This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the broadcast ministry of Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews, where we seek to glorify God by making Him known and guiding others towards their true purpose in life. No one is here by chance. God put us here for a reason, and the most important thing we can do is discover His plan for us and commit ourselves to it. Keep listening as we learn from the Bible how to live wisely in God's world, which is the first step towards finding your purpose.
Take your Bible and turn to Isaiah chapter ten. There was a boy in school. His name was Jimmy, and he had trouble pronouncing the letter R. And so his teacher gave him a sentence that had a lot of Rs in it to practice at home. And here's the sentence.
Robert gave Richard a rap in the rib for roasting the rabbit so rare. Y'all get that? Robert gave Richard a rap in the rib for roasting the rabbit so rare. And so Jimmy went home and he practiced. At the end of the week, the teacher asked Jimmy to recite the sentence before the class.
And so Jimmy got up from his desk and he walked up front. He turned around and he faced all the students. And here is what he said: Bob gave Dick a poke in the side for not cooking the bunny enough. Y'all get that? There are no Rs in it.
Jimmy left out the Rs, and here's how I'm going to segue from that. This is what so many people do today when it comes to biblical Christianity. They leave out the R word of what? Repentance. Y'all like that little story?
Never mind. All right, Doctor Jay Edwin Orr. You ever heard of him? He was born in Belfast, Ireland, on January fifteenth, nineteen twelve, and then in the nineteen thirties he became a traveling evangelist. I was going to use the word itinerant, but I didn't think y'all would understand what that meant.
It's a he was a traveling evangelist. He earned a ThD degree from Northern Baptist Seminary in nineteen forty three and a PhD in philosophy from Oxford in nineteen forty eight. And I want you to know this last part: He died in Asheville, North Carolina, on April twenty second, nineteen eighty seven. But Here's what he wrote about this word repentance. The word repentance or repent is used in the writings of Paul to the Romans, the Corinthians, and to Timothy, and by the writer of Hebrews as well as by Peter.
This word occurs ten times in the Book of Revelation. In all the New Testament, it appears more than fifty times. Hebrews lists it as an elementary doctrine of Christ, a foundational truth.
Now listen to what he says next. How serious then is the condition of a professing church where repentance is missing from its elementary teachings? Just that, like, like that letter R. What? Why is it that in our day we never hear the word repentance mentioned in most churches?
Why is that? I believe it's for two reasons. And that is because we have such a low view of God's holiness, combined with such a high view of man's goodness. Therefore, the church, the Western church, doesn't see any real need to preach about the sinfulness of mankind and its great need to repent before a holy God. They don't get it.
I think the reason they don't get it is because they don't really believe what's written in this book. Like he said in that video, you got to kneel before Him and come underneath the Word of God. Did you? That's why they put pulpits up high in the center of the church, so that you rest the Bible right here, and you're all under what? The Word of God.
That's why in England they put them up real high. You come underneath the word of God. The gospel, the gospels, make it clear that John the Baptist, Jesus, and the disciples all begin their preaching ministries, preaching a message of what repentance. Repent, Jesus said, because the kingdom of heaven is near. And so tonight, I've entitled this message a call to repentance.
And from Hosea chapter ten, I want to share three truths that the Bible teaches very clearly. And here they are: first, the nature of sin—that is, what is sin; second, the nature of God's judgment—that is, how and why does God judge us; and then third, the great need for repentance. Why do we need to repent?
So let's begin by looking at the nature of sin and look at verse, chapter ten, verse one. Hosea writes, "Israel was a luxuriant vine; it yields fruit for itself. The more its fruit increased, the more it increased its altars. The more the land prospered, the more they adorned their altars with sacred stones." So here's the question: How do we sin?
Well, here's how it begins. First, we abuse the grace of God. For over 200 years, following the death of Solomon, Israel experienced great prosperity and power, and this was all part of God's grace towards them. I mean, He was showing them grace, prospering them, even while they were sinning egregiously against Him. But what did they do with their God-given wealth?
Well, they used their wealth to make alliances with other nations, for one thing, rather than depending on the God who delivered them from bondage in Egypt. Then they went on to build temples and false idols all throughout the land of Israel, from Dan in the north to Bethel in the south, and everything in between. And they adorned these altars with beautiful stones, and then. They bowed down and worshipped these false idols, as if the idols, which were made of wood and stone, were responsible for their prosperity. You got to be kidding me!
In so doing, they abused the grace of God.
So let me ask you a question: Do we not do the same thing? Do we not abuse the grace of God when it comes to our wealth, for example? Do we regret? I hate. I know y'all don't want to hear about this, but do we neglect giving our first fruits and our best fruits to God?
Most people do their giving in which month? December. We should be giving in January, February, March. In Malachi three eight nine, God says, "This is how we rob him by withholding our tithes and our offering from him." Then he goes on to, "Did you know this one place in the Bible? It says you can test him, and it's right there in that same chapter.
He says, 'Test me, and if test me by giving to me, and see if I won't open up the doors of heaven and rain down manna upon you.' Have you ever tested God that way?" I've learned one thing: you cannot outgive God. You can't do it. I'm not saying he's going. If you give ten thousand, you're going to have ten thousand in your mailbox the following week. But you never know.
Test him. Because see, when you give to God, you what you're saying to Him. First of all, I love you. I want to honor you, but also, I trust you. It's been said that.
Let me just say this: here is a way that I think Christians, in particular, and I'm talking to men, that we abuse God's grace. We abuse God's grace by sinning with knowledge. That is, we know what the Bible says that we're not supposed to do. We go ahead and do it anyway. Because we know God is a God of grace and mercy, and so we swipe our grace card.
We sin, knowing what we're doing, and then we ask God to forgive us. Knowing He'll forgive us, that's called abusing the grace of God. It's been said that the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. Look at verse two. Hosea says, "Their heart is deceitful." Have you thought about that?
See, our real problem is that our hearts deceive us into thinking that we're okay.
Well, we're not okay. We don't really need God. Is what we think. We are basically good people. Besides, we have plenty of time to deal with God later on in life.
This is what one of my sons told me. He said, "Dad, I want to have some fun right now. I can turn my life over to God later." You know what? The fun that he talked about really wasn't fun. You ever watched what it looks like after a fraternity party the next morning?
The disaster. But we just want to have fun right now. We can deal with God later. But James four fourteen says, "Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow? What is your life?
You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." So men, don't let your heart deceive you. You young guys in particular, because your heart is always working to deceive you. And Satan comes along and he puts a beautiful package in front of you with a bow on it, and it looks enticing. It often comes in the form of a shape of thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six, and it looks good. And then you open that package and you know what's inside—a bomb that explodes.
It may be a month later, it may be a year later, but at some point it will explode.
So here's what you need to do, everybody, including me: read your Bible. How often? Every day. Listen to what God says. This is how we listen to God.
We read. I told the guys that met with me at lunch, this is God's word. If we really believe that, if God was on the other end of a phone and He would talk to you, if you picked up the phone on your end, would you pick up the phone?
Well, here's the phone. Pick it up, and then read it. Listen to what God says, and then do what He says. And you know what? He will bless your life.
That's what He was saying in the video. God wants to bless you, not curse you. It doesn't mean that you won't have cancer. It doesn't mean you won't go through some difficulties because you will. We all we live in a fallen world.
We're all going to suffer, but He promises to be with you through the suffering and bring you through that suffering. In other words, He's going to be with you in the storms of life. See, the main reason that we abuse the grace of God is number two: we don't fear God. Look at verse three.
Now they will say, "We do not acknowledge a king. We do not fear Yahweh." The Israelites did not fear Yahweh. When people don't fear God, you know what happens? They will do anything, any kind of wickedness. Really, when there is no fear of God, it opens up the gateway to all kinds of evil.
Just look at our country. Our country has lost its fear of God. We're mocking God, and we're practicing all kinds of evil. We live in a country now which supports and even celebrates sexual behavior, which the Lord says these are not my words; these are God's words. In Romans one, it says that this sexual behavior is shameful, indecent, unnatural, and what?
