Sermon: How the Lord Treats Delusion

Now would you turn with me in your Bibles to Hosea chapter 9. Hosea chapter 9. It's after Ezekiel, Daniel, then you'll find Hosea, but if you've gone to Joel, you've gone too far. Hosea chapter 9.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we open His word.

Our gracious God, we come tonight confused. We come tonight with a fog hanging over our hearts, and so we need your grace to shine through. We need to hear from you, Lord. We need the clarity of the gospel to resound in our hearts. We need truth to be found again in our souls. We need that which is false to be put far away from us. We need the lies that we are so tempted to believe and the lies that we believe so often to be put away from

us. So would you come to us tonight through your word and speak to us? Would you shine clarity and conviction into our otherwise darkened hearts? We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Hear the word of the Lord from Hosea, chapter 9. "Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples. For you have played the w***e, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute's wages on all threshing floors. Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. They shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like mourners' bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled, for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the Lord. What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord? For, behold, they are going away from destruction, but Egypt shall gather them,

Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents. The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God, yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his

God. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah; he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins. Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel; like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird; no birth,

no pregnancy, no conception. Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to the slaughter. Give them, O Lord, what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. My God will reject them, because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations." This ends the reading of God's word. Amen.

As we've worked through Hosea, it has seemed like we've been looking through a kaleidoscope of sins. With each turn, there's a slightly different picture of Israel's infidelity. And while it may make us weary as we hear it from week to week, it's important that we don't lose focus. Sin is deeply complicated, and it entangles our hearts in a web of deception. So we need to be able to recognize all the contours of our sin

so that we can understand our need for Christ. Hosea chapter 9 considers the Lord's treatment for delusion, which is yet another one of Israel's sins. And delusion is to be deeply convinced that something is true when it's actually false. So what's the Lord's solution to this? It's to tear down every falsehood that made Israel delusional in the first place. You see, delusion is problematic because it traps us in confusion

and gives us false assurance. When someone is delusional, they are completely convinced that their lie is true, so then they build their lives around that lie. As Israel wandered further from the Lord, they became deeply convinced that their abominable idolatry was actually pleasing to God. Under the sway of spiritual delusion, they rejoiced in that which offended God while thinking all along that they were right with

him. So we must be on guard against delusion in the Christian life. The gospel establishes our assurance in the finished work of Christ and nothing else. But there are all kinds of false assurances, all kinds of false refuges and delusions that can distort and distract us from the truth. Oftentimes, they are good things. Oftentimes, our sinful hearts, though, distort and idolize them to distract us from our need for Christ.

So how does the Lord treat delusion? By removing all false refuges, all false assurances. We know that we're dealing with delusion in our text because of how the Lord addresses Israel in verse one. There, he tells them to snap out of it. "Rejoice not, O Israel; exult not like the peoples." And then he explains why. "For you have played the w***e, forsaking your God." They were excited and rejoicing even in their flagrant disobedience,

and so God said, "Enough."

In verse one, when he says, "Rejoice not and exult not," he's saying, "You think you're okay, and you rejoice because of it, but you have no reason to rejoice. In fact, you are delusional." When we think of people who are delusional, our first instinct might be to run to Romans 1, where God describes the terrible trajectory of depravity. But our delusion is far more deceptive than we might think initially. Often, delusion

corrupts even the most religious and even the most religious people. Jesus says to his disciples in John 16, "Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God." The Israel of Hosea's day was deeply religious but also deeply delusional. In Hosea's time, an onlooker might pass by Israel and think, "Wow, these people are devoted." But they weren't devoted to God. Verse 10 tells us that Israel became detestable like the idols

they loved. And all the while, verses four and five tell us that they offered sacrifices and attended festivals to the Lord. Although they were deeply religious, their religiosity was delusional. So delusion isn't something that just affects the people out there. It's a disease even among God's covenant people. It's a disease that inevitably yields what verse eight says, "Hatred in the house of God." Our passage recognizes that the best way to cure this

delusion is to receive the Lord's treatment. That's because delusional people don't know they're delusional until they're brought out of delusion. So we're going to spend the rest of our time considering the Lord's treatment for delusion. In verse seven, the Lord says, "The days of punishment have come. The days of recompense have come, and Israel shall know it." In other words, Israel shall finally see their delusion,

but only by punishment and recompense. Delusion builds up a fortress of falsehood and establishes a foundation of lies, so this treatment must be severe because it tears down and uproots what was there. But it is also a mercy that God would remove falsehood. In Israel's history, the Lord accomplished this in two ways. By sending Israel into exile, and through exile, consigning them to shame by removing all of their glory.

