This is our final lesson in this preaching series in Hosea, and in the last two chapters of his book, the prophet sums up the issues of God with the people and then offers hope to those who will live as God has commanded them to live. After all of this preaching and all that we have learned from these messages, what would be one word that would sum up Israel's sins and problems with God? Is there such a word to describe all of this? There is: idolatry.

That is why chapter thirteen of Hosea begins with talking of Ephraim's idolatry to Baal and how that it has led to their spiritual death. That is why the fourteenth and final chapter ends with God looking forward to a time when a generation will arise in Israel that will say "what have I to do any more with idols?" The key issue of Israel in Hosea's time was idolatry and all of the other problems and all of the other issues and sins stemmed from their idolatry.

When you read the Bible, you will find that despite being written in different times and to varying situations, that overwhelmingly the subject of the Word of God returns to speaking against idolatry. Whether in the form of Nimrod and a tower that defied God, or in the form of the iron statue of Molech, to the Greek gods and goddesses in the New Testament, over and over again, we find the theme in scripture: avoid idolatry. Even the book of 1 John, written to describe the characteristics of a true believer who is following God's Word had to end with this verse as the parting thought:

The Old Testament is replete with pages after pages against idolatry. Isaiah spends page after page making fun of the fact that idolaters will go into the woods and pick a tree, pull off the branches, carve a statue out of it, carry the statue to a place of honor, fasten it so that their idol won't flip over, then go back and take the branches for a fire, bake a meal, eat the meal and then go pray to the god that they just created, part of which they just burned into the fire and then act like this thing of THEIR creation is really going to be able to hear and answer their prayer even though they had to fasten it well to keep it from falling over. And then would come the potent cry from God: "what will you like unto me?" "There is none like me." "I am the only savior."

God will make no terms with idols, and so we find that throughout scripture, when God called someone to live for Him, the first thing that was commanded was that they separate themselves from idols. When God called Abraham out of Ur, he had to leave the idolatry behind. Two generations later when God called Abraham's grandson, Jacob, to draw closer to Him in relationship, Jacob had to clean the idols out of his life. When it came time for Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, the second commandment given was a warning against worshipping statues and any likeness of even God, Himself, a stiff warning against idolatry. In the time of the judges, we find that repeatedly the people would fall into idolatry only to have God raise a man or woman to call them back to sincere worship of only God, Himself. When God raised up Gideon, the first thing that had to be dealt with was that Gideon had to tear down and destroy the idol that his father worshipped.

When we get into the kings, we find that idolatry was still the issue. Solomon would fall into idolatry despite being the wisest man in the world, and as a result of his and the nation's idolatry, the kingdom was divided in a civil war. For the years of the divided kingdom, kings that arose against idolatry and worshipped only the true God, Jehovah, were blessed of God, those that kept idolatrous practices were not, but the issue was still idolatry. When we fast forward into New Testament times, we find warning after warning against idolatry. A different time, a different system, but still the warning is the same "little children, keep yourselves from idols." In the last book of the Bible ever written, the book of Revelation, when Jesus speaks direct instruction about the seven churches of Asia in the first three chapters, we find that of the seven churches mentioned two have major problems with idolatry. Despite the Holy Ghost. Despite the Apostles' doctrine. Despite the truth and ministry of Jesus Christ, who was the very image of God. Idolatry was still a serious problem for the Early Church Christians.

What's the point, preacher? The point is this. I believe that the Bible is relevant to America today. And I believe that even the most obscure passage of scripture and principle is very important for us to grasp and apply to our life. Therefore if something is a major theme of the Bible and it is a danger that the Bible repeatedly warns against, then it would follow that we, today, are in danger of falling into the same trap. If idolatry was the "foremost" problem of Hosea's day, then it is still probably the foremost problem of the church today. If the Early Church in the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John's time had a major problem with idolatry creeping in, then our church will likely face the same thing! The problem is that idolatry is not as easy to identify in our lives as it was back then. It was easy to point to a stone statue back then and say "this is idolatry" just as it is today, but idolatry is not confined to the worship of stone and wooden statutes in a temple or cathedral somewhere. Idolatry is simply the worship of something other than God, Himself. And it comes in much more subtle forms than a false religion asking for human sacrifice.