Perverted. And even many of our churches celebrate this sin. I received a text from a friend of mine on Sunday, and here's what he texted me. And I'm actually going to name the church. I don't care.
I've already talked to this minister anyway on a Zoom call. He didn't like me after that Zoom call. I can tell you that. I didn't like him before or after. Here's what he texted, and I think God doesn't like him because he's leading his church down the wide road.
That's why. Here's what he texted me, my friend. Just listen to the latest podcast from Church on Morgan Street. A woman, Episcopal priest from a these are her words, queer celebratory church, is talking about Jesus and saying that he is like a mother hen. The priest referred to Jesus and God several times as her.
I went and listened to the sermon today this morning just to make sure that my friend got it exactly right, and he did. The priest said that she is from a queer celebratory church, and it's in Austin, Texas. The name of the church is Jubilee. It's an Episcopal church. In a sermon, she said, "Quote: Jesus as mother hen wants to wrap us close to her heart.
Her heart, really. I thought God was father. See, what she's saying is blasphemy. It's it's heresy." Why is she saying this? Why is she willing to say it?
And she was invited to this church here in Raleigh. You got to be kidding me! Just go onto the site of Church on Morgan and look at their comments. They're against racism. That's a good thing.
But they're also against heterosexism, whatever that is. You know why she's saying this, and why that church is willing to have her come and stand in the pulpit and preach? Is because they have no fear of God, none. Romans three eighteen says, "There's no fear of God before their eyes." When a nation loses fear of God, we should expect a moral and societal collapse of that nation at some point. We sort of saw that in the summer.
Was it two thousand twenty in our nation? Was that the right summer? Yeah.
So how do we sin? First, we abuse God's grace, and we abuse His grace because we don't fear Him. And because we don't fear him, we begin to break his commandments. Look at verse four: they make promises, take empty oaths, making covenants.
So lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, enough. We talked about this earlier this year. Hey, by the way, I'm sorry that all these weeks there's so much judgment. I didn't write Hosea, okay?
But guess what? Friday's here. Sunday's coming. We're in chapter ten. Chapter fourteen's coming.
Okay, that'll be here in about three weeks.
So just hold on, four weeks maybe. But when Moses came down from Mount Sinai and read the law, which included the Ten Commandments, the Israelites all responded in unison. You know what they said? I looked it up. Everything that the Lord has said, we will do.
In other words, they made a promise, a commitment to God, that they were going to obey Him. No sooner had the words left their lips than they went to Aaron and said, "We don't know about this fellow Moses. Where is he? What's taking him so long? Why don't you make us our own gods?" And so he said, "Well, bring me your gold," and he formed a golden cap.
Do you know he told Moses when he came down from the mountain?
Well, Moses, I took all that gold, I just threw it in the fire, and look what came out. You got to be kidding me! You want Moses did with those Ten Commandments? Broke them. This defines sin.
We hear the Word of God, we say we're going to obey it, but just like the Israelites, we break our promises to God by disobeying His Word. Romans three twenty two says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." One of the greatest things that you can do is to recognize that you're a sinner, because God loves us, and then to be have a not remorse, but actually a repentant heart, broken and contrite. That's what God wants to see in us. That's why He loved David, because he was broken over his sin. See, God knows that we're made from dust.
He actually understands why we sin. Because he knows our enemy is after us, he knows that we're made of flesh and that we're weak, and he knows how tempting Satan can make sin look. And so he's very understanding. Did you know that Hebrews four? He is a high priest who has experienced every temptation that we have yet was out sin.
And it says that he is. I can't remember what it says. It says he's compassionate and gracious. It says something else. I can't remember it.
Gotta learn that passage. Is Hebrews four fourteen through sixteen, where it talks about that we have a high priest. Gosh, I can't remember the word.
Somebody look it up. Thank you, Jeff. Let me know in just a minute, okay? Because I gotta remember it. We have become.
Oh, here's where I was. Lost my track.
So, so what does God do when we sin? Did you look it up?
Now, just just tell me the word I'm looking for. We have a high priest who is what? What? Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, Son of God, let us. There's another verse in there that says something about He's understanding and compassionate.