By being utterly cut off and left to their own devices, they could no longer hide in a superstructure of delusion. They were left exposed. And this corresponds to two sub-points, and it applies to our Christian lives. That the Lord treats delusion in our lives by first confronting our true condition And second, by removing our beloved idols. By confronting our true condition and by removing our beloved idols. So first, let's see how the Lord treats delusion

by confronting our true condition. By sending Israel into exile, the Lord exposed Israel and forced them to confront their true condition. Verse three explains this. "They shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt. They shall eat unclean food in Assyria." God removed them from the land and sent them back into bondage, back to Egypt, back to Assyria. Why? Because they spurned the blessing of the land, which was

worshiping the Lord. They couldn't be in the land anymore. The Lord first chose to be found among the people of Israel, to be the center of their worship and life, but it wasn't long until Israel chose to be found among other gods. So they would be sent back to where they could find those other gods, back to bondage in Israel and in Egypt. And that's what verse 10 illustrates. "Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers, but they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame and became detestable like the thing they loved." They were given the privilege of knowing and worshiping God and being found by him, but they quickly turned to idols instead. And as chapter eight, verse three says so pointedly, "They spurned the good." You see, they spurned the good in very subtle ways.

While Israel lived in the land, they still attended the festivals that the Lord commanded, and they performed the sacrifices commanded by them in Leviticus. But all the while, they pursued idols. Verse one says that Israel loved a prostitute's wages on all threshing floors while still also worshiping God. Israel spurned the good by mixing it with the bad. They said the right words, had the proper forms, but mixed in forbidden idolatry.

So God sent them into exile so that they could no longer mix together what was true and what was false. In exile, in foreign, pagan lands, they would only be left with what is false. "They shall eat unclean food in Assyria," it says in verse three. And in verse four, "They shall not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him." And if they think that they could still bring peace offerings before the Lord,

verse four says that it will actually defile them if they try to. And when they would have assembled for a festival or a feast day, verse six says that they will actually be gathered and destroyed. God would not allow their delusion to continue. Israel followed a rinse and repeat religion. They thought, "We can do whatever we want as long as we still make sacrifices and go to the temple on certain days." One commentator said, "Religion to them penetrated

everything except the conscience. It was a charm against trouble, a compelling pattern of festivals, stories, customs, and taboos that gave shape to life." By remaining in the land of Israel, Israel would have continued with their heartless and idolatrous religion. They were perfectly content with their syncretism and their lawlessness, and in their minds, it was just enough religion to quiet their guilty conscience. They thought that with this rinse and repeat pattern, they got the best of both

worlds, freely indulging with their flesh while also retaining an outward appearance of religiosity. When they were actually confronted with their true condition and with the problems of their distorted worship, verses seven to nine tell us how they responded. They called the prophets fools and madmen. They even sought to kill them because of the message they proclaimed. And what was that message? Verse nine tells us,

"They were deeply corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah," an episode in Israel's history in which their evil far exceeded even the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah. And they were told that God will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They were preached a message of depravity and judgment. Is this not the message which drives us to frantically build fortresses of delusion? The message that we are totally corrupt and deserving of God's

wrath. What do you think when this message is proclaimed? How do you react when the word of God reveals your true condition before the Lord? Do you build fortresses of delusion to distract yourself from what's true? Maybe it looks something like this. If I make this pilgrimage or fast during these days and months and give up chocolate for 40 days, I can prove to you that I'm actually good and what you say isn't true. Or maybe our fortress of delusion looks like this.

