Ron Dunn Podcast - The Heart Of God And Sin

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series Holiness And The Heart of God

1104. Hosea 3, we will read all five verses of this brief chapter. Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an omer of barley, and a half omer of barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days, thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince,

and without a sacrifice, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Regardless of how dark the prophecy of judgment, it is always amazing to me that God always ends on a note of hope and of promise. Last night when I got back to the room, my wife and I got this little book that Jimmy was talking about on revival. Got to looking at it, some of the questions it asked. I can see now why the author is unknown. Of course, my own opinion is that Jimmy wrote it and doesn't have a nerd put his name on

it. I read a few of those questions and I laid them aside and I told my wife, I said, that's getting a little bit too picky. I don't care for that at all. But then as I got to thinking about Hosea and what God has to say to his people through Hosea, I got to thinking that little pamphlet is almost like a comic book compared to what God has to say to his people through the prophet Hosea. Prophet Hosea has always been, and we are going to be in these three days, these three mornings that I have with you, we are going to be examining the little book of Hosea. Naturally, we won't have time to go through all of it, so I'm going to take it sort of

in a topical way. But the story of Hosea is familiar to all of us. Hosea had a wife by the name of Gomer. She bore him three children, and then she went astray. She became a harlot. Then God came to him one day after Gomer had become actually a slave, literally. She became the property of another person, was nothing more than a slave.

God came to Hosea and said, I want you to go and buy your wife back out of slavery, out of harlotry. And you go down to the slave market, a marketplace there in public where everybody can see, and everybody will know that that is your wife. And then you go up and you buy her back and pay money for her and take her again as your wife. Now, the first part of that story is not uncommon. It is not uncommon in our day to witness and hear about and experience marriage infidelity. There's nothing unusual, unique, uncommon about that at all. We hear about

it every day among the best of people. The second part of that story is, though, highly uncommon and unique. It is very unusual and unique and uncommon that any man or woman, for that matter, would have the kind of love that after what Gomer had done, and it had become public property in a sense, and then it had become private property and just nothing more than a slave, could go and publicly buy her back and take her again unto him as her wife as though nothing had ever happened. And I say the second part is what is uncommon about this story. But of course that really is incidental to what the Bible is talking about.

What God is trying to say in picture form is, this is my relationship to my people. In the Old Testament, of course, is Israel. In the New Testament, of course, is Israel. In the New Testament, it is the church. But the application is the same, because in James chapter 4, of course, he speaks about loving the world as being the same as infidelity in the marriage realm. He talks about adulterous and adulterous as ye that love the world. So the relationship and the application

is the same. But here is what God is saying. God is saying, this is my relation to my people. I have a covenant with my people. I am married to my people. Even in the Old Testament, God was married to his people, and Israel was looked upon as the bride of God, and there was a unique and lasting and unbreakable bond between them. They had been married one to another, and there was that intimate and unique relationship. But not only does it reveal the relationship that we have with God, but it also reveals the nature of sin and reveals, I think, the grievousness and the horribleness of sin. Probably in our day, our greatest sin is the fact that we don't take sin all that seriously.

We've become brainwashed by the televised vaudeville of the devil until now things that a few years ago we would have been shocked at, we just accept as commonplace without hardly even noticing them. I'm as guilty as anybody of being brainwashed, and I acclimate to my environment as we all do, and we don't take sin nearly as seriously as we once did, and as Jeremiah said, we have lost our ability to blush. And that's where we are. But God keeps bringing us back and showing us that any sin and every sin is the same as infidelity in the marriage realm.

Whatever the sin may be, however slight or however insignificant we may think it is, God looks upon it as unfaithfulness in the marriage realm, the same way that a husband or wife would look upon unfaithfulness upon the part of one of their partners. That's the way God looks upon every sin. And so he says, now even though you have sinned, yet there's still that love there. And he says to Hosea, I want you to demonstrate my long-suffering and my patience and my love and go and buy her back. Now, not only does this story tell us what our relationship to God is, and not only does it give to us a definition of sin,

but it also tells us the terrible price of forgiveness. You see, I'm afraid that so often we think that forgiveness is easy. I've got news for you, friends. It's not easy to forgive. It is not easy to forgive on God's part, I'll say. I'm not talking about on our part. It's not easy for us to forgive. If you wrong me in some way and you come and ask my forgiveness, it's not easy for us to forgive. It's not easy for us just to overlook it and to wipe it out and say,

okay, I'll forgive you. But, you know, even though we do forgive them and we tear up our IOUs, yet every time we see that person, we can't help but remember, that fellow wronged me. It's not easy to forgive. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about God. I don't think it's easy for God to forgive. I don't believe it's easy for God to forgive.