I'm not preaching against such blatant and easy to identify forms of idolatry as praying to a statue of Mary, or Jesus, or meditating on nature and the mother earth. For most of the people under the sound of my voice, such idolatry is easily identified and avoided. I'm preaching about idolatry that may have slipped in a little more subtly because it wasn't as obvious. I'm preaching to people who are born again believers in the church of the Living God!

________________________________________________________________________

Let's consider idolatry in this study and talk about it's causes and it's process. By understanding what makes a person go to idolatry, then hopefully you can identify if you are succumbing to the subtle pull of idolatry in your life.

Within every human being there is a desire and a necessity for God. There is a yearning that knows that you must worship something. Man is not complete without it, and that's why that despite all of the cultures in the world, even counting the most remote ones in the jungles and plains of Africa and South America, there is not ONE culture that is atheistic. There is not one culture that has not at least created some form of religion and a god. When the archeologists discover a new civilization in the remotest parts of the world, inevitably they will find the remains of that people's religious worship. Why? Because within man there is a spirit that was created to recognize that there is a God and that we should worship Him. Idolatry comes from people letting this desire to worship being placed on something or somebody other than the true, living God of the Bible.

I read a book recently where the author said "in every life there is a ruling passion" and that ruling passion is what determines the successes, failures, and direction of a person. There is a passion in your life that takes precedence and preemininence over all others. And it's true. We all have a "ruling passion" that even though we may be interested in other things, if it comes down to choosing between the two, one of those things will be put aside. The thing that you will always choose over everything else, is your ruling passion.

Money, power, politics, fame, sports, lust, partying, those are some of the most prevalent ruling passions found today, but your ruling passion might be more obscure. I was recently scanning the AM dial while driving and heard an interview with Tony Hawk. If you don't know who Tony Hawk is, then you just said that you are over the age of thirty or under the age of say, sixteen. Tony Hawk is the most famous skateboarder to ever live. He took skateboarding and made it into a craze and a sport. He was the first person to ever ride a skateboard and get paid for doing it, the sport's first professional. In the interview, Tony talked about how he had to make some choices in high school his sophomore and junior years. His father was the president of the baseball authority in his area, but Tony had to make a choice between skating and baseball. His father and mother wanted all of their kids to go to college and Tony had to make a decision between skating and college even though he became the only kid of the house not to further his education. He talked about how that when he started out, skateboarding was not "cool" and that he was made fun of because he didn't fit into the mold of the athletic jocks or the academic preps in high school. Tony had to make some choices between peer pressure and skateboarding. Things went well for him monetarily. He purchased his own house halfway through his senior year of high school. Today he is a zillionaire and one of the most recognized names of quite an obscure sport. He has caused many a kid to go out and break an arm trying to emulate him. Tony's ruling passion, you see, was skateboarding. When it came to something else interfering with his ruling passion, he was quick to choose against that thing. And we might laugh when we think of Tony's goals in life, but we are really all the same way when it comes to guarding and finding time for whatever our ruling passion is.

Jesus identified this trait in humanity when He said:

"Mammon" means "riches." Jesus did not say "you cannot serve God and the devil" because He knew that very few believers would ever be actually tempted to worship Satan. Once you find out that he's just a fallen angel with a not-so-bright future, then to worship such a creature becomes somewhat dumb to us. The danger is not that you might become a Satan worshipper. The real danger that most of us face is that our ruling passion would be something else other than God. That we would try to worship our ruling passion and serve God at the same time with God not being the ruling passion. And it will never work, because eventually you will have to choose what is more important to you: God or your ruling passion.

