

So you, child of God, examine yourself. See whether something else hasn't crept in. When you look back, you see that things have changed in your life. You are not what you used to be anymore. Or maybe you say you got converted and even at that time nothing changed in your life.

Loving the World Instead of the Lord

So, Goma, she lost her first love. She lost that love she had towards her husband. In other words, she lost her love for the Lord Jesus and she started loving other things instead. Goma lost interest in her own husband and the relationship with her own husband, the man of God.

And she, after other lovers. If I only would have a red-hot iron that I could burn and impress this into your life. Write it in gallery to the end, to your last breath. I'd be happy. But if I speak to stones that are dead without feeling and rocks.

What can I say? If God isn't merciful and reach the deepest depths of your heart, the end will be to hell with you. There are many lovers that we can follow. There are many things we can run after. Love of power.

Love of position. Love of money. Love of recognition. That is Goma running after other lovers. I'd like to ask you today, are you children of God or children of this world? Do you love this world and try and imitate it?

Didn't you hear what James said? He who loves this world and is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. And the three children she bore and God said, you give them these names. I'm going to soon punish the house of Jill and deal with Israel.

I'm going to soon punish the house of Jill and deal with Israel. I'm going to soon punish the house of Jill and deal with Israel. Now I want to tell you, God has loved you and you trample that underfoot by having other lovers.

That love will come to an end in your life. You are not my people. That's what he says eventually. You are not my people. What is most important above anything else is that you are united with Jesus Christ.

When you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus and you're perfectly one with him, then to you it's no longer important whether you're an African or a white or whatever else. What's most important to you is your relationship with the Lord.

When you wake up in the morning, that's the most important to you, that relationship with the Lord, to be one with him. When you wake up in the morning, that's the most important to you, that relationship with the Lord.

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