We sometimes think that it's easy. We come to God and we confess our sins and we accept his forgiveness and then we walk away without giving it up all. Wasn't that simple? Wasn't that easy? And in one sense it is easy on our part. We don't have to beg. We don't have to plead. We don't have to weep our way to Jesus. We don't have to make vows and promises never to do it again. The Bible simply says if we confess our sins, it doesn't say we even have to be all that sorry for them. It says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just.

We don't have to weep. We don't have to mourn. We don't have to do penance. We don't have to somehow convince God and make God vows and promises that we'll never do it again. We just confess our sins, and the Bible says God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and we walk away thinking it wasn't that easy. Yeah, it's about as easy as it is for a husband to forgive an unfaithful wife. That's about how easy it is. I don't think it was easy for Hosea to go down there to the slave market and buy his wife back, do you?

I think that would have been the most difficult thing that Hosea to go down there to the slave market and buy his wife back, do you? I think that would have been the most difficult thing that Hosea ever did. Can you imagine the pain and the shame and the embarrassment and the heartache that was in his heart to do that? Do you think it was easy for Hosea to do what he did? I don't think so. What God is trying to say to us is,

listen, don't take forgiveness so lightly. Don't take forgiveness for granted. It's not easy for me to forgive you. Indeed, it costs God his Son to forgive us, and it costs God still the pain of his heart, I think, to forgive us. And so it tells us our relationship to God. It tells us the nature of sin and gives us the nature also in the cost of forgiveness. Now this morning I want us to look at the sins that break God's heart. We're going to look at the sins this morning that break God's heart, and then tomorrow

we'll look at the way God deals with these sins, and then the third day we'll look at the matter of forgiveness. But first of all, today we're going to look primarily into the eighth chapter, and we're going to see the sins that break God's heart. What are the things now? There are a great many of them mentioned in the book of Hosea, and of course we'll not have time to look at all of them, but I have picked out what I believe are to be the major ones that sum up all the others. These are the main

categories, and the rest of what Hosea deals with could be marshaled under one of these categories. But we're going to look into the eighth chapter of this little prophecy of Hosea. The first sin, and I think the primary one, the foundation of them all, the sin that breaks God's heart is when you and I treat lightly the Word of God. When we treat lightly and take lightly the Word of God. If you'll notice in the twelfth verse of that eighth chapter, he says, I have written to him, speaking of Ephraim, I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. Now, I'm reading from the King

James Version, and it reads, they were counted as a strange thing. an alien, as a foreigner. Now, here's what God is saying. This is the indictment that he's bringing against his people Israel. You have treated my word. I have written to you the great things of my law. I don't know how it is with anybody else, but I hate to write letters. It's hard for me to write letters. I answered some letters last week, back in November of 1984.

And I stay about three or four months behind. And, you know, it's not really all that hard to write. It's very simple. I've got a secretary who'd be glad to do it for me. My wife would be glad to do it for me. I don't know. It's just the doing of it. And you have to make a decision every time you write a letter, you know.

And I just hate to write letters. But I want to tell you something. If I sit down and write you a letter, I sure want you to read the thing. And when my wife was with me last week for about half of the week, and then she went back home. And so that night I was getting ready for the service, and I opened the drawer to get out of time. There was a letter from her.

She had left, A little love letter. Now, I appreciated that. I've still got that. I saved that. I didn't throw it away and treat it as something casual and as though the maid had left it saying, would you keep your room neat or something like that. He said, I have written to you the great things of the law.

God says, I have bared to you my heart. I have written to you the great things of the law. God says, I have bared to you my heart. I have written to you the great things of my law, the things that are mine, that I have bared to you my heart. And you have treated them as though they were written by a stranger who had no business writing you at all. You have treated my word like a stranger. Now, in the land, a stranger was the same as, like I said, an alien, a foreigner.