We do not have a high. Unable to sympathize with us. That's what I was looking for. Thank you, Jeff. He is—he sympathizes with us.
That's what I was looking for. Don't you love that? When you come to him and confess that you looked at pornography, do you think he is going to do that or say, "I understand"?
Now go and sin no more. That's what he's going to do. He's not waiting to beat you up like the the whack-a-mole at the state fair. That's not the God we serve.
So God, what happens when we sin is that God gives us over to our sinful desires. He just lets us have our will. First, He gives us over to natural sin. This is all in Romans one. Then He gives us over to unnatural sin, but then He gives us over to total depravity.
That's number four. We have become totally depraved. Look at verse nine. Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel, and there you have remained. Y'all, y'all know what happened in Gibeah.
Y'all read that Judges nineteen and twenty.
So this Levite, he was not a priest; he was just from the tribe of Levi. Looked it up. He is passing through, headed back home, and he goes through Gibeah, and it's late, and he's got a concubine with him, and he sits at the city gate. He needs a place to stay, and this old man comes out and says, "Look, you can stay with me." So he goes to the old man's house. This is just like what happened in Sodom.
And then all the wicked men in the city come and surround the house, and they demand send the Levite out so we can have sex with him all night long. And it gets worse. The old man offers his daughter, and the Levite offers his concubine. That's what they did in Sodom. Lot offered his two his daughters.
Tell me to. Praised, and they take the concubine and they abuse her all night. She crawls back up on the doorstep, and is clinging to the to the door. And when the Levite wakes up in the morning, he comes to the door, and she is unresponsive. I don't know if she was dead or not, but here is what he does: he takes her back home, he cuts her up limb by limb into twelve parts, and sent them into all areas of Israel.
Reminds me of what Hamas just did. Judge nineteen verse twenty. I have to read this. Everyone who saw it, those body parts, said, "Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt." Can you imagine anything like that happening in our country?
Well, guess what, it does every day. When they Abort babies in the late second and third trimester. They are dismembering them limb by limb, and the baby in the mother's womb is screaming, but you can't hear it. It's called the silent scream. If our forefathers, found the founders of this nation, could come back and see what's taking place in this country they established, you know what they would say.
Such a thing has never been. We've never seen it or done. What has happened to our country? That's what they would say. What has happened?
We're like the frog that was put in the water that was lukewarm, and the heat was turned up, and we are dying. If they were cast into the pot of boiling water, they would just jump out. I'm talking about the founding fathers. Romans one twenty eight twenty nine says, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. They become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity.
When a man or a nation continues to sin so egregiously without any evidence of repentance, he or the nation should expect what judgment of God.
So, how does what does God' judgment look like?
Well, when God judges a man or a nation, this is what He does. I'm going to get this fairly quick because of time. First, He destroys our idols. You know why? Because these idols take the place of Him.
When we turn to them for our sense of security, safety, help, and even pleasure, the idols can be comfort, wealth, self, political power, entertainment, success, and even religion. That might be the worst one. God strips these idols away. Do you know why? To get our attention, to try to wake us up.
Then He exposes our sin. Then our sin brings shame upon us. Then we lose our sense of significance and purpose. Then God's judgment brings devastation and destruction, and even death. God's judgment brings fear and anxiety, and finally, God's judgment brings regret and great sorrow.
Listen to what Isaiah says, and I'm going to read this fairly quickly. Look at verse five. The people live in Samaria, fear for the calf idol of Beth Aven. Its people were mourned over it, and so will its idolatrous priest, those who rejoiced over its splendor, because it is taken from them into exile. See, God destroys these idols.
It will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim will be disgraced. Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols. Verse seven: Samaria's king will be destroyed, swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters. The high places, verse eight, of wickedness will be destroyed.
Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" And to the hills, "Fallenness." That's a picture of great fear. Verse ten: When I please, I will punish them. Nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin. Again, he's talking about Assyria, putting them in bonds and carrying them back as slaves to Assyria. Verse thirteen: Because you have depended upon your own strength and on your many warriors, the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortune will be devastated, as Shalman would devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle.