To many Christians have the idea that worship is only when you clap your hands in church and sing the songs of God. That's not true. You worship everyday of your life. When you give your time and your priority to something, you are worshipping. When you are loyal to something, you are worshipping. We are to be a "living sacrifice." That is our everyday actions are to worship our God. So what you return to and what you repeatedly do is worship of some sort to something or another. And the problem is this: when your ruling passion is not God and the kingdom of God, but something else, then that something else -- no matter what it might be -- has become an idol. When your ruling passion is something other than God, you have identified idolatry in your life.

Let me be blunt and give some practical examples that I have come across. I've heard some of my friends complain about church meeting three times a week and having to drive to it and burn the gas and the time and yet another weeknight being taken up. Yet, every week, they faithfully take their children to sports practice and sit through it without complaining. They find time to watch Monday night football, Friday night High School football, Saturday College Gameday, and rush home from Sunday morning service for the NFL, and if there's a good game on Sunday night, you won't see them in church. Call a prayer meeting on an off night, and they're "busy" but they find time for everything else. They know all of the standings of every team and player but couldn't give you a Bible Study on verses that talk about salvation. They have time to update their fantasy team each night and read publication after publication on the latest hot players, but they don't have time to read or study the Bible. They'll get emotional over a million dollar a year player dropping a pigskin for a missed touchdown, but won't dance in church and sure won't respond to the Spirit of God. They'll get everything together and rearrange their life so that they get to see the pre game show and stay glued to the screen hours after the game to hear overpaid athletes basically say that they don't have a clue why the lost and yet they never come before a church service to pray and after about five minutes at the altar call, they are gone. They'll pay $80 a month for cable, thousands of dollars for a bigscreen, hundreds of dollars for the beer, too much for officially licensed shirts and such, and yet think it crazy that God would ask them to pay their tithing and offerings, after all just a few "George Washingtons" are enough for the church, right? They're too busy to really serve God completely and make an impact in the kingdom of God, right?!

No, actually the issue is that their ruling passion is sports and so serving God takes a back seat to it. There's nothing wrong with sports, and I'm hoping the Astros get in this year and the Saints one day win a Superbowl, but understand that when anything -- sports included -- becomes your ruling passion, then it is idolatry! You are worshipping your god and it's not the right one. I've got friends that if they would put as much effort and zeal and passion into serving God and winning people to Him as they do sports, work, politics, lust, whatever, that they would make the Apostle Paul look like he was standing still. But they'll never do that because they are eaten up with idolatry and don't even realize it!

And so I ask you, what's your ruling passion today? Is it depression? Is it family? Is it hunting? I've known people who get just a little head cold and they can't go to church, but on the opening day of hunting season, they are on the stand sickness or not. They have a roll of kleenex and pneumonia, but they are not going to miss the deer season, no matter how cold or wet or rainy that it is. But let a little storm clouds rumble and their scared to go to church! There's nothing wrong with hunting, but it shouldn't take priority over the things of God. If it becomes your ruling passion, then you have committed idolatry. I was sick as a dog Sunday, but I was in church. I was sick as a dog Monday, but I still played golf. BUT, if I had been too sick to come to church on Sunday, I wouldn't have played golf on Monday. Because God has to be my ruling passion. But I know a lot of people who are sick on Sunday night but by the time Monday morning comes around, there has been miracle take place! No, actually, they are giving in to a subtle form of idolatry because work is their ruling passion over church.

And so almost all sin and situations are really a result of such idolatry. When you can gossip to others about people's problems or criticize them but you can't find time to pray to God for those people, then your ruling passion is not God. When you can find time to check your stocks and bonds, or tinker with your car, but don't have time to spend with your family each evening, then your ruling passion is not God. When fulfilling your lust is more important than the commandments of God, then you have become an idolater.

And we get excited over what our ruling passion is. If church is not exciting and fun and interesting and something to look forward to, but has become a "have to go" sort of thing in your mind, then you are serving two masters, and the other besides God is the ruling passion. Idolatry is slowly setting hold. There's nothing wrong with having interests in other things, but when something other than God has the ruling priority as your primary passion and focus, then you have fallen into a trap of sin. Idolatry always results in our ruling passion being something other than God, Himself.

________________________________________________________________________

The Psalmist wrote:

All idols, whether it be a statue in a mosque somewhere or a ruling passion that is not God's kingdom, have the detriment that they cannot answer prayer and that they cannot save you. The psalmist wrote so eloquently that the trait of idols is:

They have mouth, but don't speak.

They have eyes, but they do not see.

They have ears, but they do not hear.

They have noses, but they do not smell.

They have hands, but they do not handle.

They have feet but they do not walk.

And the point for us is found in verse eight: "Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trust in them." When you serve an idol, you become like them. What does that mean? That means that when people's ruling passion becomes something other than God Almighty, they have mouths but their mouths are shut. They no longer speak of the goodness of God. They stop communicating with their families and spouses. They stop praying to God. They have eyes, but they no longer see their need to change anything or their faults or seem themselves as anything in the kingdom of God. They have ears, but they can not "hear" and understand God's Word. There's nothing wrong with their hearing, but they do not listen. They have noses, but cannot detect the scent of flesh that needs prayer and fasting to control it. They have hands, but they are no longer active working toward God's kingdom. They have feet, but they are carrying them further away from the will of God and the Cross, rather than to it. You can tell when idolatry has slipped into your life when you become like an idol yourself! Clamming up, refusing to understand and take action to obey God's Word, and a lack of desire to work for God are the chief signs of idolatry because you have become just like your ruling passion!

Some of you are wondering what all of this has to do with our text in the book of Hosea. In chapter thirteen, verse two, the prophet said that Israel had made idols "according to their own understanding." Their view of God was off, and so they recreated their image of God to match their viewpoint. And that is in itself, idolatry. People will worship the true God when they feel as if God will bless them and they have an accurate view of Him working in their life. But if their view of God and His ways are flawed, so that they feel that He has let them down or cannot quite be trusted, then they seek after something else that more closely matches their viewpoints and what they think their needs are. The problem with Israel in Hosea's day, was that they had lost a pure and true view of who God was and of what He required. They viewed God as a demanding, unmerciful God who would not respond to them, even though the reason that He would not respond as they wished was because of the unrepented sin in their life. Rather than admit that they were sinners and repenting and getting things right in their life and clearing their vision of God, they chose to create a false image of God that was demanding and that really would not respond to them. Their idol matched their false view of God.

What does this mean to you and me? First, it helps to identify the cause of idolatry in our lives and then it helps to point to the cure for idolatry.

It helps to identify the cause of idolatry in our lives because if our ruling passion is not God, Himself, then that means that we have an inaccurate view of God in some way. If you see Him for who He really is, then you cannot help but serve Him and love Him! Our God is that awesome.

Idolatry can come in the form of unforgiveness or bitterness. I've known people that their ruling passion that overshadowed and tainted every area of their life was hurt and bitterness. When viewed closer, you will find that they blame God for their pain and their hurt and the blame God for "letting" those bad things happen. And their inaccurate view of God's working in their life leads to their promoting bitterness and revenge to the top spot in their life. They work on it and build it up until they place it in the place of worship in their soul. Bitterness and revenge and unforgiveness can become an idol when they become the ruling passion in a life, and yet the cause of such is when people get a flawed view of God's mercy and love and life. Why didn't God toast the world after Adam and Eve sinned? Why did He let life continue even though it was flawed and sometimes painful? Because He wanted you and I to have an opportunity to comprehend and understand and therefore receive His love. He wanted you to see Calvary and a God that loved you enough that while you were yet sinners, He died for you! In order to do so, God had to let life continue with man bound to a sinful nature. Therefore we have painful days and unpleasant situations. God is not "letting" these things happen to you. That is a flawed view of God. God is trying to save you from those things by revealing Himself to you as a healer and a master of every situation. Those things are a result of sin within this world, but God has come to deliver you from such things. If you will trust Him, you will find out that He truly can do what He says that He can do!