Now, he could live in the land. He could come and settle down and build a house and live in the land, but not being a citizen, he had no voice in the affairs of life in that land. If there were an election, he couldn't vote. If there was some big issue at stake, he had no say-so in it. He had to keep quiet. Nobody wanted his opinion. Nobody cared about what he thought about any issue. He was a stranger. If he'd have walked up to a council meeting where they were discussing some important issue that had to do with the society, and he

said, here's what I think they would have said. You are a stranger. It's none of your business. You have no say-so in this matter. Keep your mouth shut. It's none of your business. God says, that's the way you treat my word. It's like a stranger.

You let it come into your life. You let it build a house there. You put it into your heart. But when there's an issue, when there's a decision to be made, you don't let the Word of God cast a vote in what you should do. You know the Bible. You know the Word. You can quote it from memory. But as far as taking it seriously, you treat my Word as though it is an alien, a non-resident, a non-citizen in the life. Now, I say that is the foundation, I think, of all the other sins. Because when you and I, now listen to me carefully, when we start reading the Word and

taking the Word and memorizing the Word and familiarizing ourselves with the Word and saying amen to the Word and loving the Word simply because we love the way it sounds or we love the feeling that we get from it, but yet we do not take it seriously and allow it a voice in the practical affairs of our life. You have laid the foundation for every other kind of sin. First of all, the sin that breaks God's heart is when you and I take lightly the word of God and treat his word as a stranger. The second sin follows close on that, and it's found in verse 13. It's when we desecrate or take lightly his worship. First of all, we take lightly and treat flippantly his word, and then we take lightly and carelessly his worship.

Notice in verse 13, he says, They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings and eat it, but the Lord accepteth them not. Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins. They shall return to Egypt. In other words, they're going to be punished by being in bondage. But what I want you to notice is that opening statement in verse 13. They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings. Now, so far, so good.

That's all right. That's what God told them to do. They're supposed to come and worship and sacrifice flesh as an offering unto the Lord. So far, so good. But notice the next statement. He says, And they eat it. No. Well, the priests were allowed to eat the flesh of the sacrifices.

That was one of the perks of the job, I guess you'd say. And if you had been living in those days and they brought a bullet or a calf to the altar to be sacrificed, I don't think that every family would bring their own. Not everybody would bring a single one, but as they would bring whatever offering it was, whatever was signified by that particular feast or that particular offering,

they would sacrifice it, and the priest was allowed to eat the meat that was left over from that sacrifice, but only the priest. The people were not allowed to eat it. For the people to eat what they themselves sacrificed was to desecrate the sacrifice itself. They could not eat what they sacrificed unto the Lord. That would have been selfishness. That would not have been giving it to the Lord, and it would be a desecration of the worship. Now, here's what God is saying.

He's saying they come to the worship center, they come to the altar, and they lay down their sacrifices, and not only do that, but they eat them. You know what they were doing? They were sacrificing in order to eat. They were using the sacrifices as an excuse for eating. You see, they were supposed to give the best of the flock to God, right? You didn't bring the sickly calf or the sickly

bullet to be offered on a sacrifice. No, you brought the first fruits. Always. You brought the best. Well, my soul, I bring God the best and the priest gets to eat the best feedlot beef and I have to go home and eat that old stringy stuff. And they said, I'll tell you what we'll do.

We can do both. We can worship God and still satisfy the flesh. We can worship God and still satisfy the appetite. We can worship God and still satisfy the appetite. We can worship God and still appeal and satisfy the sensual desires. And what we'll do is

we'll just worship God more than we've ever worshipped Him before. Why? Well, because we sure do like that meat. And after a while, they lost sight of the real purpose of worship, and they were coming not out of worship to God, not to honor God, and to bask in his love, and to dwell on his mercy, and to praise him, and to honor him. All they could think of was, let's hurry up and get through

this because I want to eat, you see. They were simply using worship, now listen to me carefully, as a means of gratifying the desires of the flesh, desecrating the worship of the Lord. Now, I have given a great deal of thought today and last night about whether or not I should make any practical applications of this and give any illustrations, and I've just about decided not to. Because, in a sense, they would just be my personal opinion. But I will give one. And I'll tell you why I'm being very cautious about this.

Because I think sometimes if you start, the preacher can start detailing what he considers to be sins or applications of sin, and that is his opinion, and sometimes it puts us in a bondage and we start living according to this preacher's standard rather than God's. And so you'll understand this is just my humble and accurate opinion. Now, this is just sort of an example of what was in there. And I mentioned this to Paul and Billy last night.

