We have started a series of messages from the book of Hosea. We are seeing the similarity between his day and hours.

We saw first of all how God is trying to reveal his heart to the people of Israel by getting Hosea to go through this miserable experience of marrying a woman who turned out to be unfaithful to him. And the more he loves her, the more

unfaithful she becomes. And God says to Hosea and to the people of Israel and to us today,

this is your condition. The more I love you, the more I bless you, the more I give you, the more

you get away from me.

And what caused Israel to collapse right at the end of the time of the Prophet Hosea

are the very causes that are at work right now to destroy our society.

I want you to look at them.

There are three in number.

One, verses one to six,

it's a deliberate rejection of the knowledge of God. Secondly, a loss of direction by the ministers

of God, verses 7 to 10. Thirdly, a definite abandonment of passion for God. Versus 11 to 19. A deliberate

rejection of the knowledge of God. Look at verse 6. Here's what God said. My people are

destroyed for lack of knowledge. As a result of this rejection of the knowledge of God,

society is characterized by deception and dishonesty and lying. A book that was written by two

authors entitled The Day America Told the Truth, and the bottom line of that book is this, that 92% of Americans lie at least once a day.

I pray to God that that's not true.

But here are the symptoms, deception, dishonesty, and lack of integrity as part of the collapse of that society. Look at verse two.

You know people today tell a lie without batting an eye. I am told by my friends who are in

the legal profession that in the courts of law many times people will stand up, witnesses

will stand up and swear to God that they will

tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And as soon as they get to understand,

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