Bethel Evangelical Church, Clydach
  • Finding faith
  • Sermons
  • Find us
  • Contact us
  • New here?
    Let’s get introduced
    • About Us
      • Our beliefs
      • Our history
      • Our photos
      • Our sermons
    • Bethel people
    • What does God offer?
    • Contact us
    • Find us
  • What’s on
    Something for everyone
    • Sunday worship
    • Finding faith
      • Food for Thought
    • Fellowship and growth
      • Bible study and prayer
      • Fellowship groups
      • Growing together… in God’s Word
      • Oasis
      • Time2Talk
    • Children and youth
      • Sunday school
      • Adventurers and Discoverers
      • Impact
    • Special events this Easter
  • Meet us
    Stories of changed lives
    • Anna — I learned to trust God
    • Siân — I found something better
    • Esther — It feels like I’m finally alive!
    • Mary — I am a much calmer and happier person
    • Friends of Bethel
      • Garin Jenkins — God has been with me all my life
      • Billy Burns — He tried to kill me, but when I met him, I liked him
      • Alison Stewart — The truth set me free from heroin addiction
      • John Mosey — My daughter was killed at Lockerbie

Sermons

  • Our beliefs
  • Our history
  • Our photos
  • Our sermons

Tough Love (Hosea 11:12-13:16)

Mark BarnesMark Barnes, January 28, 2018
Part of the Love for the unlovely series, preached at a Sunday Morning service

Tags:

https://www.bethel-clydach.co.uk/sermons/?show&file_name=2018-01-28-am.mp3 Download
Earlier: Same day: Later:
« In Him Alone The Power of the Gospel Will God accept us? »

Hosea 11:12–13:16 (Listen)

12   Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
    and the house of Israel with deceit,
  but Judah still walks with God
    and is faithful to the Holy One.
12:1   Ephraim feeds on the wind
    and pursues the east wind all day long;
  they multiply falsehood and violence;
    they make a covenant with Assyria,
    and oil is carried to Egypt.

2   The LORD has an indictment against Judah
    and will punish Jacob according to his ways;
    he will repay him according to his deeds.
3   In the womb he took his brother by the heel,
    and in his manhood he strove with God.
4   He strove with the angel and prevailed;
    he wept and sought his favor.
  He met God at Bethel,
    and there God spoke with us—
5   the LORD, the God of hosts,
    the LORD is his memorial name:
6   “So you, by the help of your God, return,
    hold fast to love and justice,
    and wait continually for your God.”
7   A merchant, in whose hands are false balances,
    he loves to oppress.
8   Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich;
    I have found wealth for myself;
  in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”
9   I am the LORD your God
    from the land of Egypt;
  I will again make you dwell in tents,
    as in the days of the appointed feast.
10   I spoke to the prophets;
    it was I who multiplied visions,
    and through the prophets gave parables.
11   If there is iniquity in Gilead,
    they shall surely come to nothing:
  in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;
    their altars also are like stone heaps
    on the furrows of the field.
12   Jacob fled to the land of Aram;
    there Israel served for a wife,
    and for a wife he guarded sheep.
13   By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up from Egypt,
    and by a prophet he was guarded.
14   Ephraim has given bitter provocation;
    so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him
    and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds.

13:1   When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
    he was exalted in Israel,
    but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
2   And now they sin more and more,
    and make for themselves metal images,
  idols skillfully made of their silver,
    all of them the work of craftsmen.
  It is said of them,
    “Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
3   Therefore they shall be like the morning mist
    or like the dew that goes early away,
  like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
    or like smoke from a window.
4   But I am the LORD your God
    from the land of Egypt;
  you know no God but me,
    and besides me there is no savior.
5   It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
    in the land of drought;
6   but when they had grazed, they became full,
    they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
    therefore they forgot me.
7   So I am to them like a lion;
    like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
8   I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
    I will tear open their breast,
  and there I will devour them like a lion,
    as a wild beast would rip them open.
9   He destroys you, O Israel,
    for you are against me, against your helper.
10   Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
    Where are all your rulers—
  those of whom you said,
    “Give me a king and princes”?
11   I gave you a king in my anger,
    and I took him away in my wrath.
12   The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
    his sin is kept in store.
13   The pangs of childbirth come for him,
    but he is an unwise son,
  for at the right time he does not present himself
    at the opening of the womb.
14   I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.
  O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
15   Though he may flourish among his brothers,
    the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come,
    rising from the wilderness,
  and his fountain shall dry up;
    his spring shall be parched;
  it shall strip his treasury
    of every precious thing.
16   Samaria shall bear her guilt,
    because she has rebelled against her God;
  they shall fall by the sword;
    their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
    and their pregnant women ripped open.

(ESV)

Powered by Sermon Browser
Fellowship groups
In the first week of each month, we meet for fellowship groups — a smaller version of our regular Bible Study and prayer meeting, where it's easy to ask and answer questions, share prayer requests, and pray for one another. We have three groups, two in Clydach and one in Trebanos.
More about Fellowship groups…
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

Latest Tweets

…

Connect with us

Recent sermons

  • As the Lord had told him on July 6, 2025.
  • When pigs fly on July 6, 2025.
  • Just deserts? on June 29, 2025.
  • I saw a true vision of Jesus on June 29, 2025.
  • Yet I will rejoice on June 22, 2025.

 Bethel Evangelical Church, Heol-y-nant, Clydach     Tel: 01792 828095     Registered charity: 1142690