Kay and I were driving down the other night and listening to a tape, and I mentioned it to her. And you'll have to listen with an understanding heart, a gracious heart, not to miss what I'm going to say. We were listening to a tape, and there were songs about heaven. And we all love to sing about heaven. Oh, I'm telling you, if you want to get somebody shouting, and if you want to get somebody just going into orbit, let's start singing about heaven. And we start singing about, I'm longing to be there, and I can't wait to be there, and I can't wait to walk those golden streets, and we just go wild. And we start jumping up and down and shouting hallelujah and praise the Lord. Oh, I just can't wait to go to heaven. But if I were to come up to you and say,

hey, you've got cancer and in three days you're going to be in heaven, you know what you'd say? You'd say, dude, God, pray for me. Pray for me to be healed. You see? Now, you understand what I'm saying? Now, folks, there's not anything wrong about singing about heaven. That's why I'm hesitant to say anything.

Now, the thing in the world wrong with shouting about heaven. Brother, I've got some investments in heaven. And I look forward to the day when I see people in heaven. But I've got news for you. I'm not particularly wanting to go today. God's given me a desire to live this life. I mean, this life is sanctified and this life is holy. What I'm saying is that sometimes our worship can become not a spiritual

thing, but it can become simply a matter of sensual and fleshly desires, and we forget really what we're saying. We forget really what we're talking about. You understand what I'm trying to say? I know this is a fuzzy area, and I hesitate to even say that much about it because I don't want anybody to say, well, we better not sing about heaven. Brother Dunn will start criticizing. No, listen.

Always, in any time you get in any public worship, it's easy for it to become a performance and a show and satisfy the flesh. You see, some people, they go to the honky-tonks and other people go to church. I'm serious. There are some people,

they get their kicks out of going to Billy Bob's and Gilly's and drinking beer and dancing. Other people, they get their kicks out of going to Billy Bob's and Gillies and drinking beer and dancing. Other people, they get their kicks out of coming to church. Singers can sing, and all they can think about is, am I performing? Am I making a good show? And if I'm singing better than the last singer, do they like me better than the next? Preachers can do the same thing. Is everybody liking this sermon? Am I better than the next fellow? Are they going to like that fellow last night better than they like me?

That's always a danger. And I'm not saying that to put us in bondage. What I'm saying is this. Let's be aware of it and then just trust the Holy Spirit to let us know when we're crossing that line. Don't try to be your own Holy Spirit and walk around with your fingers on your pulse all the time. And every time I walk into a pool,

but I don't worry about whether or not I'm doing this in the energy of the flesh or not. I just do it, and I trust the Holy Spirit will let me know if I'm in the energy of the flesh. Don't try to be your own Holy Spirit. What I'm saying is let's be aware of the danger and the possibility and then go ahead and do what we feel like we ought to do and let God tell us when we cross the line. But let's realize there is a line there. So we desecrate the worship of the Lord

when we look upon the worship as simply a means of gratifying the flesh and satisfying the appetites and we forget that what we're here for is to meet God and have God speak to us and deal with us. We desecrate the worship of the Lord. So we treat lightly His worship. that what we're here for is to meet God and have God speak to us and deal with us. We desecrate the worship of the Lord. So we treat lightly his worship.

The third sin is that we forget the work of God. We treat lightly the work of God. We treat lightly the word of God. We take lightly the worship of God. And then we treat flippantly and carelessly the work of God. Now, I think you will see this in several ways in the little prophecy of Hosea. First of all, you see it in the fact that we seek earthly help rather than divine help in times of trouble.

That's the first thing. Look at chapter 8 and verse 3 and 4. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, the enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols that they may be cut off. Then look at verse 14.

For Israel hath forgotten his Maker. And then in chapter 7, verse 11, Ephraim also is like a silly dove without a heart. They call to Egypt and they go to Assyria. Now here's what he's saying. He's saying they treat lightly and forgetfully my work of deliverance in times past. And when there's trouble on the horizon,

he said, they don't come to me, they go to Egypt. Why? Because Egypt's strong. They go to Assyria. Why? Because Assyria's strong. They set up kings, but they didn't ask my advice. They set up princes, but they didn't come to me for counsel. In other words, they make all these alliances. They try to arm themselves with the arm of flesh,

and they forget, and they seek earthly help rather than divine help in a time of trouble. The most interesting thing, though, is that statement he makes in verse 14 of chapter 8 when he says, For Israel hath forgotten his Maker. The Hebrew word translated forgotten there literally means to mislay something.