If I can find a way to keep out all the evil of this world from affecting me, then I'll prove that I'm okay. Because the greatest problems of this world are out there, and there's nothing wrong with me. So I can just build my life in a way that I can keep the evil away from me. If it doesn't touch me, then I'll keep my status, and I'll prove to you that I'm actually good and what you say isn't true. You see, we're so good at multiplying

reasons for justifying ourselves, for denying the Bible's claim about our true condition, but it's all delusional. Delusion is to hear the message of our depravity and to run anywhere but the cross of Christ. When Israel heard that message, instead of turning to the Lord, they multiplied altars for sinning. So when God sent Israel into exile, he ripped them away from their distorted religiosity that they sought assurance in.

As long as Israel remained in the land, they could convince themselves that their religious exercises were sufficient in holding off the wrath to come. But when they were removed from the land, they were exposed, and they had to confront their true condition. Our second subpoint is that the Lord treats delusion by removing our beloved idols. And this point requires some extra explanation, especially because of what we read in verses 11 to

14. And this point comes from what the Lord says in the first part of verse 11, when he says, "Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird." In other words, God will consign them to shame by removing their glory. Then the Lord tells us what that will look like. No birth, no pregnancy, no conception. He continues, "Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left." And then he picks it back up in verse 16 when he says, "Ephraim

is stricken. Their root is dried up. They shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death."

So Ephraim's glory, the thing they esteemed most, their beloved idol, was their fruitfulness as a people. In other words, having children was a metric of their strength, it was their assurance, and it proved their health as a nation. Now, before we jump the gun and make conclusions, listen to the promise that God gave to Abraham. This is Genesis 22:7, or 22:17, sorry. The Lord says, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the

stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." This promise to Abraham was that his offspring would be numerous, and they would make up a strong, blessed, and healthy nation. Having many offspring was a good thing for the nation of Israel. So what do we make of these scathing judgments?

How do we reconcile these two things? That on the one hand, the Lord is promising to make Israel a great nation, but we read here that as a nation, they would be cut off, that their offspring would come to nothing. More than likely, Israel, in their delusion, distorted God's promise to Abraham. The promise was good, that the Lord would make out of Abraham's offspring a great nation.

But Baal-peor, we read in verse 10, illustrates how a good promise founded on God's sovereign purposes can be distorted and diluted by sinful people. Israel knew that God promised to multiply their offspring, but when they came to Baal-peor, they sought to multiply their offspring by compromise. Instead of remaining yoked to God, they yoked themselves to Baal-peor, Baal of Peor, as Numbers 25:3 says, "And they indulged in sexual immorality with the Moabite

women." We even see this kind of distortion of God's promise in Abraham's own life. He was promised to have offspring, but both he and Sarah were getting old and anxious. So what did they do? Sarah urged him to compromise, having a child with Hagar instead. So in our text, it's clear that Israel sought to take God's promise of blessing into their own hands. And for a time, Israel believed that their methods worked. As long as they continued to yoke themselves to Baals, to

idols, they received children. They multiplied as a nation. And this was Ephraim's glory. They were proud of how they had multiplied as a nation and how they became strong through their idolatry. Then they justified their thinking. "Well, God promised to make us a great nation. Why does it matter how we got here? Why does it matter how it happened?" This kind of thinking reveals two problems which contributed to Israel's delusion.

The first problem is their interpretation of Abraham's promise. The substance of the promise is Christ, who is the offspring of Abraham. So they simply lost sight of Christ, the promised one to come. The second problem is their interpretation of how the promise given to Abraham would come. By taking an ends-justify-the-means approach, they ignored the Lord, who, as a part of the promise, promised that He alone would be the agent of blessing.

They didn't trust God's sovereign power. So when the Lord says in verse 11 that "Ephraim's glory shall fly away," He is removing from Israel any false pretense, any inclination to believe that God was blessing their sin. And so to keep His name and His promise from being associated with and mixed into Israel's delusion, He gave them a wake-up call. Verse 16 reads, "Ephraim is stricken. Their root is dried up. They shall bear no fruit."

Their idol of fruitfulness would be taken away. They could no longer pursue vain glory. Brothers and sisters, there are many idols in this world that have the appearance of glory, but are a mere illusion. There are many idols that we can get to the other end of having and justify, "It doesn't matter how I got there, as long as I have this thing, this idol." Often, they are good things that we idolize, yet we ascribe to them a worth that they aren't meant to have.

The Lord treats delusion by removing our idols and giving us no opportunity for distortion. And often, this hurts because we become so attached to our idols. The Lord recognizes this in verse 16 when He says, "I will put their beloved children to death." The Lord's treatment for this is severe, and rightly so. Delusion requires a wake-up call, and this wake-up call is extreme. The falsehood that we use to build our delusion on must be

torn down in order to see what's true. Hebrews 12 tells us that in this world, there are shakable things and unshakable things. And when the Lord returns, He has promised that He will shake all creation. The shakable things will fall, and the unshakable things will remain. Delusion confuses the shakable with the unshakable. It sets hope and assurance in the things that will fall. So we must ensure that when Christ returns,

we're on an unshakable foundation. Jesus says in Matthew 7, "The foolish man ignored this message and built his house on the sand. When the wind and the waves came, nothing remained. The wise man, however, listened to the message that the Lord proclaimed and built his house on the rock. When the wind and waves came, shingles may have torn off, but when the storm ended, the house remained."

Verse 17 tells us that Israel received a severe treatment for delusion because they did not listen. And that's the same exhortation that Jesus has in Matthew 7. "Those who listen to what I say are like wise men who built their house on the rock."

Israel did not heed God's message but descended further into the things that made them delusional.

So the opportunity to escape delusion is now, as long as we hear God's message to us You see, God declares to us, even in bold letters as we've read, that we are sinners.

And God's word also declares to us that though we are sinners, the way to flee from this wrath that we deserve for our sin is at the cross of Christ. You see, the cross of Christ is the perfect solution to our delusion. It is the perfect solution to tearing down the vain idols that we would build our lives upon. And this message of the cross will keep us from delusion. You see, this message declares to sinners, either you pay for your sin in eternal torment

or you receive Christ's full payment, his full satisfaction.

You see, we need to build our lives on this message, otherwise delusion will creep in even to the church. Our passage exposed us, even us in the covenant community, hemmed in by the means of grace, given the proper means of worship. This passage exposes even us that we are not immune to delusion. Delusion creeps into the church very subtly. But despite its quiet, deceptive entrance, it makes a surprisingly simple claim.

Delusion at its core rejects the gospel. It rejects the core truths of the gospel. It starts to bend a little bit what it means to be a sinner. It starts to bend a little bit the full offer that Christ gives to sinners. It starts to strip the offense of the cross, that though we are sinners through and through, there is always salvation held out for sinners. It starts to turn the message of the cross into a distant reality.

It starts to fall on deaf ears. It starts to become a drum that's just beat and we ignore and tune out in the background. But in order to be kept from delusion, we must keep the gospel central. The message of the cross must be preached to us every day. We need the gospel every single day because in the gospel, we're planted firmly on what is true, and we reject wholeheartedly what is false. The lies that this world tries to sell us

are nothing when we've received the cross of Christ, the payment for sin on our behalf.

In the gospel, we receive the ultimate cure for our delusion. Let's pray.

Our God, we recognize in this text

that you have told us hard things,

things that we might not want to hear, but it is a great mercy that you've given us your word and that you expose our hearts so that we can see our need for Christ. I pray that as we leave this place, that we would not leave discouraged by our sin, but that we would leave looking to Christ. If we sense our conviction of sin, that we would run wholeheartedly to the cross where our sin is dealt with, where we are reconciled to you.

If we are convicted by sin, Lord, would you not let us leave this place and build further fortresses of delusion. Keep us from finding refuge in works righteousness. Keep us from finding refuge in anything but the cross of Christ. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.