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Half Hearted Repentence (Hosea 5:8-7:7)

Mark BarnesMark Barnes, November 19, 2017
Part of the Love for the unlovely series, preached at a Sunday Morning service

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https://www.bethel-clydach.co.uk/sermons/?show&file_name=2017-11-19-am.mp3 Download
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Hosea 5:8–7:7 (Listen)

8   Blow the horn in Gibeah,
    the trumpet in Ramah.
  Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;
    we follow you, O Benjamin!
9   Ephraim shall become a desolation
    in the day of punishment;
  among the tribes of Israel
    I make known what is sure.
10   The princes of Judah have become
    like those who move the landmark;
  upon them I will pour out
    my wrath like water.
11   Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
    because he was determined to go after filth.
12   But I am like a moth to Ephraim,
    and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
13   When Ephraim saw his sickness,
    and Judah his wound,
  then Ephraim went to Assyria,
    and sent to the great king.
  But he is not able to cure you
    or heal your wound.
14   For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
    and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
  I, even I, will tear and go away;
    I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
15   I will return again to my place,
    until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
    and in their distress earnestly seek me.

6:1   “Come, let us return to the LORD;
    for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
    he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2   After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
3   Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
    his going out is sure as the dawn;
  he will come to us as the showers,
    as the spring rains that water the earth.”
4   What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
  Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes early away.
5   Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
6   For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
7   But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;
    there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8   Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    tracked with blood.
9   As robbers lie in wait for a man,
    so the priests band together;
  they murder on the way to Shechem;
    they commit villainy.
10   In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
    Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.
11   For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.
  When I restore the fortunes of my people,
7:1   when I would heal Israel,
    the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
    and the evil deeds of Samaria,
  for they deal falsely;
    the thief breaks in,
    and the bandits raid outside.
2   But they do not consider
    that I remember all their evil.
  Now their deeds surround them;
    they are before my face.
3   By their evil they make the king glad,
    and the princes by their treachery.
4   They are all adulterers;
    they are like a heated oven
  whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
    from the kneading of the dough
    until it is leavened.
5   On the day of our king, the princes
    became sick with the heat of wine;
    he stretched out his hand with mockers.
6   For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;
    all night their anger smolders;
    in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7   All of them are hot as an oven,
    and they devour their rulers.
  All their kings have fallen,
    and none of them calls upon me.

(ESV)

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We love sharing our faith with others, but we also know from our own experience that many people need time and space to think through the message of the Bible for themselves. So if you want to explore what Christianity offers, we think you'll find Bethel a great place to do that. If you want to just listen, that's fine. If you've got questions, we'll do our best to help. If you've problems that no-one else seems to be able to help with — perhaps a bereavement, family crisis, or spiralling debts — then you'll find Bethel a place where you can not only get emotional and practical support, but spiritual help, too.
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Alison Stewart’s story

“I opened a Bible and the words “the truth will set you free” just stared at me. The next eighteen months were the best in my life.”

I got caught up in the drug world and became addicted to heroin. But by the time I was thirty, I just wanted to be clean. This lady from Teen Challenge, a Christian organisation that helps people like me, came to see me. She said that Jesus was the solution to my problem. I thought “What a joke!” but I wanted to be free and I’d already tried everything else so I gave it a go.
Read more of Alison Stewart’s story

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