What he's saying is Israel hath mislaid their maker. Now, I want you to think about that for a moment. How do you mislay God? You ever mislaid something? Forgot where you put it? And you start looking for it? I hate glasses. And I'm forever more forgetting where I took them off.

But it's understandable because they're clear, you see. I've sat on them three or four times. That's how I found them. But I hate the accoutrements of old age. And I don't like them. But I'll take them all. I just need them for reading. And I'll take them off and leave them here and leave them there.

And I'm always going to the house trying to, where did I put my glasses? Anybody seen my glasses? The crowning humiliation came, though, one day when I had them on and I was looking for them. How in the world can anybody mislay glasses? Well, they're easy to mislay because they're so small. But how do you mislay God? What he's saying is in a time of trouble, Israel goes around and says, we had God here the other day. I remember the other day I had God. Last time I needed him, I can't remember where I put him. Well, that's all right. We can

go to Egypt. We can go to Assyria. That's why in chapter 10 he says, For it is high time to seek the Lord. It is high time to seek the Lord. Listen, if you mislay God, you had better keep on seeking him and searching for him until you find him, because if you go to Assyria and to Egypt, you're in trouble. Isn't that interesting?

Look at verse 9, chapter 7. I'm skipping around here because I don't have time to go to all of these things, but look at verse 9, chapter 7. I'm skipping around here because I don't have time to go to all of these things, but look at verse 9, chapter 7. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not. Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not. Now, I like that. Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not.

Anybody here that's got gray hair and doesn't know it? Huh? My wife has seven gray hairs. I've got 26. Actually, this isn't gray that you see here. I sprayed on it to make me look older and more dignified. Anybody here got gray hair and doesn't know it? You see how unnatural it is?

What he's saying is unconscious decay in the life. A person has gray hair and doesn't even know it. Well, that's ridiculous. That's unnatural. That's the most unnatural, ridiculous thing you've ever heard of. Everybody knows when they first start getting gray hairs, but he says Israel has mislaid God, and they are so unconscious of it that they're like a person who has hairs that have turned gray here and there,

and he doesn't even know it. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not. So that's the first thing in this idea of taking lightly and treating flippantly the work of God. The second thing is found in chapter 6 and verse 4. We become unstable in our righteousness. Chapter 6, verse 4, he says, 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.

Now, you say, I thought he was talking about their sin. Well, listen, their sin was bad enough, but I mean their goodness was even bad. He said, For your goodness, the word goodness literally means there to bow the neck, and it's the picture of submission. He's saying, Your goodness, you come and you submit to me. You rededicate your life. You commit your life. You consecrate your life. You bow the neck. That's what the word means. It means to submit, to bow the neck. He said, but your goodness is like a morning cloud and the early dew. Now, there are three things about the morning cloud and the early dew. Number one,

it sure looks pretty. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful sight to behold. When you get up in the morning and you look out and the dew is on the grass and it looks like somebody has sprinkled liquid diamonds all over your front lawn, it's beautiful. You look at those little fluffy morning clouds, they're beautiful. It's beautiful to see people walk down to the front of a church service during the invitation and kneel at the altar and say, I'm giving everything to Jesus. I'm making this commitment. There's not a more beautiful sight in all the world.

Beautiful. Second thing is it's useless. Absolutely useless. You know why? Because it goeth away early. The morning dew, the early dew and the morning cloud goes away early. What's that mean?

Well, when the sun comes up and it starts getting a little hot, that dew and that cloud dissipates, friend. The dew and the cloud will never produce a harvest. The morning cloud that has no rain in it will never produce a harvest. It's absolutely useless. And I've got news for you.

If all we do is to walk down the front of an altar and get on our knees and make some commitment to the Lord, and that's all there is to it, it's absolutely useless if there's no follow through. It's beautiful, but it's useless. It goes away early. And then, of course, the third thing, and I've already said that it's short-lived. It's short-lived. When the heat of the day begins to shine on that, it dissipates, it disappears. The dew had rather dissipate than to stand the pressure and fight against the heat. You can always tell how real a person's commitment to the Lord is and how real their rededication is because when the heat starts coming upon them

and when the sun of oppression or persecution or misunderstanding starts beating down upon them, if that's the last you see of them and all of a sudden their commitment dissipates, there wasn't much to it to begin with, you'll see. And I have news for you, the sun will always rise,