________________________________________________________________________

And so to finish, perhaps we've identified a form of idolatry in your life. But let's not stop there: what's the cure? Is there a cure for idolatry? There must be because after we read of Ephraim's idolatry in Hosea chapter 13, we find at the end of chapter 14, these words:

Something has happened! In chapter thirteen, Ephraim is worshipping Baal and making idols of silver, and yet at the end of Hosea we find prophecy that one day Israel will say "what have I to do any more with idols?" What was it that was going to happen that would bring about this change? If we can identify it, then we can know the "cure" for idolatry! Obviously the prophet must be prophesying about something that will happen to clarify and purify and focus the people's vision of God. To restore their vision of God as merciful and gracious and powerful and anxious to work in His people's lives. So again, I ask the question, what major event was yet to happen that would do all of these things? What major event was Hosea prior to that would reveal more of God so that our vision could be made right?

Hosea prophesied the last words of his message somewhere around 725 B.C. 721 years later, a baby would be born in Bethlehem and then eventually raised in the northern tribes of Israel in a place called Nazareth. This baby would not be just another prophet, but would be God in flesh, Jehovah become salvation, the image of the invisible God. He would clarify the people's vision of God. He would end law with His death on a cross. He would teach God's kingdom principles and apply them to everyday situations. He would usher in a dispensation of Grace and Mercy and of the Holy Ghost, God's Spirit living within the temples of our bodies! And He would restore vision -- not only to the physically blind -- but to those who were spiritually blind as well. At last we would view God in His power and glory and in Jesus discover that God does care for us and desire to be active in our lives! The Messiah was coming, and then Ephraim would be able to say "what have I do with idols?" There would be no need, because in Jesus we see the perfect representation of God. We see His love, we see His mercy, we see His desire to perform the supernatural, and His desire to make an impact for the blessing of you and I!

A proper view of God through Jesus Christ is the cure for idolatry! If other things are more important, you need to be reminded of how much Jesus loves you. You need to be reminded that if there had been no one else alive, Jesus would have still died for you! You need to remember that He is alive forever more and He has gone "to prepare a place for you!" He desires one day for you to live forever with Him! He has a heavenly city that is being prepared for you to spend eternity enjoying. Idols can't promise that. Bitterness can't bring that. Power and politics and fame and lust and sports and recreation and family and skateboarding and golf and unforgiveness and whatever else might be your ruling passion can't deliver that! It is only found in Jesus Christ. A true view of Jesus Christ is the cure for idolatry! A trip back to the cross. A recommitment of your life because He gave His. A reminder of the agony that He endured. A reminder of His love for you and the plan that He has for your life. That is the cure for idolatry.

And so we can sum up the entire book of Hosea in a few short statements. Hosea taught us that sin separates us from God, and blinds us, so that we lose the vision of Him, the vision of our own faults, and therefore our need for God. It shows that idolatry results from the loss of the proper vision of God. And Hosea reveals God's heart and holiness. God's love for us is eternal but is never divorced from moral requirement. For His love to operate in your life, you must let some things go. You must turn to Him. You must repent. He will make no terms with sin, but for those who will let Him, He will go even to the auction block of sin and buy you back. And you are not restored as a second class citizen, but as His beloved bride!

We are living in a much fuller light than Hosea did. We can see God revealed in Jesus Christ, and thus we see God in a way that Hosea could only dream about. Idolatry will try to slip in, but we have the cure for idolatry. It's a fresh view of Jesus Christ. It's falling in love with Him again. It's getting a revelation that He will do exactly what He has promised that He would do. He will make no terms with idols, though, and you must get idolatry out of your life.

The final verse of Hosea read thus:

It's your decision! There is a right way to live and a wrong one. The wise; the just; those who will be saved will choose to walk in the ways of the Lord, but those who will be lost will fall into the trap of idolatry. You don't want the end result of idolatry in your life, therefore you must remove idolatry from every area. Come let Jesus Christ be your ruling passion. Come make Him your only master!