Listen: When mothers were dashed to the ground with their children, October seventh in Israel, so will it be to you. Hate to say this, Bethel, which is where I am from, because your wickedness is great. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed. Do you know what happened in seven twenty two BC when the Assyrian army entered Israel from the north and came against cities like Samaria? The people were tortured and slaughtered.
The survivors were forced to march past mutilated bodies, where captives were flayed alive or impaled. Just like October seventh, the Israelites were enslaved and deported, and they faced starvation and disease as they marched back to Assyria. It reminds me of the death march that took place in the Philippines during World War II. You ever seen what the Japanese that march was like? They were burning soldiers alive.
Our soldiers. Did you know the Bible describes hell with these exact same phrases I just used? Michael Eaton. Here's what he says: Exposure, and I want you to think about this man. You need to understand about hell.
Do you know why? So you don't end up there. Everybody needs to know about hell. Jesus talked more about hell than anybody else. Michael Eaton says: Exposure, shame, insignificance, destruction, fear.
These are all characteristics of the New Testament concerning hell. What happened in Israel at a purely mundane level within earthly history will one day happen at an eternal level and will never be reversed. There is nothing secret that shall not be disclosed. Men and women become without destiny, significance, or purpose. That's when a man wants to commit suicide when he has no purpose.
Israel's experience foreshadows the eternal experience of the wicked. Hell is a place of loneliness, of being ignored. Hell is exclusion. Is Jesus saying, "Depart from me"? It's being outsold.
Think about this: the banquet hall, outside the wedding feast, outside the shut door, like the door on the ark. The lost are thrust out; they are isolated from God's people and go to outer darkness, and forever are no more than a twig of wood on the surface of the water. Hell involves destruction and ruination. Hell involves fear. Hosea's words are echoed in the Book of Revelation, which indicates that what men and women would say in 723 B.C.
will be echoed at the appearing of Jesus. Which says in Revelation sixteen, I believe they call to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Do y'all want to avoid that? I do. When I heard John three sixteen, when I was probably about ten, and it just said, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
I didn't really understand it, but I knew I didn't like the sound of perish, and I wanted this thing called eternal life. And so I came with the faith of a child and said, "Lord, save me." We're all sinners who have repeatedly abused the grace of God, and we all deserve God's judgment.
So let me ask you a question tonight: Is there something, men, that you need to repent of?
Some sin. The Christian life should be, we should live every day in a constant state of what repentance, not to save yourself over and over again, but just to keep a short list. Lord, have I offended you somehow today? Please forgive me for what I did. Here's the good news.
Okay, y'all ready for some good news? God is a God of grace and mercy, and even in the midst of judgment, He extends an opportunity to repent. Go read about what happened to King Manasseh in Second Kings. He was the most evil king in Judah, and he repented, and I believe he'll be in heaven. Second Peter three nine says, "God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to what repentance." The prophet Isaiah lived during the time of Isaiah.
If you feel the need to repent right now, just everybody bow your heads, okay? Just bow your heads. If there's some, just think for a minute. Is there something that you need to repent of? Did you look at something online or on your cell phone that you shouldn't have looked at?
Just ask God to forgive you. He understands, Isaiah. Fifty-five, six, and seven says: Seek the Lord while he may be found; call him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the evil man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him.
And to our God, for he will freely pardon. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that even though you are God of judgment and wrath, you are first and foremost a God who loves us. Who delights in us, and you long to forgive us? You just want us to admit that we are sinners, and that we need you to save us. And then you open up your arms wide, just like you did on the cross, and you say, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Lord, we love you.
We need you. Lord, thank you so much for these men for bringing them here. I pray that you bless them for being here, give them peace when they lay their heads down their pillows tonight. Watch over their families and bring us all back safe next Tuesday. In Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen. All right, guys, see you next week. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews. This broadcast is made possible because of the prayers and financial gifts of listeners like you. If you want to learn more about our ministry or support us as we reach others with God-centered Bible teaching, please visit us at FindingPurpose.net.