as far as I know it always has and always will. It's going to get hot. There's going and always will. It's going to get hot. There's going to be pressure. There's going to be oppression. There's going to be misunderstanding. And I think about people in the church who've gone through misunderstanding and they've gone through misjudgment

and they've gone through criticism and oppression, but they still hang in there just as faithful with a smile on their face, loving God. Like Job in all of this, he charged not God foolishly nor sinned not. That's a sign of a real commitment. A sign of a real commitment. So much of our goodness is like that morning cloud, that early dew. While there's a little bit of opposition,

a little bit of hard going, a little bit of indifference, a little bit of persecution, a little bit of hard going, a little bit of indifference, a little bit of persecution, a little bit of misunderstanding. Well, we just say it's not worth it and we give it all up and we forget about that commitment. It's like the early dew. Your goodness does not last. It's short-lived. It's beautiful, it's useless, and it's short-lived.

The third thing is this, and with this we'll finish. When we take lightly and flippantly the work of God, it means that we forget God in the day of prosperity. We forget God in the day of prosperity. I want you to look at chapter 8 again, verse 14. He says, For Israel hath forgotten his maker, and buildeth temples, and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities. He's forgotten God, and now he's buildingeth temples, and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities. He's forgotten God.

Now he's building his temples, and Judah is multiplying fenced cities. In chapter 13, verses 5 and 6, we have these words. He said, I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pasture,

so were they filled. They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me. And then back to chapter 5 and verse 4, just for one more verse. They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God. That's a quaint little statement. It simply means they don't put me on their daily agenda. They will not frame their doings. They will not adjust their schedule to me.

Now, they don't have time in their daily schedule. Well, make time. Adjust your schedule. Frame your doings unto the Lord. That's what he's talking about, but they won't do it. They get up and they make their list of priorities, their list of things to do, and there's no room in it for God. They've forgotten him. Frame your doings unto me. But let's go back for a moment

to that 13th chapter in verse 5 because that is such a haunting and sad refrain. He says, I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. According to their pastor, so were they filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten me.

It is a fact of life that very few of us can stand success. It is a fact of history that no nation has been able ever to survive prosperity. Have you noticed, if you are a student of history, that nations have survived poverty? But no nation, no civilization, I'll put it this way, no civilization has ever survived prosperity. Therefore, have they forgotten me? As long as we're in need, God's in mind. But when the need is gone and the barns are filled, suddenly our thoughts turn to tearing down these barns and building

greater barns, and we forget about God. We forget about him in the day of prosperity. And he says in verse 5, I did know thee in the wilderness. Do you know what that means? He said, I did know thee in the wilderness. Hosea knew Gomer at the slave market. Nobody else would have acknowledged knowing her. I was in Waco last week, and a fellow, a young man, came up to me and he said, Do you have a son named Steve that you'd claim to know? He was joking, of course. Would you claim him? I said, yeah, I'd claim him.

Sure, I'd claim him. Claim my family? Proud of them. I don't know, though, if I'd been Hosea and I saw my wife up there on the block to be sold as a slave prostitute, I think I'd have just as soon as nobody knew I knew her. Hosea said, I know her. She's the mother of my children. He walked right up, put down the money,

put his arm around her, took her home. Honey, I knew you and nobody else would know you. God says, I knew thee in the wilderness. I knew you when you were out there in the wilderness. Such a small nation, nobody paid you any mind. You were in the wilderness, nobody else would know you. Nobody

else paid attention to you. Nobody else would love you, but I loved you when you were unlovely. I knew you in the wilderness. Nobody else would know you. Nobody else would pay attention to you. Nobody else would love you. But I loved you when you were unlovely. I knew you in the wilderness, friend. But now that you've come out of the wilderness and you're in the land flowing with milk and honey, you don't need me any longer, you think, and you forget about me. Just remember, I knew you when nobody else knew you.

And I loved you when nobody else loved you. And I cared for you when nobody else knew you. And I loved you when nobody else loved you. And I cared for you when nobody else cared for you. And I wept for you when nobody else would weep for you. I knew you in the wilderness. And what a great sin it is to forget God in the day of prosperity. That's right. For he knew me in the wilderness. These are the sins that break God's heart. Tomorrow we'll talk about what God does with these sins. How God deals with those who commit these sins. And what God's judgment and discipline is.

And then the next day we'll talk about the matter of forgiveness. Would you bow your heads with me now as we pray together? The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from

a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.