Wednesday, November 04, 2015

THE FRUIT OF DECEPTION


You have plowed wickedness;
You have reaped iniquity.
You have eaten the fruit of lies….  (Hosea 10:13a)
We reap what we sow.  Paul put it this way in Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  For he who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” 
God set this same choice before the nation of Israel in the tenth chapter of Hosea.  They could sow the seeds of repentance and reap a harvest of righteousness (v.12), but instead they had chosen to sow the seeds of wickedness and reap a harvest of wrath (v.13).  It is the same folly which every nation pursues when it turns from God—the source of all blessing—and embraces evil.  The prophet Hosea may as well have been describing America today.
The deception is a rejection of revealed truth concerning God and the worship of a god of our own making.  Most people in our country would be no different than these Israelis—claiming to be “spiritual.”  Yet, it is a demonic spirituality, and not that given by the Spirit of Truth.  Real faith rests in a God who has revealed Himself in His Word.  Idolatry is when we fashion a god of our own imagination.  Sadly, there are many in our churches today who have done the same.  These false gods are promoted not only by the cults, but often preached from pulpits.  That is a replication of the evil seen in Hosea’s time—and the results will be no different.
They were in a time of material prosperity that masked their spiritual poverty (v.1-2).  It is easy to forget about God when things are going well, and to assume those conditions will continue.  They will not.  The law of the harvest means that you not only reap what you sow, but later than you sow.  You don’t plant seed one day and get fruit the next.  The harvest eventually comes.  Let us not deceive ourselves by thinking that because we have heard warnings about God’s wrath for years, and that storm has yet to break, that it is a false alarm being raised.  We place such messages on the level of “Chicken Little saying, ‘The sky is falling!’”  Brush it off—it’s your choice.  On the authority of God’s Word, I assure you that a harvest of judgment is ripening and near reaping.
The rapture of the church can happen any day.  Are you looking for Jesus and longing for home?  Christ will claim His bride—a pure and chaste virgin, without spot or wrinkle, robed in white—the righteousness of the saints.  Those left behind will reap a harvest of horror and will echo the bitter cry of Hosea 10:8,  
They shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
And to the hills, “Fall on us!”
It will be too late then to find refuge.  They might have had their sins covered by the blood of the Lamb, but instead they will know the wrath of the Lamb.  They could have fallen upon the Rock of Ages in repentance, but there will be no help found in calling out to the rocks to fall on them.
Here is the choice that alone brings hope: 
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the LORD,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.  (v.12)

No comments: